Nostalgia and all things logical

"Chhoti Si Baat" - Watching this all-time classic, always induces nostalgia in me, transporting me to a time when life was perhaps simpler and happier.  Prabha Narayan, (played by the underrated Vidya Sinha) is missing Arun (Amol Palekar, as a shy and simple young man - a character, he will practically come to be identified with) to the tune of the melodious Salil Chaudhury composition: 

Na jaane kyon hota hai yeh zindagi ke saath, achanak ye man, 

Kisike Jaane ke baad, kare fir uski yaad, chhoti, chhotisi baat, 

Na jaane kyon.......

Poor Prabha will be saved of all her misery, if only, she had studied psychology and behavioural economics. Because, she would have then realized that it is simply "loss aversion" at play here. She is feeling Arun's absence, only because, we as human beings, are naturally programmed to value something more when we lose it than cherish it when it is still with us. The sadness we feel if Rs. 1000 were to be deducted from our salary is much more than our happiness if an extra Rs. 1000 were to be paid out. 

That's why, through the prism of nostalgia, everything appears, lovelier than it actually was back then. They say "grass is greener on the other side". Well, "grass is also greener in the past." 

Vinod Kambli makes for a more compelling cricketing story than Sachin Tendulkar, for the same reason. There is romanticism associated with "what may have been?” A good percentage of Indian cricket fans believe that Kambli was more talented than Sachin in his childhood. A rational view would suggest that Kambli hardly had the technique to do well outside India. He was predominantly a front foot player and struggled against short pitch bowling.

In some of Amitabh Bacchan’s most iconic films, characters played by him die in the end, Sholay and Deewar being prominent examples. That ensured much more mind space for those films than a happy ending would have. Daily soap makers are known to insert some dramatic storyline in the plot, whenever TRPs start falling. They seem to know that their audience is moved more by conflict, tragedy and complications than happiness. Such scenes tug at the heartstrings of gullible viewers.   

If you catch yourself shedding a few tears while watching films and worse, while watching those useless daily soaps, then it’s time for you to turn to behavioural economics to find the root cause and a cure. 

Film review : M. S. Dhoni : The Untold Story

M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story...... What an opening scene it is when Captain cool decides to promote himself ahead of an in form Yuvraj in the 2011 world Cup final. It was a huge moment not only in the game but perhaps in India's cricketing history..... Brings goose bumps even when you watch it in a cinema hall.... And from then on, for next 3 hours plus, you watch the riveting story unfold of how, coming from some nondescript place in then Bihar, MSD became what he is today... Perhaps the best cricket captain India has ever had.. Winner of 2 world cups and a captain who took us to world number 1 ranking in test matches......It's a story of some struggles as MSD endures a frustrating wait of 5 years for his turn to play for India even as his contemporaries like kaif, Yuvraj become established names in the Indian team........then he plays that breakthrough innings of 148 against Pakistan and the rest, as they say, is history. Why is everyone appreciating Sushant Singh Rajput? You don't even get to see him in the film. He is MSD all the way. From his walk, to his smile, to every little gesture he makes and of course his cricketing shots, he is stunning. While it's a very enjoyable film without doubt, you don't get to know anything new about MSD the man as far his decision making, captaincy strategy, mind-set in critical moments and ability to handle pressure is concerned. Wish they had delved into these aspects more. Also we never get a view of his relationship with his fellow players and how he handled such big personalities.

Maybe a sequel is in offing. 😇

#MSDthefilm #Filmreview #Dhoni

Film review : Ventilator (Marathi film produced by Priyanka Chopra)

Ventilator.....odd name for a marathi film........a  family patriarch is put on ventilator and extended family members start gathering one by one in the hospital.. each with their own agendas, old angsts, conflicts...most are secretly worried if the patient will die just before ganesh festival and spoil it....... A very realistic portayel of what will happen in such a scenario.......It's an emotional, sensitive and yet comical ride of 2 plus hours ...... While the ensemble cast of the film has done a fantastic job, it's Jeetendra Joshi who's the star of the show here ... Conveying so much intensity through his eyes and expressions, he's just brilliant......Ashutosh Gowarikar plays the character of who else, but a successful hindi film director and does a good job too .... Priyanka Chopra the producer of this film also makes a guest appearance.

This one is all about loving your parents but is way better than a kjo film.

