Most people chase money thinking it will buy them freedom. I learnt the hard way that money without time is just another kind of prison. A few years ago, I was in debt deep enough to keep me awake at night. It wasn’t just the numbers that hurt. It was the feeling that every minute of my day was owned by someone else. I was living on other people’s terms, working to keep the wolves away from the door, not because I wanted to. When you’re in that place, you don’t dream about vacations or fancy cars. You dream about breathing without the weight on your chest. The turning point came when I realised the real asset I’d lost wasn’t cash it was control over my own time. I could rebuild the money. But if I kept giving away my days to things that drained me, I’d never get them Read More

I had my plan set. An MBA, a career in marketing strategy, and nearly eight years working with corporates and educational institutions. Life was structured, steady, and moving in the direction it “should.” Coaching wasn’t part of the plan. In fact, when I shifted to career coaching in 2020, I had no idea what the future had in store for me Like many coaches, I started by guiding professionals toward clarity, growth, and confidence in their careers. But what I didn’t realize then was that life had a very different plan for me—a plan that would change not just my journey, but the lives of thousands of women. It all started by chance. In 2022, one of my clients was a past work colleague and a close friend. She had been on a career break. She wasn’t just struggling with updating her resume or finding the right job postings—her real Read More

September 27, 2018, 4:45 PM EST – I was driving back to my hotel in the Philadelphia suburbs, physically drained and emotionally shattered after a devastating day. Earlier, management announced our company’s acquisition by an Indian IT giant, freezing all promotions and raises until March 2019. My expected promotion to Director, slated for October 2018, was why I’d travelled to the U.S. With my boss’s resignation months earlier, I was the obvious successor. That title, the office, and new car I’d envisioned were the validation of my sacrifices. Now, they are gone. I felt cheated, helpless, and betrayed. For four years, I’d poured my soul into this company—traveling 120 days a year to pitch solutions, working odd hours on proofs of concept, and logging 14-hour days to support teams across India and the U.S. I missed my son’s milestones, family weddings, festivals, and vacations, all to secure a better future Read More

I used to teach Biology for a living- now I paint life from my own perspective. I left the classroom behind to pursue a long-held dream of becoming an artist, trading microscopes for paint brushes and lesson plans for blank canvases. As a child, I dreamed in colours, quietly nurturing the desire to become an artist. But life, in its curious ways, led me down the path of Science- I became a Biology teacher. While the classroom gave me purpose, the canvas kept calling. With time, age, and the whisper of my true self growing louder, I chose to leave behind a rewarding career to embrace the art that once lived only in my dreams. My father Is an ENT Surgeon, and he always hoped I would follow in his footsteps and become a Doctor. He once told me that my long, slender fingers would make me an excellent Plastic Surgeon. But within me lived an artist-quiet at first, but persistent. And , perhaps those Read More

I turn 41 this week, and for the last year or so, I have been living as if this is my last decade, even though I know I am likely to survive much longer. So why do you live as if I have only 9 more years left, and how has it changed my life?   In many ways, this phase of life is unique – with rare overlap of good health, control over time and place, reasonable wealth, a daughter on whom I still have some influence, and healthy parents living in the vicinity. I am fully aware that this equilibrium won’t last long and wish to make the most out of it until it lasts!   What changed, you ask? Apart from living more mindfully, as I reflect, I did a few things because of this mindset change, which I wouldn’t have otherwise or deferred for an extended Read More

I followed the well-worn path. Engineering. Management studies. A secure job in a public sector bank for over a decade. My parents, too, retired from government service. Stability and structure were the norms I grew up with—and I never questioned them. Life was proceeding as it “should.” Then came 2019. My mother, retired and excited about a long-awaited pilgrimage, suffered a brain stroke during the trip. That single event shook me more deeply than anything before. We often postpone our joys, our interests, our passions—waiting for retirement, waiting for the “right” time. But what if that time never comes? What if our best health, energy, or even clarity is behind us by then? As I watched her struggle through recovery, the illusion of control began to dissolve. I started asking difficult questions: What am I chasing? And is it worth it? What if everything I’m putting off for “later” is simply Read More