What I want?

An empty brain (or rather an idle mind) is a devils’ workshop, all of us have grown up hearing about this adage. As everyone believes it, so do I. These days in Iceland, I have nothing to do and so have had my brain empty, so as to say. But rather than making it a devils workshop, I have made it to dwell and think deeply on what I was and what I am now. It’s also famously said, one must find some time for self introspection as you are your best judge. Unfortunately, I have never done any self introspection but I have found time for that long pending talk with myself here. And I promise, I have got some results.

I was talking to Varun last week, he is one of the most ambitious persons I know and just talking to him, fills me with energy and a desire to work hard towards my goal. I have a predilection to just lay back & relax unless someone pushes me. He is one of those pushers and motivators. He did it, for my internship in Iceland and my visit here in December, otherwise I would have just stayed in India at the first place and then wouldn’t have asked my advisor about December as well. Thanks a lot, varun.

Continuing, during that conversation, he told me that he had realized what he wanted the most in life. It’s not a high earning job, admission in IIM, and not even a super sexy, hot girlfriend but a degree from Ivy league. One part of me was happy but the other was confused. In a sense, I was happy that my friend had found out his desire in life, at least for the time being. But I didn’t know what I wanted the most in life, it had me confused. It was as close to being depressed and lost and don’t knowing where to go.

Luckily I had time and I wanted to think, I wanted to prioritize, I wanted to chalk out a plan to accomplish those priorities, and in short I wanted to know myself. I wanted to know, what could get me satisfied, what could make me happy even beyond the boundaries of happiness. Suddenly a thought came to my mind, its not the destination that I seek, I want the journey to be enjoyable. I want it to be memorable. If I think about what I wanted 5 years back, I can say that I accomplished some of the things that I wanted, most importantly I have accomplished the important ones. But still, I want more & would this desire for more, end somewhere. But this self talk helped me realize one of my funny dispositions.

I think, that if one day, I have this I would be happy. It all starts like this,……………..why would I tell you people, what I want. Its personal, u know!!!!
Thanks for reading……………

What next?

In Iceland, I have been fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful people from various countries. It would be appropriate to mention here that, this sparsely populated country, having a scary name is home to people of as many as 100 nationalities with Poland leading the stack with 7000 people. Around 100 Indians are also working or settled in Iceland.

Let’s continue, among the people I met, Richard, a self retired business consultant from US, stands out. He retired at 38, and since then has been living by the interest on his deposits. He’s now 48 and now follows his passion, TRAVELLING. Believe it or not, he has traveled 72 countries* and plans to have traveled the world when he reaches 70. Just for the record, I love traveling too, and I have seemed to realize that driving is one of my passions as well, as long as the drive is not from IIITM to Gole ka Mandir or City Center or to the small maze like roads of crowded Bada!!!!!

I met Richard through a friend, I met at the meditation center where I go every Sundays. The moment I knew about Richard, I became envious of this guy and really wanted to meet him. He was to leave for US the day I met him, so we had the conversation on the way to the airport (the international airport is around 40 minutes drive from Reykjavik). So to start the discussion, I told him that I would like to have a life like his, retire at 38, after earning a lot of money and then travel around the world. He replied, “Sure, it’s a free world you can choose whatever you want to do in life. Work hard, when you have to, say no to people who pay you less and burn the midnight’s oil for the people who pay you well. Work hard but most importantly, work smart”. He continued, “I’m so passionate about traveling and sometimes I don’t seem to get all the comforts as it’s a fact that, when you travel Morocco, Algiers even with all the money, your journey is not as comfortable as it can be France or Italy. But then came the bitter self confession, he said, “Since traveling is my first love, I can’t seem to get any serious life partner even with all the money that I have”. He laughed, and continued, “I want to have a partner who is as crazy as me, who can get going for a 2 months trip to Africa or to Siberia at a 2 days notice. Who can walk on the sands of the Sahara or the glaciers of Iceland, and who is at ease at Chicago Airport and even comfortable at the Panama airport as well”. He said, “Ankit, this life, I know would seem to very fascinating for a youngster like you, I love it, but I doubt you wont. I don’t have a family and Im 48. I love myself, I would love to have multiple copies of my genes (exactly his words) in the world when I die and I don’t want to do have the copies mixed with a whore genes. And since, my passion, traveling seems to take my energy and time, I can’t have a family”. Just then I realized that my mood had changed, from being a self retired passionate traveler at 38 to being a grandfather at 60!!!

But today, I write this blog confused, as what kind of life I would want to choose. Life is unpredictable, it doesn’t always give you a choice, rather you are forced to walk the road which is available. But what would I do, incase I have a choice. I don’t know, maybe I would know when its time to know.

