If the salary was the same, what job would you be doing right now and why?

If Money Were No Measure: The Job I Would Still Choose

If salary were the same for every profession, what job would I be doing today?

It is an intriguing question because money, for better or worse, has become the great architect of our choices. We are often taught to ask, “What does it pay?” before we ask the more consequential question: “What does it mean?” Remove salary from the equation, and suddenly the façade falls away. What remains is inclination—the quiet voice within that tells us where we truly belong.

If I could choose again, I would still choose to be a teacher.

Not merely because I have spent much of my life in classrooms, corridors and school assemblies, but because teaching is one of those rare professions in which the currency is not money but influence. A teacher does not simply impart information; he leaves fingerprints on the future.

I have always found something almost sacred about the moment when a student’s eyes suddenly light up with understanding. A difficult concept, which had seemed like an impenetrable wall a moment ago, becomes a door. The teacher watches it happen and realises that education is not the filling of a vessel but the lighting of a lamp.

Perhaps I would teach Physics again. There is poetry even in Physics—the universe speaking in the austere language of equations, stars obeying laws written long before humanity learnt to read. To teach a young mind about gravity, light, motion or the immensity of space is, in some small way, to introduce that mind to the architecture of creation.

But I would want to teach more than Physics.

I would teach curiosity. I would teach resilience. I would teach a child that failure is not a verdict but a comma in the sentence of life. I would encourage questions rather than merely reward answers. And above all, I would try to convince young people that education should not end with an examination. The real examination begins when there is no question paper, no invigilator and no prescribed answer.

Perhaps, with salary removed from consideration, I might also choose to be a writer—or better still, remain both teacher and writer. The classroom would give me people; writing would give me solitude. Teaching would allow me to shape thoughts in conversation; writing would allow me to preserve them against the erosion of time.

There is an indescribable pleasure in putting a thought into words and watching it acquire a life of its own. A book can travel where its author cannot. It can enter a stranger’s room years after its creation and whisper something that perhaps the reader needed to hear that particular evening. What greater privilege can a writer ask for?

Yet if I had to choose only one profession, I would return to the classroom.

Because teaching offers something that a payslip cannot measure: the possibility of becoming a small but permanent part of someone else’s journey.

Years later, a former student may remember a sentence, a lesson, an admonition, a moment of encouragement—or simply the fact that someone believed in them when they did not believe in themselves. The teacher may have forgotten the incident altogether. The student may carry it for a lifetime.

That is the peculiar magic of education.

So, if tomorrow every profession came with exactly the same salary, I would not chase prestige, power or comfort. I would look for meaning. I would walk back into a classroom, pick up a piece of chalk—or its modern equivalent—and begin again.

For ultimately, the best job is not necessarily the one that makes us rich.

It is the one that makes us feel useful.

And if I could spend another lifetime doing anything at all, I would choose to spend it lighting lamps.

Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?

When the Mind Finds Its Music: The Quiet Joy of Returning to the Keys

There are hobbies we acquire, and there are hobbies that quietly find their way back to us. Recently, I have been spending more time with music, particularly the harmonium and keyboard. It is not entirely a new pursuit; rather, it feels like an old friendship being rekindled after years of silence.

What drew me towards it was perhaps a simple longing for something that does not demand achievement. Life is often measured in outcomes—deadlines met, responsibilities discharged, targets accomplished. Music asks for none of these. It merely asks that we listen.

When I place my fingers on the keys and allow a familiar melody to emerge, something changes within me. The world, with its incessant clamour, seems to retreat a little. A tune from an old Hindi film, a bhajan, or a few phrases of Hindustani classical music can open doors to rooms long forgotten. Music possesses that rare alchemy: it can turn memory into melody and solitude into companionship.

Perhaps that is what attracted me most. In an age of notifications and hurried conversations, music offers an oasis of unhurried time. It teaches patience. A note cannot be forced into beauty; it has to be understood, felt and allowed to breathe. Even a wrong note has its lesson—it reminds us that perfection is not the prerequisite for joy.

