The Values Workshop

It is a conversation with Hemant Gupta again, and like always, we manage to skim beneath the many layers of meaning/s and are able to discuss the contemporary usage and understanding of sincerity, presence and the spaces they represent. We discuss many aspects, including the importance of both sincerity and insincerity and when one uses what. We also discuss states of mind and the work involved in gauging different truths - contextual and immediate. A hard-core and important conversation, this. Do check it out. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

Throughout my career, I have been lucky to work with a few professionals who have been absolutely no-nonsense and straightforward. It has always been a pleasure to interact with them for their earthy outlook and their ability to help ease the pressures of the job on hand with clear thinking and wise decision-making. Oh, I forgot to add, they were all proud women, celebrating their being in the best way 'human'.
Beena Koshy has been one such professional who I chat with on this episode which is all about being a 'woman'. She continues being such a fun person to speak with, on issues which matter to almost all working women today.
We talk about looking good, empathy, being true to yourself and the changing times, parenting, sharing responsibilities in a marriage...phew....Do check out this fascinating conversation. For the video, check our channel, www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

Ummeimman is a revelation. A #teacher a #mother and a re-invention of her own self from a difficult time only a little while earlier. She sticks to basic ground level understanding, a reminder of how the deepest wisdom some times is in simple every day living. She keeps repeating #acceptance many times in the episode and it is not by chance. It is her go-to in all her moods, be it acceptance of her own self, of her immediate #family of her #students and the situations when she is not up to it. A remarkably daily kind of existence is covered even as it helps us see how #clarity and #happiness can make a wonderful combination in living a life of #peace. Do check out this wonderful chat. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

When alone, or lonely, or with people, or in darkness, or at times, when something seems 'off' we are often left to deal with the silence that comes from either outside or inside. There are so many aspects of #depression, #anxiety, being #unsure #sadness #discomfort that come along visiting us when this silence is imposed upon us...well, there are times when we choose to remain silent, but the chaos of thoughts within run riot and do not allow us the peace or harmony we seek.Hemant Gupta and I go diving deep into this inner aspect of being restless with a sense of 'death', 'unknowing', lack of response from some person or the event itself...the incompleteness starts to gnaw at our insides and we would do anything to get out of it. But well, there are solutions to this problem too, as discussed with some level of clarity in this episode. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshopDo check out this amazing and insightful conversation. It might help in the immediate and in the long run.

We tend to crystallize #success. As if it is some kind of unmoving, unchanging, ultimate truth. As a first of sorts for me, I get a successful friend, Niren Bhatt, screenwriter of some of the biggest recent hits in #Bollywood including #balamovie and #stree2. He speaks so simply and elegantly about the humanity of it all, completely bypassing the awe most of us look at fame with. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

Roohi is a bright school going kid with a wise head on her shoulders. Endearingly honest about her love of knowledge, since she is a voracious reader, she specifies though, it is the perspective of others that one learns and that is what is her biggest takeaway from reading. It is an engaging straightforward chat, till you realize she is clear most times, and honest when she doesn't find the words to express herself. The world is in good, solid hands. Do check this wonderful conversation. For the video, check out www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

One thing leads to another and it keeps moving on - as if it has a life of its own. Yet, as human beings, all of us like to know the start, the middle and the end of things. Or so we claim. The pace of our modern lives leaves us little time to finish what we start and we keep building on this sense of dissatisfaction without even realizing how we are causing it, moment by moment, day after day. Hemant Gupta joins me in catching the thread of this thought and unravelling whatever is possible in this space and time. A beautiful conversation emerges. Have a look - and do comment if it brings up something in you. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

It is a classic day for many of us: We start scrolling on our #cellphones and time passes us by...minutes turn into hours and we seem to be needlessly losing track of time and none the richer for it in experience, in attention or in wisdom. In fact, we feel wasted or clueless about our initial purpose of scrolling if there was one. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

Hemant Gupta is fearlessly willing to go down any rabbit hole that many of us would fear. It is this quality of his which drove me to ask the important questions, 'What if we are less than perfect? How does one make peace with one's own imperfections?' What comes out is pure exploratory territory and unsurprisingly, some beautiful practical to-dos are shared as well. What a pleasant surprise to trust 'what is' - it almost always rewards you with real, authentic answers. This episode is a good reminder to keeping the search real and honest at all times. Do check it out. For the video, check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop

Mustafa is a remarkable person. When quite a few would shirk away from exposing their vulnerability in the face of a close relative's death, he actually proposed we speak about things he is experiencing internally and externally leading me to ask questions which touch a chord within me too, making me sensitive during the conversation. It is a mindful and heartfelt chat, where we pause, honour our own feelings, the event, the loss, the gravity of our feelings and allow it to surface on camera, even as we begin to understand the various ways different people process death. Calling it an episode, or a watch-worthy conversation seems superficial to the actual talk. Shared here are pieces of our combined humanity. See if you want to be with this for a while. May all gain peace from this fragile attempt to accept impermanence. For the video, please check www.youtube.com/c/thevaluesworkshop