Thank you Steve..

I first read of Steve Job's departure as CEO this morning, on the way to work.

It was weird. I don't know him, have never known him. But it felt like someone close had departed and i felt more affected than I really should be.

I read further down the New York Times article and it began to make sense. Steve Jobs vision from 30 years ago, now realised, is part of my everyday life. To be honest, the fact is, the results of his vision are ingrained in me. I spend at least 10 hours a day on a Steve Jobs heavily influenced product - iPhone plugged in on the way to work combined with reading the BBC/NYTimes app. At work, I'm on a MacBook all day (which I just moved over from a PC, and it's the best change that's happened - productivity-wise).

This paragraph from the NYTimes article sums it up perfectly:

“Funny how much emotion you can feel about a stranger,” wrote Susan Orlean, the author. “And yet every phone call I make, every time I’m on a computer, he’s part of it.” 

He will always be known for taking risks, not backing down, and realising that in the most innovative yet consumer centric way. Are you kidding? That is an understatement. 

 

Thank you Steve for changing this industry, and challenging the competition.

Overheard today

"We search all our lives for someone to love and then go about for the rest of our life trying to change them and mold them into what we want them to be, trying to contain them. And that's why you lost her..."

Entrepreneurship and friends

Soundtrack (Spotifyit!)

You were born (Cloud Cult)

Armistice (Phoenix)

The last 5 days were spent in Stockholm. Stockholm holds a special place in my heart having spent quite a few weeks there on numerous occasions. Though, the thing is, never in the summer (at this point every Swede I tell this to gasps)!.

Summer here is weird. I use the word weird just because I'm not used to it. The sun sets at 10pm and rises at 2am. It's great, yet it plays tricks on me. Light is an indication that I should be awake.

So yes I work with this company, where colleagues have become friends, not just acquaintances. I started there when we were just 200 employees. Now it's 800. Ever been in a fast paced entrepreneurial setting? Man it's nuts. The amount of roller coaster rides you take is enough to keep you occupied and exhilarated 24/7. Your highs are really high, and the lows are really low. It is here that I've found a close knit of friends. We are no longer in the same office anymore, one is in San Diego, the other in Philly, another in New York, and in Stockholm. Yet, we talk weekly if not daily.  Others have come and gone and it is through the years that you are always drawn back to those you respect and those who have the same core values you have. 

So Stockholm has always been a reminder of this. A lot has happened here which I'll never forget. 

This time around I went to hang out with Sara and Aref. The three of us worked together about 9 months ago. Sara, I've known for 4 years now. Aref and I have known each other since last year. We bonded because we like the same things, and can talk endlessly about them. Now that we're all in different cities, I jumped at the opportunity of this little reunion. And a reunion it was, just like old times.

During the weekday, we worked out of the office where Aref is now, a new start up launched last year by our CEO. I loved it, as it was a nice reminder of the times when our company was at that start up stage back in the US when I was first hired. Plus in those kind of settings, everyone is a multi tasker, and just good in everything! The weekend was spent with Sara's family where it always feels like home, exploring different areas in Stockholm and eating and drinking lots!

I just got into London this evening. Yes I did miss my bed terribly, but sometimes wish I could have my favorite people around me constantly. 


Thank you Aref, Sara, and the Davar family for playing host and for "being". :)

Being efficient in an international company

It is 12.34 AM on Wednesday and I've just shut off my laptop after finishing off some work emails. It hits me that I've been working this routine more often now then I did 4 months ago. I'm at work from 9am-6.30pm, head home, have dinner, chat on the phone and then start working again around 9pm till about midnight. The thing is, I don't mind it.

I kinda have this military style work ethic, which isn't necessarily good. I like to get things done and out of the way immediately. I was telling Sara the other day that I would like to create an efficiency list (someone criticised me for sounding like the antagonist in a George Orwell novel). So in every company, you have people who move at a snails pace, and you have others who get things done within minutes. This efficiency list would contain the names of my "go to people" whenever I need to gather information from different departments.

So going back to this recent work routine I have, I've just been analysing this change and owe it all to my dual role I've just transitioned into.

Firstly, I work with our Mdrive team. My go to tech guy is in Australia, 6 hours ahead of London. I hate long turnaround times, so I make it a point to send emails with questions that have come up during the day by midnight my time. That way I wake up to a nice email back from him and can get on with the day.

Secondly, my Mdrive team consists of members from Sweden and Finland and they start work around 2-3 hours ahead of me. Same concept, I email everything to them the night before and when I get to work at 9, they have already read through my email and have had time to think about it and are prepared to discuss those items with me. Additionally sometimes I work on projects where I need to correspond with other teams in US, so I use the night to get answers from them.

