Reading: Is a window to an exciting world

Reading, according to me is a window to a new and an exciting world. During my school and college days, and even early part of my corporate life, I read more for pleasure, than to gain something useful. One incident flipped this thinking, in my fledgling IT career. By fate, I became an ERP consultant. I was neither aware of what a consultant should do, nor have any prior experience outside of IT world. This incident happened almost 2 years into my career. We had a product demonstration to the client. I was all dressed up, including a tie, standing in front of the client in a large conference room, talking about the product features.

An hour into the presentation, as I was explaining a key feature, and saying why it was important, I was stopped. The client CFO then started explaining that his industry didn’t work that way and he needed the feature to be customized. I was like a “deer caught in the headlights “. I did not know how his industry worked. I was not experienced enough to talk about customizing the product. Thankfully, a senior person pitched in stated, that we can discuss this in detail once we start the project. 

During the break, another person from the client team casually stated that I need some industry experience. That was a turning point for me. I knew that I cannot go out of IT and gain industry experience. Also, there is no end to it. Tomorrow another person from another industry would comment that I did not know their industry. I started to think what could be the way out. The solution was “ to read “. I started reading books about various industry. The first few books I read were about basics of finances - profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flows etc. During the same time, I got interested in investing in the stock market. This incentivized me to read more. How to read and understand a company’s finances, understand their business and therefore make my investment decisions. I started to read about the companies, their business to be comfortable to invest in the stock. Sometimes, I would talk to people in that industry to gain a better understanding. 

Over the next 15 years in my career, I read a lot of books. On an average about 20 books a year.. This did not include the books I read for pleasure - the fiction, comics, etc. These books were business books, biographies or autobiographies of successful business leaders. I became a “ Forrest Gump” for reading. 

As I matured, I started to read books about failed businesses or leaders. Every book I read, every new and important piece of information was stored in memory. Some of them I tried to put into practice. Others were stored for a rainy day. Over a period of time, this habit broadened to reading a wide variety of things and storing for future use. Every time I started a new project in a new domain, I read the fundamentals of the how the industry worked. I started reading and learning about the nuances of that particular industry. Over a period of time, this helped me to gain respect from most of the clients that I worked with and sometimes even from my peers.

An interesting incident to finish this post. During a conversation for planning an offsite event, our leadership team was discussing on the travel, how we could not get train tickets, and how travel by road was difficult, I suggested that there is an option to hire an entire coach and attach it to the train, but it needed advance permissions from railway authorities. People did not believe it initially, but found that there was a provision. My reading helped that day.

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I will continue to write about reading, some of the books that influenced me personally, that helped me at work, etc, in the coming days.

Reading: a peep into a new world for me

A very long time ago, about 4 decades, may be a bit more, I got hold of my first book. A bit worn down copy of  Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). Worn down, because every other cousin and my brother had read it at least twice, before handing it to me, the youngest at about 5-6 years old. I was fascinated by the pictures more, than by the story. A few months later, the eagerly awaited first issue of aTinkle came home. Over the next few years, ACK and Tinkle were mainstays, with the likes chandamama, champak getting added to this list. Slowly, Tintin and Snoopy came into my world. As I grew older, Enid Blyton fillled my summers, vacations and weekends. Then Hardy Boys.

During my pre-teens and early teenage years, books were a form of entertainment. Sometimes, they were an escape into a fantasy land. A time came when sports occupied a major portion of outside school hour. Despite that, books continued to have a special place. 

I was fortunate, as some say, to be born in a family of people who valued reading. My paternal grandfather was a writer, and my maternal grandfather used to read 2 newspapers including a business paper every day even in his late 70s. But the biggest driver was my father. He was a voracious reader, and when I was in high school, my elder brother was running at a pretty fast pace along with my father. May be it was in the genes, may be the environment was conducive or may be it was peer pressure, or plain luck / fate, I got into a regular habit of reading. 

Over the years, what started with reading fiction, slowly expanded into non-fiction. It wasn’t until after I finished my college, my scope expanded into serious reading our epics. Seveal events led me to discover our epics and scriptures - mainly the Ramayanam, the Mahabharatham, and the Bhagavad Gita. This phase  in my life, made me realize a lot of things. It gave some meaning to what I thought was life then. It pointed me in a direction which I felt was the right one. 

As I got into corporate world, the business books entered my reading area. I used to read a lot of business books trying to understand and make sense of understanding business, the various domains, some great leaders and companies.

My 20s were probably the best time in life with my books. This was the time that I realized that Books were the window to the world. More importantly, to choose the right set of books, to get a proper understanding of the world. As they say, travel gives you the best experience in life. Reading gives you the next best, without the same effort, time or cost. Thankfully, my choice of books were good, and therefore my journey was fruitful. My biggest learning by the time I reached my 30s was this - to read, daily. Without fail. Because, reading gives you the knowledge of things that you may not experience in life. 

Remember, Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is power. 

More on reading in the following posts including how reading changed my life, how it helped me get ahead of competition in my corporate world, and may be a list of books that made a big impact on me.

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Birthdays: A time to take stock

During my college years, every festival and my birthday every year was a big event for me. While Deepavali and Pongal were big celebrations, my birthdays were special. I used to receive close to 50 birthday cards every year, from family and friends (Yes, there was this concept of giving a card).

