Tag: entrepreneurship journey

The Day I Walked Away From Everything I Thought Was Mine


2008 didn’t just take away my company.

It took away people.

A partner I once called my best friend.
A love I believed was real.

Both gone.
Both unreal, as I painfully discovered.

That phase didn’t feel like loss.
It felt like being cut open… slowly… while still alive.

I still remember one day very clearly.

I got ready like any normal day — neatly dressed, wearing my Woodland shoes.
I told myself I’ll go watch a movie at Mayajaal. Maybe that would help.

I reached there.

But I couldn’t walk in.

Something inside me refused.

Instead, I just started walking.

No plan. No destination.

From Mayajaal… all the way to Mahabalipuram.

Tears didn’t stop.
Thoughts didn’t stop.

My mind kept replaying everything —
Was it all fake?
Was I living a dream that never existed?
How did everything collapse so fast?

At times, I don’t even remember parts of that walk.
There were moments of blankness… like my mind was shutting down to protect itself.

I don’t know how I walked that distance.
I don’t know how I came back.

I just did.

Years have passed.

Today, I have accepted what happened.
Life moved forward.
People moved on.
Even karma, in its own way, has done its job.

But acceptance is not the same as understanding.

Some questions never got answers.

Why did it happen?
Why did people change?
Was I blind… or just trusting?

I don’t carry anger anymore.

But I carry those questions.

Silently.

Because sometimes in life…
you don’t get closure.

You just learn to live without it.

When Life Was Moving Between Cities and a 3-Month-Old Smile


Exactly 10 years ago.

My daughter was just three months old.
She didn’t know how to sit. Didn’t know how to talk.
She was just rolling around… smiling at the ceiling fan… living in her own small universe.

And I was still rolling in the sky of becoming a father.

My wife was in her native. I was driving between Chennai, Madurai and Pollachi like a shuttle service. Highway tea shops were my silent companions. Early morning drives. Late night returns. Phone calls in between.

Business was going good.
I had a solid team. Energy was high.
That was the time I was seriously working on my coffee shop initiative — ideas, branding thoughts, concepts, locations, numbers, dreams. Filter coffee was not just a drink. It was a possibility.

Friend time had reduced.
Not intentionally. Life was just expanding.

But still, I made sure I showed up.

Green Park in Chennai.
Union Club in Madurai.

Those were my meeting spots. Laughter. Business talks. Political debates. Life updates. Some evenings were heavy, some were light, but they kept me grounded.

Bangalore visits had reduced.
Before 2015, Bangalore used to be almost a weekly emotion.
After that, priorities shifted. Travel changed direction. Responsibilities quietly took the driver’s seat.

That was also the period when I purchased two houses in Madurai.
And the construction of my present house was happening brick by brick. I still remember walking through half-built walls, imagining furniture, imagining children running around.

Today when I think back…

I don’t remember the stress.
I don’t remember the tiredness.

I remember the movement.
I remember the building phase.
I remember the silent excitement.

A 3-month-old baby.
A growing business.
Under-construction dreams.
Reduced Bangalore trips.
More responsibilities.

Life was not slow.
Life was not easy.
But life was beautifully in motion.

Ten years passed quietly.
But that version of me — driving highways, carrying dreams, and learning fatherhood — still smiles somewhere inside.

And that 3-month-old baby?
She is ten now.
Time really doesn’t ask permission before it moves.