CEO OF MY TIME FOR BEING A..I: Secret to Creating Life's Magical Journeys

By Rajeev Nalawadi

Each one of us has a perception of reality that is shaped by a number of factors, such as our senses, our experiences, our beliefs, our emotions, and our perspectives. This book draws from personal experiences, culture, technology, genes, philosophy, and attempts to reveal a path that systematically unveils

• Language: English
• Publisher: LMJ Adventures
• Release date: Jul 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988705154

Book preview

CEO OF MY TIME FOR BEING A..I:

Secret to Creating Life’s Magical Journey

RAJEEV NALAWADI

Copyright © 2023

Rajeev Nalawadi

ISBN: 979-8-9887051-5-4

All Rights Reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is strictly prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

All reasonable attempts have been made to verify the accuracy of the information provided in this publication. Nevertheless, the author assumes no responsibility for any errors and/or omissions.

The advice and strategies found within the book may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher are held responsible for the results accrued from the advice in this book. You should consult with professionals (lawyer, healthcare doctor, financial advisor, psychiatrist) for further details and future actions.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all the divine manifestations around the world as we spend our brief moments on this beautiful planet together.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

An essence of time and its experience

An Uniqueness to your life

Potential of every human

Culture & Technology

Financials for the Journey

Magic of Love

There is going to be grief

Perceptions about reality and bridging the gaps

Career & Skills

Interlude & Mid-journey for Being A..I

Power of Resilience

Audacity to compare & FOMO

Tendency to Cling

Is it Fear or Suffering

Are we Afraid of Happiness

Do we need Dental Proof for Smiles

Do we like Community Relationships

Fleeting moments leading to memories of bliss

Personal peace and bridging the gap

Balance of Knowledge, Ignorance & Curiosity

Epilogue / Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author

Acknowledgements

For my family: Especially my wife of 27 years, who has showered unconditional love and enriched my life with two boys who are a source of joy. May we travel together for as many miles that are left for us in this beautiful journey of life.

For the Reader: Thank you for purchasing the book and wishing all the best on your journey towards using the contents of this book.

For the country: USA is an amazing country that provides opportunities to anybody that dreams. All my achievements and journeys wouldn’t be possible if this country did not accept and embrace me completely. For India that instills the deep grounded-ness towards life.

For the rest of the world: To all the other divine manifestations around me in this world, my heartfelt gratitude for contributing towards my journey till now and many of you have made it really worthwhile by filling our life with memories.

Prologue

I

n the not-so-distant future, it’s the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, the election day in the USA for selecting the President & Vice-president. ‘Digital twin’ is now a reality for every individual who is a citizen of the country. The concept of a digital twin as a practical definition originated from NASA to improve the physical-model simulation of spacecraft. The digital twin being a digital representation of an actual real-world entity (a physical being), serves as a counterpart for practical purposes. A digital twin maintains a traceable footprint of the physical entity based on their internet browsing history, news, movies, series streaming history, streaming channel subscriptions, cable news preferences, lifestyle preferences, cell phone tower swaps tracking regular commutes & errands, social group interactions, and interests, social gathering locations, social media interests, recency biases, thus leaving a footprint providing an integral makeup of actual physical being. A recent bill just passed with a narrow majority in the current election year makes it possible for digital twins to cast a vote in this election cycle. Lots of corporations who are typically competitors not sharing each other’s data have also agreed to share & contribute their data to a federally established collective entity. The majority of the US population from all three parties’ Republicans, Democrats, and independents are excited with this new capability and have given consent for the Digital twin to cast their vote for the ones registered as independents considering they had fewer representatives to vote on the bill, the selling point has been: it is relieving them from the burden of emotions during the last few days leading to election day. The digital twins are here to ensure that decisions will be void of any dramatic human emotions while casting their votes on election day.

Finally, the election results are announced, and it’s a narrow victory for President & Vice president, and the news outlets are split on coverage; on some channels, it’s hailing the newly elected president/vice president as they get ready to take their office in January, whereas some channels are bringing in experts to comment on how to make sense of the election results. Still, all the participants who opted for digital twins to cast their votes certainly are happy with the right decision their digital twin took on their behalf. Well, this short narrative sequence surely would fit within the plot of a Tom Clancy fictional novel. However, nothing like this will potentially be happening with ‘AI & Digital Twins’ in the near future as the geniuses who designed the US Constitution wouldn’t let the rights of the people be so easily taken away from them.

