Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 197 // Week 33 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

First of all Happy 74th Indian 🇮🇳 Independence Day!

It’s been 74 long years since Indian-freedom from British empire and India has progressed and grown like an old Banyan tree with its branches coming out from various directions. Many branches (people) are still suppressed and some are thriving in exponential ways but the majority part which is the main stem of this thick tree (the Indian middle class) is growing ever so slowly.

Technology, Finance and Banking all have been the main pillars of the progress of our nation but still the most important of all is the people who are the main pillar and they will always be (maybe until an Artificial Intelligence or a machine takes its place).

I’m glad I was born in this country and have been part of this progress. But there is a long road still which we are yet to travel and I think while we are on this road trip, might as well enjoy!

Moving forward to the newsletter, here is my weekly creative progress –

  1. I’m approaching 50th (consecutive) streak of a new language learning class (on Duolingo).
  2. Podcast Episode 24 is ready for publishing and launching in a couple of days and finally, another long-pending Episode 25th (have been following up with this guest for 9 months) recording very soon.
  3. My book reading progress – (added another interesting book to reading list this week – 3rd one)
    1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company – Progress 25% (Audible)
    2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Progress 15% (Audible)
    3. The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry – Progress 10% (Audible)

That’s it for personal and creative updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 197 // Week 33 // 2020

An essential oil I’m curious to try —

Neroli oil – An essential oil distilled from the blossoms of the bitter orange or Seville orange (Citrus × aurantiumsubsp. amara) and is used to make perfumes.

Neroli oil blends well with other oils such as Jasmine oil, Lavender oil, Rosemary oil and all citrus oils.

This Pale-yellow neroli oil emits a sweet, full-bodied citrus aroma with a slightly spicy, slightly bitter undertone.

If you are an essential oil connoisseur. You might like this one.

Here is the amazon link for buying if you are interested.

An article I found interesting —

Pandemics Come in Predictable Cycles. If I’m the Smartest Guy in the Room, We’re in Big Trouble – Max Brooks who is the author of the books – zombie fiction World War Z and the latest Bigfoot fiction – Devolution etc, shares a lot of insights in this conversation – how science fiction turned him into a disaster expert and how many things he has written in his books have come true (a pandemic though not zombie one and how people are forced to be inside homes – as mentioned in his book Devolution).

The most admirable thing I found while reading Brooks books is how thorough his research is. He even mentions in this article that for one hour of writing there is almost 100 hours of research done by him.

Really enjoyed reading about Max Brooks’ life in this written interview. A good read.

An interesting but scary model graph I found out —

This mathematical model helps estimate the riskiness of different activities based on one potential route of coronavirus spread: itty-bitty particles known as aerosols.

Source – NatGeo

Recollection of Historic fact from 15 Aug (may be as this newsletter is Independence day special) —

Surrender of Japan – The surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. Together with the British Empire and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. Japan’sleaders privately made entreaties to the publicly neutral Soviet Union to mediate more favourable peace terms.

Atom bomb

On August 6, the United States detonated an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. On August 8, the Soviet Union invaded the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Hours later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito intervened and ordered that the Allies’ terms for ending the war be accepted. Hirohito gave a recorded radio address transmitted across the empire on August 15, announcing the surrender of Japan. The surrender ceremony was held aboard the battleship USS Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of surrender (pictured below).

Japanese foreign affairs minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri as General Richard K. Sutherland watches, September 2, 1945

Quote which I found meaningful –

People are in pursuit of many things in life, for external reasons not internal. Maybe they are doing things they are not even motivated to do, but because other people expect these things from them. Very few people speak to themselves and their innermost desires and really let reflect themselves. Everything happened to you since you were a baby and has shaped you, when you reflect on that, when you evaluate yourself as a human being, you’ll make decisions that will make you happier.

— Chidanand Hiremath (From Podcast episode #23 of LALP with Himanshu)

Before saying “see you next week”

I cordially invite you to join the Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

We do creative challenges, habit creation and related stuff on the group. Here is your special invite link to the group.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 197 // Week 33 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

I hope your week went well. My own week was filled with work on both professional and personal fronts. But I felt joy working on both fronts as I’ve been coping with stress with my meditation sessions (with Waking Up app).