* He told me the secret behind 72, there are 40 countries in Carribean and he has visited each one of them and most of the countries in Europe and some in Northern Africa. So, incase even 72 seems difficult, its not that difficult. He hasn’t visited any of the big countries till now, apart from US, Canada, Australia and Brazil. India is left. He owns a home in US, UK and Israel.

Celebrating Culture

I consider myself fortunate of being born in a culturally diverse, geographically huge country boasting of 18% of the population of the world (correct me if Im wrong). India possesses rich history, culture, beautiful monuments and sagas dating as long as the days of Ramayana or even before that. Being here I realize that tales about India enchant people from the western world. I consider myself so unfortunate not to know these stories and sometimes have to make up some of my own when people here ask me. But as unfortunate as it can be, apart from the sagas about Indian saints, people tend to know just three things about India. First is the caste system prevalent in the Indian society, second Bollywood, and third the crowded Indian cities esp. Mumbai and New Delhi. I attended two conferences on institutional economics, fisheries economics here and in each one of them there was a separate session on China. We being in India, hear about the India shining and the economic boom but I don’t think people in Europe know a lot about it, its rather China that takes the spotlight. It’s the age of marketing and as it seems to me, India hasn’t sent out the right messages to the world about the business environment in the country. People still consider India to be a poor, developing country. India needs to come out, face the world and exclaim or rather shout, "Im the country who will become the superpower, the biggest economy of the world by 2050 in spite of all the corruption, and all the problem because I have the most important asset a country can have, I have 1 billion people with me." We need to realize, it’s us who have to take the initiative to make India the country it has the caliber to become. It’s no use in letting it be termed as the next superpower its better to make it one as soon as we can. We need to work together so that the world recognizes us as a better nation, even better than what they perceive us now.*This post is rubbish actually. I wanted to write about something but in the end, when I read it, its conveying something else. But its a free world and I can put it....waise bhi who reads it anyways.

Retired in Iceland!!!!!!

I have heard people say that the thought of retirement eats you. Just the idea of getting up in the morning and not knowing where to go, whom to meet and simply how to pass ur day makes you wonder how will the remaining days of your life pass. My internship ended on Friday, & my advisor left for Iran so I am in short retired in Iceland. I still have about 10 more days to enjoy this retired life in ICeland but its the second day and Im getting anxious and frustrated, if thats the right word, bored I wont say. Atleast the persons who retire at 60, have their grandsons to play with, I dont even have a "good" girl friend here, whom I can spend my evenings with, leave alone the whole day. The weekend was busy as all the weekends here have been. I thank Bing for taking me to the meditation center as I really like going there but the sad part is they dont assemble everyday, they do it on Fridays and Sundays only. Its jst Tuesday, and I dont know what to do. I cant prepone my tickets because I bought those cheap infexible tickets and now changing my schedule would cost around 30k INR, which is around 60% of my return ticket price from India. Moreover I dont know why, even after getting 6000 USD Im not even breaking even, short by 50k INR so Im not even thinking twice of making the ticket change. In a nut shell, I have 10 more days doing nothing in Iceland. Im planning to go to the north as its said to be very scenic and beautiful as all the places are here in Iceland. Lets see how this works out. But I tell you, sitting when you have nothing to do, eats you guys....so get work when you complete college..which I know we would get studying in the self proclaimed premier insitute of Information Technology and Management!!!

About Me

It’s sometimes in life that you feel that you have done something great. A thought comes to your mind, this is your time and the things you are doing are the things you have really wanted to do. You feel like dancing all along, shouting and making people know that you are happy and make them a part of your jubilation. You feel like taking everyone you meet for a cup of coffee. And you still feel that you had some more people to just say hello and spend some time with. You perceive that the complicated labyrinth of life has been simplified just a little bit and you know which path to tread. You feel like you are so near to accomplishing your goal and sometime or the other all the links would tie up together to make your journey to success possible. You feel that your loved ones, the persons who you care for and the ones who care for you, are happy and are celebrating your success. You feel complete within and sense of calmness prevails over you and you are excited at the same time as well. And yes, you think that your hard work has paid off and its time to enjoy all the hours you have put in studies and planning chores for your success. You think of thanking everyone who have made this dream possible. But then you think it might be a dream or it’s just the best period of your life and you get scared that it would end one day. Consequently you assume that the stars being on your side, it’s the time to try out everything, as everything would fall your way. Is it dream? But even if its not, it’s just the start of the journey called life, there’s a long path to go. Sensing all this, one would try to keep his cool and a good head on his shoulders and not let the fruits of hard work wither away. And if it’s a young fellow experiencing all this weird thoughts for the first time in his life, he needs to keep in cool and just enjoy the moment. Just believe that past and future are irrelevant and just live the moment. And if it’s your moment, try to live it to the fullest. And it’s a promise I’m sincerely doing that. I want to stay in Iceland and don’t want to come back now…..Sorry India!!!

That’s what Im these days………