Growing up I had always been taught the importance of hard work, how everything of value had to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, it wasn’t useful. Anything you were actually enjoying was bad for you. Anything you hated and found hard and where you pushed yourself beyond your limits was the best thing for real progress in life. …
“Honesty is the Best Policy” – Benjamin Franklin Benny was generally a smart dude, but let me share the views of someone even smarter. “Honesty is the best policy. I also suggest, all armies and intelligence agencies should honestly reveal all their secrets to their enemies” – Sir Anubhav Srivastava “Honesty is the best policy, so please honestly share …
Your first duty, obligation and responsibility is towards yourself. Don’t be misled by those who say your first duty is to your family or to community or to the land you were born in. Yes, you may care about them but your first duty is to yourself. You can’t help anyone if you yourself are miserable. A starving and …
TO be fair, there are countless people, real life mentors, real life anti-mentors, real life positive and negative experiences, countless thinkers and writers and people from diverse fields, added with my own experiences since the time I have a memory that have shaped my world view. BUT it does not mean I am a blind follower of ANY of them. …
When I was a kid, I was often told a proverb in school textbooks and by most of the elders. The proverb was “Kaal kare so aaj kar, jo aaj kare so ab, pal me parlay hoyegi, bahuri karega kab.” This literally translates to – What is to be done tomorrow, do it today. What is to be done …
“What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. The life of every individual, viewed as a whole and in general, and when only its most significant features are emphasized, is really a tragedy; but …
Imagine having a cheat sheet for life—not needing to fumble through every mistake just to figure things out. Or consider those moments when someone’s compliments feel more like sugary syrup than genuine admiration. Ever wonder what’s behind that? Chanakya, the ancient master strategist and philosopher, cracked these codes centuries ago. And guess what? His insights still hit like a …
If you try to be what you are not, you are inviting eventually guaranteed failure. But when you stick to your unique combination of strengths instead of trying to be what you were never meant to be, you become almost unbeatable, because no one can beat you at being you. Imagine you’re in a race, but instead of …
There is a story of a sage who also had supernatural powers to influence the cosmos. The emperor summoned him and pointed to a particular star in the sky. “Can you remove that star?”, asked the emperor. The sage said “Yes.” “Remove that star then”, said the emperor. The sage said “Okay.” He looked at the star, closed …
In the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most revered ancient scriptures of India, (and another incredible segment from the previously mentioned ancient epic Mahabharat), Krishna who represents the supreme divine is having a conversation with the Prince, Arjun, while on the battlefield. Arjun is hesitant to fight his own relatives who belong to the opposing army and …