My Book

 About my remembrance from childhood

When I was just a few years old, my parents then took me to the school festival where I was one of the participants and I remember having performed in relay race, drawing competition and a few other contests. The festival had culminated in balloons of all different colors being thrown into the bright sunny white, blue sky by many people including me that too with arms wide open and a widely open chest. I still have fond memories and a vivid remembrance of two red balloons taking off from my sprawling hands. I was barely seven years old then when it was time for me to leave the Bokaro township in Bihar, India. We were being transferred to Ranchi.

At Ranchi, I remember that we started living in B/31 at Satellite Township and were flanked on either side by neighbors who had children of my same age. We immediately forged a solid bond and started playing cricket, watering the garden, cycling, and other fun activities on a daily basis. Later, I found that my classmates from the Delhi Public School Ranchi used to live in slightly afar houses though those were within a kilometer. So, I used to go their houses and introduce myself to them in a very shy manner. From there, I learnt to find and identify new friends or new neighbors and reach them out by going to their houses and by later inviting them to my house, and then to appreciate the power of not-so-immediate neighborhood because they were living slightly afar from my house.

All this while, my parents did a very good job at my upbringing. I was quite talented in studies, drawing, arts, and poetry. My parents kept motivating me to draw and paint such as my father at the terrace told me that he would pay me proportionately to the quality of my drawing. I would fondly draw one nice art every day and put the keeps in my red piggy bank or gullak.

I began playing flute which immediately gave me a lot of relief and joy. Whenever I would travel in train to Jaipur or Delhi, I would carry my white flute and play it when nobody was around.

I also vividly remember playing a long game of football with my friends and coming back to home drenched in rain and sweat, and then my mother attending to me to change my clothes, with me thanking the God to allow me to play such a wonderful game. I immediately became a football fan and that too a maniac one, with my friend Sumeet Saluja where we would constantly be found playing in the ground and in our school, and we together rooting for Argentina then Netherlands then Spain. We would also be found booing away other kids who were born-fans of Brazil or any other country.

Coming back to the beautiful game of lawn tennis. At Ranchi, I made two friends who were quite good at playing lawn tennis. I used to regularly watch them and one day decided to play with them. I lost both my matches to them. Their names are Amit Vijayvergia and TN Vijay. Those twin losses motivated me to continue to play the game. However, due to a lack of enough support or grounds, I was not able to fructify my passion. So, I decided to take it up as a serious sport when I grow old which meant that when I was capable enough to draw my first salary.

I had to struggle a lot to earn my first meaningful salary, which came in the form of internship in USA at the age of twenty three.

 

My first salary

I got my first chance to play lawn tennis in Minneapolis USA when the CFO or Chief Financial Officer of IDeaS Inc. offered to play a full set at a court near the office. I immediately agreed to him, though he won the match 6-2. I was feeling confident then because I had been playing tennis at Blacksburg Virginia USA and my body was in good shape, and I had recently defeated a big bulky Phillip Stephen in Blacksburg.

 

 

Books

I have long had a passion and a hunger to read books because it is the books that give me perspective of life, and all the successful top people in the world have a habit of reading non-fiction books. In the last thirty days of this year 2026, I have already finished reading eight books. Now I have loaned two more books from the Coforge Public Library in Gurgaon. I have a habit of changing the genre or the variety of the books. Currently, I am keeping myself occupied with two books – Triggers by Malcolm Goldmith, and Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. My interest in books was rekindled when I read such purposeful books by highly acclaimed authors as Arthur Haily (Airport, Wheels, Jeffrey Archer (Kane and Abel, A Quiver full of arrows), Amitabh Ghosh (The Calcutta Chromosome, A Sea of Poppies), Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational), and of late David Baldacci (Mercy, The Sixth Man, The Camel Club, King and Maxwell, Simple Genius). Two particular books that were very impressive and left a profound impression on me is Bertand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I did not like Ayn Rand’s book or Robin Cook’s medical thriller books. John Grisham and his books constantly captured my attention only to see it wilting away.

