Musings of somebody trying to comprehend a complicated and imperfect world
Madhukar (name changed for privacy reasons) was quite excited. His Accountant had just filed his ITR-1 for FY2023 and had informed him that he is going to get a refund of about ₹ 4.42 Laks. He had also assured Madhukar that this should get his refund soon. He had also told Madhukar that typically, he… Continue reading Is your Accountant scamming you and the government?
When I was in Business School a couple of decades ago, I was lucky to undertake an elective called "Tracking Creative Boundaries". As part of the course, the professor introduced us to several eminent personalities from different walks of life including musicians, folk artists, sculptors, writers etc., As I reflect on these memories, one thing… Continue reading Are we thrusting mediocrity in the name of Liberalism?
This hilarious scene in the famous movie 3 Idiots possibly best illustrates the gist of this blog post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MlkASchodc 3 Idiots came more than a decade ago but it kind of illustrated some deep rooted practices that have crept in over the last few decades into our Learning pedagogies. Wikipedia defines Learning as the process… Continue reading Studying is supposed to be one of the approaches to Learning. But has the tail started wagging the dog?
I had recently visited a prosthetic clinic where I encountered an unique experience associated with gratitude. There was a young muslim girl, in her early twenties who was talking to her mother about some prejudice that they were facing somewhere. They were sitting in a sofa with their backs turned towards my back and so… Continue reading Living in an era of increasing instant gratifications and decreasing gratitude…
In the increasingly scary fast paced world of today, every person finds himself or herself having to take numerous decisions every single day. Several of these are very transactional ones where the options chosen don't matter much (where to eat during lunch time, for instance) but there are several which have far more long-lasting impact.… Continue reading Do I do the right thing or take the easy route out? The eternal conflict between simplicity and ease…
This week has been quite dramatic for my state of Tamilnadu as we lost 2 of our highly visible and vibrant personalities (within a day of each other) who straddled the hugely complex world of Indian politics for the last several decades. One was our esteemed Chief Minister and Iron Lady Jayalalithaa and the other… Continue reading Larger than life personalities – Why do we need them?
I recently ran into a friend from B-School who is occupying a rather senior position in a FMCG major. He currently handles a very large portfolio of brands on a pan-India level and a top performer thus far, not to mention, being considered a rising star in his organization. He has worked in different part… Continue reading The common man !!! Do we really know him or her?
Several years ago, I had attended a seminar by a renowned management Guru who at that point, some of us had labelled as a PKIA (Pompous Know It All). The seminar was about learning how to developing a Teachable Point Of View (TPOV). TPOV is a concept that was introduced by Noel Tichy and generally… Continue reading The absurdity of having an Intellectual Point of View
I got some interesting feedback on my earlier blog on Problem Definition. One particular feedback that intrigued me was "Do you need technical brainpower for defining a problem? How early do you decide that you need the best techie out there to get out there for your problem?" While the person who asked this question… Continue reading Is technical brainpower needed for defining a problem?
Some years ago, I was attending as a participant in a workshop for new managers. One of the sessions was a case driven one where a group of us were asked to work on a business problem and come out with solutions. The case was about a firm that was the market leader in mattresses… Continue reading Defining the problem statement is really half the problem solved. How profound and how so easily not followed?
Experiential Musings 