Shaleen Jain

Air Gear Deserves a Reboot

2026-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

🔗</a> Why This Cult Classic Is Ready for a Modern Comeback</h2>
Air Gear deserves a reboot not only because it was a visually distinctive cult anime with unfinished source material, but because its deepest idea still feels relevant today: the dream of breaking free from lives built around comfort and security, and reaching toward a boundless sky of possibility.
The sky is Air Gear's most enduring metaphor. It is a space that connects us all, inviting us to rise above our differences against a backdrop of gang rivalries and conflict. It's about riders competing not to conquer others, but to discover how far they themselves can go.
At its heart, Air Gear is about movement as liberation—about breaking out of the limits that shrink people and reaching for a larger, more intense freedom. 
That idea matters today because modern life often rewards caution, optimization, and control. People are more connected than ever, yet many feel boxed in by routine, pressure, burnout, and the quiet fear of leaving what is safe. Air Gear speaks directly to that feeling by turning skating into a metaphor for escape, courage, self-discovery, and trust in motion. A reboot would not just revive a nostalgic title; it would restore a story about learning how to rise.
🔗</a> Why Air Gear Still Stands Out</h2>
At its core, Air Gear blends street culture, youth rebellion, and high-speed action around the idea of Air Treks, motorized inline skates that transform everyday movement into spectacle. That premise gave the series a distinct identity even among other action anime, mixing gang rivalry, athletic performance, exaggerated powers, and fashion-forward design into something unmistakably its own.
The original anime also understood atmosphere. Its speed, attitude, and visual energy made the world feel larger than the story it had time to tell. Even today, the series is remembered less as a conventional battle anime than as one driven by movement, momentum, and the longing to fly.
🔗</a> The Theme Beneath the Style</h2>
What makes Air Gear special is that the skating is never just skating. The idea of flight runs beneath everything, giving the action emotional weight. The characters are not simply racing or fighting; they are trying to break free from invisible cages—from fear, limitation, and the narrow version of life that comfort can create.
That is why the story still resonates today. Many people live in systems that feel secure but spiritually small. Work, schedules, social expectations, and digital habits can become a kind of soft confinement, where the body stays busy while the soul longs for something more. Air Gear speaks to that longing by imagining freedom not as escape from responsibility, but as the courage to move beyond self-imposed limits.
The image of the sky matters here. It suggests openness, connection, and shared possibility. Flying is not only about escape; it is also about meeting others in the same vast space. In that sense, Air Gear is less a fantasy of individual rebellion than a vision of freedom that still leaves room for community.
🔗</a> Why the Original Anime Never Reached Its Full Potential</h2>
The strongest practical argument for a reboot is also the simplest: the original anime never had the chance to tell the complete story. Its 25-episode run introduced the world, the characters, and the exhilaration of Air Treks, but only hinted at the scale the manga would eventually reach.
As the story unfolds, Air Gear expands far beyond street rivalries. New teams, philosophies, and competing visions of what it means to "fly" transform what first appears to be a stylish action series into something much larger. The anime captured the feeling of takeoff, but never the full journey.
That makes Air Gear an unusual candidate for revival. Most reboots rely primarily on nostalgia. Air Gear has something more substantial waiting beneath the surface: a complete story that was never fully adapted.
🔗</a> Why It Would Resonate Even More Today</h2>
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how contemporary Air Gear now feels.
Modern life asks us to optimize almost everything. We measure productivity, curate our identities, and often mistake efficiency for fulfillment. Security becomes the goal, while risk slowly becomes something to avoid.
Air Gear argues for the opposite. It celebrates movement over stagnation, curiosity over certainty, and the willingness to leap before knowing exactly where you'll land. Its characters grow because they keep choosing the harder path—the one that demands trust in themselves and in the people riding beside them.
The Air Treks themselves embody that philosophy. They are not merely a clever piece of science fiction or a flashy gimmick for action scenes. They represent possibility. Every rooftop crossed and every impossible jump suggests that the limits people accept are often smaller than the limits they truly possess.
That message feels increasingly rare. In a culture that teaches us to minimize uncertainty, Air Gear reminds us that the most meaningful experiences often begin with stepping beyond what feels safe.
🔗</a> What a Reboot Should Preserve</h2>
A new adaptation should resist the temptation to sand away the series' rough edges. Air Gear works because it is loud, kinetic, stylish, and slightly reckless. Its exaggerated fashion, expressive character designs, and relentless sense of momentum are not superficial quirks; they are inseparable from its identity.
More importantly, it should preserve the philosophy beneath the spectacle.
The action has always mattered because of what it represents. Every race, every battle, and every impossible leap expresses the same belief: freedom is not something we are given. It is something we discover by continuing to move, even when the destination is uncertain.
🔗</a> A Story Worth Finishing</h2>
Air Gear has always been easy to admire for its artwork, kinetic action, and unmistakable style. But those qualities are only the surface.
At its heart, it is a story about choosing freedom over comfort, about discovering yourself through movement, and about finding people who inspire you to aim higher than you believed possible.
That is why it deserves another chance.
Not because nostalgia sells.
Not because unfinished manga deserve completion.
But because its central idea still speaks to the world we live in.
A reboot would not simply revisit a cult classic. It would finally allow one of anime's most distinctive stories to become what it was always reaching toward: a celebration of the courage to fly beyond the cages we inherit and toward a sky wide enough for all of us.

NextDNS: A Modern DNS Firewall for Your Whole Network

2026-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

🔗</a> What's Wrong with Plain DNS?</h2>
Traditional DNS (port 53, UDP) sends your queries in plaintext. Anyone on your network, your ISP, or anyone snooping on the wire can see every domain you visit. It's also trivially easy for ISPs or governments to hijack DNS responses and redirect you to phishing pages or censorship pages.
DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT) fix this by encrypting your DNS queries. Instead of plain UDP packets, your queries travel inside an encrypted TLS tunnel (DoT) or are wrapped in HTTPS requests (DoH). This gives you:

Privacy — your ISP can't see what domains you're resolving</li>
Integrity — nobody can tamper with DNS responses in transit</li>
Authentication — you verify you're talking to the real DNS server</li> </ul> 🔗</a> Why NextDNS?</h2>
There are other encrypted DNS providers (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Quad9, etc.), but NextDNS goes much further:
1. Blocking & Filtering
You can block malware, tracking domains, adult content, ads, and more — all at the DNS level. It works like Pi-hole but requires no hardware, no configuration on each device, and it applies to every device on your network. It uses multiple blocklists (OISD, Energized, etc.) out of the box.
2. Analytics
The dashboard shows you exactly which domains are being queried, how many were blocked, which devices made the requests, and a timeline of activity. It's incredibly useful for spotting rogue IoT phones home or checking if a block is too aggressive.
3. Allow/Deny Lists
You can whitelist domains that get falsely blocked and blacklist entire domains or TLDs. Changes propagate in seconds.
4. Parental Controls
Built-in categories for restricting adult content, social media, gaming, etc. You can also schedule when certain categories are blocked (e.g., block social media during school hours).
5. Response Policy Zones (RPZ)
RPZ is a powerful DNS-level policy mechanism that lets you redirect, block, or log queries based on domain patterns. NextDNS supports it natively, giving you advanced control far beyond simple blocklists — you can, for example, redirect queries for known malware domains to a local sinkhole, override DNS responses for specific domains across your entire network, or quarantine IoT device domains.
6. Native DoH/DoT/DoQ/DNSCrypt
No need to run a local proxy — every device can talk to NextDNS directly over encrypted DNS.
7. No Hardware Required
It Just Works on your existing router, phone, or laptop. You don't need a Raspberry Pi or a separate server.
8. Global Anycast
NextDNS has servers all over the world. Latency is consistently lower than running a Pi-hole over a VPN or a self-hosted Unbound instance.
