Unschooling works when we help our children recognise their larger self-identities, much beyond school. The cookie-cutter approach taken by many (but not all) public schools in North America does not help holistic development. But for children to see that and to allow them to take charge of their education, they must first be able to see themselves holistically. And we, as parents and educators, must help them do that.

School is an “Anchor” experience

Every week, I participate in a Zoom meeting of experienced educators and parents. Unschooling School founded by educator and parent Heather McTaggart, is a group of people who have come together…

A couple of years back, I attended a fascinating conference in Toronto about the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in business. Delivering the keynote was Dr. Geoffrey West, an eminent physicist and author of the thought-provoking book “Scale.”

He explained that innovation takes place in waves. Moreover, across human history, subsequent waves of innovation have occurred at exponentially faster rates. While all this progress is exciting, the flip side is that newer innovations tend to replace previous technologies at a supersonic speed too.

In other words, the pace of evolution and that of the resulting extinction is the same.

So…

A few years back, I began noticing an interesting trend. Every once in a while, new ideas spontaneously came to my mind — an app, a social cause, the perfect message some public figure needs to hear, or even a new angle to write about.

Sometimes I’d let them simmer. At others, I’d let them go because I had different priorities. Most often though, I’d push them aside out of sheer self-doubt.

If it were such a brilliant idea, someone would have thought of it before.

Someone had. Years later, I would come across someone else who either brought up…

The days I wake up feeling beautiful turn out to be the most joyous of days, much more than the others.

Although I don’t work in the beauty industry or create art for a living, the pursuit of beauty is the undertone in so many decisions I make throughout the day.

Whether it's crafting that perfect title for a poem, building a watertight argument, decorating a little corner in my house, or even choosing to add a little bouquet to my grocery basket. Beauty is central to human pursuits.

I’ve also observed that most people pursue beauty in some form…

Early on in our professional life, my husband Shashank Nigam and I made some key decisions to build financial freedom from scratch. You are financially free when you can choose to live comfortably for a period of time without making a continuous income. And it was this freedom that allowed my husband and me to take a year of unpaid leave from our careers in 2019.

But guess what? It is never too late to build financial freedom that allows you to set off on a journey of a lifetime with your partner — it all starts by creating assets…

The second cleaning lady showed up. She eloquently waxed away about the aromatherapy products she would use if we hired her, her work ethic, experience keeping large homes spotless, for over twenty minutes. Frankly, we were overwhelmed by the fact that something we have considered a chore all our lives, she had raised to the level of fine art! We must not have appeared impressed. So she threw out her final chip — your place needs a lot of cleaning.

My usual reaction would have been, “Yes, it does. And that’s precisely why we are here in my living room…

Right around the third week of January, you are supposed to see the magic of the 21-day rule of building habits. Many of you who made new year resolutions and sincerely kept to them may have started noticing that your new year resolution still doesn’t feel like a habit.

Your morale is beginning to dip, and the high spirit of the new year is slowly fading away. Unlike the promise of the 21-day rule, your new rituals feel anything but automatic. It is still taking considerable effort to get out of bed and hit the trails in the morning.

Self-doubt…

In the early 2000s, to explain trends in consumer spending during recessions, Estee Lauder’s chairman Leonard Lauder coined a “lipstick index”. It tracks the sale of lipsticks in a given period and is seen to be inversely correlated with the state of the economy. When the economy underperforms, sales of lipsticks shoot up.

Even in economic recessions, lipsticks are a small luxury that women can still afford without too much guilt. So when they want to treat themselves, they buy lipsticks instead of more expensive items such as bags and shoes. Neat, isn’t it?

The surprising trend though is that…