Walking Diary

September 2025

This is my latest read, a book by Shunmyo Masuno, a Buddhist monk who is also a garden designer, which is quite interesting.

It discusses 100 topics, each one covered in small paragraphs. It’s easy to read with lots of useful stuff. Here are some of the interesting ones I found.

Try using a loud voice “It stimulates and activates your brain.”. I usually never talk, which is a complaint even my mum has of me for a very long time. It tells us to vocalise more, speak loudly sometimes.

Exhale deeply
“Improve your breathing, and your mind, too, will improve”. We all know breathing exercises are good for us.

Become adept at switching mode “You might think of your commute to work as a similar ‘necessary non-essential’. It can provide time for you to switch between your private self and your work self.’” This is a thing I have believed in, it says to have different personas, like one for work and one for home. So when you are home, you should keep the stuff from work out.

Create a small garden on your balcony
“A place where your mind can escape”. I think this is a great hobby to have, to grow something on your own. To plant the seed to nurture it, see it grow. I am currently into Aquascaping; it’s a fun activity.

Discover another you “There is another you within yourself. This version of you is freer than the self you think you know, and rich with potential”. You need to find it.

Get active “Experience for yourself hot and cold.” This is something we have to be conscious of doing. It’s too easy to get into the habit of staying home all day, watching TV, or being on the computer. You need to push yourself to get active. Find a hobby that will push you physically and mentally. Go discover new places, travel. Some things you can appreciate only when you do them yourself.

Try just sitting quietly in nature “Try sitting and having a dialogue with nature”. It’s refreshing to be with nature. One of my favourite things to do is going on a trek.

Don’t fixate on right and wrong “This is about compromise. If you fuss over black and white, you miss out on the beauty of grey.” This is a nice way of thinking that sometimes things are not simply one side or another. There are many things in the middle that are more right.

Line up your shoes when you take them off “Disorder in your mind shows in your feet.” My sister shared with me a photo of this page from the book, which was the first topic I read from the book. She asked me to follow this. I think this is a good practice to follow. To have things in order, even small things.

Discard what you don’t need “Part with old things before acquiring new ones”. It’s important to be clutter free both in mind and your physical being.

Don’t be bound by single perspective “There is more than just ‘the proper way.’” Objects do not have merely one purpose. We need to have different perspectives.

August 2025

My sister shared a nice, short podcast clip with me where Jay Shetty discusses the keys to happiness. I found this very interesting. I am generally very sceptical of these ‘Guru’ who likes to preach about all sorts of things and constantly gives advice. This short moment from the podcast makes me think.

Pursuit of happiness is a universal goal for everyone; very few people are truly happy for a long period. There are always phases you go through where you are just not happy, not necessarily that means you are sad or depressed, but you are in that vicinity state where the things you are doing are not giving you satisfaction.

Jay Shetty says you are happy when you are in a state of flow, and we should try to achieve flow. “Flow is the intersection where your skills and your challenge match.” He explains why that is happiness, he says, “So if your skills are higher than your challenge, you’ll feel bored, lethargic, and maybe feel stuck. But if your challenge is greater than your skills, you feel overwhelmed, potentially depressed, disconnected, and disappointed.”. This point is very interesting, so what he means is that you should try to build up your skills to meet the challenge that you have set for yourself. Also, you cannot set a challenge that is too difficult to achieve. You need to find a perfect balance between the two.

Of course, this is easier said than done. It means you should know what you are capable of and set a target accordingly. It should not be easy to achieve, nor too hard. One of the ways he says is to keep working on it and keep creating new challenges. “Because that flow state, when you know you have a skill and your challenge is met, and even if you lose, you still get such joy out of it because you know that you’re still working in the right direction.”

He says to ask yourself the question, “Do you need to improve your skills or do you need to broaden your challenge?” “Is this a year of expanding your challenges or is this a year of broadening your skills?”

