Krishna, a very dear friend once told me that he tries to make progress on different fronts of his life regularly. I found that idea to be a very good one. I have been trying to do this of late. I don't remember exactly the specific areas he had talked about but I guess for me the important areas would be - career, finances, spirituality, health and hobbies.


On the career front, things have been going pretty well. I got started on a very exciting new project for NephroPlus a few months back. This project could really change the way decisions regarding dialysis patients are made in the country. It will not only impact NephroPlus patients but also patients from all over the country whether they are dialysing at NephroPlus or not! Things have become fairly hectic over the past few months with multiple streams of work picking up momentum and a large number of centres being opened this year - we are 30 centre strong now! So, on the work front, things have been pretty good!

On the finances front, things are just about stable. I am able to take care of my dialysis expenses and able to save just enough to buy the latest devices Tim Cook and his team come out with from time to time! However, a few days back, my Bank Relationship Manager visited me. He brought along a colleague who advises on mutual funds and they advised me to invest regularly in some mutual funds. They said I should be investing in a mix of Mid-cap and Balanced funds and keep a small part of my earnings in Fixed Deposits (FD). I hate FDs because the interest rate is so pathetically low that the returns are practically nothing! I have taken their advice and have set up a small portion of my salary into some mutual funds. I guess the Apple Watch might have to wait for some time!

On spirituality, I have taken one big step. I now go every Sunday morning from 9:30 to 11:30 to teach kids about the basic concepts of Jain Dharm. I believe unflinchingly in the basic concepts of Jain Dharm (not the various add-ons that have been introduced over the past many decades!) and I really enjoy teaching these concepts to the young, inquisitive minds (12 years and over), mostly in English. This needs me to read up on the stuff as well, something I have been meaning to do from a long time but haven't!

On the health front, there is one nagging issue - the bone pain in my right upper thigh and the neuropathy/bone pain in my feet. The left foot especially has been bothering me. There is a sharp pain in the upper, middle part and the numbness is crazy. I have no clue what this is and what the heck we can do to fix it! And then of course, there's the dialysis bit which I can't really do too much about. But things are stable here. Swimming is on as well.

I have taken on a new hobby these days. Reading! I am currently reading three books simultaneously! Two of them have been gifted by a dear friend from Bengaluru. The three books are of three disparate genres. One is an English translation of 'Parva' by Bhyrappa which is a de-mythified version of the Mahabharata. It presents the Mahabharata in a completely historical manner where there's no supernatural stuff happening. Very interesting take on the Mahabharata. It gives me a lot of clues into the truth behind the supernatural stuff that has been introduced into my religion as well. I also took to playing the keyboard (musical) after many, many years!

So that's an update on the major fronts in my life!

I really believe that it is very important for each of us to make small advances in each sphere that is important to us. Often, we get so engrossed in our day-to day lives that we ignore everything else. Again, these aspects could be different for every one of us. But it is essential to make a conscious choice of what's important and what is not and then work on each of these. They could change as well from time to time. We must make sure that it is happening consciously and not merely by default.

My mother retired yesterday after a 37 year long stint at Andhra Bank. Along with my family, I went for the retirement function. It was really great to hear all the senior management of the bank pay glowing tributes to my mother's commitment, sincerity and capability.

She, by no means, plans to take it easy. She is now looking for opportunities and, if I know her well enough, will not be a stay-at-home person even after retirement. She had me prepare her resume a few weeks back. I have been pushing her to do something less exacting. I would not want her to do nothing for sure but I do not want her to take up a regular job!

Here are some pics from her retirement event at the bank:

Just had a fantastic birthday. The celebrations started from the 27th night itself with a party with my HPS friends (school friends). It was midnight by the time I reached home and found the NephroPlus gang waiting there with cakes! 28th evening I had my team-mates from NephroPlus Hyderabad and close by places come home for a big party. This was great fun as well!

Here are some pictures: