random ramblings

Sometimes someone or something affects us deeply and we think we will never be able to forget. After a trauma we remember it every second of every day and then after long the first full day when we forget to remember, then the first week, then the first month keeps adding distance. Eventually the intense feeling also becomes a memory. When it feels like life can't go on, it is important to know that it is possible to put it all back together. Way out of the labyrinth need not be only straight and fast, but realizing that labyrinth is not choking, but it just is, may ease the pressure. There is help if we ask for it. It maybe true that we cry, laugh, love and live less as years pass by and apathy, despair and some of those which were not in the dictionary in earlier part of the life replace them. Time heals and like those wounds which pains during some winters, some may smolder over the years. But nothing should or can maim us for life. Or that should be the belief that can take us...

Moment of falling in love Nothing seems out of place Every note perfect Nothing could have been done any different Running in loop Discovering new little things to love Like how some words are said, even funnily Can only be done in that way, endearing Like pure magic or work of a genius Have too much of the good thing Till can’t take it any more To come back any time through the years And find the same pull of the heart

"Chinua Achebe - Man of the People. ഫിക്ഷനോ നോൺ ഫിക്ഷനോ?" "ഫിക്ഷൻ" "നോൺ ഫിക്ഷൻ നിർത്തിയോ?" "ഇല്ല. ഒരെണ്ണം വായിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്." "എന്തിനാ. ഫുൾ ഉപദേശം. വായിച്ചാൽ ഉറക്കം വരും."  ബുക്ക് കൊണ്ടു തലക്കൊരെണ്ണം കൊ...

Conduct lot of experiments  Be self disciplined  Do everything out of love - love for other people, love for work, love for life  Connect with people  Share a vision that people want to join and be part of  Lean in to every moment - expecting magic or miracles  Have / find fun and delight in everything we do  Be true to what you believe in, never compromise your core beliefs Process > Outcome  Stress + Rest (Reflection) = Progress  There are no boundaries or limits  Be the best you, you can be  Always strive to keep making a better you  Build bridges, not walls Be the change you want to see If I end up blaming the world for all my problems, then the problem is me.  Admit mistakes Be kind  Gracefully tell the truth  Intellectual Humility  Be Authentic, don't adjust, don't pretend, don't play-act, don't compromise - don't be an adult, be a child  Persist ...

How does conversations end? When we have nothing more interesting to say? When we think we have said enough? How much is enough? When we think we are revealing ourselves more than we intend to? When we think we may be stretching the topic too thin? When we start to think too much before saying something? When we start to think about boring the other person too much? Why can’t it take new turns and become endless?

Precocious teens, smart and wise beyond their age, moody, suicidal, beautiful / handsome, well read, troubled, weird – common characteristics of three YA novels I read recently. I seem to have forgot my teenage years, whether I struggled so much. It is the time when you understood enough about the world, society, people, politics, religion and community – but still harbor an idealistic view, wants to contribute, want to change the world and think it is possible. Half of them would have already blended in and any one fighting still could be seen freakish. It is hard to accept the adults who have become like zombies who have adjusted and accepted the world. How much longer do they fight? How do they deal with the failures when the reality closes in? How do they keep their idealism burning as long as possible, to keep them genuine, uncorrupted, fresh and innocent? How to keep the connections open while they make the transition? Or don’t transition at all, but keep the sanity? - Aft...

“Perceptions are reality”, they say. Start a new narrative / gossip about a person, on hearsay, driven by jealousy, intention to take revenge for one’s hurt ego, or upon violating someone’s preconceived notions about how someone should be. Keep finding new reasons to strengthen that narrative, anything could cement it further. Keep building the crescendo, the germ transferred to other minds, multiples and feeds on itself. It could lead to bringing someone down, that’s when the new imaginary monster unleashed gets satisfied.  In its wake, boundaries of what is true and what is false gets blurred. No one is able to decide and separate out fact from fiction. Eventually the victim might start believing it herself. Any one acting out of ordinary will be turned a freak and that makes it easier to discount their view which may be the truth. Create narrower divisions of us vs them, draw crisscrossing lines to block off people like pawns in a chess board, create symbols and micro ide...

Listened to Winning at the Great Game: My Interview with Adam Robinson (Part 2) [The Knowledge Project Ep. #48] .   It kept going from topic to topic, but I have realized few benefits of listening to podcasts. In the morning commute, listening to such fires the brain cells and puts it in a mood to attempt something new, more hopeful, more alert and triggers some ideas for new experiments. They might be talking about something, but brain could do some free association and something they talk about could be taken into a new context of what I am interested in or related to the problems I may be struggling with. 5 takeaways from this one. Key to learn anything. Break it down to small steps or skills and Rehearse each one. "A beginner mind sees many possibilities, an expert sees only a few" Break down complexity to a few key metrics that we can reason with. Learning how to learn is an important skill not taught to many students. “What does people...

New year resolution to read, listen, learn more. Keeping record of it, as a way to keeping a commitment. Hope to keep this updated. Books read Milkman – Anna Burns. 3 / 5 All the Bright Places – Jennifer Niven. 3.5 / 5 Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson. 4 / 5  A Contract with God - Will Isner. 3.5 / 5 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - Marjane Satrapi - 4 / 5 Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return - Marjane Satrapi - 3.5 / 5 The Best We Could Do - Thi Bui - 4 / 5  A Man of the People - Chinua Achebe - 3 / 5 Sabrina - Nick Drnaso - 3.5 / 5 Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupéry - 4 / 5 Normal People - Sally Rooney - 4 / 5 The Vegetarian - Han Kong - 3.5 / 5 Jazz - Tony Morrison - 3.5 / 5 Sula - Tony Morrison - 3.5 / 5  Maus - Art Spiegelman - 4/ 5  Khasakkinte Itihasam - O. V. Vijayan (Malayalam) - 4 / 5 Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon James - 3 / 5 Looking for Alaska - John Green - 4 / 5 The Women's Courtyard - Khadija Mastoor - 4...