Whatever we do, we hope for happy endings and new beginnings. It was a sentiment my family and I shared when we moved house for the first time in decades, from the suburbs of Mumbai to the city side. The move, late last year, was inevitable but not unanticipated: our apartment block was going to be rebuilt.     We respond to most changes in the course of life with apprehension and excitement in more or less equal measure. Relocating to another home miles away from our comfor

We live in a time when everyone seems to be rushing past one another, texting on their phones, chasing deadlines and targets or caught up in the rat race with little or no time to spend with family and friends, the company of people—even if they are total strangers—can be a pleasant and unexpected change.   Picture this.   One evening, at a restaurant in Bandra, a group of people from mixed backgrounds and probably little in common arrive one by one and share a table with so

We all want to feel happy. We want joy in our everyday lives. But we often look for it in big moments, when it can be found in simple, everyday routines. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find joy even in small, ordinary things and to hold on to them for as long as we like. While these ideas aren’t new, they remind us how we can live a contented life and how much of our happiness is in our own hands. Make time to meet people,  which means stepping out of your comfort zone

My dad taught me chess when I was in the second grade. By fourth grade, I was beating him half the time, sometimes more during our marathon sessions. Somewhere in-between, I got cocky. I remember one game where he failed to notice his queen was under threat, and I told him so just as he was about to make a different move.   Dad wasn't pleased.   He said gently, “Next time you do that, I won’t play with you. In chess, never tell your opponent his move or that he’s making the w

My wife and I visited a popular book fair in South Mumbai. The book sale was held in a large assembly hall where hundreds of thousands of books —fiction and nonfiction, paperbacks and hardbacks—were tightly stacked front to back with their spines up, in rows upon rows that stretched longer than bowling alleys.   The place was teeming with all kinds of readers, and perhaps even non-readers. There were book browsers casually flipping through titles, old-school readers savouring

12.30 p.m. is usually the time I leave my workstation and head to the office cafeteria for a quick lunch, post-which I step outside for a short walk around the office block. It's a routine I’ve been following on most workdays  for nearly a decade.   Sometimes, I utilise my lunch break to talk to colleagues, catch up on news, read a book on my tablet, listen to music or solve crosswords.   Of all these activities, I enjoy taking walks the most. It has become an essential part

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