Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Jaipur Journals & Joy- Intention and Competence

 Walking along with Joy, we discussed humans and behavior.

Joy said, "we work with nature and behave with humans. Whatever we do with other humans is all behaviour. There's no work that happens between two humans."

What kind of work we do with nature?  I had a question but, I continued his train of thought. Humans and behaviour. 

"It's all about competence. Humans have various competencies. There are two kinds, the one who needs to learn and the one who can help the other to learn."

He didn't use the word, teach.  I was attentive to his choice of words. 

"Not everyone can have same school of thought on work?" I asked. "How do we deal with others who are not in that school of thought. The thought of one who needs to learn and the one who can help others to learn."

"It's never about different school of thoughts Abhinay." He added, "It's all about competence. Humans always have good intentions. It's about the competence. 

"Do you want to be happy?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how to stay happy?"

"No."

"Do you want to harm others."

"No."

"Can you be conscious enough that you don't harm others by your words."

"No."

It's all about competence. We want good but, we don't have competence to achieve. If you meet someone who is good, you can learn from him. That's the nature of how humans can work in this world. 

Never doubt others' intentions but, think of their competencies.  Thanks Joy for teaching that. 


Sunday, August 22, 2021

Jaipur Journals- Colors and Cell phone

While I was travelling in  train, a family of three walked and sat infront of me. Mother, father and a two year old girl. Soon after they placed their luggage. The two year old little girl sat on her dad’s lap. She got her parent's phone in her hand. Her unblinked eyes were staring at the animations and was busy listening to rhymes on Youtube. In span of ten minutes, there was less struggle in shifting her attention from screen to a small book of colors.  Dad took out a small book from his big black bag. Leaving the phone aside, she took that small flip book in her hands, placed it  on dad’s lap. Along with the book, her dad took out the crayons can. She took a black crayon out of it. Dad joined by picking a blue crayon. Together, they filled the printed flower. Flower petals in blue color and stem in black color. A beautiful flower. How beautiful is it to find alternatives to keep the children engaged rather than handing them the phone and being happy that they do not have to give them the attention. 

 


Saturday, August 21, 2021

Books- Friday Haul

I reached New Delhi Railway Station by 4 PM. I had a few hours in hand to explore the city. I had three options. I can go to Old Delhi, stroll around Chandini chowk and other places
I can sit in the railway station and observe people. 

I can go to Daryaganj book market and check out few books. 

I chose the latter. On a rainy evening, I put my rucksack in the cloak room and carried a backpack with me. I walked through the muddy roads of Delhi to reach Daryaganj. I walked a lot of distance and still couldn't reach any book market. Finally, I got onto a rickshaw and reached the market. With earlier experience, I had a few favorite stops for getting best deals. 

I began checking out the books. Began with the three books and I ended up spending 3 hours, selecting books across various genres. I got a few fiction, non-fiction, magazines, children's literature and a lot more. 

"Take your time and select the books," encouraged the store owner. However, two staff boys patiently waited for me to leave the store. There was an elderly person and a young person. They were helping me to select. "Aap rest lijiye mei choose karlunga." "I'll choose by myself, you can rest," I told them. 

Having train at 9pm, I planned to leave the store at 8 pm. "Aapka train time nahi hora kya?" he asked in enquiry tone. 

"Nahi." I responded. "Lekin hamara horaha he. Hum bhi ghar jaana hai." he hinted me that because of my presence, they're unable to close the store and leave home. 

I wrapped up my book surfing and went on for the final purchase. The staff boys quickly got a carton and packed the books for me. Thanks to these people, I ended up purchasing only five thousand worth books. If not, I can't imagine, how much more money I'd have spent on buying the books. 



Leadership lessons - One has to work on their Learnings

"A leader needs to support their team members, if needed, can reprimand at instance but, a leader can't disown the team and their work." I shared my thoughts to J. 

J nodded to my thoughts and shared his thoughts on learning. "One needs to work on their skills."

