The Other Side of Life

What's the point of having a blog if you cannot do a meaningless year-end post? So here goes for no one, my wrap-up of the year, as per my blog's tradition. Easily the worst year I have seen? Yep. The longest I have ever stayed away from home or not seen my parents? Yes. If I got a chance to go home, would I run? Yes. And I know that doesn't even cut the long list of troubles I have seen others go through. But, somewhere between songs called F*** 2020 and memes canceling 2020, somewhere, this year also became a year where I grew up a lot. I had more time, I had more patience, I wanted to learn more, I wanted to try more things. And just like that, 2020 became the year I did a lot! I started a podcast with a friend, which taught me more about content creation than anything else. The whole process of researching, recording, editing, marketing gave me so much to think about. Shameless plug, if you like hearing about psychology, do give it a listen here:  https://theworkbrain.b...

With zero experience whatsoever in judging TV shows, but immense experience in watching, I decided to do a review. Mostly because I learnt of a new concept and I am dying to apply it somewhere. I learnt about something called a Character Arc.  A character arc defines how the character changes and develops over a period of time. This can be found in any story - movies, books, tv shows.   I particularly like applying this concept to TV Shows because of the longevity which gives scope for an actual character arc to develop. Let's take the example of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. This is a rare example of a show where every single character had an amazing character arc. And this also probably explains why we keep watching this show again and again and again. Because we can see the circle unfold, we can see characters grow and we grow with them. Let's look at each of them. Rachel Green: Starts out as a stubborn, spoilt, dependent character. Through the seasons, she grows in every possible wa...

Starting a random series of all things from a 90s childhood, just so I have a record of these memories for posterity. Do you remember a channel called iTV?  The 1999 Cricket World Cup was when our extremely middle-class, government quarters colony rose to the challenge of cable tv. Till then, we were happily adjusting our antennas and watching wholesome family entertainment on the two channels of DD1 and DD2. Then came the cable wale bhaiya, with his fancy earring, a few TV guides stacked under his arms along with long ropes of cable, promising unlimited entertainment for the entire colony. And just like that, we all got lured. Cable TV bought with it a lot of changes, many of which I assume will get covered in this series. But, today's post is about 1 particular memory which every 90s kid can relate to. A huge letter I revolving on the TV in anticipation of a new song being chosen. Yep. The iTV generation. Not MTv. It was all about iTV. I still don't know what that channel was...

It's been a while since I "penseived" my thoughts here.  I have realised I have a ritual I never paid much attention to.  There's a fantastic book called The Music Room by Namita Devidayal. I first read it in 2008. Since then, I have gone back to the book once every 4 years, re-read the book and soaked in the amazing nostalgia the book evokes. Namita, in my opinion, has written a magnum opus of a tribute to music teachers. As a girl, she was sent to learn music under Dhondutai Kulkarni. Through 25 years of learning music and a lot more from her, in the book, she chronicles the lives of a music form her teacher practiced that's now almost in oblivion.  Every time I read the book, I am reminded of Carnatic music classes from my childhood. The thing is, I never hated it and neither did I love it. I just did it as a task. Years later, I know for a fact I took more from those classes than I choose to admit. The many hours spent listening to the shruti box tunes the ear...

Hope the few bloggers hanging around are doing well! :P I have been doing ok, picking up new hobbies during the lockdown. For instance, I now like running. Who would have thunk I, of all people, would spend an entire Sunday researching the gazillion types of Nike shoes to pick the best one to buy as a reward for doing my first 5k. I did that, yes. I also used my time to make myself a swanky new website!  (Blogger, I still love you, but I needed to do this for the professional stuff. For all my rants, I will still come to you. You know that, don't you?) So yeah, I have a new website - www.theonionbrain.com where I talk about all things behavioural science. If you are interested in behavioural science, psychology, product design or marketing, please do subscribe there! More than anything, I enjoyed the process of creating it from scratch. I should do more such stuff! Anyway, hope you are all doing well and it's totally ok if you are being unproductive, because God knows we live ...