off the offsites

Another offsite. I am so tired of offsites. Tomorrow we are going to Lonavala. My company has grown and I have been a part of that growth story through sheer luck. So I think from a younger age itself, I have been going to offsites as a part of senior or middle management.

Offsites are the worst thing in the world and there is a reason I have never taken my team out for one. We sit in offsites and discuss the future of the company and other rubbish. I have never seen a productive offsite in my life, where we sit and actually ideate on a concrete idea that needs to be implemented and the stuff gets done. Never. Neither do we have offsites where we actually do serious team building games and activities.

My idea of an ideal offsite is a freaking picnic. I would love to take my team to picnic spots and play team building games all day long. Just keep playing tons of fun games. Those offsites I remember and they help in building real bonds and camaraderie. Not these, where we sit inside a five-star hotel banquet area for six or seven hours or even ten hours and don’t see anything around. Yes I have sat for ten hours in closed rooms, discussing god knows what. I really don’t understand why the company needs to take us 100 miles or more away to get us to sit inside a banquet room. It’s easier in office itself.

Thanks to offsites and conferences, I must have been to Goa, at least 20 plus times, without even once really enjoying the place. We could have been in any part of the world but of course I think bosses love thinking that we took the entire large team to GOA! There is a perverse joy in spending good money behind bad conversations.

Bleh. So now what. Nothing. I hitched a ride with my boss to take me there. And his boss is also coming in the same car. So that’s also good company for a great office and lovely start to the day! My boss is actually a nice guy but it fun to bitch about bosses, no matter how nice they are.

Typically, I get so bored in these meetings that I think the boredom is palpable on my face. In fact, I daresay, contempt is visible on my face. I use every opportunity to get out of the room and go somewhere else and do some work elsewhere. Any work. Earlier I used to be the young marketing guy in charge of the offsite, so it made sense for me to leave the room to look busy. I would go and sit outside and do nothing and come back.

Alas now that I am senior enough I can’t do that as well. What a bore. I will have to sit and get involved. Typically, I sit bored till I get all riled up or instigated or something and then  speak my mind which would likely to be controversial or conversation ending. Till some joker again refuses to listen and starts the fighting all over again. ARRGGG – I hate these discussions.

I can’t understand why you need more than three four people to decide strategy. A few decide then take buy in and then relentlessly execute. If I ever become CEO – I would ban all off sites. Total utter wastage. Waste of time, money and holidays. I will be so loved … but then not so… I really think a lot of my colleagues love these offsites. The fake bonhomie, the daaru, the dancing… the painstakingly made bad slides, horrible strategy… I think there are enough amongst us. Enough.

shit changes you

Over the weekend I went through two types of life changing events. Ok – too much drama. But they were experiences that would allow me to think through on issue sthat could potential change my thinking for a long time to come.

I took a few of my colleagues to design yatra. I am sure I would have blogged about this crazy amazing conference in the past. This is a place where I am a pretender in a place full of crazy designers and artists, I am a stand out stupid guy. I have no talents in this and I hope at best to at least appreciate the fact that there is beauty in what people do and value in art for art sake in whatever we do.

I am in the middle of being wooed by multiple people to join them. And I am thinking, should I leave, should I join something new, should I build on something I already have. Money is important but only so much. After a point its not about money but a chance to create something new and beautiful. Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that marketing is a wasted field. What the world needs for now is product supremacy. It’s the product that needs to succeed. Product necessarily flow from great design. In our finance world where we don’t sell anything real or tangible (money is such an abstract concept). We need a serious reason for people to love our product. This is where design comes into place.

I have been thinking that wherever I go, as a next jump or wherever, whenever I am able to create my own little ecosystem, it will definitely be a place where I would want to build my team, have freedom to work, interact, get in amazing talent; fire idiots dragging the system and build a good place to work. If take up one more job at one more place, I would be building more of the same shit. New place, same shit, just a little more money. I want a lot more money but a chance to build something of real value.

Where I go they would want me to start asap, start showing results immideiately, and get cracking. Reality – it would take me a year to understand the product / problem and build a team that would then begin to start delivering. Then it would take me another year before we actually start to show results. Everyone wants an overnight sensation, not knowing how long it took to build it. Most overnight sensations are ten years in the making. Ten years.

So the design festival helped me realize and reinforce in my head my ideas of how great companies are actually built. By building great products that people want in the end. Today most of the big success stories that we see, and what most miss is that the products that were delivered were finger licking good. When they diverge from great design, shit creeps in and then all hell breaks loose. It’s funny that my company, group wide, has a marketing review, business reviews etc but no real product review. No really good well designed, lickable product customer interfaces and reviews. My super boss understands money but I am sure, he doesn’t understand what is meant by good looking and great interface products. The question for me is where do I build this expertise as decide my future course of action.

Cut to Mumbai. I fly in from Goa early morning to attend an AGM for Matunga Gymkhana. It was public lynching at its best. We haven’t learnt from history that democracy can give rise to the worst of dictators. Hitler was a democratically elected despot.  In an AGM the person who can shout the loudest and incite crowds can sway the opinion. In a democracy there is the tyranny of the majority which can be used to suppress a saner but quieter opinion. That is exactly what happened. Logic and anything be damned. Louder voices ruled.

I was wondering what happened. I was quiet throughout, unlike my natural self. I only spoke once and I thought I made sense and I spoke for the greater good. People understood and the stupid conversation and fighting stopped on that one point. But then the asst. secretary opened his mouth, once again and then all hell broke loose. Every time he opened his mouth the meeting would extend by another 40 minutes.

But today after good introspection, I realized that even silence has a role. If I had opened my mouth and be drawn into these issues I wouldn’t have been able to see this game. I wouldn’t have been able to see how the few manipulate the large. It is a well thought of strategy relying on rhetoric and oratory. It is mind numbing how the majority are swayed by this. I too have been guilty of this in the past. I have been swayed without the understanding of consequences.

Real life is difficult, complicated and not without consequences. Most of which are unintended. The process of democracy is slow and painful and we must protect it at all costs.

I wanted to resign, I drafted the mail and sent it to my friend. I haven’t yet sent it to the gymkhana. But I think… should I or should I not be the lone voice of sanity and be there and grind it out or should I get out and focus on new things. The learnings are tremendous but I have to hold in my natural instincts and reign in initial response. I would need to be measured and studied. That is the right way to play the game. Let me think.

Who knew that a weekend in variety would prove to be enough food for thought, my friend.

Stay relevant . fight

Reinventing yourself is so bloody important. Reinventing relationships are important. Reinventing your passions and your reasons to be are important. Nothing is constant as you grow older. Everything changes, the relationships and their interplay change over a period of time.

We need to keep evolving on everything and this can sometimes, many times cause stress. When Indians go abroad many a time they can be accused of being in a time capsule. They notions of India and Indianess is define by the time they left shores. They have been unable to move from their last notion of India.

Similarly, every time I wake, I start from where I left off yesterday. Parenting Jispa for one. It’s a question of constantly reinventing oneself. By merely having by birth the right to be a father is the stupidest thing that one can want. You have to earn it every day. This Saturday I was teaching about margins to my kids in college. What is margin and what constitutes margin. It is not as easy subject to grasp. People will constantly make the mistake of missing one component for another. When you look at the supply chain you will realize that margin compensates the component of the supply chain in line with its role, risk and reward. I was thinking in my head that while a lot of kids got it wrong, I would assume that a lot of these concepts Jispa would intuitively get right. Jispa probably doesn’t know what kind of dad she has. She probably underestimates the breadth of experience and wisdom I bring to the table.

These days while studying etc, she doesn’t need/ take my help. So yesterday I was talking to her while we were watching the swim races in the stands. We were waiting for her races. It was too much fun. This is the interschool races for the international schools. It was a national event. This gave Jispa a chance to directly enter the all school nationals through a much easier route. International schools are few and far in between in the country and most of them have very small classroom strengths and total over all student strengths. You can’t expect too much competition with these numbers. So while we were watching the races, I was enjoying the rank amateurs swimming in the nationals.

In in one race you will see national level medalists swimming alongside swimmers who haven’t ever been in 50-meter pool in their life, let alone swan at a stretch for than 20 meters. You can make out by the way they stand at the stand and their body structures. Young fit six pack athletes in their advanced costumes standing next to podgy fatted kids wearing their summer swimming costumes. I was dissing them for 10 minutes, in a very stand up way and laughing with Jispa at these kids. Yes, I was being very mean and very unfatherly. But these kids had no reason to be in this national competition.

I was also explaining to Jispa that once upon a time, I too was like this as a kid. I went for a swimming competition and almost drowned in the process. I had no business going for a race. Sometimes, we just force these kids into participation for a certificate that we participated at a national level race. But hell.

