Just like that

  Last afternoon, around 3 PM, I opened the tap only to hear air hissing out instead of water. No warning. No dramatic crisis. Just silence… and air. And strangely, my mind immediately drifted back to a conversation I had the previous week with a friend. She told me she had almost gotten into an argument with her teenage daughter after casually asking her to generate a congratulatory image in ChatGPT for my book release. Apparently, the daughter threw a fit. She argued passionately that generating AI images in ChatGPT was endangering the future of her generation by depleting water resources. Flabbergasted, my friend asked her to explain further. The teenager went on to describe how AI systems use massive data centres that consume enormous amounts of energy and water for cooling. My friend understood very little of the explanation but wisely decided not to argue with the teenager and simply let the matter rest. She shared her experience with me later that day. I had la...

As I was scrolling through the internet, looking for videos to include in my Calmversation Camp 2026 , I stumbled upon something that stopped me in my tracks. A child—no older than the ones I work with every day—was speaking passionately about the political leader, Vijay. But it wasn’t the passion that caught my attention. It was the language. The child went on to say that if their parents didn’t support this leader or vote a certain way, they would harm themselves. I paused the video. Not because I disagreed with the opinion, but because I couldn’t ignore the weight of those words coming from someone so young. There was something about it that didn’t sit right. And as I sat with that discomfort, I was reminded of Maria Montessori, who spoke about a simple but profound responsibility we hold as adults—to prepare the child for life, not just for outcomes. Preparation doesn’t mean telling children what to think; it means helping them build the emotional strength to handle any outcome. Ar...