Whispering Shadow

I woke up today to the news that Chadwick Boseman passed away. He succumbed to stage IV cancer after four years of treatment. In the middle of chemotherapy and surgeries, he played iconic roles that glorified his heritage as a Black man - whether it was through biographies of Jacob King and Thurgood Marshall or through the fictional superhero, Black Panther.  He embodied a commitment to his craft, pride in his roots, and strength in his suffering, all within a short life of 43 years. His death is a gentle reminder of how life is short. Unless we live every day bringing alive our best potential to the best of our ability, we may die feeling a sense of guilt or regret. At the same time, his life is also a reminder of the impact you can have in a short time on many around you. Every choice that you make matters and is an opportunity for you to serve. You can leave a mark no matter how long you have to live. I am not Black. In fact, I am an upper-caste Indian belonging to the rel...

It has been a year since I transitioned from Teach For India (TFI). The year has allowed me to overcome the recency bias in assessing the growth I had in the 6+ years I worked there. If I look back, I see many gifts that I have received from the organization, most of them have been positive, and some just transformational. I wanted to talk about five that have been particularly important. The Ability to Reflect and Learn Most human beings grow in a Goldilock's zone where the challenge is just right - not too high to burn them out and not too low to make them feel bored. Throughout the six years of work, I always was in my stretch zone with occasional visits to the panic zone. Therefore, I enjoyed much of the work I was doing. More than the enjoyment though, the diversity of the work that came with my role as a teacher and a director ensured I was learning very rapidly.  When I transitioned, I left with a bit of an imposter's syndrome saying I was leaving the jack of all trades ...

In a lush green forest By the banks of Kabini, Were centuries-old tribes Mature in their ways Of thinking, doing, and living. The most recurring human phenomenon is Choosing the collective, immediate good At the cost of individual suffering - The suffering of another human, of a living thing, of our planet; And the suffering of our future self. The three words that bind the homo sapien - Today, Me and More. These are three words that drove the tribes away. Humans create new problems The other humans try to solve With our power to do both We think we are evolved. What is good enough? What is the right way to live? What is aspirational? We think we know it all Context is everything Without a frame of reference, do we know: Is AGE a function of the mind or the heart or the body or the soul? Is LEARNING a result of education or evolution? Is a GOAL just a function of my perceived necessity? Is survival not a good enough PURPOSE any more? It's our folly to assume We understand the probl...

I went on a date with nature A weekend in the middle of nowhere A tonne of green, a tinge of brown My mind losing any reason to frown  I heard an orchestra of crickets Sounds of birds rarely found The pitter-patter of raindrops The unending songs had many messages Observe and Appreciate! There's beauty in the small things Like an act of kindness Listen and Connect! There's so much that goes unnoticed Like the voices of those oppressed and sometimes, the ones we love Pause and Think! There's life in your moments worth acknowledging Like a child in a sandbox Why did I love these dates?  My nana took me on my first few ones For him, it was about food and family For me, it was sheer curiosity What made the elephant trumpet so loud? How did we have a roof full of orange flowers? Why did the waterfall make a thunderous sound?  Questions which eventually helped me understand: Why education is beyond schools Why living things have a purpose  And finally, why nature made me f...

There are movies and then there are MOVIES. I am the kind of person who would rather re-watch a good movie than fill my time watching a bad one. And if I were to think of one movie I can watch again and again, it is the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Technically, it is three movies and not one, but it is one gripping narrative.  Disclaimer: While this post contains no spoilers, it does have references to certain moments in the movie, which you may want to avoid if it is on your watchlist. However, I cannot guarantee you would not want to watch the movie after reading the post.  My wife and I end up watching all three parts of the Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) trilogy at least once every year. We have watched it so often that we can complete  verbatim  many of the dialogues . We do not watch it for just nostalgia for a movie we saw in our teens. We watch LOTR because we both draw immense inspiration from the story. In most parts of this post, I refer to the story...

Typically, I would have checked my phone or messages at least a few times during the course of writing this article. Today, I managed to finish it without any distractions. I will write about how I managed to make this change happen. A Harvard Article titled “ Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time talks about our energy divided into four buckets — Physical (care for your body), Emotional (embrace all emotions and foster positive ones), Mental (be aware and choose your focus wisely), Spiritual (find your bigger purpose — align everything with deep values). Each of these four buckets of energy needs to be nourished for one to operate in the performance zone. Over the last five years, I had made rapid strides in three of the four buckets. My routines in exercise and diet, my focus on cultivating positive emotions and sustaining energizing relationships, my increasing alignment between my self and my work all helped my physical, emotional and spiritual energy respectively. However, ...

2019 has been an eventful year, to put it mildly.  In this post, I am going to synthesize the year that was and my learning from it.  There were many positive things that happened. I saw my sister get married to her friend of many years. I chose to follow my purpose and explore what acting towards it looks like. I went on my first solo travel to Vietnam and spent the remaining time of my sabbatical learning more about change. I participated in a transformational three-month journey with the uLabs community. I also grew physically stronger and healthier. I reconnected with friends more consistently than ever before. I started writing again. At a societal level, it was good to see pockets of hope - masses beginning to question the status quo and seek the truth behind choices made by those in power - whether it was against climate change (eg. Fridays For Future), whether against corruption (eg. Iran), whether against bigotry (eg. anti-trump rally), whether for equality (eg....