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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 8:58:38 am

The Follow-Up You Skipped

The meeting went well. Everyone agreed on that. He was articulate, confident, well prepared. He read the room perfectly, asked the right questions, left a strong impression. People exchanged cards. There were warm handshakes and genuine smiles. The kind of first meeting that feels like the beginning of something real. And then nothing. No email. No message. No acknowledgement that the conversation had ever happened. Days passed. Then a week. The impression he had worked so carefully to create...

The Follow-Up You Skipped

The meeting went well. Everyone agreed on that. He was articulate, confident, well prepared. He read the room perfectly, asked the right questions, left a strong impression. People exchanged cards. There were warm handshakes and genuine smiles. The kind of first meeting that feels like the beginning of something real. And then nothing. No email. No message. No acknowledgement that the conversation had ever happened. Days passed. Then a week. The impression he had worked so carefully to create began to quietly unravel — not because of anything he said in the room, but because of everything he failed to do after leaving it. This is one of the most common and costliest personal brand mistakes I observe in accomplished founders. Not the dramatic failures. The invisible ones. The follow-up that never came. Most founders understand the importance of the first impression. They prepare for it, invest in it, obsess over it. The handshake, the introduction, the pitch these receive enormous attention. And then the meeting ends and the attention goes with it. What happens next the email sent within twenty-four hours, the specific reference to something discussed, the simple act of saying "it was genuinely good to meet you" is treated as optional. A nicety. Something to get to when there is time. There is never time. And that silence communicates something to everyone on the other side of it. Think about the last significant meeting you had. A potential client, a collaborator, a connection that felt genuinely promising. Did you follow up? Within twenty-four hours? With something specific enough to show that you were actually present in the conversation not just physically in the room? Or did you return to the business of your day and tell yourself you would get to it later? Because here is what the person on the other side experienced. They left the meeting with a positive impression. They may have even spoken about you to someone else — told a peer about this founder they had just met, someone worth knowing. And then the silence arrived. And with it, a quiet internal conversation that went something like this: maybe they were not as interested as they seemed. Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe they do this with everyone. The recalibration is never announced. It simply happens. And the version of you that existed in their mind before the silence is never quite the same after it. The person who seemed so impressive in the room revealed, through their absence, exactly how they operate when nobody is watching them perform. A personal brand is not built only in the moments of visible effort. It is built in the moments of invisible effort the follow-up nobody sees you send, the thank you note nobody required, the specific detail that tells the other person you were genuinely listening. These are the moments that separate the founders who are remembered from the ones who were merely impressive. The irony is that follow-up requires almost no time. A well-crafted message takes three minutes. What it communicates takes far longer to build through any other means. It signals attention, care, professionalism and genuine interest all in a single act that most people cannot be bothered to perform. And for a founder at a serious level where every relationship has compounding potential, where reputation travels faster than any introduction the cost of that silence is never just one missed connection. It is the conversations that never happened. The referrals that went elsewhere. The collaborations that went to someone who simply took three minutes to say it was a pleasure, and here is why. Your brand lives in those three minutes. Not in the meeting itself. In what you choose to do or not do after it ends. If this landed somewhere specific for you, a Founder Brand Audit is a focused consultation call where we examine exactly what your brand is communicating in every room, and in every silence after it. This is the beginning of a specific investment in yourself. Five slots open each week. Book your call here: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

Caste-based Census Sparks Nationwide Debate

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Caste-based Census

Caste-based identities continue to dominate rural India, directly or indirectly shaping electoral outcomes. Many major elections are influenced by specific caste groups. After the Bihar government released the first phase of its caste-based socio-economic survey, the caste census became a hot topic. The results, backed by evidence, showed improvements in the living standards and social status of marginalised communities, both in cities and villages. With parties like the JDU and NCP backing a caste census, there is growing momentum for the government to conduct one. However, every story has two sides—joy and sorrow. Even Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, raised concerns about the caste census.

Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of being “anti-Bahujan.” The clear meaning is that his father and forefather refused to execute a caste-based census, which might have far-reaching effects and even permanently fracture India’s social fabric. This may be negative for caste-based beneficiaries. The last caste census in India was conducted in 1931 by the British government. Those times were different from the present scenario. The data was made public and became the basis for the Mandal Commission Reports and reservation policies for Other Backward Classes. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has clarified that the caste-based population count data will not be used for core politics. But the agenda for politics is always twisted and expanded.

The Central Government also joined the legal debate by filing an affidavit with the Supreme Court, leaving the matter unresolved. India’s partition, rooted in the divide-and-rule strategy, is frequently cited as a cautionary tale. Including caste in official census data could further deepen social divides. This issue has become a political pressure point, with various states pushing the Centre for action. Although the Constitution uses the term “class” instead of “caste,” the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that caste is a relevant, and at times, sole or dominant criterion for defining a backward class.

After the release of caste-based census data in Bihar, discussions around conducting similar censuses have gained momentum in states like Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand. Karnataka, which has already conducted its own caste census, may release its data soon as well.

Notably, all these states are governed by anti-BJP parties. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also announced that Congress-ruled states have committed to carrying out caste censuses. Meanwhile, the BJP has remained silent on the matter, creating a significant roadblock.

Caste-based censuses focus on proportional representation in areas like jobs and education, with the argument that this will aid in targeted planning for the disadvantaged. However, the situation remains unclear, much like a foggy winter morning. The BJP’s stance on caste-based censuses and reservations seems different, as they fear the caste-based calculations could fragment their traditional Hindu voter base—an underlying concern for the party.

Professor Sanjay Kumar from The Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, says, “Let alone the BJP; no party can openly oppose it; it is not free from danger. BJP gets a large number of votes from the OBC community, their population across the country would be around 52%. Another downside is that the caste-based censuses could disrupt the balance of socio-economic zones. Data theft is a common issue in government systems, and people may feel disconnected from their actual rights.

The moot question is that if the financial status of an ST/SC/OBC or Dalit citizen moves up by a few notches, will his social status change automatically? The lifestyle of any class will only change when the income of a particular class is changed. The actual source of income is employment. The reality is that only metro cities have enough place and space for workers. Aside from the GIDC and IT sectors, less than 30% of industries have their own designated vacancy periods. After a decade, the Jamnagar and Rajkot Corporations have opened their doors to newcomers alongside experienced staff. However, age and caste bias often operate behind the scenes. It’s important to recognise that poverty is also widespread among many upper-caste individuals, and their needs cannot be overlooked. In the overall interests of the nation, terms like SC/ST/OBC, Dalits, etc. must be deleted from the nation’s vocabulary. Every citizen should have only one classification, that of being an ‘Indian’, in the spirit of the constitution.

Last year, when the Bihar government decided to conduct a caste survey in the state, the BJP was also Nitish Kumar’s partner in the state government, and it supported it. Political expert and former professor of Tata Institute of Social Science, Pushpendra Kumar, says, “It is not that the BJP does not talk about caste. It tries to reveal the caste of the Prime Minister as well. For caste politics, the BJP also tried hard to raise the issue of Pasmanda Muslims.”

(The writer is a management professional based in Ahmedabad. Views personal.)

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