Started Writing a Diary in 2018

Having heard from many people that maintaining a diary is a very effective habit, I too bought one and as a resolution started writing my daily happenings in it and WOOHOO! I was successful in doing that!

I did find this to be one good thing to do at the end of the day and here I share my experience.

How I made sure I didn't miss writing:

I just kept the diary and a pen next to my bed; this way I had no reason to not write it and go to sleep. Also keeping it under the pillow could help as it would hit you when you are about to hit off to sleep forgetting this. P.S. In all cases, make sure that nobody else reads it.

What I wrote: just recall whatever happened in the day and start writing (it can be as minute as trimming your beard).

• the places visited
• people I met
• what I talked about in conversations
• things that equipped my mind
• and anything of relevance to that day

I got lenient on not necessary writing very crafty sentences and in fact, some of my entries just mention the keywords separated by hyphens.

This way I was able to curb down a lot of time and thinking process but gave my best covering as many things as I could in details. And let's be honest - as long as I can understand what is written it is going well; nobody else is going to read it.

Problems Faced:

There are days when I was not able to write things like when travelling or other guilty times when this got slipped off my mind. The habit picked up well and after a while, it became something I would look forward to doing.

Pros:

In that sense, it did act as a new tool to try new experiences and increase productivity. Somewhere it has become a daily evaluation of effectiveness and it does feel bad at the end of the day when there are not many interesting things to write as compared to other days when one whole page falls short to write things down. It also has changed my view to be more positive towards everything and has helped in tracking the progress with tasks and goals. The most fascinating thing was to realize that are so many things happen throughout the time and I really would have missed if I hadn't started writing a diary!

Catching Dreams -  I do get some weird dreams and can only recall till the time I search for the brush. Now that I had a diary next to me - I could record them. This probably means nothing but like some of them are so weird that they are funny, I just wrote my weird dreams with no purpose.

Above all, it is quite an experience reading the entries sometimes in my free times and remembering some memorable days like I often read the days I spent in Kerala in summer this year,

Now that the year is coming to an end I want you to think of writing a diary and if you do, let me know how it goes! Happy Holidays!

Reasons to Watch Bohemian Rhapsody in the Theatre

Bohemian - a socially unconventional person, especially one who is involved in the arts

Rhapsody - An effusively enthusiastic or ecstatic expression of feeling/ (in ancient Greece) an epic poem, or part of a poem, of a suitable length for recitation at one time

          The much-awaited biographical movie about the legendary British rock band Queen released in theatres on the 16th of November in India. The biopic is getting an amazing response all over the world and has seen amazing performances by all the actors; especially Rami Malek (lead actor in the TV Series Mr. Robot) who plays the voice of Queen - Freddie Mercury; the movie is directed by Bryan Singer some of whose works include The Usual Suspects (1995), X-Men (2000), Superman Returns (2006).

So here are six reasons why you should leave no chance to watch this masterpiece...

1. The Journey of the Band

The entry of Freddie to the band, the troubles that they face, the things Freddie goes through in his family and personal life is captured really well to their days of glory!

FUN FACT : Freddie was born in Zanzibar to a Parsi family from Gujrat; he spent most of his childhood in India and was schooled at St. Peter's School in Panchgani where at an early he developed his interest in music.

Some intense scenes show the conflicts amongst the band and all of what culminates to the music that became an inspiration for many other bands and artists like David Bowie, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga (Gaga in Lady Gaga comes from the Queen song Radio Ga Ga), Kurt Cobain and many others.

A still from the song Bohemian Rhapsody

2. The movie gives a deeper meaning to the songs through the story

The soundtrack of the movie features some of the greatest hits of rock music of all time! What were the events that gave rise to epic songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, We Will Rock You, Love of My Life, We Are The Champions and Radio Ga Ga.
It really is an amazing experience to hear all those evergreen hits that shaped cultures, people and eventually the music that we listen to now. The songs in the film have been recreated very well giving as a much closer resemblance to the original ones- be it their live performances and concerts or the official music videos.
A YouTube video where a guy compares their Live AID 1985 concert as shown in the movie.

Real vs Reel

3. The movie is inspiring in many ways

Have taken two mind-blowing dialogues from IMDB that are so effective in the movie.

John Reid: So, tell me. What makes Queen any different from all of the other wannabe rockstars I meet?

Freddie Mercury: Tell you what it is, Mr. Reid. Now we're four misfits who don't belong together, we're playing for the other misfits. They're the outcasts, right at the back of the room. We're pretty sure they don't belong either. We belong to them.

