THE YEAR THAT WAS: 2017

As I sit in the familiar comfort of my Razai with a warm cup of Chai in my hand, I couldn't help but notice that it has been 12 months since I smelled the aroma of a cardamom Chai mixed with Delhi's fog! We say this every year, but didn't 2017 just whiz by faster than we could imagine?

2017 for me can only be defined as the year of big transformations. The year that brought with it momentous changes, of positive nature, in both personal and professional aspects.

Photo by Szűcs László on Unsplash

Professional Updates

After completing my MBA last year, I toughed out 6-odd months in an internship, then 6 more months in a temporary contract (known in French as Contract Duration Determinée or CDD). However, at the beginning of this year, I was finally able to secure a full-time contract (known as Contrat à durée indéterminée, in short CDI) in a leading global firm. 

Having worked in India for the most part of my professional life, all these contract types were very alien concepts for me. In my previous jobs in India, the process flow was as follows - a company hires you (usually from the first contact to final offer, I have never spent over 4 working days), and then you continue working there till you retire, or you leave by giving a 30-60 days notice. The company can also fire you if they don't like your performance by giving you same notice or compensation for the same. 

However, from what I have gathered, it is quite hard for even private companies to eliminate positions or fire employees due to labor protections in France. For all practical intent and purposes - it is deemed nearly impossible unless there is gross misconduct. Hence, large companies usually require you to go through a trial period of internship or a temporary (fixed duration) contract before they can trust you enough to give you a full-time contract. 

While there is protection for employees (which a surprisingly high number of millennials in France seek), this whole process makes employers very cautious while hiring new people, leading to lack of liquidity in the market. Therefore, you will see people sticking around in the same company or companies having to keep the same people around for decades, even if there is a visible mismatch. Plus making it hard for new talent to get hired properly for a job fitting well for their profile rather than in a firm which is willing to give them a CDI. 

However, having decided to have built my career in France, I am adapting to the prevalent system, and happy to report my CDI contract to you guys. 

Personal Updates

This is the big one - After ~2 long years living on our own, while spending Friday and Sunday nights in Eurostar to travel between Paris and London, the wifey has now relocated to Paris! As some people are calling it - The Khannas Reunited! :)

With that, we have now commenced The Grand Tour of Europe! As our weekly shuttles between London-Paris have come to an end, we have decided to spend our travelling budget on visiting a new country every alternate month - or simply 6 or more new countries every year! 

In terms of cities, this year we visited the regular London, Paris, Delhi, and Hyderabad, along with new additions of Prague (Czech Republic), Copenhagen (Denmark), Champagne (France). Ghent (Belgium) and Lille (France).

We also spent a lot of time exploring the streets, museums, and gardens of Paris. On that note, I think we should cover the Parisian expeditions in a separate post. Something similar to Sahil's post on Paris hall of fame! 

Onwards! 

For 2018, instead of making several small resolutions - which almost no one ever keeps - I have decided to do six '30 day challenges'! I first heard about the concept in this Ted Talk and was quite intrigued by it. With several small life improvements and personal projects that I am working on in parallel, I think dedicating a month to each of them would be quite interesting as well as productive!

Keep watching this space for more info! Till then...

Wish you and your family a happy and prosperous New Year 2018!

I should probably write more of these year-end reviews: THE YEAR THAT WAS: 2014

My watch is ended

Keeping up with the Game of Thrones theme, as with most of our conversations these days, I recently used the epic half-liner from previous season “My watch is ended” with my wifey to remind her of:

• The batteries of my watch have died again: even though I have been wearing wrist watches for over 20 years now, I have no idea how long are the batteries of a watch are supposed to last! Empirical evidence suggests anywhere between 6 months and 10 years, depending upon the weather conditions on Mars during that period! 
• Side note: I can never ever wear a watch that needs charging every night! Even though I would love to, but for the foreseeable future I am not going to try any smart watch 

• She got her first French salary (yippie!) and as per the tradition, she needs to buy me a ceremonial gift! 

For the impatient readers, Tl; Dr version of the outcome of that discussion is: after hours of research and keeping in line with my personal preference towards not charging a personal device for as long as humanly possible, we bought this beautiful piece of Fossil Mechanical watch! Just look at the video and appreciate all the intricate machinery slowly humming along inside!

