Swati Jaiswal

My year in books - 2021.

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 18:35:00 +0000

A very Happy New Year!!!

So, here I am. Back with another “year in books” post. I didn’t think I’d be able to maintain a streak [of 2 years :-P].

Here’s a snap from Goodreads. I completed my reading challenge and that too over and above the target :hurray:.

Continuing with the post, summarizing my reviews for all these books and their stories. This time I won’t add the review text from goodreads since there are a lot of books and pasting the reviews here is just redundant. I might be recommending some books as well but this post is not a “what you should read in 2022” or any sort. Purely about what I read and how I felt.

First things first, here are my Five Stars of the year:

Apart from these, following are the ones I really want you to read if you haven’t already:

There are more. To be honest, I would want you to read my full reading list of 2021.

Let’s start in order of reading:

Maya Angelou: The Autobiographies: Six BBC Radio 4 Dramatisations by Maya Angelou
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I came across a quote by Maya, from some social media post. Which reads:

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

I had made it my life’s motto. It’s been few years since I read it and have consciously tried to live through it. Since I was so inspired by the quote, a desire rose in my mind to get to know her better. I have recently got this interest in the biographies of the people I admire. It gives me a peak into their lives and to learn from them.

The whole biography is a collection of 6 books which covers her life in parts. I had already poured my heart out on Goodreads:

From the world I came, I didn’t know her, her work, her life. I only was aware of the author by one of her quotes, which is the life motto for me. It was recently when I thought of trying to know her better. Of course, a person whose one line, one message inspires you so much, shouldn’t you at least know where they came from, who they were, what life they lived? Hence this book.
I actually first picked the first part of the autobiography called, “I knew why the caged bird sings” and eventually found the collection of all the autobiographies.

The first part is a heart wrenching story. It is hard to believe that one who has seen such heinous phases of life could ever have said the words which fills me with so much inspiration and hope towards life. My admiration and respect just grows.

The second part, “Gather together in my name”, tells the story of her adolescence. She just keep inspiring with her, “bring it on” attitude. Being a mother at 17, she is trying to keep her life together while falling in and out of love. In this part, she also gets her name with which we know her now.

The third part “Singin’ and swingin’ and getting merry like christmas” is all about her going high on life. She sings, dances and travel the world. There are moments where she feels guilty of letting her child down but she makes up for it and is back to life.

The fourth part “The heart of a woman” is about her engagement in the social movements taking place for the upliftment of colored people and also her longest marriage till now. Which happens to be a heartbreaking affair as time passes. I love the way she just takes on whatever role that is required and keeps going on. At the same time she doesn’t loose her self esteem and knows when to walk out.

The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended by Jason Fung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a health enthusiast. Yes, that is a very strange term. You can’t be a health enthusiast, it is a full time job to keep yourself healthy. But anyways, whatever term you would use. Two years back I had started experimenting with fasting for cleansing purposes, then with time I learnt that I could use fasting for maintaining body’s balance and also to control and reduce fat. Then I came across this book through a medium post and it was a journey you can read below.
Review on Goodreads

Tuesdays With Morrie: An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson by Mitch Albom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A friend had recommended this book. We are book buddies I must say. It is a very sweet book. It was as if I was sitting in that one room where the old man is narrating the stories throughout the book. Some books are your comfort places, this is one such.
Review on Goodreads

Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
This one I had actually gifted to a friend and borrowed it to read. I felt I shouldn’t have read it in English. I couldn’t enjoy the book much. Wish to read it in the original language (Bengali) or Hindi someday.
I haven’t rated it yet since I really couldn’t take much out.

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long by David Rock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t remember how I came across this book. Perhaps from Principles: Life and Work book or some medium post. I must say, this was one of the best thing I came across last year. A very simple and easy to grasp productivity book. It introduces you to some really interesting things about your own brain that you can use to run a less anxious and more sorted life.
Review on Goodreads

Unhurried Tales: My Favourite Novellas by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruskin Bond. I had just heard of him and his stories being touching and nostalgic. So for my 25th birthday’s gifts when I was taken to a book store, I picked this up. Each story is close to my heart now. I have lived through each one of them in my head. Every now and then, especially whenever I hear the name “Mussoorie”, I get reminded of these stories. These stories live with me.
Review on Goodreads

High Performance Django by Peter Baumgartner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, I am a Software Engineer and part of my job is to stay up to date with tech especially on scaling systems. It was recommended by my book buddy for preparing for system design interviews.

Goodreads:

A crisp and useful primer on Scaling systems in Django. There’s a lot of common advice too which might apply generically on any production setup. They’ve also covered few tools and have used code examples to put the point across but haven’t gone too technical, eventually being able to convey the idea in an easy to grasp manner.
On a side note, it can also help you prepare for that system design interview ;-).

Meri Gita by Devdutt Pattanaik
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I guess I came across this book from instagram or somewhere on social media where I follow Devdutt Pattanaik. I like his short explainers on mythology. I also liked his show on Epic TV where he used to demistify mythology. He has a different and open approach towards Hindu Mythology which interests my mind.
Review on Goodreads

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My book buddy had recommended this book and here is one of the instances where I dislike his choices. This was a complete waste moreover energy consuming because there was a set expectation and then it didn’t match. Even it instigates certain ideological conflict that I took some time to get it out of my head. I really had used the review to rant out my frustration of the book.
Review on Goodreads

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
48 notes & 100 highlights (All visible)

One of the bucket list item of my tech reading list and it’s worth it. Recommended by an X-colleague and a good friend, Timeless precious lessons on crafting good code is what this book is.

Rest from Goodreads:

Clean.
The book is an exemplification of exactly what it is trying to convey. Each and every piece of suggestion/advice is well thought and summarises the years of experience the author holds. You can’t think so comprehensively unless you’ve been through the journey.
Everything that is covered here pushes the programmer towards one thing and that is treating code as their craft and giving the same attention, care and soul as a work of craft requires.

The book shows you how code is not just the language of computers, it is what you talk to people who use it. Programming is also a skill of effectively communicating through code and if done right, can save you from the perils of technical debt even before it knocks at your door.

The writing is done well. It has code examples for each instance so that different scenarios are conveyed to the point and don’t look like vague ideas/commandments. It requires you to work through those examples so that you don’t just skim through. Otherwise you don’t get it.

One glitch that I felt was some concepts only seemed applicable to Java. Given how alien Java is to me, those parts were difficult to stay connected to. But it is beautiful how author has made even an alien language seem familiar, and that is itself an example of how magical clean code can be.

To summarise: The book teaches you that being able to thoroughly communicate through code is a long journey and everyone could have their milestones because clean code is not about certain concepts or conventions, it’s so much more. It’s a change of mindset. Everyday as you grow as a human, you grow as a programmer too if you’re putting in the effort to write cleaner code. As the author says, “We should leave the code cleaner than it was when we found it.”

1 less star only for the Java stuff 🙈

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Could I read anything better this year? I just love science books that helps me connect with my body better. This I don’t remember how I found (perhaps from another book) but I am sure I can never forget what I’ve learnt. Like last year I had found the gem about sleep, this year it’s breath and now I am as much conscious and “obsessed” about it.
Read the rest on Goodreads

Ramrajya by Ashutosh Rana
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Alternative take on the epic Ramayana? bring it on.

I just love to read different perspective on this epic. It is a way of scratching my brain and finding answers of the questions that the culture raises.
This book was gifted by, again, my book buddy. We used to have these arguments about the whole “Maryada Purushottam” idea about “Shree Rama”. I have been a critique of Rama’s take on expelling Sita and he had another angle to it. I, ofcourse, didn’t use to heed to him much and we used to settle our arguments with peace. He also told me about how the Uttara Kand is an addition by Tulsidas and it doesn’t exist in the original work by Rishi Valmiki.
When I read this book, two things happened. One, I partially changed sides on the argument, it was as if I had found a satisfying answer to my argument; Second, I became a fan of Ashutosh Rana. Phenomenal actor already, he is a brilliant writer too.
Find the review on Goodreads

The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness by Morgan Housel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Found this gem on, actually I’m confused whether I found it in the instagram post of a friend or from another book. Anyways, whatever the source be, the book is really a gem. For the past two years I came across a lot of material on, why should I invest, how to invest, where to and so on but this book gives a contrast to all that stuff. While you need to have understanding and motivation for personal finance, you also need to understand the behavioural implications because at the end of the day, we humans are driven by that. Quite the right book to read in this stage of my financial journey.
Read the rest on Goodreads

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No matter who recommended. This is a book, I guess the whole world [almost] knows about. A friend [the one who gifted me “Principles”] had introduced this to me and since then I have heard about it from many. And finally got a chance to read [/listen] this year. All productivity or behavioural books you’ll read, I am sure they’ve taken a point or two from this one.
Read the rest on Goodreads

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Recommended by the “Principles” friend, this book was one of the best biographies. IIRC, I had come across Mr. Feynman from some research or some science article or something and I was talking to my friend about him when he mentioned that he has this really good biography. I didn’t think it was this good and so engaging and funny.
I have idealised many people over the span of my life, some from my textbooks, some because my elders told me to. Mostly it was because they were portrayed as some great people who did great work. But as I am growing up and reading and getting to know more about them, a lot of that idealism has changed. I now follow people after getting to know about them by means of their writings, their interviews etc etc. I connect more with candor, simplicity, authenticity.
Mr. Feynmann is one such ideal for me now.
Read the rest on Goodreads

Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History by Bill O’Reilly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have recently developed this interest in world history especially the secret services. As I last year read Mossad, I came across the name “Killing of SS” and this year I was so excited to read it. I had imagined about getting to know a lot about german history etc. Yes, I did get to know a lot. Before this book, I hadn’t bothered to read on the holocaust and after this book, I no more have the courage to. From that perspective, it has indeed given me a sneak peek into Germany. Other than that, it was a lot repetitive.
Read the rest on Goodreads

Apart from the above, I read many Hindi books this year. A total of 6. That’s the highest for a year.
All thanks to my sister and Kitabo. She used to get me books from there on rent for reading. Since hindi is my all time favourite, I enjoy reading and I finish faster. Almost all of these I finished in continuation, each taking ~3 days on average.
“Gaban”, although I bought from a bookstore. I was there to buy some hindi poems specifically of Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji but they were out of stock so I started looking around and stumbled upon it.
Then “Saye mein dhoop” is a favourite of my book buddy so he had recommended it sometime back. Recently I came to know that “Tu kisi rail si” is a poem of Dushyant Kumar and that was it. I bought the book. My favourite is “Ho gai hai peer parvat si” now.

