legacy, eh!

Back after a two week hiatus. It was family time with Jasmine, Jispa and me going to Kumaon. Every year vacation planning becomes very difficult. Where to go, what is the climate, how do we reach, what do we do etc… we wanted to go to Rajasthan for some time and visit Udaipur and Jaipur but somehow the plan never went anywhere. You can go there in July but we realized that if the monsoon is delayed then you could get temperatures of around 40 degrees. Whew.. so we suddenly made a u turn on the plan the finalized this plan within an hour one night and proceeded to make the bookings. So it was us visiting Pangot, Jilling and Naukuchiatal in Kumaon.of all things I missed was – updating my blog. I thought of so much to write. Now I almost feel like buying those pocket PC and fitting the dam thing with a data card. I have this kida to start writing. I would like to write on my blog, write a children’s book, write some travelogues, but sitting here and doing it from Mumbai is almost as impossibility. I would need to get away somewhere and figure.
Once I read an article on people taking up writing. One of the guys was quoted as thus – whenever I say to anyone that I am writing something, they ask me when I am going to publish it. Its like asking someone who likes playing basketball, when are you playing for the NBA. I found that quote quite inspirational. Writing for me is so personal. I write because I want to. I really don’t care who reads it. I would be most happy if my daughter would one day read it. She is probably my one and only target audience. That reminds me that I have to proof check my travelogue. Wonder why I haven’t yet found motivation to do it. Well there is precedence – I never did get around to checking my papers while writing exams and I assume I would not change anytime in the future.
Yesterday was summer solstice. Nothing about it but I had taught Jispa what it was and she had fun experiencing it. she realized it was a loooong day and it wasn’t dark till quite late. It was also a perfect date for her to shed (?) her fourth tooth. Fairy came in again and wrote some message for her. Fairy needs to get a bit creative though I believe the back pain stopped her from thinking too much.

While there is a lot I have to write about the trip – I hope to be writing about it one at a time. Whenever I go out vacationing or anywhere else, I experience new things, new stuff, I come back smarter. I learn from varied sources. It helps me lead a richer fuller life. All this comes back to me in my job. I can think of different elements that could help me do my job better. It is very important to have varied interests and be as exposed as possible. A simple interest in wildlife helped me design some collateral once. Using the right animals helped the design. Example knowing that Indian gharial is different from the average crocodile as in it has special mutations that have helped it survive by catching fish in the rivers, was used in one collateral. Some service example somewhere would have helped something else. When I was in consulting they realized this. They allowed for this. Brand strategy inspiration can come from varied sources. But companies rarely recognize this. They like to straightjacket their work, their thinking and their ideas. That’s why you get shitty slipshod work. People are trained not to get ideas, inspiration and references. One thing I hope is that Jispa leads a richer life and gets her inspirations from a billion sources. One friend of mine got it right when she saw the book collection. Her hubby was wondering what I am going to do with my book collection.
She realized that all I am doing was building a legacy.