One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder […]
Non- Fiction
An Everyday Morning
There are a couple of Bulbuls sitting on the balcony ledge outside. A kingfisher is calling out in its typically musical lilt. I can also hear two doves cooing to each other. Just this moment a cuckoo has begun its loud mating call. From the opposite end, a koel has launched into its plaintive call […]
Young Eyes
You know how bright the eyes of youth shine, don’t you..? Do you remember how you were when you were 18-20 years old..? Remember how you simply KNEW that the world was waiting for you to come and win it… to win it, put it in your pocket and walk casually away, whistling your song […]
Who is Watching?
I began my career in frontline sales. After almost fifteen years of selling a diverse range of products, I realized that the sales techniques I need to use are the same, no matter what the product. The thought held me in its grip and took hold of my imagination. I began talking to other sales […]
The Shape of My Wings
It is said that five years from today you would remain the same person you are now but for the people who come into your life. For me, the easiest way of letting people into my life is through books. It is chiefly through books that we enjoy the communion with superior minds. In […]
Why Do I write?
The first reason I write is for Decanting. I need the solace it provides. I need the space it creates within me… by emptying out the junk that accumulates in the unfrequented corners of my inner space. You collect unusable stuff despite your constant vigilance, since you know yourself to be a veritable magnet for […]
My Phrase for 2012
The last post was a kind of advance warning… though NOT in a predictable way.. which would be hopelessly boring. 🙂 Of all the neat things that Mark Twain has said, I find this the neatest: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the […]
Fenced-in
There is a lot to be said in favor of fences. Fences are put around things one is afraid of losing or damaging. They are a way of protecting things, of containing them so they don’t hurt themselves or be hurt. Fences are a sure way of letting a precious thing know how well it […]
The Five Mile Trek
There are two kinds of people I keep myself distant from- the weak and the clueless. Make no mistake, I like people, I even love some of them. But there is also the other end of the spectrum. I have never hated anyone. It has always seemed too much trouble, besides being a pointless waste […]
The Gift
Deep in the wilderness of an African village, there lived a missionary. He was a loving man and his piety never came in the way of his love for his little flock. Unlike other more zealous men of God, this man’s primary- and sole- focus, was in giving service, not in collecting souls. Naturally, the […]