Random musings

I was never a great festivals guy. We did celebrate the X’mas, Diwali & the birthdays, though it was never quite a big deal. I mean I never quite looked forward to the celebrations that these events entailed. Somewhere in my life I have started giving more importance to events and the routines behind them. Now that I think of it I don’t quite remember how this idea got into my mind. But surely it got solidified after my marriage. I guess we started with the small things and they evolved over time. Diwali has been a big event with us. This is the third Diwali of my married life and each one has been a special memory. The first one was when Parag was here in Singapore. The Jains planned a Pooja at their place and we all decided to go traditional for the occasion. For Anjali , that was the first and the last time she attempted a Sari in Singapore. After about half an hour of effort, she called for help and promptly I googled up a Youtube video on how to wear a sari :D ...

I used to be quite a regular blood donor back home in India and must have donated at least 10-12 times. After coming to Singapore I tried a few times to donate and each time I couldn’t due to some very minor procedural issues. Yesterday I had to go to NUH for a medical appointment and after that was done I happened to be around the Blood bank. I decided that I should resume my donation. But Singapore procedures refused to make things easy for me :( Apparently I couldn’t donate because I had been to India in May. The friendly lady at the reception told me that the current regulations have become stringent due to cases of bird flu/ Malaria and if you have visited some of the bird flu/ Malaria affected countries in the last six months then you become ineligible for donation. India was a country on the list and I was rejected for visiting my homeland :( I was keen on donating, so I persisted and the friendly lady at the reception directed me to Singapore General Hospital. Appare...

One of the most beautiful HBR articles I have read is called “How resilience works”. It was written by Diane L. Coutu and essentially involves three simple practices to cultivate the habit of Resilience . I quote from the article almost verbatim: Face Down Reality Instead of slipping into denial, accepting reality can help you prepare yourself to act in ways that enable you to endure.   Search for Meaning Instead of viewing yourself as a victim devise constructs about your suffering to create meaning for yourself. This meanings will help you visualize a better future and make the present manageable by removing the sense that it is overwhelming Continually Improvise. When disaster hits, be inventive. Make the most of what you have, putting resources to unfamiliar uses and imaging possibilities others don’t see. In the evening I was watching the movie, “ The Shawshank Redemption ”. It was as if they had implemented the HBR article verbatim. I saw TSR when I was in college a...

I happened to see two features on the Television today. The first one was the Tiger Man . It’s the story of 2 tiger couples mating and the birth of 7 cubs. And as luck would have it, the next program I saw was I didn’t know I was pregnant . And so I ended up with the Tiger & the Human perspective on the miracle of life :) The thoughts I will try to articulate have been in the making for the last couple of years. At my age I have many peers who are adept at changing nappies, and in some cases handling PTA meetings in addition to the changing the nappies ;) The excess of free time at my disposal in the recent past meant that I had the chance to check out some of the literature on the subject. The net result is a certain wonder at the miracle of life and a much deeper appreciation for my own parents and what they did for me. Before I add more of my own perspectives, let me recount what I saw on TV today. The program Tiger Man was very visual in depicting the birth of the c...

Today I saw the movie “Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster”. Came out impressed. Very rarely do I get to see such a cerebral handling of a subject. I felt that each and every character, however small was well developed and had a strong reason for being in the movie. So go ahead and watch but be warned that our tastes may not match ;) Just before the movie, when I went to get the tickets, I saw a bunch of three youngsters involved in an animated discussion about phones. The sheer width of facts being thrown around was impressive, but what caught my attention was the energy in the group. The guys were like what I may have been decades ago. I guess even then I may not have had that kind of energy. But somehow I ended butting into the discussion and somewhat enjoyed being part of the group :) In the past few years I have taken small projects for myself and have tried to execute it well. One of the new things that I am trying to do this quarter was to resume my writing. However what happened...

Some of you unlucky ones may have heard about my camera stories. For the lucky ones who missed them it’s the story that culminated in me purchasing 4 reasonably expensive prosumer (Thankfully not DSLRs ;) cameras of the same brand and make :(  But as with all my stories I will take some time coming to the point. And while I eventually come to the point let me take you to the earliest days of my photography. My father works for the Govt of India and he had a foreign assignment way back in 1984. One of his prized purchases was a Cannon auto-focus camera that survived my family for a little more than 2 decades. In those days the cameras needed expensive film rolls and further expenses in processing the prints. So way back in 1995 it used to cost about Rs 10 per print (Including processing and film charges). The cost was a huge factor that inhibited my photography. In fact for the first decade of the camera with us I hardly got any chance to click the button for the rea...

I have been using the Audible app on my phone for about a month. I found the idea of audio-books very appealing and it sort fits very well into my lifestyle. The usage statistics it provides is a great motivating tool. However there are some issues that have immensely added to my frustration levels, what adds insult to injury is the reaction of the customer service. But before I get into that let me talk about the problem: 1. Exceptionally slow downloads when downloading directly from Audible - The download speeds are incredibly low and often fail. Downloads of similar sizes don't take this long for any other app on my phone and the problem is specific to my Audible. (It took me some effort to convince the tech support that the issue had nothing to do with my network quality). Audible downloads at a ridiculous 10-40 Kb/ps and suffers from frequent failures iTunes download occurs at more than 1MB/ps 2. Usage data unavailable with iTunes titles -...

In the last one month I have had some significant successes in my weight loss efforts. This includes a 5 Kg reduction in a 1 week period. Following my updates on Facebook I had quite a few requests asking for details. And so in response to all that here’s some details that may be of interest to those who are wide like me :( In one of my previous posts  Tond Reduction Contd . . .   I had summarized my efforts. The special emphasis on  Contd . . .  was due the WIP nature of the results I achieved :( So be forewarned that what I am going to write hasn’t quite been entirely effective on myself, but when did that ever stop me from giving gyan :D Despite the lack of visible results it’s my opinion that it wasn’t due to the lack of effort. In fact in 2010 ( Details of what I did ) I put in more than 140 hours of Cardio and YTD 2011 I have clocked in more than 110 hours of Cardio. Despite this number (Huge in my opinion) my weight loss wasn’t very significant...