He hold my hand. If you look at that picture, and he said Ku, And I told him recently about the H1B Visa stamping and things. He said, India is very proud of you and whenever you come to Delhi, come and meet me. And I said, Modi, I started laughing,
Track 1:I'm sure a lot of people don't know this, that both the Ambani brothers were here on an H1B Visa,
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (3):he said, Ajay, what you have done is amazing because when Anil and I came to this country on H 1, we had a lot of issues. I said, you came to this country on H1B. He said, yeah, I was working at United Nations and Anil Ambani was working somewhere else, and we came to this country.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:That was big surprise to me.
Track 1:who would you want to be the lead actor and play your role?
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (2):You know this guy, the, I'm forgetting his name right now, the movie who did the 12th film?
Amit Gupta:welcome to the Indian Community Podcast. I'm your host Amit Gupta with my co-host, Rahul Mehra. Today we are thrilled to have Ajay Jain Bhutoria join us. Ajay's journey is a testament to the power of vision, dedication, and community service from his roots in India to influencing the corridors of power in the us. Ajay has worked closely with political giants, including the Clintons Obamas and the Biden Harris administration. His advocacy for immigration reform and his instrumental role in policy recommendations for H1B holders have been transformative. His work reflects a deep commitment to the Asian American, native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community. He's a champion for technological advancement and fostering educational opportunities. Join us as we delve into the life of a man who is not only a Silicon Valley technology executive, but also a passionate community leader, a beacon for change and an inspiration to many. So welcome to the show, Mr. Jain.
ajay-bhutoria:Thank you. Thank you, Amit, for having me here.
Amit Gupta:So let me start off with your journey and when, where you started off. And based on what I understand about you and what I've read about you, we noticed you studied at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapally in India. And you were also very active in the university. In fact, you were the vice president of the LEO Club. And also an active member of the President's entrepreneurs Club. And then 20 years later I noticed in 2016 you were awarded the US Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for community service from none other than president Obama. And and here now in 2024, you're actually an active advisor for President Joe Biden. Sir, tell me what inspires you and motivates you to be the shining example of community service and working so closely with these global leaders.
Ajay Jain Bhutoria:Yeah, Amit, you took me to the, some of the best days of my life to N 90 T three Chi. I was born in Rajasthan and grew up in Assam gti, and I joined the NIT Trichy in Tamil Nadu, which a remote part. At that point in time for me was City, which was totally a new place and new culture and coming from Assam ti. So we wanted to find a meaningful way for all our batch mats to interact and be active and part of it. So at that part of those, we had the LEO Club and the entrepreneurship club. At that point in time, I also started and founded. Now it's one of the largest organization club in the NIT Trichy is running now. It's called. Leap LEAP for environmental awareness and protection. At that point in time, I started talking about the impact of climate change and what do we need to do, protect our environment, et cetera. And we had a very successful, folks planting trees and everything, around environment care. So from the journey from there, I moved to us to do my MBA and then I started working in IT industry, with IBM and Pricewaterhouse and, transforming HR and payroll systems. During that journey, president Obama was running for his first election and, I happened to meet him at one of the event in San Francisco. And, it was a fundraising event and, it was wonderful, meeting President Obama and something, connected between us and I got further involved. The more often he visited San Francisco, I would meet him and raise money for him. And gradually, a friend of mine had pulled me into this fundraising. so once I went through this, and learning about it. And that friend today is ambassador of, United States, who's one of the countries. so gradually I got involved with president, Obama got elected and he was serving in the White House. I would visit the White House. I. On one, on another occasion, help. And then I came in close contact with the then Vice President Joe Biden, and started working with him on the free community college initiatives and many other things, which Vice President Biden and the second Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, were leading at that point in time and working through this, we came to the transition of, 20. Where, Hillary Clinton was running for the office and I was her co-chair for the Asian American, finance and as well as, helping on the grassroots and we did everything we could. We lost the election. And, at that point in time, that was like pretty a huge loss because we put invested so much in fight against Trump and we lost the election at that point in time. I took almost, four, five months of break and went to India. I. Visited my college and school and met friends and things and to get out of that loss. And that kind of fell feeling of depression. and gradually we came back and we said, okay, fine. We'll work again. We saw the chaos and the hate and division, which, was brought in by the Trump administration in the country, and we said, we'll, work hard and we'll work hard again. At that point time I met, vice president Biden in his, in personal capacities and at different events. And I said, you need to run and, whenever, and we want you to be our next president. He said he is not planning to run, but whenever he plans to run, he will let me know. And then, it came 2019 and April, he announced that he's running for the, presidency. At that point time I met vice president Biden in his, in personal capacities and at different events. And I said, you need to run and whenever, and we want you to be our next president. He said he is not planning to run, but whenever he plans to run, he will let me know. And then, it came 2019 and April he announced that he's running for the presidency.