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This Sunday was our daughter’s graduation ceremony from UC Santa Cruz. She now has a bachelors in Economics. As we were driving to Santa Cruz we (Me and my wife) were taking a trip through our memory lane. I still remember when she was in 1st grade. She had just moved to California from Toronto…
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I am going through a phase where I am questioning what I think and do. Not everything but a lot. And why am I doing this? I think there are influences that I should be aware of and there are parts of my lie that need a bit more nurturing. It is a long process,…
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There is an interesting quote by one of my favorite poets ‘Charles Buckowski’ and it goes like this. ‘People run from rain but sit in bathtubs full of water’. I read this again a day back and it has been in my mind ever since and I had to write. It is water but one…
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Yesterday I shared a picture of my son on Social Media with an award he got for the best performer in a play from his school. His last name is my first name and someone asked me a question. What was my opinion about having the last name as the Father’s name? The person probably…
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This is a very loaded question. I can only say I am in the process. As I write this 338th blog post I look back and think of the time I started and why I started. I started because I had stopped writing. I used to blog a lot before. Then I stopped and I…
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My Answer to this question was where I ended my last post. I will repeat that once more. ‘So my simple reason is that to build the kind of future I think I want, reinvention is an absolute necessity.’ Now I can still decide not to reinvent. But again every process of reinvention starts with…
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The simple answer is because we can. Also the world is changing. What we know is becoming obsolete and insufficient for the future. We have also learned things that are not true any more. Our views that shaped us are also changing. We are still floating on some old stagnant water. It needs to be changed.…
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I am not sure if I have written about this topic before. But since it is about reinventing, I think I can write again. If it is a repetition, my apologies. This is what is in my mind now. I turned 50 in 2020 I think. Not that it matters. But what matters is this…
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I was listening to Berne Brown’s book ‘Braving the Wilderness’. As I listened I heard something in this way. Some of our connections might be built on a common hate for someone or something. This struck me hard. I know of echo chambers and I know I am in a few. I would like to…
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All the newsletters I have been subscribing to and the podcasts I listen to have been talking about the Robbs Elementary School shooting last week. On the day of shooting I did not know of it until late in the evening. The reason being I don’t check the news regularly. Some days I don’t even…
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Today is post number 332 of my 365 Days Writing project. Well it is no more 365 days because I missed several days between my last post. My last Post was on May 26th and today should have been my 339th post. But I am still at 332. Why did I slow down when I…
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There are so many bad things happening around us. So many things that you want to be involved in as well. It is like you feel guilty if you do not speak up. One after the other, the issues you want to speak about never end. And then a point comes when you think, why…
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As I browse LinkedIn and I often see posts from people sharing their awards, accolades, achievements and accomplishments.. And I wonder what award I have received in my life. I don’t remember receiving any price or award throughout my school. No extracurricular activities, studies… nothing. I had not received one single thing. Except when everyone was given…
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I think I first heard a podcast in 2012 Maybe. Then I dropped it for a year or so and then got back. I have been an active listener for around 8 years mostly listening while walking, driving and so on, just like other human beings. If I remember correctly (And I might have mentioned…
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We all have our style of working. Some of the things in our style have been working for us. Or we think so. We also improve our styles and even make drastic changes if we think our style is working against us. Especially when we join a new place. When we join a new place…
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How do you read what you need to read? Read and listen to be precise. A few months back I made a list of things I needed to read. Here is what I came up with and I knew all this would not work out. But I wanted to address the ‘HOW’ only after I figured…
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Is this a true statement? I am sure there are people who would have received job enquiries for positions they have not applied for. And even got some of them. The job of a recruiter is ensuring open reqs reach the maximum number of people. That is a marketing effort by the company. But unless one…
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While cooking teaches us to respect the effort involved, it is more than that. I don’t know about you, but I like to cook. Yes there are times when I don’t feel like doing it. I am not a very planned cook. I am more of a ‘let us try this and see how it…
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A few days back I was at an event and had been meeting friends after quite a long time. This was probably the first large function I attended. It was an event called Keralafest. It was organized by all the Malayali groups in the bay area. The idea was meeting friends and eating lots of food.…
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Last week was Teacher’s Appreciation week and Rahi made a Ventriloquism video to show his appreciation for his teachers. He did the same thing last year too. Before that I think it used to be cards that they make and give to teachers and flowers and so on. As I get older I am realizing…
