Nostalgia is a B**** and the easiest Matar Paneer

 There comes a time in everyone's life when they realise  how perfect things were and we didn't value it...

The early morning commutes...

The tête-à-tête over coffee/chai at work,

Our in-person meetings that had sounded unbearably long...

My needing to dress up and wear *some* makeup...

The in-person Zumba Classes,

The hugs from my BFF...

Breathing the fresh air outside sans mask...

I will never again take life for granted....

And that's where nostalgia plays its games.

It's been a year and I am tired of the fear and the mask and the restrictions. Don't get me wrong...I am one of those rule-followers who follows rules to the tee...and yet I am tired and could use something different in my life right now...

Work will start full deluge tomorrow and grocery shopping and meal prepping were the top of mind right now. I had a margherita lying in the fridge that I was wondering whether to toss or drink and broke 2 months of "dry days" to a prickly pear margherita and the buzz was pleasant...yet the mind slowed down to snail pace...I ended up making the easiest Matar Paneer ever...

5 Minute Easy Matar Paneer

What you need?

1. 1/2 bottle Trader Joe's Marinara Sauce
2. Olive Oil
3. Spices : Turmeric, Kasturi Methi, Punjabi Garam Masala
4.  Fresh Thinly Slices Ginger, Jalapeno
5. 1 lb Paneer (cottage cheese, I used the Nanak Brand) - I airfried in parallel with some turmeric and salt in my airfryer about 10 minutes
6. 1/2 lb Peas ( Trader Joe's)
7. Trader Joes Kefir
8. Ketchup, Cinnamon  (optional but makes a difference in taste)
9. Salt to taste
10. Chopped Cilantro to drizzle on later

How to make it?

1. Cube the Paneer, sprinkle with turmeric and salt - spray with Oil and add to Air Fryer and fry at the max temp 400 degrees F for 12 minutes, till golden brown
2. Cut the Ginger and Jalapeno into thin slices...
3. Turn your instant pot to Saute
4. Add olive oil, add turmeric, punjabi garam masala,kasturi methi,  ginger and jalapeno and saute for a couple minutes
5. Add the Marinara Sauce 
6. Add in the air-fried paneer
7. Add about 1/2 cup of water
8. Turn on the pressure on manual 2 minutes, no release
9. Open and now add Salt, Ketchup and Cinnamon to taste
10. Add a little bit of Kefir and taste...it will make it creamy and give it a slight tang...
11. Add the chopped cilantro
12. Enjoy with Parathas/Brown Rice

“Nostalgia is a necessary thing, I believe, and a way for all of us to find peace in that which we have accomplished, or even failed to accomplish...

Tentative Parenting : Leap of Faith

" Sometimes all you got to do is take a deep long breath, close your eyes and  take that leap of faith... p.s : keep your fingers crossed at the back that everything works out" 
                                           ---Meenakshi

                                                                                               

                            Photo Credit : Aman Barboza, Venue : Oracle Corporation

My son taught me a lesson this week - in 7th grade at the ripe age of 11 he auditioned for a role in the school play for the first time...for a boy who never sings or dances...he showed remarkable grace and fortitude. Sometimes the toughest part about a new journey - is the beginning. There is a little inner voice telling us how comfortable we are with status quo, telling us we are not ready or capable or is the risk even worth it...so we keep grinding away living a life other than the one we dared to dream about.

So K2's audition ended with him finding his "magic lamp"...he is Aladdin in their school play...my search for the magic lamp begins next month as I take my "leap of faith".

In our current world which is "turning tides" and where women are finally beginning to move beyond "could have, should have, would have"...drop those mental shackles and take that leap of faith...at the end of it all - we end up with two life lists : All the things that we did and all the things that we "wish" we had done. 

Get cracking on that first list...I am right with you!

p.s : if you came to my blog looking for an instant pot recipe - have you tried my berry jam yet - it is delicious and takes literally 5 minutes to make :-)

The Perfect Imperfect Curry...