I’ve been practising a new kind of meditation from the app where you are observing your breathing for some time from a seeker perspective and then you suddenly switch perspective by seeing yourself seeking. It may sound weird and difficult but it makes you see yourself from a secondary point of view.

At biological level It makes you feel what is it that’s looking outwards, is it your brain? you as an entity? a bundle of nerves? or what? Sometimes I felt the agony of not being able to know – what is it inside me that is observing the breathing, of course, it can be said that it is oneself, but is it really though? Or is it just our consciousness?

But as I did the practice for a few days, I finally started to understand what it denotes. Why feeling this way is necessary and observing this state of self is necessary. Because If we see, our body and soul (if you think there is one), connects with each other through the consciousness. If consciousness is helping us gaze into the world, what if you start gazing back at consciousness itself. It starts disappearing as an object and remains as an inherent subject (oneself).

I know the whole thing I mentioned above, one may not understand completely, because you have to do this kind of session yourself with an open mind to be able to understand this. But it truly helped me in gaining perspective. I was able to focus more and feel joy.

Coming to creative progress –

  1. I’m on day 37 (consecutive) streak of a new language learning and feeling great to learn more.
  2. My next podcast episode (Episode 24 is also coming soon in next week), editing is in progress.
  3. My book reading progress –
    1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company – Progress 15% (Audible)
    2. The Memoirs of Sherlock Homes – Progress 10% (Audible)

That’s it for personal and creative updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020

An article I found useful —

How To Write In Your Journal To Improve Yourself and Achieve Your Goals – This how-to article by Benjamin Hardy, PhD is very elaborate documentation about why journaling is the most important thing one should do.

Where, why and when to journal. How to achieve a peak state with journaling right before you are about to start your work.

Useful read.

A travel itinerary I loved —

Mumbai to London by Train – Even though travelling seems like a distant dream in these COVID-19 times. But still one can dream. This itinerary is nothing short of a dream. Mumbai to London by Train!

Even though this route has a route through Pakistan, which may not be feasible now if you are going from India. But still, this IIT Guwahati student’s Itinerary felt like so much fun but a daring long train journey. Someday! (Someday!)

A trick I loved to journal more —

Real-Time Journaling – This real-time journaling video (with timer) by Lavendaire founder Aileen Xu, really helped me establish a journaling routine. As I was facing difficulty concentrating in my journaling habit. This feeling of writing along with someone really did the trick and I was able to journal more often.

Check it out, it may be helpful for you too if you are finding it difficult to journal.

Music I’m listening to —

Iltija by Samar Mehdi – I stumbled upon this refreshing piece of music by Samar Mehdi. Really heart felt piece of music and lyrics –

हुए जुदा जब हम तुमसे…
और क़रीब आ गए तुम हमसे…

When you are apart from me…
now we feel closer…

Really good one. Check it out.

Quote which I found meaningful –

The best ideas and insights occur away from your work. They happen while you’re relaxing, or often while you’re thinking about something completely unrelated.

— Benjamin Hardy, PhD

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new episode of my podcast! (Finally after a good long creative block)

Episode 23 – Chidanand Hiremath (Visual Designer, Photographer and former Digital Nomad) – Traveling the world, knowing oneself and creating nude art

Links – Spotify | YouTube


Lastly, join the Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

We do creative challenges, habit creation and related stuff on the group. Here is your special invite link to the group.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 196 // Week 32 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

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#23 – Chidanand Hiremath (Visual Designer, Photographer and former Digital Nomad) – Traveling the world, knowing oneself and creating nude art

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Chidanand Hiremath

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In this episode, I’m talking to Chidanand Hiremath who is a Visual Designer, Photographer and former Digital Nomad. He has travelled 30+ countries till now and currently living in Berlin and getting his Masters in children’s rights and childhood education. His love for travelling started since his childhood when one day his father brought him an old NatGeo Travellers magazine from 1949. In his early 20s, he left his first job and started freelancing as a graphic designer. Since then he’s never looked back, he’s doing what he loves and exploring himself as an artist and as a creative.

