Tilak Amitava Chowdhury

The world is back from the pandemic....like the sleeping beauty up from its slumber.  Things changed and nothing changed! There are people who connected within themselves during the two years of exile.  They realised that life is out there. Not in our cramped offices, not in our coveted homes, not in our emi laden expensive cars! The world is outside our comfort zone. We are all travellers in this beautiful world. So let's see the world that we have not seen! I have taken the first step. Planned my first solo trip when I'm nearly fifty. I'm planning to escape to the tranquility of Kasol, a sleepy mountain town in the Himachal of India. Will I find a new me? Will I lose the old me? I don't know...But i have partly lost myself during the pandemic like many of us. And i have found myself partially too  Let's see if things get better and life becomes more fun to live. Fingers crossed!

Be at home! We keep hearing this all the time when someone wants to make us feel comfortable.  Being at home is a feeling! It's a a place where we can be ourselves sans the masks we wear... Are we at home with ourselves? I know so many of my friends were not during the lockdown. I got frantic calls from so many of them saying they were going nuts with themselves. Why is it that many of us are not at home with ourselves? Is it because of the mental conditioning that we undergo from the time we are born? To blend in to this facade called society? To fit to the norms decided my the mediocre majority who have no clue about how to live, but preach everyone on the subject at every opportunity? There is a very famous writing in Hindi by a very famous poet which translates as when a blind man guides another blind man both fall in the well.  I think that is why we as a civilization are just drowning deeper into our own shit!  Because the people who are running are world are actual...

Are we really free? We are slaves of the lives we have chosen. We are slaves of our past decisions. We are slaves of our false ambitions that were ingrained in our mind by institutions like schools, colleges, family and community. We are trying to live someone else's dreaming by calling it our own. We are lost. All of us. Lost in the heaps of things that we are accumulating in our homes and our lives. The ads that make us salivate more for more.  What is the point of owning things that just give you nothing but more stress? We are the most stressed generation. We are worried about losing all we have that prevents us from enjoying what we really have. We are hooked on to social media that makes us more insecure and makes us feel more incomplete by seeing the touchedup happy images of our connections. The connections themselves are equally miserable if not more miserable than us. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why can't we break free? Why are we bound to this false life of w...

One word that defines us! Really? I don't know. I have not seen God. I have not seen at Atom too but I know the devastation it can cause. Just because I cannot see something doesn't mean it's not there. Likewise, just because I see something doesn't assure its existence! Our lives are really funny! We are sending our entire reality through our senses. And we believe it to be real. Strange! Destiny! What really is destiny? Is it Karma? Is it what Newton defined as action and reaction? It's vague! It's a belief! It's a Mirage. It's a way to console ourselves when we are handed a bad hand or given a good hand by sheer stroke of good luck! I don't know what my destiny looks like but i guess I'm destined to meet it. Amen!

We are all given millions of seconds to live. To experience, explore and enrich our ourlives in this human form. We all have a million stories hidden within us We all have a million dreams and wishes that we want to fulfil before we die We are all having a million desires that we strive to accomplish while we are here Then why do we only consider people with a million dollars as millionaires? Our lives, our experiences are all unique. They are priceless. We need to cherish these moments and be grateful! Grateful for being a human. Grateful for being born in this time when so much is changing around us. The earth itself is evolving and changing!  We are experiencing something that's divine. That is happening once in our life time We are all rich beyond our dreams. Let's be grateful 🙏

Time is running out As we worry and stay unsure There are choices we need to make Painful and bold The comfort zone we are in Isn't comfortable anymore It's time to break the inertia Get ready for growth pangs Why are we do confused and complicated? Simple options scare us to death We want easy answers to tough questions But that's not possible and we know it I long for the simple life Where I live like a nomad Watching the sunrise and sunset Breathing pure air in my lungs The world is confusing We are trained to be lost Seekers confuse the shit out of people They dare to dare things unusual It's time for action Let us be brave and strong Let's find wind beneath our wings And aim for the skies where we belong

Recently we crossed the 8 billion mark. 8 billion of our species! Eating up and taking the space of other organisms and populating the planet. Something went terribly wrong around 10000 years back. We decided to become civilized and that was the biggest trap we created for ourselves. The countries, the villages, the town's all alienated us from one another. We ignored the nomadic spirit of our ancestors who lived free for over a 100 thousand years as nomads. They followed the rules of the nature. They lived by the nature. They were in harmony with nature. Suddenly all that changed. We tried to take control of our lives and completely messed it up. It was the beginning of end. The end of homo sapiens to be replaced by probably the robots who would evolve from us, as we replace one body part of ours with prosthetics and robotics. Another thousand years, and may be then we will be wiped out from this planet. Immortalised as robots who may live forever. But, till then, let us live like...

Healing is a process most of us are hearing a lot about last few years. We are talking about doing things that help us rejuvenate ourselves and find inner peace. Somehow it means to me the journey from self destruction to being self centred. Let me try and explain. Most of us have been on the journey of self destruction. Eating junk food. Doing little physical work, lazying around. Burning the candle at both ends. Living a very indisciplined life that leads to physical, emotional and mental stress. When we follow mindfulness and meditate. We learn the need to be self centred. To be taking care of ourselves with good food, good rest and good physical activity. We learn to respect our body and mind. We respect nature and live with its rules and rituals. Self centred is seen as bad. I think it's the best thing we can do to ourselves. And as Ayn Rand puts it, if you take care of yourself and everyone does that the world automatically becomes a better place. A toast to this thought on S...