Reading the book Nudge by Richard Thaler upon the recommendation of my IBM Mentor Dr. Niraj Ranjan Sharma when I was already about to be forty years old aroused in me an interest for such psychology books so much so that I got a patent filed in psychology with Dr. Sharma. The book “Triggers” is also about psychology.

 

Listening to Podcast

I have made it a habit in the past eight months or so to listen to meaningful podcasts. I learn so much from merely listening to podcasts. Dr. Andrew Huberman and Chris Williams are a few noteworthy people who I regularly listen to.

 

 

My learnings from job:

I have learnt a lot from the job industry of Analytics and Data Science. Generally, I have been blessed with amazing managers especially during my stint at IBM India.

To prepare targets and then to approach any target with a brick-by-brick foundation approach is what has stuck to me like a leech. Any milestone should be met with at least ten thousand hours of my efforts and inputs.

The corporate world is full of people with sublime talent and a huge hunger to accomplish something. The best advice I can give to anyone is to identify and socialize such precocious talent and then to follow them, irrespective of their age or background.

Another vital learning at job is to be as succinct as possible including in my mannerisms, and in the conduct on email or chats. It is quite difficult to provide a brief summary of your views to a curious inquisitive set of people in your group.

I am a sincere believer of having fun at work. We should regularly play games while at work, go for long walks, and participate in all the team bonding activities. Dancing and Toastmaster are other nice activities that I would recommend everybody to do at work. Bringing a Calendar such as ‘This Day That Age’s can really pep you for the remainder of the day. Also, bring a mini basket where you can put the basketball in its net and gain yourself some confidence that would be enough to nudge you to achieve some truly remarkable things on that day.

Practice yoga with a group at 10 AM or 11 AM every day when you go for work. Then repeat that yoga exercise at 4 PM for fifteen minutes.

My hobbies and interests:

I am a person with variegated interests and hobbies. I never get tired of indulging in different activities. These days, I enjoy playing a game or two of pool at V Club Gurgaon either alone or with one of the club members or managers. With playing tennis, doing long brisk walk, cycling and writing and participating in society matters as my perennial pivots for pass-times, I have time and again tried with challenging myself in such sports as swimming, kite flying, and hiking. I was never great at any such activity or sport. For instance, I was at best a college level semi-finalist in chess and badminton tournaments. I kept trying my luck with Rubik’s cube and the hard Sudoku puzzles but couldn't succeed in acing those. I consider myself a bits-and-pieces player in almost all the sports and activities, which I feel is far below the amateur level.

I don’t like to give up things easily.

I like to indulge in nature by touching the trees or listening to the great vibes sung by birds chirping in the morning hours. I particularly enjoyed the sunrise and the sunset scenes at Bali, and the sunset scene at Kanyakumari India.

 

My dreams:

I always wanted to launch a start-up of my own. Another favorite ambition of mine is to run as long and as hard as I can. I feel that my body now finally permit to challenge myself in that regard. My another dream is to open a library where a book reading culture can be inculcated in India. I am quite impressed by the book reading frenzy in several parts of India. However, due to our overall poor education or literacy rate when compared to Vietnam or other emerging nations, there is a massive room for improvement in the LQ or the Literary Quotient.

My yet another dream is to travel to Japan and Czech Republic as both are beautiful countries.

I also wish to write a technical book such as my tips and tricks on Data Science. I have already published numerous blogs and stories on LinkedIn and Medium.com. So, it is just a matter of aggregating the content from here and there, combined with a spark, to prepare a compendium like that.

 

My tours and learnings from those:

I have traveled to Hong Kong, Macau (both Company sponsored travel), Mauritius, Vietnam, Bali, Singapore, Malaysia and lived in USA. Within India, I have scaled the hills of Coorg, went to Kashmir to play sled in snow, shouted the maximum out of my lungs at Attari-Wagah border, and went to offer my prayers at Sona Girji temple in Madhya Pradesh.

On Company sponsored travel, I have lived in Mumbai for three months and Indore, Pune and Chennai for two days.

 

 

When Comebacks meant something: A ‘Love’ Letter to Mental Toughness

There was a time when a comeback wasn’t just a statistic. It was a statement of character.

