Life Etc Etc

When I first started writing this blog more than a decade ago, the reception wasn't exactly great for me to continue sharing my thoughts, opinions or observations . I questioned myself a lot during those times and seriously doubted whether I would ever garner attention for the blog. While self doubt drove me into inaction, the awareness that I was letting myself down urged me to repeatedly mount a comeback and write something after a lull period. These alternate cycles of boom and bust taught me one important thing, that come no matter what the only person I had to impress with this blog was me. Maintaining a certain standard with my blog was the highest priority. As long as I lived up to that ideal everything else that came along with it was just an added incentive. The same, I believe applies to everything you initiate in life. The only person you have to impress with anything in life is just yourself .  Why? What about trying to impress loved ones, family members, friends ...

With the start of a new year, the season of new year resolutions is upon us once again. The dawn of a new year is the perfect time to try something new and the resolutions you set up might just be the magic bullet that your life needs. Here are some rules to keep in mind while brainstorming about a resolution, they might just help you to commit to something that is more practicable. Rules for New Year resolutions <Courtesy: Tim Mossholder > Have specific measures around your resolutions: For Example:  If you want to lose weight then your resolution must target a specific number of kgs/pounds you are willing to lose. You should also have a date by which you are hoping to achieve that target. If you want to buy a house, then put a date around when you would like to start house hunting and when you would like to close the deal by. Break up resolutions which center around large goals into smaller ones: Let's say you want to lose 20 kgs in a year. Think about how about many kgs ...

All of us without exception do the following quite consistently.  We analyze profusely whether required or not and do not let up before it's too late.  We torture and blame ourselves for a complication even when we are not sure about the root cause We hang onto a remnant of the past which inevitably sours the present This vicious cycle of analysis, regret and uncertainty has to stop. You might ask me how? I might be able to offer some advice with the help of the following scenarios.   Scenario 1 Ever messaged, called or greeted someone with an intention of opening up a conversation only to run into a situation where the other person just doesn't want to open up. The person you called upon could be someone with whom you had a storied history but they at this very moment are decisively stonewalling your attempts at initiating a conversation with their terse response style. You can do one of two things when this happens: If this behavior was caused by an earlier action ...

Ever had a dull and drab today where your zeal was at an all time low and then suddenly: An old friend rings you up out of the blue OR A curious message pops-up OR An appreciative email arrives OR  Your social media post receives an unforeseen response OR Your favorite movie crops up as an OTT recommendation OR You get invited out for a sudden plan Wouldn't we all want to have such external things motivate us time and again whenever we are down? Looking elsewhere for motivation seems easy but we keep forgetting that: Nobody has time for us 

Another day is about to pass us. Before the day passes by, I have a very important question for all of you.  Did you have a good day?   You are not sure, then why don't you ask yourself the following questions? Did you sleep well? Did you have a decent meal? Did you exercise? Did you spend time with your near and dear? Did you dwell on the positive aspects of your life? Did you watch something nice? Did you take up a task? Did you focus on something which is bothering you? Did you do less of what you consider as a bad habit or what spoilt your day the last time around? Did you repent or admit to follies of the past? Did you fight a bad thought? Did you indulge in a hobby or take part in a sport? Did you make a plan for the future? Did you try to help someone? Did you dream? Life is only good if the days in it are good <Credits: Dominik Hofbauer > If you have answered 'Yes' to any of the above questions then you definitely had a good day because a good day is made up o...

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; Rudyard Kipling ( IF ) I encountered both of the impostors mentioned above during the course of the last year and life has not been the same since then .  What's worse than a disaster?  It's a disaster which follows a triumph. Just when you think that your life is better than ever, you are jolted into reality and reminded how precarious life actually is. It takes a lifetime to set-up something but it takes less than a second for all of it to turn into dust. You have to find illuminated space within yourself <Courtesy: William Daigneault > We, human beings are expendable, replaceable and inherently perishable.  Yet, we act tough and surround ourselves with hubris for the short while we are here. We feed our fragile egos at every turn and one day when life smacks us we complain that it's cruel. The truth is that we are just fortunate to have a lot of things that we take for granted....

