I binge-watched a Netflix series last night: Bodkin, a murder mystery set in an Irish town/village. A group of podcasters goes there to solve three disappearances from decades ago. I just wanted to let go, so I chose this as it called out to me, and it was also in the top ten on ...
I have been reading this series of cosy mysteries set in the Cotswolds, UK, with Agatha Raisin, a fifty-year-old prickly woman, as the main character. I recommended this series to my father-in-law, and forty pages in it, he told me, ' She is not a nice person.' I responded that s...
It's been a while since I blogged. Life got busy - after an eating binge in Toronto, we jetted off to Tuscon, Arizona for a delightful retreat with Alumni from a course I had taken at London Business School - Creativity and Personal Mastery. The retreat was like food for the soul...
When you read a book, do you wonder about the blank spaces around the words? Do you wonder about the blank pages on which the letters appear?
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When you enter a room, do you think about the space in the room? When you use the furniture, do you think ...
When I lived in London, I was introduced to a multitude of dishes and most of them I was open to trying and loved for the most part. The one sort of meal that I could not digest was the one that had both sweet and spicy flavors. I could not understand why you would put honey on c...
Humankind has made tremendous progress in the last century than ever before. In our lifetimes, we have seen the journey of the internet from its birth to becoming the digital oxygen. Connecting across borders is easier than ever - we have come a long way from letters/steamer ship...
I am sure all of us have heard the Aladdin's song - A Whole New World. And I am sure they could see a whole new world and a fantastic view from the carpet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ1Rb9hC4JY
A few of us also believe in the parallel universe theory, where we might be do...
Life as we know is very fleeting, but we live as we are immortals. Do we ever wake up in the morning feeling so grateful because we are alive, our dear ones are alive? No, we take it for granted that we will wake up in the morning every time we go to bed.
I am not proposing that...
As we were driving down the roads in India, my husband commented that he sometimes wonders what all these people on the road are doing or not doing?
There are a lot of people in India who sit and wait or wonder or do something so complex that it is beyond a simple mind like min...
At our village market a cow got free and was trying to eat the vegetables off the stalls - the owners and the customers shooed the cow away, and then life went back to normal.
During the cyclone in Tamilnadu, a few of the trees just fell.
During winter the trees shed their leav...
India has started a new system where every Indian is required to get an Aadhaar card much like the Social Security Number (or SSN) in the US. Now, India has a population of 1 billion and the USA about 328 million. While I was in India, my parents suggested getting my Aadhaar card...
All of my paternal grandmothers have breathed their last in our ancestral village - the village where they were married into not the village where they were born. This topic was the talk of the town for quite a while. Even now somebody will say - it is very curious that all the d...
Have you ever had an experience where you had met a good friend(s) and left feeling more energized than when you entered the conversation? Have you ever watched a movie or read a book which inspires you to be creative and leaves your mind buzzing? Have you ever watched somebody s...
This year I become a Vegan. It has honestly been a journey. I gave up chicken because I stopped enjoying it, next year I gave up fish, last year I gave up milk and this year eggs. Before I go any further let me say that I believe in the Chinese proverb -"80% is perfect for me". Y...
Yesterday Wild Tiger Tees(https://www.wildtigertees.com/) (a social enterprise of which I am one of the co-founders) went to festival for good(https://www.evensi.us/festival-good-columbus-ohio/265829671) in Columbus Ohio.
It is a cool festival about 'Doing more good' - all t...
Do you remember something you wanted as a child? A toy, teddy bear, candy. And what about now? Do you still want it? Do you remember the first time your heart broke over love? Do you still feel the same angst? Do you remember the time when you fell as a child? Do you still have t...
In Creativity and Personal Mastery(https://theraoinstitute.com/) course, prof.Rao tells us a story. A baby is happily drinking his bottle of milk. Let's say you take it away. The baby's face gets all red, and he bawls his little lungs out. There is no mistaking that he is upset...
Have you ever been in a situation where there is so much going on that you wonder how you are going to get it done? And every activity on your plate is the one that you love and one that energizes you. I am talking about a situation when despite your best prioritization and time ...