                                                                                            -- A 13 Yr Old
In the spate of last week's suicides by two celebrities....one of whom I adored Anthony Bourdain, there was a lot of introspection going on in my head. I lost a 44 year old cousin  two years back to Suicide...she had the perfect job, the perfect house and the perfect two children...yet she couldn't find that elusive happiness and the strife to keeping it all "just right" got to her...
It was a huge wake-up call for me...I am this person who usually doesn't really care about what others think about me and focus on doing the things that nourish my mind, body and soul...call that selfish...I call that a necessity for my existence. However, in the past few years, there has been a little bit of...omigod! what would she say if I did this or post this or act like this...this pressure to try to tweak my "branding"...to get it just "right" and then when G (my cousin) passed on...there was an aha! moment for me, along with the empty feeling of loss and grief. It was the fact that what was driving me nuts...up the wall was this constant clamour for perfection....perfectly clean house, perfectly completed to-do-list, perfectly groomed kid (and puppy), a perfect husband and a perfect me with a perfect social media page....REALITY : all hogwash...so tomorrow if you see this really short-haired woman walking by the bay in her Jammies talking to her scruffy puppy...that is moi....my gift to myself is this "gift of imperfection" and with it comes the joy and freedom of living life on my own terms.

I didn't really feel like cooking today and that's where my wonderful Instant Pot came in super handy with this < 10 minutes noodles almost like a vegetarian Khao Soi (without the hard work).  The recipe is healthy too (because healthy makes me happy). Here's how I rolled :

What you need

1. Thai Yellow Curry (click the link for what I used)
2. Explore Cuisine ChickPea Spaghetti (click for link for what I used) - 1 packet for 4 servings ( 11gms of fiber per serving, 25 gms of protein)
3. Some vegetables - any vegetables ( I used  onions, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower and white mushrooms)
4.  5 cups of water or vegetable broth
5. Liquid Aminos (for seasoning), Avocado Oil (or any other oil)
6. Thai Taste - Light Coconut Milk
7. Lime Juice, Cilantro  and Paprika for garnish

To Cook 

1. Turn on your Instant Pot to Saute. Add your oil....add the onions and the thai yellow curry and saute till Onions are translucent and the raw smell of the curry paste has reduced.
2. Add the veggies and the noodles and give it a stir.
3. Now add the water (or broth)
4. Put the IP on manual High Pressure for 3 minutes
5. When done open and add in the coconut milk+ Liquid Aminos to taste
6. Now add fresh lime juice, cut cilantro and paprika 
7. Dig into your perfect "imperfect curry"

And I want you to  Promise Yourself - To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something special in them. Give every living creature you meet a smile (so what if they don't smile back, think of all the endorphins your smile is generating!). To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world (so what if no one else is listening, you are!).To live in faith that the whole world is on your side and you can do whatever you wished today and everyday!

Tentative Parenting : Monkey See, Monkey Do

K2 : Ma, how come we have no hair products at home
Working Mom : Huh! We have shampoo and coconut oil - what are you talking about?
K2  (rolls his eyes) : Ma - I mean hair products like hair gel
Working Mom (Stretching the truth) : K2, you know all that is bad for your hair right?
K2 : Ma - But R, C and T use it - so I think it's alright - can you please get me some?
Working Mom : No can do baby! Not quite yet. Let's give it a couple more years and then if you still feel like putting artificial goop in your hair, its your choice. How about we talk about this again when you are 13?

In the urban dictionary "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is  - an expression describing someone who imitates another person's actions, good or bad,simply by having watched them before.
Given the sociologist in me I researched this some more and here are some loose guidelines I have set for myself in my parenting quest :

1. Be intentional about your child's surroundings but be open to the fact that he will be exposed to both positive and negative role-models. For eg. K2 has this friend who only eats whites (white rice, white yogurt, white pasta with alfredo saunce, pretty much no veggies and fruits) and K2 takes a lot of pleasure in throwing up the friend's example when he is given 2 servings of fruits and veggies for both lunch and dinner - I just smile and ask him what the Doctor told him in his last check-up - Eat 6-7 servings of veggies and fruits  ( the argument ends there!)
2. Notice the positive - K2 was reluctant about brushing twice (don't ask-I won't tell) till his friend had a rather painful cavity extraction and was very explicit about detailing the painful experience - I have noticed regular brushing and flossing as an offshoot #FTW
3. Talk about it - Like we did about the hair products - it's not about giving in or it's not about being controlling - it's about letting them know Why Not and when they can use it if they still want to --- We have had a similar discussion around soda, getting him a phone etc. etc...the list doesn't end (can't say the same about the patience level!)
4. Do as you say - I limited  the conversation around my son's use of hair gel but it was an easier talk for me to have with him because he sees that at home Mom and Dad don't really use a lot of these products - the soda conversation was an easy one because we have no soda lying around in the house.

