Catharsis

December 2016 (Source: Google)  As I sit down on New Year's eve to write this blog reflecting about 2016, I am a little apprehensive of sounding cliched or preachy. However, I do believe that though I have lived life on my own terms, God  and Life  have an atypical sense of humor and love turning everyone's life upside down once in a while - and how we choose to deal with these turn of events is what defines us and makes us happy or sad. So here's how I said Bazinga  whenever Life  played pranks on me - just like my favorite character Sheldon Cooper from 'Big Bang Theory' who loves to say Bazinga (akin to Gotcha!)  B- Being Mindful:  For as long as I can remember, I have been an absent-minded professor. The usual questions that haunt me throughout the day are "Did I switch off the geyser? What about the microwave? And the coffee-maker?" and sometimes even "Did I lock the house? :P". The only solution to this was bein

November 2016 (Source: Google) Watching "Enough said", a critically acclaimed romantic comedy-drama film, got me thinking about the ' lesser discussed cousin of the cognitive biases family' - champion bias . This movie is about Eva, a divorced masseuse who unexpectedly finds herself dating her friend's ex-husband Albert. The beauty of the film lies in its honest and realistic depiction of life. Eva likes Albert, finds his idiosyncrasies cute, and bursts  into laughter at his weird jokes. Around the same time she becomes friends with a successful poet and looks upto her for advice. She eventually stumbles upon the fact that Albert is her friend's ex-husband, but doesn't reveal her respective relationship to either of them. Eva is stupiefied that all the things she finds endearing about Albert, are the exact same aspects that her friend finds repulsive! Her dialogue from the movie says it all,  "I have lost all perspective. I've been lis

October 2016 (Source: Google) All of us have pet phrases - phrases that captivate us so much that we end up using them innumerable times across myriad occasions. One such favorite phrase of mine is 'Freedom to Operate'. Freedom to Operate, abbreviated FTO, is a term in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) - simply put, FTO is determining whether a particular action, such as testing or commercialising a product, can be done without infringing valid intellectual property rights of others. Under the guise of poetic license, I like using this phrase (or rather stretching its usage), in the larger canvas of life. My sole yardstick for measuring all life choices, personal as well as professional, is an affirmative response to the question "If I decide to travel on this path, will I still retain my Freedom to Operate - the freedom to explore my potential in the Learning Zone without compromising on the values I stand for"? Presenting my first free verse poem t

September 2016 After a decade of major life events - CA final examination, job search for an out-of-this-world role, working at World Bank; desire to learn something new, MBA application process, roller-coaster year at ISB; massive job hunt for that amazing & elusive role, joining Biological E; World war III regarding search for the needle (aka suitable boy) in the haystack, whirlwind courtship, dhoom dhaam se shaadi (marriage); setting up home in Hyderabad, debating next course of action and relocating to Mumbai - I said:  (Source: Google) I decided to take a much deserved sabbatical, whilst travelling, reading all the books I could get my hands on, fulfilling my long pending wish of writing a blog and in general contemplating the higher purpose in life ;) The sabbatical started on a wonderful note - traveling to my dream destination Austria; and though I am enjoying this phase like there is no tomorrow; taking this step comes with its fair share of bouquets a

September 2016 (Source: Google)  I like this quote by Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux mentioned in Bartlett's popular 'Book of Familiar Quotations,' "Every age has its own pleasures, its style of wit, and its own ways." And in the thrilling 30's, one might add, recruitment consultants and of course, discussions about parents 😉. These discussions are with my cousins and close friends - just like my sister and I, all of them share a close bond with their respective parents. We discuss about how they are aging, their health issues, their on & off finickiness and their little tantrums;) As I mentioned earlier, I believe in the nurturing power of sharing; and these conversations are not at all about cribbing, but about finding comfort and solace by talking about it. So on those off days when parents are freaking out or experiencing a morbidity bout or are just being stubborn, I think of the 'Kids to Kiddos graph': (Source: Google an

August 2016  (Source: Google) I burst into laughter watching the latest John Oliver segment on the absurdity of Trump insinuating that Barack Obama was the founder and Hillary Clinton was the co-founder of ISIS; John Oliver, host of HBO's popular show Last Week Tonight, is redefining comedy and journalism in profound ways ( Time has termed it the John Oliver effect ) - the show is a satire that covers politics, news and current events. While I was watching this, hubby returned from work and even before the poor guy could say "Hi", I started animatedly telling him about this episode. To recreate a picture perfect image of this moment in your mind, imagine a person walking 🚶 being suddenly hit by a torrential rain of words☔ and waves of laughter 🌊 - its on these days that hubby feels he has married a blizzard 👰😜😇! At that exact moment, I suddenly had an uncanny feeling that I had "been there, done that"; and lo behold, rewinding my memory reel a c

August 2016 I recently attended a webinar on 'Careers in Impact' conducted by my alma mater, wherein people in the development sector talked about taking the 'road less travelled', work and interacting with different stakeholders. Having been a part of this sector (my first job was with the World Bank) and having faced all kinds of queries (including, and I am not joking, how to open an account at World Bank!) it was heartening to see the high level of interest in this sector. Excepts from the webinar - interesting perspectives shared by a panelist, Srikrishna S, Co-founder and CEO of Sattva: 1. Bunker Roy remarked that the driving force behind many iconic movements during 1970-80's was anger, and not passion. The key question was "What issues and problems do you see around you that make you angry and pursue it and tackle it full time?" 2. The Head-Heart-Hands equation: The decision to join social sector should be a perfect balance of ability