tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-279955662024-03-14T02:06:37.545+05:30my experiments...some experiments and experiences of a thinking idiot..Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.comBlogger325125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-17940693550030563942023-12-21T11:10:00.002+05:302023-12-21T11:10:21.296+05:30Resilience needed indeed<p> A week back, when a top leader in my organization talked extensively about 'resilience' to a leadership forum, I didn't realize I would be requiring those so badly today.</p><p>After a sleepless night, and confronting my worst nightmares, I did what I believe is the most mature and benevolent way to deal with an otherwise highly toxic behaviour by someone close to me. It almost means the beginning of an end of things being the way they are.</p><p>It was difficult to come to terms with the observation and its immediate implications. But thinking of future possibilities makes my heart sink at times, and boil my blood at others.</p><p>But now, after having having spoken openly and concluding the brief exchange in a seemingly civil way, I feel I am on the higher plane at all levels. And I badly needed this assurance, as in many other counts, I am on a slippery slope. This is indeed a shock which gives a well needed signal to the fragility within these systems that I believe I am part of.</p><p>Multiple paths lie before me. Not all cross paths, but many do.</p><p>One is to painstakingly re-envision my world outside this system.. I also need to seek ways to keep myself afloat and come back to salvage what is important for me from the ship wreck that is to come.</p><p>But the most delicate one is to seek ways to limit the damage, or even use these signals to fix the fragility. This is something I'd like to see myself doing and the resiliency would help here.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhStR6GVdlNoJGHOGrHeIVk91dlpEueeoM-ozFgCxWT1dCJlRMu7oXBNP5J1stpkxhcT3cmPx_fdWooa_Dmmj8bxc4LDr_TDdfRx3j-m4BDuVzN8n_ROfzrprnuWOKSEBVb_lcJUDfPRxioq0B-RTufvmXHlXRhEMQyjBWcAK7CXKHRFIY2i3sC" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1438" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhStR6GVdlNoJGHOGrHeIVk91dlpEueeoM-ozFgCxWT1dCJlRMu7oXBNP5J1stpkxhcT3cmPx_fdWooa_Dmmj8bxc4LDr_TDdfRx3j-m4BDuVzN8n_ROfzrprnuWOKSEBVb_lcJUDfPRxioq0B-RTufvmXHlXRhEMQyjBWcAK7CXKHRFIY2i3sC" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Lets go through the basics:<p></p><p>a) <u>Relaxation response</u>: It is a struggle to bring oneself into a composed mindset when beset by confusing and contradicting emotions, each calling for extreme reactions which are toxic in nature. But do not give into your emotional whirlpool and hold steady using your own value system and morals as a compass. If it is an interpersonal conflict, it is important to not focus on the adversary's observed actions and possible reactions, but own our own. Similarly, if dealing with an organization, the same needs to be done.</p><p>b) <u>Resolution response: </u>Once the storm dies out for a while, use the calm to work out your priorities, solutions, and best case outcomes expected. It would be wise to leave out the worst case scenarios as they would only act as emotional triggers to take you out of the relaxed state.</p><p>c)<u> Keep moving/ perseverance: </u>Easy to say but hard to do when dealing with cyclical thoughts about future and perceived insults/disappointments etc. But make it a point to try to check if after a session of thinking, you are moving ahead or getting back to same points. If you find yourself in a cycle, you need to find the cord that attaches you, and most likely it is an emotional one. Take your time to sever it and find replacements.</p><p>d) <u>Know thyself: </u>This is where any amount of prior experience in dealing with your own emotions comes in handy. Especially during significant positive and negative moments in life, if you know how you tend to handle yourself on autopilot, it helps a lot. You might either need some isolated moments, some actions etc or require help from friends/family or even professional help. Identifying this correctly early on makes a huge huge difference. For example, going on it by yourself for life changing decisions, when you have no past experience can be suicidal (literally too, unfortunately in some cases).</p><p>e) <u>Growing out of it:</u> If you got yourself to this point without significant mental harm, congratulations. Now you are looking at using this event in growing yourself either by fixing the problem by direct or indirect means. This is important to fix the scars and go the long mile in life. You would need all your tools and contacts to do this satisfactorily.</p><p>f) <u>Take care of yourself: </u>The most important, but often neglected part is to take care of your own health. Indulge in good physical activities, social interactions with compassionate and positive minded people, pursue hobbies that exert your creative muscles, and get a significant amount of water and good quality sleep.</p><p><br /></p><p>Take care, and take time to be grateful, and be kind to yourself.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-43016988144622090302023-12-08T13:45:00.005+05:302023-12-08T13:45:40.186+05:30thinking and writing<p> Someone talked recently about the project we were working on and how my contributions were leading the very core of the ideas.</p><p>I was named a deep thinker and driver of thoughts. I remember that I actually felt uncomfortable at what could be a normal reaction to praise. But when I reflected on it, I could see much more inside that event.</p><p>While I could see where the deep thinking is visible, I also could acknowledge that it is just a single minded activity that I can get myself into it. It of course has a lot of implications on my ability to do a lot of other things at that time, and even much later. I attribute my ability to think deeply to a lot of things, but more recently I can attribute it to an significant reduction of social media distractions, involving in non fictional and abstract topics requiring my full brain activation and a bit of intellectual interactions with like and unlike minded colleagues and relatives.</p><p>Some years ago, my mental model of myself had very little space for other people and the nitty gritties of their needs and contributions to my own thoughts and actions. At some time ( possibly around the time my son was born ), I started realizing how much a network can boost one's productivity, creativity, effectiveness and resilience.</p><p>Over the years, I have found many content on such lines very appealing and I have even managed to bring some interesting books like "Man's search for meaning" and "Anti-fragile" into my re-reading list. I couldn't have imagined of doing this in my past form. </p><p>Of course, one's mental model doesn't change as a whole so quickly. I now am in a special place, where I know that I have changed my preferences, reactions and beliefs and aware of the continuing changes. Currently I see many of the abstract patterns converge into more concrete actions and events, with surprising results at times. These are really interesting time, filled with possibilities for me to use.</p><p>Feeling grateful for being part of this huge machinery of life.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-66716447163556108552023-09-25T08:26:00.003+05:302023-09-25T08:26:54.467+05:30More on the foundation<p> I wrote about the Foundation's first book.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNPE_A9l3g91IwVN3r_35BWUS-rCEaDDFsaPlUqOX-b50UmSmYXkfh8DqiuKq4nu_Nl8vLEC7u6n90JuElLFNvIvUc2QnfdejZgs5L7BTJkeWo45n48JHVKLydd3h1ZbMShj0F1GcLxKuEovYz7rtByj8-hejLppk8W-Y1Rclvy1VZNbmR5Bkr/s358/A_foundation_series.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="351" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNPE_A9l3g91IwVN3r_35BWUS-rCEaDDFsaPlUqOX-b50UmSmYXkfh8DqiuKq4nu_Nl8vLEC7u6n90JuElLFNvIvUc2QnfdejZgs5L7BTJkeWo45n48JHVKLydd3h1ZbMShj0F1GcLxKuEovYz7rtByj8-hejLppk8W-Y1Rclvy1VZNbmR5Bkr/s320/A_foundation_series.webp" width="314" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>But as I now am starting on the last book in the series Forward the Foundation, ( minus the complete robo series ), I find myself at loss when considering to write about all these. It is too much.</p><p>But I think I want to say something about it now.</p><p>There is a particular chewy, sticky quality to the story, especially when protagonists change dramatically within a book itself. But it didn't last long. It turns out that the original trilogy had this hallmark nature, when the author didn't have a clear background or ending in mind. But once he was coaxed by the publishers to connect the multitude of his work into a web of stories, it started losing much of what makes it stand out from the rest. I must admit, I haven't read a lot of science fictions, but I think you can get the drift already.</p><p>But it was interesting enough, to make me keep reading all the books, in the order of their publication, except of course the robo series, which I plan to read separately. You see there are certain events and threads connecting these series, and it became quite evident first from the Foundation's Edge. Having no knowledge of the robo series, made many references to it quite mystical for me. Maybe when I read those, that itch shall be scratched.</p><p>But so far, the prelude to foundation and the forward the foundation seem subdued, a kind of filler book. Still, the riches of a mind blowing connection to robo events, keeps me on the track.</p><p>Happy reading.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-78255433030753780502023-09-25T08:13:00.000+05:302023-09-25T08:13:13.693+05:30Following the clock<p><b>Typical day:</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHJbqe2cHBSmnzM4_A0FifcHsuTy2VaimuWb5VupaHPT-o7PwLnpg_p8BoJn40_tB_saLEaW9DyQ8eJBpCIS1YuMW6V6lc2Qpabb9YsqSPqpjwtGWVUgV4XdhJ4p2rb2jItTmTPO6KCrSGS8Qn5KCNFIjXDkx2nzNxN2GYQIEIDtccs9Zl_4b/s360/pngtree-back-to-school-clock-png-clipart-yuri-png-image_4387551.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHJbqe2cHBSmnzM4_A0FifcHsuTy2VaimuWb5VupaHPT-o7PwLnpg_p8BoJn40_tB_saLEaW9DyQ8eJBpCIS1YuMW6V6lc2Qpabb9YsqSPqpjwtGWVUgV4XdhJ4p2rb2jItTmTPO6KCrSGS8Qn5KCNFIjXDkx2nzNxN2GYQIEIDtccs9Zl_4b/s320/pngtree-back-to-school-clock-png-clipart-yuri-png-image_4387551.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>5-6 AM wakeup -> <b>Afternoon rush</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrka2Trqhs5RWHQk1tmguEY5OW-NffHvMQ0u4a19U60OAosjdeZuVJUgODDFj9_sn13N2TO-9wZUjupUIoGyA83_ieEixcbB3JOuFN5QrmfctT7gl9T_ew2h5mNEF9JTKGNXE4-qdG9e91J6Xf3OaqSvwJOuGatSP0ihCmtOXMHyMZsKLMAmw/s1155/Widen_znuylp__MG_8106_beat_the_morning_rush.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1155" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrka2Trqhs5RWHQk1tmguEY5OW-NffHvMQ0u4a19U60OAosjdeZuVJUgODDFj9_sn13N2TO-9wZUjupUIoGyA83_ieEixcbB3JOuFN5QrmfctT7gl9T_ew2h5mNEF9JTKGNXE4-qdG9e91J6Xf3OaqSvwJOuGatSP0ihCmtOXMHyMZsKLMAmw/w200-h150/Widen_znuylp__MG_8106_beat_the_morning_rush.