Body & mind​

In one of the guided meditation sessions, I was gently nudged towards thinking about body and mind. Especially, differentiation between our association with the question of - who am I? Am I the body, the mind, both?

Building upon the narrator, I am my mind and the body is something which I control. The control varies over age, circumstances, health and more. The explicit relationship between mind and body is the perception of self in the reality.

Honor your body​

There are trillions of cells in a human body. The number estimated is around 37.2 trillion cells in a human body.

It is fascinating that we have such a complex machinery at our disposal. In daily life, we tend to forget that we have something magical going on in our body at every moment.

Honor your own body, your body is the most precious gift from nature.

Levels of Anger​

Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something you feel has deliberately done you wrong. While, being angry towards something might not be in my control, how I react to anger is under my control. Anger can be of different levels, like:

• Passive-Aggressive Anger
• Assertive Anger
• Openly Aggressive Anger

Identifying my Anger​

Today morning I was angry about two men who were reckless and quite unperturbed by their actions. Instinctively, I made some noise to avoid collision but they were quite involved in their action to pay heed to the warning. While I let it go within 5 minutes, I later realized the sequence of thoughts in my mind.

Letting go of any emotion - pleasure, joy, happiness, amusement, pride, awe, excitement or ecstasy - is important for staying at my core. During the rush of anger in the morning today, I felt that I could disassociate my mind and my anger. It was as if I was looking at me as a third person with a bird's eye view. I asked myself the question - Is is worth my morning to pursue my anger?

It is definitely a new experience for me. I had heard about it in guided meditation sessions but never experienced it personally.

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses.

Everything Everywhere All at Once​

Everything Everywhere All at Once, a metaphysical multiverse comedy, is a powerful movie. Though, I lost focus in between, especially in Part 2 with the fast moving scenes. It is a definite watch, and kind of the movie which grows on to you - the more number of times you watch it. There were moments when I smiled, laughed and was amazed at the sheer direction of the movie.

I watched it on 11th March 2023, roughly 6 months after its release in India, at Worldmark, Gurgaon. It was the last day the movie was screened, alteast in this theatre. On another note, the cinema is 250 metres walking distance from my current home and 50 metres Euclidean distance from my ;living room.

Movies​

I watch movies with friends or family at a frequency of once every month. It is a good time out of home and the whole experience of watching on a big screen brings in novelty. A few things have changed over time:

• It has been many years since I have had Popcorn + Cola along with the movie.
• I always book using Axis Bank Card with BookMyShow - 1 + 1 offer.
• I think it is one of the bank offers which have stayed top of my mind and possibly the longest I have been using.

Cinemas are a tough business​

Cinemas are old guard business in the new world of OTT. Watching a movie in a cinema is a different experience than OTT. Some thoughts:

• I paid less than a dollar per ticket to watch such a nice movie. The market can be really weird in pricing.
• The movie has won 7 Oscars out of the 11 nominations.
• I watched it in a pristine new INOX - it has been less a year since the launch of Inox Worldmark Gurgaon.
• I certainly feel that INOX did not cover cost in this transaction. Cinema is a tough yet glamourous business.

Spring time​

String is the season full of life, growth and activity. It is a season that is marked by warmer temperatures, longer days, and the blossoming of flowers and trees. And Holi, in a way, marks the beginning of Spring season.

Intelligence in plants​

Plants are intelligent, albeit in a different way, but they are able to sense and respond to their environment, communicate with each other through chemical signals, and even solve problems. The next time you see a flower or plant bending towards sunlight, growing towards water - be amazed by the existence of intelligence all around is. In a way, isn't that what life is all about?

Converting for good​

Many a times, we take decisions which are tough, binding and for life time. These are moments of conversion, and if supported by willpower and change of identity, they are permanent. Some examples of converting are:

• Picking a new hobby - cycling or running
• Quitting smoking for good
• Becoming a reader

Zeal of the converted​

The process of converting from an old you to a new you is confusing, scary and comes with a lot of temptations. Building a new habit is tough, it is slow and requires an honest conversation with your self. But after you convert, it becomes pride and something you are indeed proud of. The converted you is zealous for the following reasons:

• It is energizing to do something new, hard and personal.
• Being successfully on the other side gives you immense confidence and self worth.
• Having struggled and failed, you are more willing to help others in their journey.

A zealous and converted me talking about morning swimming

What happened to Silicon Valley Bank?​

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed last week at a very rapid pace. Customers withdrew a staggering $42 billion of deposits between 8th and 9th March 2023. In simpler words:

• SVB was looking to raise around $2.25 billion
• There was a hysteria-induced bank run caused by VCs
• California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed the bank and started proceedings to protect the interests of depositors.

Why care about Silicon Valley Bank?​

Financial Institutions fail more frequently than we like. Silicon Valley Bank, as the name suggests, was geared more towards technology companies and related ecosystem. A few reasons will be:

• Many Indian startups (especially SaaS firms) have credit lines and/or deposits with SVB. Almost all SaaS companies with US presence will have an SVB account.
• Most YCombinator funded companies park their capital with SVB
• SVB has a office in Bangalore at Manayata Tech Park
• Banking is a lifeline of exchanging value. Your team members will not care about you if their payouts are delayed because of the banking partner.

