Skip to main content

To a year on ... is add to maturity

It's been another year of life - I turned 25 yesterday. It feels great to acknowledge to yourself on such days that you have a place on earth and in hearts of few people as well.

I personally am slightly careless and forgetful person when it comes to my own self ;-) and there have been more than one occasion when I forgot my own birthday. But yesterday was not so, thanks to my parents, relatives and friends who kept reminding me of the occasion since past 2 weeks. And the number of phone calls I received from midnight till midnight made my day.

Payal called up from the US, and what was meant to be a 2 minute call to wish me turned out to be a 45 minute chat from Professional Life to Indian Politics. Same was the case when Hemant called up from Geneva - we discussed projects, dreams and more - I felt that I have rolled a few balls in the past 25 years. 'Twas a great feeling to get all expected calls from relatives, friends and acquaintances. To add were the many mails that kept flowing into my mailbox whole day.

There were unexpected events as well. Little ones like getting a call right at the midnight stroke from Ashita and Milind (almost simultaneously), getting a call from a totally unexpected acquaintance to the biggest surprise of all - a mass mailer for me on the Arbit Choudhury mailing list.

In fact, my deep(er) involvement in Arbit Choudhury was a secret, I was anyway planning to reveal on my blog since quite some time; but hadn't ever thought it would come out this way. Arbit Choudhury was initially just another innovative idea that we floated during the heady days of MastishK '04, two years ago. However, its unprecedented popularity made it a special feature amongst the other innovations. And finally, when we parted ways with MastishK as core team members, handing over the baton to juniors - Arbit was our only "take-home".

During MastishK, I was so busy with other aspects of the event that I had abandoned the charge of all activities related to Arbit to Hemant and Shubham. So, when we decided to spin off Arbit as a venture independent of MastishK, it was on the face a decision taken purely by both of them. This has been true for all other initiatives and decisions made with respect to Arbit till date. However, what few people know is that, I was always an implicit part of the team of 'Fathers' (as we internally call ourselves). Slowly, as I got disengaged with all operational responsibilities of MastishK, my involvement with Arbit grew to the extent that I am today as deeply involved with it as Hemant and Shubham are. And like many other ventures Arbit has become a passion.

It felt great yesterday to see my birthday being declared in the Arbit Choudhury fortnightly mailer also acknowledging my hidden role in the venture since its inception. I would probably remember this birthday of mine for this reason all my life.

To sum up 'its another year' but a crucial one - Arey! Silver Jubilee ho gai yaar !! Another thought which gets impressed is that its been quite some time on planet earth and high time to execute all that one has been planning for all this while. Just hoping that I will be able to succeed in achieving my dreams in the years to come!
And if you are still wondering where I stole that post title from - it was the subject of mail sent by a Sr. Manager to me for my birthday.

Comments

  1. No great concept is a creation of a single individual.. Same is the case with Arbit Choudhury.. Ever since he was 1st conceived in Room No. 241 & 242, Hostel 2, NITIE.. many people have played different, yet important roles in his growth and development.. When I look back at Arbit's evolution, I cannot help but feel that Arbit would not have been the same without each and every one of those contirubutions.. But the most important people in Arbit's life are those who belived in him from the begining, and who supported him when everyone else was rediculing the concept..
    As Arbit's "Unofficial" Father, you will always have a special place in his heart..
    Happy B'day Again!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How will travel industry transform post-Covid

Unlike philosophers, journalists and teenagers, the world of entrepreneurship does not permit the luxury of gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future. An entrepreneur’s world is instead made of MVPs (Minimum Viable Product), A/B Tests, launching products, features or services and gauging / measuring their reception in the market to arrive at verifiable truths which can drive the business forward. Which is why I have never written about my musings or hypothesis about travel industry – we usually either seek customer feedback or launch an MVPised version and gather market feedback. However, with Covid-19 travel bans across the globe, the industry is currently stuck – while a lot of industry reports and journalistic conjectures are out, there’s no definitive answer to the way forward. Besides there is no way to test your hypothesis since even the traveller does not know what they will do when skies open. So, I decided to don my blogger hat and take the luxury of crystal gazing

A Guide to Privacy on Social Media [apps]

The recent announcement by WhatsApp to update its privacy terms - and 'accept or leave the app' stance - led to an exodus of users from Whastapp to competing, privacy-conscious apps such as Telegram or Signal. A week after the exodus began, Whatsapp clarified its stance - and WhatsApp's CEO went about providing a long Twitter clarification . And then, many returned, many who considered moving stayed put on Whatsapp. This post is meant for those who are still sitting on the fence - it clarifies questions like: What is this all about? What do I do? Is Whatsapp safe? I've heard Telegram is Russian - so how is it safer than Whatsapp? I can't move because my business contacts are on Whastapp - how do I secure myself? PS: I've modeled this post based on several conversations I've had with friends and family on this subject, dealing with the chain of questions they ask, then objections they raise, then clarifications they seek - and finally the change resistance

Ekla Chalo re

Watched "Bose- The forgotten Hero" on Saturday. Gem of a movie and probably the best of Shyam Benegal. Subhash Chandra Bose has always been an inspiring character in the history for the youth. This post however is not about the movie, its about the lead song 'Tanha Rahee' which is based on the poem 'Ekla Chalo Re' by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. I had pasted the English translation of this poem on my blog earlier. http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-times_30.html However, yesterday I found the original bengali text of the poem and found that the meaning in the above translation was not exact. So I have endeavourer (with the help of Shubham ) to re-translate it into English and Hindi by myself. Here is the output of my work: Bengali Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na Asse Tobe Ekla Chalo re Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalore Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai Ore Ore O Abhaga Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay Tabe Paran Khule O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Kath