2016 is almost about to end, finish, over, poooof!! YAY!
Now, for some reason, I don’t understand what the hoopla was about. Bad things happened this year, sure, but that happens every year and this is going to continue to happen next year as well. Probably, I don’t feel as impacted as supposed to, by most of the things which happened this year, as I transitioned from being, how to put it mildly, Sngl to Mrrd in January itself. Once you have made that change in your life, every other impact feels like falling of a 1 KG metal ball or a feather in space.
So, as goes the tradition, this is the year-end summary blog post for 2016. Some major things are summarized below so that I can read the same 10 years from now (if all goes well):
January was something. Apart from the D-Day, I also stepped outside Indian soil. And landed on a semi-Indian soil. And it was fun.
And the events that followed after Jan’s main event, have been fun alright! For the first time in my life, I got to live alone. Like actually alone. Sounds very weird after the first 2 points but that is how it was. I lived alone for about 8 months, with occasional visits from friends and family. But living alone gives you some perspective in life which nothing else does. I recommend, everyone should live alone for a month of two, at least. I played a whole lot of Pokemon Go for 1 week, before those idiots took it down. Around mid-year, I joined Toastmasters. One, to slow myself down. Second, to become a better public speaker. The journey has been super exciting as having an aim in life, a purpose, gives you a lot to look forward to. Also, the club gives you an environment which one craves for in a job, that it is not just rewarding, but also competitive and that school-college-classroom feel is there. However, I don’t know how much have I improved as a public speaker, I surely have become more open to talking to any number of people. I would go in more confident now, as compared to past. There are still many glitches to overcome, but we shall do that in 2017. And yeah, I have completed the CL Manual, and very soon, I would be a Competent Leader officially. Yes!
I got the opportunity to visit Gokarna for the first time, and Ooty for the 2nd. But, I couldn’t give myself much time to click photographs, so there is one things I missed out on. I should have clicked more.
I moved to a new place. After spending full 6 years in the most North Indian part of Southern Bengaluru, I moved to Eastern Central Bengaluru. I am going to totally miss, Bun, Tea and Momos. And the people there which made the place worth living. Last but not the least, I had my first ever and the most severe, Bike accident. I had forgotten that Bengaluru’s roads have potholes and I drove in to one. Bike toppled, as did I. Luckily, only bike’s headlight got broken and my right hand got muscle sprained. Nothing bad happened. But my right hand is still recuperating. I got to wear that protective sling thingy for the first time ever. Hopefully, I will remember how to ride on roads in this country.
Have I changed? Yes, to a certain extent. I have realized that time doesn’t stay the same always even when it seems to have frozen for some time. And most importantly, life after marriage is fine. It only seems dangerous till you haven’t done that.
In a country like India, where even getting basic amenities is a struggle, there are only 2 things a Soldier, who defends us 24/7, needs.
Just 2 things. Optimism and Motivation.
They need to have that optimism, that whatever their job requires them to do, they should do that with best of their abilities. Their optimism helps them to do the job to fulfill some cause. The cause being safety and well-being of fellow citizens. They are hopeful that when they accomplish their jobs, someone somewhere would feel safer. Someone somewhere would have a place to stay. Someone somewhere would have something to eat. They are hopeful that their effort won’t go in vain. They are hopeful that even if their individual effort isn’t recognized, their leader, their team, their battalion or their country would get something better. Nobody wants to go to war. Nobody signs up with Army to kill someone else in order to win a war. They sign up to defend. But if someone has decided to get signed up, they’re hopeful that their in-charges would attempt their best to avoid confrontation directly or indirectly with another soldier who is hopeful for someone else, just like they are.
Another thing they need is motivation. They don’t get best treatment when it comes to place to stay, climate to work under, infrastructure to work with and even the equipment to work on. So they survive with just motivation. They are able to do what they are supposed to do, just because they have got a motivation. Their fellow soldiers motivate them. Their leader has motivated them. Their families have motivated them. Their country has motivated them*.
*Conditions Apply
There was a news recently of Indian army’s attempt to strike strategically some areas in the Kashmir which is under Pakistan’s occupation. Their sole motive was to destroy the camps which harbor people who keep sending infiltrators and terrorists to the Indian sides and kill innocents. Army claimed that they achieved their mission successfully and in a way, took revenge of the Uri attacks and also send a signal to the terrorists that enough is enough.
How they did it, when they did it and did they do it actually, is immaterial and for everyone’s safety, should be, and is classified. If you don’t believe in it, your wish. You want to dance and celebrate it, your wish.
