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This book has a very interesting take on some of the key countries of the world, why they do what they do and links their history and actions as dependent on their geography. Most of the observations were very interesting, am sharing a few below: Russia : Moscow is located in a vast flatland and was always at risk of attack from either the Central Asian powers in the south or from Western Europe in the west. Therefore it has always conquered land all around Moscow to keep a buffer zone, and that has been a driver of its foreign policy for a long long time. Till today two geographical limitations do matter to Russia and drive its actions – it still needs a port which does not freeze in winter. And it needs to protect itself from the great western plains of Europe and hence needs an ally in the Baltic States and Poland at all times. China:  The hinterland of China again is located in an open plain and therefore it has conquered other regions like inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Ti...

I attended an AR Rehman concert earlier this year, which was in the Wembley SSE Arena. The show had been delayed multiple times, from May to September last year and then from March to finally in July this year. I had been looking forward so much to attend it and was very happy that I finally made it with all the reschedulings too! I think for our generation, some of the best songs we have all danced to and hummed all our life have been composed by him. From Swades to Pardes, from Rangeela to Rang de Basanti, from Bombay to Rockstar, and so on. Who can forget Chaiya Chaiya and Humma and countless other such memories he has given us. I think most of my favourite Bollywood music must be AR Rehman's. And what can be better than listening to him play all these songs live? Its not being able to listen to him play these songs live... The whole experience was a big big let down for me. Maybe it was the expectations that made it so disappointing, but I did not enjoy being there at a...

Blackbox thinking is a book on another aspect of psychology - of learning from mistakes. Surprisingly enough, there are some parts of society where this is encouraged, and some where its not. And this difference in attitude can change the whole course of a person's life. Or a profession... Some interesting observations and learnings from the book: Learning constantly from failures, to improve your performance and systems is consistently and rigorously followed in the airline industry. This is done using the recordings from the blackbox installed in flights which is then used to add new guidelines given out to pilots and other airline staff. The opposite happens in the medical care profession though. Mistakes are not even acknowledged as their occurrence is assumed to be a weakness. And since no one even accepts the mistakes, there is no opportunity to correct it going forward, and so thousands continue to die as learnings are never taken. The mind naturally deals with mista...

Continuing with my aim of reading and learning more about psychology, the most recent book I read on this topic was Predictably Irrational. It is a book on behavioural economics and talks about some of the irrational behaviours of the human mind which can actually be predicted correctly. Its a very light and interesting read, a definite recommend. The book is split into 13 chapters, each focussing on a particular irrational human behaviour which can be explained. And this is based on simple experiments carried out by the author which support his hypothesis. I am listing below the summary of some of the observations shared in the book: People make a lot of decisions in their lives based on relativity, for example when shopping and deciding how much to pay for something. We cannot value things standalone but only in relation to others. And that may lead to some not-so-rational behaviours. One of the (good) side-effects of this is that people can use this to their advantage - they ...

I recently saw a play in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, called 'The Meeting'. Before I went for the play, I had no clue where it was located. Once I started driving there, it turned out to be in the CBD (Central Business District) part of town, which is known to be its not so safe part. I always feel a bit unprepared for driving in that part of the city, but I had booked the tickets, so turned up anyways. Once there though, it was a different experience. The whole area around, called Newtown was quite vibrant and full of people chilling and shopping in the mall while some had come to visit the museums around. Another example of how perceptions can be different from reality:). The theatre was quite small and felt very cosy with a few seats surrounding the stage in three directions. The play was quite short, barely an hour or so. And I hadn't read about the play before, so it was a complete surprise for me. Sometime in between the performance, I figured out that it w...

After years of trying to figure out why exactly the book 'Lajja' was banned, and unable to find a copy to read, I finally laid my hands on the book recently. Given the title of the book and the fact that it was banned, I had very conveniently assumed that the book was on women and their plight in Bangladesh. But on reading it, I realised it was on a totally different topic - the constant and ongoing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh due to the slow and steady transition of a secular nation to a fundamentalist one. And all of it was news to me. To be honest, the book is nothing extraordinary in its quality and way of writing. It shifts from a fictional story about a Hindu family which has to face constant struggles during riots that broke out in Bangladesh after the Babri Masjid incident, to a documentary which lists all the atrocities and unfairness faced by Hindus over the years. The book is not too well written and can be easily critiqued. But inspite of its failings,...