10 years of BluePeepal

My blogging journey

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Stories need to be told.

Especially the ones that go around in your head, long after you have read, experienced or moved on from the subject.

They cling to you and wait for that moment of calm, of purposeful reflection, or when you are searching for purpose.

I started BluePeepal in November of 2011 as a lens to see the world around me, to verbalise things I understood or, at least took an interest to explore.

The name combined the beautiful clarity of blue skies and Peepal, the tree that is associated with search for meaning.

How it all began?

Around mid-2011, the financial press was screaming of debt crisis in Europe with Greece in particular. The world was still in the grip of post 2008 crisis anxiety attacks, the Euro block in a crisis of confidence. Rebalancing Euro was my debut article that reasoned why not put Greece in some quarantine, work with a stability plan than bloat the situation and wreck nerves all around the world.

Austerity was a common phrase to administer restriction on countries to curtail spending and limit debt. There was an overhang of negativity. Household economics: What’s positive about austerity & slowdown? was a counter-view extolling the merits and opportunities that such crises present.

The voices around Asian century with India as an engine of growth were reviving. Slice of History delved into the society and politics of India in the tumultuous 70s. From the political fragility, Emergency to Pokharan-1, Indian democracy was being stress-tested. It also helped understand that contradictions are not inherently negative. In The India Puzzle, my interactions with bureaucrats and government officials created an appreciation for public policy and idea of development as a slow grinding process.

The curious exploration into the idea of good economics and good politics that affect life and society continue to influence me. The blog journey moved on.

When you travel, turn off the mind

Outside the cameras and phones is the real travel.

You observe, interact and absorb, allowing these moments to leave their own impressions.

In a crowded bus journey, an employee with the state government’s Block Development Office shared about villagers benefiting from employment generated from rural road programs, food availability through public distribution system beyond the leakages that exist. Bus ride to simplicity captured the sound, smells and smiles of a rainy and humid day.

Fishing for the Mind was another revelation of how a child views your triumph contrastingly to yours. It was my first ever attempt at catching fish during a weekend getaway. After struggling for hours, I caught few and was getting better. My elder son of 5 years then looked at my prized catch and requested if I could release them back into the river!

During a high tide and rough seas, I discovered the child within an old lady merrily seated on the beach with waves splashing at her. A beach postcard is story of waves washing away the burden of age and fatigue.

Motorcycle Diaries - BR Hills is the silence in the head inside a helmet, on a highway.

In a coast-to-coast maiden trip to US, the stories of Uber drivers that included a student of Design at a reputed university, a commercial pilot who quit his job to become an opera singer and trying to revive his career in his 50s, a banker laid off from mortgage division of a large bank and few more. Voices of America is also special for the warm handshake with an elderly and lonely French couple settled in San Francisco, and the short roadside conversation.

Those that inspire

Look for inspiration, when you don’t need one.

Going to a park with my sons was a fixed part of my weekend morning schedule in Mumbai. Over 3 years I saw an unkempt man trying to use bricks as weights for training. He transformed into someone who gave Yoga training to visitors in the park. The Brick-Man is story of what you do when you don’t have money to pay for medical bills and can’t afford to fall sick.

The craft and the artist explores the many facets of a thespian ghazal singer in a two-hour concert. Achieving a certain excellence takes years of practice and performance; being humble and respectful makes the path easier as you go.

If leadership is about hard decisions, then it equally is about the soft influence that you leave behind long after you have moved on. The 8:30am Manager recounts the experience from a teary farewell of a larger-than-life leader.

In your debt should make you miss that one teacher in school or, in your life who prepared you, and not just taught you.

Stepping into Future

The starting point of last decade was about reviving from the impairing effect of the financial crisis.

It was also about the rise of first-generation entrepreneurs using technology to solve problems in an industrial way.

The Start-up Society examines the pervasive and cultural shift that is happening around us, in the basic way we approached problems.

Reaching a precarious slope on a cold rainy evening, misled by a navigation app got me thinking on what went wrong. The series I versus Algorithms approaches the idea of data models that get grilled and baked into apps to power navigation, which movies to watch, be hooked onto streaming content and which items we forgot to add in our cart.

What is next?

Stories and images that stay with you, pause you to think and grow. 

Find out more stories on Blue Peepal