Procrastination is my greatest enemy

Yes, I am my own enemy.

I have lost count of the number of times have I have had this thought come across my mind. ‘I wish I had started learning it last year, I would have been a pro by now.’, ‘I wish I had started writing that book, it would have been done by now’. I wish I had, i wish ...

It’s not that I am unaware of my procrastination. It’s not that I don’t know the tools and ticks to beat this behaviour. I know it, and yet I do it. It’s like a curse that I am living. Destined to fail how much every I think I try. And there in that sentence lies the culprit - ‘think’.

Am i thinking right?
We think a lot. We constantly are in an environment that makes us believe that we should do better, act better and know better. Be it in our profession, our society, or with our friends and family. And in doing what the world wants from us, we have a simmering frustration building inside of us. We become restless because we want something for us. But end up doing other people stuff. Leading other peoples lives. We slowly drown out our own voices of decent till we finally just start to believe that we are not worthy of it (perhaps, some of us think that way). We look for the next distraction that will take our attention away form that misery.

It just got worst
That’s when we start to spend time on activities of watching, reading and listening. Wait a minute! ‘Are you saying that these activities are bad?’. They are if what do them on social media and entertainment platforms. These are like crack & companies like Apple, Netflix, Google and Facebook are like drug peddlers doing what ever it takes to keep you hooked on.

Get off these platforms (or at least cut it down by half). And see how blank your mind gets cause its been made to think. I know, I know ... you might be wondering, ‘you are now back at square one’. True, but now you can charter a new course and you have one thing on your side. Your time!

My wisdom grew a shoot 
I started by taking up some simple items on my to-do list. First thing I did was learn swimming. Its been a wish list now for ages. It took me two months, but i could swim in the deep end of the pool. The only thing that I realised, age had taken away form me was my muscle strength. My coach advices me to start going to gym. So I did. The first few weeks was a painful experience. To add to it I had to change my eating habits and also quality. But I am glad I did as I not only am in better shape, but feeling fantastic.        

What next? .... this is fun. I don’t want to stop. I quickly whipped out a notepad and started jotting down things I wanted to do. Simple stuff. Nothing too fancy or difficult. I had time and I was not gonna blow that away to a peddler.

Now that I have rejuvenated myself, I don’t want to stop this momentum. Writing, sketching, story telling, and much more on my mind. Remember, do stuff that excites you. It should not always be about doing things that will make money. Although, that too is important. But once you have a skill, you can figure what to do with it. More importantly, follow your instinct and passion. Things you learn and do (or even attempt at) will enrich you for life. They will inspire you to do be a better human being.  

Why Is Online Shopping Still Untrustworthy In India

Online commerce might be doing well in India. But it still is a potential that has not yet been realized. The reason for this, fundamentally, is very simple. It's just not trustworthy enough to consider spending money online.

Online is convenient, it offers price comparison, ease of purchase and saves time. Having said that, its plagued by counterfeits, theft, damaged delivery, incorrect specifications and price manipulation. To add to it, there are frauds in the form of incorrect reviews, no customer support or accountability.

Some products are probably worth buying online since they sometimes are sold online exclusively. While others are commoditized and are of low price and hence do not have the risk of being counterfeit. But trust is still an issue. I share an example of headphone purchase. I had been to a Sony showroom and enquired the price for a headphone model. I told the sales rep that the same was available for a discount only. He said that firstly, the parent company had not offered any discount to retailers. Secondly, it might just be a counterfeit. He then proceeded to show me a two headphones and asked me which one was genuine. Frankly, at a glance they both looked the same and could have passed as two pieces of the same model unless he had mentioned that one of them was a fake. He identified the fake one for me and showed me the cues to its fakeness ... low quality hinges, ear pad quality, minor design variation and finish. And we haven't even spoken about the quality of hardware inside or the quality of sound. I asked him how he got the fake piece. He said that one customer walked in with that piece saying it had an issue and wanted the company to repair or replace it. He was shocked to know that the purchase he made on Amazon was fake. People don't realize that the products sold on Amazon are mostly from sellers and Amazon has limited control over what is being sold.