We are at the cusp of a technology revolution with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that will be instrumental in transforming and enriching our integral lifestyles in the coming years. We have proclaimed ourselves as ‘Homo Sapiens’ in Latin, which translates to ‘the wise human’ as we have come to recognize our mental capacities as integrally significant to our everyday lives and sense of self. The field of AI attempts to understand and build intelligent entities; it’s rather a discipline of study to learn more about ourselves. Now imagine a student starting their studies in a well-established chosen field like physics where scientists like Newton, Galileo, Stephen Hawking, and Einstein from the past have already contributed their grand ideas, this can potentially make the student feel that it will take a lifetime to contribute their own ideas in that field, but with Quantum computing & AI as your assisting companions, the job of a budding scientist becomes ripe with possibilities. The scientific research work that could have taken a few months may be completed during the day or even within hours. At the current stage, gauging AI’s full potential possibilities is unfathomable. AI transformation is fundamentally going to cause a shifting of gears similar to previous creations of the microprocessor, personal computer, Internet, and mobile phones that have been tightly integrated into our lives. These technologies are deeply entrenched in our lives. They will further act as infrastructure roadways needed to make AI the next frontier as it gets deeply embedded into the way we work, learn, interact, and communicate with each other as human species. AI’s seamless integration will be similar to tectonic shifts affecting virtually all industries forcing businesses to reorient their strategies to incorporate its use and help people be more productive. We, humans, can take this opportunity with AI and start viewing through the lens of assisting the entire world with AI-assisted technology transformation to ensure benefits of AI are not limited to only wealthy countries. AI’s disruptive stream of product introductions will no doubt raise questions and make people uneasy about privacy, bias, workforce, legalities, et cetera. But if we look at the previous technology revolutions, similar challenges were tackled; we humans ironed the kinks to make these technologies better and can’t imagine our everyday lives without their existence. The multidisciplinary impact of AI will face a multitude of general challenges common across various industries and some specific challenges related to individual domains. Nonetheless, the fields of healthcare, education, manufacturing, finance, accounting, legal, travel, transportation, energy, climate, workforce, public policy, and distribution networks, to name a few, will see AI-infused trend-shifting beneficial changes in the coming years.

Having circled the sun 53 times is sort of another way to coin my age. My career of 28 years at Intel corporation collaborating closely with Microsoft placed me right at the crossroads of personal computers, mobile laptops, windows, seamless connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), and Azure cloud technology revolutions. The last seven years of my career since 2015 were forged as formative years for AI.

Growing up heard one of the quotes repeatedly from my dad - Be a Jack of all trades and master a few if possible. This was not just a quote but followed a rigorous daily schedule of waking up around 6 am and hopping onto the side-car (an appendage done to a scooter or bike) and made popular by the movie Sholay song of the 1970’s Yeh Dosti hum nahin chodenge (We will cherish our friendship forever) OR an Indiana Jones movie style set in World war II timeline with the exception being motorcycle versus scooter. Our blue side car with a matching color was an appendage attached to the iconic Bajaj scooter. Reaching the tennis courts around 6:30 am for a warmup jogging session of 3kms followed by a few grueling competitive matches in typical Bjorn Borg style around the baseline before John McCenroe & Boris Becker volleying skills gained popularity with serve/volley games of instant kills. This was followed by a swimming session at a public pool in town around 8:30 am and returning home by 9:30 am to finish praying at our home shrine donned with multiple tiled divine gods/goddesses (devis) on the walls that jostled for space and attention along with multiple bronze idols, all the gods had to receive their due attention with Haldi & Kumkum tikkas and on special occasions a freshly ground sandalwood paste. Then 10:30 am was St Joseph’s school assembly time which had strict enforcement of time, uniform, and lengthy hair curl checks from the principal, and you always wished there was no report card entry that required the signature of the parents/elders of the family. The Vatican-funded catholic school had a church on the premises along with the principal’s staying quarter; the demographic of students was roughly split equally into one-thirds Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. This diverse co-ed student body considering even just the Christian population, had a fairly good participation from a lot of protestant families. School ended at 5 pm, and my dad used to wait for me outside the gates with our side car. It was time to grab a quick sandwich at Azaad (freedom) Park before starting the Volleyball practice session at 5:30 pm. After an hour of playing Volleyball, it was time to meet Doctor Carvalho at 6:30 pm near the city bus stand; the practicing dentist with a side hustle providing guitar & violin lessons, the doctor had a constant stream of villagers paying a visit for their red tainted paan/beetle nut chewed teeth, it was rather interesting how the doctor yelled at his patients if they tried to make any noise while he was pulling apart their teeth’s gleefully asking them to shut up lest they disturb the notes being played on the glorious musical instruments. The doctor would shift his yelling to us once the dental job was done for not picking a smooth transition between A thru G notes. After an hour with the doctor, it was time to head home around 7:30 pm. With this schedule of the day, it was lean on time for barely some minimal homework completion at night before heading to sleep. During the monsoon season, which usually lasts about a couple of months in this tropical area, the early morning tennis sessions were swapped to indoor badminton, table tennis, karate, basketball, or billiards at the clubs. This induced exposure to various kinds of outdoor and indoor sports provides valuable insight into the degree of difficulty associated with learning techniques associated with variants of sports. I was blessed with an envious childhood where all my school friends would have liked their dads to encourage them to play sports.   

