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EMPTY POCKETS NEVER HELD ANYONE BACK

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“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” Norman Vincent Peale   I was lucky to have found at a young age, among many other authors, these three self-help authors: Napolean Hill, Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale. All three of them were dead by the time I picked their books – sometime in 1979-1980 – on the footpaths of Bombay (It hadn’t become Mumbai yet). The copies I had picked on the footpaths were over-used copies… And, because I was jobless and restlessly dreaming to find my way in this big city – where I wandered as a stranger – the ‘How-to books’ came very handy for me… I needed the inspiration very, very badly – and quickly. Yes, I was lucky to get it when my heart and mind were hungry for it… It's about forty-five years since then… I found my way, thanks the self-help philosophy. But, despite being massively influenced by Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’, I haven’t amassed wealth in all these years. I will b...
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EVEN A SMALL STAR SHINES IN THE DARKNESS

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    “When the spirit shines, even the foggy skies make pleasant light.” Abraham Isaac Kook   B oth, joy and despair, are contagious… They spread very fast. But, in my experience, the despair spreads faster than joy. That seems to be the reason why we have so much negativity – the dark sensationalism – on our television news. Even on social media, what mostly gets viral is the negative content… This human psychology is manipulated to the hilt by the brains behind the social media algorithm… Just watch one video or post, that’s enough to open the floodgates of similar posts and videos. The mind is simply manipulated by this dangerous engineering… One happy video will be followed by a hundred more, and one gloomy story will be followed by not hundred, but a thousand more! T wo nights ago, our son explained to my wife and me the meaning of these two terms (apparently popular in psychology): the ‘triggers’ and the ‘glimmers’. On finding us, that evening, repeated...
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DOES MONEY CARE, AND DO TEARS ADD VALUE?

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  “Money doesn’t care; your tears don’t add value.” Kevin O’Leary (on reality TV show – ‘Shark Tank’)   T hose of us, who started something on our own, to earn our bread and butter – yes, we were always called ‘Self-employed’. We were the traditional entrepreneurs who ran some businesses or professions, and went about making them grow slowly and steadily. And, yes, while most of us went about slowly and steadily, like the proverbial tortoises, some shot up with lightening speed… These Hares were hailed as ‘tycoons’ or Business Mughals’… That story sounds like a story from the B & W movie era in this world flooded with new vocabulary – ‘Start-ups’, ‘Dragon’s Den’ and ‘Shark Tank’. Young boys and girls are hooked on to this kind of – often brash, ruthless – TV shows. So many of them swear by these shows or the men and women that host them… Well, I haven’t watched even a single episode of ‘Dragon’s Den’ (Canadian TV show) or ‘Shark Tank’ (American TV show). But, I h...
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SOME PEOPLE LIVE A LIFETIME IN A MINUTE

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  “Happiness, not in another place, but this place… not for another hour, but this hour.” Walt Whitman   A dear friend’s elderly father is presently in one of Mumbai’s reputed hospitals. My wife and I were quite concerned about the situation our friend had to go through. This friend of ours lived abroad and back home, here, the elderly father has been facing many health-related challenges. Our friend, who has been making frequent trips to India, is gracefully accepting her challenges. The family abroad and family here – she is torn between these two responsibilities of hers… Last noon, my wife and I had visited the hospital. Our friend, despite the two back-to-back surgeries performed on her 83-year-old father, seemed composed… “Anything we can do, please let’s know.” We say this to our near and dear ones in their testing times. But, how much can we really do to lighten their burdens? As I write this piece, my thoughts go to at least a dozen people who are close...
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EVERY PROFESSION SERVES THE NATION

