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Is all value visible? When does value become invisible? And how long can invisible value keep you going? I finished reading Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis last week. I haven’t seen the film starring Anthony Quinn, but while reading, Zorba looked exactly like Quinn in my mind. Some characters do that. They move from…
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When I started seeing my therapist mid last year, the issue I brought into the room was my mornings. They were heavy, unbearable at times, filled with low energy and even lower interest. Getting myself to the office felt like dragging something immovable. The reasons were layered. Some were within my control. Some were not.…
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A few months ago, I listened to a podcast featuring John Green, where he spoke about his new book Everything Is Tuberculosis. My first reaction was an almost reflexive one: “Really? TB? Even now?” Like many of us, I’ve heard stories of tuberculosis somewhere in my family tree, distant, almost archival. For years, I hadn’t…
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It’s an interesting question, especially because we often assume the opposite of useful to be ‘useless’. That’s not true. There is a wide space between the two. In that space, many of us simply exist, present, are involved, visible but not really adding any specific value. None of us can be useful 24×7. And that’s…
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We often mistake motion for progress. Value emerges when we slow down enough to decide what actually matters. Take meetings, for example. A clear set of action items or even a shared direction for what comes next is crucial. I have been in meetings that felt energizing in the moment, only for that excitement to…
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December 31 is always a strange day for me. It is like turning a chapter or even a new book. While I know I will inherit everything from last year, the good and the bad. Yet I feel January 1 is a new thing and demands more action. Maybe December 31 asks us for more…
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A few months back, I wrote a small piece about how our relationship with work changes across the decades. Now in my 50s, I often think about the decade and a half of employable life still ahead of me and the quiet fear beneath it: Will I stay employable? If I do nothing with what…
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I’ve recently begun to understand something about myself that feels uncomfortable to admit: I need closures for every conflict. Even the smallest disagreements sit with me longer than they should. Some people can walk away without a second thought, but I carry unresolved moments like quiet burdens. I replay them, analyze them, and somehow they…
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Writing is my pressure valve. But lately, every time I post on LinkedIn, I feel the walls closing in. I know people at work also read my posts. And suddenly everything I write feels like a “commentary on work.” Even when it isn’t. Also giving people an opportunity to judge you 😄 Even when the…
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Some days feel ordinary, yet they leave you with a quiet insight. Today was one of those days. Nothing remarkable happened, but it reminded me of something I’ve been working on: the simple act of building relationships by judging less and listening more. I’ve never been the kind of person who instantly likes everyone. I…
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“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” Blaise Pascal once wrote. It’s a quote I love and yet I’m also aware of its limits. If everyone sat quietly in a room forever, we would never have explored, discovered, or built anything. Progress needed people who stepped out,…
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I don’t think I have ever shared a picture from work on social media and blogs but this one I needed to 😊 Last Thursday we had a team-building event. I look at these events to do three things. Connect during the event, Reset & Rewire for work when the event ends and Reflect on…
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Sometimes You Just Have to Put a Full Stop. Sometimes you just have to say it is all that is there. There is nothing more. Put a full stop. Turn a new page and write afresh. The new page might not connect to what came before. And that’s okay. Start anew. The other day, I…
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Last weekend I was in Dallas attending a literature festival, where I also had a short session titled “What Should Be the Next Book to Read?” The crux of my talk was simple: people who read regularly rarely ask this question because the next book usually finds them. Most often, this question comes from people…
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Yesterday, I was listening to James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) speak to students at Ohio State University. One question and his answer really stuck with me. The question was about short-term and long-term goals and how we manage both. Personally, I’ve never been a great goal setter. I am trying to change that.Without goals,…
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I often wonder why we feel good on a Friday and I asked our good friend ChatGPT and it gave me a few reasons to self reflect. The reasons it gave were these – Psychological release, The weekend being a symbol of freedom, The embrace of a social rhythm, The anticipation of rest, escape from…
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Recently I read something. I don’t even remember where, so apologies if you’re reading this and it was your idea. The point was simple yet powerful: “Have a good attitude for no reason.” It made me pause and reflect. We always have reasons for being in a bad mood, things that frustrate us, disappoint us,…
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A few weeks ago, I came across a blog post titled “Scrum Masters Are the Most Useless Role in Tech.” I left a long comment there which garnered some good response and I want to share the crux of my argument here as this topic always sparks strong reactions. Some genuinely feel the way the…
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A few Thursdays before as part of Throwback Thursday I posted a picture on LinkedIn. It was from May 2010. A time I was at the rock bottom of my life both financially and even professionally. Full of self doubt and absolutely stuck and unable to see what was ahead. But from a family standpoint…
