I was in Pune on Tuesday and Wednesday … One to meet with clients and the second to attend Nasscom’s GIC conclave. Ofcourse all my personal Pune expectations were ticked off – Chitale Bandhu Bhakarvadi, Kayani’s Shrewsbury and surprisingly “butter”, Geetu’s awesome sabudana khichadi and roti upma, Kalyan Bhel, Natural ice cream, sugarcane juice and vada pav from a roadside eatery :):). Javed ditched meeting me and went off to Mumbai. He will be appropriately pulled up for such bad behavior. It was great to meet with Zeenat though after so many years ! Met Subbu on the sidelines of the Nasscom meeting and managed to go with him to “the” Chitale Bandhu store from where he would get me my “payment” at ISB.
The bonus was to drive past Osho’s ashram … Whatever they did to the buddhafield, Pune is blessed, because Osho’s energy is palpable !! I also saw the Magarpatta city for the first time, which reminded me of Hi-tech city in Hyderabad. The only flip side is Pune does not have Airtel 3G so my iPad was not connected to the net … Wifi is not as rampant so I felt disconnected.
On 16th I attended the Nasscom GIC conclave. Besides meeting old friends and colleagues, two sessions caught my attention. The first and the last session. The first session was by Ross Dawson, on Mega change: Tomorrow is here. He spoke of instant language translation through your smartphone, clothes as phones, self driven cars, digital currency… Computers as journalists (they might just be better and truly unbiased unlike some of the human journalists !), customers as designers, and the quasi holographic experience !! Phew – and guess what, this is not the future, it’s all here and now. 3 billion people access the internet nearly half the world’s population. Work can be done from anywhere. Fun.
The last session was by James Ketchell … The only man to have “rowed” across Atlantic, climbed Mt. Everest and cycled 18000 miles across the world – and he doesn’t have loads of money, he isn’t born to rich parents, he is a regular bloke who did all this just because he set his mind to it. He also spoke about doing what you love and in the face of severe adversity. In 2007 he was left with a fractured ankle in a race biking accident and the doctors thought he would have impaired mobility … And in 2010 he rowed across the Atlantic ! Impaired mobility ?? What’s that ?
Great two days in Pune – clients met, spent time with Geetu, ate the Pune specials and lots of learnings – some serious reinforcement of the fact that there is “nothing you cannot do … “