Destination Infinity's Blog, page 17

We’re Composting Organic Waste bcos of Lockdown

It’s one of my sustainable-living goals to get very close to zero waste going out of our home. Due to the lockdown situation, the waste collectors are not coming regularly nowadays, so that sparked this new idea.

Organic waste is one of the biggest problems with waste disposal and recycling. It is this component that mixes with inorganic waste and creates all that ugly, smelling, and insect-attracting stuff.

In short, if we stop organic waste from going out of our house, we can more efficiently turn inorganic waste into gold by recycling.

On the other side, home gardening and terrace gardening is becoming a trend nowadays especially because of the organic movement.

Guess what? The organic waste — vegetable/fruit peels, food waste, and even consumable puja items waste — provides the all-important compost required for plants to grow well.

That means organic waste going out is a problem (and) compositing organic waste in soil or composting bins is an opportunity.

Two mangoes in one stone (Oru kallula rendu manga)

COVID-19: The Hardest Hit Industry is Not what you think

Which do you think is the hardest hit industry segment due to COVID-19?

While all other industries will rebound quickly, there is one industry that cannot rebuild itself for a considerable amount of time.

That industry is already seasonal, now this.

I think you should have guessed the industry by now – Tourism.

There are more people who are dependent on the investment-heavy tour industry than you think. That’s because tourism has been a fast-growing industry in recent times.

I cannot give a quick solution to such a huge problem in a small blog post. However, I can give an alternate perspective from another industry.

I have been in the content creation business for a decade now. Initially, I was only writing technical blog posts – both on my own blog and on a freelance basis, for other blogs.

The business initially grew quickly, that too without any major investment like ads, etc. Seems surreal right?

A business that doesn’t require capital expenditure and very minimal rental growing fast even when left on auto-mode is the dream of every entrepreneur.

But, when I started, I didn’t know that Market forces are always on the lookout for such low hanging fruits. Not just my direct competition (other blogs) but other businesses too.

In my case, advertisers started employing teams of writers to create their own content in my niche because that was much cheaper than paying for ads.

With the explosion of Internet bandwidth, Videos started becoming the most preferred way of content consumption, over blogs.

In an article about tourism sector, I am telling you all this to drill down the point that any business is vulnerable to market forces.

You may need to pivot your business model more often than you think – especially in these fast-paced technology-driven modern times.

In fact, if your business is doing quite well, that’s the time to plan for contingencies and resources needed for eventual pivoting. Why? Because that’s when you have money to save.

So what can companies that are reliant on tourism revenue do now?

Wait until the situation settles down and tourist influx gets back to normalOr, use this time to improve your existing properties – Bring in those facilities your guests have been asking for, Upskill yourself and your staff (maybe learn a new language, learn digital marketing, implement a CRM…) Or, establish an alternate business model. Get creative – how about developing an app that will give a virtual tour using recent immersive technologies like AR/VR? Who knows? This could end up bringing in tourists physically too in the future!

If there is one thing I have learned being on my own, it’s this – there will always be Cycles in Business. What goes up will come down, what comes down will go up.

Plan for contingencies when the going is good, not when the going is bad. I repeat that because, it’s you who will have to face them – if not tomorrow, then eventually.

Destination Infinity

PS: This article was inspired by this link that said India is placed 34th in the world travel and tourism index for 2019. If you want to check the ranking of other countries, see the full report from here.

15 Ways Food Can Help You Maintain Robust Health

Last week I went to an event titled, “Aaharamu Arogyamu Avashyakata” roughly meaning “Importance of Food for Robust Health“.

Speaker: Swami Sureswaraananda Yogi.

Our current lifestyle choices have turned our food into our enemy. Most health hazards can be traced to bad food habits, lack of exercise, improper breathing, etc.

Let’s see how many of the following you have been practicing, and how many you’ll be able to practice.

Be ready to be surprised – Almost everything we are doing with food might be WRONG!

Here are my Key Learnings from this Event –

Drink a good amount of water immediately after you wake up.

Eat your breakfast before sunrise.

Don’t eat cooked food after sunset. Eat
only raw fruits and vegetables.

Eat a few hours before sleeping – The stomach should be empty while sleeping.

Meditate in the mornings, Exercise in the evenings.

Eat only when you feel hungry.

It’s good to drink at least one glass of
water while or just after eating food. But drink in little quantities.

Munch food at least 22 times before you swallow.

Don’t mix and eat two foods made from the
same principle food substance – Eg. Milk and Curd.

Don’t eat sweets along with meals.

Take rest (by sitting, not lying) immediately after eating. Don’t walk, as the body needs that energy to digest.

