‘Strive to be a better version of yourself’: Parimal Shah, President, MK Jokai Group
The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one’s personality. It has its origins in a parlour game popularised by Marcel Proust, the French essayist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.
Parimal Shah trained as a Tea taster at J. Thomas, the world’s largest tea broking house and spent around 10 years in Saint Petersburg’s, Russia, formulating, launching new speciality Tea & Coffee brands in the Russian market for their family tea business. Now at the age of 33, Parimal still heads the Russian operations of his family business, is a YPO Moscow member and has simultaneously launched a start-up in Pune, Indian where he and his team are manufacturing smart beverage vending machines. Today, he is the President, International Operations at the M. K. Jokai group. Here are his responses to our Proust questionnaire...
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
To be in perfect sync with my mind and heart with implicit faith in God, and be able to deal with my career, life and personal challenges without going to war with myself.
What is your greatest fear?
To let fear overcome rationality and logic, and allow it to influence my actions.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I am very emotional by nature. While I know that it is great to be honest with yourself, there is a fine line between being emotional and being an emotional fool. I find sometimes that I tilt towards the latter, which can be risky for my career.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Hypocrisy. It is very sad to come across people who preaching something and practise something entirely different, especially when they do it at the cost of others.
Which living person do you most admire?
Narendra Modi.
What is your greatest extravagance?
My car. It is a highly customised Jeep, designed for weekly drives from Mumbai to Pune and back.
What is your current state of mind?
Vairagi. A Vairagi state of mind allows me to do my work, without much concern about the result and it allows me to take risks which otherwise I would not have taken. I am a student of the Bhagavad Gita and have developed this precious state of mind after several years. I am still trying to master it.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Honesty – this is indeed overrated as it is very subjective and every human being can draw his or her own lines when it comes to practising honesty.
On what occasion do you lie?
Life in this age creates certain scenarios that require innocuous lies. However, I try my best to ensure that my lies are innocent and created to avoid conflicts.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
The extra fat on my body, which has increased after I fractured my left foot last year.
Which living person do you most despise?
No one. Being judgmental and despising someone is not in my nature.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
The ability to make sacrifices for his family.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
The ability to convince men to do what they want, and at the same time make the man feel that it was his own idea!
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
The word ‘Yeah, let’s get it done!’
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Shri Krishna – He is my greatest friend, my mentor, my love and my God.
Which talent would you most like to have?
To be able to evaluate any situation at all times. I don’t want to be too passionate about something, and not dispassionate about anything.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My laziness.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My ability to explore and understand things.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Rather than coming back, I would choose to elevate myself to higher dimensions and continue my spiritual journey here.
Where would you most like to live?
The Danish countryside.
What is your most treasured possession?
My spiritual mind-set.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To be constantly at war with yourself.
What is your favourite occupation?
Mixing tea and technology together.
What is your most marked characteristic?
To be able to foresee multiple highly probable outcomes of an action in a short span of time.
What do you most value in your friends?
Loyalty.
Who are your favourite writers?
Wilbur Smith and JK Rowling.
Who is your hero of fiction?
Iron Man.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Emperor Akbar.
Who are your heroes in real life?
Narendra Modi, Elon Musk and Kylie Jenner.
What is your favourite name?
Krishna.
What is it that you most dislike?
Hypocrisy and indifference.
What is your greatest regret?
I have no regrets.
How would you like to die?
In a temple, while looking at the deities.
What is your favourite journey?
To the mountains and on a spiritual retreat.
What is your motto?
Strive to be a better version of yourself.
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