Life Beyond Code

We have a weekly activity called Friday Learning Series (FLS) at Amazon. Basically, FLS is intended to be a knowledge-sharing mechanism within our company, and the topics range from Investment Guidelines to tech-heavy stuff like AJAX.

This week, we had an external speaker doing the FLS. Mr Rajesh Setty, a hugely successful author and serial entrepreneur.

The topic was "Life Beyond Code - Ten ways to distinguish yourself", and most of us walked into the talk expecting another Self-Help sermon. But we were pleasantly surprised as the talk was very engrossing and Rajesh came across as an astute individual with some interesting insights on life, career, personal development etc. Check out Rajesh's blog for more on this topic.

The talk set me into some serious introspection... Work life has been so hectic for the past 18 months or so, that I have completely lost touch with most of the things that I really love to do. Like listening to good Hindustani Classical music, practising on my Tabala, going on long drives on my bike during the weekend, Reading ...

One of the things that Rajesh mentioned was about making and keeping promises to yourself. So, I am going to make some promises to myself and try to keep them over the next few months. Here goes...

1. I am going to listen to good classical music more often. We are tuned in to WorldSpace at home, and they have a dedicated Hindustani music channel and a Carnatic music channel. ( which my mom can't get enough of! ) I should start tuning in more often.

2. I will start playing the Tabala atleast once a week( to start with ). This is achievable, while resuming Tabala classes is a bit of a stretch.

3. I will try to read atleast two books every month ( books unrelated to my work ). I have a pile of books waiting to be read,( Chaos, The World is Flat, Blink, Liar's Poker... ) and I should start on them soon. I read The Godfather in one stretch a few days ago. Brings back memories of those college days when you had all the time in the world, and I used to read atleast 2 books a week.( each book in one sitting ). The Godfather is an engrossing read, and I did it in 7 hours straight.

4. I will get my bike into running condition ASAP. And start using that faithful companion atleast once a week.

5. I should really start learning photography soon. It seems a criminal waste of available opportunity, as I know a National Geographic award winning photographer, and a couple of my friends are really good at it!

6. More trekking, hiking, wildlife visits. Amogh moonlights as a forest-ranger at wildlife sanctuaries during most weekends, and I can certainly accompany him sometimes.