Hello, hello!

For some reason, I always feel the need to justify the bullet point nature of these posts. Today, let’s just go with “Here’s what’s been up:”

Here’s what’s been up:

My new health-ier eating adventure.

Burrito bowl – no sour cream or salsa. Fruits. More fruits. Juice. And an espresso frappe. Also walked today. Just a teeny-weeny cherry on top. Oh and lunch is going to be koftas. (I write this in a super-freezing class where Prof is taking presentations and I can block out the outside world with AirPods. I love this tech. SHOULD GET NEW ONES, NO?)

iPad solves 78% of my rikshaw miseries.

My 30 minutes in the morning and 90-ish minutes in the evening, I now spend watching videos or reading something. The thing with an iPad and not a real book is – A LARGE VARIETY PLUS EARPHONES WHICH BLOCK OUT THE TRAFFIC CLUTTER. Lord knows I get overstimulated and cranky. The rest I am yet to figure.

“How do you bounce back so easily?”

Prak asked me this yesterday. Because I was cribbing about not being ANY smart and not doing anything and generally being terrible at thinking-writing-articulating zone. People tell me these blogs are okay only. They are, sure. But these are a mere making-ak-happy-and-centred thing. Doesn’t serve a purpose. Zero consistency. Very little value. If you asked me to tangible-fy (idk what the word is) something as simple as “What do you think of the education system?” my brain would go: Ganji Chudail!

Problem is: I have grown into having a very lazy brain. I do not think much. Or question my own ideas much. Probe deeper. Whatever. Heck, I won’t even do proper sentences. And come to think of it these blogs are just rants. I CAN DO SO MUCH BETTER.

This was me the night before. SUPER DISAPPOINTED.

But here’s the thing. All this while I made the choice to not work on it. And while that’s been a pattern, I can also make the choice to work on it. Sure, I keep trying and failing and trying and failing. But as long as I keep trying, I think I’m good. However, I want to take these random little commitments more seriously now. I have come to realise that a big chunk of my miseries go away if I am happy with whatever I created through the day.

So yeah, here’s a big belief. As long as success with something depends on my efforts, I’m good. I can try hard and keep pushing. And the external things? You try to optimise to whatever degree. And for what you can’t, you figure out a middle ground that works.

My green flag.

Last year, I made the whole YGF thing because I needed some place to learn, share and talk sustainability, climate change, etc. Typical AK style, I didn’t do it for more than 2 months? I guess?

While reading my Google alerts in my Digital Marketing yesterday, something clicked. So I made a new Substack. (Your cue to go subscribe.) The idea is to put out something – ANYTHING – that comes to mind on the state of sustainable development and climate change. Preferably is South-East Asia. Mostly because climate change in SEA functions differently than it does on other parts of the globe. And thanks to the small project I did with Climate Story Labs, I learnt a little more about these places. And met with a bunch of people. That effort should see the light of day, no?

Drama apart: It is to build consistency. Read more into sustainability. And write things.

Been thinking about good taste.

Okay sooooo, I have a bunch of thoughts on good tastes. They’re all borrowed. And sure, every thing is borrowed but when I pass on freshly read gyaan – it feels wrong. Do I even know it? Do I understand it? How do I tell if it’s actually right? MUCH. MORE.

Anyhow, here’s part A/Z of something I read: Seth Godin on Good Taste.

That’s all for today.

More ‘morrow,

AK!