Now suppose you don’t believe it, which is fine, but if you question the integrity of the system again and again, what is the message are you sending to the world? That you don’t trust your army? Sure you can hate the government and their policies. But by raising doubts about the very statement which CANNOT be made public because it is a question of severe intelligence compromise, don’t you think you should take a step back? Don’t you think that by discussing the same thing over and over again, on news, on tv, you are not shaking the 2 very beliefs the soldier needs to be able to do their job properly? Don’t you think that more you do this, more the soldier would be forced to think that whatever they do, gets no appreciation, neither monetary, nor financially, so why should they do it honestly in the first place? You can say whatever you want, but isn’t this a basic fundamental duty to not meddle with lives of others, specially those who need soldiers and armies when basically every neighborhood country is at logger heads with us?
Don’t stoop so low, just to satisfy your own ego that you take away the only 2 things a soldier needs to be a soldier: Optimism and Motivation.
“You never lose a dream , it just incubates as a hobby.”
Today I would talk about Hobbies. Hobbies are activities which you “USED” to enjoy doing in your leisure time. But now you are simply “BUSY”.
Most of us do have something or the other as our hobby. Everyone likes to do something when they have nothing else to do right? Some like to solve puzzles or crosswords, some like to sing or dance , some like to read and some like to play. Some like to do Gardening. Some like to cook.
And then there are some, who just like to eat and sleep or ‘Netflix and Chill’. And they’re , indeed, living the best life.
HASHTAG #SARCASM
Do anyone here like to share some of THEIR hobbies? Anything unique?
See, We all lead a very busy life. So we need something to unwind ourselves. To take us to back to our roots. To do things which makes us feel happier. Don’t we?
Today, I would share with you the impact of hobbies which I had on my own life.
I Like to indulge in visual arts. As in, I sometimes Draw Cartoons , Click Pictures , Spend Hours on Photoshopping them. Also I create Posters , Design Logos and so on on so forth.
5th Jan, 2012, a hindi movie “Mr. India”, was being shown on TV. I used to love that movie as a child. So I decided to create a small poster for the movie. Just as a tribute.
Mr. India Minimal Poster
This shows Anil Kapoor and Sridevi through a red glass. Those who have seen the movie would get it easily. Those who haven’t , just hold on. This is a Minimal Poster where very little or just the core of the story is shown.
What happened after, is that I shared this on my blog, Facebook and Twitter and got a very positive response. This prompted me to create some more posters for some more movies and TV shows. I enjoyed making them and my friends continued with the praise. I wasn’t doing anything special . I was just passing my time by creating minimalistic tributes to the movies I had enjoyed myself. Just to feel nostalgic .
Some of the posters
Then I created more posters . Now in non-Hindi languages as well. I’ve created close to 200 posters by now.
When the blog got popular, it finally got noticed by some movie makers and then some journalists. Then this started happening.
Newspapers and Magazines articles
I got popular.
I got interviewed many times. My posters have been published in numerous newspapers and magazines. I am not saying that I am very good at it. Far from it! Just that I kept pursuing my hobbies and others liked that. It made me famous and gave me something to brag about and encouraged me to keep doing it over and over again.
My point is , who knows where your hobbies could lead you to. You are doing it just for fun . But you never know , what impact could they have on you and people around you.
Thus, I would just encourage and request you all to take some time out and do what you like, other than usual working for 8 hours a day.
Take out that old guitar which you always wanted to play but never took time out. Go join some dance classes and start flying again. Lately, there has been no Philately but who is stopping you from collecting stamps again. You like to cook? Be better at it and who knows you could land into Masterchef one day?
Even if you don’t, at least you’d have spent your time in doing something you liked and enjoyed. Isn’t that good in itself?
I would depart with the following quote from Warren Buffett, often called the world’s richest man,
“Whatever YOU like to do , make it a hobby and whatever the WORLD likes to do , make that a business.”
Sine wave, would be apt to describe the day I had today. With only 1 cycle though. It was a day one should be blogging about because if we are looking for a reason to blog in this attention span absent world, this must be one of the reasons.
It started off badly with huge traffic on the way to office which could make anyone’s mood downbeat and morale absent. I somehow reached office in 1.5 hours battling a gruelling volume of cars, bikes, buses and truck on the road which usually takes me 25–30 minutes.
