( Please read Mami also as Aunt, aunty, Bhabhiji, Didi or Behenji as the case may be depending on which region/culture you are from. For standardisation I will use Mami)
Yesterday, many of you laughed. Some of you nodded. A few confessed you had seen this movie at home. So let me continue.
Because if ESG consultants ever want a field visit, they should skip boardrooms and go straight to Indian kitchens.
Let us talk sustainability.
Before plastic bans, before climate pledges, before “net zero” targets, Indian Mamis were already practising controlled plastic usage. Every plastic container had a destiny:
One for sugar, One for salt , One for chilli powder, One mysterious container whose lid never fit anything but was still kept, just in case
Plastic was not “single-use”. It was multi-generation. If a container cracked, it did not retire. It was repurposed.
From kitchen → bathroom
From bathroom → balcony
From balcony → plant pot
From plant pot → temporary screw-holder
End of life?
Never heard of her.
Now let us come to human resource optimisation.
Indian Mamis mastered workforce planning long before HR manuals.
Children studied while vegetables were cut
Pressure cooker whistle doubled as meeting reminder
Homework supervision happened alongside sambhar stirring
Multitasking was not a skill.
It was survival.
Even time management was ESG-aligned. No energy wasted. No idle hands.
If someone was “doing nothing”, Mami would immediately allocate them a role.
“Since you are free, go get coriander.”
Organisations spend crores on productivity tools. Mami needed only one sentence.
Now let us revisit finance and accounting.
Indian Mami accounting did not need Excel. It lived entirely in her head.
She knew how much rice would last,
How long the gas cylinder would survive,
Which week expenses would spike,
Which festival required advance provisioning,
Cash flow forecasting?
She did it with ladles and lunch boxes.
Audits? Just try misreporting expenses. You would be caught before reconciliation. And let us not forget risk management.
Indian Mamis planned for:
Sudden guests
Unexpected school holidays
Price rise of onions
Medical emergencies
Power cuts
Rain during clothes drying
Black swan events?
Handled calmly, with extra rasam with a lavish sprinkling of pepper powder.
For Indian Mamis, Black Swans were routine:
Ten unexpected guests at 8 pm
Gas cylinder finishing exactly when guests arrive
Power cut during pressure cooker peak whistle moment
School suddenly declaring holiday at 7 am
Vegetable prices doubling overnight
Milk packet not arriving on a critical morning
Did Mami panic?
Never.
She would:
Add water to sambhar
Stretch chapatis
Reallocate rice
Switch menus
Smile and serve
“For organisations, Black Swan events are crises.
For Indian Mamis, they are just another Tuesday.”
That is real crisis leadership.
This is why Indian households are resilient.
Because ESG was not a report. It was a habit.
Leadership was not a title. It was responsibility.
And sustainability was not a slogan. It was common sense.
So while corporates debate ESG frameworks, Indian Mamis quietly continue running:
Circular economies
Zero-waste models
Resilient systems
And emotionally intelligent leadership ecosystems.
All from behind the gas stove.
Final truth?
Great leaders do not talk about sustainability.
They live it.
And long before FM, IMF, SIP and ESG dashboards…
India had Mami.