Anuradha Sridharan

 This is one of the books that is highly recommended by a lot of people. It is a compilation of thoughts shared by Naval Ravikant on the topics of wealth, happiness, and purpose. His tweets have a lot of wisdom and he has this uncanny ability to convey valuable insights in such simple words. The author does a neat job of compiling Naval's thoughts that were shared in the form of tweets, podcasts, and interviews. I found the first half of the book that focuses on Wealth a lot more engaging. Many thoughts on how to build wealth, especially the idea of building specific knowledge and using leverage were insightful. A few thoughts that struck a chord with me: "Understand ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you." "Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most." "Escape competition through authenticity." "Earn with your mind, not your time." "Retirement is when you stop sacrificing ...

  I'm currently reading this insightful book "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant". This one particular line made a lot of sense on the topic of physical health "To have peace of mind, you have to have peace of body first." A few days back, I was having mild but persistent stomach pain. As I observed the other symptoms, it felt like a UTI. After 2 days of home remedies, the pain subsided and I felt normal. During those 2 days, I felt quite restless and irritated. I wasn't able to give my 100% to my daily responsibilities. There was this unease and uncomfortable feeling, though it wasn't debilitating to the extent that I needed to rest completely. Once our body signals that something is not right in the form of physical pain, unless we address those pains, there is no peace in the body. Sometimes, we tend to suppress these signals by popping painkillers. The signal stops working in the interim but comes back with a vengeance. As the peace of the body gets affe...

Celebrating the completion of one more round around the Sun with a plate of Kesari bhaath and jolada rotti holige oota 😂 Last 2 years, birthdays were indoors. This time, I wanted to spend time in my favorite places in Bengaluru - the old parts of town, traditional and residential areas of Basavanagudi. After battling the morning rush hour traffic, we headed for breakfast in Brahmin's Coffee Bar. Fueled up with Idli/vade, kesari bhaath and a frothy cup of strong filter coffee. Spent a quiet, peaceful hour at Sri Ramakrishna Mutt. Sat and meditated for some time and then browsed through their bookstore. Bought a few books as usual! :) Visited temples around this area - Dodde Ganapathi, Big Bull temple, Govardhan temple. Felt so happy to visit Sri Raghavendra Swamy temple on a Thursday. For lunch, I wanted to have a typical North Karnataka style oota. I had earlier seen a couple of reviews of Basaveshwar Khanavali by Kripal Amanna and wanted to go there for a while. The sumptuous tha...

 For the past two days, I'm in a "rearranging" sort of mode. I rearranged the Philosophy section of my bookshelf - gathered the books I've read in this genre in the past couple of years and the books I plan to read in the next few months. I also took some time to rearrange and extend my Pooja shelf - brought down the idols and framed pictures arranged in a cardboard box from the loft and arranged them, along with my existing arrangement. Sorted out the devotional/Shloka books and kept the ones I want to learn in my vicinity. After both these efforts, I felt so rejuvenated and energized. As we go through the objects, they bring back beautiful memories from the past. For eg, as I was sorting out the framed pictures, I just paused and was looking at a particular pic of Guruvayoor Krishna. It's been so long since we visited the temple. The last I visited was in 2015. During my childhood, I used to visit the temple often - the busy temple street, the colorful shops, th...

 It is an irony that in my birthday month, a book on the topic of death knocks on my attention space.  Having lost my mother at a young age, I have so many questions about this phenomenon called Death. At the same time, this is a topic that is avoided at home at all costs - no discussions, no questions asked, and most importantly, not even a mention of the word. When I stumbled upon this title, I was excited to see that it was written by Sadhguru, whose writings and talks I adore and respect a lot. It has been such an intense and powerful read in the past couple of weeks.  I had read his book on Karma last year and it helped me understand so many intricacies and demystified the topic with such clarity. In this book on Death, he has covered in detail, various aspects right from what we mean by Death, to the different stages, quality, and types of death. In the first chapter, Sadhguru emphasizes the meaning of death and how it is misinterpreted. As much as Life is nat...

