Happiness with the birds and beyond

In conversation with Nanda Kishore Reddy, an aviculturist and now an undertaker for our beloved pets, who loves being politically incorrect. He has come a long way from being a boy stuck preparing for UPSC exams to the one following his passions, and now becoming a bird expert worldwide. 

He has carved a place for himself in the international community and is one of the biggest partners for similar initiatives in his homeland, India. Tune into our conversation to hear him talk about his journey, his goals and of course, what happiness means to him. 

Transcript

UNKNOWN 0:00

you

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to the Inspired Life Podcast. I'm Deepika, a fitness and behavior coach in the lifelong pursuit of happiness. And joining me today is Ananda Kishore Reddy, or as we fondly call him, Nandu, who is an aviculturist and undertaker for our beloved pet. Hello, Nandu. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Thank you so much. It's lovely being a host on this program.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Guest. You're a guest. I'm the host. Welcome. And I know I'm working and talking with somebody who's an absolute pro who's been doing all these interviews. views and things for a while now and which is really really great because we have known each other for 23 years now right and you are you are one of those few people in the whole circle who's actually been my friend right

SPEAKER_01 0:54

exactly

SPEAKER_02 0:54

with everybody else it's been like we became friends later because they were Abhinav's friends or through connections and marriage but you and I have been friends from college time and somebody who funded simple things like funded my tattoo

SPEAKER_01 1:09

to

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Like really, really situations where you drove at 6 a.m. to come and search for my puppy. Missing puppy was actually on the terrace playing with monkeys, right? Now, just to talk about Nandu, he's also a very, very brilliant businessman. He's a brilliant businessman who loves to be politically incorrect for fun, mostly so, from what I understand, but also an amazing friend for whatever reasons I've just mentioned and so much more. So, again welcome Nandu

SPEAKER_00 1:40

thank you so much it's yeah this journey many times I look back on on our friendship and then I think like what are the odds of you and me meeting and in college where where we both were idiots let's face it yeah and then 23 years passed by we had kids uh you know grow up together and now they are more or less maybe another few years they'll be our age when we

SPEAKER_02 2:08

met

SPEAKER_00 2:08

yeah yeah it's been a One generation. And yeah, it's fantastic. It's phenomenal. And yeah, when I look back, not many things count in life, but there are few things. And those are these friendships that I cherish where we have no, you know, no tags attached to speaking. And yeah, I could talk whatever I want and you take it at its face value. And yeah, it's lovely. It's nice to have such friendships. I think I'm blessed that way.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

So am I. And, you know, if you remember a few years ago, I used to get upset and riled up by certain things you would say and do and get into fights. But I also realized that while some of the times you are, you know, you are open to conversations and understanding because not all of us understand everything, right? And there are topics which our thought and our belief in it comes from our experience of what we have come across in life. So it's impossible for all of us to understand every perspective and see it through that and sometimes you mostly you do it because you know the other person is getting upset so it's fun

SPEAKER_00 3:16

with you it's always just for the because you would get so now you're a different person in the past few years yes but earlier I'd say oh you know women should belong to the in the kitchen I don't believe it I don't even not in my wildest dreams would I tell somebody to do it but yeah it was just for the fun of it and you'd get all pissed off and you wanted to kill me and that's absolutely fine

SPEAKER_02 3:38

but I never killed you and I'm glad for that I don't know we still have a long way to go but yeah also it is amazing for me to watch our kids growing up together too and like you said it hadn't crossed my mind in another 4-5 years they'll be as old as when we met I was 17 when I came to college and we were all classmates and we met and the multiple lunches at your house such vivid memories are sitting around the dining table and we are bitching and cribbing about these fights in college and you are letting all kind of language loose and your mom is just saying don't talk like that don't talk like that it was such amazing memories and knowing your parents also for that many years and it's literally like while our parents are not really friends with each other but we have known each other's parents for so long we have literally three generations of some kind of connection like my parents are extremely fond of you and you know so it's amazing and that's why with this podcast also I thought I want to start with people who are right around me a of course you know that's a comfort level of having a conversation with people I've known so well and known so long but also you all of you are so successful in so many ways and it's amazing and that's what the podcast about it's about inspiring life it's the inspired life so it's about what we get inspired by what you're getting inspired by and I get inspired by looking at you right now always this this whole series we're starting the question the first thing I want to ask you is what is happiness according to you