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOPTElSEToK34nL0peCVZxDRuxfsJ323wYN3hQ11aRFGLKq4DM6vYaHAg0aelrmUilSwlNQWJ0jDkLjm0FQ6R8Wsmkj9Vg5eiGVXFtEmWC0RhTYYcfoE81N88VEDNLmKE9mnjUuTS4VV6MObeeWJFgVW3BvqkBX3bHQrAj0k1ilBtzsXxkR89/s1254/coffee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="1254" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpOPTElSEToK34nL0peCVZxDRuxfsJ323wYN3hQ11aRFGLKq4DM6vYaHAg0aelrmUilSwlNQWJ0jDkLjm0FQ6R8Wsmkj9Vg5eiGVXFtEmWC0RhTYYcfoE81N88VEDNLmKE9mnjUuTS4VV6MObeeWJFgVW3BvqkBX3bHQrAj0k1ilBtzsXxkR89/w200-h134/coffee.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTvnXISsVHXTjrej0J-axtg39sb5X0WYSRD5EC0ShZkvj_2Dcvz87jhxRtIG2fwzhK2HDikScowTvhQHU04zwmrw9tpbuHTU0m4hx8XDf4tJ6rtsnqlRleN6xHMNeRY2TQPtfL-WdAwAWNTiUFsofK0JqP5rewP56iq7iWvAdEqNg-26qpSOY/s992/vector-illustration-cute-cartoon-giant-panda-doing-weight-lifting-119876663.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="992" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTvnXISsVHXTjrej0J-axtg39sb5X0WYSRD5EC0ShZkvj_2Dcvz87jhxRtIG2fwzhK2HDikScowTvhQHU04zwmrw9tpbuHTU0m4hx8XDf4tJ6rtsnqlRleN6xHMNeRY2TQPtfL-WdAwAWNTiUFsofK0JqP5rewP56iq7iWvAdEqNg-26qpSOY/w200-h150/vector-illustration-cute-cartoon-giant-panda-doing-weight-lifting-119876663.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="153" data-original-width="414" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjovAjK_pteeDn7C4smES8t_L21zOReoCnOrMgoo3VJX4RmNtBc8XV_dq3m9GnKaHEgdad7wCrgzTbRGSk7rRra9mOQzneAu5RB5o36T_4fQgvybOzhpbWaFkqPptk6Strd5dmqb8ahALjxRTgP81GAJYLTwOaSc1QmGgumnx67htoPw3cw5KFV/s320/logo.c20be293.png" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DBJ8yJOV64kyYIktJWx_2lPzRaetq54VO6YM81L_U2uDRQnytmmAw-0IXYpZyEAplwbRhV45faikpEvnoMnk4Qx90Z7oCgZbPS5XqvgT-j9CUVV9H_KZjBccF4ti7v074rSTsYrtMLMm2kIMpln9Rh-V7XXFCqoz72M2Zv-qbtzp3kGEtq-g/s768/coffee-driving-to-work-vector-cartoon-illustration-blonde-businessman-car-holding-cup-hot-82786799.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DBJ8yJOV64kyYIktJWx_2lPzRaetq54VO6YM81L_U2uDRQnytmmAw-0IXYpZyEAplwbRhV45faikpEvnoMnk4Qx90Z7oCgZbPS5XqvgT-j9CUVV9H_KZjBccF4ti7v074rSTsYrtMLMm2kIMpln9Rh-V7XXFCqoz72M2Zv-qbtzp3kGEtq-g/s320/coffee-driving-to-work-vector-cartoon-illustration-blonde-businessman-car-holding-cup-hot-82786799.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zIbDg_sN28htt1mXr2XfYkSRH1G4bOyhsrZHygfuGG8hI64qaJlM-yX9Bd8ItOlKqrPsrcum9QheWm0QwiuEtJbpvhJByqc--xPvWJDj7c5p0gmVqPlsCvSaAF3bnxPcrq4ihoym83z7-VGi048yFLKb-wH9gZwbma5H7uUv4GKcUA-hJZos/s800/image_processing20210120-21256-1y6z6xx.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zIbDg_sN28htt1mXr2XfYkSRH1G4bOyhsrZHygfuGG8hI64qaJlM-yX9Bd8ItOlKqrPsrcum9QheWm0QwiuEtJbpvhJByqc--xPvWJDj7c5p0gmVqPlsCvSaAF3bnxPcrq4ihoym83z7-VGi048yFLKb-wH9gZwbma5H7uUv4GKcUA-hJZos/s320/image_processing20210120-21256-1y6z6xx.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p><b>Evening</b></p><p>At close of work, either go to gym, or get to reading/helping with homework/cooking.</p><p>Post dinner, get school work done, get reading.</p><p>Put child to sleep, and if I survive, get back to reading</p><p>Else, continue with step #1, the next day.</p><p><br /></p><p>I observe that books and some form of exercise are the regular habits, which can be classified as good.</p><p>The regular digital habits, on the other hand required some monitoring and introspection:</p><p>a) <u>Twitter(X)</u></p><p>Scroll through a list of regular people whom I follow, with very very limited political exposure (unavoidable, unless I want to be proverbially living under the rock).</p><p>With interesting events happening, I might over 40 mins a day scrolling and retweeting. Otherwise it might be within the 30 mins window.</p><p>Main topics I find myself reading/responding are: Fitness, travel, wildlife, world events, very specific trolling incidents outside my lil echo chamber. I had over the last two years trimmed the list of people I follow significantly, weeding out inactive or toxic accounts for people who consistently post relevant, informative or creative content. Biggest examples would be Sandeep Mall, Science Girl etc.</p><p>b) <u>Youtube</u></p><p>I don't use the standard Youtube app due to the ads, and rely on the Youtube Vanced app [boohoo, this is now gone, and I'm subjected to the horrors of watching ads] for my video binging which I try to also avoid when my son is around. After all, we are lecturing him to restrict his screen time, all the time. </p><p>On a average, I find I use Youtube for 30-40 mins a day. Rarely it can go beyond an hour if I sit late night to finish watching some long pending ones, or get into a YT Shorts binge-until-burnout.</p><p>Again, the contents mainly seem to either personal finance (quality/novelty over quantity here), medieval history (mostly related to something I am reading/playing/listening), documentaries of something being manufactured or cooked, and sometimes fitness/workout videos and comedies or movie based stuff. </p><p>c) <u>Finance apps</u></p><p>I have off late got myself out of the personal finance/investment whirlpool by removing the Stock broker and Mutual fund apps from phone main screen. This significantly helps with not worrying about markets, investment levels and missed opportunities. So these app take hardly 2 min on a average every day, considering that these aren't opened at all most of the time, and when opened for checkpoints, I do spend some time analyzing trends.</p><p>Apps: Kite, MyCams, KFintech</p><p>d) <u>Chrome:</u></p><p>This is too generic, and its usage widely depends on what I am googling. Regular websites would only be Farnam Street Blog, HackerNews etc, which are bookmarked. Most others are irregular investment related ones or yes, one minor whirlpool known as LinkedIn.</p><p>e) <u>Steam:</u></p><p>This is a relatively new habit of mine, by virtue of getting Age of Empires 2 Defnitive Edition on my laptop through Steam ( paid for, really!). Not only have I spent 120+hrs already on the game (with 2+hrs in each session, leaving me mildly numb in the right arm afterwards ), but I have been induced to find and install a few more time draining Free-To-Play games. Off late, I uninstalled all of those additional ones as these were just straining my arms and eyes and plainly boring/violent games which my young son gets inspired with. AoE2 is relatively benign/boring/exciting depending on level of play and time sunk into it. Playing with a context, and strategy makes it rewarding especially campaigns which provide some historical stories also. Plain fighting it out makes it a burnout game though.</p><p>Ahem, after which, I found the "Uncharted Waters:Origins". It was a craze, engulfing many hours of my life until when I reached Level 40, and the satisfaction is saturated. I find myself more gravitated to the non-digital activities to cope with higher hours on the work side.</p><p>f) <u>Podcasts:</u></p><p>This is almost exclusively reserved for use while driving ( that too when I'm alone ), but there are also podcasts which I need a OneNote to take notes with too. These I re-listen after the car episode to distill the information, in the good imitation of Farnam Street advice on good reading practices.</p><p>Some of the podcasts I'm listening are:</p><p>a) The Knowledge Project of Farnam Street fame. Not bad, but not daily digestible content either.</p><p>b) Huberman lab. Wonderful topics, but need dedicated attention, filtering and note taking, plus followup.</p><p>c) Empire. This is my favourite go-to podcast because of the history, adventure, facts, relatable events with unknown backgrounds, funny banter of my favourite author and the ability to travel all over the world in my mind. But I have been slow on catching up the pace at which they release pods.</p><p>d) The seen and the unseen. Again, a masterful show. I pick topics I want to listen, because these are 2-3 hrs deep dives, but completely worth it.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-3161757321720996822023-06-28T12:09:00.004+05:302023-06-28T12:09:18.480+05:30Monologue on leadership<p><u> Pardon the unedited monologue</u></p><p><b>Q:</b> What is transformational leadership?</p><p><b>A: </b>Before we talk about transformational leader, <b>"who is a leader?"</b>, your 5 year old asks. </p><p><b><i>First answer </i></b>: A leader is who inspires to take initiative, to be brave and forget pains/obstacles for time being to help focus on achieving a goal.</p><p>Often, in tough or uncertain situations, a leader has to encourage to just take a positive action and trust the people to keep finding short and long term goals to pursue.</p><p>Many a times people just need that nudge to come out of comfort zones, and mental plateaus to be able to see the need to increase or redirect their energies and tactics to get to a goal.</p><p>Sometimes leaders are just good listeners who help employees recharge and rejuvenate on a long and arduous journey.</p><p>In military environment, leaders at the lowest ranks, NCOs etc are exceptional role models for the larger group of fighting men/women around them. They are expected to not hesitate and show case examples of initiative, bravery, perseverance and ferocity. Top commanders, on the other hand are expected to be visionary, flexible with decisions, and inspiring confidence and trust of sub-ordinates.</p><p>In a corporate environment, a leader at the top is mainly expected to display and communicate a clarity of purpose of the organization or an initiative. But all levels are expected to showcase fairness, openness to feedback and always gunning for victory. Sometimes leaders are personally relatable, and that bonds the team closer to them. This is not always feasible due to personality differences across cultures and geographies. In such cases, appealing to a common set of values is enough and the remaining is site-specific bonus.</p><p>It is also important to communicate the why part of any decision, process or policy at the top level. This reflects onto middle managers, without which they tend to close themselves to feedback from their sub-ordinates, creating a low trust environment. More often, it is the lower layer managers who have to face the feedback of the technical team which often doesn't align to the top management visions. This can be mitigated by direct access to leader's voice and forums, plus careful communications with expected resistance planned into it. Some of these expected resistance or pushback can be read from carefully crafted and regular centralized surveys. But often it is the lower layer leaders who need to be aware of the team pulse and key developments, and communicate a gist of it regularly up the management channel.</p><p>Such a channel should exist for managers to communicate to their managers about informal matters. It builds trust and encourages low level managers to be creative with their team's specific situation instead of losing out on need for homogenization.</p><p>Also, with all this rambling, I realize that leadership is not something that can be 100% perfect all the time. And I think I can see some factors that influence it, and that explains why there are so many different materials, forums, thoughts on this through centuries of civilization, and we still see a need to keep working on this. Leadership is a fully human concept. It is not exactly defined, and the leadership qualities expected change based on the leader, the organization, the business, the times. </p><p>Sometimes, everything is going fine. Then either the leader is changed or has a change of mind, employees change or have a change of mind, business changes or the entire world changes. It is in this vortex that we find a need for a shining beacon of leadership at all levels of an organization. While there are timeless principles and qualities of leadership that can be trained, coached and practiced by organization, the highly valued leadership skills are based on self-reflection and talking to people at a given moment. Leadership served for one instance shouldn't be forced to be used in all situations.