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Old Spark

The engineering team of the company I worked for in India a couple of decades ago, made the news recently. My father an avid newspaper reader send me a picture of the story - he was proud that I had been part of the organization once and the innovation was around emission reduction. An automotive engineer himself, this is a cause that was always near and dear to his heart. I have written here before how sometimes I feel like I am no longer talking to the father I grew up admiring as a role model for how to be a true professional. He was respected as the authority in his subject matter and brought in to resolve many a engineering deadlock. 

As he grew older, I watched that part of who he was fade and recede to the distance. He turned into the average retiree doing mundane things day after day. While there is no harm in the mundane there has been a missing spark. Back in the day, if I read something in the media that was related to innovation in the auto industry, he was definitely interested, had commentary and opinion. I loved those conversations not because I am any kind of subject matter expert but just to observe him dissect the information and analyze it. This is the skill on which I have made my career and in large part I learned my trade by observing my father. Our domains of work are very different but the learnings have been transferrable for me. It was a wonderful experience to see a bit of that old spark in him once again. 

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