You might have heard this story from the Panchatantra (Translates to “Five Principles”. It is a very insightful ancient Indian collection of inter-related animal fables) in one some form or the other. If you haven’t, here it is:

Three fish lived in a pond. Their names were Anagatavidhata (which in Sanskrit translates to “future maker”), Pratyutpannamati (translates to “ready minded”) and Yadbhavishya (translates to “whatever happens”). We ll call them Future , Ready and Whatever for simplicity and humour. ;) Anyway, back at the pond, some fishermen were passing by and wondered aloud, “Hey, we have never seen this pond. It seems to be full of fish. It is now evening. Let us come at dawn tomorrow and bag as many fish as we can.”

Be superstitious. I am no one to judge. But please dont spread wrong information about things you know nuts about to justify your superstition.

Today evening, there is a lunar eclipse and I am at my grandparents house. As will be the case in any typical south indian brahmin household, there are umpteen number of rituals associated with the lunar eclipse. Interestingly, today is also Karthigai, (one of) the supposed birthdays of Lord Muruga. He is important in south India. So, there are the usual sweets and rituals that also have to be performed. 

I am bad at receiving help, especially if I didnt ask for it. I instinctively reject it. The rationale being, I dont want to owe anyone anything if I can help it.

Not all help is bad. Of late, I have found that helping someone unconditionally (without any expected returns.. even implicitly) gives me maximum satisfaction. I think it would apply to most of us too. And that satisfaction is further enhanced by a thankful receiver. So for me to help and be satisfied by it, the receiver should accept it. He/she plays a big role in the process. 

It is really funny the way he says it, but he has a very very good point.

(Got it from here : http://sivers.org/sharing - great blog. I love his simple style! :) )

Yesterday, I attended my last class in university without even realizing it. 

It was the Chinese oral exam. Well, that was not strictly a class, so lets see.. it was the Chinese class 2 weeks ago. (I stopped attending other classes).

And today I will be finishing my last assignment!

A close friend of mine graduated 6 months ago and left for the US to work. He was feeling.. sad I guess and emotional. The way you feel when you leave your parents to come to a foreign country. It was rather unusual of him but this was his first home away from home, and he would be leaving the place, the environment, friends… indefinitely for quite sometime. He was starting a new life. This was not an exchange. When he came back, he wouldnt be the carefree student, but a responsible worker!

A friend/lifehacher introduced me to this neat little app called RescueTime. I have been using it for a month now.. it sits in the background and observes what you are doing. then your activities are categorized into -2 to 2 points. -2 being very distracting and +2 being very productive. Then it shows neat little graphs on how your spend (waste) your time every day.

My biggest learning from the exercise was how much time was wasted in email. I knew I was spending more time that I should.. but when I saw I was spending close to 4hours per day at the email, it gave me quite a shock. 

Person 1: What’s the integral of 1/cabin?     

Person 2: A natural log cabin.     

Person 1: No, a houseboat you forgot to add the c!

We just had a 24 hour marathon at work, since we realized we were moving waayy to slow for a startup. 

It was 3 of us - 8pm Fri night to 8pm Saturday night. I realized immediately that for the whole thing to work, some structure was required. 

So this is what I tried.

1. We sat in such a way that all of us could see each other’s laptops.. ie noone could goof off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4

We have generally been told about the peer pressure factor that pushes us to achieve a goal. A lot of apps exists and a lot of productivity techniques revolve around that. Why, even my last blog post was based on making a public commitment. 

But then I think he has a point. Take for example, the last time I told someone I was going to jog 3 times a day. I did do it for a while, but after a point, I had proved half the point, and failing wasnt THAT embarassing so I stopped for whatever reason.. noone noticed, and I quietly swept it under the carpet. 

A lot of people have asked me to continue my blog. They told me it was nice. I didnt share my blog with them, nor did I speak about it in any way. It was entirely self-initiated on their part. The least I can do is to show them my appreciation!

But first, why havent I written anything for 3 months?

We all have our excuses! I list them here for your (and my) entertainment (and reflection)