So, this is it. This was a really good year in terms of reading. I hope to continue this way. Let’s see!

My Fragile Commenting System.

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 17:40:00 +0000

If you have interacted with this blog any time and any of the following happened to you:

You put a comment and wondered where it vanished on refresh?
Your comment doesn’t submit.
You ask a question and don’t get reply from me for months.

I have complete empathy for your frustration and apologies for this irresponsible behaviour.

If you have scratched your head and sweared on never coming back, I don’t have any hard feelings for you. Yet if you are here, I Thank You. If you are new here, bear with me.

Comments 💬

One drawback or rather inconvenience of using Jekyll has been to deal with comments. I chose Jekyll because of 1) easy maitainability (thanks to Github!) and 2) the complete control I got over my content. This is why I never wanted to plug in any third party commenting system and that’s when I came across jekyll-discuss (now staticman).

The project has been upgraded a long way from when I found it, I still have the old fork at curioswati/jekyll-discuss. I won’t go into the internals of the project here but I can tell you it fulfills the basic need of the system for me.

The Problem(s)❓

The initial setup was a happy endeavor. Comments were coming in, all good. Then I started seeing the problem. My blog was not interacting with the readers. Even though it took their comments in and I replied whenever I saw them, there was a bigger design problem.

I.

The way the system is setup, it renders the comment instantly with the help of Javascript even before it has been updated to the backend and this behaviour is silent. The user will see their comment appearing instantly and think, it is recorded permanantely. It is later on by a refresh they realize it’s not there anymore (because it will take some time for it to get submitted to github and rendered from there). They think it went missing and make another comment.

II.

I have been hosting the commenting system on a free cloud instance which comes with limited resources. On top of that I was running two memory heavy projects there. You know my fate then! The services often got into a run for memory and stopped responding. The added problem was, I was always late to the fiasco. It is generally not convinient to keep an eye on the system everyday, right?

III.

Carelessness or lack of proactive communication from the system?
I initially (and that run for long enough) didn’t setup subscriptions (email notifications), which was already a feature in the proejct. Result? well I was never aware if someone had some query or worse, if the system went down.

Resolutions 😌

First things first, I have fixed the UX a bit. Now whenever you submit a comment, you will see a message prompt giving you the information you need to know.

Then I have offloaded the host off the other service, so now comments have enough room.

Lastly I have setup email notifications. Although that experiment has been done long time back but broke some time back due to a migration done carelessly. But everything is fine now.

We probably didn’t need this post, but I still felt accountable to give you the reasoning for the glitches you might have faced. I want to assure you that this blog is not orphan or left out of care. I still maintain it. Sometimes, I’m just busy and still learning to communicate better.
My blog has been a playground of experiments I keep doing and I’m still learning a lot of new things, both technically and from the design perspective to make it more usable while still keeping the core intact i.e. I have complete control over every part of it and it runs minimal.

If you follow the blog and find more glithces, please do write to me, I will make sure to address them.

Have a nice day!

Remembering Dadaji on his 1st Death Anniversary.

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 11:20:00 +0000

Note: This one is going to be purely in my mother tongue, since the matter is so close and emotionally overwhelming that I won’t be able to write in any other language.

एक साल बीत गया और जीवन अपनी चाल से चल रहा है वैसा का वैसा।
पर गाहे बगाहे ये एहसास होता रहता है कि मेरे आसमान को ढकने वाली छत का एक हिस्सा अब खुला है।।

दादाजी से कभी मन की बातें नही की, कभी उनसे कहा नही कि कितना प्यार है उनसे, कितना अच्छा लगता है उनके साए में रहना। ज़रूरत भी नही पड़ी कहने की, पड़ती है क्या कभी ज़रूरत कहने की? उनका प्यार कहाँँ हमारी ज़रूरत का मोहताज रहा है, वे तो बस दे दिया करते थे। हम जाएं ना जाएं उनके पास , वे हमारे पास आ कर बैठ जाया करते थे। सुना करते थे हमारी बातें और समझने की कोशिश भी किया करते, ना सुनाई देती तो बस मुस्कुरा देते थे। सुनने में परेशानी थी उनको, तो हम ऊंची आवाज़ में बात किया करते थे उनसे, पर हर वक्त तो नही हो पाता था; पर वे फिर भी घुल मिल जाया करते थे। ज्यादातर अख़बार पढ़ा करते थे फुरसत में वे, पर हमारा जब मन करता उनके पास जा के बैठते और वे अख़बार अलग रख देते। आखरी कुछ सालों में चलना फिरना कम कर दिया था और भी कई परेशानियाँ होने लगी थी उनको, कभी साँस भर आती, कभी पैर सूज जाते, कभी कुछ और कभी कुछ और। पर वे हमको देख के बस मुस्कुराते ही थे। अब भी अगर उनकी तस्वीर मन में बनती है तो मुस्कुराती हुई ही बनती है। गुस्सा भी किया करते थे वे, पर परिवार के बाकी लोगों पर। हम बच्चों को तो कभी आँख भी नही दिखाई।

उनका जाना, कैसे कहूं के नही अखरता है। हाँ हम सबने खुद को समझा तो लिया है के उनके लिए यह बेहतर था, अच्छी स्थिति में नही थे वे और उनको ऐसा देख पाना भी तो कठिन था। पर अखरता नही है क्या? वे होते तो कमी न होती उनकी, यह छोटी बात है क्या? आसान रहा थोड़ा हमारे लिए इस बात को मान लेना, उनका चला जाना सह पाना क्यूंकि इतने सालों से देख पा रहे थे, धीरे धीरे उनका जाना। पर तैयार थे क्या? नही।

उस दिन जब खबर मिली तो समझ ही नही आया कि क्या हो रहा है। दुख ही नही हुआ, कैसे होता? माना कहाँ था के वो चले गए। फिर उनके शव के पास बैठ के भी बस रोते रहे, कि बाकी सब रो रहे थे। सो ही तो रहे थे वे सामने। जब उनसे अंतिम आशीर्वाद लेने को कहा गया तब मैं पीछे हटी, पर जब ज़बरदस्ती धकेला गया और दादाजी का हाथ उठा नही आशीर्वाद देने को, तो उन्हे देख कर मुझसे रहा न गया। वह वास्तविकता से आँखे मिलाने का पल था और मुझमें हिम्मत न थी। आखरी बार जब घर से विदा हो रहे थे तब जैसे दिमाग़ को सदमा लगा था, समझ आया के वे चले गए, खूब फूट फूट के रोई थी मैं। अब भी आंसू आते हैं उस दृश्य को याद कर के।

मैं व्यक्तिगत तौर पर उस पल, उस दिन, उस महीने में उनके जाने के लिए तैयार न थी। मैने तो प्लान्स बना कर रखे थे, उनको हवाई सफर पे ले जाना चाहती थी और एक साल पहले से ढिंढोरा पीट चुकी थी। सही मौसम का इंतजार कर रही थी क्यूंकि उनको दिल और सांस की तकलीफ थी। होली पर जब घर आई थी तब सोच कर ही आई थी कि अब उनको साथ ले कर जाऊंगी लौटते समय, हवाई जहाज़ से, तिरुपति बालाजी। पर वह होली ही मनहूस निकली, पिछली होली, जब फोन आया था चाचा का, जब सुबह सुबह पापा ने उठाया और कहा, दादाजी चले गए। कहां चले गए? मेरे दिमाग ने तो खुद को सुनाया कि उनकी तबियत बिगड़ गई है फिर से। जब घर में बहुत हलचल होने लगी और पापा मम्मी निकलने की तैयारियाँ करने लगे तो मैंने फिर पूछा, और तब जो सुना, वो फरमान था, जिसे में नकार नही सकती थी।

मलाल नही हैं मुझे के क्यूं उनके साथ और न रही मैं, क्यों अपने जीवन की व्यस्तता में उनका खयाल न रखा। कितना रह लेती तो उनकी अब की ये कमी पूरी हो जाती? कितना खयाल रख लेती तो उनका जाना मुझे ना अखरता? हाँ पर अब जब विवाह होगा मेरा और वे नहीं होंगे तो कमी कुछ ज़्यादा ही खलेगी मुझे | शायद उनको आस न थी पर मुझे बेहद थी की दादी और दादाजी दोनों मेरे साथ खड़े हों और मुझे विदा भी करें साथ ही | आखरी हफ्ते में दिल्ली जाने से पहले मिली थी उनसे, बैठी थी, बात की थी। खुश थे वे मुझे अपने पैरों पर खड़ा देख कर, गर्व था उनको मुझ पर। आशीर्वाद दिया था। बातें जो की थी, वो अब सोचती हूं तो लगता है, यह जानते हुए की थी के शायद आखरी बार कर रहे हैं। उनको पता था? पता ही रहा होगा। शायद पता चल ही जाता है, हमारा शरीर हमसे बेतकल्लुफ होता है, सच ही कहता है। क्या मुझे पता होता तो मैं रुकती? शायद नही। जो एक बात मेरे लिए उनका ना होना आसान बनाती है वो यही तो है के जाते नही देखा मैने उनको या बहुत साथ नही रही मैं। रही होती तो जाने देना इतना आसान ना होता। इसलिए शायद उन्होंने भी रोका नही था बहुत। कहा ज़रूर था, कि आना जल्दी। पर आसानी से जाने दिया था। हमेशा नही जाने देते थे।

मेरे तो पूरे जीवन में (और शायद सबके ही होती होगी) मेरे दादाजी की छाप है। बचपन बीता ही है दादा दादी और नाना नानी के घर। उनके साथ खेत जाना, ज़रा ज़रा सी बातों का पहाड़ बनाना और उनका लाड़ पाना। उनके साथ कहीं आना जाना, बातें करना। बड़े होते होते उनको अपने नए जमाने से रूबरू करवाना, उनकी थोड़ी से सेवा कर पाना, थोड़ा जो भी कुछ हो पाता, उन्हे समय देना। और सबसे ज़रूरी और बड़ी बात, उनका हाथ सर पर होना। इस भ्रम में जी पाना के अभी तो बच्चे ही हैं, कोई है तो सिर पर, देखने को, परवाह करने को। हैं अभी भी बड़े लोग, पर दादाजी नही हैं, और अब कभी नही होंगे, ये जानना हृदय भेद जाता है। एक कमी का एहसास आता है और मुझे घुटन होती है। पर मैं फिर से खुद को समझाती हूं और उनका मुस्कुराता चेहरा याद कर के आगे बढ़ जाती हूं। जीवन है, चलता ही रहेगा। और मैं मानू के ना मानू, सच अब यही है।

My year in books - 2020.