Thirdly, my other role is with the buzz support team. My go to guy is in San Fran, another time zone to work with. :S he starts work around 8am Cali time, 4pm my time. But he's ALWAYS on conference calls for two hours so I can never get hold of him. So I go home and try to catch him online around 10pm my time. The thing is, I've learnt not to send emails to him because he gets hundreds, so I resort to instant messaging him to get an "instant" response. If for some reason I miss him during this time, I have to wait ages before being able to get IM time with him.

So you see, I don't mind this at all because it fits within my personality of getting things done. Nothing more frustrating then being unable to finish off a task just because a piece of information is missing. I also love the international aspect of my job as it demands for interaction with colleagues from all over the globe.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Village

Monday - Thursday was spent at the Zhabagly village in Kazakhstan. I did not want to leave. It was serene, simple and beautiful. I made the mistake of checking work emails on Tuesday night, and oh boy did that send me back to work mode for an hour.

We stayed at Yevgheny and Lynda's charming guesthouse in the village. They are from Ukraine, and moved to Kazakhstan in 1978. We met quite a few backpackers at their guesthouse, from Netherlands, Australia and Sweden.

Again, I loved the village. Mind you that when I say village, try not to think of all the negative connotations that come with that word. The villagers were educated, they had lovely yet simple houses. You could tell that the Kazakhstan government took good care of ensuring good education and infrastructure for the villagers. It also made me more angry at the Malaysian government. They like to boast of being quite a progressive country, but try going to the remote areas....

I have to talk about the horses, cows and sheep. When we arrived on Monday, around 7pm we heard a lot of mooing going on. I walked out of the guesthouse and joined the Dutch tourists on the street. The cows were coming home!

So there are about 2000 residents in this village. Every household has an average of 2-3 cows, some sheep and maybe 1-2 horses. Everyday, around 6:30am they take turns gathering all the cows and sheep from each house to take them high up into the mountains to graze. Then at around 7pm, all the animals come home. It is quite a lovely sight, because you see an entire herd walking together, and the cows split off by themselves one by one and they know which house to go home too!

So since that Monday, mom and I made it a point to sit outside by the porch everyday and watch them come home. One day, we were waiting for about 30 minutes, and my mom goes "aha we are literally waiting for the cows to come home!"

Moving on to Tuesday, we went hiking in the Aksu Canyons. We had Svetlana as our guide, a Russian who moved to Kazakhstan in 1991. You could tell she loved nature. So down she took us, explaining everything in detail and with a lot of patience. Tulips originated from Central Asia (although they are often associated with Netherlands), so we saw quite a few of the original Greig Tulips which are plentiful in the Aksu-Zhabagly nature reserve. Mom and dad were really impressive at their age! They managed to get down and up and they were even at the same pace as the forty something Dutch couple we met halfway. 

When we returned from hiking, Svetlana was kind enough to invite us to her home. Actually, mom stealthily devised a plan earlier on so Svetlana would invite us over. There we met the same Dutch couple Svetlana's backyard and learnt that they had built their own RV and had driven all the way to Kazakhstan from Netherlands with their two dogs. 

Now Wednesday was my favorite part. We went horseback riding into the mountains! This was my first time, and so I worried that the horse was going to fling me off its back! But no, my horse, Patron (Russion for Bullet) took great care of me. I began to trust her, and if I did fall, it was because I was a bad rider.

You could tell that the people of Kazakhstan are natural horse people. I'm so certain they train their horses better than the trainers in the Western world. The horses were great, maneuvering their way about the mountains steadily. I had a lot of time to observe my horse, and thought to myself, no wonder handsome strong men are called stallions. :)

Svetlana and Talgat (our ranger) again took good care of us. They were extremely patient trying their best to explain and answer all our inquisitive questions. I was quite amused and proud of my mom when she sat Svetlana down, took out her notepad, and asked Svetlana how to bargain in Russian. We also learnt of the sport Kokpar, a Kazakh version of Central Asian sport where two teams on horses try to catch a sheep's carcass and bring it to their respective goals. This is where horse polo originated from. Reuben plays polo and he had a polo horse, so that was the context it was brought up in.

Horseback riding was awesome and quite a funny experience because of mom and dad....but oh boy, did we pay the next day. Never has my back and butt hurt like this before...

I'm now back at my brother's lovely apartment in Almaty and about to fly back to London in a few hours. We spent the past two days in front of CNN and BBC watching the coverage of Osama's capture and death. I have a lot of opinions about how the days after have panned out, but I'll refrain from going into it.

Kazakhstan was awesome, and thanks to Reuben for organising and hosting us!

Almaty, Kazakhstan

I’ve been in Almaty, Kazakhstan for 2 days now, and it is quite interesting....My brother has been here since February due to his work with the UN, and so mom, dad and myself jumped at the opportunity to visit him and a country we would never otherwise have visited.

Let’s just get straight to the highlights..

1.    English? No..Russian

No one here speaks English. Neither are any of the signs in English. Not even touristy areas have a single word of English anywhere. I realised that Kazakhstan was going to be one visual adventure – absorbing images, sign languages and figuring it out myself. I’ve started to learn phrases, like spasibah, skolka, etc, but you still get very very lost in translation...