Learnings​

I have never banked with SVB, but as they say Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. The following are learning from SVB:

• Managing risk is a primary job of an Entrepreneur. Always be switched on.
• Things do break and will break at a greater frequency in the modern world. Be prepared with a plan when you are on the receiving end.
• If a bank collapses in India, there's little to none immediate relief offered by the regulator vs USA. Always keep a rainy day fund.

Photo sharing experiment​

I am not active on social media. I do browse around and consume content but I have never been active in posting on social media. It is not an active choice but as a private person, I tend not to post or interact with what others are posting. As an experiment, I did the following:

• Started posting every day about my swim. I did it via stories on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp
• Started posting every 2 weeks about significant life events. Eg anniversary of my parents

Observations about self​

After performing the activity for around 15 days, I observed the following:

• I felt a dopamine loop started kicking in after the 7th days - updating others about what I am doing -> them asking about it -> me wanting to update them more about it.
• I felt curious about the statistics - reach, speed of reach and interactions of others with my posts. I felt it has a positive feedback loop too.

Observations about others​

I observed the following about my social network friends:

• Many of them interacted my stories on the same time of the day. My guess it that social media is a routine for them, for example, first thing in the day or scrolling in bed at night
• Many of my friends discussed about the photo shared in face to face meetings. It was quite unexpected as it is opposite to what the social media product intends to do.

Dopamine Rush​

Dopamine is a really powerful ingredient in the success of social media. I do not find being active on Instagram / Whatsapp to be of much use for me personally. A powerful fact which I looped back to, from the book Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention

Screen time: For the average American, it’s three hours and fifteen minutes. We touch our phones 2,617 times every twenty-four hours.

He adds further about the nature of use of social media. If you are consuming hours of content on social media - thinking that you are being in touch - you are wrong, you are distracting yourself with what others are updating you about!

It’s when you set aside your distractions, he said, that you begin to see what you were distracting yourself from.

Hard to reverse progress​

A sign of highly intelligent people is that they ask the question - Why? - very frequently. The topic could be money, progress, learning, lifestyle, relationship or self. Changing yourself and making new habits stacks high up in the first decile i.e. 0 to 10 percentile. Also, they consistently ask the question - Why? - instead of - Why not?

Answering the question - Why?​

You will have to think deep and long to answer the why type questions. A few questions of this kind would be:

• Why should I hire this person?
• Why should I attend this meetup or party?
• Why should I read everyday?

Answering the why question is personal and individualistic. While answering it, you remind yourself about your preferences, goals and principles. If you are honestly answering your why and following up with answers. You will be more satisfied in the activity.

Answering the question - Why not?​

Either we or people around us ask the why not type question. A few questions of this kind would be:

• Why not grow the business faster?
• Why not have a long night?
• Why not to watch the next episode on Netflix?

Answering the why not question is backward thinking. While answering it, you argue in head altruistically. Answering a why not honestly can lead to dilemma, disagreement and discontentment.

Finding the why around your daily time spent is a great way to know yourself better Since 2021, I have started enjoying and taking more decisions around the why type questions over the why not type questions.

Sofa Shopping​

Retail shopping can be open ended and never ending. Especially, if the product is high involvement, customized for space and has a long gratification cycle. I visited two stores in Jaipur - Wooden Street and Godrej Interio for sofa at home.

Setting aside the specifics of design, value proposition of the two brands, I had two interesting observations.

Wooden Street - New vs Repeat Purchase​

The sales representative at Wooden Street, C Scheme, Jaipur asked me for my mobile number and pulled up the previous purchases, queries for my account. He then customized his pitch depending on my previous purchases. Like a new business would, he customized the sales process for me.

Godrej Interio - Old Guard​

Also visited the Godrej Interio store in Jaipur. This Godrej store is a company owned store and others in Jaipur might be franchise stores. Since the old & outgoing sofa is also Godrej, I asked the sales representative to help me find a buyer for it. In fairness, he told me that he can try but cannot promise.

Both the stores bring a unique value proposition for the customers but operate so differently. The newness of Wooden Street in product, pitch, sales, customer satisfaction stacks up quite well against the trust and brand of Godrej.

Happy Holi 2023​

I feel happy to have celebrated Holi at home with mom and dad. Also it was nice to meet old neighbors and recall life 15 years ago.

Holi festival in Jaipur is an explosion of colors, joy, and laughter. The streets are filled with people of all ages, drenched in hues of pink, blue, green, and yellow. The air is thick with the aroma of mouth-watering delicacies like gujiyas, thandai, and sweets. Music and dance fill the atmosphere as people sway to the beats of dhol and sing folk songs. The highlight of the festival is the throwing of colored powder and water, as people smear each other's faces and clothes with glee. It's a day when everyone is equal, and all social barriers are broken down. So if you're in Jaipur during Holi, be ready to get messy, let go of inhibitions, and have the time of your life!