#Ventilator #MarathiFilm #PriyankaChopra

Book review : The Player by Boris Becker

Boris Becker has always been my favourite tennis player. Those childhood days of following Becker and Steffi Graf, that too, in the non-internet days, were the best days of my life. So, have always been curious about what is this guy made of - A champion tennis player, a polarizing personality in his home country Germany, a womanizer, a family man, a tax evader, a multi-millionaire?

It was wonderful to get a glimpse of his mind through this autobiography. He has been quite honest and hasn't shied away from talking about the controversial parts of his life. Enjoyed reading this one, though I wish he had talked more in detail about how it was to play those 7 Wimbledon finals, what exactly went through his mind in critical moments during those matches, because in his own words, losing 4 Wimbledon finals was four too much.

A very interesting read from a champion player!

#Bookreview #Theplayer #BorisBecker

Book review : Imperfect by Sanjay Manjarekar

To most Indian cricket fans, Sanjay Manjarekar remains a player who couldn't quite do justice to his potential. Dravid eventually became what many believed Manjarekar was meant to be. It's a refreshingly candid and breezy autobiography. 

He talks frankly about everything that was wrong with Indian cricket in the late 1980s and through most of the 90s - the culture of seniority and fear in the team, the (absolute lack of) captaincy skills(?) of Azaruddin, a passing mention of the arrogant attitude with which Kapil Dev used to conduct himself, the fun Sanjay used to have seeing some arrogant seniors quake on their boots on the bouncy pitches abroad and the terrible administration by bcci back then. 

In contrast, he talks with great respect about Imran Khan, the captain and feels his career would have been completely different if he had a mentor like Imran.

Manjarekar also writes in detail about the difficult relationship he shared with his father, the great Vijay Manjarekar, his personal struggles as a player, with temperament and technique. In present times, he's thoroughly kicked about his commentary stint, though I'm not sure how much viewers enjoy it. I for one, don't 😀

All in all, a nice read for a cricket buff. #Imperfect #bookreview

Film review : Gulabjaam (Marathi film)

Gulabjaam.......The marathi film, is almost as delicious as the Indian desert it is named after, though, it has more than a couple of spoonful of bitter to go with its sweet parts.    A young banker, who's a chef at heart, dreams dumping his 9-5 corporate job and opening a restaurant serving maharashtrian dishes in London. His search for a guru who can teach him authentic maharashtrian cooking lands him at amche pune and at the door, of an eccentric dabbevali. The film takes an intimate look at relationships and, peels them layer by layer, like an onion. It’s like a dish cooked over a slow flame and so, if you are in the mood to have instant noodles, this one may not suit your palate. Sonali Kulkarni has a role .that can easily go astray. She puts in a restrained performance and Sidharth Chandekar is suitably earnest. I haven't liked Director Sachin Kundalkar's previous works (for instance "happy journey"), but he gets the dish just about right this time.

The magic of leadership and clarity behind CSK's IPL success

Identifying and nurturing top class leadership, sticking to your core team, clarity and conviction about your own strategy, going against the trend, knowing your limitations well, overcoming those limitations by punting on your primary skills with a willingness to take a calculated loss on the secondary ones, and to top it all, flawless execution on court – That in summary is how I feel CSK ended up winning the IPL 2018. Sports many times provides more lessons than training programs ever will. So much to learn there for corporate strategists and indeed, any of us corporate citizens. For the record, CSK picked a team with the highest average age in the tournament. When teams were outdoing each other to bid for younger, fitter and athletic players, CSK went after players on the wrong side of their 30s during the IPL auction, all with an eye on retaining their core team from earlier years. During matches, they were already accounting for the extra runs they will leak on the field and for the runs they will lose due to their slower running between the wickets. They backed their players to compensate for this through their primary skills (batting and bowling). They were lucky too, as they won 4 of their matches, by scoring 40+ runs in the last 3 overs. With a leader like captain cool MSD on board, they won the trophy with minimum fuss and maximum execution. Clarity, simplicity and confidence did it for them. Begs a question, if in trying to be high tech, do we sometimes lose our core and the essence of simplicity?

#Leadership #Clarity #Simplicity

Film review : Raazi

Raazi...........At the height of impending 1971 war, a kashmiri girl is married off to a Pakistani army officer.......She succeeds in her mission as an Indian spy but is destroyed as a person in the process................It's a reminder that a war never leaves any victors............The film trusts its audiences' intelligence to figure out certain things..............Even as one or two twists in the story appear too convenient, Meghana Guljar's direction is extremely sure footed and she ensures that the film stays true to its core throughout......Alia Bhat has outdone herself while playing Sehmat, though one or two scenes towards the end of the film, take her to the brink of her acting limits. Vicky Kaushal as the sensitive and loving husband, brings conviction to his part...........Good spy stories are  a rarity in hindi films and those with a female protagonist are even rarer to come by.....Go and savor Raazi! 

