Monthly Archives: April 2021

2021 Week 16 Update

Posted on by
2

GG & BB finished their first week of school and GG is already stressed! BB on the other hand is more chill, but I am happy that this semester, he is taking more responsibility and has been coming home and revising his work and doing some pre-reading for the next lecture. I am hoping this is not a flash in the pan and he will be consistent throughout the semester.

Today’s quote is about persistence and resilience. It’s not really attributed to anyone but what it means is that everytime we fall down, we need to get up, dust ourselves off and go on. At some point, we will stop falling down. A rejection is not the end of the world, but in many cases, it is a redirection from the universe to something else.

Source

India is facing a health crisis today with the new wave of COVID-19 cases. The past few days, I have been reading and watching news about what is happening in the ground and it is distressing to say the least. Hospitals are out of space and sick people are being moved around from hospital to hospital and being turned away from each because they can’t admit them. People are dying on the streets, in front of hospitals and on the way to someplace which can admit them in ambulences and their family and loved ones just watch helplessly and do nothing! Life giving oxygen is also not available in many cities and the little that is available is snapped up in a jiffy and there are deaths reported due to a lack of oxygen. Many of these deaths were preventable only if treatment and oxygen had been given on time. There is a sharp rise in daily cases and for multiple days this week, India’s daily cases have breached new highs each day.

Even Singapore is seeing an increase in new cases, though now all short-term visitors from India have been banned and those with a travel history to India in the last fourteen days have an increased quarantine period from 14 to 21 days.

In all this, personally for me, I am happy that none of my extended family and friends have been affected and I pray it stays this way till things are back to normal. My parents got their second dose of the vaccine last week. They are still being cautious though and don’t venture outside unless its absolutely necessary and that’s a good thing as given their age, medical history and the current situation in the country, I fear the worst should they contract the virus.

Anyway, looks like 2021 will be a repeat of 2020 and so please stay safe, stay masked and get your vaccine doses as soon as possible.

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win – Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

Sent to the most violent battlefield in Iraq, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s SEAL task unit faced a seemingly impossible mission: help U.S. forces secure Ramadi, a city deemed “all but lost.” In gripping firsthand accounts of heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories in SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, they learned that leadership—at every level—is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails.Willink and Babin returned home from deployment and instituted SEAL leadership training that helped forge the next generation of SEAL leaders. After departing the SEAL Teams, they launched Echelon Front, a company that teaches these same leadership principles to businesses and organizations. From promising startups to Fortune 500 companies, Babin and Willink have helped scores of clients across a broad range of industries build their own high-performance teams and dominate their battlefields.

Now, detailing the mind-set and principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult missions in combat, Extreme Ownership shows how to apply them to any team, family or organization. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic such as Cover and Move, Decentralized Command, and Leading Up the Chain, explaining what they are, why they are important, and how to implement them in any leadership environment.

A compelling narrative with powerful instruction and direct application, Extreme Ownership revolutionizes business management and challenges leaders everywhere to fulfill their ultimate purpose: lead and win.

World Book and Copyright Day

Posted on by
Reply
Source

Today is the World Book and Copyright Day also known as World Book Day. I have written previously about this day, so hop there to know more about the history of why this day has been celebrated.

The World Book and Copyright Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognise the scope of books, a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures. On this occasion, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations.

Source

The original idea of this day was from the Spanish writer Vicente Clavel Andrés as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes, first on 7 October, his birth anniversary, then on 23 April, his death anniversary. In 1995 at UNESCO’s General Conference held in Paris, it was decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is symbolic in world literature as it is also the anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors.

Source

This year, when many schools and institutes of learning have been shut because of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, reading has become an essential habit, more than ever. As more people spend time at home and limit social gatherings, the power of books should and can be leveraged to combat isolation, reinforce ties between people, expand our horizons, while stimulating our minds and creativity. Books have the unique ability both to entertain and to teach. They are at once a means of exploring realms beyond our personal experience through exposure to different authors, universes and cultures, and a means of accessing the deepest recesses of our inner selves.

Not just during the month of April, but all year round, it is critical to take the time to read on your own or with your children, if they are too young to read on their own. It is a time to celebrate the importance of reading, foster children’s growth as readers and promote a lifelong love of literature and integration into the world of work. Through reading and the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, we can open ourselves to others despite distances, and we can travel thanks to our imagination, even though leisure travel has stopped more or less across the world.

