Will I blog again?

Yes. In the coming weeks, I will reveal a new home online. In the meantime, you can visit amitsonawane.com for news and to get in touch with me.

Will I keep writing?

Of course. Writing is a part of who I am. I may not be a good writer, but what I wrote saved my life.

But, why?

In the recent days, I’ve realized the importance of silence. I have decided to not say anything when everyone out there has something to say. There’s so much noise out there. An incessant stream of opinions, requests, mindless chatter and, most of all, the race to shout on top of everyone else. Everybody is a fucking expert now. I think the more we shout for attention, the less we are being heard. I have therefore decided to be silent now. As the noise around me gets loader, I am going to be quieter. I want to spend less time saying, shouting about what I am doing or how you should do something and, instead, do. I’m just going to do more.

How will you find about what I am up to? amitsonawane.com. In the next few weeks, I will transform and redesign amitsonawane.com into my new home online. I will post my thoughts here, my experiments, lesson learnt in entrepreneurship, new recipes I invent, fitness regiments, tutorials and much more that I do in my day-to-day life besides writing motivational posts. Of course, there will be some philosophical posts too, but not that many.

What are you doing with fishingbuddha.com?

Keeping it. There’s something about the domain name that I love. Perhaps one day I’ll spin it off into something besides a blog. Who knows? I definitely know that one day I am going to name my boat, Fishing Buddha. So, I am keeping the domain name. Perhaps you’d be able to visit fishingbuddha.com to see where in the world I am sailing – live GPS tracking and all.

Finally, I’d like to thank the ones who read, connected and were helped by Fishing Buddha. For now, that’s all. Stay safe (but not too safe), don’t give up on your dreams and remember that you are the only person who you should let judge you. One last time, thanks for reading. I’ll see you soon at amitsonawane.com

Note: I will be changing the Facebook fan page name from, Fishing Buddha, to, The Blog of Amit Sonawane. You may continue to follow that page and you won’t have to change anything from your side.

After the difficult task of narrowing down to just ten entries, I then email the list to the people mentioned in it. The idea is to not just remember and appreciate the moments by myself, but also to involve the people that were a part of those memories.

Why only ten? I wanted this to be a valuable exercise and really wanted to select the moments that made the biggest impact on me that year. So by being very selective and specific, I force myself to contemplate and think very hard on all the moments carefully before I reduce the list.

So, without further ado, here are the top ten moments in chronological order:

Spent the NYE and first morning of 2012 on Orlando International Airport’s smelly carpet – Jan. 1st

San Francisco birthday-trip with Anna and James – Apr. 29th

 Chelsea won the Champions League – May 19th

 

This morning was nothing different. A dozen or so still sleepy faces waiting at the bus-stop. Almost everyone sported a pair of white headphones that is infamous for creating an invisible bubble of sorts around people. I am guilty of wearing these isolating devices too.

The bus approached and race to score a seat began. I usually watch this from the back as simple logic rides over in waves and people somehow still ignore it. What logic? Well, a single Transantiago bus has about 45-50 seats (I’m guessing). When there are not more than 20 people at the bus stop and the bus is coming in empty, you’re bound to get a seat no matter how much you fight for it or not. But the instincts usually take over and it’s a funny (read: pathetic) scene to watch. Also, I don’t get the idea of fighting to sit on the bus or metro when you know that’s all you’re going to be doing in the office for the next 8 hours anyway.

Anyway, we all got on the bus and it was a usual crowd. People reading newspapers, listening to music, some even going as far as finishing that last piece of orange from breakfast. And then all of a sudden, something very strange happened. We all heard a voice. It was our bus-driver. He was asking for help!

I guess he was new or it was his first time on this route and he didn’t know which stops to make. And so in an instant, the coldness in the bus disappeared. Hearing the bus-driver asking for directions made a few chuckle at the driver, there were a few more sleepy smiles, the lost were confused and removed their headphones to see why everyone is smiling, and a couple went to the front to point to the approaching stops.

This broke the daze everyone was in so effectively that for the first time I noticed strangers on the bus smiling at each other, discussing which is the next stop – this or the next one?, making innocent fun of the driver and just being human.

You see we all just get on the bus and just assume the driver will know where to drop us and where to make the stops. However, those assumptions were turned upside down and suddenly the expert became the student and the spectators became the experts. Passengers who make the ride every morning without any thought or effort, suddenly realized that they were in charge. Everyone became more aware of where they were going and where they needed to go. The automatic-ness was replaced by intension.

Similarly in life, we sometimes just assume certain people in certain roles to be experts at what they are and just hop on the ride and expect them to take us along. On the other hand, the ones that are expected to be experts in their field need to realize the power of empowering their followers. Now it would be silly if all the bus-drivers start asking their passengers for direction, but that particular bus-driver could have easily fallen prey to his ego and skipped a few stops because he was too proud to ask for help.

Simply by being humble the bus-driver changed all our moods in the bus, inspired me to share that story with you all and make your day too. This morning’s one small act will resonate from the streets of Santiago to across the world.

Finally on a side note, I must say that Santiago is one of the friendliest cities I have been in. There is a certain aspect of humanity that still exists here. I routinely see:

• strangers helping handicapped passengers get on the bus or metro. Unfold the wheelchair ramp for them and give them a hand. Everyone around the pair comes to a full-stop till the person get off or on the vehicle, temporarily suspending their race to the cubicle.
• strangers squatting on the pavement and chatting with the homeless or feeding them. Some offering a bottle of cold water on a hot day.
• stray dogs in the city wearing colorfully knit sweaters in the winter and, more importantly, not wearing these sweaters when it’s hot out.

