Always give more than what you get
This is the text of my email conversation with Shiv Khera, the iconic speaker on leadership and motivation and author of many books. He says that 85% of self-made millionaires globally today are first generation. A survey said that they read about 50-60 self-help books a year because they realize that one good idea could...
The paradox of being a common man
The month of May this year has been over-flowing with bold strokes and brilliant strikes. Yes, one can think of everything from cricket to politics and from nabbing terrorists to tickling the media at the right time. We have all realized that even ten seconds in front of a button can spell anything from prosperity...
Redefining ‘Sanjeevani’ at the Valley of Flowers
It was sometime in the nineteen thirties that Frank S Smythe ‘came upon the lush and colourful Bhyundar Valley, the Valley of Flowers’ and he describes his adventures in the lower and upper Himalayas in his book. Smythe discovered that ‘the predominant note was peace; not the faintest breeze ruffled the herbage and the silence...
Happiness is hearing that silent roar
Only a few minutes back when I searched for the nail-cutter to trim my nails, I noticed that the left index finger had that tell-tale black-ink mark made during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. A little later once the nails were done I discovered that the black-ink mark now looked like a tiger’s triangular stripe...
Ashwin Sanghi and the secrets of writing a thriller
I remember reading Chanakya’s Chant a few years back and knew then that the time for Indian readers to get high on thrillers written by Indian writers had come. In the years that followed, I read and reviewed The Krishna Key and Private India as well. Obviously then, it was fascinating to finally meet the...
Rashmi Bansal on writing and publishing
Rashmi Bansal is a name that every reader in India is aware of. Who hasn’t bought and read Connect the dots, Follow every rainbow, Stay hungry stay foolish, I have a dream… and other books that she has written? Obviously then, if one gets an opportunity to talk to her, one is sure to let...
The native digital era is finally here
When I say that the native digital era is finally here I do not mean that the conventional print book is dead. It isn’t. However, reading has been given a power-filled push because books can be read even on the smartphone with all the benefits that the typical Kindle e-reader gives. It isn’t only Sanjeev...
I don’t want to be like you
Days have this strange habit of throwing different sorts of people towards you… and this is why I call them fun to be with. I mean earth days, of course. Not sure if this happens on other distant planets as well, but here on earth, I can open a sleep laden eye and see Specky,...
Throw the R away in FrEE
Long queues, hurried footfalls, urgent changes in plans, snap-snap, snatch-snatch, adrenalin rush, and all survival techniques put to use are invariably found to co-habit wherever and whenever the word FREE comes into force. Just whisper the word ‘free’ and any place gets transformed into a war-zone. This is a global phenomenon created by brands to...
Everything means nothing
Armies of specialists have taken over. Consultants are grabbing all there is to grab. Experts walk around with pedestals looking for a place to set up their shop. You really need to be a wizard in one thing or the other to get attention. Survival is difficult if you cannot prove that you are an...
Connected to excitement
When I look at a car, any car, the two hemispheres of my brain get whirring. One whispers everything that is sheer poetry and goads me on to discover the rhythm, the beat, the iambic meters in technology and aesthetics. The other hemisphere has its feet firmly on the ground and speaks in monosyllables about...
Terrorism is a monologue in a subverted mind
Defining terrorism isn’t easy. Kamalhasan calls Nathuram Gadse the first Hindu terrorist but Madhu Purnima Kishwar retorts by tweeting that some people ‘can’t tell the difference between a terrorist and an assassin. The latter is not a complimentary term. Kennedy’s killing was an assassination and never called a terrorist act. So also Gandhi’s murder by...