As years progressed, life started to change. During my initial career, birthdays were still big. Colleagues used to celebrate it at office with a cake cutting, a dinner party that day or lunch during the weekend was mandatory. The festivals continued to be a big favourite, as I would travel back home for the celebrations. 

The first casualty was the birthday. As I grew older, stopped celebrating them. Then the email / egreeting picked up causing the end of the “ birthday card” culture. The next was the festivals. By early 30s, I stopped celebrating festivals and birthdays. I felt these were not worth celebrating. 

A few years later. These occasions became “just another day”. I even stopped buying / wearing new dresses, a mandatory event, for festivals. I even stopped exchanging the mechanical celebratory messages. Only, the special meal at home would continue. 

After all these years, I started to think that there might be a purpose to the birthday. Every new year, we all make new resolutions - become fit, / healthy, lose weight, read more, learn something new, so on and so forth. At the start of every financial year, we start planning for our tax savings, investments etc. 

So, may be, birthdays are a good day, to take stock. A stock taking day or event - for our karma. When I mean karma, I don’t mean the so called “punyam” or “paavam” as prescribed in our religious texts but of our good deeds and misgivings as per our conscience. Every birthday, can be a time for reflection of what good things that we did in the last year. What can we do better? Where did we slip, and can we correct it this year? Can we become a better person, understand better the purpose we are here and take a step towards realizing that? The purpose can be to  realize God or Godliness in yourself. It can be to realize how you can be a benefit to the society at large, which has helped you or to find personal happiness in what you do. It depends on whether you are a theist or an atheist or agnostic. 

So, over the last several years, i have been using this period, my birthday time, to take stock of my karma. I make it a point to start my birthday every year by doing something good. It can be a monetary donation to someone who needs it or till a few years ago, i used to donate blood on my birthday, etc. Something which starts me on the right note. 

So, do your stock taking on your birthdays. Re-focus on your life. 

Life is beautiful. 

Travel, to Experience Life

In an earlier post, I talked a bit about why you should travel. Let me go into details of the why, including sharing some of my travel experiences.

Travel is a way to Experience Life - Life beyond our normal routine, life beyond your homes, beyond the usual people you meet. Initially, I thought why do i need this experience; I don’t need it. But as I grew older I realized travel makes you wiser. Gives you the experience to handle life better.

My initial travel were all related to going to temples in various parts of Tamil Nadu. This was my main interest those days. I visited over 80 temples across various parts of the state. Sometimes, packing over a dozen temples in a weekend. My initial travel were all dictated by my work schedule. My mother, who used to accompany me, as she was interested in visiting temples, was the guinea ping in all these experiments. We had travelled by trains, buses, local taxis and autos, sometimes hoping from one temple to another or one town to another.

Some of our experiences:

During a 2-day trip to temples around kumbakonam, I noted the return bus departure time wrongly. My mother and I left the hotel and walked towards the bus stand. I told her we had 30 minutes and can walk the 10 minute distance. On the way, she wanted to pick up some magazines to read in the bus. We took a short detour, and as we were picking the magazines, the travels guy called me and said the bus was ready to depart. I begged him to wait for 10 minutes, paid for the magazines and with 2 bags and mom, rushed towards the bus stand. After 5 minutes, I called the agent and asked for the status. He said the bus had left. We were walking and suddenly I found a bus with destination chennai from the same private operator. I stopped the bus and after giving my name to the conductor asked him it was the same bus that we missed. After getting an earful from him, we got onto the bus. He came again after 10 minutes and told me “ Sir, you should be more careful traveling with an elderly person, so that you don’t rush them”.

Most of the temples that we went in that phase were usually off the usual path. Some were in small towns, others off-beat. During those 2 years, inevitably, every temple we visited around breakfast or lunch time, we were always provided with something to eat by the priest. I used to tell my mother that this was really something divine. We got good food, without fail, and more importantly, without our asking. This only strengthened My faith.

Such experiences make you better. In the first instance, after that, i always double checked my departure times. Always. In the second, reiterated by beliefs. Every similar experience taught me something.

Travel brings in such experiences to you. It will enrich your life. Go on. Pack our bags. Open your minds.

Why should you travel?

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Leaving that aside, why should you travel is a question that keeps coming to me every now and then? To me, there are multiple answers:

I travel because

- i like to see new places

- i love to go to temples both for the spiritual experience as well as for the history and architecture 

- i love hill stations. There is something that the mountains bring to me. May be it’s being away from the crowds, the weather, the early morning mist with a hot coffee.

- i love to travel on rural buses, relatively less crowded, a window seat, ilaiyaraja songs in the air - all this leading to a wonderful romance - loving life.

The list goes on and on.

But why should you travel? 

- Travel gives you the experience that you will never get if you stay a your home. 

- It will broaden your horizon. 

- It will teach you life. 

- It will make you understand people. 

- It will give you self-belief. 

- It will get you out of your comfort zone. 

- It will educate you with different cultures, traditions, people and more importantly the history of your country. 

- It will show you who you are. You will start living.

If you are single, make it a point to travel solo at least twice a year. A short trip (2-5 days) and a longer trip (2 weeks). 

If you are married, do a solo trip once a year. 

I plan to write more on traveling in the coming days. Keep reading. Send in your comments.

Stop Existing. Start Living. Travel.