       The City

Personally I see Almaty as a cross between Klaipeda and Moscow. It is very spacious and spread out, and you tend to come across incredibly large and majestic looking buildings like in Moscow. It is also reminiscent of the Soviet era, so you also come across mass produced eye sore buildings like the ones I’ve seen in the Baltic states. The youth here exude a kind of attitude I remember seeing while I was in Klaipeda. I don’t quite know how to put it into words yet to explain this observation, but it’s almost like a newfound independence, and they strut around with huge smiles and a swagger in their strides.

3.    The people

Kazakhstan is incredibly diverse. You have Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Russians, Uyghurs, etc, and you have minorities such as Germans, Kurds, and Koreans. These minorities did not migrate straight from their countries, but rather migrated to Russia around 1800s and then emigrated or were deported from Russia to Kazakhstan in the 1900s as a result of the Soviet Union era.

4.    Taxis

I was greeted at the Almaty airport by my brother and dad who then led me to a “taxi” which was an ordinary car with a guy sitting in front with his girlfriend. I learnt that it is quite common, that when you are looking for a taxi, you stick out your hand and wait for any resident to stop. You state your destination, haggle, and get into the car. It’s sort of a way for the locals to make money, and for the foreigner to get a good price. I get the impression that is is really common, and not dangerous.

.     The Green Bazaar

This is probably one of the most organised and cleanest markets I’ve ever seen. There are sections allocated to each type of food, so a section is allocated to dried fruit and nuts, another to fresh fruit and vegetables, and another to butchers selling meat. Each section has rows and rows of vendors selling similar items.

This was also where I experience Kazakh hospitality (or maybe sales, aha) for the first time.

I approached one of the dried fruit and nut vendors, and he was quick to pass me on samples of pistachios, almonds, dried apricots, etc. He amused me by going  “OoozbekistAaaan” pointing to the pistachios from Uzbek, and going  “KItai” pointing to the pistachios from China over and over again. After weighing the pistachios I wanted, I was keen on paying and moving on. But no, he would not let me. He kept handing out samples to my entire family. When I shook my head, he‘d look very very angrily at us and extend his arm again and look terribly offended. How could I refuse? He then invited me behind the counter to take a picture with him. By that time, we had already caused a scene in the market and had every vendor watching us.

      Medeu, Shimbulak, Big Almaty Lake

On Sunday, Reuben’s colleague was kind enough to drive us up to the mountains. Roman is a local and took us to Medeu and Shimbulak, areas known for the winter sports and ski resorts in. We then proceeded to the Big Almaty Lake, a mountain lake surrounded from all sides by the majestic mountains. The lake was still half frozen, although the temperature was mild enough for me to wear shorts. Amazing scenery..It was also really nice having him around to translate certain things for us and tell us more about the history of Almaty. 

We're off to south west of Kazakhstan tomorrow to the Aksu-Zhabagly nature reserve for the next 4 days...

By the way, at 8:31am today I felt a very deep rumble around me. I shouted to my brother, was that an earthquake?! Yes it was. It wasn't very strong, and mom and dad actually missed it.  Turns out it a 5.4 magnitude earthquake had hit the southeast of Kazakhstan, about 77km from Almaty. Just read the news, and there has been a total of 5 tremors today! No casualties have been reported. 

Do I have to grow up?

The whole Jeremy Piven incident has made me nostalgic about the days when I was a teenager...

So when I was 13 - 17 years of age, I was madly in love with the local theater scene. I used to watch all kinds of plays with Hana. Hana and I went to high school together, and found each other due to our love for theater. None of our other friends cared for sitting through a 2 hour play.

There was a local production group called The Instant Cafe Theatre, and we made it a point to watch EVERY single show they put on. We fell in love with Jit Murad, Paula Malai Ali, Chae Lian, and many others.

We probably went to about 8 shows a year.. After every single theater performance, we would stay back, wait for the actors to come out so we could talk them to death, take pictures, and get yet ANOTHER autograph specific to the playbill.

Which brings me to a memory I was reminiscing about this evening:

We were 17, and there was a spare moment between the end of a play and when the actors were to come out. I looked over at Hana and said something like "Oh Hana, I want to be 17 years forever. When we grow up, how will we easily justify this silliness?" We looked at each other sadly, realising that our days of being young and acting silly with the actors were coming to an end.

Hana and I had dreams. We also made a bet that whoever made it first to the Actor's Studio gets 50 Malaysian dollars. She made it first.

I have to give major props to Hana. Due to the old folks not wanting to disrupt the status quo in Malaysia, she was asked to pursue medicine. Halfway through her course, she returned to Malaysia and pursued acting. She is now in Boston studying music at Berklee.

Let's not talk about what happened to me...

I'm going to leave you with a picture of Hana and I in our first play together. :)

Group shot with the cast!