30–50–75 ?
“30 years ka experience hai !” (Hindi to English translation : I have 30 years of experience !)
This line is from the 1980s Indian TV comedy show “Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi” and features Satish Shah an awesome comedian who has played several roles in Bollywood movies and TV shows. Throughout this episode he keeps saying he has “30 years of experience” in every situation, which is kind of funny, as you can see he is clearly not more than 30 years old. Unfortunately Youtube had only this one video where it shows only 1 situation — See the video here.
From a “work experience” or career standpoint on this August 17th I clocked close to 30 years! I have had an incredible career spanning these years across many organizations and geographies, and many time zones. Truly rewarding and feeling very grateful. I just can’t believe how time has flown since 1994 when I look back at some of my experiences. I continue to be curious and am a life long learner every single day.
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50 years — I crossed the “milestone” of being 50 yrs old this week on Aug 14th. A lot of us, essentially Gen-Xers, are going to hit the 50 year mark this year and over the next few years. “Gen-X” by a loose definition spans those born between 1965-1980. My gut feel is, even though our parents went “nuclear” (family wise), the sheer number of those born during this time frame is pretty sizeable. Picture this — my wife and kids tell me (after they gave me a surprise birthday party a couple of days ago), that they could not find any birthday candles that either show the number 50 or 50th year greeting cards in Party City last week ! Yet another shortage which we don’t need to worry so much about, unlike the ones that we have heard of recently like bathroom tissue, baby formula and so forth.
75 years — India the country where I was born and am incredibly proud of — had its Independence Day on the 15th of August. And this year, India celebrated its 75th year of Independence. Jai Hind!
August is my favorite month — my birthday, my work day anniversary and my marriage anniversary all fall in the same month. I even started college in this month — back in 1990 in India there was tremendous turmoil and the start of the academic year at colleges across India were delayed by a couple of months.
This year — “Age is just a number” (the usual cliche) and more so this year. We are possibly 10–15 years away from retirement. Some of my friends have already begun the journey towards either finding another more fulfilling 2nd profession or heeding their “calling” or just planning for retirement. So here’s mine — I am beginning my “writers” journey this year by writing this maiden piece. I hope to share episodes and short stories (Shorts ?) and who knows use this experience to write a book. On what topic — not sure at this point, let’s see where this journey takes me..
Those who enjoyed this piece, please do share what your thoughts on reaching your “life milestone” and what are your plans for the journey ahead .. Would love to hear from my fellow 30–50–75s !
