Banana Dilemma

I try to eat Bananas in my breakfast on weekdays. It's been a while since I switched to eating oats for breakfast. Now oats by themselves are quite tasteless to eat. So I decided to put in some cut fruits. I chose bananas because they are easy to peel and cut in the morning rush, taste good and are known to be instant sources of energy and happiness.

If you are still eating sugary cereals for breakfast, I would highly recommend switching to oats. Besides, the health benefits of oats, one of the major reasons why I love them for breakfast is - they keep me full till lunch. I don't feel like having a mid morning snack ever.

Anyway, this post ain't about the oats. It's about the bananas. Now, the "organized" being that I am, I try to grocery shop for the next week on a Sunday. That way, we don't need to worry about groceries during the weekdays. So every Sunday I buy a bunch of bananas (5-6) with the thought that they will last me till the Friday of the next week.

However this is the problem with bananas - When I buy, they are green. Monday, Tuesday, they ain't ripe enough. So I eat unripe bananas for breakfast. Wednesday they are perfectly ripe. Thursday and Friday I eat overripe bananas. So my perfect breakfast only happens on the mid of the week. Rest of the time, I am struggling with unripe or overripe bananas.

Gift giving

While I am very convinced by the idea of buying gifts for others, I firmly believe that most of the times I have no clue what to gift to other people. Just the other day, I attended two birthday parties. One for a 1 year old and the other for a 1 month old. Abiding by the social norms, we bought gifts for both of them. The 1 month old got a teether. The 1 year old got a dress.

Now, I am quite sure both of them have had enough teethers and dresses gifted to them already. I just added more to their stuff just to confirm to social norms. But the sad part was, we spent a few hours choosing the "perfect" gift, though completely knowing that those kids would already have something like that.

I am now totally convinced that in this age of social media, we should all have a "Wishlist" online of the things that we wish to buy openly shared with our social circle. Also, it should be perfectly acceptable to just give money as a form of gift so that the recipient can go and buy what they desire. This would lead to people accumulating less stuff, and clueless people like me not spending hours in the wrong aisle of a supermarket wondering what to gift!

Whiteboard Markers

As a part of my job, I get to meet people and convince them how our software can best solve their business problem. So besides spending time to prepare for that very short hour that I get to meet them, I also need to be prepared for all eventualities so that I can walk out of the meeting room at the end of the hour with a convinced customer.

While the regular presentations and live-demonstrations have their needed impact, I have realized that drawing things on a whiteboard when a customer asks a question has it's own charm. Not only does it help to visualize complex problems easier, but also it adds a certain level of interactivity that presentation slides lack. Now, over the last several years, I have been to countless meeting rooms and seen thousands of whiteboards. If there is one consistent thing that I have always noticed is - the white board markers never ever work.

I can safely make it into a corollary - "A randomly kept whiteboard marker next to a whiteboard in a meeting room will never work".


So, if you are in a job like mine, always carry a working whiteboard marker with you. Trust me, it will make you look good and well prepared to do your perfect presentation!

Pens of India

There is this particular brand of ballpoint pens that I have been using for the last 10 over years. Every time I do an India trip, one of the items that I stock up on - are these pens. They just work without any hassle, and are very very cheap. Somehow, inflation in India doesn't seem to have affected their prices and as far as I can remember it has always been Rs. 5 (The Lexi 5n Variety).



Now before you judge me, I have to remind you that I have given other pens a very reasonable try.  From the very expensive Watermans and Sheffields of the world, to the Lamys, Parkers, Pilots and Uni-balls I have tried them all.While those pens look incredible beautiful and are a pleasure to show-off, when the pedal hits the metal (or when the tip meets the paper!), I find that the paper qualities that I use to write on are not upto their standard. The most common problem I have is - they blot/ smudge on the paper.

I also toyed around using classy ink (nib-tip) pens. They write beautifully but they are a nightmare to carry around. Especially in an aircraft, the ink tends to come out because of the low cabin pressure. And then carrying around the ink everywhere is kind of a hassle.

As for these pens from India, they just write! Smoothly, without any issues. Any kind of notebook or paper I buy, they work. I am running out of my last pen in my current stock, and I thought I write about them. Why? Well cause they help me plan my day every day!.

Get up and go

So Pokemon Go was released in Singapore yesterday. I bumped into a lot of people walking around with their phones out hunting Pokemons in the mall next to my house yesterday. I can see the frenzy catching up instantly. Now it will be another round of national pastime until something else comes along. Angry Birds and Candy crush, you have been now one-upped.

Anyway, social evil or not, I believe this game will go down in history as the first game that made people come out of their houses out in the open and explore their neighborhood albeit through Augmented Reality. What Geocaching, most fitness bands and health tracking devices couldn't do, Pokemon Go achieved it. Period.

