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 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

Paramahansa Yogananda, the renowned yogi, once said, “Blessed are those who do not indulge in sensational news.” To that timeless wisdom, one might add, “Blessed, still, are those who do not read or consume distressing news.”   But in this 24/7 plugged-in world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the flood of bad news. There’s so much of it that at times it seems inescapable, leaving you anxious and somewhat apprehensive about your present and future. While you can’t control g

On Christmas morning, I met an old acquaintance who had come down from London with his family to spend the holidays with his parents. With the help of a caretaker, he was in the process of moving his father from a wheelchair into his car.   “We’re taking mom and dad to my place for Christmas lunch,” he said after we exchanged greetings. “My sister and her family, from Sydney, are here too.”   “That’s wonderful,” I said. “I can’t imagine how happy they must be.” I wished him a

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

During the time I worked as a trainer for the IELTS exams (International English Language Testing System), one of the questions in the...

I grew up listening to my mother say Dhairyak bread in our native Konkani, a dialect spoken mainly along the western coast of India. It...