Jayanth Narayanan, Owner of Mani’s Dum Biryani and Co-author of Secret Sauce and Startup your Restaurant, Constantly Reinvents Himself
Mahatma Gandhi dwelt as intensely on the foods he and his followers consumed (or consciously avoided) as on larger political or spiritual themes.
An Unusual Encounter at A Zen Monastery
Many years ago, Pico Iyer, who resides in Nara, Japan, had travelled to the San Gabriel Mountains in California. Ragged peaks loomed into view when he turned off spiraling freeways that spun in and around Los Angeles.
… Continue reading “Gleaning Lessons in Stillness from A Famed Travel Writer”
In the concluding passage of his Acknowledgements, Adam Grant, Wharton Professor and author of Originals, thanks his three children for compelling him to unlearn many of the lessons that adults take for granted.
… Continue reading “Ushering Originality into The Indian Legal System: Charting A Founder’s Story”
Henry David Thoreau: The Possession of an Unusual Sensibility
At an early age, Henry David Thoreau realised he was going to be different from other members of his family. There was inside him a sense of the simultaneity of time,
… Continue reading “Greening Homes and Workplaces: YourGreenCanvas Brings Walden Into Cities”
Tridip Suhrud: Injecting Movement Into His Life
With disarming modesty, Tridip Suhrud describes himself in four pithy words as a “scholar of modern Gujarat.” While he has been deeply engaged in scholarly practices,
Mekin Maheshwari: Quitting A High-Status Position to Pursue Meaning
On the Udhyam website, Karthik’s toothy smile radiates into the camera. A migrant from Tamil Nadu, whose wife and two kids reside in the ramshackle Ejipura slum,
Educated by Tara Westover
The year 2018 witnessed the release of two memoirs that corralled global readers into attentiveness. The first one was anticipated: Michelle Obama’s Becoming. The second book streaked into distracted lives like a lightning bolt,
… Continue reading “The Transformative Power of Mentors And Coaches: Takeaways From A Memoir”
It can be disconcerting to attempt changes at midlife even under the watchful scrutiny of just friends and family. After all, most of us would prefer some semblance of privacy and anonymity while fumbling into new terrains,
It was at Koramangala, that the two Bansal partners started the iconic Flipkart. Since then, known variously as the “Bandra of Bengaluru” or the startup hub, the locality has been reshaped by its chic pubs,
… Continue reading “Engineering Midlife Mindshifts: A Conversation With a Founder”
On the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma, I thought it fitting to learn about the nation’s founder, beyond the drab and mostly forgotten facts from uninspiring history textbooks. Coincidentally, towards the end of 2018,
… Continue reading “Drawing Lessons from Gandhi’s Spotty Academic Record and Education”
In the 1999 film, American Beauty, the protagonist Lester Burnham embarks on rather stereotypical responses to what one might term his midlife ennui. He trades his unexciting Toyota Camry for a zippier 1970 Pontiac Firebird,
… Continue reading “When an MIT Philosophy Professor Has a Midlife Crisis”
The movie, Bohemian Rhapsody, was recently drawing crowds at theatres across the globe. The UK band, Queen, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Grammys. The group, fronted by the confounding,
… Continue reading “Striking Parallels Between Steve Jobs and Freddie Mercury”
Emotions and Creativity
Creativity, to begin with a cliché, is often considered an exercise in ‘thinking outside the box.’ The phrase, however hackneyed or tired-sounding, does urge one to shatter boundaries, a necessary step to usher newness or innovation in any sphere.
… Continue reading “Creating from the Heart: 13th Century Sufi Poet, Rumi”
As a cool twelve-year-old, I would have been the last to admit my father had a vernacular accent. Like most children of a generation born at the cusp of India’s independence, he had studied in a regional language (Tamil medium) school.
Georges Seurat’s life was a brief flash on the planet. The French Neo-Impressionist painter, who lived in the 1880s, died of diphtheria at the age of 31. And yet, during his fleeting existence, Seurat accomplished a density of work that was to reshape the manner in which future artists would contend with perspective and color and technique.
… Continue reading “La Grande Jatte and The Anxieties of the Middle Class”
Develop your own unique idiom
Right from its inception, Indian cinema has always resisted the imposition of other sensibilities. During the colonial era, British rulers often attempted to manage and control the cinema to service the Empire’s aims.
… Continue reading “Design Thinking and Beyond: What Bollywood Can Teach You”
Paul Graham is a founder of Y Combinator, the famed accelerator in Silicon Valley that has spawned many champion startups, including Dropbox, Airbnb and Reddit.
Yet his personal website (paulgraham.com) eschews the blaring self-promotion we associate with our celebrity-mediated age.
… Continue reading “Habits of Highly Creative People: Learn to Hack Like a Painter From Paul Graham”
Recently, the Salvator Mundi, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci that depicts Jesus Christ as the Savior of the World, shattered auction records, selling for a stunning $450 Million. Also, last year, the meticulous and imaginative Walter Isaacson,
… Continue reading “Habits of Highly Creative People: Learn to Procrastinate like Leonardo da Vinci”
Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar
Many creators are told to steel themselves for rejection. However, most people expect to receive due credit for their work or talents after a reasonable period of struggle or anonymity. But what if that period were to last fifty-three years?
Today 221 B Baker Street houses a museum. Sherlock Holmes, one of the most enduring literary characters created by a 20th Century author, still commands a massive and ardent following. He is so deeply woven into our collective imagination,
… Continue reading “Habits of Highly Creative People: What You Can Learn From Sherlock Holmes”
Brinda S. Narayan
