The First 100

Henry David Thoreau was a hero to me in high school, we had his story in our English text book. One of his famous quotes runs like this "The very basic core of man's living spirit is his passion for adventure". I never did attempt an adventure anywhere close to the great philosopher himself, but I can safely say my spirit was rekindled during these first 100 days at Novartis akin to an adventure.

Here is what I learnt...

1.     Great culture is the cornerstone of success: You cannot ignore the difference once you step into a Novartis campus. The respect employees carry for each other, the energy they bring along, the deep sense of time consciousness and many such. It is great to see the company is steadily moving towards realizing its vision and attempts to do it un-bossed. For an outsider, it may sound impossible but these 100 days in Novartis taught me that it is actually the only way! The genesis of my learning and what I say later in this blog has its seed in Novartis's invigorating culture.

2.     Your job isn't the most important thing: Quite contradictory right ? In popular Telugu culture there is a saying - "Inta gelichi raccha geluvu" meaning - "Win at home first and then attempt outside". True to its sense, my attempts at improving life at home with my wife and kid has had a progressive influence on the way I performed at work. It gave me a great deal of satisfaction, energy and zeal to bring value in office. In every way, it was during the time in Novartis and because of its employee centric policies that has opened up the avenues for me to attain a balance.

3.     Always make yourself uncomfortable: Remember the scene from Mission Impossible II (2000), Tom Cruise climbing the Rockies slips and then precariously hangs by the cliff at which point he does something totally unexpected - HE SMILES! As a teenager it appealed to me back then in a different way, but I started watching this over and over again the past few months and realized there is absolutely no learning without the feelings of 'out of place', 'I don't know a thing about this', 'this is overwhelming', 'this is intimidating'. Some examples of how I put myself in these feelings in the last 100 days

• I started mentoring students on Statistics and Business Analytics, I have given close to 10 sessions till now and my feedback rating grew exponentially.
• I nominated myself for a standup comedy act at the Open Mic Gig at Novartis Hyderabad, something I never did in my life. I prepared hard with a script that I painstakingly put together, but it was a disaster in the end. I was disappointed but I spent many hours afterward improving my act and learnt a lot about humor.
• I started posting on Yammer - never used the official social network prior to Novartis and I'm only enjoying it.
• Attended a session on Google Cloud and subsequently read and learnt quite a bit about the ways cloud technologies can benefit business.

Novartis is indeed shaping me up into a risk (however small) taking individual.

4.     The skills you possess are far less important: Yes, they are far less important than the attitude you bring to work. During a visit to the NASA space center in 1962, President JFK, noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and said, "Hi, I'm Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?" "Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." I too witness this elderly lady from the facilities department in Novartis Hyderabad who smiles and greets everyone every single day, while joyously performing her duties. Such is the atmosphere here, that when I look around I see employees with a smile on their face and their head held high, the positive energy I feel here electrifies me.

 

5.     The person at the helm need not be someone in a 3 piece suit. After his election to Presidency, Barack Obama traveled the world meeting dignitaries on behalf of the United States and what a great example he set! I get the same feeling when our CEO pops up in a new country every other week with his power packed message to our colleagues - of course without the 3 piece :-).





I'm eagerly looking forward to what is in store and my guns are all loaded to take every opportunity head on.



Do you think I missed something ? Feel free to comment and share.

Technology - Wow Factor!

In the movie Steve Jobs (2015), the protagonist played by the super talented Michael Fassbender says to his marketing head "If I want to tell you there is a spot on the shirt, I point to the spot, I don't say there is a spot 14cm down from the collar, 3cm to the right of the second button while I try to remember what the command is for club soda. That's not how a person's mind works".

As I watched that scene, I remarked that the Operating System experience from DOS to Windows (Steve Jobs was referring to the Mac obviously) was indeed a great Wow moment for me back in 1996 when I was only a kid.

My first job was in the IT industry and I have been affiliated to it for more than a decade now. However, I always kept technology at least a few feet away to not embrace it. I only thought of it as a means for me to earn my living.

My true yearning was always in art, history and the like. To give a few examples, when a historian like William Darlymple releases a new book, I had to buy and read it and then explore the same places explained in the book in the cities of Delhi and Hyderabad - on foot. When Amit Trivedi comes up with a new set of soulful music numbers, I had to listen and get lost in them for days. When a trailer of Dennis Villeneuve's latest film is out, I had to watch it several hundred times and get into the mood before eventually watching the film and then spend days critically analyzing it. These are only but a few examples where I splendor-ed and experienced art right into my DNA.

In the same spirit, I never did ponder over my experiences of technology. Beyond the office environment, the friends I made, the ups on downs in the life, I realized I always had this constant companion but I had a rather detached - indifferent feeling about it. So, without waiting further I start inking down some of my Wow! moments in using technology.

