I have always thought of self-help books, various philosophies of life, therapists and the like as full of crap and I was rather contemptuous towards regular people with regular problems who seek advice and solace from these. I absolutely hated The Alchemist, for instance and consider it one of the most overrated books of all time. [Read more]

This may be the worst career move I’ll make and I will probably live to regret this, but I’m in a fiercely honest mood, and so on this day, to all the lovely people who read this blog, I hereby declare myself as mediocre.

And no, admitting this mediocrity isn’t my self-deprecatory defence mechanism kicking in. Neither is it a silent plea for others to assuage my perpetual self-doubt by praising me. [Read more]

I saw This is it last week. And my belief, that Michael Jackson is and will always be the greatest entertainer of all time, was reinforced. But sitting in that almost empty theatre, I was angry. Angry that not enough people in Bombay were watching this movie. [Read more]

There’s this place that I’ve been stuck in for many years now. It’s called the comfort zone.

‘The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk’ - Alasdair AK White From Comfort Zone to Performance Management. [Read more]

A Tasneem by any other name will bite your head off.

Like most people, I hate it when others distort my name. Unfortunately, my name lends itself to distortion very easily. For instance, lying in front of me at this very moment, staring at me with utmost insolence is an envelope that states, ‘To Jasneem, Hindustan Times.’ [Read more]