It's so easy for the young ones and the not-so young ones to get caught up in this behavior - whether it's hair styles, dresses, make-up, shoes, designer bags, accents, behavioral aspects...we tend to look up to and ape role models. I constantly  remind K2 and myself of something my father told me while I was growing up " it takes nothing to join the crowd, it takes grit and courage to stand alone - you don't have to fit in unless you want to ...always remember that" 

 Happy Friday! So are you living in a world of "Monkey See, Monkey Do or are you being an Original Monkey" :-)

On being Mortal

"Severe Illness wasn't life-altering, it was life-shattering.It felt less like an epiphany - a piercing burst of light, illuminating what really matters- and more like someone had just firebombed the path forward"

-- When Breath Becomes air

I didn't want to read this book - after K1 told me the book was incredibly sad and he skipped pages because he couldn't bear the melancholy. I waited till the last minute, the book was due at the library on June 5th - I couldn't stand the thought of returning the book without reading it first. This book made me cry & get a headache ( I don't cry easy!) , it made me feel way too much, but most of all it had me revisit old memories- so thank you for that!

It took me right back to the times with my father - where I had lived second-hand through all his angst, realizations, acceptance and hopes...the decision tree of treatment, the Kaplan-Meier survival curves,  the numbness, the fall-back of - why the heck even live if we have to die anyway? I revisited some of my blog posts which reflected (less elegantly some of my second-hand brush with severe illness and death...the truth is I didn't deal with it with as much grace and realism as I saw reflected in this book). Sharing some of my older posts...if you have travelled this journey, know that you are not alone - there is an answer at the end of the question - it might not be the one you are seeking, but it's probably the only one you will get - it's what you make of that answer that defines the rest of your life.

Hitting Ground Zero - 11/07/09  -- I found out 3 weeks before this that my father had cancer

Hope Floats - 12/25/09 -- this was 10 days after my father's surgery in Irvine

Existential Crisis- 04/02/11 - the cancer is back

The ticking timebomb - 09/25/11 - dealing with the aftermath and the decision tree of next steps

The Dirty "C" Word -  08/07/12 - the chemotherapy aftermath

Inside Out...Outside looking in - 11/03/12 - my last vacation with Bapa, we talked a lot, ate whatever we wanted and took our morning walks every single day

Simple Gratitude  -  02/05/13 - My last trip to India, Bapa was in the ICU and I spent 10 days in the hospital with him, he went back home on Jan 31st.

Lost my voice found my mind - 02/14/13 - Bapa was back in the ICU with low platelets

You are loved - 03/12/13 - lost Bapa on March 11th and the trip back home almost broke me down completely...but you survive, thrive and go on...there is an empty part in you that always misses your lost ones...but you learn to go on.

I didn't really want to end my day on a sad note today...yet maybe it's not really sad. It is about "making peace in my own mind" with issues as yet unresolved...Maybe it's the survivor's guilt...it's something for sure. I want  to end this post in the words of Paul Kalanithi - 

“Everyone succumbs to finitude. I suspect I am not the only one who reaches this pluperfect state. Most ambitions are either achieved or abandoned; either way, they belong to the past. The future, instead of the ladder toward the goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present. Money, status, all the vanities the preacher of Ecclesiastes described hold so little interest: a chasing after the wind, indeed.”

Tentative Parenting : Dealing with Uncertainity

My son started 4th Grade on Wednesday - new teacher, some old friends and mostly new experiences. He jumped out of bed with a smile and said - Ma, I am ready. He did hold our hands briefly while walking to school but once there he quickly got his bearing and was ready for any curve ball life had to throw his way.

Ironically about the same time K2 was dealing with ambiguity in his life I was thrown a curve ball at work - rather than talk about what it was -- I will tell you that it has a reasonably large impact on my professional life. I don't know if I handled it with the same maturity and grace that my 8 years old showed, however I did want to share my learnings 

# Replace expectations with plans - this works really well for me as I am a planner - instead of expecting the future to give me something specific, when I am focused on where I want to get and how I get there -- I feel more comfortable.

