Prakash Kumar

🌟 The last day of 2024 feels like the perfect moment to pause and reflect on what has been an unexpected and transformative year. As I look back, I vividly remember the final week of 2023, entering 2024 with moderate enthusiasm and a sense of steady anticipation. However, the year unraveled in ways I could not have predicted, bringing challenges on professional, personal, and familial fronts from the very first week of January.  🎒 The year unfolded as a mixed bag of deep experiences and travel. There were highlights, including one international trip, three visits to Goa, several visits to Delhi, and journeys to Uttarakhand and Sikkim. Yet, these moments of travel and exploration contrasted with an overarching sense of internal reflection and reconciliation. 🛑 2024 became a "Pause Year" for me—a time of slowing down, both physically and mentally, to prepare for the next decade of life. It was a year marked by introspection, as I grappled with errors, unmet expectations, ...

From the pages of my old diary, dated 1.05.2014, 22:23: I find myself traversing a critical juncture in my life. Having completed 50 vibrant years and on the brink of turning 51, I am acutely aware of a palpable sense that something vital is missing. The exact nature of this absence eludes me, casting a restlessness and causing a noticeable dip in concentration. Life in Patna is relatively settled, with a fulfilling job soon marking its fourth year. The passing of Cecilia dealt a profound blow, a lingering sadness that calls into question the purpose behind our toil in navigating life's intricacies. There's a tug between embracing more of life or seeking solace in spirituality. The path is unclear, and the motivation sporadic. Restlessness sometimes reaches such heights that I yearn for refuge, leading to irritations that take weeks to dissipate. I grapple with deciphering the signals—lust, an inner desire to find meaning in halting meaningless work—confused by the jolting of ...

Reflections on the journey through 2023 have been a profound learning into the complexities of life, akin to navigating through a maze of professional, personal, emotional, sentimental and familial challenges. As I sit here in the final week of the year, the external facade of control belied the internal maelstrom that persisted, known only to the depths of my own being. At times I enjoyed this inner struggle to come out of the situation. Throughout this tumultuous but remarkable year, I endeavored to employ every learned life skill and experience to weather the storms, yet often found myself in the throes of inner turmoil, occasionally erupting into harsh external manifestations. While there were moments of brilliance, quietness, and remarkable events, the overarching narrative was one of enduring internal strife, conflict, and confusion.The solitude which I was used to was no where. In the midst of this chaos, I grappled with the struggle to exist in the present moment, wrestling wi...

Throughout my life, I have found myself intrigued by some of the pivotal choices I have made almost on a whim, leaving them to fate and chance. This tendency is not limited to me but it is a common thread among those close to me and in general in the society at large—friends and family alike. We often plunge into decisions without much thought, especially the big ones like education or marriage or career which has far reaching consequences in one's own life, family and society. Recently, I have noticed this pattern among those I know quite well, and the swift outcomes surprised me. It led me to ponder life's unpredictable twists and turns. Yet, despite introspection, I haven't quite found clarity. The debate about fate versus our own thoughtful action in crucial moments lingers. Some advocate for relying on education and intellect,for clear thinking, taking opportunities, and having a definitive life vision.This viewpoint dismisses leaving things to chance or tradition, urg...

Some time back I read an article on improving productivity and came across a fine definition of personal thinking  which all leads to the loss of productivity and slowly affects other sphere of life. To improve productivity we need to understand  and stop these unwanted mind games and idle thought making.  1. Procrastination " I will do it later." 2. Low Confidence " Will I actually succeed." 3. Perfectionism "It is just not good enough." 4. Judgement "What will my network think of me." 5. Competing commitments "If I do this ,will it get in the way of my other Goal."

     The world is reeling under COVID for 7-8 months except China and we are not far from million mortality due to Corona world wide.      The question that lingering to everyone from children to adult to senior citizens that when normal activities will begun. The definition of normal activities is different from person to person, region to region,country to country. But the return to normal means resumption of all social and economic activities around the World.      But it is not visible and may take another year or so to make the World Covid free or transitioning to the case where mortality becomes zero and people find their confidence back to venture out without fear of getting infected or vice versa.      There are two scenarios , one in which the entire world develops herd immunity. Slowly we are moving towards it but the current thinking is to reach the herd immunity by support of vaccine. Without vaccine also herd immun...

     Wednesday, 5th August 2020 will go in the World History and more particularly in Indian History for several centuries as the moment of triumph for the believer and worshiper of Sri Ram as the foundation was laid for grand Ram temple at the same place where it existed till 1528.    1528 was the year when Ram temple was demolished at Ayodhya and Babri Masjid was erected on the same land. It was a most cowardly and sinister act in the human history done during initial Mughal rules (1527-1761) in India. The Hindu faith were compromised , tormented through this act to send a subtle message to the majority Hindu community that their religious freedom , dignity  at stake with advent of alien muslin rule in the country. It was a moment of shame, fear, angst and frustration for the Hindu community in India and of their utter helplessness to stop such action. It left a strong imprint on the heart and mind of Hindus and it passes generation to generatio...

