Its only words..

This post was inspired by a post called world of words, by a good friend, Neelu.

I wanted to respond to his post, as a comment, but then, suddenly, words started flowing that it felt longer than a typical response and so decided to write this post.

Stories related to words - and words in stories - have always fascinated me.

One of my favorite columns - long before blogs became popular, was a column called 'On Language' by William Safire on New York Times.

While I could find a reference to his book online, NYT could not find words to describe him.. or his column.. as all I got was

Anyway - getting back to some recent words and names that I found amusing..

A company claiming to reimagining emails is called hey

or another that is into video broadcasting is called mmhmm ... yes, that is the spelling..

When I started podcasting, one word that I found interesting was an outro..

An intro was understandable. an outro.. that is the end piece!

on similar lines, while i know don as a verb - to put on clothes etc, did not know that doff was the opposite.

while on and off are opposites, what would 'd' mean?

and the search for names of people sometimes is also very interesting and entertaining.

the most bizarre name was how Elon Musk named his kid.. X Æ A-12

to know how to pronounce this, read this article

I remember one joke from an old tamil drama - when asked to suggest a name for a baby that would easily get into one's ears [this sounds much simpler and elegant in Tamil], the suggestion was a 'kucchi' or a twig, that one might use to clean one's ears

What is the most amusing name or word you have come across?

It is not only me...

A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last 3 odd years..

There are many others things that have also been odd in this period.

Some personal priorities that were unanticipated..

and, more recently, the pandemic..

When i heard that google failed to renew the blogspot dot in domain and some squatter has it.. i was worried that all the content was lost

Fortunately, the dot com is still available and what i also noticed is that except for one of the blogs that I follow, most others have not been updated for years.. many more than my break

There have also been some other things that have been consuming my time.

One, that I am quite happy about - is a podcast that I launched about 2 years ago.

About to touch a hundred episodes, with 2 co-hosts who also have been contributing significantly - it feels good to capture experiences that may otherwise not be documented and hence lost to the future generations

Talking of generations, I recently participated in a podcasters conference -- of course online -- and was pleasantly moved by the acknowledgement that almost every speaker mentioned that went something like this 

We pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.

 As elders - I guess I can gracefully accept that I am getting into that band :-) - we talk about letting future generations have a better world, than what we were born into, or, at least, as good an environment that we enjoyed in our childhood.

Monsoon evening, May 2020 - Bengaluru

Generational knowledge that has not been formally codified is also one aspect that needs to be made available. Sort of a pay it forward initiative.

The podcast Software People Stories attempts to capture experiential stories of what worked and sometimes, what did not, in the words of people who have been there, done that.

That is not to say that they all have decades of experience. We have had some who have started there careers just a few years ago.

With the new interest in podcasting, I am also exposed to more data on podcasting - possibly leading to a confirmation bias - that the whole world is not only listening to podcasts..

raising a question on whether blogs still hold any interest

Anyway, thought that I will revisit this medium also.. not sure if any readers from the past are still there, subscribed!

p.s. in case you were wondering what the picture has to do with this post..

nothing really - i wanted to include some picture and picked one from my archive..

on second thoughts.. maybe this indicates that every cloud has a silver lining

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Happy

The first week of Online Yoga

A little late to get started -- or catchup, rather with the first week lessons on Online Yoga!
The first video yoga session - about an hour - was a little overwhelming. With a few of the postures - particularly leg raising, will take me some more time to do comfortably

I liked the mix of asanas, breathing and mindfulness in the practices this week.
As I started late, not sure how much of the journaling / record keeping I can do in this week for the 5 breath watches..

Looking forward to more to come

Glimpses of Haridwar

Recently, had an opportunity to visit, or rather transit via Haridwar.
While there were many good sights and great people I came across, including a rural school [where the kids taught us the importance of personal hygiene and water purification as well as sang us some rhymes and songs], a Self Help Group of Women, who has just been home makers, now aspiring to set up a dry leaf based plate making unit among other projects, a couple of things were interesting, when seen in person.

The Thomson canal – aka the Ganges canal, build by a British Engineer Thomson – who was also instrumental in setting up the Civil Engineering department at Roorkee – that had portions that were actually at 2 levels..
  You can see the canal flowing at the lower level [somewhat west to east]
and another [with no water] at the higher level [north east to southwest]
Another interesting observation was at the Har Ki Pauri, which is one of the famous Ghats on the Ganges.  Water had been let out after an annual break, when the Ghats are desilted and the shrines also appeared freshly painted.
 
