Knowledge is an illusion. No, this isn’t some catchline – it really is an illusion. We all think of ourselves as rational beings, able to view situations and make informed judgements, but studies have shown that we always thought in groups. From the time we hunted, till the time we went to the Moon, and …
The Ramayana trailer was released today. An ambitious project – a supposed budget of 4000 crore rupees for both parts, an ensemble of actors and technicians, effects by 8-time Oscar-winners DNEG…the works. A project on this scale will always attract both praises and brickbats. Purists will cry foul at depictions, advocates will praise it to …
Will Shri Ram capture our hearts and minds again? Read More »
There are some very significant influences in life – parents, grandparents, elder siblings, friends, teachers, mentors, peers…but the most important of them all is the Guru. Notice that I mention the Guru as distinct from a teacher. You can have many teachers – good and bad, but you will only have one Guru. You can …
We may remember Teachers Day as the day when we decorated the blackboard (or green board, as was in our case), and wished our teachers and thanked them for teaching us well. We may not have understood the importance of teachers day then, as we do now. Today, we live in different parts of the …
It’s appraisal season, and I am spending a lot of time speaking with staff – celebrating what they managed to achieve the past few months, and looking ahead at how we can all improve in the coming year. A lot of insights as well, that I record (in poor handwriting) in a book that I …
It’s a bit chaotic nowadays. And I’m not speaking about work. Every once in a while, the world at large undergoes an upheaval, as we humans sideline the basic courtesy of living and let live, and bring out our inherent tribal instincts. We are called social animals, but I believe we are this way not …
eBay is a shark in the ocean We are a crocodile in the Yangtze River. If we fight in the ocean, we will lose. But if we fight in the river, we will win. Jack Ma There are two processes of designing in engineering. The first is based on iterations to an already existing template …
I read this interesting article by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox in the Harvard Business Review. Titled “In praise of extreme moderation”, it speaks of the trend of workaholism being a badge of honor, and extremism is becoming the norm not only in our professional lives but increasingly in our personal lives as well. People take up sports and …
You can conduct a puja, any puja, with an elaborate set of sāmagri (items), or just one flower. What matters is the feeling within. Likewise, Deepawali can be celebrated with an array of dazzling lights, or just one diya, that lights the Jnana Jyothi (the inner wisdom)…the many diyas in your mind are lit by this one …
Here is a snippet on ‘luck’. There’s a physicist at Stanford named Safi Bahcall who modeled the exact principle of luck, and the math is wild. He calls it “phase transitions in human networks.” When you’re stationary, your probability of a lucky event is limited to your existing surface area: the people you already know, …
