Imagine this place- beautiful with lush green mountains and valleys, adorned with fragrant flowers and silver streams bearing crystal clear cool waters. This magical land where everyone had enough, all were treated equal, there were no crimes and people were happy! Too good to be true? This is infact the description of my native, Kerala, in an age- old story behind Kerala's unique festival Onam! The gist of the story is that when Kerala was ruled by the generous King Mahabali

When the pandemic began, I observed that besides the uncertainties and quickly adapting to a new way of living, many of us were forced to fully embrace the digital world. Along with words like unprecedented, economic downturn, social distancing and resilience, Zoom, virtual connection, reskill, upskill, and reinvent became common words. I was quite caught in an action frenzy at the start of the pandemic. The term slowdown simply didn't apply to me. I felt like I had so much

Today morning, as I heard my father's gifted voice in a melodious song he had sung on New Year's eve, I became very emotional. A month back, our family went through a rough time when my dad fell and suffered a bad head injury. It was totally unexpected as dad has always been this healthy, hearty and happy person living his life to the fullest. I frantically started looking for the next flight to Kerala (India) from Singapore. I just wanted to get to my dad and mom as soon as

Today is officially the start of 'Circuit Breaker' in Singapore- which means everyone stays at home for another month except for essential services. There's no denying that it is a tremendously difficult phase. It's also naturally worrying thinking about the future. It is all real! It's absolutely okay to feel sad, anxious, frustrated, angry. Do vent it out- talk to friends and family, cry it out... But worrying for long can cause anxiety disorders which could lead to other

“When you take a moment to write about yourself, you will be surprised to discover an inspirer within you! When you discover this, you will realize limitless potential within yourself. Your dreams and aspirations will become clearer and you will start getting the direction towards achieving your goal..” Today there is a lot of emphasis on 'storytelling' as a powerful method of communication to influence audience in a wide range of fields, be it in science, business or brand b

I was finding it tough… to find that spark of joy…amidst certain difficult times... I was bogged down by the weight of my thoughts! Thoughts such as ‘what’s the meaning of life?’, ‘what are we chasing when one day we are sure to leave this world?’, ‘I can never be happy when my loved ones are suffering!’, ‘How can I be happy when people are fighting and getting killed around the world?’ etc., etc. I was going about doing my duties, and what was required of me, but deep down w

All my recent experiences have been pointing to just one thing- the answer to the above question! The first of these experiences was my unexpected encounter with the unprecedented floods in my hometown in Kerala in mid-2018. All other challenges that I had faced in my life until this point had seemed insignificant in front of the challenge of several lives at stake. When I left behind my precious belongings and waded through the floods without even once turning back, I had a

“Compassion is an extremely valuable virtue for the survival of our species. Our experience showed us that only mutual care and support can help us overcome adversities and not the instinct to selfishly secure limited resources. ” A Fateful Independence Day In the past, whenever I have watched news on natural disasters around the world, I have felt sad and bad for the affected people, but I had never thought that it could ever happen to me! Most of us, humans, tend to take th

“To have fear is human, but those who overcome their fears become extraordinary humans” Recently, when my 7-year old spoke of his fear to sleep alone, after hearing 'ghost stories' from friends, I narrated my own stories to him when I conquered my fears and went onto do what I wanted to in my life. This is one such story- an account of my first trip to the US as a 21 year old graduate student in 2001, a time so different from now when cell phones and credit cards were still

The elevator door closed leaving the image of my 3-year old’s tearful face in my mind. As I headed towards office, my heart felt terribly heavy. His little hands had reached out to me in despair and I had walked away. How stone-hearted am I to walk away from my little child! Drops of tears rolled down my cheeks as I looked out of the car window. Here I am, on one hand, an ambitious woman with dreams, vision and aspirations, and on the other, a working mother who contemplates