ECHOES OF EXPERIENCE: 30 INSIGHTS FROM LIFE'S JOURNEY

By Arshad Hussain Khuroo

We forget more than 85% of what we hear, as soon as we leave that place. However, when something is communicated through a story or an incident, the reader not only remembers more than 85% for a longer duration, but there is also a better chance of influencing the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Apr 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9789362612243

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INTRODUCTION

When I was in my first standard, I met with a couple of accidents. Our school was less than a kilometre from our house. School timings were from morning 10 am to evening 4 pm, with a lunch break of one hour between 01:00 pm to 02:00 pm. As a routine, my younger brother and I along with one of our friends (who was my classmate, our neighbour and our relative) would walk together to the school in the morning and come back home for meals, during lunch hours. Our last walk on all school days was at 04:00 pm, from school to home. Morning walk to school was usually an undeviating and serious walk, because focus was to reach school on time. Lunch break walk from school to home and back was full of stress, as within that one hour we would walk to and fro, and also complete our lunch at home. Last walk from school to home, was always fun. There was no time constraint to reach home and our mind was relaxed as school time was over. During this specific walk of the day, all types of non-sense and innovative activities were our routine, almost every day.

Between school and our house there was a bridge, this bridge was made of flat pieces of wood. It was not a very narrow bridge, however, there were no side railings. There were long pieces of wooden logs on both sides. These were hardly 4-5 inches in width, the main reason I think was to keep horizontal pieces in place. The bridge resembled a railway track. In fact, the bridge was wide enough to even cross comfortably at night time and I remember hardly any case of fall from this bridge except me, and that too two times.

During one of the evening fun walks, when three of us were coming back from school, an innovative idea popped into my mind. The idea was to cross the bridge with eyes closed, and to walk over the side wooden logs. A fall from there would have been fatal, it was at a height of approximately 20 feet. At that time of season, the canal on which this bridge was built, was almost dry. That could be one of the probable reasons for our decision to go with this dangerous stunt. There were stones below, spread across. But we being adventure kids, the challenge was accepted by all three of us. We took our position, closed our eyes and shouted; Ready, set and go …….. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my bed at home, with all my relatives surrounding me. For a few seconds I thought it was a dream, but I realized after some time that I had actually fallen from over the bridge. Some people saw me there and took me to my home. Miraculously, I survived with no fracture, not even a single bruise.

Kids are kids. They don’t take learning, especially when the kids are adventurous like us. Just a year after, same route, same fun filled walk and same adventurous thoughts. We three again decided to walk on the ramp over the bridge, of course eyes closed. What was the fun with eyes wide open? Guess what; my second fall. At the same place, and this time again I opened my eyes when I was lying on my bed at home. Surprisingly, there was no fracture and no bruises. All my relatives and neighbours were astonished by my condition.

Finally, this time, we took learning. We never tried the same stunt afterwards. However, the stunts changed, places changed and the series of accidents continued. Sometimes, it was me and sometimes my brother.

When I am recalling my first fall from the bridge, I start thinking and asking myself, why didn’t I learn from my first accident? The answer is very simple, we were kids, hardly 6-7 years of age.

Then the other question which comes to me after this answer is, have I learned from the incidents which happened with me after I became an adult? Post-mortem of my life reveals that at least till I attained the age of 30 years, I didn’t. After the age of thirty, there were few incidents which happened to me and which moulded my life. Today, I believe I am more mature, mature enough not only to recall some important stories or incidents which happened to me, but today I am cultivated enough to take inspiration from those stories.

When I penned down one such incident in terms of an article on LinkedIn, I received many calls wherein people told me that they really liked the story and many of my friends told me that they got inspired from that story. I then started writing about many such incidents on LinkedIn.

Over a period of time, I realized that it will be better to pen down these stories in a book. This will not only provide me an opportunity to share these inspirational stories with the general public, but will also help me in completing one of my self-driven goals.

I have done a fair amount of research on self-motivation. I even did some workshops on this topic, this was taken very positively by participants. Over a period of time I realized that most of us are waiting for extrinsic factors for motivation. Be it increment, promotion, or rewards/recognition; these factors indeed motivate us. But at the same time, if we do not get these things, we get demotivated, leading to frustration. Unintentionally we become dependent on others for our motivation. That is where self-motivation helps. In this book, there is a chapter on self-motivation. One of the tools for self-motivation is to target goals for oneself. Once we achieve these goals, we get self-motivated. Authoring a book, was one such self-driven goal enlisted by me in my dairy to motivate myself.

The stories mentioned in most of the chapters of this book are true stories. After reading some of these stories, my immediate manager sent me an email in which she mentioned that these are true inspirational stories, straight from the heart. I initially decided naming this book as TRUE INSPIRATIONAL STORIES; STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART. Thank you, Dr Romi, for your inspiring words, which not only motivates me, but also pushes me to achieve more.

In one of the chapters I had written about my story which pushed me to enhance my knowledge. When I started reading books on my technical subject, I became addicted to reading. I started reading management books, biographies, history books, besides my subject which is Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics. I sometimes sit for many hours, especially during weekends, to read and read. Even though I am trying my best not to annoy my family and spend some quality time with them, many times my family gets ignored. Especially when I pick a book which is an interesting read, I spend hours and hours till I complete the book. I thank my wife, Tabassum, for her patience and understanding me. I love my kids and I am sure they also understand me. Thanks to you my lovely kids, Huzaif and Alveena. There are two chapters in this book authored by my kids, wherein they have shared their respective stories and the learning from it.