</p><p>Negotiation and communicating fairly is a key skill to be learnt as a leader. Placing all facts for perusal allows opening up the trust, and you have avenues for negotiating to overcome mental blocks, and resistance to change. But this flexibility is also required of the manager when the blocks are factual or technical, requiring to rethink the whole approach and redirect the many pieces to fall in place.</p><p>Oh yes, another point in that is that leadership and administration are two different things. A leader can be a pioneer or a manager. Both require different skill sets and shouldn't be swapped freely unless the person involved is mentally ready for this. Pioneers hack through harsh jungles, seek new paths, lead the team, but their work isn't often neat or orderly or sustainable. But without them, we are lost. Managers on the other hand are good at organizing and administering multiple complicated pieces and sustaining an efficient operation. It might consist of challenges as well as repetitive actions and consultations, which might disillusion the pioneering leader. We also should accept the fact is that at times, a leader has to showcase both abilities, and so aspiring leaders would do well to observe both styles, identify the stronger side, enforce it and also work on strengthening the weaker one.</p><p>Another thought is about trying to classify your intended target for a change communication. There might be supporters, indifferent ones, cynics and open rebellious ones. Here is a strategy for each of those:</p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a) Supporters -> Talk to them privately and learn their reasons for supporting. If they align, use them as ambassadors if it helps within the team. Sometimes, their involvement polarizes the others for certain topics. You might also discover amazing reasons for support which you wouldn't have anticipated.</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>b) Indifferent -> Talk to them to identify their concerns. Often it is reluctance to change, stemming from past injustices. If possible address or correct those. If not feasible, offer them the benefits of moving on and encourage regularly to come over to your side.</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>c) Cynic -> This can be quite tough as usually cynics are well prepared. One can engage in an intellectual debate, inflate/deflate their egos and get them on your side, or go through the process for indifferents with an open mind to show that you care, and you should genuinely do so, if they have a weird and different opinion on how things should be. You might find some rare gems there.</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>d) Rebellious/Scared -> These are the folks who often expect the change to be damaging to their career, reputation or more. Care must be taken to calm their mind with active listening and genuine interest in resolving their problems. If issue is imagined, careful explanation is important without pushing on behalf of management or promising punishment. It might work in short term, but will fire back in the long term.</span></p><p><u><b>Leaders in tech</b></u></p><p>In tech, we value good approachability, ability to convince, negotiate and motivate. Ability to accept mistakes, reduce conflicts and maintain a positive outlook is also key skills for a leader. And not to forget, ability to motivate people to take calculated risks without fear of being judged harshly, and enabling a culture that inspires technical studies and using that input for leading the product and organization.</p><p>Managers shouldn't or needn't be always in a position to guide or coach technical experts. They need to collaborate more. This allows both of them to operate in a win-win model. This raises a question of whether technical folks can also lead, with the full spectrum of a manager, by providing leadership to other non-technical departments like HR, finance, quality and meeting legal criterion. That’s quite interesting to find where that boundary or overlap of skills, wide knowledge and attitude of allowing multiple opposing ideas to co-exist and shape the final decision exists.</p><p>Most importantly, in such environments, the key thing to note is when/how the individual experts/departments are able to come out of their limited role and perspective, and discard their feeling of self-importance to make some truly remarkable decisions for the organization. Can this be done without a central hinge point of a leader? That is, can a decentralized team of leaders pull this off, and sustainably so as an extended question?</p><p>Wow, this entire exercise is a challenge to the mind, science and philosophy.</p><p>Inspirations for this monologue written in a single sitting</p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a) Man's search for meaning Victor Frankl</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>b) Prince by Machiavelli</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>c) Built to last</span></p><p><span style="white-space: normal;"> d) </span>7 effective habits Stephen Covey</p><p><br /><br /></p><p><u></u></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u><br /></u></div><u><br /><br /></u><p></p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-48427578749378110912023-02-07T10:52:00.004+05:302023-02-07T10:57:38.874+05:30Foundation-Part 1<p>' The Foundation Series' was originally a series of 3 books written in the early 1950. It was later on expanded with sequels and prequels after nearly 40 years of the original series' end.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibmrasKOa-WWlE8Ah740PstbtdCtKQ-ehvEYV5yFoaBk44QL0dyLvBeClojjNVkRlHH8rCqNJDXOCtSN5jROuX55Qb2cszrZYy41ArdsrCQNEYUYGKbCR5sVsDEfIW4uHxHXUJXcM32eZRwHxEbM4ZsLqvGf1fwxT3aaNkQYF2x1vVQYdSeQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="333" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibmrasKOa-WWlE8Ah740PstbtdCtKQ-ehvEYV5yFoaBk44QL0dyLvBeClojjNVkRlHH8rCqNJDXOCtSN5jROuX55Qb2cszrZYy41ArdsrCQNEYUYGKbCR5sVsDEfIW4uHxHXUJXcM32eZRwHxEbM4ZsLqvGf1fwxT3aaNkQYF2x1vVQYdSeQ" width="154" /></a></div><br />I believe it is a hallmark series of science fiction, and millions of people in many generations were entertained and influenced by its storylines, technological predictions and underlying themes.<p></p><p>In fact, having read the very first book 'Foundation', I was surprised and embarrassed at not having read it earlier. Here I am attempting a re-telling of the story purely from memory, and I might miss or mix up things, and SPOILER alert for those plan to read this soon...</p><p>The story starts off in the city/world of Trantor, which is the capital of the now dying Empire. We are not given much context of when in the future of human race these events are set, but it is made to seem quite advanced into the future. The surprise is that human beings still seem to be the dominant species and have long colonized and settled multiple worlds(planets) across the Milky Way galaxy.</p><p>The Empire seems to be the central ruling power for almost every world in this realm, in spite of various political aspects involved. We are also introduced to the Harri Seldon, a psychohistorian who states that the empire is in a state of decay and that he was working on a plan to revive it sooner than it would be if he didn't interfere.</p><p>He set up what later comes to be known as the Seldon Plan ( known only to a secretive group of scientists ), and sends out young scientists to a fringe world, which gets named the Terminus.</p><p>Eventually, after many years, this fledgling planet (known as Terminus) is just a library of sorts that needs massive support of all neighbouring worlds. The only resource this planet is rich in, is the scientific findings and inventions based on Atomic energy which only Terminus controls. Soon this prosperity gets it into conflict zone with its neighbours and thereby triggering the series Seldon crises.</p><p>The first of this crisis comes in the form of a neighbouring world Anacreon trying to annex Terminus to gain the Atomics. This crisis is successfully mitigated by an internal power shift and external alliance with other neighbours to prevent any one world being stronger by huge margins.</p><p>After many years, the crisis repeats itself with a much stronger Anacreon planning an attack with more sophisticated weapons acquired from the dying empire. By now, the Foundation has made itself a religion by forming a religious hierarchy for its technological advancements, and expecting strict obedience and reverence of the Foundationers. Using this influence on the soldiers and common folk, the Foundation manages a spectacular last minute victory by turning this fear of defiling the gods against the rulers of Anacreon.</p><p>The next crisis boils over once all other worlds become wary of the missionary power of the Foundation and either bans them altogether or in completely under its sway with no way to claw out. It is in this wiggle space that a conflict looms ahead, and Foundation defeats it by the charms of a Trader. This begins the deviation of Foundation from a scientific religion to a purely trading power. The aggressor Korell is purely restrained by the threat of an embargo of trade goods.</p><p>to be contd..</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456270.64927071307072382 60.0164377 25.293926686929275 95.1726877tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-82522081039194443042023-01-16T08:06:00.002+05:302023-01-16T08:06:52.335+05:30Missing text<p> Its been more than a year since I wrote anything here.</p><p>We were long past the worst of all the experiences of the lockdown in those days, and things have only improved and come to a sort of plateau since then. So I have only rosy things to say apart from a few illogical regrets on things I could have done better, but aren't important in the larger scheme of things.</p><p>The lockdown started off surprisingly with lots of confusion, as it did for majority of the folks on this planet. While we didn't rush to markets or shops to join the throng for binge-purchases, we did suffer from a lot of anxiety on account of the 2yr old child left with his grandparents, across state borders.</p><p>From 2020 end to 2022 end, it remains a topic I thought I would eventually find interesting to write about, but I haven't been able to sit for it yet.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZC55F6ttVLhsvfYixklbZMR8JjOC8r7Dwx5KudNRuOlTgpMvYivwu6CvpmD5a0U5QVgDNjE8bVMaH1RZHRYxZH3iFZxZtH0AmcBicn4a8gD6zIBNYrdI6xIY0IYME0qMTM56PZf-nmkWbMU-pyxptq5K4h8Jr35WdXQ-jXGc0xYvoo8CMA/s272/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="272" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZC55F6ttVLhsvfYixklbZMR8JjOC8r7Dwx5KudNRuOlTgpMvYivwu6CvpmD5a0U5QVgDNjE8bVMaH1RZHRYxZH3iFZxZtH0AmcBicn4a8gD6zIBNYrdI6xIY0IYME0qMTM56PZf-nmkWbMU-pyxptq5K4h8Jr35WdXQ-jXGc0xYvoo8CMA/s1600/download.png" width="272" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>In fact, fast forward from that to 2023, I am more often reading a lot of books, playing Age of Empires games, and engaging myself with the household and work related activities. I myself don't seem to grasp a very detailed view of most of these things, and so if I look closely, they are a pain to recollect, re-arrange and then re-interpret to make sense to a reader. But then I guess this practice is what makes a 'writer', if I may claim that title by unfair means of just having a blog freely published on Google Blogger.