Grow Together...

Book Review: Understanding Show, Don't Tell by Janice Hardy

2025-09-29T14:51:00.006+05:30

I am a writer. I have been repeatedly told that my writing should 'Show Don't Tell'. I have also listened to bits and pieces suggestions like 'Don't use adverbs', 'Don't use Passive Voice' etc. While these suggestions are useful, they did not provide a complete understanding of the context. I was like that blind man who was touching different parts of an elephant without clearly understanding what an elephant looks like.

Till I read this book.

This book takes an abstract idea like 'Show Don't Tell' and breaks it to its most minute detail. Tell Words, different view points like First person, third person, distant, omniscient etc, use of adverbs... all of these are covered in a lot of detail.

The reader can visualize how the concept evolves as it progresses over this small book of about 115 pages.

The best part is the examples. The author provides a large number of examples to illustrate her points. Every concept is illustrated with 'Tell' and 'Show' examples.

One of the things I liked is her openness to self-criticism. While illustrating some points, she takes passages from her own novels and show us how they could have been improved upon.

That took courage.

After reading this book, I could see a couple of changes in my writing. One, I have become more aware of when I am telling. For example, I recently wrote 'I panicked'. It was an obvious 'Tell'. How will the reader know I panicked? How can I show that I panicked?

I rephrased that with action sentences.

'I breathed hard. My hands were shivering as I gripped the steering wheel of my car. I wiped a few beads of sweat from my forehead.'

'Stop it, things are never as bad as they seem'

This book is up there with the other two great books on Writing. One is 'On Writing: A Memoir of the Crafft' by Stephen King and the other is 'Everybody Writes' by Ann Headley.

This is one book that I will be referring again and again. That is for sure.

My only regret is that I took a lot of time to finish it. I could have completed it in one sitting.
Well, next book.

Book Review: Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer

2025-09-29T14:45:00.000+05:30

It is good that I just read the Title 'Start-up Nation' and did not read the subtitle about 'Miracle'. Otherwise I would not have read the book.
This book covers Israel's incredible growth in different areas across the 70 odd years since its existence. Today Israel boasts of a large number of Patents, largest number of Nasdaq listed startups from a single country and a country with many universities in the global top rankings. The book can be roughly divided into the following parts.

One, what is the character of Israel as a country that produces so many startups and innovation?
What are some of the characteristics of the people that encourages them to take risks?
What are the actions taken by government to facilitate this progress?
What is the future for the nation?
First, the characteristics of the country. This is a country of immigrants. Israel has a 'One Day Citizenship' process for any Jew from anywhere in the world and their immediate families. Most of the immigrants, like those from Soviet Union are highly educated and brings with them the entrepreneurial spirit. In addition, Israel is always fighting scarcity - of resources, of markets, of resources and that brings with it innovations, what we in India call 'Jugaad'. Also the country has zero corruption and hence is able to more efficiently utilize its scarce resources. The culture is quite informal and flat and people have no qualms of criticizing the works of others including their seniors without fear of repercussion.
Finally, the entire market of Israel is very far from home, so the focus is on exports and miniaturization.
The people of Israel share some common traits. Since Israel has Mandatory Conscription for both men and women, almost all the citizens have been through the grind. Most of them reach leadership positions as young as 23 years. As the army is an innovation machine, with a deep focus on using science to improve its efficiency, those who come out of conscription are on a 'get go' mode. They are risk takers and good at execution. Add to that the open culture and the Israeli trait of Chutzpah and you have an idea factory and an execution machine.
While Israel was a very tight bureaucracy in the early stages, where every resources was rationed and government controlled everything including the interest rates and resource allocation, things have changed dramatically from the late 90s. The country has become more liberal, government has come out of many areas and is encouraging privatization and has many policies to bring in the much needed capital to prime the entrepreneurship.
Today Israel has many world leading universities, leads the world by miles in new patents registration, almost all the leading companies in the world have presence in the country and the tech sector is booming.
The country is also focusing on Liberal Arts. There is a new focus on the movie industry.
I was fascinated by the close parallel between India and Israel. Both came into existence at almost the same time, both had to face multiple wars, both had leaders who laid the infrastructure foundation, both had 'lost decades' when there was zero progress, both had great finance ministers who introduced policies that made a decisive break from the past, introducing a new paradigm of economic liberalization.
And both the countries have been growing exponentially from the beginning of the new millennium.
This is a very inspiring book. It gives a direction for every leader to make their country great. It motivates the readers to focus on the future and displays the tremendous opportunities available out there.