SPEAKER_00 5:10

So, yeah, when you say happiness, in my head, it's basically a yin and yang that goes around. I don't think anybody has the perfect life. And there's always going to be a lot of, can I use language? Absolutely. It's an adult podcast. So, yeah, there's going to be shit in everybody's life. And when everything, you know, when you think everything is going perfect, life kind of throws a curveball at you. It's a fucking curveball. Yeah, absolutely. And then you're like, what just happened? So I've learned it could be the most pleasurable thing or it could be the most painful thing. So in my life, I look at everything as sex. You know, I mean, I'm not getting any, but I look at it that way. But the thing is, yeah, life is full of shit. And at times things don't happen the way you want. At times they happen the way you want. And I accept whatever comes my way. In my head, I think it's like a game of chess. Rather than looking at it as a problem, I look at it as a challenge. And that's where I find happiness. Despite my small IQ, I kind of manage to dodge a lot of problems. So I think it's more fun when you look at it as a chess game or like a puzzle and then you kind of get things right. It might not work out right, but still that's okay. It's just a learning experience.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Absolutely. A, I don't agree that your IQ is small or anything you're an intelligent man clearly you know you know things that interest you you do a good job of it and you know how to you know go through problems and like you said and I absolutely want to reiterate this because a lot of times people think a certain kind of lifestyle or certain things that is lacking in their own life if they have it they will be happy and something that commonly I see across people's conversation and I won't shy away I struggle with that too and you think that only if I had more money You know, of course, a certain amount of money solves a lot of problems in life. But beyond that, it doesn't make a big difference, right? So there have been a lot of studies around it. Once upon a time, it used to be$75,000 per annum was considered the amount of money you need to be not happy because money doesn't define your happiness. It's not the only thing. But beyond that, any amount of money cannot influence the happiness you have in life, which can come through monetary gains or, you know what finances can do clearly now we have inflation has hit and now the number has been revised to five hundred thousand dollars right and which is quite a huge amount of money especially and Indian context will probably be different but research was done by Princeton and Harvard and all these places so but what I want to say is with this whole thing that a lot of times people think that if I have if only I had a partner if I only had money if I only had children if I only had I will be happy but it's not so you could have all these things somebody could have all these things and you don't have but it doesn't mean they don't face problems everybody's life sucks at some point right we all are going through difficulties of different intensities of different levels and you know my problem might sound silly to you and your problem might sound like third first world problem to me but the fact is it is problem that we are dealing with so it becomes important to look at your life as this problem is not going to ruin my happiness or going to this whether I'm going to be happy or not. It's going to be something, like you said, it's chess. It literally is that. It's thrown my way, and what do I do to take this as a challenge, fight through it, and come out on the other side? Sometimes you lose badly, but then you know, okay, I'm not good at this. I couldn't beat it, so maybe my line is here. Maybe I should try this. So that's what it is, and I think that's a lovely way of looking at it as a game. Now, of course, you talked about we all have difficulties, And, you know, we have hardships in life when while you do, you did say that you look at it as a challenge and try to go through it. But I'm sure there are moments when things seem like this is just too much. This is like, why can't I get a break? And, you know, or you're just not able to come out of a situation or a problem. You're not able to solve it. And it's very easy for us to get sucked into it and be completely in despair and think that nothing's working out. And I do think everybody does go through that kind of situations once in a while I definitely have do you think you face that sometimes and if yes how do you get yourself out of that mindset and go back because it's not easy to always tell ourselves no this is a fight you will come out of the other side

SPEAKER_00 9:53

yes so I'm not very spiritual or religious but then I've heard people say oh you came with nothing and you're going to die with nothing and the journey and so what are you cribbing about but no there's a journey in between there are people who are attached to you there are families there are people who work under you there are people who work over you there is so much more to life than just living and dying the journey in between is the whole story which people in my opinion conveniently forget especially the spiritual ones so yes there is always a problem when in every step that I take my so I don't want to kind of have this sob story but always