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  “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives; I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.” Abraham Lincoln   I really admire the young men and women who burn with the ideal of serving in the armed forced. Similarly, I admire the young men and women who burn with ideal of serving the nation through Civil Services, such as IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS etc. There is an inherent charm around these professions, and most of us look up to these professions with a lot of respect… A young boy, by the name Akshat Ghosh, wanted to be an Air Force pilot. He will be concluding his training at the Hyderabad Air Force Academy, this December. I know this boy and his family. Right since he was a little boy, he dreamt of being there – and, as he grew young, he did. His NDA journey and training saga are brilliantly narrated by his dad, Purushottam, in our latest book – ‘Follow Your True North’. It has not been an easy journey… It’s extremely tough. That’s ...
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WHEN YOU TRY TO ROOT OUT YOUR SHYNESS

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“We’ve all got the light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Sirius Black in Harry Potter    N o. Shyness doesn’t go. It’s something beautiful about you… Your essence, your core. For God’s sake, recognize it, accept it, respect it, and celebrate it… Yes, I tell this to hundreds of worried parents. “Has your own shyness gone?” I, often, ask them. “Had you been to a psychologist or a Personality Development centre to root it out?” When you try to root out your shyness, you root out your essence, your core… What you leave behind is a distorted you, not the authentic you. Well, all this may sound very fictional for the uninitiated. A couple of days ago, a young, married woman had come to see me. She wanted to be a corporate trainer on ‘wellness’. “I want to learn voice modulation and right diction,” she kept insisting… “You don’t need them, madam,” I kept reminding her, “What you need is the belief in you...
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IF YOU HAVE HOPE, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING

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“Either you vegetate and look out of a window; or you activate and try to effect change.” Christopher Reeve   M y wife and I have watched on last two Sundays, back-to-back, two out-of-this-world movies – ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ and ‘Superman’. You see, it’s best to get lost in these fantasy worlds, now and then, knowing very well, that neither the dinosaurs nor the Superman live in this ‘real world’. But, when you wear those dark 3-D glasses and transport yourself into the fantasy worlds – yes, yes, yes, it can be the best medicine for  your worried and wounded souls… The Jurassic Park and the Superman movies we had watched years ago – for the first time – and, now, these latest ones – yes, they did succeed in captivating our hearts. May they continue to do so for centuries to come… The child in me doesn’t want to grow up… That’s something nice, na? L ast evening, on our way to the multiplex to watch ‘Superman’, I fondly remembered Late Christopher Reeve. He was the first Sup...
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FROM MINDLESS BINGE TO MINDFULNESS

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  “Social media has become a self-esteem management tool  and everyone is building their brand. But, it’s not authentic; it’s hollow.” Emily Leary, blogger and Social Media consultant   I came across the above quote from Emily, a blogger like me (Correction: I am a blogger like her!)… but, unlike her, I am not a Social Media consultant… But, yes, what madam Emily says is one-hundred percent true… My relentless blogging finds its roots in my deep desire to manage my own self-esteem. I feel very, very good when I express in my daily blogs. But, does it end there? Mostly, it doesn’t. Invariably, the desire to promote myself – as a brand – takes over. No matter how much I deny it in public, there is this desire, this desperation to spread my wings, my reach – go viral, become a sensation… Yes, what counts, after some time - on being visible as a social media content creator - are pure numbers… subscribers, viewership, likes, comments, shares etc. But, that’s no...
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I THINK, YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG NUMBER

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  “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” Pablo Picasso   I n last two weeks, I have personally visited, or consulted (over the phone), at least   half-a-dozen specialist doctors in connection with my wife’s health. Well, these doctors, as I said, are specialists and extremely busy people. People wait patiently for their turn to come, at times, for hours… That’s why they are called ‘patients’… Patience! “I can think, I can wait, I can fast”… I remembered Siddhartha’s famous reply to the question – “What work can you do best?” I am talking about the protagonist in Hermann Hesse’s famous novel ‘Siddhartha’ (and the movie by he same name starring Shashi Kapoor and Simi Garewal).The wanderer monk, Siddhartha’, was hired because of this response – “I can think, I can fast and I can wait.” L ate last night, one of my old students called me. “Sir, I am your ex-student, Siddharth Punjabi,” he introduced himself. Then, he e...
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THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...