Freddie Mercury: Let's go and punch a hole in the roof of Wembley Stadium.

Brian May: Actually, Wembley Stadium doesn't have a roof.

Freddie Mercury: Then we'll punch a hole in the sky.

The highs and lows in their journey and how experimenting their works, fighting with the record executives, the personal life of Freddie and how it turned out to be one of the greatest bands of all time!

4. You will start loving Rock Music

Personally, I had listened to all of the popular Queen songs before watching the movie but after watching the movie I just cannot take off their songs out of my head. They surely find a place in my forever favourites!
And not just rock music, the makers have shown very well how essential music is to this world, why it finds a place among everyone's hearts and how much it means to the people who create it. Kudos on that!

The band members, Brian May and John Deacon will become your favourite guitarists, Roger Taylor will become your favourite Drummer and Freddie Mercury will be the best showman you must have seen in your life!

From the song - Somebody to Love

5. The Live AID 1985 Concert at Wembley Stadium, London

One of the most iconic shows of the band lasting more than twenty minutes has been recreated in the movie and it is simply amazing! This is the ultimate point of the movie that is highly emotional and shows how much everyone enjoyed them when the band was at its peak! This performance just left me speechless!

6. Length of the movie is 133 minutes

This movie is indeed worth all of your time for all reasons! Do not leave till the end credits complete as Queen hits keep playing from the start to the end!

This is a gem of a cinema and trust me, it was an amazing experience watching it!

As I coincidentally publish this post on the 1st of December, World AIDS Day let us remember Freddie Mercury as AIDS was the disease that took him away from us...

Ending this post by quoting my favourite lyrics from their song It's a Kind of Magic- 

"It's a kind of magic

There can be only one
This rage that lasts a thousand years
Will soon be done
This flame that burns inside of me
I'm hearing secret harmonies
It's a kind of magic
The bell that rings inside your mind

Is challenging the doors of time

It's a kind of magic"

The Curious Case of the Handmade Bookmarks

One of the ways to make reading more meaningful is to have a bookmark. You will be switching many books after books but what stays with you all the time is the bookmark! I have been using one since December 2016 that I got from Swapbook Club Nagpur (link to their FB Group in case you are interested in attending their monthly meets - Swapbook Nagpur Club)

Here is how it looks-

October this year, I tweeted  this what you see in the picture below - (link to the thread)

Through Twitter, I got to know the people who made the bookmark and seeing this they said they will send me two more bookmarks!

This was awesome and gave me an idea that I can do the same!

Reading is a very effective habit and it really has helped me in many ways - here is an answer I wrote on Quora to the question - What are good ways to read more and how can I read more effectively?

One more reason that made me write this was that all the other DIY Bookmark videos on YouTube are either too fancy or they are extremely difficult to make for someone who's not good at crafts.

So given below is the way to make some simple bookmarks that you can gift to your friends and yourself :)

Things you will need- (Should be easy to find these at any stationery shop)

1. Thick Papers with Patterns (shown in the image below) this will be the base for the bookmark

2. A4 Size Coloured Pages (shown in the image below)

3. Glue Stick

4. Scissors

Thick A4 Paper

A4 Coloured Pages

Step 1: Cut the Thick Patterned Paper in sizes of the bookmark (12 x 4.5 cm). 

Step 2: Now take the A4 Coloured papers and cut them in lengths of 1.5 cm.

Step 3: The strips of A4 paper needs to be cut as shown in the image below -

Note: The length of the cut strip should be at least two times more than the breadth of the bookmark i.e. greater than 9 cm (4.5cm x 2).

Step 4: Apply the glue stick on the paper strip and paste the strip on the two ends of the bookmark.

If you keep all these you can have a few bookmarks altogether.

Here is how the final version looks.

As one side of the bookmark is plain you can go creative with something custom made for the person to whom you are going to give it to. I usually ask for the favourite quote of the person and write it on the back side of it.

Out of all the ones I have made I find this one to be the awesome-est...

In conversations, I got to know the person was reading Angels and Demons, I asked for her favourite quote and made an ambigram of it!

Happy Reading! and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU! (my fav quote)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Book) Review

Wallflower – A person who is socially awkward especially one who does not dance at a party due to shyness.

-Urban Dictionary

           

            The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the journey of an American teenage boy Charlie’s incidences over an academic year at his new high-school his dealings with his friends, girlfriends and family.

