Extracts from a Diary

Between 2023 and 2024, the wife was studying in London for her second Masters’ and I was fortunate to make a few trips to London (and a few surrounding areas) through that period. The first time that I landed in London, at the Heathrow airport, I was very pleasantly surprised by some of the choices they had made. While there are many many great things to write about London – it is a legit great ‘international’ city with so many different nationalities and cultures (and their respective food/restaurants!), high density of public parks, high pedestrian friendliness, very well-connected public transport system, wonderfully informative (and so many!) museums, active theatre scene, the weekend/seasonal markets that come up etc. – I intend on only covering one (or related two!) tiny sliver(s) in this post. There may be some follow-ups – I don’t know. But, before that, some general housekeeping. Each of these points I mentioned above – they can be a separate post on its own merit. Also, yes –...

Roger Ebert, the great movie critic, often had a grouse with many movies relying on a particular kind of trope. The criticism: the plot kept going because the characters act like idiots or fail to say basic things to each other. (‘Idiot Plot’, explained here .) Think of movies like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham where half the drama can be skipped if the characters just said what they wanted. Robert Trivers has this fascinating book (called Folly of Fools ) about the evolutionary reasons why we lie – to ourselves and to others. Lying to others gives us some benefits – more food because we claim to be starving, more rest because we claim to be sick, or more sex because we claim certain things that make us more attractive to the other person. We lie to ourselves because it makes it easier to lie to others, if we genuinely believe in the lie ourselves. Hence self-deception. Self-deception can be organisation-wide too and, at times, to disastrous effects. That’s also how ‘conv...

In the past, on these pages , I've written about my love for the South African cricket team. There have been so many heartbreaks, what-ifs, if-onlys, near misses, and so close but yet so far.  Let's just look at the past 12-18 months as a build-up to this moment. The South African board has been facing some financial difficulties for a fair period now. They attempted to raise funds by starting a domestic T20 league and after a few unsuccessful attempts, they finally launched in Feb '23. Following that, they had the second season in Feb '24. What that also meant was that all the marquee players were playing in the domestic T20 league and of the 14 players they sent to New Zealand, seven were making their Test debuts ( Cricinfo link  for article). They lost that series 2-0. June '24 was the T20 World Cup final between India and South Africa ( match scorecard ). Having played well through the tournament, South Africa were now in a solid position, 16 overs into their ru...

– Or the manifesto of rational & selfish motivations for cooperation from lessons in nature, game theory, and businesses One of the best-selling car salesmen in the US was asked about his secret to success. His response: “I am not asking myself how I can sell them a car this time; I ask instead: how can I be sure they will come to me for their next car?" And so, he’d even actively down-sell some features to his customers: “you don’t need the ceramic brake discs on that McLaren if you’re going to be riding in the city”, “the leather seats wouldn’t be ideal for the temperature of this city”, and so on. He’d actively gain the customer’s trust and would be the default person to go to for subsequent transactions. He’d not be the highest-selling guy for the first 3 years, but in the long run, he was the top salesman. (Rory Sutherland narrating it here ) The One-Shot Mindset Contrast that with the scams being run at touristy places – selling a low-qu...

I've been intending to revive this blog for a long time. I call the time month year of death sometime to 2018, when I last wrote something here (coincidentally, on someone's death - mom's death if you're curious but don't want to click). I've had multiple different ideas still lying in draft stage. However, this time is different! Or so says every addict looking to quit; or in this case, the reverse - a person with inertia looking to move to action. Lots of updates in life but I'll just touch upon a few of them here. May (or may not!) cover in detail on some of these, in subsequent posts: Got married to a wonderful life partner - easily the most 'high leverage' decision that I didn't realise/think was as impactful as it turned out to be. Aside from/along with/higher than one's 'work', life partner is the other context that carries maximum impact to our day-to-day peace/irritation/happiness/frustration/satisfaction/depression. One c...