Anyways, today was a big day for me, as I had to give my Speech 3 of the Competent Communication manual of the Toastmasters Club. Since I joined the Toastmasters Club, I felt like I had found my calling. I am a terrible public speaker and speaker in general (as on the date of the writing of this blog). I want to and I HAVE TO get better at it. There have been so many things in the past which I gave up. This one I don’t want to give up on. I don’t fear the stage. I just mess up on it. Just that when I reach the stage and come down from it, I always end up feeling that I should have done this and I should have done that. And I could have been far far better than what I eventually ended up with. To top that, I speak very fast naturally. And this in turn makes other feel that I am nervous (which I do get but who doesn’t) and that I am skipping words. Which is mostly true. So the feedback I have received till now in my previous speeches is to slow down.
So in order to get inspired and learn the tips and tricks of the game, I started watching YouTube videos of other clubs. And I have visited a community club nearby to see how they do that. And believe me, I have been ODing over YouTube lately. One speaker I would like to mention is Dr. Rajdeep Manwani. I watched couple of his videos and was amazed to see the brilliance and on the feet thinking of his while delivering any speech, even if it was impromptu. And the sense of humor was spellbinding for me. No wonder, he won so many awards in the District Championships. So in last few days, I ended up binging his youtube videos (mostly from Bangalore Toastmasters Club weekly meetings). I watched all his videos and rewatched them as they were not only entertaining, but highly inspiring. I wished if I could meet him someday, I would go gaga over him.
So in today’s speech, I bombed. I spoke so fast, that I forgot many things from my speech. I had to use 3 slides of MS PowerPoint and mid-way during the speech, the projector wire got disconnected which made me forget even more. This speech I had practiced at least 15–20 times. It had become etched on my memory but due to the nervousness and fast delivery, I screwed. This made me touch the trough of the sine wave of the day. I felt really bad, with myself. But, since I have decided not to give up, I am going to attempt the same speech again next week. But still I kept feeling bad till the time I reached home.
I reached home by 5 PM. And I had 2 chocolates, to celebrate my messed up day, as goes the tradition. I was checking Facebook and saw that today Bangalore Toastmasters Club and Beechi Club had linkers meet. And they had a speaker from Singapore, Hitesh Ramchandani and speeches from Dr. Rajdeep Manwani and their own club members.
Meeting was scheduled from 6.30 PM at Catholic Club, Bangalore which is 8.5 KM from my place. I was low. Normally, thanks to my never say no to procrastination attitude, I would have given it a pass. But, I registered for the event and eventually went to attend the meeting.
There, I had the privilege to hear Dr. Rajdeep Manwani live. And it was his CC10 (Which he was attempting 2nd time, after completing everything Toastmasters could offer). And it was brilliant and overwhelmingly inspiring. I am a person who is the last person to ever listen or read anything remotely inspiring. So when I am saying it was, believe me. To top that, Hitesh Ramchandani (motivational speaker who is suffering from Cerebral Palsy) gave such a superb speech that those who haven’t heard, are probably unlucky. I mean, his and Rajdeep’s speech were like eye openers for everyone who takes life for granted and give up easily. Like me.
Their speeches were so so brilliant, that I kept on grinning and laughing during their speeches and hoping that I won’t cry because that would be very very awkward. I got so much inspired that if you touch me now, I might give sparks and generate electricity. After that, I met Dr. Rajdeep and shook his hands. And that made me really really happy. Some people have no idea, what their actions inspire others to do and bring change in their lives.
I hope, I would make use of the inspiration and give my next speech in a much better way, that everyone would enjoy watching and listening to it. Sigh.
Just for a minute and a half though, but I had to give an eulogy for a colleague who passed away recently. I know, as we get older, the news of deaths keep on increasing. However, this was a shock as the colleague passed away due to strange case of Dengue which took the life away in mere 48 hours, probably in even lesser time. Dengue in 2016 Bengaluru should sound ridiculous. However, this is the world we live in. What’s going to happen next, nobody can know. To add to the misery, the departed was one of the most jovial natured person I had ever met, at least in office. It’s not that we used to hang out a lot, but when you see a happy face, in a sea of mostly dull faces, almost daily once, and then you get to know that now you won’t see that face ever, is a very weirdly awful feeling.
I just wish that the parents of the deceased come to terms with the reality and time heals this immeasurable loss.
Life is fragile. Nobody usually imagines the scenario when you won’t be there and there would be people left behind you. Who loved you and depended on you. Even if you lived away from them but at least they knew that you existed. If one spends time in thinking about that scenario, probably, that would give you an opportunity to consider the things which one is not doing right. And what could be done better. Which all relationships should be given more time. Which all activities one must do before the time comes. Because there might or might not be life beyond the death, but we could live a bit more in the present, happily, before getting done and dusted.
