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An expatriate Indian writer, writing in English, tends to fall into the stereotype of diaspora story telling. Typical themes of diaspora writing are conflicting world views of Gen X and Y expats, settlement and adjustment issues, dealing with culture shocks, dealing with discrimination and racism, etc. Very rarely do you find an author who brilliantly merges the worlds of traditional wisdom with an incisive view of the western way of thinking. So vivid are her characters, ranging from the rural Indian grandmother to the ultra modern disillusioned gen Y, from the academic in a state-of-the-art US university to the clerk in a modest sweet shop, from a wannabe beautician to a business magnate struggling with emotional issues, that one wonders where she gets her material from? Some extraordinary stories abound in "One Amazing Thing", "Arranged Marriage and other Short Stories", "Queen of Dreams", "Before We Visit the Goddess", "Mistress of ...

So the Board exam results are out. Students all over India have been released from their month-long tension. Some have expectedly fared excellently, while some have managed to just pass muster. Some have reached for the stars, while some have had their world crashing down. Parents are either in congratulatory mode, sharing their kid's achievements on social media, or are have taken social hibernation, warning their kids to keep their shameful result under wraps. As a nation obsessed with academic results, it is no wonder that these months are a child's most stressful time of the year. All everybody seems to be bothered about is how the child will fare in the Board exams of 10th or 12th standard. As if that is the holy grail of all examinations in life, and failing to come up to expectations means a total negation of worth and identity. Has anyone ever studied how these examination toppers fare later in life? Do they continue to shine throughout their academic and career li...

The daily business of living is becoming more complicated by the day. Life shows it's erratic, ephemeral nature every now and then. Accidents, sudden collapses or illnesses, terrorist attacks, emotional breakdowns, all these have unfortunately become part and parcel of our daily lives. Today's reality becomes tomorrow's uncertainty in a flash. Actually, I am not really philosophizing about life. I am wondering how we humans still find time to crib, complain and hold grudges against each other for days at a stretch. How egos and self-importance become more important than basic humaneness and empathy. We go on complaining about our lives and situations, people and jobs, immune to the pain and suffering around us. Our minor troubles assume larger than life proportions, blotting out all that is good and positive. Somehow our problems are the worst, and we are the unluckiest. Some of our typical gripes: "I am a nobody...my life is not worth living" Or ...

A key factor in a long-term romantic or married relationship is the effect of passage of time on the relationship. Time can either cement or ravage a relationship. If you are in a healthy relationship, you will settle down into quiet adjustment and enjoyment of each other’s company. If not, you will continue bickering and nagging all your life. Tolerance and acceptance are the cornerstones of a happy relationship. If you are fortunate enough to be in a positive relationship, have you noticed that as you grow old together, you and your companion (spouse/partner) increasingly think, sound and behave like one another? Maybe it has something to do with the influence of each other’s company, or maybe people do change and adapt to each other in such a way that they adopt the other's characteristics and make them their own. Lifestyle habits: Take lifestyle choices. A couple I know has adjusted to each other so much that the husband doesn't even remember that he was a lat...

The Oscar nominated LION is definitely worth a watch, given its theme of search for identity and one's roots in a post-Google Earth global scenario. Set in India in the first half, the movie traces the journey of a 5 year old Saroo from his home town in Khandwa, to Calcutta, and later across the globe, to Tasmania in Australia. The journey is both within and without, in the sense that the internal quest of the protagonist for a sense of belonging and roots merge with, and culminate in his external voyage halfway across the earth. Sheer grit and determination, coupled with a raw intensity of emotions and memories of his lost childhood, propel Saroo to launch a search for his estranged mother and family a good many years after he lands up in Australia. True to the real story, the movie shows Saroo's struggle to blot out the memories of his life in India and attempts to settle down to a life of cushy comfort in his adopted country. His conflict is understandable; he feels his...

The annual rigmarole of final examinations is on us once again. Look around you, and you will find students crazily cramming up facts, figures and formulas, and parents nervously egging them on. As for teachers, they compete with each other on how many questions they can squeeze in an examination paper. After all, each minute detail of the syllabus is important, and needs to be reproduced on paper. That's how they have been trained by our education policy makers and school authorities. One thing is certain in the Indian education system: Much as we crib and curse the examination system and rote learning, they are here to stay for a long time. Because no one is willing to risk on experimenting with an alternative system of assessing students or evaluating real learning. It is too much hard work - overhauling the entire system, sensitizing policy makers, retraining school principals and teachers, counselling parents, and preparing students alternately. Who has the time or inclinat...

Ever faced a situation when you were walking blindfold and fumbling your way through? Performing a job without seeking feedback is somewhat like that. You grope your way through hoping you will somehow reach your goal, but chances of that are quite slim. You need to know where you are going, whether you are doing the right thing or not, and how you are doing. The only way to find out is through performance feedback. Performance appraisal and evaluation is at the core of human resource management. We all work to earn appreciation, rewards, and a steadily increasing pay package. At the end of the appraisal period, when all this is denied to us saying we haven’t performed as per company expectations, it comes like a slap in the face. Why didn’t they tell me earlier? You want to scream. If you had sought out feedback on your performance from time to time, perhaps you would have sensed that you would have to put in extra efforts to come up to expectations. You would have...