December 12, 2022
On teamwork and kids
Teamwork is an essential skill that is important for children to learn at a young age. It is the ability to work together with others to achieve a common goal. This is important because it teaches children how to effectively communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve with others. It also helps to foster a sense of community and inclus...
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December 12, 2022
On critical thinking & kids
Critical thinking is an important skill for children to learn because it enables them to evaluate information and ideas, think independently, and make reasoned judgments. This skill is essential for success in school and in life, as it helps children to think for themselves, solve problems, and make decisions. By learning about critica...
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November 5, 2022
Why it makes sense for nonprofits to use Basecamp
I've been working with nonprofits for over eight years now and have had the opportunity to create and deliver work across teams in India, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. We understand the resource constraints constantly struggle. There is the question of working under very tight budgets, being able to provide the right documentat...
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October 25, 2022
What am inspiration The Marginalian has been!
Source https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/10/23/16-learnings/ 16 Life-Learnings from 16 Years of The Marginalian Reflections on keeping the soul intact and alive and worthy of itself. BY MARIA POPOVA The Marginalian was born as a plain-text newsletter to seven friends on October 23, 2006, under the outgrown name Brain Pickings. Substa...
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October 25, 2022
How to understand Korean poetry
Source https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-understand-korean-poetry How to understand Korean poetry Myeong-dong in Seoul today, where penniless Korean poets used to meet after the war. Image © Doug Sun Beams, licensed under CC BY 2.0 and adapted from the original. If you're curious about Korean poetry, understanding the ...
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October 25, 2022
Air quality sympathisers
When a quarter of a billion people think that their one cracker won't make a difference to the air quality this way or that - this is how things pan out in some regions #happydiwali #bengaluru #AQI
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July 5, 2022
Reading to my children
When I read to my children, a new world opens. Before we know we find ourselves journeying through the valleys and over the mountains and above the lakes, traversing rows of trees, a multitude of rocks- under blue and white and orange skies. When I read to my children, everything else is forgotten.
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March 23, 2022
A relationship with food
I had the best day today. Burried the past at various levels. Got back in the driver's seat - going into the future. I celebrated at Jus'Trufs. Their Dandeli chicken curry is a big secret. I've been hinting for a recipe for years now but they just don't budge. The curry is spicy, its hot, it has flavour to the last bite and drop. In th...
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March 6, 2022
Note to self | lessons #3
• When you graduate you are not 'know it all' • When you retire you are not 'going to die' • When you are young you are not 'invincible' • Don't hold on too tightly, you are hurting the other person • Problem solving does not start from the impossible, it may eventually sort that • Solve problems for impact... problems for fame will of...
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March 6, 2022
Note to self | lessons #2
• While designing the plan for a 'new idea', do ask why it has not been done before • You may not like, love or want people as they do; you may want them much, they may not. Discernment works well here • The essence, the peace, the universe, the grace, the god, is within us; I spent a tremendous amount of time looking outside • You wil...
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March 6, 2022
Note to self | lessons #1
• Serving an organisation, we are all a part of a continuum - not all ideas need to mature during our tenure • When stepping into a role newly created by the organisation, think about the cultural nuances it must set • Internally, design with a systems-view. And do it in such a way, that even you wont be able to over-ride it without a ...
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March 4, 2022
Qualities of a healer
• to hide the faults of man and the rest of creation- not only from others but even from themselves • to have compassion & forgiveness for even the worst of sins • love and gentleness • truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, devotion, generosity • justice, imposing the 'rights' and preventing the 'wrongs' • humility, staying awake-praying •...
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March 4, 2022
Poet feature | Amiri Baraka
Incident He came back and shot. He shot him. When he came back, he shot, and he fell, stumbling, past the shadow wood, down, shot, dying, dead, to full halt. At the bottom, bleeding, shot dead. He died then, there after the fall, the speeding bullet, tore his face and blood sprayed fine over the killer and the grey light. Pictures of t...
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March 4, 2022
My watchful friend
My watchful friend Witnesses my decay over the years. I was a blooming palace once - My limbs would echo of beautiful voices, laughter, and commanding steps By no less than kings and their young brides. I then started witnessing deaths: One by one and until the Mahatman died. Then all fell silent. My rooms are empty of life, record kee...
