I feel incredibly fortunate that I'm able to sustain a career writing about things that interest me personally. I can't have the expectation that, if something is interesting to me, it isn't universally compelling. Any time I have ever tried to write something and anticipate what people might be interested in, it always fails. You can't fabricate intellectual enthusiasm for a subject. I write about things that are interesting to me and hope that they are interesting to other people, but I don't expect them to be.

Here is our perception of you: You are a lazy writer. And a lazy columnist. You do not respect your readers enough to try making sense; resorting to cliches of the worst kind, all the time. You compensate for your poor standards by talking down to your readers—you do this most often by talking about US trends in general and Hollywood in particular, and positing yourself as some kind of insider and perceptive “spectator”. But you see nothing except what your own media feeds the masses. You augur a terrible age, in which people who are raised on meaningless mediated values, grow up to spout those same values, louder and lower, in that very media.
In short, you are a writer of no substance. Most of your readers know a great deal more than you.
This is not a new discovery for us, or a new anger at the sudden realization that trees are cut to distribute your column. This is the summation of a strong opinion formed over the course of years.

ome books and authors change how we think.
I was catching up with an old friend and I was distilling some of my favorite books into one-liners to show the contributions of various authors. He suggested I share them as a post, so here it is

51. If there is a service charge, alert your guests when you present the bill. It’s not a secret or a trick.
74. Let the guests know the restaurant is out of something before the guests read the menu and order the missing dish.
75. Do not ask if someone is finished when others are still eating that course.
76. Do not ask if a guest is finished the very second the guest is finished. Let guests digest, savor, reflect.
77. Do not disappear.
80. Never insist that a guest settle up at the bar before sitting down; transfer the tab.
82. If you drip or spill something, clean it up, replace it, offer to pay for whatever damage you may have caused. Refrain from touching the wet spots on the guest.
85. Never bring a check until someone asks for it. Then give it to the person who asked for it.
91. If someone complains about the music, do something about it, without upsetting the ambiance. (The music is not for the staff — it’s for the customers.)

48. Do not ask what someone is eating or drinking when they ask for more; remember or consult the order.
49. Never mention the tip, unless asked.
50. Do not turn on the charm when it’s tip time. Be consistent throughout.

The negatives sound harsh, but whenever you curate something, whether it’s a conference or an art show or a magazine (an editor is basically a curator), you never get everything right. My friend Sambit Bal…once told me that when he put together an issue of Gentleman, he would be satisfied if at the end he had a product in which any reader could find three or four pieces they thoroughly enjoyed. No one’s ever going to enjoy everything; and no one piece can satisfy everyone.
By that reckoning, TED India was a success. I’m sure that many TED India attendees will have loved the Talks I hated and not liked the ones I loved. That’s the nature of a conference like this, and on the whole, I’d say the folks at TED did an amazing job. Also, my criticism is all about the Talks. The conference itself was immaculately organised, and the kind of people I got to meet awed and humbled me. It was, if I may lapse into cliche, the experience of a lifetime.

Here's what occurred to me: if you want to find a great manager, hire a successful parent. It's the same job. Think about it:
- Expressing care.
- Practicing patience.
- Leveraging uniqueness.
- Developing independent capability.
- Setting appropriate expectations and boundaries.

You are afraid. You're afraid of leaving what you know, you're afraid of seeking what you want, you're afraid of taking the wrong path, or you're afraid of failing at the right one…
It is fear that always tamps down our authentic selves, that turns us into some patchwork collection of affectations and expectations, mores and mannerisms, some treadmill set to the prevailing speed of universal acceptability that causes a tyranny of homogeny…
The voices of conformity speak so loudly out there. Don't listen…
Only a principled refusion to be terrorized by these stingy standards will save you from a Frankenstein life that's made up of others' outside expectations grafted together into a poor semblance of existence…
Samuel Butler once said, "Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on." That sounds terrifying, doesn’t it, and difficult too, but that way lies music.

How will this new audacious and authentic world work? I don’t know. Helpful, right? Except that “I don’t know” is one of the most exciting sentences in the English language because in the right hands it suggests, not ignorance, but discovery. It’s the beginning of news reporting, of medical research, of stage preparation, of business creation, of legislations. I don’t know…
I don’t know, but you do. Or you will…Samuel Beckett once said, “To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.” The mess, the mess. That’s, finally, what we’re leaving you today. We leave you a mess. And I won’t apologize for that. Instead I want you to see it for what it is: an engraved invitation to transformation. Certainty is dead. Long live the flying leap. Take it. Use it. Bring it. Congratulations!

# Know your bigger picture
# Put the hours in. Consistently. Regularly.
# Remember those who are telling you not to do it 'for your own good' are wishing they had the ooomph to so something similar.
# It'll take longer than you think.
# The path will be different to the one you planned.
# It'll involve a lot of heartache, sleepless nights and simple fear.
# It'll make you the person you must become.

