World View

Stop thoughtlessly undercutting thoughtfulness. At a recent Thanksgiving, my thoughtful friend, who always hosts dinner, outdid herself. There were almost twenty-five guests, including several kids. Not only did she organize games for the kids, but she also gifted them personalized mugs with their names stenciled on them. Then, to ensure they could use their mugs […]

Why do the rich clamor the loudest for free lunches? A recent New Yorker piece on Jack Welch’s retirement perks made my blood boil. Despite his net worth of nine hundred million and a yearly pension of almost eight million, Welch’s perks included a free NYC apartment and deals at the restaurant in the building.

I just binge-watched two seasons of Delhi Crime, the hit Hindi series on Netflix. Each season traces how Delhi’s top cop Vartika Chaturvedi, a superb Shefali Shah, and her trusted team solve a heinous crime with their limited resources. Its first season won the Emmy award for outstanding drama series, the first for an Indian

Chocolate makes you a believer in humanity. When I was a kid, chocolates were a luxury in India. Sweets were usually hard candy and toffees. My earliest memory of chocolate abundance is a bag of chocolate eclairs someone gifted my dad. I had never eaten anything like them before and boasted to a friend that

A friend gave me a tiny crystal vase the size of my thumb. It was perfect for my little NYC studio, but finding a flower to fit it was challenging. So the vase sat in a corner, gathering dust, awaiting its turn for the trash bin. That was until I discovered a tiny park on the

This University is the Ivy League of continuing education. Tuition is free at NYSU (The New York Streets University), but you pay big bucks for room and board. NYSU doesn’t require a minimum GPA, conducts no exams, and awards no degrees. But attendance is mandatory because there are no online classes at NYSU. Here are

Blessed are those whose boats are rocked by oats.  When did oats take over our lives as the bitter pill adults must swallow to get better? Most breakfast places serve oatmeal, but they are loaded with sugar and fat. I recently saw a healthy tip for eating your daily oatmeal: top it with creme fraiche!

Should applause be spontaneous or dictated by social norms?  I first experienced the classism in applauding Western Classical music when attending a concert by a touring German Orchestra in Chennai, India. Chennai is the capital of Carnatic music, the classical music of South India. The venue for the concert was The Music Academy, a hallowed

Creativity needs selfishness and selflessness.  Most people are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s rule for success discussed in his book, Outliers: ten thousand hours of work spread over ten years (the work of late Professor Anders Ericsson).  Although evidence is mixed about the holy grail of ten thousand hours – even Ericsson cautions about the role

Get out of your head’s gilded cage.  When people ask me to describe the view from my NYC high-rise apartment window, I say I see “perspective.” I see other buildings occupied by people like me, going about their day wrapped up in their thoughts, each the master of the kingdom created in their heads. We