A Cup of Tea & Biscuits

Also adapted & published on Medium . I’ve maintained very stringently a stark line between my professional and personal life since I began my career fresh out of college 6 years ago. I’m happy to say that it has remained so - the experiences leak through as they should and I’m more naturally myself personally than I can ever be professionally. This is true for everyone. Anyway, my career was on its natural run, and I have moved on from a starry eyed developer to a managerial role. This has always seemed to me, a very natural progression of my career (I even recall telling my first manager that in 4 years, I saw myself leading a project and team). It happened. Now, two years in, I have learned, grown, changed, adapted and placed myself in the path of doing all of it in a continuous rhythm. I share a few things that have helped me in this venture - from those around me, with a flavor of my mind as well. Always listen. But don't stay quiet all the time. One of the fi...

If I recall rightly, one of Guy de Maupassant 's short stories, I forget which, that led me  W. Somerset Maugham 's writing, his short stories in particular - Footprints in the Jungle, Rain and several others that appeared in his collective works. I never went back to reading either of their novels until now. I've known the story of The Painted Veil for a long time, having read excerpts of it here and there and watched the trailer to the movie adaptation starring Edward Norton (sigh) and Naomi Watts , and finally bought the book just last week on a whim - I haven't yet watched the movie. It is the story of a young, silly girl named Kitty who marries Walter Fane, a bacteriologist working in Hong-Kong, soon after her younger sister announces her engagement to a man with a title. While in Hong-Kong, Kitty has an affair with assistant colonial secretary Charles Townsend, a selfish man who believes Walter would rather forgive his wife and continue to live in assumed igno...