Developing Growth Mindset

I bought mindset a couple of years back. I read it like anyother self help book. Recently, I got an opportunity to revisit this book especially on "Growth mindset".  The author Carol S. Dweck has done a good treatment on fixed mindset vs Growth mindset.

I am referring this book at the right time - the new year.

Growth mindset is all about using the skills, developing the skills. Its also about dealing with failures.

Understanding death

A year back, lost my maternal uncle and on the new year day, lost my aunt (mom's sister).  Both went through a very painful experience.  Close friend of mine too lost his dad too through a similar experience.
Looking back, I have seen death close by.  My views on death has improved through various experience.
Death is not a loss.  
Death is not an end. 
Death is not something.

Death is the next stage.  It's also a living in a different world. I dont believe in heaven and hell.  But I am not sure where exactly someone will live after they leave.  Reincarnations, near to death experience, karma....all can get complicated for understanding in depth.
But I dont have fear of death.  When we grow, every stage is a death.  We moved past and entered a new age.  This is not just philosophical understanding, but also biological.  Our cells die and are newly born every second, and we are told we are a bundle of cells.

Very strange I picked a book on death in 2011 "The Tibetan Book of Living & Dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche.  Probably, its a Tibetan treatment or possibly it was a spiritual book.  I would have read it atleast two or three times.
My views on death were shaped by this single book.  I am yet to comprehend the whole of treatment. I will pick it again soon.
Every day someone keeps dying - known and unknown.  If I think about what will happen to their family, its empathy and compassion;  but if think about what will happen to the person who died, that is spirituality.
We possibly pain ourselves with the the memory of the deceased.

For the love of Canis Familiaris

Dogs were part of my life since my childhood though my parents never grew one.  However, having lived in relatives house, I wont forget those memorable days with Julie and Caesar, the wonderful companions during school and college days. Later Raasthaa, Bruno and several other street dogs whom I 'socialized' with.  Haa...the dog whom we named Sabapathi after watching KamalHaasan's SathiLeelvaathi. 
Dogs are magical. I dont recognize the breed names - they sound always foreign to me. Dog lovers know they have human nature - all the dog lovers would share one or the other.  Though I have not grown one, I have several dog stories to share from my own experience.
And recently happen to read this article "Pass for Happiness and Companionship" recently in The Hindu. (aye, I am Hindu reader these days)
Often I wondered, whether these dogs get bored doing the same things again and again? What do they think? 
I think I got an answer from this marvelous book "Inside of a dog" by Alexandra Horowitz.
Though Alexandra is a psychologist, unless she is a dog lover she could not have written such a fascinating book. Someone like me, who has trained my senses to read neuroscience books for the past few years, got a fresh breathe of animal science after buying this.  Very fascinating read I would say.  There is so much of personal sharing by the author.
Having bought this in July 2014, I have read it only once. I will read another round of read this year.
By the way, the author and her associates have this Dog Cognition Lab.  Interesting.
I recommend this book.

30 Ways to show your love for books

May this new year 2016 bring more learning, new learning, fresh insights for all of us.

This new year, let us -

1. read new books
2. meet new authors
3. gift books to dear ones
4. write more
5. talk, tweet, blog, speak about books
6. organize book get togethers
7. participate in book events
8. fall in love madly with books
9. build new libraries at home
10. help others build new libraries
11. let us visit libraries
12. donate books for the underprivileged
13. spread awareness about books to kids
14. make everyday reading day as a daily routine
15. find pleasure, solutions, peace in reading
16. follow every news on books
17. appreciate someone reading on the public transport
18. socialize with everyone who reads a book
19. always carry a book or two whereever we go
20. stop piracy on books
21. collect rare books 
22. rearrange our bookshelves
23. preserve our books by maintaining them properly
24. create cute bookmarks
25. when you want to say "I love you", do it with a book
26. Befriend the booksellers
27. Leave a book recommendation sheet secretly 
28. Write reviews about the books online
29. Buy additional copies of books (to gift) for special occasions 
30. And read books not just english, but also our regional languages

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016! 

Books destroyed in Chennai Floods

Every disaster brings opportunities.

The recent Chennai floods have destroyed books in various libraries at Chennai.

When I used to be in Chennai, I used to frequent Devanaya Paavanar libraries and I used to spend atleast half a day on the college days and on the weekends. 