Hello...Hello...Hello! I have not been blogging for sometime and I couldn't think of a better title for my comeback post. We are living in a world where everyone is running as fast as they can to be somewhere or be someone. Setting goals and running towards them is great but you also must know how far you can push yourself. It's necessary to pause every once in a while and smell the roses. It's vital to take a backseat in some activities while you assess life's priorities. That's exactly what I was doing while taking a backseat from the world of blogging. Sometimes you have to enjoy the view from the backseat <Courtesy:  John Schnobrich > Our world runs on several lanes made up of personal commitments, professional goals and activities which are close to our heart. It's impossible to run at the same speed on of all these lanes. You also have to be wary of spreading yourself too thin and doing a less than stellar job on things which are either close to you...

Five years ago on this very day I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. I had just floundered on a very important interview and there was no end in sight for the rut I seemed to be on. I was no fresher, had close to a decade of experience and was at one point excellent in converting interviews. Friends who started with me were all well-settled and here I was experiencing a mid-career slump unable to nail down a job. Half-a-dozen opportunities blew past me and my dreams of making it in Canada were slowly evaporating before my very own eyes. What did I do? I strolled down to CN Tower in Toronto just to clear my mind. Height of the CN Tower Even though my life was quite literally going nowhere I found myself standing at a greater elevation than most people in this world (thousand feet give or take). That very thought made me smile. That smile in turn reminded me   that things were not really as bad as they seemed. Sure, I had to figure out a way to perform better in my intervie...

' The moment I turned my back, I knew I was never going back. ' ' The second I disconnected the call, I knew that it would be the last call between us ' ' I didn't finish typing the message, I just let it linger there. A few days later both the message as well as the contact were deleted permanently from my phone ' ' It wasn't working. The time had come to move on' We have all experienced such moments of epiphany in our lives. 'Letting Go' of someone we spent time with ( in a personal capacity ) is probably both the hardest thing (when we are conscious of what we are about to lose) and the easiest thing in this world (when we know that there's nothing much we could have done to salvage the association). But how do you reach a stage where you do know that letting go is in fact the right thing to do. Here are some questions which might help your thought process. Has the relationship changed beyond recognition? If the answer for this que...

My thoughts as of January 1st, 2021 2020 just passed me by. It started off with lofty ambitions before nosediving and finally settling itself on a precarious cliff. The sights from the cliff are beautiful, the light on the horizon is magnificent but there's danger and harrowing depths all around this cliff. I don't know how we got here and have to figure out where to go from here. I share this confusion, this lack of direction and the same precarious situation with billions of others around the globe.  For the first time in a long long time we had a year which united us. We were: United in our confinement  United in having our lives stalled mid-way United in our inability to chase our dreams United in our frustrations United in our solitude I never knew misery could unite us the way no happiness or victory ever did . But if we put the misery aside for a moment, aren't we fundamentally all lucky to at least have a roof on our heads while this pandemic rages on? What about th...

10 years of Life Etc Etc ! I can scarcely believe how quickly time has passed. I've told the story before, about how Life Etc Etc started as a MBA project in 2010 but I never talked about what that time meant to me. 2010 was one of the most fulfilling years of my life, a time when life looked up and dreams had wings. Anything and everything seemed possible back then and I was raring to enter a brand new decade with boundless energy to take down my goals one after the another. Nothing quite went to script after that. The last decade was one hell of a roller coaster ride for me ultimately culminating in a pandemic which still has all of us in its grip. Now, the intention of all of this is not to invoke nostalgia about the bygone times. The sole purpose of all this is to state unequivocally that milestones come and go, plans often go wrong but life goes on !     Keep the hopes going (Courtesy: Janaine Arioli ) There are only two ways life can go on: You either let life drift you...

The brand new car parked outside the house is shining brightly in the evening sun. The sprawling lawn with a splendorous luster is beckoning you to your stately home. Outside the doorway stands your wife with your kids who are all excited to welcome you after a hard day's work. You have everything that one can ask for, you have love, success and most of all the bragging rights of having achieved your dreams. You are now a model for others to emulate and a paragon of triumph. You seem to have it all (at least in the eyes of the world) but are you growing? Streamlining the person inside us as we grow (Courtesy: Edward Howell ) Before I proceed any further, I would like to clarify that the intent of this blog is not to prescribe what all constitutes success in life. Success is inherently personal and everyone should apply their own formula for defining it. I for one do not believe that a person's success can be calibrated by financial growth alone. This blog will therefore delve ...

