Unwinding to perfect balance

They work 24/7. But, if they are not calculating investment risks at the board meetings, they are artists, or adventure sports enthusiasts or connoisseurs of gastronomic delights. How do such people handle pressure points?  Where and how do they strike a work-life balance? We ask some personalities whose work schedule never seems to show a finishing line.

“Excess, excess, excess,” says ad-guru Prahlad Kakkar as he explains how he maintains his sanity with so much on his plate. “Indulge in excess of everything you like,” is his mantra to achieve balance in life. While columnist, author and an avid traveller, Bhaichand Patel’s thumb rule is never to retire from work as well as pleasure. He says, “Work hard and indulge in that taboo word, a lot more. And you will be a balanced, happier person all your life.”

Who knows better than Muzaffar Ali as to how art can be therapeutic? A filmmaker, fashion designer, poet, artist, music lover, revivalist and social worker, Ali feels every work of his is an ongoing quest for self discovery, and levelling of mind. He calls it a ‘meditative flow.’ “You can experience the ‘flow’ if you submerge yourself totally in whichever creative activity you undertake. And then see how recuperated you feel when you are done,” he says.

For Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon, “freedom, love and desire” are the three virtues to find the right balance. He explains, “Freedom sets you free to do what you want to do. Love defines your passion to do something and desire is your willingness to pursue your love.”

What helps Dhoot in rejuvenating is sky-diving. “After months of board meetings, product launches, managing employees etc., I often take an off and indulge in some sky-diving acts. It’s that exciting feeling of jumping off an airplane at 10,000 feet, spreading your arms out like you’re flying and having no fear of death that helps revive your senses. That’s the moment when you’re most alive, you could ever be! The view that you get from up there is not just breathtaking, but it describes the amount of beauty that we still have to explore,” he says.

Just a simple cup of coffee can do the needful for some. Shahnaz Husain’s excellent de-stress formula is Decafe Starbuck Frappacino Lite Coffee with a hot Blueberry Muffin. Or, iced coffee and almond muffins at Barista. The founder and chairperson of the Shahnaz Husain group knows what works best to lift her spirits—Jagjit Singh’s ghazals, painting and writing poetry. Nothing calms her mind better than gazing at the blooming amaltash tree overlooking her bedroom window. “The fountain of yellow amaltash flowers calms my mind and soothes the soul,” says Husain.

“Work hard during the day and enjoy café bazee in the evening,” she says with a smile. “It has been my typical style of functioning, in India or abroad. Even in Paris, I work very hard during the day, and then spend the entire evening walking down the romantic Champs-Elysées, or just sipping coffee at a wayside café, long past midnight.”

Checking out the new eateries wherever he travels, helps maintain the sanity levels of the publisher of Om Books International, Ajay Mago.  He says, “I love to try out different cuisines and am not a guilty eater at all. My balanced meal defines my balanced life and guess what’s that... Caesar salad rounded off with walnut brownie, with loads of chocolate sauce and ice cream!”

He confesses, “I enjoy being with my wife and children because they are the only people who have managed to make me wear the dunce cap on several occasions.”

For successful fashion designer Payal Jain, deep sea-diving helps.. “The feeling when you are in the sea is like meditation as all you can hear is your own breathing and nothing else,” she says. “Being surrounded by beautiful fish swimming close to you, nudging you... is indeed an incredible sight. Water becomes my therapeutic medium rendering a feeling of total liberation.”

Dancer and choreographer, Geeta Chandran says, balancing the mind is the toughest. “The mind gallops from idea to idea. But to balance the mind there are many techniques and many processes. Meditation works for some. For others it could be yoga. For yet others it could be art, or music. For me, classical Bharatanatyam has been therapeutic from deep within since it has helped me balance my mind,” assures Chandran.