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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.)

Petty Patriots

At a time when the nation is making a strenuous diplomatic effort to isolate Pakistan for its continued patronage of terrorism, the Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi and his smirking apparatchik Jairam Ramesh seems more invested in sabotaging India’s credibility abroad than in confronting its enemies. The continual sniping at their own MP Shashi Tharoor, who is ably representing India as part of a global outreach following the Pahalgam massacre, is downright disgraceful.


Dr. Tharoor, known for his erudition, eloquence and statesmanship, is currently leading one of all-party delegations sent abroad to counter Pakistan’s narrative and explain India’s calibrated military response - Operation Sindoor – to the barbaric Pahalgam massacre. Instead of lauding him, Congress leaders are busy mocking and maligning Tharoor.


Jairam Ramesh, a man known more for condescension than conviction, saw fit to compare Indian MPs on a diplomatic mission to the very terrorists they are trying to expose. That this language mirrors the propaganda churned out by Pakistan’s ISPR is no coincidence. From questioning the Balakot air strikes to mocking Operation Sindoor, Congress seems determined to provide Pakistan with an alibi at every turn.


This is not dissent. This is dereliction. The Congress’s eagerness to ridicule India’s military and diplomatic responses, simply because they were not orchestrated under its own leadership, betrays a party that has shrunk into a sulking irrelevance. What else explains its decision to ridicule the foreign outreach as “junkets”? Or to smear Tharoor as a “BJP super-spokesperson” merely for explaining India’s position coherently on the world stage?


This is petty-mindedness of a juvenile order. And it is not new. The same party once mocked the Indian Army chief as a ‘goonda’ and demanded proof of India’s retaliatory actions. It has long confused partisanship with patriotism and grievance with governance. In today’s Congress, any Indian success not authored by the Gandhis is met not with applause, but with sabotage.


One would expect a party that once claimed to have negotiated the Shimla Agreement and led India through war to display at least a fig leaf of maturity in moments of national crisis. Instead, it has become a party of Twitter trolls in khadi. When India seeks to build global opinion against cross-border terrorism, it is met with sneers from those who ought to be helping sharpen the message. When India reaches out for solidarity, the Congress and its media ecosystem blare out talking points indistinguishable from those in Islamabad’s press releases.


For them, every initiative taken by the Modi government is a conspiracy, and every soldier’s sacrifice an occasion for sarcasm. The tragedy here is that the Congress no longer seems to know how to disagree without dishonouring the nation. Criticism of the government is a democratic right. But when that criticism begins to parrot the language of India’s enemies, the line between opposition and betrayal becomes dangerously thin.


India deserves a better opposition, one that is adult enough to know the difference between politics and perfidy.

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