Book Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

2025-08-05T19:45:00.003+05:30

I have read Gladwell's other books including Outliers and Tipping Point. I like his narrative style and the rigorous research that goes into each of his books. So when someone suggested the book 'Talking to Strangers' by Malcolm Gladwell, I thought I would give it a shot.
If you expect this book to provide path-breaking new insights and life perspectives you would be disappointed. If you expect this book as a guide to talk to people, you would be disappointed too.
The book starts with the obvious assumption - People are Complex and no generic approach will work while dealing with them. However it is impossible to try to understand the thousands of people with whom you deal with and hence you resort to making assumptions.
The first assumption we make is that PEOPLE are TRUTHFUL. You start your interaction by assuming that the other party is honest and truthful in their interactions with you. Psychologists call it the 'Truth Default Theory'. A couple of minor transgressions, a lie here or a half - truth there will not break this belief. You will consider them as transgressions. It will take many number of lies told and promises broken for you to change your views about that 'specific' individual.
Most of the people fall into this category. There are some, for whom, this theory is not default. They start their interactions with doubt and skepticism. We call them 'Cynics'.
Cynics are very important, otherwise criminals will have a field day.
Example is of Bernie Madoff. A lot of people had doubts that Madoff was resorting to illegal means to make his riches, but they gave him the benefit of doubt. In other words they resorted to Truth Default Theory. It took a couple of cynics to expose his ponzi schemes and bring him to justice.
The second assumption we make is that 'PEOPLE are TRANSPARENT'. This assumption is popularized by the saying 'eyes are window to the souls'. We assume that if people behave in a certain ways they MUST be telling the truth. For example, classic symptoms of lie assumption is shifty eyes. Or nervousness. If someone exhibits these behaviours, we assume that they must be telling the truth.
Author narrates the story of Amanda Knox to illustrate this phenomenon. This 20 year girl spend four years in Italian prison on fake charges because her behaviour were not considered transparent, they didn't meet the traditional definitions of expressing sadness, eventhough there was zero proof against her involvement in the crime.
Transparency assumption working together with Truth Default Theory, enables many psychopaths and sociopaths to go undetected.
How do you handle this? Author sites a study where given the same information to a Judge and AI, AI came out with much more accurate predictions that Judges did. The drawback for judges was their personal connection, their 'looking into the eyes of the criminal', to make the judgement. AI was unaffected by personal contact and hence made more objective and accurate decisions.
The book site the chilling case of a Young man who was arrested for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend. He couldn't succeed since his gun got jammed and did not fire. The judge in case looked into his eyes and saw a 'Repentant young man' and set him on bail. Four months into his bail, the young man shot and killed his Ex.
AI would never have allowed him on bail. It would have noted that his intention was to kill his girlfriend and the only reason he failed was that the gun got jammed. He would be sure to try again.
Which he did.
The third challenge in dealing with people is what is called 'COUPLING'. Cases like suicides and crimes happen in a context. In the state of Kansas, it was observed that the crime rate in a very small part of the state was very high. It was observed that the rise in crimes was associated with the availability of Guns. Once the police started intensive patrolling in that area, specifically looking for guns in the cars and confiscating the guns, the crime rate dwindled quickly.
Unfortunately the lesson that the police department in other states took was that intensive and intrusive patrolling will lead to reduced crimes. They incentivized the stop and search of personal vehicles. This was as far from the localized intensity of the Kansas experiment. They gave wide latitude to the police personnel in such cases.
The result was widespread dissatisfaction with the police procedures.
And Sandra Bland case. She was a 28 year old black woman who was stopped for a very minor case of not signalling before changing lanes. The officer in question, Brian Encinia, a white police officer, stopped her. He started the standard process of delaying searching the car for guns or any suspicious material. He was instructed that he should not trust anyone. In short, do not follow the 'Truth Default Theory'
Sandra Bland was getting more and more agitated and getting nervous. This in turn led the officer to doubt her even more. This violated the 'Transparency' assumption, because her behaviour did not MATCH the assumption of innocence.
Finally, Sandra Bland was a native of Illinois and had come to Texas for a job interview at a university. She was outside her natural context. Also, she had prior traffic citings and unpaid fines of 8000 dollars, which was huge money. Perhaps that stressed her and made her behaviour erratic and aggressive. The officer did not know about any of these and he arrested her on three counts.
For a signal violation!
After three days, Bland was found hanging from the ceiling in her cell.
Author says that every lesson that you learned from the past was violated in this case.
There are other fascinating insights in this book like how one forgets key information, or manufactures information when subject to severe stress, for even a short period as 30 minutes of exposure. Even when you voluntarily accept the trauma, your post-traumatic behaviour may not be predictable or accurate.
However, the quality of content, or real insights, in this book is minimal. So I rate it 3 Stars.

Book Review: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

2025-07-25T18:05:00.000+05:30

I purchased this book after I saw a recommendation on Twitter. As I started reading the book, I was mesmerized by the language - the intensity, the very simple but very powerful comparisons to make a point, the choice of words and the sense of humour that made me chuckle at many places. I started off by being heavily invested in the lead character - Demon - born in a trailer to a drug addict. His early life reminded me so much of how I used to spent my childhood in our Village, among, plants, flies, frogs and even snakes.