This is not the point of this story. What is the point of this blog? It is something totally different. Jispa and I were talking and we spoke about how till 7^th grade I was still largely involved in teaching her stuff. She said that now dad, you can’t even help me with anything on studies nah. I am way too advanced for you. AH… nopes kid. I am still a smart guy. I can help you with some of your studies. English and psychology for sure. and the mental aspect of sports science. Anything you do in the technical side, I am not that good. Bio, math etc – you are way ahead but in English and other similar stuff, I am still relevant and awesome. She was like – no you don’t know things like juxtaposition and stuff. We do analysis of vogue covers and stuff and you are not good for that. I had to tell her, not forcefully of course that I can still help you, but its your call.

Sunday evening at home she comes to me and shows me the explanation of the Vogue covers. She has to analyze them. She and her friend wrote a very superficial analysis of the covers. I explained to them that this was bad shit. I helped her understand core values of Vogue. Then who are on the cover – what is the intended effect of the celebs. What are the personality traits that the celebs lend onto the cover and the articles / themes of the cover? I explained how the Venn diagram of the vogue and the celeb intersection is what the cover is about. I basically took her analysis to a whole new level altogether.

At the end of this – I then told her – I am still relevant in your life kid. I am still relevant.

I have to fight every day. Struggle for being relevant in people’s lives. If you take your role for granted, then you are doomed. Fight every day and stay relevant. Else get consigned to the sides. Same for office, spouse, father, friendship, mentor – whatever shit you do. Stay relevant and keep changing.

please peace, inner piss

Yesterday I had a nice conversation with a friend. It wasn’t exactly pleasant but it was very interesting or me. I have the gift of talking and spouting gyan. Earlier I used to think that I was reasonably intelligent and I would likely have the solution to all of mankind’s woes. As I grew older and alas, wiser, I realized that no such shit exists. No one has answer to anyone’s woes.

I have written about this – there a beautiful book that I read “if you meet the Buddha on the road, shoot him”. Fundamentally answers lie within you. Inside of you. And mostly it futile trying to tell answers to anyone. through the book I learnt one clear thing – people come to you to talk / for advise / for love / for understanding. You can’t give any, if you really care about the person. You can only tell about your stories in life and about the issues you faced and the principals you learnt in your life and the questions you asked of the world and of yourself.

Yesterday was a n hour long conversation. It was the most beautiful conversation in that sense. I realized that I had grown up and alas (yes, I know its repeated) wiser. The whole conversation, I simply explained various situations in which I dealt with shit and how I dealt with situations and the experiences I got while growing up. The choices I made and the nebulous nature of life that I understood. Not once did I give an answer or a direction.

My friend was able to decipher for herself the meaning of what she was asking for me. I may give an answer, and maybe by sheer power of nature, it might be the best / right answer; but the real answer is always the one in which you arrive at yourself. You can ask for multiple suggestions, advice and experience but it will not count till you arrive at it through your thinking process. There is always a time for an answer to get inside your brain. I always tell Jispa – of course listen to me but more importantly – don’t listen to me. Learn on your own. Listen to me only to replay what I said later on in your life when you might realize its truth. For now, just store in your head. Appreciate the experience that I bring but then quickly discard it for your action. Then replay and hold the consequences against what I said – and decide what was right.

At the end of the conversation – I told – I sound like a guru nah? Not because I am right but because 60% of what I say, it is likely that you will forget. You will remember 40% of which half will turn out right. That is a total of 20%. Now that id worse than tossing coin for advice. The remaining 20% will never be fructified as you will likely be dead in the hope of seeing it come true. You will say – that this is true but I have just not experienced it yet. This is the true math of a guru. Say enough obscure far reaching sounding,  profound clouded, shitshat. 20% true, 20% waiting to be true and 60% forgotten. Say to a larger base and everyone will find their 20% and soon amongst the audience as a collective all 100% will be true – just broken up in each guy for their own 20%. Did you get the math?

But not the gurus are bad. You got your 20% right? And you felt you got your 100% also. So what gives… give the guru some dakshina, love him to death, put him on a pedestal and voila – you have found inner peace through randomization.

Inner peace is not that difficult to achieve. I also wonder what the purpose of life is. I guess there is no purpose really. So play board games and enjoy. Which I why I have been buying board games and playing them. I want more GAMES MORE GAMES. I have bought quite a few and I have a huge wish list on Amazon – I keep adding. I get some crazy joy in board games. Sit one whole day and play games after games, till the end and sleep. We were born on this planet to play games.

Life became far more bearable and the Machiavellism of the players became such a joy to watch, as long as you think of it as a game. Everyone has their reasons. They don’t align to yours. They never will. Align yours to yourself in harmony with the world and dingalangaling – inner peace!

Such an elusive concept. Also called in good ol’ colloquial hindi – bhaad mein jaaye. Or ‘go to to hell’. Simple.

the young will inherit the earth

Today was a nice morning. Jispa had a shorter workout. Typically I pick her up from her workout and drop her off near my office, which is half the way home. She then takes a rick back home. Today we had some time to kill. I asked her if she wanted to have coffee with me in the morning.

It was a nice coffee date at Starbucks. We spoke on a lot of things. She first got to see my office. Her reaction ‘it looks so much like a … like a BANK!’. Yes. It is a… a bank office you know. But I get it. She doesn’t mean it like a compliment. Our reception and office and everything is so traditional with all the cubicles and the reception area holds a bank branch with red being a dominant theme. It is very bank like and it is a total put off for a young kid. I remember the bank office when I was a kid. Large cubicles and counters behind which bank personnel were sitting. Very imposing and intimidating. Bank designs have improved over the years. But this comment by Jispa is very insightful.

The reception area is recently designed but it also shows how much out of touch we are with the rest of the young world. Our office space is also designed for old people and not a young crowd. Innovation cannot happen by an old person or by young people conforming to older standards. We must change and welcome new ideas, new thinking and new systems into our lives. That is the only way to change and continue to be relevant.

After coffee I was explaining to her, that as a father, my big dilemma is exactly this. How do I put blind faith on youth. I told her – remember Jispa. If you want to be wildly successful, mark my words. DON’T LISTEN to older people, and don’t listen to your parents. Older people advice will ensure survival, but to grow big and break everything you have to learn not to listen to us. So while you are with us, listen, you have no choice. But once you do become 18 and you don’t live with us, DON’T LISTEN TO US.

Curiously she was defending older people. She was saying that isn’t it that older people know more and wont they be right. I spoke to her about my office experience. Older people are often wrong and they work at preservation. When I worked at a startup for 2 years I learnt that the startup thinks very differently as a means to do things. They think very differently from older matured organizations and that one of the reasons why they have achieved scale at a rapid scale. Some the best guys in the VC business have understood this. It’s their job to trust the young kids and give them money and get out of the way.

Young kids don’t need older people in the company. I told her that in the startup I think I sucked at it. I think my role should have been only limited to advisory, not really working on systems and day to day work. That is best left to younger kids with energy and drive. I also told her that parents are the worst at giving career advice. We just don’t know what new things are out there. My mom would been so proud of me if I had given some banking exams and become a branch manager at a government owned bank. What did she know about careers?

I told Jispa that there years ago I did not know what my job would be. It has changed. The rapid scale at which change is happening, every three years jobs and industries are changing. Old people don’t know anything. That’s the biggest dilemma we as parents have. Your mom is right most of the time. If you follow her instructions, you will survive for sure. But if survival is your goal then sure. but if you want to be crazy successful, or at least have a chance at being crazy successful, you have to break rules. That’s the dilemma I am in all the time.

I want you to not listen to me. She countered that won’t we get things wrong if we don’t listen o sound advice. Yes kid exactly. You will be wrong but that is the right thing to do. To be wrong and then learn from it is to be right. As a young kid your job is to wrong and wrong again. Keep being wrong to be right.

A ha… after a long time – opposites reconciling. I know when I am on a roll. I get the title of my blog into my writing.

But all in all it was a morning well spent with Jispa. The job of the young is to guide the old and not the other way around. Old must learn actively from the young. I loved understanding and talking with Jispa. She is 16 and she has so much to explain to me. Her training programs, the fun they have in school, the things kids do and the life from her perspective. It’s time to simply sit back and absorb a lot from her. Its really fun growing up with her.

train train

I want to take a train ride somewhere. I desperately want to take the train.

I love train journeys. I don’t know I have some interesting memories of them. As a kid we always went everywhere in trains. May brother and me loved the top berth and jumping in after climbing up. Over the years, I have seen the trains get dirty and the bathrooms become even dirtier. I don’t know if I am up to it too much these days, but the call of the train is coming back. I want to go somewhere in a train.