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We don’t work for the same reasons at 25 as we do at 55, yet companies and people could mistakenly treat us in the same way. It is not anyone’s fault it is about change, about what matters, what is visible and what transpires in our professional life. What We Seek at Work Changes with…
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Sometimes it is a coincidence when you end up watching or listening to something that you have been thinking about. Yesterday I listened to an interview that Jason Averbook was having with Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on his podcast “Now to Next” where they talk about Tomas’s new book “Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated…
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As I read posts on LinkedIn, I wonder if it is written by an AI tool. The posts are so well optimized on word density, layout and icons. Not an extra word. They hit you like bullets and arrows. Like corporate talk should be. I agree LinkedIn is not Facebook, it is a professional network,…
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Telling we don’t know how to do something is very important and it just helps us and the company we work for. It gets us the help we need to learn and do our job better. Now the question is does our company and our team and our manager give us that freedom to say…
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Last week I wrote an article about my journey of recovery and the process. It got a good readership and I got messages from both friends and acquaintances. There were two kind of responses I received. One was from people who wanted to genuinely help me and the other was people who felt what I…
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The only person on whom we can experiment is ourselves. Even when we want others to change, the closest person we can work on changing is ourselves. I have not had a lot of Monday blues in my life. I liked going to office. But last four months were different. I had so many days…
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I get emails from many of my Podcast listeners and YouTube viewers. This one is on reading and I wanted to share it because this is a question I get a lot from people and my answer is always the same. The email…. “I’ve been following your YouTube channel and podcast with great interest, and…
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Attention deficit and doom scrolling are two problems we face. It slowly grows in us to a point where we feel a kind of numbness that never existed. I recently watched a DW documentary called “How the internet warps our emotions”. A must watch for us all. You can search for it on YouTube. Recently…
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Sometimes I wonder what makes me happy. What makes others happy. What makes us all do what we do. There are no straight answers. It is a mix bag. Not having straight answers does not mean we stop asking these questions. What makes me happy?There are many things that make me feel good and for…
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‘The cost of not doing’ is a profound question. Yet we ask less of it. The question feels trivial. We are suppose to do things & not ask what happens if we don’t do it. But the question and the answer can make a significant impact on how we prioritize things. Both in personal and…
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Calling Out and Calling In. I figured out the importance of that differentiation and was able to delver deeper into the meaning and difference as I read Loretta Ross’s new book Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You’d Rather Cancel. We don’t agree with everyone we come across. People at work and…
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Finally I watched Severance. It took me a while. And something in me is wanting me to look at work, both my past, present and future at work and life. In my career, I have worked with people who came to work just because they could not stand their personal life and relationships. I have…
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I had a request from a publisher to write a book since May last year, and I even started writing it, only to find out how difficult it is. The sheer energy needed to bring your thoughts to words. I realized it was not for me. Last week the publisher reached out to me and…
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In 2020, he started middle school. Seeing him do ventriloquism, his teacher asked “why don’t you teach others”. No puppets for all, so he innovated with socks. Around 10 kids learned every week. Then pandemic hit, two years the world was at home. Then came high school. And now he is graduating. I had read…
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The other day as I was buying my lunch at our cafeteria, I get a message on our family group from my daughter Rhea. She is in her office today. Her office is 3 minutes from mine. I said “come over and let’s have lunch”. Then she said she wanted to see where I work.…
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Who is a customer when you are in a store? Some would say, a customer is anyone who is a potential buyer of a product in a store. We can even say that for a ‘For Profit’ business it would be anyone who can initiate, facilitate or influence a business transaction…. fair. Now let us…
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Today with so many options, there is so much that craves our time and attention and not all of them are useful to us. Some of them we know are useless and yet we do them. Some of them we only know the uselessness in hindsight. This also means we sometimes know how useful things…
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Working from home was never an option before. Then came internet and the option was available for some. During my sales days I used to work for years from a home office. I never liked it. During pandemic working from home became a norm. Many companies boasted that they will never do a working from…
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Why do we have an issue when someone criticizes us ? Maybe it does not bother you, but it sure bothers me. Even when I ask for a feedback and I initiated it, the moment it starts sounding like a criticism, it starts hurting. An uncomfortable feeling that grows inside. A point comes when everything…
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Two friends meet after years and spend a few days talking about career and life. One friend has had a great career in science with double doctorate and spends his time in United states and the other chose a simpler life as a meteorologist in a remote place. A life of evident obscurity and financial…