·       When Stefan Edberg served and volleyed on grass, knowing one bad step could end the point or the cold notion of seeing the ball fly past him gazing stupidly at it along with the crowd mocking at his choice or lack of fighting from the baseline.

·       When Steve Waugh walked in with Australia collapsing and decided the match would bend to his will.

·       When VVS Laxman, elegant and stubborn, refused to believe that a follow-on meant surrender.

·       When Brian Lara carried an entire cricketing culture on his bat, alone, against the best bowlers on earth.

These weren’t just performances. They were acts of defiance.

Then came the eternal crowd favorite Roger Federer. He dominated for a long while only to be dethroned by Rafael Nadal and later by Novak Djokovic both by battles that brought brute-force.

In tennis before Djokovic’s era of elastic defense and near-perfect baseline insurance, going one or two sets down meant something darker:

·       You were outplayed tactically

·       You were exposed mentally

·       You were often physically compromised

Coming back required risk-taking, tactical nous or reinvention, and an emotional regulation without coaching or analytics.

When Ivanisevic won Wimbledon in 2001 as World No. 125, it wasn’t because the margins were small -- it was because the margins were brutal.

Today, comebacks from two sets down are impressive, yes, but they often feel inevitable, engineered by fitness, data, and attrition.

Earlier, they felt earned.

·       Edberg was an epitome of purity of skill + moral courage at the net

·       Steffi Graf brought ruthless clarity, no drama, no noise.

·       Martina Navratilova was all about reinvention before reinvention was fashionable.

·       Gabriela Sabatini was pure grace and elegance under unbearable expectation.

·       Roger Federer exalted us with effortless dominance built on obsessive precision that was both related to watching with eyes wide open as well as the slender margin of points he won along with his sub-strong serves.

They shared something subtle but rare:

·       They didn’t outsource belief.

·       No mid-match reassurance.

·       No data dashboards.

·       No psychological scaffolding.

They trusted internal coherence — knowing who they were under pressure.

Steve Waugh and VVS Laxman were not aggressive in the same way. Lara was not patient in the same way. Yet all three possessed temporal courage — the ability to stay present longer than opponents. Waugh believed pressure was a privilege. Laxman believed time could be bent. Lara believed brilliance could outweigh fear

Kapil Dev, Waugh, and Lara remind us that mental toughness is not volume, rather it is duration.

Messi, Argentina, and the Longest Comeback of All

Messi’s World Cup win in 2022 wasn’t a match comeback. It was a life comeback. It was fifteen feather-like but later foggy years of:

·       “Greatest, but…”

·       Finals lost

·       Retirements reversed

·       National disappointment absorbed silently

·       Being labeled as a fraud by a journalist

Argentina lost their first match of that World Cup in Doha Qatar despite being a goal up to an opponent that would blow the lights of any football follower, Saudi Arabia. Messi still chose belief over bitterness. That is not resilience. That is identity-level toughness. At the final, his team had to see his side sucked into being level with France not once but twice, just like it had happened a week ago against Netherlands.

 

Beyond Sport:

·       Michael Schumacher: Surviving 13 years after a coma is the ultimate endurance test — no crowd, no trophies, no comeback arc.

·       Ian Thorpe dominated swimming not through chaos, but control.

·       Vishwanathan Anand won across eras, formats, and generations, quietly disproving the myth that genius fades.

·       Al Pacino — whether on stage or screen — reminds us that presence, not volume, commands respect.

Different fields. Same spine.

So what really is mental toughness? Not just grit. Not just resilience. Mental toughness, across all your favorites, equals:

·       Identity Stability – knowing who you are when outcomes wobble

·       Temporal Patience – staying longer in discomfort

·       Skill Purity – fundamentals that don’t panic

·       Selective Emotion – intensity without loss of control

·       Meaning Beyond Winning – purpose that outlasts results

That is the real linkage.

 

Why it feels different today

Modern sport is optimized:

·       Analytics cushion variance

·       Fitness reduces collapse

·       Coaching fills emotional gaps

We get excellence — but fewer miracles.

 

My heroes came from an era where:

·       The mind had to do more of the work.