 K and I are so different, but one of the few common interests is our love for cats. We had always wanted to adopt a cat ever since we got married but were hesitant to execute the idea, given that we were in a rented home earlier. "What you seek is seeking you" - Turns out that cats have an attraction towards us as well! Wherever we go, we end up seeing cats and they are quite friendly to us. We are cat parents since 2014 when our pet cat W adopted us. Though we wanted to only feed her on the balcony, she slowly invited herself into our home.  W has been the MOST easy-going pet so far. She cuddles with us, sits on our lap, and purrs loudly. She keeps herself sparkling clean. Her white and grey fur is always shiny, without a speck of dirt. When it is time to do her "business", she would ask us to open the balcony door and step out. In her prime years, she used to hunt rats and squirrels and try to bring them inside our home. Until you appreciate her efforts, she woul...

 Have you ever experienced this? You wake up in the morning after a good night's sleep and your mind feels blank. It takes a while for you to realize what day it is and what's the plan for today. You had a terrible round of migraine for hours. You recover from it after a long day and the next morning, your mind is so empty. It feels like your brain underwent a deep cleansing process. You had been on a vacation where you were disconnected from your devices and you enjoyed the whole trip, being in the present. When you come back to your regular day, your mind feels empty - no agenda, no to-do lists come to your mind. "Vacation hangover", it might be called. This emptiness leads to a feeling of a blank slate where you experience natural, slow and deep breaths. Your mind loves this state and wants to continue in it for longer. It doesn't want to be rushed, it doesn't want to restart long to-do lists, it just wants to BE. According to the Yogic philosophy, Akaash/e...

 A proper vacation after almost 3 years. Our last holiday was a 5-day trip to Yercaud back in Nov 2019. Although we did a couple of 3-day trips to Chikmagalur (Mar 2020) and Mysore (Dec 2021), they were too short to be called a "vacation"! While K and I were planning for a vacation, I was pretty sure that I wanted to go to a new place - one that we have never visited before. Hampi had been on my wish list for a long time. We confirmed our homestay bookings, made a list of places to visit (and eat), packed our bags, and boarded our pets in a pet boarding center. Life has changed so much in the last 3 years, that I did feel a pang of hesitation to step out of our comfort zone (home, routine, home food, pets, and other arrangements). But I do miss the value of experiences that travel brings in. So glad we proceeded with our trip, even with a little trepidation in the back of our minds. Day 1 We left our home around 5:30 AM, took the NICE road, and stopped for a quick breakfast a...

  Recently, watched a beautiful Malayalam movie "19(1)(a)", with the main protagonists played by two of my favorite actors- Nithya Menon and Vijay Sethupathi. Realistic portrayal, good screenplay, beautiful Kerala locales, and more importantly, impactful writing that leaves a mark after the movie ends. I could resonate with both the characters and their opposite nature, more so with Nithya's. In one of the scenes, she says, "I have always done what others expect of me". Story of my life until my early 30s. The rebellious nature kicked in ONLY after motherhood. The extended family kept asking, "When is the good news? When are you starting a family? All your younger cousins have given birth. Why are you delaying pregnancy?". And when I did give the good news, the same extended family didn't offer any support and went about their own lives. That's when the rebel in me came alive. And I started to take charge of my life in ways that suit me and my ...

Imagine this: You have started to make healthier food choices, but your spouse hasn't come on board. You have been following a consistent exercise routine, but others in the family continue their sedentary lifestyles. You have prioritized sleep and follow a strict "no-devices-after-9PM" rule, but others binge-watch Netflix until 1 AM. It gets frustrating when we go through these experiences. I often go through such emotions and react instantly, but over time, I have realized the following: The reason behind such frustrations is due to the expectation we have of others. Years back, when I went for an AOL program, I learned this valuable insight - "Expectations reduce joy, surprises enhance joy". If we deeply analyze our emotions, there is always an underlying expectation that leads to suffering. In this case, the expectation is that other family members should start taking responsibility for their health. Everyone goes through a wellness journey. The starting poi...

 "Do you remember everything you read?", someone had posed this question. Short answer - Not at all 🙂 Long answer - my intention to read books is not to remember every single point or insight. I'm not reading for the sake of any competitive exams🙂 Thank God, those days are behind me. I now read because I love reading. When I read, I highlight all sentences/phrases/passages that struck a chord with me. Writing book reviews help me summarize my takeaways, which I revisit whenever needed. If I need to reference a particular topic at a later point in time, I know exactly which book I need to check and I look it up immediately. I have a copy of all books that I have read and found valuable - either as a physical copy or on Kindle. I'm very particular about not lending my books🙂 Books aren't just sources of information or facts. Imagine your brain/mind as a huge palace with infinite rooms that are locked. Any new insight that we come across is a Key to opening a room...