#Be confident in your coping mechanisms - I am a typical Product Manager - I think of multiple outcomes for the same thing and usually plan for the worst one...I was pleasantly shocked when I read the book, The Positive Power of Negative Thinking,  (man! I should have written this book!) I was really on to something with defensive pessimism—when you consider the worst so you can plan how you’d handle it (without letting it bog you down!), you are mostly covered.

#Practice Mindfulness and Gratitude - As I was kissing my son Goodnight last night, I realized that I had been given a veritable treasure - a great family, good health, no wants and am a working mom who is able to balance her career & personal responsibilities. The reality is I know all this is transitional I might have this today and not have it tomorrow. I am grateful for what I have now...

# When all else fails go  Zumba - My best grief & stress management tool is Zumba (hands down) - Guess who went Zumba yesterday...thanks to my awesome friends and instructors for the extra love and the chance to drown my sorrows in sweat

Note to Self and Krish - Life as we know it is changing...however ambiguity is a beautiful thing - it presents wonderful opportunities. Take a minute to miss the old, then look ahead and prepare for the new.

Simple Living : You are not alone!

"One in 10 people will deal with depression at some point in their life"

I have spent the last couple weeks : a little uneasy, overwhelmed, anxious, extremely fatigued (the word to use is bone-tired) and feeling like there was a dark cloud over my head. If you know me - you know *that's just not me*...so after a couple weeks or so of feeling that way and trying my usual repertoire of tricks -  positive reaffirmation, nature walks, gym...nothing worked. So I sent an email across to my doctor (gist of it ...sometimes I feel sorry for my doc ;-) )  - I just don't feel like myself.I am feeling out of sorts and blue. She gently reminded me of an overdue blood draw -- so I bit the bullet and got my blood tests done...guess what -- the verdict was severely vitamin D deficient ( D Deficiency causes depression, fatigue, joint and bone pain amongst a slew of other ailments... something we Indians are very famous for). Now I am on high dosage prescription "D" and I feel on top of the world again.

So if you are feeling down and out - remember you are not alone. There are mechanisms to cope...and sometimes like in my case it might be the case of a supplement/chemical (or lack of) - playing havoc in your body.When the going gets hard and you feel really alone...reach out for support (something I didn't do). I talked about feeling different after I found the root cause and fixed the issue (hindsight 20/20).

So this week I made myself a Chia Chocolate Pudding  (vaguely inspired by the Chia Pod - Dark Cacao Noir) just because I wanted to do something nice for "me".

Serves: 2

ACTIVE TIME: 5 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 5 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 1 table spoon  Organic Cacao  Powder( I used the Navitas Brand)
• 1 table spoon  Organic Cacao Nibs ( For texture and crunch, you can skip - I used the Navitas Brand)
• 2 Oz Chia seeds
• 1/2 cup of Almond/coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon honey ( I added some stevia to make it a little more sweet)
• Pinch of sea salt (add a pinch of cinnamon if you like cinnamon, I didn't)

PREPARATION
Add to a mason jar (or whatever bowl you are planning to make the pudding in. Whisk all ingredients together. Taste for sweetness. If you want it more sweet add more sweetener of choice. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and enjoy in the morning (it's great on it's own) or you can top it with some berries

Nutritional Insights : Calories per Serving - 300, Carbs - 30 g, Fat - 10 g, Protein - 8 g, Fiber - 11 g 

Chocolate is a huge mood elevator , Chia Seeds give you good fats especially an extra boost of Omega 3, the almond milk was fortified with Vitamin D and the honey helps build immunity - Definitely an easy recipe - that was great to taste and definitely good for you.

Tentative Parenting : Inside Out...

I am inside out, outside looking in,

No matter where I go,

I can't escape my skin

I can act cool, I can act proud

No matter where I go, I am still alone in the crowd

Inside Out, On the outside looking in
                                                           --- Tony Emmanuel 

As I was dusting off the cobwebs of sleep today in the last few minutes of Keith's Yoga Class (Savasana always does that to me...) I also mourned the fact to Uma Aunty that I will be taking K2 to watch "Jurassic World" and why couldn't he just watch "Inside Out" -- As kismet would have it my son changed his mind and we ended up watching "Inside Out". After yesterday's incident -- this was just the movie we needed to watch...