Drink 4 times water for the amount of food you consume.

We should always practice deep breathing – at all times. If you inhale for 5 sec and exhale for 5 sec, you’ll be able to live for 120 years.

It’s imp to work (exercise) as much as we eat. And rest/sleep as much as we work. The body requires 8-12 hours of sleep every day.

Recommended Diet Plan

Mornings – Lot of carbohydrates

Afternoons – Lots of proteins

Evenings – Fruits (Vitamins)

Nights – Vegetables (Minerals)

Eat different types of fruits and vegetables – not the same ones repeatedly. Mix.

This event was organized by Sri Kanyaka Parameswari Art & Science College for Women, managed by SKPD & Charities, at SKP Convention Hall, Parrys, Chennai.

Destination Infinity

Audiobooks – My new way to Read (Listen)!

Since most of my work involves the laptop, my eyes get tired easily nowadays. I generally work for 45 minutes or 1 hour and then take a break.

During the breaks, I am unable to see the TV or read as my eyes need rest. So I was wondering how to engage myself productively during that time.

That’s when I came across Audible Audiobooks.

I have been listening to eBooks even before – I use a text to speech app on my Android phone, and a robotic voice would read books/documents to me.

As you could guess, this was not very engaging but I could grasp the content just fine.

However, there developed a bigger issue – to use the text to speech app I needed access to eBooks that were not protected by DRM. But nowadays most books come with DRM!

Even Google Play Books, that offers the ‘Read Aloud’ feature in its app, is unable to ‘read aloud’ many books as the publishers have not enabled this feature – it seems.

I was familiar with Amazon Audible Audiobooks earlier as well, but before their full-fledged launch in India, audiobooks were very expensive and even the monthly membership cost was quite high.

Amazon, being so sweet that it is, decided to offer monthly memberships at Rs. 199 for Indian readers with which we could download and listen to any one book per month from their platform.

This is a good deal considering that the same membership credit costs $14.99 USD abroad. So I instantly signed up for the Audible Membership.

The only issue now is, one credit is not enough. I finish an audiobook within a week. And I’ll have to wait for three more weeks to download another. I think I have some ten books currently in my wishlist!

I wonder why Amazon doesn’t allow us to buy more credits at Rs. 199 whenever we want.

I don’t know why buying individual audiobooks are so expensive – I am sure it takes more effort to think and write than to just read from a book. Hmm…

There are sites that list Audible audiobook deals & selections, but with my single credit, I am not able to listen to as many books as I want.

Nowadays I am reading non-fiction books, mostly about business, strategy, and marketing. Occasionally I read some biographies as well – I buy them when I spot a deal.

How about you? Are you reading books nowadays? Have you tried listening to audiobooks?

Destination Infinity

Water Matters Expo at Planetarium (Until Mar. 31)

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A post shared by Rajesh K (@wowsuper_net) on Mar 10, 2020 at 6:25am PDT

WATER MATTERS is an exhibition about water that’s going on at the Chennai BM Birla Planetarium campus. It’s open from 10.30 A.M. to 5.30 P.M. until Mar. 31, 2020. There is no need to buy any tickets if you’re going only to this expo.

This exhibition has been organized by the US Consulate – Chennai, Smithsonian Institution & Care Earth Trust.

We went there yesterday. There were 50+ exhibits giving information on the history of water, how water has been drawn, stored, and used across the world, how we have been over-using, polluting and destroying water habitats, what we can do to conserve water, etc.

What I liked most is the amount of localized content they have – most creatives are about water issues in Chennai or TN. The majority of the content is in both English and Tamil.

Here are a few Surprizing Points about Water I picked up there –

Farmers in the Andes region of South America were able to predict rain by looking at the brightness of stars in the Pleiades Constellation. So stars were used to predict rains too, not just our future! Adiyila-kaathadicha Ippasiyil Mazhai-addikkum… do you remember this song? So people in India also use natural cues to predict and prepare for rains. Underground water exists from a few feet below (drawn from a well) to 30,000 feet below (drawn by deep bore wells). Kallanai (The Grand Anicut) built on the Kaveri river by the Chola King Karikalan around 100 BCE is one of the oldest water diversion structures that is still in use. A marsh is an area that holds water with grass growing out of the water; a swamp has trees growing out of it. 1782 liters of water are used to make 1 Kg of sugar; 4745 liters of water are used to make 1 Kg of milk powder; 10,000 liters of water are used to make 1 Kg of cotton fiber (clothes). Deprived of perennial rivers, Chennai depends on wetlands (20 feet) to conserve water and prevent drought. The erosion of wetlands quickly is a major problem that needs to be tackled urgently.Mathoor Aqueduct (built during 1966) in the Kanyakumari district is a one-kilometer long structure that carries water from one hill to another. 93% of sewage in India is drained into ponds, lakes, and rivers without treatment. 8 million metric tonnes of plastic are dumped into the sea from land every year. Plastic is non-biodegradable. The larger plastic waste is broken into small bits over a period of time and fishes/marine species consume them accidentally resulting in their premature death.On average, 38 liters of water per day is lost due to leakage in taps and other plumbing. Fixing these quickly will save a lot of water.