In this conversation, we talked about how he got started with travelling, why he doesn’t like travelling as a tourist. How he started out with freelance graphic design and did his first solo trip in India with his own earned money and subsequently internationally. His perspective on how being a digital nomad may look attractive externally but how hard it is when you actually go ahead and do it.

He also does nude art (sketching and drawing) and we get into the detail about how it practically works out. He also talks about why he doesn’t like selling work of art or photos on stock sites. There are a lot of interesting topics in this conversation. I really enjoyed talking to Chidanand.

So without further adieu, please enjoy this conversation with Chidanand Hiremath.

Links and references from the episode –

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

If you have been reading the newsletter from some time now, you’ll know, I’ve been learning a new language!

This weekend will mark the 30th consecutive Day of my language learning and oh boy! let me tell you, making the learning like a game where daily playing it and making a streak, makes it so much fun. It changes the way you think about learning. My favourite language learning app – Duolingo has done just that. I think that’s the reason I’m able to stick to it. Sense of competition between online peers and rewards/trophies, that too has it’s own advantages.

I hope this learning continues and I finish the course in the coming few months!

Coming to some mental clarity talk, it has become really like a mental block to create or work on something new in these trying times for me. I’ve even been struggling with my own podcast since a month where I have a few episodes sitting in my editor window and I just couldn’t move an inch further.

To resolve this block, I talked to a couple of my creative friends, re-read a few chapters from the book – The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Set on my computer for some more blocked sessions but finally, I got through some editing and about to finish the next episode. Creative work sometimes become so hard that it’s even hard to explain.

Anyway, moving to the book reading/listening progress, I finished the big Sherlock Homes series book 2 finally and started the next two book –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

An interesting tweet —

A Trip across America – Trailer and Crank Story – I came across this twitter thread last week and it made me feel weirdly connected to this old story from 1984.

How this guy (back then a kid) and his family embarked on an epic road trip across America. A lot of emotional moments and some funny ones in this travel memoir of sort.

A ad which stole my heart (specially with it’s video editing) —

You Can’t Stop Us – This new Nike ad is on another level of editing. Even though I loved the emotion in this ad but the editing! that stole my heart. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4dDs0T7sM

A video I learned from —

What We’ve Learned from Write of Passage – This conversation between my favourite online writer and Twitterati (David Parell) and his business partner (Tiego Forte) was a class in its own way. They discussed how making their online class about online writing and learning about the whole process of how to improve their students’ experience, changed the whole game for them. Really interesting conversation if you are interested in online course creation and more.

Music I re-listened to —

Michael Kiwanuka – Cold Little Heart (Live Session Video) – This 11+ minutes Michael Kiwanuka song was on repeat this past weekend. This song touches a nerve suddenly right in the middle of the song and then you can not stop playing it again.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too.

— Marcus Aurelius

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 195 // Week 31 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

In the past week, I posted a creative challenge each day on my Vibely Lifestyle Architecture Community (link for the same at the end). As I was creating these challenges for my community, it gave my own creativity a new spark and I was able to come up with new ideas every day.

Apart from that, it was not a very peaceful week at the work front. Too many things going on at the moment. Just trying to calm the storm down.

As I’m sitting too many hours while working from home, to get my body moving I started going on long walks since past 1-2 weeks. I’ve been enjoying my late evening walks as I use that time to listen to my audiobooks as well. It gives me a clear phase shift between work and self.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock Holmes only this week –

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

An interesting art portfolio —

Art from Sifty Kaur – Found this artist on the interwebs and her art is really interesting – oil painting on canvas, drawings and paintings.

Check it out, here is one of her artworks –

An interesting tweet —

London to Culcutta journey on bus – Found out that there was a bus service which used to tour London-Calcutta (India) route and it existed till 70s.

I just wonder how the passengers would have coped for so long a bus journey. I wish I had a time wheel to go back and travel in this bus.

Check out the tweet below for details –

https://twitter.com/RKDasgupta/status/1277694020916056064

A home architecture story I loved —

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Pavana holiday home – This Houzz story on the Rang De Basanti director – Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra‘s Pavana Home was a great home architecture story.

