So, the fastest year of life is over in a jiffy. I went to Goa in Jan 2018 and it feels like it was just a few weeks ago. That’s how fast the last 2 years have gone by.
There were many learnings this year work-wise. I have now completed more than a decade of working. It went pretty smooth for me for the first 7 years but the last 3 years have made me work as many hours as I worked in the first 7. There were numerous late nights and weekends. The amount of knowledge gained was also enormous. I also completed 5 years working in the same company. So, I have spent more time in office than in the rented house I am living in. Does this mean the office feels like home? Dangerous sign.
And, as much as you want to avoid, but someday politics catches you. But it is fun and challenging and as part of life as it can be. Bring it on!
As I observed, I have been the heaviest this year. Time to look into it in 2019. Better to go into new year with some aim.
Below are the things I enjoyed this year, like a normal human being.
Movies (In theatres)
The least number of movies I watched in Cinema this year.
A Quiet Place – Goosebumps, silently. Brought back memories of Spielberg era
Series
The Office – I haven’t laughed as much I did while watching this in ages. I’m seriously! All hail Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute combo. Things do get weird in S8 but still so much better than all those shows with a laughter track after every 10 seconds. Each and every character in fact make you chuckle. It will be hard to miss. That’s what she said!
The Family Man S1 – Superbly made. I think all the things by the creators of this have been amazing.
Fleabag – Some 4th wall breaking done really brilliantly, the writing and the acting by the eponymous Phoebe Waller-Bridge is something else!
Stranger Things S3 – Still one of my most favorite shows. The ‘Never ending story’ part was the best.
Veep S7 – Cannot think of any other show which has so many jokes crammed into every dialogue that before you finish your laugh at one, another one comes which is even meaner. And this was the final season. Elaine, I mean, President Selina Meyer, what a performance!
Chernobyl – Highly recommended
Books
The following are the books I read this year. I had targetted one book a month but I ended up 2 short. Currently, I am reading Thinking Fast and Slow but it is not going to get finished in the next 3 days.
One thing I regret about the following books is that in spite of them being definitely life-changing, I didn’t change my life. I will have to read some of them again because they are definitely worth re-reads. Some of them tend to appear a bit lop-sided about growing old and understanding the world more. But then as I said I didn’t let them affect me in any positive or negative manner. One way to actually implement the learnings from the books is to go through them again via a book review which I didn’t do at all this year and that has to be corrected next year.
What else could unite us all at 2 AM in the morning? It used to be Cricket only. Sometimes movies. But from September 7, 2019, ISRO is the next Indian adhesive, I think!
Well, Chandrayaan 2 is a partial success after all. It reached pretty far accurately, even became the first Indian object to touch the Lunar Surface (right?) may be through a hard landing, but lost the communication channel to tell us about it. As soon as this image came onto the screen, deafening silence engulfed everyone over. It felt a bit hollow inside as if the heartbeat had stopped.
via ISRO Youtube
It is certainly important to introspect this image and the data it brings, but this should never deter us from attempting it again. Yes, we didn’t make it cleanly but ISRO is a winner all the way.
Recent feats achieved by ISRO (including this) will go very far for our upcoming generation. Sheer excitement amongst the folks who are least interested in space, or are cynical about anything India does, certainly got us united and got us cheering for ISRO all the way.
This is exactly why ISRO exists. It tells us that impossible is nothing. If we dedicate our focus on the right things, we can reach anywhere. It might take more than 1 attempt, but we will be there sooner or later.
Next time, ISRO does Gaganyaan or Aditya Mission or the exoplanetary mission, the cheer would grow even louder and we will all be stuck to our devices, watching the live streaming. The next time, it would be a successful touchdown.
“So, I shouldn’t voluntarily donate blood at all from next time, right? Isn’t that what it is supposed to mean?”
Me
That was my stern reaction when I was told that the hospital doesn’t take blood from an external blood bank. I was indeed livid while the person in front of me kept a straight face.
I donated blood at a camp organized in my office on July 2 this month. In fact, I have been a regular blood donor, donating once a year. This has been a mostly-regular habit/ritual/routine for more than a decade. Every time I donated blood, I did it:
To help any stranger in need.
Hoping nobody needs it and the world becomes a sans-suffering place. <joking>
Also, I semi-secretly wished that if I or someone close to me needs it, I would be able to get a unit back in exchange for my selfless service.
That was the catch: selfless. While I was donating blood, I was thinking that it is selfless service. But I expected a return in the worst case. So that’s not selfless, right!