It was a full moon day – Sharad Poornima – and we reached there just when the Aarti had got over.

the crowds slowly moved out.
. and we could go near the water

Many people did some pooja and let lamps float on the river..

in this very short visit. also touched Rishikesh, for a brief overnight stay – checked in late evening, when it was dark and checked out the next morning before sunrise..
Even in that short drive, could see that every other building seemed to be a Yoga center!
Maybe that was an indirect influence to my enrolling in the #YogaMOOC!
so, no pictures.. only a recording of the roar of the Ganges..

Excited about online Yoga!

years ago, when I enrolled in a Yoga class, it was partly curiosity and partly peer-induced.
The brisk morning walk to the yoga class was an added incentive, to feel the gentle, cool breeze - and the meeting of friends along the way and the conversations around global concerns!

Practicing Yoga as a group had its definite advantages.
being in a place, where everybody knows your name, is a reassuring feeling.

Though I had some challenges with some postures, particularly bending the lower back, I could do some other postures much better than the class! So, I had the hope of bending my back also, some day!

Then, a little moment of indiscretion, while climbing on a stool, to look for some stuff in the loft - led to a broken right arm, that stopped the yoga practice.

With the routine broken - and a shift to a new home, slightly farther away - which meant, I had to drive to the class and not walk.. - just lost it!

So, when edX announced a YogaMOOC, that was teh call to action!

Looking forward to restarting my practice, along with a global peer-group.

See you there!

Why Can’t: use social inquisitiveness for a safer community

In my recent post I shared my thoughts on this boundary-less world and how it was second nature a few decades ago, to consider all of us as an extended family.
One of the aspects that contributed to that was the transparency of what might otherwise be considered private information.
the WhyCan’t today is:

By making all of our details publicly accessible by others, can we make the world a safer place?

A place where there is greater understanding of each other’s views and positions

A place where core human tendencies to be helpful will be strong

Why Can’t it be so?

Living in a boundary-less world

One of the philosophical ideas associated with ancient India is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – the world is one family!

I am sure you have experienced it at the apparent lack of privacy or the inquisitivenes of even strangers at what may be considered as something private or confidential.

Time was, when every house on the street knew what was going on in every other house. And of course they were all willing to chip in whenever someone needed help!

It takes a village to raise a child was very true. Everyone in the village was genuinely concerned about every child in the village.

When you are on a long distance – possibly even short distance – journey in a bus or train, depending on your age, someone is likely to ask questions like

- are you married

- where do you work

- how much do you earn

- do you own a house

etc etc etc.

One of the reasons for Facebook’s popularity in India is that it satisfies the unadmitted craving for gossip, about other people – neighbors, friends, colleagues etc

Another behavior I have seen – and have to admit, that I have also been like that during school – is to freely pluck flowers [and sometimes fruits] from random people’s houses, when they actually are accessible from the road easily!

All this was considered as acceptable behavior, that does not harm anyone and the stolen stuff is used to be offered to God [flowers] or satisfy one’s hunger [fruits]!

Recently, while driving back from Chennai to Bangalore, the traffic was held up due to a road block by some villagers, to protest a hit and run on the highway a short while earlier.

While they were waiting for the collector to come and assure them of some actions, traffic was just standing still.

It was a hot day and peopple started stepping out of their vehicles.

We were parked almost right behind a truck carrying sugar cane.

It was interesting to see some persons standing around the truck and looking at the stock of cane longingly

.

I do not remember now how or who took the first step at pulling a piece successfully!

Soon, many more were encouraged to to that – including being good samaritans who would pull and share with others!

One family – couple with two kids, one that was very yound and on the shoulders of the father – stopping to help themselves as they got down from a bus to – presumably – walk towards their home!

I also saw a lady who seemingly pulled more than she can chew – literally! – and broke the can and inserted the excess portion back into the truck! Talk of fairness..

Reminded me of a trip to a farm, where one could pluck apples and eat all that one can, as long as it is done before we left the farm!

This set me thinking in this era of digitalization and the move to make most interactions online, what is the scope and societal respect for data privacy?

If we are friends on facebook, is it ok to have access to all of each other’s data? be it PAN or Aadhar based data?