random ramblings

It has been almost a year and half of ignoring the blog. It has been a period of a turbulence at work and life, a period of big changes. It disrupted all the rhythms and habits, left me just riding the change. Now just about trying to put things back together once again. This may not be the best of the topics to restart a blog, a bit dark maybe. It is not intentional, but something curious that I picked up over last few days and was mulling over. I am now sort of looking for movies or shows that are not sad, no propaganda, not period pieces with their version of history. This process of elimination eventually leads me to murder mysteries or crime thrillers. I read somewhere that we watch such to relieve tension somehow, in some twisted way. Now, two such that I watched, which are not related in any way, but had a similar theme – that we sometimes put ourselves in harm’s way, not to die, but to feel alive. That self-destruction is coded into us at the cell level and this instinct makes ...

I have been waiting for one movie to come out on any of the OTT platforms, seeing the praise from many in my “circle” and finally got to watch it - Perfect Days , a Japanese language film, by a German director. It is about a man who goes about his days cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Its dialogues could be printed in a handful of pages, very little is said. It shows the routines of a normal life, simple pleasures in life such as music, nature and books, not worrying about the tomorrows but living in the now, not living to others expectations, needing little, not taking on commitments for the sake of it and being satisfied with what one has.  I had written “change one thing a day” at the top of the daily journal, to remind myself to change some part of my routine every day, to avoid getting into comfort zones and declining. But this is the opposite - having the exact same routines every day. Same morning routines, same coffee, listening to 70s or 80s songs from cassette tapes, doing the ...

On e day this past week, I listened to this podcast interview of Cyan Banister, in Invest like the Best. Due to some reason, I felt I couldn’t listen to anything else that day. I usually listen to politics or product management or economics, but that day anything else would have spoiled the mood I was in. It may be that some days are like that - when the mind is contemplative, no clutter or anxiety, less cynical, the body feels healthy and open to receive. Or it may truly be that there was something in what I had listened to.  Cyan seems to be a successful investor in Uber, SpaceX among others. Of late, I feel all successful people think that they have wisdom to share and everyone is becoming gurus online. Other day I was reading such pearls of wisdom from someone who is good at product management and it was nothing about product management, but about how to live one’s life. It may be that to become truly good at something, one has to become a better person first and in that proces...

I had taken a resolution to watch, listen, read from artists or authors outside US, to get more wider perspective. Followed this resolution to finally blow through some of my long pending watchlist of movies from other countries with a Mubi subscription. Drive My Car (Japanese, felt it was a forced story), One Fine Morning (French – this one portrayed the anguish of the children, and helplessness of the parents towards the end of their lives), Aftersun (Scottish, bored me, but pulled at the heartstrings of quiet desperation of a father who couldn’t hold things together), Worst Person in the World (Norwegian, understood the need for someone to not get tied down or not settle, but felt pointless), Decision to leave (Korean – beautifully shot and sad), Past Lives (Korean/American – slow and confusing, the situation must have been painful, but it didn’t feel as much for me). All these were leading me to a conclusion that it is so hard to depict true feelings of people going through h...

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...