This blog is for all my young friends and family, for their health in all respects; for the older ones, to their continued health and joy. If it speaks to you, please share it. Every financial advisor worth his salt, every column on financial planning, everyone these days drum into you that apart from the health insurance your organization offers you, you need to ensure you take one in your…
Author: Usha Rangarajan
Curiosity did not kill this cat!
I am not an engineer. I did not learn to write code, learn programming languages, nothing! I do not have any kind of formal education on anything to do with technology. As a matter of fact, my first introduction to computers was when I joined, in 1990, the Hotel Management School, and had to roster my students into the practical sessions. I had to do this, to my horror, on…
A haircut and some entrepreneur lessons…………
Last weekend, I went to Harish, my favourite hairstylist. I have followed him from salon to salon, till he opened his own salon 4 years ago. I just don’t get my hair cut anywhere else – and all who read this will understand that if you are lucky to find a great hair stylist, you will do the same; because, he makes you feel beautiful or handsome as the case…
Be a Man, Man!(woman)
We were at a friend’s wedding yesterday. A grand show, love in the air, good wishes from family and friends, great food (of course!). We had planned to drive back to Bangalore the same day, so tried to make an early exit. But when we reached the car park of the wedding hall, we found one cute little car, with a large ‘L’ board, parked so precisely that it blocked…
What does leadership have to do with walking on fire?
I was a source of great amusement to my paediatrician. I would get a severe asthma attack every month, and in those days, the best solution to control it was to give the child an injection. And here was little Usha, who would start screaming from the moment he prepared the needle! ‘I haven’t even touched you Usha’ he would tell me. He just didn’t understand that the screaming and…
Choosing to be Birbal…………
Last weekend was spent with my little niece, so I had to dig into my long forgotten repertoire of stories. I narrated to her one of my favourites- Akbar and Birbal in ‘the jealous courtier’. The courtier complains to Akbar that he doesn’t give importance to anyone else’s suggestion and only heeds to Birbal. So the king sends Birbal, and the courtier to the road, to find out what the…
The importance of being earnest
Last month, a bunch of us were subject to a presentation by a potential partner, who was trying to sell us their offering – a new service concept. Their concept was one that is probably exciting and new to some organizations, but happens to be a best practice within our business group. It is something that we had adopted and built on for a while now, something that, over a…
Heroes with feet of clay………
I had this teacher in college who was almost a cult leader. He was the Pied Piper to every single student, male and female. He was passionate about the course he taught, and passionate about us; he was so invested in each one of us, he put enormous energy and effort into shaping our careers; he was larger than just the course, you could get a conversation going with him…
Black, white and many shades of grey in between…………
On the morning of what was probably the most traumatic day of my life, I was standing outside an apartment block in Mumbai, looking for a cab to take me to the hospital, where the person most precious to me was to be operated on. A taxi stand right there, and two taxis. One with no driver in sight, and the other, obviously the don of the stand, relaxing in…
I do because I want to…………………..
I am not a blogger, I have tweeted once in my life, and I have only authored work related documents. No sir, my writing days ended with my school, where I probably left the world of ‘what if’ and beautiful day dreams behind. However, as I move into a different stage in my career, the single piece of advice to me has been to start writing. At the least ‘tweet’,…