A post shared by abby khanna (@furobiker) on Aug 1, 2017 at 9:01am PDT

For the patient ones, I did some research on types of watches and how to select a good watch. While selecting a watch is a matter of personal taste, I have documented here various types of watches available in the market so that you guys can make more informed decisions in the future: 

Types of Watches: 

Based on the “movement” (a.k.a “calibre” or the basic mechanism driving the watch and the associated functions, also referred to as ‘complications’, such as calendar, multiple time zone features etc.) a watch can be categorized into two basic categories: Quartz movement or Mechanical movement. Various manufacturers implement these movements using their own styles/techniques, but essentially these two kinds of movements are building blocks for all kinds of watches: 

How to find out if the watch is quartz or mechanical: 

Just look at the seconds’ hand! If it is making clear jumps between seconds, it is a quartz watch, if it is making a sweeping motion or several tiny jumps between seconds, it is a mechanical watch. 

Source: https://i0.wp.com/www.precisionwatches.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/quartz-vs-mechanical-watch-movement-gif-1.gif?fit=734%2C200&ssl=1

Quartz Movement:

Powered by a battery, watches based on quartz movement are pretty accurate and require much less maintenance than mechanical watches. Just an occasional battery replacement and it is good to go. Typically, quartz watches are much less preferred by watch enthusiasts due to lack of craftsmanship and technology or engineering prowess in designing intricate parts. 

Mechanism: 

Simply put, the battery sends current through a quartz crystal (hence the name quartz movement). The current electrifies the crystal, which in turn vibrates. These vibrations create the movement to drive the watch motor, which in turn drive watch hands. These watches run quite accurately till the time battery is providing ample current to the crystal. As the battery starts running out of juice, you will notice that the watch has started losing time. 

Mechanical Movement: 

Powered by a wound spring, most of the luxury watches run on mechanical movement. In a lot of mechanical watches (for example in the video above), there is a provision to witness and appreciate the intricate components, working together in a tightly woven configuration to power the watch. Several super-luxury watches still have hand-crafted intricate parts, designed for a snug fit and supposed to work fine for decades. 

Mechanism: 

Mechanical movement watches store energy in a wound spring. The spring transfers energy to gears and sometimes other springs to provide regulated power to the watch hands. I am assuming your next question would be: From where does the wound spring gets its energy from? Good question! 

Types of mechanical watches: 

Manual: Remember the typical watch our grandparents wore? They were rotating the crown on the side of the watch to wind up the spring. The energy is stored in the spring and is typically enough for ~24-hour period. Though some of the newer watches may store enough energy for ~2-day period. 

Automatic: Automatic watches also have the option of rotating the crown to wind up the spring. However, they also have a metallic weight (called rotor), which is free to move when the body of the watch moves. So, when you walk or move your wrist, the metallic rotor moves, winding the spring. Hence, when you wear it daily, there is no need to wind up the spring, as it gets automatically wind up when you walk or move your hands. 

... and 

Well, that was a brief overview of different types of watches. Personally, mechanical watches interest me more, especially where the mechanism is visible through the front glass. If you are interested in the engineering behind watches you can also look at how basic gearing works in such watches and how different manufacturers add complexities (in simple terms – features) to their respective products.

Let me know if you found this brief note useful! 

Getting back to writing

Last week, I was out for a formal dinner with some colleagues. Amid regular getting-to-know questions, one that stood out to me was “What do you do outside of the office?” Even though I am busy from the moment I wake up, to the time when I finally switch off my phone and sleep, I realized that day that since past couple of years, I have not worked on any of my specific hobbies or a personal project!

Side note: Apparently, playing games on X-box or assembling so many pieces of furniture for your new house that one can easily qualify any carpentering exams does not count. 

I started remembering the things I liked and the side projects I worked on during me pre-MBA life in India. Travelling – it is something I do to relax, not as a personal project. Reading – sure, but the number of books I have read in 2017 stands at 3. Writing – the last time I wrote on this blog was over 12 months ago! Coding – I have quit more times than I have started! Running – Although, I increased my stamina to go up to 12kms in one go, I have not been regular in the last 7-8 weeks. 

The same night, I went out to buy a mop to clean up the spider-webs from this blog. Currently, I am going through quite an exciting period in my life, and if I properly get down to jotting some nice experiences, I can fill up a few hundred pages! So, why not! 