Have you ever woken up in the morning deciding to make someone's else life hell? If yes, then it is better that you don't get out of bed. Jokes aside, earnestly when have we wished to hurt another person. If you are like an average person then your thoughts will be focused more o...
I would like you to meet our Shiba Inu pup - Aki (which means Bright Prince in Japanese). He is two years old, and honestly, I don't know what life was like without him. All the secret to success mantras like positive thinking, the power of thought Aki knows them all instinctivel...
I sat down to write my blog, and I didn't know what to write. Usually, I have an idea that I have been toying with and then its just a matter of letting it all flow on the paper. This time was a little different. I looked at my backlog, racked my brains, but nothing came up, so I...
"It is easy to fight a war, but it's the day to day life that wears us out." Like all things that have something to teach us this quote stayed with me. The words might not be the same, but it does convey the message. It is easier to tackle a big crisis than with the minutiae of o...
Story 1: For almost a year in a row I had two apples for breakfast every day. I would wake up in the morning, use my apple corer, fill up a plastic cup and eat them during the car ride to the office. It was convenient, healthy and kept the doctor away. I don't really care for app...
I recently attended a CPM(https://theraoinstitute.com/) alumni retreat in London. And it has been a decade since I took the course first at London Business School. In the first class Prof. Rao invited us speak about what we want from the class. And at that time I was at crossro...
In our recent trip to London I could not help but wonder on how different my mind and body react to being in London. The tall buildings - crowds of people around you - the buzz of the tubes, buses which you do not notice anymore. I automatically start to walk fast, whiz through t...
I am reading this book called 'Ego is the enemy(http://egoistheenemy.com/).' One of the speakers at my work mentioned this book and like all things that are on your path call out to you - this book did too. I have been fascinated by ego and always wondered if I have a big ego o...
In one of my previous blogs(https://www.anumorris.com/?p=15715) I had talked about the 10 Paramis or Virtues. Today I want to talk about one of them which is
6\. Khanti: Patience May I ever be patient. May I be able to bear and forbear the wrongs of others. May I ever be toler...
As some of you know I am a big time bookworm - fantasy being my favorite genre.I devour good books like there is no tomorrow. I recently read the Demon Cycle series by Peter V.Brett(http://www.petervbrett.com/). Reason I like fantasy books is because they all have a spiritual, ...
In my current role I have to manage a team of people - mostly project managers. And every month we have a strategic meeting and some kind of a fun activity either within ourselves or with other teams we work with. If I chair a meeting it has to be fun at least for me - otherwise ...
Let's say you have a poisonous tree in your backyard - it is infected by some insect which is causing it to be poisonous. The infection is in the roots of the tree. You keep cutting the tree down and telling yourself that the problem is solved. At a superficial level it does look...
Imagine that a friend of yours has sent you a gift via Fedex. The Fedex guy rings the bell and SCENE 1: You accept the packet and thank the guy. SCENE 2: You invite him in, wash his feet, garland him, offer him the best sweets - do whatever he wants so that he will bring you more...
"A problem is a problem only if you define it as a problem."
I remember when I was doing my engineering in Bombay - I had to take a share auto to my college from train station - Santa Cruz. And during exams or important classes that used to be my prime worry. I did not want to s...
Growing up in India words like Gurus/Meditation/Yoga are white noise because a) they are so common- it's like asking a fish what is water (we might not know what it really means but we know) b) there are a lot of charlatans and you are always wary when these words are mentioned.
...
For a while I was into these quotes thing and I had picked up this greeting card at the yoga studio - it called out to me at that time. _"I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms ...
I remember when I moved to Columbus from London - it was an identity crisis of sorts. The first step was to recognize that my identity was tied to working as a Project Manager in British Telecom and having a MBA degree from London Business School. I identified myself with these t...
This blog follows the last one(https://www.anumorris.com/?p=15938) where I talk about the different ways in which we can accept or not accept other's judgements/opinions.
In this blog I am going to talk about how to increase the "effort" factor in implementing the different wa...