Ever other user has either himself faced an bad experience or knows someone who as. In such a scenario, they would rather purchase something online only when -
 - Its on a discount
 - Is offered by manufacturer
 - Is low in price
 - they know it would not be faked

Again, these are perceptions. All four points can be deceptive.

A regular brick and mortar shop is real, accessible, providing competitive rate and are (many a times) open to bargaining. More important, you can check before you buy and you can bring it back if faced with any issue. In many cases, they handle the warranty issues for the customer too.

I think the future must be a combination of online and offline experience. Purchasing a product online and picking it up from the local story near your area. online stores like Croma Retail and Reliance Digital are already following these practices and although not very popular, I think this will be a more trustworthy way to go and also ensure that brick and mortar shops do not go out of business.

22 Rules To Phenomenal Storytelling, Pixar Way

Story telling is an art. Not everyone has it. But if you learn a bit, its not that hard to learn. Your grannies stories, your mom's stories, your favorite teachers stories, they had all one thing in common. They were engaging, memorable and always left you wanting more.

Pixar did the same with the movies they created. They were amazing form of story telling. Have a read through the slides created with minimum and yet precise words that throw light on the subtle art of story telling.

Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling from Gavin McMahon

Shokugeki No Soma - An Anime Made Me Fall In Love With Cooking

I am not a big foodie, but love to eat a good meal. I love the difference between home cooked food and the food served in a restaurant. Its as different as eating a five star mean and a udipi meal, or perhaps your mother's cooking and your friends mom's cooking.

Out of sheer lack of good shows to watch in Anime genre on Netflix, I took a leap of faith in watching a food related anime series. I was pleasantly surprised by what I got myself into.

Let me say this. If you appreciate good food, you will fall in love with this show.

The show emphasises the art of making a good dish or a meal. Let's you understand the story being every dish and how it evolved. The sensory assault or arousal that each bite evokes with taste, smell and visual appeal. At times outlandish, but then that is anime for those who have never gotten hooked to this genre of story telling. By the way, it's got a good story line and well written characters.

I will not elaborate the storyline. Go watch it if you love food related stuff. What's truly amazing is the fact that the artwork (most of the anime are hand drawn), is truly work of art. The visuals created are truly amazing, be it the glaze, transparency, viscosity, moisture, heat, dryness, crispness, gelatinous or any other 'ness' that one can associate with describing food.

Rich ramen, steaming hot

I slowly but surely got hooked on to this show and am about the close in on the last third season. I have started enjoying the process of cooking food my self. I may not be capable as a sou chef, but can definitely see myself as kitchen porter. heh!

If you love food related shows, go watch. You will always remember it like a good meal you had on a hot summer holiday at beach resort. Or something in those lines.  Bon appetit! 

Do It, Even If They Say It's Stupid

There are so many things that I have done in life which I might have second thoughts about. So many.

Perhaps I should not have done it. Perhaps there were other ways to handle it. Perhaps I should have listened to my premonitions and not be reckless. Perhaps.

All the regrets would add up to nothing but a pile of 'what if's'. Of course not very thing that i have done have been worth while. Sometimes a little objectivity and rationale should have been in place to stop me from making really really stupid mistakes. Mistakes like not having a plan B when failure would take away a sizable chunk of the gains made.

One of the biggest stupidity I did was to quit a comfortable engineering job seeking an unknown career. It took the next 10 years or so to give me the clarity through various jobs. But still, the journey was worth it. Having said that the other stupidity, in professional capacity, was to get emotionally attached to the job and not quitting when I should have. This cost me far more than anything. I do believe I wasted 5 years of my career in roles I overstayed on. That was so stupid of me.

It's not just in my profession, but also in life, relationships, actions and many more. I have stories that have stuck with me. Stories of making decisions and not making ones that cost me money, time, opportunities and relationships.

Biggest regret was not in taking a decision. The biggest ones were when I didn't take any decision and just let it pass. All because of my fears of failure or being afraid.

Or perhaps ... of the unknown. Baka!