Deep Work - Cal Newport

This is a significant book for me. I realised that after reading the first couple of pages itself. Cal Newport begins by telling a story about Carl Jung who built a retreat for himself in Bollengen, a Swiss town, in 1922. He called it the Tower. After returning from India where he observed that people had meditation rooms in their homes he included a private office.  No one is allowed into the office and the key to it was always with him. Jung would wake up at 7 am, have a big breakfast, go into the distraction-free tower and write for 2 hours, meditate and take long walks in the evening. Newport says he did this not to escape from work but to advance his work. Especially since it was the period when he came up with ideas that disagreed with those of Freud - ne needed to stay sharp, deep and careful thought. Such an atmosphere helps in deep work, a word coined by Newport.

"Deep Work - Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill and are hard to replicate." - Cal Newport

Deep Work is necessary to wring every last drop of value out of your current intellectual capacity says Newport. He gives examples of Mark Twain (who wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in  a barn), Woody Allen, Bill Gates (famous of his Think Weeks twice a year) and several others. Clearly, you need a distraction-free space where you can engage in intense work.

While there here is the definition of shallow work. 'Shallow Work - Non-cognitively demanding, logistical style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.- Cal. If we spend enough time in a state of shallow work we might permanently reduce our capacity to perform deep work he says.

Cal says that the future belongs to three types of people - 1) those who can work well and creatively with Intelligent Machines, 2) those who are the best at what they do and 3) those with access to capital. he gives the examples of Nate Silver, David Hansson and John Doerr to substantiate his case. The first two can be accessed through Deep Work.

One needs two core abilities for thriving in the new economy (any economy I feel) - 1) the ability to quickly master hard things and 2) the ability to produce at elite level, in quality and speed. Simply put if you can't learn you can't thrive. If you don't produce, you won't thrive, no mater how talented or skilled you are. So one must learn and one must produce continuously. These depend on your ability to perform Deep Work he says. Deep Work helps you to quickly learn hard things.

Attention and Happiness
Winfried Gallagher who dealt with a rather aggressive form of cancer. felt that the disease wanted her attention. So she decided to focus on her life instead, the good things in it, the walks, the movies and by doing so passed through that period quite happily. She demonstrated that there was a connection between attention and happiness.  Says Gallagher - I'll live the focused life. Deep Work is all about focused life, work.

Skillful management of attention is absolutely essential for the good life. Our world view depends on what we pay attention to.

The 4 rules to perform Deep Work.

Rule No 1 - Work Deeply.
Cal he talks about seeing a design for a place called Eudaimonia, designed by an architect friend of his. Eudaimonia is a state where you'r achieving your full human potential. The place was designed in such a way that one goes into a deep place, passing through well designed layers, until one gets the right atmosphere for Deep Work. The idea is that we have a finite amount of will power - and it depletes as we use it. So create methods to overcome this weakness.

The two philosophies for practicing Deep Work are the Bimodal Philosophy (where one switches off for periods of time like a few days or weeks and immerses oneself into Deep Work cut off from all else and return to attend to their jobs or whatever) and Rhythmic Philosophy (where one sets apart a time everyday and religiously immerses oneself into deep work in those pockets of time). There is nothing like inspiration - it's hard, regular work where you push yourself to produce intense work. 'Anyone trying to do creative work would do well to ignore inspiration.'

Creating rituals helps to sustain this hard practice - 1) like where and how long are you going to perform your deep work, how 2) will you perform deep work and 3) how will you support yourself in those times of loneliness and intense work.

Cal gives us the 4 disciplines of execution
1) Focus on the wildly important - pick only a small number of wildly important goals and focus on them
2) Act on the lead measures (not lag measures eg. customer satisfaction scores which are not good because it happens after the customer experience) - Lead measures are those measures that will drive success on the lag measures (figure behaviors that drive expected customer response)
3) Keep a compelling scoreboard - being result driven not activity driven
4) Create accountability - Be accountable to others

Cal encourages us to be lazy. Downtime aids insights, recharges energy and moreover the work that normally gets replaced by downtime is not really important.

Rule No 2 - Embrace Boredom
Don't take breaks from distraction. Take breaks from focus. Keep your shallow distractions out - like the Internet - by creating blocks of time in which to access the net. Be wary of distractions and structure your deep thinking.

