Stories from my conversation with Cab Drivers: A lost African Tribe in India

A tale of an individual from a lost African tribe in India

I have always maintained that India is a diverse land of culture, languages, religions, caste. Over the years, India, with open arms, welcomed individuals from different parts of the world. The statement got further stemmed when I met this interesting individual during one of my return trips, and when I ordered took a local cab at Mumbai International Airport, Terminal 2.

Travel tip: If you land at Mumbai International Airport (Terminal 2) - Don't take Ola or Uber services, go and take the local Taxi service. They are more reliable, quick and also has a variety of options (A/C, Non-A/C and Women only Cabs)

My ritual when I sit in the cab is to ask the cab driver how is it going? When did they start their day? Be prepared, that sometimes you would not get an answer, and I have experienced that due to whatever reasons, the individual has chosen to give a curt response or ignore.

So this trip and day would not have been different, and as soon as I settled down, I asked my key question. He mentioned to me that he had started his day at 10 pm (I had landed at 11 pm on an International flight) and would continue till 5 or 6 am. He went to mention that he is a widower, with sons working and he wants to remain independent and working. Without prompting, he said that he is 72 years old.

Post this brief talk, I was confident that he is open for a conversation, and then I asked him where is he from? He asked me straight up, why did I ask that? I was a little taken aback and felt that I probably offended him in asking that question. After a few seconds of pause, I asked him did I offend him, and the answer from his side was 'No'. He quickly smiled and said that he is an African. At this time, I was astonished, silent, and all sorts of thoughts started running in my head. He smiled again, don't worry, I am very much a legal citizen and born in India. He said that the very less known fact in India is that there has been a small African community of sixty thousand plus individuals living in India, known as Siddi. In the early years, this community had settled and created their habitat in the southern part of India, however with urbanization, it dispersed the majority of them across India. He said that his wife was a Gujarati, and his children have each chosen religion of their choice rather than enforcing something on them. 

My ride home from Mumbai International Airport (Terminal 2) is not more than 25 minutes, so I was nearing the end of the conversation. Before I could reach home, I asked him, so how does it feel to be in India? The answer he gave made me feel proud, humbled, and beaming with a smile, his response - "I am a legal and proud citizen of India with an African origin." 

He made my day, and I wanted to spend more time and have a conversation with a friendly and fantastic individual. However, to my dismay, my trip ended and had to say 'Goodbye' to him.

I continue to have such conversations and like to take notes from such exciting interviews with the cab drivers. I look forward to sharing them with you more in my future blog post. Chao..

Power Series: Podcasts for Personal and Professional Development.

In my previous posts of “How I continue to Simplify my life,” I had recommended listening to Podcasts as an excellent medium for Personal and Professional development. I got introduced to Podcasts by my good friend and colleague - David McBride, and thanks to him, I love the Podcasts experience. Podcasts are long-form content, and my personal opinion is that you cannot just listen to it, probably like the music. However, you can put it on during long commute or other opportunities where you have less distraction, and you can focus on what the hosts or individuals who are speaking to gain knowledge.

The list of Podcasts that I am recommending is not exhaustive but are a few of the favorite ones which I have subscribed too and look forward to the content and gain inspiration.

Masters of Scale

A mini MBA personally for me. I have gained a lot of knowledge from this series.

PODCAST

The Disruptive Entrepreneur

Highly recommend Grant Cordone interviews.

Podcast

Digital Analytics Power Hour

Recommended for individuals who are building their career in Digital Analytics

Podcast

Happy Market Research

Highly recommended for individuals who are within the Market Research industry.

Podcast

Though I would keep adding to the list, I would recommend each of these Podcasts series do not have good episodes. Like any song or movie, you would need to read what the content or topic is going to be about or who the interviewee is all about. Once you do the research then go ahead and stand committed to the Podcasts.

Do let me know your thoughts on these and if you have more such recommendations then do post it on the comments box. Chao..