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 17:00:00 +0000

First of all, a very Happy New Year!!!

Starting this year(I hope I can continue :giggles:) I would be putting up a year in books post every year. Both for me to personally reflect back on my readings and to share with the world, my recommendations.

Here’s a snap from Goodreads of how it looks like. Ohh and yes, I completed my reading challenge :hurray:. To be honest, it has been one of my biggest achievements of the year to be able to even being closer to my reading challenge on Goodreads for almost 4 years now.

Coming back to what I want to share here, I want to summarize my reviews for all these books and maybe share some stories of readings (If there are any). I might be recommending some books as well but this post is not a what you should read in 2021 or any sort. Purely about what I read and how I felt.

First things first, here are my Five Stars of the year:

Apart from these, following are the ones I really want you to read if you haven’t already:

Let’s start in order of reading:

I. AN UNQUITE MIND (Kay Redfield Jamison)

I loved this book. This I started when I myself was struggling with my own mind. I don’t remember now that how did I got to this book (I should really find a way and start logging references now).

This is what the title already summarises, a Memoir of the author’s own struggle through her Manic Depression. I could feel her pain and since it was an audiobook, it really came through as a conversation with her, though in monologue, but even in reality if she was sitting in front of me and telling this, I wouldn’t really have a word to tell her back. I could only sit, listen and hug her with compassion. At some points, I must have cried too. You can only imagine how much courage would it have required on her end to even write this. Given she herself is a clinical psychologist, it poses a threat to her own practice, which she also mentions. I have become a fan of the author’s candor, the honesty she writes this with.

Here’s what I wrote on Goodreads:

Such a heartfelt memoir. It feels like she’s sitting in front and talking to you live. Midway the book it feels like you can witness her episodes that she mentions. I deeply felt the pain she might be going through, and equally the reliefs, the hope that she gets in the good turns of life. Despite all the trauma and sadness the book doesn’t leave me with tears, because the end note is that of gratitude, even for the illness. I’m more happy because not for a second I had the feeling of sympathy, it was more of compassion, strength and gratitude.

If you want to be deeply touched by something this year, Go Read this!

II. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (Lori Gottlieb)

Too much mental therapy this year :-P. This book was recommended by my friend and forever support, who has had my back ever since we know each other. Now I recommend this to those I have backs of.

So, this one is on a lighter mood from the previous. There are a lot of individuals to feel. The author is a psychotherapist, who herself found her in the midst of some mental crisis and seeked help. She writes about her patients, her own therapist, her crisis and all the complications of the therapy world. If you are somewhere on the crossroads to decide whether you need therapy or there’s still the right day to come, just give it a read. If nothing, you’ll find some good stories and a lot of inspirations.

Review on Goodreads:

Definitely worth reading once. I enjoyed the different stories and the different perspectives, life scenarios they brought. Somewhere it felt too much mundane but other times also quite intriguing to know about some psychological methods. I somehow didn’t feel the emotional connect the author was attempting to evoke, but the insights were worth a round of thoughts day in and day out.

III. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari)

Book of the Year *_* or maybe the forever book. Recommended from? do I really need to know, this is something I guess the world is recommending.

A lot of wisdom in there. Almost all the areas of study someone would be interested in are there. I never thought so high of historians. This book tells you how history and cultures should be studied. I can’t write enough in praise of the book. I used to click screenshots (it was a kindle version) and put up on social media almost every day of reading. It was to the extent that a friend of mine quipped of me pirating the book :-D.

Though no such thing intended, I really want you to buy and read this book, because you would want to keep it forever and would want to keep coming back.

from Goodreads:

Beginning with a record of history, there’s almost nothing the book does not touch upon, biology, philosophy, economics, anthropology, sociology, theism, psychology, and one of the biggest questions of the future: where are we heading. An amazing account of thought provoking records of these various domains, this book is for everyone who is willing to take a stab at existence and ideologies of humans currently as they are, who they were and what they might become.

I particularly liked the way the author isn’t taking any side, the way he is trying to stay on the edge while giving you an opportunity to take a dive. There are concepts we might already be aware of, for them we have opportunity to either question the text or find an affirmation to strengthen some ideas. Then there are concepts we might not be familiar with, it also gives us the opportunity to explore them without biases. But the basic idea is to provoke you to think. It doesn’t even ask you to decide or take a stand at last. Just leaves you with open questions that we as a collective can and should think about as to where we want to take our species and how we want to shape the world.

Can we without a doubt say that we are that special species, this earth is going round about for? Can we easily ignore other creatures in the name of intelligence or no intelligence. What humanity is, what human rights are for and whom do they benefit other than us and if they are limited to us then how long do we think the natural ecosystem could favour them and let us enjoy the self proclaimed upper class status that we do.

While talking about all the so called objective domains, it doesn’t leave behind the subjective domain called “Happiness”.

There’s something for almost everyone. But yeah definitely limited overall to the domain of philosophy (atleast as I felt). The tools are factual but the method is philosophical and the output, well is very subjective. But surely makes a case for the uninitiated to atleast get introduced to this vast world of questions that are essential to ask.

can’t emphasize more, “Must Read!!”

Ohh, here are my kindle notes and highlights.

IV. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

OMG. How much can a night’s or an hour’s sleep cost you. Don’t know? Read This!! As ususal I forgot where did I got this book.

I have become so concerned and in some way obsessed with my sleep cycle after this book that sometimes I can’t sleep thinking why can’t I sleep and how much am I gonna payback for this loss :-D.

But seriously, this was one of the best science I read this year. I surely have discovered a secret science that I can leverage for a better life and so should you too :-).

Goodreads:

Quite an insightful text filled with numerous experiments for almost every point the author brought forward. You might never have imagined how much of a loss can one night’s lack or insufficient sleep can cause. Though a lot of places, book becomes redundant as well. At some places it also seems like the author is just obsessed with sleep and want to attribute almost everything to it, though he tries to justify those instances and doesn’t forget to mention but you can still clearly feel the bias. The book seem to be following the common recipe for science books, by concluding with giving focus to technology and it’s intervention, though taking a quite contrary approach to the general, “save yourself from technology’s fetter, go back to older times”, he advices to use technology to our benefit in aiding improvement in sleep. Although there also he goes to the extent where completely ignoring the privacy concerns it brings. Covering a large spectrum of themes, the author goes into exploring how sleep time varies with age, how they causes or alleviate various illnesses, how different stages of sleep contribute to different aspects of our lives and personalities and then eventually making some recommendations for the benefit of both individuals and the society.

V. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pére

This book was recommended by one of my colleagues and friend at CivicDataLab. The one liner he had given (from the book) was, “Well behaved women seldom make history”. We were sitting in the hall discussing some world topics during one of our CivicDays. Then it somehow came to some personality aspect of mine, and if you know me, you know I am also that sweet well behaved girl. Although we went on to argue that one liner. That’s a controversial topic you see.

Well, I’d say, content wise, this is really important to read for almost everyone. I hear some of my male friends complaining how women are given so special treatment, how they conviniently use their woman card and all similar stuff. My answer to them is going to be this book from now on. Most of us are not (even I wasn’t) aware of how much difficult life is made owing to the Default Male. Every sphere of life, women are mostly ignored, even in making things for specifically them. Why? simpally because there is not enough representation of women.

Women’s fault? Societal structure, I’d say.

Goodreads:

I guess the major take away was what exactly the review title reflects. When we say person, it is more likely to be assumed a man than a woman. which the author highlights with various examples. There is a dire need to sex disaggregate because the gender neutral in practicality doesn’t exist as it is assumed. I would really want to call out all my male friends who think and also bluntly complain about the so called special treatment/preference women are being given these days and how it makes their(men’s) life difficult, that it is not how you like to call it. The situation is highly biased towards the exact opposite. Please read to understand how much previlege you still have and why it is needed to uplift the women by giving that so called “preference”. The author has covered almost every aspect of life and world. She doesn’t try to sugarcoat and turn words around. She isn’t acting psuedo feminism. She calls it all black and white in the tone that is required at the same time she’s not a man hater and doesn’t slightly try to instill that. She talks facts. The book although sometimes sounded too much numbers. Though she tries to combine facts and philosophies and the agony women are facing but the numbers just take over (which seems required, as the title itself emphasise) but for me personally it was too much to stay connected to.

VI. Ikigai (Hector Garcia Puigcerver)

This book certainly was not what I was expecting it to be. If you are aware of the Ikigai concept, I was looking to deep dive into that philosophy specifically the technique itself. What this book was? Well something on how to live longer from Japanese way of living.

Though I did end up making a dream of spending my later years in some village (mentioned in book, which I forgot the name for) in Japan.

Goodreads:

Just a good checklist of things to keep in mind if you want to live long or perhaps just want to live life in peace and harmony. Not a book about how to find your ikigai though. Atleast not what I expected while starting.

VII. Principles: Life and Work (Ray Dalio)

This was one of the best birthday gift a friend like him could gift me. Akshay Verma gifted me this book and this is a book for a lifetime I can say. I remember how he and one other friend called me at 12AM asking me to pick books to be gifted. Although at last he only decided the books and sent on kindle.

It took me a year to read this (ofcourse in parts). I would say that actually is the way to read this book. Read and absorb piece by piece. Information wise there’s a lot to let in. Perhaps this is also a reason to take it slow.

I already wrote a lot on goodreads:

The author has done a good job of capturing almost everything that he seems to have encountered and penned down in quite an articulate way. The takeout for me was, “find and follow your own principles, not what others have set forward without even understanding why and what of them”. This book has been a year long journey for me and I’ve quite tried to incorporate this thought and it seemed to have helped resolve a lot of internal conflicts. I guess that is the first step in having a clear mind which can lay down a foundation of meaningful life. Similarly the key point from the work principles was, radical truthfulness and radical transparency. Tried and tested, it seems THE way to be, and have meaningful relationships. As the author also points out, once you get into this, you don’t feel like being in any other way.