1. When using a personal computer for the first time - 1994
2. When using the first Windows machine - 1996
3. When using Yahoo Messenger to voice chat with my cousins in the US - 2000
4. When writing a C program to arrange a set of numbers in the shape of a triangle - In 2002
5. When I analyzed the forces on all the load bearing elements of one of the buildings in our college using STAAD.Pro software - 2004
6. When listening to music on an IPod - 2007
7. Using Pandora to help me with music recommendations - 2009
8. When I used to continuously bother my friends to Shazam any interesting music that we hear to know the track name, artist, album etc. Then go back home and download the same - 2010
9. When using Bluetooth to transfer a music track from one device to another - 2010. I vividly remember one of my friends saying "Is the file moving in thin air?"
10. When I ordered a taxi on Uber on my first smart phone in 2017 (Yes, I purposely stayed away from smart phones until that long!!)
11. When creating a new Virtual Machine on the Google Cloud - I created a new virtual machine with 2CPUs, 75 GB RAM and a 64 TB persistent disk, installed NGINX web server in less than 5 minutes!! - 2019

None of the above are out of the world, yet they are simple, sweet and innocent.  As I started analyzing the list further, I came to understand that the real reason for my affinity towards them were

• Finesse
• Simplicity
• Empathy

Finesse by means of brining in great skill and expertise, Simplicity to be able to convey the meaning and purpose in an easy to understand way; Empathy in a way to establish a deep connection with the human element.

Now the funny thing here is, all these are the same reasons I love any piece of art as well!​

This is you life

"only after disaster can we be resurrected

it's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything

nothing is static, everything is evolving,everything is falling apart

you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake

you are the same decaying organic matter as everything else

we are all a part of the same compost heap

we are the all-singing,all-dancing crap of the world

you are not your bank account

you are not the clothes you wear

you are not the contents of your wallet

you are not your bowel cancer

you are not your grande latte

you are not the car you drive

you are not your fucking khakis

you have to give up"

               - Tyler Durden

how is Tyler's philosophy different from that of Adi Sankaracharya's 'Advaita' ?

The meaning of

Open it up, tear apart the societal norms
Do not accept anything for granted
Understand and acquire everything first hand

I now know what I want to do with my life!

Honesty

"The best of art is simple and honest to the core" Oscar

One

One madness to rely upon when sane
One emptiness to open to when among the dear
One sting to irritate you when feeling comfortable
One pain biting you when its healthy
One flash of stupidity bringing relief from smartness
One unique language to speak when the regular can express so well
One such to complete you

Just one passion.
(It's within)

Blown Away!

Not so long ago....


Spilt wine, sunglasses and the leather jacket

It is 11:35 PM, there is wine on the floor of the study and AC/DC just finished playing for a non stop 60 minutes. Travis gets up from his couch and slowly walks towards the mirror inside the bath room. Everything is gloomy and warm as he realizes he is wearing sun glasses and a leather jacket.He does not remember why, but pockets the glasses, takes off the jacket and looks at his own eyes in the mirror. It is very quiet, so he can hear the sound of his breath. After a few moments of eye to eye contact, his dry lips separate from each other and he just smiles!

The same old pasta

Edna opens the door and welcomes Travis with a big wide smile. He returns a half hearted smile and slumps into his rocker. Edna walks into the kitchen.

“Glad you decided to come back home for dinner” she says while arranging the table. “It is so cold outside and its better you come home early and stay warm.” 

Travis looks at the wall clock as it ticks 7:15 PM. 

“Did you get the fruit cake?”  Edna seeming very curious.

 “Uhhhh” Travis sounding irritated. 

“Thats fine, forget the cake. I made pasta today!!” excited, looking at him from the dining table.

“Uffffffffff the same old ” he mumbles and throws his wallet and a pack of Marlboros from his pocket onto a table in front of him. 

A few minutes of silence. 

“Hey, just come and sit here with me and forget the food for a while.” She does not respond and continues to set the table. “Edna...........darling ?”

“What do you want to talk about ? Your work or the ‘same old’ pasta?” she commands. “And you promised you would quit smoking” She topples a chair onto the floor, walks into the bedroom and slams the door.

Travis gets up from his seat for a minute and sits down staring at the clock!

The first drink

It is 8:30 PM and he takes off his coat, walks to his bar and picks up a Pinot Blanc and a glass along with it. Marches to his study and locks the door gently behind him. Relaxes on the couch and gulps a big portion of the wine straight from the bottle.

Goddamn you

“Hey Peter, how is it going man ?” Travis talks on the phone trying to be cheerful. 

“Bingo, you called at the right time buddy.” Peter whispers loudly. 

“Is it ? Listen, about tonight...” before Travis says another word, 

“Yes it is still on but the time is now 7:00 PM. The place is still the same. You, me, Sandy and her friend. All you need to do is eat and keep her friend company and I do my talking.”