</p><p><br /></p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-47791916489928830082022-10-28T09:16:00.004+05:302023-04-09T18:13:29.602+05:30Steaming ahead<p> After all these years, I have lost my personal laptop to a motherboard failure, lost both by huge external disks to failures, and all the mega collections of CD/DVD are either unreadable or have no device to put them into.</p><p>If one wants to be sad about it, there is a lot of content in there which I can never recreate ( photos from camera, phones, notes ), and some that would would be punishing to collect ( e-books, movies, music, games). So I am definitely not wishing to walk that path anymore.</p><p>And as part of the moving on strategy, or general passion, I have now re-activated by Steam account and even purchased a title - AOEII Definitive Edition. Of course, it had to be AOE. I can play loads of new civs in wonderful new campaigns, great tutorials or just play online. I can share account with family also it seems from Steam. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0k9clxbkx84YHo34vekgQ-SicMxFTZg970bCuecgSY5ho5Yb5NloYQ-WHB4oq60_5oS9VJuBKrLmvoMiQkmbzEOYaDlG97V2dmsZxcEFc52_LhYZpLS1J9Dk-yqc98dCaNRSG99MzEindJ8_sYsMrkdkrLa9HE0T0DkjJXY5Nwuf6HfInw/s460/header.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="460" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA0k9clxbkx84YHo34vekgQ-SicMxFTZg970bCuecgSY5ho5Yb5NloYQ-WHB4oq60_5oS9VJuBKrLmvoMiQkmbzEOYaDlG97V2dmsZxcEFc52_LhYZpLS1J9Dk-yqc98dCaNRSG99MzEindJ8_sYsMrkdkrLa9HE0T0DkjJXY5Nwuf6HfInw/w402-h188/header.jpg" width="402" /></a></div><br /><p>I will probably put up more stuff about this later, but at this point I am excited by my own action. </p><p>The only challenge would be to find time to play these games in an immersive fashion, especially with my son peeking over my shoulders, and the ethics of spending more time with the laptop. Only argument is to help boost productivity during work hours and motivate a healthy balance. Of course being a history buff, I simply love the game for its content, and not just the gameplay aspects. It is like an extra accessory to my various books and podcasts.</p><p><br /></p><p>So that is the full steam ahead..</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-85023587563938888702022-07-20T11:13:00.003+05:302022-07-20T11:13:35.610+05:30going back for a while to Anno 1404<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxtaC9tODQ5Xcypn9kFboLmqBTvmqsZPLjMkvRBlo7My8ajKxbJEK6zMN5BIaWOJx-LNJGjYpFfzLRQ_zKc6GPpDzvP1TjK5C0aHfDDvewaaLhvfmbDnqkXoArOmWSKpmu4onT3ooStSemaOmSujUlPW_SqYZoq-D4sAaMDF596NQr3N37w/s373/Anno_1404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="267" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBxtaC9tODQ5Xcypn9kFboLmqBTvmqsZPLjMkvRBlo7My8ajKxbJEK6zMN5BIaWOJx-LNJGjYpFfzLRQ_zKc6GPpDzvP1TjK5C0aHfDDvewaaLhvfmbDnqkXoArOmWSKpmu4onT3ooStSemaOmSujUlPW_SqYZoq-D4sAaMDF596NQr3N37w/s320/Anno_1404.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> The peasants need only a bit of fish to eat initially, which is fine given the human nature.</p><p>Then as the population increases, their wants also increase. Now, how is this logical you might ask.</p><p>I can consider this in light of needs arising due to presence of resources or technologies to extract them.</p><p>And once people have a taste of these new goods, it never goes off. It is very clear in the game too that if you take away any of the basic needs once the population has advanced, they get very pissed off quickly and start leaving or raising rebellions.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexx2ieRioFrF6HkqkD8HdiZXfNkq7FTe6_3baWf7qgdKgfnUoFvtFJup4e7zTQBL8yJySgMYeenXN8MwKcaco8sltDiUEMY8vuIgpscasuuIleMX5RUC3Et0AB_1ha-SBELSRhiaN5Vqh45cwlDSvmzwSbEMnXRGF3CiLMLHWdeIF4pJ0-g/s496/Anno_1404-civlevel_portraits_noble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="418" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhexx2ieRioFrF6HkqkD8HdiZXfNkq7FTe6_3baWf7qgdKgfnUoFvtFJup4e7zTQBL8yJySgMYeenXN8MwKcaco8sltDiUEMY8vuIgpscasuuIleMX5RUC3Et0AB_1ha-SBELSRhiaN5Vqh45cwlDSvmzwSbEMnXRGF3CiLMLHWdeIF4pJ0-g/s320/Anno_1404-civlevel_portraits_noble.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>You feed the hungry lion once, you need to keep feeding. There in lies the challenge in raising huge cities with large populations, surplus stock of all stuff and good control of the multiple islands. If there is also a military goal, significant amount of resources get redirected in that side too.</p><p>Most of the time, the supply and smooth running of resources between various islands requires a lot of micro management, until there is enough cash and population to support enough trade ships, large and quick enough raw material productions, huge storage and a large enough set of war ships to protect your shipping lanes. Due to the imbalanced nature of resources and development level in each island ( resulted by our own decisions to direct attention and vision to particular aspects), it takes a few attempts and a few rebellions to get the tempo going.</p><p>Now I know that before raising the population for a given level, I need to ensure a strong supply and it is prudent to spend time and pile up materials and ships as required to keep the supply up and running for the expected higher demands.</p><p>Combining this with the impromptu missions requiring a variety of resources, one would start expecting production lines to keep every single resources at a level higher than its need. This is practically impossible to achieve because even raw materials which are abundant might often need to be redirected to its next level of production to get a very efficient generation of the higher valued product.</p><p>A sudden demand for the underlying raw material might be difficult to satisfy, and one might have to resort to buying for the needs while borrowing from the existing stock or shutting down a few production plants to get the raw materials piled up. </p><p>There is also a risk with shipping products in excess of its use across islands. Ships tend to get filled up with goods that are not needed, and take away slots meant for other critical goods and suddenly you might notice a rebellion and it might be too late to take recovery actions. This is why constantly checking your stockpiles and cargo loads on key shipping lanes helps keeping the lanes healthy.</p><p>The fun part of the game is the ability to keep switching between raising the automated systematic shipping lanes and production queues while also doing a tiny bit of exploration, investments in resources and strategically raising population levels, wars etc.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-87464889886808830742022-07-20T10:50:00.004+05:302022-07-20T10:56:38.447+05:30walking through a bramble bush<p> some sort of impasse seems to be built when things don't exactly go at the same pace as I wish them to.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF-nX8VDrHJBfIQZA6IArCpyrlEPw7lQdJI_7FM7sWIQ-cQp_tO7mICm7Cgfjqe730VBJvQO2SRZAOkFfAjex-t0_fA4g6IAdtLWCEUIwedFDoJBe8v5LAhStICnpZ1WMNRrOG4-7yhNodJCnUvqP2z8nmWRCBn7km6sPpf95xa5naDYAhQA/s800/Thorns-on-the-Devils-Walking-Stick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF-nX8VDrHJBfIQZA6IArCpyrlEPw7lQdJI_7FM7sWIQ-cQp_tO7mICm7Cgfjqe730VBJvQO2SRZAOkFfAjex-t0_fA4g6IAdtLWCEUIwedFDoJBe8v5LAhStICnpZ1WMNRrOG4-7yhNodJCnUvqP2z8nmWRCBn7km6sPpf95xa5naDYAhQA/s320/Thorns-on-the-Devils-Walking-Stick.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The resulting frustration is sometimes responsible for leading me into various other paths. Of course I am not trying to absolve my own thinking, feeling and aware brain of its responsibilities in finding meaning, keeping up the tempo and trying to enjoy life.<p></p><p>But quite often, the multiple paths or intentions tend to get muddled up. Specifically, if you look at the simple goal of trying to be happy, comfortable and trying to be super productive, or even perfect. These are kind of built to conflict at various stages, as trying to do something or achieve something, often makes us move from a particular state of mind to another. And all movement requires a bit of stress, attention and focus to get it right. This is in contrast with the staple amounts of peace or comfort at staying in one point.</p><p>The feeling gets stronger and stronger that we are not going to be the perfect <anything> , as per any criteria of perfection defined without touching my very specific needs and persona. If anything, in order to get a fine balance between my own definition of perfections and the external triggers for action, there is a complex interplay between these two forces. It is not easy to state the importance of any one, or to predict how in a particular moment, a decision may be taken.</p><p>But the external practical world craves stability and predictability, and being actors on this stage, I too have developed a few skills in providing these to others, and am capable of judging the same of others, to some extent. To claim mastery on these, is akin to accepting the folly of accepting the need and the resulting abilities in living with those rules. It also gives and internally thumbs up to continue boosting those attributes. </p><p>Let us be clear that I am in no way already favouring one side of things. I might be just going a circuitous way to say that these things require a fine and delicate hand to let each side take turns winning, or sometimes generate completely unique and wild things by combining with each other in various proportions and manners.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeO6CeSeYDXspk_Okj9GmNYCPzE0T8ciZkuII1ioqk4lOlGM-IqTYr5Im626ttROOJY7zf8lLWSXuW2qFAtE3EFY8Gxtg7SYmfm1SJEc46t7KzK8FlXUDnDFLK_IQK6onI1t8gXPIGtX416rLR1zh46ZNSBqDLEkUNjo-2-0kuIwjqC98TFA/s800/Yin_and_Yang_symbol.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeO6CeSeYDXspk_Okj9GmNYCPzE0T8ciZkuII1ioqk4lOlGM-IqTYr5Im626ttROOJY7zf8lLWSXuW2qFAtE3EFY8Gxtg7SYmfm1SJEc46t7KzK8FlXUDnDFLK_IQK6onI1t8gXPIGtX416rLR1zh46ZNSBqDLEkUNjo-2-0kuIwjqC98TFA/s320/Yin_and_Yang_symbol.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>That unpredictability and the bound in the stride that it provides is afterall the elixir of life.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-71096095071867775392022-07-19T20:48:00.001+05:302022-07-19T20:48:03.617+05:30Am I too good for myself<p>Well, here I am, opening this Blogger interface after long long breaks and gaps.</p><p>The question in the title is the one I always find myself asking, when I am back here.</p><p>I end up browsing through my past articles and give up on writing anything.</p><p>I think I am holding up my past work to myself as the heights of my achievement. Some parts of me wants to believe that it is indeed the best I was. But I am now questioning that notion, because..well.. you know..I think I am the best in the current state always.