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March 4, 2022
Shikara ride to a book store
If you are by the Dal Lake in Srinagar, it is worth taking a shikhara ride at Nehru Park. Have them take you to Gulshan Books - for a read and a snack. The Dal Lake, Srinagar - Aug '21 We took an afternoon out at the Lake. In 7-minute ride took us to where the book store operates. The folks seem to have restored an old building- they r...
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One day I will steal you from your life for a week or ten days, Ring the bells of many doors and trams and buses, Reach within the realms of a shore or a city, And leave you warm and happy: Crazy with things we do, with gestures, and laughter and sudden jolts - For something for the pallet of the month, and some for the pallet of the h...
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March 4, 2022
Poems by Buddhist Women
Translated by Charles Hallisey I think it is important not to be lost in the reasons of the three important things, or the four noble truths, or seven times of such-and-such, or nine bows. It is important to recognise that material renunciation does not mechanically, or automatically, ascertain silence of the mind. That is a different ...
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March 4, 2022
Favourite sing along tracks
Here are some coke studio tracks I enjoy singing along... keeping up... with! Dana pe Dana (17) Daanah Pah Daanah | Akhtar Chanal Zahri & Komal Rizvi | Season 4 | Coke Studio Pakistan - YouTube Shikwa & Jawab e Shikwa (17) Coke Studio Season 11| Shikwa/Jawab-e-Shikwa| Natasha Baig, Fareed Ayaz & Abu Muhammad Qawwal - YouTube Balaghal u...
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March 4, 2022
Love in the marketplace
It doesn't plug the problem, It doesn't fill the space, It's no longer in demand, It's celebrations are damp, Love is no longer viable. You are on the phone a lot You are watching too much TV, That Ukrainian explosion seems like a scene from M:I, Their political boss jumps into the army suit, Someone in Bollywood must be thinking of a ...
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February 18, 2022
Sustainable development goals, and their real potential
A lot of us in the nonprofit strategy & communications have been kidding ourselves thinking that listing SDG Goals on our website and sticking the logo in our fundraising decks are going to get the job done. We're wrong about it. Totally. The UNDP produced sessions will tell you that there four key aspects of strategy, integration, opt...
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February 18, 2022
The science of well being
In December '21, I signed up for my first coursera topic: the science of well being from my hospital bed. Nothing major, but enough to help think about a few things. Prof Santos runs this remarkable course at Yale that gets you to think about what is really important. One lists cliches: money, power, fame, family, marriage, children, s...
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February 18, 2022
Endurance
When do you know, exactly, that those cracks are beautiful? Getting that crack is painful: a whip, a yelling, a heartbreak, a small band aid. But the scars feel beautiful if you don't carry the pain forward. Just keep it together. Glued, as one.
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February 17, 2022
Roark speaks
Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it’s made by one central idea, and the idea s...
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November 16, 2021
Rumi | emptiness
Emptiness Does anyone write something on a place that has already been written over, or plant a sapling where one already grows? No; he seeks a blank piece of paper and sows the seed where none has yet been sown. Sister, be bare earth; be a clean piece of paper untouched by writing, that you may be ennobled by the pen of revelation*, s...
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November 16, 2021
Rumi | you are an eye
You are an eye Since you have perceived the dust of forms, perceive the wind that moves them; since you have perceived the form, perceive the ocean of Creative Energy. Come, perceive it, for in you insight is all that matters; the rest is just fat and flesh, weft and warp of bones and muscle. Your fat never increased the light in candl...
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November 3, 2021
A note to Sajid
My entry in Sajid's notebook
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November 3, 2021
Poem | Tonight I can write the saddest lines
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. Pablo Neruda Write, for example,'The night is shattered and the blue stars shiver in the distance.' The night wind revolves in the sky and sings. Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. Through nights like this one I held her in my arms I kissed her agai...
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November 3, 2021
Poem | The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Lake Isle of Innisfree W B Yeats I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the mo...
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October 31, 2021
Poem | a poem is a city
a poem is a city by Charles Bukowski a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen, filled with banality and booze, filled with rain and thunder and periods of drought, a poem is a city at war, a poem is a city burning, a poem is a city under guns its barbershops filled with cynical drunks,...
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