Being Practical!

 Being practical is something I have been very proud of. I am as practical as you could get when it comes to work or personal life. It has helped me make decisions that work best and not think very emotionally. In the recent past, some of the events have made me rethink being practical.

Does it stop you from exploring difficult options? Or does it help me pick the right option?

Does it restrain you're imagining the impossible? Or is it helping me not drift away into something impossible?

When I think strategy, is it stopping me from thinking big?

Is it stopping me from listening to my heart? or is it stopping me from getting hurt?

Does it remove my risk-taking ability and make me play safe and practical? Or it is keeping me out of trouble?

I recently watched a movie 'Shiddat' which is a typical Bollywood romantic movie where the hero is as impractical as you can get. But something made me think if he was right and lived a life of complete imagination and gave it his best shot?

Lots to ponder over!!!

Boredom and Habits!

 It is so easy to get bored and fall into laziness. The past few weekend lockdown has got people to that stage where they do not have to do anything and end up binge-watching or lazing around. I have been no different and not able to travel has made it worse. The best thing was empty roads and would have been great to just walk or cycle around.

I guess that is where habits and hobbies play a big role.  Developing some useful, indulging habits is key to keeping active and having a fruitful life. Thanks to some recent good influences/inspirations, I have been trying to build some, like exercise, gardening, blogging (even though I am not able to express my thoughts), reading, and the latest of all AQUARIUM 😁. Exercise is something I have been able to stick with which is a surprise given my reputation. Gardening has developed as a passion but I have gone so overboard, I am not able to maintain it well. Need to give it a complete kick start and make it manageable. There are so many beautiful plants and ways to display, I just can't get enough of them. 

Having a pet is such a good way to build a bond and care for someone. Just staring at the fish bolw is so relaxing. Couldn't believe my luck when the guppy laid 13 offspring within 2 weeks crowding the fish bowl. One of the best places to keep the fishbowl is on the dining table. It has helped me use the dining table more often and stay away from TV/phone while eating. For anyone who wants to have an aquarium, I would suggest getting a fishbowl as a starter and graduating towards a full-fledged Aquarium. I think im getting there soon 😎

I definitely need to do something with the guitar hanging on my wall. Need to do justice to all the music-based movies I have watched to get inspired.

Trust me, if I can do it, anyone can (I was the epitome of laziness). I just hope to read this blog when I fall into one of the laziness traps and I hope it inspires me to pick up something new.

Music!!!

 As a kid, I was not the kind that appreciated music the way I do now. Even though I was excited to listen to certain genres of music, it was limited to what I got to hear. Thanks to not having a TV at home till i was 14 (trust me I do not regret this part) and literally living on the streets playing with friends, I hardly found time to think about anything else. I was so bad that I was stupid enough to walk out of a Pt. Bhimsen Joshi concert in my middle school (yes, I actually did that I wanted to go play gully cricket), which makes me kick myself to date 😖. Little did I know those aalaaps will grow on me and I can spend time with my eyes closed just listening to them 😇

Music has a magical way of healing, expressing, motivating, and relaxing. I can't think of anything else that can help with all these things with such ease. Some songs bring back childhood memories and innocent days where I and my cousins had to divide a song paragraphs and write down the lyrics as it was played on the radio (I can still sing 'Meri bheegi bheegi si' thanks to that). Some bring back old teenage crushes and heroines I admired (Manisha in Bombay 💓). Some take me back to the crazy dancing numbers during my college and early working days. Some still give me goosebumps and feel patriotic, I do not know how many times I have heard of Swedesh and it played an important role to keep me motivated to return to India 😍. Some devotional songs make my heart filled with faith, some songs make me feel human, miss the good times, and also appreciate the world around me. 

Of late, songs have become an integral part of my life with humming while traveling, dancing in the shower, relaxing on the bed, to working out. So much so, it has inspired me to do whatever little workout I can manage and start enjoying it. Yesterday one good song pushed me to go from the normal 20 push-ups to 50 and trust me it is a big deal for a sloth like me 😅 which inspired me to write this blog.

I envy today's kids for the exposure they have to almost all the music that is produced in the world and also feel bad that many still do not appreciate it. I just hope I keep this momentum going and keep exploring new and old music. I would love to explore Indian classical, jazz, and other genres to make this a never-ending learning experience. 

One of my biggest regrets in life is not learning music (instrument or singing) which would have given me an incredible way to spend time and express myself. That said, I have the second half of my left to learn it. I am sure I will get there one day and appreciate it even more. Cheers to that hope 😁

I would like to close this by thanking all the musicians, lyricists, producers, composers, technicians, singers and people who inspired them to get there. You have definitely made the world a better place and given hope and life to billions of people. Just keep it going and keep inspiring 🙏

The 0 Balance Account!!

