Category: Uncategorized

“Hedge Fund takes reins of family-run McClatchy newspaper chain”

This is the headline in a business page of today’s new York times. Such headlines have become all but too common in the recent past with legacy firms selling to finance companies for a small percentage of what they were once worth. In this case an institution that was founded in 1857, and was run by the same family since.

Same is the story with departmental stores here in the US. Lord & taylor – an icon of yesteryears has filed for bankruptcy. This follows other stalwarts including J.C.Penney Co., Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., Stage Stores Inc., etc..

The article mentions that McClatchy’s troubles are traced back to 2006 when it bought its larger rival, Knight Ridder, for $4.5 billion. Today, McClatchy is selling for ~$300 Million. A small percentage of what it was.

The newspaper industry has been struggling for years now with the advent of the new age digital media channels running amok, and changing habits of consumers.

This brings us to the moot point – every industry would eventually get obsolete, how do you ensure you are not caught in the downturn and remain relevant by constantly evolving and adapting to the new changing behaviours?

A very productive habit that I have picked up during this lock down is the daily practice of meditation. Early morning, no matter what, that is one of the first thing I clock in, no matter what. It has been immensely satisfying and while it is tough to quantify the impact, I clear feel a lot more calm and composed, with a sense of clarity all day.

This interest piqued my curiosity to know more about the various techniques and the genesis behind this science.  Below is my attempt to summarize my learnings, which I am hoping would help guide anyone seeking to start on this immensely rewarding journey.

While it is tough to have one single definition for meditation, it is summarized as – “..a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state” on Wikipedia.

What is the difference between meditation and mindlfulness? While meditation is like the training ground where we learn to focus on the present for a limited time, mindfulness is the quality of being present throughout the day as we conduct our various duties. Being fully engaged with what we do – being focused, or in the state of flow.

The discipline of meditation finds mention in ancient traditions across the world as the path towards enlightenment and self-realization. The fundamental belief behind all the various types of meditation remains the same – being mindful of the breath – the connector of the body and the mind. The various types of meditation can be classified as – 

• Mindfulness meditation/Zen – originates from Buddhist teachings
• spiritual meditation – originates in eastern religions, trying to seek a deeper connection with God
• focused meditation – Involves concentration using any of the five senses
• movement meditation – while walking through the woods, gardening or other gentle forms of motion
• Mantra meditation – Using a repetitive sound (like Om)/Sound (Gongs, bowls, etc..) to clear the mind

While there are various ways in which the above types are defined by various sources, I believe the above mentioned types are the super sets of what it is. There forms known as Chakra meditation, Qigong meditation, vipassana meditation, etc.. which I find them all to be a part or combination of the above mentioned types.

How to meditate

While there are numerous resources on this on a simple online search, the basic principle is – “Focus on the breath, while breathing naturally”. No effort, comfortable posture and relaxed body. It is of course not that straight forward and requires mindful practice to be good at (like any other skill that you would learn). Gradual practice would help you increase the total time that you are able to focus without any distractions.

The benefits of regular meditation are plenty – ranging from better physical health to mental health, and one needs to get into the practice, and observe for himself/herself the positive effect on life.

There are various resources out there to get you started, and for those curious, I use the “headspace” app to guide my meditation practice.

Been sometime that I have scribbled anything here and like each time, life takes over. This year has been one roller coaster ride with so much going on, and yet nothing really happening. A paradox.

Time has been moving rather fast this year with a global pandemic seizing the world. Life has been one roller coaster ride for me right since Jan, or rather late last year. I had got this job in Atlanta and had spent a majority part of the end of last year preparing to get my documentation, etc.. in place for the VISA.

Attending the VISA interviews and the countless farewells I landed up in America end of the month. Looking back that seems like a completely different world. Here I was, as recently as eight months back when I was criss-crossing the country, and across the atlantic within the first month only to be holed up in my high rise apartment for the remainder of the year.

After spending a very informative week in Florida, I got to Atlanta. New Country, new office, new colleagues, looking for a place to stay while spending my nights in a downtown hotel during the February chilly weather here in Atlanta, February seemed hopeful. Little did I realize that a virus brewing somewhere on the other side of the world would create havoc.

March, I moved into a perfect apartment suiting my tastes – high rise, with a beautiful long green view from the room with huge glass windows. The virus was razing through the world and by now we knew that it would be a matter of time it would start affecting us. We were asked to work from home. This started setting the tone for rest of the year.

Initially, without realizing the rather long impact of the pandemic, I was hopeful like everyone else that this would pass in a couple of months, if not weeks. An air of uncertainty all over, and my view from the apartment seeming monotonous, I gave in to the fact that this is here to stay.

Denial Mode, then ignore mode to then accepting the way it is mode and moving on. Since then, all the truisms of the pandemic and work from home have been coming true one after the another.

Cooking, going for longish walks in solitude, picking up home workouts through an app, reading extensively and watching a huge piece of content across streaming services. Did them all. While at the same time adapting to the “new normal”.

With the family on the other side of the planet, facetime has been a lifesaver. I would not have used so much bandwidth all my life till now on calls that I have used in the last six months. Thank goodness the internet speed kept up on both sides.

While I look back to the last six months, one thing that has immensely helped me remain sane is the day 1 decision in March that though there would be no office to go to, I would follow the same schedule and get into work mode (with work attire and shoes!) to ensure I mentally signal my body and the mind. This has helped and while it felt robotic at many a times, doing it for the last six months it has become a part of me.

The world still seems to be very much in the middle of the pandemic with the end nowhere in sight. Am hoping a vaccine would soon land up and reach the entire human population soon enough for life to be back to normal. What is normal again? Is this the “new normal”? A paradox.