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I recently bought a pair of slip ons. That is what I have been wearing more often. But I also have a pair of shoes that have laces. The few days back I picked that up and I put on the right shoe first and started tying the lace. I felt something was not right.…
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I put these two kinds of vlogging together because I don’t do solo travel and so all travel videos for me are in one way or another a Family video. I have done both these only in my mother tongue malayalam and never in english. while all other formats I have done in both languages.…
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I love conversations, but my problem is I love talking more than listening and that in my opinion is a major handicap in learning and understanding others and their viewpoints and the world in general. Even my podcast is a solo rant. I have had interesting conversations with people well known and less known. I…
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Career Insights Videos in my opinion will be relevant for a long time and it is also a way I can document my thoughts in the 29 years I spent working and being on my own. The mistakes I made. What I would do differently. The learnings. We would wonder why someone would be interested in…
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Book Reviews Vlogs, which I call Book Introduction, are one of my most favorite videos. I have a personal benefit when I do Book reviews. One is that I get to connect with some of the Authors. Another reason is that doing a vlog of the book will help me solidify what I understand from…
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I love movies. I have done movie reviews of new movies. I have also vlogged about old movies that are not necessarily the trending topics. I have seen the views increasing when you talk of new trending movies but I enjoyed reflecting on old movies. An example where what I like and what people want don’t match.…
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Videos are a great source for Education. Sometimes you even feel there is more teaching than there is learning. But How To videos and instructional videos have helped me do a lot of stuff like plumbing, fixing doors and many more. It is valuable. My only problem is I don’t have any such instructional skills…
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I like doing social commentary and I have found even people like it… or I should say the views are higher for such content. But over time I became a bit disillusioned thinking if it was really adding any value or just bordering on making fun and becoming just a stand up comic content. Not that…
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Once I started doing videos things started changing, though I used it initially do videos of poems, it moved on to social commentary and that is where it became viral and I got the small audience that I have now. I have tried several kinds of videos to see what I would Like. Conversations, cooking…
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I started blogging because I thought I was bad with words. Being a very poor reader as a kid and being among people who read, I felt writing is something beyond what I could do. I also only learned my mother tongue ‘Malayalam’ for just 4 years. And I always felt I sucked at it.…
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I started using social media with Orkut, like many people. It was so much fun as I started connecting with my friends from college and family. It was like a get together that you could join anytime you want. I had that same feeling years later when Clubhouse came up. There was something called Paltalk…
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Sometimes I feel I live many different lives across different media. Like I am a different person everywhere. My temper and tone and the basic fabric seems to be changing. We can call it persona but each persona kind of grows in its own way based on how I live that life. In real life…
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I have been using LinkedIn for a long time now, There were times when I used it heavily and then there were gaps and so on. Over the last few years I have seen an interesting change in the kind of posts I see on it. And this could be due to the connections I…
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I have heard people say we are being enslaved by technology and I agree with being dependent. In one way that helps us do a lot more than what we were able to do before. The question is does doing more be termed as progress and does it make us happy? That is probably for…
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Yesterday while driving to the office I stopped at a traffic light. I have stopped there many times. Yesterday something happened. It has happened to me at many traffic lights and every time it makes my day. I look at the person in the car next to me. For a moment we look at each…
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I used to think that depression means one is always sad till I met with a counsellor a few years back and I figured it is not that way. I went for a few therapy sessions in 2016 or 2017. I think talking to the person helped. I can’t really say. I have not seen…
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There are two approaches when doing something or making others do it. One is to make the process very prescriptive and the other is to just offer some guardrails. And there are people who might like either of these. Some people like things to be very prescriptive and the idea is that this helps not so…
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The other day I mentioned that Transparency need not hurt us but another thought came to mind today. Why do we hide things from others. I feel it is because of some fear and also our inability to understand what the result of not hiding will be. The state of hiding seems to be the most comfortable state. We…
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I think it was 7 years back that I first did an InDriveView.The idea was simple. I had just bought a GoPro and I would mount it on my car and have someone in the passenger seat and then we would just chat. The first victim was a friend of mine who was a vlogger.…
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Today is a Friday when I wrote this. I( was thinking about the Passion Profession post and video that I made two days back. There is more to it. The question was why I like my job. I think irrespective of what job it is, the criteria to like is pretty much the same. Two…
