Author: Abhinav Bhatt

  • Skin Whitening Shit

    Skin Whitening Shit

    Whether you were near or away from the Equator,
    You ought to have the tone which you assumed to be better

    You tried to apply balm, creams, multi-colored ointments,
    Still, you couldn’t get rid of the obvious resentments

    Did you think it was NOT because of the color of your skin?
    Or your short-sightedness or your current/last birth’s sin

    You gave up, gave in and considered yourself inferior,
    You let them have it, for superficial fun, you ruined your interior

    How does it matter, what is the shade you have now, your life’s up for bids
    You learned it from your elders and taught the same to your kids

    Be Black, White and Asian like panda, they said
    But you handed over your soul to the rules they laid

    Hands up Panda!
    Hands up Panda!

    Till when will you wait, to raise your voice?
    Most of it anyways will fade into the noise

    It would work better if you could do see a bit,
    First stop applying yourself any Skin Whitening Shit

    (more…)

  • Happy Birthday Minimal Movie Posters India

    Happy Birthday Minimal Movie Posters India

    Thriving Minimal-ly since Jan 2012

    On January 5, 2012, I published a minor unnoticeable poster of Mr. India on my blog and shared the link on Facebook. Some of my friends liked it and shared the post with others. That encouraged me to make few more posters the next day. Then some others started to contribute. Then it went on and on and on. I have written enough about it already here, here and here (there is no third link but triads look good, is all).

    I also, just want to say the following:

    Main akela hi chala tha janib-e-manzil magar
    Log saath aate gaye aur karwaan banta gaya
    – Majhrooh Sultanpuri

    मैं अकेला ही चला था जानिब-ए-मंज़िल मगर
    लोग साथ आते गये और कारवां बनता गया
    – मजरूह सुलतानपुरी

    میں اکیلا ہی چلا تھا جانبِ منزل مگر
    لوگ ساتھ آتے گئے اور کارواں بنتا گیا
    – مجروح سلطانپوری

    (H/T to these folks for the above)

    Anyway, this is going to be a very short post because today is the birthday anniversary of Minimal Movie Posters India. I would like to thank again all the people who have made this community a successful one. All the contributors, the people who liked and shared the posters, the friends I made through this, and the media people who published about MMP on Newspapers and sites.

    Happy Birthday MMP India
    Happy Birthday MMP India

    Minimal Posters don’t go viral anymore but the community is still thriving and pushing out content regularly.

    Here are some numbers, for stat nerds:

    • 800+ Posters
    • More than 20 Contributors ranging from Age 16 to they-didn’t-reveal-their-age
    • Indians from all over the world contributed
    • 10,000+ followers overall (it is a big number. I think.)
    • Over 2,50,000 page views

    Way to go!

  • How to start a Blog?

    How to start a Blog?

    I had started blogging in January of 2007. That time, my sole intent was to earn money. So, I quickly set up a Google Adsense account and started putting ad banners of all sizes on my blog. Initially, there were more banners than blog posts. During those days, even the Earnings Per Click (EPC) was good. I started writing more and shared the blog link with all my friends. I even went on and set the Home Page of the default browsers in my engineering college to my blog. That time, I hadn’t created a Facebook or a Twitter account. Probably, no one I knew had. So, the only way to share the blog links to get more readership was to go to other blogs, comment there and hope to get a reply. If you were lucky and your comment made sense, people would click on your profile which would then lead them to your blog eventually. And guess what, people were less cynical those days. Most of the bloggers of that time connected with each other. Commenting and regularly sharing new links among each other had become common. By 2008, the camaraderie grew and joint-blogs started. Bloggers started networking and regular meetups were organized. By then, I realized that I liked writing. I realized that putting thoughts on a blog opened up many new avenues in the mind which I didn’t know existed. I made many friends that way as well. (Also, I never was able to reach the minimum 100$ mark which is needed for Google to release the payment. So, it means I haven’t earned anything yet from my text-blogs).

    So, I continued with blogging without worrying about money, although not very regularly. But I kept on publishing some content here and there even when most of the bloggers I knew gave up and switched to usual social media microblogging.