Rule 3 - Quit Social Media

Rule 4 -Drain the Shallows
As work expands to fill time, we allow ourselves to do a lot of shallow work to appear busy if we have more time. There was an experiment in the company 37 Signals (now Basecamp) to reduce their working days from five to four. The idea was not to increase hours to 40 in 4 days. It was to do 8 hour days in four days. The results were favourable - shallow work was drained, the deep work got done!

To drain shallow work, Cal advises us to schedule every minute of the day, finish work on time and be hard to reach if you want to engage in deep work and produce.

I fully endorse the idea and would like to start implementing it right away. There's much work to do and it had better be good stuff. Thanks Cal Newport and thanks Suresh for recommending it to me. Fully recommended!

Pitch Anything - Oren Klaff

This is a wonderful book not just on pitching, but on the way we communicate, live. 'Pitch Anything' is about understanding the psychology of what happens when we speak, when we act and how to gain control over the situation with this knowledge.

Oren Klaff says that most pitches fail because there is a disconnect between the way we pitch and the way the audience receives it. He should know - he has over 10,000 hours of practice of pitching and he raises on an average 2 million every week.

Oren advises his STRONG method of pitching

• Setting the story
• Telling the story
• Revealing the intrigue
• Offering the prize
• Nailing the hook point
• Getting the deal

He says the biggest problem of every presenter is getting the attention of his audience. To do that Oren says we need to 1) Own the room with frame control 2) Drive emotion with intrigue pings and 3) Get to the hook point fairly quickly. This is pretty much what the book is about.

The Psychology of the human brain - Getting your messages past the Croc Brain

Why what we say is not received by the audience requires a basic understanding of the brain. The brain is made of three parts  - the inner core, middle brain and an outer ring.

The oldest part of the brain is the inner core, the Croc Brain which filters all incoming messages and generates flight or fight responses. This part of the brain produces strong and basic emotions. It's all about survival. It is also bad at decision making. 

The middle brain determines meanings of things and special situations.

The outermost part of the brain is the neo Cortex - the one with the problem solving ability, the one that thinks about complex issues, produces answers using reason.

We pitch from the neo cortex in an organised fashion, thinking that the neo cortex of the audience receives it. But actually it goes to the croc brain first which filters all incoming messages. Primarily the croc brain ignores if its boring, has a fight or run response if it perceives danger, radically summarises things if its complicated and passes on a severely truncated form. In the crioc brain 1) anything that is not a crisis is spam, 2) it ignores it, if it is not dangerous or not new or exciting 3) if it's new, it quickly summarises it and forgets the details and 4) does not send anything up to the neo cortex for problem solving until it has a situation that's unexpected and out of the ordinary. 90% of our messages are discarded in the croc brain. (And if there's one thing you don't want to activate, it's the amygdala which contains the fear circuitry.) With an understanding of this, we need to pitch in such a way that we get past these challenges.

Which means that your messages should not trigger alarms, should have a pleasant novelty (positive, unexpected and out of the ordinary). To pass the croc brain you must clearly explain the facts, help it choose between two clear options and get to the point fast. Be aware that the croc brain  will ignore if possible, is focussed on the big picture, is emotional and in the here and now with its short attention span.

Your message must be made very sexy.

Frame Control

Oren says that when two people meet they come with their own frames or points of view. These frames collide and square off and the stronger frame absorbs the weaker. It's not a numbers game he says - its a frame game. When you control the frame it promotes social dynamics, stacks things in your favour. 

Own the frame and win the game he says. A frame is the instrument you use to package your power, authenticity, strength, information. Winning frames govern social interactions. Strong frames activate basic desires. If you have to explain your authority, power, position, leverage and advantage you do not hold the stronger frame. 

The three basic frames one encounters are Power frame (it uses power of position to dominate), Time frame (uses time to dominate) and Analyst frame (uses needless details to dominate). 

To counter a Power frame Oren suggests you do it with disruptions and small denials and acts of defiance. You could also use the Prize frame to reframe events (in a prize frame your audience says or does as if they are trying to win you over. You're saying there's only one like me!) 

To counter time frame (when others are putting time constraints on you), understand that when you are reacting, they own the frame. When others are reacting, you own the frame.
When you see attention begin to bottom out, you are done. You've exceeded the time span. Running longer signals weakness, neediness and desperation. Set your own time constraint and leave. Crush time frames with a stronger time frame.  

