I now walk into the wild…

After having an amazing journey with D. E. Shaw & Arcesium for six years, I am now shifting to the wilderness. Indiahikes 😍 will be my new family, Trek leader 🧗‍♂️ will be my new job title & Himalayas 🏔️will be my new address.

Lately, people have been asking me many questions about this, for some it was Why did I take such an odd decision at the peak of IT career?, for some it was What motivated me to take such bold step? So here I am, giving you a sneak peak into my new life for all curious folks 🙂

LIFESTYLE 🧘‍♂️

I always wanted to follow a natural, minimalist, green & active healthy lifestyle. I can get this all nowhere better than in the wilderness. As a trek leader, I will be mostly living in the tents and trekking to the high altitude, I will be able to live a life with simplicity and frugality. I cannot imagine a better lifestyle for the best of my physical & mental health. ⛰️

LEARNING 🐒

Nature is the best teacher and also, nature is the best setting in which one can best seek knowledge. I am a knowledge hungry person and I am really looking forward to learn from the nature itself & from other people in the outdoors.💡

IMPACT 🌲 😇

There is not better time than this to realize that we must take big steps to take care of our environment to save ourselves from any more disasters & epidemics. Powerful initiatives at Indiahikes like Green Trails & Sustainability Champions gives me (and everyone) an opportunity to really make a difference. 🌲

Also, I see around a large number of people today are not really happy in today’s fast paced lifestyle. It will be a great opportunity for me to educate trekkers more about nature & natural lifestyle, lead by example & leave a life changing impact on trekkers. 😇

WORK 🧗‍♂️

High altitude trekking is favorite adventure & is a perfect Type 2 fun for me. Many might think I am going for trek leading to be able to trek across Himalayas, but the truth is that.. it is work after all. However, here the work adds meaning to my life. Indiahikes is the best value based organizations I ever got to know and its values are aligned perfectly with mine. 🤸‍♂️

I am super excited to thrive in this new role, new lifestyle & new phase of my life. Wish me luck 🙏 & lets trek together sometime. If you want to keep yourself updated with this new phase of my life, you can follow this blog using button in side panel & be part of a broad community of learners & explorer.

I now walk into the wild… 🥳

Invest in Mutual Funds right away! These 5 points explains everything you need to know before starting.

There is no better time to invest in Mutual Funds than this time. I have consolidated few of useful articles & links which will help you get started easily (For now it mostly contains links & headings only, I will revise this blogpost with more rich content soon). This blogpost is followup to my previous post about investment tips for beginners.

1. What is a Mutual Fund & Why should you invest in Mutual Funds

2. Why is this the best time to invest in Mutual Funds

Given the share market at very low at this time, buying stocks or mutual funds will get you more units & you get benefited most when market gets better. You can read more in this article.

3. Prerequisites & other useful info

  • Useful terms to know before proceeding further
    • SIP – Continuous investment over a period of time, mitigate market fluctuations risk
    • Lump sum investment– one time investment
    • STP – Transfer investment from one fund to another in installments
    • SWP – Withdraw money in installments
    • Debt, Equity, Hybrid – Types of mutual funds
    • Small cap, mid cap, large cap, multi cap – Types of equity mutual funds.
    • Value oriented, Index funds, Arbitrage, Tax saver – Other types of mutual funds

4. Set goals & choose funds

  • Set goals based on time horizon & risk appetite:
    • Very short term (< 1 Yr)
    • Short term (1-3 Yrs): 
    • Medium term (3Yrs+)
    • Long term (10Yrs+)
    • Retirement
  • Select fund type
    • Debt
      • <1 year, low risk, low return (~6%)
        • Liquid debt fund: Less fluctuation, good for lump sum investment
      • 1-3 yrs, moderate risk, moderate return (6-8%)
        • Short duration debt fund
      • 3-5-10 yrs, high risk, high returns (8-10%)
        • Hybrid aggressive hybrid debt+equity fund: SIP ONLY
    • Equity
      • 5-10 yrs, very high risk (10-12%)
        • Large & Midcap
        • Multi cap
        • Value oriented
    • Tax Saving

5. Track, Taxation etc

Getting bored at home? Try these 10 interesting alternate workout activities!

While many are feeling stuck at home and getting into negativity during this lock-down period, others are making the most of this time, enjoying this time to fullest and truly taking this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore various aspects and improve themselves.

If you also want to make this time more interesting, here are some activities of different types to try & throw the boredom away. I have curated the activities which needs minimal or no prop and I have been doing all these activities myself at home and they are amazing.

Lets start with cool coordination trick –

1. Juggling

First time when I thought about it, it looked very difficult. But once you learn the basic of how its done, then its only about how much practice you can do to get better at it. You might start by having just three rolls of socks. You can start here – How to juggle 3 balls.