Some places the book became too much of a formula kind or say calculated, I personally don’t like to live that way. But the author also is mindful of pointing out that that is not the only way to go about it hence being open minded, that’s a million dollar suggestion. Be open minded and assertive at the same time. There’s so much treasure in this book that I’d want to keep coming back and savour it.

The tone is very much humble hence earning the trust, at the same time it also is a bit too programmatic where it looses the connection.

overall, a great reading experience (since I got to also try it out in life practically while reading, the value is more). Perhaps this is a better way of using this book for good, given it’s quite long(not in terms of number of pages but the information it provides), it won’t make sense if you just read, learnt the principles, got inspired and forgot unless you put them too use.

My kindle highlights can be found here.

VIII. Rich Dad Poor Dad (Robert T. Kiyosaki)

Recommended to me by multiple people, this one is a book for those who think they are going to earn their living by only doing a job for a whole lifetime. In author’s words, they work for money and what they need to learn is to make their money work for them. I was no different. After reading this, one little change that has come to my life is that I now read more on finances and I do it seriously and with interest. It won’t be an overstatement if I say, this book has urged me to go in the grey area of capitalism.

Before this, I would recommend reading Let’s Talk Money by Monika Halan. For me, it’s a primer on personal finance.

Summary points on goodreads:

Much needed life advices #2

I read this book in parallel with Principles by Ray dalio. These two seems to be giving a perfect contrast for much needed life advices. The take aways:

Mind your own business: I guess this was the highlight, since this is the major imprint left at the end.

Let your money work for you: quite an inspiration to study more on the subject.

Pay yourself first: Can’t exactly go by what the author suggests (yes fear still has it’s place) but definitely worth trying with alternative ways to prioritise the growth of assets.

Invest on learning: a no brainer and no counter advice.

Know what you’re doing and the fear will go: something that has opened the doors for learning more on the subject wide.

Have a strong reason: I guess, this is the most important of all, because even if you get inspired, get a will to learn, do and all but unless you have a strong reason, you can’t keep going. The road is tough and it will test you hard, so going without a reason is empty coming back.

Give first what you want to have: this is the horizon of the capitalism and socialism.

Even though not a hardcore capitalist(perhaps not even close), I still found a lot to take away from here. Because this is not simply an advice to become rich but also to sustain in this fast paced world.

Still lacking that one star because I haven’t been able to completely come on page with the subject matter.

IX. The Shape of Design (Frank Chimero)

I found it on the internet while searching for a book on design fundamentals. This is that little pocket book I would want to proudly own.

Goodreads:

A short read full of fundamental design philosophies. I’m no designer, but the book opens up the mind to very basic ideas that makes me feel like changing the world by becoming a designer. Not sure if it’s a beginner appropriate text, but certainly an important one for a designer who really wants to create meaningful work. I would want to come back to it once I dive in the field and have tried hands on the work, to polish myself.

The tone seemed very basic and straight forward with few stories acting as examples. There are clear takeaways in each chapter. The structure of the book made it more interesting to read. Even though the chapters are short and concise, the messages conveyed opens up a line of thoughts, those in turn contribute back to the concept itself. Seemed like the book itself was a work of design based on the same philosophies that the content presents.

X. Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service (Michael Bar-Zohar)

This one too I found on the internet. But the story goes beyond just a random search.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he told me how Israel’s secret services went on a kill spree behind those who harmed their people. (This was about the infamous Wrath of God operation against the Black September).

They searched the people around the world, found and brutely killed them. I was in awe of this (I don’t have the right word, but this we call having your people’s back). Since then I have been intrigued of the Israeli secret service, Mossad. I wanted to know all other such stories because with time, I had come to know of the history of Israel and in essence the Jewish people.

This book is a record of what role Mossad has played in the foundation of Israel. It is structured in the form of operations carried out by various Mossad Directors. Almost all the stories seem plots of some crime thrillers. Although I later got to know of all the movies that are already made on them.

XI. Women Who Run With the Wolves (Clarissa Pinkola Estés)

Recommended by a former colleague and eventually a close friend, this book is love.

The book is arranged in form of folktales from which the Author has drawn out pearls of wisdom for women. Yes, not all women are wolves, they could have been well placed in the places they were born. But all those who are not, who feel out of place, this book is an assurance that whatever they are and whereever they belong, they must not suppress themselves just to fit in.

Beautiful, just beautiful. The stories she tells and the messages she draws out of them are inspiring. A dear friend recommended this to me and after reading I’m sure how much she loves me that she wanted me to read it and so will I do for all others I love too. It’s one of the soul searching endeavours I would want all women that I know of, do. It seems to be containing the whole idea of womenhood from a woman’s lense. Yes, we’ve heard all this time, how a woman should be, how should she behave, what she can desire, what she can ask for, what she can get, all from this men’s world perspective. This is one of those scarce times when we hear a woman telling what a woman should really be. Nothing but herself!! The best thing is this whole stuff is so real and connectible. No fairy tales, no “You’re the best, you’re so awesome, go girl” type speeches or pseudo motivation. It’s a Wolf’s tale instead. All raw, believable and embraceable sides of your own self. This version of the book seems to be a concised one since the paperback or ebook versions seems to be lengthier. I’m so going to get one of those and continue the journey ahead.

XII. Sita: Warrior of Mithila (Amish Tripathi)

Ohh, I don’t need a recommendation to read Amish.

I came across few reviews, saying how it is wrong to twist the stories of our mythology and present as such. I would suggest you (If you haven’t already read Amish) to go with an open mind and treat it as a work of fiction.

A delight to the mind as usual. Amish never fails to surprise with his imagination and stun with the precision in every single line.

This one brought me back to the “Secret of Nagas”, the second in the Shiva Trilogy, I had started the trilogy with that one only and this time too, started with the middle one. Hence the connect, but beyond that, the element of curiosity and unorthodox treatment of the subject is what makes the actual connect.

I’ve been always interested in imagining an alternate Sita, the one who you won’t find in our mythological texts, the one I wish, would have had made it to the texts, to the mythology, to the history. The one I would be more inspired from. Amish’s Sita is exactly that, a warrior princess. Moreover it is the whole alternate idea of Ramayan that took me away and not only Sita, because if you were to only reimagine Sita while keeping the epic intact, you can’t do justice to the character. The way he has made a place for her in the epic and in turn made the whole thing turn around has made this work a forever favourite. Cherry on the cake is, he still keeps the major events, certain tales, ideas and incidents intact and yet flips the whole storyline. There is a magic in his writing. You can imagine the whole infrastructures of the cities of his stories to the last bric when he talks about the magnificent places across the country, the palaces, the forests and rivers. Be it the techniques of combat, the weapons, the royal rides, the attires and what not, he will bring it all to your eyes. When it comes to sentiments, that is not left behind either. The way he has described the whole Swamyamvar and the incidents preceding and following it, are just captivating, I could really see Rama blushing in front of me in his first encounter with Sita. There is sheer beauty in the whole Rama Sita chemistry that I have not even seen in the epic’s picturization on Television either. Just magical, I believe only Amish could do it. I would really prefer the Ramayana to be what Amish has made me imagine with this book.

XIII. Birbal Tenali and Investment Sutras (Vinayak Sapre)

Found in a book store and the reason I bought is mentioned in the review below. I have never been more dissapointed.

One of the most disappointing reads ever. I seem to have fallen for the cover and design of the book and maybe a bit of trust nostalgia of “Akbar and Birbal” and Tenali Rama (I revered them for the wit and cleverness from the stories). If you want to read few tales of them, go ahead and read, if you’re looking for investment advice, perhaps not this one. If you are into personal finance and have been reading and listening around a bit, then you know everything this book has to tell, at least what I felt while reading. The major fallback is, the book even fails to deliver on it’s title even for namesake, the stories and the morales and lessons that follow the story most of the time don’t seem to connect, most of the lessons are repititive in nature. The 1 star is just for the benefit of the doubt that maybe if I was a complete beginner in personal finance and it was my first book, the advices(not exactly) or the lessons would have taught me something.

XIV. Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta (Amish Tripathi)

It is the 3rd book of the Ramchandra series by Amish, Sita being the second.

The story as usual is full of twists and turns and the narration is great as well. The flow really captivates you. As far as the plot is concerned, it seems that the antagonist is being tried to portray as a result of misfortune happened to him but parallely the way his character is presented is not able to completely justify that. Perhaps this is author’s unique way of hanging you in the grey area. I was more interested in a closure by this book so the overdetailing of the character of the protagonist (of the book)/antagonist (of the series) to show his side of the story and create a grey area was too much for me to stick around to. Perhaps I came with a wrong expectation of a 3 book series and ended up a little bit disappointed.

XV. The Women Who Ruled India (Archana Garodia Gupta)

I bought it from Bahri and Sons book store in Saket, New Delhi. Ohh, that place is love. I can’t tell exactly why but I feel like going back again and again. It is that little hangout place where you could just sit and read in lazy summer days, with a hot coffee in chilled winters and looking out through the windows raining outside ofcourse in monsoon.

So, the reason I bought was the title and the table of content :shrugging:.

Not completely a disappointment but not the perfect as expected as well(actually nowhere close).
Quick thoughts first, in order to cover as many possible (or maybe all of them, I hadn’t heard or read about more than 4 perhaps) she seems to have dwelled on the surface only. Most of the stories are mere historical accounts of the kingdoms, rather than emphasizing on the woma(e)n ruler (which I guess was the main purpose of the book, as it acclaims). The writing could use some flow.

Towards the end, the book actually started to seem to justify the title a bit. Some stories were actually well written, the Begums of Bhopal being the last one has the most impression.

Having said that, this books certainly told the untold tales, and that is worth it. The history I have read since childhood, hardly recognised 3 or 4 female rulers. I get reminded of a recent read, “The invisible women”, where the author pointed out, how conveniently histories(or for that matter sciences or any other field) forget females when it comes to giving credits or giving examples. This one surely is an attempt to change that.

XVI. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (Dr. Seuss)

Ohh, this little cute book. The same friend who recommended the second book in the list here sent me this. Ohh, they certainly love me to the moon and back :smiling:.