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In Ichiro Kishimi‘s ’The courage to be disliked‘ there is an interesting sentence that comes to me over and over. It goes something like this, or that is how I understood. “Happiness and self worth comes from being beneficial to the community, by being of use to someone else.” This is a profound and deep…
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“When you see someone often flashing their rank or position, or someone whose name is often bandied about in public, don’t be envious; such things are bought at the expense of life. . . . Some die on the first rungs of the ladder of success, others before they can reach the top, and the few that make…
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Every time I try to write something on LinkedIn, it tells me “Rewrite with AI” but one needs a premium account to do that. I don’t have one now. I used to have it before. Then I wonder why would I want AI to rewrite for me if my enjoyment is in writing. I am…
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There are two things that can happen most weeks. One is achievement and other is Learning. Achievements are personal, there can be a time and place for discussing them. Every place is not for it. And there might not be one of them every week. Sometimes getting through a week in itself can seem like…
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After many years of doing it, I guess now I am officially certified to do it 😁 I wrote my PMP and they have confirmed that I passed. But why now…. after so many years being in this profession why get a certification now…. Here is why… I first heard about PMP in 2000 during…
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You are Welcome ! Saturdays after dropping my son for his service hours activity I have a few hours to spare. I usually go to a coffee shop and read. Two weeks back I checked if the local library is open and they are. Now that is where I go and sit and read. This…
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Sometimes you feel there is no option to slow down and we have to keep running ! I listened to the Ted Talk by Carl Honoré in 2010 and then I read his “In Praise of slowness” and even connected with him on LInkedIn. Well that was a time when LinkedIn was all fancy 😜…
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Are we capable of having a good conversation with anyone. What helps us and what does not ? Someone once asked me if I write every day. Well I want to and I might even be doing it. but I don’t post them every day. I used to but no more. Do I think what…
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I recently read ‘The 4 stages of psychological safety’ by Timothy Clark. A book that is among the many books on my manager‘s desk. I love it when you have books around you at work. It is a sign telling you there is room for improvement for everyone. I have been reading the book for…
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The art of always being ready to “NOT KNOW” what we have to say, and then to forget something completely and knowing that we had to say something but we forcibly tried to forget it. And succeeded. That is important. And then we start afresh like nothing happened. That is even more important ! I…
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One of the most important books I have read in the recent times is The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder. Written by Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao. The title itself speaks a lot as there are times when we find the reverse manifest itself. It…
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A while back Infosys founder Narayana Murthy mentioned that he was disappointed when companies moved to a 5 day work week. He had also said youth should work for 70 hours instead of 40 a week. The simple question is “why..?” Our body & organs have to work 24 hours a day. It stops life…
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As always this year I took a note of the books I have consumed. I say consumed because books are not just read anymore, they are listened to as well. It came to 36. 16 read and 20 listened. As the year is ending, the last book of the year is Hope for Cynics –…
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“I was a kid who just wanted to participate” This is not about us, but someone I have enjoyed over the years. More in the recent years than ever before. But it also about every one of us. I was watching Shahrukh Khan’s interview at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland where he received the…
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Sometimes we know it is going to be tough. We know we have a lack of knowledge. We know we have less time. We know the expectations are high. The stakes are high. What do we do ? We can do a lot of things. But that is not the point. what would be the best…
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How is technology and our online interactions impacting us? The even more important question is “how is it impacting the younger people”. I can attest that it has significantly impacted me at this age and when I took a 90 day detox it made me realize how much my online persona had eaten into the…
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Sometimes a whole week of work with all its turbulence, confusions, learnings and self reflections finally boils down to a few minutes talk on a Friday and you say “that was a worthwhile week… Not perfect but productive”. And yes you say a Thank You! a big Thank You ! This ‘Thank You’ can be to…
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Sharon McMahon‘s ’The Small and the Mighty‘ tells you the story of 12 Americans who changed the course of history. School Teachers, a telephone operator, a poet on a train, a young boy detained in a Japanese concentration camp (We still call it internment camp when it was really a form of incarceration) and others.…
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Answers are important, don’t get me wrong. But we live in a time when questions have gained more significance. Finding answers or finding a better answer is also our journey. Even if we have a question in front of us, reframing the question becomes an important activity. The challenge with some of us (at least…
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I wrote this piece on the birthday of the “Father of Nation” in India early this year. I want to take some of his quotes and share a thought about life and work. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”.We know what Gandhi might have meant it in his spiritual…