Born in Dharwad, a quaint little hill station-style town in southern India with foggy mornings, situated in the northwestern part of Karnataka state (India), the town served as a summer resort for British during colonial rule and still has remnants of British architectural influence in the buildings. The word Dharwad is derived from the Sanskrit word which means a place of rest during the course of a long travel, and for centuries, Dharwad acted as a resting place and a gateway for travelers between the western mountains (Malenadu) and the plains (Bayalu Seeme). Located at 750 meters (2460 feet) above sea level with a tropical wet and dry climate, the town once boasted 26 lakes within the city, and only three of them exist today as the burgeoning population rushed to build residential homes. Nowadays, many people recognize Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka State, due to its burgeoning Tech hub; Dharwad is located around 430kms from the state’s capital.

Our ancestral home, built by my great grandfather, sits atop a hill; my dad used to take visitors to our home outside the gate of my home in Dharwad and just walking a couple of hundred feet with an expansive view of the plains, this is the last hill of the majestic Sahyadri mountain ranges, still remember him pointing to both sides of the road narrating to the visitors, the monsoon rainwater from this side flows to the Arabian sea and other side flows to Indian ocean. My dad being an automobile engineer by profession, the home garage had Castrol oil cans sitting on shelves whilst the walls were decked with bikini-clad models and race cars; memories also jog back to a car pit in our compound for examining the armpits of vehicles, used to frequently follow my dad down the steps to work on our Vauxhall 14-6 antique cars from 1940, still remember those days when we literally used to tear down the engines observing cylinders/pistons/spark plugs in action and putting them back together, we still own two of these Vauxhall navy blue colored cars that run in top-notch condition but requiring some external paint job work, these antique cars are indeed a legacy gift from my dad to the future generation of the family. Sticking to his Jack of all trades quote, observed my dad dabble around as an electrician, mechanic, agriculturist, horticulturist, gardener, mason, tiffin provider, masonic lodge member, soft drinks distributor, medicinal explorer, spiritual explorer, sports trainer and successfully completing projects stand as a testament to being a ‘jack of trades.’

Reminiscing about the days gone by, it seems my dad learned all the skills needed to be self-reliant being a jack at all these trades. He attempted to learn everything assuming nobody would help; that would certainly make him an ideal survivalist for doomsday. Perhaps that’s my imaginative state which stems from books being my best friends during childhood. Trying to live the fiction and imagining elaborately the sights & sounds portrayed by the author in the scene settings, early on developed a voracious reading habit consuming within a few days the individual entireties of prolific novels from likes of James Hadley Chase, Enid Blyton, Hardy boys, Nancy Drew, Ayn Rand, Alastair Maclean, James Clavell, Jeffrey Archer, Tom Clancy, Agatha Christie, and many others. Comic series of Asterix & Obelix, Tintin, Phantom, Bahadur & Bella, Amar Chitra Katha, and other local versions. Periodicals such as Reader’s Digest, National Geographic, and Time magazines. Books in either paperback, hardcover, Kindle continue to inspire me every day. Although I prefer the hardcover and paperback versions of my favorite books, watching anybody on a Zoom call or a podcast, the books displayed in the background are always a reveal of the person to some extent, as an invited guest to anyone’s home always glance over to the wall, shelves, tables for books. More to be covered on the latest readings list, where I list references based on my personal experiences as we navigate through the chapters of this book. Reading piqued a lot of interest in travel, and at age 18 wanted to become a pilot, so my dad took me to Bangalore Jakkur airport, where we had a relative as principal of the flying school. Enthusiastically boarded a twin-engine Cessna with one of the trainers, and it was smooth till we reached a certain height. Then the trainer started making some crazy moves of sudden altitude drops/sideways tilts which induced a sensation of intestines rolling to your throat, and we were on the ground without any gross incident of puking. This dashed the hopes of becoming a commercial pilot to see the world. The travel bug never withered away; I have spent a significant amount of my career earnings to travel about 65 countries in this world with my family, driven through 59 of these countries with a car that gives an immersive experience of non-touristic sights, although the goal is to visit during this lifetime all the universally recognized travel worthy countries of the world that stand at a total of 195.

