Life keeps throwing balls our way. Some fast, some slow. Some expected, others completely out of nowhere.
The real question isn’t what comes our way—but how ready we are to catch it.
We don’t get to choose the speed, angle, or height of life’s throws. But we do get to choose our readiness—to react, adapt, and take every catch that matters.
Because in the end, catches win matches. And in life, being ready makes all the difference.
Are you ready?
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu
The Art of Traveling Without Arriving
A good traveler doesn’t count destinations. They count moments.
They move not to arrive but to experience. A wrong turn is just another path. A missed train? A reason to linger. Plans bend, schedules dissolve, and the best stories come from what wasn’t planned at all.
When you travel without being fixed on an end point, you notice more. A conversation with a stranger. A café that wasn’t in the guidebook. A street performer whose tune lingers long after you leave.
The real joy isn’t in getting there. It’s in being there—wherever there is in that moment.
After all, if the journey is rich enough, does it even matter where you arrive?
The American author John Steinbeck wrote a line that left an indelible imprint on me. “People don’t take trips, trips take people”.
After yet another trip, as I download my pictures, dust my shoes, clean up my suitcases and unpack my memory, how small the world is. How similar we are and yet how different. The richness in our differences gives us numerous opportunities to learn and rejoice. This time around the trip was to quieten the mind and take the opportunity to reflect and renew. Much of the trip was spent doing nothing. Or just shuffling my feet to street corners and vaguely staring at the world go by.
Only that the world doesn’t go by vaguely, if the world happens to be Thailand! Its sights, smells, voices can be arresting to energise every pore. The world comes to experience ‘Amazing Thailand’ for that very reason. The land has much to offer. Especially so, if you are able to go past the richness that is on offer and dished out on a plate to anyone who lands there. To be able to transcend that richness is an ask, I must confess!
But beyond what lies on the surface, there is true pageantry to the soul. A wistful energy in the eyes and an authenticity in the smiles. Talking to people on the road will expose the smiles in their heart and somehow a certain unpretentious completeness in their way of life and livelihoods.
My Thailand Diaries are full of random scribbles and rapid notes. Deciphering them is going to take a while. Few pictures are here. Over the next week, I hope to have at least a couple of blogposts up on my experiences.
As always, do let me know what you think! 🙂
To splash around is pure joy. Water flying, laughter echoing—no real destination, just the thrill of movement.
But splashing doesn’t take you far. To cross the pool, it takes strokes, rhythm, glides, and quiet effort beneath the surface.
Some live life in a series of splashes—all energy, no direction. Others move smoothly, silently, covering distance with precision.
The little miss in the pool isn’t interested in all that. She just wants to splash. And that’s okay.
Because in a kid’s world, the fun is in the splash.
And maybe, just maybe, we should let them have that—before the swimming begins.
(at Bangkok, Thailand)
The little miss and her imagination take flight long before the plane does.
She plants her legs on the airplane window, eyes wide with wonder.
“Papa, my legs are touching the sky!” she shrieks, her joy lighting up the cabin—or at least our corner of it.
I smile. Because, really, why not?
We spend lifetimes chasing the sky, claiming its vastness for ourselves. But if you ever do, remember this young dreamer who got there first—feet up, heart soaring.
If you seek to grow, watch children.
In their curiosity, in their seeking, in their unfiltered joy, they remind us of what we may have forgotten.
I watch them play—effortlessly, freely—with kids of different skin colours, with no hesitation, no barriers. They teach me that at our core, we are all just people reaching out to relate.
I hear their giddy excitement over the simplest things—“Yeahhh, the Sun is back!”—and it nudges me to wonder more, celebrate more, feel more.
And when they discard their shoes to walk barefoot on the sand, I see them connect with the earth, fully present in the moment. It reminds me of the beauty in staying grounded.
Children don’t just grow. They teach us how to.
Watch them. You’ll learn a heap.
(at Pattaya, Thailand)
Boxes come in all shapes and sizes. Some travel far, some stay close. They sit shoulder to shoulder, waiting to be sorted at the train station—silent carriers of unknown stories.
A former Indian Prime Minister once wrote a poem titled “Envelope” that went something like this:
“The letter inside is yours
The address on the cover is his
Between the two of you
I get ripped open.”
What’s inside us is far more precious than any address on the outside.
To grow, to evolve, we must let go of old versions of ourselves. We must rip open, just like those envelopes—so that what’s within can reach new places.
The address keeps changing. The journey never stops.
So, go ahead—break open the box. Let the new you emerge.
(at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand)
There’s something about heights—they fascinate. And more importantly, they teach.
From up in the sky, the mighty river becomes a thin thread, the towering cliffs look like half-eaten cookies, and giant houses shrink into tiny squares.
And suddenly, you see it—boundaries don’t exist. The map is not the territory. The sky doesn’t end, the Earth doesn’t begin—they just merge.
Maybe that’s the perspective we need in life and work. To see everything as part of a larger oneness. To see ourselvesas deeply connected.
When you see the world like that, everything becomes easier—kindness, love, compassion, brotherhood, affection.
So take to the skies. If not in body, at least in mind.
Close your eyes.
Fly.
Space isn’t about what’s available. It’s about what we believe exists.
If you think there’s space, there is.
If you think there isn’t, well, there won’t be.
What they call an abundance mindset is just that—a function of the mind. To be boundaryless in thought achieves far more than any title, hierarchy, or permission ever will.
A seat at the table? It doesn’t always require a table. Or even a seat.
Travel teaches this best. When you move, when you see people, cultures, and places, you realize—the ‘them’ and ‘us’ dissolve when the chairs are empty.
Because in the end, we are all in the same ship, traveling together.
How do you welcome a new day?
The first shimmer of sunlight is more than just a cue to wake up—it’s a hint of opportunity. A fresh invitation to:
✨ Continue the work from yesterday.
✨ Begin anew.
✨ Press reset.
✨ Walk the long road.
✨ Course correct.
✨ Sit down and reflect.
Whatever works for you.
The Sun rising in the east might feel like routine, but treating it as a gift, a reminder, a moment to pause—that changes everything.
So wherever you are, celebrate it. Sing, dance, run, read—do whatever fills you with life.
Because the majestic Sun is a daily lesson in beginnings, transitions, and showing up—no matter what.
(at Udaipur City, Rajasthan, India)