20 temples trip - Part 0

 2023 has brought a few surprises, one being a change of job. So in between job changes, I found sufficient time to go for a trip. Yes, I did. And it was memorable. The places we covered were plenty and the distance we covered was plenty too. I wish to write all about them, provided time permits.

We started from Bangalore to SriRangapatna and then ended the trip at Ankola along the coast. How we moved from here all the way to coast is nothing short of pure fun.

More on that later. But then this trip was totally unplanned, in terms of places to stay, places to visit. There were couple of pieces of information which I had with which I went ahead.

Now when I recollect, I can say only one thing. All this happened because of God's grace. I feel God was and is the driving force. Second thing which I did after coming back was, I offered Prasadam of the temples to my gym trainer. 

This was more of a remembrance, reason being my fitness to drive over a period of 7 days, depended much on my gym workout and my teacher, without which none of it could have been accomplished.

Cheers, more on that to follow soon.

Enigma - Sadness.

 

 Back then when we were kids or rather teenagers' Enigma was still an enigma. This song would occupy the mainstay of many a audio systems of people, even precisely car audio.

Guess what, there was no internet those days, lesser awareness of western music. How would anyone know this song is by whom, which artist, which language etc. It took me quite a while to figure out the band and song. Now when I see in my playlist, it reminded me of the good old days.

There is a super incident associated with this song which I remember. We used to cycle as kids and even though we were 14-15 we still chose to cycle. But some of the rich kids amongst us had transitioned to motor vehicles (illegally of course). 

One such person, had transitioned not to two wheelers but a four wheeler. Its hard to believe how a 15-16 year old would get hold of a car. But it was true, true because he used to drive around playing this very song.

It was an Hindustan Ambassador which had an engine change from BMC 1.5 L Diesel to an ISUZU 2.0 Diesel or may be a Toyota 2.0 L Diesel. 

Can you imagine a 15-16 year old teenager boasting about a modified car with an upgraded engine back then when I was struggling to find out this specific enigma song.

Even after many years, the aspect of having an engine change for a car is much unheard of in India. It is attempted only by people who have sufficient resources and willing to take up the challenge.

But for a 15-16 year old to do it back then - and know what's under the hood to tell others, it is definitely worth a blog post.

These days kids, teenagers are addicted instagram, food, porn, tobacco other stuffs which sounds silly when you have a look at what our generation did to amuse themselves.

Cheers,

Hail Muse - Teaching old dog new tricks - Muse 3

 There have been quite a few interests which I delved into, in the last couple of years of working from home or hybrid mode or be it from office. This muse is not altogether a different one but a tributary of the main muse of reading.

Whilst the topic of reading, I had mentioned my own enthusiasm to read to entirety - The works of one particular author. I had read Ruskin Bond fairly and was in full gusto to read Kipling works, in the process read, Kim, his autobiography and a couple of poems. 

But along the way my interest in Kipling started wading out, the cause being Kipling writing being so difficult for me to maintain momento and traction or both at the same time. Thus I got badly subdued by the writing of this Imperial giant and had to humbly accept defeat and move on.

Then, one more author caught my attention, one whom I have been reading since a teenager, though bits and pieces. It was none other than the grand old man of Indian literature or rather letters, Khushwant Singh.

It's sad, when Khushwant was alive I never truly appreciated the scholar in him. Khushwant could quote Mir, Ghalib and many a such Urdu couplets, shayaris' as though it was his left hand game. He was an excellant in Urdu poetry, its translations.

Each time, I try to induce sarcasm, whilst conversing with others, much to my own disappointment, because I fail badly, I remember none other than Khushwant and feel jealous that, had I known Urdu, Hindi better, I could have responded to morons in a more literate way than just expressing frustration or disgust.

Recently, three months back had an experience with our organization HR who blatantly lied on my face and accepted the lie. Had I known any of the old Delhi poets' writing, I would have responded with Mir or Ghalib. How I wished, then I remembered Khushwant Singh for his literary prowess, Urdu prowess and felt good at the fact that, though I am bad at Hindi, Urdu, I could boast about the fact that, in the last year or two, I had read much Khushwant writing.

Yes, this is the original intent of the post. Though I failed at comprehending Kipling, I did read Khushwant books to entirety. Many are still pending, but now I am fairly comfortable with Khushwant trivia, much to my own pride.

