An icon is a person who is the ideal of our life, a person who inspires us to strive for perfection and a person whose life sets an example before us and helps us set an aim in our life. To search for such a person cannot be an easy task. But for me no one can inspire me more than my father. He stands tall before me as a person who is strong with his ideals and optimism. His zeal for life, his passion towards work, his never give up attitude and his soft side for being a family man enlivens my spirit for life.

A true adventurer who not only undertook various adventurous journeys into mountains and jungles of India and Europe, he also leads his life with an adventurous spirit. He hardly looks back, never worries about future and enjoys the present as a gift. Whatever the situation may be, he finds out the positivity in it and adds a totally new aspect to the fact. He is the best learner I have ever seen. While people learn from books, media and other material, he learns from every aspect of life.

He learns even from my mistakes and encourages me to celebrate failures saying that they are the biggest learning moments of life. He always correlates things and says that no incident takes place independently, each and everything around us is somehow connected to some other thing. The ease with which he connects physics with biology or science with spirituality is something that overwhelms me. He belongs to a very common middle class Indian family and has grown with his own efforts. He did most of his education while in service.

He started his career with a Diploma in Electrical Engineering, then did his B. E. in Electrical Engineering, M. E. in Software Systems and then went ahead to do a MBA also. He won to himself the opportunities to study in few best institutions of India like BITS-Pilani, IIM-Calcutta and IIT Kharagpur. He has few international certifications also to his credit. He is also a great achiever and has achieved various facets with sheer dedication and effort. He worked on engines, generators, radars, databases and various apps before moving into management.

He never gives up a job even in the most difficult scenario. His story of climbing a Himalayan peak in Dokriani glacier with injured knees thrills me to perform even at the most difficult scenario. He always talks about doing something different, creating a difference around ourselves and seeks to do something new, something he has not done before. He says that challenges of doing something new is always more and hence the joy of doing it is more. His entrepreneurial spirit is one more thing that amazes me.

He left his comfortable job with an IT major of India where he was leading delivery of IT services to a host of European companies and decided to start his own organization. He has a clear vision that employment scenario in India can be improved only by the Small and Medium Enterprises. He believes that India needs a small enterprise in every lane and thus he is doing his bit by starting an own organization. His love for nature influences me a lot. Learning while looking at a stream, the ideas like how a stream of water benefits the mankind, altruistically.

Learning like how shape of a bird inspires the design of an aircraft or the shape of cheetah inspires design of a motorcycle, are small simple things which I get to with him. He makes it sure that we go out for a one week Nature Study Camp in the Eastern Himalayas to develop bonding with nature. The spots chosen for such camps are normally beyond the reach of mobile telephone network and we are left to ourselves. At home, he takes simple steps to resolve complex problems and put together small bits to create a bigger solution.

He tolerates much of the chaos I create and encourages me to do everything that I like to do. As a follower of Swami Vivekananda he always encourages me to win over fears. He creates a youthful environment and adds humour to ease out difficult situations. His bonding with my grandparents and the erstwhile joint family in which he grew is also amazing. The amount of love and respect he gets whenever the whole family is together is beyond expectation. It will be an achievement for me if I am able to acquire even a few qualities of his in my life