The future is not binary, its colorful and beautiful. Early morning standing under the shower I had a thought, as usual most of my good stuff happens under the shower. I thought about the way, as humans, we are headed into the artificial age and how it is so important for everyone to focus on learning about and leveraging AI, machine learning, analytics and automation. I was thinking of all the ways AI will change the way the world works when a small voice inside my head squeaked “that’s just stupid dude, you’re stupid, you’re stupid and don’t forget you’re […]
Ten days back we went to the place which in our small nuclear family we consider our pilgrimage, Hiranandani Gardens Powai. This place is where a lot of things started for us. This was where we found our first jobs after completing our MCA. This is where one evening while reflecting on the colors of sunset sitting in the open enjoying a coffee we decided “chal let’s get married” (after around 9 years of “going around”). Four years later we then came back to Dr. L. H. Hiranandani Hospital Powai for the delivery of the first child and subsequently another […]
(The seed of this story came from Ira. She wanted me to write a story about a very very very very big mango tree)…. Rashid woke up before the cockerel again today, quickly brushed his teeth, washed his face and ran out into the courtyard. The cockerel was startled and so were the two male goats in their enclosure. He went straight to the large mango tree standing stout at the very corner of the courtyard. This year was looking exceptionally good. The tree was laden heavily with large bunches of juicy looking mangoes. Pity he wasn’t allowed to […]
No one knows why the pyramids were really built…. well ok some people will tell you they built the pyramids to protect the pharaohs in the after life…. scratch the surface and that argument will fall off…. Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica fallout is a classic case of why one shouldn’t build it just because it can be built. I have always maintained that technology and advancements in computing are running away while real life at best is left gasping and panting running after new advances trying to play catch up. People clamor for the latest and greatest without […]
There once lived a pack of wolves in the jungle. They were led by a ferocious leader who was as wise as he was strong. He led the pack on numerous difficult hunting expeditions on a daily basis and pulled off feats that were considered impossible. Rounding up deers and buffaloes and goats and sheep and all sorts of game animals that the pack devoured hungrily because hunting with the pack leader was no walk in the park. Slowly as time went by the pack grew in size as every wolf in the jungle wanted to be a part of […]
1…. An eye for an eye and the whole world would be blind… the need of the hour is to shun our differences and come together. Black and White is all good but go beyond the feral instinct and recognize that every right and every wrong is not in isolation. Respect the grays, read between the lines, understand your customer, build products that evolve with feedback… don’t just shove what we are selling down the customers throat….. for after all a Zebra also believes in adapting to change and end of the day survival is about embracing the gradients between […]
ever notice how when you’re going up in an elevator to some higher floor, it stops somewhere in between and four bumpkins tumble in scratching their oily hair and busily hitting the like buttons on FB running on their phones like their lives depended upon it…. then the doors close and the lift starts moving up to the 20th floor from the 4th floor…. and then they let out a collective groan and simultaneously look up at you as if you are the problem…. then one of them manages to say “oh fuck this is going up”…. All this while […]
He had always been a rebel. And today he was off on his journey. The whole family had turned up to see him go, to wish him well. The young duck, Jammy, had decided to shift to the other side of the marsh to be able to build a better life, he did not believe in tradition where all ducks stayed together in a flock.He wanted to break out, disrupt and discover new meaning. Mama duck had packed him a bag full of goodies and had been crying non stop past two days. Papa duck was proud. He had been […]
the state of the nation today is such…. I was so looking forward to driving down to Jaipur, hang with friends, brothers, their families and parents after a long time…. a road trip hasn’t happened for a while now but guess it’ll be a while… We started planning the trip and inevitably the question of the overnight stay that would be involved came up. We’ve stayed at this RTDC resort at Rishabhdev everytime we have driven down from Mumbai to Jaipur. It’s a quaint little place with caring staff and it’s conveniently bang on the highway. So last night as […]
