Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Poem of the day

Visiting sixwordmemoirs.com, I found the prompt, 'I'm from.'

It's interesting to dabble with the theme, 'I'm from.' We are rooted in the places we've lived in. For me, the home is always the place I live in. And I lived at different places. One place, one year was the usual routine. So, whenever anyone asks me, Where I am from, I pause for a moment pondering where I'm really from?


The poem, 'Where I’m From' By George Ella Lyon


I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.

Rewind 2019

Thinking a lot about rewind and recap of 2019, I'm slipped out into the present. It doesn't seem to be an end of the year at all. I enjoy the holiday season but I'm unable to see the reason of the holidays. I could see the list of the books, I read this year but lost the track of the movies, I watched. I moved out to North India for the first time. There's a lot to sit and reflect.


Meet up with Rony

I met Rony in 8th class at St.Joseph High School. Coming from Nellore, I find this school more amiable than my previous school. I made many friends in 8th. Rony is one of them.

Rony is calm and jovial. He does not easily give out himself infront of everyone. He's completely himself among the company he likes. Everyone loves to be in his company for his wit and non judgemental attitude.

Living in the same colony, we used to hang out whenever possible. After 8th class, I left the school for Chittoor. Rony also changed his school. 

I met Rony after 10 year gap. Rony's mother was surprised to see me after many years. Visiting home town once a year, I visited Rony's place once again this year. Rony is as ever the same. Witty and calm. "Em Abhinay, inka." he says calling out my name constantly. 

Our conversations over dinner were all about the things we missed sharing of our graduation days. Graduating from mechanical and Civil branches, we had a lot of stories to relate with. Arrears, the kind of people we meet in this branches. 

Rony shared his friends' stories, (Frankie, Deepak & many) I shared my stories (Basketball and the backlogs). Recollecting the funny stories, we laughed out loud cherishing the memories. Good time spent. 

Given chance, we can make these meets regular, once a year. 

Monday, December 30, 2019

Rewind 2019

2019 has been another great year with a lot of learnings and life lessons experiencing everything I could. 

Moving to Rajasthan for a year has been a big move in this year. Grateful to Aravind for the encouraging words. 

Traveling to Dehradun and Mussorie for a trip has been a memorable trip in this year.  Made great memories with amazing people. Learnt a lot about the other facets of life. 


Books of the year- 2019

So far so good but I can do better. Traveling to Rajasthan, I assumed, I'd read more of academic books, I couldn' finish few books I started in the public library. There are so many books that I couldn't finish after starting.


  1.  Viriah by Krishna Gubili
  2. No Spin by Shane Warne 
  3. Small Acts of Freedom by Gurmehar Kaur
  4. Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
  5. Dreams from my father by Barack Obama 
  6. On Writing by Stephen King
  7. Becoming by Michelle Obama
  8.   Nanasense by  J P Das
  9.   The Wordless Conversation
  10.  Four miles to Freedom by Faith Johnson
  11. The God Father by Mario Puzo 
  12. Summerhill by A.S. Neil
  13. The Sense of an Ending by Julia Barnes
  14. The Beauty of All my Days by Ruskin Bond
  15. No Man is an Island by Ruskin Bond
  16. Landour Days by Ruskin Bond
  17. Akbar and Birbal by Amita Sarin
  18. Stories on Women by Premchand
  19. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
  20. A Cage of Desires by Suchi Singh Kalra
  21. A Gardener in the wasteland by Srividya Natarajan
  22. Lionel Messi(Read and Shine Series)
  23. Ther Firework- Maker's Daughter by Philip Pullman
  24. Dream New Dreams by Jai Pausch
  25. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
  26. Storyteller: Tales from Arabian Nights
  27. Tree Matters 
  28. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

    This year, I tried reading more of children's' literature but I read my usual genres, non-fiction, autobiographies, memoirs. This year, I didn't read a regional language book
Graph:  Number of books I read over the years

I tried reading a few books and then purchase the other books but, I couldn't read it that way. This year, I also tried reading multiple books at once. I didn't enjoy it as much as I read a book at a time. Will go back to one book at a time. 

Of all the books, I enjoyed Summerhill by A.S.Neil for changing my perspectives on education. 




Thursday, December 26, 2019

Shoe Dog- Memoir by Phil Knight

Phil Knight's story with shoes and running defined his life. Following his passion and running around the things he loved, he is at the place he is now. 

Graduated from Stanford and a year at the army, Phil was called an accomplished, a learned soldier. But Phil wasn't sure of himself. Phil wanted to create, wanted to win and started his world travel. 

Rejected in baseball, Phil took out on running and fell in love with it. He wanted to sell Japanese shoes that seemed will work out in America. Phil worked his way to create his company, Blue Ribbon.  

Before starting Blue Ribbon, he had many stints. He spent his time selling Encyclopedias. More than anything, he wanted to sell things he believed in. The shoes.  

Inter lacing with the dream, he got into the adventure of wandering the world. Phil traveled to Japan. Japan trip was a business trip. He rehearsed and worked hard to crack the deal with Onitsuka in getting the deal. 