·       And that’s why they still matter.

 

Eternal Prime

Truly great athletes don’t peak once. They establish an eternal prime — a standard of courage, elegance, and belief that time cannot downgrade. Edberg. Waugh. Laxman. Lara. Navratilova. Graf. Federer. Anand. Messi.

Different arenas. Same truth: When systems fail, the human core decides. That’s not nostalgia. That’s legacy.

There was a time when sport rewarded difference, not conformity. When style itself was a risk. When belief had to be self-generated, not outsourced to systems. That is why the names that stay with us—yours and mine—share something deeper than greatness.

 

The Artists of Unrepeatable Courage

·       Gustavo Kuerten: A clay-court poet with scoliosis scars and an open heart. Kuerten didn’t just win Roland Garros three times — he humanized dominance. Drawing hearts on clay after victories, he proved toughness can coexist with joy. Mental toughness doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it smiles through pain.

·       Fabrice Santoro: The anti-template. With no power and no intimidation, Santoro defeated giants using memory, geometry, and emotional neutrality. In today’s algorithmic tennis, Santoro wouldn’t be “optimized.” In his era, he was indestructible. Toughness is also refusing to play someone else’s game!

·       Rohan Bopanna: he epitomize longevity as defiance. While others faded, Bopanna reinvented himself in doubles, peaking after 40. Not explosive. Not loud. Just precision, partnership, self-knowledge, and staying relevant is its own comeback.

 

Cricket’s Guardians of Meaning

Rahul Dravid: If mental toughness had a conscience. Dravid absorbed pressure so others could flourish. In Adelaide, Rawalpindi, and countless quiet hours, he showed that strength isn’t domination, rather its availability.

Yuvraj Singh: Talent wasn’t his comeback. Survival was. Six sixes, World Cup heroics, then cancer — and back again. Not just to play, but to perform.  Courage is continuing after applause ends.

Kevin Pietersen: Flawed. Brilliant. Uncontainable. KP reminds us toughness is not obedience. Sometimes it is self-expression at odds with systems.

Greatness doesn’t require harmony — it requires conviction.

 

Fast bowling is courage made kinetic. Gough bowled belief into English hope.

Shane Bond burned brightly despite a body that refused cooperation.

Daryl Mitchell embodies modern grit — flexible, adaptive, unglamorous. To run in knowing your body may fail — that is mental toughness.

 

Beyond Games: The Physics of Belief

Usain Bolt: Speed with joy. Bolt didn’t just break records — he relaxed under pressure. While others tightened, he smiled. True dominance feels light.

Neeraj Chopra: Silence. Precision. History. In a country starved of track-and-field icons, Chopra carried expectation without noise. No theatrics. Just execution.

Toughness can be quiet and still historic.

 

Across tennis, cricket, athletics, swimming, chess, cinema, and life itself, my eternal favorites share five invariants:

·       Identity before outcome

·       Skill purity under pressure

·       Longevity through adaptation

·       Resistance to system-level conformity

·       Meaning beyond metrics

 

Whether it’s:

·       Santoro slicing geometry,

·       Dravid blocking time,

·       Messi rewriting destiny,

·       Schumacher surviving unseen battles,

·       Anand outthinking generations,

the message is the same.

 

Why the magic feels rarer now

Modern sport minimizes collapse. But collapse is where character reveals itself. Earlier, coming back from two sets down meant technical reinvention, emotional risk, or existential pressure. Now, it often means endurance, data alignment, and attrition, all of which is impressive but less poetic.

 

Eternal Prime -- Some athletes peak. Yet others establish a standard. They don’t belong to eras. They belong to principles. There are a numerous examples but a select few stand out for me --

·       Edberg. Kuerten. Santoro. Waugh. Dravid. Lara. Yuvraj. Federer. Navratilova. Graf. Anand. Bolt. Chopra. Messi. Argentina.

·       These players are epitomes of brilliant tireless contributions to the game of football yet silent in their personality that it provides me a large amount of mental calmness and relaxation just by thinking of some of their iconic playing styles or jerseys -- Juan Riquelme, Veron, Javier Zanetti (all Argentines), Roberto Carlos and Kaka (both Brazilians), Michael Ballack (Germany) and Vargas (Chile).