These are thought-provoking thoughts, worth thinking about.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MeKTPdpeREQ6oxPKE1f6I?si=xxdbbvVTRv62Bg5Vvn5aBw

July 2025

When I went to Canada last year, one of the gifts I received from a friend was a pair of Earbuds. I have been aware of its usefulness for a long time now, but I never bought one because, firstly, buying a good one would be expensive, and secondly, the thought of losing one, which is a common complaint I often hear, does not seem like a good idea. I do listen to a lot of podcasts and other streaming videos, so over the years I have bought many wired earphones. Since it started to get spoiled/lost after a while, I started to invest in cheaper 500 Rs range ones. Which works perfectly fine. Until I started using the Earbuds, now I am converted.

This is a tech I would not have probably bought myself, I bought my last phone with an earphone jack, which is going out of fashion. It’s good I got it for free, so I can try it. I started to use it daily as I started to travel again for work. I immediately loved it. For one the sound quality is pretty good. I also love the seamless nature of how it connects to my phone. The no wire is great once you get used to it, you never want to go back to the tangled mess of wire. Whenever I take the earbud out it connects to my phone automatically. I also love the tap feature, you just tap to pause, or resume listening.

I love it so much that I now try to introduce it to people who have not tried it. I bought one for my brother as a birthday gift, and we gifted another one to another family member. One issue he does have is that sometimes it falls off his ears. Fortunately for me, this has not been an issue as fear before. It can still happen, but seems pretty secure and fits in my ear.

I was last impressed by a device this much when my brother gifted me a FitBit. I love tech which is simple to use and does the job very well. I think a lot of credit must go to Apple, when they introduced it a long time back, like anything they do, companies immediately started to copy it and we are the beneficiaries.

May 2025

Last year while I was on a family visit in Canada, we started planning a group trip to China. A China trip has been on my bucket list for a very long time now, so we were all excited and ultimately decided to do it. Firstly we booked a tour agent called Jenny, who was recommended by my sister. She came up with an itinerary after we suggested places we wanted to visit. The advantage of doing it with a travel agent is that they take care of everything, travel, hotel, food, guide. So you do not need to worry about these things. In other countries, we probably would not have needed this service, but in China where the rules are strict and nobody speaks English, I think this is a must for first-time travelers. We planned to go to Beijing, then Xian, then Chongqing, then Zhangjiajie. It was 11 days of a super fun trip. I noted down some highlights.

Communication

We knew beforehand there are challenges to communicating in China, firstly I don’t know Mandarin and nobody speaks English. Even where we stayed in 4-star hotels, from staff to even machine labels all in Mandarin. So you need to install a translator app. The other issue in China is that most of the apps are blocked by them. The workaround is that I installed LetsVPN, which costs 5 dollars, but works great. So when we are in a hotel or where Wifi is available, with VPN on you can Google, YouTube, and WhatsApp without any issue. The other thing I got was a local sim, which used a service called ChinaUnicomHK. This sim works like a charm, is very fast, and has inbuilt VPN technology, so all apps I need work. I used Google Translate mostly, this works great, mostly I took pictures in Mandarin and translated it. There is even a conversation mode, which kind of works well when the speaker is loud enough and speaks clearly, it can do a live translation of Mandarin to English.

Great Wall

We all learned and read about the Great Wall. This was definitely on the bucket list. It’s crazy how they did this, another marvel by humans. We had to walk/climb the Great Wall. The idea was to move up from one tower to another, till we reached a high point, where the view was amazing. The way the stairs were made, and the steep nature of the climb, it’s not for somebody who is not fit. I reached tower eight, by which time my head was feeling light. At that point, I gave up and sat there for some time. Others went further ahead, but only one reached the top 12th tower.

Chongqing

This is a crazy modern city. I have never seen a city lit like this. There is a place from where it seems the whole city seems to be lit with millions of LEDs. It’s a view to behold. It’s amazing to walk through. I wonder what the electric bill of this city is like! There is so much light I am thinking probably not a great place to stay or work at, it has to be blinding at some point.

Technology

China is pretty advanced as a country, I have been to Canada but this surpasses that also. The super fast train running at 300 km/hr, and you don’t even feel it inside is really impressive. In our hotel they used a robot to bring you stuff from the ground, it takes the lift, and delivers it to your room. It can carry things like food, and drinks.