</p><p>After all, I am here in the current state only after being in the past state, which naturally makes my current state a superset of my past states too. So why shouldn't it be better than the past state, which doesn't have the benefit of hindsight that my current state of mind has?</p><p>So here is to a new beginning..</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipObFKncaxJ4FKJUFWgObBBuNmaMJZogv0Ouk-ubRKaRxYyVV6_UtmEZL9vR-u-659vPzAimVNbRr4nAlD_HoGWbPBiHjdNRCL6IVYkensV6c3cBe5qqJ40Zae5NxqA_isr4FKiuNbaDgIk7f3RWT218-HyyrHuVEU6N2PsQ0mhwzGtVFJkQ/s1600/cheers-tea-coffee-cups-hands-mugs-non-alcohol-drinks-diverse-friends-gathering-celebrating-holiday-holding-245612013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1156" data-original-width="1600" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipObFKncaxJ4FKJUFWgObBBuNmaMJZogv0Ouk-ubRKaRxYyVV6_UtmEZL9vR-u-659vPzAimVNbRr4nAlD_HoGWbPBiHjdNRCL6IVYkensV6c3cBe5qqJ40Zae5NxqA_isr4FKiuNbaDgIk7f3RWT218-HyyrHuVEU6N2PsQ0mhwzGtVFJkQ/s320/cheers-tea-coffee-cups-hands-mugs-non-alcohol-drinks-diverse-friends-gathering-celebrating-holiday-holding-245612013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-3224007449980564662021-12-29T10:40:00.005+05:302021-12-29T10:40:50.624+05:30Jungle diaries - First day ends<p><i> I had got allocated to the Gopalswamy Betta range or GS Betta range. That range was controlled from the RFO's office itself, and not any makeshift camps. </i></p><p>This is just one of the many ranges within the Bandipur reserve. And definitely not a good one for sighting animals, as it is situated just outside the park boundaries and meant mainly for administrative purposes than core wildlife activities. </p><p><i>I got a different camp than the others I had got acquainted with by that time. There were a lot of haggling and transfers. I didn't feel like asking any, even knowing well that I was going to a weak buffer zone just outside the gate.</i></p><p>I was clearly dejected and devoid of any company or contact to improve my situation. I had literally given in.</p><p><i>The instructions were provided and the manuals shared were largely in Kannada with forms to fill. Had gone around getting the key fields translated at least.</i></p><p>At least I should make myself useful wherever it is.</p><p><i>4-5 people finally joined out jeep which is HQ for the entire park. There we heard that the beats are waste and Hangala nearby has better sightings. Two experienced guys in our batch immediately opt for it and are taken there, leaving me and Ravi Kiran here at HQ.</i></p><p><i>The rooms are bad. No water, no guards for company, and no one to cook. This isn't what was promised at the briefing which promised well stocked camps with guards and lots of responsibilities.</i></p><p>The room was basically a small one with a shelf to keep some stuff and a space to sleep on the floor. The toilets too were in an exterior building somewhere behind the HQ. This building was part of some kind of quarters for the staff, minus the furniture they had.</p><p><i>Hopefully, someone would come in soon. And the beats aren't promising either. But keeping hope that this experience would be positive.</i></p><p>By this point, I was regretting various decisions, starting from the very first one to enroll for the exercise to not asking for a better position. It took a bit more of mental affirmations to find the right attitude to bear it.</p><p><i>Ah, there is a lot of politics and inteferences. Sitting idly outside the room, I can see after all the shortlisting, people who just walked in also were being accepted. So much for the formal application processes we had gone through. I could have haggled and tried to get into the core zones, but I didn't even try. </i></p><p><i>Keeping fingers crossed and making plans in mind to utilize opportunity to maximum.</i></p><p><i>Hope my other friends are getting a better treatment and are enjoying.</i></p><p><i>Signing off for now.</i></p><p><i>-Vivek</i></p><p><i>1st day at Tiger census Bandipur</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-11040850806552178112021-06-07T10:26:00.000+05:302021-06-07T10:26:29.793+05:30a thought in the bottle<p>Savouring the past glory is not the best thing to do.</p><p>So get on with the writing, ok?</p><p>Ok boss.</p><p>But what do I write?</p><p>Who wants to see?</p><p>Earlier, I used to imagine readers waiting for some content which has elements of travel and adventure, of intrigue, or simple stories.</p><p>Now we are too tied up in our lives, and loads of entertainment options at our fingertips.</p><p>Who would want to read all this stuff?</p><p>Now, does that mean we are back to the old days of the internet ( famed, but never experienced myself ) where most people largely ignore small blogs. And if there are people coming up to read/comment etc on your blog, then you have an equally lost soul or someone coming out of complete boredom.</p><p>I mean how many people could be reading all these boring stuff when they have their own lives to deal with?</p><p>Such are my thoughts that I hereby commit to the note in the bottle and set adrift on the vast vast digital ocean.</p><p><br /></p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-53807274026201872012020-08-25T11:33:00.003+05:302020-08-25T11:40:45.884+05:30Sailing through the ages over stormy oceans<p>The latest book I have been reading is "The Island Civilizations of Polynesia" by "Robert.C.Suggs". It was originally published in 1960, and I believe mine is that very same edition. I got it from Bookworm shop as a worn out second hand copy. Sad to say, the book came to parts while I was trying to read, and I plan to try and glue it back after I am done reading it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsTTiXYuPsEpqJObp3rrGSyjsM7-C1B4Ted_ncaf1AdIVnbtm2iQoVc2KyTzs4PZQHNuZvu8csE6NzAmKl4EkGFCE2Tt6BSDLa60SbEU-dqbUqLxpjvjk_XaL8Bg81Pk48mit/s2048/polynesias.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsTTiXYuPsEpqJObp3rrGSyjsM7-C1B4Ted_ncaf1AdIVnbtm2iQoVc2KyTzs4PZQHNuZvu8csE6NzAmKl4EkGFCE2Tt6BSDLa60SbEU-dqbUqLxpjvjk_XaL8Bg81Pk48mit/w512-h384/polynesias.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Now onto the key take-aways. I had later added some more content I could quickly research from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia">Wikipedia </a>and other sources to try and make this an interesting reference.</p><p> The Polynesian islands were populated by people originally from around South East Asia.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcVXyt4Hqr3h6Mkc_U7kN0txzibWZxnyVFZBZgF0jrruFIzurc3ieR0KZahbax5uMYnKzjwy24g_EZGnhGXBUVRbSKEcOSxLATvPzGmfSon_y23cCsfoeJ8m5zyM-RP03EIlf/s720/borabora_vue_aerienne.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="720" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJcVXyt4Hqr3h6Mkc_U7kN0txzibWZxnyVFZBZgF0jrruFIzurc3ieR0KZahbax5uMYnKzjwy24g_EZGnhGXBUVRbSKEcOSxLATvPzGmfSon_y23cCsfoeJ8m5zyM-RP03EIlf/w512-h355/borabora_vue_aerienne.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The Melanasian islands, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia had land bridges at some point, whereas the polynesian islands never had. At least this what I recall from the initial sections of how the islands weer populated. So this means the far flung Polynesian islands were majorly populated by a sea faring folk, braving unknown vast oceans and perilous shoals and reefs. The islands themselves were seldom hospitable, and so it must have taken many centuries of deliberate and accidental exploration to finally settle all islands worthy of being settled.</p><p>All this was studied on the basis of lots of data comprising of Anthropological data, Linguistic data, and finally lots of ongoing Archaeological evidences that is slowly setting the pieces in its right places. Of course, looking across such a vast swath of time, all evidences tend to have a huge margin for error, which is kind of taken for granted in this line of business.</p><p>Around the time of Word War II, the linguists of the world had researched and identified that the Polynesian language originated from Proto-Indonesian, and each island has since developed its own dialects. By figuring out the similarity between the various dialects, we have been able to underscore or sometimes question the different ages at which the different islands were settled and where the settlers came from.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimhoUoPRQY-bA56p4GtvIADMX-SDE2rViZzJM-y1hshShxUqc6RB0gczyvWfPNQIHwd1MTkpYnPtdZS0Axf4DFWsGDMkE4RasMAMGT1nUb-5uHmOiDnXqvO9_wvsQTP_ZN0OF_/s2731/Chronological_dispersal_of_Austronesian_people_across_the_Pacific_%2528per_Benton_et_al%252C_2012%252C_adapted_from_Bellwood%252C_2011%2529.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2731" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimhoUoPRQY-bA56p4GtvIADMX-SDE2rViZzJM-y1hshShxUqc6RB0gczyvWfPNQIHwd1MTkpYnPtdZS0Axf4DFWsGDMkE4RasMAMGT1nUb-5uHmOiDnXqvO9_wvsQTP_ZN0OF_/w512-h216/Chronological_dispersal_of_Austronesian_people_across_the_Pacific_%2528per_Benton_et_al%252C_2012%252C_adapted_from_Bellwood%252C_2011%2529.png" width="512" /></a></div><p>Image <a href="By Obsidian Soul - M. Benton M; D. Macartney-Coxson; D. Eccles; L. Griffiths; G. Chambers; R. Lea (13 April 2012). &quot;Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequencing Reveals Novel Haplotypes in a Polynesian Population&quot;. PLoS ONE 7 (4): e35026. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0035026., CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75888381">source</a></p><p>Now I'll like to talk about some interesting tit bits I could remember about the various islands themselves:</p><p>The island known as Marquesas in the modern day, with the name attributed to its colonial discoverers, is believed to be the oldest settlement in the Polynesian triangle. By comparing various artifacts found on this island against those found on the other islands, a lot of migration path information has been derived by the archaeologists over the last century.</p><p>The Samoans ( I always read it first as <i>Samosa</i> ) developed a centralized village system with leaders claiming title rather than lineage, whereas their neighbours the Tongans developed a lineage based isolated family units. The Tongans were fierce warriors and often used as mercenaries in Fiji. This difference is mainly owing to the differences in the natural habitat of the two islands. While Samoa had huge tracts of fertile land capable surrounded by all other resources like clean water and quarries, Tonga had an its resources split across the islands. The split caused family units surrounding that area to become the sole source of this resource to the central authority, and they traded or fought for the remaining ones.</p><p>The Samoans ended up building huge fortified villages and large temples for their deities as the local leader was capable of feeding a huge number of workers for lengthy periods of time due to the huge surplus in food production. The Tongans were largely left to producing the bare minimum required and became adept at fighting wars.</p><p>Samoa and Tonga were the Western Polynesian islands from where the culture spread further to the east to the likes of Tahiti and Hawaii.