So, recently a near one actually needed blood. I told the hospital authorities that I have donated blood recently, so I am eligible to get a unit back from the blood bank. Of course, I couldn’t donate again because one should take at least 3 months break from donating again. I called the blood bank and they agreed. However, to my utter surprise, the hospital said that they aren’t supposed to take any blood from any blood bank save their own blood bank. I insisted that the blood bank to which I donated can give the blood, but hospital folks were adamant. They said we cannot trust the credibility of outside sources. They can only accept donors and not blood directly. The blood bank where I donated is a rather renowned one and it is affiliated to many prominent hospitals. But not the one where I was, unfortunately.
Eventually, we got donors arranged in the end which helped. I was left kind of aghast though. I thought that there’s no point of donating blood if I cannot receive it when I need it. Moreover, I should always stay ready to donate but not donate itself because then at least someone close can get from me.
After a couple of hours of disappointment, few realizations hit me.
We can’t do a selfless service if we want something in return. That’s not selfless per se.
If I am donating blood, that blood itself would have got used for someone in need then and there. So what I intended while donating gets realized.
I can’t keep my blood safe in my body thinking I will give it away only to a known person. That’s rather selfish.
So, I was donating blood with wrong intentions I guess. Now a new life lesson has been learned.
Donate blood if you can, selflessly. Don’t expect or wish anything back. Let your blood help a stranger when they need.
I was recently roped in as a volunteer to be in charge of a Registrations Desk at an event in which close to 700 people were expected to attend. Being in the organizing team since the very beginning, I was supposed to also take care of the help-desk part at registrations because we had anticipated some anomalies and grievances. To make it interesting, we had kept a goodie box in which there were a number of small items like a customized with name keychain, a small plastic bag, a phone popper, etc. I also had the same items as loose in case some of the attendees who hadn’t registered, showed up at last moment.
Majority of the folks had registered in advance and they got their registrations verification done easily. They received customized goodie boxes and moved on. But to make it more interesting, we also decided to hand over food & drinks coupons to everyone when they came for registrations. Now, somehow the number of coupons I had weren’t enough to cater to 700 folks. To make it furthermore interesting, the event was a 2-day affair and there were different kinds of food coupons: Day 1 Lunch, Day 1 Dinner, Day 1 Drinks (soft), Day 1 Drinks (Liquor), Day 2 Lunch, Day 2 Hi-Tea. And to top everything up, not all had registered for both the days and even the Day 1 dinner. I had to keep referring to an excel sheet and then hand over loose items/goodies which also got over soon. Then there were also some issues with wrong food coupons given to wrong folks. Later, some people came back as their customized goodies had names of someone else.
All in all, despite the event being a major success and nobody getting hurt, the task of handling so many registrations was a major challenge. I had the support of various other volunteers who didn’t break a sweat and we eventually got through but at times, the exercise became a headache for everyone. For some, it would have surely ruined the experience of the event because it was the first thing they encountered. Hopefully, they also realized that we had all just volunteered and nobody had any bad intentions but just the circumstances.
I didn’t have the liberty of becoming the Soup-Nazi to do crowd-control either.
I also recently attended a training called ‘Design Thinking’. The crux of the training is to develop a solution or a service by thinking about the end user in mind. This might sound very easy but it takes a painstaking number of hours to come up with possible permutations and combinations of what end-user will go through and get satisfaction.
Some learnings from all of the above:
Design Thinking is a great concept to have when you have to act in a public facing job. We all know and have faced the humiliation at Bank, Transport Offices, Post Offices and other places in which we have to line up and wait for our turn, sometimes in unbearable conditions, facing atrocious services. Only if, the person who is in charge of designing this can think of themselves as the end user, the process would improve. That is the reason great companies are great because they think of their products/services in the hands of the users and how they are going to perceive it.
Whenever you have to make something for someone, not only consider what you want to deliver, also think about how the user is going to take it. Front-End of every product and every service can make or break an experience.
Did I tell you, I always wanted to own a Stationary Shop which also sold books?
I have always wanted to read more and more books. But like everyone else, I end up reading less and less. There are some phases when I do read 2-3 books in very less time. But those times come like Halley’s Comet if people still remember that thing. Not digressing, this post is about book stores. It is not an exhaustive post about Bangalore’s Book Stores but just a few pictures of the bookstores I have been to.
Disclaimer: I own a Kindle since last few years. And that has rather helped me read more. But still, there is a charm in real printed books and book shops. Whenever I get a chance, I do visit book stores and get a feel of reality (and feel intellectual). Also, I am a keen observer of Book Covers. I don’t usually buy books but I always feel the guilt that I should.
