Inspiration is Everywhere

As they say, Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to look. We have our favourite stars, we have our favourite characters, and we have our favourite movies and shows. Out of these there are always a few, to which we get so connected, we wish they were real. In this post, share a list of characters from my favourite TV shows, who have inspired me in many ways. As all of them showcase both good and also some bad in the shows, I also tried to mention what is it that I admire the most in them.

Dr Gregory House. He is the lead character in the Television series House MD, played by Hugh Laurie. Dr House stands for pragmatism. He is practical and objective in ways which we cannot imagine. He has very few friends, and struggles with people, because of this. But, he also excels at his work, and this pragmatism and objectivity, is one of the definite reasons. I remember this episode from Season 3, where he treats a heart disease in a 6 month old foetus by performing an open heart surgery. While the episode may be fictional, and the course of treatment may be completely different in real life, his approach towards a situation which is very very complex, inspires me. His quotes from time to time, are real words of wisdom. "Time changes everything. Thats what people say, it's not true. Doing things changes things. Not doing things leaves things exactly as they were", Dr House in his own words.

Walter White. This is a character which needs no introduction. Also called as Heisenberg in the show, Walter White is a character of the disputably the best TV show ever, Breaking Bad. Walter White stands for grit. The perseverance shown by the character, in all circumstances, is awe inspiring. Being in the drug business, while surrounded by people who are lost in every way, his discipline, sheer grit, makes him standout. His story also conveys, take the exit when you can. In his own words, "You don't have to wait your whole life to do something unique".

Harvey Specter. He is the lead character in the popular show, Suits, played by Gabriel Macht. Harvey Specter stands for confidence. In the show, he is a very successful Corporate lawyer in New York, and is the youngest Senior Partner in one of the largest Law firms. He is a flamboyant and charming character, who gets his way in any situation. But beneath all this glamour, he subtly shows the reason for his confidence. This is discipline, hard work and preparation. On many occasions in the show, the story reveals that he comes from a normal background, but has built his way up with these qualities. In his own words "Its what you do in the dark that puts you in the light".

Frank Underwood. The name sends shivers down the spine, in the popular series 'House of Cards'. The role is played by Kevin Spacey, and has delivered an unforgettable performance. His character stands for Winning, no matter what. Beg, borrow or steal, but win. Though the character has a negative undertone through out, his hunger to win, ability to create opportunities for himself, is inspirational. Those moments where he looks into the camera and talks directly to the audience, are just priceless. "Shake with your right hand, but hold a rock with your left", in his own words.

Tyrion Lannister. The name needs no introduction. Though not the Hero character of Game of Thrones, he is one of the most powerful (in a way that is not obvious), and one of the most unforgettable characters of Game of Thrones. He stands for Intelligence. His intelligence, added with wit, are the only qualities of him that take him places. His intelligence helps him understand the world better, and also understand people; specially coming from a family where no one understands what people want. He definitely was not born the smartest, but the intelligence was developed with extensive reading, travel, as the show reveals. In Season 2, Tyrion slaps the King of the seven kingdoms, Joffrey, when he tries to humiliate Sansa in the throne room; this incident clearly shows that he understands people, and also stands for them. Some of quotes are worth living by, like the one "A mind needs books, like a sword needs a whetstone".

Learnings from my son

"While trying to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

I stumbled on this quote 2-3 years ago, when I was trying to find the right quote while sharing a post on Aaron. Every time I read this, I wonder how true it is.

Aaron was born just over three years ago, and every stage of his last three years, was a wonder. We waited for nine months to see him (or her, then), wondering how he would look like, what his voice would sound like, and so on; and here he is. What a joy it was holding him in our hands, a life nurtured and brought into this world by us. Every moment from then, was us reinventing our world, for Aaron. Our work, our home, our travel, our lifestyle, our friends, everything.. had to be reinvented or redesigned.

Aaron was a pure joy since the day he was born. His doctor called him a 'Happy Baby', when he was just 3 months old, and rightly so. Kids are born with an immaculate mind. All their fears, habits, actions, are developed with their interactions with us and the world. Their actions through the first few years, actually show us how a person can actually be. And yes, I had a lot to learn from Aaron. In this post, I try and capture the top 4 things I learned from my son, Aaron.

Infinite Energy. Aaron and most children his age possess infinite energy; their stamina is sometimes unbelievable. Aaron wakes up from his afternoon nap around 5PM, and he sits hardly for one hour, till he sleeps around 10 PM. He plays, cycles, jumps, reads, without ever getting tired.

