Infinite thoughts

I recently got started on Notion, primarily as part of my new project. I had seen the Notion used by one of my earlier customers but wasn't impressed by what I had seen. However, I had been hearing quite a few things about this on Twitter. And it constantly intrigued me as to why people are so ga ga over it.  I had been dabbling between Google Docs and MS OneNote for quite some time. Used docs when I had to write structured content, such as an idea, feature or some strategy. And when there was time to simply jot down some points or take notes from meetings or while reading books, I resorted to MS OneNote for its ability to create unstructured and structured content both. However, I was still feeling handicapped. The "organized" person in me was wanting more. So finally decided to learn more about "Notion". I took a different route this time. Instead of simply registering and starting using the app, I went through a couple of YouTube videos. And that was the best...

Songs have a huge role in our life. In childhood, the primary source of songs was Radio. It slowly expanded to TV, then dedicated music channels. Somewhere in between or in parallel to Radio and Television, there existed the parallel world of Cassettes (and then later CDs) which served the audience. Since then, we have evolved to on-demand, yet unlimited songs. Each of these phases has/had some peculiarities of its own.  When I was a regular listener of the radio, there was only a handful of channels - probably two or three. One channel was primarily for music where Hindi songs were dominant and the other was for general. I think they were named “ विविधभारती ”, “आकाशवाणी अ” and  “आकाशवाणी ब” etc. The beauty of the songs on the radio channel was the surprise element - you could get to listen to a song of your liking which would lift your mood automatically.  The television channels, specifically those dedicated to music stole the limelight that radio was enjoying. However,...

I am not that person who doesn’t believe in celebrating these days. I appreciate the fact that the western culture has carved out days to celebrate these special relations. In routine life, we forget about the power of gratitude; we forget to dedicate time to nurture the relationship; we may tend to start taking things for granted. Such days allow you to rethink your acts, give some time to that relation and overall improve the happiness quotient of people around you and people who matter to you.  I feel fortunate to be part of the internet revolution, specially last 10 years or so. I was part of Giftease for a good part of last decade, where it was our job to find out ways to coax the customers to send out gifts. This was the time when I really started following the “gifting calendar” per se. I was introduced to numerous occasions including women’s day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, entire valentine’s week, sibling day, daughter’s day and what not. I, automatically, started sending ...

As the internet penetration increased over the last 2 decades, it also gave rise to digital subscriptions. The internet users slowly started developing trust in internet-based payments and that too on recurring payments. It probably started with the tech community using the recurring payment systems and slowly spreading that faith to non-tech-savvy users. There was also a phase when I started using the credit card for online transactions but wasn't comfortable storing the card details with the merchant. I used to enter the details every single time. (That is how I still remember the CC number that was in use at that time) In the late 2000's I was introduced to Ecom website development and since then it has been part of my professional as well as personal life. Over the years, I learned about the  PCI-DSS standard , and the extent to which the Ecom companies make an effort to protect consumer data. There have been instances of a data breach across the globe, but alon...

  Watching a dubbed movie is not exactly a choice for us as a family. I have been doing it occasionally, had watched some movies on Sony some time back. In recent past, it was “ Wild Dog ” starring Nagarjuna and Diya Mirza. Typically the plots are better in the South Indian movies, is what my observation is or I have been extremely lucky to have watched movies having a better plot. Meghana is not that inclined to watch such movies as watching a dubbed movie/series is a incoherent experience - lip movements and the audio create a feeling that something is wrong and then you can’t focus on movie or story. The songs are usually the worst of the lot as they are typically “प्राची ला गच्ची जुळवणे”. Mrunmay wasn’t a big fan either. He may have watched some while around me. In his recent trip to Bengaluru, his cousin took him to a movie - RRR . And since then Mrunmay has been only talking about the movie and the songs only. He must have listened to the song “ Nattu Nattu ” - maybe - a thou...

  It has been a while now since digital payments in India have become more mainstream. Although digital payment options were available to Indian consumers for a long time, the real growth happened after the demonetization in late 2016. PayTM jumped on the opportunity and benefited to a large extent as they already had the network, the infrastructure and marketing muscle to materialize the digital push. However, there were other players as well - MobiQuick wallet, PhonePe, GPay etc.  Another great enabler was the Indian invention called UPI by NPCI - Unified Payments Interface. Although the UPI was launched before the demonetization (Apr 2016), it wasn't understood enough by the masses. I remember an incident when I had tried convincing my vegetable vendor to accept UPI payment instead of insisting on cash. He was absolutely unsure and reluctant.  Fast Forward to 2022. The UPI payments are ubiquitous. Every nook and corner accepts the UPI payments. In fact, a person like ...

 “Empty can वापस आने दो !!” A man was shouting on the megaphone. A couple of hundred people had formed 2-3 different human chains in various directions and the cans filled with water were getting passed along. The crowd had kids from age 6 to adults who are approaching their second childhood. The occasion was the community event organized by my son’s school - “ DLRC - DriveChange Learning And Resource Center ”. As the normal school opened this week, the school jumped on to the opportunity to take the kids and the parents out to an outing, but with a purpose - Tree plantation and watering the plants on the hill. “Vasundhara Abhiyan” is an ENGO (Environment NGO) working towards tree plantation and conservation. The Baner chapter has started work on Tukai Hill and has planted more that 25000 native plants. With the help of volunteers from this ENGO, DLRC planned the community event to contribute to this noble cause. And hundreds of us reached the base of the hill at 6:30 in the morni...

