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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.)

Red Fade

The surrender of Mallojula Venugopal Rao, known by his nom de guerre of Bhupathi, marks a symbolic end to an era. Once the military chief of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army and one of the last surviving architects of India’s Maoist insurgency, Bhupathi’s capitulation alongside 60 cadres in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli is more than a victory for law enforcement. It is a milestone in the Modi government’s systematic effort to dismantle both the armed and ideological fronts of left-wing extremism.

 

For decades, Maoism represented India’s most enduring internal security challenge that claimed thousands of lives, drained development funds, and terrorised some of the poorest regions of the country. But over the past decade, through a calibrated mix of force, dialogue and rehabilitation, the state has turned the tide. The Maoist strongholds in Chhattisgarh’s Abujmarh, Odisha’s Malkangiri and Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli have been hollowed out. Security operations under Home Minister Amit Shah have been relentless yet strategic, combining modern surveillance with offers of amnesty and livelihood.

 

Bhupathi’s surrender illustrates how this twin-pronged strategy works: pressure from sustained operations in the forests, and persuasion through rehabilitation. His decision follows the surrender of several other senior Maoist leaders this year. It signals that the once-feared guerrilla network is now fracturing under its own ideological weight.

 

Yet while the guns may have fallen silent, the battle of ideas continues in seminar halls, television studios and op-ed pages of metropolitan India. For every rifle surrendered in Gadchiroli, there remains a pen in Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata romanticising ‘revolution.’ This ‘cultural Maoism’ thrives among a small but vocal fraternity of so-called intellectuals, journalists and academics who, under the guise of human rights or dissent, legitimise anti-state narratives and glorify armed resistance.

 

These ‘champagne revolutionaries,’ safely ensconced in universities and media houses, have long acted as ideological oxygen for the insurgency. Their rhetoric has often blurred the line between critique and complicity, portraying India’s democratic state as the aggressor and its armed rebels as victims of injustice. Some of them have never visited the villages they claim to speak for. But their influence in shaping opinion, teaching young minds and defending the indefensible is far from benign.

 

India’s war on Maoism is not merely territorial but cultural, psychological and institutional. For far too long, India tolerated those who preached freedom but excused violence, who demanded rights but denied responsibility. The fall of Mallojula Venugopal Rao symbolises the exhaustion of an ideology that failed to evolve in the face of democracy and development.

 

The challenge now is to ensure that Maoism’s twilight in the forests is not replaced by its afterglow in varsities. India’s future lies in the progress of its villages that make rebellion obsolete. The government’s campaign against left-wing extremism has begun reclaiming the idea of India from those who mistake cynicism for dissent and subversion for intellect.

 

The jungle has fallen silent. It is time the echo chambers did too.

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