Learning Nerd’s Diary #07 🙋
Hi folks!
Welcome back to the the Learning Nerd’s Diary.
Mala Pan is Marathi for me too. It’s one of the many phrases I picked up during the 5 years I spent there during college. Well this week was Mala Pan galore! At various points in the week I came across stuff where my reaction was -
Breaking the Routine
I spent the last week at a friend’s house in Mumbai. The week was amazing - filled with meeting old friends, interesting conversations and not sticking to a my usual routine. I am a creature of habit, and sometimes I get a bit too carried away - where everyday becomes a todo list I NEED to finish.
Vacation aside, I look forward to these pockets of ‘no routine’ also because they make me rethink my day, what I do with it and give me the necessary breathing room. They also leave space for serendipitous interactions and experiences. Go break that routine - sleep in that one day, watch a movie in the middle of the day and make a random plan with a friend. It’ll help, trust me!
Completely the opposite of this week
Coolest Things I Learnt This Week
Writing is like Meditation: I have been writing Atomic Essays for 15 continuous days. Halfway through my 30 essays in 30 days journey. Can’t help but feeling a little proud. You can read them all here. (Shameless plug-in!)
Over the last 15 days I have realised how crowded my mind is. There have been days where I have started 2 different essays, only to finish a completely different 3rd one! Picking a topic to write on is like selecting a movie on Netflix - it can take 2 seconds but can also take 2 hours. Came across this tweet which summed it up for me -
Give Me Some Sunshine, Give Me NO Rain: This was my first time in Bombay during monsoons. And if what I saw in Bombay is monsoon, I’d say Delhi (where I grew up) does not have monsoon season at all. For the 7 days that I was in Bombay, I saw the sun come out only once (!). Just the lack of sunlight made me go crazy. Not to mention that the weather was just not conducive to do any work at all.
This week was an empathy building exercise for all the people who live in Bombay. I have absolutely no idea how you get through this year after year.
When In Doubt, Workout: I remember a really frustrating day at work last week. I’d been up early to do some interviews with folks in the US and after that also the day also ended up being quite hectic. I found a pocket of 30 mins in the evening to breathe and I was feeling tired and burned. I literally dragged myself to do yoga - just to shake off some of that frustration. And you know what? I felt SO much better after that. I want a poster of this tweet -
That's it for this week folks, see you around!
My rendezvous with the clouds continues…