Power Series: Observation (a key learning principle in 2020 and beyond)

I am a father of two great boys. Being with them and see them grow has been one of the most rewarding experiences for me. Over the last decade seeing my elder one grow and adopt skills has made me go back to a fundamental question - how do kids learn things which we didn’t intend them to learn or have taught them? I am sure you are aware of what I am talking about and surprises or laughs or moments we all have experienced as parents. Observing them and listening to them has taught me a lot, and I have embraced this concept further in the last five years of my personal and professional experience.

I have shared earlier that my work takes me to places and often to areas and situations which I haven’t experienced before. This brings in areas of learning which I have been imbibing on by merely observing. Observational learning has been an age-old practice where a lot of scholars have researched and written about it. Today I see it fading or not getting much attention apart from science experiments or sports in the age of AI. We are relying on technology to do the observation and then learn from it rather than imbibing it wholly in our day-to-day. The world is evolving at a rapid speed, and just reading or listening would not teach us enough to be successful in the present and prepare for the future.

There are four primary stages of observational learning: a) Attention, b) Retention/Memory, c) Motor/Practice, and finally d) Motivation.

Just observing doesn’t help, actual replication or practice would improve the learning to be more profound. Since I land up in new places, you mustn’t get alienated or be looked upon as out of place. My practice on observational learning is focussed on the following areas

1. Communication structures: Whether it is a new city, country, restaurant, or professional setup, you can learn about the cultural nuances and communication structures just by observing people, the things kept, or what drives or motivates or make individuals happy. More so within a professional setup, whether in a meeting, conference calls, or the broader organization on how the office setup is, or calls/meetings get conducted, who sits where, how does the communication flow define the organization culture. In my current role, it is critical to understand the organization, so observational learning helps me to work with my customers and the broader organization better.

2. Organization Structures: Leading a substantial sales and consultancy organization requires one to coach and lead the team to analyze and understand how to do the budget, decisions, and information flows within an organization. It can be achieved by just observing the organization structures, how does the email communication flow, and, more importantly, asking the critical questions enable to decipher the culture of the organization.

3. Technology Knowledge: Technology is evolving at a rapid rate, and there are increased technology proliferation and quite a bit of similar feature sets across different products. Observational learning plays a more significant role today in the age of Technology as it allows me personally to grasp what need does the platform addresses and similar or dissimilar functions between the two sets of technologies belonging to the same category.

No one can call themselves an observational learning expert. It is more of experiential learning as well, and the more you get exposed to that area of interest and observe with practice over a while would help you to be a more natural observational learner.

If you practice this type in areas that I haven’t mentioned, then I would love to hear about it. Chao..

Stories from my conversation with Cab Drivers: A Sri Lankan Refugee

A tale of Sri Lankan Refugee

During my trip to London, I ordered a Lyft from Terminal 2 (Queens Terminal) and had been allocated this gentleman. When I sat in the cab, we started having a conversation. We exchanged notes from where each one of us was from. He did say that he is from SriLanka. Then my curiosity sparked, and I asked how long have you been in the UK. He then got excited to tell his story. He did mention that he was in Mumbai for a couple of months before he got on a flight outside the country. His first pit stop was to be Paris (France), his agent had mentioned to him that before they land, he needs to visit the restroom and tear the passport and flush it in the toilet. Whattt….

Anyways, he was scared to do that and he didn’t end up tearing the passport. Apparently, when a Sri Lankan lands in Paris, he can claim that he doesn’t have any documents and claim refugee status. However since he did have the passport, his final destination was a place in Africa, he was shipped to the African continent. When he landed there, he didn’t speak french and went to a cab stop. A good samaritan cab driver found him and took him to a nearby hotel. There a lady (whom he later said that she was like his mother), who took him in and took care of him. He worked with the lady for about 3 years, and one of his guests who arrived at the leg end of the three years asked him what he was doing. He recited his story and mentioned that he wanted to go to UK, however, what happened to him in Paris. Apparently the guest was on a honeymoon and mentioned that he used to work in Dubai, UAE at a hotel. The owner of that hotel in UAE was a Sri Lankan, who had ensured that his (the guest) job is always safe even through the recession. The guest told my cab driver that since you are a Sri Lankan, I would sponsor your trip to London. So now this time, he did not commit the same mistake and before he landed in the UK, he tore his passport and flushed it. When he approached the immigration, he claimed no documents and was given a refugee status with a work permit in six months within the UK.

