Category: Weekly Newsletter

After a jolly Sunday celebrating my friend Akhil’s birthday, the week had more unexpected meetups lined up to make up for the lonesome previous week.

The FountainHead

The week started with me grabbing a copy of The Fountainhead, a classic by Ayn Rand which tells the fictional journey about an innovative architect Howard Roark and his struggles to achieve success on his own terms. The book definitely improved my vocabulary a bit though I’ve read 3 chapters so far.

The World Environment Day Ride

The Hyderabad Randonnuers in association with the Telangana State Pollution Control Board conducted a programme which consisted of a Green rally by school students, a couple of other ceremonies and a cycle rally for which, I was a part of.

Since I don’t own a cycle (yet completed the Super Randonnuer series :D, thanks to Mr. Vijay) I borrowed one from HBC_Necklace Road and cycled to KBR Park where the initial meetup of the riders was held and custom cycling jerseys were distributed. We rode to the Pollution Board present in Sanathnagar. It was great to see Mr. Marri Laxman Reddy, owner of the MLRIT colleges present there. He happens to be a competitive triathlete even at the age of 74. The rally started from that point back to KBR Park and the riders dispersed from there since it was a working day. A total of 27Km for the morning 🙂

4 Meetups

The first meetup was with Vishu, my friend right from school days. He wanted to watch deadpool-2 but I convinced him and we went for BBC’s Blue Planet-2 which is a documentary depicting ocean life. [Fun Fact: The ethereal snailfish is deepest living fish so far discovered]. It’s exclusive only for the PVR Cinema audience and definitely recommended.

The second meetup was with Srikanth, one of my first friends since the start of college and has remained close ever since. We drove close to 40 kms to and fro from our college and caught up on things post our engineering exams.

The third meetup was another dear friend with whom I watched Mahanati, an unofficial biopic of the yesteryear actress Savitri garu. Another beautiful movie with a run time of 3 hours. Must watch!

The fourth meetup was this morning where few of my college friends decided to meetup at Necklace Road, Hyderabad. One of our friends, who recently shifted her hostel didn’t wake up on time, so we had fun tracking down her hostel from previous info and finally reached her. This was followed by some tasty butter dosa as breakfast.

Proteins

Along with The Fountainhead, another book I started reading was the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. It’s caption being An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman. A couple of things really blew my mind and I specially gave attention to the chapter “Running Faster and Farther”.

You can start with the sample chapter here, which itself has a ton of information and new insights and definitely a must read!!!!

One specific mention would be eating 30g of protein before 30 minutes of waking up, which helps in reducing the fat present in our body. I decided to give this a try not because I had too much of body fat but as a source for my pre-run nutrition.

After couple of iterations, I fixed upon this recipe:

10 almonds, 10 cashew, 1 mango, 1 banana, 5 walnuts, 5 drops of honey in bowl coupled with a glass of milk and 2 whole eggs.

Having this for the past four days has definitely kept me full till almost noon(though I do have my breakfast after my run).

This week also saw me purchasing my first Unived product which was RUNN Butter, a nutrition source in between your long runs. I also wanted their Post Run Nutrition but due to budget constraints had to stick to one. And thanks to their Global Running Day discount, I got a 25% on my first purchase 🙂

Articles, Audios and Videos of the Week

The first is a fun Ted talk by Joseph Annamkutty Jose, who is a popular RJ in his city.

I’ve been listening to bits of Tony Robbins on Soundcloud whenever possible. He dives into the psychology of motivation. Really uplifts me. You can start by watching his Ted Talk here.

Another worthy mention would be Rohan Kamnath’s answer. He is one of those unusual guys who makes it to Stanford though he is from a lesson know Tier 3/4 college.

Moving On

Firstly, a couple of exciting 3-4 blogposts lined up and a probable guest post, which is a first 🙂

Secondly, will be beginning to start a strength training regime to compliment the running preparation I’ve been doing for the marathon at the end of August.

And lastly, it has been more than 30 days since I started reading one page of the Daily Stoic every single day. Might be confirmation bias but I definitely seem to have a better macro level perspective day to day.

That’s all for now folks! If you liked this post, do hit a like button and subscribe to this blog(if you haven’t already :D) and also share this with your awesome friends. Until next time…

The week started with a little bit of regret over me not able to attend this year’s Mango Ride, annual cycling ride of Hyderabad Bicycling Club or Eloquence 2018, the annual division conference of Toastmasters in Hyderabad.  The first one was due to skin rashes which I was suffering since the 400 km Brevet in Dec’2017. And I couldn’t attend Eloquence for no reason whatsoever :/

The week before, my mom was requesting me to accompany her for a visit to Arunachalam. I kept postponing because I had other unimportantly important things to do. So on Monday, my mom gave an ultimatum resulting in me booking bus tickets for the travel.