This blog follows the last one(https://www.anumorris.com/?p=15932) where I talk about the choice we have in accepting or not accepting the judgements from others.
In this blog I am going to talk about how we can exercise that choice. I will start with the quote from Ramana Mah...
In the 10-day Vipassana(http://dhamma.org) courses Goenkaji tells us some stories during the discourses. The one below is similar to the one Goenkaji narrates during the course.
_There once lived a great warrior. Though quite old, he still was able to defeat any challenger. Hi...
I remember my hindi teacher at school telling us this story. It went something like this: _There is a bus that is going from A to B. On the way to B it runs into a oncoming truck and everybody on the bus dies. People come running to the accident to help any survivors and all they...
We have a mentoring event at office and one of my friends is on the panel. He asked me if I could speak at the event for a few minutes and give my testimonial from last year. I obviously said yes - I love being in the limelight even if I obsess about it before. !(/images/Mentor...
As some of you might know I run a small business on the side which is teaching Bollywood Dance. As a part of that I got contacted by Bollywood Musical Company Taj Express(http://www.tajexpressthemusical.com/bollywoodmusical/) asking if I wanted to partner with them.
It was on ...
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It was summertime and I remember very vividly that my dad who is usually very fit kept sleeping for an entire weekend - non-stop. He had just made a trip to Delhi or some other city for business and when he came back all he did was sleep. His...
When I first met Adam one of the my very emphatic statements to him was that I am not going to cook. Coming from India where it is assumed that girls will grow up and cook for their husbands and family, I assumed that Adam had similar notions. I was all set to make it straigh...
Raymond Fiest(http://www.crydee.com/), one of my favorite fantasy authors writes in his book, "The Magician"
> we are the architect of our own prison
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What does he mean by that? Let me tell you a story.
A rich couple are blessed with a baby boy aft...
I practice Ashtanga Yoga - Mysore style. I started it in London at Hamish's studio(http://astangayogalondon.com/ayl-teachers/hamish-hendry/) who is one of the most content people I have ever known. And I admire people who are content - truly content with what they have because ...
Let's start with a scenario simulation. You have got this nice trip on cruise ship. You are enjoying yourself and all of a sudden the ship starts sinking due to a large hole. What do you do? Option a) Leave the Sinking Ship Option b) Dig the hole faster
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As some of you may recall from last blog(https://www.anumorris.com/?p=15782) that I just finished a MasterCleanse(http://themastercleanse.com/) detox. It's a liquid diet. You don't eat any solid foods at all. The minimum you can do it for is 10 days and I did it for 15 days l...
> If you don't take care of your Body where will you live?
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This is one of the quotes on my kitchen boards for this year. There's a lot of talk and in general awareness about body image, healthy diets - vegan, gluten free, plant based diet foods, la...
1. An Adult is trying to learn gymnastics and during the back flip practice which she was able to do so well last class - she falls down.
2. An adult is trying to learn swimming and is having trouble blowing bubbles into water. So she does the bare minimum she can and then lea...
Trip to Belize was the best break I could have ever asked for. It was a complete switch off from our daily routine which forced us to just chill out. Life on an island is so quiet and calm - all you hear is the sound of the birds and water. Now I know why Island time is different...
The idea of the Belize Series is to give you a taste of the key things we did mixed with my thoughts. As you probably remember from last post that Belize is a tiny island which you can walk from end to end. It has about six over water bungalows and six cabanas and few villas - so...
I just got back from serving at a 10-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat. Vipassana means to "See things as they are" and it's one of the many ways to reach enlightenment or at least get started on the journey. It was bought to India by S.N.Goenka to whom I am very grateful.
!gji-...
This post is about the following quote from Steve Jobs. !connectdots(/images/connectdots.webp)
An example from his life: _He dropped out of college due to various reasons \Read the prestory here(http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/)\.Reed College at that time o...
We are always running, whether we know it or not. The question is to where. Are we running towards a better job, retirement, soulmate, kids or even enlightenment. There is another destination beyond all these mini goals and that is where we all finish our race or start a new one ...