The lockdown has become "मारुतीचे शेपूट". Week after week, it is getting extended for various reasons. Earlier there was second wave. Now, there are talks about "Delta Plus" variant or third wave. No one really knows when we will be starting with normal life. All the sincere folks are spending time indoors with minimum exposure outside. This has created a different problem. What should folks do staying at home? Initially, we consumed lot of online content. Several movies and serials. However, over a period of time, the appetite to consume more content has gone down. I am spending more time in searching what to watch than actually watching something.  Over last few months, I have deliberately developed some different habits or hobbies, which are helping in keeping the sanity in this lockdown.  Karaoke About a year back we bought Persang Karaoke set. Mrunmay was developing some interest in singing, so it was perceived to be an apt addition to the gadgets at home. How...

Today is 1st of May. Government of India announced the eligibility for all adults and vaccination is expected to start today.  But where are the vaccines?  Not in sight at all. Should you worry? May not be. May be yes. I don't know. This is little ranting and also an attempt to bring some sanity to thoughts to myself and my readers. Second wave of COVID-19 has hit India badly. We are seeing the infections in every corner. No day passes by when we don't hear anyone known getting affected or even deaths. It has been proven beyond doubt that vaccination is the only reliable way to avoid serious illness by COVID-19. Then why isn't it available in required quantities across India? We all need to remember we are 130 crore people country. The challenges are mammoth. Probably no one has had any experience in handling such a huge pandemic. Some mistake have happened and are bound to happen.  I have a feeling that GoI definitely failed to anticipate the impact of second wave, gross...

Mrunmay was keen to watch this movie about the Math Genius and had kept his eyes on the release date. So as soon as it was released, we watched it on 1-Aug. So the review is a bit late and some points may be little blur in details. My first reaction after the movie: this is a story about a celebrity (and that to an egoist celebrity) and her daughter. I really don't know how close this one is to real life and hence putting up my points from the movie angle only and not comparing it with real life at all. Shakuntaladevi , who was a genius in maths, since her childhood, grows doing Math shows across various places - schools, restaurants and what not. Having sacrificed her childhood and schooling for being the primary bread-earner of the family, she develops a huge grudge against her father. And against her mother too - for not speaking up.  As life takes turns and as Shakuntaladevi fights against the odds, she reaches London. After more struggle there, she finally finds herself ...

As the lockdown is continued, the domestic help is not available and we are our own to prepare the daily food. Although the restaurants are allowed to serve delivery orders, I have decided not to indulge for some more time. This gives rise to the discussion about "what is it for tomorrow's meal?" - which is very common, even otherwise. However, now that we are not ordering from restaurants, we are tempted to try out different cuisines (that's common now-a-days). During one such discussion, Italian cuisine popped up. We have tried our hands on preparing Pizza (using readymade base) and it worked out pretty well. Next one is Pasta, which is an easy affair, but it hasn't seen the light of the day as yet. While discussing all this, suddenly a question popped up.. "What do Italians eat routinely?" Do they eat Pizza and Pasta as daily meals or there are other items which are far more common that Pizza and Pasta? If you have been to Italian restaurant, you woul...

My curious fella once asked - "Baba, why is a country referred to as 'she' or 'her'?" e.g. Her Flag etc. I didn't have an immediate answer. I somewhat knew why would it be, but I couldn't put it in a logical convincing manner. I realised, I needed to look up some references.  My thinking was on following lines. The word "mother" instantaneously gives reference to "birth", "care". Since one takes birth in a given land, it is easy to relate it to be "motherland". It invokes the emotions similar to visiting your mother when you come back to your native place. So the feminine reference is largely on an emotional basis rather than any grammatical one. My research started indicating that although majority of the references are feminine, there's no basis for that in english grammar. English language is gender neutral and has no feminine and masculine distinction between words. However Latin, from which English is or...

Since the lockdown got announced again yesterday, there is unrest and uncomfortable feeling amongst the people around. First of all, I sense utter distrust that this lockdown is not going to be useful. If the administration couldn't set up required health infrastructure in last 100 days, how would they improve it in next 10 days? On what basis, did the government announce "unlockdown 1" and all? Many people had just started with their business and again this lockdown.  One thing is clear to me. Lockdown or no lockdown. Social distancing is required. Wearing masks is a must. Do not let your guard down. And while taking care of your physical health, you also need to take care of your mental needs. Especially of the little ones in your house. Mrunmay has been waiting to meet his grandparents for over three months now and was anxious to meet them in next few days hoping there would be further relaxations. They are in same city, but still we couldn't meet him. The thought ...