The trip was for 3 days. I started writing about the travel and I realised it had already crossed 700 words. Maybe it’s worthy of a full length blogpost I guess, which I’ll be posting on Thursday under the Throwback Thursday category.

Coming back from the trip, I had a lazy Thursday.

On Friday I went for an easy run along with Gautam Pondi. Through the 12 km run, he gave me a lot of tips.

I’ll pin the two important ones here.

• Get a blood test done. Realise your deficiencies(mostly magnesium, B12, Vitamin D etc) and use supplements for them.
• Uphill and downhill running postures.

 

I had been procrastinating on a lot of things and the Cryptography course from Stanford University on Coursera is one of them. I finally started it with 6 hours of study so far. You can check out the syllabus here.

During the trip, Mom and I made a promise to ourselves to consume only plants, dairy and eggs(semi-vegetarian??). I also started my new journal this week. New pages kind of give me fresh enthusiasm for what’s lying ahead.

The week ended with me working on a changeover for my blog with some new ideas in the structure with this Weekly Newsletter being one of them.

That’s how my week went in a brief.

Book of the Week:

Rather, books of the week. With 4-5 new books at my disposal, I kept shuffling between them and ended up completing none. Those books were,

Finding Ultra by Rich Roll which documents his journey of Ultra Running and multiple Iron Mans

Start with Why by Simon Sinek which reiterates the fact that having a strong motive is very essential for success.

LinchPin by Seth Godin where Seth tells us how to become a Linchpin or an indispensable employee.

Other than this, I made it a morning routine for the past two weeks to read a page of The Daily Stoic everyday in the morning. It has short 1-page stoic philosophy which regularly makes me aware of what’s in control and what’s not.

Video of the Week:

Had to delete the history a couple of times but as far as I can remember two videos had sparked some motivation in me.

One is a Ted-talk by Gaurav Chaudhary, popularly known for his Hindi tech channel- Technical Guruji. His ending line was amazing “In any field, don’t think about money in your initial days. You’ll reach a stage where don’t need to think about it.”

Other is a compilation of advice from 10 great people. Kind of like a checklist we all should remember.

Tipping Points:

(for the lack of a better word, these are the points of big psychological thoughts for me)

1. Postponing the date of travel. I had an epiphany that this life was a blessing for me and I was thinking of putting it off for a suitable time in the future(which I may or may not be lucky enough to see). True fact.
2. I met a distant cousin of mine who’s of my age and is from one of the prestigious engineering institutes in the country. With academic excellence since childhood along with extra curricular achievements, she’s on her way to the U.S to work in one of the top global companies. No visa hassles and no money issues which most of us think about. It’s the result of all the hard work she put in.
   I promised myself to raise the standard of the things I accept for myself.

 

I’m excited for the coming week as my training for Airtel Hyderabad Marathon starts from Monday. I’m participating in the 42km category and it will be my first competitive run after almost 4 years 🙂

Do share with me your experiences or tipping points or the videos/articles you found useful. Until Next week 🙂

 

 

 

Videos of the Week

 

“It’s easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today, but there will be dark days ahead of us, too. There will be days when you feel alone, and that is when hope is needed most”. This video from Amazing SpiderMan 2 always moves me to tears.

Why we do what we do. You will be amazed by the charisma this man has. Biggest takeaway from this- treat problems as surprises!!

4 tips for Public Speaking by Dananjaya Hettiarachchi. Also check out his championship winning speech.

 

Audios of the Week

 

All of the Stars. This is my favorite of all the Ed Sheeran songs. Got back into my playlist this week.

The 10 Commandments of Startup is a podcast episode by Reid Hoffman who is the co-founder of LinkedIn. He covers what mistakes a startup should avoid in early as well as later stages.

Gummadi Gummadi. This yesteryear song has been my anchor this week. It’s child like innocence is what captures me.

 

Articles of the Week

Sorry! Too many articles this week. Couldn’t resist because every single article deserves a read.

 

Life is very unpredictable. You never know which moment is your last with your loved ones.

You are in your 20’s. Start early and build your personal brand. Be it blogging, vlogging or podcasting or anything which would grow you an audience. Deal with fear and take the plunge.

An alternative take on Ramayana.

Sonam Kapoor’s advice to  teenage girls. If you are a girl, it’s a must read. If you are boy, read and share it with your girl friends.

A very moving article on the growing rate of depression among people. Do read it. You might realize a friend or two might need your help.

The best of the lot. If you had to read only one article for now this would be that. What’s deep inside you?.

Experiences of the Week

 

Hardly it’s been a week since we started with our 4th year of Engineering and the placement drives have already started. And what else do you think has started?
Reality Checks!!