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I am not a person who does planned maintenance be it vehicle or on myself. ‘Myself’ is changing as I get older, but I think I can still be better. Vehicles, I have never maintained and it has cost me dearly, I am saying this today because I took my car to the dealer today for…
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I have written about passion and profession before. Today I was thinking about it and I have some additional thoughts. I consider profession to be something that we are good at and passion to be something we are passionate about and love to do. These need not necessarily be the same for all people. We might have…
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Today I was about to reach the office and realized I had not taken my antibiotics and painkillers. As you might know I had my tooth extracted last week. I had in fact left home early and so I still had time. I stopped at a parking lot and messaged my team that I was going…
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So this is day 300 of the project. 65 more to go. I was thinkin what I gained doing this. And I could not single out one reason. Maybe what I gained is dormant. Obviously using your writing muscles might have added some value to me. I did not set out to gain followers or…
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After Binge Watching Billions I was thinking if there is any other series I can start on. But I have not been lucky. Watched a few limited series and a few other. But now I am hooked on to Queen of the South. This series comes up in my Netflix recommendations always. May be because…
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As a kid I don’t remember going to a dentist. But I do have a faint memory of going to dentist who lived two houses behind us. Now I am not sure if I went there for me or my sister. But I remember another incident in 2004-2005 when I was here in the US.…
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I am sure you have noticed that many buildings have rear and side doors which is how most people get in using the badge. If there is a chance I prefer taking the front door. I can understand that rear and side doors are convenient for employees to get in as there are more parking…
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Yesterday a thought came to my mind that I need to get help on my media activities. I have two options. Either hire a person or a group or try to build a community. I liked the role of community. That said I have not till now been successful in making a community thriving. I…
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Yesterday someone came up to me and told me about an issue they have with one of their colleagues. As I heard the person, he also told me something interesting. He said that he likes people who are open about the issues they have with others rather than those who hide what they feel. The…
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Yesterday as part of a video I made about language someone messaged me. They told me that in their school there are kids who move from other countries and don’t know the local language. But they very easily learn to communicate with other kids and language is not a barrier. This is very interesting. I replied…
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When I came to the United States in 2001, Well not when I came to the United States, but when I left India, I for the first time had access to old English Movies. IN Dubai, In London and then I moved to the United States. But I think it was more accessible once in…
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After going to office again, often you have to attend meetings in the conference room with large TVs showing you on it when camera is on. I often think, why I look so different while everyone looks exactly the same. This thought kept coming to me every time and I started thinking. I realized that…
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The goal is to write daily. Non necessarily write daily in the same place. I say that because some days I would post on Social Media or on my my other blog and then will realize, Oops I did not do my journal. And then I scramble. When I have already done my daily writing.…
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Yesterday was the first show of ‘You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown’ at my son’s school and he was doing the character of Woodstock. This is his second play after he got into High School. He played Charles Wallace in ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ last year. A Wrinkle in Time was done when the Mask…
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Yesterday I felt that I have never given any Thank You Notes. I have said Thank You to people. I think I do that enough, but my wife and kids might not agree because they have caught me more than once not doing the same. I think I will agree with them. So Thank You…
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Last weekend I watched the movie Morbius in the theatre. but before watching it I checked on the reviews. Usually people read the reviews and then decide to watch. I did the other way. I checked on Rotten Tomatoes and the critics had given a poor 16% score while the audience had given a score…
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I have not smoked for two years now. I used to be a heavy smoker and I have also quit a number of times. I have also written about it before but wanted to talk about how it feels when I walk past smokers today. Quitting smoking for two years is good and feels good, but the…
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I recently bought a pair of slip ons. That is what I have been wearing often. But I also have a pair that have laces. The few days back I picked that up and I put in the right shoes and started tying the lace. I felt something was not right. Not as it should…
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It is a coincidence that yesterday I made a video about free flow of life and how time boxes in our calendars impede the same. And look at what happened. I did not find time to write yesterday. The point I was making in my video yesterday was that when I look at Calendars and…
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Psychological Safety is such an important thing in today’s professional world. If you want teams to perform to their best abilities. You want innovation and be a step ahead of the curve, you have to check the psychological safety in your work environment. Are people talking, raising their opinions, agreement and disagreements without fear. There…