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:And I joined him from day one. There were almost I think 10 or 11 candidates from Democratic side, including Pul and Congressman. So many other candidates, who were running and Vice President Kamala Harris and people were divided in their opinion about the who the candidate would be. I told all my community and my friends and saying that Biden is going to be the next president and get aligned. And so I was knocking doors in Iowa in minus 20 degrees. Ate being from California and going to Iowa was pretty tough. But it was a good experience. We lost Iowa for, by then we lost new he. And I think we were second in Nevada and people are pretty much given hope on our campaign. And Bernie Sanders and everybody were thinking that, he is going to be the guy. But in the core of the hurt, I believe that President, vice President Biden then is going to win the election. So it came South Carolina. And president Biden and President Obama and everybody did the magic behind the scenes, and we won South Carolina and everybody else dropped out of the race, and Biden was the nominee. And in fact, today, while we are interviewing today, is the South Carolina primary election happening today. Almost three years back, we were doing the primary for 2020 for Democrat, four years back. And there is again the same thing happening out there. But this was, is just more of a symbolic thing I meant today because not many no challenges out there. Yeah. So by then became the nominee and then it was a different story. And we knew that the mistakes we learned from the mistakes in 2016 where we had knew that the importance of turning out the votes in the battleground state of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada Wisconsin we lost Wisconsin for, to Hillary. So we said we have to work hard to get those states. And one of the thing was the South Asian votes or, there are thousands of South Asian living in those states, and I wanted to turn out every South Asian to come, every Indian American to come and vote. How do we excite them? So which started some innovative way of doing the campaign. Picked up some most peppy ollywood numbers and asked my, some of my Ollywood singer friends to convert those songs into up by Saka, something like that, and convert them into numbers and, with the videos where people are talking in 20 different languages saying vote for Biden, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, GU Ali, et cetera, et cetera. So that turned out to the community loved it. For the first time ever, they were seeing that it US presidential election reach campaign, reaching out to them in their own languages. I. And we converted the campaign material and campaign phone banking into 20 languages. We would pick up the list and based on the judgment of the caller, the phone the volunteer, they would say, okay, this guy looks like Gujarati will use the Gujarati script. Or this looks like Tamil will call them, make sure someone in Tamil calls them. And that connected the people very well. Because music, food culture connects us and brings, binds us. And that's what we saw. And it was a good hit. And we had a large turnout of South Asian votes. And the rest is the history. President Biden was elected as in Vice Ka was elected as the first wo vice president of Indian origin. And yeah.
Track 1:So that is excellent. In fact, I remember those those campaigns myself and they were they were going virally everywhere. In fact, even in our WhatsApp groups within, because every Indian community has a WhatsApp group, right? You'll have an Atlanta Indian community, and those videos were all over, right? Everybody was sharing those videos and it was fun. And also it it made us realize that, okay, hey, we are being noticed and we, our culture is also being celebrated. So that was an excellent, but I wanted to ask you what was president Biden's reactions when he saw those Bollywood style campaign videos? Because I don't think that has ever been done before. So what was his particular reaction when he saw it?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Yeah, this was the first time we did it and actually I did not have a chance. To share the video with President Biden himself. It was no. But the campaign team loved it. And the campaign team go excited. We did tell him, I did tell him about doing in multiple languages and he was so happy and excited about it. And so yes, this was a thing and it was also more important that we took the issues which were important to the community and talked about those as so I did, we did a event on. 14th or 15th of August in 2000 20 before the election. And where we had secretary Blinken national Security Advisor, Jack Sullivan and many other senior cabinet secretaries who were now in the most senior post come to that event and meet our community. And we did talk about that when President Biden becomes the, gets elected. He will hard work hard on the ending, the green card backlog. He will work hard on H1B visa issues and protecting the temples and our places of worship and many other for economic development for South Asian, for small businesses and things, and and language access, converting federal, websites into multiple languages, et cetera. So those were some of the key issues which I learned from our community. What is important to them. And actually they did the President Biden vice president and everybody else talked about what is important to the community. And the committee liked it, as you said, they're being heard, their voices are being heard, and they are felt that they're important and they're part of the camp mainstream US campaign because typically our community. While we are leaving here, working here, making money here, everything. But our heart is in India or on our home countries whether it's Nepal or other South Asian countries. And we are connected to the mainstream politics over there. Then over here, but this 2020, we saw people actually getting involved talking about how we are going to win Wisconsin, how we are going to win Michigan, Pennsylvania spectrum.