 I just saw an ad for a 0 balance account and realized how it is not a good thing.

For people like me who end up with no money in the bank by the end of the month, it is a curse. Irrespective of the salary I get, I have never managed to have a decent bank balance. At times feels like I try to spend to ensure the account is empty....huh.

Imagine if we had to maintain a minimum balance for the account to be active, I would have been forced to maintain some money in the account. I blame it all on the banks 😁

Edit: that said, I badly need to get better at finance planning 😅

Be careful what you wish for, especially when it is a Nokia 1100!!!

Just to give everyone a background, I have been a heavy smartphone user in the last 6 months. It was getting to a point where I had developed an attention span of a meerkat (i assumed they keep looking around and never stick to a single view) and was distracted easily. I have been talking about reducing smartphone use, especially WhatsApp and in early Nov I decided to exit all groups and not use Whatsapp, Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, or any other timepass entertainment app. Unfortunately, I had to use Whatsapp a couple of times a day as I was coordinating some work in a remote area. My days were more productive and was able to get loads of things done. I was proudly saying 'all I need is a Nokia 1100' 😁

Last Friday evening, I had to step out in rain to buy a few things for house construction. My laze track pants and bike-loving self (who doesn't like to ride an RX 135 on a wet empty street 😍 ) shoved the phone in the so-called pocket in the track pant and was heading back home when I suddenly realized the phone has fallen down within 100 mtrs. In the 2 mins I returned, the phone was gone and it was switched off (some asshole found it and happily kept it for his booze party for the next few weeks...grrrrrr!!!). Got back home and after 30 mins of gyan from my family on how careless I am, I managed to file a visit to the local police station just to find out there is an app to e-report lost things and pick up a new SIM card.

It was already late and I had an early morning drive to Coorg, I had no time to buy a phone. Searched for my 5 yr old smartphone but couldn't find it and ended up with my moms 6 yr old Nokia keypad phone :D it is not 1100 as it has a color screen and ikon like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, which do not work and just remind me of what I am missing.

As I said, "Be careful what you wish for, especially when it is a Nokia 1100!!!"😈

Now the realization of what life is like with a non-smartphone:

1. The phone has not been switched on for 4 yrs (it has missed call message from my aunt from 2017) and after searching my dad's museum of chargers from the 90's I found a couple of chargers that suits the phone. Within 5 mins of charging, the phone switched on (had to struggle to put the SIm, as the 2ns SIM slot does not work if there is no 1st SIM card. It was like the phone said: "Why would you use the 2nd SIM card slot which is easy to use if you have only one SIM you Fuckin Idiot!!!" 😤) and was as good as it was before, that is impressive!!!

2. I had to leave at 6 am and wanted to keep an alarm. I had no patience to figure that out and let it be. Woke up every hour till 3am to make sure I'm up by 5 and then managed to sleep till 5.45am. Had to skip a bath and rush.

3. I normally check the traffic before leaving but thanks to my keypad phone, I had no way to do that and managed to hit Gurguntepalya traffic at 6.20 in the morning and lost another 15 mins

4. I normally like to hear some music which is played on Bluetooth but on my keypad phone, what can I say. I tried the radio with my aux cable but the genius in the phone recognized it is not a headphone and rejected it. It was like "I don't want you to disturb people around you with this stupid radio, If you want to listen to the stupid radio, it has to be only you with your headset on, u dumb fuck"

5. The phone is so small it fits nicely into the handle slot of the car door. Nice feature!

6. I had lost all my numbers as there is nothing called contact sync. My mom had luckily all my old contacts during the famous era of the 500 contact storage in SIM Card and transfer on a 1000 contact storage phone, Wow. I was shocked to see some of my Oracle contacts on it who I have not spoken to in the last 15 yrs (yes, I was that bored sitting in the car, sue me). There is no true caller to identify spam and I picked up a couple of them.

7. Coorg is a beautiful place with minimal phone signal strength so that people can enjoy life in nature. But thanks to our stupidity and always available syndrome, the network companies have managed to provide fiber optics coverage to most homestays giving u uninterrupted access to the internet and VOIP calls. The supreme power saw this coming and made sure I have a phone who does not understand what WiFi or 4G means. So I was peacefully enjoying nature with no expectation of any network or calls.

8. Thanks to my unavailability, all the coordination work was passed on to my cousins :) I could get drenched in the rain without worrying about the phone getting spoilt!!!

9. The entire weekend was no distraction as I always wished and could get some work done on the site. The evening was peaceful thanks to the homestay owner disconnecting his DTH. Looks like the supreme power was in action there too!!!

10. I planned to return to Bangalore by 6pm to get a backup smartphone. Thanks to the cyclone effect, it was pouring down and the traffic was insane. Reached my cousins at 7pm and google maps on my cousin's phone showed insane traffic back home. So decided to skip the shopping and spent time with extended family!!