Some books are a way of people telling you (when they recommend or gift them to you) that how much they love you and want to see you climbing your mountains. Maybe they are also the author’s way too for their readers to show the same love. This is one such little delightful poetic book summarising perhaps almost everyone’s graph of life and encouraging to draw it up.

XVII. Azadi mera brand (Anuradha Beniwal)

You know sometimes you steal your siblings’ clothes and they look so good on you that you won’t return. This book is one such borrowing. This was actually a gift to one of my sister’s friends from another of her friend and my sister had brought it home. I saw it lying by the side of my bed and it kept pulling me towards itself. So one day, I picked it and then couldn’t put it off until finished.

Sorry for bad analogy (I know it is) but this is such effect of Anu(radha)’s authentic writing that I feel like writing whatever comes to my mind.

Loved the book and “Anu” even more! Feels like she’s inviting you to join her through this book and her journeys. She writes her heart out, it seems. Not only she shares her travel stories but her learnings, her introspections on different situations or conversations. I think it comes with travelling places, you see different cultures and then you draw parallels or differences or nothing sometimes. Her short stories of her hosts, cities are captivating, I almost always went in my head in the situation at page and thought about how would I react, what would I do. It feels like I was there and not her. I don’t know how does she do it but she takes you with her every place she goes. Her writing is so friendly, honest, straight, in the words of her bern’s host’s door sticker, “she comes as she is.” Perhaps travel writing is about this transparency, this authenticity. This was my first read although! I am even more eager to pack my bag and go. This book leaves your head full and your heart open to embrace the world out there.

There are places she generalizes the thought process of an “Indian girl” by justifying her cautious attitude or anything conservative labeling it as that of an “Indian girl”. I differ from that. She doesn’t know, I don’t know, perhaps no one knows, so why generalise?

For some Indian female readers, आज़ादी मेरा ब्रांड आपके लिए एक life changing experience भी हो सकता है (यदि आपके पास भी अनु का चश्मा है), जब आप बाहर की वो दुनिया देखेंगे जो हमारी इस दुनिया से कितनी अलग, कितनी सुरक्षित, कितनी आत्मीय और कितनी अपनी है। आप लालच मेे पड़ते हैं, एक ऐसी जगह के जहां आप उस आज़ादी से घूम सकते हैं, रह सकते हैं। अनु आपको चस्का लगा देगी, फिर आप उससे कम मेे adjust नहीं कर पायेंगे। यह इस बारे मेे नहीं है कि वो दुनिया भारत के बाहर है, ना ही भारत को अस्वीकार करने की बात है, यह तो बस भारत से अपना भी बनने की इच्छा रखने की बात है। ऐसा ही कुछ करने वाली “चीज़” ढूंढने गई है अनु। खैर ऐसा नहीं है के भारत में वो आज़ादी है ही नहीं, है, मैंने चखी है, पर वो ऐसी है जैसे खीर मेे किशमिश। हमें तो वो चावल जितनी चाहिए।

XVIII. How to Change Your Mind (Michael Pollan)

This was my first introduction to psychedelics, even as a term (I actually was not aware, before I started reading this book, that it was about these drugs). This book has opened gates to a whole new world in which drugs are not evil. Earlier me telling myself will be like: “Shh, never ever let that substance in your close vicinity”, the current one definitely is curious, more than ever, about these chemicals. Maybe it was the author’s almost implicitly convincing (maybe he himself is very much curious and optimistic towards the positive uses of these substances) storytelling, but I am more ready to be affirmative about the similarity of effects between psychedelics and meditation.

Few important questions that I felt being led to ask are, what difference does it make if it is an external substance or some patterns of breathing that brings chemical changes in your brain leading you to explore the spectrum of consciousness. Is the default consciousness the only right mode of consciousness? What roles do the alternate modes of consciousness play in the theory of evolution? If they don’t any, then why do they exist? I got introduced to many interesting concepts such as the Default Mode Network, Posterior Cingulate Cortex, a completely different aspect of Spirituality (I have described the incidence below).

All that said, somewhere somehow a flow was missing that will captivate you (at least for me). I mostly was skimming through paying as little attention. Parts that actually grabbed and kept my attention were where there was a trip being described, especially the author’s own Magic mushroom trip and one volunteer’s trip after they discovered their cancer. Other than that there was a lot of unnecessary caricaturing of the people in the story.

One random listening day:

’’’ I was going to wrap this book up today after reading 2 chapters. Since it seemed more about the history of psychedelics till now and I was losing connection because I didn’t come with this expectation from the title of the book. That’s when I am reconsidering, the end of chapter 2 where the author described his own magic mushroom experience unfolds an important aspect of how we perceive spirituality. He has all these visuals and feelings of being comforted by nature, the plants and little creatures in his garden are all so warm and caring to him as if they are his own people. He finds his parents in the two trees there. I’m emotionally overwhelmed by this description of his experience. Quoting him (rather summarising), “One doesn’t necessarily need to believe in some supernatural to believe or pursue spirituality, it could actually be felt in the very nature around us. Maybe the purpose of the mushroom is to make us realize that our nature is calling upon us, trying to connect.” ‘’’

XIX. Gunahon Ka Devta (Dharmvir Bharati)

Coming across this book is a similar incident as that of Azaadi Mera Brand. Although I had heard of the book’s name in my high school when we used to memorize the works of the Hindi Authors. I knew Dharmvir Bharati was a magnificent writer, from whatever I had read about him back then. I never thought I would come across this book one so random day and it was going to stay engraved in my mind forever after.

I didn’t have the courage or thoughts to write a word in review. This book had taken me off by a storm. I cried my heart out on every page towards the end.

Yes, I am that old school.

XX. The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman)

Another book that didn’t need any specific recommendation. It is THE DESIGN BOOK.

Profound ideas are always obvious once they are understood! - from the book.

What’s in there?

All about how to design for humans. What are the challenges in doing so? How to deal with them? Few principals on the same. The author has also talked about how different it is to design in the real world than it seems in principals.

Why read?

Because all things need design and for them to be used, the design needs to be useful. You should read to understand how human psychology and psychopathology play an important role in why products succeed or fail. The author has widely covered design as a process from an angle of perception. Both from the implementor and the user/consumer.

What I liked?

Overall I am intrigued by seeing how much impact does design has on everyday things. The interplay between how things work and how it affects our behaviors and in turn how those behaviors affect our experiences of those things. This is super amazing. I finally got a crisp introduction to design thinking from this book. That section is really useful for anyone who wants to design and want to do it efficiently. There are quite good lessons to learn about how to balance design activities with other activities of product development and in general how there are gaps in how designers/makers see things and how users see them and how there is a third player who is most important sometimes (the buyer) will decide on what to buy.

Power dymanics and What if the oppressor was the oppressed?: From the perspective of the receiving end of the oppression.

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 17:30:00 +0000

Scene 1: There’s a wedding procession getting started which the family is prohibiting. The reporter friend of the groom insists and instill some courage in the family to go on with the procession but they don’t want to face the wrath of the upper cast by doing the procession which apparently is not allowed for them.

Scene 2: the procession is going on and as a result some people beat up the groom and all the people in the procession. Groom’s cousin gets beaten up very bad. His sister and the reporter friend lodges an FIR for attempt of murder. As a result, the goons’ families (upper castes so is told) kidnaps the doctors in the hospital (where the beaten up man was taken for treatment) and won’t allow the treatment until the FIR was taken back.

Scene 3: A saintly baba (so is shown) with a huge following, enters the hospital and gets the goons to surrender and help the victim get treatment. He also resolves the disputes and supports the oppressed.

Above is a description of some scenes from a new series called “Ashram” by Prakash Jha.

Well the series is about just the opposite of what the scenes describe above. I wish if people in power could actually make noble use of the power they have. Afterall this power they literally have because of the faith people show (which they keep obliging in their great speeches).
But then do nobles actually make it that big? I don’t think so. Power is a consequence of cunningness and all other things ill intended. If the deeds were truelly good and in good faith, they might not survive long. Yes there are multiple example to counter this, there have been huge movements that stemmed from purely good intentions (or so they were endorsed). but when it comes to these powerful empires that run over decades from faith, I’m afraid but examples are scarce in the contrary.
I still find it difficult to understand this whole mesh, but what probably are the causes that only ill intentioned make it to the top. Or is it reverse, do they become ill intentioned after reaching the top. Yes, people say that it’s one thing to talk about nobelity and another to actually follow. But why is that so, don’t noble deeds do good for a majority, by this logic, shouldn’t they get more support amd thrive. In this big puzzle I really can’t make it to that part where someone’s harm brings prosperity to someone else. Oh well, when we talk about food cycle, they can possibly justify but when it comes to humans, does it apply? Do we really need to harm or kill another human (without them doing any harm to us in the first place) in order to thrive. Is it some law of nature? I’m still in the process of figuring this out, to find out whether the world we are introduced to as children is actually just a fairy tale and the real world has this law of never ending clamours and bloodsheds. And I’m talking from the root’s perspective, not this middle layer of cause and consequences. Because, well there, you can justify almost everything.

Another line of thoughts that sparked from the above events (which also connects dots from my previous post) is what’s there in the caste (or perhaps literally just the name) which can make a human just hate another human to the extent that they would kill them for just trying to have a decent and respectful life.
Today, by the virtue of being grown up and raised in a not so lower caste family and a civilized (I call those civilized who don’t kill unless there’s a threat to their own life or if they’re saving someone else’s by that) society, I was never subjected to this evil of discrimination and the oppression that it brings. I guess, that’s why I can even write this all with so much objectivity and in a stable state of mind. But what if not?
What if I was born in a family that was considered the so called lower caste. What all troubles and oppression I would have had to face. I either would have been silently submitting to it or if I was a courageous one, I would be fighting it but neither of these would have changed any bit of the oppressing situation and the kind of life I would be leading as a result. Do I want to live in such a world? Hell, NO. Then why should I even create such a world for someone else. What if, any of the oppressors were born in any of the families they oppress.
What if someday the world took a magical turn and the roles were reversed, will these same humans want it like that? Do they really need to be put in that place to actually realise the gravity of this evil.

I still am puzzled and stuck at the WHY of it. I can only wish (not courageous enough to do anything perhaps) the good for all the oppressed that some day they get the justice they deserve. As a baby step I will ensure that whoever I bestow my legacy upon become of the same opinion on this as I am. My children (when I have them), the people who listen to me, who follow me, the friends, the family, anywhere, anyone, anytime, when I speak of it, I ensure to take the human side of the things. I guess that’s how cultures are formed, a thought stirring at one place, spreading and creating ripples. Even if I can’t take an active action, this passive effort I believe has the strength to change something.