Aviation is a customer service business more than anything else. Most companies have similar aircrafts, equipments and infrastructure available to them. It is only customer service that enhances quality of experience and makes an airline preferable over other.
This experience taught me some valuable lessons in what NOT to do in customer service. Here are the top 7 mistakes in customer service:
1. Not smiling enough
2. Not listening and not communicating
3. Lying to your customers and not fulfilling your promises
4. Sticking to your policy and ignoring problems faced by the customer
5. Going inaccessible when customer wants to talk to you
6. Passing the buck to someone higher in the order
7. Forgetting the basic courtesies: Smiling, saying “Thank You” and “Sorry” does not cost a dime but it shows that you care.

* 7 a.m.: At a time when most top executives would be finishing their morning run and beginning to get ready for work, Wim Elfrink is already an hour into work, virtually meeting his colleagues…
* 9 a.m.: A few hours meeting with colleagues in the US and Europe and initiating meetings with his team based in India…
* 3 p.m.: After several hours of meeting with colleagues, customers and visitors, Elfrink heads back home… “You don’t need to commute to compute,” he often tells his staff
* 6 p.m.: It’s time for another bout of work for Elfrink, as he once again logs on to the TP system and catches up with colleagues in North America just as they are about to begin their workday. As part of the globalisation process, Elfrink often works through the weekend (since some countries in West Asia like Saudi Arabia have differing weekly holidays) and takes a few days off after working for 10-12 days

What is global culture? It is respect for different time zones. If my boss in the US organises a meeting on Friday afternoon, I have to step in and say no because for me it is a Saturday morning. In Saudi, weekends are on Thursday and Friday. In Dubai it is Friday and Saturday. Execution around these simple things, I live it every day. I am the Number Two man at Cisco and so I have to be vocal about these things. You can’t put it somewhere under the carpet. This is how global companies will have to operate five to 10 years down the line. People should speak at least three languages because they would have lived in different continents.
But not everybody can have an open mind, or are willing to move around and learn. So, we are formulating a policy for that because we need to groom future leaders and a percentage of top talent should move around.

# have slowly but surely changed their thresholds for hard work (it’s easier than ever before), spotting bullsh*t (they can tell it a mile off) and getting up early.
# have stopped blaming history and can’t remember the last time they used the phrase ‘I don’t have time’.
# have zero tolerance for cynicism. They simply ask of people: make it work or move on.
# absolutely definitely believe that a professional does what is necessary even when he/she does not feel like it.

राख कितनी राख है, चारों तरफ बिखरी हुई,
राख में चिनगारियां ही देख अंगारे न देख।

You just gave an important talk about a new initiative. Maybe 40 employees were there, all "key players," you called us. I was the guy in the back of the room with the curly hair…If my opinion really mattered, I'd tell you what I liked about your presentation to your face. I probably wouldn't mention what I didn't like. But here, why not lay it all out for you? You can take it or leave it.
1. I arrived early, and I appreciated that you were ready to start on time. The fact that you spent the first 12 minutes making the rest of us wait for our bosses to show up? Not so much.

हो गई है पीर पर्वत-सी पिघलनी चाहिए, इस हिमालय से कोई गंगा निकलनी चाहिए।
आज यह दीवार, परदों की तरह हिलने लगी, शर्त थी कि ये बुनियाद हिलनी चाहिए।
हर सड़क पर, हर गली में, हर नगर, हर गाँव में, हाथ लहराते हुए हर लाश चलनी चाहिए।
सिर्फ हंगामा खड़ा करना मेरा मकसद नहीं, मेरी कोश‍िश है कि ये सूरत बदलनी चाहिए।
मेरे सीने में नहीं तो तेरे सीने में सही, हो कहीं भी आग, लेकिन आग जलनी चाहिए।

If fiction provided the consolations of the mask, nonfiction provided, per Annie’s idea of it, the sensibility underneath the mask, irreplaceable and potentially of great value. The literary essay, as she saw it, was a moral exercise that involved direct engagement with the unknown, whether it was a foreign civilization or your mind, and what mattered in this was you.
You are the only one of you, she said of it. Your unique perspective, at this time, in our age, whether it’s on Tunis or the trees outside your window, is what matters. Don’t worry about being original, she said dismissively. Yes, everything’s been written, but also, the thing you want to write, before you wrote it, was impossible to write. Otherwise it would already exist. You writing it makes it possible.

So here is my list of top ways to find joy at work.
10. Identify long-term personal purpose. Write a personal mission statement, to review often.
9. Be an entrepreneur from anywhere. Even if you don't start a business (now), imagine starting a project that will improve your current job, workplace, or community.
8. Discuss the idea informally to find others feeling the same way. Enlist them in the quest…
7. Get a Big Name to endorse giving it a try.
6. Negotiate out of demands that don't contribute to the goal. Keep doing what you must to keep your job, but simplify.
5. Find every supporter a task, however small. Show that you're working for their goals, too.
4. Widen the circle of the informed. Involve people not usually included.
3. Remain positive…
2. As the bits of the cube start moving, keep communicating and coordinating.
1. Celebrate each "Rubik's Cube" moment of accomplishment. Share the joy to multiply it.

want so much from this column, I thought about not writing it, so that what would be left was a beautiful blank space that readers could fill with their most cherished fantasies. I thought about just thinking about it.
But, on further reflection, that struck me as too Rive Gauche for some of my American readers, although certainly not for my good friends in Stockholm (peace be upon them).
A virtual column, waiting to be written, poised atop the vortex, is one filled with infinite possibility. With each word I write I am confining it. The way reality encroaches on fantasy is terrible to bear. But that’s the human condition we share whether we are black, white or — increasingly — brown.