So here is the conclusion from the 3 days of no smartphone:

1. Never keep your phone in a trackpant without zips for pockets while you are on an RX (but do drive an RX, it is great fun)!!!

2. There are so many things we are dependent on a smartphone like online payments, maps, calling thru wifi, emails, etc which is important for our daily life. I do not think it is easy to live without them. I now have to keep a wallet in my trackpant on my RX :)

3. Switching off once in a while is brilliant. TBH, we do not those many emergency calls that need us to be available all the time. I probably got 10 calls over the weekend. I didn't even carry my phone with me which felt liberating :)

4. I was able to survive a weekend without a smartphone, hopefully, the weekday will also be fine as I have a laptop for work-related things.

5. I have to figure out a way of adding all contacts and until then, if I cant reach out, no hard feelings as I do not have your number. And if someone calls, please accept my sincere apologies if I don't recognize you. I already had a couple of calls like those over the weekend and I'm still figuring out who I spoke to :)

6. And the non-smartphone got me back to blogging after a decade. Ignoring the grammar, it is definitely worth it 👍

Ok, one late realization, how do i send this blog to my friends as i do not have WhatsApp web 🙇

Slow Down Culture

Here is an interesting article written by an unknown person.. It is about Swedish way of doing things. I found it very cool, thought it is worth to read in our 'busy' schedules.!

This is something i strongly believe in :)

An interesting reflection. : Slow Down Culture

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn't say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don't you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness" generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity" (life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the "do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

IKEA IT AB,
Sweden

Taare Zameen Par

taare zameen par... 24th dec, most of them were traveling and partying and i was bored to death. Had nothing to do in office and thot the day would be real miserable. It almost came true for the entire day and turned head over heels by night...yeah...i watched "taare zameen par"...a movie about a kid who looks at the world in a different way... I have always felt that great movies are very simple and revolves around people whom we meet daily and TZP is one such movie. How many times have we found kids whom we think are of no good coz they are not good at studies or things which we think are important. The whole movie is about supporting kids and understanding their problems. Many of us fail to understand why few kids cannot grasp things quickly, why they don't do things which are normal. The only thing that matter to us is how good the kids are as per the "society standards". As said in the movie, we train kids for the race where he has to win to survive, it dosn't matter if he dosn't live even one day of his childhood the way he wants. But we don't realize, the most memorable days of our life is our childhood and thats is something we carry a long way. The kids are never given a chance to live their childhood. Parents always want their kids to live their dreams and make them suffer for that. I'm not telling that we should leave the kids to do what they want and waste their time, but there should be a limit till which we should push them and there is a way of doing things. The greatest mistake people do while raising kids is comparing them to other kids. I have faced it myself but it somehow stopped after some time. As said in the movie, all kids are not the same similar to our fingers. Don't pull the fingers to make them same, as this can break the finger. Comparing is something which can destroy a kid beyond repair. How will it be if your kids compare you with the people of your age. For example, how about comparing yourself with lance armstrong or vishwanathan anand. Every kid is different is his own way and has his own qualities. Even if he has nothing special, just remember "he the is the sperm which won against millions of others and made it to real life". We ourselves don't know what we are good at and we expect our kids to know every thing. Its all about grooming a kid towards a better future rather than dumping all our dreams on him and expecting him to carry it. Every kid will learn, just that some are fast and some take more time. I seriously pity the kids today who have no time to play and have fun. 8 hrs of school, 2-3 hrs of tuitions, 2-3 hrs in some other learning activity. With all these things, where is the time to play. The whole marks system makes the kid to just mug up things rather than understanding it. Due to this we see so many of them doing good in school and then fade away later. Childhood is all about having fun and not thinking about anything else and thats why it is always considered to be the best years of our life. The most important thing the movie talks about is "being there for your kid". Its not enough to "care" for your kid by hugging, kissing and pampering him. The most important thing is the be there for him when he needs you. Everyone does mistakes and kids need someone to stand by and help them out and not someone who will scream at them and look down at them. Kids should make mistakes, act foolish, do notorious things, break things, have broken bones and thats why they are called kids ;) Let them be they way they are, they will love it the most and grow in a better way :D Thinking of it, it is the same wit every person, let it be kids or grown ups. Every relation needs to be groomed for it to flourish, every person does mistakes and everyone needs time to learn. The most precious thing a person can give to another is time. Its not the money u spend on them, the gifts u pour or the facilities you provide. All these things are important but its your time which matters the most. Its the feeling of having someone next to you, be there when you need them, who will help you correct yourself. Give your time to people whom u care for. That is the greatest investment you can do. cheers to life....