Life Stories

My weekday mornings usually begin with a walk around the society. Weekends, of course, are a different story—those are reserved for a little extra sleep and a lot less motivation! On my walks, I come across familiar faces and plenty of unfamiliar ones. Most mornings, we simply cross paths without exchanging more than a polite smile. But one morning, I noticed a house help standing near the entrance of a building. Something about her expression caught my attention. She looked confused, worried, and almost helpless. As I walked past, she turned towards me and started explaining her problem. She was trying to make a phone call but couldn't get it to connect. She had recharged her phone just the previous day, so she couldn't understand what was wrong. I stopped to see if I could help. It was a basic phone with a traditional numerical keypad. And there was another little challenge—the phone's language was set to Hindi. Hindi may be our mother tongue, but navi...

We were at Badrinath. The weather was cold with light showers further dropping the temperature. We had a fantastic darshan at the temple. While returning to the accommodation, there were quite a number of stalls selling masala milk. If you're unaware, it is full cream milk reduced by cooking it for an elongated duration and adding loads of dry fruits to it. This is specifically made in places with lesser temperatures. A glass full of masala milk was filling enough. Now this is something me and my dad relish, not something that tempts mom. It was 6:20pm and we had our breakfast at 8:30am. Mom was supposed to eat. We searched for a place and landed over at a place called "Hotel Narayan Palace". We went in to check if they would be serving something for dinner at that odd hour. A gentleman who also turned out to be the owner was on a phone call. I kind of disturbed him by my question. He was fine, but the staff seemed a bit confused if we'll want to have dinner so early....

There are some people who leave an impression on your life without ever becoming a part of it. I've always been someone who enjoys talking to people. Conversations come naturally to me, and over the years I've met countless individuals through work. There was a phase in my career when I was interviewing for different internal projects. Most of those interactions were transactional—an interview, a discussion, and then everyone moved on. Except one. We never became friends. We never worked on the same project. In fact, after that interview, we barely spoke. He eventually settled in Toronto while our lives continued on different paths. A few years later, my first international work trip was finalized—and my destination was Toronto. Like anyone travelling abroad for the first time, I was excited, nervous, and filled with questions. I reached out to people I knew there, trying to understand the city, transportation, weather, and everyday life. In the middle of all those conver...

Wedding season brings with it a different kind of excitement. Families get busy with shopping, decorations, guest lists, and countless last-minute arrangements. One of my teammates was right in the middle of all this as his sister's wedding preparations were in full swing. One day, while we were on a work call, he mentioned that he wanted to hand me the wedding invitation personally in the office. It was a thoughtful gesture, and we continued discussing work as usual. Like many conversations with him, the discussion soon drifted beyond the agenda. He was at the beginning of his career—curious, energetic, and never short of questions or unusual ideas. That day, he came up with one that I had never heard before. "Ma'am," he said, "I want your name to appear on the invitation as Special Appearance." For a moment, I wasn't sure if I had heard him correctly. I laughed and explained, "That's something you usually see when celebrities or famous persona...

It was an ordinary evening commute. The same roads, the same traffic, and the same rush to get home. Then, in an instant, something caught my attention. A young man suddenly darted onto the busy road, desperately trying to pick up something lying just ahead of an oncoming car. Before he could reach it, the vehicle rolled over it, crushing it beneath its tyres. He quickly stepped back, narrowly avoiding what could have been a tragic accident. Curious, I looked closer. The object he had risked his life for was a tiny, single-use plastic water bottle—perhaps just 200 ml. That moment stayed with me. For many of us, an empty plastic bottle is nothing more than waste. We toss it aside without a second thought. But for someone else, it can mean a few rupees, a meal, or simply another day of survival. It was a stark reminder of two realities sharing the same road—one where we discard without thinking, and another where people risk their lives collecting what we throw away. Sometimes, the most ...

Campus recruitment days are usually predictable. A long line of enthusiastic graduates. Back-to-back interviews. Endless introductions that begin with names, branches, and aspirations. By lunchtime that day, I had completed all the interviews assigned to my panel and joined the rest of the recruitment team for a quick break. Just as lunch was wrapping up, one of the organizers approached me. "There's one more candidate left. Would you mind interviewing him after lunch?" I agreed and returned to my interview room. A few minutes passed. The organizers informed me they couldn't reach the candidate on his phone. We decided to wait a little longer, assuming he had stepped away for lunch. Barely two or three minutes later... Bang! The door flew open. A young man walked in without knocking. Behind him was a college coordinator, slightly out of breath, asking if I needed the candidate's résumé. I nodded, accepted the CV, and the coordinator quietly left the room. The cand...

Guru Arjan Devji was the 5th sikh Guru. On their shaheedi diwas( Martyr's Day) which was observed on 18th June 2026 this year, the Sikh community sets up chabeels at various locations. A public place distributing free water/sweet drinks to the passers by as a sewa is called a chabeel. I recently interacted with a Sikh colleague and had our contacts exchanged. They put up a WhatsApp status for the chabeel and I happened to notice it. I checked with them and was warmly onboarded. I wanted to contribute and was also invited to join the sewa. Considering various factors I confirmed to join. Having been born and raised in northern part of India, this was a part of the memories while growing up. However, since I moved to Pune, had missed these events. When I saw this opportunity, I wanted to grab it with both my hands   I reached the location of the chabeel in the morning, the sewa was already on. I joined the group. The chabeel was at a round about with an auto riksha stand, a bus ...

Quite at the initial stage of my career, I was working with an amazing team. A geographically diverse but a very well bonded team. We used to brainstorm and work together through the day on voip calls and screen sharing through office communicator. Working on a product, it needed a lot of collaboration and thinking out of the box to make it a world class product. We were making something to overcome the challenges of an already established industry standard tool. The initial product was already there before I joined. However, it still needed a lot of work based on the user experience. Everyday we came in with a new challenge, understand what our users had challenges with and tried to resolve them one after the other. After a couple of months which spanned a few years, we had taken it to a level where it had not only overcome the challenges of the existing industry tool but had also come out better. The extra ordinary implementations we did were appreciated far and wide on various inter...

My Driving license was due for renewal. The earlier license was from Delhi and now I have been living in Pune so it needed an address change too. I searched the net and found the renewal could be done online through the parivahan site.  I filled the form online, uploaded the required documents - current licence and address proof in this case. The fees was also calculated by the same site and paid online. Next was the appointment booking again from the parivahan site. The appointment slots are from Monday to Friday only.  I booked the slot for 10am monday morning. The RTO office is in sector 6, Moshi. It was a 25-min drive from my place and I reached the RTO office at 10am. On the ground floor is a reception where no one sits. If you look at that you will probably keep waiting as rest of the activities happen on the floors above. First floor is dedicated to all the driving licence work. When I reached there the first time, the counters were all deserted. People were waiting in ...