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I have lived in United States for close to 25 years and Thanksgiving has been a tradition I came to know after coming here. Infact Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Halloween were all alien to me till I came here. I had some sense of Valentine’s Day but not at the scale as it is…
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Today I woke up with a message that a dear friend who had not been keeping well is no more. He had lost his battle with ‘The Big C’ I had met him much late in life, in 2020 and we had only met twice in person. Both times we had spend over 3 hours…
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I have come to realize that much of what I do is not that important in the large scheme of things. But I need to do them as I am alive and truth be said there is nothing much for me to do other than that. On top of that I enjoy doing them…. Well…
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Write every day. No need to post it. No one needs to read. Just write…. It does not have to be great writing. Or good writing. It just need to be honest. What else can all of us be other than being honest ? What do we write you might think. How does that matter…
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When we think we are pretty good at what we do. When we think we know a lot in our area of expertise. When we hear a few people praise us for how good we are. It is time to find some brutally honest perspectives. Sometimes we get it from others. Especially people close to…
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Sometimes we know it is going to be tough. We know we have a lack of knowledge. We know we have less time. We know the expectations are high. The stakes are high. What do we do ? We can do a lot of things. But that is not the point. what would be the…
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There are different types of people out there. We are one among that type. We don’t need to like every type. But we need to accept each and every type. We won’t be able to work with every one of them. But we might need to have to work with them for a common greater…
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Why do we work? I had this conversation with someone at work today. Not really about work but it also touched on that question. But even after the conversation even now that question lingers in my mind. Why do we work? I will try to give an answer. Primarily it is for the salary. I…
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Why do people go on the offensive and defensive instead of collaboration. This is something I have wondered for a long time. I personally have been doing it and I have seen other people do it. I have not understood others, I have not understood me. I think when we are confident and safe we…
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Reading through 350+ pages on stupidity… On the psychology of stupidity to be precise. A few things have become clear. I have been stupid way more times that I will publicly accept. And everyone I have known has been stupid in atleast on one occassion. They might not accept but I have felt so. And…
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Dan Heath’s book ‘Upstream’ starts with a story which has come to my mind over and over. And every time it hits hard… Two people standing next to a stream see a baby floating. One of them jumps and saves the baby. Immediately they see another baby floating. The other person jumps and saves. Then…
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Sometimes a whole week of work with all its turbulence, confusions, learnings and self reflections finally boils down to a few minutes talk on a Friday and you say “that was a worthwhile week… Not perfect but productive”. And yes you say a Thank You! a big Thank You ! This ‘Thank You’ can be…
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When I read today’s question, I repeated that question a few times because the word industry kind of confused me. First let me try to think why we need to stay updated and then what is it I need to be updated on and then we will get to how Why do I need to…
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I don’t think motivation was what drove me into my current career, it was priorities, realization and interest. As a 16–17 year old when I was in my 11th and 12th, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted from life. If you don’t know what you want to learn and you were good at…
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When we start something new we need to find answers for two questions. Even if you don’t have them, do start. Find the answers later. One is Why are we doing it and the other is What do we hope to accomplish. I started this weekly writing activity two weeks back but will try to…
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We have one more quarter in the year. If we need to do something for next year we should start now. No magic happens on Dec 31st. I wanted to restart writing this newsletter next year and the best way would be to start now. I don’t have a structure in mind. But.. A lack…
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My mornings usually start with Podcast episodes. I usually listen and then leave it there. But I think it would be good to document the thoughts just so I know what I got from it. Today’s morning listen was the HBR IdeaCast’s episode where I heard from Adam Alter a Marketing Professor from NYU Stern…
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I have mentioned before that I have done a similar 365 days project with my daughter when she was in high school. Now she has graduated from college and entering the professional world. My son has started this project though not on a daily basis. I have seen the project help my daughter and I…
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I started this project on June 24th last year and if I had written daily I would have finished on June 24th 2022. But today is July 31. I missed several days in between and on a stretch even a week as the project was coming to an end. Today when there is only one…
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a few years back while dropping my son to his elementary school, he seemed very happy and I asked him why. He said his teacher is back today. She had been off last two days not feeling well. I was looking back at my childhood and seeing if I had any moments like that. There…