</p><p>I didn't feel much elated about the Tahitians and Hawaiians as they seemed to build quite a good centralized society banking on good fertile lands, building large temples and fighting brutal wars for resources and politics. Every day civilization for you.. But of course the big islands had their own share of old stories of settlement, death and wars by which the dominant settlement was achieved.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1UES1RCksSxKoVwDz_wcnf3dnDdD1CXviLGaA_kF_Kl6mH9xJ0kh1ezjX80Cq9SCnUnoQaxtRj2lLcn2gM6BlRfhD4gOVZ6iS1XBmSDSMdsP1OoyAi7sjw8ouoFdRRefSIoE/s800/Easter-Island-moai-statues631.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="800" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK1UES1RCksSxKoVwDz_wcnf3dnDdD1CXviLGaA_kF_Kl6mH9xJ0kh1ezjX80Cq9SCnUnoQaxtRj2lLcn2gM6BlRfhD4gOVZ6iS1XBmSDSMdsP1OoyAi7sjw8ouoFdRRefSIoE/w512-h243/Easter-Island-moai-statues631.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>The story of the Easter Islands is a complete different thing of its own. It has always been mired in controversy over the Moai statues. The wild theories themselves are so much fun to read. But the author here being a professional, quickly dismissed all of them and got to the business of using stratigraphic data to established the mode of settlement and probable ages. He quickly explains that unlike the other islands to its west, this eastern island was settled directly by the inhabitants of Marquesas Islands. Also, due to the lack of any proper vegetation and the islands being largely volcanic in nature, the unique statues and other petroglyphs paint a completely different landscape.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqqQtcn_rCZHwPwO-N-GayseIEA3mmehBoCE-NY87ziGVNpZuzzDc0mrV1C-8pOtA2fHoRDqmmP_8iE-ucfD_Fhv22X7MBJc-N8-pmgmn90p5GWyCrjtk3tAZsvJrpzZB6NaCD/s1600/South-Island-giant-moa-female-Dinornis-robustus.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1472" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqqQtcn_rCZHwPwO-N-GayseIEA3mmehBoCE-NY87ziGVNpZuzzDc0mrV1C-8pOtA2fHoRDqmmP_8iE-ucfD_Fhv22X7MBJc-N8-pmgmn90p5GWyCrjtk3tAZsvJrpzZB6NaCD/w302-h328/South-Island-giant-moa-female-Dinornis-robustus.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>Then came the very interesting myths of the Moa birds and the Maori on the New Zealand, and their valour against the British colonizers. It all provided me lots of interesting topics to look out for further reading.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_z8O9daKinU_Ff5bb2K4lF9jMr3ivk1mjSV50iAC-PxXiHlJxi-lc26toscuTC6olG36pCqogF0-iW8CS0lWna8nK_dwuh25XyMwLY_g2rDxYx5cUkEHXCEp_sMdbufXDO5d5/s680/SN40-TR-Kapa-Haka%25E2%2580%2593Benefits-for-non-M%25C4%2581ori-students1.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="680" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_z8O9daKinU_Ff5bb2K4lF9jMr3ivk1mjSV50iAC-PxXiHlJxi-lc26toscuTC6olG36pCqogF0-iW8CS0lWna8nK_dwuh25XyMwLY_g2rDxYx5cUkEHXCEp_sMdbufXDO5d5/w262-h173/SN40-TR-Kapa-Haka%25E2%2580%2593Benefits-for-non-M%25C4%2581ori-students1.jpg" width="262" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The varied stories of the Polynesians keeps telling us that the same set of people from the same areas or sometimes from the same family, end up in so many different ways, shaped by their land and their times. The arrival of the Europeans which we all consider as a major interruption in all such cultures wouldn't be the first, as they went through the cycle of discovering new lands, and often leaving old ones behind. But then they are not comparable as the former was more permanent, directed and intelligent erasure of roots. The journeying and discoveries only lead to expansion of culture in comparison. Needless to say, the arrival and settlement of the Europeans, often for the purpose of whaling, trading and general missionary purposes simply decimated the population with communicable diseases and forced eradication of culture.</p><p>I am not really exposed to any current day political elements or sentiments of the Polynesians. But seeing that some islands are still under the control of the British or the French, I can't stop wondering how hot things are in the idyllic vacation islands of the world.</p>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-23003358749689285062020-08-05T10:03:00.001+05:302020-08-05T10:03:25.203+05:30seeking the warmth of the pages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I set out on a cold Monday morning on my bike on a 12km long ride through a sparsely crowded Bangalore, which is currently in its milder state due to the pandemic and the cold.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I had never used this route and having gone around circles a bit ( which is customary in Bangalore ), I finally found myself in front of Bookworm on Church Street.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Needless to say, shaking off the pandemic laden emptiness and cold, I entered the warm house of books. Books all around, shining with warm titles and covers, immediately makes one feel at home.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Since its been ages (or feels like) since I visited a book store, I spent quite a bit of time exploring the latest best sellers on prominent display. Since the store was almost deserted, one of the staff members came around asking if I was looking for anything specific.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I had just recently cleaned up and rebuilt my To-Read list in GoodReads and still had hundreds of books in my list. I wasn't sure if I would really read many of the newly added titles, so I cautiously read out names for him. Some of them were found tucked away, or had to be dug up. This went on for quite some time, until I had a very large bundle of books to carry.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But since my list was large, the books which were available were being brought forth. After a while of doing this, I finally decided to check out some new titles outside the list. I managed to pick a few small historical titles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Then I dumped all the books on a table and sat to filter out mentally what I would like to read in short term and which ones I would anyway read in the long term. I finally ended just dropping just 2 out of the 20 odd books I had taken.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Phew, what a heavy load I ended up with. Even after shedding a few old books by returning them for 50% discount, the backpack was quite tightly packed. Then I rode all the way back home, marvelling on how I would read some of the titles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Reaching home, I had the usual pile up after cleansing myself. My son made a 'building block' pile with the colourful books and then focussed on his new books, whereas I went ahead with arranging mine.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So I thinking I am loaded enough for quite some time with a variety of topics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRugvQHRj3AXxx8CFgKow-aSTfZzIPrCfJBhpslUzfjcAZR79XnzQ8SmyAc8RYh2t4yJ5zNZc3Vw6zQLrimzRgea4o-EFFMq4SdnBhOQoyjgL1Fx6N40WE8cXNnox34-8e_u_a/s4615/IMG20200803112131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3467" data-original-width="4615" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRugvQHRj3AXxx8CFgKow-aSTfZzIPrCfJBhpslUzfjcAZR79XnzQ8SmyAc8RYh2t4yJ5zNZc3Vw6zQLrimzRgea4o-EFFMq4SdnBhOQoyjgL1Fx6N40WE8cXNnox34-8e_u_a/w328-h246/IMG20200803112131.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinysvE3lMaCyZG1j8Ik38hNaY_aa5OfiI37DRJxMY6lMLgCkRVlJxfz4WEFVWKCyhGrb5F7euy0D01DTFXLOxQ-i4YfDenx9m5XhS9YOWceNhx9bxFNpM0HU33LsYYXuFUY2il/s4608/IMG20200803121154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinysvE3lMaCyZG1j8Ik38hNaY_aa5OfiI37DRJxMY6lMLgCkRVlJxfz4WEFVWKCyhGrb5F7euy0D01DTFXLOxQ-i4YfDenx9m5XhS9YOWceNhx9bxFNpM0HU33LsYYXuFUY2il/s640/IMG20200803121154.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDbUadHSd5welT4JhaqAIdsaTEoONF2_4HttKrxwtmocBT9ix92S0UQDIuz2C6noKUB4PHx6LBbGGqVwYCbfZaZqmgo0roPlQX-ZlYs4Iqx1jn-w2BMEZxwXuJnTA0VyxRX2D/s4608/IMG20200803121145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDbUadHSd5welT4JhaqAIdsaTEoONF2_4HttKrxwtmocBT9ix92S0UQDIuz2C6noKUB4PHx6LBbGGqVwYCbfZaZqmgo0roPlQX-ZlYs4Iqx1jn-w2BMEZxwXuJnTA0VyxRX2D/s640/IMG20200803121145.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-63234954004126277692020-08-05T08:53:00.001+05:302020-08-05T08:53:59.948+05:30creative venturesI see a lot of creative ventures from people in this lockdown.<div>And since I am not even a regular person on the social media, I know I might be talking about what everyone knows.</div><div><br /></div><div>But my blog, my thoughts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Notable are a few like a school friend of mine who is about to publish his own debut book of poems.</div><div>There is another friend who has started a VLOG since she's been stuck in Kerala for long.</div><div>My wife has developed an interest in gardening and is seriously doing lots of experiments with a variety of plants.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many folks discovered their talents in singing, dancing, photography etc. which they hadn't really explored prior to the pandemic induced lockdown. I am seeing all these through the very small window of social media called Whatsapp Status.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even my son has developed his speech and other mischievous skills alongside.</div><div><br /></div><div>So creativity and development is in full bloom all around.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMVX-WdIekcevX6lRZmWTSrrTTYw7dzL7twuJ61LylgmMbt2gpGrGVpmiIkJsTr3BP39KoAaKL0_h5aja34vGH-inDYz2Ga3nGC1tDFu83K0wT4Ti0G88FUGzMuIvjGO2sfhH/s640/creative-juices.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlMVX-WdIekcevX6lRZmWTSrrTTYw7dzL7twuJ61LylgmMbt2gpGrGVpmiIkJsTr3BP39KoAaKL0_h5aja34vGH-inDYz2Ga3nGC1tDFu83K0wT4Ti0G88FUGzMuIvjGO2sfhH/s0/creative-juices.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>And yeah, its the same for me too: strategic and creative tasks at work, tonnes of books read, things pondered, written, taught..</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-88823668092293412162020-07-31T12:25:00.001+05:302020-07-31T12:25:33.427+05:30books from goodreads statistics page<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since I have the practice of recording the books I read on Goodreads, I get some interesting statistics everytime I record a book. It does list the short books published locally though.<br />
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Since I have been foraging on books from the Juggernaut app as well, there are quite a lot of them which are on Goodreads though.<br />
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Looking at my statistics as of today, here is a list of books I have read. I'll try to put a few notes I could recall on that book. It might be more of a mental activity to remember the book, but if any of the readers of this post find any of them interesting, you may take up further checking on Goodreads/Amazon or your local bookstore.<br />
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The Shortest Book seems to be "The Angel of the Odd" at just 12 pages. I recall this book from the many short story books I was reading from Juggernaut which were available for free.<br />