You try it too!
Meanwhile be thankful that(if) you are not facing the What if, see you again!!

Note: I wrote this not to stir any morality in an oppressor (I know they wouldn’t get a word of it in their heads). This is for those who find it easy to call names/make fun of the receivers of the oppression. Especially the so called upper caste who takes no time in giving a tough look when it comes to react to anything on reservation system. Yes, you are facing difficulties because of this system, and you think why not a deserving should get the opportunity, but would you stop for a minute and think, what if those not so deserving were not even getting the opportunity to become deserving (that is the reason in the first place why this system came into existence).
Both sides are facing problems, what is the middle way? Well, if the uppers want to make it fair for themselves, they make it fair for the other side first. Treat them well, let them have their rights and oppportunities. Will they? I’m hopeless!! Can the system fix this, can they hold the balance equally, I hope it does someday!

Discrimination in our ancient texts and my frustration about it.

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 23:10:00 +0000

I started learning Bharatnatyam almost two months back. It’s since childhood that I was interests in this form of dance and now that I’m on a break, I saw a perfect opportunity to start with it. Anyway, as much I’m into a performing art, so am into the literature. While taking lessons I kept hearing few terms and mentions of texts, one of which being the Natyashastra. I hadn’t heard of it before but almost every lesson has the mention of it from the instructors so my curiosity and interest kept growing and I finally decided upon reading it.

Now coming to the actual point. This text, when I started reading I was in awe of, wow I’ll get to learn so much about the history of performing arts, a lot of wisdom, knowledge and what not.
Yes, ofcourse this text has that (I’m still to discover, just had started reading) but what else it does have is loads of discrimination. I am just on the second chapter and each and every verse (even hemistich) is full of discriminating instructions.
So, the second chapter is about how a playhouse (for the performance) should be constructed. There are a lot of instructions on each and every step, from selecting the soil, laying the foundation to actually building up stuff. There are particular time instances (asterisms) on which a particular activity should be carried out (even the measuring of the land). Fine till now. What actually started bothering me was mentions of Varnas, how their sections will be divided, what kind of material will be used for each, what kind of food offerings will be made to Brahmins(yes, they get a lot of food in this whole process of building a playhouse) while development of a section (pillar) for each Varna. Then they go into “purity” of the body, how a disfigured or disabled can’t be in a particular ceremony or touch the soil used to build a particular structure and the likes.

It’s not just about this particular text but as I’ve grown up reading a lot of other and discussing all lot others with friends or people who read, this is present everywhere it seems. We can keep blaming humans of keeping discriminating ideas in their heads and ask them to change, evolve, get liberal but the real problem lies in the foundations and our ancient texts are one of them. If your literature (an important source of your culture and history) is going to teach you discrimination, what can really help. Now when I try to think about what could have caused such discriminations to come into existence and then prosper, one idea (which a lot of discriminators will agree to) is that perhaps this is the absolute truth, maybe discrimination is the law, it came from the Gods. But then there is another idea (which came up from a discussion with a friend, who is equally bothered with such things, while discussing the book, Sapiens) which is, perhaps the Brahmins, who apparently seemed to be the only ones getting the chance to communicate in writing (again due to some social circumstances, could have been the only people getting literate) and they made a really good use of the opportunity to cleverly secure themselves the highest authority in the culture and the benefits that comes with it. Then there were people in power, they needed to be taken cared, and hence the Kshatriyas gets the second place, who also need to assume the role of protectors for the former and similarly depending upon the convenience of the Brahmins, the places were decided for the other Varnas. I really go with the second idea, because in all these years of my life, I haven’t seen this discrimination making any sense in this current world (ahh, although due to the virtue of the social systems based out of them, there definitely are a lot of consequences which seems to a majority as actually being a justified reason for the discrimination). For me, a person’s abilities, character and the foundations of their lives makes all sense and nothing else.

(Well here I’m not talking about the reservation system at all, I really hold different views altogether for that.)

This whole thing pisses me so off that I just want to quit reading that stuff but then I really don’t want to miss out on the good side of it which is the knowledge, the wisdom that I seek in first place. That’s what a literary piece should spread ideally and not an evil of discrimination.

Maybe these systems worked fine in the times they were founded (or imagined) because of some reasons (probably because these groups were limited to their professions according to these Varnas and that’s how they were treated based on them) but the current world is not an ounce the same. It poses no such limitations then why do we keep enforcing the same systems (which actually now just exist in the names of people, literally).
But then while I give this argument, I think, if the systems were relevant then and the texts were also written then, then why would they not have a shadow of them. Why do I have to go all emotional about it, perhaps I can ignore that part as being non contemporary and just go with it. Not everything that the texts has is to be taken in inspiration and be hold accountable, we can sometimes forgive our literature as well.
So, while I’m still mad at all this, I guess I can be okay with it and go on. See ya, have a good day!!

Individuality in parent-children relationships: an introspection after Shakuntala Devi.

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 00:40:00 +0000

Just finished watching Shakuntala Devi. Great work from the director Anu Menon and team in putting off such a beautiful story in a beautiful way wrapping up a mathematical genius’ life story in a relevant social context. I was full of a lot of thoughts after watching the movie that I just tried to collect and put them off in writing, just sharing as my personal opinions.

Individuality in a parent-child relationship

The individuality in a parent-child relationship is put beautifully in Shakuntala Devi. Parents need to understand that their children are not their property to make their life decisions and enforce them. Similarly a parent must have the right to prioritise themself. They need not sacrifice themselves for the child.

This social system seems to have been arranged, just like any other one, to protect individuals. When children are incapable, the parents take care of them on their upward slope, it need not be labelled as some godly behaviour and glorified like some great sacrifice and stuff. Similarly the child take care of the parent on their downward slope. It need not be labelled as again some great duty or something. It’s the social structure, which sustains life.

The idea of gratitude certainly ensures that the system completes a cycle without the latter one faultering but the over glorification of these deeds is an unnecessary pressure put on the first receiver i.e. child. Taking their freedom of decision in the name of a price for sacrifices done for them is just unfair. They never asked you. You do that by choice, either for satisfaction of being a good parent or perhaps to have a equal reciprocation.

Similarly, the care that’s been given to a child, the child should not take for granted or assume as a right to have. They should dutifully understand that it’s voluntary. The parent has the right to not take it up without having to face any trial sorts of. They have the right to prioritise their own dreams while they are still able to give you a proper environment to grow. Their time is not your undisputed property, it’s their choice to either share or not with you. You can’t hold them accountable for this.

Using a mutually understood and accepted system as some mandatory duty of any of the individual is just unfair and is destined to create chaos.

Then comes the idea of, “good faith” or “well wishing”. Certainly, a parent is an experienced individual, have exposure to life that can probably help the child if suggested and fit in context. But it is still the child’s right to make the decision. Suggesting is your “well wishing”, but enforcing is not.

Also, sharing a strong bond with the parent helps the child have emotional stability but it’s still not a parent’s duty to sacrifice every other thing and just devote for their child. Instead, more independent they are made, more strong and mature individuals they become. More the pampering, more they are ruined. As an individual, if the parent is supposed to “devote” themselves in the crucial years of their life for the child and not build any base for themselves as an individual (and not as a parent) aren’t they susceptible to the perils of loneliness in the later part. What if the child left them for a different life altogether. What they are left with after all the sacrifice.

In the current society, we really need to understand and accept the individuality of both parent and child. While we try to sustain the system of mutual caregiving and support, we should avoid the osctrasizing of either of them. This certainly will help build a more joyful and empathetic enviornment rather the current chaos where gratefulness will be a choice not a mandate. I guess, this movie really put this in perspective.

The Thinking Brain.

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 22:03:00 +0000

Being a socially awkward individual (yes, in lack of a better word) I usually refrain from conversations with people on various sensible or important topics. It is not because I don’t have any opinions or thoughts on them, it’s just I’ve never bothered about such conversations with real people because all those conversations actually go nonstop in my own head. The brain, being a thinking machine, is continuously running, generating all kinds of thoughts, opinions, views, reflections, stories, imaginations, introspections, conversations, ideas, dreams etc etc. I usually am very careful while conversating on topics of interest, not revealing too much of my side and just listening and then framing responses in my own head.

Why?

Well, because I never found either the conversations or my thoughts important to share. But in recent times, after having really meaningful conversations with few of the close friends (which also includes my dearest colleagues from CivicDataLab) I am coming to realize the importance of such conversations. That, how they are not just limited to the two people’s lives and how common the situations and learning are among a lot of individuals. Conversations (as a means of communication) are a key to share the wisdom you gain through life (which also mostly came from others’ sharings). Yes, it’s no new found knowledge, but just to reiterate, conversations (i.e. communication) is one of the reasons the human race has survived so long and keeps evolving.

After contemplating for a long time (almost a month), I finally rose close to the action and here laying down the anchor. The motivation to instantly act actually came from a friend and former colleague Arun Sudarsan, who also recently started blogging regularly and have been sharing them almost daily.

Writing is anyway something I already do a lot, this is how I trace my own evolution through time and the age. But never before I thought of sharing them all with the outer world like this. I’m opening up the world of my brain for you to read and enter. You can write back to me if you’ve got reflections on them or would just like to have meaningful conversations. You could also leave comments for any critical feedback or any positive responses whatsoever, that will be the way I might figure if the writing is actually making sense or not.

I’ll be tagging all such posts under opinion, so you can also find them all together. See you here again, till then, Stay Tuned!

Disclaimer: I own my thoughts/opinions/reflections and unless I’m deliberately hurting someone’s sentiments, I feel having the right to not alter them.

The ScrumJi Experiment!

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 00:35:00 +0000

We at CivicDataLab(CDL) are a team of Civic Tech enthusiasts working remotely from different parts of India. If you work remotely or are aware of the remote working concept, you must know the variety of challenges one needs to tackle in this adventure. We rely on the concept of Scrum(Ji) to help make remote work for us, where one of us every month takes this responsibility of being the anchor of the team. We use a simple round-robin process here (whoever joins the team becomes a part of the process in the order of joining). Although we don’t necessarily follow the end-to-end scrum process this is just a fancy title we give our team members (as they take the mantle of having a detailed oversight of our monthly workflow) with all due respect. This post is a log of my experience as the ScrumJi and how do we manage it remotely.

