Rahul Desai's Blog

You Are Allowed To Say 'No'

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 08:45:00 GMT

It is okay to say ‘No’.

5 Ways To Say Wah Taj

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 17:58:41 GMT

What can I say? People love flaunting, and no different am I! I, fortunately, possess many things worth boasting about. Like my wife’s Ph.D., her research work. Like my blog. The latest addition to this list is this cheeky question: “Have you visited the Taj?” Shockingly, a lot of Indians who otherwise have easy access to this spectacular Wonder of the World are oblivious to its exquisiteness. If you have also been humiliated by this pinching question, here is your calling! It is never too late to say “वाह, ताज!”

Why Pune Is Not Bangalore

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:23:00 GMT

I have spent the biggest part of my sane life in Pune (Maharashtra, to be precise). If forced to define, I would say I am equally or more a Marathi (Maharashtrian) as I am a Gujarati. I have loved every moment (almost every) of my time there and I any day love Pune and being in Pune more than any other places I’ve ever been to.

Tragic Story Of Partition

bm@rahuldesai.com (Dr Bharat Desai) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:18:00 GMT

The only reason for the India-Pakistan partition was Congress - a few Congress leaders who were old, tired, not ready to fight anymore and had a deep political desire of getting power at the earliest. All this made them accept partition without much protest and fighting.

Hypocrite We All Are

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:30:00 GMT

Paradox and Hypocrite happen to be two of my favourite words in the English language. I’m assuming it’s because I can relate to these terms quite closely. While I tend to find, notice and remark irony out of most practical situations, I feel I’m strongly responsible for their very existence. Thanks to some distinct contradiction between my speech and action, I manage to produce interesting whirls in many affairs I’m directly involved in. Such behaviour – often unintentional – is usually amusing and beneficial; however, the only honest word to define is Hypocrisy.

Much as I try to introspect and implement stronger life ethics, I’ve observed I often (unknowingly) take a path of pretence – something that conveniently works my way. Not that I’m proud of it, nor has it played any role in the little success I’ve achieved in my professional and personal life; I can only be honest that I haven’t always been the most neutral person one should ideally be. And so I thought of resorting to someone I know who’s always stuck to her/his stand in everything s/he had to say, someone, I can learn from – like my parents, teachers, close friends, relatives. Drifting as my thoughts could be, I was led to think – Most of us are Hypocrites – at one or the other level.

5 Workout Tips That Work

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:00:00 GMT

When you learn, teach. When you get, give. - Maya Angelou (US Author & Poet, 1928)

I’m no wizard in exercising or dieting. We have gym instructors and nutritionists for that. However, with consistent (read futile ) attempts over decades, I've attained the inside knowledge of why common people often fail to adopt a workout routine. I feel I must share the secret in the interest of humanity.

Starting way back in 6 ^th grade in school when my parents took up ‘family lifetime membership’ at a Health Club at home, to Kota, Pune, Bhopal, and now Bangalore. I’ve made generous donations to some of the biggest players in the ‘health and fitness' business in these cities. And they have failed to get me what I want. Actually, I’ve failed to understand what I want – or rather, what I need to do. All I’ve gained is some more weight, increased BMI, and learned some creative excuses not to exercise.

30 Odd. What is it like?

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:35:00 GMT

Exactly 5 years ago, I had written an article on how great a deal it was turning 25 – stepping into Grihasthashram. Apart from the poor response and less-welcome comments, it had content that seemed completely irrelevant lately. I deleted the article.

I had to wait for 5 years and another milestone of my age to write this article. It’s an interesting stage from a 'numbers' point of view.

While I turned 30 today, both of my parents are 60. In ITSM terminology, combined, our age is 150 years. If we were to bill God (or nature?) for everything we do on a day-to-day basis, we would have billed for 150x365x24 man-hours. Of course, I’ve gladly ignored my sister’s existence for this hypothetical example. But I like this landmark. Anyway.

Fuel For A Journey Called Life

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:01:00 GMT

For months, I had completely disconnected from news and newspapers simply because of the extent of negativity they concentrate on. I do have all the respect for media – paper and electronic – much more than what they deserve; still, I feel what we’re witnessing these days is the all-time-worst decline in journalism standards (so in India, at least).

5 Reasons To Quit Facebook

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Being a social media addict, it is not easy to NOT like Facebook or sorts. There have been really strong reasons, however, behind writing this article. We all 'Facebook' for one or the other reason. But there may be many others, why we should not.

Earlier today, I was going through a photo album and ‘tagging’ people. (That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? ‘Tag Faces’? ‘Face’ book?) So I did. To my surprise, I could identify two extremely opposite sets of people:

People that I never imagined would use a computer, were on Facebook. (I wouldn’t have imagined this, say, five years ago. But not anymore. They are quite active. They do ‘like’ my comments and photos off and on. They are very much here to stay.)

People that could be on Facebook weren’t really there.

Original, Originality, et al.

rahul@rahuldesai.com (Rahul Desai) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:51:00 GMT

How to produce original content? As an amateur blogger, like millions of others, I must find the answer to this burning question.

In my recent conversation with someone very close and frank with me, I got honest feedback that my last few articles weren’t as charismatic as he had expected them to be. I couldn't blame him. I was so indulged in the urge of writing something – absolutely anything to start with, that I partially (or fully?) failed to justify the topic. But what else could I have possibly done?

I have picked information from forwarded emails, anonymous quotes, newspapers, and books to write inspired articles in the past. Many of them were gladly received, liked, and commented on. But did I really deserve that? At least I wasn’t satisfied. And when I managed to break out of the shell, it had a direct and much tougher competition with my own writing of the past.