When I blogged/ declared/shouted from the mountaintop, that I was going to blog every single day this year, I was pretty sure that I won’t be able to do that. *Wink* Life is too smart you know! Still, I wanted to try. So, barring few weekend breaks for leisure and life, I posted last on Jan 18th and disappeared.
The first reason was that I wasn’t well. I had gone to Goa for 4 days and the change of weather from Goa to Bengaluru did nothing good to my sensitive nose and vulnerable throat. Secondly, I had some visitors at my home (The ILs) so I couldn’t blog at night. Thirdly, everything one does in life, has a very serious correlation with the mood one is in. Mood again is directly dependent on the health and well being of oneself and one who cares about. To summarise, some of my loved ones weren’t well. Moreover, I wasn’t even equipped in any way that I could do something about them. So, I did nothing about continuing with writing as I could do nothing about other’s health issues.
But now everything has come back on track or as they say, I’ve understood that this is how it is going to be. People are eventually going to get better and life will move on.
In short, I will try my best to continue with keeping writing alive. This blog post is just a means to get fingers acclimatize to the process again.
We will return to regular programming soon. See you all (millions and millions of you readers) shortly.
Back in 2011, I wrote this: The World is Round. It was not only badly written obit for Steve Jobs but also very vague. Not that I have improved a great deal since then but I will go ahead and write another post about glasses.
I have been wearing Glasses or Spectacles since 2001 as I suffer from myopia. Most others also suffer from this and they don’t know it but I mean that figuratively. I will digress if I go in that direction more. Coming back, my story of how they came into my life is kind of weird.
Around that time, a Hindi Movie Kaho Na Pyaar Hai had released. That movie had Hrithik Roshan donning spectacles and probably for the first time a protagonist who could be said good looking, looked good with the glasses. Till then, rarely any Hero used to wear glasses. He somehow made wearing specs look cool and not come off as a nerd. So when I complained that I might need glasses, it was more so because of trying a new look for myself, instead of actual vision issues. Vision and Mission are to be ignored.
http://www.filmfare.com/media/content/2016/May/11_1463052529_640x640.jpg Not the best image of course #teamKangana
So, funnily, when I got my eyes checked, I got +0.25 as the number, or whatever the terminology is, for both the eyes. That’s hyperopia actually! The ophthalmologist said that I can skip using glasses and if I eat healthy, leafy and green veggies, soon my eyes would be 6/6 again. But I had to look good. I went to the Optician and got myself a pair.
After a few months, when I got frustrated of wearing them and I had no hopes of looking like Hrithik, I went to get eyes checked again to see if I actually need them. That time, I was told that my eyesight actually requires something in the order of -0.50! <pause of comedy music>
Since then, I have to wear glasses while driving, watching TV/Computer and in general. Now the number has further increased and I have to wear them most of the times. I should have eaten those healthy, leafy and green veggies more. After wearing them for more than 15-16 years, I thought that I had become sophisticated enough to switch to contact lenses now. Also, because, somehow I still feel that my face is incompatible with wearing glasses but living with what you are most uncomfortable with is what makes the character, they say. They only make me look more sophisticated which is kind of redundant.
After trying the contact lenses for a day and putting them on and off a couple of times and failing miserably, I gave up. I have no patience to spend 1000 minutes in putting them on and taking them off every single day. People do it but they might have long-term plans about their lives. Not me!
I shifted back to good old spectacles and I am satisfied with my looks with them because I stopped caring about it early in 2001 itself.
But, the point of the post is none of the above. Sorry for wasting your precious time. Rather, I have to share 2 new kinds of glasses which are on the market watch nowadays.
Snapchat made these sunglasses which have a camera inbuilt. You can make stories for your Snapchat, if you have an account, still. Or act like a funky futuristic but old James Bond from 1950s.
Via https://medium.com/@zachlieberman/daily-sketches-in-2017-1b4234b0615d
Now, this is something Matrix-y. This company makes glasses which are so easy to wear that you will even forget that you have them on. Since I have failed with the contact lens, the next thing I want to fail with could be these. Check out their video on the link above.
Google Glasses
Hehe, no nothing to see here. This also failed to take off like Google+.
That’s all folks. If you try the above innovations, kindly let me know your review so that I see if I look any better with them. Nobody has called me chashmish yet as I still don’t wear glasses all the time but some might have thought of saying.
In case you have been following this blog lately and have noticed a break in the blogging streak so early, please note that I was out vacationing and all. So, kindly excuse. I said I will blog almost daily. 1-2 days off in between should be okay, I guess!
A few days ago, I came across an article/ news that ISRO and Indus Moon Mission have parted ways in a not so happy manner which means that India’s first ever private moon mission and in fact India’s very first mission with a Lunar Land Rover is in danger of getting scrapped.
This was heartbreaking. For those who are unfamiliar the Indus Moon Mission is a private firm based in Bengaluru which is competing in a brilliantly conceptualized Google Lunar XPrize contest.
As per the contest:
The competition’s $30 million prize purse will be awarded to teams who are able to land a privately funded rover on the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back high definition video and images.
This is the future we see in the movies. Private firms competing to land their spacecraft on different planets.
The deadline for this is March 31, 2018. But due to this fallout between Team Indus and ISRO, it seems bleak that India’s entry would have much chance, as of now. Fingers crossed. Not only that, PSLV of ISRO was also slated to carry another competitor of XPrize Japan’s HAKUTO.
