All Entries Tagged With: "thinking"

dinosaurI still recall with laughter my first day at B school. Students introduced themselves dutifully and solemnly till one guy said that he was working for Hindustan Motors, makers of the Ambassador car. Later we ribbed him on this, telling him that his department had an entire year to decide on the shape of the headlights — this being the only innovation in what has been billed as the world’s only vintage car under active production and use. A living dinosaur.

With great power lies great responsibility. Unlike nature that has very efficient methods of balancing power centers, man’s power centers are haphazard and self-regulated. Man is the only creature who can simultaneously live in two worlds: one on the inside and other on the outside.

A fool is known by six things: anger without cause; speech without profit; change without progress; inquiry without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends. Arabian Proverb I think a foolish person (fool) is the one who knows, does and views things differently from wise men, as well as other fools. [...]

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. Anonymous The concept of a book starts within someone who is restless with a concept. So restless that he cannot keep it to himself. He feels like sharing it with anyone who’s interested. He becomes like a live volcano wanting to [...]

A few of us were drinking beer and discussing movies when the conversation veered round to Bollywood screen villains. Milind, a film fanatic felt that yesteryear villain Pran, was the finest bad man ever. His evidence? AFTER PRAN’S ADVENT NO PARENT IN INDIA DARED TO NAME THEIR NEW BORN ‘PRAN’! The implication was that no [...]

An internationally acclaimed management guru writes that Harvard Business school is like a doorway through which if a bright youngster passes he or she will emerge a bright person anyway! The point he was making was that there is no great value addition at Harvard! I recall writing a letter to a newspaper in response [...]

If knowledge is power, than curiosity is the muscle. Focus is a fabulous force. Tho’ sometimes, it’s good to blur the lines and depart from your expertise, your skill set and what you think you know so well. Many a great discovery has come from accidental encounters and seemingly unrelated interests. Choose three subjects that [...]

Two events in recent times brought to my mind a  characteristic of human thinking that needs examination. The media hype and mass hysteria surrounding the death of Michael Jackson was, to put it mildly, a case of overdose. It was said  that MJ was an ‘icon’, a world class performer and had a magnetic stage [...]

My two and a half year old Boston-born grand nephew was taken on his first visit to India. At Chennai, the highlight of the day for him was the evening at the beaches of the city He clearly enjoyed the sand, the water and the relief from the summer heat. This boy was curious to [...]

There aren’t many certainties in this life, but three constants that we can count on are: Our Thoughts Growth Death Thoughts: Our thoughts are as intangible as ether. Yet, they make us smile or bring frowns to our brow as they emerge from our mind. We need to learn which thoughts to keep and which [...]

I poured my body on the grassy lawn at the pier today. A little tyke (we’ll call him Chance – my favorite name) was scrambling nearby with his young momma. Maybe Chance was a one-year-old or possibly a few months older. My guesstimation of a kid’s age is absolutely embarrassing. I was focused on myself. [...]

“Contemporary racism is not conscious, and is not always accompanied by dislike, so it gets expressed in indirect, subtle ways.” Jack Dovidio Recently, when I saw and read about hate crimes and racist attacks, my heart went out to the college kids who bore the brunt of attacks. It must have been traumatic for the [...]

It’s all very nice to believe in a power greater than myself – some version of a beneficent overseer with management capabilities that boggle the mind – but I want a personal relationship, not a vague idea or a one-way yearning. Over the years, that desire has led me to develop a system of getting [...]

So here’s my new favourite concept: positive addiction. I just love the sound of it. It’s righteous and honest – a great combo. “I’m hooked, but it’s all good. No, really. I’m addicted, but it is positively healthy.” Like it. I was talking to a friend today (okay, it was my shrink), about my almost, [...]

Thumb Types! Are you also one of those types who type/key in with their thumbs? I am sure you are. Welcome to the world of Thumb Types! From the folklore days of Tom Thumb to what I now call “Thumb Types Times” it has been quite a remarkable journey. For a tiny little thumb! Most [...]

In the week after the Mumbai massacre I asked two politician friends of mine the following question: Which scourge affecting India is a bigger killer – terrorism or kids dying of starvation? They both replied, “It is obviously terrorism. Look at the way almost 170 people have been killed just last week….and we cannot forget [...]

In a given situation, we all don’t think alike. Since childhood, our unique experiences, environments and relationships make us behave differently. Sometimes, it is quite difficult to interpret our actions and conclude if we are right or wrong. One of my professors had an interesting interpretation that is easy to understand and effective to improve [...]