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Living for today

When I entered the corporate world in the US after my stint in the Indian Civil Services, I heard this weird notion called ‘paying your dues.’ Apparently, the grunt work and suffering at the beginning of your career earn you the ‘right to live well’ when you are...

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Flow state

The fish packet vanished from right in front of my eyes -- how the hell did that happen, I wondered! This happened a few months ago: Sitting in my living room, as I was intently working on my blog, the fish delivery guy rang the doorbell. I absent-mindedly motioned...

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Bouncing back from failures

In week-2 of the 1st semester at IIT Kanpur, I got my first big life shock - the physics quiz. This quiz was pretty nasty: An ant was supposedly crawling on a rotating disc and we were expected to figure out its motion in polar coordinates, or something like that....

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Finding Happiness

20 years after we first met, I ran into Mr. Michael Siromani, a retired IAS officer, under curious circumstances -- he was collecting roadside weeds in a plastic pouch. After the initial greetings, seeing a quizzical look on my face, he explained, “These are medicinal...

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How to win in an unfair life

It was an unequal race -- not fair. During my 6th grade, our sports teacher announced an impromptu bike race to celebrate the end of the annual sports day. The near-certain winner was the son of the Commanding Officer of the local air force station, who had an...

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Clarity is only in hindsight

My good friend and first boss in the IPS, Vinod Thomas, was a cop on a particular Friday. The next Monday he was a private equity investor. He probably made the world’s most dramatic overnight career transition, going on to manage more than a billion dollars in...

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Finding meaning beyond material success

The clock is ticking. Once out of college, you have to be ‘30 under 30.’ God forbid, if you miss it, ‘40 under 40’ is your absolute last chance. If you miss that as well, shame on you. If you are in a job, you are wasting your life -- look at all your classmates doing...

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Are we stealing our children’s joy?

I recently heard that 17 kids got 100 percentile in IITJEE Mains. I wasn’t sure if we should celebrate or feel sad. Here is why. About half of these toppers (8 out of 17) came from the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (now AP and Telangana). What is so special about these...

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Prioritizing health and well-being

Day 1 of IPS training. When the whistle went off at around 5 am, we ran down the stairs of the IPS Mess for the morning PT, terrified of being even 5 seconds late. Over the next 10 months, the grueling physical training made us fit and taut like racehorses. And then,...

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Responsibility is the price of freedom

After my father dropped me off at the IIT Kanpur hostel, for the next 4 years, my parents did not even once ask about my grades. Nor did they bother about my career plans, until one day I told them that I would be joining the IPS. And when I quit the IPS, they were...

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Stop wasting your life being busy

Early in my tenure at McKinsey, I once committed a terrifying blunder. In those days, every BlackBerry notification would make us stop all work and check our email. Superfast email response was fast becoming a religion. But one day, due to some technical glitch, my...

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