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I don’t have to tell you that we live in a competitive world. Hyper Competitive some would say. And this starts from very early childhood. We have transformed the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ to ‘Competitive is the Cutest’. But I have a difference of thought. Compassion! When we hear that we often relate that to…
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Sometimes a discipline descends on you. It happens (for me at least) when I am not in control. It does not have to be for the entire day. May be a few hours a day. If I have a few hours that is not in my control and I just have to play to what…
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Responsibility is a heavy word. It is an important word. I don’t say that because I have fulfilled what came my way. The fact is I am far from that. Both on a personal and professional level. But I realize that responsibility had a big role in who I am. The good and bad of…
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My first memory of Oscars was in 1990 when Daniel Day-Lewis got his Oscar for best actor for his role in My Left Foot. That said I have not seen the movie for what ever the reason, I don’t remember. But I have watched movies and Oscars as Daniel received it again twice for ‘There…
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What is getting old. I think there is a physical and mental aspect to it. While we will physically get old at some time. Health and life are not eternal. We all will get old. That is the physical aspect. But we can get old mentally at any age. Sometimes a movie or a book…
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So today I want to write something from a writing prompt in our Penpositive Community. Here is the prompt“You are in a new city for a day. Your meeting got delayed and you missed the train. The next train is in 24 hours. Develop an incidental narration or story. (max 2000 words)” A new city…
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I was reading an article on meaningful work and if I remember correctly I had also put my thoughts on in this blog. Well I don’t want to go back and see what I said back then. But there is another thought that comes to me now. This is also a question that came up…
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It has more or less become a cliche but I think every writer wants to find their voice. I don’t mean to say others don’t have to. Just that when I am blogging here, I am more worried about my voice. Maybe worrying is the last thing one should do when searching for their voice.…
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I was taking a look at this writing exercise and I saw two different kinds of writing. One is just random musings that are more diary-like and other was more on a career, work life format. A Self Improvement style writing. And now my question is what do I follow. When I started this writing project,…
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For those who don’t know who Ginger is. She is our 5 months old Puppy. We got her from a shelter in January. My panic when I figured out how tough it was to take care of a Puppy, I returned her back to the shelter. They have a 90 days return as many owners…
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Today I heard someone say that goals can prevent us from seeing the meaningful part of our lives. Or maybe he was saying all goals are not meaningful for us. I did a Malayalam Podcast yesterday on using our time in a more meaningful manner. I feel we all give meaning to what we do…
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Yesterday I decided to go watch a movie in the theater. There were two choices. One was the horror flick X and the other was ‘The Outfit’. I used to like Horror movies and even now think I do. But off late I have not been able to watch one and like it. I thought…
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Everyone wants to be their own boss. I have seen so many people in my life who have told me that they want to be an entrepreneur. I later figured that some of them said so in order to escape from what they were doing presently, may be even their boss.. or any boss. Some…
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Over the years I have developed some really bad or may be even inappropriate writing habits. Onesies that of Ellipsis. Three dots … after the end of the sentence. Even as I write this I am not able to refrain myself from doing it. I am having to type three or more dots after my sentence.…
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I often find it amusing when I sometimes think to myself that I cannot change. I have also heard that from people. In this world even when change is inevitable and we know it… a resistance to change exists in every walk of life. So a strong call for change need to come from inside.…
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As Human Beings one of our most treasured abilities is that we can (if we want) reflect on what we do and accept the outcome and correct what we feel is not right. But it is not a common act because Acceptance and Correction are not the favorite phenomena for most people. In business and at…
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Today I have nothing to write.. because I did not get time… but how can time be directly proportional to what I have to write…. If I don’t have time that just means I don’t have time… it cannot mean I don’t have anything to write.. Here we had to change our clocks forward by…
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Yesterday out of now where a thought came up… will I like or dislike something… nothing in particular just.. a plain thought… But then it all moved into another thought… how much we bother at times… if people will like or dislike what we do…. What I like is not necessarily what people like.. and…
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Haven’t you heard the saying “One does not choose one’s own parents”. I believe it is not just about Parents, many times we do not have a choice of our coworkers either. While with parents the lack of choice is not considered a burden and I am yet to find someone who wished they had…
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One of the things I missed from the last two years is long conversations with others.. in person…. I happened to have one such conversation a few days back… Well I cannot say I have not had long conversations.. but in the office discussing a product being developed hearing the problem being defined and technical…
