My “potato book” was feeling left out with all the posts and coupons for the two design thinking books. So here’s a coupon for Main Batata Hoon, a collection of short stories written in a conversational style, about the amusing and often counterintuitive ways our views, assumptions and behaviours shape both our personal lives and…
Startups often struggle to find a healthy balance between becoming and staying relevant, with marketing and sales, and competition and growth. Their efforts and struggle, while not necessarily always logical, is usually understandable. However, one cannot extend a similar courtesy of understanding to large corporate giants in mature sectors who miss the forest for the…
Here in India, we citizens as consumers don’t quite take customer feedback as seriously yet, as they do in some other countries. In my first job for a short stint at a BPO in Bangalore, I was puzzled to find out that random surveys went out to retail customers of our Hewlett Packard products in…
Once I started noticing contrasting oddities in our human nature and behaviour a few years ago, a bulk of them ended up in the book ‘Main Batata Hoon’. The thing is though, once you start noticing them in your own life and in your network and surroundings, it is impossible to switch off. One instance…
The beautiful tri-colour waving at Connaught Place, Central Park, Delhi. It’s 75 years since India got Independence! A proud milestone for all of us Indians. Also one to reflect on and carefully choose the path forward. I happened to read a 75th Independence Day post on Instagram a short while ago, that took a…
India – More highways or Better National & Public Transport? This is an email I had sent to our Minister for Road Transport & Highways in January this year. Of course I am still optimistic (or delusional) enough to hope for a response or an opportunity to further discuss this topic. Either way, I…
Dr. Faqir Chand Kohli passed away today at the age of 96. Immortals like him will never be forgotten.
Is it possible to fall in love with a company? Not the kind where you are loyal to a company or brand or product line and refuse to buy anything else.But truly revere a company because of their values. A few weeks ago, I was at the Indian Hotels company to meet a senior gentleman…
Ava and Dr. Jimmy Patell, dear friends of mine, were extremely kind to gift me a poem that they wrote about my book on design thinking, Design the Future. The poem itself is more priceless to me than the book. Really humbling. Here it is. Design the Future, what does it portend What does it…
Lose Your Illusion Sometime last year, I had an interesting conversation with a friend’s girlfriend who is a psychologist. Between drawing inferences from my handwriting to discussing human behaviour in general. She also mentioned the acute dearth of mental health personnel in the country (India) at the moment. I did some reading around that. The…
A Pad Idea! Once upon a time, there was is a man named Arunachalam Muruganantham from Coimbatore in India, who could not bear to see the discomfort and embarrassment that his wife had to go through, just to buy/ wear a sanitary pad / napkin. Risking even his very marriage, Arunachalam’s empathy and resolve lead him…
Actions With and Without a Face Even today, you can see people of some races cringe or gasp at the sight of the swastika, the symbol of Hitler’s party. Even though the swastika has much older roots. And Hitler himself, continues to be collectively and strongly hated today, over 72 years after his death. And rightly…
A Session on Innovation, Design Thinking & The Future of Work Earlier this week, I was invited to conduct a session around ‘Innovation, Design Thinking and the Future of Work’ at the Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship, for a batch of about 170 grad students from Vaze College. The most enjoyable session I’ve had so…
Design Thinking – Shelters for the Homeless [3.5 minute read] Here’s the next post, towards sharing stories and incidents around design thinking in daily lives, towards a better collective understanding. My earlier post was about taps at home, and why house helps might be wasting water. If you missed that, here’s the link. Now, in…
Democracy has rested on four pillars. The legislature, executive, the judiciary, and arguably the most important, the press. All the pillars need improvement, some far more than others. The world press, for instance, has really become dirty. When in reality, it should be a transparent communication channel between the citizen, the country, and the world….