    Now, I am proud to say that I am still continuing. Writing and sharing means a lot. It makes one minutely better than those who don’t. Not everyone can write. Not everyone who can write is brave enough to share. So if you are writing and sharing, it adds a bit of flair to your persona. Also, this is always a give and take relationship. To write more, you have to also read more. Reading other blogs can give you as good an insight as a good book will.

    As I have declared that I am going to blog regularly this year, I have already started to write daily since last 2 weeks. At least 6 people I know, have shared their intentions of starting blogs of their own. The main aim of this very post is that I want to help those who want to blog, but either doesn’t know how to blog or need a push to blog.

    Here are some pointers which would help you:

    Make Writing Your Passion

    Don’t worry about the readership or money.  First, start a blog and write.

    Make an Account, NOW

    To start a blog, you can make an account on WordPress.com or Medium.com. These 2 are the most popular platforms nowadays. You can use tumblr.com or blogspot.com as well. Personally, I would suggest Medium because it is also a great way to start reading more.

    Start Writing

    What to write? It could range from your movie reviews to your travel experience, or something you know which you want to share with others, or some quote which you liked, or your opinion about a certain issue. You can write about your cat or you can write about how to file Income Tax Returns. One thing I know and have experienced is that writing can help you understand yourself better. By writing, you don’t react, you respond.

    Where can I help?

    For your and anyone new who wants to write, sake, I have started a New Publication on Medium.com. On that, I would encourage everyone who is new to join. By doing so, we will create a small community of new bloggers. Whenever you think you have matured enough as a blogger, or have reached a threshold of say 10 posts, you are free to leave the community and carry on with your posts elsewhere. No hard feelings.

    We can figure out moderation rules and stuff later. I just encourage you to jump in and start writing. Please drop a mail to mail@abhinavbhatt.com once you have set up your blog.

    Mutual Benefits

    If we can start this community with even 5 people, your 1st blog will already have 5 new readers. We can encourage each other to write more. You encourage me. I will keep a check on your progress. What say?

    For the above point, the link to the publication is this: https://medium.com/kycnow

    Kickstart Your Creativity Now — A Blogging Space for New Creators

    Mail me / ping me / talk to me and start with your first blog. Share the link with me and I can add you as a Writer on KYCnow. You don’t need to link your aadhar to be a writer, I promise even if the name is misleading. 🙂

    Recommended Reading
  • Books I read in 2017

    Books I read in 2017

    I am not an avid reader of books. I read a lot of articles, blogs, and ‘Terms & Conditions’ thoroughly on websites before clicking ‘I agree’. Alright, not the last one but I have not been a book reader types person in the past, even if I look like one. If you count articles and blogs maybe I do do a lot of reading and if you add all those articles up, they might constitute 2-3 books or so. But not proper books. I mostly end up reading 5-6 books a year, at max. This had been going on for a long time.

    In case you are not aware, on the Goodreads.com site, there are Reading Challenges every year. People enter a number of books they wish to read that year. When you are done reading a book, you can mark that book as read. That’s a good way to check your progress from time to time.

    Sometime in late 2015, I bought a Kindle. That helped a lot in increasing my book reading ability so I read 8 books in 2016. At the start of 2017, I aimed to read one book per month i.e. 12 Books per year. For actual book nerds, this might be a number they could be reading per month. But I am a normal person (some of us work also) so I thought one per month is a good number.

    I would like to apologize by saying that I failed. 2017 ended but I could read only 10 books in 2017. Yes! That’s how life is, sadly. But I am very proud to say that most books I read this year had a profound impact on me. It was about quality and not quantity. These books not only reduced my social media time but also helped me become a better person. I also found my liking to non-fiction genre which I didn’t delve into much earlier. So, long story short, I am sharing the list of the books I read in 2017. The books which are bold are the ones I recommend. You can try reading them. No harm. As far as I know.

    This is not your story by Savi Sharma

    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

    The Secret of Leadership by Prakash Iyer

    Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie

    Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath

    The Martian by Andy Weir

    Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris

    Krishna’s Secret by Devdutt Pattanaik

    Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

    Faster than Normal by Peter Shankman

    Some of these have been reviewed here and obviously, those are the ones I recommend.

