20 July 2024

I loved the bus journey. The train? Not so much!

The good news is that I got 10 hours of road time with Niki. The bad news is that means my car is still sitting at the airport. Instead of bothering Sharmila and Nikita to take me there, I decided to change up my life a little and take public transportation.

Had to start from the very basics – like downloading the app to catch a bus and all that. The bus stop is about a couple of minutes walk from my house. Loved that journey. This is the second time I took MARTA bus. Being able to see all the familiar scenes, except now I am much higher and have long glass window panes was inexplicably exciting. Experiencing the bus stop to drop off or pick up a passenger and even watching how each passenger go thru the decisioning process of which seat to take was strangely enjoyable. But the best part was speeding down the highway!!!

The train journey – which should have been even more interesting – was marred by the fact that I quickly became queasy. Both Niki and I suffer from car sickness. One of the rare times when I had taken Marta train in the past, it was so bad that I had to get off at a station and take the next one after stabilizing myself.

Maybe I should go around in the buses randomly just to … you know, ummm…for no particular reason at all.

By the way, the street you see in the picture is where I live.

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14 July 2024

An evening with music and tabla

My school friend – Sanjay Saha – recently introduced me to the Bangla Band – “Joler Gaan”. I did not know of them. But very nice renditions of Bengali folks songs.

পরের জায়গা পরের জমিন, ঘর বানাইয়া আমি রই
আমি তো সেই ঘরের মালিক নই

“Porer jaga porer jomin, ghor banaiya aami roi
Ami to sei ghorer malik noi”

The folk song muses that nothing is really ours. We build “our” house on “our” land… and yet, nothing really is “ours”.

Category: Music/Poetry | LEAVE A COMMENT
27 June 2024

My experiment with digital detox – chapter 1

Have you tried this?

In an effort to wean myself away from the addiction to digital devices, I have been trying a few things. Some have worked better than others. This one seems to be effective.

I read somewhere that one part of digital intoxication is the bright colors on the screen that we get attracted to. Who, amongst us has not seen that red small circle light up and immediately felt the urge to go check the new messages?

So, two weeks back, I learnt how to turn my iPhone to black and white. Quickly, I realized that I had a problem. While taking pictures or solving Wordle, I desperately needed color. So, spent some more time to write up two shortcuts (you can see them on the right). Now, literally with a press of an icon, I can make my phone turn black and white or colored.

The results have been more effective than other things I have tried. To be fair, we have to see if this is a long term effect or my brain with all its neuroplasticity will quickly go back to the bad habits.

As of now, with authority, I can tell you that when I glance at a black and white screen, I have zero urge to pick it up. I cannot even read the icons well enough let alone notice there are apparently bright red notification counters!

Have you ever tried this? Did it work for you?

What other tricks have you tried for digital detox?

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9 June 2024

Book Review: Note to Myself by Hugh Prather

I am not somebody who finishes a book in one sitting. I have three unfinished books in my library to prove that. The only one I have ever done before is a book called “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” which is easily finished in 20 minutes.

However, this book, I did finish in one and a half hours sitting in the park in Marietta Square while Sharmila was at her art show. The book is written mostly as thoughts journaled by the write Hugh Prather.

It is a very quick read but full of some insights that the author has gone thru…

Here are some that resonated with me:

1. My anxiety does not come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.

2. The key to motivation is to look at how far I have come rather than how far I have to go.

3. I believe that for almost everyone else life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats – with very few moments of clear peace.

4. My trouble is I analyze life instead of live it.

5. Now that I know I am no wiser than anyone else, does this wisdom make me wise?

6. The number of things just outside the perimeter of my financial reach remains constant no matter how much my financial condition improves. With each increase in my income, a new perimeter forms and I experience the same relative sense of lack.

7. Don’t fight a fact, deal with it. Don’t discard your self, be more of it.

8. Most mistakes are corrected through increased awareness, which usually does not come without some discomfort.

9. The unstill part of the mind travels from one trivial issue to another, avoiding the present and avoiding love.

10. I can be faithful to my image or faithful to myself.

11. Most decisions, possibly all, have already been made on a deeper level than the sentence level of my mind and my going through a reasoning process to arrive at them seems at least redundant.

12. If the desire to do something is not accompanied by actual doing, then the desire is of not doing it.

13. I don’t think religion is an attainable subject for the intellect. I can only believe when I’m not talking about it.

14. I am noticing that when I am bored, I think I am tired of my surroundings but I am really tired of my thoughts.

15. If I feel disapproval of someone, if I find myself ignoring or turning away from someone in a group, I am probably avoiding in myself what this person represents that I believe is true about me.

16. There is no such thing as “best” in a world of individuals.

17. Whenever I find myself arguing for something with great passion, I can be certain I’m not convinced.

18. I find it almost impossible to make a strong declarative statement in conversation without feeling little nagging doubts and reservations.

19. I thought others’ liking me was a comment on me, but it is a comment on them.

20. If I feel compelled to answer every question, *I* am the one compelling me.

21. Silence can mean confidence. And mutual respect. Silence can mean live and let live: the appreciation that I am I and you are you. The silence is an affirmation that we are already together – as two people. Words can mean that I want to make you into a friend and silence can mean that I accept your already being one.

22. An argument is always about what has been made more important than the relationship.

23. I get along with people a lot better when I recognize that no one ever feels exactly the same about me or anyone else from one moment to the next.

24. All acquaintances are passing.

25. Perceptions are not of things but of relationships.

Category: Books | LEAVE A COMMENT