Counter Analyst frames with Intrigue frames. Analysis frames are about cold cognitions - problem solving stuff, numerical calculations, statistics etc. You can counter that with hot cognitions - which are about feelings of wanting or desire or excitement. The two do not co-exist - the emotional narrative versus the analytical mind. To counter an analytical frame, when asked for details give high level stuff and focus on the business relationship. Go from cold to hot cognition.

Telling the story

Understand that no one takes a meeting to hear something they already know. Break analysts frame with strong intrigue story. Be brief. Tell the story, but keep the subject of the narrative relevant to pitch. Always keep yourself at the center of the pitch. As in any good story, introduce danger and uncertainty, create time pressure, tension, and show a serious consequence. Oren gives the scene from Jaws as an example - if the shark had a GPS would it have been as interesting? 

Prizing frame - when your target is trying to win your attention and respect you are the prize (if you are trying to get his attention, he is the prize). Croc brain is about curiosity and desire, fear or dislike. Understand the 3 basics - 1) we chase what moves away from us 2) we want what we cannot have and 3) we only place value on things that are difficult to obtain. Instead of you needing money, money needs you. Instead of Always be closing he says, Always be leaving!

Status - Being nice reduces status. Figure who is alpha. Can we switch out of beta and take the alpha. Create situational statuses like French waiters. Create local star power by using your domain (like a golf pro does against the cardiac surgeon). To elevate social status, always be on time. Momentum is the key. Avoid social rituals that reinforce the others status. Have fun. Enjoy your work.

Pitching your big idea

The presentation on the discovery of the DNA molecule structure took five minutes says Oren. We must finish our pitch in 20 minutes max. First let the audience know that it will only take 20 minutes (relaxes the croc brain). Introduce yourself and the big idea in 5 minutes. Explain budget and secret sauce in 10 minutes. Stack frames for hot cognition in 3 minutes.

Introduction

Start with a track record of your successes. Stop with one great thing. Create the 'why now' frame.

Focus on 3 market forces - economic, social behavior an technology. Tell the back story of your idea.

Movement is the key to keep the brains attention. 

(- For those dissatisfied with the current offering.. my idea...provides,,,unlike competitions, my idea is..

To hold Attention - we notice anything that has movement through space and time because they are likely to be important.

• Pitch short - 20 minutes
• Background, successes
• Idea not stats
• Movement - old market to new
• Big idea

Budget and secret sauce

Time the message to the mind of the market. Time to croc brain that receives them. To get attention understand what it consists of 

Attention = Desire (dopamine) + Tension (Norepineprine)
To create desire - create reward +  To create tension take something away
(Pleasure activities, novelty, unexpected gains, something new to hear all create desire)

The normal attention span is 3 minutes - stay off the details - rich be in high level details. Remember the most important deliverable is you.

Frame stacking for hot Cognitions

We all decide things before we fully understand it. Our Decision Making happens in the gut. We tend to like/dislike before we know. We can therefore influence decision making by creating hot cognitions. Hot cognitions are primal / unavoidable, instant and enduring. Hot cognition is 'knowing' through feeling.

Oren says we can create hot cognition by stacking frames - Intrigue, Prizing, Time and Moral authority. through this process you create wanting 

The narrative pattern for building an intrigue frame

• Put a man in the jungle
• Have beasts attack him
• Will he get to safety

Its 's not what happens to you that's interesting, it's what you do about the situations you are in.

Eradicate Neediness

To eradicate neediness, follow the formula!

• Want nothing - eliminate desire. 
• Focus on things you do well - be excellent
• Announce your intention to leave the social encounter - withdraw

Case Study 
A whole chapter is dedicated to a case study of how he won a pitch against two eminently qualified competitors by using these methods. It's a wonderful read.

How to get started
To those who want to get started on the process he suggests the following steps.

• Recognise Beta traps, step around them
• Identify and label social frames
• Initiate frame collisions
• Small acts of defiance and denial
• Frame control
• Work with other frame masters.

It's a fantastic book. I loved the basic understanding of how we lose attention and consequently pitches, his ideas about frame control, pitching, hot cognitions, neediness and the STRONG method of pitching. Eradicating neediness is a great lesson.

Thanks Suresh. Thanks Oren.

