Books

-

I like to read philosophy, ethical studies, fiction, and biographies. Have listed down a few books that I liked the most. Will keep on adding more to it.


  • I am Malala by Malala Yusafzai
  • Everybody Loves a Good Drought
  • Our Iceberg is Melting
  • I've Never Been (Un)Happier by Shaheen Bhatt
  • We are Displaced by Malala Yusafzai
  • Practical Ethics by Peter Singer
  • Why Vegan? by Peter Singer
  • Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins
  • The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku
  • तुम्हारे बारे में by Manav Kaul
  • Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Opposite or not?

-
Image
My father and I are the opposite in most ways. While I like to keep things  organised , if he sees things  organised , he would just put everything everywhere and then work peacefully. I don't mind waiting in a queue where he would do everything to get the work done early, even if he is the first person in the queue. I like to keep it formal at the beginning, while he likes to keep it informal. Despite having different approaches to life, there are a few things in me that I feel that I have gotten from him, and I am proud of those. Putting two of them here: 1. Driving:  I am capable of driving a car. Most of the credit for that goes to my father (and my elder brother), who was able to show faith in me. I practised on the car, which he bought for our family around 12 years ago. I changed its shape from concave to convex, and he didn't utter a single word. He did give me the freedom to experiment when I needed that the most. Technically, driving is just about handling ...
Read more

Why didn't you come yesterday to collect the garbage?

-
Image
My mother: "Why didn't you come yesterday to collect the garbage?" Aunty: "Chachi (aunty)-I went to see a doctor. The day before, my husband came home drunk and started beating me. "   She also lifts her ghunghat (veil) and shows me her left eye, which was red and was swelling very badly.   "The doctor said that if this blood had been a little more, you could have lost your eye."   Me (with disappointment and anger): "Why didn't you hit him back?"   Aunty: "Yes, I don't let him hit me now. I pushed him away. "   My mother throws the garbage in her container. She picks up her container, puts it on her head, and leaves for the other houses.   My mother washes her hands and becomes busy with her household chores, and I, with a heavy heart for 2 hours, go back to my room and get occupied with my office calls that are way beyond any real-life challenges of most people.   If only these women could be financially ind...
Read more

Google Sheets Formulae that I Found the Most Useful

-
Image
  When I joined my first company, I didn’t even know how to sum two numbers in Excel. It was my manager who didn’t judge me while teaching me those things and never questioned me for making mistakes! It was a start-up, and as it happens in any start-up, many processes were broken, and coordination was lacking between different departments. To make a few processes, I worked with a colleague of mine and created a couple of trackers that worked like CRM software. Just listing down a few formulae that were the most useful in making trackers and dashboards: 1.  IMPORTRANGE :  Used to connect two Google Sheets and import data (used when you don’t want to grant people access to the entire sheet, but only to relevant data). 2.  FILTER :  Used to get a filtered view of data (mostly used for eliminating unnecessary data). 3.  SORT :  For sorting the data in ascending or descending order (mostly used in dashboards/summary tabs). 4.  VLOOKUP :  This func...
Read more

Happiness

-
Image
Happiness is trying your hand at painting.  Happiness is when you don’t care when things don’t go your way. Happiness is when you look at the sky and spend time with yourself.  Happiness is when you can clearly distinguish between right and less right. Happiness is when you feel relaxed. Happiness is not doing anything. Happiness is when you are able to take care of yourself and a few responsibilities. Happiness is when you realise that you were wrong. Happiness is when you become more content.  Happiness is not being in the present. Happiness is having patience. Happiness is writing. Last but not least, happiness is ironing clothes.
Read more

Happy Independence Day!