When I started this blog page a few years ago, I decided that everything I write here should be either:

Something I am knowledgeable about

About a year and a half ago, I switched careers – from a procurement advisory function, I have moved full time to an energy management and automation firm. This is a completely new industry for me, and I am picking up new things daily. I have a lot of stuff in my head to write about – renewable energy (especially solar) and its impacts on the grid, building management systems with the focus on energy efficiency, automation and digitization of the manufacturing industry, 3D printing to name a broad few topics.

Every time I pick up a notepad (yes, I am old school when it comes to writing) to write about these topics, I feel quite underwhelmed with the things I know vs. the things there are actually worth knowing about the topics I am going to write about. If you look at the chart below, I am currently hovering over the valley of despair!

Dunning Kruger Effect

Something I am learning about

The target at the very top of my mind is my slow progress on learning the French language. I am doing ok in reading newspaper level French, however, when it comes to speaking and more importantly listening to French, I fall flat on my face. There is nothing worth writing on this topic, but just leaving it here as a casual reminder to self. 

The other thing I am learning is nuggets of history about the things I like and the things I am discovering. Just in the past quarter, I have learnt about the The Ashes Cup while touring The Lord's stadium in London, the fine art of making scotch while touring The Glenlivet distillery in Scotland, life of Pablo Picasso and the depiction of his state of mind through his paintings in Musée national Picasso (Picasso museum) in Paris, among tens of other things. 

Wait, these all sound pretty solid ideas to pen down what I learnt, remembered and then augment with external research! 

Alright, back to work now! Till we meet again next week!

Hello from the other side

June 10, 2016

End of the formal education. A lifelong quest for knowledge continues.

Bonus links: Every year, HEC Paris releases a fun video at the end of the graduation ceremony. This year's video was HEC Creed! Have a look! Though, 2014 graduation day video is my favorite - HEC in the world of TV shows! 

Podcasts

Two key things that I check in my pocket before stepping out of the home are my Navigo card and my headphones. It has been about a year since I got addicted to podcasts, and I now find unimaginable to not listen to them while walking/travelling alone. It will be fair to say that podcasts have almost completely taken over my headphone time over the past year.  

For the uninitiated, Podcasts are the internet version of good old radio shows. Consider them similar to audio-books, but a hundred times more interesting. The best feature of podcasts is that you can download them on your phone, using certain apps, and listen to them even without internet connectivity. Podcasting apps typically download the latest episodes when the device is connected to home WiFi, and arrange the episodes in chronological order using the information provided by the RSS feeds. Yeah, the same old RSS feeds that were a rage during the blogging era! 

Every few weeks, I try to refresh my subscriptions by discovering and adding new podcasts to my list and getting rid of those which were not up to the mark, beyond first few episodes. Hence, this list will be periodically updated with the list of new shows as well as my feedback on the ones which I unsubscribe. Over the next few days, I will curate this list a bit more by arranging them by categories, and adding more details about each one of them.

Pic credits: https://unsplash.com/photos/TMOeGZw9NY4

1) Non-fiction Storytelling - He came in for the storytelling, but stayed on for the content

• Serial - Season one of the Serial Podcast was probably the most famous podcast in the history of this planet. A thrilling narrative, mixed with investigative journalism, of a murder mystery. Season two was a dud.
• Start up - Story of and narration by Alex Blumberg, of 'This American Life' show, about starting his own company (season 1). Currently on Season three, this show makes up for a good background chatter while working

2) Business & Finance - My favourite category, with a very high entry and purge frequency  

• Planet Money - Mostly economics, sometimes financial concepts, explained in bite-sized 15-30 mins episodes. Good storytelling, and a huge archive to delve in. I usually download 20-30 episodes in one go before long journeys
• The Investors Podcast - Mostly talk about HNWIs and their habits. More importantly, I listen to it for the crisp book reviews and recommendations

3) Others - This category on my app has seen everything from Game of Thrones discussions to Monday morning inspirations. Usually, subscribe them for lazy Saturday afternoon background noise.

• Reply All - Broadly categorised as a show about the internet. Some of the episodes are really interesting, discussing the internet culture, people of the internet world and a lot of other things 
• 99% Invisible - From the show description, "99% Invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world"
• Coffee Break French - Bonjour! 

That's all from my side for now. I will keep updating this list. Meanwhile, let me know your podcast recommendations in the comments!

The links I have provided are to the official websites of these podcasts, it will be better if you search for the show name directly in your app and then just press the subscribe button. 