I obsessively watched all Hollywood movies playing at Modern Theater; yeah, that’s the real name and only theater in town playing English movies, whereas the other eight catered to a mix of Bollywood (Hindi) & Kannada (state’s native language) movies. Rather than the long-running movies in other theaters, the English movies changed every 4 to 3 days due to low crowds. The Magic of Mckenna’s Gold, Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarone, Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, Indiana Jones, Gods must be crazy, James Bond movies, Rocky, Magnificent Seven, Good Bad and Ugly, and many other movies to list where all ranked as awesome and none of them rated by my personal opinion as ‘Bad or Ugly.’ Apart from combined entertainment of visuals & sound from the studios, the sound sensations were filled with Boney-M, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Dolly Palton, Phil Collins, Eagles, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston, and many other songs & albums.

Before we delve deeper into the contents of this book, let me offer a glimpse of who I am. Based on the most credible tool, the mirror. This is a guy who has Salt & Pepper style head hair, and the same style goes for a mustache, or rather can there be any other way to aging as a human being. Well, there are other possibilities where I could have ended up with no hair (bald) or white hair, or patchy hair. I will go with what physical bodily reality has dealt me till now, and it seems like it’s going to be a waiting game for me to observe what happens to my hair in the future; it can go silver fox (all white), or maybe need to embrace other styles of hair extinction. As an individual being perceived by someone, we are always first gauged with a lens of a person’s mental model construction that maybe their perception of how they expect you to be, it is rather not who you really are. Based on my personal experiences will share some techniques that have worked; we will start to delve deeper into how you can truly gauge yourself with integrity as you are trying to be true to yourself and observe over time how this will change even the world’s view about you, it’s life’s transformational journey about knowing and experiencing things firsthand.

Let’s revisit the question of Who am I? But for a moment, assume that somebody is asking me the question: Who are you? I would try to answer that as "My name is Rajeev Nalawadi, age 53, and I am staying in El Dorado Hills, California. BUT this is not my entirety. What happened to my early childhood of watching movies, listening to music, reading books, novels, and comics, memories with dad, going to school, getting married, and the birth of kids? There are so many things that will probably be missed out from the list in the quest of trying to answer the simple question of ‘Who are you’? So, nobody is going to disagree that we have all been thru multiple identities since our birth, similar to rings of the redwood trees telling a distinct story of events in their life, even if our personal story involves acquiring skills & capabilities as an act of growing up, these growing years probably have been phenomenal to some extent.    

Having multiple identities (though not multiple personalities) is conducive to having a fulfilled life of existence. This runs counter to the prevailing belief in the United States and other Western nations, where specialization is considered the highest good. Didn’t we gain that specialization at a certain age, attend some college, or designated title at your company, or have self-proclaimed titles in the case of business owners? All of these came later in life at some point in your life’s journey, but there are so many things beyond the current specialization which still matter to you in life. I can’t just answer the question of who we are with the title that my company provided for the job. We silo our life experiences into different buckets, and each has its own significance along the timeline of life. Have you ever wondered how Elon Musk had been successfully innovating across various disciplinary fields, and he continues to be more productive in coming up with ideas? He is sort of one of the living examples of a person who successfully transitions across multiple identities. He is the founder of so many companies, including PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, the boring company, and surely we will be unable to list all the companies he is going to start or purchase in the coming years. He is a true testament to technological innovations for mankind across multidisciplinary fields. His innovations point to the fact of defying some of the older traditions & beliefs to create something new, and that is the fundamental nature of technological progress at its core. Although not all of us can be Elon Musk, all of us must embrace the thought of having to transform through multiple identities as we progress through life and the technological progress of the future. In fact, you already have at least a few identities since your birth, conferred either by society or family.