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<b>The Angel of the Odd (Edgar Allan Poe)</b> -> This is the story where a man questions the concept of luck in the regular logical arguments mode, and is faced with a terrible fantastic adventure as a consequence. This adventure described in a sequence of mishaps leaves him doubting his own convictions about the importance of luck. I recall the book especially for the comic narrative. As with all short comic books, the entertainment is in the flow and narrative.<br />
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The Longest Book seems to be "A Falcon Flies" at 704 pages. This was from a collection of British books I purchased from a local Bookstore in Kochi.<br />
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<b>A Falcon Flies(Wilbur Smith)</b> -> This is quite an interesting book since it introduced me to the colonial British involvement in the African continent. I hadn't really read any books on this topic prior to it and there were lots of new ground to cover like connecting the history and sequence of events leading to the story and characters. The book itself seems one off a long series with a similar theme of British adventurers on African soil, with some sympathizing and aligning to the plight of the natives, while others playing at various spectrums. Overall, it felt like a good travel read. Oh yeah, let me add - this is a work of fiction.<br />
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The Most Popular one seems to be "Blink:The Power of Thinking Without Thinking". This was one of those 'thinking' books I read and that was quite recently too. I even was trying a more involved way of reading such books, inspired by "Farnam Street".<br />
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<b>Blink:The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Malcolm Gladwell)</b> -> This isn't the first book I have read of this author and I really liked many concepts in his previous books. In fact when I tried to recall them, I had difficulties doing it. It was one of the reasons I decided to try new techniques from Farnam Street while reading "Blink". I wrote on the margins with a pencil with my thoughts and wrote crystallized thoughts on a small notepad after I finished a short reading session. Needless to say, I found it quite a nourishing way to read.<br />
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Now about the book itself; It is an interesting take on topics like judgement, split-second decisions, bias, fast learning etc. Being a complicated topic with no stiff borders and definitions, I believe the author did a good job overall. He introduces the concept using an interesting example of an art fraud which goes undetected through scores of months-long scientific analysis but is caught in a moment by some art experts. He then investigates what made it possible for them to do it. Though he starts of with some over-the-head promises like "Anyone can do complex intuitive judgements without years of practice", at the climax, the book didn't seem to do anything like that.<br />
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What it in fact provides is a better awareness of some concepts like the unknown bias that affects everyone, how stress makes even the most clairvoyant and fair person myopic, and provides some terminology and techniques to explain yourself to others when you perform an intuitive judgement. I found the term 'thin-slicing' very useful. He also has a very interesting case of why too much information inhibits decision making skills. I could really apply these to daily personal and professional tasks. Hence I enjoyed the book quite a lot.<br />
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Stopping it here. Will put out another post peppered with thoughts on a few other books.</div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-43322479392044582212020-07-21T17:34:00.000+05:302020-07-21T17:34:32.008+05:30Working deep in the mines<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Nowadays the majority of my working hours are in discussions, either passively listening or taking notes or explaining or negotiating things.<br />
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With the remote working nature, even the simplest discussions and interactions need to go through elaborate chaos of noise, dropped calls, and overlapping voices. Oh I almost forgot the great villians: Echo and Delay.<br />
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Also, it seems like everyone is almost always in discussions/meetings, so its hard to have quick drawing-on-the-board discussions or idea generations over a cup of tea.<br />
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I find the impacts to be mainly on topics which require convincing people, sending subtle reassuring messages using body language, and generally to capture everyone's attention. The people you want to convince are either busy doing something else when you are carefully articulated sentences are pronounced, or they have connection problems or worse they misunderstood your voice modulations.<br />
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Also working from home, with a small kid and spouse also employed, meetings sometimes become a nuisance as it disrupts the family ceremonies like lunch,dinner and conversations. This is also partly due to the lack of any fixed start or end timelines for a working day. At least when we used to commute to office, one could just be away from the seat ( be it sipping tea, or at restroom, taking a call, puff or even gone home for the day ), and others would let you be unless its urgent. Now, all this happens through meetings, especially with colleagues of different geographic regions competing to fit the schedules into those of others.<br />
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My son who has just started speaking already has words like Appa Amma Meeting, Aptop ( laptop ) in his vocabulary and imitates me typing with headphones on, sipping green tea.<br />
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With no boundaries between office life and personal life, there is no space for social life either. And there is nothing to blame the office life for that since the virus takes the primary blame for it anyway.<br />
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Now with all this chaos around us, when work requires one to think deeply and extract its gems, there is an interesting condition. When one is able to sink oneself into the deep workings of the mind, making connections, all the din outside fades away, replaced by quiet neurons at work. But as always the deep work sessions last but for a few minutes. Many a times the deep sessions happen by themselves like at loo or while doing something else which require mechanical repetitive actions. Also the time just before sleep invades at night and just before sleep retreats in the morning brings along with it various insights which enhance or correct the previous day's deep thoughts.<br />
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The meditative state of the mind is so satisfying and enriching that one yearns to keep going back there and it requires significant investment in isolation and time. So naturally, it keeps many shallow tasks aside, which requires others around you to pick them up or if it suits, they'll just wait for you to get back to it.</div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-69769211389304250152020-07-19T18:47:00.000+05:302020-07-19T18:47:23.246+05:30Notes from Coronapril<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<u>Notes from April 2020</u><br />
This lockdown and isolation is gonna last for a month more. Oh god. How do I bear it?<br />
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Even the thirty day subscriptions or Prime and Magzter would come to an end soon. Then I would have only cooking, workout, music, books, writing and painting to keep myself mentally sane. And there is the garden too which is quite ignored. And of course, I almost forgot, there are the extremely crushing office schedule, collaborating with remote colleagues and some really lengthy training modules too.<br />
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Also, on Magzter, what could be the inspirational motivation to read the magazines on Architecture, Aeroplanes, CoViD updates and medical news? I have earmarked a lot, but unable to start reading them. I find myself only looking forward to reading on travel (which is the last thing possible now).<br />
-----End of notes---<br />
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PS: Nothing happens the way one notes down about it. I ended up either binge reading every single magazine on Magzter before its subscription ended, or deleted a few I realized were too dry. I ended up not doing any workout, did no painting or writing and just stuck to movies, office work, books and magazines.<br />
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Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-74991206867644284962020-07-19T18:37:00.001+05:302020-07-19T18:37:30.718+05:30Reading in the time of Corona<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The months of lockdown also meant months of reading hundreds of magazines and books from free eBOOK apps and physical ones. I was extensively using Magzter and Juggernaut apps on the phone. I continue to use the latter while the former was stopped after its free version ended. Since there was a deadline, I also read feverishly and later sat down to vomit it all out to a diary to see how much I could recall. Now I am just digitizing some of those notes .. for fun.<br />
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In fact, as of today, I have 40 books marked Read in Goodreads, compared to the usual maximum of 20 a year. This doesn't count the hundreds of magazines and books which are not in Goodreads. If I try to recall the genre of magazines, I can quickly recall Architecture, Landscape, Science, Travel, Technology, History, Facts, History, Sci-Fi, Historical Fiction, Indian Mythological Fiction, Health Foods, Crime and even some Malayalam Literature.<br />
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<br />
There was this article I read about the Archer fish, originally found in the Sundarbans.<br />
The fascinating aspect of this fish is that it beats refraction aspects and manages to shoot perfectly at insects high above the water line even while its eye is below it.<br />
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Then there was the article on the Basilisk lizard that has perfected running over water with a mechanism of running. It helps it to survive and gives more options of escaping compared to other similar organisms.<br />
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I also came to know that Band Aid was created by an employee whose wife kept having cuts and bruises at the kitchen. It was prepared by sticking pieces of gauze with anti-septic stuck on small tapes for easy application.<br />
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Also I realized that all dogs are the same species though they vary in lots of characteristics. This is because they are able to inter-breed between breeds.<br />