  • Promise Needs Patience

    Promise Needs Patience

    “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
    Mexican Proverb

    You might or might not have heard this story before, but here it goes. I’ll start with a question:

    Does anyone here know about the growth pattern of a Bamboo plant?

    When the farmers start growing Bamboo, they must nurture it, water it and take care of it during its first year. However, there is negligible growth. The farmers must have patience and continue to water it in its second year too. Even then, there is nothing much to see. They fertilize it with best quality manure so that they see something soon. But seasons after seasons, years after years, there is almost nothing to be proud of. It doesn’t even show proper sprout.

    3 years pass. There’s still no motivation for the farmers to continue. But they continue to water and fertilize the plant. Even after the 4th year ends, there is still nothing. By this time, even the most motivated farmers give up. Who would keep watering the plant which shows no growth at all? But even then, the farmers persist.

    Now, this is the time when the patience pays off. In the 5th year of its cultivation, Bamboo finally shows some traces up from the soil. Not only that, it reaches more than 60-80 feet up in the air in the same season itself. And then, it continues to stay strong, no matter how harsh the weather is. It bends, it twists, but it stays strong. In case, you don’t know Bamboo is a kind of Grass.

    You know, all the years when it didn’t show any growth upwards, it was actually growing downwards. Yes, it was growing upside down. Its roots were getting longer and longer and they had eventually reached that length and gained enough strength that they could hold the soil to sustain 80 feet tall shoots of Bamboo.

    Same is the way in which revolutions work and revolutions fail. If there are doubts in your convictions, your beliefs, and your aim, no matter what you do, you are bound to fail.

    If you are doing things right with honesty, but you are not seeing any benefits, take some lessons about patience from the Bamboo. If you promise yourself patience and keep at it, it would need patience. It might take time, it might not show any positive results soon. But, if you keep working in the right direction, there will be a time that you will be really proud of yourself that you invested time on that very thing.

    The above was used as part of my Presidential Speech Script in my Toastmaster’s Clubs Meeting. I had come across this story in this book: http://amzn.to/2CYG9O5.

  • Day 1 Year 2018

    Day 1 Year 2018

    Happy New Year Dear Readers! (Yes, the 2-3 of you)

    So, as I had promised, I did go to the office today. As expected, there was as much silence as there is silence in a curfew laden area.

    When I opened my mailbox and saw a flurry of Working from Home emails, my sarcasm meter went haywire and I sent ‘Working from Office’ mail to many. Sarcasm getting charged up early in the morning is a good sign. Right?

    Few good things happened though.

    • Even when the colleagues weren’t there, there were no abstainers from the helpers and pantry workers. That shows how much these celebrations meant to those who don’t have the privilege like us to skip work. (You may argue that you have earned this but do you think that time would stay the same.)
    • Someone came to my desk and wished me a happy new year. Who does that nowadays?
    • I bought hosting space for my domain. After much pain, it is finally live now at abhinavbhatt.com

    What did the new year bring for you?

  • Importance of not taking holiday on January 1, 2018

    Importance of not taking holiday on January 1, 2018

    There’s a common joke that if you do something on the first day of the year, you do that activity throughout the year. That’s not only highly improbable but also stupid, to be frank.

    All the past years, my workplace had a holiday on January 1. But this year, because of the ‘policy’ of at max 10 holidays per year, we have no holiday tomorrow. Although most people will extend their leaves until January 2, I have decided to wake up early tomorrow and go to the office. Bring it on!

    Why you ask.

    There are some things which are tough to do. There are some things which are uncomfortable. There are some things which might make you look like a fool to others. But when you accomplish those things, there’s a beautiful jet stream of dopamine release. That release is much more genuine than that one which you get from Likes and stuff.

    So I am going to try that this year. Apart from learning something new every day and 1000 other resolutions, one more resolution is going to be Not Hitting Snooze button. And not caring about what others think of you.

    You may still enjoy some more sleep. Or you can do something uncomfortable early tomorrow and get a good chunk of dopamine released into your system.