Even though there is some wisdom in older traditions, it doesn’t mean they will continue to work today. Indigenous religions also are simply the collection of what we’ve always done from generation to generation. Hinduism is at least 4000 years old and may be considerably older. Some of the traditions of Aboriginal Australians are 50,000 years old. But at some point, every ritual, every story, every sacred practice was done for the first time. And then it was done again and again. People decided it was meaningful and helpful, and so the people kept doing it. If you are a conformant follower, maybe that will work and end up justifying with some reasoning, but sometimes the older rituals, that we are asked to follow, do not make sense. This is the main reason we should know, and experience before something can be considered tangibly working.

In this book, we will explore some of the wisdom in ancient scriptures, philosophy, psychological, science, and scientific research aspects to ground ourselves with the foundation to experience ourselves. As humans, we have progressed through centuries of progressive existence being hunter-gatherers with rocks, preserved meats, milked a cow or goat, pasteurized milk, ignited fire for cooking, driven horse carriages, metal, steel, batteries, canoes, boats, ships, trains, gas, electricity, radios, cameras, refrigerator, TV’s, automobiles, planes, space shuttles, Internet, PC’s, mobile phones, automation, robots, drones, intelligent devices, social media, streaming media, semi-autonomous cars, Generative artificial intelligence (AI), fully-autonomous driving, stem cells, genetic therapy and although the list is presented in no specific particular order, it should continue for humans to achieve progressive growth as a species. We should incessantly dare to do something new and encourage the new generation to reach newer realms. Literally, technology shapes society rather than the other way around, and we need to embrace this fact and adapt ourselves on how to effectively use these technologies towards the meaningful purpose of achieving individual growth, in the process learning how these technologies have to be lived with.

We are all a manifestation of nature in human form on a transformative journey of this life; navigating through life is about unleashing our unique potential until our last moment of breath, keep discovering and sharing everything that makes the world and life so magical. You have probably heard about the optimist and pessimist point of view, Glass is half full (for optimist), Glass is half empty (for a pessimist), and applying this same concept to life, this can be viewed as Life is a transformative, magical journey of growth (optimist), Life is depleting in front of our eyes as we progress towards the future by aging (pessimist). Experts say we breathe about 12 to 20 times per minute; that’s about 28,800 breaths per day, and most of this is unconscious for many. Expert studies have indicated that we have about 6,000 thoughts per day. The five sense organs act as stimuli to generate thoughts that have a garden variety about status, position, power, love, anger, fear, anxiety, pleasure, excitement, happiness, money, acceptance, love, vulnerability, vitality, and others as shaped by our experiences. This inner voice is constantly talking to us effortlessly, straddling across past/future, and depending on your attention/response to the thought, it may take deeper dives into either the past or future; the weight scale of past/future thoughts is a varying entity totally depending on your participation. We can call this inner voice our ‘twinie,’ or a ‘twin with intellectual ego’ provided by creation inside each one of us, and it constantly talks to us all day, trying to help us categorize the external world of sensory stimuli with some questions where you participate and help.

Isn’t the sunny weather amazing today? Doesn’t it look cloudy today? Is it going to rain? What time is it going to rain as per the weather channel? Do my car tires need to be changed; they seem worn out. Isn’t my car going to be automatically cleaned today with rain? Maybe rains late in the season are going to spike my allergies? Is it a good time to plant some new flowers in the garden? Maybe after this rain, I will work in the garden to put some fertilizer? What is the name of the fertilizer my friend Guru recommended over the weekend? Should I try that or stick with my previous one? Let me call my friend AJ, who suggested volunteering every two weeks on Saturday. It’s a good thing to volunteer and help the community. This ‘twinie’ with constant chatter helps us organize if it’s on a progressive & creative path. Still, it does not have any bias, so it is also going to chatter about the ‘not-so-pleasant things,’ like this f**king guy (a friend with a name) recommended purchasing the stock of this company, and look now it’s down 30% since his recommendation, I should have instead invested in this other stock that is up by 25%, I will confront this guy & expose his financial illiteracy on WhatsApp group where he recommended. When is the stock market going to drop so I can put in more money? Is the market really going to go up even when the economy is so f**ked up? Is everything orienting to not work in my favor? My boss is expecting the completion of the presentation tomorrow; he doesn’t have any knowledge of what goes into producing something classy like I do. Why do these couples frequently post photos on social media? Aren’t they always busy on weekends? They seem to party even on weekdays; how do they find the time? I need to tackle my colleague with really tough questions today during his presentation to get back on how he posed those questions when I was presenting. The twinie goes on and on, sometimes helping and sometimes debilitating. Technological evolutions have increased the senses’ stimuli. Nonetheless, we are capable of being in charge. We will call upon personal experiences and learnings. We will uncover in the coming chapters more of ourselves and ways to manage the relentless evolution of technology, which is inevitable and necessary for human progress. 