What was yesterday's incident you ask? Well K2 went for an Oakland's A's game with his camp - he got a little bit of money to spend at the stadium - long and short of it is he spent it on baseball cards - he got  really good  cards but doesn't really know much about baseball - did some bad trades and the results in the evening yesterday was this -

We had one sad kid at home and lots of water work...he got a lot of sympathy from dad who said the other kid tricked him into the trade... I was a little harder...let him cry for a while and then said he would lose his ipad over the weekend if the waterworks continued...I got the sad look but the water works miraculously stopped...

This movie had me thinking of the situation from K2's perspective :

(a) He was sad

(b) his friend had played a fast con on him ( I begged to differ!)

(c) He had no way to fix the situation

Sadness was the primary emotion here...however as Inside Out made it aptly clear to him and me today - sadness is not just healthy, it is essential for one's existence as happiness. The key is one needs to be comfortable in one's own skin and with one's own emotions....lots to think about BUT seriously pondering one's parenting skills at midnight after a glass or two of white is sub-optimal. So I will quit while I am still ahead.

Any plans for the long weekend? 

Leading as a Woman

Source : 2014 Leading Women. Research study: Closing the Leadership Gender Gap

I heard an insightful presentation from my manager (who is a woman and the first woman that I have worked for in about 18 years in the tech field & an awesome one at that!) and it had me thinking about Women as leaders especially in the tech industry. Here are some perturbing statistics :

• 4.6% of the Fortune 1000 CEOs are women 
• Women earn 30% lesser on an average than a man for the same job ( it applies to executives too)
• In a study of 25,000 Harvard Business School graduates designed to understand why the gender gap in leadership is so persistent, the one factor that stood out was mismatched expectations between men and women about who was going to be responsible for the home front. Even among the Millennials, men were much more likely to say that they expected to be in a traditional relationship, where their career was primary (don't let me get on a soapbox on this topic, you will beg for mercy I promise you :-) )

The reality from my perspective is re-thinking Leadership as it exists in all it's glory today. Leadership at work is usually seen as a "zero-sum game" - which doesn't have to be the case. You don't always have to put work first in order to rise to the top. It is alright to be "dual centric" -- you sometimes prioritize personal life over work and sometimes prioritize work over personal life.  Reality is there is no such thing as work-life balance, at least for me and then I have to choose - some weeks priorities at work take precedence - an Ops Review, a customer summit or a deliverable with  a deadline AND other weeks my 8 yr old's SAT's (State Administered Tests) or Diorama projects become all consuming...it is just letting go and being alright with just tackling what is a priority then.
  
My advice to women (and men alike) is lessons I have learnt sometimes by observing but mostly by living and working in the Silicon Valley :

# Be Authentic - I don't believe specific traits define a leader, in fact I will go ahead and make the statement - your leadership emerges from your life story. Your life story provides the context for your experiences and through it you can find the inspiration to make an impact. Discovering your leadership requires a certain degree of commitment to develop/discover yourself. 
# Be Aware of your blind spots - Every single person has blind spots aka weak points. Being self-aware and brutally honest with yourself is key here. You are in denial if you don't see yourself as other's see you. And this perception gap is something you have to fix if you want to see yourself grow as a leader.
# Competency - I had watched a Ted Talk by Susan Colantuono - Closing the Leadership Gender Gap (the missing 33%). 

In seeking to identify Leadership traits, according to her (and I agree) there are 3 pillars.One of the key pillars is skills and competencies with running the business - strategic value, execution and financial acumen. It has to do with aligning your own or your group goals with the vision and mission of your organization and helping achieve the goals of the organization. That is the missing 33% of the career success equation for women - it doesn't mean that women are not capable enough or mathematically inclined or strategic. It just means that most of the career advice we are given is conventional and built around soft skills like networking, personal brand, self awareness (guilty as charged but I believe its critical), assertiveness, confidence, empathy and people skills. The reality is  the advice that is usually missed is equally critical (if not more critical) - Competency. I define it as the ability to have

•  the strategic ability to have a vision of what is required for your market (that will get you the revenue and market share)
• Executing to that vision 
• Looping back on how your group's  accomplishments are helping the organization realize it's vision and mission. 

I do believe at the end of the day your work and reputation does speak for itself.