Prologue: I've been trying to write a blog for the last several months but I wasn't able to go through with it. All throughout this time the intent of the blog post stayed the same but the content changed dramatically with the evolving global scenario. This is a tricky time for all of us, the world as we knew and life as we understood have probably been changed forever by COVID-19. Nothing might ever be the same again but my belief in human spirit and its ability to conquer insurmountable odds remains unshaken. *** It all began with a Pangolin. As luck would have it my walk this year at  KBR park  brought me face to face with a pangolin, the prime suspect in the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Little did I know then that there was a little mystery brewing behind those scales that would shakeup the entire world. Over the next several months I chanced upon several things which I never thought I would see in my lifetime.     A Pangolin in better times A tennis court clo...

I was at a family get together when I ran into an elderly gentleman who was an old acquaintance. He eagerly shook my hand and and asked me about the time I met Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam . He listened in rapt attention as I recounted how fortunate I was to meet Dr. Kalam along with my author friend Raghu. After I finished, he remarked, " You were lucky to meet   Dr. Kalam. He was indeed a man of great integrity and character ". The words from the elderly gentleman exactly summed up the imprint  Dr. Kalam had left on me. ' Integrity ' , ' Character ' and ' Focus ' were indeed Dr. Kalam's signature . But what was mine? Do I even need to have one? Imprint your signature on other's hearts and minds (Credits: Leon Seibert ) It only took a few seconds before I answered ' Yes ' to the second question. The reasoning was intuitive, you can pass on your material assets such as wealth and property to your near and dear but what intangible ass...

Now I am making a habit out of this! For the second consecutive year I am reviewing my takeaways for a year gone-by almost a month into the new year. But this is no ordinary review, this is a recollection of everything I've learnt over a grand total of 365 days. Hence the time I have taken to write this blog is extremely warranted (Thou shall all see). So where do I start, I start off this blog right where I left the last one. The New Year's eve of 2019 , while the world was celebrating the New Year I was having a quiet night all by myself and reflecting on a year gone too soon. Fast forward to New Year's eve of 2020, I couldn't believe how fast a year had just passed. If 2018 was a supersonic jet then 2019 proceeded to culminate at rocket speed. Are days flying by too soon? Is time outrunning us? Why does it always seem that happy moments roll by quickly while the dismal ones seem to last a lifetime?  Yours Truly might not have the most accurate answers to any of ...

I seldom set off on a tour or a trek without a book. Books are my source of relaxation and a welcome diversion from the rigors of travel. On one such trip I found myself unwinding on a park bench overlooking a beautiful landscape. I reached for a book within my bag but soon realized that I had left the book behind at home. I had no other recourse but to pull out my mobile and start reading my own blog. 15-20 minutes later when I resumed my trek, the only feeling I had was that my blog made some sense, that for me was my first measure of success .  Life gets very complicated when we refuse to understand or analyze the motivations behind our actions. Life Etc Etc should have been done years ago when a series of personal misfortunes rocked me. The blog and everything associated with it became the farthest thing on my mind during that period. While I was piecing my life together, I remembered something that my mother told me when I was at school. She advised me that things become...

" The road to my 100th post had to go through a chilly 8 KM run! " Spring in the northern hemisphere is not all bloom and sunshine as they make it out to be, there's the frequent rain coupled with the occasional snowfall and then there's the gloom of the dark skies engulfing you at every possible interval. But this was not a gloomy day by any stretch of the imagination. The forecast predicted sun and we had sun. At about 10 degrees Celsius we had the hottest day of the year thus far and I was right there basking in the sun. Now why I was there? Because I had to get out of my house! I was reeling from months of snow and sub-zero temperatures. The weather was just not conducive to keep up a schedule with anything else other than work. I did manage to squeeze in a few hours of gym every week though and was eager to test myself at the right opportunity. The opportunity arrived soon enough in the form of ' The Spring Run-off ' at High Park and I signed up for...