So last weekend, I was roaming around on Church Street, Bengaluru. As many folks would know, it is famous for the Blossoms Book Store. I found another one very next to it called The Bookworm. Very close by, on MG Road, there is Higginbothams’ too. Do visit.
So as they say, when you desire something, you do get signs. So, I found this today. Please watch this. This post was mostly written to share this video.
Have you ever seen any animal get really very happy or really sad or really angry? Maybe occasionally your pets do display such emotions but not for long, right? Humans, on the other hand, cling on to joy or sadness for a longer time. Our emotions have more inertia and they sustain for a while.
Is it possible for us to learn from the wild animals to be more stoic? Is it possible for us to celebrate but in moderation, to feel depressed but move on, to get angry but forgiving?
I believe, if we can learn to contain ourselves and not hold on to the feelings as if they’re extremely precious, we can do much better. For that to happen, we must consider sadness and joy equal. I think that’s possible, isn’t it?
It took more years than I have been alive. And not only me, whole generations, in fact. It took so many alarms not at all snoozed and waking up early to see the leather brushing off the noses and the chins of Indian Batsman. It took so many sledging lessons. It took many greats which were deemed equivalent to Gods. It took so many VVSs, Dravids, and Sachins but the dream was still a dream.
Till today. Today, it has finally been achieved.
Congratulations Indian Cricket Team for defeating Australia 2-1 in the tests for the first time ever.
The Indian players pose with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy via David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
In continuation of the last post, to detox one’s self from technology, I found a nice way which works for me. Not sure about you. But this about me, not you anyway.
Touch a tree once a day. And by touch I mean just glide your hands over it. By glide I mean just touch it for some seconds and that’s all, no need to overdo too. You may hug like it is Chipko Movement also if no one is watching but not necessarily. Let me explain.
Most of us, all day, find ourselves surrounded by various electronics and electromagnetic kinds of stuff. We keep typing all day long on keyboards and inhale too much of plastic-y air that by the time it is evening, your lungs might be filled with plastic dust like Tar (exaggerating it to make it sound very bad). And when we are free, we keep our hands busy by typing and texting on our phones. Again plastic. You sit on a plastic chair. You touch people who are plastic (no?). You use handles which are either metal or plastic. You eat in Plastic Plates. Your tiffin is Tupperware. All you need in life is something living. Like Wood.
What a year 2018 has been! I mean, seriously. This year, I had some experiences which I have never felt in my life before. Most of the experiences were life-altering. I will come back to them later in this post but first, let us look at the so-called resolutions I had promised at the end of the last year. And their outcomes, of course. I don’t make resolutions-resolutions per se but everyone has some things in their minds they want to tick mark every year.
Here’s the breakdown of how my objectives of the year fared.
Resolutions 2018
Write daily. This is really important. Seth Godin, here I come.
Outcome: 33 blog posts. About 300 posts short but highest blog posts in a year by me, ever!
Verdict: Fail
Take more photographs. Edit them better. Make better stories. Be a better photographer, better editor.
Outcome: About 150 Instagram Posts. I crossed 1000 posts this year. And I didn’t use Photoshop this year at all.
Verdict: Pass
Be a better storyteller. Better speaker. Better. And don’t let anything distract you from that.
Outcome: I completed by Toastmasters Advanced Communicator Bronze which included Storytelling. So technically, yes! Still a long way to go.
Verdict: Pass
Indulge in Video making and editing. Tough task but time is now! Casey Neistat and likes keep inspiring and sharing new people to get motivated from.
Outcome: Video editing is a tough job. I didn’t start a Vlog yet but getting there slowly.
Verdict: Pass (barely)
Learn something new every week. New technology, science, history, word, technique, skills, something! And write about it.
Outcome: Huge scope in this task. I certainly could do a lot more. I will consider myself failed.
Verdict: Fail
I didn’t have an actual big cycle when I was a kid. I had a small kiddy bike until I was 13. But then my younger brother got a proper bike. So I used it. But not as much as I wanted. So, if all goes well, I will buy a Bicycle soon and just ride it.
Outcome: Big fail.
Verdict: Fail
Overhaul the overall brand. Come up as a person people should look up to. Learn from others. Teach what you know to others. Learn more, be more!
Outcome: Long way to go. It is better to stay perpetually fail as this.
Verdict: Fail
Basically, just do. Don’t complain. Don’t indulge in politics. Don’t share irrelevant details. Don’t consume bad stuff.