The stress of work is getting to me right now and I need to escape and wind down somewhere. I think a train journey gives you the perfect escape, the gentle rocking of the train, nothing to do but look out of the window and see the amazing Indian landscape just run by. At speed. I remember the trees at the distance. Zipping by. Then I would focus on the next tree coming into view only to see it zip by. Then the bridges over the small roads. Then the huts. And the people, the villagers in cycles, waiting for the train to go by before they cross over.

Even thinking about it makes me feel a little happier, a funny feeling comes over me. A feeling that I might have lost that little feeling of emptiness. Being happy with emptiness, not being stressed out and not being bothered with doing nothing. Just relaxing and forgetting work/ school/ friends etc, everything, anything. I want to go a train trip.

I like waiting for my turn to use the wash basin, and then stand by the door, leaning out and getting your face hit by the wind.

I have some crazy memories. One was when we were going forth and coming back from a youth music conference at Dehradun, with my friends and some other delegates. It was Mumbai to Dehradun in the middle of summer. And playing UNO all day on the way back.

Second one was – Going to Delhi from Agra with Jasmine on our honey moon. We met the rowdies who didn’t want us to put out the berth and let us sleep in a booked berth. Just because it was their daily routine. I think I would have gotten beaten up, if not for a fellow traveler who engaged them in a long conversation. Thanks, you nameless beautiful friend.

Third – My friend V-inu and I, going to Allahabad from Mumbai to attend the Ardh Kumbh festival. We were stuck together in an AC first class coupe for a day and a half with an air freshener that put out a hideously sweet perfume every 30 minutes.

Fourth – the many many trips I had going to Gujarat and back, with family. It was always something interesting when we got into the train in the evening and then have dinner of theplas, aloo sabzi, dahi and chundo.

Fifth – going to Kerala from Mumbai in the old route that took us from the heart of Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana), when in the evening you will see the landscape of large rocks and hard ground. In the morning you wake up and the train has somehow reversed its orientation and going in the opposite direction of what it was when you slept. And boom, you are in Kerala, green and dense and crazy beautiful.

Sixth – my train ride from Rajkot to Mumbai, where I got the ticket an hour before the train left in Tatkal. My cousin put me on it. As I slept in the side berth, I was woken up by some of the fellow passengers. My wallet had slipped from my back pocket and had fallen. I picked it up and thanked them. That train ride I wouldn’t forget because, I reached home to know that my dad passed away in the evening. No cell phone those days. Ya. It’s a bit of tough memory, that ride.

Seventh – I don’t know from where to where but I remember in a train as a child and my dad outside on the platform and I remember wanting dad to get back in, before he misses the train. Of course there was no chance of him missing it but still, that fear was there in me as a child. I must have been 5 or so.

Eight – train ride as a kid from Nerul to Matheran, in a toy train. Aww, come on. Who doesn’t remember those rides?

Ninth – recent one from Delhi, we took the train back just for Jispa to get a feel of the train. I remember sitting in the Rajdhani on the top side berth with her and explaining the US elections to her. It was a nice long conversation.

Tenth? Guess that yet to come.

Two / three train journeys I want to do now – To Bharatpur see bird sanctuary and back, to Delhi and see Red Fort and back, to Ahmedabad and Manek chowk eating and back. Let’s see.

Bonus feature. Song from Bunty and Bubli. I loved this song and loved listening to it with Jispa when she was little!

anger

Anger. It’s such a crazy emotion. It gets you nowhere. I have never my anger ever help me with anything or in any situation. Yet I let it flow. With my level of thinking and self-awareness, how do I let this happen to myself? How do I let anger get the better of me?

We Doshi’s supposedly are hard wired to be an angry type. We have a lot of anger issues. It’s a stupid bloody emotion. Where does it come from? I have often wondered. Small things can get us to flare up. When I was much younger, I remember dad trying to calm me down and tell me to remain cool. My brother and I used to fight a lot. We were two years apart and like chalk and cheese. I don’t think we have any core values or behavior overlapping in a Venn diagram. So it was chaos growing up. There were hardly any instances where he would have my back and would take my side.

One of the things I think he would get really irritated with me was my anger. When we used to play cricket on the streets, there were always lots of disputes. Football is an easier sport than cricket. You don’t need a referee in street football. You simply get rid of the basic hindrances, such as bad tackling and there, you play the game. It is impossible to play cricket without an umpire, though.

First of all, there is the LBW rule. This is a crazy rule which is totally in control of an umpire who must decide if the ball was going to hit the stumps if it had not hit your leg. Oh freak. This was so contentious that we simply got rid of it most of the times in street cricket.  Then the ability to effect a run out, taking a clean catch, or simply did the ball travel in line with the make believe wickets on top of the three stones we put.

Needless to add, fights and arguments were common in street cricket, as invariably the umpire was a highly biased person from the batting side. The funny bits would come if the umpire would be biased against his own side, giving a batsman out just so that he gets his batting earlier. This was the funniest ever. I learnt to get into fights and argue with the players, umpires and team mates. It was all par for the course. Keep arguing and fighting. Everyone did it. One would get might angry doing it. I think I stopped till one day my brother had enough of me. He pulled me one side and asked me “is there a trophy or cup for this game that you will get? Why are you arguing?” I remember that moment till this date. Why fight on these matters.

My brother and I fought on other matters that had significant importance. So significant that I don’t remember them at all. But we fought. Like cats and dogs. It would end bitterly, especially as I was the angry one and he was stronger. Dad would have to get involved numerous times. According to me, I had a sense of right and wrong. I would hate being wronged. Many a times Dad would calm me down.

I would hate that. I wanted justice not calming down. Today I see his wisdom.  Dad too had a temper that I know he spent a long time controlling. He also told me the same thing that I say today. Anger never helped anyone.

I hate myself these days. Really really do hate myself. I get angry and it hurts me. I can get angry at people in office doing stupid things and it can erupt. I can get angry at my family and it can erupt. But I try and bring it down and refuse to fight so many times. But I don’t know what effect it might have on me and my health. Is keeping it suppressed the right answer or reaching an impossible nirvana stage where one doesn’t get angry at all, the right answer.

Some of my friends wonder how calm I am. That makes me laugh. I am not calm at all. Over years I have learnt not to let so many things affect me. Most of the time it’s a simple question – is there a trophy in this for me? If not – no worries.

The problem is when there is a trophy. At home and at work. Work is easy. You have to perform or you risk getting out. At home – passions run deep. I think I am done with anger. Jispa and Jasmine do stupid things to get into each other’s hair and I get caught in the cross fire. I think I have a resolution to make here. At least I want to… Not to interfere or do anything that causes a dissonance with my own core values. This is just too much to bear. It’s like a millstone that weighs me down.

But this is the classical Keynes versus Hayek dilemma in economics. Should you interfere or should you let the free hand of the market work for you as over the long term equilibrium will be found. The problem is of time. Equilibrium is good for greater good as a society, as a life of a society is measured in centuries. Our selfish lives are much shorter.

My dad died at age 58, I am 44. What should I live for? It’s a fun question. Jispa is 17. We have her for two years more. Just 2. Then she goes. What do we do with her now? I am of the view that we must now cut her bindings that tie her home. It is now her thing what she wants to do or not. Why should we keep her chained to us? My job now is limited to trying to get a few thigs that sound to both and to pay for her basic studies. What else? I don’t want to interfere in her swimming, sport, studies and what not.

I am coming to the conclusion that it does not matter to me now. I cannot influence it and more importantly, I shouldn’t. When I was 17 I did not need any parental overhang. Why do I give it now? This is serious. It potentially will create more conflict in the short run but I think Hayek may prevail in the long. Things will settle down to an equilibrium. An equilibrium that is sustainable and happy to all, or at least ‘least unhappy’ to all.

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I seem to be writing very morose and depressed things these days. Arrgh. I don’t like this side of me. It can’t sustain for long. Not in my head. Let’s talk on some positive things.

Jispa managed to push us to get her enrolled for the Otter’s Club swim program. The coach is an Indian swim champion who just retired. So he is young and hip. Plus he seems to be having modern techniques. That makes it great for Jispa. She also swims with good swimmers and champions. That’s great company for her. Jispa really pushed for 6 months for this. I am glad it happened for her.

I am not sure if it will make her a great swimmer but I am sure it was help her become a good coach. I think she has in it to become a brilliant coach. She has a skillset for it.

Next – I love board games. Finally in my life, I have the money to buy them, a house big enough to play them and time to get friends over who enjoy them. I love board games. It is the one joy in my life that right now with a non-working knee, I enjoy. So we are playing games, like Guillotine, Catan, Secret Hitler etc. I am enjoying it like crazy. I want to get every opportunity to get friends over and play all night long. I want to buy more games. I want a cupboard full of them.