It is primarily about high-school relationships and the author has captured all the elements attached to it – alcohol, making-out, drugs and prom culture in the story. The books is in the form of letters that the protagonist writes to a stranger revealed (or not?) at the end of the book.

The story revolves around Charlie’s lovely family – Dad, Mom, a sister repeatedly changing her boyfriends and a brother who is in the navy and plays football for the country’s team. He meets the brother sister duo – Patrick and Sam and they become his close friends although both are senior to him. A girl Mary Elizabeth interested in Charlie and his first girlfriend.

Charlie the wallflower has an excessive habit of thinking a lot in his own mind and how that somehow makes him an awkward nerd in front of the rest of the people but he is not aware of it and that comes to him from others bit by bit. At the same time he is unable to read the clues when one signals him to leave them by saying – ‘Let’s do it later.’ On the other hand he would be the winner of “Best Friend” award as he would not let anyone down no matter what. He is the nicest guy on the planet.

The book has captured almost all the things a wallflower goes through like…

·         Thinking a lot about anything and everything all the time.

·         Finding it tough to deal with big social groups – often being made fun of and the point of laughter.

·         Charlie tries to please everyone – he’s good at academics and gets straight As in every test. His professor Bill keeps on giving him more and more assignments and books to read which he accepts willfully and once he crosses the line by being physically being intimate with a guy friend because he was feeling lonely. In short he never says – “NO”.

Verdict…

Unlike a Sherlock Murder mystery every line of this book is important as every minute happening holds a huge importance in the subsequent instances that unfold. Every character is unique and the story filled with details explodes at the end leaving one spellbound. Personally this has been one of the most engaging books that I have ever read as a certain mystery of what will happen next keeps you engrossed. One can say that it is a great young-adult book but I won’t disagree if someone were to call it a teenage boy’s trashy diary entries.

The book is a must read for anyone who feels is an introvert like for one who finds it difficult to deal in social situations, if one would rather be reading a book/ watch a movie than going for that friend’s birthday party – go and grab TPOBAW. But more importantly for an extrovert this book is a great guide to understanding the brain functioning of their opposites.

A few more points that troubled me …

·      I purchased the book with the cover of the movie which seems like there is a love triangle and one person gets sad while the other two move on living happily ever after, it certainly is not that way (I haven’t watched the movie though).

·      Most of the situations in the school is where the ones who would come to the prom are good which something tough to digest as for the bullies Charlie is an easy target and I don’t recall an incident where something bad has occurred to him (also the whole book is an exhaustive diary of a teenager) and not to mention this is all happening in America.

·      Charlie has had feelings for Sam ever since he saw her and has a sex dream and with almost zero hesitation he tells about the dream to her. No wallflower would do that. Period. Sam on the other hand she consoles Charlie and does not slap him (kinda feels like all the mature high-school kids are in the book).

·      At first it first feels like Charlie is the loneliest guy on the planet which paints a different picture altogether and the story did not stand true to what it has been advertised as.

·      A point I would personally not agree to would be – Charlie is not an emotionless guy and keeps crying often BUT in front of others… as in not hiding his emotions and feelings.

Would like to conclude this review by adding that TPOBAW is a book that has captured the perspectives of an introvert to a great extent. The book managed to keep me engaged and give me a lot of points and situations to ponder upon as I could relate to a lot of things.

Movie

PS – I also watched the movie that is also directed by the author of the book and is a great adaptation of it. The few points that seem incomplete or loopholes have been completely filled in the movie. If one is to watch the flick as a standalone part from the book it makes perfect sense and might as well shed a few tears L A few more extra elements added in the movie makes perfect that makes it worth a watch and it was indeed beautiful to see the incidences from the book coming alive in the cinema and the transformation of Charlie from the shy guy to holding up his hands in the class to answer a question has been captured beautifully!

Book and the movie manages to get a special place in my heart…

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Book Review

     I recently (February 2018) read this book by a New York based blogger and felt motivated to review it as I am shifting my readings towards non-fiction and writing a review on a non-fiction book is relatively easy and felt this to be a decent and easy book to start with. There goes my first book review!

The objective behind this review is to give you a complete summary highlighting all the key points and learnings (that I gained) in a crisp text so that you may not have to read the complete book as I know you are really busy with your life and reading this book is the last thing you would do in your life. However, please go ahead, it is a great book and my summary may not completly get the extract in the same way as that of the author and covers only the points that gained most of my attention while reading.

Mark Manson has done a really great job in the first place by giving a title that would attract anyone who is finding tough to deal with life/ fed up of their job or studies/ and one who thinks is in depression (everyone is in depression).