Track 1:That is excellent, sir. And you stepped into US politics, right? And you were also instrumental in bringing about so much of change. What would you say to the younger generation, why should they also consider active politics? What is it? What is possible, right? So because you've came here you became an active member of the political arena, and you brought about this change. Why do you think you were able to do it? And what would you recommend as an advice for the next generation? Why should they also come and join?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Yeah, it's thank you for bringing the question. It's important that, the country we are living in, the country, which we are calling home now, and the. Impact us. If we don't participate, we'll be silent and the policies will be implemented without our participation and some of the policies may, impact us in a much bigger way. Let's talk about one of the controversial Bill. Which was presented in California SB 4 0 3 for cost issues, and that I saw for the first time that our community participated very actively, people who have nothing to do with politics. They came out on the street protesting against the bill, that the bill was, The bill was not needed, and the bill was representing the Indian community in a wrong way. So that grassroots participation of people raising their voices and bringing impact, bringing, requiring to change the policies of the government. Is something what we should be striving for at every stage, whether it's the school district where we want to make sure that the school books are correctly representing our values and traditions, or the change. We want to see how the school district should work to empower our kids for mental health and other things, what our kids need. Or whether it's a city council where you are making sure that your city has all the resources you need or. For, you have the small businesses, so there are much different stages. People can participate. They don't have to be a full-time, political as a source, as employee or employment. Or you can be working somewhere in tech or journalism or as a medical doctor or nurse, but you could still be taking part in the political process and making sure your voice is heard and your opinions are heard, and you. Fighting for the things, what matters to you, whether it's for the reproductive rights or whether it's for healthcare, or whether it's for mental health or for small businesses or immigration issues. There are so many things. You decide whether climate change and then you fight for it, and it's important you take that step. Work on the city councils, work on the commissions in your county district or at the state level. And many people now I see every other month someone running for Congress. I see the last name Patel running for Congress. I see the last name, with the. Whether it's so Indian people running for congress, young gen generation all over the country, it's a pride. We started in the Congress with I think one member of Congress and now we have five member of Congress who are Indian origin. And I'm hoping to see more and more people joining. President Biden has appointed the highest number of. People from the Indian adminis, Indian origin, and there are almost like 250 people in his administration at one of the, some of the highest levels.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Mr. Bhutoria actually feels great and very inspiring to speak to somebody like you because I've never been speaking and never spoke to somebody, so I placed in, very closely placed to such big leaders of the world. And we also, read about that you are a technology person, you are a technical person, and plus you do this a lot of political activism. You are involved in community service, so you know, and you have also gone from India and made a career in the US and done the way, usual people do. How did you get the time to do all this? All the things parallel. It's a very big question actually, because a lot of people are busy earning just, morning till evening, daily bread. So how did you get the time to, and become. I also become so successful at it.
Track 1:And Raul, just to add to that question, sorry, Mr. Jain, just one more thing. There's one other thing that you have not noticed. He's also a very active family man. So I've seen a lot of his videos with the family. He's mixed, so he is balancing work. Community politics and family all together. So we really wanna know, do you have a magic wand? How do you find time?