SPEAKER_02 10:38

there is a sob story yeah

SPEAKER_00 10:40

But then when I was a kid, I didn't know that I was dyslexic. And then only when I saw Taare Zameen Par when I was in my late 30s, did I realize that, oh, that is me. Because even today, if I have to read a sentence, the words dance. Those alphabets are not in order for me. So it takes me longer to read. Do you like reading books? Yeah, I like reading books, but I take about a month to finish one. And another thing is I take, for me, it is very difficult for me me to have that attention span you know like when I'm thinking of something and then I look out of the window and then I see a bird and then it's that animation goes on the bird goes sits on a tree I think of the tree the tree and then I think oh chlorophyll and then stomata and then stomata to oh humidity and then I think oh that that aquarium that I had to attend to or something like that and then it goes for a toss so it was difficult and for me to focus and have a direction was extremely difficult But then, yes, when you have clogs, my biggest strength or my weakness is that I don't give a fuck about what people think. So most people have a problem about what people would

SPEAKER_01 11:53

think.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

So what people say is a bigger demotivation than anything else. So for me, it's only my failure. So if I fail in something, I have a problem, it's me. It's not about somebody else. And there I kind of, because of this mindset where I could not focus on things where I where I've been told since as a kid that I'm not smart I'm idiot and stuff like that I kind of have this inferiority complex but with that inferiority complex it's very easy for me to face failures because that was what I was brought up with so for me success becomes very easy when when I don't take failures as a as a big this is so

SPEAKER_02 12:35

interesting yeah because you know suddenly this is like a whole in insight into myself hearing this because I grew up exactly opposite I was the top kid getting the grades and you know on the stage for everything except for sports because I sucked at it but but that also has a whole story of how I was discouraged always I was always told you're useless you're not good you're not good so I wouldn't even try it because I was constantly compared to my dad who was a well-known sports person in the city so every sports every school I went the sports teacher knew my dad and they said you are useless

SPEAKER_01 13:10

yeah

SPEAKER_02 13:10

look at your dad and look at you can't even run the thing is every time somebody said that I would not want to run I would not want to go play anything I love dodgeball because it let me take out my aggression and hit the guys because it always boys versus girls and I used to be in my memory which could be biased that I was usually the last standing because I used to I am full of rage as you know so I would be happy to beat up but on the other side because I was the top grades in more than anything else and teachers love loved me and I was on every stage performance and everything. In my life, I find it hard with failures because I'm constantly proving myself to everybody else because I was always, my self-awareness is based on how much people like me and how much people think you're good because that's what I grew up with all my life till my masters. Like till masters, I was still a gold medalist in the university and things. So my whole life was defined by that, that I'm on the top. But then in real life hits you you're an adult businesses don't succeed your appraisals aren't great in a job or you're not getting a job it's not paying very well and it's so hard for me to take failures even in personal relationship if you know some friendship or anything else is going wrong I find it really hard because it comes as for me it's like I'm not good enough I'm not good enough I couldn't do it and this is such a great insight because maybe I should look at it you know take my sports analogy I sucked at it and right now now I'm a fitness coach and in the beginning I struggled a lot with making videos of myself or even working out in front of other people because I'm expecting them to judge me and comment because anything physical for me was that but I got over it because now I think I was the worst so how bad can it get

SPEAKER_00 14:56

exactly

SPEAKER_02 14:56

so I think I'm gonna put that in

SPEAKER_00 14:59

but again I think there's a small difference between you and me yeah you're a pretty looking girl and I'm not bald ugly looking guy so it's so much more I mean yeah no no I mean If we both walk down the street, probably people would observe you more and you would get a lot more attention from people than me. I am a nobody. So that is also a blessing in a way.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yeah, but I have something to add on it. While I agree with this, because physical appearance does make a big difference and women tend to get more attention, but men tend to get more serious attention. Acceptance, I would say. If you and I both go pitch a business, an idea, let's say the exact same idea, the other person doesn't know what our background is, so let's assume he thinks, he or she thinks that both of us have the same amount of money, we both have the same background in business, we both have everything. But you're a man, I'm a woman, you will get a higher chance of getting that deal than I would.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Again, if we look at that scenario, it depends on who is sitting on the other side of the bench. Yeah. whether it is a lady or a man. So for me, if the two men, if they're just two men, or let me put it this way. Okay, if they're just two men sitting across the table, you know, there's always this underlying current of who is superior sort of thing. So you'll find men who talk about, oh, I bought this shirt in such and such a place or my Mercedes or my, you know, yeah, shit like that. And then, so for me, I understood small parts of evolution, like basic theories of evolution. And so always men are like gorillas trying to say, I am big, I am big. So the first thing I do is I crack a joke on myself. Subconsciously for the man, he doesn't look at me as a threat, especially if three of us were sitting where there's a pretty looking girl and or not, even if it wasn't a very pretty looking girl. I know we're not supposed to ugly looking people, but if there was society standards, Even then, psychologically, both the men are trying to compete. So I crack a joke on myself and immediately he doesn't look at me as a threat. He looks at me as... I mean, I remove that threat aspect. Then it becomes much more easier for me to talk to him and pitch my idea and say, dude, maybe this will work out. And you're removing the obstacles before you actually pave your way.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

