Could someone teach our tourists some manners, please? (Part 1)
The last ten days my wife, daughter and I have been doing what a lot of people do at this time of the year – go on vacation. But unlike other years, this year we chose to travel within India, as we...
View ArticleCould someone teach our tourists some manners, please? (Part 2)
And, what should we do to become better at preserving, managing and marketing what we have? Our trip to Jallianwala Bagh was painful. Not physically, but emotionally. A fact, I am sure, that would not...
View ArticleIdiosyncrasies of the Indian air traveller
Coming back from Delhi yesterday evening, a strange realization dawned upon me. I had taken more flights in the last one year that I have perhaps taken in the past decade put together. Strange as this...
View Article"Death Come Easy...if your come before your time..."
There comes a point in time in all of our lives when the parents who gave birth to us, the relatives we knew, the friends we grew up and the people we know otherwise all start to fade away into...
View ArticleDo we really care about our differently abled?
All you see initially is an empty corridor in stark black and white; and all you hear are the echoing footsteps of someone, possibly a child, running frantically along a school corridor. Cut to a...
View ArticleGreed is good. Capiche?
Have you ever wondered what defines a city? Its people, its monuments, or both? Isn’t it strange that people in two different cities, even within the same country, can be very different in character?...
View ArticleShouldn’t we step out of our comfort zones?
Singapore never ceases to surprise me; I still remember the first time I visited the tiny island state in the early 90’s for a month long sojourn that was to be spent between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur...
View ArticleAnd then, the world started to talk…
There are only three movies that I have ever fallen asleep while watching, and admittedly, all three have something in common: they are movies that were highly acclaimed at the Academy Awards. But...
View ArticleObesity, the next Indian epidemic?
Many moons ago, I remember listening to a hilarious episode that involved a more than slightly overweight uncle of mine – Khedu Mamu . Evidently, the one thing that matched this gentleman’s humungous...
View ArticleShould we really feel embarrassed of our parents?
The other day I walked into Palladium, the most upmarket mall in Mumbai, for a quick bite at the Manchester United Café. On my way out, I found an elderly couple being roundly chastised by their...
View ArticleThe customer is dead. Long live the customer!
The customer is dead. Long live the customer! One of the first lessons we learn as marketers (as we do in life) is that people don’t really value what comes to them easily or free of cost. Strange as...
View ArticleAdoption in India: We need more Sushmita Sen's in our midst!
I don’t know what brought on the discussion this morning, but while my wife and I were sipping on our morning cup of green, the conversation veered to the number of people we knew who had decided to...
View ArticleSo, where are you from?
One of the questions that I am invariably asked at social gatherings (and often at official business meetings) is ‘So, where are you from?’ And, like many of the people I intimately know, I find this...
View ArticleSatyameva Jayate: Facilitating a sense of déjà vu?
How many times have you walked into a house, a building, a hall, a party, a location or a situation and were overpowered by the feeling that you have been here before? That you knew what would happen...
View ArticleMaster-ji, Pita-ji ki patloon…
One of the oldest school boy jokes that perhaps unfortunately has lost much of its significance today is the one about what distinguishes superheroes from normal people…. the fact that the former all...
View ArticleWhy should it always be the woman’s fault?
I still remember the very first public debate I spoke at 33 years ago. The motion – as it was called then – was whether ‘modern civilization was making man more and more uncivilized?’ I must admit,...
View ArticleAre our children fast becoming beasts of burden?
There is only one significant point of difference that my wife and I have been having over the past decade: whether or not it makes more sense to move our daughter to schools that follow the...
View ArticleCompeting with a country called Phelps
Eight days after Madhura Nagendra, the mysterious girl in the red top, blue slacks and closely cropped dark hair joined the Indian contingent at the march past at the inauguration of the London Olympic...
View ArticleHappy birthday, Junior MasterChef!
For the past month or so, my wife and I had been consumed with one thought: how should we celebrate our 11 going on 12’s birthday this year? And, more importantly, how would do we make it special?...
View ArticleDisappointed – a dangerously powerful word in our cultural lexicon
Culturally, as Indians, we are all programmed to please someone else from when we are very young. We grow up seeking to please our parents, our siblings, our teachers and our classmates; as we enter...
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