One part that I did not like was the constant surveillance, not only do they scan your face in the airport. They scan it in every city you reach. They also scan it in places you visit. So at any point, these people know where each individual is. This makes me uncomfortable, any country that monitors each citizen that closely, has major trust issues. There are also huge privacy concerns. But I guess Chinese people are used to it. Maybe other countries will do the same, I just don’t like this.

Jenny

Jenny was the tour agent we booked. She was traveling with us throughout the trip, and doing all the work of organizing travel, hotel, and food. I would say she did excellent work. She also provided us with additional tips along the way, like she bought stuff via AliExpress. That way we bought lots of stuff at a much cheaper rate than the stores. She also has an effervescent personality, always on the move, always positive and smiling. This additionally made the entire trip there a lot of fun.

Zhangjiajie

I would say this is by far the best thing about the trip. I absolutely was wowed by the beauty of Zhangjiajie. You have to be there to enjoy the natural beauty. The photos, and videos are great, but you need to be there to appreciate the beauty. Absolutely otherworldly. It starts with a wonderful cable car ride to the top of the mountain. From there you slowly move downwards enjoying the many wonderful views of the amazing Zhangjiajie mountains. I would love to go back and spend more time there.

Bonus

While returning to India we had to take a long transit via Singapore, so we got to spend some time in Singapore also. The airport is out of the world. Two things stood out, there were many more which impressed me. First, in one section they had an Amazon-like setup, lots of trees, and plants, and then in the middle an artificial waterfall. You have to see it to appreciate it. Another relatively smaller one that intrigued me greatly was that they had an installation where hundreds of gold droplets were attached with string. They were placed in a grid formation. Each of these droplets can individually move up and down some 15 feet in length. When all move synchronously they create wonderful patterns, like a wave, like raindrops, etc. It’s mesmerizing to watch what they have done with it. As a programmer, I can totally think of ways to program this installation to create so many different art, different random designs.

October 2024

At the end of this year season 2 of Squid Game will be released. I remember how much I was into it. It was one of the best shows I saw during the pandemic. I did not start watching when it got released, but soon I started seeing the buzz. Everyone was talking about it, it became a global phenomenon. I do not remember any show that no one had heard of before catching fire like this. It became the No. 1 show for Netflix in most of the countries.

When I heard a podcast about it, I was immediately intrigued and decided to watch it. I was immediately hooked and binge-watched the whole show. After that, I started searching for more content about it. My verdict was that it was a very violent, bloody show, but the violence was justified and shown perfectly. The acting and direction were great. The biggest USP of the show is the suspense. There were many shocking moments, and it was awesome to watch.

It used very creative ways to turn a fun kid game into a deadly game. I would not go into detail otherwise it would spoil it. From the very first episode, you understand the stakes, everyone in the show soon gets to know how serious this is, and you as an audience are on full alert from then on.

One of the genres of YouTube that interests me is the react videos. It’s very entertaining to watch these Youtubers react to movies/songs and comment on them. The reaction videos on the show were a lot of fun. I watched those videos on a loop. It was super fun to watch people react to certain scenes about it.

Since the series was so great to me and it ended well also. I do not like that they are continuing and making season 2. I don’t agree that limited series when they become super successful, you need to make more seasons. I can’t see how the new season will be great, but still, it will be intriguing to see it.

September 2024

It’s been many years now since I have switched to listening to podcasts from listening to music. Whenever I travel to work or other places that is a good time when I listen to podcasts. There are many podcasts I love listening to, one is by Bill Simmons, and the Ringer podcast. He is great in both sports and movie/series podcasts. One thing I do not like is that he speaks a lot about gambling related to sports. I understand in the US there is a culture more than the Asian side where they always gamble, they gamble in everything. So there can be multiple bets on a single game. I think up to a point it is fine. But now all these big betting companies are taking over the sports. They sponsor the game itself, and all its related companies, like they give big money to the Ringer, ESPN, etc. Currently, it is everywhere in US sports.

