What’s up with that?? — Did you know we are different people in different languages? It’s true! It all depends on how you absorbed a language, at what age and under what circumstances. Growing up I was exposed to at least four different languages. This is quite normal for anyone growing up in India. My…

Why aiming for average is better than aiming for the top — At school, my teacher always wrote “Aim Higher” on my report card. Even when I performed very well. She always wanted me to aim higher. So I did. From then on, life was a series of “aiming higher”. Parents, teachers, siblings, friends, friends’ parents and their cat — all wanted…

Because looks like it’s all the rage in writing circles — “I won’t do it”, I said. “My writing will not be a mere TL;DR version of other people’s work”. He laughed. Even his laugh seemed like a condensed version of an already published longer laughter elsewhere. This was all driving me nuts — this business of finding an audience. Here…

Hey there! I am Jayashree (Ja-ya-sh-ree). I am a Writer, Mentor, freelance Photographer, language learner and former Tech professional/leader. I currently live in Berlin, Germany. I quit my full time corporate tech job after nearly 15 years of grind. I was burnt out and my ideas about work, career and…

How to use silence to your best advantage — As a teen, I enjoyed going to the movies with my friends. Those days, we watched movies in nearby cinema halls. As we walked back home after the show, we’d have spirited discussions about the plot, characters, acting and screenplay. We ripped apart the dialogs, scenes and nuances and finally…

Empathy can be exhausting. Use it well. — It’s like we are all plugged into the same giant power outlet. Any fluctuation in the central supply affects all of us. Ancient sages and enlightened beings tried telling us that thousands of years ago. We never listened. But of course they were talking about the invisible life force that…

Should you trust a person or just their specific qualities? — “Don’t you trust me?” he asked. It made me wonder. Did I trust him? Yes, of course. I trusted him as a person. But here was a delicate situation where a blanket trust did not mean he was the best person to handle it. He did not have the right…

From an old folk take. Read it to learn how to protect your emotional boundaries. — My mother once told me a story about a short tempered, territorial snake that lived in the hollow of a giant tree in the woods. He bit everyone that passed by. Children were terrified of the tree and never played there. One day this all changed. A wandering monk made…

Rewire your communication DNA and have better conversations with your manager/boss. — [Even though I originally wrote this article for mid-level managers in Tech workplaces, in my experience, these tips are easily transferable and applicable to any kind of workplace with a hierarchical setting] Mid-level management can be quite tricky. While keeping up with your core tech skills so you can meaningfully…