Two people I care about are getting into debt. Deep.
To finance their purchase of a dream house, they are applying for a bank loan that’s THIRTY times their gross monthly salary (or 45x the family’s net ‘take home’ pay).
At 10.5% p.a. interest, to pay it off over the next 20 years, they are committing […]

Continue reading " Where Am I? "

Sunrise over Mt.Merapi viewed from Borobudur

Stupas near the top of Borobudur

Northern face of Borobudur

Continue reading " Borobudur - in pictures "

It is 4:30 a.m.
Shivering lightly in the early morning chill, we trekked to the foot of a hill. Climbed up steep stairs, our path lit only by the thin beam of a small torch.
Near the top, we sit in still darkness as we wait for the sun to rise.
As the first glow of a […]

Continue reading " Lessons From My Travel Diary "

On December 4th, 2007, I looked into my crystal ball and made some bold predictions for 2008.
It’s 6 months later, and I thought it would be fun to take a look and see how close to the mark (or off it) my rambling thoughts have been!
I predicted “Social media overload”.
It’s happening. And it’s actually […]

Continue reading " Dr.Mani’s Crystal Ball - Revisited "

Image credit http://sxc.hu
On my evening walk yesterday, I saw an unusual number of tiny tots between ages 2 and 5 playing.
A little 3 year old girl was driving her tricycle, holding on to mom’s hand. A stumbling young boy who couldn’t have been more than 2 was running around his front yard, […]

Continue reading " Happy as Larry "

My wife’s visiting her parents and took our daughter along. I’m missing them a lot… but also see the silver lining. With 2 ladies out of the way, I’m seizing the chance to clear out a lot of the junk cluttering up closets and storage space.
Where I’d hear objections right and left, I […]

Continue reading " Cleaning Up "

Pallipattu is a small township on the border of 2 states in South India.  In 2006, I met a young man from the town with a burning desire to succeed.
He was raised by his widowed mother, who cleaned houses to earn an income to support 3 children, leaving little to fund her son’s dream.  So […]

Continue reading " My Student "

Also on my long evening walk today, I had a flash of searing clarity. I realized that it took guts to be happy, contented, satisfied. And to accept it to oneself.
Probably because it is so uncommon, a person who is happy with him/herself is an oddity.
And so, the rest of his or her […]

Continue reading " Are You Bold Enough To Be Happy? "

On my evening walk today, I bumped into my classmate from medical school. She’s a pediatric oncologist. A medical specialist caring for children battling with that deadliest of diseases - cancer!
She is an intelligent, compassionate and emotionally strong doctor. That’s the only way she could sustain a busy professional schedule in such […]

Continue reading " Doctors Die A Little - Every Day "

This tale from Egyptian yore may make you think again!
Theodore Davis (1837-1915) was a rich American whose first excavations in the Valley of the Kings (a valley in western Thebes, where nearly all the Egyptian pharaohs from 1524-1070 B.C. were buried) began in 1903.
Davis’s team found many tombs, mostly robbed of their precious contents. […]

Continue reading " Ever Think About Giving Up? "