I have also discovered that learning an instrument is a humbling experience. Knowledge gathered over a lifetime does not necessarily make one’s fingers more skilful. The hands must begin again, slowly and honestly. There is something profoundly democratic about music: the instrument does not care about one’s position, past achievements or age. It simply waits.

Sometimes I play merely to listen to the sound filling the room. At other times, I try to reproduce a melody that has remained somewhere in the recesses of memory. And occasionally, when the notes fall into place almost effortlessly, there is a fleeting moment of grace—the kind of moment for which hobbies are perhaps invented.

What began as an attempt to occupy my time has gradually become a way of inhabiting it.

I think that is the greatest gift of this newly renewed hobby. It has taught me that retirement, solitude or the passing of years need not signify an emptying of life. There are still melodies waiting to be discovered, pages waiting to be written, and mornings waiting to be given meaning.

Perhaps every human being carries an unwritten song within. We spend much of life listening to everyone else’s music. A hobby, sometimes, is simply the courage to hear our own.

And so, I continue to play—not because I hope to become a great musician, but because, for a few precious minutes, the world becomes quieter and the soul remembers how to sing.

What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced?

When Chance Whispered My Name: The Strange Mathematics of Coincidence

There are moments in life when coincidence ceases to feel like coincidence.

It arrives quietly, without announcement: a name appearing after years of silence, a forgotten song playing at precisely the moment one is thinking of someone, a chance meeting in a place where neither person had any reason to be. We usually dismiss such events with a smile and say, “What are the odds?” Yet sometimes the odds seem so improbable that the rational mind is left standing at the threshold of mystery.

The strangest coincidence I have ever experienced was not dramatic. No thunder rolled, no stars rearranged themselves in the heavens. It was an ordinary day, made extraordinary by an almost impossible alignment of circumstances.

I had been thinking about an old acquaintance whom I had not seen or spoken to for many years. There was no particular reason for the memory to surface. I had not looked at an old photograph, heard his name, or encountered anything connected with him. Yet, quite inexplicably, his face returned to my mind with unusual clarity.

I wondered, fleetingly, where life had taken him.

That evening, I went out for an entirely unrelated purpose. In the middle of the crowd, amidst hundreds of unfamiliar faces, I heard someone call my name.

I turned.

There he was.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke. We simply stared at each other with the astonishment of two travellers who had unexpectedly discovered that their roads, thought to be permanently separated, had somehow crossed again.

We laughed. We spoke of the years that had passed, of people we had known, places we had left behind and the curious geography of memory. But beneath the conversation was an unspoken question:

Why today?

Had I somehow anticipated the meeting? Had his presence stirred an invisible thread in the fabric of memory before I became consciously aware of it? Or was it merely an extraordinarily improbable accident?

Science would probably favour the last explanation. Our brains are remarkably good at finding patterns in randomness. With billions of human interactions occurring every day, improbable events are not only possible but inevitable. Given enough people, places and moments, coincidence becomes almost mathematically unavoidable.

And yet mathematics does not always satisfy the heart.

Carl Jung called such meaningful coincidences synchronicity—events connected not by obvious cause and effect, but by significance. Perhaps that is why some coincidences linger while others disappear immediately. A hundred accidental encounters may mean nothing; one may leave us quietly wondering whether the universe had briefly leaned towards us.

Perhaps coincidence is life’s way of reminding us that we do not possess the complete map.

We like to believe that life is governed by neat sequences: cause followed by effect, decision followed by consequence, yesterday leading logically into tomorrow. But existence is far more labyrinthine. A delayed train, a changed route, a cancelled appointment or a spontaneous decision to step into a particular café can alter the entire trajectory of a day—and occasionally, perhaps, a life.

The weirdest coincidences therefore fascinate me not because they prove that destiny exists, but because they expose the limitations of our certainty.

Maybe there is no cosmic hand arranging every encounter.

