babarjaved.com

Emperor Babar was the founder of the Mughal Empire in medieval India. Babar means Tiger (or Lion or Beaver depending on your favourite scholar) and Javed means Immortal. So I am the “Immortal Tiger”, or possibly a smaller furry animal.

I was born and raised in Birmingham, UK, and moved south to study at the London School of Economics. Immediately after this I worked in New Jersey at an all-night pancake house and in New York at a boutique hotel. Then I returned to England and travelled from London to Kathmandu on a double-decker bus, and worked in the Australian jungle.  Life is for enjoying, right?

My first proper job was as brand manager for Unilever, selling tea and packets of rice with bits in. Later I worked as Head of Marketing for Workthing.com, an online business owned by the Guardian Media Group. More recently I was Global Brand Manager for Grant’s, the world’s third best-selling Scotch whisky brand. For some reason I acquired many new friends during this time. I have also spent time on a vast estate in Canada focussed on sustainable living and community building, after which I received an unexpected reward, that of a soulmate.

Between jobs I have continued to travel. My greatest journey was three years visiting the world’s holy places. These included traditional places like Jerusalem and Varanasi, ancient monuments like Macchu Piccu and Borobudur, and natural spiritual sites like Ngorongoro Crater and Uluru. This journey from complexity to simplicity started in London, a global capital city, and ended in Pemberton, BC, a small village on the edge of the wilderness.

I have returned to London and am seeking my next adventure, dependent of course on what my wife says.