Books piled up at the entrance of the Ashok Nagar branch public library. (Photo: DC) 

 

 

Books are like living organisms and they have souls.  Sad they got destroyed.  Hope, the human community come together to revive the libraries.

The Happiness of Pursuit

Received the book The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau today. I already have his "100$startup" and recently picked "The art of non-confirmity" from the office library. Very inspiring man he is!

White Fang by Jack London

Received the book "The call of the Wild, White Fang, and other stories" by Jack London from Flipkart.Will start reading this soon.

Great Men in my Hall

I woke up one day only to realize that I have some of the greatest men that history produced, have assembled in my hall. You guessed it - the books on / written by great men. This is not a standard statement. But when I look at the books on Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrich Nietzsche, Hellen Keller etc., I knew these are radiating special energy on my floor. Not because they are popular, but they are great people of our times.

On top of it, the books by my virtual mentor Anthony Robbins continue to guide me on everyday life. I am bibliophile, and I am feeling very responsible when I stand in front of my bookshelf.  I do not get fascinated by gold, house property, technology gadgets but the very sight of books make me a different person.

There are several great authors who have produced both best sellers and not best-selling ones. Though I can give several examples for best sellers, there are few non-best-selling books that fascinate me a lot: (1) Secret Life of Plants (2) Secret of the Soil  and few books I picked from British Library - Eating The Sun (Oliver Morton), Waste (by Tristram Stuart), Seasons of Life.

By NOT having read several good books, I know this world is immeasurable. I feel humbled at this very thought.

Bookmarks in style

Bookmarks at Crossword

Bookmarks at Crossword

Bookmarks are essential part of reading.  People who do not care for books, use dog ear folds (folding the corner of the page for a bookmark).   Bookmarks are fun.  Some come with message, some come with fun dose.

The recent collection I saw in Crossword are cute but expensive (Rs.400/-).  I bought one to encourage reading habit of my daughter.

I want to gift trendy bookmarks and travel lights for my dear ones on special occasions. If you find a place where I can get them cheaper, please let me know.

1001 events that shaped the world

Here is a little secrete of mine. During my schooling, I scored 98 in social studies.  (until my friend quips in to say that he scored 101; yes the total marks were for 200; and I just scored 49%).   History and Geography books used to be very dry accounts of people, place, and events and I always wondered why all these happened.  Be it the printing of the book, or the context of the text, lack of pictures (most of them were hand drawing or black and white faded images) and appeared more like a law book.  There was no sufficient material for me to think that I am proud of this country's history. These days, having been exposed to a lot of new age books and popular historian authors, History is really a fascinating subject for me.  It made me pick several books on history accounts and I really did read them all. The recent pick being 1001 events that shaped the world. A voluminous, encyclopedia kind of book, it has sequence of events narrated starting with BC and until recent '80s.  With a One Page - One Event concept, its really easy reading and a great compilation. Unlike other history books, there is nothing to memorize here. Almost every page has a suitable picture. Where photographs are not available, the oil paintings and art pictures are presented. But mind you, most of the oil pictures had nudity, violence, massacres, murders - not really disturbing but unless you make up your mind that this is our history and this was how the pictures were drawn.  One odd finding was that Gandhi's death was in colour photo - I am wondering if it was taken from the movie. The Index that appears at the beginning of the book is another wonderful listing countrywise.  I recommend this book to nourish your general knowledge. Its expensive. But its not just a coffee table kind; it truly has the essentials.  

Tags: Books, History

Flipkart's customer friendly service

Image: Namas Bhojani for Forbes India

I always find Flipkart to be very customer friendly.  All my online purchases have been through Flipkart for the past few years.

Some recent positive experiences:

a) I ordered a 16 GB sd card along with a mobile as a gift for my family.  However, upon receiving the Kingston sd card was bent. Since it was a gift, I did not have the bill and order no. handy.  I called up Flipkart Helpline and asked for SD card replacement.  After understanding my problem thoroughly, they agreed to replace.
b) If we  have ordered a book to your office address and if the delivery date falls on Saturday, they call up to check if we are available at Saturday. Obviously you dont :-).  SMS your house address, you get your order delivered at home.
c) This is the big highlight - I had ordered a gift for my daughter whose birthday falls on 4th July.  The committed delivery timeline was 7th July.  I requested Flipkart to consider delivering on 4th July - they really did the magic - the gift was delivered at 9 am!