Maybe there is.

We simply do not know.

And perhaps that uncertainty is precisely what makes coincidence beautiful.

Life occasionally produces a moment so perfectly timed that we cannot help but pause. We look at the improbable intersection of people, places and time and feel, however briefly, that the universe has whispered something directly into our ear.

I have learnt not to demand an explanation for every such moment.

Some mysteries are not problems waiting to be solved.

Some are simply stories waiting to be remembered.

And whenever an unlikely coincidence crosses my path, I smile and think: perhaps life, in its own wonderfully eccentric way, is reminding me that not everything meaningful has to make sense.

What’s a book you never finished but still think about?

The Books We Leave Unfinished: Why Some Stories Refuse to Leave Us

There is a peculiar kind of book that we never finish, yet somehow never forget.

For me, it is not necessarily the book that defeated my attention, nor the one whose pages became tedious. Sometimes, an unfinished book remains unfinished precisely because it has entered some deeper chamber of the mind. We close it, place it on a shelf, and move on with life—but a sentence, a character, a landscape or an unanswered question continues to knock softly at the door of memory.

Perhaps the book I never finished was Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I began it with the solemn enthusiasm with which one approaches a great mountain. The pages seemed to contain not merely a story, but an entire civilisation—love and war, ambition and despair, history and destiny, drawing rooms and battlefields. Yet somewhere along the journey, life interrupted. The bookmark remained between its pages, an accidental monument to an unfinished pilgrimage.

Years passed.

Curiously, I never forgot the book.

I remembered the sensation of entering its immense world. I remembered its questions more than its answers. What governs human destiny—our choices, historical forces, chance, or some mysterious conjunction of all three? Can love survive the vanity of human beings? Does history belong to the celebrated figures who appear in textbooks, or to the countless ordinary souls who quietly endure it?

Perhaps this is the strange magic of an unfinished book: completion is not always necessary for influence.

Some books we finish and forget. Others we abandon halfway and carry for decades.

There is also something profoundly human about leaving a book unfinished. We like to imagine ourselves as creatures of completion—we finish courses, journeys, conversations and chapters of our lives. Yet reality rarely offers such neat punctuation. Friendships remain unresolved. Dreams are postponed. Questions accompany us to old age. People disappear before we have said everything we wished to say.

An unfinished book mirrors that imperfect architecture of existence.

Sometimes I wonder whether we abandon certain books because we are not yet ready for them. A book encountered at twenty may appear opaque, while the same book encountered at sixty may suddenly seem to be speaking directly to us. The words have not changed; we have.

That is perhaps why some books wait.

They sit silently upon shelves, gathering dust but not surrendering their meaning. One day, we may return to them and discover that the person who opened the book years ago is no longer the person turning its pages today.

And perhaps that is the real reason I still think about the book I never finished.

It reminds me that not every journey is measured by reaching the final page. Some journeys matter because of what they awaken within us. Some stories remain unfinished because life itself has interrupted the reading.

Maybe, someday, I will open that book again.

And if I do, I will not begin from where the bookmark lies.

I will begin as an older reader, carrying with me all the years that have passed between the two pages.

Because sometimes the books we never finish are the ones that finish something within us.

Which fictional world would be the most fun to vacation in?

A Holiday Beyond the Horizon: My Dream Vacation in the Wizarding World

If I could choose any fictional world for a holiday, I would not hesitate to pack my bags for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Why settle for a postcard-perfect destination when one can spend a fortnight where staircases move, portraits speak, trains disappear into enchanted landscapes and a simple wand can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary?

A holiday there would begin, naturally, at King’s Cross Station. I would board the Hogwarts Express with the anticipation of a child and the curiosity of an explorer. As the train slipped into the countryside, I imagine the landscape becoming progressively more mysterious—mist curling over distant hills, ancient castles appearing beyond the trees, and perhaps an owl flying alongside the carriage as if it had a message meant only for me.

