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VVIP Visits: Hindering Disaster Relief
Unpopular opinion: VVIPs visiting sites of accidents and natural disasters is counterproductive. It looks good on cameras but it actually hurts relief and rescue. VVIP visits distract officials, who, instead of doing relief and rescue, have to:...
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The high cost of being busy
I was once attending a drug addiction conference in Melbourne, where the speaker on the stage had lost his beloved son to a drug overdose. He...
Living for today
When I entered the corporate world in the US after my stint in the Indian Civil Services, I heard this weird notion called ‘paying your dues.’...
Flow state
The fish packet vanished from right in front of my eyes -- how the hell did that happen, I wondered! This happened a few months ago: Sitting in my...
Bouncing back from failures
In week-2 of the 1st semester at IIT Kanpur, I got my first big life shock - the physics quiz. This quiz was pretty nasty: An ant was supposedly...
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Finding Happiness
20 years after we first met, I ran into Mr. Michael Siromani, a retired IAS officer, under curious circumstances -- he was collecting roadside weeds in a plastic pouch. After the initial greetings, seeing a quizzical look on my face, he explained,...
How to win in an unfair life
It was an unequal race -- not fair. During my 6th grade, our sports teacher announced an impromptu bike race to celebrate the end of the annual sports day. The near-certain winner was the son of the Commanding Officer of the local air force...
Prioritizing & delegating in high-stress situations
Years ago, when I was heading Trivandrum City Police, a horse in our mounted police unit got seriously ill and was in severe pain. Since it was cruel to let the horse suffer, the veterinary doctor had to sadly seek my approval to euthanize the...
Clarity is only in hindsight
My good friend and first boss in the IPS, Vinod Thomas, was a cop on a particular Friday. The next Monday he was a private equity investor. He probably made the world’s most dramatic overnight career transition, going on to manage more than a...