Canteen Fundas - Always Set Goals that Provoke Action

Set SMART goals that provoke action!

http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/c/44437713

Column in The Sunday HANS - Climate Change!

Climate is changing!

https://epaper.thehansindia.com/c/44390514

Imperfect - Sanjay Manjrekar

For someone obsessed with perfection to write a book titled 'Imperfect' is itself a great story. In his acceptance of his imperfections Sanjay Manjrekar elevates the book from the rest of the books in its category - cricketer biographies and autobiographies. Even as you read the book, and sometimes as he commentates, one sees him struggle with his analytical mind, his desire to find that one thing that sometimes to the viewers is not there or is too inconsequential to bother so much about (he even writes about this when he refers to Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akthar in the commentary box who ask him to chill a bit). But that's Sanjay Manjrekar for you, imperfect, and therefore, hugely relatable.

The book started off brilliantly and I could hardly wait to read more, page after each page, and it pretty much sustained the same energy throughout. His writing is as honest as his bat was when he played. There is also the same precision in the way he uses his words, as he goes about organising his book - much like his batting again. And I enjoyed reading the book as much as I enjoyed watching him bat. I could not put it down as so many familiar names and situations and tropes flashed by. Sanjay was my vintage.

The book starts with this palpable feeling of fear of his father, which is wonderfully described. Sanjay is the son of a successful test cricketer and a brilliant batsman, Vijay Manjrekar, who was also an angry man who would frequently get into bouts of road rage. But at the same time, there was this gentle side to him. Sanjay says that his father never interfered with his cricket and was chiefly responsible for instilling the belief that Sanjay was destined to be a test cricketer (whereas with Rajdeep Sardesai, a member of the same Bombay University team that won the Rohinton Baria Inter-varsity tournament with Sanjay in 1986, his father Dilip Sardesai was the one who asked him to pursue other careers). Thanks to that belief, Sanjay never thought that his life was destined for anything else but cricket. There is a scene where his mother once tells Sanjay who was in school then, that he could choose another option, and he gets so angry that he walks all the way home from Wankhede stadium. I can picture that! He writes tenderly about his mother.

Exposed to great cricketing minds visiting his home often, seeing older, respected cricketers often, Sanjay imbibed the nuances of the game early. Gavaskar, Vishwanath and even Rohan Kanhai he says. He fell in love with those pleated creams that were every cricketer's dream. (Sanjay also fell in love with the way the flap of the pads fell, an interesting confession.) Vijay Manjrekar liked what he saw of Sanjay's game and even told him that he would turn out to be a better batsman than he had been. VM once went to get a friend of his from Dadar to watch Sanjay bat - a journey that takes an hour and a half - believing Sanjay would be at the wicket when he came back - and guess what, he was. Beautiful story. What stayed with me of Vijay Manjrekar was this - he was passionate, romantic, vulnerable - and a great father in the way he let them be. That Errapali Prasanna found him the best batsman he had bowled to and that Mansur Ali Khan Patuadi said he was the best Indian batsman he had seen was another thing.

The days at Krishna - Kamal at Dadar are very evocative and so are the words he uses to describe his days at Moonreach, the place where they had shifted after his father's benefit match. I would so love to see these places. Sanjay Pednekar is a person one will not forget after reading the book, the generous witty jeweller friend who paid everybody's bills as if it was his responsibility and who died at an age of 36 to bone cancer. Wonderful tribute to his friend. Two other cricketers from Moonreach, Raju Kulkarni and Subhash Kshirsagar also feature. Raju played for India and Subhash for Bombay as an opener. I loved the way he describes the contribution of umpire Vijay Gaundalkar who told Sanjay to take his picture to Times of India after he scored a century. Sunil Gavaskar coming to Cross Maidan and sending word for him while he was playing a match - he had bought him a Gray-Nicolls bat from England. That Gavaskar was great enough to come personally and hand over the bat was one thing but Sanjay also reminds us of another detail - about how Gavaskar;s handwritten replies to his fan mail. (I have a handwritten letter from him when I sent him a copy of 'The Men within' in 2007). Wonderful stuff.

