Weekend Reflections – September 28, 2025

Dear Blog,

One of my primary motivations for starting this blog was to help myself to think more clearly. This week, I want to write about what I think of the news.

I hate following the news these days because it has morphed into something truly ugly. In my school and college days, my father and teachers told me that watching and reading the news was important for competitive exams and for increasing my general awareness. My father, in particular, advised me to focus on editorials and op-eds to help form well-reasoned opinions. I still follow this advice; although I don't read the newspaper often, whenever I do, I make a point of reading the opinion section.

I would divide my formative years into two distinct parts based on the evolution of news. The first was a time of simplicity. There were no 24/7 news channels or social media. We had cable TV, but my family was somewhat opposed to it. I remember watching the nightly Doordarshan news with my father. The news presenters were extremely graceful, and we preferred the English broadcast. Even on cable TV, news was confined to specific timeslots. Besides television, we read newspapers and magazines like The Tribune, The Indian Express, Outlook, and India Today. My father always praised The Hindu, and I don't disagree with him, though it wasn't easily available in North India at the time.

The second part is the current age of the 24/7 news cycle and social media. I believe that the non-stop relay of news has severely diluted its quality, and social media has turned everyone into a broadcaster, creating a chaotic environment.

I think what matters more than the news itself is context. Only with context can we make sense of what is happening. A recent example comes to mind. I saw a YouTube video where Yuval Noah Harari was asked for book recommendations, and one he mentioned was The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher. I haven't read the book, but I listened to a summary explaining how social media algorithms, designed to maximize user engagement, actively promote outrage and tribalism. Then, a few days later, I heard about political collapse and horrific violence in Nepal—sparked, lo and behold, by a social media ban. This news made immediate sense to me because I had the context. The book also detailed the role of social media in spreading harmful lies and fanning violence in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the U.S.

I’m not suggesting the violence in Nepal was entirely due to social media. Here, we need to distinguish between root causes and proximate causes. The root cause was most certainly the failure of the Nepalese government to offer its young, educated citizens jobs and a dignified life. Governments in societies experiencing a 'youth bulge'—where a high percentage of the population, say 20 percent or more, is crammed into the 15-24 age group—must address unemployment and underemployment seriously. Otherwise, they are simply walking on thin ice.

I have much more to write about, but I will wrap up here, as it's already past midnight and I have an early commute tomorrow. However, I have kept my commitment to write at least once a week.

Weekend Reflections – September 21, 2025

Dear Blog,

Although I promised myself I would write at least every weekend, I didn't write last weekend, despite having a wonderful experience to share.

Last week, due to terrible rainfall in the evening, I couldn't go to the gym for two days straight (Thursday and Friday). My minimum target for hitting the gym is four days per week, but I usually go for five. I work on various parts of the body from Monday to Friday in the following sequence: Back, Shoulders, Legs, Chest, and Arms. So, I decided that on Saturday morning I would work on my chest and just forget about arms for the week.

While I was working out my chest, whenever I felt weak during a set or felt that I couldn't lift a heavier weight in the next one, I simply thought about the things that had given me grief in my life. Suddenly, I found the power to finish the set or lift heavier in the next. Usually, I only work on a single body part per day, but as soon as I finished my chest workout, I thought to myself that I could work out my arms too. Tapping into my grief had unleashed a beast within me. I was literally pulsating with energy. I felt some mental resistance, but I ended up working out my arms as well, and very quickly at that. I forgot to mention that I had also done some dumbbell swings with my chest workout, so I ended up doing eleven exercises in total.

I had a similar experience a few days earlier. Frustrated with the regional accounts in-charge (the one I mentioned in my previous post), I worked my shoulders incredibly hard that evening. In fact, it was the hardest I had ever worked them. I did a shoulder press of 80 kgs that day. That time, it was a spontaneous result of my anger, but last week, it was deliberate.

I later tried tapping into my grief to force myself to do more Kriyas during my Kriya Meditation. Lately, I'd felt I was just going through the motions with no real feeling. On the first day, I did eight Kriyas and felt such a deep peace at the end that I now look forward to reaching that state every day. Today, I did nine Kriyas in total, despite all my mental resistance and the pain in my legs from sitting in Siddhasana.

However, there is a downside to this technique. As a result of thinking about things that had caused me pain in the past to power demanding activities in the present, I am now recalling bad experiences in vivid detail from the dark recesses of my memory. I'm worried that if I keep doing this, I may end up a bitter and vindictive person.

But then again, maybe I already am.