To that, I understood and I agree with what you just said, right? That men are having this dick match happening all the time, saying I have it bigger than you, just constantly. I see it all around me all the time. But with you, you have to do something to make him feel like you're not a threat because he considers you equal or above with me I have to prove my point because as a woman he considers I don't have the experience I don't have the emotional strength I don't have the knowledge because even if I do it's not you and I it's been through generations of how the society has designed and around it women are not have not been part of the workforce seriously for a long time so now even when they are it's very hard very few people take serious note of it so I think that's what I was trying to say we have been accompanied by your birds so yeah I'm sure our listeners can hear them okay now you did talk about the difficult times and you know all of it and how it feels you know apart from us having the willpower and strength within ourselves to deal with our difficulties and I should come up with a better word I'm not able to get over this difficult times every time I say that our obstacles or you know whatever is pulling us down but our support system makes a big difference also, right? Our support system of our family, our friends, our colleagues, our peers. How has it been your experience with that?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

That far I've been really, really lucky. You see, basically when we say negative words such as, I won't say derogatory, but negative words like problems and things like that, it's a very natural thing because in my belief, you know, we have a reptilian mind and could cruelty or sadness or problems are generally innate to us while happiness and being kind and stuff like have to be inculcated into us so yeah so but when it came to my family and you know people around me by and large they have been like especially my mom and dad didn't expect anything out of me so that far I was lucky where they didn't want me to be a doctor or an engineer or something like that my father for a A civil servant. So, yeah, I actually joined R.C. Reddy for civil services. When was

SPEAKER_01 19:54

this?

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Soon after my master's. So, I went for a week and everybody else would read Competitive Success and I would read Archie's comics. And people thought that I'd read Competitive Success at home and just demotivate these people. Pretend like I'm having a good time. And then I realized that this is not where I would excel in. So I came and told my dad that I'd just be wasting a year. I'd rather do something that's closer to my heart. And he was kind enough to say, okay. He lost a bit of money, you know, the fee structure and things like that. But then, yes, my wife and my kid are also fairly, I mean, my wife loves me and she does so much for me. I don't think any other wife.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Absolutely. This is something we have talked for years. We keep telling her like, how can you be so successful? Like it's ridiculous. I mean, it's amazing for you. But for all of us, it's such a crazy thought looking at how extremely supportive and how she has molded everything around your passions, which we'll come and talk about in a bit. But yeah, please continue.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

But then, you know, irrespective of whom you're dealing with, they have their perspectives, their life has taught them a different song than what you're singing. And that is generally few keynotes wouldn't, few notes would sound a little harsh or a little would not be appealing. So what I've done is I've made myself my best friend. So When I sit alone or generally in the mornings or in the evenings, I review my day. When I review my day or how I think I should be planning, I don't look at it as an underkisser. I have an imaginary friend. You can call me a borderline schizophrenic. But when I look at, yeah, it actually helps because, you know, in desperation, you find nobody and then you find yourself. It's easier to cheat yourself by saying that when you look at the whole situation as a third person and that person becomes your best friend. So he knows your tone, your notes, your perspectives on life, but he wouldn't be biased. Say, for example, if I'm doing something really stupid, if I keep thinking about how I should be achieving it, I'd be going around in circles because there are certain mind blocks that I have. But when it comes to an imaginary friend who is the third person who's looking at the situation from a different perspective he could give me he could call me an idiot and I wouldn't feel offended because that's partly me and at the same time you know yeah it's much easier to figure out stuff when you look at everything as a third person

