Live India, Love Football

There are some achievements that, for us regular people, just feel so good to share with the world. These are feats that have been unequivocally agreed upon by the general public to be considered impressive. I am a sucker for regularly being considered impressive. Finding ways to ‘innocently’ slip into a dinner party conversation that, “I ran the New York and Mumbai full marathons,” or “I did Vipassana in 2020,” or “I have delivered two TEDx talks.” I know…it is sad that I care so much for external validation that I would run forty-two kilometers across a city, or meditate in silence for ten straight days, or spend months preparing for an eighteen-minute talk. But that is just how I am wired. Slight joking aside, though, these were some of the most remarkable experiences of my life – each of which I have described in detail in earlier blog posts.   But I digress. The message that I am trying to communicate is that many humans use the power of achievement to stand apart from, or above,

For the majority of my life, I  did not consider myself to be a creative person. My family and friends would laugh at my feeble attempts to draw a coherent picture, and I could not sing or play an instrument, act, or dance to save my life.  And even though I was a capable writer, I discarded any idea of owning my creativity as I mistakenly limited this term to only include forms of art, music, drama, and dance.     Then, as I went deeper into my athletic pursuits, I moved further away from creativity and the desire to be thought of as a creative person. I was happy to be known as an athlete and never admired or wanted to emulate the creative individuals at school as, to me, they represented a different breed of people. This continued through my twenties and well into my thirties. The more I excelled in sports, the less I felt inclined to immerse myself into anything remotely creative.   As the saying goes, “Whatever you resist, persists.” This is exactly what has happened in my life wi

We all have goals, aspirations and dreams.  They are what gets us up in the morning, what has us feel fulfilled, what gives a sense of purpose and meaning to our lives.  When not pursued, though, they can leave us feeling hollow and empty, or create a vacuum in our hearts that sucks our creative energy, confidence and worthiness into a black hole. This sounds extreme, but we have all been there. For many of us, Covid-19, its associated lockdowns and extended periods of ‘work from home’ has taken these positive feelings to new heights or the negative ones to depressing lows.   When it comes to your goals, aspirations and dreams, the way to ensure constant motivation and momentum is by first being aware of the dream killers.  These killers are mischievous, cunning and grow in power the more you surrender to their sneak attacks. They portray themselves as friends, people only looking out for your best interest when, in reality, they merely want you to put an end to all this silly talk abo

On the adoption spectrum, I have always fallen exactly in between middle adopters and late adopters for pretty much any innovation that becomes mainstream. This was the case for my relationship with the iPod, iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Kindle and earbuds. I cannot pinpoint why I choose to wait until most of my larger community of family, friends and peers have made something a part of their daily lives for me to consider exploring the idea of it becoming a part of mine. The funny thing, though, is that once I do embrace the innovation, I usually become the loudest and most vocal ambassador for it within my circles.   The latest innovation that I have mid-to-late adopted is podcasts. Podcasts have been around for years, and I just never had any interest or curiosity about this form of acquiring information or being entertained.  Primarily because I have always preferred listening to music on my headphones when I was running, in my car, walking through a city, or on a flight.