He has this multi pavilion home near Pavana Lake in Maharashtra which has a mesmerizing view and a design created like a jigsaw with interlocking structures making it whole and then some!

Music I’m loving —

Everyone Lied by Dorvin Borman – Loved the Grungy vibe of this song and put me in flow state.

Beautiful drum and synth amalgamation!

Quote which I found meaningful –

The only way to learn it is to do it.

— Archimedes, “Sword in the Stone”

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 194 // Week 30 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Saturday Pentacle.

Last week was a reflection week for me. I conducted a half-yearly review of my yearly goals. As it is important to work hard on things you care about, it is more important to reflect on your progress in short and medium periods. For me, these periods are weekly, monthly and 6 monthly. It made me rethink about course correction and realigning my energies towards things that actually matter.

Otherwise, it was a productive week for me on the work side, on the creative side it was more of consume week than create. Next week is going to be a create week more than consume.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock Holmes some more this past week and finished the Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 75% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 100% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020

An new material I’m exited about —

Pentadiamond – A new addition to the carbon family, Pentadiamond, is predicted to be light like graphite, hard like diamond and semiconducting like silicon.

I can’t even imagine, how many use cases are there for this kind of material. I’m excited to think about – how it might be used (i hope not as a weapon).

Here is the original research publication link.

A poem I loved —

I would like you to be still! read by Eva Green – I recently discovered the Eva Green has an Instagram page and man! isn’t it filled up weird but fresh stuff, I hadn’t been exposed to before.

This is Pablo Neruda’s poem “I would like you to be still!” in Eva’s brilliant voice –

The poem and the narration both are wonderful.

A show I loved —

Homecoming – I was excited to watch the Season 2 after an amazing Season 1 with Julia Roberts as the protagonist. Homecoming series is about how a private company authorized by military runs a program to make the PTSD veterans forget their past. But it becomes much more than that eventually. It’s a great drama and the way it is shot, kudos to the DOP.

I loved the season two as well, even though the protagonist is different in this but she’s a refreshing change.

You can check it out on Amazon PrimeVideo – Season 1 | Season 2

A Podcast episode I re-listened —

How to Become a Psychedelic Therapist – This episode of the Tim Ferriss show was amazing. Marcela’s story, the conversation about the psychedelic therapy and MAPS were out of the world.

A must listen. This was the second time I listened to it this week.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Once we let go of every thing, everything remains.

— The Minimalists

Before saying “see you next week”

I’m really excited to share the new Lifestyle Architecture Lab interactive community on Vibely app! 💙

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

Why vibely? Basically it’s a place where we want to make the group and our content interactive. There are daily interesting challenges like –

  • Reading for 1 hour everyday and posting your progress
  • Doing one act of kindness every day
  • Journaling prompts for you
  • Travel writing for 500 words

and more such creative challenges.

It’s a really fun place to be. You’ll get gamified rewards and recognitions for completing the challenges. We are trying to make it a safe place for all the like-minded people to join in the self-growth journey. If you are already working on your passion projects then you’ll get all the support you can and no bashing or judgement for being who you want to be.💡

Join today with this special invite link to the group.

P.S.: Our Facebook group is not going anywhere, we are just adding an interactive branch to it.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 193 // Week 29 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

Last week went fast for me as I had been working on multiple creative works. My first short podcasting course is out! (Check out the playlist at the end of this page), a new podcast episode is launching in this week and another story coming soon in “Lifestyle Design in Action” series.

Plus I’m really excited about the interactive community we just launched on Vibely (app). Where we are starting up with Daily creative challenges for you all. So join in the fun (here is the special link for you to join)

Moving further, this year couldn’t get worse with all the unexpected things. Jagdeep (veteran actor) passed away this past week. I share about him in the 2nd point of today’s pentacle.

