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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.)

Sinking Cities

India’s megacities are rising ever higher but the ground beneath them is slipping away. Gleaming expressways, metro lines and glass towers project the image of a nation surging into the future. Yet new research suggests this ascent may rest on perilously unstable foundations. Beneath the concrete sprawl of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, the earth itself is sinking and in some places, alarmingly fast.


A study published in Nature Sustainability by researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and other universities estimates that nearly 900 square kilometres of land across these five cities are subsiding, exposing 1.9 million residents to the risk of the ground dropping more than four millimetres each year. Satellite data from 2015 to 2023 reveal that more than 2,400 buildings are already at high risk of structural damage, while another 23,500 could face severe harm over the next half century if the trend continues. Delhi, soon to overtake Tokyo as the world’s largest metropolis, is sinking by as much as 51 millimetres a year in some areas.


Land subsidence, caused when groundwater extraction or construction compresses the earth beneath, unfolds too slowly for the human eye to notice, but its impact can be devastating. In Delhi’s suburbs of Ghaziabad and Faridabad, and in Chennai’s Adyar floodplains, the ground is quite literally buckling. Such uneven descent can fracture foundations, rupture water mains and amplify the toll of floods and earthquakes. The researchers even observed that parts of Dwarka in Delhi are rising by more than 15 millimetres a year, creating new stresses in the surrounding terrain.


The principal culprit is chronic groundwater depletion. Indian cities, long plagued by erratic rainfall and patchy water infrastructure, have turned to aquifers to slake their thirst. In Delhi-NCR, half the water comes from underground; in Chennai, borewells run deep into fossil aquifers that take centuries to refill. When the water is pumped out, the soil compacts and sinks. The weight of buildings, roads and flyovers adds pressure, accelerating the descent.


This slow-motion crisis lays bare the contradictions of India’s urbanisation. For all their economic dynamism, its megacities are being built on geologically fragile ground. The National Capital Region sits on soft alluvium that compresses easily when drained; Mumbai’s reclaimed coastlines have disturbed natural drainage patterns; Chennai has paved over the wetlands that once absorbed monsoon floods.


Subsidence lowers city elevations, making floods deadlier and drainage systems obsolete. It imperils metros and flyovers that rely on level terrain. As always, it is the poor who are crowded into the most flood-prone neighbourhoods who will bear the brunt when disaster strikes.


To avert catastrophe, India must take its subterranean world as seriously as its skylines. Cities should meter extraction, price water rationally and invest in large-scale recharge through rainwater harvesting and restored wetlands.


The earth’s slow descent is a warning that modernity cannot defy geology. Unless policymakers confront what lies beneath their feet, India’s urban miracle could collapse under its own weight.

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