Learning happens only when the person allows him to be a learner. Workshops, readings, dialogue, everything is futile if  the person is not emptying his cup. True 

Book- The BHAIS of Bengaluru by Jyoti Shelar

This book gives a brief account of who’s who in the underworld of Bengaluru. I never knew that underworld existed in Bengaluru. In general, all the anecdotes mentioned in this book reminds me of the scenes I watched in a few South Indian movies.

Wrestling, Gymnasium, "Garadi Mane" plays an pivotal role in creating the face of Bengaluru don from 1950s. This book majorly covers the stories of M.P Jayaraj, Kotwal, Rai and Sreedhar who got a lot to tell about themselves as well as the Bengaluru Underworld. However, this book does not reveal much about Rai. The Epilogue and prologue are dedicated to Rai but, I couldn't get a full story on him through this book.

The Mumbai underworld got a scale in their dealings where as the rules seemed to be the same. Police using the rivals to finish off the criminals, betrayal, trust, it's all there in these circles as well. 

Reading Jayaraj's story, I got to know about Indira Brigade, Garibi Hatao and the trends of 70s. 

Kannada Language Movement has a parallel to what all was happening. 

The Bhais of Bengaluru is an introduction to the underworld,’Bhugataloka,’the people of Bengaluru call it. I picked this book, looking Hussain S Zaidi’s name on it. This book is not a disappointment. 


Thursday, August 12, 2021

Stories on Boat- Banswara stories from a boat

On a cloudy morning, we've begun our ride to Chacha kota, the famous tourist place in Banswara. The hills reminds me of England Meadows. Though Rajasthan doesn't have the ocean to witness the waves, the land seemed to flow in waves. 





Thought of the day- Life is all we have

 We never appreciate the life we are living. Only when we are stumbled by struggles and grief, we crave for normal life. The struggles in our life acts as a reminder to appreciate the normalcy in life. What if we learn to appreciate everything in life when everything is normal?

What  it takes to appreciate the life? 

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Movie- The Courier

Russian names are confusing. When I got to know that this is an espionage movie and situated during cold war times, I thought this story is adapted from Ben Macintyre's book, the spy and the traitor. 

In this movie the protagonist name is Penkovsky, whereas Gordievsky is protagonist  in the book.

This movie is narrated from the courier's point of view. How he got into this espionage game and stick to his part well. Benedict Cumberbatch acted well. 

The espionage movies directed by US have become the routine. Like it's said, the history is written by the winners. Wish to watch different versions of the same story. 


 

Book- Atomic Habits

 Atomic Habits by James Clear is a great guide to work on my habits. 

He discusses these follows.

1) Intention and implementation 

2)Habit Stacking

Writing the habits, deciding the time and location helps us to follow the habits more than having an ambiguous plan. 

Including the new habits amidst the old habits by stacking them through the process of cue-craving-reward is absolutely working solution. 

Friday, August 6, 2021

Stories on Wheels- Banswara and Boys

Banswara is located at the border of south Rajasthan. A few kilometres, one can enter Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. On a visit, we stayed for a few days and travelled in the remote places of Banswara.

On a rainy morning, sitting in car and closing up the windows, Priyank shared stories as we crossed places. Crossing the market, Priyank explained a few traditions Banswara people followed. “Early marriages happen in this place,” he added, “There’s Nathra tradition where price is paid to husband, if the wife wants to move on with a new partner.” Women don’t stay in abusive relationships; they can always walk out of it.

If women is not happy in the marriage and has found a new partner, the new partner would pay some amount to the husband and the women would stay with the new partner. “What about the children?” I asked. “In General, children would stay with father. Mother has an option of taking children with her or leaving them with her father.”

Discussing Nathra, we also discussed about Nothra. Nothra is an initiative taken in the community to pool up the money to support the community members. If some one wants to build a house, he can pitch for Nothra. All the community members would lend whatever they could. And whenever the lender pitches for Nothra, the borrower is obliged to pay more than what he got. This is how community supports within themselves, financially.





Art- Empty Spaces-Flow

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