Fall down seven times, get up eight times. -Japanese proverb. The recent Chandrayan 2 mission has been a wonderful learning experience for all of us, and that is to prepare and to work hard in-order to succeed must be coupled with the resilience to face failure. In Japan, there is another proverb, “even monkeys fall off the trees” meaning, even experts make a mistake....

“Growth happens in the midst of conflict – when you’re frustrated, angry or scared and you’re doing the same old thing, and then you realize that you can choose to do it better…”...

Four friends decided to practice silence and embarked on being silent for three days. On the first day, all were silent. Their practice of silence had begun auspiciously, but when night came, and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the friends could not help exclaiming to a servant: “Fix those lamps.” The second friend was surprised to hear the first one talk. “We are not supposed to say a word,” he remarked....

When I went to America in 1983, at the age of 20, my American English abilities were very limited. So, I was encouraged by my Guardian Late Dr. Manmohan S. Luthra (Moini Uncle to me and many others) to work part-time in a grocery store....

I came across a wonderful thought recently, which I am paraphrasing, and it is “Sometimes we make the mistake of seeing the problem, and not handling it, and in the process the problem seems to become heavier and heavier, instead if we were to handle it, it is sure to become lighter and better. ...

My father late Dr. Promod K. Batra, often exhorted me to be humble. I would like to share an anecdote which I first heard from my father about the great Scientist Albert Einstein and his chauffeur....

“When you retain the freedom to choose, you are never left with nothing”. - Victor Frankl Life to a great extent is the result of the choices you and I make. Victor Frankl observed during his days in the concentration camps, ...

The older proverb, “where there is a will, there is a way,” should be upgraded to “where there is a will, and the knowledge and the skill, there is a way”....

The festive season is on, from Deepawali, to Christmas and then the New Year’s Eve. I wish all the readers to become bolder as they become older, instead of becoming colder. The following Japanese quote will inspire us to charge our minds, “Cows drink water and create milk. Snakes drink water and create poison.”...

The present times are an amazing example of the power of choice a person can make. If a person chooses to excel, he or she will handle the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) in a manner that fires up his or her dopamine, endorphins, serotonin and oxytocin, the golden four, the enzymes that trigger a sense of wellbeing, when one lives sensibly and proactively....