SPEAKER_02 22:38

yeah and that's really interesting and yeah yeah and your support system has been great and your passion from all of this what you're doing right now also comes from your mom like a big part of it right tell me what are you doing right now what are your projects and tell me the whole background behind it

SPEAKER_00 22:54

so in Initially, after my master's, I didn't know how to go about. So I joined, I was just desperate to get a job. And then I got into Grow More Biotech. I was a tissue culture expert. And I did work for a few years in the Northeast, setting up tissue culture labs for paper mills. And, you know, yeah, basically telling them not to use hardwood, but use bamboo, more sustainable. But my heart wasn't there. Then I got back and then my father was in construction. And then I got into that. I was fairly artistic because people who are who are I don't know if I'm artistic but then you're

SPEAKER_02 23:31

artistic for sure yeah because you surprised us with your paintings on the last birthday party we had at home and I was shocked I didn't know you were so good actually everybody shocked me and I'm glad I did not sit and paint that day because that would have been horrid Anand's painting is something we all will remember because all of you were incredible

SPEAKER_00 23:52

yeah so yeah so then I got into construction I was fairly okay with the with the designing aspect but you know it was there's no challenge in it you basically follow vastu you know where the entrance should be you know where the kitchen should be there's only so much that you can work with and I was working with grassroot level people which was not tickling my my brain enough yeah so then I thought then I always liked pets and I started you know at times the worst things actually bring out the best in you. So I had this beautiful neighbor who would start shouting the moment my bird started shouting. And so that kind of coaxed me to move the birds to the farm. Then I traveled abroad. I kind of got in those key aspects. I mean, I learned a lot of things when I traveled abroad about how people abroad were rearing birds and things like that. So I kind of specialized in a species called sand conures and basically South American birds. And that kind It kind of got me recognition. A few zoos walked in and then asked me to become a consultant for them. And in a way, I actually lucked out. And probably, I mean, there are many, many people who have better collections than what I do. They have better knowledge than what I do. But probably, it is just that I could communicate what I wanted. And that kind of sold me well. And one thing led to another. I was giving seminars around the country and abroad. So that was one place. But then I was still breeding birds. And I thought, you know, I'm basically like one of those puppy mill people who are just, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

We had this conversation also about it. I think as a group, we talked about it. I

SPEAKER_00 25:37

was proud about the numbers that I was producing because that is something very difficult for a lot of people to achieve. And it's not like poultry. These things have to be psychologically, I mean, you need to give a lot of enrichment and things where they're psychologically very happy, only then they'll breed. But then I thought, somewhere I was not happy. So just before lockdown, I sold away all those birds in the cages. I just made the big aviary I had into a forest and introduced birds. And that was a whole different ballgame. Then I thought, why don't I just show these birds, rather than selling them, just show the bird and make money. So I got a contract in Indore Zoo where we have a walk-in aviary. Something like how it's in Jerong in Singapore or Malaysia and so many other places. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You meet really, really, really humble people, people from a very poor background

SPEAKER_01 27:00

to

SPEAKER_00 27:01

people who are really affluent. But the joy and happiness is the same. When they come in and, you know, my staff, the only requisite for them is they have to get everybody to interact with the bird. So generally it is the finance, people who come from financially poor backgrounds, they have that, they're always kind of, meek and they don't want to come forward and ask for the bird or you know ask about the bird or you know yeah they're always in the background so it is the job of my staff to pull them forward and tell them to explain about the bird maybe if they can get to handle the bird get them to handle the bird yeah and we have about five lakh people who come to our aviary every year and everybody goes out with a smile so that is one thing that i have achieved and then i started looking at problems in the society. Hyderabad has grown in the past 20 years leaps and bounds. And today, earlier there were so many open spaces. Now you don't. My pets died. Anand's, our friend Anand, his dog died and we didn't know where to cremate it. So the seed was sown then and today I thought why don't I do a crematorium for pets. And generally it is most crematoriums are little sad and they don't give you, it's very morose to walk into a crematorium. I thought that that last bye-bye should always have that dignity and that respect for that pet.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

They are family.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

They are family.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

So now I am designing a crematorium for pets where it's going to have a nice garden, where my staff are going to come and sit with people and then say, you know, console them because at that point you don't need anything. You just need somebody's shoulder on which you can cry on or at least somebody to pat you on the shoulder and say it's all right I mean

