You reap what you sow

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 5/15/2013 2:19:00 AM

'One of the best things about living in my hostel is this - there is a supermarket that satisfies most of the urgent needs of a student. They even stocked up on my favourite cereal and my loyalty has been set in stone, since. Another part I admire about the store is how a group of middle aged women run it. In the first two years of university, there used to be a very friendly Aunty who even knew most of her customers on a first name basis. I came back to live in the same hostel (...)'

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How Google became my grandmother

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 5/10/2013 4:51:00 PM

'I was talking to a retail entrepreneur about her journey in the industry so far. She spoke of her inspiration, her interests, and her dreams for the retail experience in the future. As we were going through different perspectives on our common interests, she brought up the idea of how help is so much closer to our reach than ever before in history.She spoke of simpler times when one had to go look up encyclopedias to understand a concept. She spoke of the labour went into gaining kn(...)'

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Humans, first

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 5/7/2013 2:01:00 PM

'I just read a local controversial article and as much as the gossiper in me wants to highlight it, the context is unnecessary. So I won't bring the issue up. What I do want to bring up is that we are humans first. People tend to forget the fact that pain is pain and blood is blood. Issues like rape and sexual assault are the same everywhere. Whoever does it to whoever else. Wherever it happens. Whenever. Life is life. It is so easy to get caught in a nationalist,(...)'

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Window AC, soan papdi, and motte maadi

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 5/4/2013 3:08:00 PM

'It's countdown time in my world. I am down to the last few exams and presentations. Also that means time at home is coming soon and I can't help but make long lists of places to visit, projects to work on, people to meet, food to eat, and things to do.I have been curating my list and just in time, a close friend sent this video. I don't care so much for the romance that goes on as much as for the things they do! It brought back memories of weekends with friends and family doing what(...)'

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Actions vs. Consequences

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 4/24/2013 3:02:00 AM

'(Source)This HBR article struck a chord. And also because I have been preparing for an ethics module these past few days, I get multiple opportunities to see actions and consequences in different light.How many times do we think only about our actions and not about our consequences? The HBR article tackles just one focused case of actions vs. consequences - 'How do say sorry keeping in mind that the person was affected by the consequences of your action, and not the action itself?'.(...)'

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Last class as an undergraduate

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 4/17/2013 5:13:00 PM

'Minutes ago, I walked out of my last ever class as an undergraduate. I have dreamt of this moment over and over again these past few years. The moment when it would actually come to an end. I have thought about my exact feelings, what I would wear, what I would think, what I would say, and to whom.And never in all those mid-day dreams, did I feel the feeling in my tummy right now. The painful, shallow, wide, and weird feeling in my tummy could be called anxiety; about the future and(...)'

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Givers, Takers, and Matchers

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 4/14/2013 12:48:00 PM

'It was yet another dose of Maria Popova's lovely weekly pickings. This week what stood out, was her understanding of Adam Grant's Give And Take. My amalgamated understanding of the same is the crux of this blog post.Part - ITakers: They take more than they give. They believe that the world is purely competitive, and they strive to beat everyone else in the race. They look out for themselves and put them selves ahead of anyone else. A taker strategically helps people - when he/she kn(...)'

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Mind wandering causes unhappiness?

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 4/3/2013 1:39:00 AM

'I have been under an extreme time crunch these past few days - all in an concerted effort to produce a good thesis. My productivity has been higher than typical days, driven by my deadlines. And the pressure to perform these past 1-2 weeks, has kept me very aware of my mindfulness. I was able to catch myself drifting away from the work and thinking of unimportant, irrelevant thoughts. And like Killingsworth says above, more often unpleasant than pleasant things. This was a heav(...)'

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Just be, just me

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 3/22/2013 10:44:00 AM

'I'll be just meJustMeUsually,Sambhar loverAmbitious dreamerRighteous principle-erThinline doodlerCatch phraserColour shopperPattern makerDream catcherLoud blabberRecently,Indie junkyHarem funkyControl monkySo I'll just beJust me'

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A Good Helping of Nostalgia

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 3/4/2013 11:39:00 AM

'Little things that don't seem to matter today, somehow become the milestones of tomorrow. I don't remember any memory markers fixing themselves inside my head when I had curd rice and curry for lunch, at home. I don't even remember telling myself "This is heaven, you will probably find this hard to chance upon in future", whenever I had yummy food.Just yesterday, I was recollecting to my friends about how it had been ages since I ate with my hands. There is an old saying my gra(...)'