9. Censorship Resistance Compatible browsers enable encrypted Server Name Indication (SNI) on top of DoH to prevent leaking of DNS hostnames and thus thwarting commonly used internet censorship attempts by ISP's and governments.
They have a generous free tier (300,000 queries/month) and the paid plan is cheap — $1.99/month or $19.90/year for unlimited queries and up to 50 devices per configuration.
🔗</a> Setting Up NextDNS on OpenWrt with Stubby</h2>
This is my recommended setup because it protects every device on your network — including smart TVs, IoT devices, game consoles, and guest devices that you can't configure individually.
OpenWrt has native support for `stubby</code>, a DNS-over-TLS stub resolver. The setup is straightforward.`
🔗</a> Step 1: Get Your Configuration ID</h3> Sign up at NextDNS</a>, create a configuration, and note your Configuration ID — it looks like abc123</code>. You'll find it under the Setup tab. 🔗</a> Step 2: Install Stubby on OpenWrt</h3> SSH into your router and run: opkg update opkg install stubby luci-app-stubby</code></pre>🔗</a> Step 3: Configure Stubby</h3> Edit /etc/stubby/stubby.yml</code>: resolution_type: GETDNS_RESOLUTION_STUB dns_transport_list: - GETDNS_TRANSPORT_TLS tls_authentication: GETDNS_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED tls_query_padding_blocksize: 128 edns_client_subnet_private: 1 idle_timeout: 10000 listen_addresses: - 127.0.0.1@5353 - 0::1@5353 round_robin_upstreams: 1 upstream_recursive_servers: - address_data: 45.90.28.0 tls_auth_name: "abc123.dns.nextdns.io" - address_data: 2a07:a8c0::0 tls_auth_name: "abc123.dns.nextdns.io" - address_data: 45.90.30.0 tls_auth_name: "abc123.dns.nextdns.io" - address_data: 2a07:a8c1::0 tls_auth_name: "abc123.dns.nextdns.io"</code></pre> Replace abc123</code> with your actual Configuration ID. The IP addresses are NextDNS's anycast servers. Using addresses instead of hostnames avoids a chicken-and-egg problem where DNS needs DNS to resolve the DNS server. The tls_auth_name</code> is what Stubby will validate against the TLS certificate, and it includes your config ID so NextDNS knows which filtering policy to apply. 🔗</a> Step 4: Configure dnsmasq (or unbound)</h3> In LuCI, go to Network → DNS → Forwards, set "DNS forwardings" to 127.0.0.1#5353</code>. Or from the CLI, edit /etc/config/dhcp</code>: list server '127.0.0.1#5353'</code></pre> Then restart the services: /etc/init.d/stubby restart /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart</code></pre>🔗</a> Step 5: Verify It Works</h3> Visit NextDNS's test page</a> or check the analytics dashboard. You should see queries coming in from your home IP. 🔗</a> Setting Up NextDNS on Android</h2> Android has supported DNS-over-TLS (DoT) since Android 9 (Pie) and DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) since Android 11. You don't need any third-party app for basic encrypted DNS. 🔗</a> Using Private DNS (DoT, Android 9+)</h3> Go to Settings → Network & internet → Private DNS</li> Select Private DNS provider hostname</li> Enter: abc123.dns.nextdns.io</code> (replace abc123</code> with your config ID)</li> Tap Save</li> </ol> That's it. All DNS queries from your phone will now be encrypted with TLS and filtered by your NextDNS policy. This works on both Wi-Fi and mobile data. 🔗</a> Using the NextDNS App (DoH, More Features)</h3> If you want DoH instead of DoT, or you want per-app filtering, logging, or the ability to pause protection, install the NextDNS app from F-Droid or the Play Store: Install NextDNS</a></li> Open the app and sign in</li> It will automatically detect your configuration</li> Enable the VPN-based DNS — this creates a local VPN that intercepts DNS queries and sends them over HTTPS</li> </ol> The app approach gives you more visibility (you can see real-time queries on your phone) and works on Android versions older than 9. 🔗</a> Verifying Android Setup</h3> Visit https://test.nextdns.io</code> in your browser. It will show whether you're connected to NextDNS, your config ID, protocol (DoT or DoH), and latency. 🔗</a> DNS-over-HTTPS vs DNS-over-TLS: Which to Use?</h2> Both achieve the same goal — encrypted DNS. The differences are subtle: Aspect</th> DoT</th> DoH</th></tr></thead> Port</td> 853 (dedicated)</td> 443 (shared with HTTPS)</td></tr> Protocol</td> TLS over TCP</td> HTTPS</td></tr> Ease to block</td> Easy (block port 853)</td> Hard (looks like normal web traffic)</td></tr> Performance</td> Slightly lower overhead</td> Slightly more overhead</td></tr> Android support</td> Native (Private DNS)</td> Via app only</td></tr> </tbody></table> On OpenWrt, I recommend Stubby (DoT) because it's lightweight and OpenWrt has excellent support for it. On Android, the native Private DNS (DoT) is the simplest. If you're on a restrictive network that blocks port 853, the NextDNS app with DoH will work because it tunnels through port 443. 🔗</a> Billing</h2> If you're based in India and trying to signup for their paid plans, note that their stripe integration for payments does not have OTP authentications (Verified-By-Visa enabled, thus making all Visa cards fail being charged. Any MasterCard with international payments enabled should work fine however! 🔗</a> Final Thoughts</h2> NextDNS is one of those rare services that's simultaneously simple enough for non-technical users and powerful enough for network nerds. The OpenWrt setup takes 10 minutes and gives your entire home network ad-blocking, malware protection, and parental controls without any ongoing maintenance. The free tier covers a typical household, and even the paid plan is cheaper than a coffee. If you've been considering setting up Pi-hole but haven't gotten around to it, give NextDNS</a> a try instead. Grounding and Trusting Oneself 2025-07-10T00:00:00+00:00 While attending a CI workshop in Goa, at a wonderful space under a huge Banyan Tree with sunlight shimmering through it's leaves, after finishing a set of partner exercises we sat down in a circle to share our experiences and feelings. Two other participants began the sharing with how they where able to trust each other letting them both share weight, lift and fly each other easily. Having sensed this theme of trust issues within the group, I chimed in with my perspective on trust. I shared that indeed it is not only about trusting the other but more so of trusting oneself, to be able to sense, perceive and catch myself in a fall. Being comfortable in different orientations and knowing your center of gravity. That in turn lets you work within your limits but also take risks leading to expansion of your capabilities and limits. The facilitator resonated with me by adding that indeed trust is not something that you just give, it comes from within, with awareness of your presence and body sensations leading to an even greater connection and perception of the other, navigating tricky spaces, communicating and negotiating each others limits and boundaries. The more I practise CI the more I find myself trusting my body and its sensations to guide me into ways of catching myself from falls, having more spacial awareness, acknowledging my emotions and reading others intentions. Essentially being comfortable handling new, unknown and challenging situations. Values - Mine and New Gaia 2025-07-09T00:00:00+00:00 These are the values I've built up for myself over the years and have served me well to this day. I share them here for the benefit of others but also as part of the New Earth going forward. 🔗</a> Values</h2> Values guide our goals and aspiration, they provide a code to operate in the world in order to co-ordinate and collaborate with the people we live and work with. 🔗</a> Karma Yoga</h3> The true essence of Karma Yoga is performing actions without attachment to the results. Working for work’s sake. The only duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings. If you can incessantly take that position that you are a giver, that everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, that will be work which will not bring attachment. Attachment only comes when we expect something. — Swami Vivekananda </blockquote> 🔗</a> Devotion</h3> When we work without attachment, the work itself brings us joy and satisfaction. For that we dedicate and devote the work to a higher energy and higher force. The object is transformation, and the transformation can only be done by a force infinitely greater than your own; it can only be done by being truly like a child in the hands of the Divine Mother. — Sri Aurobindo </blockquote> 🔗</a> Higher purpose</h3> Our motives and desires are not for power and everything else, it is for calmness and serenity and to bring that experience to everyone for our collective welfare. 🔗</a> Dharma</h3> Dharma/Tao refers not just to external, material and factual truths but also a sense of inner truth and authenticity. Knowing everyone has their own role, duty and skills they excel at. We do not value or judge anyone’s work as higher or lower as far as it is in alignment with the dharma. If you want to be a householder hold your life a sacrifice for the welfare of others, and if you choose the life of renunciation do not even see beauty, and money, and power. Each is great in his own place, but the duty of the one is not the duty of the other. — Swami Vivekananda </blockquote> 🔗</a> Good and Evil</h3> Good and Evil are but the two sides of the same coin. Do not impose any sense of an external morality on ourselves, but know good and evil are just different perspectives. We rely on our own sense of dharma to guide us, not in isolation, but together as one community, society and eventually one being. We read in the Gîtâ again and again that we must all work incessantly, but all work must be composed of good and evil; we cannot do any work which has not some part of good somewhere; there cannot be any work which will not injure someone somewhere. </blockquote> Yet we must do good. It is the highest motive power we have, knowing all the time it is a privilege to help. Do not stand on a pedestal and take five cents and say, “Here, my poor man,” but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by giving to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but the giver. — Swami Vivekananda </blockquote> Dharmalaya - A Dysfunctional Institute 2025-06-30T00:00:00+00:00 View from a village near Dharmalaya</figcaption> </figure> Dharmalaya</a> is 6-acre eco-campus located near a village in Bir, Himachal Pradesh. The institute is intentioned as an alternate school with their main focus being on contemplative arts and teachings of the traditional practises of natural building and agriculture in-addition to now integrating that with permaculture principles. I visited the institute for a 3-month permaculture course led by an Australian Permaculture teacher Robyn Hewson. The course itself was quite helpful and enriching however here I will be focusing on sharing my experience with the community and how it was staying within the campus of Dharmalaya for an extended period of time. 