every passing day one notices things that reinforce the belief that humanity is dead or nearly dead and that the end is just around the corner. Delhi schools are being asked to stay closed. The Airtel Delhi half marathon is being advised to cancel by the IMA. We as a generation have failed our children, they can no longer go out and play they have to skip school just so that they can avoid breathing in the pollution. What do we do about it? We bicker like mangy dogs about the merits of Modi over Kejriwal. As if these politicians […]
a few days back, well 3 days back to be precise, we got us a new car. This was a replacement for our 10 year old work horse that is still going strong… well an attempt at a replacement at least. When we first got the Fusion, 10 years back, the car was ahead of the times. It still is. The Fusion which we got was a diesel. In the last 10 years I have never lost a drag race, not that I consciously raced anyone at traffic signals. The low end torque peak and exceptionally great road presence of […]
dimwits is the word that comes to mind…. First we create problems and then we solve them and then we reward ourselves for having solved “that” problem hand out nobel prizes and all….. a little later we realize “WHAT THE FUCK HAVE WE DONE!!!”…. look at dynamite to understand where I’m starting off from…. Today we in India talk of this thing called “DEVELOPMENT”. It’s what we all want. We just don’t understand what it means though. Ask a man on the street what he understands by development and he will tell you about these huge factories and jobs for […]
lots and lots of roads…. that’s when out of habit she holds onto my hand tight. I let it stay that way till as long as she’ll not need the hand back to scratch her nose or adjust her hair…. I don’t know how much longer she would find it appropriate to hold my hand while walking but for now at least I know she will always want my hand when crossing the road…. I know that because that’s true for the mom as well even now after 22 years of crossing roads together…. So yeah I guess I know […]
Morning ritual wake up at least 2 hours before you need to be somewhere start the day with gratitude. 5-10 minutes of being thankful for everything and anything. It could be something as simple as the view from your window and something as complex as the opportunity to be up, awake, breathing alive watching the sun go up one more day. This is essentially meditating and drawing more of good into your life drink up…. get a head start on your daily water intake target by downing 1000ml of the mana, warm preferably but no one’s judging so cold […]
we recently bought a nice place in this up and coming hub near the proposed international airport… yeah well you get the idea lots of promises loads of marketing spiel. The builder is one of the best, maybe the very best in all of Navi Mumbai and the buildings are pretty well rounded. So the idea was to put it up for rent and continue to stay where we are right now…. essentially let it pickle while we went and chased our rainbows… So yeah the possession happened, we got the keys to the new house, spent a night here […]
“associating with crowds is dangerous”… so said Seneca of the way blood-lust at the Colosseum kept rising to a point of being a deafening crescendo. The observation was mainly about how even the most resolute of non believers become drunk on the fascination of bloodshed goaded on by a crowd of excited bystanders. The question we want to ask ourselves is “are we there yet? or there is some redemption still possible”…. The way today we look to news to provide us with information about the “latest” atrocities of the ISIS and the Donald in the west and our very […]
So today morning I woke up to a beautiful article written by a much respected artist from India. Do watch one of my most loved scenes from one of his movies here. The sum and substance of the article resonated a lot with our lives so far (Sonali and I). Made me want to write about it… My sense of resonance came from parts other than the growing religious fundamentalism aspect that the article highlighted. I am married to a person who incidentally is also a Hindu (Bengali, brahmin), we were lau birds for 9 years before finally deciding bahut […]
so a CAG report had come up a while back and it said that Reliance Jio was given an advantage of INR 3367Cr (or $530 million) by being allowed to land voice calls on the broadband spectrum…. the report as expected was rubbished, suppressed and conveniently forgotten…. however that old headline yesterday got me thinking…. is free really free? The whole country has been going all gaga about the amazing amazing value being offered by Reliance through their Jio offering. They have ruthlessly slayed all competition, and whatever is left is clamouring for corners where they can somehow hide and survive. […]