Weekly Notes 04/2025

I have been in IITM/Chennai since Wednesday. It was a work-as-usual week, along with meeting folks related to the course I teach at IITM. I worked during the day and met folks during breaks. Evenings we went out for dinners. On the first day, we had incredible non-vegetarian food at Sorgam. On the second day, we went to The Moon and Sixpence, an Irish pub. It looks and feels very similar to Dublin in Bengaluru. Today, we had dinner at Soy Soi with good ramen and desserts. It was great spending time with friends after a long time. Usually, all my Chennai visits are hurried; I am back in Bengaluru.

• NMG grant this year is going to be 4.25 Lakhs. This amount excludes NMG-Edu. Thanks to friends, we have the biggest grant sum this year.
• Saturday, We went to deposit my post office PPF. The form you needed to fill out to deposit was entirely in Hindi, not trilingual or bilingual. But just Hindi. Even though I have studied Hindi, I can't read it well anymore. In 2024, I don't know why it is difficult for the post office to make it available in different languages so people can pick up the form in the language they understand. With all the tech and facilities available, if this isn't a Hindi imposition, then I don't know what is.
• We went to Backer & Charlie after our post office visit. I think Coffee was expensive. I need to make another visit to decide. Anju liked the food.
• I met friends (Sandeep and Sandeep) at De Fish Restaurant for a meal. It was a good, wholesome meal. During our conversation, a question arose: "Are you rich?". Now, it's a very loaded question. Since most people associate it with only money/finance, I thought we were all rich because we were in the top 5% of India, with our own houses, vehicles, families, stable income, etc. Even if you take Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we are in the top two (Esteem needs or Self-actualization) layers. Should we call ourselves Rich?
• I believe everything about us is shaped by Time (ಕಾಲ), Location (ಜಾಗ), and People (ಜನ). These are the three key variables in life. Every major event—good or bad—depends on how they influence (ಪ್ರಭಾವ) us and how we react (ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ) to it. I feel these variables are a matter of randomness and luck, but how we get influenced by it or react to it is not. You can't always change the circumstances (ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿ); sometimes, all you can do is wait(ತಾಳು), endure(ಸಹನೆ) the current weather, and keep working(ಕಾಯಕ). They will align again (ಕೂಡಿ ಬರುವುದು), and when they do, we should make the most. This is how I view the world currently.
• I learned Bangalore Shatabdi to Chennai stops at Cantonment station, but the Shatabdi to Mysore (Through Bangalore) doesn't stop at Cantonment. So I should remember to book the correct Shatabdi.