The face-off between the two South Indian Brahmin communities is quite lored and loved over decades, writes Nagesh Alai The other day at dinner, an Iyengar friend of mine asked me if I have tasted the award winning German beer, Ayinger. I had not. So that was an opening for him to tell me condescendingly: “Listen, […]
Author Archives: Nagesh Alai
13
May
May
Nagesh Alai casts a wry but loving lookback at the evolution of calling, writing and listening to music It’s the 13th September as I write this. It happens to be the 13th birthday of my lovely niece, who is multi-talented and on top of technology and trends. Not surprisingly, I got a Zoom invite from […]
12
May
May
In the wake of the Covid pandemic, we all have been left to hope for the best while bracing for the worst, writes Nagesh Alai I had literally welcomed 2020 from the top of the world – by summiting the 12,000-feet snowy but sylvan Dayara Bugyal (means “lush meadows”) in the Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand. […]
11
May
May
Nagesh Alai comments on the uproar over WhatsApp’s recent revised privacy policy, and users’ eager migration to rival platforms Our footprints on the sands of time are ‘anitya’ or impermanent, but our footprints on the highways of digital are ‘nitya’ or permanent. It is a travesty of sorts that the transience of our life which […]
10
May
May
While digital learning has made up for lockdown losses to some extent, nothing can quite replace actual human interaction, writes Nagesh Alai The other day in the course of teaching basic English over a WhatsApp audio call to two young siblings aged 10 and 11, residing in a remote village in Haryana, courtesy an NGO’s […]
09
May
May
Sure, living life to the max has its attractions, but are we ultimately losing out in the bargain, asks Nagesh Alai Yeh dil maange more – remember the catchy Hinglish Pepsi ad way back in the late 1990s? It simply means that we cannot be just satisfied with just one, but need more. Symbolic of […]
07
May
May
‘What if’ is a powerful hindsight which has the potential of redemption and transformation of those who are lucky to outlive an event, writes Nagesh Alai ‘What if’ is a classic conundrum of the human mind creating probable alternatives to events that have already happened in their lives. Without exception, every person experiences this syndrome […]
The negative effect of bias is incalculable and has an infinite perpetuation impact on those at the receiving end, writes Nagesh Alai The other day, in a WhatsApp group that I belong to, someone queried about training programmes for ‘unconscious bias’ at the workplace. Some recommended training modules adopted by overseas ivy league institutions while some […]
05
May
May
The celebrations of the nine-day Navratri festival are a feast for the five senses and a spiritual ecstasy par definition, writes Nagesh Alai I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Maa! It is that time of the year when there is an inescapable air of excitement, emotions and empathy, difficult of capture in […]
04
May
May
It is best not to let your IQ yield to the EQ. After all, none of us are in absolute control of ours or for that matter others’ lives and neither was it meant to be, writes Nagesh Alai Navin Vora (name changed), aged 85, an automobile engineer did exceedingly well in his corporate life, […]