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As a content creator I have several challenges like many people…. But since content creation is not what I do to earn a living my challenges are not that grave…. they are more like dilemmas… One such dilemma is the ongoing question of why I am creating.. What is the purpose… Am I doing it for…
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Yesterday I was chatting with my mom and as always, a discussion about her grandkids came up.. I said I don’t think they will be having any… unless their current view of the world changes… they don’t consider it important.. Nor do we… Being a Grandparent is not something I am aiming for… It is…
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Yesterday someone asked a question…. What do I prefer… working from home, office or hybrid…. I answered that it was too early to decide… I started working from office only two weeks ago… And I like it… One main thing is I don’t have a long commute… I have been in a hybrid mode for…
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Sometimes I want to be so insignificant… Maybe because it makes you review yourself better free from so many notifications from the world of expectations. 11 years back when I left running a business and stepped into independent consulting… sitting in a desk and doing something with my team I felt a new found freedom……
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We all have a tastebud when it is about food… Not all of that is said to be healthy… I am on an exploration to have a healthy diet with only things I love… This for me is pure Kerala food… it is not easy…. fired items and rice items… is there a way to…
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This is more like a recent change… I grew up liking the company of people… always wanting to be around others…. May be that is how I got into sales immediately after college… though I left that profession years ago… but over the past few years I have become much distant… meaning I really don’t…
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Even today when it rains on my way to the office… I feel like I am going to school….. I travel back in time…. And I have often wondered why that is so… Maybe rain has that power to bring back memories….. Maybe because I have not experienced the bad sides of downpouring except for…
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6 months after writing about health and exercise and losing weight… I have gained may be 7 pounds…. I am not just sad… I also feel stupid…. But what has been gained has been gained… Now the need is to reflect and think why that happened… It is not rocket science… The reason is that…
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When you find this world unbearable and some of the people in it difficult to get along with or some news bothers you out of your own body.. it is time to invent something new… Maybe a new world…. or at least a new perspective for yourself…. one that will make you understand and adjust…
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I was in Bangalore in 2020 and this is where I started my career years ago and felt like going down that memory lane and picking some old episodes. I started my career selling computers. We used to buy parts and assemble PCs, Provide a Warranty to customers and sell and support them. This was the 90s…
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Today I was thinking how we view the world from the comforts of our own life and feel entitled to have an opinion on everything… It is not just about the world and society… but also about work and career.. I have had people ask me why am I doing what I am doing… and…
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I have heard people say that they will be happier if they had so much money that they don’t need to work again, and they could start doing what they love. My answer to them has always been – There is no better time to do what you love… than NOW. And for that you…
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Everyone has a passion but most people are not lucky to have their passion and profession be the same thing. The constant push by self help gurus have been to make a living doing what you love. It is not always easy. But pursing a passion, doing what you love to do is important even…
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I just started reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment… Not just reading…. I have been doing a mix of reading and listening so I can utilize time better… I read when I can on my mobile and I listen to the audio book in continuation when I am driving or walking. This is also my way…
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The experience if I have to explain sits somewhere between surreal and Dejavu… I have worked from home so many times in my career… since 1993 when I ran my own small shop from my home… but I always had a choice to go to office.. or a client site.. if I wanted to… but…
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I know it is close to two months since we hit 2022. And I think we still have enough time to talk of reading and learning. Last year I read around 30 books across a wide range from business to history and psychology and memoirs. But this year I decided not to take it slow.…
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It is important to do something new every now and then.You might ask “Even if I love what I do?”.The answer is Yes. Because it is quite natural for us to fall into seemingly subconscious boring lapses of momentary non-existence even while doing the things we so much love. When you do something new every now…
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I write this on a Monday but you will read it on a Tuesday… Today is a holiday.. President’s day in the United States… Not just that.. I am also starting a new job on Tuesday. Usually people ask you if you are taking a break when you move into a new job… I have…
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When I was starting my career someone told me that I have a problem with ‘NO’. He said I was one of those people who will say ‘Yes’ to everything. He said ‘NO’ is such a powerful word that only people with real purpose can say it. I laughed him off. But the words kept…
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As an agile practitioner I always tell my team and those I work with the importance of prioritization. If we prioritize we can contain waste. I believe prioritization is the first step towards going lean. The need to decide what is it that we want to do now. What is it that brings maximum value…
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