All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
JRR Tolkien
This has been a few days overdue. I am back from yet another internship. Singapore, Zurich, London, Bristol and now Boston. I have added another city to my list of summer cities. This also shows that I have been in school for too long! Anyways Boston, as a city, charmed me. Vibrant, energetic, kind and fun. Newyork and to a small extent London scare me. Maybe its their huge size, maybe I didn't meet the right people or go to the right places, or maybe I just didn't visit at the right time of the year. But with Boston everything went right. The panoramic cruise on Charles river, the hookah spots in downtown, the chic European Newbury Street, the beautiful Boston Commons, winding historic freedom trail, the fireworks on Harvard bridge, the huge number of students in Cambridge, the poshness & splendor of Beacon Hill, Memorial Drive and how can I forget the lifeline of Boston - the 'T'.
Needless to say, the soul of every city are its people. I was really lucky to have meet a bunch of great Bostonians - Neha,Suhas,Umang. My fondness of the city or the amazing times I had would no where be near to what it was, had it not been for them.
What struck me most about Boston was the number of things it packs for not too big a size. I used to think that Stanford and Berkeley are pretty close to each,(about an hour's drive apart) but Harvard and MIT take it to a different level. They are just a 20 min walk away from each other. It was amazing walking on Mass Av and feeling the transition. On a personal front, something in me says that I have unfinished business with Boston. Hopefully someday I'll have the opportunity to finish it.
On another note, I went to London again this summers. Somebody there asked me, which is my favorite city? That is something I don't know yet. But what I do know is that each city has added something to me and widened my perspective. Living or having an extended stay in the city is very different from visiting a city. When you visit a city you just see the essence of the city, do the 'touristy' stuff. This is in no way to ridicule or take away from the fact that visiting a place can throw up some amazing moments. But when you live in a city you get to absorb the characteristics of the place - the energy, the spirit, the attitude and this shapes your personality in many different ways. It adds to you as a person, you make new friends, helps you understand yourself and teaches you to live better. Most importantly it makes you realize that you can survive on your own. The sense of accomplishment that you get after,is worth the effort. Totally worth it.
"You seem so calm."
These are the best words I have heard in these days of sleeping in time slices and working working and working even more. I can't complain, I couldn't be working harder at a better place.
"You know what your calling is. Its very easy to lose focus, just don't wander off or get distracted. "
Sometimes you know a few things all along, but just need to hear it aloud once in a while.
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I need to learn to turn my mind on and off, more importantly I need to learn to do it at the right times.
My advice for making it easier on taking leaps of faith? Go canyoning in beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland. It will put things in perspective in relation to life, making this leap of faith in entrepreneurship seem a lot easier. I was just there 3 weeks ago, and there was a point where I had to jump off one rock, bounce my back off another rock, and slide down about one story high into deep freezing water from the Alps. Was I scared? You bet. You only had one chance to get it right, no practice. After the initial jump, it’s all gravity. Did I jump? I did. It was a leap of faith that I would survive. My life flashed me by as I leaped ..
The Imagine It video, the song in background - 'I believe I can fly' - was an old personal favourite.
Couldn't help but post The Midas List of the top deal makers of the world. Incidentally, India got 4% of the venture capital funding, behind US, France, UK and same as China.
Nice read. Dream on!
Incidentally, this happens to be my 100th Post!
Haven't been here since some time, the reasons for which can be attributed to a mixture of plain laziness, to being genuinely busy, to catching up on important things like sleep and also to certain things that I didn't like doing at all - homework.
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First quarter at Stanford went too fast for my liking. The damn *10 week* quarter is too short for lazy people like me. One of the most important lessons, that I have to take forward, is to manage my time better. It wasn't a walk in the park, it wasn't supposed to be either.
Another important thing that I realized was that this is not Europe(duh!). Across the Atlantic taking it easy on a Friday afternoon is a done deal, here slogging through the weekend is not uncommon.
The most important thing is to find the balance. The balance that defines who you are, the balance to make sure that you are not always running after destinations, but enjoying the journey as well. Knowing when to push the pedal and when to take it easy is an art, and not a science. You learn only when you do it.
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One of the nice things about Stanford is getting to hear from so many people in the industry(Also you get free food at the talks!). There were quite a few this quarter as well, Peter Norvig, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Marissa Meyer. The best however was at the SIA Fresher's welcome. Three Indian venture capitalist's shared their views on India, Silicon Valley, graduating from Stanford and what not. It wasn't about anything technical, or about what the next big thing in the valley will be. It was about something more important and intangible. It was about that the realization that you belong here, the time you spend here is not all about academics and knowledge, but about enriching your life.
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Party hard and work harder. I know, I purposefully wrote it that way :-)
