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Day 21--Day 1 of week 4
For a little more than a year, I have been volunteering with the All Stars Project, a national nonprofit founded in 1981, that uses a performance based approach to help tens of thousands of inner-city youth and their families create success in their lives.Today was their National Development Day, originally scheduled to take place at the Lincoln Center in New York. Obviously that could not happen. So almost 200 attendees, including the All Stars executives, volunteers, well wishers and of course the students at the heart of the initiative, convened on Zoom to celebrate continued development while social distancing. Some of the students performed raps and sang for the audience. One student shared the story of her personal loss--she lost her uncle in New York last week. She still smiled and radiated hope. It was uplifting for us in so many ways! And as a bonus, I got to participate in virtual synchronized hand gesturing with all the other attendees and learned how to "applause" via Zoom emojis (called Reactions). All in all, a great start of the work week. #DevelopWhileDistancing
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Day 22--Day 2 of week 4
Breaking news today is that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pledged to donate one billion dollars to fight the coronavirus! That is huge! This news will probably again fuel the friendly tension between the biosciences sector and the high technology sector about which sector is more crucial in combating the corona monster (I am borrowing the President's vocabulary here. He repeatedly calls the virus a "monster.") Life Sciences were front and center at the President's daily briefing yesterday. He specifically mentioned Gilead, Genentech, Amgen, Regeneron, Abbott, Johnson and Johnson etc. I was chatting with my friend, a biotech patent attorney, yesterday. And she said that she and her husband, an artificial intelligence/machine learning expert at Google, frequently engage in healthy debate about which technology would get to the solution first. I guess the answer lies in the synergy between all possible technologies springing from human ingenuity fueled by the universal desire to get the better of this crisis. After all "you cannot let a good crisis go waste." (Learned this quotation from Khan Academy founder Sal Khan during his interview with Bill Gates.)
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Day 23--Day 3 of week 4
Today is all about music! The day started with listening to a song clip sent by my cousin in India, where he is singing a duet in unison with his friend from their respective homes. Then during my lunch break, my friend sent a rare gem of a re-imagined old Bollywood song audio clip, where two playback legends' (Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi) voices were seamlessly mixed to create a refreshing version of the song. And finally, while writing this, I am listening to a video clip that my sister sent, where a few Indian classical musicians pay tribute to sitar maestro Ravi Shankar on his birth centenary (he was born on April 7, 1920). For the first time since the shelter-in-place order went into effect, I didn't feel the need to check how many people have died today. Music does heal.
The walks in the neighborhood, with the dog, are becoming more and more interesting in these shelter-in-place days. Three days in a row now I have encountered a masked runner. The first day I thought the runner was judging me, because I was not wearing a mask and he was. The second day both of us wore masks, and I felt there is nothing to judge. Today, the masked guy waved at me! If this is not neighborly, I don't know what is! I have no idea who the person is, how he looks like (because the face is mostly covered), or which house he belongs to, but there is no doubt that he lives in the neighborhood. And he can always recognize me (masked or not), because I walk with the same unmasked dog! 🙂
I am also seeing some old furniture being retired by some households in the neighborhood, as they are placed by the curb to be taken away. Now that people are having to spend so much time indoors, they need to have the right kind of furniture. That is especially true for the work desks and chairs, because you need an ergonomic and efficient set up to be productive. The other day I saw an abandoned desk. There were built in CD racks in the desk. That simply tells you that the desk is dated. They don't make those desks with the CD racks any more. The world has moved on to streaming over the Internet. And thank god for the internet that was built during the cold war with a 'hunkering down' situation in mind, as described in the article (https://tinyurl.com/qww8vuv) that I posted earlier on Facebook, titled, "Your Internet is working. Thank these Cold War-era pioneers who designed it to handle almost anything."
I am also seeing some old furniture being retired by some households in the neighborhood, as they are placed by the curb to be taken away. Now that people are having to spend so much time indoors, they need to have the right kind of furniture. That is especially true for the work desks and chairs, because you need an ergonomic and efficient set up to be productive. The other day I saw an abandoned desk. There were built in CD racks in the desk. That simply tells you that the desk is dated. They don't make those desks with the CD racks any more. The world has moved on to streaming over the Internet. And thank god for the internet that was built during the cold war with a 'hunkering down' situation in mind, as described in the article (https://tinyurl.com/qww8vuv) that I posted earlier on Facebook, titled, "Your Internet is working. Thank these Cold War-era pioneers who designed it to handle almost anything."
#StayAtHomeDiaries
Day 25--Day 5 of week 4
Challenge accepted! Vijay Vusirikala tagged me for the dog photo challenge. While the masks are still in the mail, we are improvising with the eye covers that you get to be able to sleep on the plane. This was Bikash's idea. Finally all his business travels and the goodies that he got for enduring those long flights are coming to good use. May be the airlines should think about pivoting their business model to mask production now that nobody flies but everybody wears a mask?
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Day 26--Day 6 of week 4
I debated a lot today about whether to keep writing my daily journals, because things in India changed a lot from last night. But then I realize, when there is a lot to handle and a lot to process, then writing is my way of organizing my mind. So I want to finish archiving at least this week in its entirety. And then relax the commitment to write daily.
One of my biggest realizations today is how much my brain wants to solve a puzzle to achieve a sense of tranquility when there is external turmoil. It has become very popular to share quizzes and puzzles among like-minded friends over various social networks in these stay-at-home days. But now I need those more than ever. I am extremely fortunate to have some awesome female geeks in my network who seem to have an endless supply of challenging but fun math problems and logic games to send my way. We solve the problems. We discuss our methodologies. We take care of our families. We take care of business. And we soak in the "kindred spirit" feeling. I am a proud female nerd.
One of my biggest realizations today is how much my brain wants to solve a puzzle to achieve a sense of tranquility when there is external turmoil. It has become very popular to share quizzes and puzzles among like-minded friends over various social networks in these stay-at-home days. But now I need those more than ever. I am extremely fortunate to have some awesome female geeks in my network who seem to have an endless supply of challenging but fun math problems and logic games to send my way. We solve the problems. We discuss our methodologies. We take care of our families. We take care of business. And we soak in the "kindred spirit" feeling. I am a proud female nerd.
#StayAtHomeDiaries
Day 27--Day 7 of week 4
Today is Easter Sunday. At one point Trump wanted to open up the country this weekend. That didnt happen, and for good reasons. But thankfully Dr. Fauci shared some good news today that "rolling re-entry" of US Economy is possible in May. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, I count my blessings that in California, we are not under a complete lockdown, but under a shelter-in-place order instead. Outdoor exercise is permitted as long as social distance is maintained. Nothing nourishes you mentally and physically simultaneously like the weekend morning hikes, breathing in fresh air. Stevens Creek Reservoir is as beautiful as it gets at this time of the year, with bursting greenery. A sight for the sore eyes and hearts alike.
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