Mehul Thacker

Seeking truth

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

And it all boils down to:

1. If today was the last day i got to live, would i be doing what iam doing?
2. Why am I doing this?

[Aseem Dhru @aseemdhru]

Circle of Life.

On a Tuesday morning, I was in Breach Candy Hospital holding her in my arms for the first time. Isn’t it funny how at the peak of happiness eyes tear up!

Time ticked on over which she learnt to sit, stand, wobbly walk, and then run. Today as I sit at her commencement, my eyes are welling up with joy.

During these years, I was finding my feet in the world. As one juggles with the balls of career and family, one knows that at work, you are valuable but replaceable!

But, to do the best for your family, you need to have the resources and work controls them. The trouble is consequences of being a poor parent arrives over decades but of being a poor performer at work are immediate.

There are no performance appraisals and ratings as a parent. While schools take care of reading, writing and arithmetic and the school of hard knocks will take care of experience, what you hope to achieve is niceness, curiosity, courage, culture, values and spiritual seeds that will anchor their life as they navigate their own storms.

You hope when they look back at their childhood, they do so with a smile.

Anoushka Dhru , as you walk down these steps of @Harvard with Masters in Public health, I hear Khalil Gibran say- Parents are merely a bow from which a living arrow was sent forth swift and far. You have gone further than I could, but then that's what arrows do! I remember feeling hurt when you wrote your own essays while you have seen me help so many. Later, I understood . Whatever it was to be, it had to be truly yours.

As you now go forth in the world you will have doubts, fears, envy. You will experience victories and defeats. The world is not fair and often bad things happen to good people. Yet, be good. Never let your lens of humour down. Everything is funny. Including our stupidities, imperfections, failures and inconveniences. Enjoy the ride and always know that your parents are two people in this world whom you don't need to impress.

Life is uncertain and there was a probability I may not have lived to see this day but God has been kind and I am grateful.

Finally, as a phase of my parenting ends, I would hope you forgive my shortcomings, learn from my weaknesses and pardon my mistakes for I too was growing up with you.

The little baby I held in my hands on that Tuesday is now a woman. Time, you thief, how could we be here so soon!

Anoushka, remember the Harry Potter book I read aloud to Anahita and you when you were both so tiny? Take advise from Dumbledore, ”It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities”. Make good choices!

Remember the Lion King movie we loved? Well, it's time for this Mufasa to say -Go get the world Simba!

When in doubt listen to your Alma Mater’s war cry- Crimson never fades!

Writing this am tearing up again! The heart finds language inadequate!

All parents out there, your time to let go will come sooner than you think. Make this time you have count!

[Aseem Dhru @aseemdhru]

In the Mahabharata King Yayati was cursed with ageing. Full of lust, he exchanges his son's youth for his old age. The King realises that the more desires he fulfils the emptier he feels. He then becomes an ascetic and attains through renunciation the joy he sought in indulgence.

In the East ageing was attainment of wisdom and respect. From the West we have learnt holding on to youth. From colouring hair to skin lifts and from anti wrinkle serums to Botox injections - whatever it takes to look young!

Even language has been softened. You are 18 years old but 81 years young! You never get old, you get older!

There are children so logically there should be old people! There are none, they are senior citizens but there are no junior citizens!

Carl Jung gave us the four pillars for a happy old age.

1.Individuation - In the first half of our life we seek acceptance, appreciation, rewards. We develop a persona. It is a mask tht has become our face. The family man, the obedient child, a high achiever. In the second stage of our life there must be a gradual shift of authority from the external to our internal world. Meaning in life cannot just be our position and achievements.

2.Integrating the Shadow - The shadow contains everything we suppressed, feared, did not fully explore. Along side the persona the shadow expressing as cynicism, anger, frustration, envy, aggression. In our second half of life we need to integrate this shadow and make peace with it.

3.From doing to being. The first half of our life meaning is by doing, achieving, building while the second half is about finding the joy of being alive. Not rushing through the day, but savouring it. Not seeking escape but enjoying our own company.

4.Acceptance of death. A life lived in denial of mortality driven by distraction and avoidance is shallow but a life lived in awareness of mortality is sincere and present. By the second half, we have attended enough funerals and our body starts showing signs of decline.

Probably what scares us is all we postponed or hoped for will now not happen.

In preparation for old age there are five things you must be able to enjoy alone. I have my list, do you have yours?

As we get old, work and children that took a large part of our time no longer demand it. Everyone’s life is a mixed bag.

हासिल-ए-ज़िंदगी 
हसरतों के सिवा कुछ भी नहीं,
ये किया नहीं, वो हुआ नहीं,
ये मिला नहीं, वो रहा नहीं।

(There is no outcome of life except desires. I didn’t do this, that did not happen, I didn’t get that, that did not remain!)

