Recent content on The Cauldron of Life
If life is a miracle on earth, then a child is the miracle of life. A child is often compared to a blank slate and I would say rightly so. It creates a great opportunity but an equally bigger responsibility. A responsibility that lies on us as a society, as a community, as a family, as a parent and then as an individual. The order here is important because the process of writing is involuntary. We…
There are days in our life which we look back at - often. They hold a special place in our psyche because they make us what we have aspired to be. It’s a day which is complete in itself. It doesn’t need the past or the future. This is a distilled version of one such day in my life. How raw can I be? We will have to see but it will be one I will look back at often.
It’s a fascinating subject that’s been on my mind lately—delegation versus doing it yourself. I know there are some thumb rules around it, but when you’re scaling up, or even just thinking about it, the right time to delegate can feel like a mystery. Maybe earlier is better; maybe later is. Who knows? The Art of Letting Go When you start creating systems and looking to scale, you’re essentially…
Lately, I’ve been wrestling with this one idea that keeps coming back to me like an old friend (or maybe a persistent mosquito): the idea of embracing imperfection —especially as someone with ADHD, but honestly, even if you don’t have it. Let’s be real, perfectionism is a shared affliction. The Paralysis of Perfectionism For the longest time, I believed that if I had to do something, it had to be…
For over a month now, I’ve been wrestling with an idea—quietly, personally, and now out loud: what does it mean to truly be friends with yourself? I don’t mean just “self-care” or “alone time” in the Pinterest-poster sense. I mean genuine companionship—with the self. Let me explain where this started. The Weight of Silence Most of us have never really been taught how to be alone—not just…
I’ve spoken about this before, and I feel the need to speak about it again. Some thoughts are like chronic itches—they don’t go away with one scratch. They stay with you, just beneath the surface, quietly tapping for attention. And this one is about abundance . Not money exactly—though that’s what it often translates to—but the whole relationship I have with having enough . Has it improved over…
Earlier today, I was standing in my little garden, speaking to my plants. I asked them how they were doing—if they were struggling, if something felt off. It’s something I often do, like checking in with old friends. And somewhere in that quiet conversation, I caught myself saying, “I love you all because I brought you here.” The moment I said it, it made me pause. Did I really love them just…
Therapy had been a buzzword amongst some people I know and on the web. Honestly, I believed it to be a waste of time and money. I gave therapy a try first in 2021, but it was short-lived and not so great. In 2024, I again got curious about the mental health space and started paying more attention to the issues I was facing in my daily life. Things that are regular and normal, but when paid…
As an Indian, I must say that we have our strengths, but there’s one thing that irks me so badly that I cannot overlook it - our civic sense. I will also humbly admit that I have also fallen low at times and done what everyone was doing. I need to hold myself to higher standards even when everyone around is doing the wrong thing. The situation becomes much more evident and prominent when you are…
I’m of the strong opinion that region, religion, language, caste, race, and like are all man-made barriers. It is a barrier that gives man a sense of false control. It makes things look limited, though in reality, it is limitless. We do not want to accept that we are no more significant than a stone or a leaf; we are just happening, and that is the purpose. These are all amplified reflections of…
I have been traveling a lot since my childhood. My parents fortunately had the genes of wanderlust which I inherited. They did it in their own way by planning trips around temple. Maybe it was their way of making it worth the salt. I nonetheless enjoyed it because it was all new to me. I have a lot of memories from these trips. The long cozy train ride, the overnight cold road trips, the long…
If you know today is the last time you will see people you love and it’s a bye forever. Who would you want to see and what would your last words be for them? I’m writing this on a plane. Sometimes I get afraid of the height and the reality that this could be the last ride of my life but yet I survive and keep going. I wanted to write down these thoughts and all the people I could think of in…
Life is confusing! Isn’t it? We envy what we don’t have, and what we have becomes worth pebbles. I started working remotely in 2017, way before when working from home was a thing. Friends and family were almost sure that I was unemployed and probably ran some scam racket and peddled drugs. They had no other answer on how I was staying at home, chilling and still getting a decent amount…
Life is interestingly chaotic. We die for that which we don’t have and then get bored of that same thing when we get it. I sometimes feel that what we want is a pursuit of something. The struggle and hard work make us feel whole. In the journey, we forget everything and focus on achieving that goal. This brings me to thinking - what do I want from life now? I have a loving family, a…
Life is imperfect, and things usually don’t turn out how we want, and the same seems to have happened with me and my dog. They say that every dog has a different personality, but there are days when I feel I have been shortchanged for a bad apple. 😅 You may ask what’s wrong with my dog, but that’s for later. My dog is almost 3 years, and you may be asking why I am bringing this…
The dream of being financially free and retiring is dear to every working human, but if you ask them what they will do with their retirement, that is not clear. At least not to the majority. This creates a problem in fulfilling the dream. If we could clearly visualize what we wanted, we could undoubtedly get it. I think that’s true. Not because of some cosmic power that would bring us closer…
I have always wondered why it’s complicated to talk to a person close to us but so exciting to open up to a random stranger we just connected with? We always emphasise that communication is the key to any relationship, but we end up struggling for a conversation. Fear of Being Judged When we talk to someone we already know, we fear being judged. People always judge! Maybe we are trying to be…
Networking must have been essential to human evolution. It is a tool that enables us to do things that we cannot do alone. When humans were still evolving, networking was a necessity, but today it’s a skill we must have to prosper in our community. What do you need to get good at building networks? Today I want to explore a set of questions sitting in the back of my head. Why do we connect…
