Honing My Skills

As someone who has always been curious about the World Wars and the political climate of that era, I've often tried to read up on the subject. However, I found the traditional sources of information to be dry and uninspiring, leading me to procrastinate endlessly.

But a few weeks ago I discovered a Historical Fiction book, Fall of Giants - by Ken Follett, centered around the First World War. I was immediately drawn into the story, and as I immersed myself in its pages, I found myself learning about the historical events and political movements of the time. The book was a fascinating and engaging way to explore the era.

Fall of Giants is a captivating novel written by the renowned British author, Ken Follett. Published in 2010, it is the first book in his Century Trilogy. The book is set during the period of World War I, and it tells the story of five interrelated families from different parts of the world.

As the title suggests, Fall of Giants is a story about the downfall of great powers. The book explores themes of war, love, betrayal, and social change. It is a sweeping epic that covers a vast array of characters and settings. From the halls of power in London to the battlefields of France and the coal mines of Wales, the book takes the reader on a journey through a turbulent time in world history.

Fall of Giants is an outstanding work of historical fiction. Ken Follett has created a masterpiece that is both entertaining and informative. The character development is exceptional, the historical accuracy is impressive, and the writing is superb. It is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great & informative read.

I'm eagerly looking forward to reading the next installment in the series, Winter of the World. This book continues the saga of the families introduced in Fall of Giants, delving into the fascinating history of World War II and the political climate of the time. I can't wait to see how Ken Follett weaves together the complex threads of this turbulent period in world history.

In the previous post, I wrote about the First Ruler Of The Moghul Empire, which was the story of Babur. So I finished reading the sequel part of the book called Brothers At War, which talks about the journey of his successor and beloved son Humayun.

The book started where it ended in the last part, the death of Babur.  Babur had not distributed his kingdom amongst his children, he wanted to capture the whole of India and wanted to be ruled by only one emperor. Hence he named Humayun as his sole successor and hoped that others will help him achieve his dream.

Though before Babur it was their custom that the kingdom will get divided amongst children, as that is their birthright. And hence they felt unjust by this decision and rebelled against their own eldest brother Humayun.

Humayun was heartbroken by the deeds of his brother, but since he promised Babur that he won’t do any harm to any of his brothers even if how much they deserved it, hence he did not execute them but gave them separate cities to rule under his empire.

In almost 75% of the book, Humayun had been troubled by their brothers because of this he was not able to fulfill his father’s dreams. But lost all the cities which Babur had conquered in India, and had to return from India. But as he was returning from India he realized his brother has gone behind his back and forcefully conquered Kabul his birthplace as well.

Due to which at one point Humayun had lost everything, but piece by piece he conquered all which was lost, though he was not able to add anything new to Babur’s kingdom, still he was able to at least conquer all which was lost. Unfortunately in the end Humayun had his unexpected death.

The story is picked up from Humayunnama, a Biography which was written by her half-sister Gulbadan, who used to travel with him on all of his expeditions & few parts were taken from the writing of Humayun’s personal attendant, which remains loyal to him from the start of his reign. The best part of this book was nearly all of the characters were real, which made the read all the more interesting.

Will keep on updating as I read further into this 6 book series of the Moghul Empire.

I always used to say that I like historical movies, whether fictional (eg. Bahubali) or non-fictional (eg. Tanhaji). Till now I had never tried reading about history, as I never liked that subject when I was in school. Recently I thought of giving it a shot, and bought Raiders From The North by Alex Rutherford, the book is the first in the series Empire Of The Moghul.

The book is all about Babur - the first ruler of the Moghul Empire. His journey since he became the king  of Ferghana - a small kingdom currently in Uzbekistan, at an age of just 12 Years Old. Babur used to write about his journey in a book titled Baburnama - his autobiography. And the author used this autobiography to write her Book. The author also visited all the places where Babur’s major events happened, stayed with the people over there, and talked to them. And after thorough research wrote this book.