SPEAKER_01 28:57

yeah

SPEAKER_00 28:57

you know yeah and stuff like that so we want it to be a really nice experience and maybe eventually I'll get into humans too because respect of yeah I birth I have no control on I don't want to father any more children one mistake is enough but it's an

SPEAKER_02 29:17

expensive mistake all of us are dealing with in multiple ways

SPEAKER_00 29:21

so journey we will figure it out but the end is something that's that I think we should always deal with in a much more profound manner so yeah that's what I want to get into next

SPEAKER_02 29:32

yeah and we are looking forward we've been hearing about this project being part of these discussions and from the time it was birthed and we're looking forward to it because I've also had pets and of course we have been fortunate enough to have the space and have the possibility also of burying our pets in our house but you know the thought keeps coming that the day my house is going to be broken down and done up it's just you know those bones are going to be thrown somewhere or you know it's just it makes you feel that and what you're doing is incredible and the ideas you have of what to do once the pets are cremated is also wonderful and we're looking forward to what everything comes out eventually Now, of course, it's amazing when we turn one of our passions into a work, right? Because you're literally doing something you thought and dreamt and breathed about. But it also comes with, I at least have experienced this downside of it because no matter how much you love something, when it turns into business, there is this whole ugly side, the difficult side of it, which somehow sometimes tries to suck out the joy of the passion that you have. What have you experienced? Is this something you have experienced in a similar way?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yes. So I was talking about birds, but I also have staff. And the problem is that I don't know whether I'm good or bad, but then I kind of pamper my staff. And that doesn't work well, especially when you're talking about people who come from the cadre where they are, say, security guards or they're kitchen staff or somebody like that, where you take them out for lunches or dinners and things like that. And they don't understand that they're being put on, I mean, they feel that they're entitled to it. And that's where things go wrong. So yeah, I messed up a few times. And that's always, I'm not a really great people manager. I can make people happy, but I can't get work done by them. So it's easier for me to outsource things. So I have my... my partner who is a who is a tough nut and you know yeah so he is

SPEAKER_02 31:49

good cop bad cop

SPEAKER_00 31:51

yeah so for me I always try to outsource things that I can't do and it works out easier because then I choose somebody who who excels at that yeah like in case if I have to manage a crematorium I need a vehicle to go pick the the the dead dog you know and also console the person who was there so I need to i can't do it i can't do everything by myself so i would choose somebody who who will fit in there yeah and like that's where i i kind of think outside the box where i would rather take a person who was a prisoner or a person who was a drug addict and who came out of it or something like that because people who go to prison are people who have extreme passion they don't think twice about what they're doing no they don't care about what the society thinks about them and they are filled with with a lot of you know energy and you know they they're great people to work with

SPEAKER_02 32:53

also you're rehabilitating people and you know probably they might not get jobs other places and

SPEAKER_00 32:58

that's that's a nice marketing technique but more importantly yeah the truth is that they are people of passion once he believes in what he's doing and my job is just to I won't say brainwash it that could be one word that you can use but then you know what happens is there are people who you got to teach him that this is the most important thing that he is doing and once he finds purpose in what he is doing there is no turning back those are people who are great for the society it's unfortunate that people kind of shun them or say that this is not these are people who are good or bad I don't think there's anybody who's good or bad. It is just that they don't fit into the fabric of society the way we look at it. But you can definitely make use of them. Even a rag cloth is always a good cloth at times.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Yeah, like a t-shirt, in India we do that, right? A t-shirt we wear for 10 years, not 10 years, 5 years outside, then it fades away, then you wear it 5 more years in the house, then it tears, then you use it for dusting your house.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Cleaning the car.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Everything is, everybody's used to it, especially humans because it's not just the choices of our actions that's been in past we are not just a sum of those things we are a sum of a lot of other things there are people have compassion people have passion people have empathy and we can't disregard all of those feelings just because somebody did something yes there are a lot of other parts to us being humans and it's amazing this idea is great I didn't know about this

