Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include:
- Blogs of the month
- Book recommendations
- What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
- Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
- My writing journey/ my book updates
Here’s September’s “Monthly Wrap!”
Blogs I wrote this month:
Book Recommendations:
This month I could read only 2 books:
- The Fifth Agreement by Don Miguel Ruiz is a good book, unlike how it is popularized. It basically tries to convey Advaita as the deepest insight, but in very simple terms and hence feels too surface level.
- 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari is a decent book. Like his other books, Sapiens and Homodeus, this book is also very thought-provoking, but sometimes I feel, he veers his opinion a little too scattered in this book. And he has to study and try to understand the history of Bharath, Sanathana Dharma, before he speaks of it, compares it to something, or leaves it out of context and declares something is the only great thing. How is comparing Vedas to the bible or Quran even rational? And who said Hindutva is a religion to compare it with other cults? Hindutva existed before there were any religions. He knows about the varna system. But fails to understand this simple concept. He accepts the effects vipassana meditation had on him, but I fail to understand why he attributes that to Buddhism.
What I curated:
Movies:
- HIT:The first case
- Cuttputti
- Cadaver
- Flubber
- Heaven
- Pinnochio 2022 (Hats off to PIXAR!)
- The one and only Ivan (must watch for animal lovers)
- The Lost City
Series:
- Big hero 6
- Cars on the road
Apps used this month
- Ayurrythm – I didn’t like it. It claims it can assess our body archetype, to put in precise words, it claims to report our predominant doshas and gunas. But it did not do well for me. My observation and even as per my doctor’s observation, my body is predominantly vata type. However, the app concluded it to be ‘kalpha’. Uninstalled the app immediately after that. But I really like the idea of an app based on ayurveda and tracking our health based on it. That’s why I installed that app in the first place. But right now, it needs a lot of work.
2. Wonder – An AI app that can create images based on the keywords you give to it. Same as the starryai app I mentioned in the last month’s monthly wrap. This is good, you have more options to choose from. Many variations from abstract painting type to photorealism.
3. Fi – Basically, a digital bank. You don’t have to worry about its authenticity, when you make an account, you’re actually making an account in the Federal bank. And the founder is non other than, the founder of Tez ( now known as Google Pay). I’ve made an account, have set an auto-save fund too. It has great UI, unique looking debit card, great service as of now.
Reminders & reflections to ponder:
- Courage is the power to exercise freedom
- The difference between learning a skill and an art is that while the former has a definite time period (point A to point B), whereas the latter is an infinite journey!
- Personal Mastery or you can say Life in general is like gardening. It’s never done. You must keep weeding, watering, etc.
- If Y needs X, that does not mean Y is all about X. Ex: We need money to lead a happy life. But happy life is not about money. The same goes for intelligence and music. Intelligence is required to make music, but music is not about that.
- The difference between a multi-talented and a polymath is the work. A polymath has tangible works whereas just a multi-talented, does not have much to inspire after he’s gone.
- If you see someone as a leader, follow his path, and his principles. If not, be one. Most people do neither. They just criticize everyone who walks by.
- Wherever and whenever there is power, there is a power play, i.e, politics
- When there’s truth on both sides, you have to pause and deeply reflect on the issue at hand until you reach a righteous conclusion, and that helps you avoid confirmation bias.
- You can either say “no choice” because you chose not to make a choice someday or you can say “no choice” because you chose it someday, the choice is yours
Thank You,
Yours Loving,
Sanath Kumar Naibhi
