Weekends are all about downtime. After a week full of work to meet deadlines, everybody needs some breather to relax and recuperate. From watching a favourite web series to planning a vacation, weekends are designated as family and me time. Shailendra Singh Rao, founder, Creduce, talks to BrandWagon Online about his weekends, favourite vacation destination and more.
- What is the one thing you like to do when not working?
Actually, there is not one single thing I do when I am not working. There is always a lot of backlog of amazing things to do that I jump to as and when I get the time. Playing Chess is a complete constant. I am in love with the game, helps me hone my skills on strategy. I hit the gym as and when possible. I love going on long drives, sample new cuisines and most importantly spend as much time with my loved ones as possible. It is a good feeling to take a break from work and do things which are completely opposite.
- How do you spend your weekends?
Despite the best of efforts weekends only begin with Saturday night and end with Sunday night. If I am travelling, I extend my stay and catch up with local friends and colleagues and make the most of the weekends by tripping around town and catching up with places to see. It kills the monotony of the place by exposing its fun side too. If I am at home then it is mostly catching up with sleep and family time. I don’t do anything exerting or aggressive unless it is a leisurely long drive with soft soothing music.
- What are your favourite gadgets?
I do have a gaming streak in me, but most of the time you would catch me with a Kindle. There is a lot of reading that keeps piling up. I like to wind down my day with this gadget which is much better than the social media madness. I have always have a backlog of books that need to be caught up so even while flying or in taxis, I can be caught reading or playing chess.
- Given an option to choose another career, what would it be?
I would and definitely have been a Radio Jockey and an influencer. About 15 years ago, I had been selected as a Radio Jockey for a leading radio station. They had two conditions, one was to know the local language (which I was not very fluent at) and the second was to shift to Jaipur as their morning prime time jock. I could fulfil none of these and hence had to let go of the same. I am confident that from Radio I would have graduated and gone on to become quite a successful digital influencer and would have made a great impact on the climate change front. Though, I wont say it is too late, I am planning to explore the podcast space and attempt to make a difference. I know I still have it in me.
- Which is your favourite vacation spot?
Put me in any forest and I am home. Coming from a farmer’s family, I know the value and excitement of living with the soil. I can wander for hours in the jungle and connect with the plants, shrubs and trees (Can’t say the same about wild animals yet). Thanks to my profession, I have been fortunate to have travelled deep into the magnificent jungles Bharat that include North East, Central, West and North. Even the Rubber plantations in Kerala offer great locations. With the wealth of green cover Bharat offers, I don’t think any other place in the world can match it. I would be grateful if I manage to visit all the jungles of Bharat in my lifetime.
- A TV show, movie, and ad campaign that you highly recommend watching
To me, Apple’s Mother Earth Advertisement is a path breaking campaign which looks inward and outward in the same breath. It takes guts to embark on this narrative journey. It has generated discussion regarding the tech giant’s dedication to sustainability. In this advertisement, Mother Nature is depicted as a personification, displaying indifference towards corporate assertions of sustainability, yet showing interest in Apple’s commitment to attaining carbon neutrality by the year 2030. In the end, she conveys a feeling of cautious optimism. More and more such corporates should take this up and integrate the same as part of their corporate social responsibility. I highly recommend this ad as well as similar ones.