So I’ve finally joined Toastmasters International, an organization which helps one to become a better public speaker. I have joined a corporate club which happens to be in my office itself so it is easy to go there and attend every week. I will give a detailed account of how it helps or helped me, once it does. Till then I am planning to post the speeches I gave in the club.
1st speech is the Ice Breaker in which one has to basically talk about themselves for 4-6 minutes. So there is no point putting that speech here. You guys have no interest in knowing me anyways.
2nd speech is called: Organize your speech.
Basic idea behind this is to make your speech easy to follow by having a good opening, lucid body and supporting conclusion. For this speech, I thought I should tell something about something which is making news nowadays. Now one is advised to refrain from speaking about sex, religion and politics. So I chose to speak about latest obsession of people:
Pokémon Go
To try first and then speak, I decided to download the apk file (as it is yet to be released in India). And then it took over my life. I kept playing it for a week before they made the maps blank in some parts of India till it releases officially. Probably they don’t want to get extra load on their servers, which keep on crashing because they never expected this much amount of success. I played, walked for hours, also rode on bike to reach Pokéstops at places like Silk Board, Lakes and some gardens. So here is my speech which I delivered on July 27th, 2016. Please note that when I actually spoke, I did miss a few lines and spoke few which aren’t mentioned here. Nevertheless, here it is:
People often ask here: “Who all have kids here?” (People do ask this in my club)
Let me rephrase and ask a different question to you:
“Who among us here believe that there are still just Kids mentally in adults’ bodies? The one who don’t want to grow up ever?”
I think most of us want to stay as kids, don’t we? The joy we used to have back then. Ah lovely! We could eat everything and anything without a worry! We read Comics and watched Cartoons. We could play all day long. Both outdoor and indoor games.
Talking of Indoor games, I am sure, most of us here would have played video games. Some still do. Your ‘Xboxes and PS4s’ are still running daily.
Many of us also loved watching cartoons, right? The people here, who are the younger millennials or “the 90s kids” must be familiar with the cartoon “Pokemon”. Pocket Monsters?
You know about Pokemons right? At least you must’ve seen or heard about Pikachu.
[showed picture of Pikachu on phone]
Yes, that’s a pokemon alright.
For the uninitiated [pause] Pokemon is a very popularJapanese cartoon show created by Satoshi Tajiri in ‘95. In it, the protagonist aims to be a “Pokemaster” by catching numerous Pokemons of different powers, shapes and sizes. Each Pokemon is unique and has some particular superpowers. Some are good and cute like Pikachu. Some are evil like Houndoom.
The protagonists collect good pokemons and fights them with antagonist’s evil pokemons. The one with better powers win.
That was the cartoon though. Later came some videos games and some movies.
But that was then.
On July 6th, a game was released, called ‘Pokemon Go‘. Anyone has heard about it?
This game is developed by Nintendo from Japan which had created Mario, you remember? In collaboration with the Pokemon Company and Niantic a company formed by an ex-Google employee John Hanke.
This game has shaken things up in smartphone world and believe me people have gone CRAZY. They (people of all ages) are playing this all the time. Day or night, home or street, you name it!
Pokemon Go is unique in the sense that is an “Augmented Reality” Game. It uses your phone’s GPS, Camera and clock to detect your location and the time. Then Pokémons “appears” around you (that is virtually on your phone screen) so you can go and catch them and be a Pokemaster. Instead of a CGI surrounding which is fictional in traditional games, the real world is your stage.
You have to literally move physically and catch them using buttons on your phone while the display shows a pokemon and the background is usual street captured live by the camera.
As you roam around in your locality, more pokemons of other kinds will appear, again depending on location and time. YOU HAVE TO CATCH THEM ALL.
Now, Augmented Reality is an interesting thing. The pokemons will be located in your actual locality. I mean to say that you step out of office, roam around this campus start this game and you could see a Pokemon right outside this building.
The basic idea is to travel around the city and catch as many pokemons as possible before someone else catches that. This game has elements of cartoons, video games and treasure hunt.
The more popular locations such as parks, shops, etc are called “Pokestops” andwould have more probability of Pokemons lurking around (And collect pokemon iteams). Some even popular places like temples are called as ‘Gyms’ in Pokemon lingo where you could fight with other people’s pokemons.
Probably when you walk around a lot trying to catch Pokemons, and come back home with some weight loss, people might ask, ‘Have you joined a Gym?”.
The game is available on both iOS and Android. However, it has not been officially released in India yet. But you could still download the APK file and play it right away. Time to be a kid again!
It is all fun. Right? Yes. But not without some downsides.