This book is Historical Fiction means it is based on historical facts but some parts of the book are fictional to hook the reader. When I first started reading the book I used to Google which parts are real and which parts are fiction, later I realized that the author has given a note at the end of the book to tell which parts were fiction, which was very nice to have after all.

There is also a TV Series which is based on the Book - The Empire, which you can watch on Hotstar, the first episode published on 21st August 2021.

Ever had those “college thoughts” like, “Hey, what if, like, my red is, like, your blue?”

A few months back I asked this weird question to my brother, of course at the moment my question seemed to be weird, but my brother also loves to talk about stuff that makes no sense to others.

The question simply means that what if everyone or a few of us perceive colors differently? That day my brother had no answer to it so we just laughed at that stupid question, but few days later my brother sent me a link to a study which is being conducted for the exact same question I had.

Link to that study is : https://perceptioncensus.dreamachine.world/

Do you guys know, the sun which we see is actually not on fire. In fact, the Sun does not use any Oxygen, which is necessary for fire and hence can never be on fire. 

Sun is not a ball of fire, rather it is a ball of gas, a Hydrogen Bomb instead. Just like an electric bulb is hot and bright but nothing is on fire, in the same way, the Sun is not and bright but nothing is on fire.

Amrut Deshmukh is on a mission. His mission is to Make India Read. And hence created an app called Booklet. It's an amazing app for people who do want to start reading books, but just don't know how to start, which book to pick, or if wondering they won't be able to read 200-300 pages.

I know as I was one of those about 2 years back. My uncle made me read just 2 books and asked every day what have I read the previous day. And after reading 2 books I used to tell him which book I want to read next.

The first book is always the hardest one to complete (Mine was Benjamin Franklin), but once you finish that, trust me that will change you. It has changed me my first book took almost 3 months to get over and there were only 200 pages. And now I have also finished books with 500 pages within 3 days.

So coming back to Booklet, the best thing about this app is that it is completely free. The summary is almost like just 2 pages, and even if you don't want to read that you can just listen by downloading voice for the same.

At first, you can only download one book at a time so that you are not just wasting the resources you are getting, and also so that new readers don't get confused with so many options given. After the app sees that you are a regular, then you will be able to download multiple books as well.

The only drawback to the whole process is that you can read only those books which the creator has already read and made the summary as well. But don't worry the creator has read many books and has made a summary for the same as well.

I saw this story on WhatsApp yesterday and it felt like I should share the same during this pandemic times.

You will find many of the psychology books say the very same thing. For eg The Greatest Secret by Rhonda Byrne says the same, The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy also says the same, and many more say the very same thing. 

These books actually say that what you will think the most, positive or negative, your brain will work upon to achieve it. It may sound absurd, but that’s true the brain does not understand positive or negative, he only understands energy, and just by thinking about it you are providing that energy to your brain.

I would highly recommend you guys to give it a shot at least. Like try it for 2-3 days and see for the change. If you are not at peace then go back to your usual. But try this once.

Recently during one of my training programs we were discussing this serious question. To which everyone has their own thoughts some people thought that the social media platform owns our data and some thought that we own our data. 

This activity was mind boggling activity as I took the stand that we own our data, but the person who hosted this activity gave few insights which made me think that do we really own our data.

So a few days ago my friend texted me this weird question (Mahabharat Effect), and this question actually made me think. I came up with some answers and called my friend, we discussed it, we may be partially right, but that towards the end of the blog.

So of course after discussing this matter I went to check this up on google, and I found some answers, and this is why I am here to share the same with you.

Now when I googled it I found that scientists have done some research about this. And they claim that a born blind person’s eyes move in the same way as any other person. So that clarifies that they do see something and that's why their eyes are following the image or the thing which they see and hence eyes moving while sleeping. 

During lockdown i read a book named “Ikigai”. Ikigai is a Japanese concept of living to fullest. Though i do not follow everything i have read, but i followed some of the things, like getting up early in the morning.