Technological evolutions are getting faster, and the ripples of their impact are going to get more frequent. It’s all within our individual capacity to handle these changes, and each one of us is capable of thriving & transforming through these new creations by managing ourselves in a better manner. With the technological revolution of AI knocking on our doorsteps would like to introduce my experiences with a synonym form of A to I or a short form referred to as A..I. I Would like to introduce some key aspects in the form of easy mnemonic to remember (A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I) for transformational journey of life. We will go through some real-life examples to convey specific techniques and would encourage you to try these simple day-to-day techniques for yourself to reach your potential.

The definition of a Quotient as per the dictionary is It’s a number resulting from the division of one number by another. In this case, we will consider our individual self as a whole 1. This book defines nine key aspects that have to be balanced to make us whole and realize our full potential. The 9 quotients are: Adaptability quotient (AQ), Bliss/Spiritual quotient (BQ), Curiosity quotient (CQ), Dream/Wonder Quotient (DQ), Emotional quotient (EQ), Food Quotient (FQ), Group/Social Quotient (GQ), Health Quotient (HQ), Intelligence quotient (IQ). There are loads of materials already available for IQ and EQ, but we will analyze these two well-known quotients as well from a slightly different prismatic lens in this book. An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is defined as a 9-axis sensor that measures orientation, velocity, and gravitational forces by combining Accelerometer, Gyroscope, and Magnetometer into one; this is widely used in planes. Similarly, to glide successfully in our transformational journey of life, a balanced view is a necessity where we achieve a balance between these nine quotients.

With a ‘Namaste’ – which is a bow from me to the divine within you. Let’s start on this transformative journey.

Chapter 01

An essence of time and its experience

Biggest difference between Money and Time: You can always judiciously check all your personal accounts anytime of the day to find the total amount of money you have BUT won’t know for sure how much time you have

F

reedom with my time, was the visualization in mind while taking the decision in December’ 2022 to leave the techno corporate world after a 28-year career and at age of 52 years. January of 2023 was going to be my last day at Intel Corporation (my company). Frankly, when I had started my career in technology industry at the age of 24 while studying for master’s degree in florida, never imagined time would fly so fast and now was the ideal time to ponder. The clock and its time are ticking both physically and biologically in every living being of this planet, as the clock ticks by hours, minutes, seconds the past increases and future recedes but we always live with the audacity of our own assumptions ignoring the fact that some old thing would have to end to start something new.

In the business & financial context a Chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest ranking official at most of the companies around the world and is responsible for managing the expenses/costs and growth aspects of overall company. There are various departments within a company and the CEO is responsible for all of them. One of the goals for any CEO is to control the expenses/costs of any division/department and an ideal state of affairs would be to keep cost lower while still delivering innovative products, if keeping your expenses & costs at zero was ever sustainable and possible, wouldn’t any of the CEO’s in this world economy love to adopt this idea whilst the company keeps its growth in accordance to market expectations, although we all know this is not a possibility in reality and nature. Whilst jaunting around the thoughts of gaining freedom and having to write parting thoughts to all the work colleagues, gave myself a self-proclaimed title CEO of my time, and hence the title and formative theme of this book,

With the newly gained freedom of time, we tried to research some places for long term stays. ‘Pueblos Magicos de Mexico’ that translates to Magical Villages of Mexico hit the right theme and we excitedly embarked on planning to visit our neighboring country & southern neighbor. Although, not the first-time visiting Mexico, as we have previously been on an 8 day Princess cruise with port of calls at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabos San Lucas. Those one day port of calls & planned excursions inland into Mexico from these ports and returning back to the comfort of cruise ship for dinner or evening tea time prior to planned departures would be very tame relative to the plan we were charting for ourselves with long term stays in the towns for more immersive experiences. The Baijo region and Colonial towns which are part of Central Mexico grabbed our attention and when the exploratory phase led to actual booking, the first long term stay we finalized was Guanajuato city.

