Today with so many options, there is so much that craves our time and attention and not all of them are useful to us. Some of them we know are useless and yet we do them. Some of them we only know the uselessness in hindsight. This also means we sometimes know how useful things are only in hindsight.

I create content. Blogs, videos and podcasts. But I do not consume videos. Not that I don’t like them, I just don’t trust my ability to time manage with videos and social media.

I use facebook, youtube and other social media only to create content and not consume it. The other day I opened instagram just before I went to sleep and I was still scrolling it lying on bed after 40 minutes and not sleeping. I have heard the ‘don’t take phone to bed’ advice. I have my phone next to me. Not going to change that 😄

So what do i do?

All my consumption now comes
from reading and podcasts. Reading comes from Books, Magazines (through Magzter), Substack and Medium.

There is a podcast that has been dear to me for a few years now. ‘The seen and the unseen’ by Amit Varma. I have introduced the same to so many people.

When I started listening to it, I did not know if I would be able to consume a podcast that would be 3 hours and more. But I did. It has over the years expanded my awareness of the world. People, books, ideas, stories and the sheer need for conversations and listening in our current world.

Like many other things I have also taken breaks from listening to the series. Due to other things that needed me more. But always I tend to come back to the series.

I had not listened to Amit since last June and now catching up on his episodes for the past one month. Devdutt Pattanaik, Amitava Kumar, Pratik Sinha & Mohammed Zubair, Shephali Bhatt, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha and now listening to his chat with Biju Rao. I still have a few more to go inorder to be current.

If you have not listened to it yet, you should try a few. I don’t want to recommend any specific episodes because podcast is an acquired taste. I would request you to listen to a few random ones from last two years.

Economics, politics, culture, philosophy, social science, books, movies, sports or just conversations with people you might not know or know. Pick your area. It is so refreshing.

It has made me feel hopeful of the world. Not that everything is ok, but that there are people out there who are ready to talk and understand and not just fight and win 😁