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Children are way better at gathering insights than most adults. How come? An uninhibited, innate and genuine curiosity about the world and the subject at hand

Being an F1 fan, I am naturally biased, but I thought the movie Rush was brilliant in the way it captured the passion, the focus, the talent of two racing greats, the shrewd, maddeningly boring, Teutonic efficiency coupled with the indomitable spirit and courage of Niki Lauda and the naturally immensely talented, devil may care –live- for the moment, high-risk appetite attitude of James Hunt.

1986, World cup -Mexico, its the quarterfinal; France and Brazil are battling out into what turns out into a soccer classic. As a soccer-crazy kid peering into the TV in the wee hours of rainy dawn, I was fascinated. The battle went on: half time, full time and then extra time, scores level at 1-1.

There is an interesting angle to India’s new affluent ( this sounds so much better than saying “nouveau riche”, a term which now has been made almost a pejorative). The angle is that many of these New High Net worth Individuals (NHNI) are homegrown in more ways than one.

It is always great fun to meet people in their own setting. One of our customers manufactures and sells capital equipment that generates steam. Steam, as you know, is an energy and motive force in process industries. Our customer, therefore, deals with some of the largest process industries in the country.

A recent article of a municipal doctor “forgetting” to renew fumigation contracts in my city resulting in a rise of the dengue fever and a consequent rise in deaths (http://www.punemirror.in/pune/cover-story/Civic-bodys-silenced-smoking-guns-lead-to-dengue-outbreak/articleshow/37338867.cms) set me thinking.

Am writing this in the backdrop of the horrific Malaysian Airlines tragedy. Suddenly I hear colleagues and friends scared of being up in the air. These are extremely intelligent, rational professionals. There is enough research out there to show that flying is safer than driving. So why the fear?

The social conditioning biases we carry make themselves apparent at the most interesting of times. I was at a Croma – electronic goods retail outlet, observing their sales guys make a pitch to prospective customers. It was that section of the store where TVs of all hues, sizes and price points are sold and I noticed an extremely interesting pattern.

Is a high voltage, highly creative, slickly executed ad (digital, print, TVC) campaign enough for a brand that seeks to create a strong emotional bond? There are many examples out there, but let me pick a recent one; Vespa– The iconic Italian scooter manufacturer and their global “Do you Vespa” campaign.