“Hmm,hmm....” Travis sounding doubtful

“What ?” Peter asks

“Well, did not have a great day , why don’t just you and me go together and have a few peaceful drinks ?” Travis says sensing trouble

“Come on, you promised me a week ago” Peter disappointed

“I promise, I’ll do it next week. But for today, I need my friend” Travis trying to patch up.

“Goddamn you! And what about me? I don’t understand what goes on in that mind of yours. You had a bad day, I get it. I had many such but tell me if I ever spoiled your plans ?” Peter not at all happy.

A few seconds of quietude

“I’m very sorry” Travis shaking his head

“Very well then.....” “beep, beep” Peter hangs up

Travis rubs his forehead with his left hand and holds it there for a while. 

He checks his wrist watch , it is 4:40PM, makes another phone call “Edna, I’ll be back home for dinner. Uhh, but I’ll be late”

“Yeah, all right, I’ll get it on my way back” says that before hanging up.

AC DC

He wakes up suddenly as if someone jolted him. The time is 10:05 PM. Walks to the trendy CD tower rack and points to the row labelled ‘Bow to the 70s’. “Zeppelin, Stones, Floyd, Aerosmith, Beach Boys, Deep Purple, AC......” he reads within himself. Stares at the AC /DC album and looks up at the music player and then around the room.

He starts moving the things in the room and Edna wakes up due to the noise. She smells craziness in the air and goes back to sleep.

It is 15 minutes of heavy work, and panting, he takes another big gulp, and closes his eyes. Pours the rest of it in the glass and sits down. The time is 10:30 PM.

It is 8:15 AM

He lifts his head sleepily from between his hands resting over a pile of paperwork . Next to him is his laptop which has been powered on all night. He looks at his wrist watch and it is 8:15 AM.

“Oh crap!” and then rushes out of the study. “Why the hell didn’t you wake me up ?” he shouts out at Edna who is sipping coffee in the drawing room. 

“Wow, did you doze off in the study ? I thought you had left early today as you told me you had to be at work soon.” Edna confused. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, only a miracle can take me to office by 8:30 AM and you do remember my dinner is outside today” Travis says dressing himself up.

Still in 20th century

The time is 9:30 AM and Travis barges into a conference room with at least 10 colleagues already sitting there.”Sorry, I’m late folks” raising both his hands. 

“Can you give me just 10 minutes. I’m ready with my presentation” he whispers to his boss while sitting next to him.”

His boss raises his eyes and talks in a voice audible to everyone in the room. 

“There is no need for that. When we saw you didn’t make it on time, the new kid Barry stood up to the occasion. We like his idea and are ready to go with it”

Barry stands up and addresses the meeting. “I thank you all for listening to me. I’m new here and will work hard to live up to the expectations of this company." He says with extra confidence and sits down while giving a sly smile to Travis.

Everyone in the room starts to leave. Travis stands outside waiting for his boss and when he comes out.

“Sir, this project was so important to me and I haven’t literally slept for a week. You have to give me a chance.”

“I don’t like your attitude Travis and only partially liked your ideas in the past. This is an advertising agency and you have to keep pace with what is going on RIGHT NOW around the world.” says the boss very firmly. “To put it in simple words, you are still living in the 20th century..and this is not! If you need another chance, you got to keep up!”

The boss walks away but Travis is still standing.

Blown Away

The study looks totally rearranged now. The big desk and the chair are pushed to the corner. The couch is moved to the center and on one side the wine glass sits on a table. On the other side is a lamp. The old fashioned speaker is kept a few feet in front of the couch and the lamp is now glowing.

He hits play and the first song to play is ‘Thunderstruck’ (ofcourse)

The volume is at Level 10 and he closes his eyes.

(wahahahahahahahahahahahaaa....)

“What do you want to talk about ? Your work or the ‘same old’ pasta?”

He increases the volume to 30

(Thunder , Thunder, Thunder..........)

“Goddamn you! And what about me? I don’t understand what goes on in that mind of yours”

Volume goes up to 50

(The base guitar) 

“To put it in simple words, you are still living in the 20th century..and this is not!”

Volume goes to max now

(THUNDER!!)

That's it! No more voices in the mind, No more compulsions, No more rules, No more senses.

Its just pure magic in the air and glare in the room!

Oh yes!

PS : The above poster has been hanging on our drawing room wall for more than an year now. It says in bold letters,  “Steve Steigman The Weaver Gallery”. Me and my roommate were always proud of it, as it somehow made the room along with us look very cool! 

The above story is a tribute to the photographer who clicked this shot, the hypothetical person Travis who posed for it, and of course my room mate Dev Satija who shares the same passion towards the picture as I do!

What about you ? The comments section below is all yours :-)