Source

The 2021 World Book Capital is Tbilisi, Georgia. Cities designated as UNESCO World Book Capital undertake to carry out activities with the aim of encouraging a culture of reading and diffusing its values in all ages and population groups in and out of the national borders. The cities commit to promoting books and fostering reading during a 12 months period between one World Book and Copyright Day and the next.

So please read today if you don’t otherwise read often. If you are a parent with a child too young to read, sit down with them with a favourite book and spend time reading and inculcating the love and joy that comes when you read a good book. For parents with older children, be a good role model and lead by example and show to your children how important reading is. I am going to spend most of today and the weekend with a good book, some nice hot tea or coffee and just read. What about you?

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Lazy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t, and Get Stuff Done – Kendra Adachi

Being a Lazy Genius isn’t about doing more or doing less. It’s about doing what matters to you.

The chorus of “shoulds” is loud. You should enjoy the moment, dream big, have it all, get up before the sun, track your water consumption, go on date nights, and be the best. Or maybe you should ignore what people think, live on dry shampoo, be a negligent PTA mom, have a dirty house, and claim your hot mess like a badge of honor.

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed by the mixed messages of what it means to live well.

Kendra Adachi, the creator of the Lazy Genius movement, invites you to live well by your own definition and equips you to be a genius about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t. Everything from your morning routine to napping without guilt falls into place with Kendra’s thirteen Lazy Genius principles, including:

  • Decide once
  • Start small
  • Ask the Magic Question
  • Go in the right order
  • Schedule rest

Discover a better way to approach your relationships, work, and piles of mail. Be who you are without the complication of everyone else’s “shoulds.” Do what matters, skip the rest, and be a person again.

Earth Day

Posted on by
Reply
Source

Human beings live on planet Earth and it is our sacred duty to preserve our planet for our future generations. The connection that we have to nature, plants, and the land is integral to our health and all that we are. Earth Day, celebrated tomorrow on 22 April each year reminds us to take care of our planet, whether it’s cleaning up litter, planting more trees, recycling and repurposing, or going on a walk in a green space amidst the wildflowers.

Earth Day 2021 will mark the 51st anniversary of celebrating this day which was first organised in 1970 in the USA. Dealing with dangerously serious issues concerning toxic drinking water, air pollution, and the effects of pesticides, an impressive 20 million Americans—10% of the population—ventured outdoors and protested together. Today, Earth Day is marked by more than a billion people every year as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes. As of the 2020 Earth Day celebrations, 1 Billion individuals have been mobilised for action every Earth Day with more than 190 countries engaged in this cause.

Source

With the largest global crisis of our generation currently on, it has become clear how important it is to think ahead of the next crisis. Climate change, species loss, pandemics and massive natural disasters might define the future, unless we do something now.

The theme for the 2021 edition of Earth Day is Restore our Earth. The theme is based on the emerging concept that rejects the idea that our only options to save the planet are to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change and other environmental damage. Scientists, non-governmental organizations, business, and governments worldwide now are looking at natural system processes and emerging green technologies to restore the world’s ecosystems and forests, conserve and rebuild soils, improve farming practices, restore wildlife populations and rid the world’s oceans of plastics. While the world waits for global political and business leaders to take decisive action to reduce carbon emissions, natural processes including reforestation and soil conservation can store massive amounts of carbon while restoring biodiversity, clean water and air and rebalancing ecological systems. Restoration is pragmatic and necessary to reduce climate change.

Restoration also brings hope, itself an important ingredient in the age of COVID-19. The impacts of the pandemic have illustrated with painful clarity that the planet faces two crises and they are connected: global environmental degradation and its connection to our health. Deforestation, wildlife trade, air and water pollution, human diets, climate change and other issues have all fed into a breakdown of our natural systems, leading to new and fatal diseases, such as the current pandemic, and a breakdown of the global economy.

Source

Everyone of us can celebrate the day. With restrictions in place in many countries, the activities we can do need not be just physical, they can also be virtual. You could perhaps, plant a garden or add some green to your home like a small herb garden which is easy to grow and maintain. You could also take a walk while social distancing and discover green spaces closeby and learn about the plants and animals indigenous to your area. Learn about recycling and upcycling as well as shop sustainable brands online and see how you can save the environment. While at home, we can also watch documentaries about the earth which will increase our knowledge about this beautiful planet we call home. And lastly, we can also take virtual field trips which many national parks and other outdoor places organise. This way, you don’t travel and increase your carbon footprint!

So how do you plan on celebrating and commemorating Earth Day?