One day, during my stint as the Trivandrum City Police Commissioner, a communist party leader walked up to me and said with a smile -- “Looks like you are getting ready for war!” That day, the Communist Party was conducting a protest march to the Chief Minister’s...

During my days at McKinsey, one day we got a funny email from the engagement manager of another team working with our client. This manager informed everyone, including the senior partners, that henceforth, he would check his email only at certain times during the day,...

This happened a fortnight ago. It was around 1 pm and I was feeling this terrible low-grade anxiety, making it difficult to focus on anything. And when I can’t focus, my anxiety ramps up even more, and soon, the day goes downhill really fast. I then realized the...

After landing in Kerala, an IPS batchmate lamented to a senior officer -- “Sir, Kerala is so far from my native place that even if I draw a circle of 1,000 km radius, I will not find a single relative.” The senior officer replied, “Make your circle’s radius 3,000 km...

I love running. But I also hate running. Let me explain. Once I am done with a long run, it is pure bliss. Running is my drug (in a really good, positive way). And yet, incredibly, my mind sometimes resists getting started with the run. This especially happens when...

In the final years of my schooling, I became a chronic procrastinator when it came to studying. Every day, I resolved to start ‘tomorrow’, but as they say -- tomorrow never comes. For reasons I can’t understand even now, I had completely lost my focus -- it is not...

One fine day in 2012, when I quit my job, the monthly SMS stopped -- no more salary updates saying ‘Rs XYZ has been credited to your bank account.’ No more business class flights. No more business cards. In fact, on the 1st of every month, I was the one writing...

When I left my last job to do a startup, I was in a hurry -- as if it was a race against time. Foolishly assuming that VC funding was the only way, I felt that I had to quickly build a prototype and raise a seed round. Then show traction and do Series A, B, C, D, E…...

When I decided to write the Civil Services, I uncomplainingly slogged for 7 months. It was certainly not pleasurable in the normal sense and yet I was super-motivated. We often hear that humans are ONLY motivated to do pleasurable things -- it is plain wrong. Have you...

A few years ago, in my startup, we were building a tech platform that was performing horribly. The screens would take forever to load -- clearly, the algorithms were poorly written. Though we had experienced engineers, we did not have the funding to hire very...

During the time we spent in terrorism-affected North-East (as part of the IPS training), you couldn’t step out without at least three machine-gun mounted vehicles, and everyone was armed with AK-47 rifles -- such was the security threat. After that, when I landed in...

I have lost track of the late nights I have done in my past life but here is the funny thing -- whenever I had a constraint, e.g., I had to go out for a dinner, say at 8 pm, I would somehow find that laser-focus in the afternoon and wrap up everything on time. It is...

During my stint with McKinsey, I was going through a period of intense stress -- my family moved back to India and I was all alone in the US. I could have kept pushing myself to the breaking point. Or I could take a break. So I took a break -- for a week. Just...

Why the hell are we so busy all the time? This disease called “back-to-back meetings” is spreading faster than Covid’s Delta variant. In today’s hyper-connected, competitive world, some busyness is understandable, but a lot of it is artificially created. And the...

A few years ago, a friend inadvertently showed me the secret of extreme productivity. Here is the story. This friend was on a short sabbatical and popped into my office, asking if he could help me with anything. Knowing how bright he was, I asked him if he could flesh...