    I have keenly watched and notice that selfishness increases with the age. I mean selfishness to certain aspects of material life. Selfishness towards one's  health in old age should certainly increase with the age. But here I mean overly self- centered, self serving, stingy to others both emotionally as well as materially. As if life start revolving around few. The opposite of selfishness is self sacrifice who supports and help others.       It bothers me because my understanding since childhood was that with age one become experienced, exposed,matured and practicality of life makes one to understand the meaning of human life better and also the mortality. Life is not immortal and everyone has to depart and this should teach us more compassion, more support to others, more giving and helping. This is my understanding of  life maturing with the age ,inculcate the sense of giving  and preparing yourself to depart on a happy and giving note....

     The recent China-India conflict in the midst of pandemic Corona has confused many strategic thinkers as well as common people like us about its timing, need and its overall effect on the India-China relations and the  World order.      The way Chinese economy has grown in last four decades was unthinkable and it put China as the number two economy in absolute dollar terms but on the basis of purchasing power parity it already surpassed USA to become number one. And not only economic , militarily also China has advanced very rapidly.       The economic prosperity has helped China in reducing its poverty in record time and also raising the living condition of its citizens almost comparable to middle income countries. The World envy the growth and power of China and in return China seek to be treated as world power by rest of the world. Both are right in their perception, those who are envying China is also being threatened by the...

Once upon a time, not too distant, we thought that  China is fully cut off , Iran  far off , France far away , Spain out of the way and Italy unimaginable. But we crossed all and looking to close up with UK and then unthinkable USA. I am talking about corona cases and mortality during early days in March/April and our reaction to corona cases in above countries. In terms of cases currently India is at number 3 and in terms of number of  deaths at number 5 by surpassing Italy.  This is the status after successful  nation wide lock down of 70 days and after several local state wide lock downs, some still going on. The narrative about the corona changes significantly every week since march 22nd 2020. We were only doing comparison with above countries and finding a sense of relief in early days that India has defeated Corona whereas developed countries fall prey to it. Where we have failed ! We primarily  gave Corona too much attention, chest thumping  and...

Building a robust stock portfolio  is like chasing a dream that never comes true. It is like finding the meeting point between earth and sky, balancing your greed and rationality , fear and triumph , finding a common thread between logical and illogical , emotion and detachment, loss and profit , stillness and response , being patient and impatient , picking up fast and slow, able to see long and short etc. It seek a balance between  almost all human behaviors and then only one can think of building a robust portfolio.  It is about diving deep inside the business and understanding more and more about the company and its future. There are so many determinants that it is sheer impossible to satisfy all parameters and then comes the emotion , likeness and longing for a particular stock or sector or business. It only indicates that trying to build or construct such portfolio is almost near impossible. There are few wizards who may have achieved this but for a normal worldly h...

It reminds me the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez , " Love in the Time of Cholera". I am sure there will be some compelling love , romance and human touch during Corona time as well. But largely the Corona time of 2020 is a big shift in terms of human and  social interaction for the society. This is true for both who got infected and  those taking precaution and safety not to. The agony for those who got infected is unbearable due to isolation/quarantine and this makes them bereft of seeing their loved ones and also the care providers. It is slowly instilling a strong sense of alienation, depression and mental agony. People are not getting the food for heart through human interaction , touching , talking, seeing and feeling. The life is more difficult for those under treatment in hospitals ,slowly getting robotic and mechanical and becoming getting a untouchable thing . The human touch is missing and it is frightening them to their core. The corona fear is not only limited to ...

Different pulls in different directions for mind , body and soul makes one indecisive. The trios act independently on their own frequency without synchronisation. The task become so tough when the desires of mind , body and soul are at loggerheads. A vicious war starts in the mind to know which one is right and takes one to right path. This duality of right and wrong keeps one confused and ultimately leads to status quo or no decision.this breeds stillness in thought and act. To come out of this stillness would be the first task.

I set aside many a times valid reason to reach out to my friends, professional colleagues and relation thinking that I need to be humble , understanding ,rise above little things and flexible to understand their side of story or stress which causes them to react like that. But what  I have noticed that due to this they take me granted . I now entered into my final phase of life and many of my own dreams are unfulfilled. I have to now focus more on meeting my unfinished agenda since life is running fast. Comfortably another 15 years are left to sign off .

     Letting go things , persons and places on a perfect note which you love the most   and become integral part of you is an Art. However letting go of strong emotions , feelings and desires which captivated you is a bigger Art and requires accomplished practice. How to let go these feelings which becomes fabric of life on a harmonious note without any acrimony,fight,bad mouth ,bad intention and so on !!      This cannot be done at once .It needs practice and learning of previous such unsuccessful exercises of letting go. It also needs blessings of the place, environment and above all motivation from entire body ,mind and heart to become successful.      One should also know this that letting go is akin to death. Both requires moving on to a place of surrender to what is , and allowing for a transition to something new. Failure to do so will trap you forever in the land of " no more and not yet". Letting go and moving on a...