Aug 27, 2021 - That Horrible Birthday Realization

When I was 16, my phone was engaged between 11 pm and 3 am. I did not consider myself popular, but I had a lot of friends. They would all call me - some would get through, others would call back a couple of times. I would go to school the next day with blood shot eyes, the bloodier the eyes, the more the friends. 

Over the next few years, phone calls reduced - first, instead of 4 hours, to two hours, and then one hour, around midnight. Slowly, the phone calls shifted to during office hours, a brief phone call, with only a couple of friends calling in the evening for more than 5 minutes.

Today, as I turn 33, I got only one call from a friend, everyone else wished me on Instagram, LinkedIn and Whatsapp. My bank and my hospital sent me an email wishing me. The one constant has been my immediate family. While I'm grateful for my family, I can't help but feel a little sadness at how the number of phone calls, friends and hours of conversations went to a flat line.

The graph, you ask? Yes, I drew it. I gifted my husband randomly one day an apple pencil. 

If you don't get it, it's fine - just goes to show that over the 15 years, nobody has time to pick up the phone and talk, even on one's birthday.

SS

Feb 4, 2021 - Of Second Apartments.

A childhood friend of mine recently signed to buy her second apartment. I think I was happy and flustered. It's not that I don't have money to buy an apartment - but I feel like it's inertia. Once you've bought one property, it gets so much easier to buy your second one, and then some. I've been going on and about like a hamster on his wheel. I've been intending to buy some property - as an investment, just something that seems like a financially smart person would do. But it just seems like it's not straight forward.

• Taxes.
• Hidden fees.
• How do you know if it is a good locality?
• How do you know if it is disputed land?
• How do you know if the apartment is built on legally okay land (I can think of a case in India a few years ago - where in after years of residents living in the building, the court came out with a ruling that the land on which the apartment was built, was not legally okay - the land worsened the impact of floods and was not environmentally fit for construction). The building was demolished. Hundreds of residents lost their home in a matter of hours.
• Which real estate agent do you trust?
• How do you know if the construction quality is good?
• How do you know if it is good value for money?
• Phew - it's a lot - ain't it?

So I applaud my friend for her 2nd apartment.

SS

3 Feb, 2021 - Of Bite Sized News

Every morning, once I fire up my laptop, the first thing I do is delete promotional emails - this includes newsletters I am lazy to unsubscribe from, mails from banks, coffee shops and airline companies, event notifications from around the city etc. To me, clearing my mailbox is uncluttering. 

Lately, there is an email that I have started to read daily. The Ascend - bite sized news - that takes 2 minutes to read. It's got easy to read language and highlights the most important news you need to know.

I believe brief summaries like this email would be the future. Newspapers and news on TV have their audience, I'm not denying it. But, and there is a but, as attention spans continue to shrink, maybe, 2 minutes/day for reading curated news for an ordinary person like me seems future proof.

SS

Jan 9, 2021 - One more Covid Test

'It's the pandemic season', she said. "Better to take a swab test she said".

She did apologize before going all the way up my nose. 2020 will always remain the weirdest year. A global disease caused by a bat. Thousands of businesses closed, millions of holidays cancelled, millions who lost jobs. Perhaps a few thousand people who internally reflected if this was the right way to live a life and maybe, a few hundred who decided to make permanent changes in their life.

I believe I made some changes last year. I respect my time more now. I have understood that money will come and go, and in all probability, if you don't chase it, it'll come faster to you.

I also did another strange thing last year. On some nights, I counted the stars. Highest I've gone up to is 23.

SS

Jan 3, 2021 - It's Raining Certificates

New year, new me. Not really. Still hated getting up in the morning. It is a little earlier than I would have preferred to wake up.

Anyhow, I went on LinkedIn and made a general observation. Every third person I know, who's active on LinkedIn, is busy learning online. Wharton Online, Coursera, Udemy, Harvard Online, AWS, PMP, Python etc. Wait, I almost forgot Scrum. I personally believe that everyone should learn lifelong. Tom Kuegler, a blogger I follow, very aptly says. "Your brain is a factory, not a warehouse." We need to feed it with good knowledge so that it can in turn be productive for us.

I'm not sure what the intention is for all my fellow connections who are chasing certificates; being more employment worthy, the next promotion, actual knowledge gain, passion, a side project, prestige, a mandate from their employer etc. Irrespective of the reason, truth is, it's no mean feat to study as an adult, let alone complete the course, pass the final exam and pay for it. So I clap my hands. Congratulations all.

SS