I have been a part of CDL for the past 8 months now and January 2019 was my turn to hold the title for the first time. A short journey full of some experiments and a lot of housekeeping for myself. On the last day came the feedback (resulting in a feeling of content :-)) with a request to log the experience. Thus, I am hereby taking the opportunity to share that journey and sharing our procedure along the way.

source: Wallpapercave.com https://wallpapercave.com/wp/wp1924335.jpg

THE HANDOVER

Apoorv, the previous ScrumJi broke the ice and gave a brief on the process. It happened over a phone call and also marked the beginning of my series of experiments. Since there was no formal process of handing over, I came up with the idea of a Wiki - where we can put the information required for a ScrumJi to take over the responsibility. The purpose was to avoid repetitive correspondence and also make the process of handover a little formal. With the Wiki, also came the idea of a dedicated Project Board (we use Taiga) for ScrumJi. This board is actually a Scrum board where a ScrumJi can track their management tasks and set reminders to self.

Recurring Tasks

The ScrumJi needs to do a little housekeeping apart from their regular work. They remind everyone to update their task cards on project boards, schedule standups & other discussions, manage Taiga boards, moderate team discussions, take meeting notes etc. This doesn’t seem like much work if you look at it from the lens of the complexity of the task. Sure, but when you know that all these little things are important for smooth conduct of the team, you start paying more attention. That is the point when it starts to take a considerable amount of your time. So don’t underestimate the work of a ScrumJi!

Big Responsibilities

More than routine housekeeping, there is a whole lot our ScrumJi needs to take care of. They look after our hiring pipeline and remind people to keep on track and respond in time (that’s vital as we don’t want to look cold to the outside world who’s interested in joining us). They encourage people to write blog posts and help them stick to the timeline for it. They sometimes also wear multiple hats(if the cycle has it), like organize Civic Days - our quarterly team offsite, I’ll write a separate piece for it as it’s our life at CDL. (PS: don’t go for the term, it’s not at all like a traditional team offsite and I’ll tell why). And sometimes they become the Grant Manager, to help us fill research grants smoothly and in time; well we are still trying to do that.

They also play a vital role in formalizing our processes. Every month a new ScrumJi picks up the responsibility, they try to observe what our shortcomings are and how we can mitigate them. They invest considerable time in researching and suggesting new processes to adapt as solutions for us to better collaborate as a team. All thanks to this ScrumJi experiment that we as a team are not a complete mess (if a little). Apart from this, the ScrumJi also keep track of cards of conduct. Yes, we have “Cards of Conduct”!!

Join us and you’ll know ;-).

Standup

No, I’m not asking you to. It’s about our regular standups. (Sorry for the lame joke :-P).

I’m careful not to give it a time interval here as we actually haven’t finalized on the appropriate frequency yet. We usually try to have it at least once per week.

The purpose is to get the team on the same page every week and it is literally about getting each one of us on the same page about everything. We discuss the gist of all the projects’ (whether it involves everyone or not) statuses. We brainstorm our potential partners and how we can work to better co-create with them. This really helps the team connect better, given we are a fully remote team.

Though we are still debating on whether we should bombard everyone with the extraneous details of every project but for the time being it’s there in place. Anddd, we also discuss our team’s whereabouts - who is working out of which fancy location and their gastronomes, just to temp each other for our next CivicDays destination.

RECALL THE JOURNEY

To be honest I, at first, was quite reluctant to take this responsibility. As the round-robin turn came to me, I anxiously told myself, “How am I going to manage given I’m just barely 3 months old here and haven’t done such a thing in my past gigs?”

Well, whether I wanted to or not, the responsibility was assigned and I had to proceed. So did I. Although it turned out to be very exciting a job and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it all the way.

I am hesitant to write a long journal hence won’t write every detail and daily activities etc, instead, just share the key takeaways here.

Managing a team is a tedious task:

Why do I say that?

Well not because the team is disorganized or the work is too much to handle. Not at all! But it is difficult to find the right balance between getting things done on stretch and giving the team a necessary space to breathe.

I especially was very much concerned about the latter and had to give special attention to manage that. I did work hard for it and at the end, felt relieved when I didn’t end up messing around.

The trick was easy as I figured out. You don’t need to be afraid of experimenting but just be aware that you don’t ask them to do a lot on top of their regular work. It could be as small as asking them to update their task boards regularly and reminding them before the stand-up or as big as pushing them to write their due blog posts (which could be due for months :-P ).

source: https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohzdDTEckT85lvgiI/giphy.gif

Moderation is another difficult task:

You must already know it. One risks losing the merit of deep conversations at the cost of timely wrap-up. The stand-ups were the battleground for this trade. We used to have a lot to discuss and not enough time to cover it all. One hour, that was it. The ScrumJi board was a big helping hand here through which we could keep track of the things to discuss in upcoming stand-ups. This solved the problem to some extent but still, there are discussions which just run long and we can’t do anything about them.

Well, a little trick here is to follow the discussion and just give fillers every now and then to keep people on track, so as to wrap it up as timely as possible.

>"Hey it seems people are losing track here, can we cover the details over chat?"
>"Hey 'X' can we have a separate discussion for this 'Y' topic that you are detailing here."
>"It seems we need a vote here."

And keep trying whatever you find helpful and document your learning.

Meetings?

We religiously follow our calendars!

We all have our calendars shared with the whole team which makes it easy for the ScrumJi to schedule discussions. We recently added a channel in our chat (guess who?: Rocket!) for just confirming meeting times and availability of members. This idea actually came from a ScrumJi’s complaint of the team not being responsive to their meeting pings. See, we are an evolving team and the ScrumJi is our beacon of guiding light :-)

source: https://www.awn.com/news/watch-boss-baby-back-business-season-2-trailer

Don’t be the Nodding dummy to everything:

Yes, I somehow was that and recently got nice feedback on it. I needed to say no to the requests of change in plans or processes that could have been done with. I was unnecessarily lenient and that somehow negatively affected the outcomes we were expecting.

So, now I know that I have to say No!

source: https://media1.giphy.com/media/26xBDyMaWVlddMPEk/giphy.gif

So here was a short (or long) log of the ScrumJi Experiment. I look forward to the journey ahead here with more learning to come. As we keep holding the baton one by one, we’ll keep sharing our experiences with you. Stay tuned!!

PS: A big thanks to Apoorv Anand, Gaurav Godhwani and team CDL for helping me improve the post.
GIF courtesy: Gaurav Godhwani

Originally published on: [https://medium.com/civicdatalab/the-scrumji-experiment-44b25fe60b55]

GitHub Pages with Jekyll: Scratch up your own blog

Fri, 04 May 2018 17:35:00 +0000

The beginning is always hard. I also went through the difficult procedure of getting started with my own blog. So I am taking this opportunity to try to make it a bit easy for others in the same boat.

If the title didn’t already explain, this article is a 101 for setting up your own blog, right from coding to hosting and serving with a domain name.

I’m assuming here that:

You know the basics of web development i.e. programming with HTML, CSS, and javascript. (Not necessarily to follow this article but for maintaining your blog, you will need to know them.)
You use GitHub or any other version control system, not necessarily be knowing what version control is(just in case). If you didn’t use GitHub before, then please first go through this beginner’s guide and get familiar enough to be able to set up a repository and maintain it.
You understand templating in web development and of course, understand OOPS.

Note: I use ubuntu 16.04.

Update(02-07-2019): I now use ubuntu 18.04 so have updated the installation instructions recently according to 18.04.

There are two things to keep in mind,

The process is easy, only when you follow smartly.
Google Is Your Friend if you get stuck somewhere.

Note: I will only describe the bare minimum for setup stuff, for the rest, there are official docs to follow. Nothing works better than them, Believe me.

Let’s begin!

1. Setting up GitHub Pages!

Before getting into the development of the blog, we are going to set up the hosting first as it isn’t going to require much effort. We are going to leverage the free hosting provided by GitHub in the name GitHub Pages.

It is as easy as creating a repository. Follow these steps:

Create a new repository with the name <username>.github.io, where username is your GitHub username like mine is “curioswati”.

Clone the repository to your local filesystem with:

  git clone https://github.com/username/username.github.io

(Don’t forget to replace username with your GitHub username.)

2. Setup your custom domain!(Optional)

Buy a domain name from some Domain name provider(the how-to is out of the scope of this post). Follow this GitHub guide for setting up your custom domain with GitHub. The procedure in short is,

Create a CNAME(the name of the file is CNAME, no extensions) file in the root of the repository. It should contain your domain name, as mine contains: “swatij.me”. You can create CNAME from GitHub’s Web UI by following the steps:
- Go to your repository <username.github.io>.
- Go to Settings.
- Under “Custom Domain”, write your domain’s name and click “Save”.
  
  After this, you will see a message saying that “CNAME was created”.
Create 2 records in the DNS by following along with this post. The DNS changes can take a full day to reflect at max. So you would have to wait for a day at max to see your site running on your <domain.com>. Till then, you can see it at <username.github.io>. Which will also take at least 10 minutes after creating the repository to go live(before that, it will show a 404 on the page).
Later, when DNS changes are up, your <username.github.io> will also redirect to your <domain.com>.

So, the extra setup is done, we have our blog hosted on GitHub and served at a <domain.com>. But right now it’s blank as we have nothing in our repository to be shown. We need to convert it to a blog now. So let’s move on to the next and the most important step: “Development”.

3. Introducing Jekyll

Jekyll is a static site generator. Yes, it generates “static” sites. That’s why you can’t use it for full-fledged websites with many catching features. But that’s what it is not intended for. The introduction of its site includes the word “blog aware”, which itself tells the story. I for myself never regretted using it in past 4 years. It takes some extra efforts to get something new in, but that’s worth the effort. Because the selling point is, “Your content is yours forever”. It uses Liquid(templating language) to render the content which can be written in any of HTML or Markdown.

4. Installation and Configuration for Jekyll

I. Installation

You have 2 options:

Either download this gist, extract and run the python script.
Or follow the documentation.

The gist mentioned above does the following:

Checks for the operating system version (the commands will work with Debian based Linux system only).

