For the rest of the year, I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual.

The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and and work, in particular.

Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them are business leaders, some thought leaders, some sportsmen and some coaches. Some of them are artists and some spiritual leaders.

However, if we look deeply, all of them are like you and me, ordinary people who’ve had an extra-ordinary impact on me and potentially a lot of others. And once you get to know them, may be they will have a similar impact on you as well or maybe not, only time will tell.

The reason I am putting together this list and share what I have learnt from them, to thank them publicly for being a teacher and teaching me important lessons in life and in the hope that some of you might be inspired by their company and they can impact you and your life as they have impacted mine.

So, let’s get started.

6. Srinivasa Chackravarthy

When it comes to contemporary thinkers, thought leaders and spiritual seekers, I think Srinivasa Chackravarthy is probably one of the best people that I have come across. I have known him since we were teenagers. Both of us went to the same school, ended up working together on the same team and now are colleagues who work for the same organisation.

He is one of the few people who have the trinity of skills that is so rare to be seen in the same person – Intellectually smart, relationally sharp and spiritually awake.

I’ve had the pleasure of having spent many an evening with him and a cup of tea, all through my adult life, talking about technology, business ideas, how technology can solve business challenges, relationships and what makes them tick, difference between leadership and management, about books we read, about what we saw in the world that was wrong and needed to be addressed, about spirituality, Hindu philosophy, automation, managing time and most importantly learning how to learn.

There was a point in time in my career, all I wanted to do was to change the industry that I was working in and get hired in a technology company. Chacks (as we affectionately call him) was all praise for this German company that he was working for. I would always be requesting him to help me get a job in the company.

I did not have any technical knowledge that would land me a job in a tech company. He helped me get a job at this company at the first instance possible. And the rest as they say is history. 15+ years later, I am still working for this company and am helping businesses address significant challenges by deploying technology.

When I joined this technology company, I had to learn a bit about a lot of technology. At least enough to be able to have a meaningful conversations with partners who wanted to integrate their products with SAP. I would ask him (and my manager Imran Khan)to explain the underlying technology. He would always quip back and ask me to go back to the documentation and read it , try to understand it and come back to him with questions, if i had any.

This is how I learnt almost everything that I’ve learnt in the last 15+ years. Read a lot, think and reflect about what I’ve read or learnt, try to understand what I read, find the parts that I don’t understand fully, then find someone who can clear these doubts. This was just one way he taught me how adult learning happened.

There were many an opportunity where I discussed with him matters of spirituality. His understanding of the Hindu philosophy is deep. What is really great is his ability to gauge my level of understanding, come down there and then explain things from there, which makes him a great teacher.

There is a lot more wisdom from where all of these came about. You will find it extremely difficult to find information about him online. You will hardly find things that he published or created because he doesn’t publish anything. He seems content in knowing what he knows and not needing to show what he knows to the world.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I would only say that if you have known Chacks, you know what I am talking about. He is brilliant in his own way and right. If you dont know him, I am pretty sure that you have someone in your life who is like Chacks. You just need to become aware of them. And if possible, take a moment and thank them for the impact that they’ve had on you, your thinking and as a result.

All I can say is that every one of us needs a friend like him.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #1 Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #2 Paulo Coelho.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #3 Swami Vivekananda.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #4 Seth Godin.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #5 Porus Munshi