So my inquisitiveness grew and I asked him where did he stay and survive for 6 months before he could actually work. He then proudly said, that today in the UK there are approximately more than 500k Sri Lankans with uncles, aunties, and friends who are helpful and also took care of him. Then I asked him, how much did he pay initially and what does it take to come to the UK from Sri Lankan. Apparently the agents used to take 22 years ago 30,000 Pounds and now it has gone up to 50,000 Pounds.

There were many other topics we spoke off, about the politics in SriLanka, his perspective on Brexit and many other things. One of the other interesting facts he mentioned that many Indians who are Tamilians are also adopting the same path of claiming that they are Sri Lankans. Since many international destinations do not know the difference between Indian and Sri Lankans. Only a Sri Lankan or Indian knows the difference by the minute differences in the dialect.

At then he did say, that over the years he has been blessed to be helped by many people and he is really thankful to them. With a sense of gratitude, today he tries to do the same and help anyone whom he comes across who needs help and do whatever it takes in his capacity to help.

When he dropped me, I was astonished, happy, and anxious at the same time.

I would continue to add to the stories series. If you have come across an interesting story from your experience speaking to a cab driver, please do share. Chao..

Product Review: IPad Pro 12.9 with 1 TB

My family and friends call me a gadget freak or “gadget man”.

Over the years, I have made significant investments in technology, not to hoard or to succumb to FOMO (fear of missing out). Still, I look at technology to exponentially simplify and enhance my personal and professional life.

When I first made a tablet investment, I had Samsung products. But post my switch to an IOS ecosystem, I moved my tablet preference over to Apple when the Pencil got introduced. I am a big note taker as I like to scribble my notes, thoughts, and perspectives in personal and professional life. But the investment in a Tablet has not just been for records and to replace the planners/journals, but as the usage and technology improved, it has moved in many other forms.

With the latest updates to IOS, the tablet software has far improved, and earlier this year, I made a switch to the beast tablet (it is also called the Cadillac of Tablets) the “IPAD Pro 12.9 with 1 TB WIFI only” product. The investment in technology has been one of the best to date. Here are some features which I am often using on my IPad.

1. Sidecar: I am a big believer in leveraging dual screen to get work optimized. More so, if you are in writing, I would highly recommend leveraging screens as it allows you to focus your effort on writing, and all research and reference content can be managed on the second/extended screen.

2. Note Taking: I am a big scribbler of my thoughts, notes, and perspectives from personal and professional life. Note-taking helps me remember, immediately document my thoughts and ideas, and, more importantly, help me be focussed. I would do a thorough review of the note-taking apps, and over the years, have used a variety of them - Evernote, Apple Notes, NotesPro, GoodNotes, etc.

3. Reading: Though I like the feeling of holding and reading physical books and hardcovers, my travel schedule doesn’t allow me to lag the books around. I would share my travel light concepts latter; however, for me, every gram of weight makes a big difference. Hence my IPad doubles up as my reading companion. My subscription to Amazon Kindle allows me to read books and also gain information.

4. Audiobooks: Let me be honest, I cannot spend a lot of time reading non-fiction books, and Amazon Audible has been a big rescue for me. Listening to books on airplanes, car rides or my morning walks has really helped me get through the knowledge or listen to books which I would have not been able to spend time reading them. Naturally, all books would never make it to Audible as some books are definitely meant to be read in a physical format.

