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.

Keep reading...

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.

Living in the Moment

My Last post on living in the moment made me think further. So this post, is a continuation of that.

As I said earlier, my thoughts keep fluctuating between past glories / troubles and future worries. It was difficult not to do this. Despite reading / listening to Gita, Bhagavadam etc., where the discourses always emphasised on living in the present, I could not do so. So, my thoughts went into a loop - am I not capable of living  in the present or whats preventing me from doing so. I could see there were times when I was completely not bothered about yesterday or tomorrow and living at the moment. Other times, I was clearly thinking what I would do tomorrow, next month, next year (what a fallacy, knowing fully well that I will not know if I will wake up after a night's sleep). 

But over a period of time, i noticed there were clearly periods of time i was completely living in the moment. I started analysing when this was happening. I could clearly see when I was either running, or cycling or in my gym, I was not thinking of anything else. 

Especially when I was on the road, running or cycling, I was not thinking of anything else. The mind is either blank, or clearly focussed on the activity. No other thoughts. Not even what i would do once i reach home in say 30 minutes. Here, I was clearly not even thinking of the next moment. So why was it and how was it possible. 

The analysis lead to two factors: one - a passionate activity and two physical / mental exertion. When I was passionate about the activity, my thoughts were all about the activity. How fast was i running, what was my timing, how long can i run etc. Similarly during cycling. Also, a physical / mental exertion made me focus on the moment - concentrating on my breathing, being hydrated, or racking my mind for a solution for the problem in hand. 

When I look back, the same was the case when I was working in the corporate world. I used to take it one day at a time, despite having plans for short / medium / long terms, by and large it was always for the day.

I finally found that when you are involved in something which is interesting or passionate, you don't think of the rest of the world or time but just focussed on that activity. 

Perhaps, this is what we need to day in day out. Stay focussed on life. Live for the moment, and yes, it is difficult. 

... And Life goes on

It's been a year since I wrote my last blog post. It was about my friend Ashish Chawla, after he passed away in an untimely manner.

For sometime now, I have been thinking to restart my blog. So here goes.

When I heard that Ashish had passed away, I was shocked. Just 2 weeks prior to that, we had a chat and despite being in hospital, he was still cheerful. I was kind of disturbed for the initial few days. I wanted to do something in his memory. But somehow, things did not work and my initial drive slowed down.

Yes, even death meets its death at the hands of time.

Sometimes time is the healer, other times it is the killer. It makes us forget the difficult times in our lives, so that we can move on. It makes us forget our mistakes, and enables us to repeat them. Yes, the passage of time is both good and bad, depending on our circumstance. This is the best thing, it allows us to lead our lives, move on.

During the last few years, I have had a lot of time on my hands - to think, introspect and judge myself and my acts. Sometimes the result was good and I was happy that I did something good. Sometimes, I used to think that I could have done better. I also had thought of the future - the plans. I would plan for a travel, for getting back my fitness, running a marathon, visit temples. Some materialised, others remained as plans. 

But one of the things that kept coming back at me, despite me thinking of past or future is that why I am not able to live in the present. Why can't I take things as they come on that day. Live in the moment. Is it the fear of the future or of the comforting past? What makes me go back and forth in time. Why can't I be here, now. When I think of some of the teachings of our great philosophers, I keep going to the most important thing that they have said - be in the present. 

We are defined by our thoughts which translates into action. So, being in the present, a mind aware of what's happening now, gives us the best opportunity to take appropriate actions. Living for today, enjoying the small pleasures of life, understanding that problems will not remain as is, is what I think is the best way. For Life goes on, year by year, day by day and minute by minute. 

You can't stop as life goes on.

Good Bye, Dear Friend

For a change, my blog title " raghuonthemove " does not reflect reality. For a change, raghu is stunned and still..

A good friend of mine, Ashish Chawla left us a few days back. An untimely death took away a good human being.

I first met Ashish in 2006 May, when i joined Accenture as an Associate Manager. He was a senior developer. In the first week of joining, we had a crisis. Ashish and I sat together for 2 days and nights to sort out it. During the entire fire fighting duration, he was calm, always smiling. Telling me not to worry and we will deliver. This was an early crisis in my new job and I wanted to prove that I can handle this. During that two days he kept insisting that we will deliver on time every time we hit a roadblock. Here was a guy who was very calm, composed under pressure. Something I learnt from him. 

We went through a lot of crisis over the next few years. I used to go to him whenever there was something big, knowing fully well he can solve it and bail me out of the situation. Despite crisis, he was always smiling. Always calm. 

Another aspect that impressed me was his ability to mentor youngsters. As a new team, we had a lot of youngsters (i used to call them my kids, sometimes even now), who were new to professional life, new to technology and had lot of doubts on how to approach things. He was always there for them. I used to tell him that he needs to guide these youngsters. He was always helpful, always there for these people. There were lot of times when I found him helping youngsters during the day, and staying pretty late in the night to complete his work. Here was a wonderful person ready to help others despite his own deliverables, problems & issues at work. This is something i learnt from him. To be there for people when they asked for my time.

He was a person who was never satisfied with doing work. It has to be done to perfection. I read somewhere that you should aim for perfection so that you reach excellence. But Ashish was one person who was not satisfied with excellence, he needed perfection. Perfection in everything he did.

After I moved out of accenture, i lost in touch with a lot of my team members, colleagues and Ashish was one among that group. But fortunately for me we got back in touch with me. He was going through health issues at that time but despite that he was always cheerful. I have called him a number of times when he was in hospital to inquire his health, and his response would always be a cheerful " I am fine, recovering" and more importantly a more cheerful " how are you doing" would follow.

We have been in touch almost every other week until last week of May 2017 when he was in one more of his numerous hospital visits and told me he will get discharged in a 3-4days.

Every time we spoke in the last couple of years, he always used ask me to come to his hometown, Dehradun to visit him and spend time there. Every time he would tell me, " I will take you to Mussoorie and we will go in my bike "".... I used to repeat the same thing, that I will come in 2018.

Some day, my friend, Some day, I will definitely make a trip to Dehradun. Not to see the town, but as a homage to you. May be, I will even make a trip to Mussoorie as per your request.

Until then, good bye.