It was like every other weekend coffee conversation. But it was not. Swami and Jigneshbhai were having their usual question answer session. The questions weren’t ending and the answers weren’t starting. I don’t want to get into the details of the discussion because they are not relevant today. The wealthy old man was sitting on … Read more
“You have to buy a 5-star rated fridge with a built-in stabilizer. If you don’t buy a 5-star rated fridge, then it is better you don’t waste your money on a fridge,” the salesman warned Swami. I never knew buying a refrigerator was such a complex activity. But I knew that day when we went … Read more
“Ladies and Gentlemen, May I have your kind attention please?” announced Jaspal Singh from the stage. “This occasion deserves special cheers. Can everyone please raise a toast to Mr. and Mrs. Malvinder Singh?” Mr. Malvinder Singh and Mrs. Gurvinder Kaur started walking to the podium. It was their fiftieth wedding anniversary. As the 76-year-old ‘groom’ … Read more
Most of our business or success goals are self oriented. They are related to what we want. What if we could invert them? What if they are based on what others want? This is not as idealistic as it sounds. Neither is it altruistic. Nor is it irrational. It is more rational and practical than … Read more
No one trusts anyone easily anymore. There are real reasons for it. We don’t trust the celebrities telling us to buy things. They are being paid by the company. We don’t trust tweets and instagram posts. They are new ways of getting paid. We never trusted salesmen and marketers. Now we suspect them. By default, … Read more
Swami decided to join a protest last weekend. He told me and Jigneshbhai that we are going to have coffee at a protest. But a doubt cropped up. “Is coffee allowed at a protest? Who’s going to get it for us?” Jigneshbhai and I had no idea. We had never been to any protest. “Let … Read more
Thimappa gathered the garbage with his shovel and pushed it on to the cloth sheet. It was at that time that he saw a small object shining through. He lifted one end of the cloth sheet and Santosh held the other end. Together they lifted the garbage, swung the sheet, and pushed the garbage into … Read more
Ten Thousand rupees for every boy she evaluated as her prospective groom was not bad. Six months back, Sanjana’s father had relented to this arrangement. It was a nice new source of income for her. She had never planned to get married. If possible she would never marry, but, in any case, she didn’t plan … Read more
After being exiled, it was but natural that the rest of the Pandavas were filled with anger. Yudhishthira himself had every reason to be angry for the deceit and even more so, on himself for falling prey to it. This simmering anger could have led to instant war even if he had allowed Bhima to. … Read more