Jatia's Life Lessons

The food services industry was among the worst hit during the first Covid wave. Building a crisis-resilient business model became the need of the hour, along with a fair bit of will power and patience to do so. Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman, Westlife Development, which owns the McDonald's franchise for West and South India, was able to maintain the much-needed calm and composure by reading verses from the Bhagavad Gita every day. In fact, Jatia has now hired a Veda teacher based in Vrindavan to listen to discourses from the Gita twice a week on Zoom.

"The Bhagavad Gita teaches you to keep doing your job to the best of your capability, irrespective of the challenges. If there is a crisis, there is a reason why you are encountering it and there will always be lessons to learnt from it. This insight really kept me going throughout the difficult period of the lockdown," says Jatia.

Along with discourses, the instructor also put Jatia through a meditation regime. "I meditate every day and that, along with my fitness regime, have made me agile and a lot more sensitive to my surroundings. After all, business is not about profits alone."