Hello there!

Hope you are safe and taking precautions to prevent COVID-19 exposure! In the past week, the situation has escalated to another level. Nearly 4000 plus people are dead worldwide and most of the countries are taking extreme caution steps like locking down entire cities.

Even my own office management has asked us to work from home, keeping in mind the situation and the risk associated with travel to the office.

This whole situation made me pause for a while and think about this year. Since the start of 2020, there have been many tragedies until now. Like Kobe Bryant death, Delhi Riots, Australian Bush Fires and now this COVID-19 worldwide spread. All of it sounds like straight out of the book of the apocalypse.

But humankind is always hopeful. I hope we get through this scare as well.

From another perspective, it also seems like a way of earth balancing life. Humans have done too much harm and seem like nature is taking it’s toll now by all these events.

I really wish and want that we humans do better with the environment, the earth and the treat other sentient beings with dignity as well. That seems like the only way to return back to the equilibrium with nature because this is the only pale blue dot we got to live.

I’m personally taking steps to reduce my carbon footprint by reducing plastic in my life, avoiding burning fossil fuel and being mindful of everything I consume and do.

This Corona Virus situation may be a turning point in history when we look back from the future, it may seem like it taught us how nature can give us back what we give to her. It also taught corporates to get better at making people work from home, travelling less, burning less or no fuel for travelling and social distancing.

I’m also making a video on the whole Corona Virus situation which may help people to understand the situation and not panic. Being Alert is the need of the hour and not being anxious.

Last week we had couple of holidays in India. Holi is one of them. The festival of colors. But this time it was not as colourful due to the COVID-19. I also celebrated it along with my family at home only with a small tikka of colour.

Coming on to the book listening progress, I’m at 75% with “The Sign of the Four” book from Sherlock Holmes series and with “Nonviolent Communication” (50% done). Inching closer to the goal. Yay!

This week I also released a different kind of video (with a lot of B-Rolls) – The 90 Mins Morning routine. (Check it out at the end section of this newsletter).

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

Issue 175 // Week 11 // 2020

A video I found really useful to learn more about COVID-19 —

CoronaVirus (COVID-19) – The Basics – Ali Abdaal does a great job explaining about the situation of COVID-19 and what actions to take. Check this out. I’m aiming to create a similar video with keeping in mind Indian situations.

A person I’m curious to know more about (Maybe a podcast episode brewing…Psss) —

Pallavi Jha – She’s the Chairperson and Managing Director of Dale Carnegie Training India. Pallavi has worked with more than 8,000 organizations to date and has equipped countless companies with the skills needed to scale in India’s competitive, dynamic economy.

A powerful personality. Check out this video –

A song I loved —

Kaheen Main Khirki to nahin – Discovered this new song on SoundCloud.

Mehdi Maloof has done an interesting job with this song.

Check it out it’s a little different –

A TedTalk I found interesting –

How technology frames reality – I found this TedTalk accidentally but loved the very different perspective it shared.

How technology is framing reality and how our perception has become a real estate to sell ads. It also shares a web browser plugin prototype which helps shape the digital content and show us how things really are instead of the photoshopped versions.

Check it out –

Quote I’m pondering on lately –

This is the best reason to learn history: not in order to predict the future, but to free yourself of the past and imagine alternative destinies. Of course this is not total freedom – we cannot avoid being shaped by the past. But some freedom is better than none.

Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Before saying “see you next week”
Here is the video I released in last week – The 90 Mins Morning Routine. This is what I follow currently for a powerful and productive day. Check it out –

Until Next Saturday!

Thanks for reading.

Himanshu

Hey friends, I’m Himanshu, 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 175 // Week 11 // 2020