If you are a responsible citizen concerned about the sustainable availability and usage of water, visit this exhibition to understand and learn how all of us can contribute to managing our water resources better.

And remember – water matters!

Destination Infinity

Is Chai Kings the Inexpensive Coffee Day we Always Wanted?

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A post shared by Rajesh K (@wowsuper_net) on Mar 8, 2020 at 3:01am PDT

When I was in Sales Career, 1.5 Decades ago, I used to be a regular customer of a few small tea shops. Although the tea and snacks were tasty, the ambiance was not. Back then I was not concerned about hygiene much.

As a tea lover, I used to envy coffee lovers as they had Coffee Day. I liked only two of their flavors – Mocha & Tropical Iceberg. Besides, these were quite expensive. So I couldn’t go there as often as I wished.

I had always wanted a Coffee Day like chain shops for Tea lovers. A shop that would offer a good ambiance but at a lower price. I also wanted ‘our’ snacks like samosa, etc. that would go well along with tea.

If you’ve not tasted samosa with tea, close this browser NOW.

After so many years, I am glad that now we have Chai Kings – a tea shop chain at multiple locations across Chennai.

Besides Multiple Flavours of Tea (Starting at Rs. 20) they offer Samosa, Puff, and other ‘Indian’ snacks. All these are quite inexpensive considering the decent ambiance (they have a good sense of design) and better hygiene (than local tea shops).

They are also innovative – last time I went I noticed they had introduced Noodles for 40 rupees. They didn’t stop with that, I also saw something very unique – Noodle Samosa. Noodles inside Samosa? Although I didn’t eat it, I want to taste it next time I am there

Kannagi Nagar Wall Paintings @ Chennai

You’ll be surprised to know the latest tourist destination of Chennai – it’s Kannagi Nagar, a fisherman resettlement colony!

Yesterday I went to a Photo Walk organized by Madras Photo Bloggers to Kannagi Nagar to take some snaps of the beautiful wall paintings that have recently decorated the apartments there, thanks to St+Art India and Asian Paints.

Here is a Short Video with a few pics taken at Kannagi Nagar by me –

This area has around 80,000 people, and a few of the four-floor apartments built for their resettlement (Tsunami, Adyar river beautification, etc.) are in the process of being painted by 10 Artists from India & 5 Artists from abroad.

Each painting has a theme behind it. If you want to know the inspiration behind some of them, visit this informative page by Architecture Digest. Also, don’t forget to follow St+India’s Facebook page where they put up photos and information about all art projects they undertake across India.

Destination Infinity

My Book Trailer Video for The Archers Revenge

I am sure you all remember the book I wrote and published around five-years ago – The Archers Revenge. It’s a crime fiction/thriller novella.

Nowadays, as I am creating videos, I thought why not create a video trailer for my own book?

So after a week’s efforts, here it is – The Book Trailer

Let’s Collaborate!

I noticed that it’s ME who’s writing posts and creating videos for this blog. And I’ve been doing that for more than a decade! I think things should change a little now that I have grown and matured with all that experience.

My second decade of blogging will involve two things,

I am going to involve the community by creating guest posts, interviews, journalistic articles about them, etc. In short, I am going to shift my direction to highlight the wonderful things others are doing. I am going to create content not only in this blog but also on my social media channels. The content on the blog will be different from what I create on social media. So follow me on the below linked social media channels too.

For the first point, I invite anyone reading this post to get in touch with me via bloggerrajesh[at]gmail[dot]com to explore how we can collaborate together. It could be a thought that you want to express, it could be a creative piece, or it could even be about getting more exposure to your business venture/social cause.

Reach out about anything, I am in a good mood to collaborate

Happy Pongal Greetings Video

Here is a fun festival greetings video I made for this Pongal 2020. The kolam in the video was drawn by Ramya in front of our house. The robotic voice is actually our voice converted with an audio editing app. Hope you like it.

And of course, wishing you all a Happy Pongal/Sankranthi