Weekend Reflections – September 7, 2025

Dear Blog,

This week, I received the package of the imported multivitamin supplement that I had ordered recently. I've been taking multivitamins for the past couple of months because I follow a restrictive diet and feel I've been falling short on some essential vitamins and minerals. I was taking a different multivitamin before, but I gave it up because I wasn't feeling much of a difference. After some research, I found that this brand uses superior forms of certain vitamins (like B12 and B5) and has a much better overall profile.

I've taken half the dose for the past two days, and the most immediate effect I've noticed is that my dreams have become incredibly vivid. I haven't had dreams like this in a long time. Maybe this has to do with the high level of Vitamin B6 in the supplement; I remember reading years ago in a book on lucid dreaming that B6 can help boost the chances of having them. However, on the first night, I was actually jolted awake by a scary dream. Another thing I noticed is that I've been sleeping very deeply, which might be due to the Apigenin in the supplement. I recently heard on an Andrew Huberman podcast that apigenin is part of his recommended sleep stack. I have some prior experience with it from years ago when I drank chamomile tea (which naturally contains apigenin) and I used to consistently feel sleepy all day because of it. Right now, I do feel slightly groggy as well.

I've seen concerns online about this multivitamin having mega-doses of certain vitamins, but I figure I can counter that by taking only half the recommended serving. I've also heard about studies saying multivitamins have no effect, but I'm sure there are just as many studies that say the opposite. Sometimes, too much information can lead to a kind of mental paralysis, making you unsure which path to take.

The second thing on my mind is the frustrating kind of people I have to deal with at my organization. I work in a Public Sector Undertaking. I won't go into too many specifics, but one recent incident makes my point abundantly clear.

My Reporting Officer (a Regional Manager) was recently transferred on promotion. I sent an email to the Personnel Department as early as June 30, 2025—when I had to take a half-day leave after getting drenched in heavy rain on my way to office—requesting that my Leave Supervisor in the system be updated. I didn't take any leave after that until August 27, the day my nephew was born. When I applied for a half-day leave that afternoon, I saw that my leave supervisor still hadn't been changed.

I called the relevant person in the Regional Office and explained the situation, mentioning that I had already emailed the department in-charge (who right now was on a long leave abroad visiting her daughter) back in June. She told me to call back after September 1st, once the HR portal reopened. I said I would send her an email right then as a reminder to follow up after the 1st. She seemed hellbent on stopping me from even sending the email. I sent it anyway.

I received a weird response from her that very day. She noted the time of my call and my email, and complained that despite her telling me "repeatedly" the portal would open after the 1st, I had emailed her. I replied clarifying that my email was simply a continuation of my June 30th request, and that "at your earliest convenience" didn’t mean "immediately." I am surprised that the regional office's personnel department doesn’t have a ticketing or tracking system for employee issues.

I had to take another leave on September 5th. I applied for it the day before, and still, no change had been made. I’ve decided to CC her and the regional manager on all my leave requests until she does what’s needed.

I have a rule for dealing with people like this at work: once I encounter them, I never speak to them verbally again—everything must be in writing over email. You might say I’m generalizing based on one person, but I have another, much worse recent example involving the regional Accounts In Charge—though that deserves a blog post of its own.

Why do people in higher offices look down on those of us on the frontlines? Why are people so petty that they get egoistic over a simple request to do their job?

The last thing I want to mention before I conclude (though there’s so much more I could talk about) is the disastrous 2025 monsoon in the Himalayas. This weighs heavily on my heart because my soul is tied inextricably to those mountains. While the root cause is climate change, the enormous damage from heavy infrastructure development—like four-lane highways and hydro projects—and unregulated tourism cannot be denied. The recent warning from the Honourable Supreme Court on July 28th felt late, but necessary: “If things proceed the way they are as on date, then the day is not far when the entire State of Himachal Pradesh may vanish in thin air from the map of the country.”

I’d like to go to sleep now—it’s already 11:45 PM, and I have to travel to work early tomorrow morning. I hope it doesn’t rain on my way. Another reason I’m concluding hastily is that I just need to publish this. I decided to write again after eight years, and I won’t let the pressure to write a perfect post stop me. Having too many things in my head to write about often stops me, too—I couldn’t finish the blog post I started on August 3rd for exactly those reasons.

Good night!

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, doctor, or nutritionist. The mentions of supplements and their effects in this post are based solely on my personal experiences and independent research. This is not medical advice. Please consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new supplement regimen to ensure it is appropriate and safe for your individual health needs.