Hogwarts would be the centrepiece of the adventure. I would wander through its echoing corridors, examine the moving portraits and lose myself in the enormous library. I would attend a few lessons—not necessarily to become proficient at magic, but simply to experience the delicious absurdity of learning subjects such as Charms and Transfiguration. Imagine failing an examination because one’s feather stubbornly refuses to levitate!

Then there would be Hogsmeade: a village seemingly distilled from a winter dream. I would sit in a cosy corner of the Three Broomsticks, drink a mug of butterbeer and watch snow settle upon the rooftops. There is something wonderfully liberating about entering a world where adulthood momentarily loses its authority and imagination becomes the currency of the day.

But perhaps the greatest attraction would be the Forbidden Forest. I would venture into it cautiously, because every enchanting world needs a little danger. Among ancient trees and silvered shadows, I might encounter centaurs, magical creatures or something altogether inexplicable. A proper holiday, after all, should leave behind a few stories that sound unbelievable when retold.

And then there would be Diagon Alley—a paradise for the incurably curious. I would browse eccentric shops, purchase a wand, inspect magical curiosities and perhaps spend an unreasonable amount of time in Flourish and Blotts. In such a place, even window-shopping would feel like an expedition into another dimension.

What makes this fictional world so appealing, however, is not merely its magic. It is the philosophy beneath the fantasy: that wonder survives when we refuse to become entirely practical. The world of Harry Potter reminds us that courage is not the absence of fear, friendship can become a form of strength, and even the most ordinary person may possess an extraordinary capacity for goodness.

Perhaps that is why I would choose this world for a vacation. We travel not merely to change our surroundings but to recover something within ourselves. And what better place to rediscover curiosity than a universe where the impossible is simply another word for Tuesday?

I would return eventually, of course. The real world would still be waiting—with its clocks, bills, traffic and sensible explanations.

But I would return carrying a wand, a pocketful of memories and, hopefully, a little of the magic I had almost forgotten was there.

Some holidays give you photographs. The best ones give you back your sense of wonder.

If you could go back and witness any historical event, which one would you pick?

If I Could Return to One Moment in History

Some moments belong to history; others belong to the human conscience.

If I were given the improbable privilege of turning back the hands of time and standing, even for a few minutes, inside one historical moment, I would choose 15 August 1947—the dawn of India’s independence.

Not merely to witness the lowering of one flag and the raising of another, but to feel the pulse of a civilisation awakening after nearly two centuries of colonial rule.

I imagine Delhi before sunrise: the air heavy with anticipation, the streets filled with ordinary people carrying extraordinary dreams. Somewhere, a mother might have whispered a prayer for a future she would never see. Somewhere, a young freedom fighter might have stood silently, remembering comrades who had sacrificed everything but would never witness the freedom for which they had struggled.

And then, at midnight, history would have crossed an invisible threshold.

India was not simply becoming politically independent. It was attempting to reclaim its voice.

I would want to stand there and listen—not merely to the speeches, but to the silence between them. For history is often recorded in proclamations, treaties and dates; yet its deepest meaning resides in the emotions of those who live through it.

I would look at Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his celebrated “Tryst with Destiny” speech and wonder what those words meant to the millions who had endured poverty, imprisonment, discrimination and uncertainty. Independence was a magnificent promise, but it was also an immense responsibility.

Yet I would not wish to remain only in the triumphant moment.

I would want to walk through the following days and witness the paradox that accompanied freedom: celebration on one side and Partition on the other. The same dawn that illuminated hopes also cast long shadows across Punjab and Bengal. Trains carried not only passengers but grief; borders were drawn on maps, while human lives were torn from familiar landscapes.

Perhaps that is precisely why I would choose this moment.

History rarely offers us uncomplicated victories. The birth of a nation can simultaneously be a celebration and a wound. Freedom can arrive carrying both flowers and ashes.

If I could return, I would not attempt to alter history. I would simply observe, listen and learn.