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:in India, in India what happens is generally people who are in politics, you know they have from political families, so they leave everything and get into politics and then they are doing all the politics. But here you are simultaneously doing multiple things. So that is a big thing. How are.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:In very simple three words. Purpose, passion, and strong support of my wife. So those things help me make, do what I'm doing purpose in the sense that I realized that like everybody else, I came to this country and my son. Get tired of listening to this story when I tell him I came to this country with two suitcases. Literally. I came to a Los Angeles airport from India with two suitcases and and then built this journey out here. But the initial part of that journey was that. You have to earn money and make money and support family back in India and make for yourself. But somewhere during that journey I realized that, hey, this is good. And if I continue doing this good I will continue to grow. But there was something that. I was not feeling satisfied with that. This is not the purpose of my life to make money and do this. What is, there's a history of bigger purpose. And I often look at the universe and ask, what is my purpose here? And so I saw a lot of homeless people on the streets of San Francisco and nearby areas. And I said, what can I do little to make their lives better? I can't, I don't have the resources to completely remove the homelessness. So I started back, like almost 14 years back serving meals to them every Sunday. First I started with 20 people. I took meals hot meals for 20 people. Then the lines grew up there was, there were like 50 people next Saturday, and then like now we are serving 300 to 300 pe 50 people. I personally go, whenever I'm in the town and I talk to them and I try. Work job for them if they're young and able. But the biggest thing is that they're not just hungry for food. They're also hungry for love and connection and that's what makes them happy when I talk to them. And it also makes me happy. So the happiness, I discovered that creating happiness for self and creating happiness for others through service. Is the real happiness. So in that path, I said, fine. I need, I want to serve the community in many ways. Starting serving the community with the seniors, elders, organizing events for kids and youth. And while doing that, I. Automatically led to fighting for issues which were important for the community, and then getting into the Democratic party and continuing doing this, and now doing with what I'm doing currently now. And the best part was that you follow your passion. You will always find more and more time with everything else you're doing. You'll always be able to fit it if you enjoy doing it. Your heart is there. Your soul is there. And on top of that, it's my support of my beautiful wife Vinita, who lets me do it and take care of the house I and other responsibilities. So
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:That's a very big support.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:yeah, it's absolutely, I cannot do anything without her support. She would let me go. Yeah, you have to fly to DC today to the go there. You'll go I'll I'll manage here. Don't worry about it. Yeah.
Track 1:Yeah. I think on behalf of the entire community, we would like to thank Mrs. Vinita, Jainn for giving you all this support and and love. And sir, you work so closely with these iconic politicians, the US Presidents and every day you have these conversations with them and these are leaders of the world and
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Right.
Track 1:what. Insights and lessons that you've brought back from them that you would love to share with people who aspire to be future leaders. If you ask my son, he's six years old, and his school teacher asked him what do you wanna be when you grow up? So he says, I wanna be the US president. And I said, and his teacher was very pleased with that. And she said, that's a very noble aspiration. But when I talk to him, what is it that I can share with him that this is the thought process of a leader, right? And this is also something that you should learn and and develop as a skill. So what would be those skills and maybe the values that you were, you found common across these people.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I think some of the values which I would say is that be authentic who you are. Be genuine. And be proud. Be proud of your own heritage. That if I'm a Jane, I'm a vegetarian and who I am, I'm proud of it. And that's who I am in every situation with, in front of every leader. I don't pretend to be anyone else or try to pretend to be someone else. So being genuine, being authentic, being who you are. And then of course trust, respect, responsibility in all relationships and being able to, curious to learn and being able to navigate through situations and being persistence in trying to get things done. Because a lot of times, these things are, takes a lot of effort and working through the administrative processes and things takes a lot of effort to be. Persistent and and keep doing what you believe in. And the biggest underlining thought behind every action should be the greatest good for greatest number of people in greatest areas of their life. Doing good for others. If you are in a public life you are not for self. You are for helping others who and being the voice of people of the community, being the voice of the people of. The people around you. People have put trust in you. So keep that trust and think about what is the best you can do for them and how can you represent them and fight for people. Yes.
