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The only life is now
I once went to University of Pennsylvania's medical school, one of the world’s best, with severe chronic back pain. Years ago, I had injured my back. It was a payback for all the long hours of working while ignoring my fitness. The MRI clearly...
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Handling difficult life-situations
In 2003, I was facing a potentially career-ending crisis. A group of tribals from northern Kerala landed in Trivandrum and started agitating. As the...
Happiness from Within
In investment banking and Wall Street jobs, the ‘bonus day’ is an interesting one -- everybody gets a cash windfall. Naturally, they should all be...
Life is unpredictable
When I joined the Indian Police Service, I was in for a big disappointment -- I was assigned to serve in the Kerala cadre for the rest of my life....
Grind Leads to Success
Two decades ago, when I was serving as in the police, I saw the current Kerala Chief Minister, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, personally lead a protest...
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Life Beyond Resumes
Having pretty much wasted my 4 years at IIT without learning much, I was determined to not repeat that mess, ever. So when I joined my MBA, I was focused and doing well academically. But it created another problem -- I became greedy for top grades...
Too Much is Too Much
Two decades ago, during a lunch at some government function, I first met Mr. Karunakaran, former Chief Minister of Kerala. On his plate, there was just one appam (a dosa-like item) with some vegetable stew. Seeing him eat so little, I later asked...
Hard or Easy: It’s All in the Mind
During our Civil Services training in Mussoorie, one day, our physical training (PT) instructor announced the upcoming 9-day trek to the Himalayas. For the hardest trek route that led to Roop Kund (>5,000 m), when he asked for volunteers, so...
Donkey + Donkey = Horse?
In my days as a private equity investor, I learned some interesting lessons about ‘synergies’, horses, and donkeys -- here they are 🙂 Every fund has the usual mix of investments, some good, others not so much. Most investments that do badly, do so...