Old age is a time where the pressures are off us. To look a certain way, to dress a certain way, to march to a time table in a certain way.

Beautiful young people are an accident of nature but beautiful old people are a work of art! - Eleanor Roosevelt

Be that artist who creates her most fantastic work in the second half of life for a memorable concert is a slow build up to a grand finale that will leave the audience thirsting for more!

[Aseem Dhru @aseemdhru]

The Breguet Range Equation

I have always found answers in Physics to all questions of business. I hear @maheshdayani go oh no not again 😂

While building SBFC one of the many many principles of physics I drew from was the Breguet Range Equation. Usually used in arriving at maximum range an aircraft can fly based on its aerodynamics, engine efficiency and fuel weight ratio.

Every extra Kg on an aircraft costs $4210 a year in terms of extra fuel burn. The more fuel you have the further you go but the more fuel you have the heavier the aircraft becomes and you need extra fuel burn to carry the extra fuel you are carrying!

In business the right aerodynamic design of the company - reduction friction internally and with the external world, engine (operating) excellence producing the output at the most minimum fuel (costs) burn and fuel-weight ratio (capital you carrying) always good to have extra capital but the higher the capital the greater the pressure on producing return on that capital.

Travel far travel safe travel economically are the impossible trinity Boeing and Airbus solve for. We can atleast try.

Its been 8 years since we began and 3 years post listing, finally we are getting the Breguet Range Equation right. We have, however, a long long way to go before we can say we are operating this equation at aircraft level optimization.

In a race without a finish line direction of travel can be the only way you can pause and catch a breath.

हमने जा के देख लिया है, हद-ए-नज़र से आगे भी
रहगुज़र ही रहगुज़र है, रहगुज़र से आगे भी - Javed Akhtar

We have gone and seen beyond the observable Universe, there are even more paths beyond where the visible paths end.

[Baibhav Mishra @mishra_baibhav]

Bhagwan Ek Seltos ev le ayo pehla customer banunga

[Gurmeet Chadha @connectgurmeet]

For everyone who believes in astrology n forecasts for markets -

A world astrology conference was held in Dubai on 28th Feb.. A lot of astrologers got stranded :)

They had no idea of the War breaking out and Iran targeting Gulf nations

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

@MobiKwikSWAT @MobiKwik can u pls withdraw ur nonsense product’xtra’?

I have invested amount since a long time and there have been very irregular returns and i cannot even raise a complaint on ur app. Everytime i type a complaint, it starts hanging half way.

[Baibhav Mishra @mishra_baibhav]

Guru is such a fine movie. I watch it once every year. And every year I tend to enjoy it more. What a movie !

[Fundamental Investor ™ 🇮🇳 @FI_InvestIndia]

This gem of a person Vivekanandan in Kerala is making roads safer, one signboard at a time. He uses his own money, energy & time for doing this. Some jobs are risky but he does it, so that lives can be saved.

This is purely God's work. He needs to go Viral 🔥🔥🔥

I request @CMOKerala @pinarayivijayan ji to reward him and encourage him.

This should ideally be done by Government. A citizen is doing it 🔔

#FI

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

@SatpathyLive @grok convert this article in english

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

Energy is everything.

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

@bpradhanodisha @grok summarise the images

[Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays]

On Monday, I will ask President Trump, via X, to help save my life. He offered to help me if I needed it.

I need it.

As many of you know, I have metastasized prostate cancer.

My healthcare provider, Kaiser of Northern California, has approved my application to receive a newly FDA-approved drug called Pluvicto. But they have dropped the ball in scheduling the brief IV to administer it and I can’t seem to fix that.

I am declining fast. I will ask President Trump if he can get Kaiser of Northern California to respond and schedule it for Monday. That will give me a fighting chance to stick around on this planet a little bit longer.

It is not a cure, but it does give good results to many people.

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be this hard.
<3

[Aseem Dhru @aseemdhru]

One day it will be the last time and we will never even know it.

I was about five years when I experienced the first major guilt I can remember. I was taken to my mother’s house for the last Darshan of my grandfather. A few days ago my mother was asking me to accompany her as she was going to meet him and I was playing cricket and refused to go with her. There I was, tears in eyes, hands folded, head bent, guilty that if only I had come here, I would have met him.

I was at the hospital in Ahmedabad till I brought my mother home and left for Mumbai. That same night I got the dreaded call asking me to rush back but was too late.

For years thereafter my heart would bleed with pain as I would go every weekend to see my Dad and Monday early flight back to Mumbai and straight to work. My gaze would flicker an extra minute on his face hoping I see him again. The Friday evening trips I looked forward to, the Monday morning one’s gutted me to the core.

We do not even realise it, but there is always a last time we do anything.

