The Other Side of Life

 ...Durust Aaye That was the theme of 2021 for me. Realising some things late but feeling happy about realising these. For instance:  Life is not measured by success at work. Reading more books is not as important as reading meaningfully. It's ok to start from scratch and learn something. Taking a break is good. Not having clarity isn't necessarily bad. Eating consciously is good. Movies are long and patience is important. Entertainment need not make me think. Dumb jokes are good enough for me. Social media is a waste of time. In other words, I have become old. Or, to put it in more flattering terms, I have wisened. 😇 Other than that, 2021 was alright. I finally got to come to India towards the end. And that's all that matters. Dear 2022, as always, keep it simple - I want more family time, less digital, more real world. Rest of the things will fall in place.  Here's to a more fulfilling 2022 for everyone. Hope it is really back to normal now. Done with new normals. Ju...

I love this time of the year! Because, it's time for a round up! Yay! I don't know about you, but I had a happening year. Between Graduation, Sherlock's knee surgery, living alone in Singapore, Sherlock moving to Singapore, me trying to find my footing at work and tonnes of resolutions to keep up, I had my hands full. I can look back at the year and say, I am glad we went through what we did, because believe it or not, as cliches go, we came out stronger. But, what made me the happiest this year was how hard I worked at my non-work related resolutions. I wanted to read 50 books and I completed my 50th book yesterday. It was hard, but I cannot put it in words, how much it was worth the effort. One of my complaints to myself was always that I didn't read enough non-fiction. This year, I read 15. I just cannot get over that. Here are the 50 books I read: I wanted to write a lot this year. I did it in spurts, but I did write. I did a blogatho...

I have a friend who loves McDonald's. Not in the offhanded way we all do. But genuine heartfelt love, which entails him using phrases such as "it makes my heart sing" and McDonald's in the same sentence. He dreams of owning a McDonald's franchisee one day, not in the least for the endless supply of chicken nuggets, but just for the pride he would feel in owning the brand he loves. After hearing him declare this undying love, I started doing my own discrete surveys and came to the startling conclusion that no one hates McDonald's. Sure, you don't meet people who want to own McDonald's merchandise everyday. But people who absolutely hate McDonald's? You won't meet those either. Sure, their food is unhealthy. They sell fat disguised as beautiful burgers. They are evil. But they never taste bad, do they?  Rory Sutherland, one of my favourite columnists describes the economic principle of satisficers and maximisers using McDonald...

Don't get me wrong.  I am one of those who would happily describe myself as a "Digital Native" on social media profiles.  I am as addicted to my phone as any other person. I get notification vibrations on my wrist. I scroll aimlessly when I am bored. I like single-click purchase experiences. If a cab takes more than 6 minutes, I cancel it. In other words, I am in all ways spoilt by the luxuries of technology. And yet, I am willing to make a strong case against the conveniences offered by technology. Here's why. In an ideal world, we add conveniences to our lives, so that we save on time. Time that can be used to pursue other valuable activities. Or to just relax. So, technically this explains it - additional valuable time gained increases as convenience increases. Maybe when the wheel was invented, this graph worked. Caveman 1 said to the other, "Hey, I can now reach your place faster now. We can hunt more and keep our families safe. Yay!" H...

I just realised that for the past 5 years, I have always written a post in the first week of the year. How uncharacteristic of me to do that!  And even more uncharacteristic of me to not continue the tradition! So here goes! Happy new year to my two and a half readers. 2018, you were big in so many ways. I finished my second masters. I moved to a new country. I moved to a new job. I deleted Facebook. I suddenly seemed to have more time on my hands.  I read 20 books in the last six months.  I traveled to 4 new countries in the last six months.  I played SO much Catan in the last six months. And more than all these changes, it's probably the mental changes that mattered to me. That I got out of my comfort zone, made friends, made a social circle, interacted with so many new people, stayed alone for a few months, made a new country my home, stayed a few time zones away from my family. So many barriers broken in my mind. I feel stupidly proud of a...