Sanjay was making waves, carving his own name through school and college cricket, working at his game, when two incident happened. The first was the video recording of his batting that Salil Datar's father made which upset Sanjay - he did not like what he saw. Second, that he was bowled by English fast bowler Mike Hendrick, who was over the hill and bowling off  a short run up, in an exhibition game at Muscat. Sanjay remembers crying for a long time after that dismissal. Egged on by his shortcomings, when he believed he was already ready, he went and practiced hard, the first to be at the Poddar College nets at 7 am.

The work paid off and Sanjay roared into national headlines when as captain of the Bombay University he scored six centuries consecutively and was a huge factor in Bombay University winning the Rohinton Baria title, in 1985 perhaps. Everyone in India heard of this prodigy then and soon after he played first class cricket. Sanjay gives credit to the Bombay brand of cricket for his growth. The khadoos attitude, which is primarily the attitude to grind opponents down in wars of attrition, look ugly even, but not give up and get the job done, win. How players, especially seniors would caution juniors when they were relaxing by saying khadoos ho ja. It was about Bombay cricket, not about the individual. How everyone would always push batsmen to score, 50 then 100 and then 150. Batsmen who threw their wicket away were treated like outcasts. Generous seniors, the entire eco system loved cricket, stood for good cricket. Coaches like Subhash Bandiwadekar, Bhor, VS Patil and his stint with Dilip Sardesai as part of a Mumbai camp when Sardesai would insist on their playing every ball with conviction, give no chance to the bowler. Sanjay talks about a chat he had with Milind Rege who once advised him to concentrate more and Sanjay asked him what it meant. Milind explained that it was to play every ball as if your life depended on it, and play each ball like that. Not give your wicket away. He talks of the talks he had with Sandeep Patil who would pick him up and drive him to the Ranji nets and back and how valuable those talks were.

From then on it is all about how he went on to fulfill his destiny and played for India and then as he says - self-destructed. Sanjay won the man of the match award on debut on a spinning wicket against Haryana, quickly progressed to Test cricket and got his maiden hundred against the West Indies, then some wonderful knocks against a full fledged Pakistan attack with Waquar, Akram and Imran. (You read the book 'The Big Leap' and you understand what Hendricks means when he says Upper Limit Problem.) Whatever upset Sanjay's equilibrium, made him self-destruct is not known, perhaps things were not as he thought they would be, but he did and never found his way back. Though he wonders if he would have benefited from a personal coach then, we also realise that it is not the availability of advise but our ability to receive that stops it.

Some fine cricketing insights come through, and I am sure there are so many more. One that he simply watched the ball closely and played it late, without committing early, and this technique was good enough to handle swing and reverse swing without knowing what they were really. The idea of looking at the shiny side etc did not bother him and he did very well without. Watch the ball closely is what Bradman also said. Another thing was Wadekar's coaching - everyone would take 100 catches a day, would bowl to three batsmen (Kapil included). Once Chandu Borde advised him that a knock before the inning always helps - he had just got out without caring to knock before this inning. Also how Borde's advise to open his stance helped get runs on the leg side and opened up options. Or Chappell talking about him pulling Merv Hughes - something Gavaskar also advised. Gavaskar showing Sanjay how to play the West Indian fast bowlers, sitting in a chair, elbow up, when Sanjay asked him if it was true that one cannot sight the ball when the West Indians bowl. Of course you can see it! Stuff that every cricketer can learn from. (I remember the two times I played international bowlers - Raju Kulkarni and Eddo Brands - I felt I might not see the ball but I could and even clipped both to the boundary in classic Hyderabadi fashion! The third, Robin Singh, hit me on the box.)

Sanjay does not hold back the ugly parts which is what makes the effort beautiful. How he tried to make Azhar feel small, how he was arrogant in his first stint as captain, how he had a showdown with umpire Patil in a Ranji game and was sent off. how he confronted Ramakant Desai when he was dropped leaving the great man in tears later, how he was abrasive to a journalist in Sharjah, how he hid when his father wanted to come to his nets and appeared only after the evening passed. Sanjay lays bare the frailties, his shortcomings brutally, almost as if he wants to inflict pain on himself, and by doing so absolves himself of the burden of carrying them. It is this vulnerability that enables him to connect to the reader as someone human and genuine. Not surprisingly the book has been received with great warmth by the book reviewers - we are not used to seeing honesty in celebrity bios.