2. Chakrasana (Bridge)

Very good for flexibility. This is also basis for backflip & advance tricks. You can read more about it on Wikipedia and simply try it yourself by looking at the images or by watching some videos.

3. Mayurasana

I am a fan of Yoga Aasanas and Mayurasan is something I was trying to do from long time. Finally after some practice lately I was able to do it. This video can help you how to better approach this.

4. Handstand T-Shirt challenge

Fun challenge, to put on t-shirt while on handstand. I am now trying to do this while facing the other side, you can do it this way?

5. Rope Skipping

I love rope skipping & if you want to get intense, try double under! I learnt it from the Paradise Crossfit, the Jump Rope Dudes are also cool.

6. Cartwheeling

Cartweheeling is really a fun activity. You need to record yourself / have someone at watch to give you feedback and get into perfect rotation. Thanks for Abhinav Parkour Academy where I first learnt about it.

If you are feeling more adventurous, rest of the activities are just for you!

7. Slack Lining

For this you will need some wide ropes or some other jugaad like niwar. I have set up one at home and practice slack-lining daily.

8. One hand pushup

There are various variations of pushups you can try, including one hand pushup, clap pushup and headstand pushup (facing the wall, like the t-shirt challenge).

9. Sword Fighting Tricks

Just get a heavy stick or a wide rode to try these cool swords tricks.

10. Handstand

I have been chasing handstand for a few months now, but with regular practice during last few weeks at home, I am able to do it well. If you don’t know how to get started with this, try to hold on to Head-Stand for good amount of time first. You can also try frog-stand, which is also known as foundation for Handstand.

I hope you liked the list of activities I mentioned here. Leave a comment (or tweet me) with your favorite one from this list or from your own list.

Thanks 🙏

Wilderness movies and documentaries to watch

Below is list of my favorite outdoor related entertainment content. Let me know, in comments, if you want me to suggest anything to try and add in the list.

My top 5 picks

  • Into the wild
  • Free Solo
  • Valley Uprising
  • Meru
  • Mountain (Netflix)

+ Incredible Human And Animal Friendships
+ Oddest Friendships Between Animals

More to try

Documentaries on the Fauna and Forests of Karnataka

  1. Our Planet
  2. Dancing with the birds
  3. Night on Earth
  4. Untamed Romania
  5. Beak and Brain
  1. Wild Karnataka
    https://www.zoosofkarnataka.com/wild-karnataka
  2. The Unsung – A life at Bhadra Tiger Reserve
    https://youtu.be/hhleR81clus
    https://youtu.be/dAUfpcrL_rE
    https://youtu.be/Rszpqf0vTxk
  3. River terns of Bhadra
    https://youtu.be/JO4qHg2xwe4
  4. Daroji Bear Sanctuary
    https://youtu.be/HiTJiWXYlpo
  5. The Western Ghats of India
    https://youtu.be/7uPBKxODeh0
  6. Namaami Aranyaka – Honnavara Division
    https://youtu.be/ersBvr57oVI
  7. Aganashini
    https://youtu.be/N85N3JspPOE
    https://www.zoosofkarnataka.com/wild-karnataka
  8. A day at Mysore zoo
    https://youtu.be/MuB7HHeuNbc

How can YOU help in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic and why must you?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic has already proven itself how bad it is & the predictions of its affect on lives & economy looks really bad. This is surely going to be one of deadliest event in mankind and it wont be possible for us to forget it. Your children/grandchildren may ask you questions about it many years later & you might not just want to tell what happened but also include what did you do to help others in the fight against this pandemic.

Following are few of the ways in which you can contribute. Let me know in the comments section if I can add anything else to the list, also share what all you found really useful & where all are you contributing.

SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY

Volunteer, volunteer volunteer

  1. Volunteer for govt (like in India – https://self4society.mygov.in/volunteer/)
  2. Work with Govt Organizations or NGO
  3. Support local community with group of friends
  4. Extend volunteer support individually

SUPPORT FINANCIALLY

Govt & local groups need money in this time. Few of such requirements in India includes PM Cares (central govt) & state govt funds. You can work in groups (with school / college friends, colleagues etc) to collect money, it works better this way.

SUPPORT IN YOUR AREA OF EXPERTISE

Technical people can help Open Source projects like covid19india.org

SUPPORT IN FIGHTING MIS-INFORMATION

Help in spreading awareness, providing true information & stop fake news from spreading.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Spread positivity
  • Do some charity / any kind of contribution in this situation, you will feel good
  • Keep yourself busy & find creative ways to make best use of time
  • Ideate, Innovate & Implement new ideas
  • This is an opportunity to work on yourself, introspect & create plan for personal development