End of the MBA Program

Update: As it turns out, I was not able to complete this post in one sitting. Hence, there is a mix of past, present and future tense in this post. 

... and just like that, it's over! It is hard to believe that this is my last week at HEC Paris. After 16 very short months, I will attend the last class of my MBA program this Wednesday.

Saying Goodbye! 

The reality of the situation hit me this Sunday when I put up an advertisement to sell the small possessions I bought for my home of 16 months - 143, Expansiel - on our campus Facebook page. It feels that 4 Sept 2014 was just yesterday, when I created a video of my empty room, to send back home showing my family a glimpse of my new life. Time flies, really! 

As I sit here and think about the time gone by, I must say that the past 16 months have been a humbling experience for me. An international, top-tier school does that to you. From being a top performer for years to realizing that every other person in the class has an unparalleled knowledge and breadth of experience took me just 4 weeks. And I believe, this early realization helped me grow both personally and professionally in a short period of time.

While an inherent benefit of an MBA is a large, global network that helps you mutually grow in the future; I will more than treasure the bunch with whom I was able to develop lifelong bonds.

As of finishing this post on 22nd December, I have had my last MBA class, went on a sojourn to Amsterdam, and finally returned back to my home in New Delhi! For the next month, I will be  found in front of my X-Box, when I am not hopping across the country for short trips!

See you guys on the other side! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For the love of writing

Over the past year and a half, I have developed a certain fondness for writing with fountain pens. The affair started in late 2013 – when I started working on my essays for submissions at various b-schools.

Back in 2007, fresh out of college, I started my first job. As with most jobs, I was completely dependent on my laptop for office work; hence, I started losing touch with everyday writing using a pen and a paper. The only remaining interaction with pen and paper was to scribble notes and comments in a fast, barely legible handwriting during office meetings. With increasing dependence on laptops, there came a day when I was able to type faster, and in a more legible format than I could scribble on my notepad. Post-2009, the only times I used a pen was to either sign on cheques or write small messages on the greeting cards being passed around at the office.

Credits: https://unsplash.com/alejandroescamilla

Circa 2013, I started writing my college applications. Soon, realization dawned upon me that most of the essays take much more than one-two straight sessions to properly convey the message. Hence, I started keeping a journal in which I used to write ideas/few paragraphs as and when I found myself in an appropriate frame of mind required for the task. Years of using ball pens to scribble notes or write small pieces of text made my hands go much faster than I was trying. I was in actual physical pain if I tried to write slowly concentrating on my handwriting. It was then I stumbled upon the world of fountain pens with the help of a friend, who himself is a pen connoisseur. There was no turning back post the day I bought my first fountain pen! Though, I must mention, my first fountain pen was of an unknown Indian brand and costed just shy of 3 Euros!

How to select a fountain pen

Selecting a fountain pen depends upon a lot more factors than you would usually imagine. Typical questions range from 'what is the purpose of buying this pen?' to 'what is my writing style?' and 'how often would I be using this pen?'. For starters, following are the few basic selection criterion 

• Body style: The options range from clear body pens to translucent and opaque ones. Body weight ranging from feather light to extremely heavy, further depending upon body material being plastic, metal or a combination of both
• Grip: Holding a pen and writing for a few minutes is essential before making a buying decision. Fountain pens are generally long-term purchases and the owner should be very comfortable using them.
• Nib: Depending upon the size and style of your handwriting and the overall speed of your writing, you can choose from extra fine to broad nibs. While fine nibs are suited for small handwriting and slower writing, broad nibs are mostly suitable for faster writing / note taking especially for classroom uses
• Filling mechanism: Broadly, you can choose between piston mechanism and cartridges. Pen manufacturers usually provide one default mechanism, but it is relatively easy to switch between the two.

Epilogue

Simply put, I like the scratching sound which the nib makes while writing on the paper! The scratching feeling indicates some idea / thought is getting transferred from me to the paper via the pen! Also, slowing down the writing process also helps me think well while putting ink on paper and at the same time helps me in getting back my writing to legible, sometimes artsy levels. Currently, I use an entry level Lamy with a polished steel nib and a cartridge ink filling mechanism. 

Image credit: http://www.lamyusa.com/

My wishlist of fountain pens is currently growing in a secret bookmarks folder, with most of the usual suspects from Montblanc and Cartier. But, I guess, any action on it is adjourned till I exit my student status and enter a full-time job! 

Keep writing!