Track 1:Thank you, sir. I think you mentioned persistence and the greater good. So that takes me to my next question, which was about the policy that you proposed for the H1B holders in us, and, a lot of people I know who are in the middle of that green card backlog and you're persistently fighting for their rights. I wanted to understand, you are not in the backlog yourself, right? So this is not fight, this is not a fight for you. So what is motivating you for that fight? How does it affect you as a person and, what brought you to that, and if you can also touch a little bit about what was the change that you introduced so that for listeners who are not aware of what was the policy that you had proposed and where we are with it today.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Sure. So like every other immigrant, I came here on a student visa and I also finally moved to an working visa, which H1B Visa went through the green card process and became a US citizen. I. So I went through the whole immigration process and I went through several of painful scenarios, which typical people go through this immigration process. When I came to this country on a student visa, we just got married in India, me and my wife, and after my marriage, I came here and I. Sent documents for her to come on the dependent F two Visa, which that time used to be to come here and the US consulate in Mumbai. And Chennai rejected it, saying I don't have enough funds to support her, even though I thought I have enough funds. So then I borrowed some more money and I put in my account and sent her the statement, everything, and they rejected a second time, which means that now after two rejections, she cannot apply for two years. We just got married and I have still almost eight 18 months to complete my, or 16 months to complete my masters. That was a difficult situation I was put in. And without understanding the whole process and the process of separation from your family members and your wife and thing. So I remember those moments and what I went through and how I got through those. And then while working on waiting for my green card and everything I went, I've gone through everything, what people are going through, so I know, understand the suffering people have. Are going through right now. I can empathize with them because I have gone through that and I feel that if this process can be fixed, that so that nobody else has to go through the same po pain and suffering. This will be a great service to people. And a great service to every my immigrant not just from India, from any other country. And inspired me that, if I'm in a position where I can raise the issues which are important to the community at least and work towards bringing the change. That will be the biggest thing. So I have been consistently bringing up these issues. Now, what I can talk about is. What the some of the work which has been done by the White House Commission and the commission has done a lot of work around this immigration issues. And those are public thing, whether it's getting a State Department just announced just this week or last week that they've started the H1B Visa stamping. Domestic renewal tell you the story that I met so many people in the community. They would've come and tell, Hey, my H1B visa stamping is expiring and my father is in ICU, but I cannot go to India. If I go there, I'll get stuck. I or I don't have Visa appointment. And these were like painful stories that, hey. We have given people opportunity to come and work in us, and, but we, they shouldn't be able to work with dignity where being able to travel back and forth to their home country and see their parents who are in ICU without any problem. So this and there was no need for someone to go back to their home country to do a stamping, stamping should be done here as a straightforward thing. I. So I'm glad that state Department has started it. And this is a pilot program, but this eventually pilot goes successful. It'll be a, thing in the US so that will benefit over a million people. And similarly, when last year there were big layoffs and people were terminated and they only had 30 days to leave the country to find a new job or leave the country. Today, most of the Silicon Valley goes through five rounds of interviews and five rounds of interviews takes either four to five weeks to make a decision. And by that time, you can don't have 30 days to, transfer each one or so. 30 days is not a reasonable time to find a new job in that market situation. So the recommendation was that could we to change it to 180 days? So that people are went up time and they can be. And the other big need has been that people have been in green card backlog for almost 15 years, 10 years. So employment authorization card is issued only after you file 4 85. And then, so the request is that issue, employment authorization card when I one 40 is filed and five years of green card backlog. Once you get that, you can work for any employer, you can transfer jobs and it is almost like getting a green card. Your life becomes much easier. Kids aging out, kids issue will be resolved. So all these issues I think are in the process of being worked on. And then some of them have been we are seeing the policy change and many are being process worked on,
Track 1:congratulations, sir for your persistent effort. And I would also say the empathy that you have towards all these people, I'll tell you I was, when I read that I was really I will say relieved to see that 30 days is being proposed to 180 days. And I'll tell you, because there was somebody that I knew. Who had to sell their house. And there was a, they had to go through a panic sale and which also led to. Losses for them. And of course people not being able to visit family in times of need. We are all aware of those scenarios too, right? I would like to congratulate again on behalf of the whole Indian community that is stuck in this green card backlog. Thank you for your persistence and continued effort to make their lives serve.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Thank President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and the VIP team and the VP leadership Kai. Those are the people who have, helped get these things done.
