It's a Wonderful World

Dearest Mom, a small gift to you on Mother's Day

The alarm jangles and breaks the quiet of an apartment in Mumbai.  A young woman stretches to the beats of Bollywood, waters her five green plants, gets ready and heads out the door. She inhales deeply knowing that only her mornings and evenings have a certain predictability to them. Meet Suhani Mohan, the petite 28-year-old CEO and co-founder of Saral Designs, a social enterprise that makes sanitary pads for low-income woman groups through manufacturing technology developed in-house. As an entrepreneur, she is used to getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. Suhani has won plentiful accolades, including the 2018 Forbes Trailblazer (top 25 business women in India), Young Visionary award by …

In January 2017 New York city woke up to a play titled "The Talking Cure." The play entailed the life of a Manhattan therapist tackling the demons of his patients and his own. Full disclosure: the play was written by psychotherapist Sean Grover as a validation of the challenges of his listening profession. I am at a school in New Jersey, where Sean is conducting a workshop on the tricky terrain of parenting. After the talk I wait patiently as he signs his parenting book, "When Kids Call The Shots ---How to seize control from your darling bully and enjoy being a parent again." Sean Grover is …

A few years ago I read the book, Laws of the Spirit World that reveals about the work souls choose for their earthly journey. Some souls take on difficult life lessons that expands their essence but at a cost.  Geetanjali Parelkar the first women pilot from Orissa , East India is  one such soul. Geetanjali  is a  classic beauty. Sleepy eyes, finely tapered nose, a gently smiling visage, wisps of hair escaping from a loose knot and voice that rustles like the wind. Such is her vulnerability that the first instinct is to protect her . On a Friday night we connected on the phone, me in New …

A  fortunate few people  know what to make of their lives, while the chosen others have to like a  river chisel their way through life's landscapes. I first met Garima in 2016 at her sprawling ranch house in New Jersey.  She had cooked a finger licking dinner of grilled chicken  gravy , spinach and cottage cheese curry, served with  fragrant cumin rice.  What struck me about this wonderful hostess was that she could talk while standing for hours on end, ply her guests with heaps of food and  forget to offer them to sit .....all without thinking anything was amiss. Garima comes across as a person who would prefer …

"Are you here for a season or reason?" the question is thrown  to  200  kids ranging in age from 6 to 16  years.  Some are chomping trail bars, others fidgeting with the energy of the universe, the rest eager to begin their summer at the theater camp in Middlesex County College , New Jersey. It's the question Michael Taubenslag's father well known theater director Elliott Taubenslag posed to him thirty years ago and it still helps Michael  stay  true north as director of children theater . An hour later I watch Aladdin and am transported to a world of sand …