hello good morning
I’ll start my talk with a slide which is
a cartoon it’s a cartoon which is almost
existential in nature it talks about our
predicament there are two kids yeah
there’s a boy and a girl and the girl
they are playing what we call house
house and the girl is asking the boy
what do you want to be when you give up
not when you grow up
because half or maybe sometimes the
whole life is spent doing things which
we were not supposed to do or which we
don’t like to do we grow up doing what
our parents want us to do or what our
neighbors want us to do or what the
society wants us to do or what the peers
want us to do actually we don’t want to
do it and we waste the whole life doing
what others want to do so how do you get
it right how do you avoid the de battle
the Japanese have a word for it they
call it the icky guy icky guy is
actually the confluence of four
different things the thing that you do
are you passionate about it are you good
at it can you earn a decent livelihood
out of it and more importantly does the
world need it if all these four things
happen they kind of come together you
have found your et guide so my entire
talk today is about finding your easy
guide how did I find my eg guy it was a
stranger incident that made me see my
tea guy or find my IT guy I’ll give you
a little bit about my background I
studied in a school which had Malayalam
as the medium till class four from class
five it became english and malayalam
continued as my second language Hindi as
my third language when I went on to
study in ruya do my MA in English I
picked up Marathi so I could write in
four different languages
and I could speak in four different
languages that actually complicated my
life because I I started writing in
these languages acting in place
directing plays I I was a school teacher
for a while I gave my voice for
documentaries and films division I did
all kinds of things and by the age of 26
I was really confused I didn’t know what
to do with my life because I could do so
many things actually I wanted to become
a professor I couldn’t get a job I
wanted to become a journalist I couldn’t
get a job accidentally I landed in
advertising and I liked it 28 years I
continued in this field of advertising
as a copywriter till one day that thing
happened what was I met an elephant in
the jungles of madama lied just outside
mother Malaya actually a place called
Messina good evening he was already
there inside the forest
I walked 3 kilometres deep into the
forest towards him and there was my
cousin Manu Menon who was with me and a
guide so three of us we went deep into
the forest to basically photograph
wildlife and there he was waiting for me
he didn’t know whether I’d come to shoot
or had come to shoot so he decided to
attack and he started running in a
chronological order so the guide was 32
he was first my cousin who was 14 he was
second I was 52 I was third so I was a
sitting duck for an elephant if you
understand what I mean so the elephant
Gordon me on my back on my lower back it
was a deep gash I had to travel to
enough hours by car to reach kun or
where 18 stitches were put on my back
and I survived I serve survived to tell
the story of surviving an elephant what
happened was I met a guy called ice
Isaak him Carissa butterfly expert of
bein ASIS I met him in Sanjay Gandhi
National Park our own city forest and as
we were walking towards Sally Mally
point this is the highest point in
sanjay gandhi national park I told him
casually he Isaac you know what happened
I survived an elephant attack here he
said what are you saying
thirty years I have been in the field of
conservation I haven’t heard of a single
guy who has survived an elephant attack
and come back to tell the story why
don’t you write about it that kind of no
rang a bell for 28 years I was writing
for somebody else I was writing for
advertising agencies finally I said this
is my second birth it’s every day’s a
bonus let me do exactly what I want to
do I didn’t know the word et guys then
but I realized two of the best things
that happened in my life one happened
when I was 21 when I taught in a school
for Manya the second happened when I was
23 I made a documentary on silent Valley
which helped preserve that forest
forever even now it is they the
documentary was one of the reasons many
reasons why that forest is preserved so
I said let me go back to my roots and do
exactly what I want to do which is
teaching and travel so finally I got a
job as a teacher I teach in an art
college called retinas answered and I do
tribal photography and tribal writing
which is basically my first 10 second
love which is my et guide though I have
about 120 articles published in the
leading newspapers of India two of some
of which have been converted into two
books that I have published one is
evergreen leaves I will quickly show you
the photographs because it has 30
articles and 55 photographs some
photographs I will show you these are
all taken by me and the articles were
written by me these are just the
photographs this is actually a human
form I found in a tree inside
Valley
the second book is a book called tales
of a driftwood which has got mostly
wildlife but only 70% the rest of it is
anthropological stories and stories
about tribes and historical places and
