Over the last 10 years, I have had no less than 20 hiring rounds, and in each of them, there’s always that one person who will send in an application, take the call inviting them for an interview, politely confirm availability, then either: fail to turn up for the interview, or, totally impress at the interview then fail to turn up on the first day of…
Read More“So, are you a rapporteur by profession? Do you do this full time?” It was 7am in the morning, I had just settled down for a short stopover at Bole Airport (Addis). The plan was to recline and catch up with sleep having left home at 3am to catch an early morning flight to Khartoum for a medical conference. However,the gentleman I just met wanted to…
Read MoreYesterday I suffered a fall while running. This is a big deal for two reasons: I never fall. Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I actually fell. Sliding and landing on my bum while hiking doesn’t count, I am talking about tripping, being suspended in the air for a microsecond before landing on your hands and knees. I just do not fall… Falling (as…
Read MoreWhen you Google “Fun stuff to do in Bangalore”, one of the results leads you to a website with this… This beautiful building… Yummy food… And many other exciting sights. Why am I searching for fun stuff to do in a random town in India, when I live in Nairobi, Kenya? In January this year, I decided that I was going to run the Bengaluru…
Read MoreA special tribute to the lady I call “Mom”. She has the misfortune of being both my mother and my best friend 🙂 My mom is so wise. Whenever I call her, she will tell me the truth that I NEED, and not want I WANT to hear. She’s the calm, steady presence in my life. She is my daughter’s super fun grandma. She’s a…
Read MoreReading this blew my mind and inspired me in equal measure. It is a pity Anna Quindlen never got to read this commencement address because of conservative students who protested her liberal views and writings. She nevertheless mailed the address to a few students and it became wildly popular, giving rise to her first book, “A Short Guide To A Happy Life” Anna Quindlen’s Commencement…
Read MoreA couple years into the business, the 46-year-old realised that aside from quality and pricing, the main challenges posed by imports was the discrepancy between the size of women in different parts of the world. “I am a large in Asia and in Kenya I am a small. So (by importing from Asia) we couldn’t cater to anything beyond a size 14 which is average…
Read MoreThis morning, Ciiku tweeted about thin privilege (fat discrimination), and it got me smiling. See we have been talking about privilege A LOT on the Kenyan social media scene. The other day I was in a discussion that was about the value of “work hard platitudes” that most of us dispense when talking to young “under-privileged” people. I got the sense that since the system…
Read MoreIn America, and much of the world, money is the yardstick by which all things are measured. The familiar rejoinder “if you’re so smart how come you’re not rich” says it all. Even intelligence can be questioned if one’s bank account isn’t sufficiently large. Until we realize that money and wealth, at their best, are just a measure of how well you accumulate money and…
Read MoreA number of people I interact with do not understand my passion for running. Saying I am not any good at running is a gross understatement; I am a terrible runner! I was never a sporty person at school ( I played badminton for 2 years 😀 ). I did not exercise at all in my early and mid twenties, and only started running seriously…
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