-
Image
I ndia is celebrating its 75 years of independence from British rule.  This time, could not go to India Gate/ Rashtrapati Bhavan but to Karnataka Vidhan Soudha. Seeing these constitutional bodies before one day of the independence day anniversary gives a different level of feeling. But we have not got freedom from domestic violence, corruption, human trafficking, or corporates treating their employees in an unfair way; we see kids begging; we see animals looking for food, or dying of hunger. Then why celebrate independence day or why to even feel proud of it? If we say that it is India's Independence Day, it feels like a patriotic statement, but is it actually limited to a geographical area? Is it not about those crores of people who got their human rights (to an extent) back? Is it not about having a choice or about having fair treatment? There are gaps and there will always be faults, but what is important is to remind ourselves of the battles that we chose, stood for, and ultima...
Read more

Second Wave of COVID in India & Me

-
The second wave of COVID hit India in April-May of 2021. The notorious nature of the Delta variant made it devastating. People were waiting with their loved ones outside the hospitals. Innumerable people died of suffocation in the open air. I can’t recall even a single day when I didn’t hear anything unpleasant. A few phrases that I heard in that phase: “Papa ko ventilator par shift kar diya h…” “My nani, nana, and everyone from papa’s side family and mother’s side family has COVID. I am super scared. My father goes out to work. “ “Mummy ko kuch nahi hoga naa, wo wapas toh aa jaaengi naa.” “Papa toh chale gaye hame chod kar” “His body gave up at 1:13. “Please, meri maa ko oxygen chaiye.” “Nahi, ab nahi ho rha mujhse” “Both my parents passed away, but I think I’ll need to move on” “He fought for 3 hours without oxygen.” “110 ab heartbeat ho gaya h heartbeat rate” “Darr lag rha h” The fear of losing a loved one dominated almost everything. In those moments, most of the time, I didn’t hav...
Read more

Stupid or Right?

-
Image
Image by  Publicaccountant Employee / Fresher: “I want to talk to you about something. I have been thinking about it for the last two days, and I'm not getting proper sleep because I'm confused about whether I should talk to you about it.” Employer / Manager / CEO, / Founder (with a little smiling and curious face): “What is it?” Employee: “The training that we are conducting for the staff, the HR asked me to get it done, and we are telling them the answers to get all the training done. Just because the auditor is coming the day after, is it right to do such a thing?” Employer: “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, and I appreciate you coming and talking to me about it!” The employee says thanks with a facial expression, and the meeting gets over. The following day, the HR Head talks in a bit rough tone suddenly and the naive/stupid employee could not understand the reason. What happened after that, or who was responsible for it — keeping it for some other time! For a c...
Read more

Learnings I got from my grandmother’s life

-
Image
My paternal grandmother (Daadi/ Amma) passed away in June last year. She was around 90 years old and was sick in the last 2-3 months. We had an idea that she might not be able to make it this time, but despite being aware of her age and sickness, it was not easy for me to accept that I wouldn't be seeing her in her shop everyday.   For the last 2-3 decades, I have been seeing her at one place – in her shop, irrespective of any occasion. The sight of seeing her in her shop was a constant that I had thought would become a thing of the past one day but when it happened, many questions started appearing to me - will keep it for some other time.  She used to wake up around 4am in the morning (except for the last one year of her life) and would open her shop around 7am and sit there every day. Now that she is gone for around 9 months, I could organize my thoughts and note down a few things that I admire about her:   Having a social network:  Sitting in the s...
Read more

Books that Gave Me New Perspectives to Think About

-
Image
Around two years ago, I wanted to read books and make this a habit but failed to do it. Thanks to covid, work from home, and a friend with whom I set a goal to read five books in five months. We achieved the goal, but what was more interesting was finding out more interesting output was finding out that I loved reading.   Sharing a few books that helped me in adding new perspectives to my thought process: 1. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai: The book is written by women's education activist, Malala Yousafzai. She has written about her journey in promoting women's education in Swat Valley, Pakistan, and how she faced challenges in doing so. Learning: It is not just the risk-taker who needs to have courage, but it takes more courage from those people who love that person and support them in their journey.   2. We are displaced: The book is written by Malala Yousafzai about a few girls from unstable countries in the Middle East and their stories about how they escaped their c...
Read more