Light hearted
August 2010
A calmer you - Wittty Tips to Beat Everyday Stress; Author: Sonal Kalra; Published by: Wisdom Tree; Pages: 145; Rs. 245
A compilation of Sonal Kalra’s columns from HT City called A Calmer You, they offer common sense solutions to the biggest malaise of our times – stress. Knowing one’s priorities, dropping grudges, pouring oil over troubled waters, and other such strategies are conveyed with great charm and good cheer, thanks to her endearing band of characters, Pappuji with his robust good sense, Chaddhaji whose forte is irrelevance, the volatile Bubbly aunty and so on. Sonal has the enviable gift of zeroing in on all the innumerable stressers of life and pouring balm over it.Some of the nuggets strewn in it, courtesy Pappu Singh, her ‘calmness guru’, are memorable.
When a couple of cars collided and their owners flew at each other’s throats for a prolonged period of time, Pappu Singh brought them both a chilled cold drink, because, as he said, who knew how much longer they would fight? I like to think of their anger oozing away and sense returning with every sip of the cold drink. What an emotionally intelligent way to handle the problem! Sonal’s problems, situations and resolutions are all entirely believable. And her dialogues with her characters are deadpan and funny.
She has a light touch, never punishes the point and yet adroitly slips in a wisdom pill. An engaging book.
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