For the past twenty years, you’ve been the bane of my existence. I slept with the phone by the bedside, never knowing when Mummy would call, and one of us would have to come find you, and dig you out of the newest hole you dug for yourself. And none of those years have been harder, than the one where we were estranged for the past year. Two decades of picking up after you had taken their toll....
As is our wont, we spent the day gallivanting in a jungle and having an accident. And then crying for a while and then laughing about what a story it would be for the rest of our lives. Much like our marriage. We make the best stories, don’t we? And I am who I am, because of you. Eleven years, and it still feels like only yesterday. 1 I love you....
This post was first sent to my newsletter on December 19th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) image, courtesy The Toymaker’s Journal Lots of links in this letter, because there won’t be a work letter later, this month :) This one is all about, drum roll … Reading :) You know the drill. Click the headers to wander off to the original articles. Books I Read Last Month So Good They Can’t Ignore you, is a book I strangely keep coming back to....
This post was first sent to my newsletter on November 20th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) Ok, I’m a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short1 :) This work letter is going out to all of you my friends, because there’s not much technical stuff in here. And because I have a spot of good news to share. I got a jobby job! I’ve been trying the past few years, to switch my career to something that wasn’t as taxing, as consulting on hardware and networks and integrating systems....
It’s way past our anniversary on the 10th of September. But that day was filled with togetherness. And the days before and after were filled with all sorts of madness, both personal and professional. Dear Abby, it’s been a decade. And it’s flown by us like a quarrel of sparrows. Here now, and vanished in the next instant. And yet when I look back on it, we’ve been through so much....
This post was first sent to my newsletter on November 7th, 2021. You really ought to subscribe :) A few days late, but Happy Diwali, folks! :) A small ask of you, to begin with. Like I wrote in the past, I don’t have any sort of tracking in these mails. There are no ads, nothing to push. Just a labour of love. So I have no idea whether these posts resonate or I’m just howling into the storm that is your inbox....
Shoutouts of Gratitude to the teachers who I learnt programming from over the past couple of years … Kushal Das, for bringing me in, teaching me the ropes and assuring me there was a place for me here Reuven Lerner, who unravelled Python for me and made me realise that languages were small, and the reason I was struggling was not Python, but because I wanted to understand all of computer science in too short a time frame....
I lost my Mai today. Until my mid 30s, I rued the gulf that stood between Mai and me. While my parents insistence on teaching us English, as our primary language has benefited me immensely, in most everything I do, the one thing that I feel sad about is that I speak my mother tongue (Konkani) in a slow halting manner. 1 Which meant that I never could talk well with my grandmother....
Yes, I preordered Cal Newport’s, A World without Email. https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2021/02/10/announcing-the-email-academy/ India folk, go here - https://www.amazon.in/World-Without-Email-Reimagining-Overload/dp/0241341418/ Having read 5 of his books, I know this will make a big difference to my life. What I have actually done though, is tried to repay Cal in a small manner for his podcast at https://www.calnewport.com/podcast/ Now that is pure gold! If you haven’t been listening, you have sorely missed out on a ton of productivity tactical gems....
My plan for the new year … A final thought from Atomic Habits as we start the new year: “Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are. The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician....