Unmuddlings!!

Lets do a playback!! Can we run through the last one year or for that one month, and play back the number of decisions we took. Then slot them, to what degree of certainty [relatively firm vs a decent possibility] we thought we would end up sticking to the decisions [probably based on extraneous precedent activities]. Then do a check on actually how things happened really. What % of the firm decisions materialized and what % of the possibilities materialized. Another way of looking at the same conundrum. Lets say we took x no. of stated firm decisions, and we are some maha gentleman or lady and make sure we stick to all our firm decisions over a period of finite time frame. Then at after the decisions are made and a good few weeks later post the time frame – we look back at all our decisions from afar. And assess what % of our firm decisions were correct decisions [based on subsequent info received during the decision time frame]. I somehow have a feeling, - as being the lazy me, I pr...

All the facts or figures that I ll quote, if any, will be purely figments of imagination. Similarly all that I call as instincts, may just be (for you) mere tendencies or inclinations. Whatever it is, I feel like rambling on this topic of instincts – which has been swirling in my head since yesterday afternoon. Lets start with a few questions, • Have you often wanted to avoid an unsolicited phone call?.....as irritated and disdainful as you could be • Do you more than a few times, judge a person by the looks and surroundings?….and put across too confidently your point of view, more strongly than you normally would… • Don’t you have a set of traits, convictions?…that you think they define you and which are the pillars of all the positive things of yours Then the answers: • Guess 4 out of the 5 unsolicited calls [and the wanted ones] were very much worth the miss • Probably 9 out of 10 times, the took a call on whose views to ignore was right • Similarly, am dead sure, what you call are ...

A small eatery doing brisk business or a flourishing fashion store, don’t just convey the enterprise of the people running the show; but they also convey what their customer yearn for in a demand driven economy. Is holistically happy and healthy life about good food, Hollywood hits, fashion flaunts? In a era that measures money more than anything else, what happens to those ingredients of evolution and good living for which there isn’t always a steady demand. What happens to a passionate coin collector, or a street dancer, the village priest, the benevolent pigeon feeder, the small town magician, the community music teacher, or a provoking movie maker, an exciting athlete or all the various people – who want to passionately pursue a unique or rare talent that they possess as an end itself. Do they also become bean counters – and serve a small exclusive segment, with due manipulation and machinations – or do they live a tough life [and be a bad advertisement for their profession] or wor...

Folks, this question is really meant to be tongue in cheek for the 20th century grads of the city. Especially the ones who haven’t stayed in BBSR for many years now; or for the ones who have stayed on but have hardly ventured out and have restricted themselves – figuratively speaking - to only a few watering holes. So many times, I have heard people getting confused about whether they are waiting in CRP Chakka [I mean Square] or Jayadev Vihar signal [thankful not behind the wheel]. With the population percentage growth growing rapidly I am dreadfully waiting for the day, when visitors compare the time spent at traffic signals with those in Haji Ali crossing in my previously amchi Mumbai. That day certainly, I will want to recede further to some other village - aka Koraput or something. Even though there are a few snarling roads / alleys and frustrating crossings now – I hope no one ever compares BBSR to CTC one day [I know this Cuttacki / BBSR fight emerges again – though am not sure i...

As I mulled over this title, during an in-flight meandering amongst the multifariously shaped clouds, I grinned - when it gleamed upon me that this title was too similar with ‘Through the Looking Glass.’ ‘Through the Looking Glass’ is a masterpiece I have never read – even though I have referred to its character [Alice] in few dozen business presentations over the past half a dozen years. This book written by a mathematician!! [can you believe it – for trivia sake Lewis Carroll is the nom-de-plume of Charles Lutwidge Dogdson!!! Who wrote more mathematics books than literary ones I guess] has caught the imagination of the hundreds of millions of people – most of them would not have read the book, like yours truly – over the past 200 years [late 19th century novel]. No wonder the author thought of this name, to title a free wheeling dreamy story. The other day traveling from Kolkotta to BBSR, when I inadvertently let myself be allotted to a window seat [as opposed to the aisle seats – ...

This match the world will remember for a few thousand years. I certainly will. I have been watching world cup football live since Maradona’s epic run against England or Manuel Negrette’s [Mexico’s] bicycle kick in the 1986 world cup – there have been some hugely memorable moments in the past. But nothing to beat the after taste of this wonderful match. For me, it is not just the delightful passes / crosses n ball control, the enterprising recovery tackles, the fluidity in football and the chutzpah of the Spaniards - that wowed me like mad. Today was football at its best – abt 30 men [starting players, subs and officials] performing to their hilt. Njoyed even better without strong favouritism – just mild preferences [well - was that differentiators in yours truly’s mental make-up!!]. The acme of today’s performance was the history. Spain – echoing the words of an ESPN commentator – delivering, after promising for decades. It been almost three decades now, that I have been following wor...

Thanks to our joy of basking in Essaouria, the days at Marrakech [pronounced as ma-ra-kesh] got curtailed to an overnight stay sandwiched by an afternoon and a forenoon. But at the end we were happy to have made it to it, thanks to all that we heard from Abdelhadi – the friend we made during our sojourn to Fez, and take away with us a feeling of having been there and seen it. Marrakech, which was the capital of Morocco during the 11th-12th century AD [or thereabouts], has a distinctive vibe of its own. For that matter every Moroccan place that we had been to has a very distinctive flair of its own. Casablanca – flurry of business activity and certainly more people on the streets; Fez which has two lives of his own anyways – one a relaxed French colony [without Frenchmen] and another medieval city, Essaouria – is more of the rejuvenating hamlet, with the pace of life slow as a turtle’s marathon race. What most strikes oneself, as one steps into Marrakech are the red coloured buildings...