Found this in my e-mail archives. I’d written this opinion piece nine years ago — while I was still in India — and it still rings true, especially because of the rise of social media and our need to be acknowledged online by a mix of real-life friends and complete strangers. We’re more involved…
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The last couple of weeks I have been busy updating the university style guide — you know the readily available, easily accessible booklet that serves as a “dictionary, a spelling reference, and a guide for basic grammar and punctuation”? A handy journal that helps you understand the difference between its and it’s, use and…
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As I was reading Nicholas Kristof’s What Could you Live Without, it prompted a lot of ideas. I looked around our house and all our accumulated gadgets stared back at me. In the past two years we have been good about giving away clothes, exercise machines, a TV, used laptops, and other miscellaneous items…
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It’s been six months since I started working at Santa Clara University and almost nine years since I began my writing career. I’ve had five managers in a full-time capacity and three editors I’ve reported to as a freelancer and each of them has had a distinct personality, unique quirks, and interesting leadership styles….
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A good way of managing my professional time, I’ve been told, is to prioritize. I have a daily to-do list, a white board which I update (anally) with a list of current and future projects, and a good idea of the importance attached to each project (all requests from the president’s office come first)….
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As I watched Modern Family last night (which, by the way, is the best new comedy on the airwaves these days) I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when one of the characters woke her daughter in the middle of the night and beseeched her teenager to teach her how to use the remote….
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I have been spending a lot of time with toddlers recently. Almost 95 percent of our Indian friend circle in the Bay Area have kids in the age range of 0-24 months and I, inadvertently, end up being the “entertainer” for their little ones. I choose that role because it allows me to experience…
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I’ve often wondered during our travels to international destinations why the concept of my country is so important to us. In a networked age where the world has been shrunk to fit into an iPod shuffle, why are we still tied to the notion of our motherland? Isn’t it just by accident of birth…
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We’ve heard often that communication is the key to success in personal relationships. Good in theory, but how does one go about applying it in life? It’s not as if you can take a pre-packaged recipe and use it in every situation. And personal relationships are even more complex because of all the history…
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As I watch Kismat Konnection at home this rainy Monday morning, I can’t help but wonder what makes us go the “kismet” route. As a kid I was always encouraged to give my best to whatever I did so that my accomplishments were as real as my hard work. Growing up, my parents and…
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