🔗</a> Community</h3> Never before have I been in a community so distraught, fractured and scattered. So many lost and jaded humans, trying to find a sense of purpose, respect and self-worth by trying to help others and building a "better world". However it all comes from a place of a moral high-ground, a sense of lack and neediness. Rather instead an overflowing of abundance and love. The campus is completely isolated, with a lack of collaboration with the outside world. The incentives for people staying in and volunteering long-term are also misaligned. With them having to pay for their lodging and food while working on the garden beds, providing labour for the natural build constructions or just doing logistics around the workshops, setting up for the new people coming in and administering the daily needs and chores of the community. There are some elements to the community that are inspiring, especially how they have the local native villagers integrated and a part of the workings of Dharmalaya. All of them work full time as staff; helping out with the maintenance of the buildings with regular plastering work, tending to the garden beds, planting and growing annuals, growing and caring after many of the native trees within the land, cooking 3 meals a day in the Kitchen. Some of the Buddhist cultural influences from the town of Bir, can be seen and felt within the campus and the way the teachings here are imparted. Like the "Short Times, Many Times" practise by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche of meditating for even just 2 minutes before starting every circle. 🔗</a> Spiritual Materialism</h3> One of the founder of Dharmalaya, Mai-Linh seems to be a spiritual healer of sorts, having practised Buddhist philosophy and teachings, she has made a career out of it. Undoubtedly, she held a few online sessions with us while I was there, talking and sharing a Buddhist technique of connecting with the five elements. Many of these teachings in various spiritual and traditional lineages are secret and are only passed down when the disciple is ready. Additionally, they are not taught by just anyone and most definitely not in a generalised and abstract way. Unsurprisingly it caused more confusion than help anyone while we were there. For me it was highly intellectualized and just stories created around the five elements, no matter how many times she told us to "just experience it" and not think. This really made me think of "Spiritual Materialism" as popularized by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche as a trick of the ego. Using the nature, elements and eventually spiritually as a way of enhancing our ego, not really coming any closer to truth and reality. A glimpse of her approach can be inferred from this text she shared with us after many people requested more information to understand the teachings. 🔗</a> Natural Building and Didi Contractor</h3> Didi Contractor</a> was a self-taught German-American architect known for her natural building designs, many of which are seen in the living spaces at Dharmalaya. As soon as you enter the campus and spend some time in the Main Building, you'll see her portrait hanging on a wall, adorned with flowers and incense. A book written on her life by one of her apprentices is visibly kept in a common space for anyone to read and eventually buy a copy for themselves; there are always a few in stock at Dharmalaya. There's a fanaticism around Didi Contractor at Dharmalaya, as if she were a pioneer or the greatest architect in the world. Yet, she primarily brought back traditional building methods that had been used in India for generations but had lost their appeal due to Western cultural influences. This isn't surprising in India, where a foreigner is often given more respect and value than an Indian in their own land for the same ideas. It's no wonder then that a Westerner had to start preaching about the values of natural buildings for people to start paying attention. Of course, she could explain the benefits in English, combining them with modern architecture principles and Vastu Shastra—the ancient science of architecture from Hindu Vedic Texts. Imagine an amateur self-taught Indian telling you to build your house with mud and the often considered superstitious science of Vastu—such a suggestion might be dismissed outright! The fanaticism hasn't stopped after she passed away, though. Even today, her quotes like "The best building is no building" are chanted and taken too literally by budding architects and professionals. If you happen to be part of a Natural Design and Contemplative Architecture course at Dharmalaya, know that it's quite unlikely you will get to build a structure or a building at the site unless it's heavily influenced by Didi's previous designs. One of the reasons you'll hear for this is that the largest flat patch of land, the camp grounds, has an energy of its own. It's a community space where people often come together to play, chat, and contemplate. Building anything there, they say, would only dissipate the energy and in no way enhance or preserve its essence. Being a Natural Building or Didi Contractor fanatic can't be the worst thing, right? Well, the thing about fanaticism is that it often appeals to those who are less grounded. In my conversations with one of the local villagers who has been working at Dharmalaya for over 10 years, I came across a surprising story. Hariyali Didi, who has built multiple mud houses and learned the methods from her grandfathers, says she herself has built her most recent house with cement and burnt bricks. In her own words: "Cement buildings are all the trend now." -- Hariyali Devi </blockquote> So, Dharmalaya and all its fanaticism haven't done much good if the people working there themselves don't see and understand the benefits of Natural Buildings, no matter what the prevailing cultural trend is. 🔗</a> Founders</h3> Mark Moore and Mai-Linh are the two main co-founders of Dharmalaya. However, they've both stepped back from their roles in stewarding the institute and no longer stay at the campus to actively grow and thrive with the community. I see this in many communities: once led purely by the founders' vision and drive, they're left in a void and chaos, having to reorganize and self-govern without the continued guidance and vision of the founding members, whether the founders step back voluntarily or due to other circumstances. What's often overlooked by these communities and their founders is this path of natural succession. How does a community grow and evolve with a completely or even a partially non-overlapping shift of community members? Often, there's no governance system in place. While hierarchy is often the most optimal and efficient organizational structure in human society at a small scale, many altruistic and well-intentioned founders see it as a point of failure, lacking redundancy. However, going straight from a hierarchy to a flat organizational model simply does not work. I don't see myself visiting Dharmalaya again, but I do know how it feels to be in a dysfunctional community now. Contact Improvisation as a Somatics Approach 2025-06-13T00:00:00+00:00 Contact Improvisation (CI) is the most modern Somatics practice that I've come across. It combines elements of Modern dance, Martial Art with Inner physical and spacial awareness. It feels like a breath of fresh air among other popular yet highly specific and isolated approaches like Yoga or Martial Arts, which were all conceived and developed over more than a thousand years ago. CI not only builds on top of the principles of these few ancient somatic practises (gravity, sense of physical touch, momentum) but also makes it a social phenomena for human connection, something that is no longer alive with yoga or martial arts in the modern day. Sure there are yoga communities and martial art classes where people come together and practise in groups but the disciple itself doesn't have any sense of an "Open Jam" or a playground where you test your skills and perception with others in real time. Open Jams are undoubtedly a part of the CI practise and not tacked-on on top as a social layer. It is this improvisational aspect of CI, no drills or steps followed in sequence, which is the essence of Open Jams that makes CI so beautifully new, deep and a constant mirror of our emotions and our world as we perceive it. An under discussed aspect of CI Jams is its quality of being a microcosm of the universe, a reflection of each of our own inner worlds, projected and played out simultaneously on one screen, in real-time. A dancer never dances alone, he's always in a world of his own. Dancing with his thoughts, emotions, questions and conflicts. In a duet, two planets cross the others orbit and there's a merging of their gravitational fields. They have a play of