You are giving away few things to this game.
Your location. Your contacts. The control of your camera.
And your mind. Seriously.
There have been accidents that have happened in real life.
Before this Pokemon Go even came about, in December 1997, more than 600 Japanese children were admitted to hospitals with epileptic seizures because the TV show had too much light and sound all at once.
Now as the pokemon Go has become famous there are other weird things popping up.
– Accident on a Road happened in some US City when one guy went out to catch a Pokemon while his car was still on the road and no handbrakes were used.
– The Arlington National Cemetery in Washington has asked users not to play there because that place is a Holocaust museum and a Cemetery.
– One teenage girl even found a dead body while looking for Pokémon in someone’s backyard.
It’s so popular now that it has taken over Facebook and Twitter in terms of daily active users on iOS.
But each technology has its boons and banes. This Augmented Reality is really great. It could be used in fields of Education, Museum, Medicine and what not? The limits are endless. Till then we have the game. Give it a try.
So, I will go now and try to catch a Pokemon or Two. Gotta catch ’em all!
When I said that I’m going to read Comics again, since this is 2016, I meant that I would also watch the new form comics have taken, that is Television Shows. And by Television shows, since this is 2016, I mean things on Netflix and stuff. I just finished watching Netflix and Marvel’s Daredevil and I am glad that I watched it.
Marvel’s Daredevil
For the uninitiated like I was before delving into this, Daredevil is Marvel’s and co-creator Stan Lee’s yet another Superhero which is one of the most popular ones, right after their Avengers which everyone knows by now. And this series fits right into their MCU or Marvel Cinematic Universe where all their shows and movies intermingle into each other in one way or the other. They keep bringing characters or locations or put easter eggs through some manner to give enough hints to the fans that the universe in which everything happens, is somewhat related. Even if the effects on one might not be directly visible to the other but, as you progress in the series, you will get the feel eventually.
I hadn’t watched any of the shows Marvel had made earlier, which comprises of Agents of Shield or Agent Carter, etc. Also, my knowledge of Marvel was mostly based on their movies as I didn’t get much chance to read their comics. Though I had liked the Sam Reimi-Toby McGuire’s Spiderman in early 2000s and was thrilled to see Stan Lee’s cameos in them, I lost the interest and zeal to continue with their other movies. I watched Iron Man 1 and 2 and Avengers but not Captain America, neither Thor, nor The Incredible Hulk or X-Men if you include that. I watched and then I forgot their plots. Lately, I caught up with Captain America Winter Soldier, X-Men Days of future past and more recently Avenger’s Age of Ultron. I thought their movies are entertaining but not memorable, as compared to DC’s. And by DC’s I actually mean Nolan’s take on Batman and then Man of Steel. I even went on to state, that for me DC movies were much better than Marvel’s. But after watching Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice and Captain America Civil War, I guess I have to rethink of my opinion. While I didn’t hate BvS, but everyone agrees that it could have been a lot better. Civil War on the other hand doesn’t take itself so seriously as BvS and turns out so much cooler, hilarious and super serious when it needs to be. To summarize, Marvel has up the ante a long time ago and they are continuing to be good at what they are doing. Hoping to see Suicide Squad and further Justice League movies to see what DC comes up with eventually, after almost losing race to Marvel, if you may say so. Anyways, last few movies I watched, it has surely made me eager to watch more of Marvel’s stuff.
Doodled
Anyways, talking about Daredevil and not digressing, I liked a lot of things about the show. Most importantly that it is as realistic as the Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy ought to be. While I have no intention to give any plot points here as a lot of time has already passed when this show was released, I am just writing about the things I liked the most. And that is the brilliant, hand to hand combat without any CGI or anything. Just plain, fist fights and round kicks. Ah, and that Hallway scene in the S01E02! That got me hooked to it. And it keeps getting better with each episode. Season 2 was equally good as they brought in more characters and made it more complex and delight for the viewers who love comics and pure action. The Punisher was straight out of Sunny Deol’s Ghayal and Narsimha, if you know what I mean. Even if you haven’t read any comicbook, this show fits into all the categories of Crime Thriller genre, making it a dark, gritty and nicely crafted and choreographed violence show which comicbook lovers or anyone who’s an adult now, would love. If anyone is reading this, heh, I would recommend this right away.
Next up, Jessica Jones, which would also be special as Breaking Bad’s Jane plays the titular role. This was released in November 2015 but it is okay. A least I hope it would have some story. As compared to that nonsense Game of Thrones where Winter is yet to come even after 6 seasons. Yawn.