Track 1:Of course, and thank you to them too. Yes, thank you.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Mr. Bhutoria, when we reached out to you for this interview, You were very gracious to, give us this time without even, actually properly knowing who we are and where we belong to. Of course, we had given our introduction, you are a busy man, and so what are the values that, bring this humility? You gave us a straightaway appointment to, do an interview. There are some values I can, I'm based in new der so I can understand if I, I. Forget somebody speaking to Mr. Modi. Even if somebody is, three levels down, if I ask them for an appointment, they will act very pricey in India. Very pricey. Not even pick up my phone perhaps, ever.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I dunno. Spoke to Amit for the first time. I get a lot of requests for interviews and I, most of the time I don't do, you will not see my many interviews on the internet or I mostly I go on, talk on, as the, and Republic Barat and India Indian TV channels about some of the current admin issues pertaining to the, and time, what we are in. But when Amit told me that he is doing, starting something for the first time he wants to do, bring, connect to the community and bring. Take this message from different people and what their journey is to the community. So I said, here you are beginning a new beginning and putting an effort, and if I could be of help in making you successful, I'll feel good about it. And, so that's why I agreed to do.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Thank you so much. Thank you. so much for that. Yeah.
Track 1:Great. Mr. Jain you're also a celebrated author, right? I've seen your books on Amazon. And two different genres also. So one book is called the Hundred Life Management Tools for a Happy Life. And then there's another, which is the HR management with the SAP. So I'll speak about the the tools for Happy Life. I was curious about that. I'm not from the SAP industry, so I may not ask the right question, but Happy Life everybody wants, right? So can you share, a small summary of what the reader can expect from that book and how do you really tap that emotional intelligence because you mentioned about the emotional intelligence that can help you create happiness. I was very curious about what you mean by that and what can I expect from that book.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Absolutely. We have one life to live. And we all go through ups and downs in our journey of life and through our struggle and moment of success and happiness and moment of challenges and difficulties, and how we respond and react to those moments is important. And how do we adapt to all those challenges and navigate through and what gives us happiness and what is the meaning of happiness to us may not be the same meaning to different people. Everybody assigned the meaning of happiness. Something. What happens is that when a child is in a school, they say that, okay, fine, if I go to college, I'll be very happy. And if I go to find a girlfriend in college, I'll be very happy. And then find a job out of the college. I'll be happy. And then after the job, I'll buy my first house, my first car. I'll be happy. And by the time you, I'll get married, I'll be happy. And so on and on. We keep postponing. The that to be happy to future thing. That if I get this, if I get that, if I do this, if I travel, I'll be happy. If I travel to Switzerland, I'll be happy. And then person reaches Switzerland, see all the scenarios still, I. He is not feeling happy. So the moment to be happy is now living in the present moment. The per and the, and it's a little nursery poem. The time to be happy is now the place to be happy is now, something like that. So it talks about, and also in our, one of the important thing is that to have good relationships in harmony. With everyone, with your family members, with yourself, with your family member in the community, in the out in the organizations you work with the mankind, with the animals, with the environment and everybody. So how do you do establish that? That does through understanding and through open. Communication and using trust as a factor. And on top of that, you add of all the other ingredients, which are gratefulness, which are using power of empathy, being able to understand others' position, compassion, and so many other things. So I talk about these different elements in the book. There are like 25 chapters in each chapter. You can pick up from anywhere and read about it. And you talk about, one last thing I talk in the last chapter is the, which is also using the emotional intelligence, is the use of emotional tone scale. We'll find that everybody in life is a different emotional tone scale. Somebody is very angry. They talk in anger. Somebody is very depressed, and they talk in, I lost my kid. I don't know what to do. And somebody's in fear, somebody's in hate, and somebody's very cheerful. So how do we communicate with people who are in different tone scale and still bring them to develop an understanding and relationship? And how do we handle people who are in anger and how do we bring them to cheerfulness versus how do we always remain in cheerfulness and enthusiasm? Budha sitting under the bohi tree. Was it calm and sere? How do we remain in that state of beingness? And that is what I talk about. Yeah.
Track 1:That is beautiful.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:deep.