Film review : Veere Di Wedding

Veere Di Wedding........a girls' buddy flick, which is an uncommon choice for a hindi film and the producers have upped their bet, by not signing a mainstream hero. Kareena Kapoor plays Kalindi, who's in a steady relationship with Sumit Vyas' Rishabh. Rishabh proposes marriage and all hell breaks loose for the commitment phobic Kalindi. Enter her 3 friends who have enough problems of their own, and you have a recipe for a lot of smoking, drinking, swearing, sex jokes and a trip to phuket by the gang of four. Get the drift?

It's a breezy ride while it lasts and  you don't care for any character in particular. Everyone in the film is rich, wears designer clothes, drives swanky cars and all transactions happen in crores. There is even a joke thrown in about someone being below the poverty line :(

Swara Bhasker's Sakshi gets to say the best and most fun lines in the film. Sumut Vyas puts in a very restrained performance and brings conviction to his part. A special word on Sonam Kapoor' acting : If you have ever acted in a school play, trust me, you won't have done much worse than her. Alas, I'm sure, neither is your sister a film producer, nor is your father a successful film hero :) So, your acting ambitions will have to take a backseat unlike Sonam's.

Ending note: The only relationship that seems to work in the film is a same sex one 😂

If you have time to kill over the weekend, go and watch this one. You will have fun and that's about it.

Sacred cows make the best burgers

“Don’t angry me” can be a perfectly legitimate response to the article’s title, if like majority of Hindus (me included), you see godliness in a cow. (For the uninitiated, “Don’t angry me” is a dialogue made world famous in India by our own Rowdy Rathore.) But the action hero/heroine in you can relax, in spite of the urge to the contrary, since neither am I a beef eater, nor am I in the business of promoting beef eating. The title is borrowed from a quote that was given to me as a topic for a group discussion, years ago. I couldn't make sense of it back then and needless to say, was promptly shown the exit door after the GD. Came across a good equivalent of the same while reading the book "The art of thinking clearly" - "Murder your darlings". Now, don’t take the author literally here, in case, god forbid, you are tempted to do exactly that at times.

The idea is to challenge our most cherished beliefs, biggest fears, fixated positions and strongly held opinions. The views that we hold so dear to our heart, the biases that we carry for years together, all of our “has to be, must be, should be”. How about becoming aware of them, challenging them and verifying them? Except laws of pure physics, of course. It’s obviously not advisable to jump from the top of a building to verify the “law of gravity” J

Problem is, we don’t even consciously choose most of these beliefs. They have been drilled into us over the years, through our education, or by our parents/elders/friends or worse, by the media. Unknown to us, such beliefs impact our choices in life at crucial moments and cost us our chance of success and happiness.

These unverified beliefs lead us to what’s called “confirmation bias”. We are naturally programmed to filter out evidence which is contrary to our world views. Equally, any evidence that’s in line with our belief system always registers. For instance, Rahul Gandhi believes that Coca-Cola founder started as a shikanji seller. A quick visit to Coca-Cola’s corporate website will tell RG that the founder was actually a pharmacist named Dr. John S. Pemberton. But, Rahul’s confirmation bias is his confirmation bias and none of Coca-Cola’s facts.

Sports presents innumerable examples of challenging confirmation bias. Unconventional tactics by sportsmen (and women too) usually end up surprising opponents and result in improbable wins. As a captain, Martin Crowe challenged the belief that a spinner should always bowl with an old ball and achieved great success for his team in the process, in the 1992 cricket world cup.

Corporates aren’t behind in this either. To anyone of us, born in India, on the wrong side of the new millennium, a scooter always meant “hamara bajaj”. But, when Bajaj’s very survival was threatened, it took a Rajiv Bajaj to challenge the belief that Bajaj is primarily a scooter making company. Under his leadership, Bajaj successfully transformed itself into a motorcycle manufacturer and today, it produces nearly 20% of annual motorcycles volume produced in the world.

If you are wondering why the picture of Aamir and Kareena with this article, blame it on a kiss. Well, in 3 Idiots, the “know it all” Rancho does carry an unverified belief. He thinks a nose obstructs a kiss. It took Kareena’s Priya to challenge and destroy that belief for Rancho. So…….