I focused on some exercise and meditation again this past week and tried centring my energy and focus. I’ve started going on long walks in night time (safe distance and when fewer people are there). The monsoons are here but we are just sitting home, it’s all that we wished for when we were in offices, but now as we are home, all we wish for is to go out! Life is such.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 70% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 70% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

A tweet I found really insightful about meetings —

In the Work From Home era, meetings have increased drastically. But as an employer you should focus on how to reduce unnecessary meetings and as an employee you should think on the below points to make a meeting useful (if at all it was) –

A beloved veteran Bollywood actor who passed last week —

Jagdeep (Soorma Bhopali) passed away – A veteran actor famous for his roles like Soorma Bhopali passed away. I loved his Sholay performance so much.

His real name was Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey and he’s the father of actor, voice actor, dancer, comedian, impressionist – Javed Jaffrey.

May he rest in peace.

A new service I’m curious about —

Hey.com – It’s a fresh take on one of the most important communication mediums EMAIL.

Did they reinvent it?

Not exactly, but they considered all the thing wrong about the current email services and tried to fix them and it took them over 2 years to get most of the things right.

I loved all the subtle nuances it has, but it got a hefty price tag of $99/year! But if you are considerate of privacy and time and less frustration weighs more for you then money, then this is it. It’s a great email service.

Here is a detailed demo of the service (loved how the CEO himself gave the entire demo, shows that how passionate a founder CEO can be) –

Music I’m loving —

Songs of Innocence by U2 – Sifting through my iTunes playlists from 2014, I found the U2’s album which they launched in a big surprise at Apple’s fall event in 2014, Apple presented a free copy of U2 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ to everyone with an iTunes account. I still have that album on all my Apple Devices.

Here is the entire album’s playlist. If you are up for it! (I love it btw, it was my companion on my marathon training sessions in 2014~15) –

Quote which I found meaningful –

In matters of style swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

— Unknown

Before saying “see you next week”

I want to share my first short course on Podcasting in collaboration with LMT (Last Moment Tutions). If you are curious about podcasting, you should check it out. I share a beginners guide to podcasting in this 5+1 part video series.

Here is the YouTube Playlist of it (because short course is FREE, main course coming soon!) –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 192 // Week 28 // 2020

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If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

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Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

I hope your health is good and you are holding up.

Another week passed by and with so much happening in the world right now, news has become the worst form of media. So I’m not actively listening to the news for many days now. If something is important it still reaches, you. Instead, I focused on my first-course creation (Psss..Podcasting for Beginners) and also focused on consuming targeted content on skills I wanted to acquire (like a new language learning) or the content I really loved (yeah I binge-watched POI for few days).

Getting your mind away from focus is also as important as to focus. Between focus and not focus there is a subtle balance. If you walk that line then you cop better with your own physical and emotional states.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I listened to the Sherlock homes some more this past week, and some of Atomic Habits –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 60% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 50% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

An article i found interesting —

How A Love Of Nature Makes Your Kid Smarter, More Creative, And Less Distracted – This article is basically a summary of Richard Louv’s 2005 book Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

If you are a parent you should definitely read this and if you are not, still it will make you feel nostalgic about your childhood.

A Good summary to read.

A podcast episode I loved —

Hugh Jackman – Tim Ferriss sits down with The Wolverine in this episode (pun intended) and talks about Best Decisions, Daily routines, reading first thing in the morning as a couple.

This was one of the good interviews I listened to in long time, which i really enjoyed!

Check it out!

A book I added in my reading/listening list —

The Overstory: A Novel – This book is recommended by Hugh Jackman in the podcast in the second point. He mentions that what you are done reading this book, it basically changes how you notice nature around you and look at things.

P.S.: This book turns out to be on Trees and it has won the Pulitzer price as well. (you can get your hopes high)

Music I’m loving —

Ocean by Native – Discovered this song last week on YouTube, what a gem of a song!

Beautiful lyrics immediately fell in love with it.

Few lines to get you curious –

“I’d rather see the ocean once in a lifetime
And miss it for the rest of my days
Than never feel the sand beneath my naked feet
And never hear the sound of breaking waves“

Quote which I found meaningful –

when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

— Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

That’s it for this week.

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.
Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 191 // Week 27 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020

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By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

I hope you are well and adjusting better to the situations compared to previous weeks.

