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A title that defines you

I often ask a difficult question to myself. Do I attempt most, if not all, theoretically possible endeavors that I really want to be doing in my life? Activities within my animal capacity, that I think, would add real meaning to my long-haul blip at the planet. My mind strolls for a while, in an anxious state, and comes up with a yes and a no. Yes, I so want to do a hell lot of things in life than what my work title warrants. My present title doesn’t define me in full. But wait! No, I feel I am better off playing it safe being a conformist. The Status-Quo is easy life, socially acceptable and financially secure. If you too have ever felt (which I am sure you have at some point), that there must be more to life than what is, your story is my story. We resonate. Our Linkedin profiles seem to proudly portray designations, logos and professional bywords. X - a Salesperson, Y - an Engineer and Z - a Project Manager. Its typical life in a titular box. But do these boxe...
Recent posts

Downtime Erosion

The term 'Downtime' is generally used for machines. But I came across this in the context of mental health deterioration among employees due to the rapidly changing work environment. And I found it very intriguing and relevant. Its almost counter-intuitive that the work stress can actually possibly increase while working from home? Well, I'd keep the innocuous Husband-wife jokes apart :) After all, we are saving on the commute time, can schedule desk work at our choicest hour and get quality time with loved ones which we used to so much yearn about. Where lies the problem then, potentially? One possible explanation can be the Downtime Erosion. Even for the most devout workaholics among us, there's a very important physiological need to periodically switch-off and disconnect from work to repair those stretched mental muscles and regain capacity to work efficiently. All those years of collective workplace conditioning had (most of) us hardwired to more or ...

Does Swadeshi bring Self-Reliance?

As the prime minister vowed to make India Self-Reliant, ‘आत्मनिर्भरता’ is suddenly the new buzzword. Or may be not so new. We have in the past either heard its glorification or have ourselves indulged in advocating it . Who doesn’t like to be self-sufficient and live with dignity after all? Individuals and states alike, aim to achieve this not-so-bad-thing to have. But wait, have we correctly understood what it truly means to be self-reliant. Going by the dictionary style definition, it is the ‘reliance on internal resources to provide life with coherence and fulfillment (Baumeister)’. In the context of a nation, it may imply that if its citizens collectively produce goods and services of value greater than or equal to what they consume, the country is self-sufficient. But it is certainly not to infer that a country needs to produce every product and service it wishes to consume. Rather, in an exchange economy, everyone produces and sells limited products which they are good ...

Renewed "Sinophobia" in Post-Covid Era

Last couple of months have been unprecedentedly harsh on nearly the entire world population. Travel restrictions, home quarantines and closed marketplaces have become the new normal and the resulting halt of economic activity from Covid-19 pandemic has already taken an unimaginable toll on livelihoods across the globe. And it’s apparently getting worse by each passing day with no clue of ‘End of the tunnel’ light as of now. One sure shot outcome of this is the global volcano of rage (of never-seen-before proportions) against the Chinese deep state as already evident from the exchange by many prominent leaders of the west and public outrage on social media in general, world-over. The reactions at this point appear only rational with calls to ascertain accountability for criminal negligence and cover-up of humongous scale by the Chinese communist party. Sinophobia may not be an entirely new phenomenon before the impact of Covid began. It has a long history to it going back to opi...