SPEAKER_01 34:35

so

SPEAKER_02 34:36

yeah this is amazing right so we all have of course like you talked about how you get out of difficult moments and you know there are always ways to bring back your happiness but um on a daily basis we all tend to have these little activities that we really enjoy and that's a little me time or moments and that kind of take us away from the mundane or uh you know the whole thought of work and home and child and homework

SPEAKER_00 35:03

and

SPEAKER_02 35:04

bring us to this little place which we enjoy are there things like that your routine how's your routine like and do you add things like that

SPEAKER_00 35:11

so uh yes uh i have a few things which is very special to me but I never have a routine so for me I don't know what I am doing the next day though I plan my days but then probably suddenly my I have to fly to indoor or I have

SPEAKER_02 35:30

something like

SPEAKER_00 35:32

that you know and then yeah but you know there will be some government official who wants to meet me for the aviary work or something like that and by the way we are doing the world's largest aviary in Hyderabad

SPEAKER_02 35:44

yeah we're looking forward to that

SPEAKER_00 35:47

yeah so yeah so those things that's where I have to keep running around and stuff like but the first most important thing that I enjoy you know twice through the day is sitting in my bathroom yeah you should see my bathroom yeah it's beautiful

SPEAKER_02 36:03

I'm going to take some pictures and share because it's gorgeous it's like a little little forest little heaven for yourself yeah

SPEAKER_00 36:10

so I have a little aquarium in which I have my and I spend a lot of time watching catching that fish and everybody in the house gets annoyed because I'm spending one hour in the bathroom morning and evening. That's one. But yeah, if I get some, I'm not really very busy per se. I'm not like those people who have to go by the clock and stuff like that. So, but then yeah, whenever I get some time, I go to the farm and I have, I'm converting it into a forest. So, and then I have a little pond and stuff flat there. So I spend a lot of time watching fish, dragonflies, butterflies sitting. And somewhere, you know, at that moment, I'm lost. I'm so lost in that beauty, at least beauty in my head, that nothing matters. I get very, I physically get very hurt when I see things that happen in, say, things like Ukraine, Russia, Israel. And that's another Pandora's box which shouldn't be open but yeah when we see something like that or when you hear something where the society is going wrong or something like that or you know I don't say wrong but you know the way it is going you know these are places where I go and nothing matters I don't care if there's an apocalypse the next day I am happy in that moment I live in that moment and hours pass by and I don't realize till say my mom or my wife calls me and then like are you coming for tea in the evening and yeah but I think I wish everybody had something like that and yeah your own little space where you can do absolutely nothing and still be happy

SPEAKER_02 37:51

yeah I'm saying this in every podcast and Abhinav is going to get irritated when he hears this but my house doesn't have a lot of private space like that right the house is designed in a way that's 20 rooms open into every other room so it's just ridiculous but yeah I keep trying to kick him out of the house so that I can get the house alone for myself but yeah of course I have my routines too but I get it and of course your bathroom your farm everything is beautiful and there's something about being in the nature like right now we are sitting and talking and the privilege of having space like this in day and age to be able to sit and enjoy this greenery of course I know and I can imagine the amount of work which goes into keeping this up hearing the words around it's always amazing the sense of peace and calm which comes in and of course your very very calm voice that you always talk in which has been great except for later today when we have few beers we'll have a different type of

SPEAKER_01 38:46

conversation

SPEAKER_02 38:48

but thank you so much Nandu this has been really really great I heard and learned so many things that I didn't know knowing you despite knowing you for 23 years this is the thing right we always are learning about each other we are always you yeah and all the best congratulations for all the new projects and so many more to come for us to see and I look forward to enjoying for the privilege of being your friend and enjoying all of that so yeah and thank you for coming on the podcast

SPEAKER_00 39:17

thank you so much man uh again we've come a long way

SPEAKER_01 39:22

yeah

SPEAKER_00 39:23

and the people who've been privileged yeah they've been people who might not have been very privileged

SPEAKER_01 39:29

yeah

SPEAKER_00 39:31

i've seen you get into so many businesses and work your way up and never take failure uh and kind of get bogged down

SPEAKER_01 39:41

yeah

SPEAKER_00 39:42

i've always seen you as a strong person and yeah i always like the first time i saw you i thought call it you can call me a male chauvinistic pig but the thing is i thought oh this frail looking girl who is gained and you know and you know maybe she's she's not very strong like you have those preconceived notions but i've seen you grow and you you're a great mom you're a great wife you're a great friend you know you're a person who has conviction and that's something that very few people have in my opinion and I respect that and yeah always honored to be your friend and for many more years to come cheers

