total timepass...

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...