spinning, spiraling, colliding and slingshotting into and out of each other. Two bodies in motion sharing an orbital axis</figcaption> </figure> When there's harmony between these two dancers, they sense and exactly match the gravitational pull of the other, equalizing and reaching an equilibrium of frequency, energy and force, eventually being in-tune with each other. The dance then becomes an exchange of energies and ideas, of motions and emotions, of presence and perception. The two worlds are no longer separate or isolated with long distances between them, there's a wormhole that opens up between these two worlds, sometimes it stays open for years, other times just for a few minutes. When two same dancers meet again, their landscapes and geographies have changed, and so it is a constant process of evolving, listening and fine tuning to match and keep open this wormhole and open up yet more wormholes between new worlds. Once in a while you're hit by an asteroid, a free falling celestial body that has no or negligible gravitational force and is pulled in by the nearest orbit. Though they are far and few in-between it's important to acknowledge and see these asteroids before they trigger a cataclysmic event. Seeing the dance as a 3rd Person while being in the dance, it becomes possible to feel the parallels between the inner and the outer world, from microcosmic to macrocosmic. Being an Adult and the Games we Play 2025-02-16T00:00:00+00:00 There's a point in our life when we all choose to stop being a child and grow up to be an adult. A critical situation or a circumstance that forces us to make the choice of letting go of our innate desires and will to be free, playful and joyful but instead take on the responsibilities and duties necessary to survive and live in the world. This choice however mostly comes as a coping mechanism, when we find ourselves alone, when suddenly everyone starts pretending to be an adult, when all our friends are too busy trying to be someone. They all start playing a game we already know doesn't feel fun. Yet, it seems like we have no choice but just to "grow up" and play this game of life. The real maturity of being an adult comes however, when we are again no longer afraid of being a child, choosing this innocence and playfulness and joy, in everything we do, even if it means we have to be alone, or we are the only ones doing it. For us then, fun is again the priority. We find playfulness and joy in our daily lives, in the seriousness of work and earning a living, we do not forget the meaning and purpose of life. We find our role in the grand scheme of life and play it to our best. We see ourselves as part of the whole where no single part is bigger than the other. Whatever work we do, we are content knowing we have done our part and duty and no longer hunger for what others have. Then when we meet others, who are also not afraid of being their authentic inner child, then our conversations and connection to people are not so serious, of how to make money or of trying to prove something. Nor are they of this grandiosity or childishness of saying "I'm always right, just do what I say". No, as mature adults we then really listen and understand the other. We play and explore together, what really brings joy to all of us, what is true and how do we grow together. We make new games and we set rules of the game, not so that we can find ways of winning or just to break the rules. But as a baseline for respecting each other and creating a playground for exploration and fun for everyone playing the game. As children we played games for fun but as we grow up we're taught to compete with each other, become better than others and ultimately win. It's no longer enough to just play for fun. All sports are a competition. This creates a false association in our minds that stays for most of our lives. We think "if I'm not having fun then I must be losing" or "if I'm not having fun then I need to beat someone". We get caught in a zero-sum game where we're always taking from someone else and not really creating something new. Dance is one of the few physical activities that is positive-sum. Two or more people come together, dance and interact, play with gravity, physics and each other. And all of them leave having had fun in the process, there's no loser or winner. It's a highly creative activity, that is new and fresh every time one steps into it. Not only is it fun, but it becomes a way for us to grow and learn with and from each other. The more mature adults there are, the more positive-sum games we can play and the more we grow as a society. Capitalism is Build on Aesthetics 2024-12-03T00:00:00+00:00 Contemplating on what defines a products value and its worth? For years, societies have inherently gauged a products value via the functionality and utility it provides to its user. Various aspects affects a products overall utility: Usability: In which situation does the product provide value?</li> Efficiency: How best or easily does the product do the job it's intended for?</li> Durability: How long does it last?</li> Convenience: How optimal is it, in terms of weight, size, durability or cost-effectiveness, energy use (both electrical and manual), maintainability, among others.</li> </ul> Greater the functionality, the higher it's value. No wonder our phones cost higher than a pocket watch (1</code> function vs n+</code> functions.) However, advent of capitalism has trained our society to value aesthetics more than functionality. "Form over Function" and "Sex Sells" are well known slogans of capitalism. When we value form over function it gives rise to the concept of perceived value, then it's a slippery slop of trying to outwit the consumer, creating ever new trends and hype giving rise to unsustainable practises and industries like fast fashion, fast food, fast cars, fast and cheap constructions practises all of which leads to a detrimental effect on our environment, our health and a never ending pursuit of gratification. And that is frankly the root of all problems perpetuated with capitalism. Capitalism needs an additional mechanism of checks and balances to re-align it's incentives back to functionality first. Until then it's up to us to consciously choose form over function at every turn. OSHO International Meditation Resort 2024-05-14T00:00:00+00:00 The OSHO International Mediation Resort (OIMR) in Pune is a unique resort which offers not only the traditional relaxation services of a luxury resort, Basho Spa, swimming pool, sauna, Jacuzzi, etc. But also, true to it's name, offers more internal ways of relaxation. The various meditation techniques developed by OSHO himself for the modern man, that are held throughout the day and facilitated by many in-resident sannyasins or volunteer sannyasins. If you manage to stay at the resort for more than a week though, you'll quickly see the whole place is stuck in a pattern of some sorts, across it's various aspects, seeping right down to it's essential core. It's starts from their mundane weekly schedule of daily meditations, to the food options available at their Zorba the Buddha restaurant. Of course this affinity for routine and pattern is reflected by the people living here or visiting the place often. You'll find the same people visiting the resort every year, sticking to the same meditation techniques from the few options, even down to the way people dance at the evening meeting meditation. Everyone has their own pattern of dancing that they knowingly repeat every time, no matter the music, their emotions or the circumstances. A routine or a repeating structure can indeed be useful in certain situations though. For me, travelling and being in the flow continuously can lead to a certain exhaustion where I don't have a chance to settle down, collect my thoughts and then turn off my active mind enough to integrate and embody my experiences. Staying at the OIMR for a month as part of their Work-as-Meditation program gave me just that exact chance. Having a set schedule laid out for me, I didn't have to continuously tap into how I'm feeling or flowing in order to be able to make any decisions. Letting others, or the existence through others, make the decisions for me on where to flow. Letting go at a deeper level and just being aware of my resistances, of them being intellectual or actually existential? With no goals or destination in my mind, coupled with a few meditations I was doing everyday, I was able to completely drop into how I was feeling at the body-sensations level. Being aware of my emotions, feeling and letting go of them one by one. Learning and practising Qi Gong and Tai Chi taught at OIMR by Raj was also surprisingly quite beneficial in pushing grounding energies throughout my body more consciously, combining physical and psychic effort. The few odd jobs I did at the resort, did indeed help me in growing out of my own cocoon of feelings and energy dynamics and instead being more aware and sensitive of other peoples energy fields. As well as how much of an effect I can have on them, especially through my words, in addition to my actions. Of course OSHO's words through his video talks and books throughout my stay, helped my get an intellectual understanding of what is happening to me as well. Not surprisingly, in all the communities and communes I have visited so far, this one as well is but just a shadow of what it used to be under the leadership and aliveness of a visionary. Stuck perpetually in a vegetative state, left as it is by its founder. Sharing Joy and Love 2024-05-13T00:00:00+00:00 The pain of not being able to share the joy and love you feel, with anyone, again feels like a death process. The giving and receiving of love seems like another duality. In a world craving for love, we find that love comes from within before it comes from without, and when we find it within, there's an overwhelming sense of sharing it without. How do you share it when you finally have it? So far the problem was not feeling love and compassion, now the problem is how to share it, if the other is not in a position to receive it? Both Physically and Energetically? Physically, there are space and time constraints to sharing. There are rules, ideas and our own personal blocks, limitations and boundaries. Energetically, we can still yet have heart to heart communications beyond space and time. However it's not so easy or natural for us yet to perceive this energetic connection. 