Every day we experience positive and negative emotions. They are amplified with the readings on Glucometer, Oximeter, Blood Pressure machine, and what not.
Some highs are good, some are scary. Some lows are needed, some lows aren’t.
When to give up? Is a question which keeps popping up once in a while each day. But seeing everyone else fighting and somehow winning gives us hope. People at least have tried to stay hopeful despite dramatic drastic situations.
There’s so much around to feel bad about. In loads. We should try to hang on to whatever good is there, I think. Even if good is scarce, we still need to and have to keep trying and hoping that good news would be around the corner.
These days, as part of caregiving to folks in my family, I have to visit the pharmaceuticals shop at least once a day. Everyone is slowly improving, thankfully, but the medicines list is never ending. When I go there, I try to stay as outside as possible while people keep flocking in with, and sometimes without proper masks to buy their own medicines which are also similar versions of what I came for buying. This means that the issue of infection is obviously more prevalent than what newspapers report. Mind you, newspapers are already reporting huge numbers which are jaw-dropping in their own sense.
Anyway, the mask buying thing is pretty interesting. I have seen several people who come and buy the masks as if they are buying vegetables or a piece of clothing. Of course, safety is what they should intend for, but their concern is not how good the mask functionally is. Many people ask for different colors than usual White or Gray or Surgical Aqua Green Blue. They want designer masks. They want masks with sockets in them so that ‘Oxygen can flow normally’. I didn’t see anyone asking if the mask is meeting the specification or not.
Our collective energy is being focussed in trying to curb the virus infection in multiple ways possible. But trying to change public perception regarding Science of the Mask is an art in itself. There have been several animations and videos but we are still far from making everyone understand the importance of a proper mask which is the 1st thing we should have done.
P.S.: Seth Godin reminded us all that Google is not your friend. It is just a tool that was free but might not be future. Today is World Backup Day so why not start here: https://takeout.google.com/
I like Etymology as Science. Words of any language evolve and take shapes and forms of their own which might mean a lot different than the source.
One word which is interesting to me is ‘Pen’.
The word ‘pen’ is derived from Middle English pen, penne (like Pasta) which meant “enclosure for animals”, or basically a Cage or the more obvious ‘penitentiary’ or Prison. Ink Pen would’ve been a cage for Ink. From that, we moved on to Ball Pen, stylus, and so on.
While Pen originally meant to enclose or shut off things, it changed into something which resembles freedom and lets us imagine things.
We already have MNP or mobile number portability in India. That is, the ability to keep the same phone number but freely moving across different Service Providers. That helps us to choose the best plan for ourselves and keeps the Service Provider companies’ exorbitant price hikes in-check. We also have multiple Cloud Services providers, Data Storage providers, Banks, and so forth where we can change our service providers to choose what suits us.
Dr. Aral suggested this strange-sounding but still worth paying attention to idea: Why can’t Social Media companies act like Social Service Provider? Each of their users (i.e. us) should be free to change the service and move over to another while taking all of their data and friend lists with them.
For example, say I have 800 friends on Facebook (I had 1000+ but one day I cleaned it up) and say I am not on Twitter (I am but I just tweet about the weather). But I am done with Facebook’s privacy rules and constantly showing up of ads on my Timeline. So, if I want to move on to somewhere else, I have to lose all my data then and there. I would lose all my private messages, photos, comments, and so on. Instead, I should have the ability to either download everything that Facebook has recorded with my account (which is after all a unique ID). Or, I should be able to port it all to another social media website, say Twitter. Of course, each one has its own functionalities but in general, they all have Text, Photos, Replies, and private messages as their primary functionality. Moreover, I should also be able to connect to (via APIs) any user (or block them everywhere) from any other social media website.
This idea would help regulate not only the companies who just flaunt the monopoly and power they have over people’s lives, but it would also increase accountability on part of the user. Basically, all these companies are just service providers and they should behave in such a manner. Really interesting if this happens!
One downside from user’s perspective is that this would need a user to lose their anonymity to an extent if they show up with their real name on Facebook but you want to say whatever comes to their mind on Twitter as anonymous. But we need to choose what we find more precious, our data or our freedom of expression.
You can listen to the full podcast here where he talks further about other things which make Social Media what a behemoth it is:
Let’s give it a try. By not bursting firecrackers this time? I know it is a cliche but have we really given it a go, completely ever? Obviously, I cannot force or coerce anyone. I am just thinking out loud.
What if, the next morning of Diwali, roads look a bit cleaner, devoid of white and red leftovers of the crackers, half-burnt sparkle sticks, crushed flower pots, and rockets gone haywire?
What if, the air feels a bit lighter than the usual next day? Easier to breathe for non-asthmatic people too.
What if, instead of spending 2 hours outside the home, you reconnect with family and friends, just by having a conversation?
What if, money spent on Firecrackers can be put to some other use?
We have known Diwali to be full of loud noises throughout the evening and late into the night. What if it is just silent in decibels? But all the shiny and fancy clothes, houses, markets, and shops staying intact.
What if it works out and we end up liking it this way?
There might not be anything in the name but there might be everything in the Title.
Bhujia or Namkeen, the delightful savory made in Bikaner, is world-famous without a doubt (at least for me). Near the old place of my grandparents, there is one particular shop from which we still get our quarterly supplies in kilograms of Bhujia every time someone gets a chance to visit. The shop is called Hariram Namkeen Bhandaar but someone nicknamed it ‘Kauda ki Dukaan’, or the Shop owned by ‘Kauda‘. Now, Kauda was just a slang which actually means nothing. But it was meant to depict the somewhat large eyes of the then shopkeeper, as a joke.
I was about to write today’s blog but then I got reminded about the happenings of 8 PM, November 8, 2016. As we all know, Demonetization changed our lives forever. Earlier, we use to pay with notes, coins, Netbanking, Cards, and mobile wallets as tender. Now we pay with notes, coins, net banking, cards, mobile wallets and… Oh, actually nothing changed really. I might have been dreaming about utopia. Nevertheless, I also got reminded about 2 of my previous posts about the DeMo by Modi.
