WORDCREATES

IPL T20 must go on

The intellectuals are frustrated and are calling for a ban of IPL. The zealous media is going hammer and tongs. But I love following T20, I don’t spend time watching because I am not a TV guy.   I don’t have to read complex books to understand how market behaves & functions. T20 encapsulates such complex learning in game form and I love it.

With all this shit happening on betting and spot fixing I am willing to make a small compromise.  Please don’t ban the game just redefine it. Move it from the sports pages to entertainment, business and politics. Leave the sports pages to sport related activities alone. Satisfied ?  No more trampling on sports lovers expensive shoes.

Learn to enjoy what ever is given. Try figuring out the certainties remember its not a game (of glorious uncertainties)  anymore (that uncertainty shit has been fixed at the ICC level). Its entertainment - the plot is predetermined the cast has been chosen, the climax has been masterminded. Make sure you enjoy the game by observing the finer points damn the game.

T20 is sheer entertainment masquerading as a game.

Is there life after delivery? author unknown

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?” The other replies, “why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later. “Nonsense,” says the other. “There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?” “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths.” The other says “This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short.” “I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here.” the other replies, “No one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere.” “Well, I don’t know,” says the other, “but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us.” “Mother??” You believe in mother? Where is she now? “She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world.” “I don’t see her, so it’s only logical that she doesn’t exist.” To which the other replied, “sometimes when you’re in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her.” I believe there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality….

CSK IPL Strategy unmasked

CSK looks like a very tight and talented outfit but they struggle through the early stages and often qualify to the quarters and semis by the skin of their teeth.  Yesterday’s match with Pune Warriors (PW) was to me a revelation.  They did not bowl Albie, they seemed to be going through some pre planned paces. You cant call them casual.  But surely they were not willing to expend their energy to beat a team like PW. They would rather take on PW with a team that will match  ’PW in strength and approach’ than with a typical CSK champion team, which will be blow of the PW completely.     

Why doesn’t CSK give 100% in early matches?

Early victories, particularly the comfortable ones, may make one believe that the battle is won and hence the big war is not a big deal.  The neuro cognitive processes may get used to small doses of dopamine and not care of the big surge. So early games are important to let the team manager, the coach, the captain and the senior players to experiment and learn and also for baptizing new potential into the playing 11. So there is no typical CSK strategy as such for the tournament, the strategy is to pick the tactics as they play the league matches.  

This is precisely what CSK is doing.  They loose simple matches and they literally struggle to win against strong teams.  The message they give across to the team is never take a match casually.  By the time this message sinks in its quarter finals time. Then by semis it get drilled in.  

Allow  the underdogs win.

Typically at some point, there will be one or two clear leaders in the points table and there will be teams that are certain to drop out. The middle will have a handful jostling with each other to qualify.  CSK, as a true leader, would like to develop a good middle.  They would want more and more teams to jostle or hope to qualify. Why is this important?  Remember for these underdog teams, who have almost given up,  this sudden hope of being able to qualify makes them play their hearts out, the likelihood of of them overpowering the real strong teams is a possibility. Oh yes this affects CSK too but remember CSK will also be in this unique position of being strong as well as weak during the qualifying rounds. Their strength will be the experiments they have done and learnt during the league stages, and their weakness will be their ‘fear of disqualification’  this combination  can bring out the best in anyone.

Now you know what true champions are made of - they are just not strong and mighty they are smart they look conquerable. They love taking the risks, experimenting and learning is critical for them so that they can work up the crescendo to fire at the right time. 

I see a Paul O’ Neill kind of thinking in Rahul Gandhi

ALCOA (aluminium Company of America) was heading towards the shit street. To to the surprise of many the board chose Paul O’ Neill as the New CEO. So the press asked him “so what are your plans for ALCO MR. CEO and he said “I intend to make Alcoa the safest company in America.  I intend to go for Zero injuries”  He did not speak of performance or profits. People thought he was nuts when he kept talking about Zero injuries and safety. He went on  to say ” If you want to understand how Alcoa is doing, you need to look at our workplace SAFETY figures”

Then came the stunner that was missed by many “ SAFETY will be an indicator that we are making progress in changing our habits across the entire institution. That’s how we should be judged. 

The investors panicked many of them sold their stocks in the company for they though a hippie on drugs is hallucinating.  In order to achieve safety excellence all connected work processes need to change.  The workers participated whole heartedly in this change process. ALCOA became a safe place and the stock price had risen by more that 200%.

 
I found in his first important speech Rahul Gandhi  was not taking the conventional path - Infrastructure, governance, investor friendly policies… No wonder it baffled and enraged foreign investors and many found his “Beehive speech” to be off the mark and attracted bashing from the online community. 

“Let us work together to build a brave empowered India” was his purpose statement.  And how is he going to achieve this -INCLUSIVENESS. 

“When you play the politics of alienating communities, you stop the movement of people and ideas. When that happens we all suffer. Businesses suffer and the seeds of disharmony are sown and the dreams of our people are severely disrupted”  (Me thinks : Business in India is aligned globally and has become elitist, the spineless middle class are quick to emulate the rich and the powerful)

“5,000 people decide everything in India, and the need to shift the focus from the individual to the hopes and aspirations of a billion Indians”

The battle lines are drawn. The hasty people would want a strong King, breathing fire like a DRAGON. While the wise would want an BEEHIVE like ecosystem that would help BUILD their own lives.  

Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to live together in unity…. without a King.