Category Archives: experiences

Do what you can!

I always used to wonder how would people who lived in history felt when they had to undergo some calamity. Natural disasters, Wars, Revolutions, and whatnot. Well, we got the opportunity to face a pandemic during our lifetime as well. Pretty depressing couple of weeks, aren’t they. I just hope and wish that the crisis ends soon and whoever is becoming part of the stats, becomes part of those 98-99 percentage who survive with mild symptoms.

But as I write this, the city I am in, Bengaluru, is breaking records every day. As I recall, in the first week of March 2021, the number of daily cases was around 200-300. Today, it has crossed 20,000. I don’t know about others and don’t have to wait for the government, I have imposed a lockdown on myself and won’t be venturing out for anything at all till better air prevails. I am privileged to do that, fortunately. But sitting at home makes one feel extremely anxious when notification after notification just piles up the frustration and feeling of helplessness. What can I do with my limited resources and a family to take care of? Mind you I have seen what a family goes through when they fall prey to the virus. The amount of panic and frantic calls one makes to arrange a bed is suffocating figuratively, to say the least. Even right now, I have already had plenty of news after news of friends, colleagues, and relatives testing positive and nobody can help, to be frank.

Last year, people donated money to PM Cares wholeheartedly when hospitals in India could manage and avert the crisis to a certain extent. Since then, from the government’s side, what could or could not be done is all evident. People in power or with influence and governments who could do things didn’t do or delayed in doing, without any shame or remorse is also known. I would wait for the blame game for some other time but here are some resources I found which can help NOW. I am not a huge influencer or anything but can certainly help in my own limited way by sharing some genuine links which can be of some help.

Hospital Data

https://covid-19-hospital-data.el.r.appspot.com/

Meals

https://covidmealsforindia.com/

Donation Links

https://donate.indiacovidresources.in/

If you want to donate from out of India:

For friends who stay outside India: 

Through Cryptocurrency?

Telegram Group for Information:

Telegram group – https://t.me/joinchat/NPW-kgUldiAzMzQ1

Whatsapp https://chat.whatsapp.com/B4fvtqb1K0pLumoXFsdNrN

I can also do this minor thing, although again, I am not a pro artist, and neither this blog has a great reach but SEO works:

If you make a donation of Rs. 1000 or above, please share the receipt with me (http://abhinavbhatt.com/contact/ / http://twitter.com/abhinavbhatt01) and I can send you any one of the high-resolution soft copy minimal movie posters I made a few years ago. (please adjust with this for now)

https://minimalmovieposters.in/tagged/abhinav_bhatt

Writer’s Block

I haven’t blogged for 10 days straight. That’s the longest span since I started blogging daily last year. But I didn’t have any writer’s block. I had too much to do with work and the life which remained apart from work left me so tired that I slept like a baby as soon as I was done for the day.

Any habit which people take up, takes immense amount of hard work to be done daily. Despite all the challenges, some people still make out time to go about it. That calls for amazing patience, and the ability to take out time for themselves.

Guess, people who can take out time to do things they like are the ones who are good with time management. That’s what it needs and takes. It is The thing to learn and be better at, throughout life. If one can manage time, one can manage life.

Here’s to Writer’s Block getting over and resuming of writing (any good habit), whenever one can.

Bhrahmaand

Ravi and Bhaskar, two teenagers who have keen interest in space, go on a school trip to a Planetarium. While they learn about space and the Solar System, we as audience learn with them. And with that we take a deep dive into the nostalgic TV program Brahmaand of late 1980s and early 1990s.

It is always fun to go back to watch old TV shows which you would have seen when you were really young. But even some episodes which you never saw again, their impact is so big that the scenes gets etched into the memories and the intro jingle gets hardwired into the grey matter.

I was watching Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics produced Brahmaand on YouTube lately. It was made to generate interest in youngsters about Science and Space. Professor Jayant Narlikar of IUCAA himself stars in it and calls the students and explains the mysteries of Space. Searching further, I also found out his interview taken just a few days back from some people who might have got inspired by such shows.

Funnily, when the show was being shot Jupiter had only 14 known satellites and Saturn had just 10. Now in 2021, we have found out that Jupiter has around 79 moons and Saturn has 82. In 30 odd years, a lot more has been known. The cgi has become indistinguishable from reality. But the charm of those Doordarshan days is still sweet.

Things change

I have always been interested in being able to take good photographs. The process of capturing scenes, the moment, the landscape. And the process of editing, ah what fun.

When I started and bought by own camera, Flickr was in vogue. Later 500px was buzzing. Then to a certain extent Instagram became the go to place.

Now Instagram has become a mish mash of all the things internet can offer. There are some great photographers there but to find them is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Probably when things change, one should move on and start looking for new avenues. That’s how things are.

Sweet Spot

You know when the ball hits the Cricket bat at the sweet spot, it makes that crackling of sound and the ball just rushes towards the boundary. That knocking sound and the power generated from that Sweet Spot is one of the most majestic things in Cricket to a player as well as the viewer (except the bowler). But not every batsman is that elegant. For example, it is rare to see something equivalent to the sweet spot of Sachin Tendulkar Straight Drive.

In work and in life, the flow is a somewhat similar concept. We expect to hit the sweet spot daily but it doesn’t hit often. It is either an edge, or a bouncer, or an unexpected beamer. Sometimes life is a lofted ball so slow that even if it hits the sweet spot, goes straight to a fielder.

Working from home, studying, delivering speeches in Toastmasters, and handling the nitty-gritty of life have been some major struggles in the past year. The sweet spot has been hit but only a handful of times. The rest of the time, it has just been hits and misses.

Today I completed my Level 5 of Toastmasters Pathways. But I didn’t do any justice, to at least the second half of the Path. I got the same comments which I got in my first speech 4 years ago. The form was there but off late, the sweet spot has not been met.

There are numerous excuses but they don’t matter. What matters is sharpening the axe, and working even harder for the tasks ahead.

I am hopeful that next time, the sound would be sweeter, and the impact would be stronger.