He shouted loudly, "Ok. Jump!" "Next pose. Back to back." "Next pose. Hands up." "3 pictures done." And he handed back the phone to the one being photographed. I watched amused at the whole sequence of play, while in queue for my own photograph.  This was in the Pura Lempuyang Temple in Bali. It was beautiful, and why not, after all, it was 3rd on the list of the "Top 10 most Instagrammable locations" in Bali as per Buzzfeed. Just one catch though. The place looked nothing like what it looked like on Instagram.  We scratched our heads and stood there, wondering where the water had gone. The Instagram pics clearly showed a temple gateway and its stark, unambiguous reflection in water. Except, there was no water!  And yet, people were queuing up to take a picture. If there's anything I have learnt staying in Singapore now, it is that, if there is a queue, you join at the end -  it does not matter if it's for a...

I still remember the total Solar Eclipse of 1995 vaguely. It was on Diwali that year and it was visible to the naked eye in India. We got those special viewing glasses and made a mini-picnic out of the day.  I can't remember seeing too many eclipse visibly after that. Unsurprisingly, yesterday's lunar eclipse was big on my agenda. Only problem - my laziness did not keep pace with my excitement. So, when I started seeing the red moon and people walked in with their cameras and tripod stands, I was ridden with guilt. I ran upstairs, only to discover my camera was not charged. And that the husband never taught me how to use the tripod. So while I ruminated on this, the earth's shadow came, took bites of the moon, gulped it in all, made it red, and stealthily, left the scene to leave us with a supermoon. And I got none of it on my camera. However. I woke up this morning at 6:30 am and looked out of the balcony, to see the supermoon hanging over the city, looking so gor...

Today I learnt, the exact way in which jet-lag works and my mind is boggled. I had the weirdest, worst possible understanding in my head. And I realized today, how wrong I was. I basically thought, your body clock matches the clock of the place you land. All you have to do, is catch up on sleep. For example, if you are flying to London from India and reach London at 11 pm, India time, which is 6:30 pm London time, it is just perfect, because now, you can immediately fall asleep and not wake up till 7 am, London time, which is 11:30 am India time. Now, you are all caught up on sleep. If you are confused, don't worry. This is the wrong explanation. The real explanation is this. Just because the time shows you gained 5 hours, does not mean your body knows that. (That I did not know this, when this is the exact definition of jet lag, is something so strange and surprising that I am amazed). You don't want to wake up till 7 am London time, but you will get up at 2:30 am Lon...

Don't read this post. Please. It's not meant for you. Why are you still reading? Because you don't like being told what to do, do you? You, independence-loving, autonomy-addicted, you. Some call it Reverse Psychology. Some call it just the good old plain logic. Many years ago, the King of Prussia, Fredrick the Great, also known as Fritz, heard about a new root called Potato. Enamoured by it's nutritional value, he decided that his subjects need to start including potato in their staple diet. Grand announcements were planned. Drummers would walk across town, singing paeans of the benefits of eating this potato. Cooks would publicly demonstrate recipes with potatoes. I would go out on a limb and say, French Fries was not one of those recipes, because what happened next would just not justify it.  The public rejected potatoes. That's right. Rejected. Hard as it may sound, the people didn't want to be told what to do. So, they d...

And just like that, we enter a new year.  Like a million other people, I did feel the past year just flew by.  But, you know what makes me happy? The knowledge that it has now been proven scientifically that time flies when you are having fun.  A bunch of scientists performed experiments where people were made to estimate time elapsed in different situations - when they were given a mundane task, when they were made to feel happy, when they were made to feel sad, when they were listening to a good song, etc. And without doubt, they proved that time indeed is a psychological construct, heavily influenced by hedonism or the pleasure we feel. In other words, if you felt the year just flew by, take solace in the fact that this means, you had a fun year!  With that out of way, how is the new year looking to you? Are you making resolutions? Here's a little truth about new year resolutions that you should know.  We are all victims of w...

