घड़ी घड़ी गुस्से में बोल दिया करते थे
की रिश्ता तोड़ देंगे,
जब एक दिन वो छोड़ कर चली गयी
तब समझ में आया की टूटना होता क्या है|
Flashback Friday #7 – A Poem for My Grandma
~~~
In the special corner of my heart
My Grandma you reside,
And you will always live there
Till my heart beats beside;
The blanket of your love
I feel blessed to grew up under,
Reason my childhood memories are so beautiful
Because you are the part of them I ponder;
Even though you lost your father
At such an early age of two,
But you still learned all the family values
And ingrained them in me too;
Grandma, I am yet to find
A calm, sensible and learned person as you are,
If I manage to inculcate just a bit of you
In life I would go really far;
You are so modern for your age
And understand the generation gaps so well,
Makes me wonder are you really that old
Or it’s just your wrinkled skin and gray hair create an illusionary tale;
I remember when every adult used to scold us kids
For making ruckus in the house and noise,
“Adults forget they used to do the same themselves”
You always whispered softly never once raising your voice;
When my school notes used to go missing as usual
Grandma, you were my friend in crime,
Helped me secretly in preparing my notes again
Always saved me from mommy’s time;
I loved my summer vacations more
Just because I could spend more time with you,
For learning, drawing, reading, writing
And sometimes flying kites too;
Listening invaluable life’s lessons
While sleeping in your lap,
I have learned so much from you
I can’t ever repay or even keep a tab;
Like, money is surely important in life
And one must earn in abundance,
But never take wrong short cuts for it
Just believe in your skills and keep your patience;
Like, this world is full of different characters
Everyone in their own way right,
Don’t burn yourself trying to keep everyone happy
Let some weird ones go and keep your close knit tight;
Grandma, can’t imagine my life without you
I feel dreaded to even think about anything wrong,
But I am sure your blessings will always shine on me
And in my smallest of success you will always sing your melodious song;
And I say again, in the special corner of my heart
My Grandma you reside,
And you will always live there
Till my heart beats beside;
~~~
Friendship Lost #4
i dial her number
and cancel before the bell rings
who knows
if she is doing the same
Friendship Lost #3
a great friendship lost
with some unsaid words
left both wondering
how we drifted away so far
Friendship Lost #2
a great friendship lost
and what remains is
few unsaid words
long silence
and
fading beautiful memories
Friendship Lost #1
a great friendship lost
and the reason knows
neither she
nor I
12 Books I will read in 2017
First the list of books I read in 2016:
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel
- The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason
- The Expectant Father by Armin A. Brott and Jennifer Ash
- To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (again)
- Four hour work week by Tim Ferriss (again)
- Four hour body by Tim Ferriss (again)
Though my goal was to read 15 books in 2016, I missed my goal for two reasons:
First, my baby boy -Kiaan- arrived in this world, and for all the good reasons my entire attention shifted towards him. Second, I listened to lots and lots of podcasts in 2016, mostly from The Tim Ferriss Show.
Now, in 2017 my goal is to read at least 12 out of 16 books listed below (in no order):
- Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina (1/3 – 1/12)
- The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
- How to have a Beautiful Mind by Edward de Bono
- Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill
- How to Read a book by Mortimer Adler
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (2/15 – 3/4)
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (1/3 – 2/14)
- Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner (3/5)
- Day to Day Economics by Satish Y. Deodhar
- If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Scott
Happy reading!
Only true friends would do this…
After making a mistake of coming back to US alone without Isha and Kiaan, I was sitting alone in my living room, three pints down, feeling lonely, missing my family… when Tyagi called.
“Dude, you back?”
“Yup.”
“What doing?”
“Getting bored, alone.”
“Why?”
“Isha and Kiaan will join after 3 weeks”
“Come over here.”
“What will we do there?”
“True, it’s kinda suburb. I should come over there then.”
“Cool, here we can have fun in NYC.”
“Hmm, let me check flights.”
“Awesome, but check with your wife and kids first.”
After few minutes…
“Okay, I am booking fights tickets for tomorrow.”
“Wow!”
“Will come back to family by 31st noon.”
“Awesome, man! Send me flight details, I’ll pick you up.”
“Sure. See you tomorrow, bro!”
“Whoa!!”
I picked him up from Newark airport on 28th Dec 10 am and dropped him back on 31st Dec 10 am. And we had all the boyzzzz fun you can wildly imagine. wink! wink!
I don’t have lot many friends but I am proud of the ones I have. They are not just for namesake. They actually care. And this is what true friends do. Thanks Tyagi for being one of them!
My 2017 goals
Happy New Year 2017!
In 2017, I want to focus on the same 7 things I focused in 2016 (list mentioned below). But this year I want to keep my goals measurable in order to track the progress more accurately.
- Improve knowledge on asset & wealth management, digital and product management
- Write daily – fiction story or blog post or private journal
- Read book or listen podcast daily (alternate: watch meaningful movie)
- Exercise 4 times a week – yoga, crossfit, running
- Practice gratitude and visualization daily
- Spent more quality time with Kiaan, Isha, family and friends
- Simplify life / Declutter
~~List of my 2017 Goals~~
Career Goal:
- Complete DMCA training (Jan 2017)
- Complete Digital 101 training (Feb 2017)
- Complete AWM training (Feb and Mar 2017)
- Publish Robo whitepaper (Mar 2017)
- Complete product management book (Sep 2017)
Writing Goal:
- Write 24 blog posts and/or short stories in a year
Reading Goal:
Health Goal:
- Reduce 10 kilograms weight in a year
- Run 365 miles in a year
- Drink 6 glasses of water daily
Gratitude Goal:
- Practice gratitude every morning
- Practice gratitude and visualization before bed at night
Family Goal:
- One vacation with Isha and Kiaan
- Complete Kiaan’s scarpbook
- Read books to Kiaan 3 times a week
- Play structured games with Kiaan 3 times a week
- Photo session with Kiaan at least once every month
Simplify life / Declutter goal:
- Structure all the digital documents and pictures scattered across various locations into hard drive and dropbox
- Delete all the unwanted digital documents
- Same with physical documents
- Maintain the new file structure
- Let go off people who don’t care
5 best things happened to me in 2016
1. Moved back to US: I left US in 2013 to pursue MBA from IIMA with a strong sense to come back and settle down in US for few good years. I am fortunate to move back to States in early 2016 with a much better role and job opportunity.
2. Isha gifted Kiaan to me: This is the best thing that happened in my life for which the year 2016 will always be memorable. My baby boy – Kiaan – arrived in my life on 28th of May 2016 and promoted me to fatherhood. I feel blessed.
3. Visited India to have Kiaan receive blessings from his great grandparents: I am so grateful to see my grandparents play with my son and shower their eternal blessings on him. I am immensely thankful to God for this.
4. Completed my 2016 writing goal: I feel accomplished to write 24 blog posts and 2 short stories (6000 words each) in year 2016.
5. Completed (to a good extent) my 2016 exercise and healthy diet goal: Though I missed my weight loss with few kilograms (that too because I went to India for a month and as you must know mom’s food and dieting don’t coexist), but I am satisfied with my dedication and my results. I ran 3 days a week and followed a strict low-carb-high-protein diet straight for 4 months. I lost 7 kilograms (my target was 11).
Happy 2017!