SPEAKER_02 40:22

thank you and I would like to add to that with what you said thank you so much you said some lovely things about me

SPEAKER_00 40:27

I'm not just saying it for the podcast I genuinely mean it

SPEAKER_02 40:30

I know that because you said this a lot of times and I really appreciate you have stopped putting Facebook messages on my birthday man used to do it earlier with such amazing messages I'm like nobody says these lovely things you say such lovely things about me every time and yeah You know, that's something where I think our thoughts are very similar. Your cock-a-doodle-doo is really excited right now. Like, very common because I also look at it this way. So, a few days ago, in the recent times,

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Down boy. Cock-a-doodle-doo.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, we do not. Thankfully, the video is not there in the podcast. Okay, listeners, you can just imagine what it would have been like. In the recent times, I started becoming a part of a lot of women's group for the lack of I came across this lovely group of women some are very entrepreneur based some are just about bringing women together and it's been amazing because you meet a lot of different people from different backgrounds and of course there's a whole idea of networking and your business growing that one side but there's also a lot of learning about these people and it's amazing and two few days ago I had a little meet and where we had to introduce ourselves and in the introduction you had to also say two adjectives about yourself right and I mean it's always very hard I found it hard to praise myself or talk about things I'm good at because I think most humans find it hard how do you you can you can say write an essay about what you're not good at but it's hard for you to come up with words that you think you're good at but two things that I wrote was one was curious and one was resilient so curious yes because I'm constantly trying to learn like you said so many businesses I'm always trying to say this works this doesn't work how does this work and you know I think there's a level of curiosity healthy level of curiosity and resilience because I wouldn't say that I don't feel bogged down or sad ever I have had my shares of sitting and crying and rolling up and everything but I think I'm like your thought process life is going to be hard I can either choose to sit in a room and cry about it or get out and fucking figure out what I can do about it and that's my whole logic I'm like I can't choose when I die but I choose I want to make a choice of how I live my life the whole journey like you said and I am responsible for the people I'm connected to so the child I chose to bring into this world it was my choice it's not his fault like it's my bloody it's my responsibility to bring him up to a place till it is my responsibility then of course he's a grown man and he can take a choice of what he wants to do but till then it's my fucking problem I can't just say oh I'm gonna I'm feeling I'm gonna leave this world and sit in a corner and go and pray fuck it's my responsibility and I'm gonna do it and which includes figuring out not only your personal life but a professional life too as a parent, as you know, it's like so many of our choices are connected to how we bring up our child. My husband, my parents, my siblings, everybody, my sister, why am I saying siblings? She'd be like, how many do you have? My sister. But I think that's what it is about. And it's the strength which is in you is a choice you're making for the people around you and for a quality of life you want to give yourself. I think I deserve a lot of good things, right? I am not somebody who would want a Chanel bag. I don't. don't give a shit about it but I would like a nice holiday somewhere you know that's my choice and for that if I have to work my ass off and keep trying different things I'll do that and that's what I look at it and yes it's not just the friendship and wonderful holidays that we have had together and you Anant Vasu Chandana for the way she's so supportive all you people Abhinav also because with all his crying he still does you know he's a hard worker sometimes he'll hear it later he's standing there but he can't hear but all of you have been a big part of people who have inspired me a lot and now it sounds like I'm the guest in this podcast and I'm talking about myself but again thank you so much this has been great and I know this could we can turn and go on about this for another hour because that's the history and comfort level we have with each other but yeah and we will do one more in the future absolutely because that's the that's the advantage of having all of you as friends we can talk about so many different things every now and then

SPEAKER_00 44:39

no no we'll definitely do another one in the near future and look forward to it. All the best.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Thank you. You too. That was Nandakishwar Reddy, guys. Amazing, amazing person.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

If you like what you hear, subscribe and follow us on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon Music. A new episode will come out every 1st and 15th of a month. You can also follow us on Instagram on the Inspired Life podcast. If you want to mail me to discuss some of the things we are talking here or have a story to share on this podcast email me at theinspiredlifeindia at gmail.com this is Deepika and I thank you for listening