Wave

'Wave' is an amazing memoir novel.
It's the real life story of a tsunami survivor, who lost all she loved.
Mother, father, husband and 2 sons.

Read it to feel the gift of life.

I was struck by Sonali's detailing of the event. I can't imagine the grief she went through.

The decision she took to share about the agony, is a brave one. It takes lot of guts.

The book helped me to feel life in a sensible manner.

The book lets you question your life, in every page.

What more can a writer achieve ?

The book I gave up.

I planned for a book.
I started it. Wrote 3 chapters, yet could not get on with it.
I showed it to few friends, got advise on writing books, but it did not pick up from my end.

I wanted to write a book because I liked writing.
Was fascinated by the book for some time. Fascination was not enough.

I thought hard.

Would this be something people like?
Don't worry about people, just write what you love.

That tussle in my mind, disturbed the joy of putting up a simple blog post. Blog posts dried up.
Writers block.

I will write more frequently on this blog. 3 posts a week.
But not the book. For now.

Self Driving Car

I always had doubts about self driving cars. Also we don't have an answer to traffic we create.

Major issue about self driving cars is, safety. I watched Sebastian Thrun, the man behind Google self driving car, speaks about his vision.

A fascinating 3 minute video : Click here.

Advise on careers can be lethal

I overheard a person on phone.

" No, don't let him take IT courses. Look at me, IT did not take me anywhere. As I told you get him to do banking, at least he can get a low interest loan " 

Can you see the lethal dose ? 

Anybody seeking advise on careers, need to talk to 5 people. Actively.

By active means, You ask questions that clear your doubts. It's your future and it should be in your hands. 

Talk to people who have done well after you have understood your passion.
Yes, Passion matters.
Passion is the difference between a job and a career.

"I'm going to Mars"

"100,000 people have signed up to live in Mars, knowing they will not return to planet earth.
Only few will get the chance for first flight". This little amazing news popped in a dinner conversation.

SpaceX is not science fiction. It's actually happening. Elon Musk is a visionary in every sense.

The signed up people will get supplies in Mars from Earth once every 4 years. (Not verified)
They surely have tons of money to sign up. I wonder, why rich people want to do this?

I guess these people want to leave a legacy - "we were the first, we dared to be different."
So they decided to vanish in to thin air (or rather space).

Hierarchy of human needs is so elusive. Self actualization is a tricky place to be.

Relaxation can happen at tension.

Long tension story short:  I was 15 minutes late today to leave home, and met with an unprecedented traffic. My wife got late for school and me for office. My first meeting was delayed 30 minutes.
Not nice, when it was the first thing in the morning.
The image of my wife been late (a not happy face) lingered on until I reached office.
At office, I had to plan for the meeting and I am already 30 minutes late !

A traffic - a simple block at the beginning of the day made such an impact, and it was manifesting in me.

Instead of the routine, I took a different open approach for the meeting. Rather than peeping in to the relevant docs and notes, I made it clear upfront, that I need to discuss things in detail, step by step. I started asking specific relevant questions. Not rushed, but focused. It took 45 minutes, and it was a success.

Then I switched on Self Control on web for 3 hours, slowly engaging in work, with out giving in to the rush.

"  Tension is who you think you should be. 

Relaxation is who you are  " 

~Chinese proverb

what would I lose?

When we get to some point of achievement in life, (or sometimes at a failure) we value ourselves by asking the question " what would I lose? "
Most often people stuff many things in their back pack. 'Back pack' here is the metaphor for the burden of life. Too many things in your back pack weighs you down from doing things that matter. It gets too heavy, by the day.

A good question to ask, time to time, is, " What should I put in my back pack"

Talking about back pack, 'Up in the Air' is a very good movie to watch.

Self Control on Web.

When I am in-front of laptop, creating a document, I wish I had the resolute to switch off social media.
I had the wish, but not the resolute.
So in to 20 minutes of work, I would go to internet for some 'search' and end up in twitter and facebook or some blog(s). It would take 15 minutes to understand I am trespassing.
Then another 10 minutes (minimum) to re-focus on what I was doing.

Now I know I have a problem (Most of the time I ignored), and I have found a cure.

• Enter 'Self Control', a free and open software for mac users to black list web sites. Once I black list a website and set up a timer, I wont be able to access those sites, even if I restart the computer or delete the application. It's a pretty neat app. (Download here)

• There are alternatives for other platforms. For Windows, one notable app I found is K9. (download here). There are many other options.

• Recommended by Thameera:  RescueTime -  Works on all platforms, tells you how much time you spend on each website.