Seeing Things

A heart that knows of betrayals and broken dreams Is seldom free of weight But you stay light - you know how   And yes, you are right   Everything will be alright    It’s a nice feeling    We know how – we stay light    It will be alright.   Yes, you are right.  26 Mar 2020 Last time I wrote a poem was at least 15 years ago!

It's change. The only constant. But this is not just change. This is a jolt. We are witnessing a very quick unfurling of what everyone is humbly surrendering to as "the new normal". The landscape has never been more challenging.   Even Bob Dylan, when he sang, "you better start swimming or you will sink like a stone" was referring to the inter-generational transitions that slowly creep in on us when we are not looking. Nonetheless, this statement rung true then. It undeniably rings true now. We better start swimming.   And we all are. Like a 6 month old baby in water - yes they automatically swim and stay afloat.   The auto instinctive swimming will help us stay alive, but what we need to do now is to understand the nature of the water and develop technique to get ahead.   What is the nature of the new normal? Let's look at two aspects of it - business and people   The new normal Business:   1) Leveraging technolog...

As people whose livelihood depends on having that finger on the pulse of society and culture and the future, we live in permanent high-alert mode. Today, more than ever before. One of the words that seems to resonate universally is authenticity. Everyone likes it. Not just in brands but in people too. But here's the paradox: we want authenticity from others but find it hard to BE authentic. Why is that? Maybe I will attempt dissecting authenticity using the 5Ws and 1H (I have time). Who  is authentic?  One who doesn't feel the need to hide anything. But is it because they  have  nothing to hide? Authenticity perhaps is an acknowledgement of our flaws - making ourselves vulnerable to the possible cost involved in doing that. Ah! so that is why! It is rare to come across true authenticity. What  is authenticity?  Whatever it is, it seems to inspire trust and advocacy. Which is why there is merit in exploring how taking on the possible cost of embracin...

Today, the bungalow adjoining my grandmother's in Trivandrum is a swanky one. I will save the elaborate description and just say one thing about it to give you an idea: It houses a swimming pool on it's roof.  But this bungalow didn't always stand there, next to my grandparent's. Till I was about 15, in it's place stood a regular home, a classic small city home of regular size and design - with a verandah, a small space away from its small gate. But what made the home special was who lived there.  Two brothers. Confirmed bachelors. In their 80s. I don't know how old they were and if they were ever married but they had aged and only had each other now. One always sat on a rocking chair in their verandah, always in high spirits and ready with a laugh, when anyone visited. Those high spirits were shared by his brother who was the more mobile one around the house. They both had roaring laughs. Being next door neighbours we visited often during those 2 month sum...

After 15 years of  breaking into a nervous sweat at the thought of driving, one fine day just like that, I could drive. With confidence. You read that right. It took me 15 years. Why was I not being able to drive all these years? And what triggered the eventual triumph? I have been thinking about this. I thought it may be useful to list out the  possible answers to both questions.  Why was I not able to drive for so many years? 1) The start:  The first ever driving school I went to in Adayar, Chennai in 2002. They were no different, I reckon,  from ANY other driving school in this country. Not a single driving school in India cares to teach you. They insincerely sit through a weeks driving lessons and then get you a drivers license irrespective of how you perform. They simply ask you to pay extra to get it if you fail the test. So, I had my licence with just a rudimentary understanding of how to get a vehicle to move. 2) Soon after this I shifted c...

Memories of my childhood - I am brimming with them. I have decided to type them out one by one.  This is the first story in the series. It's about a visit to the dentist when I must have been 6 or 7 years old. It was for a milk tooth extraction.  I was taken to the dentist by my dad. We were in the officer's waiting room at the MH (Military Hospital) at Chandimandir Cantt, where achan (that's what I call dad) was posted at the time. So far, I remember enjoying my outing with achan. There were magazines with big colourful images to flip through and everyone was very proper and quiet - military style. But one gentleman and my dad got talking. I wasn't paying attention. Most adult conversations went over my head anyway. At one point I realized this gentleman was addressing me. He said, "aapko dar nahi lag raha?" (aren't you afraid?) I wasn't because I hadn't really thought about what exactly it was that I had signed up for. But this q...

10:54 a.m, Thursday, 23rd April, 2020. I just had an epiphany about myself.  And that epiphany is this:  I have spent my whole life adjusting.  Yes, I know we all adjust. In fact survival depends on our ability to adjust. To colleagues, to neighbours, to relatives and even friends. But the problem with my adjusting is that it was not for survival. It was simply to be nice. Which is not some virtue. The instinct to be nice to everyone  arguably stems from a need to be liked by everyone or in my case, worse - a fear of being disliked by anyone. Sure, it's one of the lesser harmful of personality problems but it is a problem nonetheless. Why? Because adjusting became so second nature to me that I had ceased to recognize that I was adjusting. When the discomfort of the adjusting became hard to ignore, I couldn't understand what it was that was bothering me. At this point I start acting up - avoiding people, breaking up, ghosting friends etc leaving people bewildere...