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By:

Asha Tripathi

14 April 2025 at 1:35:28 pm

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along...

Stop Comparing, Start Growing

Success does not grow in comparison; it grows in focus. Over the years, women have made significant strides in every sphere of life. From managing homes to leading organisations, from nurturing families to building successful careers, women have proved that strength and resilience are deeply rooted in their nature. Financial independence has become a significant milestone for many women today, bringing with it confidence, dignity, and the freedom to shape one’s own destiny. However, along with growth has come another silent challenge — the tendency to constantly observe, compare, and sometimes even compete with the journeys of others. But a crucial question arises: Is it necessary to track the growth of others in order to grow ourselves? From my personal experience of more than two decades as an entrepreneur, I have realised something very powerful — true growth begins the moment we stop looking sideways and start looking within. A Small Beginning I had a flourishing career of teaching abroad, but when I restarted my career after moving back to India, my beginning was extremely small. My very first assignment was a simple home tuition for a single student, and the amount I earned was meagre. There was nothing glamorous about it. No recognition, no large batches, no big earnings. Just one student and one opportunity. But instead of worrying about how others were doing, how many students they had, or how much they were earning, I made a conscious decision—my only focus would be on improving myself. I focused on teaching better, preparing better, and becoming more disciplined and consistent. And slowly, without even realising it, things began to grow. One student became two, two became a small group, and gradually, over the years, the work expanded beyond what I had initially imagined. Looking back today, I can confidently say that the growth did not happen because I competed with others. It happened because I competed with myself yesterday. Comparison Creates Noise When we keep watching others' journeys too closely, we unknowingly divert our own energy. Comparison creates unnecessary noise in our minds. It brings doubts, insecurities, and sometimes even negativity. Instead of walking our own path with clarity, we start questioning our speed, our direction, and our worth. True success grows through focus, not comparison. Every woman has her own story, her own pace, and her own struggles that others may never see. The path of one person can never be identical to another's. So comparing journeys is like comparing two different rivers flowing towards the same ocean — each with its own route, its own curves, and its own rhythm. As women, we already carry many responsibilities. We balance emotions, relationships, work, and society's expectations. In such a life, the last thing we need is the burden of comparison with one another. Instead, what we truly need is support for each other. When women encourage women, something extraordinary happens. Confidence grows. Opportunities multiply. Strength becomes collective rather than individual. There is enough space in the world for every woman to create her own identity. Each of us can build our own niche without stepping on someone else's path. Choose Encouragement Envy weakens us, but encouragement empowers us. Rather than questioning how someone else is progressing, we can ask a more meaningful question: "How can I grow a little better than I was yesterday?" Lift As You Rise Today, after twenty years of experience, the most valuable lesson I have learned is simple yet profound — focus on your own work with honesty and dedication, and success will quietly follow you. We, women, are capable, resilient, and creative. We do not need to pull each other down or compete in unhealthy ways. Instead, we can lift each other up while building our own dreams. Because when one woman rises, she does not rise alone. She inspires many others to believe that they can rise, too. And perhaps that is the most beautiful form of success. (The writer is a tutor based in Thane. Views personal.)

Fatal Privilege

An avoidable death in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has exposed the grotesque inversion of priorities that defines Indian governance. In Ambernath, a patient’s life ebbed away as an ambulance stood waiting not for a citizen, but for a politician who happened to be Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The vehicle, belonging to Chhaya Sub-District Hospital, had been dispatched for the Deputy CM’s visit to inaugurate a local theatre named in memory of Shinde’s mentor, late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe.


The family of a critically-ill resident, who needed to be moved to a larger facility for advanced treatment, found, to their consternation that there were none available. The only one that was had been commandeered for ‘VIP duty.’ As neighbours scrambled to find alternative transport, precious minutes slipped away and the patient ultimately died before help could arrive.


This is a scene that has been replayed not just across Maharashtra but across India with chilling regularity. The grim message it seems to send out is that the State’s apparatus bends not toward its citizens, but toward its political masters. An ambulance is a symbol of any State’s most basic promise which is to save lives. In Ambernath, that promise was broken for the sake of a ribbon-cutting.


What makes this incident more infuriating is that it occurred at a hospital already tarnished by scandal. Only a few years ago, sixteen patients there were reportedly administered the wrong injections. That such a facility could again become the site of negligence, this time compounded by political servility, suggests that inquiry committees are hollow rituals designed to quell justified public anger.


While Shinde certainly did not have personally ordered the ambulance’s diversion, the ruling Mahayuti administration bears responsibility for the culture that enabled it. In Maharashtra, as elsewhere in India, a ‘VIP movement’ has become a regrettable euphemism for the suspension of ordinary life. Often, traffic is halted at the expense of the citizens whom politicians are sworn to serve. Citizens are treated as obstacles, not constituents.


That a person dies because the state’s ambulance was reserved for a man inaugurating a theatre should shame every public servant who has ever signed off on such misuse of public resources. Yet, if history is any guide, the inquiry will conclude quietly, the officials will be reshuffled and the news cycle will move on. The only thing certain to remain unchanged is the hierarchy of privilege.


If India wishes to call itself a welfare state, it must first dismantle its feudal reflexes. Public hospitals cannot be treated as logistical wings of political events. Ambulances must never be diverted for ceremonial duties. Above all, accountability must travel upward, towards those in positions of authority who permit such dereliction to occur.


This death was a consequence of a system where life has become a dispensable prop. Until that changes, India’s hospitals will continue to serve power before patients.

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