Issue 26 November 30th 2025 A framework for navigating ambition without ego in today’s high stakes environments. ↓ I was having a chat earlier this week with my brother who is working in the US. We talked a bit about the current corporate ecosystem and how it feels to be an Indian working in the US. He mentioned that “Indians, especially South Indians, are usually too humble in a corporate environment and do not like to show off their work”. This statement felt a bit paradoxical to me. True,...
15 days ago • 3 min read
Issue 25 November 15th 2025 The world remembers the useful, not the merely successful. ↓ When I said that I would be moving to the public sector after working more than 5 years in the private sector, the first question that people asked was if the pay is competitive. I’m not going to lie, but pay was definitely one criteria that I myself wasn’t ready to downscale. I was happy as long as I got paid whatever I earned in the private sector at that time. The relatively lower pay in the public...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Issue 24 November 1st 2025 The danger of absolutism in a world that keeps evolving. ↓ If there is one universal theme that you can take from the Mahabharata, it is that: “Dharma is contextual and not absolute”. Every character in the epic acts with the belief that they are righteous in their own way. The character of the almighty Lord Krishna is an embodiment of the contextual nature of Dharma. He bends the rules multiple times which can be see as not righteous in isolation but his rationale...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Issue 23 October 25th 2025 Enduring the uncomfortable middle where growth actually happens. ↓ Have you ever wondered what really makes you feel satisfied in the work you do? Lets say you are a data analyst. At what point do you consider that the dashboard you have created is a job well done? Not the satisfaction that you have completed a task that your manager has given to you, but the feeling of pride you get looking at the output you have created. Or if you are an architect, would you be...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Issue 22 October 18th 2025 The moment your skill feels effortless is when others start questioning your value ↓ I recently read an interesting story and a concept which I thought I would combine to one in this week’s reflection: The story: In 1998 the largest financial services firm in the world, Citigroup, came into existence with the merger of Goliaths of the industry Citicorp and Travellers Group, with a valuation of $140bn and assets under management of $700bn. Considering the scale of...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Issue 21 October 11th 2025 In a world optimised for visibility, the rarest thing left is something made for its own sake. ↓ I was in Prague last week and it was a trip I was longing to go for the past few months. I last visited the country in 2017 and it was one of my most memorable trip. It was my first solo trip and as a student who was determined to save every penny possible, I couchsurfed with 3 different hosts in the country. My travel mostly revolves around two things - Food & History....
2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue 20 October 4th 2025 Rethinking how we measure progress in our careers ↓ The messaging app Arattai, developed by Zoho, is making the news recently for all the right reasons. The messaging app went from 3000 downloads per day to almost 350,000 per day over the last few weeks. The growth was so rapid that the app reached the top position in Apple’s App Store charts for the “Social Networking” category in India What caught my attention was not what caused the surge in traffic but how this...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue 19 September 27th 2025 How busyness became a status symbol — and why it’s burning us out ↓ In 2019, I started working in Mercedes Benz at their Headquarters in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is a city known for 3 companies - Mercedes Benz, Porsche & Bosch. The trio are the main employers in the Swabian region and working in one of these three companies is a Swabian’s dream. The city and its suburbs are dotted with offices of these three companies and it’s subsidiaries. During the first week of my...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Issue 18 September 20th 2025 Layoffs, AI, restructures — you can’t dodge them forever ↓ Imagine you are walking peacefully on the road and suddenly a car races towards you out of nowhere. You start running but realize you can never outpace the car. You see a fence nearby and decide to jump over it so you can be safe. But a few minutes later, the car appears on this side of the fence too and throttles towards you. With no other way, you start running again but not for long. The car catches up...
3 months ago • 2 min read