… Football is the loser — Two days before the start of the FIFA World Cup, Qatar, the host nation, banned the sale of alcohol in the stadiums. It was a move that possibly shocked, among others, the football’s governing body, but not those who understand aspects beyond the financials. The ban, a last-minute u-turn, was…

Does having preconceived commerce considerations impact the writer’s artistic vision? — This blogger and columnist happened to be a friend. He had quit a well paying corporate job to pursue writing full time. We used to meet and interact on the social circuit a few times in a month. During one such weekend interaction, he revealed that his maiden effort at…

… a disruptive socio-cultural implication — There are eight billion people in the world now. On November 15, the global population registered a milestone number, one that also indicated an addition of another billion in under a dozen years. By the way, that’s the official figure. There are many countries where the figures are anything but…

No routine is indispensable, and one should learn to let go before it becomes an addiction — The Oxford Dictionary defines habit as a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a habit is something that you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that you are doing it. While description of the word can…

It took one massive traffic jam for the genial cabbie to come up with a very pragmatic suggestion — “Sir, we can accommodate all the luggage in the back seat, if you don’t mind sitting in front,” he requested politely. The suggestion made sense. Agreeing to sit in the front seat turned out to be a great decision. For the cabbie wasn’t just well-versed in the art of polite…

It’s a defining year for the young player in more ways than one — It began with a semi-final defeat to the reigning №1. It ended with a semi-final defeat as the reigning No 1. The beginning of the year, as also the ending to it, may both not have been the most memorable, but in the intervening period Iga Świątek recorded arguably one…

It has to be the opinion of someone we can trust implicitly — It is given when we have worked on something we are very confident about the end result. We expect a positive response once our labor of love is out in the public domain. However, prior to that, having a second perspective is always a better option. It is both commonsense and prudence. It is imperative to understand what exactly the reaction of another person to it is.

Players who have won the year-end Nitto ATP Finals but for whom Grand Slam success has remained elusive — The 2022–23 ATP Tour season is coming to a close, and it is time to turn our attention towards Turin. …

It becomes clear if your café experience on that particular occasion is going to be a memorable one or not — It’s a sunny day with clear skies, a perfect weekend weather, so to speak. The plan was to have brunch, take a long stroll along the harbor, and finally enjoy a cup of coffee in the evening before heading back home. The only problem being the fact that possibly everyone…