Actor-director Woody Allen once said, “If you're not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” Essentially, Allen is saying that success rarely comes without failure, or at least without trying and never giving up. He is also suggesting that failure comes from taking risks and pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation . So, with this in mind, it’s worth reflecting on how you perceive failure and how it affects your abi

The four of us— best friends from school, college and work—met after a long time, though it didn’t feel like we’d missed a single beat. We came together, all decked out, at the beautiful wedding reception of Kashmira’s son; she’s standing on the far right in the picture. Next to the mother of the groom is me, Parizad, with Farida and Prema. We were so excited about the evening and the chance to catch up that Farida, Prema and I even decided to time our entrance—but we almo

I’ve never been a big fan of horror movies or TV shows —I just don’t have the stomach for it. But every now and then, a morbid curiosity gets the better of me, and I enter the dark world of the supernatural: ghosts, spirits and otherworldly beings who aren’t exactly the friendliest of entities. Stubs keeping me company while I'm watching a horror movie. So, with my finger over the mute button, I recently watched—in broad daylight and with our pet, Stubs, by my side—two horr

Until the turn of this century, nostalgia—a sentimental longing for something good that happened in our past—often dominated...

It took a long-haul flight from Mumbai to Vancouver for me to finally experience a comic bookstore I’d only read about online and watched with envy on The Big Bang Theory . The comic bookstore I went to was on Vancouver Island, in a small, charming place called Coombs, within the district of Nanaimo. Coombs, as many would already know, is famous for its Old Country Market—more popularly known as Goats on the Roof—where a family of goats lives on a low sodded roof. The place i

Picture this. You’re on cloud nine because you nailed a job interview. At least, you think you did. But then, you start having doubts and brood over how the interview might have actually gone; maybe you didn’t leave a good impression. Before long, you’re convinced that you’re not going to get the job. Then, a week or so later, you get a call saying you’ve been hired. Here’s another scenario. You catch the flu bug and your doctor recommends routine blood tests as a preca

Our thoughts —some 60,000 to 80,000 per day, as studies suggest—are like bumper-to-bumper traffic with vehicles tailgating one another and getting nowhere. At least not anytime soon. Rush-hour traffic, day in and day out, leaves us stressed and traps us in a mental gridlock. We find ourselves stuck, unable to move forward or backward. As it is on the road, so it is in the mind. While we can do little about traffic jams, we can, however, control our tailgating thoughts by slow

Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Vietnamese Buddhist monk, famously wrote about mindfulness: Tea is an act complete in its simplicity. When I drink tea, there is only me and the tea. The rest of the world dissolves. There are no worries about the future. No dwelling on past mistakes. Tea is simple: loose-leaf tea, hot pure water, a cup. I inhale the scent, tiny delicate pieces of the tea floating above the cup. I drink the tea, the essence of the leaves becoming a part of me.

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

Actor Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani in the hit sitcom Friends, once said in a television interview: “My favourite thing in the...

Every day, an estimated 60,000 cars use the 94-kilometre (58 miles) six-lane Mumbai-Pune Expressway linking the two bustling cities in...

As a journalist many years ago, I was intrigued by the writing process and referred to writing guides such as The Economist Style Guide,...

In his presentation speech at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards in 2016, actor and comedian Jim Carrey famously said: “Thank you. I'm two-time...

Monks and sages have been saying it for ages – mindfulness has a remarkable ability to boost our mental and physical well-being, and...

“Don’t waste time – it’s precious!” or “Time is passing and you’re doing nothing worthwhile!” How often have you been the recipient of...

Watching the Indian film The Archies brought to mind the start of the school summer holidays and the last day of the final exams. My sister and I would make a beeline for the library where we’d pick up a stack of Archie Double Digests. The first two days were spent in Riverdale following the antics of the good-natured but clumsy teenage boy, Archie, his best friend Jughead, his two loves, Betty and Veronica, and his arch rival, Reggie. Of course, Archies would be incomplete

Greek philosopher Socrates, spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran and American radio host Bernard Meltzer have variously said: Before we...

Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg): Give me a compliment. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons): Fine. You have very tiny hands. Howard Wolowitz: No....

In the Generative AI: Steam Engine of the Fourth Industrial Revolution session on Day 2 of Davos 2024, speakers broadly agreed that AI...