Category: life

It’s been a long time I wrote anything here on my blog. But the past 1 month has been an amazing one for me. There have been so many changes that happened and so many things that I welcome. For starters, I started reading “The Artist’s Way”. It’s an amazing book. I haven’t gone past 1st chapter yet, but the “Artist Pages” part from the 1st chapter is changing my world. Everyday, I wake up and write 3 pages of my streaming mind. It clears off my mind and helps me all day. May be that is why I didn’t had anything to write to on my blog

Another amazing thing was we happen to watch the movie “The Secret” from one of our friends. This movie completely changed my life. I have been listening to the audio book and it’s such an amazing concept. I am going to make ‘The Secret’ part of my life.

We are moving to India next month for about 6-8 months. Me and Sangita want to remember all the stories about our journey and stay there. So, today we created a new blog for our stories. It’s going to be here – http://indiastory.wordpress.com/

I am not sure if there it is well known, but I know I am going through it now. I feel like I haven’t been able to write any creative programming solution to a problem off late. Yes, I did code a lot – but none of the stuff was new, creative or challenging. It’s some old solution picked out from my memory and dished out. I am having a terrible phase of programmer’s block. I can’t think of new solutions, new problems. Any time I want to do something cool, I am hindered by my lack of skills. I have some great ideas that can be turned into good sites – but my dwindling skills in ruby on rails is stopping me. Everytime I think of my projects, I think of how I have to finish reading my RoR book.

This lock-in situation is not leading me anywhere. I am kinda blocked and I really don’t know what to do? Yes, ajax is interesting, javascript can be fun, ruby is amazing – but you enjoy them only if you are writing programs that solve real problems not just some hello world program. So, how can I pull my head out of this dirt and get started? What other tools I can use?

Learning is such an impediment sometimes. Right now the thing between me and my projects is lack of skills. I need to work more on building my skills. But when I am still building skills, I am losing interest in the subject. How can I balance the learning of tools and keep my interest in the work? How can I create creative targets for myself and achieve them?

In the book ‘Flow’ – the author mentions key ingredients of getting in flow.

1. small sequence of tasks leading to a goal
2. set of rules/principles that contain these tasks
3. attention & focus on these tasks
4. skills matching each of these tasks

I have everything except the 4th. Without skills to match my to-do project list, I feel lacking something important. Everything can’t be achieved through trial and error. How do I get over with this block? How?

Today turned out to be such a bummer day. I lost my temper at something very trivial in the evening. I was feeling bad about it already, then another thing came along. Since I didn’t do a good job and it’s been almost 3 months and very little progress – today I was relieved of the tech group I was part of. Bummed out. Then I came to know that the hotel I booked for my mom and relatives through Expedia was a farce. Apparently in India, they don’t honor the reservations you make online – even if you are willing to pay the amount they say! Bummed out again.

I don’t think I can take any more for today.

Swami says –

“What is Dharma? Let me summarize it. First, treat your parents with love, reverence and fortitude. Second, act as you speak, speak as you feel and do not play false to your conscience. Third, be calm and levelheaded and maintain equipoise. And finally listen to the voice within!”

In the past couple of weeks I have been working a little harder to reach certain goals, milestones and dreams. This has displaced my personal life a bit and also cause me extreme stress. What was surprising was that outside I was very normal, but within I was living with a feeling of rushing all the time. This caused some physical abnomalities that my body warned me about.

Now I have decided to slow down. I am following the Ayurvedic lifestyle. Sleeping early, being very careful about what I eat and regular meditation. Also abhyanga makes it much more peaceful.

This doesn’t mean that all the work I was trying to finish has disappeared. I have just slowed down and the work which I have unfinished will either be delegated or broken down into small pieces. I have a huge learning curve to jump in both Javascript and Ruby. In the coming weeks I will start my postings on my learnings

Today I had a meeting with David after a long gap. I always come out inspired when I meet him. Even though we pretty much worked on our own, just being in that highly charged environment leaves me inspired. It revitalized me!

I have been thinking a lot about education, learning and application of learned knowledge. These 3 topics are kinda close to me. I have been planning to work on a business idea using all these 3 from the past 1 year. I think I am getting closer to it so that I can start working on it. I am always intrigued by how we learn. And how we retain and further use it. I recently came across a very comprehensive article on learning stuff – called “hacking knowledge”

http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/hacking-knowledge

So, my plan is to try out everything that is listed on it and write my own experience about it. See how I would fare in it and which tools I would add to my own toolbox.

Today was such a good day for me. It was warm all day. I took off from work to finish up a lot of backlogged work on various projects – just to get a hold on where things are. I was amazed as how much it changes everything when the weather is so warm. I am not a big fan of working from home, but today was totally different. I did two things different though –

1. Did Sun Salutations – a yoga procedure -in the morning.
2. Immediately start working without checking whats happening on net/blogs/news etc.

I never realized that how much sun salutations can charge me up. I just finished reading “Perfect Health” and in it Deepak Chopra talks about how exercise should give a person energy rather than sap it out of him/her. This is a super charger for me. Another thing was that I spend about 1 hr going through the news and popular links of the day etc. This kinda distracts me and I end up starting my work very late.

So, I finally managed to prepare well for my Arabic class in the evening. Over all it was such a productive and energized day. Kinda ironic that I had to take a day off to get such a day.

Listening O.S.Arun singing Rama Stuti is an amazing feeling. And to think of this was written about 600 years back by  Tulsidas is mindblowing

Shriramachandra kripalu bhaju man haran bhavabhai darunam,
Navakanja-lochana, kanjamukha, kara kanja pada kanjarunam.

O my heart! Sing praises of Sri Ram, Who absolves the greatest fears due to the cycle of life and death, and Whose eyes, mouth, hands, and feet are like a newly blooming red lotus
Kandarpa aganita amit chavinava neel-neeraja sundaram,
Pata peet manahu tadita ruchi shuchi noumi, janaka sutavaram.

I bow to Sri Ram, Whose beauty cannot be compared with that of the cupid Kamdev, Whose pleasing appearance is beyond any measures, Whose body is like a newly formed dense blue cloud, Whose yellow robes are shining like lightening (on His cloud like body), Whose beauty is gleaming, and Who is the consort of the daughter of Janak (Sita)
Bhaju deenbandhu dinesh danav-daitya-vansha-nikandanam,
Raghunand anandakand koshalachandra dasharath-nanadanam.

Sing praises of Sri Ram, Who is the friend of poor, Who is the Lord of Sun, Who expurgated the lineage of demons from Danu and Diti, Who is the dear one of Raghu, Who is like a cloud of happiness, Who is like a moon for Kausalya, and Who is dear one of Dashrath
Sira mukuta kundala tilaka charu udaru anga vibhushanam,
Aajaanubhuja shara-chaapa-dhara, sangrama-jita-khara dushanam.

Sing praises of Sri Ram, Who has a beautiful crown on His head, Who is adorned with ear-hoops, Who has a beautiful colored mark (tilak) on His forehead, Who has expanded and beautiful organs decorated by ornaments, Who has long hands reaching His knees, Who holds a bow and an arrow, and Who defeated Khar and Dushan in a fierce battle
Iti vadati tulasidasa shankara-sesha-muni-mana-ranjanam,
Mama hridai kanja-nivaasa kuru, kaamaadi khala-dala-ganjanam

Tulsidas says this; Ram, the enticer of Shiv, Shesh (Sheshnag), and saints, reside in my lotus-like-heart and destroy the evils generated by desire