Direction

Four more days before I add to the unemployed pool.

The last 3 weeks have been very good.

I’ve been spending time on figuring things out and am pretty pleased with what I’ve figured out. Very importantly, was able to realize that certain things weren’t for me. Also, been able to figure out few things that I certainly would want in life.

I would say, the map is almost 3/4th done. There are missing links, those can be figured out, by trial and error.

A few key updates

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Inspiration

Inspiration shapes us all.

Here is a list of people, movies, books, things and events that have inspired me in the past (and continue to). It’s a growing list, I will come back and add more to it.

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What do you want to do in life?

What are the various things you would love to do in life?

You only have one life! Why not create a bucket list and start working on accomplishing it right away?

Here’s my list.

Leave a comment with a link to yours.

Help Zainab raise funds for Sparrow

Zainab is raising funds for Sparrow (and is selling a few items listed further below for the purpose).

Am deeply touched by her gesture of selling personal items to raise funds for a cause! Please help her raise the funds!

She intends to raise about 25000 INR (the mail below indicates 10k, but she raised the bar to 25K) and is around halfway there already. Am posting her mail here. You can contact her directly on bawazainab79 AT gmail.com.

Dear all,

SPARROW is a unique archive which hosts women’s histories. It is based in Mumbai. SPARROW was founded by C S Lakshmi, the famous fiction writer. For more details, visit http://www.sparrowonline.org/

I am currently raising money for SPARROW. I have a commitment of Rs. 10,000 to fulfill before the end of February. In order to raise part, all or more than Rs. 10,000, I have decided to sell some of the things I have. I am doing the sale mainly because my own scholarship money has not been released and will not be until March. Else, I would have parted with my scholarship money to make the donation to SPARROW.

I am putting up the following things on sale. Everything is in perfectly good working condition. You can feel free to check the items that interest you by visiting us and confirming it for yourself. The following are the things:

1). Electronic Treadmill – Rs. 15,000 (withdrawn)

2). MP3 player – Rs. 700 - Sold

3). Cycle Helmet – Rs. 300 - Sold

4). Digital Camera – Rs. 3,500 It is a Nikon Coolpix 3700 with 2 lithium batteries, 512 MB and 16 MB SD cards, charger, USB cable and TV-video USB. http://ur1.ca/2pw94 It has excellent audio and video facilities. The dictaphone is absolutely superb!

5). Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard – Rs. 1,800

6). Waist belt water bottle – Rs. 400 - Sold

7). Rohinton Mistry’s “Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firosha Baag” – Rs. 350

8). Amitav Ghosh’s “The Calcutta Chromosome” – Rs. 150

9). Michel Foucault’s “The History of Sexuality” – Volume 1 – Rs. 250

10). Joe Studwell’s “Asian Godfathers – Money and Power in Hong Kong and South East Asia” – Rs. 700

11). Salman Rushdie’s “A Step Across This Line” – Collected Non-fiction- Rs. 300

12). Jon Krakauer’s “Into the Wild” – Rs. 250

13). Pinki Virani’s “Once was a Bombay” – Rs. 200

14). Vikram Kapadia’s “Black with Equal” – Rs. 65

15). Italio Calvino’s “The Road to San Giovanni” – Rs. 200

16). Conical bamboo lampshade woven by basket weavers from the North East – Rs. 500

17). Football – Rs. 350

There might be other things up for sale too. I will keep updating this list as and when.

Cheers,
Zainab

Thumbs up/down in November

For November, my thumbs-up list.

Photography / travel:

1. Tour of Nilgiris
2. Moisture wicking Kalenji Tee’s from Decathlon
3. A cheap white umbrella and a black background for your own studio shots
4. Air Asia free international tickets (deal is now over, but keep a watch on their site)
5. Special magazine subscription offer, courtesy TFN, for Outlook Traveller for one year.  Details here.

Books:

1. Hotshoe Diaries by Joe McNally
2. Ebook on lighting by Mitchell Kanashkevich

Movies:

1. Postmen in the mountains (Chinese)
2. Pancharangi (Kannada)

Personal finance:

1. Rohit Chauhan’s blog (been following his blog for more than 5 years and love his thoughts)
2. Rohit’s announcement of a paid service

My thumbs-down list

Photography / travel:

1. Cancellation of my SriLanka trip due to lack of leaves (and clash with TFN plans)
2. Sri Lankan national parks entry fee (25USD mostly, while for locals its free)

Books:

1. Pricing of used books at places like Bookworm and Blossoms (Bangalore). When new books are available at 80%, these guys price books at 60%+