Introduction

Dmitry is a well-trained commercial pilot. He is known for his perfect takeoffs and smooth landings. It is without any effort that he employs his well-honed skills on any regular day. Fortunately for him, days have been quite regular except for one day: the day he last piloted an aircraft. That day was anything but regular: the weather turned wild, the computers crashed suddenly and one of the engines got shutdown. The flight was packed. Fortunately, it was not their time to go; the co-pilot acted fast and correctly and everyone onboard got saved with minor injuries. It will be quite sometime before any of them gets airborne again.

Three months after the incident, a counseled Dmitry sits across the committee investigating the incident, trying to understand and explain why none of the skills he gained in his long and intensive training or his years of experience came to his rescue. Let us hope he finds his answers soon.

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A visibly worn-out Sadavisan sits outside the claims office of a famous healthcare provider in Chennai. One can easily make out that he is in the middle of a deep thought. And, he is. He has been trying to understand what went wrong, how the 'gut feeling' of a surgeon who performed hundreds of similar operations in the past proved incorrect, and how the misfortune of his five-year old could be justified. He has long and hard days ahead.

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Syam and Mohan are childhood friends. They are both equally educated in some of the famous institutions in India and abroad and they have always been considered equally ‘smart’. Syam is right now working as the in-charge of day-to-day operations in an automobile manufacturing company in Germany. He is good at his work and is well respected. Mohan is right now leading a team of scientists in a similar company in Detroit to develop automobiles that emit less carbon monoxide, consume less fuel and are safer to drive. They are both happy with their jobs.