Last week was more of a mindf**k for me because of office work stuff but eventually, it all came to resolve and I caught up with my peace.

I had been working on my first online course (coming soon! Yay!!) in the past week and slowly getting better at seeing myself in front of a camera and communicating more clearly than before. But it’s an ongoing process as of now.

Anyway, not much to share on the creative side this week.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I didn’t move much further this week but still, small progress is progress –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 50% done (Audible)
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 30% done (Audible) – This audiobook is like a page-turner version for audio (I don’t know if there is a specific word for it for audiobooks, let me know in comments if there is).

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
  2. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)
  4. Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 6 | Pending in Reading list – 4 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020

An app I loving again —

Duolingo – I’ve been playing around with Duolingo since way back half a decade ago. But didn’t see through my language learning until the end because of my own priorities.

This pandemic has given us unfathomable situations from getting weird news every other day OR being stuck in our homes for more than 3 months OR finding it difficult to maintain our relationships with family and loved ones. It all started to go south. But then I realised that even though I can’t control what’s happening in the world at large but I can control my own peace and sanity, it’s all in my head, If I can put my mind to new and constructive stuff, of course, I can get through these tough times.

Content Creation on scale, learning guitar and learning a new language became my main focus for good since past many weeks.

In the language learning part, Duolingo became my friend and I’ve been loving to learn a new language which is not a native Indian language. I’m loving the app’s implementation of gamification and cool ways to help you memorize the common words, phrases instead of normal language learning approaches like starting from ABCD of any language.

I’ll highlight recommend it to anyone trying to learn a new language (even just for fun! but I’m serious).

A movie I’m excited to watch —

Motherless Brooklyn – This is one movie which I was excited to see since it came out but It wasn’t available in India earlier. But recently I got to know that it’s coming on Amazon Prime Video in India. Now it’s already here. I got to know about this movie from Tim Ferriss podcast with Edward Norton sometime ago and it got me really curious that how much efforts Edward had to put to make this movie, even being a Hollywood Star. But as it was his dream project he took the road and made additional efforts to see it through.

This is a neo-noir drama based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem, assumed in the 1950s and Oh my god!! the Brooklyn bridge from that era is visualized very beautifully in this movie. Kudos to the DoP of the movie.

If you are in India and have Amazon Prime Video, you can watch here right now. I’m going to watch it this weekend (may give my review in next week’s post).

If my write up didn’t have you excited this trailer will –

A video I loved —

Sushant Singh Rajput’s Home tour – You can get a great idea about the man by seeing his house but you can get a deeper idea by conversing with the man and find how intellectual and thoughtful the man is (or rather was).

In this video, both his home and his conversation show how brilliant of an artist and an individual he was.

P.S.: If you loved Sushant and can get triggered by seeing him again on screen. Please skip this video. I love him too, but this is just my way of remembering him.

Music I’m loving —

Passionfruit by Drake – This song and the beat has been playing in the loop this past week. In my cycling rounds and runs. Love this beat.

Sometimes when you re-discover a song you loved but had forgotten, it gives a different kind of joy. This is one of those songs.

Check it out on YouTube –

Quote which I found meaningful –

Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.

— Wayne W. Dyer

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is a video I made on WWDC2020 and iOS highlights (Psss…it’s in Hindi and yeah I’m in quarantine haircut!) –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 190 // Week 26 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading

Saturday-Pentacle

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

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Saturday Pentacle Weekly Newsletter - Banner
By Himanshu Sachdeva

Hello!

This past week had been a rollercoaster again for the entire nation. Sushant Singh Rajput’s death came as a real shocker. An actor who was doing so well, or so we thought from the outside. He might have been doing well on the monetary level but at an emotional level apparently he wasn’t.

It was a shock to me personally as well, as I liked him as an actor, his movies like Kai Po Che!, his portrayal of MS Dhoni (the ex-Indian Cricket Captain) in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and many more. He would get into the character so much that you couldn’t tell him apart from the character he was doing. Plus he was a really intelligent human being, his keen interest in astrophysics was really rare to see in any of the Indian Artists. In fact, he was one of the person in my interview dream guest list for my podcast. Gone too soon. I surely am going to miss him as a human being.

