Compounding & Upskilling

A smarter way to upgrade your habits.

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I start this post with a quote -

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it … he who doesn't … pays it.” ― Albert Einstein. 

Before talking about compounding`& upskilling, let's revisit our skills developed so far since childhood. Just think about what has gotten you this far.

A great exercise is to list your journey and reflect on the skills and paths that led your way. This exercise is about celebrating past victories and understanding the diverse approaches that can lead to future successes. Here, I would like to divide my skills into 2 broad categories :

·        Inventure (inner adventure) - Inner strength, durable

·        Outventure (outer adventure) - indoor/outdoor games that deal with physical strengths (except a few mind games like sudoku/chess etc.)

In my home town, summer calls for cricket, rain calls for paper boats, Basant Panchami calls for paper planes & kites, and winter calls for badminton especially midnight matches under street lights will make you the star of your locality. I'm proud of my steel city because sports like badminton, gully cricket, and kho-kho are learnt simply by just seeing others. Some things, like badminton, can be an indoor game realized much later during my undergrad. My UG friends and roommates trained me in many skills like speed reading. My UG campus was very huge close to 800 acres and almost everyone bought a cycle to reach other corners and classrooms.  But cycling (half / full pedal), I learnt long back during my school days almost independently and participated as well in many slow cycling competitions. When I was preparing for IIT JEE, my chemistry teacher (Prof S N  Jha) and Maths (P C Banerjee) were staying far away close to 5 km) from my place, so I had an Avon roadster single-speed cycle. Happily, I was able to cover these distances.

What I learnt in recent times in 5 years is covered now. After my doctorate, I got a job in Mysuru famed for Ashtanga yoga, well-being is a way of life in this magical south Indian city. Namma Mysuru is famous for yoga schools, Chamundi hill and palace. I wanted to practice these yoga poses hence joined a course near my rented apartment. It was a fantastic experience and spiritual awakening too, At that time I was even motivated to attend a yoga summit at Haridwar. After staying approx. for 2.5 years in Namma Mysuru, as a family, we relocated to the capital of Tamilnadu. In & out ventures started here :)

It was Jan 2021, when we relocated to Chennai. Many of our close friends regretted my decision to come to this place. But trust me, relocating near Bessi Beach was one of our most fantabulous experiences.  French company who offered me a senior position role sponsored for my first 10k Marathon.  The night before my run, I was a bit nervous and confused about whether I could finish It off or not. But that day, everything went very perfectly and I got motivated to run further. This slight change in attitude towards marathons gave me a lot of inspiration, and confidence to participate in upcoming marathons and I did as well.

At the end of 2021, I met a cyclist named KAK from Annanagar, who provides a cycle for a ride with nearly no cost. Venturing with him and another cyclist, I finished many rides in and around state highways, Which led to the purchase of the drop-handle Sunpeed gear model. Within this group, a message came to participate in a triathlon, organized by the central government in Avadi. I was quite confident with running (5k) followed by cycling 30 k but no to swimming. With some confidence, I learnt to swim in a month with the help of Murgan (trainer at our society).  A week before the event, I noticed that swimming was planned in a lake having a depth of > 10 ft and it's possible only for professional swimmers, I dropped the swimming plan but participated in running & cycling. This is how I learnt swimming, over the period now I am a little bit confident and getting better week by week. In a few well-being programs, speakers like Vikram Dogra guided me personally to practice breathing while running, it's a rhythmic activity which needs to be under control for an endurance event like Ironman. 

My inventure skills started with a weekly session at Svaram Institute located in Auroville. I got an opportunity to join a sound healing course. The experience was different and awesome (which will be posted separately), and that opened a new set of interests towards meditation, Tibetan singing bowl, African music and connection with mountains. I got some answers to why prayer in a positive atmosphere is successful... I will describe my spiritual journey next.

Stay connected, and stay tuned :)