BEWARE OF BACKPACKS !

January 29, 2025

by strayranddom@gmail.com with No Comment Lifestyle Uncategorized

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

February 13 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

BEWARE OF BACKPACKS !

The backpacks are quite popular in India in the last two decades. Schools, colleges, work, sports entertainment, travel…its omni presence prevails.

The convenience of carrying different things -books, clothes, computers..-, without creating a load-pressure & strain on muscles made it popular.

But a pack on the back need to be cared well so that it doesnt hurt others around!

When (s)he turn sides, stretches back or moves in a crowd they have to be cautious about how the bag behind can hit or hurt a person’s face or body. Especially so in public transport or crowded places.

When carrying a back pack, wear it with care.

Responsible backpack management gives relief to people around you!

Take care!

It is not tea – it is “teaing”!

January 17, 2025

by strayranddom@gmail.com with No Comment Experience Lifestyle Uncategorized

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

January 17 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

TEA

It is not tea – it is “teaing”!

Having tea is “tea”ing : beyond a drink, it is always a medium of connect.

Have you ever thought that our daily life can be divided based on the teas we sip? From the bed we wake, usually the first purposive start of the day is with the tea we relish- alone or together! Tea-connect starts with every dawn in the family, and stretch through work places and societies throughout the globe where we exist.

The wake-up and evening teas are the major life boosters. The 11 am tea is the rejuvenator for the day, where closer faces share closer feelings for a break.

Tea is the Universal Socialistic drink of connect.

There is no day without you drinking a tea, or you not seeing somebody taking tea! Life revolves around tea (many varieties now!).

We take it when we are alone to bounce the boredom and kick start an active mind. Any meetings we attend formally or informally… scientific, professional, party …tea sneaks in to the heated or cold discussions, adding vibes across the table. Tea can start conversation in a sad or tough time and divide sorrows. It can refresh the joys and multiply when shared.

The feel of tea, makes better relaxed minds, preparing them lighter to respond!

Tea shops (from the old street-side tea stalls with benches to sit and read daily newspapers, to the present day tea/coffee shops and Net cafes, where people sit and sink into their cellphones) have been important meeting points – formal or informal- bringing people around.

Interesting point is, even through the different revolution-eras the world have gone through, tea still plays its dominant role on the present technology era. One of the universal human-connect mechanisms before, and after cellphone eras is the tea. Only difference is tea is shared between people who are physically in proximity before the digital era; cellphones connect without proximity and tea!

Happy teaing!

May be an image of 2 people, gelato and text

The Digital entrap

November 12, 2024

by strayranddom@gmail.com with No Comment Uncategorized

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

November 12,2024

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Digital entrap

The Digital entrap

We hear a lot now about how people are hooked to cellphones or iPad and “live a life” of them; how it distracts the normal listening and other harmonies of life on a day to day manner. Many writings and books are being published regarding this : how, we (humans!) are losing identity to the technologies!

Cal Newport in his book “Digital Minimalism” : Choosing a Focused Life In a Noisy World (2019, Penguin Publications) introduces the issue, and offers practical solution of limiting the use of technologies in a step by step manner.

He clarifies that technology means the “new technologies”’, ”which include apps, websites, and related digital tools that are delivered through a computer screen or a mobile phone and are meant to either entertain, inform or connect you.”

Newport effectively highlights the addictive nature of digital technologies, particularly social media. The constant stream of notifications and the fear of missing out (FOMO) can significantly impact our mental well-being and productivity.

Prof. Newport shows us how to reduce digital distractions and live better with less technology and proposes the philosophy of “Digital Minimalism” (p28):
“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”

The “digital minimalists” are the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without frequent glances at their phones or obsessively documenting everything they eat. It reminds us how to live intentionally in the growing tech-saturated world. He suggests a thirty-day “digital declutter” process. The book explains the practical steps in a simple manner. The social media in a big way is “exploiting the human “instinct for approval”. We are drifting away from “conversation-centric communication” to “digital connect communication”.

The challenge of moderation, as I think is, on how far have we already swam across the ocean of digital communication in the present world (in a way we are already a long way on the ocean; whether we will be able to release ourselves?!) ; though a comeback seems impossible, a purposive slow down through declutter,, and exploring the human nature seems practical!

Because we all live through the present world, which I call as the “Techno sapien age”, the discussions are revelations of the present, and relevant to the life of humans on this planet for future.