I want to leave you with this quote by John Quincy Adams

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

Tentative Parenting : Changing Courses

K2 is very set in his way and is very unhappy if he has to change course midway even if he knows his previous plan is either (a) not yielding the results he was expecting (b) failing miserably. He gets this stubborn look on his face and keeps going at it (wonder who he gets it from ;-))

Over the years I have learnt to change course with the resources I have on hand, whether it's at work, in life and with my cooking. What I am trying to teach him is the following:

# It ain't easy - I am not saying it's easy and maybe you start of making the changes with baby steps and that's ok
# It's never too late to change course
# Look at your resource and time constraints and make a realistic change decision
# Always have a good idea of where you are trying to get (final product or destination)
# Enjoy the journey

Today for example I was planning  for a dinner party and had every intention of making chicken meatballs from scratch, with quinoa pasta and a homemade pasta sauce (with cauliflower, carrots and tomatoes). A brief phone conversation with N changed the course for me and I made instead smooth, creamy, spicy and satisfying Haleem. I know a lot of folks think Haleem is a labor of love - well not in my kitchen.Here's the dibs and I promise you it's a no-fail recipe

Serves: 8 servings

ACTIVE TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 50 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 Finger chopped Ginger
• 1 packet Shaan's Haleem Masala
• 750 gms (1.5 lbs) of Organic Ground Chicken 
• Soaked Pulses and Grains - I used 1/4 cup of Toor Dal, Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Barley and Wheat Bran (soaked 2 hrs+)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Lemon

PREPARATION

 Heat oil in large pressure cooker over medium heat. Add  ginger and the ground chicken and the Haleem Masala sauté for 5 minutes. Now add the soaked pulses & grains and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add Chicken Broth or Water, I added water (about 8 cups) and pressure cook for 10+ whistles on medium

Add chopped Cilantro and  then use an immersion blender to blend to a paste. I added the lemon juice last and checked the seasoning.

 A delicious and spicy Haleem is ready (without any unhealthy implications -- I used lean meat and used no ghee, just organic safflower oil)

Nutritional Insights : Calories per Serving - 220, Carbs - 17 g, Fat - 10 g, Protein - 17 g, Sodium - 400 mg, Fiber - 8 g

Waiting for Godot

I had the strangest conversation with someone I was mentoring last month. Here is how it went -
Friend: So, I have been in this role for 4 years and I am bored - there has been no promotion, interesting stretches in the job or monetary uplift
Working Mom : So what did you do about it?
Friend (surprised look) : Whaaaat? I am waiting for my manager to offer me the position of  Lead ?
Working Mom : Have you had a conversation with him letting him know of your interest?
Friend : Well I am working so hard , my work should speak for itself
Working Mom : So the reality is ...managers are not mind readers. You need to have a candid conversation with them around your career aspirations and interests. If  (a) the conversation does not yield a milestone map with them on your progress (b) status quo....it is your cue to stretch yourself and explore other opportunities. Yes it's hard and in situations inconceivable given the comfort level and security in your current job but the decision is yours to make.

How many times have you followed your dream....said damn the consequences this is what I want to do and I bloody well will do it come hell or high water? 

I was watching Shark Tank yesterday and one of things the Shark Robert Herjavec said was - the worst thing you can do is nothing. It resonated with me because ...It is very easy for  a person to get into a state of “Anomie”…a mindless state of just being …reminds me of a play I had read ages back in a literature class. The play was titled “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett. It was about two sad men – Estragon and Vladimir and it follows two days in their lives while they wait expectantly and unsuccessfully for someone named Godot to arrive. They claim him as an acquaintance but in fact hardly know him, admitting that they would not recognize him were they to see him. To occupy themselves, they eat, sleep, converse, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate suicide — yet they are afraid to even take that final step of suicide…what if the belt or the rope broke…they were plain afraid…still waiting for Godot. It was a simple play which our English teacher had us enact and dissect and yet what remained twenty five years later were memories of those two sad men…waiting, afraid and in limbo…

Action is better than inaction any day...you have to try, fail, learn and do it over in order to grow. By failing you are setting yourself up to savor the successes that come by small or big. The best advise I have ever received was from my father who is no longer with me - He definitely lived it...he transformed himself from a child who lived in an orphanage all through middle school and high school to a full scholarship student (oh!so hard) to passing the IAS Exams at age 22 and he ended up the Head of a State.

He said Get out there and do something, Take Action. Don't take action because your neighbor did it ....but take it because there is this fire in your belly (I read that as Passion) that is forcing you to take action. You have one life -- Live it -- GET OUT THERE & DO SOMETHING