I started driving car in the year 2007 and since then I don't remember a single day that I haven't driven without swearing at idiots on the road. Back in the day while riding bikes with helmet on I could not afford to curse as there are no windows and doors on bikes. I 'think' in Hindi, as I was brought up in Mumbai most of my life so I curse in Hindi. But then it is strange that while residing in Chennai I used to use Tamil (my mother tongue) to swear and rest of India I swear in Hindi. It is a major catharsis exercise for me and I feel a lot better after using the nastiest words for fellow human beings - or else I am sure I would have died of heart attack long back. You indeed cannot take shit after a while.

When I take my son out for a walk or to play at the playground to have some dad-son time with him, I encounter 5 kinds of people. The one who ignore us completely - my feelings are neutral towards them. The second are the ones who just wish us, then ask basic questions to the child like  - How are you? Where are you going? They get their answers, feel the child's response is cute and walk away. I love them.

I used to do that very often back in the day - 'psychically' connecting to people. But then wisdom dawned and I understood the futility of extracting joy through this age-old phenomenon just to try and prove a point to the people. Even today I do it - I can see what exactly is happening in people's lives sitting at home - but then I keep it to myself or max I share it with my wife.

The year was 2005 and I had just quit my IT job to take up Vedic Astrology as my full time profession. At the same time one of my relatives had a serious heart problem and he had visited Chennai to consult few heart surgeons. He had already consulted the best doctors in Coimbatore and they all unanimously had declared that - he won't survive for more than 6 months. I was naive those days, always in a frame of mind to serve the needy and perpetually seeking an opportunity to help people for free. I asked his birth details, and looking at his horoscope even I could not see him survive for more than 12 months. But the asshole died only in the year 2018!

Though I started my career with a Dot Com in the year 1997, I have always been apprehensive about shopping online. Those were the days when only credit card holders could shop online and there were no COD facilities available. With time and technological development - online shopping became easy, as payment through Netbanking and debit/credit cards became the new norm. Even then I never bought anything online till Amazon came to India - for a simple reason that I NEVER trusted Indians as far as customer service was concerned. Indians are ONLY bothered about selling and nothing after that.

Here is how I would have by hearted the lines had I been interviewed in my early 20s versus how I would answer the same set of questions after wisdom, age and grey hair have grown on me.

Q1) Interviewer  - What is your weakness?

20s - I can concentrate only on one thing at a time.

40s - I have anger issues to the extent that I can break the face of someone who throws lame questions at me.

On one hand the Hindus claim Bhagwad Gita is the ultimate guide and believe in what Lord Krishna said - "Not a Leaf Moves Without My Will" and on the other hand the same clan wants to establish that human efforts lead to success. The same is true with what the modern saints preach. All the works of most of the well established modern saints evangelise that 'with human efforts' you can experience God - which ain't true at all. Until and unless you are destined, you won't be given the time to even enrol in the process of seeking God.

It was 20 years ago my sister had got an idea to save the environment. She thought plastics will be huge menace in future hence we need to do something about it. We brainstormed and she came up with this idea for shop keepers to stop providing plastic bags and instead they can give out jute bags - that is whenever you shop for something. I loved the idea, and the next step was to source jutebags, understand the pricing, and then sell - so easy.

When God created humans he kept our legs as the biggest part of the body. May be He wanted us to walk more, or may be run more or may be climb more - I am not sure. But in every culture across the globe standing and sitting in a particular scenario has more or less the same connotation. Sitting predominantly implies disrespect and standing implies respect.

In my 46 years of existence the deaths of selected few has affected me to a very large extent - Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Steve Irwin, Michael Jackson and now Puneet Rajkumar. Honestly even my father's death wasn't that shocking to me - as an astrologer I already knew when his death was coming - but then deaths of these people brought me unfathomable grief and pain that took a very long time to subside.