My first visit to London

August 2018. I took part in a Design hackathon that Shell had organised for its employees to develop innovative solutions for some of its retail challenges. Little did I know that that workshop would play an important role in my decision to change my career. I realised that day that I wanted to work in something more creative in the next phase of my career. IDEO was one of the companies that inspired me during the hackathon - it's a design consulting firm that has existed for over 30 yrs and pioneered in human centred design innovation. Today, almost an year later, I could visit this marvellous company in London and interact with their designers and learn about their projects. Dream come true. One day, look forward to working with them!

Though I visited London at its gloomiest days (it was pouring round the clock), these two people made the visit memorable for us. Family who are friends now, will look forward to visiting them again. London Borough market, Springer golf, Boardgames cafe, the Shard and Indian food! Sums up to a good lovely weekend. Waiting for the last but not least - Shakespear's play at the Globe, a perfect icing on the cake :) 

I am often confused - this man I am married to wins almost all the games I play against him in. Should I be happy for him that he won or sad that I didn't win? :D But fortunately Moo came in tie with me, else I wouldn't have featured in this pic ;)

Boardgames are an inherent part of our DNA! Strongly recommend Shariff at Nottingham. 

Life goal - I say we should play all the boardgames existent on earth before we turn 50. He says - we should buy them all instead. Will see. 

Reflections - 2018!

I know NYE happened ages ago and I'm too late for this post now! But this is me! I procrastinate all the time. We'll get to it in a separate post but let me begin with my chronicles of 2018.  

Numerical 9 is my lucky number and since the beginning of 2018, I had high expectations for this year. Guess what, it turned to be true! Atleast, I convinced myself so ;) Every day, every moment of 2018 was very exciting. Lots of meet-ups with near and dear ones, multiple visits back home - thanks to the 4hr flight journeys from Singapore to Hyderabad, few fun trips abroad, navigating through career dilemmas, exploring new areas of interest. And finally, decision to switch careers! This post, therefore, will be dedicated to how I decided to change my career path.

For years, I found peace in someone taking decisions for me and in following the herd mentality. While in university, I aimed for high CGPA and PoRs so I could make my CV impressive enough for the day1 campus recruiters. I applied for big MNCs so I could live a comfortable life post college and settle down while I am still 25 :D I landed in a big MNC, traveled around the world and worked in diverse settings. And eventually, hit the plateau! I was happy, yet dis-satisfied with what I was doing, I became lifeless. I lost the motivation to do something and sometimes even lost confidence within myself. 

Thanks to the experiences both at university and at work in the last decade, things that I once thought I was doing out of compulsion to follow the herd came to my rescue. As I delved deeper, I remembered the times I was the most happiest and the times I was most depressed and realized what I lacked last few years- Creativity! Whether I took part in cultural or technical events in college, there was this constant element of creating something new with like-minded energized folks. I always enjoyed solving problems involving innovation, and though I did spend time resolving problems at work, majority of the efforts went into people management & communications. People management is a special skill and one must learn to develop it, but at this moment in life, I needed a balance between this and innovation to keep myself inspired. 

And therefore, I am setting on a new journey to find my passion(s). It may take several years before I find it or worst, it may not even exist ;) But I'm happy to try and fail rather than regret later. The new journey comes with several compromises and a big uncertainty yet I never felt so inspired before, taking control of my life into my hands! 

I am currently focusing on Design - 'Human-centered-design' to be specific and will be exploring the digital and physical product design fields. My next few posts will hence be dedicated to product reviews, lol :D Hope I can find some sparks soon.