all that that book is in black and white
it has 36 articles or stories
this I call a zebra crossing I found it
in Tanzania this is actually very
interesting in this in Malaysia there is
a cave which is about 320 feet in height
and 200 feet across supposed to be the
largest cave opening in the whole world
25 lakh bats 25 lakh but come out of the
cave every day and go 20 kilometres away
to feed over the overnight and come back
the next day morning so I found a kind
they they happen in waves one after the
other
so I found a wave which is actually
looking like a bird it was serendipity
or accident so my point is don’t make
things happen but when they are about to
happen don’t prevent them many times
know when it is about to happen in India
nature yeah so so it’s actually there’s
a beautiful poem by Kabir
he says da da Romana the Rays of good
way
Molly CJ Sagara rich wife away it so
beautifully says o mind chill out don’t
be in a hurry things take their own time
even if a gardener pours 100 pots of
water every day the tree will fruit only
during the fruiting season
so beautifully it’s explained and my
advice to the youngsters here is don’t
let money choose your career icicle I
know the moment you pass out salary
didna malaga first question will I get
an opportunity to learn their belie I
have a student here in my junior
colleague who actually came and never
even asked me money I Adam easier in the
audience the thing is those days we
never used to ask how much will we get
today money is
a guiding force behind career options
you will never find your icky guy I can
guarantee you that I’ll tell you a
beautiful story by Osho Osho is resinous
he talks about an old man he’s a 70 year
old man a very rich man who started
working 50 years ago which means he when
he was 20 so he wanted to retire though
he said let me find out how much I have
earned so he put a money on the job and
the moon him said give me three months
time like any other
so he said okay take your time so after
three months Menindee came and said boss
it’s very difficult to tell in terms of
figured how much you have and what
assets you have I can tell you so much
you have earned enough money for four
generations to live happily he said oh
god what about the fifth and he started
working all over again there’s no limit
this is no end to you know desiring for
money so don’t let it be a starting
point also okay so my point is find
Eureka I found it when I was fifty to
find it as early as possible because you
should not wait for the elephant you may
not survive I did but risky a boss so on
that happy note bye
[Applause]
I’ll start my talk with a slide which is
a cartoon it’s a cartoon which is almost
existential in nature it talks about our
predicament there are two kids yeah
there’s a boy and a girl and the girl
they are playing what we call house
house and the girl is asking the boy
what do you want to be when you give up
not when you grow up
because half or maybe sometimes the
whole life is spent doing things which
we were not supposed to do or which we
don’t like to do we grow up doing what
our parents want us to do or what our
neighbors want us to do or what the
society wants us to do or what the peers
want us to do actually we don’t want to
do it and we waste the whole life doing
what others want to do so how do you get
it right how do you avoid the de battle
the Japanese have a word for it they
call it the icky guy icky guy is
actually the confluence of four
different things the thing that you do
are you passionate about it are you good
at it can you earn a decent livelihood
out of it and more importantly does the
world need it if all these four things
happen they kind of come together you
have found your et guide so my entire
talk today is about finding your easy
guide how did I find my eg guy it was a
stranger incident that made me see my
tea guy or find my IT guy I’ll give you
a little bit about my background I
studied in a school which had Malayalam
as the medium till class four from class
five it became english and malayalam
continued as my second language Hindi as
my third language when I went on to
study in ruya do my MA in English I
picked up Marathi so I could write in
four different languages
and I could speak in four different
languages that actually complicated my
life because I I started writing in
these languages acting in place
directing plays I I was a school teacher
for a while I gave my voice for
documentaries and films division I did
all kinds of things and by the age of 26
I was really confused I didn’t know what
to do with my life because I could do so
many things actually I wanted to become
a professor I couldn’t get a job I
wanted to become a journalist I couldn’t
get a job accidentally I landed in
advertising and I liked it 28 years I
continued in this field of advertising
as a copywriter till one day that thing
happened what was I met an elephant in
the jungles of madama lied just outside
mother Malaya actually a place called
Messina good evening he was already
there inside the forest
I walked 3 kilometres deep into the
forest towards him and there was my
cousin Manu Menon who was with me and a
guide so three of us we went deep into
the forest to basically photograph
wildlife and there he was waiting for me