No hard feelings, always. The phrase stands for itself. Kids have such innocent minds, that gives them the ability to take anything or anyone only in the positive way. Even when we discipline him for any naughty act, it is sometimes so refreshing to see his ability to bounce back to his normal self, within minutes.

Observe and learn. Everything and everyone are role models, really. Aaron learns from TV, parents, uncles, aunts, just everyone. He learns words, acts, habits, songs and what not. Just the ability to observe and learn is admirable.

Determination and Perseverance. I can really move mountains if I have a tenth of the determination that Aaron shows. His determination to do things, if if they are naughty, is just breath taking. I think it is this determination that makes learning so easy for them.

It is indeed sad to see some of these amazing qualities slowly decline through teenage or in the twenties. I believe that these qualities are the primary reason kids are mostly happy. I promise myself to do everything possible, to keep these qualities alive in Aaron.

My Attempt to Rebound

I still remember the time I started this blog. It was almost ten years ago, June of 2010, in my hostel room in Lucknow. I remember the pride when I wrote my 5th blog, 'When nights started turning into day'. The joy when people read and actually appreciated my writing; and yes I was told a few times that they in fact looked forward to my next one.

Ten years on, the world is not the same, and definitely not the same for me. Im living in my fourth city after Lucknow, and working in fourth company after campus. I also now have a beautiful wife and an amazing son, who have become my world. Though I felt the itching to write a few times, I could not gather the courage nor time to do so. And so when I opened the blog editor today, I actually realised that my last post was more than 4 years ago.

This is my attempt to rebound. And this is also when Im changing my blog url to scribblesofsol.blogspot.com from ethereal-joy.blogspot.com.

What's your footprint?

The word foot print reminds us all of the one famous foot print, left on the moon by Buzz Aldrin. Yes, it is of Buzz Aldrin's not Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong was the first one to set foot on the moon ("That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind"). But the photo of the foot print left on the moon was that of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon. The photo was taken by Buzz himself. Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking or running. Hoof prints and paw prints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoe prints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. The print left behind at a crime scene can give vital evidence to the perpetrator of the crime. This makes me remember the picture of  of the detective movies where we see the detectives following the foot prints with a magnifying glass. In our daily lives, we all leave foot prints on our path. And unfortunately, these are not just the impressions of our shoes on the path we walk. So what are these? Similarly, to measure our carbon emissions is the factor - carbon footprint (we understand that carbon forms the integral part of all emissions and the major cause for air pollution). 


In this twenty first century world, through our daily activities, we all leave our foot prints in this world. We leave our foot prints on the environment, the water and the ecology as a whole. What is this foot print? Let me explain with a small example. I'll take a paper cup, which we use for coffee/water at our offices everyday. The water foot print of it is the total water used by the cup during its making, usage and recycling of the paper cup. And its actually about 5 litres. In fact, it is said that an average human being uses the amount of water that can fill an Olympic sized swimming pool per year (Yes its huge!!). On the same lines, the impact our daily activities have on the ecology, environment and carbon emissions are called the ecology foot print, environment foot print and the carbon foot print. Does the Govt understand this? Does the corporates measure these? Yes, they do. Remember those lines on few bottles of pepsi or coke, which say they are water positive. That means they are giving back more water to the world than they use in making their products.To understand my second point, lets go back to the per capita human water foot print. Where does so much water come from? The water we use is partly from the ground water table, and some from the rivers/lakes around us. So the entire activity is impacting the ecology that we depend on. So here come the concepts of environmental footprint and the ecological foot print. 

Im not competent to write in detail on these topics, or tell people how to reduce this. Then why am I writing this. Im writing this to make people aware that every activity that we do, leaves a foot print on this earth, in so many ways. If we put together the foot print of 7 billion people, and their activities, it has a deep impact on this world and the future generations. Let us all understand this and be aware that every activity of ours is leaving a deep foot print in this world. I feel, the more we understand this and the more we read about this, we become sensitive to the realities that these factors put before us.

But we have many government organisations and compliances taking care of these? Yes.Don't we have the climate change conference pact and the Kyoto protocol? Yes.Are they enough? Yes, may be. Then why be afraid? I'm not afraid but Im just sceptic because I don't see any improvement signs around me, yet. I may be sounding old school. I don't know if climate is really changing, but I can see the changes around me. In Bangalore, this February is the hottest in the last ten years. There are no rains in rainy seasons, but unbearable amount of rains during the storms. India, once a huge exporter of wheat, finds it hard today to sustain its own people with the amount of wheat produced today. 

How can we help? I don't know. Our two cents could be the age old principle - "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". The image speaks for itself.

