Pause and Reflect

The more I travel the world, the more I realise how special London is as a city. I love the beauty of the place. The way that the streets of London carry stories from days gone by. It's easy to picture the horse drawn carriages which used to ride down Park Lane, or to see the darkness in East London's once gang ruled streets. There is a history that lives through every nook and cranny of this city. What really makes this place special, though, is not the history, but the diversity that currently ripples through it. Whichever tube line, bus, or road you walk to get to work in the morning, there are people of all genders, all nationalities, all ethnicities, all sexualities. London is a diversity champion. And I love it. Diversity has become one of those buzz words everyone loves to use these days, but do any of us really think about why it has become an echelon of success? Why is this something companies are constantly seeking? I am fortunate to lead a diverse team. I have men,...

I don't think that I will ever forget the 2015 photograph of 3 year old Alan Kurdi's body laid out across a Turkish beach, following his family's failed attempt to reach European shores from Syria. It is a haunting image of the consequences of desperation to reach a better life. More recently, it has been difficult to watch some of the emotionally charged videos of children being reunited with their parents on the American border, after their families were torn apart when they illegally entered the United States. The immigration debate is in full force across the Western world. In Europe, Italy's new, right-leaning government are the first to close their shores to migrant ships. In the US, the debate that started with the deportation of Dreamers has since turned into the morality of detention centres, filled with Latin American children caged and crying out for their parents. Whichever way you slice it, it is hard to recognise this world in which we now live. Once...

I have always known my path in life. I have always known that I would study hard, go to university, get a good job, meet someone, and have a family by the time I was 30. Life was going to be easy for me because I knew exactly where I wanted to go and how I was going to get there. Well, that's what I always thought anyway. Everyday I continue to learn something new about myself and the world. It's obvious to me now that life isn't as easy as my younger-self had naively thought. No matter who I am, or what I have done, there will be both easy times and hard. There will be both laughter and sadness. And ultimately, any plan that I have for myself is unlikely to unfold exactly how I envisaged it. Experiencing life's difficulties can be scary and unnerving, and it has taken me a lot of time to see the positive side of difficulty. We all remember those older family members telling us that we'll learn a lot about life and ourselves as we grow, but it's hard to really...

People always say that your thirties are your best years. I never fully understood this; when you're in the midst of the fun, care-free partying of your twenties, it's hard to see how anything can get better. Surely it all goes downhill at 30 when you're married with kids and living the boring, suburban life? Now, at 32, I am starting to see what people mean. I truly feel like I'm finally waking up to myself and enjoying the journey that it's taking me on. It happens gradually; as you edge towards the big 3-0, you start to feel a shift, a greater understanding of what makes you tick and how to deal with your personal demons, a clarity around the type of people that you want to be around, and this realisation that actually not everything is black and white, like you always thought. The world is made up of grey. Lots of it. When I was younger, I thought life was simple. You study, you work hard, you make your success. If you did something wrong, it said something abo...

The sound of Ed Sheeran gently wakes me up to a cold, dark morning. It's 6am. I roll over and reach for my phone. A quick check of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp and I feel up to date on my friends' lives. I open a few articles on my news feed about another Syrian atrocity to which the world is becoming alarmingly accustomed. My heart aches. As I glance at my clock and realise 15 minutes have passed, I sigh to myself and finally pull myself out of bed for another day at work. This has become my routine every morning. I have a wonderful life and I should be grateful for the trajectory that my career is on and the opportunities that brings. However, like other millenials, this often doesn't feel like enough. My grand visions of building schools in India seem so far away. Whilst I'm helping the feminist agenda, breaking glass ceilings in the corporate world, and trying to be a role model for young women, part of me yearns for more. Some days that is the desire to do som...

Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities. There is just something so wonderfully unique about this tiny, bustling metropolis. The bright lights, constrasting against the backdrop of towering hills, draw me in from the moment that I land. The obsession with food, shopping, and "fro-yo" projects a very endearing air. I thrive in the buzz of the city. I love the place. Beneath all of this, however, the real intrigue of Hong Kong lies in the island's powerful identity. Nothing embodies this more than the pictures we have seen these past few weeks. In Hong Kong, you have a city that is so incredibly proud of what it has become, and so incredibly proud of what it now is not. This is not a city in China. This is Hong Kong. Its own place destined to be separate from the constraints of Beijing. A democratic city where its residents are free to express their views. An important and influential financial district, which gains increasing international importance with each day. The U...

I spent a part of my summer this year debating feminism with some friends. Sitting on a veranda in beautiful Hvar, these girl friends of mine passionately spoke about their point of view that women are still suffering from fewer opportunities in our day-to-day life. As they spoke, I could see that unspoken thought in our male friends' eyes: here go those man hating women on their rant again. I carefully listened to what the girls had to say, but I couldn't relate. I have always considered myself a supporter of feminist movements overseas, as I believe women definitely do not have equal rights in developing countries, and that must change. Girls don't have the right to an education, girls are not accepted in families, girls are forced to marry young, girls face sexual and physical abuse. The list goes on. One only needs to look at all of the media coverage coming out of India recently to see that basic liberties for women just do not exist in these countries. But here, in t...