Many issues come with it, and there is an inherent risk with the culture of gambling. You can lose a lot of wealth doing this, it may sound fun and game initially, but then it becomes addictive. The second is people involved in the sports, gamble in it, so they are compromised. If you are a player and you know the stake involved in a game you get to profit hugely in how it goes. Then you might not perform as well sometimes. Then the integrity of sports is compromised.

Recently a big gambling scandal broke out, Shohei Ohtani who by all accounts is a model sports superstar, well loved by all. His interpreter was caught gambling, and for a time being there were big questions as to how much Shohei knew about it or was involved in it. It was later found that his interpreter cheated him. I would not be surprised if one day it is found that a big star is involved in it, cause the money is so big now. That would kill the game. It would be my wish for the influx of cash from Betting/Gambling sites to come down, and for sports and its related network(people I love listening to) to be less involved with it, but that is wishful thinking, when have people, corporations ever turned down money!

August 2024

My interest in baseball is mainly due to my following Shohei Ohtani. For some time now, the only way I have followed the sport has been via YouTube. I have never watched a full baseball match before, mainly because it’s not a sport I follow a lot, and also the timing of the games is not convenient for the Indian audience. It so happened that on my trip to Canada, my sister bought tickets for a match between Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros.

So I was going to watch my first ever full baseball match live with my brother. The first impression was that the stadium looked awesome, the inside view was great and also the outside view, as it was an open stadium you can see the Toronto skyline, with the iconic CN Tower. We also had a great seat. It was right in front of the pitcher, and on the batter’s side, you could view the pitch and the batter hitting the ball very clearly.

I know most of the basic rules, but I had to google to find the full basic rules. There were still things that confused me a little. But overall the game is simple enough, the pitcher tries to get the 3 batters out per inning, and the batters try to hit. Which is quite difficult. If you know Cricket you can slightly compare this to that, but unlike that sport where the batsman has the most advantage, here the pitcher has it. Most times batters miss and/or get struck out. There are only a few very good batters who most likely can hit but even they miss.

I have not been to a Cricket match live for a long time now, but one thing similar here is the gaps in between the plays, there are so many breaks, and unlike football, the game does not flow. In my opinion, there are too many and too long a break. They tried to simulate excitement with announcers shouting and trying to cheer in each break. I am not a fan of these constant loud announcements.

I know there are lots of baseball matches, so in the regular season, these have lower stakes and it feels that way sometimes. In the end, it was a close match, the final score being 7-6. The team that lost did not seem to mind too much, and the team that won(including the home crowd) was not overjoyed. I would say when the home team did hit the home runs that was fun, those were the highlights of the game.

Overall I quite enjoyed the experience, I don’t think this is the sport I would follow closely, but it is always fun watching things live, with all the people cheering, the atmosphere is special which you will never get watching at home. I would recommend people go to live events.

July 2024

This show comes from the same person who created Seinfeld, my all-time favorite. Larry David is an absolute genius with comedy. I love the show, it is super funny, and each episode is unique and hilarious. I would say, unlike Seinfeld, this is a lot more crude, the humor is more raw, so if you are a sensitive person possibly you will not find this funny at all. Unlike Seinfeld, I would not recommend this show to everyone. Seinfeld had its moments, where people may not like some of the episodes or the jokes, but overall I thought they did it very well and intelligently so most people would enjoy it. This show goes all out trying all sorts of things without worry it could offend a section of society, they push a lot of boundaries with their comedy which in today’s world generally will not happen. I quite like that they made bold choices.

I can see why it would not be for everyone. It is basically about a person who is just not a socially acceptable person, who does not have a filter, says and does all sorts of things without caring how others may feel. We all have weird thoughts but rarely act on them. The premise of the show is that if that person would not hold back, this creates a lot of funny moments.

The show is so good that in my opinion Larry David like his character is a bit of a jerk in real life, I cannot believe he can create and act so well that character without actually being a lot like him, perhaps he does not blurt out all those things in real life but he definitely must have lots of same tendencies. Not saying he is a bad guy but he is definitely in a lot of cases can be said to be not a great guy either, if my thinking is right. He and others who know him have denied that is the case in many interviews.

