All Entries Tagged With: "Making choices"

If everyone wanted to move on after the fun and games, who would be around for each other in moments of agony and pain? Is that why so many youngsters were lost and depressed in the downturn? And many even contemplated taking their lives?

During one of my visits to an isolated beach strip off Chennai, I had a chance interaction with a middle aged fisherman mending his nets. We were the only souls on the beach at that time. Curious, I asked him about the killer tsunami that struck Chennai in December 2004. He vividly described how a [...]

Are you tired of trying again and again? Are you are bored of doing what you don’t want to do? If you no longer believe in ‘Never Give Up’…. If you believe your old pattern of life can’t work anymore…. If you are too stressed and unhappy… Then why don’t you give up? Free yourself! [...]

A little child is being rewarded by her mother for good behavior. “Mom I want ice-cream!” She shouted excitedly. The momentarily indulgent mother immediately takes the course to the best ice-cream corner….not knowing what she’s getting into. On the way, the little girl is busy describing her favorite ice-cream, “Mom, you know what I like [...]

Have you come across anyone who is caught up in something very important and says so, which leaves you wondering what is so important about that task? Most probably you might have even faced such a situation where you are told to complete an important task and you drop everything else to do that while [...]

I worked with a TV producer once who prided herself on being disciplined. “I get up every morning at 5am to run,” she told me over dinner. “I hate it, but it needs to be done.” And she went on to explain that for Lent, she gave up swearing and hadn’t cussed in four years, [...]

get a lot of email and questions in my Fire Starters about the publishing scene. Here are a few hard facts and beautiful possibilities of realizing your dream in the printed book world. In the immortal words of Johnny Cash, “I’ve been everywhere, man.” In terms of the book industry, I’ve agented books; I’ve designed [...]

During my workshop/training program I always touched upon food, and the concept that I started in 1994, “Abhudaya” under the heading of “Ethical Approach to Food and Life”. We are one with nature and nature is one with us. We live in an interconnected world. It is important to choose the right food for our [...]

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write. Virginia Woolf For about six months, my sweet husband has been saying, “Look babe, if you want me out of the office, just say the word and I’ll make space for myself in the loft.” “It’s alright, I can [...]

This is a question that keeps coming to my mind. Our current education system is designed to churn out more and more employees or professionals who will fit in to the larger aspect of how our economies function – mass production, specialization. So we have engineers, doctors, accountants, software professionals and many more, each designed [...]

Last night while reading one of the chapters of the great epic Mahabharata  I came across a passage where Yaksha questions Yudishtir, “What is the greatest wonder in the world?” Yudishtir answers, “The greatest wonder is that although people see living beings die every day, they still try to live for ever”. This was one [...]

“All I wanna say that they don’t really care about us….” When Michael Jackson chose this song, I don’t know what he thought of and why he selected these lyrics. Whom he was pointing to? Perhaps some critics, followers and opportunists might have the answer? But after his untimely passing, while I contemplated the statements [...]

“We’ll live somewhere else, away from Dad, ok?” I nodded silently, nonplussed about what was going on. I was convinced that none of the confusion appeared on my face, but that was the time I didn’t know how impossible it is to hide things from Mum. I was nine that day. Time has changed since. [...]

Most of us, if not all of us, would like a  casteless Indian society. An egalitarian society is our  dream. There are some who assert that our forms for admission to educational institutions, our job application blanks etc should not ask for ‘caste’. Right ? Wrong if you were to think against the grain. There [...]

I’ve worked with a few dozen Fire Starter clients in the past few weeks on career optimizing, transitioning, start ups, reinventions, product ideas, social media strategies and balancing it all without burning it out. (And I adore each and everyone of you. I’m thinking about you all right this minute and smiling hugely, because it [...]

There is a Buddhist saying: As in the beginning, so in the middle, so in the end. …and it’s one of my life compasses. It never fails me and it’s nearly always proven true. Things often continue how they start. The click, the comfort, the clarity – or the lack thereof, is there at the [...]

Whatever or who-so-ever it may be is either an original or a duplicate! Duplicates as they get compounded, they are often confounded too. Originals as collectibles are yearned for, owned, respected, demanded and commanded till eternity. They are seldom if ever — reprimanded. They are perpetually — demanded. As they are never “On Hand.” Original [...]

My two and a half year old Boston-born grand nephew was taken on his first visit to India. At Chennai, the highlight of the day for him was the evening at the beaches of the city He clearly enjoyed the sand, the water and the relief from the summer heat. This boy was curious to [...]

It occurred to me this week that this is a mighty powerful question. What’s it going to take? We usually use that phrase in dire circumstances. What’s it going to take for you to wake up? What’s it going to take for me to quit? What’s it going to take for them to realize? But [...]

My friend Yvonne sent me the following: Question: How many women with menopause does it take to change a light bulb? Woman’s Answer: One! Only one! And do you know why? Because no one else in this house knows how to change a light bulb! They don’t even know that the bulb is burned out!! [...]

I happened to watch this movie “Gone Baby Gone” recently. The story line is about a kidnapping which is shrouded in mystery. A private detective, the protagonist, who is hired to help out the investigation, finds out that the kidnapper is none other than the just-retired, honorable sheriff who had lost his child in a [...]

A friend of mine is an auditor whose job it is to audit the accounts of government departments and companies. She complains that her audit reports are consigned to dusty cupboards a minute after she has handed them and left the office building. I asked her what really transpired at her final meeting with the [...]

“The evil you do, remains with you! The good you do, comes back to you!” A woman enjoyed the practice of baking bread for members of her family. She also made an extra one for a hungry passerby. She kept the extra bread on the window sill, for whosoever would take it away. Everyday, a [...]

In the recent article “The Three Email Challenge” The author, Abhijit Bhaduri makes mention about how many teenagers continue to express deep angst at the enhanced generation who have now taken over as Facebook users. The statement struck a deep chord of identification with me as I experience it everyday. My son who is experiencing [...]

Unable to go the go, with the present global slow? Not your type of a show? Lost or losing your glow? Worried and bothered about tomorrow? Don’t be! Instead let’s learn how to regain the glow. Through simple steps that I am about to show! Let us learn to dwell in the now! The slow…. [...]

“People change all the time and forget to tell each other.” Lillian Hellman Change is a marvelous thing to celebrate. Acknowledging growth helps us to keep on growing. Taking stock of the leagues you’ve traveled is especially useful for those of us who drive ourselves so hard to be – whatever we’re craving to be. [...]

One quote you will hear me saying often to my staff, students and graduates; “Life is all about choices.” It is!  Everything we do involves choice. Whether it is your career search, climbing your career ladder, deciding to turn your homework in on time or making the decision to make a fresh start there are [...]

Have you ever faced a situation when you had to choose between a place of work where you heart was and another which offered you status and money? It sure is a difficult choice and even though I chose the latter four months ago I know my heart is somewhere else. Like thousands of others [...]

I was involved in a husband finding spree 2 years ago. It was truly like swimming in the Dead Sea, you think you are swimming well, and little did you know that there was hardly any buoyancy! The buoyancy mainly being the inflated heads of most these men! Dates and days came and went. Coffee [...]