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life was released in 2016 and has created a lot of buzz getting listed in many non-fiction bestseller rankings. On the other hand, being a part of a few (two) local book communities this book had been a good point of discussion on the WhatsApp groups that I actively followed where the people who had read it praised and recommended everyone else to read it.

The book can be categorized as a self-help book but it is a lot different than typical self-help books that only talks on positive things, good stuff, and a fairy land where Cinderella meets her Prince Charming. Here the author has been very true, delivering his ideas in a vulgar language that actually keeps you gripped to the book covering a wide range of topics on a broader sense and experiences from the life of author that makes the reading more relatable. Kudos.

The aim of the book is to make the reader clear his or her view on the things that are important and worth to invest time and the things that are just not important and not going to have any outcome (which btw occupies most of our thoughts IRL). For example it is useless to think of how your hair look and whether or not you should comb them, the way you dress or what people will think if you are wearing shorts to go for a movie. Truth is that – it is all in your own head, people are not free or have come out of their homes to judge you. Maybe it’s just you who is judging people for various reasons and think of it in the same role-reversal way. Stop doing that – it is only going to make matters worse for you. Live your own life. The next time such thoughts come to your mind just wave them off by thinking about the bigger tasks you have on your plate and not giving f*cks on them. Period. One point I would personally like to add is people are thinking of judgement from others because they keep judging others often. It is just like you think that way and in the same manner you are thinking others are also doing that.

A chapter that I like the most titled – “Happiness is a Problem”. It talks about the temporary pleasures we try to seek every now and then, the real happiness comes from problem solving. If you are thinking that a Thai spa with a happy ending, a chocolate lava cake or buying that over-priced underwear is going to help you solve all your problems of life then your definition of Happiness is wrong. True happiness comes from dealing with the issues that you are facing, doing the things that make you sweat and that troubles you, gives you pain and pain is a part of the whole process to achieve great things. Everything that comes across you is a problem and as part of a life advice that I have taken from the book is – find the problems that you want to deal with in your life. The problems that you would want to solve are the ones that are going to make your life.

On the other hand, whenever you level up yourself in any aspect of anything you create more problems for yourself so choose the problems that you would want to create for yourself wisely what has been termed as “Choose your Struggle”.

Another Chapter talks about Failure and its benefits, not going to describe much about this and leaving you with just one line by Edison blah blah blah … ‘I found a thousand other ways in which a light bulb would not work’. So keep failing and what you take away from your failures and mistakes is the most important part of the learning process.

Nobody is perfect (except Emma Watson).

The author has given many examples of great personalities like Richard Branson and High Hefner who are generally termed as bad boys in the common society but still they are billionaires and many people use their service worldwide *ahem, their autobiographies and books on them are best sellers and often are in the lists of influential personalities. What these men could do was find out a very sweet spot of their “Struggle” in their lives and became what they are and were (Hugh Hefner died recently).

They found out a thing on which they would work tirelessly with persistence. So to say you do not have to be a good gymnast to start an airlines or you do not have to know DTP software to start a magazine business featuring sexy models (but on a personal note – always be good as a person). Nobody is perfect (I am nobody) and you can find many examples of people doing extremely well in something and sucking at something else. Tiger Woods the well-known golf player is a goof when it comes to keeping relationships, many sports personnel suck at public speaking. Being good at something and sucking at the other is fine but make sure that you overshadow your strengths and try finding out the weaknesses and improve on those.

There is one segment where the author tells his experience traveling in 50+ countries and learning a lot from it. After college he was broke and was not having a job and so he went on to take a risk. He wanted to become an Internet entrepreneur and decided to quit his well-paying job as a 22 year old which might have some bad consequences if the venture fails. But he could always go back doing a job that he hates and he will be back to that with more experiences and a better version of himself. So experiences form a good part of our lives and taking risks by not just living in the typical circle of house-car-wife-kids is something worth a try. There is nothing to be afraid of and I bet your parents did not raise you to be a coward walking in a herd of sheep. Please do something good.

Verdict

All in all SAONGAF is a short, up to the point and meaningful book that is highly recommended. It made me think of the things that I am thinking and whether or not what I am thinking is worth to think for. The point Mark wants to make is clear – do not spend time on things that do not matter to you the most. It your thoughts that shape the most of you. Distribute your fucks in a good proportion to lead a healthy life.

You need to make the best out of things by concentrating your fucks on more important things.