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The Indian Electorate - An Aam Aadmi's view

The first elections in free India happened in 1951-52. The Indian National Congress won a landslide victory, winning in 365 of the 489 constituencies. We came a long way since then. Elections in India were sometimes dramatic too. NTR, a famous actor, swept the elections in AP in the early 80s within an year of launching his party. Chiranjeevi, the megastar of AP film industry, has lost badly after launching his party. Narendra Modi swept the 2014 elections with a campaign similar to the US Presidential election campaigns. (PS: Many of the examples in this post may be from AP, but relevant to the Indian scenario)

The electorate changed too; along with them changed their expectations from a government or a political party. We have come a long way from the times when roti, kapda and makan were the major things promised in a manifesto. In this blogpost, I write about how the expections of an aam aadmi have changed from a government. These are purely my thoughts or sometimes even perceptions.

1. Employment / Growth: I feel this is the biggest change, positively, in the electorate. The need for employment and the activities driving employment is a necessity across the country. Thanks to the media, people now understand basic macro economic terms like GDP, inflation, deficit, growth etc. Their relevance has increased even more after 2008-09 recession and the long period of heavy inflation. So when Rahulk Gandhi promised empowerment, it raised more question marks.

2. Infrastructure: We need infrastructure. Be it cities/towns, railways, roads, electricity, irrigation etc. The urge to live in a developed India has been strenthened even more by our movies which time and again are filmed in foreign locations. Narendra Modi's smart cities, bullet trains hit the bulls eye among the electorate.

3. Results / Numbers: We need results. We are now indifferent to the 5 year plans, Vision 2020s, 1 years agendas etc. We need results, and quickly. This could be anything from launching a satellite, building a dam, nuclear power plant, new trains.. anything. We need something to see.

4. Freebies, not mandatory: The recent victory of Narendra Modi shows that we can win in India without offering free roti, kapda aur makaan. This has been the strategy for many political parties in countless elections. However, people now want avenues to earn their meal. I cannot completely rule out this strategy, however it has changed substantially in many of the states. 

5. Finally, a government which can speak: The previous government(s) have left many unanswered questions raised by the people and media. It is true that Manmohan Singh did only 3 press conferences in his entire term of the UPA 2 government. We need a more vocal prime minister, who can talk to us, address our issues, answer our questions. We need a government which does not hide behind the pillars of the parliament.

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In the eye of the storm

Oct 12, 2013: Very severe cyclonic storm, Phailin, hit the coast of Southern Orissa. It was one of the worst natural disasters in the history of India, with the storm making a landfall with wind speeds of more than 220KMph. Phailin at its peak on Oct 12th, was around half the size of India. The last time any storm of this magnitude hit India was in 1999, when a storm hit the coast of Orissa with speeds of more than 240KMph. The nightmare was back to the people of Orissa and neighboring states.

Oct 10, 2013: It was three weeks since I moved to Bhubaneswar. I moved into an apartment, and was happily buying household stuff. I heard vague warnings about the approaching storm, but could not interpret the seriousness of them. The next day, 11th Oct, I started my day as usual with the Bhubaneswar urban market visit. The day was unusually windy, and the conditions were overcast. I saw huge crowds in front of grocery stores and super markets. It was around 12PM when one of my teammates explained me about the impending storm and its magnitude. The scary part of his explanation was the chance of no water and power for days after the storm.

I did not have many options then. The buses and trains were running four times their capacity. Airports shut down and flights cancelled. My car still was not delivered by the movers. So that’s it, I have to brace myself for the storm. I rushed to the nearest big bazaar, where I for the first time saw the panic. People were picking up any food they could get hold of. Essentials like rice, dal were almost over. There was no stock of Maggi, bread, water. Candles were the products in most demand, and were not available anywhere, be it super markets or grocery stores. Luckily, I could get hold of a few at one small pan shop, at a price of Rs50 per stick. I picked up bread, jam, butter, maggi and lots of juices and reached home.

7AM, Oct 12 2013: The sound from the wind was becoming unbearable. The landfall is still 12 hours away. The electricity was down since 11PM the day before. Two mobiles and two laptops are almost fully charged; uncertain about the electricity, I have to save battery in my mobiles. All I did for the next ten hours was just lying on the bed and gazing up at the ceiling, with an occasional troll in the hall. My brother was giving me constant news update through SMS. With the storm very close to the land, the wind speeds have touched 150KMph and have enough force to drag us off from our feet. The light is fading fast and the worst is yet to come.

