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Work & Wondering

This is the thinking behind the work, gathered in one place. Essays on leadership, change and the life of organisations, with the odd detour into social questions and stray thoughts that wouldn’t sit still. Most begin somewhere ordinary, a pitch room, a morning walk, a lost suitcase, and travel further than they first let on. Read in any order. The good questions tend to find you.

Two older men playing a board game on a kerb, choosing human friction over agreeable AI.

Love me like AI

The machine agrees with everything. We have no habit of distrusting it. On agreeable AI and the friction we quietly lose.
A green and yellow concrete mixer on a wet road in Kerela, surrounded by lush vegetation.

When We Stop Believing the Conversation Is Ours to Have

We made friction the enemy. That might be the mistake.
Empty road flanked by tall residential towers in Powai, Mumbai, in early morning golden light.

When AI Fires Everyone, Who’s Left to Buy Anything?

Vikram Singh asked a seven-word question on a morning walk in Powai. It turned out to be the best summary of the biggest economic anxiety of 2026. Two economists at Penn and Boston University spent a whole paper proving he was right.
A baggage handler in an orange shirt arranges suitcases on the carousel at Delhi's Terminal 3

The Airport That Never Loses Your Bag

A process can be copied. A checklist can be shared. But the thing that makes someone arrange a stranger's bag at 4am, thirty years in, with nobody watching and no applause coming, that cannot be transferred in a training manual. It has to be believed. One airport understood this. The results speak for themselves.
A long hotel corridor in India with a black and white chequered floor, ochre walls lined with framed paintings, brass pendant lights, and a marble statue in the foreground.

The Hall of Fame and the Forgotten Graveyard

The hall of fame has excellent lighting. The graveyard does not. Most of its residents were talented, ambitious, and completely convinced they were on the right track. Survivorship bias is not just about who we remember. It is about the incomplete story we build our strategies around.
Feedback terminal at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport asking passengers to rate their washroom experience on a five-point emoji scale.

Rated, Surveyed, and Slightly Broken

From the Uber driver's rating request to the airport washroom terminal, the five-point scale has quietly taken over everything. What happens when the number stops being a pointer and becomes the point?

Benchmark Against What, Exactly?

A benchmarking exercise. A number. A deck. A recommendation. And an org that shifted toward a shape that made sense on a slide and considerably less sense in practice. Sociologists have a name for this. It isn't analysis.

Every Country Is Adopting AI. Very Few Are Asking What Kind.

Every great leap forward casts a shadow. We just rarely look at it. The India AI Impact Summit brought together the luminaries, the announcements, the billions in investment. Running quietly alongside it — almost in the shadow of it — was a different kind of conversation. One worth paying attention to.

Spilled Water, Sharp Wit, and a Lesson in Leadership

A spilled glass. A damp strategy plan. And a CEO who cracked a line that lit up the room. A story about humour, leadership, and the gold in the cracks.

The Hidden Costs of WiFi (and Other Stories of Progress)

I visited Keezhadi recently. And became very present to this: we rarely keep track of what we lose. We almost never count the things that disappear.
Quitting gets a bad name. But what if it’s not failure, but clarity?

Me? Quit?

What if quitting isn’t failure—but a quiet, clever way to move forward?

Flyover: What Birds Can Teach Us About Teamwork

Nature doesn’t do TED Talks. It does what works. And what seems to work — even across species — is collaboration.
A green and yellow concrete mixer on a wet road in Kerela, surrounded by lush vegetation.

When We Stop Believing the Conversation Is Ours to Have

We made friction the enemy. That might be the mistake.
Empty road flanked by tall residential towers in Powai, Mumbai, in early morning golden light.

When AI Fires Everyone, Who’s Left to Buy Anything?

Vikram Singh asked a seven-word question on a morning walk in Powai. It turned out to be the best summary of the biggest economic anxiety of 2026. Two economists at Penn and Boston University spent a whole paper proving he was right.
A baggage handler in an orange shirt arranges suitcases on the carousel at Delhi's Terminal 3

The Airport That Never Loses Your Bag

A process can be copied. A checklist can be shared. But the thing that makes someone arrange a stranger's bag at 4am, thirty years in, with nobody watching and no applause coming, that cannot be transferred in a training manual. It has to be believed. One airport understood this. The results speak for themselves.
A long hotel corridor in India with a black and white chequered floor, ochre walls lined with framed paintings, brass pendant lights, and a marble statue in the foreground.

The Hall of Fame and the Forgotten Graveyard

The hall of fame has excellent lighting. The graveyard does not. Most of its residents were talented, ambitious, and completely convinced they were on the right track. Survivorship bias is not just about who we remember. It is about the incomplete story we build our strategies around.
Feedback terminal at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport asking passengers to rate their washroom experience on a five-point emoji scale.

Rated, Surveyed, and Slightly Broken

From the Uber driver's rating request to the airport washroom terminal, the five-point scale has quietly taken over everything. What happens when the number stops being a pointer and becomes the point?

Benchmark Against What, Exactly?

A benchmarking exercise. A number. A deck. A recommendation. And an org that shifted toward a shape that made sense on a slide and considerably less sense in practice. Sociologists have a name for this. It isn't analysis.

Every Country Is Adopting AI. Very Few Are Asking What Kind.

Every great leap forward casts a shadow. We just rarely look at it. The India AI Impact Summit brought together the luminaries, the announcements, the billions in investment. Running quietly alongside it — almost in the shadow of it — was a different kind of conversation. One worth paying attention to.

Spilled Water, Sharp Wit, and a Lesson in Leadership

A spilled glass. A damp strategy plan. And a CEO who cracked a line that lit up the room. A story about humour, leadership, and the gold in the cracks.

The Hidden Costs of WiFi (and Other Stories of Progress)

I visited Keezhadi recently. And became very present to this: we rarely keep track of what we lose. We almost never count the things that disappear.
Quitting gets a bad name. But what if it’s not failure, but clarity?

Me? Quit?

What if quitting isn’t failure—but a quiet, clever way to move forward?

Flyover: What Birds Can Teach Us About Teamwork

Nature doesn’t do TED Talks. It does what works. And what seems to work — even across species — is collaboration.

The Checklist Trap: How We Turned Leadership into a Lifestyle Product

We may not like the system. But let’s admit it—we help make it. Through what we reward. What we tolerate. And what we scroll past without question.
Two older men playing a board game on a kerb, choosing human friction over agreeable AI.

Love me like AI

The machine agrees with everything. We have no habit of distrusting it. On agreeable AI and the friction we quietly lose.
Empty road flanked by tall residential towers in Powai, Mumbai, in early morning golden light.

When AI Fires Everyone, Who’s Left to Buy Anything?

Vikram Singh asked a seven-word question on a morning walk in Powai. It turned out to be the best summary of the biggest economic anxiety of 2026. Two economists at Penn and Boston University spent a whole paper proving he was right.

AI in Academia: The Grind, The Gain, and the Great Recalibration