Where do I stand in a crowd of around 2000 people in my college?
How unique am I? What value am I providing?
Are my skills up to date? 
Am I just another engineer mass produced every year?

All these questions haunted me this week. I attended two placement drives so far. One went well and the other brought me back to the ground.

 

Failure of the Week

 

The two things I have always had trouble with: Sloth and Unreliability.

I did not have my resume until the last minute on the day of my first interview. I did not prepare either the frequently asked HR questions or did I take a glance at some programming questions.
Am I taking it too easy?
Is being in my comfort zone taking a toll on me?

As I said earlier, Reality Checks!!!!

Inspiration of the Week

Mrs. Jyoti Reddy – from a Agricultural Laborer to C.E.O of an American company.
Read more about her here.

Vishal Kante. He was my riding partner for my the 200 BRM. He did not complete his first 200 km brevet but then went onto complete 200, 300 & 400 km brevets.

 

Screenshots of the Week

Stand up straight and Don’t hunch.

Stop the knowledge porn

Love is always 50-50. When one gives 80, the other gives 20

What are your reasons?

Is pride hurting you?

 

 

Quotes/Lines of the Week

“On average geniuses weren’t qualitatively better in their fields than their peers. They simply produced a greater volume of work, which gave them more variation and a higher chance of originality.” – Adam Grant

 

Person of the Week

 

Hampi Reddy. 3 qualities of her which inspire me.

• Consistency : She has been hitting the gym consistently for the past 9 months. Remarkable difference in her!
• Persistence : She started with mobile application development a while back and has already got proficient in it and is minting money now.
• Collaborations : You can’t learn everything on your own. She has the ability to team up with her friends and learns things at a much faster rate.

Lot to learn from her. Cheers to you Hampi!! Keep going.

 

Big Wins of the Week

• Blog Cast : Got my first blog cast published after lot of brain storming and editing. I believe it will be the U.S.P of my blog. The 2nd one also got published today.

 

 

Best Videos of the Week

Bhuvan Bam is famous for his YouTube channel BB Ki Vines. His 2 videos Originality- the way to success and Stand Alone to Stand Apart were very inspiring nonetheless hilarious. He is indeed a very gifted orator.

Did you ever feel your reading speed needs to be improved? Then you definitely need to watch this. Tim Ferriss gives us a 4-min video in which you’ll get to know your current WPM (Words Per Minute) speed and how to improve it by 100-300%.

This video by 101India features Raghav Meattle who is a Mumbaikar and gave me a very refreshing outlook on life and running.

Best Audios of the Week

Teri Meri Kahani has got me grooved this week. This song is by Bhuvan Bam and was pretty euphonious to me.

The theme song of Game of Thrones was my song anchor this week. Very catchy!

The interview of Tim Ferriss by James Altucher dealt a little about suicide and depression and the necessity of having routines to get you back to normal each day.

Best Articles of the Week

This 1-min article by Darius Foroux is a must read

35 Things You Should Know Before Becoming “Successful”

Best article I have read so far regarding Higher education in U.S.A

Experiences of the Week

I’ve had the pleasure of having 2 school reunions albeit small ones. Caught up on so many things and recalled many memories.

It was my second visit to the Wall Ride Park on the Go-Skate Boarding Day. Did my first couple of small stunts. Improved speed in the pump track.

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Failure of the Week

*  The 15-Day Blogging Challenge was a part failure. Blogged for 8 days and then gave up for 5 days. As Charles Munger says – two things you need to avoid: Sloth and Unreliability.
*  This week was pretty bad in terms of sleeping habits. Owing to this I missed two of my cycle rides by which I would have completed 100 km more.

Inspiration of the Week

My preparation with G.R.E was a bit inconsistent these holidays. I had a long conversation with my batch mate Chaitanya about this and he rekindled my spirits. Thank you Chaitanya 🙂

Screenshots of the week

On what makes a great programmer.

On how to talk to strangers.

On why the best things are often with the ones who struggle.

Quote/Lines of the Week

“I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn’t.” – Khaled Hosseini

“If you arent different in a world of infinite choice” – Ramit Sethi

“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”- Victor E. Frankl

Person of the Week

Hamza Khan is the owner of Wall Ride Park and he’s just 23. His vision of taking Skating and Cycling in Hyderabad to a whole new level is amazing.

Big Wins of the Week

I was consistent with 7-min workout this week. Considerable improvement in the state of my body.
Day 4, 5 and 6 of the 15-Day Daily Blogging Challenge were very tiring but still didn’t stop posting. Had to go past 12.

Hey there, if you loved this blog post and the articles inside it then please give it a thumbs up and also share with me what you found interesting this week, in the comments below.

Footnotes:

• Image Courtesy: Google and my smartphone