Live Better

25 July, 2015: I learnt one of the hardest lessons in my life. That life is fragile and permanence is an illusion. He was my dog, our dog Swapnali & mine even though the none of the papers said I was one of the owners. I guess you can't put an official ownership on love and taking ownership of the well being of a living being is one that sometimes just happens to you. Your heart takes the call even as your brain protests on your incapability of being responsible for another living being. So Whisky and me exchanged hearts and then he didn't live happily ever after. He was just happy while he lived. Never saw him angry or aggressive. Though to be fair he did love aggressively.  His breed Labradors are known for their friendliness and his ability to love was astounding. He gave his love freely and I basked in it for almost two years till he decided we were clearly getting too spoiled and needed to grow up a little bit. And so he left us. He was our bad boy.. our very be...

The Stories have much to tell and teach us about the way we live. “You said something to me once, Elyas,” Perrin said. “You told me that if I ever grew to like the axe, I should throw it away.” “That I did.” “I think it applies to leadership, too. The men who don’t want titles should be the ones who get them, it seems. So long as I keep that in mind, I think I might do all right. ” Perrin Aybara  says it again and again, a deserving leader is one whose willingness to solve problems & bear burdens is much greater than his readiness to wear the titles. Yes, someone can appoint you leader but a leader who fails to evoke respect and only has authority to wield a stick as a means to make his people listen is probably better described as a tyrant. A leader does not need to be appointed or promoted, he is a leader by his actions & the respect he evokes. All this may sound preachy but I love this line of thought. And hopefully I will learn something. I am a part of a co...

It's tough to write when you think other people are going to read it. You realize you don't really want people to know what you really think. There is an urgent need to put on a socially acceptable facade. "This is too pretentious" "Too preachy" "No one wants to know that" "They will know that this is about THEM!" And the internal rant continues. I spent weeks and months thinking about Safe & Interesting things to write about. And I didn't write a word. All that pretty stationary & empty blogs lying around with blank pages because my words were not good enough. Then one day I was telling my sister about this urgent need I felt within to do some soul searching, to figure out the Why's in my life. The why I do what I do thing. Then she gave some good advice which I cannot remember as it has been overshadowed by what she told me next . She told me that I really should start writing again as she really enjoys reading...