There are few news I hear recently from my known circles - a colleague got a product over priced than MRP;  another friend got to know his order cancelled without intimation; another said an empty box was delivered.  And a very loud mouthed open letter to Flipkart's CEO on poor services.  I am only wondering its just happening after Junglee's entry.

What Gates reads this summer...

Bill Gates has posted his current summer reading. Please visit this link: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Great-Summer-Reading?WT.mc_id=7_5_2012_summerreading_tw&WT.tsrc=Twitter

Also, its a wow feeling to see what he reads: 
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/All?search=Books&view=preview

Things to get better in 2012

Every year that passes by special in some way. And to me 2011 is very satisfactory year. I chose it to be.

For 2012, I see it as a year of getting things better.  Year end is a physical demarcation and provides a mental one to all of us.  But I believe, we should start anywhere anytime if we truly decided without waiting for the next year to come.

What would I get better at in 2012?


Health:  I was telling my friends that everyone plans to fall sick. I feel sad sometimes whether people take conscious steps towards health or not, they take conscious steps towards bad health patterns. What if one day all the doctors tell, we can treat only three times in your lifetime for any kind of ailment?  Wont the world be the craziest place where health is sought after, instead of gold?  

Language:  I recently fell in love with Kannada language for two reasons.  The Jyothiyali song from the movie Geetha.  And another reason is a "Geetha".  Geetha madam, a very senior teacher, whom I met recently in Chikamagalore and she spoke on stage a very beautiful literary Kannada rich in style.  By next year, my library will find me filling Kannada books. or you may end up reading my Kannada blog.

Relationships: I know me very well. I got better at relationships in the past ten years. I know my patterns, strengths and limits when it comes to relationships. Relationships are very subtle things; as human being we relate each others in some way.  Its part of the survival of the human race.  I will still get better at this and be a better person.  A quote that I read "Before you heal others, heal yourself".

Wealth:  I really have a love-hate relationship with wealth. If wealth were a woman, we like each other, we seek each other but we donot seem to get along :-)

Book:  Not of reading but of writing one. 

Neuroscience for you and me:  After NLP for the past ten years, it was the brain science that became my recent obsession. The book Evolve Your Brain, The Buddha's brain and few other titles, find prominent place in my new bookshelf.  I was thinking that I should create something called Neuroscience for Kids and explain the power of Brain to the young generation in a more effective way.


And there are some more!  I am sculpting my life, only to get better.  The Buddha in me, smiles.

 

GCoffee Bookshelf

My new bookshelf is here.  Its very exciting to have all the books under one place.
I have made 3 racks each measuring 2 feet width and 6 inch depth. Made of good quality wood and with Teakwood beading. To make the bookshelf more interesting, the books have been arranged based on the colours.

டாக்டர் கலாம் - புத்தகம் படிக்கும் பழக்கம் பற்றி

புத்தகம் படிக்கும் பழக்கம் பற்றி டாக்டர் கலாம் அவர்கள்  "விழிவேள்வி"  புத்தக முன்னுரையில் சொல்லியிருப்பதாவது:

"...மாணவர்களை நான் ஏற்க வாய்த்த உறுதி மொழி எனக்கு நினவு வருகிறது 

1. என்னுடைய வீட்டில் பூஜை அறை அல்லது பிரார்த்தனை செய்யும் இடத்துக்கு அருகில், 20 நல்ல புத்தகங்களுடன் ஒரு சிறு வீட்டு நூலகத்தை ஆரம்பிபேன்.

2. என்னுடிய வளர்ந்த மகன் மற்றும் மகள் 2௦ புத்தக நூலகத்தை, 2௦௦ புத்தக நூலகமாக மாற்ற எடுக்கும் முயற்சிக்கு உறுதுணையாக இருப்பேன்.

3. என்னுடைய வளர்ந்த பேரன் மற்றும் பேத்திகள் 2௦௦ புத்தக நூலகத்தை, 2௦௦௦ புத்தக நூலகமாக மாற்ற எங்கள் குடும்பம் உறுதுணையாக இருக்கும்.

4. தினமும் ஒரு மணி நேரம், நானும் எங்கள் குடும்ப உறுப்பினர்கள் அனைவரும், எங்கள் வீட்டு நூலகத்தைப பயன்படுத்திப் படிக்கும் பழக்கத்தை இன்று முதல் தொடர்ந்து செயல்ப்படுத்துவோம். 