Hello Pikachu, Do you know a sure way to tell if someone is in love? In love, a person becomes hopelessly romantic and crave a medium to let it out. They express their emotions through poetry, songs and letters and I’m writing this to you. You are the piece peace of me that I’ve been looking for. I’ve been blessed with an almost perfect life and you just took away the almost.…
It is said that we are ignorant and we have stopped thinking about the inevitable end but I think we haven’t. Instead, I believe we understand it’s certainty and we avoid spending energy thinking about it. We know that an end will come but we don’t like to imagine when or how painful it would be to die but we are sure that it will. Grief is a natural response to a personal loss.…
I completed reading Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and what a read it has been. It was long but the wisdom I gathered is baffling. I am very sceptical when famous people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates recommend a book but I did read this one and it has been an eye-opener. There is one topic which Harari talks about a lot and that is Capitalism. And in this article,…
Hope is the remedy world advocates to all the problems in life. How could ever being optimistic be a bad thing? I am a firm believer that optimism can solve almost all our problems, but recently I found out that maybe sometimes it’s okay to lose hope. Excess of anything is not good so is true with hope. If you ever become so hopelessly hopeful about an event happening you will overpower your…
We all know the story of the clever crow who used stones to get access to deep water in the earthen pot but what if I say that it’s not the complete story? What if it was the utopic version of an utter disaster? And his cleverness the cause of his death? The crow, albeit clever, and with a good intension started dropping stones in the pot. When he saw the water level rise he was ecstatic. He…
It is highly underestimated how much importance we put in instant likeness. We value what we like naturally. This might not be a bad thing per se but we ought to understand what this method of decision making brings with it. We all have known by now that there are no silver bullets in life and that holds for this behaviour of ours. I’ve observed that the things that have given me…
We are faster than a flash when we judge and slower than a snail when we accept mistakes. It’s been clearly understood by every sane person that judging is not right. We can only judge what we truly know and we truly know nothing. Less we know about ourself and lesser about anyone else. Then why is it so easy to judge? As Daniel Kahneman explains in his book Thinking fast and slow we have…
Dear Ankit, I know that you are doing great in your life. The numbers are moving fast, the numbers of age, money and mistakes. I also congratulate you for all the hardships and struggles that you have overcome. Come on, I know you want to believe that it was nothing and people have worse and I agree. But that won’t mean that what you have achieved was easy. Applaud for your efforts even when…
The title can mean different things to different people. For me, the only fortune is my time and love. My firm belief is that we love without expectations and I am the one who needs my love the most. We all have limited energy on any given day and to invest it on someone who doesn’t give a damn about you is not a great way to spend it. I love you and I always will and that’s not going…
When I pondered about my likes and then about the likes of some of my closest people. It soon dawned upon me that we don’t like much. I would challenge you to take one minute pause and think of 3 things you like? I’m confident that you are going to have a hard time listing even three of them. When someone like me tries to itemize them, they come up with travel, sleep and…
A happy couple was living in the fast-moving city of Bangalore. They would work hard every day in the cubicle. They took pride in what they did but there were days when nothing seemed right. All the efforts they put felt useless. While there were days when everything looked perfect and today was such a day. They have bought their first car. Working in a day job, living in a big city and owning a…
Question is undoubtedly the most powerful tool in the quiver of an inquisitive person. It is like a shovel using which we dig the dirt of ignorance and try to understand reality. It is also the torch we point towards the pit to better see in the darkness of falsehood. It is the chisel we use to carve our own personality. The way we question reality, nature and anything around, shapes our complete…
While you climb the mountain, I tread the beach. While you pick the flower, I clear the weed. While you protect me from the cold, I fight the heat. While you shower the love, I make the ends meet. While you see the stars, I like to sleep. While you touch my arms, I kiss your lips. While you push me forward, I don’t let you fall deep. While you snap at me, I sound the bleep. While you clean…
My life was marching on its comfortable path every day when some kittens showed up in my balcony. I would give milk to their mother, try to touch the kittens only when the mom was not there and keep smiling. The kittens grew fast and now they run and play. Only one thing hasn’t changed their mission to not come near me and my desire to hold the soft fur balls. It’s been almost perfect…
Yesterday I visited Nandi Hill, a very beautiful place with clouds below your eyes. Small hills rising above the clouds as if cutting through them. If not for those hills the sky feels like another sea of white foam and water. I love to travel and I love it even more so for the insights and observations we make when travelling. This time the wisdom is about forgiveness. It’s even stranger…
When I look back to the things I’ve done I feel so selfish. I know there has to be a line between not doing anything to giving away your everything but now that I see I wish I could have done a little more. We are all born alone and we are destined to die that way. The only time we can be with someone is in between these two stations. I want to stop being so concerned and know that the…
Who doesn’t like the day when we are all high and happy? It is in such moments we feel complete and so satisfied. I’m glad that I’ve had those days in my life. But there is something else which follows just after this high and it’s the desire to hold it. We just want to stay in the same state and hold on to it and never let it go. Do we really think that we can do that?…
I ask this question so frequently to myself and the answers vary between I don’t know and I’ve everything. Just take a brief moment to think how blessed that moment is when you are able to say that you are happy with what you have? I firmly believe that I’m very lucky and I’ve a lot that many people don’t. But you can also say that I don’t have so much that…
A dog when he comes to you despite that fact that he has been hurt by hundreds of other human beings is trust. I have a notion of perfect trust where the slate is clean with no scratches and existing chalk dust. In the real world which is not possible. We all have scars and scratches in the form of heartbreak and broken trust. Does this mean we stop trusting?