6PM, Oct 12 2013: The bedroom I was in has a window which opens to the East. Scared that the window panes might give away, I decided to move into the Kitchen. I spread a bed sheet on the floor, and with a candle on, I was sitting all alone, in the eye of the storm. With my brothers updates continuing to flow in, I was counting minutes and seconds. The deep urge to pass out by having alcohol on one side and the necessity to stay alert on the other. I had my wallet and my mobile on me, just in case.. The wind speeds worsened and 9PM to 12PM was the scariest, when according to the newspapers, wind speeds touched 180KMph in Bhubaneswar. The storm passed via Bhubaneswar district to go North West. I slept off around 2 AM on the kitchen floor.

6AM: Oct 13, 2013: The storm passed. There still was some wind. Electricity is still down. News reports show that Phailin was moving towards Jharkhand, leaving a trail of destruction. After another full day, the power was up on the midnight of 13th, after a full 48 hours. I realized the magnitude of destruction only when I stepped out of my flat, for the first time after almost 3 days, around afternoon on 14th. Though there was not much loss to human life around 6 million people had to be moved to safe places. Around 26 lakh trees were uprooted, 12 lakh hectares of crop was damaged and immense loss to property in Orissa and North AP.

I came across this beautiful quote, which clearly explains what I have gone through. "And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about”, by Haruki Murakami. My only advice is, please don’t stay in the way of the storm. Do not under estimate the fury of nature.


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Oh Calcutta - Part 2!

“The day I came to Calcutta, I never thought I’d leave the place so nostalgic. After 15 months, the 15 months which probably may go down as one of my best stints, Calcutta, here I bid adieu!”, this was my FB status on 29th Sept 2013. As they say all good things come to an end, this was the day my life moved on from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar. Odisha will be my seventh state in India that I will live in. Anybody out there looking for someone with experience in various geographies, here I am. After a year since the time I posted Oh Calcutta part 1, this blog post is on those experiences, which made an entry into my ‘memories for life’ book.

After my training stint, which included a free stay at the company guest house, I moved into a flat with Ashish, who would probably be my last and best flat mate. The flat located in one of the busiest areas In Kolkata, Kasba, came with its free entertainment system. The crowd, the early morning market noise, and the regular political campaigns became familiar. Within a few weeks after our busy lives started, our group of three musketeers was complete with the addition of Snehal. Park Street, a place so far away just a few weeks back, became our frequent hangout. I really started to believe that having a hangout place as in Friends or HIMYM is possible, after being to Bistro or Trincas. Our after dinner hangouts at the PrincepGhat was my personal favorite.

My ‘Commando training’, as my manager put it, started to get more and more demanding. I was selling airtel 4G internet, India’s fastest wireless internet service. Though it was expected to sell like hot cakes, I understood what it takes to sell, during this stint. I cannot forget the feeling when the sale for the day was in binary digits or the orgasm when we closed a bulk deal. Getting up at 4.30 AM to do newspaper inserts or the weekend demand generation activities started to become thrilling. I was lucky to have a channel partner who would allow me to do anything which struck me, and a team which adored me.

Then came April, when Ashish got busy in his wedding preparations. I gladly accompanied him for his many sherwani trials and other shopping; and mostly they all ended at a beer joint. The travel for his wedding in Siliguri was my second longest bus journey, 16 hours. Sourabh, as expected with his tendency to become impatient, demanded Ashish to buy us a full body massage after the bachelors that night, though it din't happen. After Dwai and Kapil joined us, we had a short and delightful trip to Darjeeling. As any hill station, people there were happy and content in their own world; a pleasant sight for anyone coming from Kolkata. The Sangeet and the wedding was the most filmy wedding I ve been to. Ashish and Anshu looked lovely together, and thus Anshu joined our little group.

Life was in the fast lane with work and fun taking their share of time. The fachchas joined, and yes it’s the same in corporate as in college. Thanks to Suvro, we had an amazing children’s home visit. For me, this was after several years that I visited a children’s home; and it was as refreshing as always. This was also where I met Nishita, my partner in crime for the 4G week. I induced my passion for 4G into her, in just a couple of days of market visits. The 4G week: Sept4th to 11th, 2013; a week aimed at making the employees brand ambassadors for 4G. A fitting end to my exciting stay in Kolkata, the week was full of gyan, masti and more. It was a college fest, one more time. Debate, design, run, organize, plan, execute, and celebrate… there was everything.

The countless dinners, parties, outings, drives, the church and many more… and it’s not just them but the people in them, which made life so wonderful. I left Kolkata with a heavy heart, but satisfied and content that I learned so much, enjoyed even more and made so many friends for life. Kolkata will always have a special place in my heart.

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