Mount Everest has captured the imagination of adventurers for over a century. Summiting the Mount Everest is the highest glory a mountaineer could dream of. A quest so great that only the bravest of the mountaineers dare to pursue knowing that the risks are great and the return is uncertain. The risk and uncertainty lures the adrenaline junkies of a unique kind. Continue reading Journey to the Everest – Naresh Raju
Here is an observation. I regularly convert whatever I love into my lifestyle, rather than just a hobby or a passion. If it is not part of my lifestyle, then I most probably don’t like it enough and will eventually give up on it. Continue reading Is it your hobby, passion or lifestyle?
I have been a voracious reader of books from when I was young. I grew up with the Famous Five and Hardy Boys, matured with Nancy Drew and Perry Mason, spent court rooms with John Grisham, flirted with Sidney Sheldon and explored unknown worlds with Michael Crichton. Now I read mostly non fiction.
Through Books, I have learnt from coaches like Anthony Robbins, Zig ziglar, Business Tycoons like Sir Richard Branson, Akio Morito thought leaders like Dr.Atul Gawande, Tim Ferris, Journalists like Malcom Gladwell, Charles Duhigg and many more.
One idea that kept haunting me through many of these self development literature is that “Leaders are Readers.”I always thought ‘wow, that’s a nice thought’ and nothing more about it. Continue reading How Elon Musk learnt Rocket Science ?
.”Will this relationship workout?”
“Will I ever get rid of this excess weight?”
“Will my daughter ever get married?”
“Will my son crack IITJEE atleast this year?”
“Will she say ‘yes’ to me?”
“Will this start up idea workout?
“Will Sensex hit 30,000 in 5 years?”
“Will he/she win the Elections?”
It was just after the Diwali of 2015 that I quit my regular job and started software freelancing. Since then, my life has taken a different turn. While at work, I have been coding, taking calls, documenting, improving, improvising and deploying projects. When not working, I am travelling, trekking, cooking, reading, watching documentaries, running, bicycling and learning a lot of new skills. It has been a wonderful year, one of the best in my life. In this post, I am listing out what I learnt while sailing through the year. Continue reading A year of freelancing: What I learnt
The search query ‘How to make my 10 year old read’ has about 20 crore search results in Google, it is apparently one of the biggest problems faced by today’s parents. So I was thrilled to meet Ananya, a 10 year old published author.
There were many things I wanted to do and be when I was a 10 year old including being an astronaut, teacher and doctor, all at the same time, however publishing a book wasn’t one thing that had crossed my mind then. Even today the task is so mind boggling, that I never get around and even start it.
Ananya has published her first book ‘ 9 Chocolatey Bites‘ – A collection of short stories which is now available in Amazon.com, Amazon.in, Kindle, Flipkart Google Play books and in stores near you like Odyssey. A commendable feat at any age. Continue reading 10 year old Author Ananya and her ‘9 Chocolatey Bites’
In physics, we learn about a phenomenon called inertia. It means that a moving body continues to move at the same speed in the same direction or a stationary body continues to be stationary, unless someone does something to change that. Physicists have also framed a measurement system to measure the inertia of a body. This measurement is called the momentum. Putting a number to momentum is useful for letting us know just how much work must be done in order to make the body do something different than what it is doing now. However, for the purposes of English language, inertia and momentum are often used as opposites. The word inertia is used to describe a body not wanting to move and momentum describes a body not wanting to stop. The common ground for both is that they resist change.
How does this relate to human behaviour and getting things done? Turns out the human body and mind also show signs of inertia and momentum. The human body does not like sudden changes in movement and the human mind does not like sudden changes in behaviour. We can use these two facts to our advantage to start things off and get them done. I also later discuss when NOT to use the effects of momentum, since in certain cases momentum can build behaviour like addiction and inflexibility. Continue reading Momentum & Inertia: How to start things & get them done
I grew up in Chennai watching Tamil movies, where most Heroes compare themselves to Lion. Some of the absurd scenes include, Vijayakanth’s introduction where he suddenly turns into a lion and then back to him again, RajiniKanth’s factually incorrect statement about lion’s hunting behavior and Suriya’s extremely emotional dialogue again about comparing himself to a lion on hunt.
For the uninitiated, Lion is one of the laziest creatures and spends most of its day sleeping. The hunting is done by the pride, which is a group of Lioness that is attached to the Lion. When caught in a difficult situation during the hunt, each one is left to fend for themselves. The prey is eaten by the lion, cubs and the lioness in that order. If you are unwilling to check out Nat Geo on this, may be you can check with Kamal Haasan in PKS 🙂
So ofcourse I don’t want to be either a Lion or a Lioness!!
When I was in the third standard in school, we had a story about a wise man who tells his king that everything happens for the best. Then one day, the king accidentally cuts off a finger and much to his rage, hears the wisdom from the wise man yet again. The king has the wise man thrown into the dungeons. However, while out hunting, the king comes in close encounter with a lion, rolls over and plays dead. The lion smells the wound on the finger and thinks that the king is dead and moves on. The king is relieved to see his life spared, ponders over what the wise man said and sets him free.
This is just one of the several stories heard since our childhood, teaching us that we should always look for the positive side in any negative situation, take the necessary learnings and move on, thankful that we are living another day in this wonderful life. Continue reading The silver lining behind every dark cloud
Sapna is the daughter of a well known business man and works in a top notch IT company. Her family is very modern and she faced no restrictions or compulsions aka emotional atyachars that most Indian kids face at their home.
Two months before her 10th Board exams she went on a month long trip to explore the history of ancient India with some history buffs. Her sister went to the farms in Switzerland to learn to make cheese and in general travels to obscure locations in exotic countries for no particular reason. Her family often vacations in exotic places inside and outside India.
Continue reading Excusitis and how we sabotage ourselves ??!! [Short Story]