🔗</a> Growing from a two-dimensional love (between two people) to n-dimensional love (between you and everyone else/nature/universe/existence)</h4> I'm thrown back to a sense of aloneness and separation from existence. Important thing here is to feel and accept this yet more deeper level of aloneness and separation. Dropping down to a feeling at the core/stomach/navel of my being. A deeper awareness of my mind and thoughts and words and silence. Watching and waiting. No ideas or expectations, no imagination, no fantasy or dreams can hold my attention, everything real seems beyond the mind now. This feeling is unexplained, so unexpected yet so simple. My energy seems like it is in a dynamic of exchange both inside and out but I'm so far unable to completely perceive this dynamic. There's yet again a tendency to attach or be identified with one expression of this dynamic or play/exchange of energy, that felt good while it was alive and present. Now that the energy has expanded, one cannot crave or cling to the same sense of expansion. Being and staying aware of the yet more greater joys and bliss of expansion to come, in yet more unexpected, unimaginable ways and synchronicity of energy dynamics and play and interactions. Being intentional of my magnetic capacity and ability, of my own sense of self-worth and self-love and what brings me joy and happiness without judging or comparing myself to an idea of being happy or being in love. A deeper acceptance of my own reality and facts of my being (aloneness, sexuality, dreams) and embracing my worthiness though that acceptance. What is The Soulful Events Newsletter? 2023-12-06T00:00:00+00:00 Living and staying in a city, we often look for things to do on a weekend as a fun activity, going out or just entertainment to break out of from the work mindset and schedule. However most of us end up falling into another set pattern or a repeating schedule, working on the weekdays and partying or going out on the weekends. Soulful Events Newsletter</a> is as way to find meaningful events and activities to do, that are enriching and nourishing to the body, mind or the soul , ideally all of them, instead of just being a activity to pass away the time. 🔗</a> Mission</h2> Our goal is to create a community of early adopters of the New Earth. People who are working on themselves and others via technology, products and various works of arts to raise their and the collective consciousness of the society. We do this by creating various platforms that act as a bazaar for exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge. As well as a place to meet and connect with fellow travellers. 🔗</a> Vision</h2> The first vision of coordination is to enable a group of community leaders to foster a sub-community in their own vicinity, online and/or offline, aided by various tools and blueprints/techniques/processes curated and distributed through our core community. Most of the resources on self-exploration are shrouded by commercial gimmicks and are out right scams that distract seeks from the true path. We achieve our vision by mainly separating signal from noise and truths from half-truths. The greatest tool in our mission is the referrals and recommendations of our community members since truth itself cannot be shared directly but the ways of igniting the spark in another can be. 🔗</a> Target Audience</h3> City dwelling seekers and pilgrims that are living within a society with integration. 🔗</a> Principles</h3> Events that have an essences of self-exploration and inquiry. Performances, workshops and gatherings that, shares/creates a space from the experiences of their own journey towards inner peace and silence expressed through various means (music, dance, art, poetry, etc) or teaches the way and techniques to others so they may walk the path and experience on their own. While selecting/curating events it is good to think through various perspectives: Would you yourself like to go to such an event?</li> Looking from the readers perspective, does the event page have enough information to make sense to the reader?</li> Is it a purely commercial or entertaining event? If yes, then it’s most likely does not fit under soulful events</li> </ul> 🔗</a> Get Involved</h3> If Soulful Events calls to you, sign up for the newsletter over at the Soulfulevents</a> website. If there isn't a newsletter running for your city or town yet and you'd like to lead the curation yourself, reach out to me for ways to contribute. Described below is the process of how we generally structure a newsletter but you'd have the flexibility and space to experiment your own style. 🔗</a> The Process</h3> We create different sections within the soulful events newsletter for other cities/locations and give access to the respective curators of that location. If there’s multiple people curating for a location it’s recommend to create a draft of the post on a real-time editing platform like Google docs or hack.md</a> since the ghost/substack editor does not work well for multiple people editing at the same time. Things to note: Published every Wednesday</li> Format: Event title: Links to the event page, day, date (all in bold)</li> Description: Limit to one paragraph that covers the gist of the event. For more details readers can visit the event page</li> </ul> </li> </ul> The Joys of Traveling 2023-11-24T00:00:00+00:00 Traveling, the act of going from place to place. It can be such a simple yet magical experience. You hop on a bus, a train or a airplane and within a few hours you're transported to another microcosm on earth, with it's own weather conditions, set of people, flora and fauna. With different places to see, be in and do things. We, as a species have always been travelers first and settlers/farmers later. It was this nomadic nature that allowed Homo Sapiens to evolve and survive over not so fortunate Neanderthals. We can see this in children, who naturally want to explore the world around them. Look at everything in its rawness, taste it, smell it and play with it. However, by the time we grow up, we end up justify to ourselves that it's not so easy, there are rules and responsibilities that we must take up in order to survive in this world and fit in. The more I grew up the more I started to think of traveling as a privilege and a luxury. It's this fear and scarcity based thinking and in-turn living, accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021, that I've been on a journey to transform into an abundance mindset ever since. 🔗</a> What does traveling mean for You?</h3> What does it mean to travel today? Is it just crossing a checklist of places and countries to visit? Taking pictures of yourself at popular destinations as a badge of accomplishment? Bragging about places you've been to at dinner conversations? Or is there something more to it. For me travelling is stepping out of one's comfort zone. A journey of self-discovery that starts with an outward physical journey of exploration and discovery. Of meeting new people and discovering new places. Travelling off the beaten path and doing things that you always wanted to do but were too scared to try. Facing your fears and challenges and not looking for convenience everywhere you go. Travelling can also bring up emotions and feelings that you might not have addressed before in your daily life, it's easier to distract yourself in a routine, finding excuses to keep on moving or blaming people/circumstances rather than taking some time out to rest and introspect. While travelling, you invariable face situations out of your control and quickly learn to let go and accept things being out of your control instead of worrying about it at every turn. It is because of these out of your control situations, you get a chance to rest and face your emotions. 🔗</a> Traveling as a local</h3> You've most likely only been exposed to one way of travelling, i.e. "Traveling as the Rich" that's the most common way of traveling that's talked about in media, movies and in general. However there's another approach that I like to describe as "Traveling as a local" Traveling as local means you don't see yourself as separate from the place your traveling to, you don't try to shield your self from the grey and not so pleasant areas of a place. You embrace the people, the language, the food, the culture and the beauty but also the issues of the area and it's inhabitants. Some of the simplest ways of doing so is by staying at a place for a longer period of time than your normal hit-and-run travels/weekend gateways, letting you stay in guesthouses and hostels or even rent an apartment, eating where the locals eat, talking to the locals and traveling as the locals do. Travelling by not planning every detail but giving yourself the time and space to be in the flow, go where you feel and are called to. Avoid the tourist traps and places, it's good to visit them if you have the time but don't make them the main agenda of your travels. Checkout the natural beauty of a place, hang out where the local hangout and experience some of the local culture, their art, music, theater and museums. This is how I was able to connect and resonate with a lot of places and it's people as well as get a sense of the history and the economy of the place. 