Einstein Unplugged: A Humanist’s Mind in a Scientist’s Garb

Einstein would have made a terrific blogger. Beyond being the most decorated scientist of his era, he was a warm-hearted humanist whose curiosity spilled far outside the laboratory. In his letters and essays he roams freely over first impressions of America, War & Peace, Socialism, Religion, Philosophy - practically everything. Close the covers of this book and you can’t help feeling you’ve just spent time with a first-rate philosopher disguised as a physicist.

The editors work hard to gather his scattered observations, opinions, thoughts and insights, yet I occasionally wondered if a nuance or two vanished in translation from German to English. Still, the narrative has its own dramatic arc: what starts as a fairly quiet journey suddenly erupts into Einstein’s “miracle year.” (If you’re curious, I’ve linked an infographic of his career here

For the most part the world’s best-known scientist never disappoints - until he dives head-first into the math. Even his famously “layman-friendly” prose can make you sweat if differential equations aren’t your thing.

Below are some passages that leapt off the page for me:

On God
“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes His creatures or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves …”


On Life
“I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion—be it ever so tiny - of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.”

On Leaders
“In the case of political, and even religious, leaders it is often very doubtful whether they have done more good or harm …”


On the Individual & Society
“When we survey our lives and endeavors, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires is bound up with the existence of other human beings. We eat food others have produced, wear clothes others have made, live in houses others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of language they created. The individual is what he is - not so much by virtue of his individuality as by being a member of the great human community.”

I’ve also dropped a short looping slide deck into the post for anyone who enjoys bite-sized wisdom. Dive in, ponder, and let me know which quote resonates most with you.

The Winning Way: A Cricket-Centric Guide to Business Management (and Beyond?)

The Winning Way by Harsha and Anita Bhogle is an enjoyable read, filled with easygoing prose, anecdotes, and - of course - a treasure trove of cricket trivia. Ever wondered why legends like Kapil Dev and Jayasurya stuck around past their glory days, or about that infamous incident where Imran Khan stormed onto the field to cut short a teammate’s selfish innings? These nuggets make the book as entertaining as it is informative.

This book dances between cricket and management principles, pulling out similarities in areas like planning, team building, target setting, and work ethics. Harsha and Anita manage to keep it light, stripping away the usual jargon that comes with management theory. The book is approachable even for readers whose primary exposure to management involves convincing friends to order pizza instead of salad.

True to the Bhogles’ shared passion, the book leans heavily on cricket, but it does add a pinch of other sports, like a chef garnishing a favorite dish. Indian hockey fans, for instance, will find the authors’ take on the fall of their beloved sport intriguing, as they dissect the decline of what was once the pride of India. It’s an insightful attempt to explain how lack of vision and structural issues took Indian hockey from global dominance in the 1950s to also-ran status by the turn of the millennium.

But here’s the catch. If you’re hoping for a deep dive into broader Indian sports, you might feel a bit bowled out. While the book offers a unique view of cricket and business, it shies away from addressing similar challenges in Indian football, or from analyzing why Indian Olympians haven’t found the same success as some international peers. And just think of the potential for a book like this to dive into China’s meteoric rise in global sports! A comparison of Indian sports management with that of other nations could have added a whole new layer to this book, exploring what really makes a winning culture.

So, while Harsha and Anita Bhogle skillfully connect cricket and business, they’ve ultimately stayed in their comfort zone, catering to a cricket-loving crowd. As a fun and breezy read for sports fans and business enthusiasts alike, The Winning Way scores plenty of runs. Just don’t expect it to change the game on sports management insights beyond cricket.

From 'Bozo'n Moments to the Roar of a Harley: A Hyderabad Micro-Adventure

I had my ‘Boson’ moment sometime late last month. After a nerve jangling journey (on the last row of a multi-axle Volvo Bus) to Hyderabad and after spending considerable time, effort & money, I realized that we were in the middle of a B2B exhibition looking for intending customers who never really showed up. The ‘Bozo’n realization was that it was never intended to be. Like a game of hide-n-seek that sent physicists on the hunt for the elusive (or goddamned as someone called it) particle, we painstakingly discovered  that just about everybody connected with the Business turned up except the one we intended to meet and interact.

The Elusive 'Boson' and the Contrast of Cybercity vs. Old City

A curtailed Business trip but we still had plenty of time on hand the next day for checking out the Harleys at Banjara Hills. The previous evening we went to Himayatnagar which lies in the other end of the town for some shopping & slurping. Going from cybercity where we stayed to the old city is like crossing from Bandra-kurla complex right  into Dharavi. The contrast is quite striking. A Rajasthani dinner at Jharokha with some 50 odd varieties on your plate was  like facing a Uber gun (remember Mask-Stanley Ipkiss played by Jim Carrey showing the thugs what he's packing, which happens to be guns and more guns combined into one gun). The barrage of culinary bits was quite a bit of an assault on my tongue which frankly by the end of the meal was quite as flat as a  bangalore traffic road kill. Dadu’s the next door sweet mart stacks up some really unique sweets and the emotion bites and Badamees variety is a must try.