    If you are reading this before Jan 1, you have a really good chance to do the latter. Try.

  • Let’s talk about Postcards

    Let’s talk about Postcards

    Recently, I heard a beautiful little speech from a fellow Toastmaster Sivaranjani about Postcards and Pen Pals. She talked about how, as a kid, she used to send out postcards from her family to the relatives. She went on to tell about her meeting with one of the pen friends she had made during the time when it was cool to have pen friends. The speech was reminiscent of the time without Internet which now seems like ages ago. She ended her speech with a beautiful gesture of handing out actual postcards to the members of the audience.

    One of the important points she raised about Postcards was the analogy with the social media of today’s time. She said that Postcards are like Tweets: One has to deliver the message on a limited space for writing. Also, Postcards are also like the infamous Open Letters which you intend that the original recipient would read. Although, except that person, everyone else reads that.

    In a rather personal plus fictional story combination book by a friend titled ‘And we remained’, a major chunk of the story is told via the email-exchanges between 4 friends. One could read this book if you want to go back to your nostalgic college days, first crush feelings and the time when sending emails to and fro used to exist. Anyways, point being, communication recently has taken a weird turn.

    I have not sent or received postcards or even a letter since last 15 years or so minimum. I did use to make greeting cards during school time which I used to give away to friends and teachers before summer vacation or winter holiday breaks. But that practice diminished as I grew up. I also haven’t received/sent a proper email from/to anyone in at least last 3 years in which we could have just shared information about each other’s well being. The only letters I receive are actually cardboard containers from Amazon. I did receive few physical Greeting Cards from my wife when she was away. (I felt pretty awkward initially as I didn’t expect that people would still be dealing with Greeting Cards. But that was a wonderful gesture, so thank you R if you are reading this. Sorry that I didn’t reply back with another greeting card of my own. I am a bit tech-savvy that way.). Obviously, ego gets in the way of communication nowadays. Despite being so closely connected, we hardly talk to people. I had even written a satire piece a few days ago about replying to Whatsapp/Email has become optional. You may read that here.

    Whining about this isn’t the solution. The solution would be to reopen the communication channel with old friends in some way. One can still send out postcards. One can write emails. Even a Poke on Facebook might help in rekindling the friendship, who knows! Wish someone new year in an original manner and not HNY! Of course, I am not suggesting to you that pick up the phone and call that person. Who would do that!

    I got this postcard by the way after that speech:

    Recommended Sites, in case you are interested:

    • People who used to use blogpost.com would remember about lettersofnote.com. If not, you can still go ahead and check this site. They publish postcards, letters, telegrams from the past. Soon, they should also start posting emails from the early days of the Internet. That would be fascinating to read.
    • I found this website which does this amazing thing even today: postcrossing.com. I am copy pasting their stats from the site below:

    P.S. A picture of Postbox with address if you want to send someone a postcard from Bengaluru

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BO9r2CAj_4q

    This, I saw at MG Road Boulevard, Bengaluru. It is a bit sad that the caption I put in the second comment on the picture there was ‘#historical’.

  • So I recently watched: Justice League

    So I recently watched: Justice League

    Has it ever happened to you when you took a turn anticipating less traffic but ended up getting stuck with no turning back? Now, when you have taken the turn you decide to continue with it, albeit with a sore mood.

    DC, with its movies, is at a similar crossroad/junction where it knows that it has taken a path which leads to nowhere so it thinks okay what the heck, let’s buy something on the way, enough with the somber mood, time to light up and make the trip slightly merrier.

    After getting hugely disappointed with Batman v Superman (and later ending up finding some sense in BvS Ultimate Edition), getting immensely saddened by Suicide Squad, liking Wonder Woman a lot, I thought, alright we can surely give one last try to the Justice League. So, I recently watched it and following are my thoughts for your perusal.