5. Podcast: I was introduced to Podcast last year, and since then I have been binging on it for quite a while now. I have over a period of time subscribed to a few of the podcasts, which I like to listen to. I would put together a list of podcasts on a separate list. Podcasts a great medium to gain knowledge, some of them also go deeper into a specific domain or knowledge area.

6. Watching: This is last on my list and it only comes to me on the IPad only if I do want to take a break and watch something which can take my mind away from day-to-day work. I would recommend keep all your Netflix or Amazon Video apps on the IPAD on 3rd Screen (if you have too many apps) or buried in a folder to ensure they are not there on your face.

Naturally, the IPad has many accessories, and if you are serious about getting the accessories my recommendation is here.

• Apple Pencil

• IPad Cover: I would highly recommend the product and do not go in for the Apple Original Cover as with 1/5th the cost you are able to protect your IPad without adding too much weight. If you plan to have a keyboard with your IPad then this is not for you.

• HyperDrive Hub - This really helps to take the IPad to the next level. You can add external devices or transfer media/content from your IPad to another platform pretty easy.

Another hack that I would like to share which I did when buying an Apple IPad Pro, I would recommend you to look at ‘Renewed’ products on Amazon.com (the US only) or Facebook Marketplace to see if you can pick an open box or seldom-used product. I myself bought my IPad as a renewed product and to my surprise, it was net new without any signs of used or renewed. Here is the link to the renewed product on Amazon.com. I bought mine $700 cheaper so was a great deal and with all the money saved I was able to buy the accessories. You can also buy the Asurion product protection which gives you peace of mind from an insurance perspective.

Let me know your experience of using IPad Pro and any unique usage scenarios. Chao..

Power Series: 'T' Shaped

How to have a fulfilling career?

Learning shouldn’t stop, focus on growth and strengths….

I have now been working for the last 22 years, and my career has been rewarding. If someone asks me today if I had a chance to redo it again, what would change? I would say that probably it would not take me 22 years to get where I am, and probably would have done it in less than a decade. I am not saying experience is not important, experience provides one scenario and opportunities to learn. However, If I had to shape my career and work on a path, I would do it differently.

This is the same question I get asked by many individuals within my teams or I come across. They want to know how can they also get to where I am or similar to my position within the corporate ecosystem. Well, there are a few things which I have worked on and found to be successful and at the same time have observed in others. I would talk about the topic of ‘Observation’ in the other Power Series.

There are some critical steps or evaluations I recommend to individuals which is a leaf from my own growth book:

1. The big goal: I always recommend to folks to take a step back and dream. What is your ultimate level within the corporate ecosystem you would like to achieve? Often than not, the rat race makes each one of us focus on the next level, which we end up spending our time and energy on. Once we achieve that, we are left again dissatisfied as you want to prepare for the next immediate level. My advice has always been aiming higher and look for an aspirational role. Everything in between your current and the future state would automatically come as you are preparing for a larger role.

2. Know your strengths and harness them (your ‘I’): Everyone is unique and we are not built equal. Each one of us needs to identify our strengths and more importantly what we are passionate about, also what makes us happy? The self-learning and identification process enables an individual to map the strengths. Once identified, my recommendation is to get so good at it that you would like to see yourself as the best and if you perform on the stage for that skill/strength, you would win it.

3. The goal maps and completes your T (the ‘—’ line for ‘T’): Once you have identified your big goal, and map the path, it is important to understand and research the various skills you would require to be successful in that big goal role. You don’t need to be great or expert in each of those skills, but awareness and how do those come together for the jobs to be done.

This awareness and building of ‘T’ have enabled me, my industry peers, as well as people whom I admire. More importantly the ‘T’ needs to evolve and cannot be static or set in stone as due to the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) nature of the world we live in, it is critical to constantly evaluate (preferably every year) to map and understand what makes sense to be part of the ‘T’ and what needs to add/drop.

If you have counter thoughts or have recommendations for the readers would like to hear your feedback or suggestions. Chao..