Wit Wisdom and Whoop

I last wrote a blog in November 25 and though globally, politically lots of stuff happened, personally, professionally I just could not sit down to pen my thoughts. Finally, I pushed myself today to write. Trade Deals: After a landmark trade deal with UK in mid-2025, India signed one with European Union in January’26 and in February’26, Donald Trump as usual unilaterally announced that a trade deal was agreed which India did not contradict and instead followed up with confirmations. Even if the USA trade deal were to be inked, the deal has no sanctity given the whimsical negotiating strategy of POTUS. The global political order has changed, and Trump is rewriting every single rule there is in life. The risk in this is that if some other global leader inspired or frustrated decides to react equally whimsically, this new normal can get formalised and change the world forever. If on the other hand, the rest hold their horses/ tongue, we can see a calibrated return to status quo ante in th...

  An honest confession – I was sceptical whether the NDA would even win the Bihar Elections. I felt that they could at best scrape through. Felt that BJP have a larger longer-term strategy where a defeat could well mean the end of Nitish Kumar politically and that would suit them. Further, the RJD under the son Tejaswi Yadav had done well the last time around. Even during the Lok Sabha 2024 elections the RJD Congress combine or MGB, had registered a upturn in vote share, seats compared to 2019 and NDA had a shortfall. Nitish Kumar and NDA have been in power for 20 years and voter fatigue is a natural outcome. People will want change for the sake of change. Youngsters can be impatient and did get enthused by Tejaswi Yadav. As one listened to the political speeches of the NDA, including Modi, it was the same old rhetoric of Lalloo/ RJD jungle raj, lawlessness and after 20 years one would have expected the NDA team to be talking of the progress made, changes, development achieved etc....

Women in Blue:   If Kapil’s devils in 1983 created history to win the Men’s cricket world cup, the Harmanpreet’s angels did so in 2025 winning the Women’s cricket world cup. Watching the match was a treat and a welcome change. The sheer energy the girls had was palpably visible. When a bowler started her run up, seeing the girls especially at covers, mid off and point crouch like tigers ready to spring was sheer poetry. They reminded me of Pataudi and Brijesh Patel. The fielding of the team was excellent. Some of the girls when batting really hit powerful sixes and the sheer confidence they exuded by just standing and watching the ball cross the fence was sublime. What was really heart warming was the crowd turnout as the match finished only around midnight. The DY Patil stadium with a capacity of over 45,000 was packed to the gills and the support our women in blue got was unbelievable. I don’t think the girls expected a full house crowd cheering them and this response should mo...

3 years into consulting and independent, the learning never stops which makes the journey gratifying. I shared my first 2 years of education in a earlier blog and this is my continued education. An important disclaimer - these are my experiences, lessons and opinions.  Consulting Blog Year 1 & 2 I said in the beginning that professional life could never be a popularity contest. A consulting job is no different. But here popularity isn’t about saying stuff that pleases your client, it is about MINDING YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Let me explain. Firstly, a consulting assignment is almost always on the basis of your past professional history and contacts where your interactions with some organisation and its employees were very different in terms of role and responsibility. Let’s say you were in a leadership, decision making position in one organisation and you dealt with some other organisation, who is now your client. While you then dealt with a counterpart, fact is you would have also...

  With everybody clamouring to write about Shri Narendra Modi as he turns 75, I decided to instead put together my personal comments I have made in my blogs over the years. Here is the compendium over 12 years. They give a glimpse of evolving opinions rather than an article with a flow.  2013 Like many of his critics say, Modi had a great state (Gujarat), people and culture on which to build. What must be acknowledged is he managed to harness this capability to push Gujarat from a lower orbit to a higher orbit with  new ideas, innovations and a results  based approach.  Whether Modi can work the same magic elsewhere is a question, but he has been able to provide astute and excellent leadership is a fact.  I recently heard him speak in Hindi which was excellent but in English he did not ignite any spark at all. My take is that while his performance and leadership bestowed upon him substantial aura, it is his opponents who have catapulted hi...