Startups, Travel and Zen leading to Tea!

[Written in Jan 2023 but never posted, posting it here]

This is my story. Around 2015 working with a startup I saw how it kind of of plays out in the tech industry. The entrepreneurs, the investors, the employees, the customer, the product, and the market, and the various exchanges between them. How the startups grow and become corporations and this cycle repeats itself. Not seeing a lot of meaning in being a tech-executive, at various stages of various companies, I had an urge to quit and travel the world, and figure things out. But, I decided to stay as the startup was mission driven, and I kind of liked the team. So, instead, I worked on figuring out how I could stay in the US without working for anyone, if I wanted to, and as I was doing that, I experimented with travel. I would travel to a new city every two weeks. Starting on Friday evening, and coming back to work Monday mornings. This way I got a taste of Hawaii, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and a couple of other US states. I really loved Hawaii.

But soon, I realized I was escaping. Sitting at a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, I saw that it is the same everywhere, just people living their lives and doing stuff, the flavor changes with the landscape but underneath it’s all the same. And, my desire to travel was probably me running away from myself. So I stopped traveling and decided that I would travel because of my lifestyle. Something in my life should be able to take me from here to there because that would be natural and integrated.

Eventually in 2017, I quit the startup job. I could’ve stayed a lot longer but decided not to. In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t. At the time I had a lot of anxiety around quitting, and, also a lot of grand plans, but I went ahead because I thought if I don’t take the chance now, I would probably not get it again. Underneath all this was probably just curiosity of being on my own, testing the waters of the real world.

It turned out alright for me. During this period, I discovered Zen which has changed my life, read a lot, traveled quite a bit, worked outside the US, learned about new technologies and tried doing my own startup, and started teaching dance, something that was on my mind for a long time. My existence thus far had been very sheltered. Very protective parents, very supported university life, and jobs with free food. The only challenge in my life may have been my loving brother (just kidding bro, lol). But anyways, I may have finally learned to survive in the wild. And, it gets really wild when the world is in a pandemic.

As I look back and compare, there’s this world view which is starting to blossom in me and the best thing about it is that it feels true. There’s a curious satisfaction about life, and the way things are. Something I didn’t expect to gain as I was jumping off the ship. It is kind of like, I can see the outlines on the canvas and the opportunity to paint. I was hoping for mad success but this is better. Seems like parts of me keep dying and something new keeps emerging.

During this period, I also learned to host the Japanese Tea ceremony. One of the most rewarding things I've had the opportunity to learn. Never before, did I get so much enthusiasm for spending third of a day on serving people some tea and sweets. One time, I spent hours cleaning a section of the tea hut (the place where it is practiced), and it was very satisfying. It was intrinsically rewarding. Never before had cleaning wood with a wet cloth felt so good, and nobody asked me to do it. The tea practice has inspired me to take my time at everything I do. And, try and not do anything that I don’t like very much. I’ve been a host quite a few times so far and I am looking forward to hosting more, each tea is unique and wonderful. However, dare I say that I have learnt it already. The Japanese masters who came up with the practice spent their entire lives on it. It is a multifaceted art and an endeavor in itself.