There was a man called Bob. He had a brother who was a bit of a moron.  Once, Bob was leaving for a long-awaited vacation for two weeks and asked his moron brother to take care of his cat, while he was gone. A week into the vacation, Bob calls his brother to check in. After the preliminary talk, he asks how the cat is doing. His brother replies, "Oh yeah, about that. The cat died yesterday." Bob was devastated. And also furious. He said to his brother, "How insensitive are you? Couldn't you have broken the news more gently, so I could be prepared?" The moron brother is confused and asks for an example how the news should be broken. So Bob explains, "On the first call, you should have said, your cat climbed up the roof, it's unable to come down. On the second call, you could say, the firemen are here, they are trying their best. On the third call, you say, we are all trying hard, but she's not coming and not eating either. On the ...

I am old enough to clearly remember the days when TV was not the all consuming entertainment entity that it is today. There were exactly two channels on TV - very creatively named DD1 and DD2. If you were not watching News, Krishi Darshan or Surabhi on DD1, it meant you had succumbed to the lure of entertainment on DD2.  By entertainment, I refer to the 2 weekly comedy shows by Sri Adhikari Brothers. Conversations in school on Wednesdays never failed to mention Sriman Srimati. (It just occurred to me, that as of today, the actors who played Sriman and Srimati are no more. Just made me feel a little older).  There was also Rangoli, the weekly show that exposed us to the big bad world of Bollywood songs. If "indecent" songs like Choli Ke Peeche were played, we were promptly sent out of the room to bring water or to set the table. Few smart people managed to record the good songs for viewing later. My grandparents were quite progressive in that sense. They would record ...

My grandmother is quite the storyteller. She often regales us with stories from her childhood. My favorite is the one about earrings.  It seems, my grandfather had lovingly gifted her a pair of earrings, which were, undoubtedly, very pretty and she loved them. She wore them everyday. For five years. Then, she got bored. But this was way before humanity became a victim of materialism. So, my grandfather told her, in as many words, that because the rings were still in good condition and not broken, there didn't seem to be any good reason to buy new ones. My grandmother, being *MY* grandmother, of course wanted new earrings. She tried all ways to convince him, to no avail. And then, opportunity presented itself. She had to travel by the train to their village. Just after she had boarded the train, when she was sitting on the window seat, clutching her bag, saying her goodbyes, my grandfather whispered ominously to her from the platform where he was standing, "Don't ...

Many experts are of the opinion that very soon machines will be taking over our jobs. I am happy to report that as per my calculations, these experts are quite precisely wrong. At least as far as India is concerned. Take the self-driving cars that the tech world is so pumped about. I am willing to bet my car's never used 5th gear on this, that these over-hyped machines will not even survive the 3 km stretch from Silk Board to Koramangala in Bangalore. Here it is, cruising along at a glorious 6 kmph, with all its sensors showing a safe cruise ahead because the traffic light says green, when all of a sudden a hand pops out bang in front of the dashboard. It is, of course, the royal pedestrian (and 17 more people who decide to follow this man, as he leads them to freedom into the other side of the road), whose need to cross the road is so paramount a requirement, that the world must come to a grinding halt and watch the procession, led by "the hand", cross the road int...

If you have never taken a real hit on your self-worth, may I suggest you to try giving your car for service?  The service person's diagnosis of your car will make you want to go home and tear into shreds that precious Engineering degree certificate that your parents have saved so proudly, along with a picture of you in the black graduation robes, and go join whatever course the chap in the blue uniform took, that gave him the ability to give such an astute diagnosis with such intellectual sounding words. Like today, my service technician told me that, "There is an urgent requirement for me to get a zinc oxide coating on the Silencer because the existing anti rust treatment of the underbody was not sufficient for the silencer, since the special alloy based chemical composition of its exterior makes it immune to the anti rust coating and hence, is susceptible to damage from water and hence, the need for me to spend a holy Rs 4500 on getting this absolutely essential zi...