February 15, 2024

Mr. Vishwanath

As per usual I’m late to blog readings. As I round the corner to the first floor couches, the worst sound hits my ears, “Quinn, do you have a blog to read for us today?”. Crap, I guess maybe I should have checked the blog schedule last night, but I also vividly remember thinking at 11pm there’s no way I’m gonna do that. I can’t help but feeling this is just how my life has been going of late.
A cough that just wont seem to go away, the inability to hear in my left ear and mentor meetings that just seem to keep happening.
An initial report for GCIL about our grand challenge and site visits for Biome.
Wanting to be there for my team and the need to sleep weighing on my eyelids.
Balance: that’s what I’ve been struggling to achieve. To keep track of all the various commitments I have while also ensuring I take care of myself.
All these thoughts run through my brain as I curse myself and try to sleep on our Uber ride to visit the founder of our organization’s home. We arrive with a gust of cool air and step out into a cozy tree-lined neighborhood. Mr. Vishwanath greets us at the gate and invites us into his exposed brick home lined with greenery, somehow even cooler than the air outside.
“Lived in” is the best phrase I have to describe it. Books line the walls and a unique collection of frog figurines sit on the windowsill as the plants soak in the natural light. After we finish gawking, Mr. Vishwanath invites us to sit, and we begin a conversation ranging from our experience with Biome to the cold Seattle winters back home. Mr. Vishwanath spent 30 years working for the Indian government during a time of incredible development and then founded Biome after he got bored of it and has since retired. Biome now develops cutting edge proof of concept water solutions designed at attacking the heart of the water crisis. We begin to share the solution we’ve been developing for the past couple weeks. Mr Vishwanath listens and nods his head and then compares our ideas to that of students’ past until he eventually makes his way to a statement I didn’t know I’ve been waiting to hear. “This idea doesn’t really do anything groundbreaking… You complete your assignment and then what?” he shrugs nonchalantly.
He closes by saying, “I want you guys to fail spectacularly; sometimes having an idea is about having it be torn to shreds.”
Then he gets up and excuses himself to go talk on national television.
And that’s the story of Mr. Vishwanath, his wonderful home, and me realizing I still have so much more left to learn here.

By Quinn