Art for children should be scary. It needs to be scary. A children's story often starts and ends in the comfort of home, sure. But nothing's at stake if the story never leaves it. Rattle your memory. What are the books and films that are deepest rooted in your imagination, the memories with the strongest flavours? Do you remember laughing merrily at the pantomime dame? Or do you remember, rather, being scared of King Rat?…
Ever since the Brothers Grimm set about mutilating their way through the Ugly Sisters, storytelling to children has been all about the disturbing allure of the deep, dark woods. And there's nothing mild about the peril they contain.
The prime ingredient – the thing that gives art directed at children its kick – is fear. It goes straight to the hindbrain. And the nature of that fear is unlike the adult sort.

are little ideas that no one killed too soon

Our exclusive gallery of images from the British Library's Points of View exhibition shows how 19th-century photographers brought the world back to Britain, sparking a surge of interest in foreign travel

half of our population is experiencing decreasing net happiness and satisfaction with life. When we look at what makes people engaged and fulfilled with their lives, everyone…seems to agree that the feeling of self-efficacy, feeling valued and effective and in your "strength zone" is critical–that the happiest, most successful people are those who have figured out ways to play to the best of themselves in each part of their lives…
There are two causes (…of dissatisfaction and unhappiness in life). One is an excess of choice…The second is that the advice given is misleading..If your goal in life is balance, you will be forever disappointing yourself.
Women are told to be good jugglers…supposed to be able to keep everything up in the air at once…challenge becomes, "How do I not drop anything?" The solutions offered are ideas like "better time management," or "learn to put up boundaries" or "learn to say no."…all of that advice is bad. The core skill of juggling is throwing

Questions about my future do remain unanswered, though that seems to bother other people more than me. It's funny how much some folks focus on numeric milestones: 90 days, 6 months, 1 year. Markers like those certainly have descriptive value when you look, after the fact, across a large number of people; interesting patterns emerge. But using those found patterns to dictate how I shape my own future is an inorganic endeavor in which I choose not to engage.
At the one-year mark, I still believe in the process of self-discovery, one that I hope never ceases. A process that, despite its open-endedness, doesn't preclude practical decision making when the moment is right, even if the call I make is thoroughly out of sync with the numeric milestones. A process that does not belong exclusively to people who have quit (or want to quit) their jobs.

when sensational things like Arundhati Roy justifying the reign of terror unleashed by the Naxals…happen then I am forced to break the silence…
The argument as to who is a "terrorist" and who is "misguided youth" is a never-ending one…that has been fought over so many times that it is not worth going into again. However what requires comment is that Naxals are anything but the "little guys fighting for justice pushed into a corner" that their PR people like Ms. Roy would have us believe. They are an organized army-like entity with a leadership structure whose principal goal is the destruction of the Indian state and the rule of law. They terrorize the populations they claim to protect, extort and appropriate resources from the dispossessed and engage in violence against people who do not represent the state. Their arms are sophisticated, they are financed by India's enemies and they are allied with SIMI tapping into their organization and their funding channels.

Having a strong password goes a long way in helping to protect your data, but there are a number of additional steps you can take to help you keep your Gmail account secure

The law consists of abstract rules because…as human beings, judges are unable to foresee all of the long-term consequences of their decisions and may be unduly influenced by the immediate, visible effects of these decisions. The rules of law are designed in part to strike the proper balance between the interests of those who are seen and those who are not seen. The purpose of the rules is to enable judges to resist the emotionally engaging temptation to relieve the plight of those they can see and empathize with, even when doing so would be unfair to those they cannot see.
Calling on judges to be compassionate or empathetic is in effect to ask them to undo this balance and favor the seen over the unseen…if the difference…is that the bad judge focuses on the visible effects of his or her decisions while the good judge takes into account both the effects that can be seen and those that are unseen, then the compassionate, empathetic judge is very likely to be a bad judge.

In case you’re confused about your religious beliefs, the awesome flowchart below, created by the good people at Holy Taco, should resolve all doubts…
False gods are everywhere, of course, and I’m sure you’ll find a vendor to customize one to your needs. May we all be cult.

There are institutes where students walk in with their eyes open and know what to expect. And there are those where they walk in, blinded – misled, misguided and misinformed, by a campaign where media, regulatory agencies and academia become willing accomplices…
As we scanned the ads, spoke to experts, affected parties and counselors, we realised that one name cropped up the most – IIPM. We decided to investigate…What our investigation unravelled left us cold. Here is an institution that enjoys all the privileges of an academic institution (according to IT authorities, it claimed exemptions citing Section 10(23C) (VI) of the Income Tax act, 1961) with zero responsibility and accountability. Here is an institution that brazenly uses its power and reach to make unsubstantiated claims that play with the lives of students and parents alike.