Vikramjit Roy, head publicist, Sony Pictures, tells Nidhi Jain that a lot of what he is has been shaped by people around him.

By Birth
I am a Bengali, but Indian at heart and truly cosmopolitan. I have been to different cities, traveled all over the world, met political leaders, met grassroots workers, NGOs. I and my thoughts are not bound by any 'ism'. I was bound when I was into politics during college days, not anymore. Neither am I bound by any cultural definition.

Religion
I am very assertive, confidant and rational. God is a source of power, inspiration, dedication. That's the greatest entity. My views are not dogmatic. It's about tolerance - Sarvat Dharm Sambhav. I drew a lot of inspiration from Swami Vivekanand. He had a Guru like face.

Values
Values that I have and the culture that I share is the same as the organisation I work for. I am lucky to be part of that system basically, which has integrity - self, family, work, courage, empower, people, responsibility (for action). Sayings like every action has an opposite reaction is also a part of my life. Great thinkers had respect for others opinions. I truly believe in democracy, women empowerment. Only if we learn do we grow.

Belief
On a purely religious perspective, because I am a Bengali,one cannot be separated from Ma Durga. Durga puja is an intrinsic part of my life. I like to just chill out with myself. My daughter, Veda, is a great fan of Ganapati.

Rituals
A lot has come from my paternal grandfather who was Indian National Congress member, a Member of Parliament and later became an MLA. A lot has been shaped by mom and dad and now by people I work with, my boss Uday Singh, colleagues. People have influenced me in big and small ways.

Spiritual guidance
Spirituality is experiencing the grandeur of darkness.

Positive thinking
Always. Everything can be achieved if we try and if we don't get than we have to try harder. No point in getting upset.

Karmology
If we do something right only right will happen.

Relaxing spiritually
I just ease myself out spiritually through yoga.

Are you Destiny's child?
It's for destiny to say.

As we grow, we learn and observe and realize how things change, people change. Sajjad Chunawala, Station head, Fever 104 fm, tells Nidhi Jain what he thinks about the Almighty.

By birth
I am a Sunni Muslim.I do not believe God as a universal creator, I do not believe him as a supreme being but I believe that God is Conscience. It's a fundamental for me - if we do something wrong, and something inside tells that we indeed did something incorrect or unethical, then that means you believe in God, and if we do something wrong without having a guilt pang then there is no belief that exists.

My wife is British and Jewish. I got married in three different ways - British wedding, court wedding and a nikaah. Many people told me to change my wife's name. I just do not believe in that at all. She was happy to have nikkah but we both feel that religion and God is a very personal thing, one should not impose it on others.

I believe God is conscience. If you hurt people personally or professionally and you think you can get away with it internally then the belief in a Supreme being does not exist. I can detect people who lie.

Religion
I pray once a week mostly on Fridays. Its an auspicious day for our religion. Sometimes I skip because of time constraints but I do it for internal peace. There are people who use their religion to support violence; I guess this is the norm for every religion. Islam does not justify violence. Muslims are a very peace-loving people.

Religion enables us to ignore nothingness and get on with the job of life. -- John Updike

Values
Values are simple, as life in itself is very simple. We complicate it ourselves. I like to approach my personal life and my professionally life rationally. I have this "no bullshitting" poster in my office. I first try to understand the core problem. If you do not back what you stand for then it's not a worthwhile value system. When I joined my company, at the inaugural session what I said was that I cannot tolerate politics or back biting. I want to have a non-political environment around me.

Belief
I only believe in people, their ideas, giving them enough responsibility, trust, authority to delegate well. I have risen up the ladder the hard way and I realize that we cannot do anything on our own. It is not possible. We have to be peoples' person.

No religion is a true religion that does not make men tingle to their finger tips with a sense of infinite hazard.--William Ernest Hocking

Rituals
Nothing in particular but I go to the mosque, love the food during Ramzaan, play Holi, cerebrate Diwali and also celebrate the Jewish festivals. They all are not rituals but celebrations.

Spiritual guidance
Very internal and very personal, I strongly believe in conscience.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.--Seneca the Younger

Positive thinking
Always. There will always be problems, there will be things that will go wrong, there will be bad days, good days...We should learn to fix problems by not overreacting or losing our heads.

Relaxing spiritually
For me it is basically calming the mind. I have done vipassana. We have to give a perspective to life.

Are you Destiny's child?
I believe life is what we make it.
If triangles had a God, He'd have three sides.--Yiddish

There's a great hustle bustle of activity at the Sony office while it's raining cats and dogs outside. It looks like it's been a day of hectic meetings, creative brainstorming sessions for Tarun Katial, Business Head Sony. As I enter his cabin, his cell phone keeps beeping incessantly; as Katial is busying sending off that `one last mail for the day.'

Yet, there's not a hint of being stressed out at the end of the day; in fact he looks pretty calm, composed and totally in charge of himself.

"Television is as stressful as any other profession really," he declares nonchalantly. "And what keeps me through the day is that I take a very detached attitude towards life in general."

