Blogs

No, I didn’t always wanted to do that. Title the post with a complicated number. Go ahead and copy this in to your favorite search engine and find out what it is and come back here and read the rest of the article. After that, you will have to figure out how this number is related to Kinderspark, the recently concluded innovation fest for school children conducted by Mahindra & Mahindra. Here is one more thing of intrigue - how is a Marvel superhero related to the whole thing?

Thirukkural - 223

in Learning

2020-11-04

My 10-year old and I have been reading one kural a day (from Thirukkural, a set of poems about life) for almost 200 days running now. Some very interesting stories and discussions have come out of that. I am sharing some of them with you. Hope you find it useful.

குறள் 223:

இலனென்னும் எவ்வம் உரையாமை ஈதல்

குலனுடையான் கண்ணே யுள.

I believe I can fly - Lighten the load to get a new idea

in Teaching

2020-10-21

I recently read this article on lightening the load to fly (article link given below). I couldn’t help but sing along “I believe I can fly” by R. Kelly, one of my all-time favorite songs.

When we think of product/service ideas, we always think of adding features, adding this, adding that. But, a more powerful approach, is to remove or lighten.

How to eliminate distractions while writing

in Writing

2020-09-30

Try to eliminate interruptions — by other people, email, your phone, or poking around the Internet — but don’t tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

I loved this point from an article, I read. I thought about how I to achieve this in my schedule.

Easy DND - Do Not Disturb mode. Switch this on and all the unnecessary calls, messages, internet based distractions are all off. Use a pomodoro® technique by using a timer to focus on the (writing) task at hand.

Micro-progress on Habits and Tasks - Solpa Adjust Maadi

in Teaching

2020-09-23

Rome wasn’t built in a day is one of the adages you might have heard. Many projects and tasks that I have had in the past and those that are in my inbox are deadline driven. So, the deadlines bring in the drive to complete them. However, there are some tasks which are nice to do, and they do not have any deadlines. They get postponed all the time, particularly because there is no deadline attached. How does one tackle this situation? Micro-progress. Mark the task on your calendar, do a little (barely minimum) work and write that down in the description. Now, postpone the task to some other date. That’s it! The next time, the task shows up, do the exact same thing.

Books and Stuff Podcast - Episode 9 - How to invest the Warren Buffett way

in Learning

2020-09-16

Welcome to the Books and Stuff Podcast Series.

Books and Stuff Podcast series - Earning and learning seem to distinct spheres of life. However, Warren Buffett through his investing has shown us all that they needn’t be separate things, in fact, Bala and Krishna believe that they are one and the same. But how does one learn about earning?

The book The Warren Buffett Way written by Robert Hagstrom points out the 4 mined from the billionaire investor’s life long learning, er… earning, er… investing journey. (These questions are our own interpretations of Hagstrom’s explanations)

Business Tenet - Do you understand how the business makes money? If you were the chief of the company, would you know how to make money?
Management Tenet - Do you know how the people run the business? Do you know who the leadership is? What is their unique management style?
Financial Tenet - After crunching numbers, are you able to understand if the business has indeed been profitable?
Value Tenet - Is the stock available at a discount from its projected value? How do you project value?

Enjoy the Books and Stuff Podcast!

Daily Review - Building blocks for a productive work-life

in Learning

2020-09-09

Productivity is one of my favourite topics. Some of my friends joke that I spend more time thinking about productivity than actually being productive. Recently, I read Cal Newport’s post on Taming the Productivity Dragon¹ and I thought about–what is my way of taming the productivity dragon? This is a post which describes part of my system - Daily Review.

White Walls - Star Trek TOS fanfic screenplay - Chapter 7

in Writing

2020-09-02

“These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise”. These words shaped much of my growing up, when I watched Captain James Kirk take on adversary after adversary and win over challenging situations. As a tribute to the magnificent series which has had so many spin-offs and movies, I wrote a fan fiction screenplay of what might be one episode of the Star Trek show. I’ll publish the entire screenplay chapter by chapter. Enjoy!

White Walls - Star Trek TOS fanfic screenplay - Chapter 6

in Writing

2020-08-26

“These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise”. These words shaped much of my growing up, when I watched Captain James Kirk take on adversary after adversary and win over challenging situations. As a tribute to the magnificent series which has had so many spin-offs and movies, I wrote a fan fiction screenplay of what might be one episode of the Star Trek show. I’ll publish the entire screenplay chapter by chapter. Enjoy!

White Walls - Star Trek TOS fanfic screenplay - Chapter 5

in Writing

2020-08-19

“These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise”. These words shaped much of my growing up, when I watched Captain James Kirk take on adversary after adversary and win over challenging situations. As a tribute to the magnificent series which has had so many spin-offs and movies, I wrote a fan fiction screenplay of what might be one episode of the Star Trek show. I’ll publish the entire screenplay chapter by chapter. Enjoy!