🔗</a> Lifestyles</h3> When traveling and living as a local, how do you sustain your lifestyle? Many locals are able to live and stay at a place for years by working location-dependent jobs. However, just because you are traveling as a local, does it mean your only option is to work as a local? There are various lifestyles that can lets you travel and work across the global, known as location-independent jobs. Digital nomad or remote worker</li> Gig worker</li> Volunteer</li> Travelling skilled worker</li> Artist</li> </ul> It's up to you to find and create your perfect lifestyle, just know that there's no one way or an only way to do it. 🔗</a> Digital Nomadism</h3> I have been living and working as a Digital Nomad for over two years now. A Digital Nomad is someone who works remotely via the internet and travels freely across jurisdictions and geographies. Being a digital nomad, you get to leverage things like Longitudinal Arbitrage</a>, Flag</a> Theory</a> and Individual Sovereignty</a>. For me it's been a progressive journey from having my first remote job, to embracing the digital nomad lifestyle and then eventually building companies and owning assets across jurisdictions. I have utilised multiple tools on my path so far including Estonia's E-Residency</a>, cryptocurrencies and of course SaaS platforms and tools. There're various perks of the nomadic life: Working from café's with views and vibes</li> Living in communities and communes where there's a stronger sense of connection outside of work like Auroville, The Bergerac Praxis Hub</a>, startup hubs like Bangalore and Lisbon, etc</li> Purchasing power arbitrage of earning in USD and living and spending in places with a much lower cost of living like Thailand, India or others via nomadlist</a></li> </ul> However it's quite important to have a balance between remote work and social-life balance and as well as getting to know your teammate via gatherings and team retreats. 🔗</a> My Experience</h3> My first impetus for travelling was to get out of the feeling of suffocation and choking, quite literally. Living and working remotely from Delhi, I developed a severe allergic reaction to air pollution causing me to fall sick every few months with a progressively deteriorating effect on my immunity and mental health. I was stuck in a prison of my own making, further exaggerated by the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The first solo travelling trip was a huge step out of my comfort zone and to start socializing despite my crippling social anxiety and insecurities around being alone. Breaking my fear of not fitting in and always being seen as an outcast or weird person was easier when I met people on my travels who were equally unique and different and seemed to embrace their uniqueness, at least to a greater level than me and anyone else I had met before. Once I had a taste and the confidence to travel alone without any paranoia or limiting beliefs, my main motivation for traveling became a quest of finding people like me who were also on a existential journey of their own. I went to places that had always called out to me the most but I was too scared to go, not sure of the logistics, the people, culture, etc. I visited the Osho Meditation resort in Pune first, not knowing what I was getting into. However that was a quite normalizing experience. Nothing remarkable, controversial or mindblowing happened but just being in an environment where people were freely talking and practising mediation and spirituality made it so much more easier for me to accept that part of me and go deeper into my own practise. Not long after completing my first heart-led trip that led to the expansion and growth of my inner journey, I soon found what I was looking for. An encounter with a group of people I couldn't have ever expected to meet. The level of connection and bond we ended up creating and having is now a lifelong bond. We ended up traveling together to quite a few places but also stayed over at one city for more that seven months just because of this group of people that became my friends, business partners, mentors and fellow travellers and pilgrims on our individual inner journeys. 🔗</a> People</h3> The most interesting part of traveling is the people you meet. Traveling, meeting and talking to people really helps you widen your mindset, break out of your comfort zone and develop social and conversational skills. All in a low stakes environment, if you mess up there's no risk of "destroying your reputation", which is an irrational fear, that at least I had growing up. Of saying something that is not socially accepted or you're not good at and then regret being made fun of because of something you said casually. That's the great thing about traveling, you're always temporal in space, naturally making you de-attached to places, people and expectations. 🔗</a> Relationships</h3> While traveling you meet and come across people of varied interest and personalities. As well as people in various kinds of relationships and degrees of being in love. My own definition of what is love has evolved so much over the years. No longer do I see it with the same lens that I used to, nor have a fixed idea of what an "ideal" relationship looks like. Traveling let's you really figure out what is it that you really want with yourself and in a potential partner. Solo travelling is also a great way to really be with the feeling of being alone and not always find ways of running away from it. When I accepted the fact of being alone, I also started seeing the positive aspects of being alone, starting to enjoy my own company, taking things slow, setting my own schedule, finding independence and capacity of handing things on my own. Understanding and acknowledging my needs as well as recognising what are some of my own gifts and abilities that I can use to fulfill someones needs. What I've found is when I'm capable of being joyful in aloneness, I am able to share that joy with other fellow solo travellers and pilgrims. My Personal Journey and Why I'm building a New Earth 2023-09-30T00:00:00+00:00 I was born in a middle class family in the centre of Delhi to parents who each had four and three siblings themselves. Both my parents have struggled to purse higher education and earn a decent living as professionals. My mother is now a professor in DU and my father is retired having worked as a bank manager. Having had a humble beginning, I always asked my parents how as a society we’ve not managed to ensure 24/7 supply of water and electricity. Even as a child I asked why do we need to pay for water supply. Isn’t water freely available throughout the earth? Fed up with my relentless questions of a society with a better quality of life, my parents eventually moved us to a condo where we didn’t have to rush out to a water tanker and wait in the queue for water, just to take a bath early in the morning, whenever the whole neighbourhoods water supply ran out. In the condominium we had 24/7 ground water supply and power backup, but at a higher cost in terms of maintenance. This showed me economies of scale work, when we as a society collectively demand a better quality of life. However this led to me question why is it that not everyone is demanding a better quality of life, why are people not making sure the government provides everyone a better quality of life rather than relying on private infrastructure by corporations. Is it that they don’t want it? Or is it that they feel they don’t deserve it? Or maybe they’ve tried fighting for their rights and given up? Or rather they feel it’s easier to improve their own lives than work together with others to better everyone’s lives. Sitting in the bus or a cab while going and coming back from school, I used to look at all the different ways people go on about their lives on the street. First I used to think about economic models, why is there an economic disparity. Why is a person sitting on the street selling fruits and not doing something better or more productive/lucrative? Is it true that not everyone provides enough value to a society to justify having equal income and thus hierarchy in a society is natural. Assuming that to be true, then why does not everyone have an equal level of intelligence or is it just that not everyone has been given a equal opportunity to develop their intelligence and mind. Soon I realised it’s not just intelligence a society needs to thrive. There’s something else that drives people to use their intelligence in a short-sighted manner. Humans are mostly emotionally driven beings. For the most part of the human history, humans have been driven by fear. Fear of survival that translates to greed, gluttony, lust, violence, etc. This is something I saw distinctly in the various instances of me being bullied in school. My peers trying to show dominance in order to be accepted by their other peers. Conformance and being part of a group has always made humans feel a sense of safety and control. More than their peers, it’s their parents and teachers approval that they sought. And adults seemed to have reached a conclusion that keeping one’s head down and being conformant to whatever the current society deems normal is the best way of survival. I was always an outcast, not afraid of speaking my truth. Did what I wanted to do or at least tired to do so. It was not long before I understood it’s not so easy to share one’s truth, not until the other is ready or willing to accept a truth. I accepted this reality and started working on my own, in the shadows, on ways I though I could best improve the world. Found the least violent and high leverage way of making a positive impact on the world. As I embarked on this journey I found a gapping whole in my chest. Why was I doing this? Why do I need to improve the world? Who am I to better this society? What is my motivation to do so? My first realisation was, this was my way of feeling worthy enough of being loved. If I could make this world a better place, perhaps it would be able to love me or at least acknowledge me for who I am and I could grow to love it as well. I