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A few years back I was driving back after going to an Elementary School to judge some literary work by small kids. My 9 year old son who is now 15 was sitting in the car behind me. We were having some father son time together driving back and forth. I had NPR playing and…
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361/365 – A Friend is someone who will show you the mirror without worrying if you will take offense
We all have different ideas about who a friend is, or who we consider to be a friend. I am sure we also do not go to the dictionary to find it out. Because we all are very sure about what we know. Oxford Dictionary says a friend is “A person with whom one has…
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Scrum (for those who are not aware) is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development. Borrowed from the game of Rugby it is a process where team members come together before restarting the game. There is way too much similarity between Life and work and I thought it would be…
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There are only a few days left and I figured out that the last few days are taking way more time than I expected. Yes I had Covid and also things got a bit hectic both on the home and work front. But that is no excuse, I just feel stuck again. I am not…
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When I started this project I also made my son embark on a similar project. He initially did the daily blog and then moved to doing it weekly when the school started. He has switched again to the daily mode when school closed for vacation. Recently he made two posts. One about success and one…
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Yesterday I was browsing Netflix. Then I switched to Amazon prime and then finally on to YouTube and then back to Netflix. I might have spent half an hour browsing and I missed this card. I took a picture a while back because I had a blockbuster card with me. I could not find it now.…
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Not like what Neruda meant when he said ‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines’ But I just want my fingers to flow into words. I don’t care if it means anything. let it just flow. And here it goes I will stand up and walk towards the porchI will look up to see if…
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This Project only has 10 more posts and we will complete 365 posts in a little over 365 days. And I am stepping into another project. That project will be on Instagram and Not on the blog. I am calling it the Questions Project. We are running after the right answers and fail to ask…
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Who is a Victim? Someone who is being victimized… pretty clear. Do you stand with the person who is victimized? Here one does not always get the same answer. There are some people who will change who the victim is just because they do not want to stand with the one being victimized. You dig…
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I sometimes get the feeling that we are living in a world that is getting more intolerant. Especially if we are using Social Media and partaking in heated debates. I recently had one such ongoing back and forth and then I sat back to think about it. And here is what I found. I don’t think it…
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I was watching the Documentary by Jeffery Robinson ‘Who we are’ and something Jeffrey said was so profound and something I had not thought about before. Jeffery says that the boas being conscious or unconscious if only for the person who has the bias. The person who has to face the bias it does not…
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Am I intolerant? is a question I have asked myself a few times. On different contexts I have gotten different answers. There are times when I am very tolerant. Much more than what I would think is healthy. And on other times I would find myself so intolerant and yet not change. I have been…
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Building a Team is not just putting a few people together. It is like a well choreographed dance. But the choreography is not forced by someone external but evolved from the realities of trying to be a team. The duality of being a team and being an individual within the team need not always be…
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You have heard the word bombarded on the walls of conference rooms, in the corporate corridors and loud and clear through a mouth piece or headset. ‘Transparency’ has become both a request and an ask. Yet teams, organizations and individuals struggle with it. Whenever I say Transparency, I also know how many people take it.…
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I am not sure, but I have a theory. But more than my theory this is a question that companies have to really dig into. Why do some Good people leave a company? I know before we talk about it, we need to probably define what ‘Good’ means. I am sure there are companies out…
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I have recently taken an interest in scribbling… Some say it is tough at this age… but then I say how else can I bring that kid in me alive again… here are some of them. I post them on my Penpositive Instagram account. I know there are many artists out here… but I am…
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There is an existential question that comes to mind at different times… in different ways… Where are we from and where do we belong and where are we going to. There is a physical aspect to these questions and a psychological or for some a spiritual aspect to it. I will try to put my…
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I have been in Quarantine at home since Monday last week. A little over a week and I tested positive again on Sunday Probably will test in a few days. Don’t have a lot of symptoms and just some throat infection. Not even any major cough. I did not write last few days not because…
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I think this is the first time I contracted Covid. At least that is what I believe. I have not tested before as did not have any symptoms. I have had allergy and that could have been covid, but who knows. Since we all became aware of Covid and the lock down and everything that…
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I had not contracted Covid since it came. Or at least that is what I believe. I have not had any symptoms, nor did I have to test. But finally the day came. On Monday I woke up with a Stuffy nose and watery eyes. I have my allergies and I thought this was the…
Penpositive 