There was a last time I put my kids to sleep, a last time I gave them a bath, a last time I changed their diapers, a last time I lifted them up in my arms, a last time I tickled them, told them stories, tucked them into bed. There is a last time you visit a city, a house, a home. There is a last time you met a school or a childhood friend.

ज्युं ज्युं आगे चलता गया
कुछ कुछ पीछे छूटता गया
पाया कितना कुछ
खोया उतना ही कुछ
अजनबी अपने बनते गए
अपने अजनबी बनते गए
हिसाब की बड़ी पक्की हैं ज़िन्दगी
अंत तक सब बराबर कर ही देती हैं

(As I kept walking, things and people from my past got left behind. I achieved so much and I lost as much. Strangers became close and those close became strangers. The math of life is always evenly balanced)

Life is about holding on and letting go.

Holding on to what is here now and letting go what’s gone. This moment, the people with us right now won’t be there the same way tomorrow.

Life moves on, like logs of wood in a fast flowing river, sometimes we flow together for some distance, then at a bend of the river one gets lodged in a stone or gets caught in a different current and flow on.

What is the takeaway of this is we must be sensitive to be in the moment. Fully there. I write this from a very misty Ooty evening with thunder and lightning adorning the cloudy sky having a steaming cup of ginger mint tea. This moment is bliss. I have to fully live it with the sensitivity that exactly this combination will never repeat.

Very often we sleepwalk through life, just skimming through the surface. To really savour life, we need to fully live each moment as if it maybe the last, for one day it would be.

Right here, right now is the only reality. Let’s not cloud it with regrets of the past and worries and anxieties of the future. In gratitude for the moment we have got as one day we will look back and miss this very moment.

Wish you a very Happy Diwali!

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

Larry ellison is 81. And he looks like a 40 year old. Rich and ultra fit at 81. Damn.
Thats the dream.

[Aseem Dhru @aseemdhru]

The Unit of Success.

If the Unit of Current is Ampere, Power is Watt, Frequency is Hertz the unit of Success is Drive. The dictionary meaning of drive is the willingness to work persistently and push through difficulties to achieve a desired outcome. It is an innate insatiable force that compels us to act.

Drive is energy+direction+motivation+ persistency

Most human beings need external motivation. The trouble is push or pull are weak forces. Friction and Resistance are much stronger forces. Motivation is extrinsic while drive is intrinsic.

One of the key impediments to India’s progress is a fatalistic attitude of a vast majority of its population. The belief that the blueprint of life is in the lines on one’s hand or alignment of planets at birth means I don't take responsibility of my own life!

Everyone begins but enthusiasm is like carbonated bubbles that escape into the atmosphere leaving the drink flat. It is a spark plug. Can ignite but petrol has to be in the car. The biggest reason of abandoned dreams is not external but an internal flaw.

इन चराग़ों में तेल ही कम था
क्यूँ गिला फिर हमें हवा से रहे

Javed Akhtar says that these lamps simply did not have sufficient oil, why blame the poor winds!

So each one of us must check our tank. Unlike the petrol in your car which can be bought from a pump, the energy humans need to accomplish any task has to be generated from within. It is part of a kit called Attitude. Elon Musk says, skills can be taught. Attitude change requires brain transplant.

 Success is not pre-ordained. Stuff will happen, things will go wrong but if you have reservoirs of regenerating energy within you can power through them all.

House, cars, club memberships, holiday homes etc are lollipops of distraction on this path. We can keep sucking and feeling good about it.

These thoughts were triggered because a man I admire gave me a box of sweets. He just bought a house in Mumbai. Years have rolled since we were returning from a car trip stopped at a restaurant and the valet seeing the dirty car asked if he should clean it. Over the years washing cars, walking dogs, owning rental cars to becoming a successful real estate broker. He came to Mumbai with nothing. No skills, education or support but has made something of his life.

Most of poor remain that way because they seek distractions and entertainment. Tobacco, Gambling, Alcohol, addiction to mobile for passing time. Their fate is sealed because they mistake their mental cage for an actual one.

Steel, Aluminium, Copper are valuable because they are both tough and malleable. We need to be like that. Tough but malleable.

उद्यमेन हि सिध्यन्ति कार्याणि न मनोरथैः । न हि सुप्तस्य सिंहस्य प्रविशन्ति मुखे मृगाः

Not by desiring, but by industrious efforts any task is achieved. A deer doesn’t enter the mouth of a sleeping lion.

So if you want to lift your life fold your sleeves, clear your distractions and then relentless, tireless execution is the only way.

[primordial intelligence @primal_brainer]

wildest picture i ever saw on internet

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

Just amazing. Had to put my full attention to read the intellect of mr. prasad and it took almost 4 months to complete this phenomenal work.

[Mehul Thacker @MehulThacker13]

@RiteshDangaich Silence is the speech of the wise.