As I saw it

Being a kid of the 1980s to 1990s, I grew up hearing of the innovation in cricket when the one day matches were introduced in the 1970s. Then came coloured clothing in the Benson & Hedges series down under to day and night matches to stump mikes and cameras to T20s to spider web cams and so much more along with the various controversies from time to time including the infamous exit of Kepler Wessel's South African team from the 1992 semi final thanks to the incomprehensible and irrational Duckworth-Lewis method to the infamous match fixing scandal that came to light in 2000. Of course the early 1990s kids of the sub-continent can never forget their favourite cricket commentators Henry Blofeld and his obsession with those 'earrings' in the audience to Harsha Bhogle and Tony Greig or the favourite of our umpires Dickie Bird and Billy Bowden to Mark Mascarenhas's introduction of his company Worldtel into cricket celebrity management to being bamboozled to see...

I have been doing an early morning prayer meditation called Mangal Maitri. It's the thing with which I start my day as soon as I wake up. I follow it up with another guided track called the 5 Minute Miracle of Love. I do both of them with Nithya Shanti's recorded tracks on the SoundCloud App. I then conclude with his Lotus of Gratitude exercise. As I sat today to do the Mangal Maitri prayer meditation, a few of my ex participants and clients came up in my consciousness as I was coming to the concluding part of the 5 minute meditation. I messaged each one of them and this is what one of them responded with: "Very good morning Sir. It's an amazing feel when you are surrounded by your well wishers  and it also make you responsible to improve day by day ." Now that last line is what truly makes my day and when I see it in people I know that you have one world changer near you. Sohum _/\_ Thank you Kapil Narwal.

Having struggled with my instinctive bipolar view of right and wrong; I tend to get into this explosive anger when I see uncivil things or things that are patently wrong. Only my family and really close friends know of the extremes my temper flares out into during those moments. And after it cools down, I am the one who’s left to pick up my own disintegrated body and spirit together; at times taking weeks and months to recover. As a result, I have tried to stay away from anything that is or can be bi or multi-partisan, such as political and religious ideologies and dogmas. This is one battle I have been waging with myself for years now to get to a level where I get to operate from a space of unconscious compassion. And while I will soon be sharing an instance from late last year which helped me for the first time to drive sanely on the roads of Delhi after years of struggle, I want to share what I experienced yesterday morning. Just as I was about to turn into...

It is believed that walnuts are good for the brain and the image of a walnut kernel resembles the outer surface of the human brain as well. But a couple of weeks back, I had a beautiful experience where half a kernel of walnut became the medium that endearingly connected two hearts between two men who could have been as different from each other as possible in terms of age, ethnicity, mother tongue, profession and personality types though bound by a common trait of avoiding publicity. I cannot share many details given the promise I made him but I would nevertheless like to share the story here. A newly made friend had just invited me home to meet with her husband and at the rendezvous point she requested me to wait for her car which was to be delivered there any moment after its service while she wanted to make a quick dash across the old bus station of that town to grab some groceries. She wanted someone to be there to receive the car when it was to be delivered. ...

An approach in life that I have most resonated with is the Go Givers philosophy, so beautifully articulated by Bob Burg and John David Mann in their Go Givers series of books. And just last week, we were talking about and practicing this very approach in the leadership outbound session I had the opportunity to facilitate for a Delhi based surrogate client. And today, I met a living embodiment of that philosophy who can as well be the poster boy for Bob Burg and John David Mann's book: Go Givers Sell More. He would also become one of the examples I will henceforth quote in my leadership workshops on responsibility, ownership, the Inside Out Model of Leadership and Bain & Co.'s 2015 study on what leads to 225% productivity at workplace. I sat in Ajay's rickshaw from the Aacharya Niketan market today afternoon after my grocery shopping and made a simple request - drive slowly as I cannot afford the bumps on the road. He assured me and got talking when we had a R...

Legends come in some of the most inconspicuous looks, places, means and ways. I am a huge fan of instrumental music but haven’t enjoyed some of the instrumental versions of some of the legendary Hindi film songs. But Subhash here was able to effortlessly bring a deep soulful spirit to each one of the compositions he generated out of his Ravanetha last week at the Hotel Gold Palace and Resorts in Kukas, Jaipur during the leadership outbound I was facilitating for a Delhi based  surrogate client. There are rare gems waiting for our discovery outside of our comfort zones. Was a pleasure and honour to be in his presence and loose oneself in his renditions. Do look him up the next time you are in Jaipur. I’ll be happy to share his number.