Pens and Pages

 Only someone who observed me as closely and for long as my mother would know how I deliberately put myself in difficult positions to get a desired outcome. When I was in my fourth year of engineering, and already placed in a job which I would eventually join after college, I still tutored students of class Xth on Physics and Math as early as 7.30am in the morning on Sundays. Our neighbours were surprised to see a young girl who should be enjoying her off days, waking up early in the morning to tutor kids, but both my Mom and I knew it was a choice rather than a need. The money I earned from tutoring helped me buy things for myself like the guitar I never learned to play or the expensive lunches at Mainland China more often, while my other classmates ate at Dhabas and Canteens and Dominos and KFCs of the city. The preparation I had to do for each class I taught made me relearn the concepts of Physics and Math, and made me better in communication- something I knew would eventually h...

 I have been doing some thinking, like I always do. And a lot of life consists of reminding yourself of your own roots, on why you started some things at the first place. This not only brings clarity on what you are supposed to be doing but also brings back the motivation you may have had lost in the way. Here are a few things I considered while leaving my job. It's time to relook at them while making my decisions. 1. Is this going to matter to me in 5 years? Anything or anyone who would not matter to me when I turn 35, does not belong to my life. It may mean fair-weather friends. It may mean meaningless job opportunities. It may mean that pancake you want to have or that drink you want to avoid. I want to be asking myself - Is this going to matter to me in 5 years? If the answer is no, then I pass the offer. If the answer is yes, I go ahead. For instance, going home at this time of my life is crucial. Practicing my healing services on Dad by hook or by crook is crucial. He needs t...

“I am so unambitious,” my senior from MDI Gurgaon, whom I have known from the past 5 years said this to me last night over a phone-call. She is one of the smartest women I know, someone who has navigated through multiple job roles to land a senior brand manager role- something she really enjoyed doing. In short, I know people from the same college who would kill to take a role like that. But she is not happy doing what she is doing, and I understand the same being the reason behind her usage of the word unambitious for herself. This is not the first time I have heard women use this word. My senior colleague at the workplace would often say the same thing for her. And then the same words did come from another senior I know, and then from a friend, and finally from my own mouth. These are women from colleges like IMT Ghaziabad, IIM B, IIM C. The names of the colleges are important because it is no mean feat to traverse the journey to reach such colleges – study for CAT, appear for CA...

A ll these quotes are from the book Illusions : Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. They all speak about changing your mindset, your perception and hence, your reality and life. The truth is that we can choose to suffer or to thrive. Like they say, pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. What would you choose? 1. If your happiness depends on what somebody else does, I guess you do have a problem. 2. Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours. 3. You will wonder why some people are unhappy. They are unhappy because they have chosen to be unhappy, and, Richard, that is all right! 4. We cannot die, we cannot hurt ourselves any more than illusions on the screen can be hurt. But we can believe we're hurt, in whatever agonizing detail we want. We can believe we're victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck. 5. If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just ...

I have been wanting to pen a turning-something post ever since I turned 21. However, at 21, it was too early to write about the “profound wisdom” I had gained about the world. At 22, it was cliché. I was busy stuffing myself with cake all the subsequent years to suddenly wake up one day and find myself on the wrong side of 25 yet neither at the pinnacle of wisdom nor covered in the blanket of naivety. I reach an age after which I am probably going to keep chanting the phrase “age doesn’t matter” a lot to myself. But till then I heave a sigh as I pick up phone-calls from distant friends wishing me a happy birthday, and marvel at the fact how easily things change with age. You grow up whether you want to or not- your new job and the new place ensures that you do. You turn wiser and you laugh at the wisdom you thought you had gained when you were only 22 and a fan of Taylor Swift songs. You also realize you know nothing today as compared to what you are about t...