It’s good to live in a city that cares. I hope you all have a great day ahead and thanks for reading.

My great-grandma passed away last weekend and I just found out about it a couple hours ago. She was 112. I am still not sure how to react to this. My parents couldn’t get in touch with me for some reason and then all I had was an email waiting for me in the inbox. In the age of connectivity, we treasure these technologies. But in such tragedy, I almost felt offended to be informed via email and not a phone call.

I had not thought about her in a while. And now I am wishing that I had thought about her more often. I can’t remember the last thing she has said to me when we last meet. I had not seen, Mataji (a respectful form of mother), as we called her, in over 6 years. The last time I saw her, unfortunately, was when my grandpa, her son, was on his deathbed. She was a great woman. She was beautiful and courageous. I still remember the story she used to tell us of how she singlehandedly drove away a group of rioters with a piece of burning wood during the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947.

She was a devout Hindu and a strict vegetarian. She said that she had put the rosary of god on when she was only 12 years old and had never even touched meat since. She stayed a vegetarian for 100 years. Now that’s a model of commitment and mental fortitude. You don’t need an iPhone app to develop life-long habits. All you need is to make that thing a priority in life. In that, she taught me bravery and persistence.

She was kind and compassionate. She never forced her beliefs on anyone else. Not on her seven sons and three daughters. Not on her dozen grandchildren. And not even on the many great-grandchildren. When every one back home complained that I had not been home in over 4 years, she was the only one who insisted that I should come when I am ready and that she’ll be patient. In that, she taught me patience and unselfish love.

She was also heartbroken. She had seen over half of her children die of old-age, disease and accidents before her own death. I never knew a parent would be able to carry so much grief in their heart and still inspire people every single day.In that, she taught me about parenthood that one day I hope to impart on my kids and grandkids.

I used to write her hand-written letters because she couldn’t hear me on the phone or Skype. She is gone now. The only person in my whole family that I thought was truly pure and pristine is only in my memory now. I will miss her dearly. I know she really wanted to see me. I wish I could have seen one last time too. But my girlfriend just texted me something that makes me feel so much better. She said that now Mataji is free to visit me in Chile whenever she wanted. So, I guess in a way, in her death too she taught me an important lesson about letting go (or is it holding on (?), I’m not quite sure yet).

I have never complained about the lifestyle I have chosen. I have traveled a lot, met many people and have really lived an interesting life. However, there is only one part of this lifestyle that I true dislike. The part where someone close to you expires and you are too far to even attend their funeral. I have had to say silent goodbyes many times in the last 10 years. The hardest one was my grandpa in 2004 and now this. This part of the traveler life goes unmentioned many times. No technology or social-network can ever fix this.

Us traveler like to say, “It’s not a goodbye, it’s just see you later” to muffle the pain of long goodbyes. However, I have learned over and over again that sometimes those goodbye can be really be it. So, to all the people out there who travel for long periods away from their family – be present when you visit your family.

I really did not want to write this post. I somehow hate the idea of sharing something so personal and almost sacred with the whole world. But then I realized that I do not have anything else to pay my respects with. This blog post might be the only way I can say goodbye to my Mataji.

That was 12 years ago. Now, a dozen years later, is  the December 21, 2012 – the day the Mayan calendar ends and so does the world, apparently. I could spend the whole post talking about how that’s a rational conclusion or the dumbest thing ever. But I rather talk about something else that I know more about.

Let’s say the world is ending in 16 days. Then the big question for me is what changes would you make in the next 16 days to die happy? Are you living a life that makes you fearless of such apocalyptic rumors?

Personally, I wouldn’t care if I didn’t wake up on the 22nd. At this present moment in my life, I have everything I ever wanted. I am truly happy. I have zero regrets of not doing certain things, not making certain tough decisions or not taking chances on life. If the power button is turned off in 16 days, my final state would be content and happy.

Of course there are things I want to do. I still want to scratch off many things off the List, but I am not losing my sleep over it. I know they will happen if I keep doing what I am doing. I have designed my life and set it on a course to make these things happen eventually.

The key is to make the hard decisions now and to not push them further and further. After reading this post, if you think that you’re not ready for the Doomsday (pretend it is true), then make a list of decisions you need to make that will set your life on the path will fix that problem.

Pretend that the next 16 days are the next 16 months. Find the major things you need to fix in your life that you have been putting off. It could be health, work that you don’t find rewarding, relationships that suck the energy out of you, your relationship with your parents or siblings – it could be anything. And starting tomorrow, take big steps to fix that.

When I set off on making some major changes, yet again, in my life, these were the things I was fixing:

• I wanted to live in a country that was welcoming of everyone, had solid economic prospects and good access to intellectual and entrepreneurial faculties. 
• I wanted to meet a girl who will challenge me and share my idea of a life. Honestly, my constant jumping around had made me lonely.
• I wanted to meet like-minded people who will inspire me. I don’t enjoy feeling like the smartest cookie in the box. I have an ego the size of Mars. I know it. So, I always seek people who will keep me humble. 
• I wanted to have the freedom of experimenting with my thoughts. And getting paid to do so wouldn’t be too shabby either.
• Finally, I wanted to travel a lot and immerse myself in a new culture. 

My solution after a lot of research and thought was: move to a country I know nothing about, which was economically progressive, supports entrepreneurship, has plenty of travel opportunities, and have girls who have never heard of Jersey Shore or Kardashians – I might have underestimated Chile in this area