Dr. Atul R Thakare

'Hello, This is Major Arjun from Indian Army. I have seen your ad for a flat on rent. Is the flat still available?' Asked the person from another end of the call. 'Yes, the flat is available.' I affirmed. 'I am transferred to Pune and will be joining duty in the next 10 days. I am looking for a flat for rent for my family,' Major Arjun explained. 'Ok. How many members are there in your family?' 'Four, including myself.' 'No problem. When can you come to see the flat?' I asked. 'Actually, I am in Hyderabad right now. If you can send me the video of the flat, I can show it to my wife and finalize.' 'Fine. I will send the video. The photographs are already on the property portal.' I replied. 'Yes, I have seen the photos and I have liked those. But as I cannot personally visit the property, I asked for the video.' 'No issues, I am sending the video, right away.' 'Ok. I will call you once you send me the vid

  ‘The trip was so hectic!’ screamed my wife after a 750 km long trip from Nagpur. ‘But you were just sitting in the car comfortably. It was me who was driving,’ I said. ‘What do you mean? Even sitting in a moving vehicle for 16 hours causes fatigue. Haven’t you heard of jetlag?’ My wife quipped and I was speechless like a project manager who gets a sermon from the executive sponsor over a slight delay in the schedule of the project delivered within the budget and scope. The journey from Nagpur to Pune should ideally take 14 hours with a constant speed of 60 km/hr and a break of an hour for breakfast and lunch. But it had taken 2 hours extra due to a patch of bad road and traffic at Aurangabad and Ahmednagar. In reality, termed as living order in project management, such delay in schedule, overshooting of budget and scope evolution or scope creep has to be envisaged. So, for me, the long road trip from Nagpur to Pune was no less than a project that defies the Geometric order . A