I love coffee but I cant have too much. I get caffeine addiction. So bought myself decaf! Awesomeness knows no bounds.

 bonus video from an amazing movie - inside out. its brilliant and based on what we understand of the human brain.

fun

Ah well. The hospitalization was not as dramatic as I would have (not) liked it to be.

I like my attitude in life. So far I must have faced tons of shit in life. Most of the time, I look at the stuff that happened in the past and not be bitter about it. Some of my bosses were extremely horrible and I thought that was ok. They taught me a lot. Some of the incidents I have had in life have been quite tough but at the end, after a few years, I have been thankful for it. They made me stronger.

When I was about to be admitted to the hospital, I was quite sure I wanted to do all the stuff myself. I was determined to be independent. I did not want Jasmine of Jispa to fret over anything and I did not want o inconvenience anyone. I wanted to be a cheerful and happy patient. I was sure about it. Hospitalization is a very different experience and the only way to enjoy it is to think of it as a learning experience, much like a department store or going to Ikea. You look around you, you make mental notes, you think about how you feel and you enjoy, even if you don’t want to buy anything.

 I enjoyed the hospitalization in the same way. It was a new retail environment for me. I got admitted, filled in the paperwork across the three counters, changed into hospital clothes and was happily hanging around and talking to the doctors and nurses. It was pretty good going.

When I was being wheeled in to the operation theatre Jasmine and me were joking around and smiling. We were in high spirits. I was telling jasmine that’s its great thing that we got to experience the hospital, the operation theatre and other scary things on a minor knee surgery. It’s not a mission critical procedure. This was a voluntary surgery that we had to ensure I can lay sports. The risk of this surgery is very low. So the first, possibly intimidating experience was so easy to take in.

I was happy speaking to the nurses, doctors, staff and everyone around. That was quite a nice experience. I was telling jispa that I was very happy with my attitude. I saw this potentially scary and irritating experience as a learning ground and I kept my spirits and happiness around me high! That’s important. This ability to see adversity into an advantage or a learning experience while smiling is so important.

I hope that when my time comes and that I might be close to dying, I should still be able to smile, laugh and enjoy the experience. I want to think about my last few minutes and wonder – nice experience. I want to look at myself and say – good man, you didn’t stop learning at all. Of course it’s going to be emotional and tough to know you are terminal. But I still want to be awesome and fun at that. That’s my goal.

I wonder what may be the best way to go? A terminal illness and knowing it’s going to happen or a sudden situation like my dad. Sometimes I feel a finite time would also be interesting. I read two books written by people knowing that they were on their final journey.  One was When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanithi and another by the legendary Hans Rosling – Factfulness. Both were interesting reads. Paul’s book was amongst the best books I would have read in a long long time. His prose was brilliant and his description of his experience was mind blowing.  Possibly it kindled a bit of a thought in me. Possibly that now at 43, I am closer to death than I am to birth, has sparked these thoughts in me.

But I wonder.

Coming back to happiness. Yesterday I took Jasmine to Starbucks at BKC. BKC has three. Two of them I frequent. In both the places, the baristas know me very well. They greet me, talk to me and make me my awesome coffees. So when I reached there early with Jasmine, they greeted me warmly and asked me how I am and that it was a long time since they saw me. They give better service and they smile at me and talk. I even got a free extra shot of coffee to make the horrible one (Tahitian vanilla macchiato) taste better. Jasmine was wondering.

Next day, Jasmine was telling Jispa – do you know, dad is known to all the baristas at Starbucks and they greet him like a long lost friend. He has his girlfriends everywhere. Hah. No. It’s not just about frequenting the place, it’s not just about having girlfriends. It’s about knowing the people who serve you. It’s about speaking to them by calling out their name. It’s thanking them, smiling and being nice to them. This is how people know you, you get warmth and you spread warmth. There is a joy in that. I make it a point to make my coffee in a certain way, then I sip it in front of them and tell them, [name] it’s awesome, I love the coffee you made.

Such simple joys. I enjoy these little micro interactions with people where we chat/ talk/ smile move on. This is how we make friends in places that acknowledge us and are happy when we come back. This is the way to spread happiness all around.

I did that in the hospital as well. Spoke to the doctors, nurses, ward boys, everyone. Smiled, laughed, understood back story etc. This makes life so much fun!

death becomes him

Feb 2019 was the first month in so many years that there was no blogpost from my side. Sometimes I wonder what it is to write a post. Is it just a habit or is it that I have something to say that just now dies.

I used to have a lot to say at one point of time. Something inside of me just isn’t there in the blog anymore. I guess it reflects in the posts as well. I think now that Jispa is old enough to talk to I don’t need to write too much about it. That also is one thing. The other thing is that for now Jispa is not even interested in reading my blog. Possibly I realise the folly of writing so much for so many years. No one reads the blog.

I had made it hidden a few years ago because it started getting traction on search and people would search for me online and I did not want them to see this blog. So obviously there is no traffic. Writing is a lonely thing to do and writing a blog that no one is going to read is an even lonelier thing to do. Any performer needs an audience to really bring out the best in them. Without an audience it becomes quite a chore to do.

This is now called a dead end. How to write a blog that you want people to read but don’t really want all to read. I guess the best creative outlet for this is to retire this personal blog and to write a public blog under an anonymous name and allow it to get as much traction that it wants. Keep everything hidden from public eye and let people find it just for its writing and nothing else. Or write a blog where my name is exposed but keep everything else very sanitized. That won’t help too much. Well, we will figure. For now, this is the blog that you get. Err… who are you? Whom am I writing for?

I think now I writing for someone in the future who might read this blog. I think secretly I want someone to read this blog sometime in the future and find it interesting enough to give meaning to them. Possibly a much older Jispa or possibly my grandkids or possibly after I die this gives some serious meaning to someone.

The world I pretty funny. The value of something a person says normally goes up after one dies. Everything is in demand when there is a finite supply. When one is alive the supply seems infinite. We are unable to come to terms with our own mortality I think. That way being in a family where we have enough heart patients is pretty cool. The only thing you live with is mortality. Everyone is going to pop it sooner than the neighbor. So you live joking about it. Now on my mind there are other issues.

I have lived healthier than what my father would have lived. I eat vegan, I exercise and have a good resting heart rate. Still cholesterol seems to be a bit on the higher side. Blame it one genetics. But I still think this will result in me outliving my dad. This is going to cause a bit of a pickle in my life. I have not imagined living old. I don’t have a retirement plan in mind! What will I do when I retire? All my life I assumed that I am going to be dead by then. I don’t know if old age is going to be a boon or a bane. Hopefully I will continue to find work to do or my wife will definitely go insane.

While we are talking about death, let me tell you why death came to my mind. A few years ago a colleague of mine was admitted to hospital for a routine surgery. Something went wrong in the anesthesia and tragically he never woke up. Now as endings go, I find that the most scary ending ever. I don’t want to go like that. I don’t want to sleep thinking this is routine shit and not even know that I am dying. Of course, possibly the knowledge of imminent death through a disease like cancer is possibly even more traumatic but still. This to my mind is one of the worst ways to go. Possibly next to drowning or something like that.

So this is on my head now as I am scheduled for a knee surgery on this Monday. I am never afraid of hospitals and procedures but this incident, man, its playing on my mind. I have a ligament tear and they are going to reconstruct the damn thing in 40 minutes. I think this is very cool. I am loving going under the scalpel. But how do I overcome my fear of being knocked out for the surgery.

I know, I will overcome that as well. The last time I was totally stressed and I felt my heart beat was in 1996 (I think) when I had to meet my future in-laws for the first time. That was a tough one. I overcame that. This one is going to be easier. Believe me, nothing is scarier that meeting your in laws for the first time in order to ask their daughters hand.

So there. This is the real reason for the blog. To talk to myself and feel nice about it. I am feeling much better already. I know it’s an unreal fear and it’s something I will overcome. But talking to myself about it and writing about it makes it in many ways more manageable.

Introspection is one the best or possibly the only way for one to improve. I could either go to the Himalayas (we Indians know only one place) and meditate or write a blog every day. Writing is a special kind of ritual. You are forced to write what you think and keep it recorded for history. If you look at it like this you will doubly careful about the crap you write. This alone will make you introspect about the thoughts in your head and you should then ask yourself, will you be proud of them?

But I also appreciate that this won’t work everywhere on everyone. Otherwise we wouldn’t have so much vitriol on twitter. It’s amazing how crazy we are. I think we were always crazy but the media in the good old days was still run by the elite educated liberal secularists. Now everyone with a mobile has a voice and a chance to be counted upon within the relative obscurity of their lives.

But still it’s crazy to see twitter in action. Additionally these days because the right winger have gotten a louder voice which shuts off the liberals. I can only imagine how easy was it for Nazi Germany to get into power wreak havoc on the world. Right now for brief period we had the country being fanned by the right wing to be ready for war. It was so freaking easy!