5.எங்கள் வீட்டு நூலகம் தான் எங்கள் வீட்டுப் பரம்பரைச் சொத்து; எங்கள் வீட்டு அறிவுக் களஞ்சியம்.

6. இந்த முயற்சிதான் நாட்டில் ஏற்படப்போகும் அறிவ்வு புரடிசிக்கு அடிப்படி ஆதாரம்."

எத்தனை வளமான சிந்தனை இவை!

Tamil Books

Nothing beats the great feeling of shopping!  But I enjoy the best when I buy books. Very few souls can understand buying books is an investment!

These are the tamil books I bought in the Bangalore Book Exhibition

Two Indian Books

I broke the convention of buying similar topics books today.

I bought two books by Indian authors in Crossword taking advantage of the Penguin Fest offer. Got a 25% offer.

One is Middle Man by Sankar (yet to find the online review)
Another is Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian. (Read amazon review here)

Looks like Middle man was later became a movie by Satyajitray

Director Bala

After a very long time, I re-read Director Bala's Ivan dhaan bala autobiography. His childhood days in his village have been so bad that no one would have imagined that he would rise to fame to make movies like Sethu, Pidhamagan, and Naan Kadavul. His story has been beautifully put together and an inspiration for anyone who like to have a second lease of life. His story is all about will-power of a man who has been rejected in his life in several situations. Very inspiring story. But look at Mr.Bala - no body would say that he has the formulated looks of a famous director or an intellectual.

3 books from Flipkart

I have ordered 3 books from FlipKart, the first two I have received:

• Connect The Dots
• Dont Sprint The Marathon
• Bite of the Mango

Connect The Dots is a sequel to the Indian writing bestseller "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish".  This book covers 20 entrepreneurs in our country who does not have an MBA!

Dont Sprint The Marathon focuses on children upbringing without forcing them to too many vocational courses. I have not read it completely. I am yet to get close to the theme.

Bite of the Mango is yet to reach me from Flipkart. It is a biography on Mariatu Kamara who is a UNICEF Special Representative and survivor of the civil war in Sierra Leone. I read about her in Tamil weekly Vikatan's interview and was touched by her story. During her girlhood her hands were cut off by rebels, and was physically abused. She also gave birth to a boy that died after 10 months. She spent some part of her life as beggar and was later rescued by UNICEF. This girl now has "The Mariatu Foundation seeks to provide a much needed refuge for women and children. Through the opening of a home and eventually homes in Sierra Leone, the Mariatu Foundation will offer healing programs and assistance in the resettlement and reintegration of abused women and children into loving and supportive communities."

When I read Mariatu's story, I could feel the pain in my hands. I felt like saying "Sorry" to her on behalf of this world for the injustice. Somehow, I am reminded of Bhopal tragedy court verdict that is nothing for a penalty or punishment. I think we as a society should be saying Sorry to many.

Discovering meaning of life

Just rising above the new year resolutions, let us ask ourselves, 'what is the meaning of my life'?

Viktor E Frankl, the author of Man's search for meaning, says we can discover this meaning of life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.

This may too sound philosophical, but the author has undergone a terrific experience where in he lied naked among the flesh and dead bodies in a Nazi camp and finally manage to escape. This experience helped him in devising a psychology study called Logotherapy.

He also speaks of an optimisim in the face of tragedy, where in one (1) turns suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment, (2) derive from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better (3) deriving from life's transitoriness (such as death) an incentive to take responsible action.

Especially, with referene to the 3rd point, its just not death, but all the moments of life that are dying and will never recur. This very thought is a reminder that challenges us to make the best possible use of each moment of our lives.

He says, "Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now".  What a powerful statement! Thats going to be my guiding principle for me this new year. I am going to create a poster out of it and stick it to this page sidebar as a constant reminder.

He has a message for students in America and Europe - "Do not pursue success.. as you are going to miss it..as unintended side effect of one's dedication for greater cause than oneself..". 

He also fondly quotes the German philosopher Nietzsche, "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how".

Friends, lets make the best of our times, we are living in days that is terrific and unique.

Reference Links:
Wikipedia Reference on Man's Search for Meaning
Amazon Customer Reviews