The joys of learning
Some years ago, I was part of a Fellowship programme where we were taken through a session on strengths-based leadership. I am usually very skeptical of these self-help kind of polls which give you a verdict after…
They don’t read statistics
Somewhere during the beginning of this pandemic I heard two streams of arguments at the workplace. The first was skeptics telling me that the fatality rate was less than 1% and people were overreacting. The other was…
Unwitting Peeping Toms
The world of live webcams is getting difficult to adapt to. I am conducting a webinar. For some reason the organizers think that a Saturday afternoon is the best time to conduct one. I give in. I…
Seeking acceptance outside
I’m listening to an interview by eminent Pakistani educationist, Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra. Her Urdu is lilting and I am not able to decipher some difficult words that she uses. But I get the gist of her…
Names and addresses
In the Mira Nair film, The Namesake, there is a scene where Gogol Ganguly, a second generation immigrant to the United States of America, brings his American girlfriend to meet his Bengali parents. She tries to do…
Coping and hoping
I wake up early. The acid in my belly feels like it will burn a hole through my innards. I douse it with some ice cold water from the refrigerator, and find that sleep is no longer…
Wallowing in webinars
It is time to sleep and I have just changed into my night gown, when the phone rings. It is a Whatsapp call from a family member. You never know who needs what help in these corona…
The first meal
April 1999. I was shifting bag and baggage to Sevagram. My husband worked there. Although we had been married for a year, I had a job in Nagpur and he worked in Sevagram. We met during weekends…
Murder and meditation
They say it is a good time to catch up with movies you have missed earlier. So I begin watching Raman Raghav 2.0. Nawaz is menacing in the matter-of-factness with which he murders people. But after five…
Plan, prepare and prime your people
It will be delusional to believe that you will not be affected by coronavirus. Yes, if you are young and healthy and if you have good immunity, you might end up asymptomatic or escape with mild symptoms.…