I would ask the people of 1947 what they imagined India would become. Did they dream of an India without hunger? An India where education reached every child? An India where caste, poverty and prejudice would gradually lose their grip? Did they imagine technological progress, bustling cities and a nation capable of speaking confidently on the world stage?

And perhaps I would ask one more question:

“Have we fulfilled the promise you made to the future?”

That question would be uncomfortable—and necessary.

Seventy-nine years later, India has travelled an extraordinary distance. Yet history reminds us that political independence is only the first chapter of freedom. A nation is truly free when dignity is not a privilege, education is not a luxury, justice is not selective, and opportunity does not depend upon the circumstances of one’s birth.

I would therefore return to 15 August 1947 not because I believe the past was better, but because the past gives the present a mirror.

Standing there, amidst the flags, speeches and dreams, I would perhaps understand something profoundly simple: every generation inherits a freedom that another generation struggled to obtain, and every generation must decide what it will do with it.

I would return to that dawn carrying no desire to rewrite history.

I would return only to listen.

And when the clock finally brought me back to the present, I would hope to carry one message with me:

Freedom is not a destination reached on a particular midnight. It is a promise renewed every morning.

Ink Beneath the Skin: The One Word I Would Carry Forever

If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be and why?

Ink Beneath the Skin: The One Word I Would Carry Forever

If I had to get a tattoo right now, I would not choose a name, a date, a quotation or an elaborate symbol. I would choose a single word:

“Still.”

A small word, almost austere in its simplicity, yet capable of carrying an entire philosophy of life.

Still means many things. It means quietness, but also continuity. It suggests something that has not been swept away by the storms around it. A tree may bend in a tempest and still remain rooted. A lamp may flicker in the wind and still give light. A human being may be bruised by life and still choose to rise the following morning.

That is the tattoo I would want—not merely an ornament on the skin, but a reminder etched into the body of something the mind too easily forgets.

Life has a peculiar habit of taking away what we once believed indispensable. Years alter our faces, circumstances rearrange our priorities, people enter and leave, ambitions change their names, and yesterday’s certainties become today’s questions. Yet, somewhere beneath all these alterations, there remains a quiet self that whispers: Continue.

Still.

The word would remind me that endurance is not always heroic. Sometimes it is simply getting out of bed when the heart would rather remain beneath the blanket of yesterday. Sometimes it is opening a book when the world has become too noisy to read. Sometimes it is writing one more page, taking one more walk, listening to one more piece of music, or watching the evening sky without demanding an explanation from it.

I have always believed that the most profound battles of life are fought without witnesses. No medals are awarded for surviving disappointment. No applause follows the private decision to begin again. Yet those invisible victories often constitute the architecture of character.

Perhaps that is why I would not choose a tattoo that declares I conquered. I would choose one that quietly says, I remained.

There is something deeply Indian in this idea. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of steadiness amidst the turbulence of circumstance—the sthita-prajna, the person whose wisdom is not easily shaken by pleasure or pain. One need not proclaim such steadiness; one must cultivate it. A tattoo, then, could become less decoration and more a personal sutra—a thread of remembrance worn close to the skin.

And why the wrist, perhaps?

Because the wrist is where time is measured.

Every glance at it would become a small encounter with the past and a quiet instruction for the future. The word would sit there like an old friend:

Still here.

Still learning.

Still hopeful.

Still creating.

Still becoming.

Age, I have learnt, is not merely a number accumulated by the calendar. It is a library of departures, discoveries, mistakes, recoveries and unfinished sentences. The temptation is to believe that certain chapters have closed permanently. But perhaps life is less like a book with numbered chapters and more like a river—always moving, occasionally changing its course, never entirely abandoning its source.

So, if I had to get a tattoo today, I would choose neither rebellion nor vanity.

I would choose remembrance.

One word. Four letters. A lifetime of meaning.

Still.

Because the greatest declaration is not that life never wounded us.

It is that, despite everything,

we are still here.