A Grizzly Bear Engine: Oozing Machismo at the Harley Dealership

The Harleys are quite a piece of engineering feat; stocky, neat, and oozing out machismo from whichever angle you look at. For a big bulky machine (at least 30%  bulkier & heavier than Indian motorcycles ) the finishing is great . Hard metal & steel gel beautifully with an engine that appears like a mini grizzly bear crouching under the seat. While I was trying out one of the bikes, neatly stacked in a single row of 4-5 bikes I heard one of the engines coming to life.  Initially I mistook it to a power Generator that might have been switched on in the store backyard (Hyderabad has its share of power woes)  but when the store manager took one of the beasts out of the showroom the misrealization was apparent. 

The price tag has put any ambitions to rest probably pushing to the Bucket-list (a long joy ride if I could manage on a rented out HD some twilight day). Putting out the backdrop studio like pose on FB did though give me the high, the responses made me gush almost in embarrassment.

The road awaits……. sometime in the future and a Harley beckons - to break free. 

Four wheels move the body; two wheels move the soul — Old biker saying

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Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the Soul - old biker saying

The Hyderabad trip began with the anticlimax of a failed business venture—a 'Bozo'n moment' that felt like chasing an elusive particle. But the city, with its jarring contrasts between the new and the old, and its intense culinary assaults, quickly redeemed the experience. Ultimately, it was the raw, throaty roar of that Harley Davidson, like a "mini grizzly bear," that defined the adventure. Though the price tag keeps the bike firmly in the "bucket list" for now, the feeling of sitting on that machine—a symbol of freedom and the open road—was the true takeaway. It’s a powerful reminder: while four wheels move the body, it is the dream of two wheels that truly moves the soul. The road awaits, and sometime in the future, a Harley will beckon to break free.

Garrett

Jugaad is a unique term synonymous with low cost innovation emerging out of rural India but small town India is not far behind. Take the case of Belgaum, my home town for instance, not too long ago a sleepy town known for its foundry cluster & a clutch of good educational institutes. Now the city can boast of churning out Garrett, India’s first  fully integrated RFID based Jewelry tracking solution. However unlike Jugaad this innovation is no mishmash of an existing technology or platform nor does it come cheap (Price range 4 Lacs - 9 Lacs).

Praveen Chikkodi, a local technopreneur  is to be credited with this solution who while visiting one of the security related exhibition, in a momentary spur of the moment was inspired about the idea. He recognized there’s a market opportunity just sitting there, waiting for someone to develop a convenient, affordable solution.  He knew India Jewelers Inc had to make the next big leap from Bar code to RFID but also aware that easier said than done.

Apart from the technical challenges in designing & developing such a solution from scratch there was a primary hurdle to be addressed. And that is tackling the Indian mindset, especially the Jewelers  who  despite various advancements in technology still cling on to age old practices. Even in today’s world, they work under the mentality of a zero-sum game, in which it is bleakly assumed that the existing way is the best way, and if there was a better way it would already have been tried.

However no deterrence is big enough if the credo is  to start thinking about innovation in terms of being able to do things that were hitherto not only not possible, but not even conceivable. Tata’s Nano or Swachh water purifiers or for that matter Godrej & Boyce’s  ChotuKool refrigerator would not have seen the light of the day had they had not challenged such status-quo.

We began with a simple surmise ; that it is not humanly possible to keep track of hundreds & thousand of  expensive Jewelry items through human intervention. And the  starting point was a Business case study  that would explain them the plot while  pinpointing  underlying assumptions. Getting a clear insight into their modus operandi was never an easy task however, for obvious reasons. Thankfully progressive Jewelers like Lengade brothers in Belgaum came to our rescue with various inputs. Suhas Lengade was particularly an interesting character I came across (he reminds me of Goa’s CM Manohar Parrikkar in appearance), a Doctor by qualification he got intensely curious & supportive of the project.

The Product launch  would be a curtain raiser event & from a list of cities that we shortlisted we narrowed it down to Kolhapur. For 2 reasons, one that it is the abode of Shree Mahalakshmi the Goddess of wealth  and two, it is a wholesale trading center for Silver items and is a seriously rich city now  that boasts of a luxury cars population that is unparalleled in India.

Around 25 top Jewelers from Kolhapur city gathered  at a Business Hotel on 19 May when the product was formally launched. The chief guest Mr.Suresh Gaikwad (inset in pic) President of Kolhapur SARAF association & Mr.Manick Jain, Vice President Kolhapur SARAF association addressed the gathering after the event & expressed their appreciation of the new product and its utility value to the Jewelers. The event was covered by local Tarun Bharat (Kolhapur), Pudhari & Lokmat newspapers.

The product will soon be available across India & best in class Jewelers will undoubtedly be using the product. The 'made in Belgaum' may be missed in the fine print but will surely be a proud reminder for us & the city.