BRAToSPHERE

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  • Early Mornings

    In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

    This one statement captures it all. Mornings are indeed the most productive hours of the day. The birds chirping, the chill in the air and the dew droplets on the leaves – the atmosphere is so soothing that it brings out the best in you.

    Alas! Most of us (including me!) have wasted most of our mornings, and we keep doing it. Unfortunately, most of these mornings are spent in slumber missing out on the best moments of the day.

    Of late, I have started this routine of waking up before dawn and ideally hitting the ground before the early morning sunlight. Taking a walk around the ground, slight stretching exercises, some yoga exercises or sometimes just sitting there on the bench and observing the beautiful nature – the day seems all charged up.

    Some things that I try doing in the morning:

    Exercise: Work out in the morning. After running, or brisk walking, 10 Km at a stretch early in the morning, heaps of work in the office should be a smooth run. Anything in the form of exercise – Yoga, stretching, meditate, etc. A 45 minute brisk walk session followed with half an hour of Yoga works perfectly. Have been trying to accommodate meditation into the routine for sometime now.

    Planning my day: The extra fresh hours in the morning, give me ample time to put my day in place. Mapping out the schedule for the day, and the to-do list, makes it so much easier.

    Healthy Breakfast: No stress on the importance of this meal. So I tend to have a good, hearty one for this.

    Writing: Well, reading and writing is supposed to be a leisure activity and thus should be done anytime during the day right? Well, true. But bringing in some amount of discipline gets more productive results. Also, mornings allow the mind to think freely and be more creative.

    All this waking up early and getting into a routine forms a very strong and powerful thing within ourselves (other than the six pack abs, if you are the gymming kinds) – HABIT.

    Habit is probably the most powerful thing that drives us to do anything, and the best way to form it is in the mornings when it sticks the best!

    Developing this habit in the daily routine has made me realize that the day actually has enough number of hours, it just needs better planning.

    With this, I am off to get my breakfast, yes a whole and hearty one.

  • Lady, You’re Not a Man! – Book Review

    I always believed the best thing that can be gifted is a book, and I have this habit of gifting my close friends with books I believe they should be reading. My friends accuse that I gift them books that I wish to read. I probably prove this allegation by borrowing the book immediately after gifting it to them!

    So, recently I bought this book for a very good friend of mine and ended up reading it before she could even start a page.

    The author is the CEO of a top radio channel, and her husband runs an international apparel brand in India. (He was earlier the marketing head of a company I started my career with). The genesis of this book is the author’s blog – Womanatwork.co.in

    This book is about working women and their work, home, Husband, kids and everything about their life.

    All these reasons convinced me that it would make a wonderful gift for my friend.

    The book is truly an inspiration to all working women. The author manages to give a quick dossier to reach perfection in both personal and work life, while managing multiple hats all at the same time.

    The book is divided into three neat sections, with each section comprising ten chapters. Each of the chapters is a simple life funda explained with a small anecdote from the author’s life experience.  Prime among these chapters are concerns of the glass ceiling, juggling home and work, training the husband, etc..

    The writing is crisp and it is an easy read.

    The tagline of the book – The adventures of a woman at work, though is misleading. It should rather be adventures of a working woman!

    Overall, irrespective of whether you are a working woman or not, or you are a woman or not, you will connect to what is being said in the book.

  • Allure of a Coffee Shop

    14th February, Valentine’s day. Here I am sitting at the Starbucks coffee shop waiting for a friend. We planned to go out for dinner tonight.

    By the looks of it, it does not seem to be happening. All restaurants seem to be completely sold out to the romantically inclined! So, I guess, we would have to do with the coffee alone today.

    Coming back to the main topic – Coffee shops.

    I have always liked whiling away time in a coffee shop. As far as I remember, this fixation with coffee shops started with that unaffordable espresso shot at barista on MG road in Bangalore. This was way back in 2005, when I was in third year engineering. That barista has now become a CCD, and my tastes have changed from espresso shots to a hot chocolate (yes!).

    It has been a long on going journey since that espresso shot at the barista. Right from the “4 seasons” cafe in Vizag for the inexpensive cup of black coffee after CAT classes, to the present day Starbucks, every cup has for sure been totally worth every penny.

    Coffee shops are so energetic and full of life, and at the same time calm and inspiring. No wonder many bestsellers have been written in coffee shops.

    Whenever I am in a new city, I always make it a point to spend some time in a coffee shop. Just looking, and if possible, eavesdropping, at people and their conversations is a complete course in human psychology. You get to know the talk of the town? What is the current favorite? Which movie you should be watching the coming weekend!

    One week later.. 21st February..

    Am again at this Starbucks, and it seems that it is just where I left.