A few years ago, I was spending the new years at the mountains near Rishikesh. It was one of the best new years I have spent.  We were living in the open under the stars in temporary tents. We could see the stars through the net covering the roof of the tent. And it was beautiful.  The food was simple, cooked in the local style, but was nutritious and delicious. We gulped it down with some whiskey and vodka, it was divine. The whole experience was so tranquil, so pure, so divine. Mountains are my first love always, followed by the oceans. Really looking forward to head to the mountains again for a few days and Marvel at the beauty of nature. God! Please make it soon. Really dying to breathe the fresh mountain air

The last two years, many of us have gone through hell. Everything seemed to be going against us. Everything. And, none of us were really prepared for this. We faced job loss, loss of loved ones and loss of things we took for granted. We needed help. Others needed our help. So we had to ask for help. Get helped and help those whom we could. It's this circle of giving and receiving help that creates positive energy in our lives that helped all of us and filled with positive energy. And, with this, the process of healing starts. The healing starts with we letting go of the things that are no longer needed. Emotions, feelings, possessions etc. I am so glad that atleast we have embarked on this journey of healing as a race. It is this journey that will help the earth and humanity last a few more generations, not the other material madness that we are investing in. I wish everyone understands this and embraces the cycle of Hell, Help and Heal consciously. Together let us make a more happ...

Why are we humans so violent? I don't know! For thousands of years, we have been killing each other in the name of gold, power, religion, ideology, differences, similarities and what not... We have short lives. Most of us won't survive beyond 75 years of age. Even then why are we so greedy? Greedy to want more and more and more? Without having the time to enjoy what we already have. And we have enough...enough to live together in peace, in harmony and in happiness. The recent attack of Russia on Ukraine makes me wonder, are we ever going to learn anything from History? Will we ever learn to live in peace? We are driven by greed that puts thousands and thousands of people at risk. Millions are looking at uncertainty that they are not responsible for. We never seem to understand that we are all connected. Our destinities entwined. Inseparable. We will either survive together or die together. That's how the nature will treat us. That's how the cosmos will react. Mankind is...

We all have heard the story of Bhimsen and Bakasur in Mahabharata. We all know how Bhimsen, during the Agyatwas ( Incognito existence of a year) stayed in a town plagued by the demon Bakasur. And how, he used his power to slay the demon and freed the town from the atrocities inflicted by the demon Bakasur. How does it connect with CSR? Well, Bakasur symbolises the social and economic evils in the communities companies operate in. And Bhimsen symbolises the corporates who have resources to manage such challenges.  Therefore, CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility could be the method by which Companies can beat social evils faced by their communities, just as Bhimsen killed Bakasur and freed the community that sheltered him and his family when they needed it. What I see here is a symbiotic relationship. The communities have something to offer to the corporates and the corporates have something to offer to the communities. It is this mutual relationship that can help both the communit...

As children, we were so wide eyed and impressed with every little thing around us. Everything seemed like magic! What happened? Why did we get so boring in the process of growing up? What made us so dull? I'm holding and using one of the best phones available to type this post but it's not impressing me. I'm beginning to take this phone for granted! Yes, that could be a reason....we have started taking things for granted. As if it's our birthright to get things we have got. May be it is or may be not. But why can't we say thank you aloud for everything we receive for free? The air we breathe or the food we eat or the families we so cherish, are all a gift from a force beyond our comprehension. A force we can call God. An invisible all powerful force that is like the air we breathe. Always around but never visible. I'm grateful. I'm thankful for all the free gifts that makes my life worth living. Thank you God! Thank you for everything that you have done for ...

Being a person in branding and marketing, I typically think in Ps. So it's no different when it comes to happiness. I think there are 8Ps that lead to happiness and I intend to follow them this year. 1. Pray: I think it's a no brainer that the more advanced we are getting as a civilization, the more out of control we seem to be getting. So the only force we can rely on is the almighty. He will guide and protect us. I want to be thankful for His divine grace. 2. Physique: The body is the home we have on this earth. For too long, i have taken it for granted. It's high time I start taking good care of it. Follow some exercise and live a healthy life. 3. Passion: The COVID has taught us that life is full of uncertainties. I want to live every moment from now on with passion. And do things that I enjoy doing, as much as I can. 4. Purpose: This year, I want to focus on finding my Ikigai seriously and try to look for divine guidance to live on that path 5. People: The people in ou...

Somewhere I read that we are born everyday and that everyday is an opportunity to be amazing. I feel in a way it's true. As the year 2022 comes, let us drop the ills of the year 2021 and emerge in our pure, cleansed form in the new year. Like entering a holy shrine, leaving behind the contamination around us. There are so many things that we can do to find our Ikigai.  I have a few that I want to follow this year: Promote reading: I want to, in my own humble way, want to promote reading. Try and gift books so that people start reading again. Nothing can replace a good book. The invisible world that becomes visible through words, it's like magic. Travel more to quiet places: hoping that this would help me find peace. Help me travel within. Find ways to reach the equilibrium and the centre of my life. So that I feel peace, power of God within me Cleanse my mind: I want to focus on my self development. So that I'm better a bit everyday. More content. More connected to the divi...