This and That aka Daily Musings

Just the other day NS, my running buddy, sent me a message about writing. It exhorts people to write on a public platform. Regular, focused writing would help sharpen one's expression. Usually I sit down to write/type in the afternoon as I am assured of uninterrupted screen time. Writing regularly on a variety of subjects gives you better understanding. Hitherto unexplored thoughts, deep buried feelings surface because of this. The post shared by my friend further states that untold riches can be harnessed from writing if one really gets good at it. I am not sure I would ever be able to make any commercial use of my writing. But I do have the urge to improve. Brevity in writing is preferred rather than employing long winding sentences. This is easier said than done. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, human attention spans are very short. So it is counterproductive to use long sentences. One loses context entirely. Avoiding cliches is very important. For non-scientific writ

It is now mandatory in many states of India for students to read the preamble to the constitution during prayers every day. What will be achieved by doing this? Our venerable leaders hope, a lot. I remember mugging up the preamble when I was in school many years ago. I was not aware that our constitution began with these lines. In fact to be more candid, I was not aware what a constitution was. A constitution is a framework of basic laws of a nation. It outlines the powers and duties of the government and guarantees certain rights to its citizens. In these hyper nationalistic times it might be a good idea for young people to be abreast of our constitution. Our republic assures its citizens justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. Justice is guaranteed in social, economic and political spheres. Liberty of thought, expression, faith and worship is assured. Equality of status and of opportunity is a given (at least on paper) . Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and th

Contrary to what we all would like to believe, the average attention span of human beings is a mere 4 minutes! Unbelievable it may sound but it has been scientifically proven. Has our attention span always been so meager? Studies show that it has declined over the past few decades. Electronic devices and social media are usually cited to be culprits for this decline. There may be some truth in this observation. People of all ages are now hooked to their cell phones. They are constantly engaged in sending texts, vexing over not receiving any 'likes', getting annoyed when people do not take calls or your profile does not elicit any response from desired quarters. Newer apps keep popping every year and more and more people get drawn to them. This is truly obnoxious. Social media is perhaps an avenue for people who have identity problems to vent out. This electronic form of expression allows them to unabashedly bring forth their narcissistic selves with gay abandon. People give a

I am now at the cusp of turning 50 and thoughts of 'retirement' have started creeping in my mind. The question is, "retirement from what?" The dictionary meaning of retirement is 'the action or fact of leaving one's job and ceasing to work' . This interpretation seems outdated now. A few centuries ago when lifespans were shorter, human beings could take the liberty of withdrawing from active life and take up vaanaprasthashram . But now all contexts have changed with improved lifespans. Man's quest of extending life is yielding results. It is now very common to find 'elderly' people of 60 and above leading a very active life. A man can never truly retire. As long as one is breathing, and is having reasonably good health, man continues to be active, one way or the other. Not all occupations would be pleasing. Many retired people are now relegated to looking after empty houses as the younger folks stay away for long hours due to work. They are

In about 60 hours from now most of us would have crossed the start line of the Mumbai Marathon. Questions like, “am I up to it this year?”, “will my injuries resurface?” and the dreaded “will the weather be benevolent?” would be forgotten in the initial euphoria of running with thousands of like-minded crazy people. Trepidation would strike in the initial few hours as we travel to the venue but we will get a burst of adrenaline as soon as the start time beckons and we too join others in vigorously chanting “Ganpati Bappa Moraya” and “Bharat Mata Ki Jay”. It is imperative to show restraint during the initial two or three kilometers as we tend to mimic others around us and tire ourselves in keeping up. This is perhaps FOMO in action. As Guruji keeps reminding us, there is a lot of time in our hands while running a marathon. So, stick to a plan and do not compete with anyone, not even yourselves. We should be able to finish smoothly if we are able to keep ourselves in check. All of

This year began well as far as my blogging experiment is concerned. I wrote consistently for about ten days in a row. Most of my writing is pedestrian with only a few lines really worthy of reading or feeling proud of. Do I really have any depth about anything at all? Can I write on a regular basis on a variety of subjects? Well, I did try but the writing seems a bit convoluted and deliberate. Any kind of self-expression has to flow without any impediments or accouterments. The effort is showing. So rather than forcing myself to pound the keyboard daily, I have decided to focus on any topic that currently interests me and then write about it after doing research. My understanding of most subjects is rudimentary so I do not expect any kind of depth in my ruminations. I am reading Jeffrey Archer's "The Fourth Estate" at the moment. This is perhaps Archer's weakest effort. But somehow I find myself curled up everyday with this book. I find the stories of Townsend an

Subtraction. Reductionism. Minimalism. I would have smirked incredulously if I had read about the importance of the nouns mentioned above. These are applicable in all human endeavours. Writing, thinking, investing, exercising, relationships, habits, dressing up, choosing accessories and whatever. Any one can write effectively only if they are able to control the usage of extraneous or superfluous words (here I have used two adjectives where one would suffice!). Any kind of verbal or written communication has to be crisp and to the point. A rambling narrative is unable to keep the reader or listener hooked. A habit of weeding out extraneous words needs to be meticulously cultivated. Sheer indiscipline leads us astray and indecisiveness. Our minds are so cluttered with conflicting thoughts that we shudder to take decisions or reach conclusions. Subtract, eliminate, concentrate. Take one thought at a time, mull over it and then act. Reduce, relax and react. Very often we ascribe