I have always envisioned our country (no sarcasm) as one which will always be at the forefront of space missions. Despite our economic conditions, I strongly believe that if we put aside some budget to aim for these gigantic scientific feats and put trust in our able team of scientists, it would always work in the end. For those who argue against this and put forward the notion of spending money only in uplifting poor should understand that the amount of inspiration a young poor kid can get by seeing their fellow countrymen sending things in outer space on a tight budget but with an unmistakable accuracy, that amount of inspiration is unfathomable and can lead to an amazing future generation. Each such mission could mean putting seeds of inspiration in young kids minds who would turn up and be the next Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
This setback for Indus Mission was quite a shocker as all these days, they were very much enthusiastic regarding this partnership made in heaven. However, things might not be that bad as Indus Team is still marching ahead with their plan and looking forward to another partner.
It would have been doubly great with ISRO but if they are able to sustain and maintain their zeal, hopefully, they will shoot for the moon and hit the target (via a soft landing).
I wish them the best and hope to write another congratulatory blog post after March 2018. Also, ISRO is planning for their own Moon Mission pretty soon as well. Kudos to them as well, as always.
The script for my last presidential address at my Toastmasters Club. I didn’t deliver it exactly as the script but you can still read it for free:
Today is my last Presidential Address. Please don’t cry at the end of the speech. For the last 25 odd Toastmasters Meetings, I used to prepare something for each week.
On the very first page, there’s a line by International President DTM Balraj Arunasalam, where he is quoting Mark Twain,
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read”
In the same way, he says that
“A Toastmaster who won’t lead has no advantage over one who can’t lead”
It means that if you have an opportunity to lead a group of people, for your and their betterment, you must grab that opportunity with both hands. As Robin Williams said in ‘Dead Poets Society’,
“Carpe diem”
First of all, I would like to state that Trailblazers Toastmasters Club is not my baby as in I wasn’t a charter member or part of the executive committee until January 2017. But, when I had joined it in June 2016, soon I did adopt it as my baby. I saw it as a place which had huge potential for me to grow as a person. It was a place where I could meet new people and develop my communication skills. I tried my best to capture the moments I had in the club. Over the course of last one and a half years, I have seen this club grow from a novice club to a sophisticated club now. We now have proper standards, practices, procedures, and processes to run the club. In the recently held elections, we not only got the 7 officers elected on time, 3 more people stood up and took the responsibility of Associate Officers.
During my time as acting VP-Education, VP-Membership and then as President, with the help of the executive committee, we tried to do whatever I could to make the club beneficial to everyone. I hope that our efforts were useful to all the members. I said this in my Presidential Acceptance speech 6 months ago and I will say it again that if we take our role in Toastmasters a tad bit seriously and see it as an opportunity to help others, we can do wonders. I will share a small story about helping others which I had read in a book some time ago. I hope you see some lesson in it:
In 1892, at Stanford University in the US, there were 2 poor students who were not able to pay their college fee. So they approached a pianist Paderewski to perform in their college. Paderewski was quite the superstar at those times. They thought that they would raise enough money from the tickets that they would be able to pay the pianist as well as pay their fee. They asked him to perform for $2000. He agreed and performed.
But, they could raise only $1600 from the concert. With their heads hanging in shame, they went to the pianist and said that they will give the rest of $400 later when they will be able to pay for it. Currently, they said that they were not even able to pay tuition fees. So, they gave him a cheque for $400 and requested him to encash it later. Instead of shouting and scolding them, to their surprise, Paderewski told them that they don’t need to worry. He will not only deduct his fee for this concert but also agreed to pay their tuition fee for them.
Years passed. It was the time for the First World War. The pianist Paderewski had now become the Prime Minister of Poland. Poland was ravaged due to the war and was in dire needs of food and ammunition. He approached the United States to help them. US President Hoover quickly sent food supplies and helped Poland during the war. When Paderewski went on to thank President Hoover, Hoover said that he needn’t thank him. He was just returning the favor. He said he was one of the 2 students whom Paderewski had helped a few years ago to pay their tuition fee.
Think of your Toastmaster role as a role of not self-improvement but helping others. Improvement will happen automatically if you come to the meetings. By helping others, by doing small things, can have a huge impact on others lives. Like taking up roles in a Toastmasters meeting. Your role as Ah-Counter can help someone stutter less and become a better speaker. I could go on and on.
Before I sign off as the president, I would just request all of you, the new officers and the members to try to help each other. I am always there to help. You just need to be proactive and ask for help. You just need to capture the moment before it is too late. You can take my adopted baby now and help it grow more into an awesome person in the future.
Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh…
We miss you already. We’ll be right here at store.cdbaby.com patiently awaiting your return.
Noticed the difference? See in whatever way you connect with people, it might change their perception of you and vice versa. I had read this in Tools of Titans in the profile of Derek Sivers. I thought this email confirmation story might have been then in the past but apparently, it is still on.
How many times have today you said Thank You to someone with honesty? When was the last time, you were said thank you by someone else which was genuinely heartfelt? The thank you which genuinely moved you?
Thank you are just 2 small words which, if said genuinely, mean a whole lot to someone.
In my email signature, it always used to be ‘Warm regards’ or ‘Thanks’. But I saw one colleague of mine who had the longest 2 words ever: ‘Thank You’ for his signature. If you read it a couple of times, it would genuinely appear better than our usual stock replies.
I changed mine to ‘Thank You’ as well. When I am actually not thankful, I make it back to post-millennial ‘ty’.
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
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
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.)