The day finally arrived for taking the first step towards our long-term stay journeys. Was taking a non-stop midnight flight from Sacramento, California to Guadalajara, Mexico along with my beautiful wife and partner of 27 years. The convenience of direct flight in terms of price offered by Volaris Mexican airline comes close to the no frills Southwest airline of USA. The excitement of taking a flight kept us awake while we watched people arriving at the boarding gate. You tend to recognize from the facials and features that majority of the travelers had chosen USA as their country to work and make a living similar to the decision i had taken 30 years ago. Most of them heading back to visit their families in Mexico and this is apparently a popular route as there are two departures from Volaris to Guadalajara each day. The 3 and 1/2 hour flight was no comfort and in the midst of trying to doze off to catch some sleep while seated straight, finally heard the announcement that we were descending to our destination.

After landing around 6am ontime at Guadalajara airport, we quickly grabbed our bags and arrived at the immigration counter. Usually, you tend to meet stern looking immigration officials greeting everyone into the country and for a change there was friendly looking smile with a bushy moustache from across the counter. While wondering for a moment what crumbs of food is stashed away in those bushy hairs, handed our US passports and the official asked ‘¿De dónde vienes?’ where are you coming from ? and replied Sacramento, California and the gentleman turned to the lady official at the next counter and asked, ¿Ha llegado Volaris? has Volaris arrived ? to which she responded in Spanish and did not understand her response. The official responded with ‘Bienvenidos a Mexico y disfruta’, Welcome to Mexico and Enjoy’, and handed back our passports. One successful accomplishment to be ticked off as having made through this ritualistic border customs involving stamping of passports & routine check of the bags by custom officials, we were being let off into their country. 

Rather than choosing to travel by posh comfy airconditioned public transport buses provided by ETN, Primera Plus, Estrella Blanc, or First Plus, we had made a choice to rent a car with a lean towards availing simple luxuries of car’s individual climatic control, personal radio, seat slider arrangements. We usually choose to rent a car in any country of travel due to the flexibility it provides in choosing our daily schedules. Have driven in about 59 of the 65 countries till now and the 6 countries that missed to see my talent behind the wheel are China, Taiwan, Thailand, Kenya, Tanzania and Singapore. Although these 6 countries don’t need to be devoid of observing my driving skills, on my next visit to these countries will grab the opportunity to exhibit my roadside manners and learn some new gestures through rear window viewing in case of doing something stupid. Our friendly neighbors (Canada and Mexico) and many other countries recognize an U.S. driver’s license as valid to drive on their roads even if their road signs are drastically different. What more can you ask from other countries of the world, they allow you to drive on other side of the roads with your U.S. driver license. An International driving permit (IDP) issued as a booklet by AAA and valid for one year carries a great amount of credibility, its an accepted form of identification in 150+ countries worldwide. It contains your name, photo and driver information translated into multiple languages even if you don’t speak those local languages. An IDP accompanied by a U.S. driver’s license is certainly a good booklet to flash around in case you are stopped on the roads by traffic officials, they can choose to appreciate your handsome looks either from an outdated DMV photo or your most recent photo in IDP. This has been a savior more than once during my travels and my wife being reliable doling out advice compliments that I drive like a local of those countries.

Heading over to the Hertz counter at the airport, we approached the lady at Hertz counter and asked her in English that we want to pick-up our rental car and she immediately stopped me from opening my wallet, it was slight disappointment that I couldn’t flash my credentials of driving skills with an US California issued driver license and its Real ID bear emblem. She uttered something in Spanish and pointed me towards the exit gate and not understanding a single word, replied back ‘Un poco de espanol’, very little Spanish, and she tried to speak slowly and used hand gestures to point me again towards the gate and indicating to make left turn and go to ‘cinco estacionamiento’ #5 parking lot for pickup. She also acknowledged saying ‘Un poco de ingles’ and we nodded to each other with a laugh and headed off. The hertz van arrived and the driver cheerfully greeted us with ‘Hola Buenos Dias’ Hello Good morning and drove us to the rental terminal where cars were getting dispersed. Finally after our initial signatory commitments on lots of