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Enjoy the ride
The only thing I have seemingly excelled at in life is throwing away whatever I have done, only to restart my career, repeatedly, from scratch. I first learned electrical engineering – admittedly, not very well. The IIT professors tried hard but...
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Principle of leadership
A few years ago, at an organic food show in Trivandrum, a girl at the entry counter stopped me. And with the zeal of a convert, she shoved a...
Lessons from Finance
In a finance class at Wharton, I realized the root cause of the 2008 financial meltdown -- complexity. And if we are not careful, for the same...
Individuality
In my first year at IIT, we had a race -- no, not the rat race, but a literal one. We had to pick a humanities course, which was assigned ‘first...
Nature is unforgiving
When I left McKinsey to join private equity in India, I was extremely nervous. I knew nothing about investing. All I had learned at b-school and at...
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Happiness
Many years ago, during a social event, an IPS officer known for obsessive drinking claimed that while serving in the Border Security Force, he had liquor in the deserts of Rajasthan, under the night sky. And that according to him, was the most...
Detoxing from Power
Years ago, my first detox was not from unhealthy food or some bad habit, but from authority and power. Working in the IPS had many good things, but one bad thing was that you get addicted to power and authority. And I could see all the symptoms of...
Reality and Ego
Years ago, I was at an evening get-together at the house of a senior IPS officer. At that time, as a relatively junior IPS officer, I was heading a city police force. During the conversation, one senior officer started lamenting about how the...
Healthy body
Every time I go for a run, the uphill stretches of Trivandrum roads remind me what raw agony feels like 🙂 Yet, when I see people taking a gentle stroll in nearby parks, I don’t envy them -- instead, I feel truly privileged. Why is it a privilege...