What I read in 2023
The absurdity of the hope that we will do things differently in the new year than what we did in the year gone by is mindboggling. Yet, hope and optimism force us to persist in our practice of making resolutions. Last year, I had planned to read copiously on the nexus of nature, climate change, and religion but barely managed to read a couple of books. This was part of my old practice of picking a theme and going deep on that subject. While the reading lists that I had for this year remained unconquered I devoured a lot of material on these topics. My shelf of half-read books is getting bigger and bigger. There are many great books worth reading and I have been made helpless by time poverty. Being selective is the only option.
Non-fiction
- Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
- The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
- Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly
- The Creative Act – A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
- Life is Hard – How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya
- Midlife by Kieran Setiya
- Climate, Catastrophe and Faith by Philip Jenkins
- Everything and Nothing by Tony Cartwright
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
Fiction
- The Year of Locust by Terry Hayes
- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
- The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
- The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
- Long Shadows by David Baldacci
2022 2021 2020 2019 2018(2) 2018(1) 2017(2) 2017(1) 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006
The smog and bad air quality is no longer confined to North India. We travelled from Pondichéry to Chennai on 14th January almost in zero visibility. Bhogi Pongal, Lohri, Makar Sankranti all have some rituals that result in burning of the old and getting ready for new. Unfortunately with growing population, destruction of our trees and forest, and changing weather pattern, many of our cultural celebrations have become a challenge. We did not respect our culture of protecting the nature and celebrating the nature.. the ramifications are now more visible and horrible. #smog #airquality
The luxury of clean air and sunlight.
Finished reading: Doppelganger by Naomi Klein 📚
A last moment plan change and we ended up in Pondichéry, away from the smogy and gloomy Delhi. And, in Pondichéry we have our favourite place for celebratory dinner: favourite more for its memories than its food. Also its favourite of our daughter as she likes the icecreams here!
For the last 5-6 years, my backpain emerges just before the year end and makes me bedridden for 5-10 days ruining all the plans of reflections, pending todos that I want to take care in the year-end break. This year is no different. Hope to get better and then I am taking care of this backpain for good.
Green Credits, Carbon Credits and several other emerging result based finance instruments are rapidly gaining traction among different stakeholders yet their effective implementation requires a lot of capacity building and awareness creation.
For the last couple of years, I have been running sessions at Indian Institute of Forest Management for senior practitioners and Indian Forest Service (IFS) - officers on these topics in different MDPs and workshops. These sessions and workshops are not only a way to create awareness about these topics on these key emerging areas but also an opportunity to learn about the issues from different stakeholders’ point of view.
These workshops, sessions are also an attempt to reduce the information asymmetry and ensure that the benefits of these financial instruments are shared equitably and fairly.
#CarbonCredits #ClimateFinance #ClimateAction #Education #Career
Seems that with the cap on the number of notes in the Evernote Free plan, Evernote is going to be history soon. Unless the Bending Spoon guys have something so exciting that can force everyone to pay for the premium plans. Unfortunately, the last two years of developments do not give much hope. I have been a user since 2008, with more than 4000 notes. Still paying for it, but not counting on it anymore.
At #CoP28 with the tag line of my previous employer that still drives what I do in the new role. #cliamtechange #climateaction
Every year at CoP I look for its evolution beyond the negotiation of countries and world leaders. The civic participation and engagement are critical for enforcing an effective action plan. And it’s a delight to see our young generation’s increased participation in this event. #COP28 #COP28UAE
2023 My Tech Setup
For the last couple of years, I have struggled with my tech setup, partially because of my desire to have one minimalist setup that meets my different computing needs and partially because of Apple messing up its product lineup due to the planned transition from Intel to Apple Silicon. You can guess from the list below that the desire to meet all my computing needs with one setup was futile, and I ended up with multiple devices. I am also paranoid about tech failures when I critically need them, so a minimalist setup is going to be a nightmare for me.
My ideal setup should have been a MacBook Air with an HDMI port and a powerful all-in-one, such as the 27-inch iMac with Apple Silicon. Unfortunately, neither option exists. I tried having a superlight laptop in the form of the Samsung Galaxy 2 Pro (850 grams, i7, 16GB), but it has a horrible battery life and the usual challenges of the Windows OS (frequent heating in sleep mode, sluggishness). Additionally, many of the apps that I use are not available on Windows OS, although I did try to switch to those apps which are cross-platform.
So, here is the list of hardware and softwares (default and regular drivers) that I have been using this year.
Hardware
Laptops
- Macbook Pro 14 M1 Pro
- Samsung Galaxy 2 Pro (i7 13th Gen, 16gb, 512gb)
Desktops
- iMac 24 inch M1
- Custom Built PC (i7 11th gen, 32 gb)
Phone and Tablets
- Ipad Pro M2 with cellular
- Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
- Apple iPhone 14 pro max
Keyboard and mouse
- Logitech MX Keys
- Logitech MX Master 3
Cameras
- Sony A7iii
- Fuji x100f
Headphones
- Sony wh1000m3
- AirPods Pro gen 2
Software and Apps
- File Storage : Dropbox
- Note Taking: Obsidian
- Task Manager : Tick Tick
- Calendar: Fantastical
- Note / File Archiving: Evernote
- Text Expander: Keyboard Maestro
- Browser: Arc
- Journal: Day One
- Mail App: Mail App
- Blog Client: Mars Edit
- Quick Note Taking: Drafts
- Password Manager: 1Password
- VPN: Proton VPN
- Authentication App: Authy
- Photo Backup: iCloud
#COP28 #cop28uae Every time the COP happens we get the usual jokes of too many people taking flights to attend this. While surely there are ways to do this more efficiently but we should not get trapped by the feeling of personal guilt. A lot of us are forced the lifestyle that we have but many have the choices but yet they chose to destroy the planet for personal greed. CoP should move beyond the conference of parties where countries should negotiate the ideal climate action for them but to become a forum for citizen to demand action from those who are responsible for this climate crisis. #climatechange
In the last 30-35 years, we have not seen such dominance of Indian cricket. This is a very new kind of team and very new kind of dominance in the world cricket. And, for today’s generation who are in awe of Virat (even we are in awe to be honest!) just imagine what kind of milestone Sachin setup in an era where he was setting a different standards of the one day cricket for the world.
The way the folks are criticising the firecracker bans in Delhi is scary. What it suggest that they are not thinking logically and they are almost too rigid in their approach to hear any logical discussion on air pollution. #AirPollution #AQI
Ma Mundeshwari temple in Kaimur (Bihar) is the oldest functional Hindu temple. Although, not very wellknown outside Bihar, this is one of the most revered temples in this region.
Kelaniya Raja Vihar, Colombo (Sri Lanka). If you are in Sri Lanka, this is surely worth a visit for it serenity and peace.
Sunset on Colombo Beach, Sri Lanka
At Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara. Buddha gave sermons here during his visits to Sri Lanka. #colombo #SriLanka
The cutest Ravan and the artist who made this. There was a lot of heartburn after it was burnt.