Later he wandered in India, Egypt, Himalayas, Nepal, and many more countries. 

Intuitive support from his mother and father, he could pull up the whole Blue Ribbon. Working on his dream, he had the right people on the bus. At first, his co-founder, Bowerman, then full-time employee Jeff Johnson(the guy who gave the name NIKE)

Phil's passion was Blue Ribbon but facing reality, he also worked in an accounts firm.  Along with the Blue Ribbon, Phil worked in a lot of places, faculty at portland University, a worker at account firm, and few other works. He managed all these works to one extent and when he knew Blue Ribbon needs his full time, he quit his job and went on with it. 

From then on, Phil's journey at Blue Ribbon is a roller coaster ride. Sales are always rocketing high, he always had issues to solve. He could achieve all this, thanks to his wonderful team. Team of butt faces, as he calls. 

The transition from Blue Ribbon to Nike is interesting. The way Phil won over the challenges is interesting. Nike's story is worth reading. Well written. 

Learned a few lessons from this book. 

1. There's a lot of work that goes in to build a brand. 
2. Getting the right people on the bus is the key to get work done in effective manner.
3. Do not give up. 


Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Rani Rupavati's mosque















Book Haul at the airport.










Bubby's marriage




River front - Ahmedabad







The alumni Game

I visited the college to attend the alumni game. 

Chinmay along with Raghu Bhai picked me up from the metro station. Met Raghu anna after 4 years. Long-time. Teja Bhai joined us and the conversations flowed. Over the conversations on politics, governments, and perspectives we reached the college. 


Unlike the last years, we played the game only on the upper court. I visited the place where I've spent the time most. Basketball court. Didn't even walked down. Smiles, hugs, conversations. The evening went in a cheerful mood. 





Hyderabad after 9 months.

I left Hyderabad for Rajasthan in March and I returned for holiday in December. It's been 9 months and it's gone worse in a few ways and better in a few ways. More exhausting experiences than pleasant experiences. 
The nightlife is bizarre. 

I'm a night owl and I caught myself feeling this. The whole culture of killing time at night rather than being effective seemed to be the most bizarre thing I've experienced here. 

People are staying late, not to work on something they prioritize but, to leisure around. 

Bizarre. 

Friday, December 13, 2019

Teacher- Word Stories


The word interested me as I got into the educator field. Many people would like to take up the position of teacher.

The teacher is to show, instruct, to point out.

As adults, we take a position to teach the children. We already take a stand that kids are here to learn and we’re here to instruct. As teachers, we are not ready to learn and we always try to show irrespective of what the learners really think of.

Learners do not learn by what we’re taught but by their activity of learning. How do they learn? Well, there are myriad ways of learning.  The moment we fall into the trap of putting the teacher at the center instead of the learner, the learning turns boring.


Interesting game.

Little alchemy.

www. littlealchemy.com

Thanks, Kishore for introducing the game to me. I'm enjoying this. 

Education - Experiences matters


What memories do we have of our school classroom?

Besides the classroom fun, banter and other things, we would be remembering the experiences but not the content first. Through experiences, we’d sailing over the knowledge we gained.

Long story, short. Experiences matters.

As a teacher, what kind of experiences are we giving to the children in the classrooms, in the school. Be it in the classroom, be it in the school, every experience we provide makes a difference.
Focussing on the experience, the teaching style would change in an immense way.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Movie watching experience

The movie-watching experience is different through OTT Platforms or any other mediums except theatres.

I like the OTT watching experience but, to quickly get out of the experience and get swayed by other stuff digitally by means of clicks and our actions seem disturbing and altering our perceptions.

I remember the walks I take after the movies, that really brings me up to my emotions. I do not react or respond. I observe what the movie evokes me. 

Here, in OTT platforms,  I’m evoked by the score, movie and I got the option of reading the review and check out the characters immediately.

Quickly, out of the movie through the small screen, I'm swept by the tabs I got on the browser. The whole experience seems shallow. Is it the OTT platform's limitation or my internet habit of surfing through shallows? 

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Rima's Wedding


Part of my fellowship, I had to choose a subject. Given a freedom to pick any subject, I picked up English to work on. Rima was the only English Language team member at Sirohi. Friendly, warm and always helpful, Rima helped us in finding our current home. Grateful to her.
No sooner we settled in Sirohi then Rima moved out of Sirohi on transfer.
Being clueless of how to work with language, Rima was always helpful in guiding at every level.

Given an invitation long back for her wedding, I landed at Radisson Blu with friends in Delhi on the wedding eve, without informing that I’m attending. Informed at the last moment, she arranged the stay amidst all the busy things she had to do for her wedding. Thanks a lot Rima. 

A party with close family and friends seemed a delightful evening to spend with. I met a lot of foundation people who were cheerful to bless the amazing couple, Rima and Tirang.


We headed to Gurudwara for the wedding. Gurudwara people welcomed the couple by their blessings and the wedding ritual was quite simple and beautiful. 















Art- Empty Spaces-Flow

The abstract of the exhibition is out.  https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/events/empty-spaces-flow-art-exhibition-abhinay-renny