Feb’26

A few days already since end of Feb but here goes..! As the summer started to set in, and leaves began to wither and fall, there were still others which were in bloom this season, like the Tabebuia roses or the pink trumpet trees which lines many a roads here! Even the Nile tulip trees were in full blossom, and several others. 

Coming to the reading i had started in Jan, it continued in Feb - Sampath, Revolutionaries, and 1-2-3 were done! There were several other readings that i have added in the list - one of which is called “Freedoms Forge” by Arthur Herman, and the other more of a self-help book called “Unposted letter” by Mahatria Ra on practical ways to manage one’s life. Have several others waiting, like Bose or Gandhi, Waiting for Shiva, Genome, The end of an era, and so on…so many on the reading list this year and hoping if i take some time out daily, i can read these gems.

I am also contemplating reading more on economics more as a subject, this great book by Hubbard and O’Brien seems like a good one to get more into the nitty-gritty of macroeconomics. Apart, work picked up more steam, several more activities/projects are ongoing and planned keeping this year full of activities. We also had several exciting team events which makes our workplace interesting and fun at the same time! Several events and get-togethers - both at work and with friends/alumni from college/iim - made the month more tolerable :) 

I did manage to take out and dust my guitar :) it had been ages since i got it out. Had some re tuning to do. The online apps really help now, earlier i used to rely on devices for tuning, now i can just do these with an app/online. With that done, tried out a few of my fav’s to know if i still remember! My finger tips were hurting, which meant i was doing fine! Once the finger tips harden after repeated playing, it does not feel so hard. Anyway there are many other songs to learn on it - but i am not able to get my head around how to record them and master them, Earlier used to maintain a book of songs (the guitar teacher insisted it!) - maybe need to follow that mode again. Need to think more!

Ofcourse nothing these days end without talking about AI :) The classes i took from iisc now seems prehistoric, it was just two years ago! But a lot has changed now with generative AI and LLMs gaining so much momentum. I do have licenced versions of M365 and Copilot - it’s time to think of use-cases to make full use of them - for e2e workflow automations and the like. Agentic AI is something to explore further..thats the task for March!

Ciao. 

Jan’26

Considering the fact that i am finding it hard to get time to write here regularly, I decided to try some kind of monthly round-ups this year ! So here goes for the month of Jan…

The year and month began with lot of hope, promises and resolutions both professionally and personally! 

I would like to do more reading this year, so i have 4 books currently which i am actively reading. The first is “Mr Sampath: The printer of Malgudi” from RK Narayanan. It’s a book describing the life of one printer in a small town in India. The scenes are rustic/rural, and describes in great detail of the life and times of this printer, who well starts as a printer but goes on to produce movies (that’s where i am in the book currently!). Been a while since i read any RK Narayanan’s. 

The next book is called “The Revolutionaries” which is about India and its freedom fighters (the revolutionaries). When you read through it you realise how much of sacrifice has been made to get our freedom, and how little we know about them through mainstream history per se. It’s a great account of several of the most daring revolutionaries who showed a lot of courage to face the occupation of the British in India. So many characters come to life in this Sanjeev Sanyal’s book and it’s a very interesting read. Many of them are awe-inspiring and you start to realise the tremendous amount of human capacity that we all can have for a cause, but remain untapped. 

The third book is called “One, Two, Three..Infinity”, by George Gamow. It’s on the facts and speculations of science. At the onset it would feel like an easy science read on aspects of irrational numbers, space-time curvatures, microcosms and macroscosms - and it’s not such an easy read after all! It is deeeply riveting and so many ideas are packed into each chapter and made as much easy reading, (which is really difficult for such complex topics). It’s not a new book, but rather quite an old publication, but the ideas and logic never fades and it packs so much of them in those pages. I am still mid-way and my head is already reeling!

The last book is a re-read of the “Monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. I started to read it again in one of the holidays at the end of last year - and i once again liked the quiet strength it gives, I especially like those little nuggets of wisdom it packs, which makes you think more slowly and absorb life more deeply- and you start to question what really is meaningful to us in our limited time on earth. 

So those were on books- which i am glad i could start again in Jan.

Other than those, i still find it very meaningful to take long brisk walks in the mornings (especially if i am able to do it in parks or such). January gave me plenty of opportunities to do these - the little break in Jan at one of the resorts was a super place too! 

Then of course work was at the brim from mid Jan onwards with several new challenges and changes to deal with. We are still going through several transformations and looking forward to more interesting times ahead. There are tons of learning’s while we deal with the daily challenges. I did have two thoughts which i left my team with in the team meeting this month. The first was “What got you here, won’t get you there” and the second one, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got!” 

With those summing up my thoughts right now, calling it a day!