he didn’t know whether I’d come to shoot
or had come to shoot so he decided to
attack and he started running in a
chronological order so the guide was 32
he was first my cousin who was 14 he was
second I was 52 I was third so I was a
sitting duck for an elephant if you
understand what I mean so the elephant
Gordon me on my back on my lower back it
was a deep gash I had to travel to
enough hours by car to reach kun or
where 18 stitches were put on my back
and I survived I serve survived to tell
the story of surviving an elephant what
happened was I met a guy called ice
Isaak him Carissa butterfly expert of
bein ASIS I met him in Sanjay Gandhi
National Park our own city forest and as
we were walking towards Sally Mally
point this is the highest point in
sanjay gandhi national park I told him
casually he Isaac you know what happened
I survived an elephant attack here he
said what are you saying
thirty years I have been in the field of
conservation I haven’t heard of a single
guy who has survived an elephant attack
and come back to tell the story why
don’t you write about it that kind of no
rang a bell for 28 years I was writing
for somebody else I was writing for
advertising agencies finally I said this
is my second birth it’s every day’s a
bonus let me do exactly what I want to
do I didn’t know the word et guys then
but I realized two of the best things
that happened in my life one happened
when I was 21 when I taught in a school
for Manya the second happened when I was
23 I made a documentary on silent Valley
which helped preserve that forest
forever even now it is they the
documentary was one of the reasons many
reasons why that forest is preserved so
I said let me go back to my roots and do
exactly what I want to do which is
teaching and travel so finally I got a
job as a teacher I teach in an art
college called retinas answered and I do
tribal photography and tribal writing
which is basically my first 10 second
love which is my et guide though I have
about 120 articles published in the
leading newspapers of India two of some
of which have been converted into two
books that I have published one is
evergreen leaves I will quickly show you
the photographs because it has 30
articles and 55 photographs some
photographs I will show you these are
all taken by me and the articles were
written by me these are just the
photographs this is actually a human
form I found in a tree inside
Valley
the second book is a book called tales
of a driftwood which has got mostly
wildlife but only 70% the rest of it is
anthropological stories and stories
about tribes and historical places and
all that that book is in black and white
it has 36 articles or stories
this I call a zebra crossing I found it
in Tanzania this is actually very
interesting in this in Malaysia there is
a cave which is about 320 feet in height
and 200 feet across supposed to be the
largest cave opening in the whole world
25 lakh bats 25 lakh but come out of the
cave every day and go 20 kilometres away
to feed over the overnight and come back
the next day morning so I found a kind
they they happen in waves one after the
other
so I found a wave which is actually
looking like a bird it was serendipity
or accident so my point is don’t make
things happen but when they are about to
happen don’t prevent them many times
know when it is about to happen in India
nature yeah so so it’s actually there’s
a beautiful poem by Kabir
he says da da Romana the Rays of good
way
Molly CJ Sagara rich wife away it so
beautifully says o mind chill out don’t
be in a hurry things take their own time
even if a gardener pours 100 pots of
water every day the tree will fruit only
during the fruiting season
so beautifully it’s explained and my
advice to the youngsters here is don’t
let money choose your career icicle I
know the moment you pass out salary
didna malaga first question will I get
an opportunity to learn their belie I
have a student here in my junior
colleague who actually came and never
even asked me money I Adam easier in the
audience the thing is those days we
never used to ask how much will we get
today money is
a guiding force behind career options
you will never find your icky guy I can
guarantee you that I’ll tell you a
beautiful story by Osho Osho is resinous
he talks about an old man he’s a 70 year
old man a very rich man who started
working 50 years ago which means he when
he was 20 so he wanted to retire though
he said let me find out how much I have
earned so he put a money on the job and
the moon him said give me three months
time like any other
so he said okay take your time so after
three months Menindee came and said boss
it’s very difficult to tell in terms of
figured how much you have and what
assets you have I can tell you so much
you have earned enough money for four
generations to live happily he said oh
god what about the fifth and he started
working all over again there’s no limit
this is no end to you know desiring for
money so don’t let it be a starting
point also okay so my point is find
Eureka I found it when I was fifty to
find it as early as possible because you
should not wait for the elephant you may
not survive I did but risky a boss so on
that happy note bye
[Applause]
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