The 'Kaal Vaasi' Life! (Now nearing Paadhi Life)

Copyright: (c) Laureen Middley.. Image from hbr.com This is going to be a short post on how to learn. In the teamtreehouse course about learning, there are 3 crucial questions that the instructor asks us to ask ourselves after learning something. What did I learn just now?  Can I put the learning in my own words and not the definitions provided How can I relate what I learnt now with something that I already know.  The instructor also tells us that simply re-reading or re-attempting a course from the beginning doesn't work and if I'm able to answer these 3 questions, then what I've learnt has stuck with me. If I'm unable to answer these questions, I've identified a weakness and have to deliberately learn and practice that module until I'm able to answer the above questions.  Makes sense.  The instructor says that experts become experts by identifying their weaknesses and deliberately practice to attack their weaknesses. Let me try!

OK! It's been a long time since I wrote anything here. Because I've been growing up and am not as young as before. The Kaal Vaasi Life is nearing The Paadhi Life. And I really don't know who is listening to this blog. It was purely my ranting and if anybody at all is listening, I feel sorry for you man!(or woman) During the course of this life, I realized that I stopped growing when I stop learning. Another thing that I learnt was that whenever our time is not right and when I felt that I am stuck somewhere, it is time to dust everything and start learning a thing or two. So, in my attempt to get unstuck now, I'm trying to learn something new which has nothing to produce any result in my life. And that keeps it motivating to keep learning. Because, when I try to attach a benefit to something I learn, I expect the benefit to be waiting when I finish my learning. And, learning is a long process. So, I get disappointed when I don't get what I want in a sh

This post is going to be disgusting. So, for those of you there, who can't stand the sight of shit or piss, a word of caution before you go ahead with this post. If you do go ahead, never say you were never warned of the after effects.  There is a popular saying in Tamil,  "உப்பு நிறையப் போட்டு சாப்டா சொரன ஜாஸ்தியா தான் இருக்கும்". For all the non-Tamil speaking crowd, it says, "if you have too much salt in your food, your emotions and ego are definitely going to be high. And today is the first day that I asked my mom in all 25 years of life, on why she had to to use all the salt that she has used till today in cooking food.  Friends and socialites kiss each other on the cheek. And if the 2 friends are guys, and you go ahead to kiss him, the first reaction to bounce back on you is "yeah right! Kiss My Ass!" unless the other is gay. I know people who use abbreviations to denote it saying, "KMA!" If you were to betray a friend and he has to retali

Life is beautiful!* * always with a back-up plan! Life is always lost without it.   My dad keeps yelling at me to this day to always have a plan in life . It is not uncommon with guys of my age to hear the dialogue "where do you see yourself 5 years from now?" and I keep blinking where the present is leading. 5 years??? I can't even think of one for tomorrow! And I used to scoff at my dad for being so 'conservative'. Every other day, my conversation with my dad started with a casual thing like, 'the weather is so hot in Chennai today' to anything about astrophysics to astrology and yet it always ended with my dad asking, "what is your plan? I don't see the fire in you." What started as a casual conversation always ends in a disgusting argument with my dad.  I used to think I'm always right and I still do. But then Life is the greatest teacher one can have. It teaches you on real terms. Our brains are designed to dream eve

It was 2005 and my uncle introduced me to this artist. I was hooked!  The first song I heard was comfortably numb and it was right there I fell in love with the style of music. This song could relax you in the most tensed of situations. Retrospectively, it usually makes me think of the days I was a kid. As a kid, I used to suffer from severe asthma attacks and I used to lie on the bed gazing through the window sill at trees swaying to a tune made by air. It used to relax me a lot then. It was haunting. And a song to bring out those memories from a deep brain is simply an amazing feat. Each one of us would have had such abstract thoughts in our childhood which we would probably not admit today. But, each one of us will have some abstract memory flashing in our eyes if you'd listen to 'comfortably numb'.  The guitar literally sings in Gilmour's solos. And there is something in the singing of the guitars, that will relax you in any given tensed moment, like a shot of mo

A rainy day has its own pour of weep. Oblivious to our own situations and people around, we do weep many a time with a smiling face. Like rain on a sunny day.  People misunderstand our exterior images to something that is non existent. No matter how we try to explain them, the interior is never realised by anyone else but yourself.  Somehow, there is a strange beauty in the sadness of it all. People with eyes are usually blind to another heart's thought. And yet we smile... with no inhibitions but with a heart full of unforgotten tales.  Our own heart's darkest corners are our own worst fears. We might get prepared to face a bullet in the skull but not to those corners of the heart. Some thought we all have.  My own darkest fear is something that I face everyday. A fear that haunts me with pleasure. The knowing that my fear is wrong makes it even more enigmatic. Sometimes you wonder whether it was a person who haunted you or was it merely a thing. I wonder the same

The night has fallen The drops have drained And bloods have stained I have fallen I lay there bleeding I shall get up For i never saw myself pleading And i shall pull up In War, There are days of victory And there are days of defeat But i shall not retreat To my own satisfactory I shall push the limits Of my own bygone tales To see my shattered bits Of endurance in water pales I shall fight for my own right The right to living And not to be on my own forgiving I shall fight the fight Till my last breath Against horizon's breadth My name says it all From ashes to victory Ashwin