It has long been told that people’s actions/reactions are influenced by subliminal thoughts. I wanted to test this, so came up with a simple experiment. My hypothesis is that if you ask people a weird question, the response would reflect their current state of mind. So, I asked a goofy question to my colleagues and got some funny answers… Though I can never tell exactly what was going on in their mind at that time, I am leaving it to you to ponder…. :)

THE BIG QUESTION:
What would you get if you mix Sodium Thiosulphate with Barium Nitrate???

AG: Bada sa Explosion!
DC: Electric Shock!
DP: a lot of GAS
HJ: Kuch bhi nahi hoga
PA: Barium Thiosulphate and Sodium Nitrate??
Now I am having fun speculating their state of mind… are you???

Suddenly I realized that I have a tremendous reading backlog. I used to be a voracious reader, at least in the school days. I remember going through books like a hot knife through butter. Clocking speeds close to 40 to 50 pages per hours (Yes, I was weird; I used to measure my reading speed). Most of you might say that’s not impressive enough. But that is not the point. Looking back, I was counting how many books that I have read outside the academia; and the number turns out to be very very low. Even if I had spent half an hour each day reading books, I should have been able to go through 40/2 pages X 365 days X 10 years = 73000 Pages. Assuming 250 pages per book, I should have read nearly about 300 books by now. To clear this backlog, let’s say in the next 10 years, I have to read close to 2 books per month. And I am really trying hard. I have already reduced my TV time by more than half, and I make it a point to carry some book wherever I go.

Books that I recently finished (From Jan):
कृष्णविवर
निसर्गाचे गणित
Freakonomics
Ignited Minds
The turtle and the Stars
Animal Farm
Turning Point
Currently Reading:
The nine numbers of the cosmos
Tipping Point
Next in line
Ecological Intelligence
Surely, you’re joking, Mr. Feynman!
Revenge of the Gaia

So, here is a new look for my Blog. Though there is no new content. J has been pushing me to write something, but havent really done anything...

Multiplexing would be an understatement to what I have been doing lately. I was juggling to keep up with the dynamic changes happening professionally, while not losing a track of family affairs. But as we all know, it gets unmanageable beyond a point.

Thought of approaching my superboss, who in past, has been a great mentor to me. What he told me, is what exactly I wanted to know.

“Try to categories tasks in front of you in two categories. 1. Urgent 2. Important
Always do Important thing first, even if it means you have to let go the urgent thing. Most people know this rule; however, they don’t know what is urgent and what is important. If you can sort it out, you are done!”