My life’s work is just not being seen as this angelic lady with the lamp’. It was late 1850’s and Florence Nightingale had just come back to England after her services as the director of Nurses at a field hospital in the Crimean War. She and her team of young nurses were horrified to confront theContinue reading “Not Just the ‘Lady with the Lamp’”
Author Archives: Uday
My Curse of Knowledge
Around the 1990’s, Elizabeth Newton, a graduate student in psychology at Stanford University designed a simple experiment to illustrate a powerful concept. She assigned people one of the two roles – ‘Tapper’ or ‘Listener’. The Tappers were asked to pick a set of easy songs like ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Jingle Bells’ that they must tap onContinue reading “My Curse of Knowledge”
Follow The Red Brick Circles
San Francisco is one of my favourite cities I have never been to. The picture above is one from a Google street view of a busy intersection in the heart of the city. There is something about the mysterious brick circles, like the one you see above, all around in San Francisco. They have puzzledContinue reading “Follow The Red Brick Circles”
Just Two Minutes
It’s been a period of transition. From the secure to the uncertain. From an assured sense of being to doubt. An easy, formulaic way of life to an unstructured version. I was building my own narratives for getting ‘mentally prepared’. ‘It would be nothing like I’ve ever done before. 18 hour workdays. Austere living. Intensity.Continue reading “Just Two Minutes”
Game, Interrupted!
The refree was nervously prancing, whistle in the mouth and waiting. The crowd’s anxious murmur was swelling. The TV commentator was finding new words to keep his narration going. Everyone was kept waiting. The big kick-off was not starting. It was the Quarter final of 1970 Football World Cup. Brazil was facing off with Peru. TheContinue reading “Game, Interrupted!”
The Unlikely Hero
The packed 18th floor conference hall in the Dinkler Plaza Hotel in Atlanta City plunged into stunned silence. Every business leader from Atlanta city present there did not bat an eyelid. Meanwhile, the man who caused this deafening silence with his crisp speech, calmly took his seat. It was October 1964. Martin Luther King had just beenContinue reading “The Unlikely Hero”
No Dry Holes
Ian Vann was fuming. The performance and cost data was a terrible reading. It was the annual review time at British Petroleum (BP) and as the head for Global Exploration, Ian and his team were also charting BP’s strategy for the next 15 years. Costs were escalating and they were hitting more dry wells than ever in their history.Continue reading “No Dry Holes”
The Last Few Moments
‘Pick up the phone please..pick up..somebody pick up!’ Sailen Chatterjee looked at the dial on his watch. 5.30 pm. He was sweating profusely. His being was shaken by his heart’s thump. The hand that held the reciever shaking. Friday evening was peak hour at his Delhi office. But somebody must pick up. Finally a voice at theContinue reading “The Last Few Moments”
How Indians Became Voters before Citizens
It is suggested that we should initiate the preparations of Electoral rolls as a separate operation. Let us prepare the plan for the whole nation’. A month after Indian Independence in Sept 1947, the Constituent Assembly started working on the first draft of the constitution that was prepared by a set of senior bureaucrats of the Constituent AssemblyContinue reading “How Indians Became Voters before Citizens”
Horse. German. Jew. And a Parsi Stud Farm.
Every second child in 19th century Germany was infected with diphtheria. It was the most frequent cause for deaths in children under 15 years. Emil Von Behring, a German scientist observed that guinea pigs which were immunized with the diphtheria bacterium never got the disease again. But he needed a larger animal that could produce higherContinue reading “Horse. German. Jew. And a Parsi Stud Farm.”
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