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RE Himalayan Odyssey - Nubra ride

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  🔊 Click here to listen to “The Himalayan dream” It all began with a general comment from my weekend riding brother, Suresh, that he wanted to do a ride in the Himalayas — specifically from Leh. Royal Enfield Motors Limited (REML), makers of the famous Royal Enfield motorcycles (I own two of REML bikes — a Super Meteor 650 and a Himalayan 450), runs an annual calendar event called "The Himalayan Odyssey" (HO). That breakfast chat over idli, vada and kaapi during a routine catch-up led me to suggest that he tries it out. It's generally a twenty-day trip, which I couldn't afford given work commitments. So I approached Mr. B Govindarajan, CEO of REML, for his suggestion, and he graciously directed me to Mr. Adarsh Saxena. A quick call helped us understand that HO now runs in multiple legs called the " Satellite rides ", and he recommended the Nubra Circuit to us. The timing and duration were in a sweet spot for me. I mentioned to Suresh that we could do it t...
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My Hindi and me

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Most people of my generation in South India were probably first exposed to Hindi with the advent of television. Roads used to wear a deserted look on the days serials like Mahabharat and Ramayan were telecast. Since not every house had a TV set, it also became a kind of neighbourhood social gathering. So, our beginnings with Hindi — certainly not colloquial Hindi — started with hearing people addressed as “Mahoday”, “Shrimaan”, and such lofty terms! My Early Days with Hindi My formal introduction to Hindi began in high school, where it was one of the optional subjects — perhaps what was then called the “third language”. Sri G.T. Narasimhachar (GTN) was entrusted with the unenviable task of teaching a bunch of thoroughly disinterested students. My mother, however, was well-versed in Hindi and had read classics like Godaan. Her attempts to teach me Hindi mostly resulted in my understanding the story in the textbook without actually understanding the language ! I still remember o...
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Career Path: A Meandering Way

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My 40+ years of professional journey. It's well past 40 years since I started as a management professional in 1985. This journey has spanned five organizations (Damodar Ropeways Construction Co. Ltd., MICO/Bosch, Visteon, Hansen/ZF, and now Suprajit), three sectors (construction/ropeways, automotive, wind energy), and six functions (quality assurance, production/manufacturing, finance/accounts/controls, purchase/material management, sales/marketing, general management). Includes Expat stints in Thailand and Belgium. Many ask how I managed this—was it planned or serendipitous? Recently, during a fireside chat with our tech team (150 engineers, mostly Gen Z and millennials), a young engineer posed just that, seeking advice for planning their careers. I gave some gyan. I reminisced, jogged my memory, thought that I should share my story and decided to blog about it. Where It All Began: From Physics Dreams to Forced Mechanical reality   Tracing back, it started with professional educat...
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