Track 1:Yes. In fact we are gonna add a link to your book in the description of this video. So we would encourage our listeners to also go check it out and and build their own emotional intelligence. So thank you for that.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Thank you.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Mr. Bhutoria, given your unique perspective, how do you see India today? Today's India, and what are the most important changes you have noticed in today's India? As compared to the time when you lived there.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Today's India is going to be, one of the most powerful country in the world. Today's India is very confident. Today's India is one of the fastest developing country and fastest growing economy which could be the third largest economy in the few years, in earlier days. During the, when I was in India, pri Prime Minister ing if he was invited to the White House for a meeting. That was moment of pride at that point in time when we used to watch in today's India, I was there at the White House welcoming Prime Minister Modi with 5,000 other Indian Americans. And with with everybody chanting of course Modi. But they also chanting one day maam and things that was today's India, the power of India on the world stage as world leader, where US and India are equal partners. They're just not they're equal partners working in collaboration. US India relationship is one of the most consequential relationship. As described by President Biden where to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region and also on all the world stage. Today's India has the infrastructure, which is one of the most developed infrastructure where the roads are as good as roads in us. India has some of the best, the train system and the bullet trains. And I met the railway minister of India. He was here few. Months back and I told him, Hey, could you do a the this he was talking about the, the fast rail system in India. I said, could you build that in San Francisco to Los Angeles or San Francisco to Chicago, that we can travel faster. So the world is looking at India and celebration of the. Ram Temple last week. It also defined that finally people are able to realize and about their own culture and stand for it and do what is right while being the secure country. So I'm very proud of what India has achieved in this many years recently, and very proud to see India being a world leader on the world stage.
Track 1:Now I think, you've spoken so much about so many deep topics and leadership and community and everything that inspires you. And you also mentioned about your conversations with Indian leaders. In fact, I see right behind you there is a, there's a picture of you and prime Minister Modi. What was what was your conversation about and how is he as a person when you met him? What was the most important thing that you took away from that meeting?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I have met Prime Minister Modi 1 0 1, I think four times now, and for the first time I met him in New York. Was it 2016 or 17? I don't remember exactly. There was a big event and we were invited to meet Prime Minister Modi Ji. There were a room full of 600 leaders on the front. It was sitting Ji and Raj and everybody else, and then we were there and I happened to be. The last table and I say, Hey, I have to wait, till the 600 people go on the stage to wait. But they did the, they invited the last table to be the first on the stage.
Track 1:Oh.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:So I happened the first guy walking to greet Modi Ji in that event, and I greeted him and shook hand and introduced my and just told my who, my name, Aja. And I thought there are a lot of people waiting behind me, so I should walk fast. He is such important person and I should not take much time.
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (3):He hold my hand. If you look at that picture, and he said Ku,
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:look at that leader who is the world's most influential leader, and he is asking me to give me my ura. And so then I introduced myself and I told what I do and thing, and so recently I met him in, and in state dinner at hosted by president Biden and vice President Harris. And there were so during that meeting I met him again and we talked about, and he asked, what are you working on?
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (3):And I told him recently about the H1B Visa stamping and things. He said, India is very proud of you and whenever you come to Delhi, come and meet me. and I said, Modi, I started laughing,
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:he said, no, I mean it. And he. Same thing. Ji was sitting on my table there and we had a good conversation and when we talked about visa and thing,
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (3):he said, Ajay what you have done is amazing because when Anil and I came to this country on H 1 we had a lot of issues. I said, you came to this country on H1B He said, yeah, I was working at United Nations and Anil Ambani was working somewhere else, and we came to this country.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:So what you have done, you'll get huge blessings. Look at that, the, they interact with and make you feel like close and without you interact with, so like you are meeting as a friend. So
Track 1:That is one thing I did not know, and I'm sure a lot of people don't know this, that both the Ambani brothers were here on an H1B Visa,
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:That was big surprise to me. And after that we had a long conversation and but yeah, that was interesting.
Track 1:Excellent. So MMukesh Bhaiand Anil Bhai, if you're watching this you're definitely an inspiration for us and for every H1B holder, right? I think once you become an entrepreneur, that is also possible, right? So you can also achieve those heights. So that is again, eh. I think this is more inspiring now. That this is also possible. This is the American dream in one way. That we are all here for,
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:oh, I'm in silicon. Full of people who have come here on H1B and started such so many big companies and so many successful companies and then done job creators and hired thousands of people, is a So we are full of people surrounded with that success stories and they're hardworking stories. We have never gave up,, and continue to try work hard on it.
Track 1:Excellent. So we'll move to some really good fun topics. Hopefully you like these questions. And you'll also share some witty answers with us. I'll start with the first one. We know you have had dinner with most of the leaders that are there today, right? But if you could go back in time and have dinner with one historical figure who would that be?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Who would that be? Mahatma Gandhi. And I would talk to him about keeping the two countries together.
Track 1:Nice.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Oh, that's a.
Track 1:That is very powerful. Yes. And sir you mentioned that you came to the US with two suitcases, right? And today I look at you.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I don't.