    Lee Bermejo Justice League Movie Poster Released for MondoCon
    Lee Bermejo Justice League Movie Poster Released for MondoCon

    Throughout the movie, except a handful of moments, I didn’t feel any excitement for any character. I liked Barry Allen of course but probably because of the Flash TV Show knowledge. Not sure from where Aquaman and Cyborg came into being and it was left for future movies to tell about their origins. This is a somewhat similar treatment to Hawkeye in Avengers where the character is just a character for whom we don’t need to care about much. Batman cracked some PJs and suddenly fell in some bro-love with Superman only when Superman had left after BvS. There was a scene where Wonder Woman looks at Batman’s bruises and then suddenly turns like a Hindi Movie Bhabhi and helps him get at ease with his muscle pull. Seriously? The antagonist was also as forgettable as the villains in Marvel movies. Do you remember any good one?

    There are some positive points though. And that’s the lighter mood brought by Aquaman and the Flash. And the return of the MAIN DC CHARACTER also brings some sort of hope. I don’t want to comment on his lack of mustache though as enough has already been said. This light mood saved the movie from being a total bore and I hope future movies take some lessons out of it.

    They also did a comic-animation-tie-in in the post-credit scene where the Flash and Superman compete in a race. That was a good note to end with. (I didn’t see the other post-credit scene during the movie but later on Youtube which turned out to be okayish)

    Sometimes, if we do take the path which didn’t turn out to be as good as expected, it is better to enjoy it with much more confidence and moving on from the regret. Hopefully, DC would have realized now as to which path would be best to take from here.

  • So I recently read: ‘Faster than Normal’

    So I recently read: ‘Faster than Normal’

    This is going to be weird. Although the book ‘Faster than Normal’ is about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or popularly known as ADHD and how to make it work for you, by a renowned Author, Speaker, Ironman Triathlon Athlete, Podcaster, etc. named Peter Shankman, the title might also be my own Tagline, if I do get a tagline.

    Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHDBrain
    Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD brain

    Let me share some of the traits (as I would refrain from calling them symptoms) of being Faster than Normal:

    1. Speaking fast. Very fast. I mean really fast. (Although in my mind I am being normal and others are being slow to understand me)
    2. Getting easily distracted from uninteresting things (BORING!)
    3. Being a Morning and Monday Loving Person / Extra-Energetic / Borderline-Hyper (Yes!)
    4. A believer in ‘Either my way or highway’ philosophy (Although this doesn’t work in real world. Still, I try.)
    5. Suffering from Imposter Syndrome often.
    6. Uncontrollable hands. Sometimes tongue too.

    This isn’t written in the book but rather my own traits if I may be frank here. So, I don’t know whether I really have ADHD or not but reading this book gave me so many examples of my own life. And even if I might have had ADHD, this book continues to state that ADHD is not a disorder. Rather, ADHD is a superpower which can be utilized to maximize one’s output. The best part of this book is that the suggestions, tricks, and tips given in this book would work for anyone who wants to be optimal at their game, ADHD or not. I would pause here and state that if someone really has ADHD, I cannot even comprehend what all would be going through their minds all the time. But when this book tells about people who have been diagnosed with ADHD and still made it big, that is very reassuring. For instance, names like Seth Godin, Richard Branson, Will Smith have been diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their lives.

    So, reiterating here that whether you are normal or faster than normal, this book has a plethora of tips by which you can enhance your general productivity. Peter gives his own examples at every instance and also brings in guests who share their experiences with how they used their faster brain to accomplish great things. From getting up early, journaling your schedule, keeping your room tidy, choices minimum, following rituals, and making the best of the time when you are in your zone, are some of the tips which are explained in details with daily life examples.

    In the modern day life where we have more distractions than a normal sane person can handle, focussing on a single task at hand is certainly a huge deal. When you know that if you are to be given only one hour of time with no distractions, you can wrap up the work which otherwise might take a day with distractions, then you probably you would enjoy this book.

    I have gained a lot of insights about things which I had kept on the backburner due to laziness but after reading this book, I am pumped up again. This review is the 7th blog post on my blog in 7 straight days. I think if I am able to continue this streak further, this book would be one of the reasons behind that.

    The actual title of the book is: Faster Than Normal: Turbocharge Your Focus, Productivity, and Success with the Secrets of the ADHD Brain. You may buy it at the given link.