Life cannot be beautiful without great friends and colleagues. When we have friends and colleagues who are positive, highly energetic, self-motivated, then life becomes sweet. I am fortunate enough to have such friends and colleagues. They keep on encouraging me, they help me even when I don’t ask for and they never ignore me. I have plenty of them and I thank each one of them, especially Qaiser Qadri. He is my advisor, my negotiator, my rescuer, besides a great friend. I would also like to thank Sheroz, Sarfaraz, Noor, Amir, Khalid, Haseen, Hemant and Tariq for their continuous support and motivation

I have great colleagues and a fantastic team. My team has always supported me and motivated me to do things beyond my capacity. My special thanks to Simrit, who has not only helped me at multiple occasions, but has also provided me continuous feedback towards improvement.

It would be unfair if I will not mention here the support provided by Poonam Kalra, you have been a great HR partner and a great friend.

I have wonderful memories of spending cherishing moments of my childhood with my three brothers (Ashiq, Akhtar and Abid). Despite now being far away from each other, we take all possible measures to meet once or twice a year. I feel blessed to have such wonderful brothers.

I would like to thank my publisher, designer, editor and all others who helped me in shaping this book into its present form. I am thankful to Imran who helped in the initial design of the cover page of my book, which eventually helped me in giving inputs to the designer who finally designed the cover page.

I owe my gratitude to my current organization for providing me all possible support and allowing me to publish this book.

I am dedicating this book to my Mom. I do not have enough words to express my love towards her. Mom, if I have achieved anything in my life, it is all because of your fostering and blessing. I cannot forget your sacrifices when I was a child. Even today, you care about my meals, my health, my kids, my feelings. You are the best.

(Dr Arshad H Khuroo)

AN OPERATOR

Khuda tuje kisi toofan se aashan karade,

ki teri bahar ki maujoon mein iztiraab nahin (Iqbal)

(May god bless you with some storm,

As there is no turbulence in the waves of your ocean)

When I joined the pharmaceutical industry after my graduation as a Bio-analyst, there was a laboratory attendant named Raju in our Lab. Raju was very popular amongst all of us because he was adept at many more things besides his work. He was knowing how to prepare standard solutions for calibration curves, he was knowing how to weigh the standard, he was knowing how to label and arrange tubes for bulk spiking, and he was in fact knowing how to even dismantle and clean sophisticated instruments like HPLC. Being very cheerful and supportive, we used to always call him for help.

With the passage of time, I also learnt how to operate the HPLC and subsequently learnt Bio-analysis. Fortunately I also became very famous, whether it was for developing a method, validating a method, operating an instrument or preparing calibration curves, people started approaching me as well for help. During those days computers were not very common and there was hardly any person in our lab who was having any PC at his/her home. I was very much interested in learning computers and the software used in various instruments. I would come during weekends and spend time on the system to learn more about the functioning of software and the instrument operations.

A couple of years later, I got an opportunity to work on LC-MS/MS (mass spectrometry) for Bio-analysis, which was considered as the most advanced technique at that time. We did multiple projects for non-US countries during the late 90s and finally did a project with successful submission towards the US FDA as well. It was the first ever bioequivalence study conducted in India submitted to the US FDA for approval towards product marketing in the US. Subsequently we faced a US FDA inspection which was the first US FDA inspection for any bioequivalence unit in India with a successful outcome.

The message which I want to share through this chapter makes it necessary to mention some of my accomplishments during my early career. When I joined industry in 1995, I was given an independent pilot project after just 17 days of my joining, because of my sincerity and dedication towards work. I was selected as one of the analysts for performing Bio-analysis of the first pivotal fillable project done by our organization. I was probably the first person who initiated Bio-analysis in India for a fillable bioequivalence study. I was the first person who was part of the first US FDA submission study conducted in India and I was part of the team who faced the first US FDA inspection in India for a bioequivalence centre. I remember developing methods on LC-MS/MS in hours rather than days and I also remember opening a mass spectrometry instrument and cleaning it like a professional engineer. Operating an HPLC or LC-MS/MS was a cup of tea for me, when in fact there were very limited people during those days who were able to operate the LC-MS/MS.

After spending around 6-8 years in the laboratory, my career was not going anywhere despite my accomplishments. Like other people I was also looking for opportunities outside of my organization and was keen to become a manager. Because of some or the other reason, I was not getting that opportunity in my current organization. I started approaching my friends and one of my close friends arranged a job interview for me in a CRO (contract research organization). It was a job for a Laboratory manager position and I was excited and quite sure of sealing it. Finally the day of the interview came and I was called by the Head of the CRO to his office. When I entered the room for the interview, I was on cloud nine with all my accomplishments in mind. The interviewer introduced himself and to my surprise he mentioned that he had heard a lot about me. He also mentioned that the interview was just a formality, in fact they thought that I was the most suitable candidate for that position. I was on top of the world and when he started praising me, I was virtually beyond the boundaries of visible sky.

The interviewer was a very nice person with great knowledge and reputation. He asked me politely, Arshad, Can I ask you a few questions? My reply was, yes please. I till date remember each and every question which he had asked me. He started with a very basic technical question which was related to the LC-MS/MS instrument. More than him, I was shocked because I did not know the answer to that question. I was still in the skies and I gave an assurance to myself not to worry. But this assurance slowly faded as the interview progressed. He continued with the basic technical questions and believe me, I was not able to answer most of the questions. The ones which I was able to answer, were