I have asked this question so many times. At times I feel that I understand what it is and at other, I don’t. This time I planned to write down what I understand about meditation and maintain a record and refer back to this in future. We have a monkey mind, as Mingyur Rinpoche calls it. It likes to talk and gossip and keep suggesting things based on its likes and dislikes. When we forget…
A relationship should be one where you’re not afraid and have the courage to speak the truth. Not with an intention to hurt but with an understanding that it’s ok to be wrong. With a confidence that the person will accept you and understand. You acknowledge how bad it can feel when you speak your heart out but you know you’re appreciated. You feel the depth of hurt it will cause…
I shared my side of the story . How I feel the pain and cheated but I know mistakes were made from my side as well. I might not be able to do all the justice to her feelings but trying to say everything that she made me known. I don’t want to write much concrete details here but the lines below should be enough to tell you my flaws. You told them everything, And called me names, But did you…
I’m not hurt, not most of the times or so I say to myself but when I hurt it hurts real bad. There are very few things and very few people who can hurt me. I’m also aware that it’s I who is giving them this heart-shattering power, yet I do. Some of them know to value and keep my heart safe while others juggle is down every alley. Today I’m hurting again and this is a hurt…
This was the first book by Murakami which I read. There are certain characteristics of his writing that I would like to bring up. This will help us appreciate and understand his work better. Firstly, Murakami is a great observer. He talks about daily affairs in such light and detail that you will wonder whether you are living life in the right way. His stories don’t need any fancy setting or…
We are all opinionated and most of the time these opinions are not our own. They are thrusted into our consciousness by the people around us, the media and the general ideology of the society. I believe opinions are neutral just like smartphones which are neither bad nor good on their own. There are other sources of opinion like from books, family and friends. What I’m trying to get at it is…
We all know so many people around and we think and treat each of them differently. We have different roles to play. I think the thread and the life are very much related. I find them a lot more similar than distinct. Everyone is connected to every other person via a thread so fragile yet so powerful. Consider a man seeing a woman suffering from a severe chronic disease. They don’t know if…
When things are good, express gratitude. When things are bad, practice patience. When things are average, show staisfaction. Situtations can be either good, bad or average. I know this might look like I am judging how things are. I also know great people talk about equanimity in all situations. I’m not there yet, though I want to be. I tend to get sad at times just like every other human…
I’m not very romantic by profession, which is engineering, but if this post gets you somewhere, believe me, it’s not me. Have you felt the tingling of heart in the presence of a certain someone? The tingling that sends blood rushing throughout your body. When your veins are screaming the constant melody of your heart. If you know this feeling, you will know what I’m saying. When…
I have been trying to define life for a very long time. All this started when I felt pain for the first time, I don’t remember the reason for my pain, but I was suffering. I was trying to see through it and had some realizations. When I am ill I can see that I’m in pain and my body is not working as it should, but it doesn’t affect my mind. I can still choose to smile. At moments…
Some days are better than some other days It is rightly said that some days are better than others. Today was one of such days. I haven’t achieved a lot though but yes it is a lot better than the unproductive streak that I had since last few weeks. Yesterday I gave some thought to uncertainty in life and how it affects my decision making, maybe that helped me get some clarity.
I wonder if you too are afraid of uncertainties? It is very easy to dream but the hard work it takes to make it a reality is not insignificant. The fear that things may not turn out as I think they should, stops me from putting in the hard work. Is this an excuse? I get thoughts that wait for the right idea where success is guaranteed. This idea is very lucrative and saves me from doing any real…
Travel as much as you can for life is short. This is my account on the things I feel. How beautiful the world is to me.