History must be taught in a different manner in school. History is all about learning and debate and we make it all about features and dates. But that is something for another post another date.

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bonus Song

we love laugh stories

This Saturday I had a whale of a time. It was my lecture after a long time and I went mad. Literally crazy. It was a 90 minute lecture in which I think I taught for not more than 10 minutes. The rest of the time I was just making the kids laugh. That’s it.

I think somewhere in life I figured that I am a standup comic with a flair for comic timing. I can go on and on and keep cracking jokes on everything. In this lecture I just kept cracking jokes and making the students laugh like crazy. Even while teaching them something I was simply making them laugh.

It was so much fun. I know I getting them to really enjoy when the laughter erupts in loud noises and people start clapping at the jokes. The energy is so high that they don’t know what to do and clapping starts. When you hear that you know you have the audience and then you can teach anything.

I like to keep things simple and teach less. Teaching less is teaching more. A key few simple principals well told is my new motto. Teach less, laugh more and enjoy the lecture.

Yesterday I was called for some stupid rewards and recognition program in office. I went mad there as well. Someday I am going to get into trouble for all this. It was a division in which we were doing decently well and the kids were all the high achievers. I just refused to make any sense. I started of cracking jokes and I ended up cracking jokes. In the middle I insulted every department there was including my own and tore everyone to pieces. The crowd was in splits. They started clapping at the jokes and had a whale of a time.

This self-deprecating humor is the best one. You can say the truth without really offending anyone. And everyone enjoys. I think that’s the way it should all happen. Laugh your way through everything. I wish I would be able to give my own standup act in my own funeral meeting. Laugh at my own death and life. That would be something nah?

I find most comics too boring. Laughter is awesome when the situation is real and fun at the same time. I take real emotions and real incidents and make people laugh. My jokes are spontaneous and not rehearsed. That’s what I like about my own jokes and speech. Then of course as the occasion demands it, I intersperse with real intelligent comments and bring the seriousness back on the table. I actually taught the kids something on both the occasions and what I taught was significant.

To my students of case studies I taught them that by themselves case study is useless and with no ability to help them. But if you see it as a story and enjoy the story telling then you figure that it’s more fun and from there it’s up to you to take what you can from it rather than force a moral down your head. In office, I explained how significant their job is within the firm and within the finance industry.

When you try and teach, one thing I have learnt is that there is no such thing such as teaching something. It is up to the person receiving to figure what they want to learn from it. You can push anything down in anyone’s mind. Teaching is a process of drip irrigation at best. Keep putting small small things into people’s mind and see how they take root. A lot like inception.

Inception as a kick ass crazy movie. The key point is that to put an idea in someone’s brain is very difficult. You have put it in a way that they believe it theirs and once it takes root it is impossible to eradicate. How do I put an idea into a person’s mind in way that it is his? It cannot be by brute force. It has to be by smaller drips. The mind has to be fertile enough to bear fruit as well. The seed must be dropped but the fruit must be that of the recipient.

What a subtle art this thing is. It requires immense amount of patience and a willingness to let go of the fruit.

Recently with a startup that was seeking my advice, I simply asked them to reorient their brains on some basic parameters on how they look at business and boom – sales soared. Just a realignment of objective and the way you look at them. Simple. I hope the seed dropped in his head and now it’s up to him to see the growth the way he deems fit.

See movies are like this. Stories are like this. You take a story and see what you want to learn from it. That is the best way to learn. Not by teaching. Moral science class, no matter how stupid they were, I think they were effective explaining the principals by stories. Same is religion and the myths and the epics. Story telling can give context and richness to behavior. Stories.

simple life

20 years of being married. This Saturday. But it’s already been 28 years of knowing each other. So it’s a difficult milestone to celebrate. And for a couple that is highly practical parents of a young child, it no big deal. Where do we celebrate? Should we go somewhere?

This is similar to the question that I ask my self – what is Jispa’s life untested by faith. Just because we haven’t taught her to pray, I wonder what will happen in adversity. Who will she look to for help? Will it better or worse for her? Similarly – Jasmine and I have been a practical couple. We have known each other for 28 years and I guess since the last 20 years we haven’t really given each other gifts for anniversaries and birthdays. We figured that both our lives are fairly intertwined. We have equal and joint control and visibility on our bank accounts. We know how much money is there or not. We know exactly what the other wants and we buy what we want. It’s not like we hold to expensive things. If it something we want and we will use, we buy. There is no real gifting opportunity.

If it’s impractical to buy it then we don’t buy it. It might be expensive or will not be used or whatever, then we don’t buy it and we don’t bother about it. Hence we can’t buy each other anything. I know she feels and I know I feel that we should gift each other something from time to time but whenever we think about it we look at each other and go… nahhh!

We have even told each other that we would NOT appreciate a surprise party. DON’T EVER DO IT! We have warned each other about it. Probably we are too bored about celebrating it or too practical but definitely we would appreciate a surprise party. Forget surprise, we don’t even appreciate parties.

In the new house, for sure our socializing has gone up. Significantly. We can have larger groups of people coming over and enjoying together. We seem to like people coming home and we play games together. Which reminds me – I have to buy more games. Whenever I get an opportunity.

But in the new house we have stocked enough and we have structured our house in way that we cater to more people having fun. We have a well-stocked pantry cupboard next to the dining table which in turn in next to the windows, occupying the best place in the living room. Cause that is where we figured is the best place to cater to our friends. When we have friends over and we are playing games, no one moves from that place for hours. We practically spend the entire evening/ night or day sitting in just one place. The secondary fridge is also next to it making getting up only a matter of going to the loo.

That’s been our life. We like to keep things simple and practical. You don’t need too much to enjoy. You work hard, save enough, invest more. That’s it. I think we are too practical for anything. Too practical to enjoy gifting.

But I remember my tenth anniversary. We had an event the next day in Grand Hyatt. I want to remember the 20^th. What should I do? Let me see if Jasmine’s wants to book a restaurant for dinner. Let’s see. Just a quiet dinner at a nice simple place. That would be nice. Let’s see.

Watch out for that tree!

How do you stop and conquer stupidity? I think the answer is simple. You use your brains to think, consider the options and make your choice. Most of the time a simple well thought of course of action is a typical antidote to stupidity. Stupidity is typically brash, fast. Considered thought should normally be rational and trained and able to remove the elements of stupidity. Daniel Kahneman spoke of the two brains when he wrote about thinking fast and slow. He wasn’t necessarily talking stupid when he spoke of using the fast brain, but I think fast, untrained brains are normally stupider.

So I have an ACL tear in my right knee and my doctor wanted me to rest my left knee as he thinks that the tear will not be total in the left one. So that’s a lot of resting the knee and not doing stunts for sure. Over the week end we were in Ahmednagar in my brother’s bungalow, in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. The beautiful Indian Deccan plateau where there is nothingness for miles, hard brown lands and short thorny shrubs that have gotten used to the heard summers and the cold dry winters. More droughts than not bring a dusty dry climate to the area which contrasts with the flat lands with no hills in sight and a beautiful blue sky. Yes it is a romantic place. It particularly reminds me of the wide vast landscape that we see from the trains speeding through most of the Indian countryside.

It’s great for walks in the field and the vast open spaces for flying a kite. We did both. Sheer joy. I took my daughter and my nephew for both. While walking and talking and walking we came across a tree that looked perfect for climbing. I helped Jispa and my nephew up the tree and took photos. No way was I climbing that tree. My knees are completely gone. I dont have the leg nor the arm and shoulder strength to hoist myself up.

Trees always had a fascination for me. Every tree is nothing but an invitation to climb up, hang around and turn over hang again and swing. The branches extending and the odd rump allow for a magical unpredictable never ending experience. I love trees. I think I have pictures of me swinging form trees ever since I was five years old.

It was good fun to encourage the kids to climb. A little bit of hoisting and then you are free to jump up and climb higher and higher. The trick to having a great tree climb is to have the first branch close enough to terra firma. Then the rest is easy. Some trees with smoother barks have lesser insects and ants compared to others, which makes it an even more fun experience. This tree was perfectly nice and round and alluring. After hoisting the kids, I looked at the branch extending.

I looked at it and told myself no. Nopes. Not happening. I am not going to be able to reach it. Just out of reach on a ground sloping away. I am not strong enough and my knees would be in trouble. In fact I just told the kids that I may be able to climb up but how would I get down? It would impossible for me to land.

I took a few photos and looked around as they climbed from branch to branch. Standing under the tree I looked at them and wondered… isn’t that branch within grasp. No … how can it, you will land on your feet and you will get screwed. No, it will screw you. You wont even reach it and even if you will, how will you get off. And you will most likely reach it, try and grasp it and then fall bad. No jaimit not possible. But its right there, there… within your shot, at least try, Jump. You can do it. Yes you can. I looked at the branch and I clearly remember arguing to myself in the head and thinking clearly and then jumping.