    It is as if time has frozen in this part of the world, inside this hideous place and everyone is still having fun. Of course, the people have changed (but I don’t remember their faces!), and the talks have changed. But the energy still remains the same. The same infectious energy.

    See, this is the joy of going to a coffee shop. It feels like returning back to a familiar place. It is not without design that most Starbucks outlets across the world are designed in the same fashion. Or CCD, or Barista, or at other coffee chain. They intend to give you the same familiar look and feel to bring back the warm memories and freeze time for the couple of hours you are here.

    I can keep singing hours and hours about this wonderful modern day creation, and am sure I would in many more posts.

    Am off now to get my hot chocolate, and to spend some time eavesdropping.. Er! solitude. See you soon at the next cafe.

  • Train journey musings

    I am sure there are a lot many articles written in the train and this one is adding to the list.

    I am right now in a train, on my way to Vizag from mumbai – a full 28 hours in the train. Yehhhh!

    The train has always brought fond memories of my childhood when it was an annual ritual for us to go to my maternal grandparent’s house in Rajasthan. Criss-crossing the length of the country from one corner to another corner, with the fascinating journey itself taking about two complete days.

    Those all familiar sights of the yellow board with black letters announcing the name of the station, trolleys with chips and Coke, Red dressed coolies running towards an arriving train (they always reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan), vendors shouting “Chai.. Chai.. Chai..”, the rail announcement ‘Kripiya dhyaan dijiye.. Gaadi number….” and the crazy commotion like they all have to catch a train. Well, i guess they did!

    I remember this habit of buying newspaper at all major junctions, and being surprised at the fact that all of them carry the same news. So, my mind wondered, that the same movie is being discussed in Bhopal also, as in Hyderabad. This became my favorite hobby, to guess what news of the Raipur newspaper would make it to the Delhi newspaper.

    What I was basically trying to do was segregating the national news from the local news. My young brain did not know this so implicitly at that time.

    Godavari River, clicked from a moving train

    The train journeys made me proud of the diverse heritage of our country. The landscapes, rivers, forests, tunnels, farms, made me realize what a beautiful country we live in.

    Another fond memory of the train journey is meeting new people. I realize I have always liked meeting new people and talking to them about varied things, right from a popular movie to the latest comic on the book shelves. In most of my train journeys, I have always encountered interesting people in the way, making me realize the diversity of the country.

    Talk about train journeys and how can I forget the “wheeler” book trolley. One of the main reasons why i loved a train journey were the books. My book allowance would increase manifold during a train journey and I think this was more to keep me away from any mischief.

    “Chacha chowdhary, tinkle, wisdom,..” and the likes would all comprise my adorable small book shelf on my return. I loved them so much that I used to get the entire collection hard bound, and saved for posterity.

    An interesting thing to do while traveling in trains – remove the ear plugs! There are so many interesting conversations happening all around, eaves dropping on any one of them gives a whole new insight into the thought process of the common man. Well, this is the topic of discussion on presently in my compartment – the Aam Aadmi Party.

    Sadly, after having started working, my train journeys have largely reduced mainly due to the time constraints.

    In spite of this, I try to squeeze in a train journey whenever possible, making the most of it. This reminds me of a small poetry,

    “My heart is warm with the friends I make,
    And better friends I’ll not be knowing,
    Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
    No matter where it’s going.”
    ― Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Selected Poetry

    Train journeys is perfect time when I am all to myself without the irritating phone beeping all day (thanks to the intermittent network I tend to switch it off), and immersed in books and thoughts for the entire period.

    Back to my book for now.

    I am sure all of you too have fond memories of train journeys during your childhood, so which one do you remember the most?

  • Freakonomics – Book Review

    The first book that I have completed reading this year, is the highly engrossing “Freakanomics” by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

    The authors – one a reluctant economist, and the other a journalist, right in the beginning dodge accountability with the disclaimer that the book is not a scholarly work.

    To their credit, they have used realms of data to prove their point, and all of it is used in a very non-intimidating way without scaring away the reader.

    The authors also deserve credit for making economics an interesting science, and show us that application of pure basic principles of economics could predict many a human behavior. Right from the drug peddlers, to the cheating school teacher, everyone works on the basic rational principles of economics.

    The emphasis on the incentive structure and the way it works to make people behave in a particular way is fascinating. It gives the reader a better appreciation of the incentive structure prevailing so sub-consciously in our daily lives. Also, it helps in my day job to think more rationally and design more effective programs.

    Overall, this is an entertaining book with a lot of food for thought.

    After reading the book, my way of looking at daily mundane things has completely changed. Of late, I am compelled to look at connections, and try providing a rationale to every small happening around me. Even a seemingly mundane thing like why does my cook put a lot of oil in my food?

    A must read.