My friend Vibha and I attend many conferences – both separately and together. They all have a lot in common. Speakers are typically over-informed and under-prepared; eager for recognition, unwilling to listen to others, convinced of their [...]

The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little. ~ Thomas Merton It’s hard to improve when everyone keeps telling you how great you already are. Walk around with a disability and everyone finds you amazing. Have a child with special [...]

I guess we all have a litmus test – a secret standard by which we measure (even judge) others. The veteran may wonder how that young guy – so macho and cocky – would behave in battle. The grandmother wants to know how that girl [...]

Coming around the corner to my home the other day (and imagine! I had my camera out and ready), I spotted these two little girls busy at work plucking flowers from the bush that hangs over our boundary wall. They were so intent on their task [...]

We lost this little girl yesterday. How careless it sounds, as if we had misplaced her; as if we were busy doing other things, then turned around and found she had vanished. And of course, it wasn’t like that at all. Siddhika had been [...]

Everyone is always shocked when I tell them how many disabled people there are in India. Two hundred two million five hundred thousand is a huge number and a typical response is: “WHAT? 202 million? How is that possible? How come I never see [...]

The random yet comprehensive range of  recent terrorist attacks is what makes them so chilling. They could happen – literally – anywhere. An airport, a train station, a night club for gays, a night club for straights, a night club [...]