Sanjay is equally gracious and honest when he talks about Kiran Mokashi's helpful nature, Shastri telling him to bat for the team, Azhar's giving nature, his friendship with one of the sweetest people he knew, Venkatapathi Raju, with Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Jadeja. The gloom of the semi-final loss to Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup after beating Pakistan in a tense match in Bangalore.

His playing or not playing to his potential does not really matter to us, not to me. I have seen him bat and absolutely loved its precision. To me the joy he gave was enough - whether it was over a 100 tests or more does not matter. I cannot say Tendulkar is greater or Azhar is greater or Laxman is greater because they have all given the same pleasure in different ways in different times. But to me that kind of perfection or precision, only Sanjay Manjrekar offered, not Dravid, not Gavaskar not anyone else. Rajan Bala also was a huge fan of Sanjay and I remember how highly he would speak of him and his batting.I do not see him as a failure, or anyone else as a greater success.

My first run in with Sanjay was during a Buchi Babu match in 1985 when he just came after his six consecutive centuries, and I remember reading about it. He played well for Nirlons but got out edging Rajesh Yadav to slip. I found it fascinating to see how late he left my deliveries so late. My second interaction with him was that same year, 1984. when we went to play the Arlem Torophy at Goa and he came once again with the Nirlon side. One evening on a cruise dinner on the boat he sang on the mike and he sang wonderfully well. A Pankaj Udhas number of I am not mistaken but he was comfortable as the performer. The third time I met him was when he launched my book 'The Men Within' in Mumbai in 2007. He was kind enough to give me time, come on his own, though he did not know me and give me a little push with my first book. I will always remember that act of kindness from Sanjay. I bother him once in a while with some request or the other. A few years later, 2011, or so, I was once again with him in CCI Mumbai where he was Chief Guest and I was a special guest to speak at the launch of Rajan Bala's last book, an event that Rajan Bala missed because he had passed away a couple of months before. I send Sanjay copies of my books when they get published.

There are so many things I relate to in this book and people.  Kshirsagar, to whom I bowled twice, while playing against Nirlon in Arlem and in Buchi Babu. Raju Kulkani, whom I faced for one ball, and hit him for a four on the last ball of the 50 over game - a flick to midwicket, just after Raju returned from Australia. Ditto with Shastri who I bowled one ball to - I got Milind Gunjal out lbw against Tatas and Shastri walked in and did his chapathi shot first ball and promptly got bowled to Venkatapathi Raju next over. Rajdeep Sardesai whose book event I moderated at the Hyderabad Literary Festival a couple of years ago and with whom I share stats books and cricket wise (four books and seven first class matches). Salil Datar was from the IDBI and in some way related to my wife Shobha. Venkatapathi Raju and I grew up through the junior cricket and up to Ranji trophy (and who released my first book 'The Men Within' in Hyderabad. Chandu Borde, who released 'The Men Within' in Pune in 2007. Azhar was my senior at school (he released the book 'The Renaissance Man - Doc MV Sridhar)' this year. Of course I know Parag Paigankar and Jaideep Pal, both of whom played with Sanjay at Poddar, perhaps at Dadar Union too, and were my team mates at IDBI - Jai was my skipper. Both helped me when Sanjay was the chief guest at the book release function.

Sanjay significantly says that he never touched the bat after he retired at the age of 32. I feel only those who really loved the game so much do that - you hate it as much as you love it. He feels he self-destructed because cricket to him meant a lot. It was all he lived for. One can understand the charge behind that. Hopefully he has let go of the intensity that drove him (the negative aspect of it), and enjoys his singing now and his commentating and his writing.

Wonderful effort Sanjay. Now to get it autographed by him next time I meet. Buy and read to get an insight into what goes into the minds of those who aspire for excellence, who play at the highest level.

Baig saab and Me - Thanks for the picture Aditya

The other day the trainees at the ML Jaisimha Academy gifted me a plant (actually Aditya did). It was an honour to receive it from my coach from 1982, when I was in my tenth class at All Saints High School, Mr. Rehmat Baig and to seek his blessings.

Baig saab comes even today, at 6 am sharp and nudges his wards towards perfection in the basics of cricket - not wanting a single rupee in exchange. Unbelievable passion for the game of cricket. Like someone was saying at the academy today - they don't make people like him anymore.

What a journey!

Thought for the Day - Judgement Kills the Flow

If life were a clear stream - then judgement is the filter that messes the flow of the stream.

For a smooth flow, keep judgement out.