When I started this blog I took it upon myself to write something on a daily basis. Yesterday though was an exception. I could think of absolutely nothing to write about. I wonder if it was creative inertia. It is very easy to sway from one's goals and objectives. Although I had resolved not to make any resolutions, the thought of writing something everyday is a bit different. It takes deep thinking, concentrated thought and dedicated blocks of time to write anything. If not to the world, the writing has to make sense to yourself. My intention or purpose is not as lofty as to eradicate illiteracy or to illuminate and impress people. What got me to writing as mentioned earlier was constant prodding from my SPMC pals and one germ of an idea which I toyed with briefly. I was considering for a brief period of time starting an online writing service. I then questioned myself was I equal to the task? What would I write on? Do I have any qualifications or any unique knowledge or experien

BJ, a recent member of our society, lost his father yesterday afternoon after battling illness and a stroke for the past few months. I was struck by the number of people who turned up to pay respects to the departed old man. Many society friends who usually have a laugh at BJ's expense were present and helped him cope with the bereavement. Such is the spirit of our society. This CA is ridiculed by people of all ages as he tends to have an opinion about everything (right or wrong but he states his position with utter conviction). His heart is in the right place but he sometimes gets on people's nerves because of his overbearing attitude. He is intelligent but at times overconfident.  BJ was very keen to stay in LNCHS and accordingly rented a house about 6 years ago. Outgoing and intelligent person that he is, soon friendships blossomed with almost everyone in the society. No one in my opinion has generated so much goodwill in so short a time. The entire family of BJ, singer w

I am perplexed today because of the recent turmoil at JNU and the assassination of the Iranian general Qasem Suleimani. JNU has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. Students of JNU are increasingly getting vocal about political issues. Do students of a subsidised institute have a right to protest? Of course they do! One may disagree about political views and leanings. This is the foundation of any democracy. If political debate and disagreement is to be suppressed, how different are we from the fundamentalist countries? India continues to be and still prides itself to be a democratic nation. We cannot allow democracy to trampled upon this way. In these intolerant times one is forced to take sides. Middle of the road or being neutral does not work. Everyone has an opinion because of social media. Social media distorts a persons views completely as these days hardly anyone thinks. Our thoughts and opinions are largely a manifestation of what he see and hear. No one bothe

I sat down to write a SWOT Analysis of myself and the findings, though not really surprising, are that my thoughts are now more ordered than earlier. What next? I will mull over the SWOT sheet and then take necessary corrective measures for our business. Now is the time for course correction. Our turnover analysis and study of the past 8-10 years was an eye opener. The challenge before me is about retaining our business. 2019-20 has been particularly harrowing. We may not be alone in our suffering but this thought does not comfort me at all. I will now have to think in much broader terms, at times compromising on our pricing, but never on quality, to ensure that business keeps flowing in from various sources. Over dependence on just one client is doing us a lot of harm. My better half can perhaps be coached to market our company. She is a lot better at this than me. I will coax her to go through my LinkedIn connections and make a list of people we can approach for new business. At p

I have come to realise rather late in the life the true meaning of noun "investment". The last 25 years have seen me being actively involved in our business. I haven't taken our business to dizzying heights but I have managed to survive so far. Being a typical middle class brahmin, I did not have any great ambition and my risk taking ability too was very limited. Our business grew exponentially in the initial few years. The Mirus film printer started yielding dividends very soon. Expenses were low and on retrospection one feels the income was very comfortable. We also tried our hand at printing activities. This proved to be a major debacle as we lost a lot of money in the failed offset venture and later in the Canon digital printer. Both the plans were ill conceived hence a very high price had to be paid for this. This was about 15-16 years ago. I should have then sat down and charted our my strengths and weaknesses rather than blindly trusting my instincts. As a conse

I started running sometime in 2014. After running 5 marathons (4 in Mumbai and 1 in Ladakh) and a couple of 25/32 kilometer events, I am now emboldened to participate in an Ultra. BNP Ultra 50 k in SGNP beckons February 2020. I have ran more than 50 kilometers only once. This was when I joined Vasant in 2017. Over the years I find myself getting fitter and becoming a more mature runner. Finding your rhythm while running and more importantly not competing with anyone, not even yourself, are important to successfully complete any run. By success I do not mean finishing in a reasonable time. Timing is secondary to me. I give paramount importance to having a cramp and injury free run. There are so many potential injuries one can have. The usual suspects are injuries to various parts of your legs but the really irritating ones are chaffing at the unmentionable spots, nipples and toes. One really needs to prepare for all eventualities. Vaseline has been the saviour for a person like me who

A line I read a few years back has stayed with me. The words may be jumbled but I think the central message is correct. It goes : "Human beings are condemned to suffer". Most of our suffering is from reasons within. Philosophers across ages have been entreating people to look inwards as this is where most solutions can be found. If one feels jealous about the achievements of a friend, look inward. Analyse why he or she went ahead of you and then either rejoice in their success or repair your shortcomings. If you feel angst about not being able to afford the latest gadgets or apparel. Stop. Think a moment. Look around you. You would realise that you are far better off than most people around you. Humans have a psychological need to hanker for new gadgets. Most of these needs for social approval. Again look inwards and ask yourselves the question, "would a new shirt or sneakers or the latest iPhone really make you smarter or happier in the long run?" Happiness is

Reading is a relatively new way of passing time. The printed word educates, elevates and entertains us and makes us more aware of ourselves and our surroundings. In the pre-google era one needed a guru or read a book to learn anything. If one wanted to learn history, rustle up a new culinary preparation, unravel the secrets of the universe or learn a language, books were the only medium freely available without any prejudice. Although rudimentary forms of printing have been around since 220 AD (China), it was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century which really brought literature to the masses. Offset printing was introduced as late as 1875 thereby making the process faster and affordable. We can now order any book from the comfortable confines of our home but little do we realise how recent the phenomena if reading is. Only a select few could read earlier as education was accessible only to the elite but this social injustice has been corrected to a