I was reading a WSJ article on the death of Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. It makes me wonder how someone with all the achievements and accumulation had so much emptiness within. The article cites drug usage, alcohol consumption, and other methods Tony was experimenting with himself. How much wealth or professional success matters when …
Author Archives: Atul
IAS
I want to become an IAS officer, said Mahesh. A tall, healthy fellow wearing thick glasses welcomed me as I picked my Uber from the airport. I was returning from an early morning connecting flight from Mumbai. Mahesh is from western Karnataka and studying a bachelor’s in history from correspondence. He asked me where I …
Maasi
Come during day time, don’t take the late-night train, my maasi looked worried as she uttered this. She lives in a village which is 3 km from the nearby railway station. Summers in Bihar are painful because of heat, mosquitoes, power cuts. I was done with my class 8th exams and had 60 days of …
breath
I can’t live with your parents, said Nandini. Ishan and Nandini got married after seven years of courtship. The intercaste marriage took a lot of convincing from both sides. Ishan met Nandini during their bachelor’s degree. Both work at consulting now and are financially settled. Nandini’s great grandfather fought with Britishers during the Champaran movement. …
unknown
A very few lucky ones in our country get the opportunity to figure things out. 99% of us are just running the rat race of earning, learning, and surviving. In India, we youngsters have no time to breathe, spend on ourselves. The treadmill of want begins right after college, fulfilling dreams or paying loans. Only …
insecurity
We are living with our insecurity. About things, actions. How can we live in the present if we dwell on our past, insecurities, and failures? Are we not making ourselves weak? Our past is our teacher and, we can’t just sulk in it. We have to learn from it, so we are not repeating the …
optimize
It took me four years to realize the power of optimization. A founder’s life is on a roller coaster. Someday an employee will leave, some other day customers, there will be days when you will feel like giving up, and another day your personal life will be a wreck. The sooner we accept and optimize …
Relaters
The lazy brain of mine has built its relater mechanism. Last Sunday, I met and had a conversation with a few people. PESIT, my friend is also from there. His name is X. My friend, who is also and Odiya, is looking for a marketer. Can you help? I know another UX fellow who has …
highway
Ramkumar would be 5 ft tall, wearing a black kurta pajama, turban, and loverly smile on his face. He looked perfect for Instagram, just I had no smartphone, and we were in the Orkut era. He was preparing the fire as November evening gets much colder in north India. I was with Ashish on our …
hide
How do a few of us hide the entire world of sorrow within ourselves? I have known a friend who never let the sad part of theirs be known to us all. One fine day he called adios. It is difficult to find what was going on? It surprises me how behind the broad smile, …