If the install is instructed, runs the following commands:

Install build dependencies

(for ubuntu <= 14.04)

  sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make build-essential software-properties-common python-software-properties zlib1g-dev

(for ubuntu > 14.04)

  sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make build-essential software-properties-common zlib1g-dev

Install ruby 2.4.0 or above

(you may already have Ruby installed on your computer. You can check inside the terminal by typing: ruby -v.)

  sudo apt-get install ruby-full

Install Ruby Gems

  echo '# Install Ruby Gems to ~/gems' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export GEM_HOME="$HOME/gems"' >> ~/.bashrc
  echo 'export PATH="$HOME/gems/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
  source ~/.bashrc

Install latest Jekyll(3.7.3 at the time of publishing.)

  gem install jekyll bundler

If uninstall is instructed, runs the following command.
```
  sudo apt-get remove ruby* ruby*-dev rubygems
```

So, you can manually use these commands to install Jekyll with ruby or can use the gist or docs, whatever you prefer.
Check if Jekyll was installed by the following command:

jekyll --version

It should show you jekyll x.x.x.

here are some troubleshooting tips if you need them. If you run into some new kind of issue, do consider reporting it here.

II. Configuration

First, lets’ create our blog!!

Change the directory to your newly created repository and type the following command from inside.
```
  jekyll new .
```
You have two options from here on, I am not getting into details and just guiding you through the easier one. Remove the file named Gemfile and then start the development server.
```
  jekyll serve
```

Now let’s see it running, navigate to http://localhost:4000 from your browser. You can see an introduction page.

The other option that I didn’t mention was to use the gem based theme, which will require you to install bundler. You can find out more here and the basic usage here.

5. Let’s talk Jekyll

We’ll cover some concepts here so you can have a head start. Later on, you can always go to the docs for details.

But before that, create some directories for important files that I’m going to mention below.
Your directory structure should look like:

username.github.io/
    |- _posts/
    |- _layouts/
    |- _includes/
    |- _config.yml
    |- index.html
    |- static/

The _config.yml

This file is the communication link between you and Jekyll. You will see when you open it. It deals with everything that you will ever use with Jekyll. For the starters, fill in your relevant details. These are site variables which will be accessible elsewhere with site.<variable_name>. So you can use this file for site-wide configurations.

Mine looks like:

title: My FullName
email: my_email@domain.com
description: > # this means to ignore newlines until "baseurl:"
  Site Description.
baseurl: "" # the subpath of your site, e.g. /blog/
url: "http://username.github.io" # the base hostname & protocol for your site
twitter_username: my twitter_handle
github_username:  my github_username

The Front Matter

It is a very cool feature of Jekyll. It is the content enclosed between --- at the beginning of any file. You can specify the front matter by adding the following at the beginning of your post page.

---
layout: default
title:  Title for the page
date:   YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
tags: ['tagA', 'tagB', 'tagC']
categories:  category subcategory
permalink: /:categories/:title
---

The --- are very important!!
The content inside is self-explanatory. The “categories” is a very useful feature. Categories are used to classify and organize your posts in directories in your repository by Jekyll. From the above front matter, jekyll will create a directory hierarchy like /_site/category/subcategory/post.html. Everything is well organized already.

Then you can see “permalink” here, it will automatically take the category names, separate them with / and prepend them to the title and form a permalink for the post. So your post will have a link similar to http://username.github.io/category/subcategory/title.

“Tags” are what they are elsewhere. You can organize your posts according to tags by mentioning them like this in the posts and then creating lists where you can iterate on tags with post.tags.

“Layouts” deserves a section, so follow along.

The _Layouts

“Layout”, is similar to templates in frameworks’ ecosystem. They are good for reusability as you don’t have to add same code blocks(take head, header and footer etc for example) in each HTML file, instead, they are plugged into all of the HTML files that inherit a layout which has them.

The default layout for our blog will look something like this:

Create a file named default.html inside the _layouts/ directory with the following content.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

  { % include head.html %}

  <body>

    <div>
      { % include header.html %}
    </div>
    
    <div class="page-content" style="margin-bottom: 15%; margin-top: 7%;">
      <div class="wrapper">
        { { content }}
      </div>
    </div>

    <div>
    { % include footer.html %}
    </div>

    <script src="/static/js/jquery-1.11.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
    <script src="/static/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

  </body>

</html>

The extra space here "{ %" and here "{ {" is intentional to avoid having them interpreted by the engine.

You can create many other layouts while extending this default one.

for example, here is a layout for post detail page:

---
layout: default
---
<div class="post">

  <header class="post-header">
    <h1 class="post-title">{ { page.title }}</h1>
  </header>

  <article class="post-content">
    { { content }}
  </article>

</div>

Here, there is again a { { content }} block, which will be filled by a post that is using this layout.
So, now you might be getting the picture. The first layout had a { { content }} block which shall be filled in by this page template and then there will be a “post.html” which will fill in the { { content }} block.
This is how “inheritance” is leveraged here.

The _includes

In the above layouts, you saw some _includes blocks.
Those include blocks are different HTML modules kept inside _includes/ directory. So whenever you want to attach a block of code in multiple places, you put it inside an HTML file in the _includes/ directory and then can use it with { % include filename %} wherever you need it.

So, as you can see in the default layout that we wrote above, it includes footer.html, head.html, and header.html. So you need to create those files and put them inside _includes/. I have used it also for “google analytics” script, “reading time”, “comments” etc on my own blog.

The head.html should contain the head block of your HTML page i.e. it should have title block, meta tags, and css imports etc. The header.html could contain the site header with navigation that should list various other pages of your blog.

The footer.html can have links to your other profiles and the description for your site.

One more important feature that I haven’t talked about is “collections”. Just briefing it here. I’ll wrap up Jekyll with it.

The collections

Collections are useful when you have to show some data that has many items with similar properties. The best example for me to put it right now is GitHub Projects. So, for example, you want to showcase your GitHub projects on your blog/personal website. The data that you want to show might follow a pattern here, for example, the data can have some common fields among all items(projects) i.e. project name, project URL, some description, an image etc.
So one way to show them on the site is creating an HTML page and filling in all the details one by one by repeating the blocks with all the content.
The other, but better way is to use “collections”.

Let me show how to do this.

Create a directory named _projects/ inside the root of the blog directory. You can keep any name that you want to give to your collection. Just keep that _ at the beginning.
In your _config.yml file, add a block for collections like this:

title: Full Name
... # other fields
... # other fields
... # other fields
collections:
  - projects

create .md files for each project with the details filled in. For example, project1.md could look something like this:

---
name: "Project 1"
repo: "https://github.com/username/project1"
gh-page: "/project1"
liveurl: "https://project1.com/"
---

and so on for all the projects.

Create the page on which you want to show the projects, say projects.html. In that file, you can iterate over your collection of projects. Like this:

{ % for project in site.projects %}
    <span>{ { project.name }}</span>
    <span>{ { project.repo }}</span>
    <span>{ { project.gh-page }}</span>
    <a href="{ { project.liveurl }}">live-link</span>
{ % endfor %}

This way, maintaining that page becomes easier, all you have to update is those .md files, whenever the data changes. Refer collections in Jekyll’s docs for more.

I have been using liquid tags throughout the article, If you want to learn about them(which you have to), please follow Jekyll’s template guide.

Then we have variables.

I have just scratched the surface, jekyll has many cool features that will amaze you. You can refer the docs for all of them. There are some more useful things here.

6. Writing Posts

So, all the background scratched, now we move on to action. Let’s first fill in the index page to list our posts when we create them.

Put this inside the index.md or index.html whichever you have:

---
layout: default
---

<div class="home">

  <h1 class="page-heading">Posts</h1>

  <ul class="post-list">
    { % for post in site.posts %}
      <li>
        <a class="post-link" href="{ { post.url | prepend: site.baseurl }}"></a>
      </li>
    { % endfor %}
  </ul>

</div>

Inside the _posts/ directory, create a file with whatever title you want to give to your post. For example, first-post.md or first-post.html.

Put the front matter at the beginning. It could look like:

---
title:  "First Post with Jekyll"
date:   2018-03-23 12:30:00
categories: category1 subcategory1
permalink: /:categories/:title
---

Below the front matter, write your posts in Markdown or HTML whichever you prefer.
You can then see the post listed on the homepage. It will have the permalink as http://username.github.io/category1/category2/first-post

If you followed along, the final directory structure should look like:

username.github.io/
    |- _posts/
        |- first-post.md

    |- _layouts/
        |- default.html

    |- _includes/
        |- head.html
        |- header.html
        |- footer.html

    |- _projects/
        |- project1.md
        |- project2.md

    |- _config.yml
    |- index.html
    |- projects.html
    |- static/

For keeping your resources, like css and js scripts and fonts, you can put them inside the static folder and use relative links like static/css/bootstrap.css for linking them in HTML.

So this is it for jekyll. As I said, I have just mentioned the bare minimum for you to get started. You can find other features and play with them while moving on with your blog.
You can find the code for my own blog here.

7. Deployment

In case you are not using “github-pages” and want to deploy your blog elsewhere. Jekyll has it all covered too. you can visit the Deployment Page for all the details.

So, we are done with the initial blog setup, you can check out the references for more.

I’ll be writing about other features that I gradually added to my blog, in upcoming posts.
Stay tuned!

Originally published on: [https://www.zeolearn.com/magazine/github-pages-with-jekyll-scratch-up-your-own-blog]

Swati Jaiswal

My year in books - 2021.

My Fragile Commenting System.

Comments 💬

The Problem(s)❓

I.

II.

III.

Resolutions 😌

Remembering Dadaji on his 1st Death Anniversary.

My year in books - 2020.

Power dymanics and What if the oppressor was the oppressed?: From the perspective of the receiving end of the oppression.

Discrimination in our ancient texts and my frustration about it.

Individuality in parent-children relationships: an introspection after Shakuntala Devi.

Individuality in a parent-child relationship

The Thinking Brain.

The ScrumJi Experiment!

GitHub Pages with Jekyll: Scratch up your own blog

1. Setting up GitHub Pages!

2. Setup your custom domain!(Optional)

3. Introducing Jekyll

4. Installation and Configuration for Jekyll

I. Installation

II. Configuration

5. Let’s talk Jekyll

The _config.yml

The Front Matter

The _Layouts

The _includes

The collections

6. Writing Posts

7. Deployment

References