Outcome: Subjective thing. But I am still sane.
Verdict: Pass
Don’t intake negative vibes. Just do your thing and be better!
A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.
Karma is a funny thing. It is certainly the outcome of your actions which you deliberated yourself or someone made you do it. Nevertheless, you must face them at some point in your life. The year 2018 left me with some experiences (which were not my doing necessarily but still I had to face) which were quite new. I am going to jot down these experiences in the classy Health-Wealth-Wise trio format which made me ponder about life a bit more than I would have. This is going to be somber like all previous year-end posts.
I traveled to Goa in the beginning of the year and needless to say I was not interested in sharing my beach pics. I have put more pressure on the weighing scales this year than I ever have. Some of this could be blamed on me living alone for 5 months and using Zomato, Swiggy, and FreshMenu to the fullest. I was, in fact, happy to note that Google Pay got me a lot of cashbacks. But then I fell sick later in the year so the medicines evened out the cashbacks. The silver lining was that I was able to keep the clothes still fit my waist. This sounds all negligible experience actually. This is not life-altering by any stretch of the imagination, to be honest. In more seriousness, the truth is that most of us take health for granted. Only when either we ourself or someone close falls ill, then only we understand the importance of taking care. Some of the people around me kept on falling sick or fell into the trap of diseases which are life-threatening. Even if when you are not suffering yourself, when people around you suffer, that hurts a lot, if not equally. And the fact that one cannot do anything about it, is a tough bullet to chew. To say the least, healthwise 3 of the major experience happened to me this year was:
Having to take someone to a hospital in an ambulance when they had just collapsed and getting to know that it was the case of D.O.A.
Still dealing with the ongoing ordeal of a close one suffering from the monster called Cancer. It sucks the life out of one in all possible ways but you still have to deal with it.
Got to hear about someone giving up on life due to Depression. Enough said.
Till July of this year, I went to the Airport every month. Sometimes, more than once a month. I am not at all a frequent traveler but circumstances made me do it. That also brings me to the fact that, one, everyone knows how painful it is to travel to Bengaluru airport so many times, and second, the amount of money which gets consumed in traveling is immense. People get so much impressed by Travelogs but what about unplanned travels? Who budgets that? So, the first experience was to think about money. Frankly, I have never paid any attention to it. I have been privileged enough to not to worry about it, yes! But also, how much more do I need to be more responsible and be ready for the unplanned things. I finally started investing. Nothing fancy but even investing in FDs and RDs was the first time for me. (I am so posh or what?). But seriously, I should have started this a decade ago. The one thing nobody teaches properly is how to use your money. Those who actually professionally teach have ulterior motives I guess. One important thing I did this year though was to travel to Shravanbelgola and attend the once in 25 years Mahamastakabhishek in proper attire. I don’t know if I will ever get a chance like this.
With all of the learnings from above, the only take away is that we don’t really have much time. How we spend the time we have makes us who we are! We can get bothered about the events on social media or politics, or we can try to make small differences in anyone else’s lives. We can either Netflix and chill (and that is important too to stay sane but in limited quantity) or we can try to boost confidence and morale of someone by sharing a good positive quote or just talking and listening to them. We can stay in one place or travel.
All in all, 2018 was a somewhat unusual year which sets the tone of future too. But since we have less time in our hands, we can try to be optimistic and just do something about it than letting life happen to us.
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
On Monday, Nov. 26, 2018, just before noon PT (3 p.m. ET; 2000 UTC/GMT), NASA’s InSight mission will land on Mars! The spacecraft will plunge through the thin Martian atmosphere, heatshield first, and use a parachute to slow down. Then, it will fire its retro rockets to slowly descend to the surface.
Yours is among 2.4 million names that will be on Mars when InSight touches down. Once on the surface, InSight will study the deep interior of Mars to advance our understanding of the early history of all rocky planets, including Earth.
NASA
Actually, some time back, I saw a post from NASA on my Instagram feed. It said that the Insight Mission which is going to land on Mars in November 2018 will carry names of people who sign up via a form. Just the names, no DNA or anything. They don’t want to contaminate Mars (further). I had signed up without giving another thought. And the day is here!
Today (tonight), hopefully, my name, along with 2.4 million others will land on Mars. To put in percentage, out of 7 odd billion people, only 0.03% of people would have their names landing on Mars tonight. I am not joking. Can you imagine how exciting this actually is? Although the mission is not about that. But having your name on a different planet is a feat in itself, right?
Boarding Pass
But on a serious note, after Curiosity this would be the first mission which actually lands on the Martian surface.
