Be Happy, Along with Me!

Friday. 9 PM. You get off the office bus that usually drops you on the main road and start walking to your house which is a ten minute walk from the bus stop through small lanes. Suddenly you find a shadow following you as you walk. You start taking faster steps but the figure behind you is catching up to your pace. You somehow manage to get to the last lap of your walk. That’s when you take to your heels to reach quickly to your apartment’s gate. Your pulse beats unstoppably as you shut the gate and enter the lift. As the lift’s door closes, you happen to get a glimpse of that figure that followed you, walking across the road. A tall man with a beard clad in casuals. He (and you) could have been on the newspapers tomorrow if you hadn’t managed to get to your apartment’s gate as you luckily did. You start thinking now. What could you have possible done earlier to avoid this panic? •         Keep a pepper-spray or a poc...

The divorce of the power couple - Infosys Murthy's son and TVS Venu's daughter made into the papers last week. A lot of people were talking about this. I got a chance to overhear one of those conversations: A: Did you know they spent crores and crores for the marriage? And today, this is all it is. B: These people have a lot of money. So they do not bother parting ways like this. They can use their money to set their lives straight again. C: Those on the top strata of the society feel free to do what they want to do in life. Only those of us in the middle class keep thinking what the society will speak about us if we take such a decision. I disagree with you Mr.C. I personally know a lot of people from the middle class strata who have taken a strong stand in their relationship and chosen divorce. A divorce is not a symbol of shame. In my opinion, it is a courageous decision. Recently I met with a friend of mine after a really long time. She wasn't a close frien...

We procrastinate, because we are not prepared. Why do you, me and anyone else like to put off  a task when in real it can be completed without much ado? Read on to find five reasons I discovered through my own experiences: 1) Not understanding the task being assigned When a task is assigned to us, many of us fail to spend some time to analyse and understand what has been given. Every task has an objective, means to achieve and requires a time planning exercise. Unless one spends at least five minutes to absorb the requirements of a particular task, understand the deadline and the route map to finish the task, he/she would most probably find it comfortable to put it off for a while. When you don't strike while the iron is hot, you lose track of the time and necessity. 2) Counting the number of tasks in hand When an employee already has five tasks at hand and is handed over a sixth task, he/she doesn't take the effort to read through the sixth. Some of us put it i...

I have a friend who calls me once in a fortnight to talk about her toxic relationship that is keeping peace away from her life almost all the time. Another friend texts me often about how she is sure of what she wants to do in life but doesn't have the financial security to pursue what she wants to become. This girl, whom I acquainted with in the recent past, is not too open about what her aim in life is. I don't see her talking about her dreams. She is happy and content with pushing each day of life as it goes. I know someone who dreams a lot everyday, has aspirations, is really capable of achieving them and yet tries to find a reason to compromise on all of them. This friend keeps talking to me about how she gave up a valuable career to move into a different city with her husband and is now baby-sitting her child without any career plans. Do I have only negative, complaining and sacrificing women in my life as friends? No. These are all capable women. Their heart...

If someone asks you to speak about a special someone in your life who left a lasting impression in you, who would you speak about? Would it be your best friend who lent her shoulder to you at times of grief? Would it be the teacher from your primary grade who constantly motivated you? Would it be your sibling with whom you fought a lot but yet ganged up with to do mischief? Or would it be your mother with whom you sat down everyday evening to share how your day was? For most of you, it would be your mother. Your mother with whom you spent a lot of time as a child and adult, sharing every single detail of your life without inhibitions. Who do you think I would speak about if I was asked the same question? I would speak about my mother too, but there is a small difference. I never dedicated my time to her, to speak to her, to listen to her aspirations about me or to share my innermost feelings with her. Never as a child; never as a teen; and now, I can't afford to do that i...