Guess what, I own rather procured a hard copy of Khushwant Singh autobiography - Truth, malice and little lies. I kind of feel so good about owing it that, when I saw another copy online for Rs 200, I ordered the same. Now I get to boast of two HC autobiography of Khushwant and one paperback, much to others' envy. Its too little a price to spend for a jewel!

I do have plans to read other authors to entirety, Vikram Seth, Nirad C Chaudhari, Vikram Sampath are on my mind, its an uphill task. But one which gives me satisfaction to the core, having fed so much of knowledge to my brains, that I can come back and boast all about it on my blog, which hardly 1-2 people read. Much to my own needed privacy!

Cheers,

PS - Much to my own - phrase has taken a center place, much to my own dislike :)-

How work, induced stress!

 There are so many thoughts on past office(s) which I have on my mind, which I am yet to write. Apart from the stress of workplace, ongoing and return traffic there was a peculiar thing which comes to my mind, which made me sick or stressed or both, not really sure. 

It took a huge effort to figure out what it was and in reality it turns out, it is a bit more serious and I should not chance upon such stunts in the very near future.

 I started to work at 7 am in the morning and then started for home by 4PM. It took me around two hours to reach home or may be more many times and sometimes less may be by 20 mins. Then I used to go to gym for exercise and come back home by 9 15PM odd. 

Then food and sleep. Somewhere amidst this daily schedule, I forgot to drink sufficient water. I did need more water due to the exercise but I completely ignored the water need in the end falling sick, getting stressed, feeling stiff, cramped most of the times. 

I can feel the effect of having less water in your body, the feeling of being dehydrated. There were few reasons which I feel were the driving force behind me drinking less water.

1. Sitting in an air conditioned environment I was always conscious about how many times I go to pee. I felt rather uncomfortable or embarrassed at the thought of peeing three times between 8am - 12 noon. The reason was simple, the air conditioner was simply malfunctioning, temperature fluctuated between 21 degrees to 22 degrees centigrade.  
2. I drank tea or milk during the morning schedule of my office which made me drink lesser water, the fear of visits to loo to pee looming more.
3. Shuttle commute from work took two hours and there was no stop over to pee, or rather it was embarrassing to stop to pee.
4. Post dinner. - Post dinner once again, I was in a hurry to sleep reason being I had to wake up at 5 am, for next day's work. 

There was a time frame from the time I came back from office to the time I went to gym, I could have drunk water, but nope, I drank tea, a little water and rested. Also too much water would lead to bloating restricting me from running on treadmill.

All the while I have only exercises. The last 3-5 months have led to severe degradation of my lifestyle, induced loads of stress. Not drinking much water was just one dimension. On the work front I still have loads of cribbing which I plan to undo, piece by piece, studying in detail every aspect of my own self, thus in the process, which I sincerely hope, unloading years and years of accumulated stress, anger and guilt.

Cheers,

PS - I have to read and re-read my own writing to ensure edits which are necessary, which currently I do not have time to. My laptop is slow plus, I get distracted quite a bit.

Teaching old dog new tricks - Muse 1

 Back in 2020 it all started. During the lockdown, there was Mahabharata which was telecasted on television everyday. It did keep lots of spirits high amidst all the gloom. It also gave me a thought process. To read BhagavadGita and to purchase a particular version, a hard copy comprising of three volumes written by Swami Ranganathananda.

I did purchase it and started reading it alas, I just moved to a different book altogether rendering my reading incomplete, much to my own guilt and shame.

I till date have not completed reading even a single 'Adhyaya'. But I will definitely. 

Around that time, I got a bit more active on instagram and came to know about the book 'Remnants of Separation' and was very curious about it. It was about the partition and I thought, why not just read it as I found it very interesting. I was about to purchase it for the kindle, but then, something struck my mind.

My kindle reading pursuits have been very unfruitful, buying and leaving books unread and then ditching the reading process altogether. I needed a more stricter regime, plus, alongside I thought, a book like 'Remnants' could never be done justice via an online copy or via kindle. It had to be read in a physical form, let alone be read, I saw it more as a jewel in a bookshelf. This turned my attention to buying books.