I fell with my knee giving way and getting completely screwed. I was writhing in pain on the floor holding my left knee. It was bad.

When I reached back home Jasmine looked at me and asked what happened. When I explained to her, she was quite exasperated. How could you? I looked at her and told her. I don’t know how to stop this from happening again! It was a considered action. I knew the consequences. I knew the odds and I knew it was a stupid move and I thought through and I still did it. Yes. I don’t know now how to stop it from happening again. I don’t know what to do.

If you know where you erred and you know how you did it and you knew of it before you did it, then how do you stop it. Theoretically you know not to do it again but in such a case where is the guarantee. The guarantee is that you will do it again. You will have to train your mind to a stronger degree. To stop this stupidity. A much stronger degree.

pass

Have you ever died? In the recent past?

Jispa had her sea swimming nationals on Monday. A few weeks back the coach had announced on the group that the competition was there and that we could take part. Jispa has never taken part in a sea swim and we were surprised that she was interested. I called up the coach and asked if it doable. He said not to worry and he said he would organize a training session soon enough.

We took the kids along with the parents to a place off Alibaug. We took a boat a few kms into sea and got the kids to swim. There were two boats for safety. The kids jumped in and started to swim. These rae powerful swimmers. They could simply just start swimming. After some time I was tempted. I had packed my swim shorts just for this. I changed and told Jasmine that I too wanted to jump. She of course thought that I knew what I was up to and allowed me to jump. There was a kid along with me, Krish. Krish is a regular swimmer and for some reason he swam a little and then came back on boat. I told him that I will jump along with him and that we should try again. Seeing me, he agreed and we jumped in together. I think he waited for me to jump and then followed.

All it needed was a little encouragement from my side and the boy was all home at sea. I hadn’t carried my swim googles. Which are the most important thing was sea swimming as they protect from the burning salt getting into your eyes. I had borrowed Krish’s google which were way too tiny for me. I could barely see in them. As a result of which it was a painful swim and I just couldn’t get myself to put my head in the water and I started swimming with my head up.

Krish in the meanwhile was way ahead. He is a powerful swimmer. Jispa was way ahead and there were a couple of kids behind me. I knew one parent was swimming at the end and so was one coach. Soon I began to tire. Especially with my bad stroke. My shoulder tired off first with all the head up strokes. And then I saw the boat which was beside me, speeding ahead. I have two bad knees and kicking to stay afloat while standing is also a pain.

That was the end. I died. Or was sure to if I wasn’t smart enough to give up now. I waved frantically for the boat. Non one was there to see me. They were too focused on the kids. I saw a couple of good swimmers passing by and I simply shouted ‘help’. In an instant I realized one thing. If these swimmers pass me by, then I would be the last and I would surely drown. Surely. One swimmer came up and held me. He asked me “do you have cramps?”. I simply said yes. who was to explain that I hadn’t anything but fast depleting bravado inside. He held on and a few shouts later the boat turned around and came to pull me up.

So yes. I died. Some egocentric part of me. Some bravado in me and something else.

A near death experience (small & tiny) is important in life. At about 40. I think when you are younger, it’s just an adrenaline rush. When you get older you realise what it means to die. As a kid I once ran across the road to fall in front of a screeching car. I remember seeing the tyre close to me. I must have been in the 2^nd grade or something. The image of the tyre is still fresh in my head. When I went to dubai recently, I think I saw the place near where it happened as well. Or at least I thought it was there.

I remember my first realization of being scared to die. The first time I was startled and worried about death came to me in a funny way. I walking on the platform and a train came behind me silently and honked very close to me. Wow. That was scary. I have no clue why it was scary but it was. I remember being in college and thinking that this was the first time I was scared of dying. I reasoned that now with Jasmine by my side, I had something to cling onto life. It difficult to peep into your brains and understand more but all I remember is that, it was the first time I felt I knew what it was to be scared of death

I still wonder what it would be like to die. I wonder, what it would be to have a terminal disease. I wonder what it would be to be faced with sure and clear death. The next day after my stupid drowning attempt, I swam in the pool. It was a tough thing to do. I kept thinking about the incident at sea. Now also a week later, when I think about it, it’s a suffocating feeling. I don’t like it.

What it would be for the soldiers at war, constantly being bombarded with bullets flying off in all directions. When I played paintball once in a shootout competition, I realized that danger can come from all sides. It is stress full to be in such a situation when you have bullets coming at you. I think that’s why there is the brian wash of deep and crazy patriotism and huge stress on obedience, else why would anyone just go like crazy into war facing bullets and death.

Some amount of brain washing is completely necessary. That’s why we also have life after death and that God will call us and love us. Now that I am an atheist and completely agnostic towards the concept of a patriotic nation state, I wonder if I will be brave enough to die. Hahaha. Brave enough to die, is it? It should be read as “foolish enough to be brave enough to die”.

So that’s my little scrambled brain moment. If I die who will cry and for what? It easy to get too philosophical about death. As I stepped out of the pool, I kept thinking about my experience and how profoundly it might change me only to have another (very crucial) part of me, slap me hard and make me smile. You idiot.  Stupid people or protagonists in movies have death experiences that change them. I don’t think that just because I am dying or I faced death, I must change my life. I am smart enough to be healthy (habit wise), I am smart enough to know my choices and their consequences and I am what I am.

Being a dad is also a weird experience. When Jispa was taken in a boat to the middle of the sea for the competition, I was also completely confused. I did not know what to feel. It is a dangerous thing, the sea. Vast endless sea. I had a little feeling inside of me that I will lose her. What on earth am I allowing? But at the same time, I have to. If she doesn’t do it now and if I don’t encourage her now, then when? What yaar. Such a wild thing life is.

I was telling Jasmine, that once a year, I want to go alone and travel. All alone, but only for one day. Full stop. Then come back. I can’t handle more without family. Sometimes, Jasmine wants that as well but I guess she can stay for a few more days alone.

But yes, I seem to have become a little more philosophical for sure. I look at myself and smile. This too shall pass Jaimit. Soon you will be normal again. Yes the mind will settle down soon enough and be clear again. Time to let it pass.

One thing keeps coming to me again and again. My dad got his first heart attack at the age of 45. I am 43.

crowning glory

It always nice to be proven wrong. To have a change of heart or head. To hold a notion or long and then to have compelling evidence to change it. For long we never had cable at home. That was the big pound thing and looking at us a few friends of ours also followed suit and it did make for an enriching life. What is that cable can add to our life. It was a wonderful life with Jispa as she grew up withour cable.

In the new house, we bought a new TV but we still did not want cable. We just simply connected it to the internet and through Prime and Hotstar I thought we had it pretty much licked. I wasn’t so kicked about Netflix. I was not a TV series kind of guy. Why would I need Netflix. Then a friend came home and just logged me onto his plan. He had one extra login free. Ok fair.

For the last few months I simply watched a few movies on Netflix and I hated the experience. How many movie titles do you need to browse through to choose the one you like? Jasmine hated me for it. I tried one series in the House of cards, but I just couldn’t handle it for long. I get bored. And I hated series even more. Why would I invest 10s of hours when you can get story in 3 and be done with?

This went on till on a lark I just tried a series on Netflix called The Crown and I was hooked. It is a terrific series which perfectly sits with my sensibility. A well-produced drama based on history. It tries to get behind the story of the Queen of England.  Their approach is brilliant and in every episode they try and get behind the character and help you understand their issues, motivations, fears and pride. And since they have Churchill featured very prominently in the first ten episodes, I was completely hooked. It brought alive the character of the man after the war as an old and ageing politician fighting to stay with his glory of winning the world war. The dialogues are brilliant and Jispa and I keep clapping whenever he has his sharp wit at play.

Now I understand why people are hooked to series. One friend had told me – a series works as he found it a waste to invest time in a movie. A series the return is over a longer period. With The Crown, I would agree. Now I am invested in the characters and their inner travails. I will appreciate it much more over a period of time. And the fact that it makes for family viewing. We all are hooked. I am now right now binge watching the live episodes and I guess we will wait after we are done for the new episodes.

Of course the binge watching is not anywhere like what the millennials watch. At best we can take in about 4 to 5 episodes in a day. The millennials do the full series in one sitting, one night. It’s a killer. In any case whatever little I binge is also possible just because I have a banged up knee and I am forced to stay at home. My bloody bum is hurting from all the sitting I am doing. It is painful. But I am so looking forward to my surgery.

My hope is that once the surgery is done, I will be fully rehabilitated and I will be able to run a like a mad man again. I want to run fast and hard and I want to take part in an obstacle course or something like that. I know now I can be fit and fast. It’s crazy for me to be this way at 43 but I am loving it. I never knew that I could grow older and fitter. Wah wah.

