ಜೀವನದ ಒಂಬತ್ತು ಸೂತ್ರಗಳು
Subject written in Kannada roughly translates to: "9 tips to make your life more comfortable" or "9 tips for contentment"
All,
My name is Ritesh and I am from Bangalore, India. I am engineer by profession and I'm currently pursuing my dream of starting a software product startup. In my spare time, I read as much as time permits, play the guitar, take nature walks, and enjoy birdwatching. I also dabble a bit in photography and video making. I am a big fan of satire and dark comedy, and I'm writing some material to present at a comedy club.
After graduation, I found myself in an IT job and married my long time sweetheart Prateeksha. Both Prateeksha and I are rationalists and realists, and live in a crazy country called India. Having being born in an era where we had access to cable television, western media and the internet, our values are a mixture of Indian conservatism and western liberalism, and we started realizing very early on our differences in culture, living standards, and expectations from life.
We both decided to follow some rules to make our lives more comfortable and I thought it was best to share these ideas with the listserve crowd.
1. Do what you love and be the best at it. No recession or economic downturn can affect your earning prospects.
2. Pick up a hobby. Learn to play an instrument, pick up photography or just watch nature. It will give you peace of mind and will also keep you occupied.
3. Stay very close to your workplace. It might be more expensive, but the time saved is priceless, and it gives you more time with your partner and for your hobbies.
4. Buy a really comfortable bed - you sleep for almost a third of your life, why compromise on comfort?
5. Whatever tools and technologies your work requires, buy the best the money can buy. If you are a professional guitarist, buy the best guitar money can buy. If you use computers, buy the latest greatest thing. Better tools improve productivity and reduce frustration.
6. Eat healthy and eat at the appropriate times of the day. Don't skip meals. During my post grad days, I neglected eating and sleeping at the right times and paid a terrible price for it.
7. TRAVEL - that's all there's to it in life. Experience everything life, culture and nature has to offer. Take at least 2 vacations a year. Need not be exotic but you should make a habit of it. Be aggressive about it.
8. Socialize - make new friends, speak to old ones and build long relationships. Travel with friends. Visit every wedding, get together and birthday party. Don't expect anything from anyone but play your part. Remember that your family and friends are you support structure in your time of need.
9. Find a partner who you can relate to. A person I knew told me, "you can probably have sex 30 mins in a day, the rest of the time, you need to talk". Make sure you find a companion with who you can talk for hours.
That's it. I followed these simple rules and have found great joy and contentment in life. Every decision I take in my life, I assess the impact on these factors and I immediately find the answers I am looking for.
If you have things that you want to add to this list, I would love to hear about it. Write to me and I shall collate all of them and put it out there (with the appropriate credits). Lastly, try Indian food. While the western world was urbanizing, mechanizing and growing their economies, we Indians were innovating on food. Ask an Indian friend for suggestions (should be easy to find one, there are more than a billion of us).
Live long and prosper.
Ritesh M Nayak
riteshm[AT]outlook.com
Bangalore, India
All,
My name is Ritesh and I am from Bangalore, India. I am engineer by profession and I'm currently pursuing my dream of starting a software product startup. In my spare time, I read as much as time permits, play the guitar, take nature walks, and enjoy birdwatching. I also dabble a bit in photography and video making. I am a big fan of satire and dark comedy, and I'm writing some material to present at a comedy club.
After graduation, I found myself in an IT job and married my long time sweetheart Prateeksha. Both Prateeksha and I are rationalists and realists, and live in a crazy country called India. Having being born in an era where we had access to cable television, western media and the internet, our values are a mixture of Indian conservatism and western liberalism, and we started realizing very early on our differences in culture, living standards, and expectations from life.
We both decided to follow some rules to make our lives more comfortable and I thought it was best to share these ideas with the listserve crowd.
1. Do what you love and be the best at it. No recession or economic downturn can affect your earning prospects.
2. Pick up a hobby. Learn to play an instrument, pick up photography or just watch nature. It will give you peace of mind and will also keep you occupied.
3. Stay very close to your workplace. It might be more expensive, but the time saved is priceless, and it gives you more time with your partner and for your hobbies.
4. Buy a really comfortable bed - you sleep for almost a third of your life, why compromise on comfort?
5. Whatever tools and technologies your work requires, buy the best the money can buy. If you are a professional guitarist, buy the best guitar money can buy. If you use computers, buy the latest greatest thing. Better tools improve productivity and reduce frustration.
6. Eat healthy and eat at the appropriate times of the day. Don't skip meals. During my post grad days, I neglected eating and sleeping at the right times and paid a terrible price for it.
7. TRAVEL - that's all there's to it in life. Experience everything life, culture and nature has to offer. Take at least 2 vacations a year. Need not be exotic but you should make a habit of it. Be aggressive about it.
8. Socialize - make new friends, speak to old ones and build long relationships. Travel with friends. Visit every wedding, get together and birthday party. Don't expect anything from anyone but play your part. Remember that your family and friends are you support structure in your time of need.
9. Find a partner who you can relate to. A person I knew told me, "you can probably have sex 30 mins in a day, the rest of the time, you need to talk". Make sure you find a companion with who you can talk for hours.
That's it. I followed these simple rules and have found great joy and contentment in life. Every decision I take in my life, I assess the impact on these factors and I immediately find the answers I am looking for.
If you have things that you want to add to this list, I would love to hear about it. Write to me and I shall collate all of them and put it out there (with the appropriate credits). Lastly, try Indian food. While the western world was urbanizing, mechanizing and growing their economies, we Indians were innovating on food. Ask an Indian friend for suggestions (should be easy to find one, there are more than a billion of us).
Live long and prosper.
Ritesh M Nayak
riteshm[AT]outlook.com
Bangalore, India
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