On the other side, tensions on Indo-China border are increasing day-by-day. I just hope things settle down. But if chinese forces keep on intruding, I don’t think India will stay with hands folded. War is the least we all want at this moment, where we are are in the middle of a historic pandemic. So I really hope that things calm down on border and China gets their shit together now. It’s high time.

Coming to the book reading/listening progress, I moved forward on below books –

  1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – 40% done (Audible) – I was on a binge listening spree on this one.
  2. Atomic Habits by James Clear – 25% done (Audible) – finally started out on this book, I really wanted to read it since it launched last year. So many insights. I’ve been following James from 4-5 years now and love his actionable writing.

No progress on below ones this week –

  1. Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway – 20% done only (Audible)
  2. Breaking Smart: Season One: How Software is Eating the World – 70% done (an amazing book recommended by David Perell) (Kindle)
  3. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand – 50% done only (Kindle)
  4. Truck de India – 20% – (Kindle)

Current Yearly Tally – [Yearly goal – 24]

Read – 6 | In progress – 6 | Pending in Reading list – 4 | Yet to discover for reading for yearly goal – 8

That’s it for the personal updates.

Without further adieu, please enjoy this week’s Saturday-Pentacle.

Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

An event I’m looking forward to —

WWDC 2020 (Virtual Event) – For the first time in the history of Apple, WWDC is going virtual this year due to the Pandemic. I’m so pumped about this virtual event. Updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS are awaited. I hope they live up to the expectations of customers’ feedback.

Not sure if they’ll be launching any new hardware in this event. But big software updates are for sure awaited. Fingers Crossed.

If you are as excited as I am, click the link in the title to go to the WWDC page, for following up on updates and on the WWDC days the event can be tracked here.

WWDC 2020 (Virtual Event)

A podcast conversation I loved —

Ali talks to his roommate Molly – Ali Abdaal is one of the rising YouTubers who talk about productivity and lifestyle design. In this video he has a conversation with his long time friend and roommate Molly, where they talk about Molly’s cancer survival, being a doctor and going through the situations to be where they both are.

I resonated a lot with this video’s realness and totally recommend for watching –

A video which made me understand things at a deeper level (after Sushant Singh Rajput’s Death) —

Parents Who Have Lost a Child – Call it serendipity or something, the below video surfaced on my YouTube feed after I had been hit hard like others (after Sushant’s death).

I was amazed at the ease with which some of the parents spoke about losing their child. It shattered my heart to listen to the mother when she was telling the story that how his son was sitting on the dining table and crying in front of her maid (caretaker) that “Mom, I’m Sorry”, “Mom, I’m Sorry”. Then he jumps out of a high rise building and dies.

But listening about their pain and how they have gone through it all, made me realise not to take things for granted. I felt grateful in a weird way.

Check it out.

P.S.: If you are someone who’s in depression and can be triggered to see people talk about suicide in detail. Please don’t watch this video.

Music I’m loving —

The Important Song (Live) by Joe Anderson – I stumbled upon this song via an Instagram Story. This is from a 2009 album from Joe Anderson. He put out an important topic in the son literally named “The Important Song”. The idea is brilliant.

Quote which I found meaningful –

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

― James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Before saying “see you next week”

Here is the latest story from my Lifestyle Design in Action Story Series where Tanistha Arora shares her story. Check it out if you haven’t –

Living the Middle Path

and if you haven’t checked out my podcast episode yet with Shashank Murali (Co-Founder and CEO of Tapchief), then what are you waiting for! Check it out now. Here is the YouTube link –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

About Author

I’m Himanshu Sachdeva, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories.

Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!

No spam, ever. Only great stuff.

Saturday-Pentacle // Issue 189 // Week 25 // 2020

What to do Next?

If you are not signed up to my email list, go ahead and do it right now so that you don’t miss any new weekly SATURDAY PENTACLE post and more interesting emails on Lifestyle Design, Productivity and Creative Entrepreneurship. (plus new podcast episode announcements).

Just enter your email address below and click “Subscribe!”

Continue Reading