Track 1:I can now visualize that. Okay. But let's say if there was a movie that was being made on your life, who would you want to be the lead actor and play your role?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Would be the leader.
Ajay Jain Bhutoria (2):You know this guy the, I'm forgetting his name right now, the movie who did the 12th film?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:The, what is his name? He would be a great actor to portray because the 12th fail. I literally cried after watching that movie. It shows that after you're going through so much struggle. The, when you see success, how you feel about it. And I was able to relate to certain areas of moments of my life when going through this journey. I had to go through certain struggles and I say, Hey, you keep doing and keep continuing in what you believe in, and then you will see success no matter what I'm.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:And what is that one book that you would like everyone to read?
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I when I was going through some tough times, I read one book called Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do by Robert Schuller. It was very inspiring to me. It said that the height of mountains cannot increase, but the. What your inner power can increase to overcome the difficulties and challenges you have. So that and reading that book always inspired me to continue and saying that you can always break the mountains of difficulties through you and force through them, and that you have the inner force within yourself. There's abundance of power within ourself. The power of soul is so strong that we can get through any difficulty, challenges and overcome and. And it spread love, evidence of love in this world, and that is something I would recommend that book.
Track 1:That is great.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:What is it? One song that uplifts your mood?
Track 1:Ah
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Shahrukh Khan.
Track 1:sha
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:Yeah.
Track 1:And which song can get you to the dance floor quickest.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:There any music with do in it,
Track 1:Okay.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:any music with the Dhol in that's who can get us.
Track 1:I've seen your video where you've actually brought in those dole guys and
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Exactly when we brought that and we had a big celebration and that video was all over in, all over the media and, that was a moment of joy. Like the, after the 12th fell thing. You worked so hard on the campaign and finally warn, so people really came and celebrated and there was a really good jOy.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:And that's how Indians celebrate actually,
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:yeah, absolutely. That's what
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:from within.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Anything we do with do, and we'll upload the music, get on the dance floor,
Track 1:So when it comes to celebration, food is also an important part of Indian culture and celebrate. Which is your favorite Dalma or do Chira because you were raised in Assam, or let's say the tacos.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:My wife is one of the best cook in the world, chef. She can cook from all different cuisines. And being a Mardi, definitely we like hot and spicy food. So right from all the items we've mentioned are very very much dear. Depending on the different events or if it's Diwali, then we are definitely cooking specifics, which are traditionally Marva family and if you're celebrating something else, so yeah.
Track 1:That's great.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:I still have stayed true to my gen traditions and roots. So yeah,
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:say your favorite Bollywood movie.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:my favorite Bollywood movie has to be Am movie, whether it's Agni Path or Hum. And but recently there has been many movies, inspiring movies, but still, Agni Path is one of the. I remember a lot from.
rahul-mehra_2_02-04-2024_033926:The moving very closely. From the same era they came at around same times. Yeah.
Track 1:Excellent, sir. I think this is wonderful. We really enjoyed speaking with you. any last message that you would send out to the Indian community? What would be that message that you would want the entire Indian community around the world to hear from you? I.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Dare to dream big. There's no limit. You one should put on their dreams and and then work hard and to achieve those. And then do the greatest good for greatest number of people in the greatest areas of their life. For every people or everybody around one should think how, what good can I do for him? Or how can I make someone's lives better around me or around my community? Or what positive change can I bring in this community? We always try to do charity back in India. But let's find to do charity in your local communities. There are a lot of homeless people. There are a lot of people who are struggling to go to college or schools and they need help. So let's do local charity and work in the local committee, uplifting the local communities
Track 1:Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Mr. Jain, on behalf of all our listeners and thank you for grazing the Indian Community Podcast with your presence your journey and everything that we heard today. I think I'm deeply enriched understanding you. And I'm truly inspired and I'm sure all our listeners are gonna be, extremely inspired too. Your dedication to community service and the impact that you're bringing through your political engagements. I think that is the true spirit of being Indian and and being a true leader, right? So I'm really grateful for the time and the wisdom that you've shared with us today. So thank you so much, sir.
ajay-bhutoria_1_02-03-2024_142548:Thank you, Amit. Thank you Raul for having me on the show and I'm grateful for you to be having me on the show. Thank you.
Um, uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Um, uh,