Of the comedy series I love, this probably is third after Seinfeld and Office. The thing that works well is that the ideas are new, they try new weird stuff each episode. It’s obvious who worked on it has put a lot of thought into the new scenarios which would showcase the worst of Larry in unique ways. All the main cast are superb and do a great job. Even the many cameos are all super fun. A great show is one where you are reminded of it randomly from time to time, even when you have not seen it for some time. This happens to me once in a while. I would remember a particular episode and why it would be funny.

June 2024

This happened a year ago, we had an interesting meeting with the founder of an NGO. So we were brainstorming how we could help the children to learn better. He went on to say, one issue which we all had was to get good teachers. So he said one new theory they were trying out was where the logic is where teachers are not that important(or not the main component), the focus is on the students. Can we do so that learning is not dependent on teachers? If they are there then it is good, but can the student learn on their own? He termed it as ‘Science of learning’.

One project he and his NGO started in rural China, which he gave us as an example. So they go to areas and set up libraries for children to come and start loving reading. The unique thing is the library is run by children only with very little to no help from adults. So day 1 they get the kids to bring all the books to the library, then on day 2 get them to categorise them in a particular order, here the kids decide how they want to do it. One example is to do it under the subject matter, other is by the color. The next day each book is labelled with an RFID tag, and the book is put into the system via a computer. Then each kid is given a library card which they can design on their own. Then a set of instructions is given to the kids on how they can use the library card and how to scan the book they are lending. The kids then hold an election to nominate the library lead. So the starting few days are under supervision and guidance of adults, but with very little being done by them, thereafter the kids take full control. This starts the library, where the kids take the book they like, scan it, read it, and then put it back. The onus is totally on the kids, they are told from the very beginning that there will be very little supervision from adults. They are free to do what they want and how to manage the library.

The founder says after that the kids take ownership, as they feel they have set up the library and are involved in it. They have peer pressure to maintain discipline and keep books well. In this example, there is a very minimal role for an elder/teacher. The kids learn on their own and take ownership.

I am always curious how we can do a better job teaching. I taught off and on for some time, with varied success. Something like a computer, how I can simplify, make it interesting, and teach so that the students understand it. I think it’s a constant challenge, so this new concept where we have less of a teacher role is interesting. One famous app is Khan Academy, which has a set of videos, and tasks with progress. The child is not dependent on anybody, it goes to the tutorial video, and then tries to solve the task on its own. Similarly Duolingo, it helps you step by step to learn a language. The steps are simple and gamification makes it interesting to learn, and a person will be interested to keep learning.

May 2024

In Matrix Neo is given a choice whether to take a blue pill or red pill. The red pill will let you know the real truth which can be unsettling and not something you want to know. The blue pill lets you be in the same situation as you are, with the truth that you currently know, though it may not be the real truth. In an interview I saw recently, Keanu Reeves says he was talking to a few kids, and he was explaining about the movie Matrix to them. He was explaining the central theme of the movie, where the Neo character is in search of what is real. One girl’s response got his attention, she said, “Who cares if it’s real?”. It does not matter to her whether the world she lives in is real or not. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UhmFE-C7vsw

If given a choice we all think we will do what Neo did, and take the red pill, we all want to know the truth. But if we are really honest I think a lot of us would just like to be the same. What is real is what we know, it does not matter what others say. Our reality is all that matters to us. If our current reality is that we are happy, then why would we want to change it, just to know the truth?

This is what is happening with a lot of things in the world. A lot of people are in a bubble, whether it is a political bubble, corporate bubble, religious bubble, or any other. Once you are deep into it, there is no interest in believing anything outside it. So outside opinion even though it may be real, you have no interest in it. The best is not to get inside it, cause once you are in it, it is very difficult to get out of it. Just ask Neo. So whatever your opinions and beliefs are, always have the capacity to accept alternate opinions.