But I like that at 43 I am learning new things as a person, as a binge watcher, as a sportsperson and as a human. Its lovely man!

kneed some more love

Jispa had an assignment in English on Elon Musk and his 120 hour work week. Ya. It’s a bit of a tough thing to keep a 120 hour work week going. I work five days a week and I think I can manage 60 hours. I come to work by around 815 after dropping Jispa and then I get back home after 9. I think I am overdoing this but, right now there is a magnitude of issues hitting and it would take at least 2 – 3 years to sort some of the issues.

2 – 3 years. Yes. One of the things that I have learnt over a period of time is that work in large organizations take time. I have seen this company since 18 years. The calls taken 18 years ago come to haunt us afterwards. It takes that long to unravel the mess caused. With large heads sitting everywhere, it’s a time consuming effort to unravel the whole thing. You also need to hire right, put the wheels in motion and then you start seeing the efforts. Patience.

But thing is about work life balance. Work life balance. I don’t know about it. When I go home I try not to work. On weekends, I try and largely succeed to stay off my laptop and work. I figure that I spend so much time in office that I don’t need more time to give it. I was speaking to Jasmine and I was explaining the sexy work that I was doing in office and how I was pushing a young kid to do it. Even on weekends. My belief that at 43, I wish I had a chance to push myself at 23. Life would have been different. Hence that’s why I have figured that it best to push the kids at work. I now have little or no regret to see them working on weekends or late at night.

Someone asked me if I was a workaholic. I don’t know. The definition is “a person who compulsively works excessively hard and long hours.”  I think the key word is compulsively. I work hard and long hours but I don’t do it compulsively. I am happy to not work. Right now we have to achieve much and do much and that’s why I work as hard as I do. It definitely not for the simple joy of working that I do it. I would much rather not work so hard. I would rather go home, watch a movie, run around, swim, and play badminton… whatever.

Coming to which. At the start of the month I had the good fortune of going to Israel on a work trip. It’s a lovely country and the people have shown what a resolute bunch of people with no shared national identity but a shared religion and a sense of a shared history of persecution can do. Jews around the world have come and set up their land and lived together creating a thriving country from nothing more than a desert. As every Israeli will tell you, they sleep with their one eye open. They are hated by their neighbors who would like to finish them off in an instance. It’s a global melting pot. Especially thanks to Jerusalem, which is the holy place for Jews, Christians and Muslims, all together in one crazy tight part of the city.

This character of making the most from less and the cut throat competition coming in from immigrants all over the world, make Israel a culture you can only learn from. They always want to make the most from the least. Their products are top class thanks to their legendary investments in technology and the fact that they don’t have enough people or resources forces them to design products that are simple to implement and self-serving. It’s difficult to explain in terms of tech but the simplest example of this is in irrigation. They are country who invented drip irrigation. A perfect example of irrigation technique that uses less water and people for the maximum impact.

I went running there, every morning. I travel very badly when I am without family. I sleep late, I laze in bed and just generally I am a grumpy guy. So I decided that with my new found passion for running, I should pack my running shoes and kit and go running there every day. We were staying next to the beach promenade and that would definitely be an added reason to go running every day. So I did go running religiously. It was great run. Beach side, water points along the way. Lots of open gyms. Everyone running there. It was awesome. I saw a lot of locals playing beach volleyball on the nets laid out for the people. It was the perfect recipe for disaster.

In the evening after a lovely swim in the Mediterranean Sea (bucket list tick) while passing the beach, I couldn’t help but notice some locals goofing around. We started playing with them. They were playing volleyball but like football volley ball.  The kid came out in me and the bucket list number 2 kicked in. We joined in and a few stunts later, I fell in pain. I have been taking care of my right knee for so many years. It keeps getting dislocated and I keep putting it back. This time around, while attempting, god know what, my right knee gave in. Oh freak. It didn’t dislocate but it did twist enough to give me problems. It went for the rest of the trip.

When I was back in office, I was gently trying to kick some kid in office when my knee buckled in again and I feel to the floor. It was time to go to the orthopedic surgeon. An x-ray and an MRI later, the verdict is out. I have severe ACL tear. In both knees. Which means surgery, one by one in both knees. Okay. That is fun. It also means being out of action for almost a year from most sports. Oh shit. In way I was / am really disappointed. I was doing great. I had restarted running and I was doing 6 to 8 kms at one stretch without too much effort. I could have gone on and on for long. But as Jispa was counselling me “don’t regret it. You did go out in style.” Ya. I sure did. Now what. Well surgery will follow. They supposedly take my tendon and stretch it to become a ligament or something. It’s a minimal invasive surgery. Also there is the matter of a meniscus tear in the right knee that requires shaving off. Sigh.

I have always looked at the bright side of things and while at it, I thing this knee thing was a blessing in disguise. I had so far refused to see the orthopedic. It turn out that if I don’t get this fixed now, I might have needed knee replacement at 55. That would have been pretty painful I guess. At 55!

On another note. We have been enjoying our new home quite well. We seem to be lazing around at home most holidays. Stepping out for a quick meal nearby and watching Netflix. It’s a neat big house that I might have dreamed off, all my life. Neat and tight. The big TV in the hall also seems perfect, as we lounge around and watch Netflix and Amazon Prime. And the best part – we have kabaddi season starting soon.

Kabaddi is the thing that we family bond over. Especially when we understand the sport from close quarters and get some inside dope. Fitness has come to kabaddi and we now are seeing the benefits of this in the players as they get better. It has been a lucky break for me in my life. Things that come to you just because you are open to new experiences and learnings.

random thoughts to start writing

Jispa is now string enough to bully Jasmine. At home she jumps on Jasmine and pins her down. Jasmine can do much except protest. Both of them have these cute physical fights around the house and it always ends with Jasmine getting bullied by Jispa. So when they are whacking each other, I find it amazing to see Jispa getting whacks from Jasmine and standing her ground.

They grow up strong. Jispa and I were discussing the other day on how we have gotten her to grow. Whenever she would get hurt I would ask her “do you enjoy doing what you were doing while getting hurt?”. “yup? Then shut up and grin it and bear it.” She remembers that till now. In some ways, many ways, a father has mildly succeeded. I am happy. Shits gonna happen. You gonna have fun and then move on. You can’t dwell on it screwing your day. Too Much.

I remember the song Sunscreen. I have posted it before. It gives life advice and always goes back to the simple thing of using sunscreen. For me – it fresh tender coconut water. Always drink fresh coconut water. It helps me regulate my acidity and helps me hydrate myself. Everyday morning when I wake up and I have to go to play, I have coconut water. I cannot stress less on the fact that you must have coconut water. On days when I think I haven’t drank enough water, I have a coconut water. It just seems to take away all my issues. It’s the best thing in the world. It’s my answer to Sunscreen.

Advice – here is one – don’t take and please don’t give. Your job is to just hang around and listen. Advice is always subjective. How do I get myself to stop giving advice? I have no clue. I want to stop it.

Food is getting weird for me by the day. As I am growing older I am getting more and more sensitive to different kinds of foods. I feel potatoes don’t work for me in the tiffin. Funnily they seem to work in restaurants. Possibly it’s the ginger or garlic along that works. I don’t know. Tomato soup – can’t have that as well. Funny… I loved that as a kid. Cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Now I feel it gives me acidity. Chopped tomatoes are good. It’s the soup that takes me out.

Coffee – I have written about this. Not two days in a row, else bad headache the third day. Funny nah?

I am trying to get my tummy to be in some better shape. So trying to avoid fried. Oh god, I don’t drink, smoke, no lactose, no potatoes, no soup and now less fried… Jasmine is so done with me. Plus I don’t like pulses as well. They too interfere with my digestion. Dal is also doing funny things. What the hell… I will survive on coconut water now. What say?

But this is the thing that I like about myself. I don’t bother too much with this. I don’t get too annoyed with all these issues. If I can’t help these things then what can I do about it. That’s what I try and tell Jasmine. I can’t help it if I got a weak stomach and a strong brain. Such is life. You have to make do with the best that you get.

Speaking of strong brains. I am struggling to see strong brains in the company from the middle lot. They are really really dumb. You get some amazing talent from the really young guys but there is some serious talent missing from the middle layer. Possibly they are the ones who ran away because not much happened while they were here, and the dumb ones got promoted. Now I look back at my time and wonder if I was seriously underpaid. I was much smarter than these jokers at that age. Talent is so difficult to nurture and find.

Somewhere because of the policies of the past, people did not have the courage to break rules and dream big. Organization culture is so important. Because of an older culture the organisation today is stalled. You have to break. You have to push and you have to get new blood, new thinking and new energy into the functions you work. Breaking is an important part of building. Those who can’t break must be thrown out. Break and burn for new to grow.  Chase cute new things and new frontiers, not try and keep things as they were. The protector role is so glorified in some places.

