Hello there!
Welcome to the 42nd edition of ‘The Lighthouse’!
I write with mixed emotions this week.
I was on vacation for the past 4 days - the first one in over a year. The ability to travel, let your mind and heart wander - something that has been ingrained in our genes ever since we were hunter-gatherers. The pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns clamped down travel to a large extent ridding us of one of our most basic needs. Things are slowly improving, and it was a welcome relief getting to spend time away and taking a break. The light at the end of the tunnel is visible.
Amidst the vacationing, I learnt that one of our friends from back in college lost his battle against cancer. It was gut-wrenching to hear this. My heart goes out to his family, friends, and loved ones. He was the sort of guy who would bring cheer into a room where ever he went. I don’t have any recollection of seeing him without his cheerful demeanour. We bonded over meaningful conversations about Metallica. The only words that come to my mind now - “The Memory Remains”. RIP Manish.
On the way back from our I had a memorable chance encounter with someone I admire which triggered this post. I enjoyed meeting him, thinking about what made him the person he was, and a lesson we could all learn.
Let’s dig in!
Everyone Is An Ambassador
We were heading back home yesterday after a much-needed vacation. After a pleasant drive (see captioned pic!), we decided to stop at a Pastry place to grab a cup of coffee and then some. If you’re in or passing through Mysuru, take a few sometime off and visit Sapa, short for Sourdough and Pastry. They bake delicious stuff and brew addictive coffee. When we’d filled both our stomach and souls and were about to leave, we were in for a surprise – we ran into Kripal!
Who is Kripal? Kripal Amanna is the artist behind the Youtube channel – Food Lovers TV. They have a massive 564K subscribers (myself included). Haha. There’s only one other travel/ food show that I like – Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. After Anthony, Kripal is the only person who made me connect to food, its people and the story behind it. The first time I saw Kripal’s youtube channel at a friend’s place, I went bonkers. I’ve seen pretty much every episode since then. Kripal is down to earth and unassuming. The same on and off the screen. Makes you feel comfortable in your own skin. Few people can do that. It was great meeting him.
I couldn’t help but wonder what made Anthony or Kripal the people they are? What is it that they bring to the table – metaphorically and literally in their case? I couldn’t make the connection. I had to sleep over it.
While brushing my teeth today morning, I had one of those “Aha!” moments. Foamy minty toothpaste and a groggy head after a late-night round of Rummy appear to a potent combination to connect the dots. I realised they are great “Ambassadors”. For me, an ambassador represents something they deeply care about. The love for whatever they care about is immense, and once you see them or hear them, you concoct stories about the thing they love.
In that sense, everyone is an ambassador. With travel opening up after the pandemic, you’re going to start visiting places, and people are going to visit your city too. Wherever it is you are visiting, you will carry stories about you and where you’re hailing from. You are not just the canvas, brush strokes or the colours, but you are the entire work of art. How you express yourself in a new city will be how people look at your city, culture, and country. The whole art is up for review. You are an ambassador – and if you want people to weave beautiful stories, be kind, be humble, and be thankful. On similar lines, people are going to be visiting your city too. When a traveller approaches you for help or guidance be kind to them, for once again, you will be the story – of your town and town-folk.
In the end, people become the stories you tell about them. It is the same for an individual, a city, a country, and a civilisation.
So go on, be a great ambassador.
Here’s some interesting stuff I came across:
Ten Simple Questions That Changed My Life by Greg Isenberg: “Q: Are you earning trust? A: Don't focus on building success, focus on earning trust Trust is the rarest commodity on earth. If you can earn trust, you can build anything.”
Consuming News Is Harmful by Sven Schneiders: “Avoiding the narrative and the fake reasons that are given is probably the most difficult thing when consuming news; but even if you manage to get the “objective” facts, it will not help you to understand the underlying causes. Most things in our modern complex world do not have easy to identify causes that can be spotted quickly—especially not by journalists. This is not only a consequence of incompetent journalists that try to oversimplify a complex topic because they need clicks or sales, but also a consequence of the nature of complex systems.”
The Big Here and the Long Now by Brian Eno: “We don't yet, however, live in The Long Now. Our empathy doesn't extend far forward in time. We need now to start thinking of our great-grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren, as other fellow-humans who are going to live in a real world which we are incessantly, though only semi-consciously, building. But can we accept that our actions and decisions have distant consequences, and yet still dare do anything? It was an act of complete faith to believe, in the days of slavery, that a way of life which had been materially very successful could be abandoned and replaced by another, as yet unimagined, but somehow it happened. We need to make a similar act of imagination now.”
Here’s a thought I’m ruminating on:
Till next weekend, take care.
Cheers!
Prashanth.
If you would love to discuss anything I’ve written about and shared, please reach out to me by replying to this email or sending a direct message on Twitter 🐦 @iam__prashanth. The tribe there is over 2100 members and continues to grow.
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