I knew books are expensive when brought new, but then, with-holding myself all these years, I turned to buying used books. I realized Blossoms in Bangalore sells new as well as pre-loved ones'. That got me into buying books. Something which started as a hesitant hobby and now just took off beyond my own imagination.

Hesitant hobby because, buying books for me happens to be an activity very close to my heart, just like buying stationery. I simply cannot stop it once I start it. I feel I do have a life long obsession towards having books having a book shelf, much to my own embarrassment of claiming, not having read many of the owned ones.

All these years, I kept accumulating books on kindle. But never read with much force so as to complete more than 10 books a year. Now, since my buying increased I had to up the tempo on reading too. 

I realized if I could post a review on instagram and track status on goodreads, I could keep myself more disciplined on track to complete more books. And yes, it has worked out well, I do read more these days. I buy more than I can read, but then, do I have any complaints? None as such.

In the middle there was one phase where I just became greedy for free books, yes, free books. Books which are new are given away to instagram influencers in return for an honest review. And honest review doesn't necessarily translate to negative review. No publisher wants a negative review. 

But the catch was, you got to have more followers. My followers on instagram are and were less than 70, so my chance of winning free books went in smoke pretty quickly. The bubble of my greediness burst when an author declined to give me any books in giveaway. It took me multiple attempts to come out of the hangover of free books.

Until one day a kind man on instagram who identifies as God Father of books, introduced me to the noble book sellers of Bombay and Delhi and a special group for buying/selling books. What kicked off a frenzy buying hasn't stopped till date and I am overly indebted to him for the endless supplies of affordable books.

I have since known many sellers from Bombay namely Dhirajji, Pandeyji, Afzalji, Navinji and many more. Daryaganj, Mahila ki Haat and College Street have become easily accessbile and buying books has never been that affordable. I am no longer a regular at Blossoms but someday, I will be back at Blossoms.

Until then,

Cheers,

Teaching old dog new tricks - Muse 0

 Post 2020, I tried teaching myself new tricks. Well calling it tricks would be an overstatement. I would prefer to call it 'muse'. I owe my day to this muse, which helped me think about many a things apart from work.

There was a time when I was so so interested in work, software, good design, code, etc etc. But over the years having realized many a software does get scrapped with less usage plus, not every beautifully designed and written piece of code goes to production and not every production code is beautiful, I shifted interests in doing many a things, than just writing software.

 There shall be few posts where in I just write about my new muses'.

Cheers. 

Back from hiatus...2

I chose not to write - apart from the reasons mentioned in the previous posts, lacking motivation, outside happenings etc, there was another consistent companion which was accompanying me for the past  5years may be.

How much ever I give credit to it, for sustaining my day to day expenses, via an amount added at the end of each month to my bank account aka salary, in exchange for a statement of work which was assigned to me, I have to admit, the last 5 years have taken quite a toll on me.

I have been through three organizations and all these three have been like three dimensions, each one WORST in its own way. I generally preferred not to write so scathingly about my workplaces - owing to it - sustaining me, nurturing me, training me and helping me grow, but overtime my threshold barrier just got broken.

I am such a precarious position where, in hiding what I went through just quadruples my nightmares even more than reducing it as time passes. 

I do have lost touch with many a people, a couple who seem to be lost themselves and do not reply to my emails, I have changed my blog URL, I have been scammed of Rs 30k by a so called carpenter leaving me with nothing but a bucket loads of abuses and abusive messages towards him.

A person who's blog I read has published a book (which is good news, cheers to you if you are reading this post. ).  

Kannada translation - ನಾನು ಓದುತ್ತಿರುವ ಬ್ಲಾಗ್‌ನ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯೊಬ್ಬರು ಪುಸ್ತಕವನ್ನು ಪ್ರಕಟಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ (ಇದು ಒಳ್ಳೆಯ ಸುದ್ದಿ, ನೀವು ಈ ಪೋಸ್ಟ್ ಅನ್ನು ಓದುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆ ನಿಮಗೆ ಚೀರ್ಸ್. ).

So I chose to write owing to lessen my mental burdens thanks to myriad of moronic characters and experiences I had to undergo or bear in the last 5 years, each one being equally detrimental to my mental and physical health.

More such posts shall follow.

Cheers,