This is what Gamification is all about. Challenging friends on Fitbit never helped if they were as unmotivated and lazy as you were. And if you had a really fit friend, most of the times they were far far ahead of you and you had no motivation to compete. Thank you Pokemon Go for making the world a healthy place again, I hope you figure out how to keep people out of danger while they are zapping away monsters with their phones out in the open. And I hope you can monetize all that information you gather from our Pokemon habits to creep us out further.

Follow your dreams

As far as I recall, every kid is told that they can follow their dreams. Somewhere in the middle of your life you are beaten into submission and you follow a safe track for your life. Sometimes you choose it, but most of the times it is the "tried and tested" path that your parents walked on. Get a "stable" job (or whatever that means!). Work a 9-6 routine till you retire.

There are some amongst us, who go against all odds and still follow their childhood dreams. I always am amazed by such people and I have my utmost respect for them. A few years ago (2013), I came across this relatively unknown singer (for me!) and his song. Now, if you read the YouTube comments below his song, they are mostly negative. For me, however he was an inspiration. Follow your dreams. He did what he loved, and he did what most of us can never do. This was his first English song that got my attention a few years ago. It apparently took him 30 long years to pen the lyrics for his first song. That's dedication!

And recently I came across a new song by him. It's different, but mind you, he got a nice voice and he followed his dreams, what many of us dare not do!

10th Anniversary

So it dawned on me that I have been writing this blog for 10 years. Today, I officially mark the 10th year of me writing my thoughts here. What started as a "Hello World" persisted as a weekend hobby for a decade.

A decade is almost 30% of my life. A long time indeed. But as I grow old, I realize that time periods look smaller and smaller. So a year of my life used to be a significant time period when I was in school. Now even 5 years look small. I think that's what growing old is all about. In my teens anyone above the magical age of 25 looked old to me. Now in my late 30s, everyone looks young (may be the early 70s are the old people for me as of now!).

Life goes on. Thank you for reading my thoughts. And thank you for being with me in this journey.

Networking

So after a long while, I managed to change jobs. I have left everything related to SAP. That's 12 long years of doing it. I am obviously sad, scared and generally running around with butterflies and moths in my stomach.


I can't really share much of what I went through in getting this job. But trust me when I say I had to go through a lot of pain and I networked. I am sure everyone has their own way of finding jobs. And looking at the career ladder (of salaried professionals) I can see that most of you are at higher (more successful rungs of that ladder than I am). But for the rest of you, who are like me, these are the 2 most important things I did that helped me:

1. Make a list of companies that you would love to work for. I think this is the single important thing that helps you focus, rather than going out there on job-sites and sending resumes incessantly. If you are in your mid-career right now (like I am), blasting resumes doesn't help much (or I think so!)
2. Use LinkedIn to Network. I think I was very shy at doing this and even when I started I was hesitant. I did reach out to a lot of people that gave me a cold shoulder. But you just need that 1 person to respond. So don't lose hope. And use the list that you made in point 1 to focus on your networking. And of course, don't spam people.

Too much stuff

If there is one thing I have been obsessed with since last year, it has to be minimalism.

The best definition of minimalism I found is here, quoting them verbatim:

Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.

I think it all started when I realized I have been hoarding (slightly only!) collectibles and trinkets and then as I moved houses several times I realized my possessions have been increasing progressively.

Anyway, since sometime last year, I have been (very!) consciously reducing my possessions and generally not shopping (unless absolutely necessary). So I don't go shop because I feel so, or shop because there is a sale, or shop  because I have nothing else to do. If I really have to buy something, it first goes into my "To Buy" list and stays there for a while before I go spend. And yeah, I ain't talking about groceries, medicines and other everyday essential stuff. They are of course bought when I need them. And trust me, I ain't turning ascetic or anything like that.

Last week I came across this video which sort of reinforces what I am doing, and I think it's best to share it with all of you. It's called the "Story of Stuff" and walks through our general obsession with buying and hoarding onto stuff.

Tactical Ignoring

My knowledge of human psychology is almost zilch. I never can understand other people's behavior nor can I judge people correctly. However lately, I have come to recognize a certain pattern within some individuals I know. It is - "Attention Seeking". And I understand that the only way I can curtail it is by "Tactical Ignoring".

Without getting into too much details - I had this one "friend" on Facebook who always writes extremely controversial status messages to garner attention and have virtual wars with his followers. A few years ago he began by writing misogynistic messages (while he was single). Every post was so politically incorrect and so anti-feminist that he would definitely spark a controversy. Astonishingly within a few years he got married. That's the time I realized that he was just trying to garner attention and stay in the Facebook limelight.

Lately he has shifted to bashing the ruling populist Government in India. While, those are harmless Facebook posts, reading them definitely affects me. So I decided to start ignoring him. And finally, I un-friended him off Facebook.

What may seem as "exercising free speech", is many times just attention seeking. Especially when the free speech comes from keyboard warriors. In the world of constant social media that we live in, I find a lot of attention seekers! So next time when you plan to engage with someone on social media for their snide remarks, just practice tactical ignoring!