When I was little, I often heard my father say, “Remember, time is money.” So the idea that my time is supremely valuable, was planted as a core value rather early in life. The superimposition of “don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish” meant that I also learned that spending time on minutiae doesn’t help to “save” [...]
Archive for the ‘childhood memories’ Category
Time and Money
Posted in childhood memories, life lessons, relationships, tagged Money, Time, Time and Money, What is Time on August 30, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Simple Living, High Thinking
Posted in childhood memories, culture, humor, psychology, relationships, transculturalism, tagged Joanne Heim, Living Simply on December 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This holiday season I can’t help but chuckle again at a conversation a good friend of mine (let’s call her Devi) and I had earlier this year, comparing notes on our respective upbringings with specific regard to things, stuff, gifts … you know, materialism. She was telling me how her mother had one very principled and very [...]
Arjuna and the Fish Eye: the fallacy of being over-informed, hyper-busy and multi-tasking
Posted in business, career, childhood memories, consciousness, creativity, culture, entrepreneurship, inspiration, life lessons, psychology, spirituality, tagged Freedom from the Known, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Thrive! Falling in Love with Life on December 15, 2009 | 4 Comments »
[Adaptated into an essay in my book Thrive! Falling in Love with Life, published Nov 1, 2011. This is also one of my most-read posts!] Here’s a little story from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, about the renowned archery master Dronacharya training the Pandava brothers in the art and skill of archery. Once, when the five [...]
Jesus Never Fails
Posted in business, career, childhood memories, creativity, existential revelations, inspiration, politics, relationships, spirituality, transculturalism, travel, tagged Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind on March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Long international flights, like the ones I just did from Seattle to London and back, are great times to nap, watch movies, read a book … and well, for me, often ponder important thoughts. This time, besides making considerable headway on Roger Martin’s Opposable Mind: Winning Through Integrative Thinking, and watching 3 movies, I thought [...]
Why do we love the Slumdog?
Posted in art, childhood memories, culture, inspiration, life lessons, politics, transculturalism, tagged Slumdog Millionaire on February 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As the stock market plummets, the stimulus package remains under scrutiny and more jobs disappear, what is it about Slumdog Millionaire’s rag-to-riches story that has overwhelmingly caught the Western world’s rapt attention? With the Academy Awards in which the film has garnered 10 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director being only a few days [...]
Finding friendship in love and love in friendship
Posted in childhood memories, culture, life lessons, relationships on February 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Valentine’s Day will soon be here, and I am inspired to share some of my reflections on love and friendship through my life experiences. Romantic love stands out as unique because of the special and distinct attrtibute of sexual attraction. And yet, as I am sure all of us have experienced, sexual attraction can undergo ups and downs, diminish, and [...]
When the lights were out
Posted in childhood memories, creativity, existential revelations, relationships, transculturalism on January 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For all those who grew up in India, do you remember the times when we were little and the lights went out, especially at night? This past December in Seattle was more severe than many can remember. Most people who’ve lived here more than ten years recall another one in the late nineties during which overburdened [...]
This too will change …
Posted in childhood memories, existential revelations, science, spirituality on January 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I have a distinct memory of being 4 years old and sitting on a high box-bed with a bright yellow cover, watching my Dadubhai (maternal grandfather) changing his kurta and tightening his lungi, and talking incessantly to him. I was always excited to catch a glimpse of the Brahmin thread strung diagonally across his maida-white, plump [...]