would learn much later, that my feeling of abandonment and lack of self-worth came from a childhood incident that I didn’t feel safe enough to accept and process at that point. However that was only a part of the reason. I had reached a point in my life where I felt good enough to be loved, if not by the world, at least one person. I fell in love but then quickly realised I know nothing about love! What is love? How do you love? Is it something you do or feel? How do you express that love? My first love didn’t materialise into anything because I was grossly inept. This was the phase in college I started going deep into philosophy, I read multiple books on topics as diverse as spiritualism, love, mysticism, Sufism, consciousness. I dived head first into spirituality and tried to understand my own inability to love. My spiritual journey started in 2015 and still continues till this day. As I read through “The Adventures of Consciousness” By Satprem, I see now that the earth doesn’t need people with more advanced minds and intellect, no that’ll still lead to a divided society, beautiful, yet still divided by infinite true perspectives. What we need is a world led by love, a global consciousness with enough space for innumerable possibilities, diversity and expressions of life without mutilating it. This is what I envision as the New Earth. Follow along at https://newgaia.earth</a> Getting started with Ethereum and Solidity 2023-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 If you're just getting started with blockchain and web3 and looking to get your hands dirty by writing some code, you might be overwhelmed by the plethora of freely accessible resources around Ethereum, Solidity and blockchain in general. Having worked in the blockchain space for 5+ years now and for two startups writing Solidity smart contracts, I've been asked many times about how does one get started with learning solidity and even more so writing production quality smart contracts with no major vulnerabilities. I attempt to share here a curated list of resources that'll not overwhelm you but gently guide to dipping your toes in the web3 waters. 🔗</a> Overview</h3> Before getting started with learning solidity and diving head first into coding, it'll be much more easier for you to learn, think and debug your code when you have a deeper understanding of the inner workings of a blockchain and what happens when you deploy a smart contract. Lots of initial questions and queries around, "What is a web3 wallet?", "Why do you sign messages?", "What are addresses?", "Where does the code live?", etc get answered when you know what makes blockchain/Web3 different from Web2. The best way to get a better understanding of the architecture of blockchains in general is to read the OG Bitcoin whitepaper</a>. Bitcoin is what started the blockchain revolution and all the new blockchains are heavy inspired by it and still use a lot of the same components and concepts. Ethereum takes it a step further by extending the concepts of Bitcoin to a finite Turing machine, letting you program any application in the context and execution environment of a blockchain. Learn more about Ethereum here</a>. 🔗</a> Solidity</h3> Once you have a nice overview of the inner workings of a blockchain we can now proceed to learning solidity. There's of course the official Solidity Lang documentation</a> and API reference, however the solidity ReadTheDocs page isn't a great place to start with, it's nice to always have that handy for references and as a source of truth but I wouldn't start with just going through the whole documentation in one go. There're beautiful gamified learning courses that the community has created over the years and one of my favourites is cryptozombies</a>. It's created as a hands-on approach of starting with small modules as projects and builds up to a complete game all the while introducing you to all the different concepts and standards of Solidity and Ethereum. There's a few other tools and courses in the same vein that you'll find listed here</a> by Ethereum Foundation. 🔗</a> Mastering Solidity</h3> You should now have a solid base and understanding of solidity. But getting started is the easy part, mastering solidity and avoiding the common pitfalls and bugs that can lead to multi-million dollar hacks is the tough part. Staying up to date with the latest developments and changes in the ecosystem is the best way to be aware of new kinds of vulnerabilities and security best practises. However you can quickly catch up to the current state of the art via Consensys Smart contract Best Practises</a> and Consensys Diligence Research</a>. As well as case studies of past DeFi hacks</a> curated by Origin Protocol. 🔗</a> Closing</h3> That's it, if you've gone through all the resources here, you're a long way ahead. Of course the learning doesn't stop here, there's always new protocols and applications being built on Ethereum and they can come with their own set of domain expertise and pre-requisite knowledge. You should now have the tools and resources to tackle those projects or even go build your own! Why Deploy your Own VPN Server? 2023-07-28T00:00:00+00:00 🔗</a> Background and Motivation</h3> VPNs have become a requirement in many countries and for many professionals across countries to be able to do their work and maintain a level of safely and anonymity that's increasing disparate with the modern internet. However, VPN services provided by centralized VPN providers just shifts the responsibility of maintaining user privacy and safely from decentralized ISP's to centralized entities. Many VPN providers still record logs of their users, either knowing or unknowing for the purposes of having an analytical and billing system. As we have seen time and time again, it is this metadata that many of these centralized entities can be force to hand over and can successfully be used to reconstruct online activity and user identity. More over they often provide a degraded user experience by way of having shared "public" servers that many users are routed through to the open internet simultaneously. With the proliferation and scale of cloud computing providers that provide the raw resources of a VPN server across geolocations, it no longer makes sense to pay a specialized service provider for general resources with unit economics with just a software slapped on top. Especially when the software that does most of the heavy lifting is a Free and Open Source Software. 🔗</a> Solution</h3> While it does take some expertise to deploy your own VPN server solution on a cloud provider, it is a one time cost that truly provides the benefits of a VPN server and keeps you in control of your privacy and data across multiple levels of the infrastructure. Automation and abstraction continue to make it possible to deploy your own server without increasing expertise and domain knowledge for a wider group of users. SelfVPN</a> is my attempt at providing a set of tools and guides that lets anyone DIY their own VPN server while maintaining ownership and sovereignty of their data and identity. </video> SelfVPN</a> deploys a Wireguard</a> VPN server using the excellent Algo</a> ansible playbook by Trait of Bits consulting company. It builds on their work to package the script in a cloud execution environment with all the prerequisite dependencies and software pre-installed. As well as bring all documentation together in a step by step manner. Please give it a shot, and I appreciate any feedback I can get to make the setup even easier to use. My Journey with Estonia's E-residency program 2022-10-26T00:00:00+00:00 🔗</a> Overview</h2> Estonia has a robust online and digital platform for availing all government services and accessing gov website by virtue of a digital ID card that is issued to every citizen. Estonia's E-residency</a> program is an extension of that infrastructure that lets any non-citizen of Estonia get access to their digital government services from anywhere across the globe. This includes being able to incorporate and run a business, file taxes, etc completely online and remotely. Here I describe how my experience of being an e-resident and running an online business has been. 🔗</a> Getting the E-residency card</h2> To become an e-resident, actually applying</a> to the e-residency program is quite straightforward and a completely online process. You fill up the form and provide a statement of purpose with your current/future business model or services you provide. With me being an android developer and having a few apps on the play store, I attached a screenshot of my Play Store Developer page, just to make it easier for them. Applications for e-residency are usually quite easily accepted especially if your business or service is inherently digital, online and location independent. Once your application is accepted, you'll receive an email with details on how to collect your ID card from the nearest collection point. Most likely it's the Estonian embassy that's near to you. Once there, they'll verify your passport and scan your fingerprints for their records. You should have now gotten a box on the way out which contains the e-residency ID card, USB card reader, the cards secret PIN and PIN2 and a few informational documents. 🔗</a> Using the digital-ID card</h2> Once you have your digital/eID smart card in hand, you'll require setting up some software in order to use it. 🔗</a> Web eID</h3> To log in to websites we need to install the "Web eID" extension: Google Chrome extension</a></li> Firefox extension</a></li> </ul> For more detail and extensions for other browsers see their official website here</a>. 🔗</a> DigiDoc</h3> To be able to sign and read encrypted documents we need to download the "DigiDoc" desktop application. The download link for your OS can be found here</a>. If you're on Linux, you need to follow a few additional setup instructions found here</a>. 