Hard reboot

Tiny goofs and blunders like that are necessary part of life. In some sense they validate a person; the very fact that a human is human, and nothing ever works out the way it should.
[Liquidation, Imre Kertész]

Laws of productivity

Recently I came across a quote by Jerry West which caused a great rush of motivation.
Now, this was one quote which I wanted to follow everyday. I made a small design based on it and put it up in front of my work spaces, both at home and office.
Time to get some work done!

The weekend that followed was a total denial of these words so highlighted in yellow and red.
An unusual sleepiness crept in; the postponing part of the brain kicked into action.
I convinced the conscience that something is being done by doing minor designing, fuzzy sketching, and writing no-brainer cosmetic changes to some hobby code.
This probably didn't justify the hours spent watching Star Trek and Big Bang Theory and those spent inside Assassin's Creed.

The sound of purring

The 1st Indian International Cat Show was happening in Bangalore. I expected something along the lines of this:

My brain explodes due to an unhandlable amount of pure cuteness

Many things contradicted my expectation. They were mainly, but not limited to: 1) All cats being in cages  2) A congested hall with no space to move  3) Gloomily sleepy cats  4) Over-protective owners

Quest for taste

It has been a joyful occasional weekend exercise to take a long walk alone in the evening, the destination being some pastry shop, where I make up for all the lost calories.
The day's final quest was a pretty long walk culminating in front of a pretty big slice of Death by Chocolate.
So there I was, walking into the the food court of a big mall, taking the shortest path to the pastry outlet, and guess what?
The whole outlet was gone. It had been replaced by something else. No cake. No meaning to all the walk.

And finally, rain

If you don't break schedules for too long, the universe will break it for you.
It is not always about the satisfaction of getting things done or every day turning out to be awesome.
Sometimes, it takes a hard reboot ^_^

I sat in my cubicle today and was reading about rain.
Even inside the isolated area, I noticed that the weather felt great.
This feeling dragged me to the wide open terrace, and the air was welcoming with gentle breeze and a drizzle tiptoeing happily around the place.

And it was clear that the awesome times were back.

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365 days later

A few days ago, I completed living a year in Bengaluru.

This is the first city where I've spent this long, away from home.
There are new things and new friends I've discovered here.
I am loving the city, and still exploring it, and occasionally looking out from the balcony at night to observe the dark outlines of buildings with colored lights dotting the sky and concrete.

Among all the noise of big obvious things, there are the few little truths that you find out, the little decisions you make about things, and the little realities that you accept. In this post, I'll go through a few of these little passages added to my book of experience.

1    On attaining perfection

Planning is good.
In fact I plan a lot when it comes to side projects, new learning etc. I plan so much so that in the end all the time and space is consumed on making plans.

Okay, Planning is starting to look bad...
It felt like a bit too much of push when Chris Guillebeau kept talking about starting your plans 'now', in his new book. But this is one of those things you learn the hard way.
It is preferable to get started with an actual tent than living in a castle made of plans.

This doesn't mean you have to forfeit your perfectionism!
Understand that Attaining perfection in a work in progress is different from Awaiting perfection in the conditions and environment to get started with a work.

2    On spending

I am no expert in this topic to authoritatively quote Warren Buffett and pretend that I actually understand it.
But here is a thing or two from experience.

Ask whether you need it. How frequently will you use it? To what degree will it make your life better?
Don't end up spending money to add clutter around you.
Even after this simple analysis, if your mind and/or heart keeps telling you that you really *need* this expensive designer watch in addition to the two you have at home, go for it :P.
Because once in a while, it is okay to gift yourself something pretty.

On a related note, it is worth spending a little extra cash on things of quality, beauty, and reliability.
In the long term, you can only gain so much by saving too much on essential things, or by selecting cheap and disposable alternatives.

3    On space

Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo
~Desmond Morris

The essential realization I had about space in general and personal space is that, the two are becoming almost the same at various levels. The world is getting crowded.

When I first traveled from Kerala to Bengaluru, I had in mind this image of a bunch of people in different clothes, speaking different languages, going to different hang outs.
Then on the foot path, a couple pass me by, speaking in my native tongue.
I go to an event, and a lot more Keralites pass me by, chattering away in Malayalam or English (with the unmistakable slang).
A friend and me go to try out a new café, and a gang of Malayalees are sitting around on bean bags, shouting and joking in Malayalam. For a moment, I felt like sitting in a small town restaurant back in Kerala.

Population is increasing. The same space is being claimed by more and more people.
Real estate prices are shooting to the sky. Desmond Morris is right. You can't have everything.
Learn early to focus and be happy about other finer aspects of life.

4    On flavor

It's all subjective.
I continue to find Pani Puri not that great, and continue to have debates with the lovers of this food.
Ditto about pizza in this city. In fact, the hometown mock up of a pizza we used to laugh about every time seems at least ten times better in taste.
The mere smell of Chilli Bajji makes me run away from the eating table.
In brief, I've been having a hard time with the native food.

That being said, non-veg continues to be mostly universal in taste.
And learning to cook is quite handy in bringing back the homely feel of flavor.

5    On love

There are a lot more people in this world than you imagine there are.
No matter how unique your tastes are, there is someone, or more than one, matching the pattern.
It'll be surprising when you discover it, but it is a fact.
For everything else, start working now. For love, keep an open mind and let it happen.
Love will find a way :)

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