I have started writing publicly. We have an emailer that is sent out to a bunch of prospects every weekend. The new content kid in my office thinks my writing is kind of cool and effective. She wants me to write every week. At first I wasn’t sure. But I am getting the hang of writing and getting my own mojo for the job. I think it’s coming out cool and succinct. Data seems to suggest that people are reading and clicking and giving us leads basis the stuff they read. Ok. That’s nice. It’s an awesome feeling to write and get feedback on it. I want to hone that skill set even more.

how's work doing?

There was a saying I read once. I think it was attributed to a US president, which basically said – a chance to work hard at work worth doing. I have loved this form the moment I read it. It’s perfect and in many ways it sums up my life approach to work. Give me meaningful work and then get out of the way. In fact – don’t give me any work. Allow me to work, I will find meaning, reach your objectives and yes – stay out of the way. That’s what I love doing. That drives me to work harder and harder and put long hours. Meaningful work and chance to make a difference to the company and the people around me.

It’s very difficult to define meaningful work. Different people would have different meaning to take from it. I also don’t know what really meaningful work is. The bare minimum is that I would need to find meaning is that I get to learn something interesting from it. Something new every day! That’s the fun bit. What’s the point of doing something same every day. I can’t handle that. When I am teaching I am sure I am doing a great job and helping the kids learn, but that’s not enough. What I really want is to teach new things what I have learnt or seen. New stuff. So teaching is as much about me as it is about the kids. Possibly it’s more about me than anything else.

Work is also I guess therefore more about me. I don’t care so much about the firm and the people in that sense. I know that with my standards of work are high enough for the firm to hugely benefit from it. But that is not the point of it. How can I wake up every day and say, today I will make my promoter happy or richer. He is already a billionaire many times over. That’s not the job is to build what I love and what I am proud of. An amazing practice and an amazing team to run that.

Which comes to the team. I can drive mu kids up the wall on doing good work. I refuse to be satisfied with their work or mine. I quietly admit to them (at times) that their work is awesome but more than anything, I want to always push the work to new boundaries and that they expand themselves in the bargain. Such expansion is not cheap. It will suck their lives, their self-worth, their egos, their commitment and their selves. But it will build a stronger them. A them, that is far more resilient and powerful and smart.

Right now also I am driving my kids’ nuts at work. The sharp ones are getting that the learning curve is immense and that they have to stay on top of it. They are working like crazy. They will reap the benefits of this for years to come. Some just don’t get it. They are not destined to learn more. They are destined to remain where they are and they will rot in there chubby holes. Learn more, work more. Bring boundless energy to work in the morning knowing that you are making a difference to yourselves and to your company and that you are building for the future. This learning is something that your family won’t understand or even remotely appreciate.

I remember that as a young kid, my wife and mother too wanted me to come home early. Later on, I remember talking to Jasmine and explaining to her that if I have to learn and do more, I have to work hard when I have the chance to. It’s not for anybody else or anything special, but it’s for me and my future. If I don’t push myself I don’t learn and if I don’t learn I don’t have a future. Plus, forget all the future, so many times, I don’t need a future… it’s just the present that matter in so many cases. A real chance to work hard. Who is going to argue with that? It adds meaning to my life.

So no I am not a workaholic. I won’t work for a career so much or for work itself. But I am a meanginoholic. I work for meaning and as long as I get meaning I will work. I teach because it had meaning. I play badminton because I find meaning in it. So also for running or swimming. Find meaning and go after it.

Jasmine now understands. She know that work is why we are where we are. The payoffs are great and awesome. Of course she wants more of me at home (I hope). But she realizes that work place is a treadmill on which you run.  I don’t go home tired and worried. Now I am past that. I go back happy that I have worked hard and learnt a lot and taught a lot. That’s important.

Is that worth dying for? I don’t know but absence of meaning is not worth living for. I am trying to find my fitness and I am trying to work towards my goals. I want to lose a few kilos, get leaner, run more and see what else I can do. I want to sleep well and manage that as well. I want to eat well. I am trying to find balance in all this. It’s a good thing. I am loving it.

In the middle of all this, I have not found the time to blog. That is something I have to do as well. Let’s see how I manage this as well. This blog has meaning for me even if Jispa never ever reads it. It has deep meaning for me.

learning joy

Jasmine is a sweetheart. She has the best relationships with all her maids. They love to work with her. In fact when we moved here, it was a difficult thing for her maids to now search for new jobs. They love her and want to work with her. Jasmine treats people like they should be – like people. With dignity and respect. When we moved out Jasmine gave away a lot of things to the maids. Including extra clothes, cupboards and what not. We even gave away random old electronic hardware lying around. Sure we could have made more money simply selling the stuff on ebay but Jasmine and me both reckon that probably there is more value to be derived from them using it than me getting a couple of thousand for old loose stuff lying around the house.

She also treats them well, feeds them, gives them tea and generally takes care of them. So for every Sunday when Jasmine wants the old maid to come and help her around the house, she comes and then refuses to take money from her for a couple of hours work. It’s funny to see Jasmine trying to force them to take money and them running away.

We learn by observing and I learnt how to treat other humans from other people. My dad, my wife, my bosses and my friends. This is not something that can be learnt from moral science class in school. You have to experience and be willing to learn. Different people teach us how to handle different incidents. As I grew up I was a bit confused on how to treat people. I had compassion but around me was an India divided by huge chasms. The gap between the have nots and the haves was wide and there seemed to be an atmosphere of mistrust. Servants had to be kept an eye on, as they could steal and one should not intermingle too much. I think slowly as we began growing out of our disparities we learnt to deal with people.

Possibly also I learnt to deal with people as I grew up and there was no real economic change as I see it. Whatever be the case. I learnt to deal with people from other people. I do remember that being a training set. How to deal with sweet people and how to deal with irritating people. How to say no, how to cajole and how to reward. Jasmine has taught me a whole lot of all the people. She doesn’t try and influence people, she doesn’t try and push them, she just is. She just does what comes to her and people get influenced by her. They love her and work for her.

What may be my style? I am trying to hard or trying to less or the fact may be that I am trying, while Jasmine simply is being herself. I don’t know. But I do know that I try to treat people in way that I have learnt works for me. This is also basis how people have been with me. I see and I learn.

Learning is an everlasting process without a time line and structure. In fact structured learning is amongst the worst ways to learn. It surely tries to accelerate learning but it leaves much to be desired. I was talking to Jispa the other day. She goes for the international curriculum at school, which is far more advanced than what I had in school. She has critical thinking, an ability to reason and a freedom to write her mind. Her exams are more on experience, perspective rather than memory and rote. It’s lovely. But it’s only as lovely as the teacher makes it out to be. Awesome teachers make the classroom and the subject more interesting and the irritating ones make the subject boring. Some try and only explain how to attack the question paper and write things that are designed to get marks. There goes the studies.

That’s the problem with a structured education – it seeks to impart and then measure. While measuring it seeks to rank. To rank it needs a certain set of guidelines, schemes and structures for uniformity. There – we have reached a point where the twain are at odds with each other. It is now by definition doomed to failure. Should I learn for marks or should I learn for what I want to learn. I am screwed.

Yesterday with a friend we were discussing education and courses. My view was that it’s asking for way too much to get a child to figure what they want to do by the time they are 15 or 17. I didn’t know what my calling was till I was at least 25 years old. How can we ask for choice in these circumstances, so early of them? But the costs are high of wrong choice and the pressures, real. How does this work?

Forget. Right now I am trying to solve the leaking roof in the dry area from the flat above. It’s fun trying to decipher the leakage source, especially when it involves flooding that balcony with water and being Sherlock Holmes. Then taking a few calls and trying to be intelligent about things that you are so not really trained to do. Why didn’t we have carpentry, woodwork, masonry and other such base skills being taught in schools? A few classes of PT rubbish could have clubbed into this and we could have all been better off. The mechanics of a car, the innards of a toaster, the joy or raising a farm. Real life skills that allow you to work with your hands and give you immense satisfaction. Thye could have atleast taught us basic gardening, if not growing wheat. Or even now, a simple course on growing strawberries on the roof top garden… ok even parsley or basil growing would have been fun.

But this is not to be. I had a shitty education only redeemed by the fact that amazing women and a few amazing men wanted to teach as that was their choice. They loved us and we loved them back. They spoke to us, explained and inspired us. I am so happy that over that last 16 years I have done my little bit to alleviate boredom in the classrooms. Some little joys. In the process of helping people discover themselves, I discovered a whole lot about me. A WHOLE LOT.

That’s experiences and learning and joy.