Trust me when i say i used to get up at 10 in the morning and not before that, and now that has completely changed, i have started getting up early, during summers i got up at 5:30, and during winters i am getting up at 6:45.

Their basic concept for getting up early was that to do something that excites you, or is your favourite, or a thing of which you dont get bored to do in the morning. It can be anything like Music, cycling, any activity with friends, or literally anything.

So my family was planning a trip and though I am not a great photographer or something but still I was in a dilemma about which lens should I take for the trip. So again I started googling things & saw some YouTube videos to know which type of lens would be perfect to take on a trip, which can click decent portrait photos as well as nature photos.

Though I had some idea of lenses and what they are capable of, but when I googled them further then I got to know that this is a whole market in itself. First of all, there are 2 basic categories of Camera Lenses:

1. Prime Lenses - These lenses have a fixed focal length that means you can not zoom in or zoom out. But they are very fast and have sharper image quality. These are light in weight and hence easy to carry during trips.

You must have heard a common saying that “the eyes are the windows to the soul”, or like my mom always say that “my eyes speak how I feel”. And I say that these sayings are all true.

And the best part about eyes is that even if people don’t want you to know how they feel or if they are lying, they still can't change how their eyes behave.

So let me begin with how you can read someone’s mind without even them noticing. First you need to build some knowledge about that person’s usual behavior, so that later you can notice any change.

Of course, it’s easier to tap into a family or a friend's mind than into a complete stranger, as you are well aware of their usual behavior, eye movement, or simple gestures. So you get a sense of how they are feeling, or if they are lying to you or not. But it's also easier to develop the same knowledge in case of a complete stranger.

Hi Guys, I started my website on 10th January, 2021. It was my brother who told me on a morning walk, that everyone should write personal blogs, it helps them personally & professionally. (He also has his own site https://fully-faltoo.com/ do check it out.) He also told me & has repeated this a lot of times that “Internet is where Magic Happens”.

I didn't ask much about it then, but when I got back home I texted him asking which site I should register at (I was not thinking to buy a domain at that time). And the first thing he recommended me was to get a domain name & then started suggesting some random names.

I told him that I will talk to him about this tomorrow in the office, to which he replied & I quote “Inspiration is Perishable, so you just tell any name, if you have in mind” to which I said Honing My Skills, & the very next moment he replied, “Purchased”.

So this was how I started my blogging site, or should I say this is how I was led to start my site.

I would also recommend any of you to start writing, write anything you want, but what's most important is to write for yourself. 

One of my tennis partner has shared this with me. And I thought to share this further with you guys, as Australian Open is on its verge.

If I say that you will never have to put your phone to charge again, would you believe me?? Honestly, if someone would have said this to me even two years back, I would have laughed it out. 

But the time has changed. As the years are passing by, new and new stuff is becoming real. We are moving towards a tech world, a world where everything is done just by saying things, like Siri calling for you or Alexa playing songs for you, or Google Assistant giving information on various stuff. A world is not far away from where things will happen while we are just thinking. What a world that would be!!

So I was talking about you not needing to put your phones to charge. Imagine your phone every time 100% charged. Never coming back to the charging port and finding that you forgot to turn on the switch. Seriously this hurts a lot.

Don’t you guys think that the users are becoming smart, the market is changing fast, the tech is changing fast. And hence companies have to push themselves to keep up with the pace of the ever-changing market, with the ever-changing tech, or else what they have triumphed over the years may just become history.

Yes, the market is changing faster than ever, the tech is changing faster than ever, the users are becoming smarter than ever. And with this windows has come up with its new OS.

Yes, you heard it right, the windows is coming up with a whole new OS. I don’t know if you feel this or not, but this is a long due update of windows, which should have launched years ago.

Can anyone tell me why do we purchase our National Flag every year, why do we need another if we purchased it the year before?