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The invention of MRI is a disputed one between some American and British scientists.<br />
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The head feels rotating in the direction opposite to the actual motion as it is still undergoing the cancellation action ordered by the brain to retain some kind of equilibrium.<br />
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The reason air is invisible is because it doesn't alter the photons which pass through it. Other materials like water in it does it and causing it to translucent.<br />
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There were some tough science topics also that I read about a lot like the Corona Virus, T-Cells, Lymph nodes, generation of antibodies, and the history of deep bores into the Earth. Looking at the vast topics these are, I can justify not having written down lengthy notes at that time.<br />
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Then there were the stories of exploration of the Angel falls, detailed full magazines on Ladakhi architecture, garden landscaping ideas and stories on sustainable living environments.<br />
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Since I am not able to locate the other notes, I might keep putting more posts on what I am able to recall, more as a memory recall exercise than anything else.</div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-73690690747559120172020-03-16T18:10:00.001+05:302020-03-16T18:10:31.737+05:30Dealing with drafts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you noticed, or go and check now that I ask, you can see I published lots of articles in quick succession.<br />
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Those were old drafts which I had accumulated since I stopped writing things properly. And that has been the case for many years now. Some of the old drafts have no relevance now, but nevertheless, if anything was longer than a couple of paragraphs and had some message, I just published them all.<br />
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I ended up deleting some placeholders. Ugh I hate those symptoms of procrastination,and greed to cover things which actually doesn't have a strong pull to write about. Of course many were about fleeting feelings of elation or frustration, but two lines of bullshit or a page of well planned placeholders for a travelogue don't cut it.<br />
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Generally I am all in for drafts as that allows ideas to mature, if you leave something out for years at a time, and you actually move, then it is just rotten, stagnant pieces of an earlier life. Better be displayed as a relic as it is, rather than by trying to polish it and get attached to the past.<br />
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Now and many times, I have this question in my mind. Will I write again? Write again like in those peak years of 2013, on those topics? Nay, mostly not. I would or might write about new things, new mindset and whatever I feel like in future. No guarantees there though.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I feel I am a self-obsessed maniac who loves to see his own writing. But I also remind myself not to be too harsh on myself and ridicule that same idea. </div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-41743503331191453442020-03-16T18:00:00.002+05:302021-12-29T10:21:18.066+05:30Suomi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[A very nice topic that has a special place in mind, but I don't have a space in my mind anymore for old drafts. Hence publishing it. Will follow up with a proper travelogue if I care about it enough ]<br />
<br />
Finland!<br />
<br />
A name that always popped up in my mind with visions of ice rinks and ice hockey. And of course the name Helsinki rhymes well with rinks. "Helsinki sinks in rinks.."<br />
<br />
So it was an like an explosive reaction when last year I found myself staring down the wings of an KLM Airbus as it cleared the clouds and flew low over the almost pitch black skies over Helsinki. There it was. Finland - and it looked nothing like what I had thought it to be.<br />
<br />
Though I was able to do my basic research, the kind I wouldn't have done before, it couldn't prepare me for what was to become my permanent record of the land - the smell of birch, the quaint silence and the almost permanently frost at the tip of my nose.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-55338752492467137562020-03-16T17:58:00.001+05:302020-03-16T17:58:52.749+05:30Jungle diaries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[Been in draft for quite long. Not sure how to improve it further, hence publishing]<br />
<br />
Having had thought through the idea of penning my jungle diaries umpteen times, I am not sure which way would sound best without unnecessary details. I now think I should try the narration style rather than the diary style.<br />
<br />
The tale begins with me leaving for Mysore a day ahead of the scheduled date. I recall to date, how I forced myself to sleep extra as rest of my room mates left for their respective offices. I checked and rechecked my To-Do list and mentally made calculations for acquisitions. I had still many items pending in the list, and my plans were rather loose in nature (as it usually is) .<br />
<br />
With no one to discuss with or consult, I just went about with whatever came to mind, hoping it would suffice, and set out for Mysore. Reaching there by evening, by a friend's grace, I set out with my acquisition plan. It involved going half way around the city and meeting other friends who had agreed to lend their equipments. Thanks to my pals who were into wildlife and travel, I received a sleeping bag and a pair of binoculars. With it, I felt I had enough stuff in my arsenal to survive in the jungle without too much trouble. I slept peacefully at my friend's place that night, content with the acquisitions.<br />
<br />
Early next morning, I caught a bus to Ooty. The route to Ooty runs through the Bandipur forest and the conductor informed me that I could get down at some certain point and walk rest of the way to the gates. In the bus, I noticed many others who were dressed and carrying equipments like me. So I kept my eyes and ears tuned to catch any mention of the census. I had begun to feel nervous and excited at the same time as I had no idea where I was headed to, and what I ought to be doing there. A bit of spying helped to quell that stress a bit :)<br />
<br />
Outside the gates, I met a few guys who had come in from various parts of Karnataka to participate in the census. These guys were excited and loaded with information about the entire process. I was able to quell much of my nervousness just by chatting with these guys. My lack of experience, company and language barriers did annoy me a bit, but I was just enjoying the moment, anticipating the unknown.<br />
<br />
Soon enough, the inauguration was underway and the officials came forward to explain various aspects of the procedure of the National Tiger census. Coupling that with the chit-chat we were having amongst ourselves, I was able to build a rather decent image of what lie ahead.<br />
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After lunch, we were to be allotted our respective ranges. These ranges would be where we would be stationed for the entire period of the census. There was a considerable amount of excitement and apprehensions among the volunteers, as it seems the nature of experience varied across ranges. There were supposedly some camps deep in the jungle which provided excellent chances of spotting tigers and/or other highly sought after animals. These camps were also mostly inaccessible, provided with only bare necessities and in practice meant a real hard life in the jungle, fraught with danger of wildlife. On the other extreme of the scale, lie ranges which were on the outskirts, buffer areas and near the offices of the department, offering fewer or no wildlife, but overall a more comfortable stay. Needless to say, no one preferred the latter.<br />
<br />
With the excitement rising, and many groups already talking about using their contacts and influence to get desired camps, I felt completely stranded. I had never even considered such a situation, and with no knowledge of which camps are good or whom to ask, I just sat quietly. Soon, the names of people allocated to various camps were called out, followed by varied responses and frantic requests for exchanges and adjustments. I could see that not all such requests were granted.<br />
<br />
In the next one hour, I was allocated to some camp's name which I couldn't make out, and after following several instructions to change camps based on someone else's requests, I was finally asked to board a jeep. I silently did that, and found 5 others for company. We quickly got introduced to each other by the time the jeep reached our destination camp. Having completely lost sense of whatever was going on, I slowly recovered now and listened carefully to one of the fellows who seemed to know certain things. It was heart wrenching to realize from his words that we had been sent to probably one of the worst camps. Even worse than the fact that I was completely clueless was that I couldn't react to what was gonna happen next..</div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-29087670775407582020-03-16T17:55:00.001+05:302020-03-16T17:55:41.964+05:30Measure of happiness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[Publishing an old draft]<br />
<br />
How do you know whether you are truly happy about your life?<br />
<br />
Everyone has dreams. Everyone has aspirations. Everyone has expectations on them created by relatives,friends, various people they have met in life and finally and most importantly, themselves.<br />
<br />
We are all weighed down on one side all these. We also have to take decisions. In this matter, some get lots of well placed and timed support people in their lives, whereas some don't find much. There are some who don't even look for support and jump straight in, the haughty kind.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27995566.post-80616142119654649022020-03-16T17:53:00.001+05:302020-03-16T17:53:50.219+05:30Mountains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[Publishing yet another old draft]<br />
<br />
the fascination with mountains has been part of my existence from time immemorial. or atleast I believe so, and most of people who know me, acknowledge the same quite easily. after all its not so difficult to miss the obvious excitement and expressions I show when I am in the vicinity of mountains.<br />
<br />
but it wasn't always so. there is always an explanation for every single expression and pattern shown by a human mind, this much I know from my interests in the study of the mind and brain.<br />
<br />
<br />
in spite of the fact that most of the mountains attract me like a magnet and make me feel very happy, some mountains fail to do so. this in spite of there being no lack of 'key' elements of attraction around the mountain. i found this to be difficult to explain but I understand why its so in some of these cases.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Vivekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00421744345005610109noreply@blogger.com0