Arif Khan

Little I knew that on this day last year something horrible was waiting to hit me so hard and turn our world upside down. It was the darkest day of my life. What you’re about to read is a first hand account of my encounter with the rare and mysterious Guillain Barré Syndrome (GBS). As much as I’d like to forget it, I thought to share my ordeal to create awareness so that you are not caught off-guard. May this never happen to anyone ever again. Diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome at Venkateshwar Hospital, New Delhi November 1, 2017 . It was a regular morning and I woke up at 7:00 am with a mild tingling sensation. Popularly called as jhunjhuni in Hindi, it’s a feeling we’ve all experienced many times. Some also call it out as a current . As I got up for shower I felt slight heaviness in my feet and told my wife. It seemed very normal and we thought it’s temporary so I went ahead thinking it’ll go away. The feeling disappeared after I came out and started getting ready for ...

It was tough. Very tough to let go of maktion on its tenth year. 😞😞 Now it's time to start fresh. Stay tuned for some great stories. Here's one last glimpse before I sunset maktion.com: What was maktion all about? Technically, maktion is a blog. Passionately, it's a small space on the web where I wrote about everything creative, digital and some personal notes. The journey started way back in 2008 from a little hostel room in Mumbai. In India, creativity is not taught in schools and colleges and gets very less attention during a student's foundation years. We all are taught to be competitive, but never creative. Creativity is not just about painting the sun yellow and trees green, it's way much more than that and whether you agree or not, creativity needs to be constantly cultivated so that we generate problem solvers, not problem attendants. Understanding this gap, I conceptualized maktion, a blog which aims to harbor creative stories both from his...

Sigh. I never thought this day will come but here it is. My last day. I’ve been going so busy with work that I couldn’t even get time to share this with you in person or otherwise but ek blog toh banta hai (it deserves a blog post). I joined Cheil in the summer of 2015 and it’s been a remarkable journey all this while. Seldom you get an opportunity at an organization where you get to do what you love. Now, Cheil is not just an organization. For me, it’s nothing less than an ecosystem of rich functions powered by amazing talent. You can feel the workbeat of the organization as you traverse through different bays, be it Servicing, Social, Creative or Tech. It’s a great springboard for those who’ve just entered the digital industry as you get to work closely with some of the brightest minds and your learning curve is guaranteed to go up. One also gets countless opportunities to plug their crazy ideas, and in all this madness get to do epic sh*t every single day. My dream is — th...