Reading

The thoughts that follow are in some senses devoid practical sensibilities and real life circumstances.

I used to be a voracious reader once. 

I would read under the blankets, with a torch. 

I would read lying down, standing, upside down.

For those of you who know me in person, you know I have very weak eyes. So this wasn't always the best of ideas, but never one to listen to sagely advice, I kept at it.

Then somehow with time, I've come to a point where I barely read anymore.

This is about why I think that might be a good thing.

To be very honest, the change happened when I went to hostel and had the Internet at my beck and call, uninhibited, and uncensored.

Life became much more around geeky news, websites, movies, tv shows and porn, and lesser and lesser books would make their way to me.

When I look back, especially at the more recent years, is when I realise why it's might be a good thing I don't read as much, anymore.

Why I say this is because now, I do. 

A cliched statement as it might be, I want to try and elaborate, if only for my sake, to rationalise.

tl;dr

Reading makes you experience something through someone else, the story and life of another.

Doing, will make those experiences truly yours.

Love Heartbreak. Pain. ?
Go out and love. Freely, with carefree abandon. You shall know and feel, much stronger, every emotion, in any book ever.

Success. Struggle. Will. Grit. Failure. ?
Create things. Strive hard for something - a passion, a muse, a quest, a path not taken. Struggle. Fight. Cry.
No book will teach you the lessons you learn, nor empower you with the strength that doing this yourself will.

Nature. Wildlife. Travels. Adventures. ?

Go out and travel. Hitchhike your way into the new. You will know nature, as it is meant to be known, and not described to you, as someone else knew it. You will experience the adrenalin of your adventure, not the adrenalin of someone else's.

So for all the time you spend reading books, try instead to go, LIVE.
DO what it is you most like to read about. 

Be the character of a book, in your own life. Make your life a book. 

And may it, one day, be one of the greatest ever made.

Management Lessons For Self & Others(?)

• Don't try to keep others busy for the heck of it.
• If you aren't sure what output you want, take time to decide first, and then let the team work on what you need. If you're letting the team take a crack at it, be moderately open to agreeing to what they put together, with the required refinements, of course.
• If you want something done your way and are not open to debate - say it. It's far more frustrating to be heard, potentially agreed with only to be shot down later.
• Stick to promises made.
• Don't underestimate the challenges your team deals with. There is a difference between belittling and giving confidence.
• In any output, there are must-haves and good-to-haves. Learn to differentiate, and accept not having the good-to-haves every now and then. Not everything is a deal-breaker.
• Ensure that what you convey to the team, is what your superior conveyed to you, lest they have to re-work their output because you weren't sure what your superior wanted.
• Don't insist on outputs whose structure has not been finalized in slides - be prepared to discuss content in Excel. It saves the team a LOT of time otherwise spend on unproductive pointless slide making.
• Slides are NOT the best way to communicate everything.

Diamonds Are Forever

It's been six years since what it stood for, broke. I still remember that diamond ring as vividly as if it were in front of me.
Diamonds are forever.

Of Mourning.

Mourn the living not the dead.

Pain

Different forms.
Different causes.
Same result.
Pain.

There is beauty in it's universality and mathematical incision.

4 for 20130703

1. Mathematics, for making me feel good, and yet insufficient
2. Padmini, for taking care of me, with love
3. Baba, for the little time I spent knowing him before he passed
4. Dad being in the army and all the impact that has had on my childhood