A man standing in front of tank

True Power Lies in Never Having to Use Force

Let’s talk, for a moment, like the armchair analysts we are, not like the Pulitzer prize winners we pretend to be. Let us ignore the precedents it would have set and the precedents already extant for it for a moment. Let us try to differentiate between de-politicizing a situation and dehumanizing it. Let us fade out the colored lines. Forget red, blue, green. Let us revert to black and white. Let us all take a collective step back. Exhale. Let me recount an incident that happened a long time ago. When I was thirteen, I got a room of my own for the first time. It was the high point of my existence until then. I was the master of my domain, the king of […]

Ernest Hemingway writing at a table.

How to Avoid Procrastination and Write Productively

Not a great way to start your day, I’ll admit. In my defense, I was half asleep when I stepped outside to begin the morning school drop-off. If it hadn’t been for my daughter—bright and alert after an hour of Roblox while I drooled all over the couch in my bid to catch a few more z’s—I would’ve humiliated my Rafa tennis shoes, already relegated to school and grocery runs, with the occasional tennis match thrown in. Thankfully, the danger was averted. Whatever creature made the effort to climb over our motion-detecting gate and then position its posterior on the small, worn-out welcome mat—talk about taking things literally—outside our door to leave its opinion on the sudden change in London weather, has my grudging respect. […]

Man sleeping on couch

Love in the Time of Corona

As love affairs go, ours wasn’t the ‘love at first sight’ mushy-mushy type. Heck, I hadn’t even helped my wife pick her out from the furniture store that had just announced a ‘Black Friday’ sale that transformed genteel ladies into blood-thirsty Amazonian princesses. I had instead, followed the line of my fellow caught-with-no-excuse-to-get-out-of-it-husbands as they made a bee-line for the nearest corner, away from the eye-gouging and cloth-tearing feeding frenzy. Even when it had been delivered to our apartment the next day, I hadn’t paid much attention as I munched down my double patty beef burger with a glass of lemonade. Our love had evolved more organically, as all true romances do. And for that, I had a bat to thank for. While Corona raged […]