So, it is announced now . The number of cases in and around Pune were increasing continuously. Thanks to all the free flow on the streets. People giving up their precautions and pretending that the pandemic is over. When everyone should have resorted to essentials only, people were finding it brave to step out. On a personal level, I have stepped out only for necessary thing - once every week - typically for vegetables and other perishable items such as curd. As a family, we stepped out for couple of important items - a work chair for Meghana, few utensils in the kitchen and some art material. First two items had become a priority over last 3 months. Third one was essential to keep ourselves engaged during the lockdown period. However, we ensured that we picked up only essential stuff and left the shop at the earliest.  On the online shopping front, we ventured onto few items, but mostly those were of P1 category, if not P0. However, for all such items, we ensured that the packages...

If you are reading this regularly (?), you would have noticed it. The blog has got a face lift.  It all started when I realised that one of my avid readers is finding it difficult to search posts on a mobile device. He has been reading my posts on his mobile and has read several of my posts. But searching on mobile was a big problem for him. I acknowledged that it was a time to relook at the blog theme. After spending an hour or so, I bumped upon the current theme. I was looking for 2 features primarily. Mobile First Easy access to archives After trying to fix the old theme, I finally gave up and decided to look for a different theme.  This one is giving a fresh look to the blog. The ocean background is absolutely stunning and the white area for blog posts is giving the required contrast. The left navigation is prominent and can be customized to add more widgets in future, if I decide to. When switched to mobile view, the left side bar gets nicely tucked under the menu an...

After the initial enthusiasm that lasted for 8 days, I got to pen down the thoughts only today. In the initial days, there was excitement about noting down the thoughts, experience for posterity.  But on 9th day onwards realized it has become repetitive (not a surprise at all). The work - office work as well as home work started consuming most of my time. There was stress building up as Mrunmay wasn't getting enough time from us (Meghana and Me). So blogging took lower priority as compared to spending time with Mrunmay.  While we have spent more time with him as compared any other vacation, Mrunmay is finding it very less. It is natural. Seeing your parents 16 hours in front of your eyes and still getting about 60 to 90 minutes of their time - most of the times fragmented is NOT same as seeing them for 4-5 hours and still getting 60 minutes of their time. Can't get a better way to learn/teach "Theory of Relativity"!! Just the other day, realized that I hav...

And the boredom is kicking in. Mrunmay's exams are about to get over and there's only so much he can do on his own. Meghana and I are on call almost through the working hours and hence can't spend time with him. And the post lunch he starts getting bored. Today he said - "I am hating this WFH". I am not surprised. There were very few days when either of us were WFH and he was also home. So he is not used to see us around but not spend time with us. He is finding some ways on his own to keep himself occupied - reading and TV is common. Now he ia also spending time with his Robotics kit, some Python programming, some synth etc. Hope he will find more ways as days go by. Another day has passed without stepping out. Routine is somewhat settled, but will change again as Mrunmay's exams will get over on this Friday. Hopefully I can start working early and finish early so that I can give him some time.  I was talking to one of the team members generally che...

Today it completes 1 week of official Lockdown in India. For me it is 2 weeks. I started WFH and reduced stepping out from 18th Mar. Pretty good I would say. Today evening I stepped out for some groceries - primarily bread and curd. We are keeping some bread in stock, it comes handy for quick snack or breakfast. Curd comes handy for quick salad. It has been a while both of us have cooked for so long. It is very likely that we would feel like not doing one or more items and on such days these two items would come handy. I had been "पोळी" maker of the house for several years. But somehow over last few months I lost touch and the "पोळी" wasn't turning out soft enough. It was frustrating. But finally, got into the knack again. Today I went into self observation mode and noticed that I was picking up the dough little more that required. This was an improvisation over last few days. This would make the "पोळी" little thicker and keep it softer. But ...

The boredom is kicking in. Today morning, I wasn't feeling like working from home and was craving to meet my team in person. Somehow managed to survive initial couple hours and then I got into the work mode.  It is not a first time I am working from home. I have done that when I was waiting for good opportunity after mSauda and then after Giftease days. Even in those days, I would follow the WFH guidelines I listed earlier . But never got this bored. The difference was - I knew I would be working alone. This time I have a team and I interact with them through the day. I miss those small interaction with them while walking past them. Some intense discussions and white boarding on some design piece. Filling up the walls of my cabin with various data points and discussing them with the team. Some jokes and pulling legs of others! I miss that a lot. To recover from the boredom, I happened to post something on Facebook and while scrolling down the feed noticed that there were ...

Another day without stepping out of the home.. rather out of the society. I had to make a trip to the gate to collect wheat flour which was home delivered by our grocer. Since no delivery personnel's are allowed inside the society, i stepped out of the home, walked up to the main gate and collected it. Same thing happened for medicines for Dada. The pharmacist delivered it to the gate. It took me some time to fetch it from the security. And by that time the guard delivered it home. The milk is now taken care off. And it seems BBDaily is also resuming the milk delivery from tomorrow. Hoping to see it working regularly. It being a Sunday today, spent a lot of time in cleaning, rather deep cleaning the room. Since the maids are off, it has taken a toll on cleaning. With cooking in the morning, it becomes nearly impossible to clean the house completely and happens only in bits- n-pieces. The deep cleaning kind of gave a sense of satisfaction!! This social distancing is kind o...