Different sports. Same truth: When optimization ends, the human core begins. That is not nostalgia. That is a philosophy of greatness.

So, tomorrow, when I see myself 0-6 trailing badly in the first set or two, then the eternal love of playing the game in the manner most magical of me, I know from deep beneath that I can upturn that situation by winning the next three sets each six games to love!

Our Family Trip to Tijara Rajasthan on January 25th 2026

My Family Trip to Tijara Chandaprabhu Digambar Jain Mandir

Yesterday, amidst cold wave and single digit temperature and with the weather forecast of Delhi NCR showing severe winds blowing, I decided to take my family along with my parents to Tijara at Rajasthan. It was always meant to be a 2 hour long journey that would be met with countless roadblocks due to Government doing road construction activity on NH-48 which connects Gurgaon to Dharuheda. We packed ourselves in our big Maruti car and did a meticulous time bound planning and packing with everyone having picked their favorite seat in the car for both the to-and-fro journey. I got to pick the best seat which was next to the driver. As soon as we left Gurgaon, we saw a long imposing truck-packed section of the road at Manesar that kept giving the impression that it would be a much longer than 6 minute road congestion that was being shown by the GPS in our mobile phones. I took it as the perfect moment to continue reading the Daniel Goleman book "The New Leaders" from where I had left off the previous night. Just reading twenty pages of that fascinating book's chapter on how to become a visionary leader filled the hope inside me that we will soon beat this Manesar traffic and reach Tijara in time to have pooja there. 

On the road, we saw plenty of sunflower plantations that were interspersed with wheat which was much smaller in length than the sunflower plantations that had flanked those wheat crops from three sides. Upon seeing this, I realized that it will not take much time for those wheat crops to outgrow the sunflower plantations as the wheat crops can reach ten to twelve feet height. Nonetheless, the wheat crops looked so bright that their image outpowered the beautiful yellow speckled sunflower plants.

We missed the final turn to the temple due to lack of enough signboards, and reached two kilometers ahead as a result. Then I told my driver to ask the people nearby to guide us to the right path to the temple.

Upon reaching the temple, we immediately went to the lunch facility where we saw a nice service by the workers there who were serving some hot and delicious yet nutritious food. One thing good about the food in Jain temples is that it is very healthy and nutritious and there is no food item that is made from any underground crop including potatoes and onions.

After finishing our meal, we did some pooja and aarti. We started with doing aarti of Chandapraphu bhagwan, then Parshavanth bhagwan, and then Lord Mahavir. My father had bought some "chaatras" to be offered to Chandapraphu bhagwan by my father, my son, and I. This also became our first meaningful group-photo taken this year outside of Gurgaon!

Then, we went for performing "vedi" or parikrama or rotation for three times inside of the temple. Inside the temple are two more idols or moortis which made us stop and offer our prayers to them. There are a lot of meaningful scriptures etched on the temple walls that kept drawing my attention while performing those vedis.

Then we went to an adjacent small building where the ash or "mitti" of Chandapraphu bhagwan was kept along with Padmavati lordess idol. We offered our prayers to them as well. I then prayed to the feet of Chandapraphu bhagwan and felt purposeful.

Then we all crossed a bridge to reach another temple area with a large statue of Chandapraphu bhagwan in a sitting position. It is surrounded by idols of all our 24 Jain tirthankaras. We offered our prayers to all of them.

Upon finishing our ritual, we did some shopping and ate a delicious fresh and hot aloo chat along with some other snacks and then sat in the car for our return journey. 

Then, I saw water sprinklers sprinkling water in lush green fields with a soothing stillness on both sides of the road, unlike the noise due to constant honking on the Gurgaon roads. We also saw two peahens and some more flora and fauna.

We played some music of my son's choice to when we saw the Aravalli mountain range appear on our right side thereby reminding that we were not more than an hour away from our home.

It was out first family trip to Tijara in four or five years, which ended in a purposeful and a meaningful way.