Here’s a piece of trivia ( the sort that if you shared with a member of the KQA , you would get, “Everyone knows that, man!”) :

According to his biography, Sunil Gavaskar was exchanged with a fisherman’s son - some kind of confusion about the crib - but an uncle retrieved him just in time.

The biographer notes: Gavaskar “sometimes muses on the possibilities of fishing in Mahim, if not for the doctor.”

I wonder if sometimes, in the still of the night, Gavaskar also muses: What if I am the fisherman’s son? What if the real Sunil is casting a net out into an ocean somewhere? ?

Who is the real Sunil Gavaskar? Who, I wonder, is the fisherman’s son?

We are not limited by our self-doubts, as much as by our self-beliefs.

Hope is a deeply draining emotion. It pretends to sustain us, while depleting the joy of the present moment.

Hope is the wish for a better future. Optimism is a belief that a better future will occur.

Hope is a life spent in anticipation. Optimism is a life lived in preparation.

Hope is a life wasted. Optimism is a life lived doubly.

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth,” said Lenin.

But what happens to the truth when it’s repeated often enough?

The first time someone said, “Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone,” the words must have had quite an impact. The freshness of the phrasing, the newness of the thought must have been profound, quite capable of inducing an epidemic of epiphanies.

But now, years later, the words have become worn and tired from overuse.

The internet, by its capacity to repeat lies often and loudly, catalyzes the transformation of lies into truth. But in some kind of reverse alchemy, the internet also transforms truth into cliche - profound statements transformed into blog posts, then viral emails, before finding their way into the mainstream media, and public consciousness, after which, it’s only a short ride into a hallmark card.

So, here it is then, Mr Lenin: “A truth told often enough becomes a cliché.”

The same place can look lively when you feel good, crowded when you are tired, hostile when you feel threatened, and welcoming when you are secure.

Our feelings about the world reveal as much about ourselves as they do about the world.