Monday, July 25, 2016

Data Driven Dulhan

Something interesting happened yesterday. While I was self reflecting on the occasion of my 9 year anniversary in the states and was happy to share the things I did in my 20's with my family members, I got  some suggestions. While most of my family members congratulated and appreciated me, some of my members in my brown family in addition to congratulating me, felt I am not complete without getting married and insisted I make "getting married" one of my top priorities.

What did I do ? I turned my "well-wishing"  brown family members into match makers/data scientists.

I sent them the link to the form Getting To Know the Girl form to be shared with the girl they think will be a match to me. Out of all the drama if someone seemingly true and genuine happens to submit it :), I will review and contact her. 

To be an equal opportunity guy  I made sure there were none of the questions  that were discriminating or asking anything about race, religion, language, age, nationality etc etc. 

This could be a good script for a Bollywood movie "Data Driven Dulhan" (Dulhan means bride in Bollywood/Hindi) 

LOL, I can't  even stop laughing while I am writing this, because this came to me as a joke and I thought this would also be a good social experiment and more than all, it will give me a good reason to tell my sisters "Hey I am interested in getting married, you can't even find a good girl for me" lol, now I don't think they will ask me that question ever again".

But to be honest  a very distant and hopeful part of me wants this  experiment to succeed and lead me to a partner I can connect emotionally and intimately. The truth is I don't like to spend time on dating apps, in bars which is the trend or I don't talk to my friends much about "Hey I am looking for a girl" or might not come across as "relationship material" guy, so my chances of finding someone I am interested in tend to be realtively low because of my interests, beliefs and more importantly my priorities. 

I have mostly prioritized fun, running, traveling, my entrepreneurial dreams  and other goals in the last 9 years. There were instances where I intentionally even avoided relationships because I thought they would come in the way or distract me from doing what I wanted to do. Example : Run a marathon in all the 50 states, 7 continents and soon I will be on my journey to run a marathon in all the countries.

Either way, will have to wait and see where this will lead to. If nothing this will  be a good data driven social experiment or will keep my family occupied or quiet for sometime.

One of my family member said "Sandy, you seem to be a goal oriented person, may be marriage should also be your goal". I was like "yes I have my vision 2020 or vision 2021" set implying jokingly I might get hitched in 2020 or 2021. 

One of my other family members said "Hey sandy I am not sure if your wedding celebration will be longer or your WhatsApp messages" for which I replied "Obviously my messages". My family even knows I talk too much and write too much even in WhatsApp messages.

My brown family cracks me up so much. I love  my family and I am where I am because they keep me humble and honest with their  quirky way of giving feedback.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Things I Did In My 20's

Today marks the day I landed on the land of opportunities 9 years back. What did I do in these last 8.5 years during my 20's ? Since the Internet is obsessed with list of things you should do by age 30. I wrote the list of things I did ;)

I ran, I traveled, I hustled, I hiked, I dabbled in many things

A quick recap on some of the accomplishments I can remember

Running
  • Ran a marathon in 6 continents* 
  • Ran a marathon in 42+ states*
  • Ran a sub 3:19 marathon*
  • Ran Ragnar Relays in DC twice and in California
Traveling 
  • Traveled to  6 continents *
  • Visited 3 wonders of the world* 
  • Visited 9+ countries* 
  • Lived in a foreign country 
  • Lived in the east coast, west coast of USA. Moved to San Francisco
  • Visted my Great Grand parents houses
  • Took my dad to the sacred temples he wanted to see.
  • Visited Mahatma Gandhi's Birth Place.
Hustling
  • Worked in Corporate America and Startup America
  • Incorporated 2 companies 
Mountains 
  • Summited Kilimanjaro the highest point in Africa.
  • Summited few 14’ers : Pikes Peak, Mount Shasta
  • Summited few other mountains.
    • Mount Gordon lyons, Wolverine Peak -  Anchorage, Alaska 
    • Mount Sentinel - Missoula, Montana
    • Mount Monadnock - Keene, New Hampshire 
    • Mount Tam - East  - Mill valley, California
    • Mount Diablo - Danville, California 
    • Mission Peak - Fremont, California 
    • Mount Rendezvous - Jackson Hole, Wyoming
    • Mount Wittenberg - Point Reyes, California
    • many more...
Public Speaking
  • Dabbled in Public speaking through Toastmasters
    • Gave 10 speeches and was awarded Competent Communicator
    • Gave 10+ more speeches and was awarded Advanced Communicator Silver
  • Dabbled in Improv
    • Attended improv classes and graduated from improv 101
Dabbling
  • Did swimming in the pool and got a level of consistently finishing 5 laps without stopping for long.
  • Did bowling 
  • Did skydiving in Northshore of Hawaii
  • Did scuba diving in Great Barrier Reef
  • Did white water rafting in South Fork American River
  • Did kayaking in Point Reyes
  • Did horse riding 
  • Did Ice Skating
  • Did a tough mudder in Napa 
  • Did indoor rock climbing and got upto 5.10d
  • Gave a speech to room of 50+ members 
  • Did blogging 
  • Started writing 
  • Read 25+ books
  • Did improv 
  • Shot a Gun
  • Got comfortable with dogs and took care of Sparky and even ran with him.
  • Experimented with hair styles and beard
  • Did a social experiment with my beard.
Friends 
  • Have friends from all the 6 continents
  • Have friends from 42+ states
Finances
  • cleared off debt twice (my student loans and my sisters wedding)
Education on Paper
  • Got a bachelors degree in computer science 
  • Got masters degree in computer science 
*P.S: I did so many things this year after turning 30, those things haven't been included. The above list is all the things I did in my twenty's (20-29)