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It can't be a collection of whatevers

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 2/17/2013 8:02:00 AM

'If you're a regular here, you know how much of a slave I am for sincere conversation. Me and two other girl friends were indulging in one, a couple of nights back. We spoke about our lives, our mothers, our dreams, our lessons and our prejudices.The most important thing that stood out from that night for me, was this - Days can't be collections of whatevers. "For one who does not know to which harbour to sail to, every wind is unfavourable!" Of course we don't know if that is t(...)'

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Should we take a break from technology once in a while?

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 2/11/2013 5:49:00 AM

'I was with a bunch of friends earlier today morning, returning from a friend's (new) home. It's Chinese New Year in this part of the world, and almost everyone is taking off to spend time home, with family and friends. Shops are closed, buses are more empty, people are dressed in red, kids are happy to hold their parents hands on a monday morning, aunties are visiting their sweetheart temples, and families are meeting. Yet, people like us who are away from famili(...)'

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Burning bridges

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 2/3/2013 12:16:00 AM

'I had a very insightful conversation with older and wiser friends yesterday. It got me thinking about relationships and what we do in order to keep them.I have had a bad history of relationships in my childhood. I am not that kid who is still friends with her first standard class mate. People change, you change, things change. That said I think I learnt a valuable lesson of keeping relationships when I went through a major break up when I was 14. (Sounds extremely silly in retrospec(...)'

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#8 Designing a composition

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/31/2013 1:08:00 PM

'We move on to Elements of Composition from today!Writing a love letter is different from writing a casual essay, which is different from writing something organised. It is essential for the author to think of the shape of the writing before we begin. In this tiny paragraph, I have introduced the topic for the day, moved on to describing my point and then finished it off with an explanation/example.It is quite easy to get lost in the writing, as I have often felt in the middle. Howev(...)'

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#7 Participial phrase rule

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/29/2013 3:33:00 PM

'NotBeing the only son of the house, she won all of his family's love. InsteadBeing the only son of the house, his family's love was won by her. --I realize this mistake is something very common, when I think about it now. You will realize that something is wrong with the statement, but find it tough to point out the mistake. Today, there was gyan!'

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#6 Using period inappropriately

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/28/2013 2:21:00 PM

'Not -The beach was crowded with little kids. Playing with their kites. The marathon was a success. Seeing participation from people all over the country. Instead -The beach was crowded with little kids, playing with their kites. The marathon was a success, seeing participation from people all over the country. You can use it to stress on expression though.She moved into the darkness. Swiftly. '

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Mobius loop of self-perception and behaviour

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/27/2013 11:22:00 PM

'My favorite is the idea that people become what they do. This explanation of how people acquire attitudes and traits dates back to the philosopher Gilbert Ryle, but was formalized by the social psychologist Daryl Bem in his self-perception theory. People draw inferences about who they are, Bem suggested, by observing their own behavior.Self-perception theory turns common wisdom on its head. … Hundreds of experiments have confirmed the theory and shown when this self-inference proces(...)'

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A Woman of Substance

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/27/2013 9:57:00 AM

'I love stories of strong-willed women. It gives me the hope that I can indeed leave a mark on earth. This movie is about a young yorkshire kitchen maid, Emma Harte, in the late 1890s creating her fortune and building her business empire.The movie starts with her hard work as a maid and shows her using hatred as the feed for her success in life - hatred against the world, hatred that she was never a part of gentry. She transforms that into manure for her life. She yearns to become ri(...)'

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Mrs Dalloway

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/25/2013 7:29:00 AM

'A recent way of doing things has been recording them. Memories are rarely etched graphically forever. I realized how I had forgotten tiny details of a lot of things from the past, over time. I am not one of those people who remembers events to their minute details and speaks of them elaborately even after 10 years. And in retrospect it would have been nice to remember these things.I watch a lot of movies. Good ones. Bad ones. Tardy ones. Wanton ones. I have vowed to write reviews an(...)'

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Don't take the first NO

Author : Dhanya      Blog : endangereD      Date : 1/25/2013 4:37:00 AM

'Learnings come in simple little moments; like one subtle wisp of fragrance in your breath.I got a rejection from an institution yesterday. While the details of the story are not essential, what stuck was a wiser friend's words. 'Don't take the first No'. I have never been good at pushing my way through. I am a staunch believer in what I deserve.Lately, I have come to realize that, that belief can be blinding. While it is true that I will deserve what I do, it is important (...)'

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