looking inward and outward
RELATIONSHIPS: COLUMNS AND STORIES
Relationships
My life is a web of relationships. The great Indian joint family.
Messy, loving, crazy, contradictory, complex, never easy
But it defines who I am and what I value.
Connections: between people, place and time.
Do relationships make you or do you make them?
With love comes the ability to forgive. Only if you are able to forgive can you overlook slights, flaws, mistakes and miscommunication
While the Dalai Lama talks about loving-kindness meditation as a way to bridge divides, it is essentially about assuming goodwill.
Relationships are defined by connection
Connections can happen perchance but require care to flourish. Ultimately, it is these connections that define the human experience.
This web of connections floats to the surface in cultures such as India, where people are forced into proximity, thanks to density. What you do with (and to) the people around you defines character.
How you behave in times of stress depends on how you value what is at hand.
Relationships and connections are supreme in the path to happiness.
Relationship columns
What if your will could be your voice?
Let’s talk about wills. Have you made yours? And why are Indians congenitally reluctant to make them?
Wisdom Circle: Redesigning your life for longevity
Okay, you think, let me redesign my life to adjust for the fact that I may live longer. What would you do?
Wisdom Circle: Spending Money
In my thirties, I used to gather with a group of friends. The most frequent topic of discussion was how much we needed to save in order to retire.
Wisdom Circle: What does your soul want?
What are you going to do with the rest of your life? These are questions for the ages; questions that every religion attempts to answer. At the same time, these are urgent, immediate questions that each of us contend with every single day.
Wisdom Circle: taking stock of 2023
My definition of the good life is typically Indian. It involves a contradiction. To me, the good life is about a life of the senses and a life of the spirit: what we call in Sanskrit as bhoga and yoga. I would argue that each of us has a version of this.
WisdomCircle: Love
Forget love. The glue that makes a relationship stick is how you fight and forgive. Do you sulk when wounded? Do you go silent? Or do you shout and scream? My father did not shout. His response to my mother’s anger, usually hurled as questions from the kitchen, was to leave the space and bang the doors and windows, all the while, muttering to himself.