🔗</a> Smart-ID</h3> Using the smart card ID every time for logging in to your service provider or bank website can quickly get cumbersome. For quick and simple access to websites with eID login I recommend setting up and using Smart-ID</a>. 🔗</a> Choosing a Service Provider</h2> You're now set to be able to sing and carry out all business legal operations yourself including filing incorporation document, tax reports, annual report, etc. However, you'll rarely want to or have the time/knowledge to do so yourself, this is where Estonia's service provider marketplace</a> comes in. Here you can hire/enter into a contract with professional service providers that handle your company's incorporation, having a legally required contract-person in Estonia and filing your tax/annual report among others. Check out the marketplace</a> to select the ones that fit your requirements. I've personally used and talked with Xolo</a> and 1Office</a>, so I'll be sharing my review and feedback of using their services. 🔗</a> Xolo</h3> Xolo's</a> great in a number of ways: Has predictable monthly pricing.</li> Covers any reasonable extra services you might need within the monthly price.</li> Has excellent FAQ documentation</li> Quick and responsive support</li> Assists with setting up an interview for an Estonian Bank account via LHV</li> Nice and slick dashboard with multiple integrations with Wise, Stripe, etc.</li> </ul> However, they have a quite strict scope of the type of businesses/services they can accept and service. It's mostly so they can automate and scale their services while keeping the operational overhead low. It's how they manage to keep their prices relatively low. This means, for example, they don't accept businesses who sell physical goods or services including drop-shipping and e-commerce sites. Also, they only support Wise or LHV for business banking. 🔗</a> 1Office</h3> 1Office</a> on the other hand, is more like a traditional accountant/auditing firm and provide services to any legal business under the sun. Some benefits I found: Can mix and match services you explicitly require.</li> Supports e-commerce and drop-shipping businesses with a specific plan to get up and running with Shopify Pro</li> Supports any business banking partner.</li> Has integrations with "My Money" for business banking with Estonian IBAN (which I think is the only online payment aggregator that does so)</li> Supports e-residency across multiple countries and can handle accounting for any/all of them.</li> </ul> The major downsides I found was they are a bit more expensive and have a more bespoke payment plan (they list payment plans on their site however when contacting their sales team, they ask for your requirements and end up quoting a completely custom payment plan and tier) and charge individually for every service besides the basics. 🔗</a> Closing</h2> Here you have it! A quick run down detailing my experience with e-residency. Hope that helps you in your entrepreneurial journey! And if you do decide to go with Xolo</a> consider using my referral link xolo.io/ref/SHAJAI1</a> in order to get additional €100 when you sign up and get incorporated with Xolo</a>! Circumventing CG-NAT with Wireguard 2022-10-17T00:00:00+00:00 With the increasing exhaustion of IPv4 addresses across the globe, various ISPs have resorted to implementing IPv4 Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CG-NAT) as a solution to this problem. What this means is ISPs do not assign a publicly accessible IPv4 address to an end-user's router and/or modem but rather a private IPv4 address that is behind a carrier network wide NAT</abbr> implementation. For those who host servers on their home network or for just having remote access to the home network for CCTV access, etc. CG-NAT prevents this since one no longer has a publicly accessible IPv4 address and forwarding incoming requests through CG-NAT is incredibly hard, even if the ISP makes an effort of supporting extensions that allow this on their NAT implementation. The saving grace in this situation is that ISPs have at the same time started rolling out IPv6 addresses across their network which inherently does have public addressability down to the individual client devices via Prefix Delegation</a> built-in. However, we're still a far way out from having IPv6 address availability and accessibility across every network throughout the globe. Especially on mobile devices with Android's non-functioning/incompatible IPv6 stack, we need a fallback IPv4 addressing solution that works around CG-NAT. 🔗</a> Wireguard</h2> With the invention and implementation of Wireguard</a> within the Linux kernel we don't need to rely on complicated setups like NAT64, IPv6in4, IPv4in6, etc. With Wireguard we can have a setup where, we rent a VPS</abbr> server with a public IPv4 address that we can connect to as a VPN</abbr> client, and it routes our private home network requests to our actual home router across the public internet. Network Topology</img> This can be achieved by having our home router connect and establish a connection with the VPS, since the VPS is the one having a public and static IPv4 address, which works flawlessly with CG-NAT since the router is making an outgoing connection and not waiting for an incoming connection. This solves a whole class of issues with CG-NAT, dynamic IP addresses and DDNS. 🔗</a> VPS Configuration</h2> To install Wireguard related packages and create private keys follow this guide</a>. For a more automated VPN setup on a cloud provider, checkout this ansible script and guide</a> with a pre-setup cloud shell environment. The minimal configuration for getting the above solution working is as follows Here we are assuming your router creates and uses the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet for your home network. Correspondingly we create and use the 192.168.9.0/24 subnet space for the Wireguard network. The first peer we have below is our home router that connects with the 192.168.9.1</code> IP address and routes all home network i.e. 192.168.1.0/24</code> subnet requests to this peer. # /etc/wireguard/wg0.conf [Interface] Address = 192.168.9.2/32 ListenPort = 51871 PrivateKey = <vps-privkey> [Peer] PublicKey = <router-pubkey> AllowedIPs = 192.168.9.1/32, 192.168.1.0/24 [Peer] PublicKey = <peer1-pubkey> AllowedIPs = 192.168.9.3/32 [Peer] PublicKey = <peer2-pubkey> AllowedIPs = 192.168.9.4/32</code></pre> You can create and add more peers to the above config in the similar fashion. You can also optionally create and add the PreSharedKey</code> option to each peer for increased security, particularly quantum resistance. The peers, other than the home router peer, all directly connect to the VPS and by the way of IP forwarding can also connect to the home router and all devices on the home network. 🔗</a> Home Router Configuration</h2> For the other side of the configuration on the home router, we just need to set up one peer that connects and persists the connection to the VPS wireguard server. This configuration is for the OpenWrt OS, if you're using any other router OS you'll have to adapt to its configuration format. # /etc/config/network config interface 'wg0' option proto 'wireguard' option private_key '<router-privkey>' option listen_port '51820' list addresses '192.168.9.1/24' config wireguard_wg0 'wgclient1' option public_key '<vps-pubkey>' list allowed_ips '192.168.9.0/24' option endpoint_host '<vps-public-ip-address>' option endpoint_port '51871' option persistent_keepalive '25' # set to 0 to disable home clients # from accessing the VPS peers directly option route_allowed_ips '1'</code></pre> The allowed_ips</code> or AllowedIps</code> option of the wireguard config also acts as an ACL or access control method. So if we want to allow other peers, other than just the direct VPS peer 192.168.9.2</code>, to access this network we need to allow their IP addresses as well. We can do that by whilelisting the whole subnet with 192.168.9.0/24</code> or allow individual IP's one by one. That last thing to do is to make sure the Wireguard interface (wg0</code> in the example) is assigned to the LAN</code> firewall zone for letting the wg peers access clients within the LAN zone (192.168.1.0/24). Run this command to do so on OpenWrt: export WG_INTERFACE_NAME=wg0 uci add_list firewall.lan.network="${WG_INTERFACE_NAME}"</code></pre>🔗</a> IP Forwarding</h2> The most crucial step for this setup is to enable IP forwarding on the VPS host. This forwards the packets received from the 192.168.1.0/24 clients back to the connected peer with Wireguard handling the routing based on our AllowedIPs</code> config. # /etc/sysctl.conf net.ipv4.ip_forward=1</code></pre> Reboot the VPS for this to take effect. You should now be able to access your home router and clients over the public internet! Forwarding Calls and Texts Internationally with a VoIP Server and Modem 2022-06-04T00:00:00+00:00 Special thanks to Pramey Singh for feedback and review. As a Sovereign Individual</a>, traveling and staying overseas for long periods frequently, switching sim cards/numbers can quickly become a pain. It can be helpful to still retain control over an operational phone number of your home country across geolocations. Doing so lets you forward and make local home calls and be able to receive your bank's account and OTP related text messages. The solution proposed here isn't a location dependent one like using Google Fi</a> or relying on expensive international roaming plans. Instead, it gives you ownership and freedom to retain, switch or dispose of your phone numbers at local rates, across political borders. In the same vein, I recently tweeted about taking control of your messaging platforms to have custody over your chat messages. Helping you maintain a new layer of privacy via isolation as well as improving your quality of life by unifying your chatting platforms. This article though focuses only on voice and text communication.