That perhaps sets the whole tone of the conversation, as we settle down for a tete-e-tete. And during the course of the conversation Katial reveals a rather spiritual side to his personality.

He reveals, "I did a course in Vipassana, an ancient form of meditation a few years ago which sort of transformed my life in very many ways. Now, I not only practice it everyday but recommend it to many people within the television industry."

For those uninitiated, Vipassana is an ancient technique of meditation and helps in self transformation through self observation.

Though slightly reluctant to talk further, but after much convincing he expounds his spiritual journey which began when his chips were down.

So, here goes Tarun Katial on Life, Success and Karma.

Vipassana filled a certain vacuum in my life.

It was about two years ago, that Katial discovered his moment of truth He says, " I got into Vipassana a few years ago when I was actually unemployed, so-to-speak or lets say in-between jobs (read between Star & Sony). That was a pretty depressing period of my life which lasted for about five months. I felt totally out of touch with the world and did not meet too many people. There was a certain vacuum in my life. It's like suddenly I realized that without a job or a position you're a nobody.

"But then, it's like life always offers you an opportunity. I used the vacuum as an opportunity to do something new and get on with life. One of my family members actually recommended the course in Igatpuri to me. It sounded like a good retreat from the regular mundane life and I started to get the things I decided to go for it. What I learned from the course, has sort of stayed with me forever.

For those uninitiated, Vipassana is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gautam Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ill. Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation.

Recalling the experience

Having decided to take the plunge, Katial was off to Igatpuri, all equipped with the basic stuff ( a torch, an umbrella a bed etc) to take on a ten day hibernation.

"There are many who shirk from doing this course since it demands a very high level of discipline. But since it promised inner peace I was all prepared for it. We had to be up early in the morning and meditate for the major part of the day. Another important thing being that one is not allowed to communicate to people around.
It's during the silence is when I began the process of self-evaluation -to differentiate between the good-bad and the ugly. I sort of felt my life going past me from mychildhood. Normally, the wrong things that we do in life are pushed under the carpet but it does manifest in the form of prejudices at a later stage in life. Now my working day begins mostly with Vipassana.

I religiously practice this form of meditation each working day. It sort of sets the tone for the day and leaves me rejuvenated for the day. I've now learned to take life at its face value and leave out the insignificant things in life.

My success is the result of my good karma

I am honestly not too ambitious but just a product of being at the right time and place. Also, I believe my success is really the result of my good karma. I am not really scared of the future or losing it all, since nothing is really permanent in life. It's like a sensation that you feel which will go away after a point of time. I never get too excited with success or get too depressed with failure. So, this attitude sort of keeps me rooted.

On climbing up the corporate ladder

When I ask him but don't you want to be the CEO of a company one day. He says, "no, not really. I would rather retire early and do something like teach at a media school or run an NGO.

I don't claim to read Jack Welsh

I don't claim to read great books. Forget Jack Welsh or any such author. I just stick to simple inspirational books on Buddhism, like the one I am reading now is called, ` The way it is by Ajahn Sumdha and there's another one by Swami Chimayananda - on the Art of living.

It seems like every corporate honcho has been trudging on to that treadmill for decades now.

Exercise has become too monotonous,and boring,and well....who has the time? .Infact it's not far fetched to try and get clued into all the exciting avenues for working out that are jazzing up the calorie shedding circuit today.

Sweating it out has become monotonous, boring and well .....who has all the time anyway? So how about some jiffy exercise for the body and soul? Fitness mantras for the 'new age corporate' has to be as much about calming the mind as shedding those extra kilos.So get clued into the latest avenues on working out and jazz up that calorie shedding circuit today.

Power walking, power yoga, taichi, Pilates, spinning and Reebok core boarding are all just the front runners of a veritable exercise revolution which our executives have been trying there hand at out of their busy schedule.

Adding 'zing' to the fitness training coming to gym for the busy bigs

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Zumba -it's very dancey and everyone can follow it and it's great for people at all level of fitness as there's no jumping involved. People are always looking for something different to try out not to get bored.

Bhangra masala DVD of masala workout in India is great as it concentrates on abs and legs and works for the upper body as well it's evident that there's absolutely nothing routine about exercise in India.

Swiss ball a primary benefit of exercising with a Swiss ball as opposed to exercising directly on a hard flat surface is that the body responds to the instability of the ball to remain balanced, engaging many more muscles to do so. Those muscles become stronger over time to keep balance.

Medicine ball also known as an exercise ball, med ball, or fitness ball is a heavy ball, roughly the size of a volleyball or a basketball used for rehabilitation and strength training.

Cardio hoops Hula Hoop is one of the few fitness that primarily targets your middle. With circular trunk movements, it directly works abdominal muscles, hips and waistlines. Gain for both a cardio and strength workout. (One minute of Hula Hopping burns as many calories as running an eight-minute mile or high impact aerobic class).

Thera band rotation movements are excellent for warming up the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder joint.

Tae Bo means tae kwon do and boxing. Or called Total Awareness Excellence Body Obedience.

Krav Maga is a self-defense and military hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel.

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