The book is large, all of 64 Chapters, and as I moved from chapter to chapter, the book became dark and depressing with occasional flashes of positivity. But the core theme was negativity and despair. I lost interest in the book, I couldn't take 64 chapters where things moved from bad to worse for Demon, whom I loved.

You could say, just like many others in his life did, I too abandoned him.

But something about the book pulled me back. As I started reading more, I realized that this is an incredibly positive and uplifting book. As Demon mentions, "I have tried in this telling, time and again, to pinpoint the moment where everything starts to fall apart. Everything, meaning me. But there’s also the opposite, where some little nut cracks open inside you and a tree starts to grow. Even harder to nail. Because that thing’s going to be growing a long time before you notice."

Incredible words.

This is an intense book and is not for light reading. To get the best out of this book, one should read it in a couple dedicated hours, making copious notes. The book radiates wisdom and fresh perspective in every page. I lost the count of time I said 'Wow' or 'Oh...', or 'Awwww' as the perspectives hit me. For example, the author talks of 'Land Economy' and the 'Money Economy' and how the latter is always insulting the former using words like 'Hillbilly' and 'Redneck'. I remembered that even here in India, we make fun of people from some parts of the country.

Maybe I don't have the right perspective.

Having experienced both village life and city life, I could identify with the points that Damon was making. He talks of how city people do not share (reluctantly if at all) their 'Juice'. I took that word to mean focus. City life has speed and flow and focus, unlike the lassitude and easy going attitude that permeates the village life.

Demon was born into despair, lived his life as an opioid addict, but fought the addiction and came out a success.

I couldn't put down the book, I wanted to see Demon getting national acclaim for his book.

But dammit, it ended too soon (all of 640 pages, that's all) but it ended on a high.

For that I am very grateful.

Book Review: Pirenasi by Susanna Clarke

2025-01-24T16:17:00.002+05:30

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever started reading a book and even after the first 50 pages, find that the book is going nowhere, but you are unable to put it down because of it promises to become amazing very soon? That was what the book Piranesi did to me. First couple of parts describe Piranesi's life as a lonely person in a huge house with its labyrinthine rooms and it countless number of statues. The world (which is his house) is surrounded by water everywhere and Piranesi, in his calm lassitude, continues to observe and document his observations.
Piranesi has forgotten his past, so the entire story happens in present. He keeps a journal of his daily experiences with his own quaint names for the years. (10th day of the ninth month of the year when Albatros came to the house).
Piranesi is not alone. There is another gentleman, whom he calls 'The Other'. The Other is always nattily dressed and is collecting data using Piranesi to do the dirty work. He provides various things to Piranesi, including Shoes, Vitamin Tablets and dresses. He regularly visits the house to interact with Piranesi, but he doesn't stay there like him. Piranesi thinks that he goes to the 'Other World', eventhough he has no idea what and where and weather it exists.
Like a TGV starting from Paris, the story starts slow, but once it picks pace, boy doesn't it pick it? The second half of the book is so fast paced with new characters and story lines and plot twists that it is difficult to catch up.
For such a really well written book, there are some gaps that irked me. For example,
Piranesi talks regularly of heating seaweed soup. How did he get the fire? There is no mention of a regular supply of any fuel or igniter. Maybe he made his fire like Tom Hanks did in the movie Cast Away. (This book reminded me of that movie in many ways, especially how Piranesi identified himself with the House and found it difficult to adjust to the 'Other World') However I did not get any answer to that question.
In one of the parts, there is a mention of Piranesi listening to two people talking, but afterwards there is no mention of these people. Who were they and what happened to them?
This is the second book that I read in 2025. I got the reference from one Insta Thread. I bought four books based on that reco and have finished reading two of them.

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Book Review: Some Kind of Blunderful by Livy Hart

2025-01-24T16:16:00.002+05:30

Some Kind of Blunderful by Livy Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book tells the story of the love affair between Mia Fadden, a young school teacher and Alex Conroy, a corporate honcho working in the Avondale, Georgia office of Peachtree Tech, the same office where Richard Fadden, Mia's dad works as the head of Marketing.

This was one of the books that I purchased based on the comments on an Insta thread. As I read the book, I wrote my observations in my daily journal. The first comment that I wrote was that the language is pleasant and breezy. The second comment was that 'While the chapters of the book alternative between Mia's and Alex's narratives, their styles are not different at all, making it difficult to understand when they say 'I', whose perspective the author is using'.

The book is predictable from the get go. At the end of Chapter 1, Page 1, starting with their first date, you knew what was going to happen by the end of chapter 39. So there was no mystery. There were not many earth-shattering insights as well. Was there any plot tension which could create lumps in the reader's throat and make him want to jump in an rescue the damsel in distress? No, there was no such tension.

Like I said, I liked the simplicity and breeziness of the writing style.

The two protagonists hogged the entire book, leaving other perspectives inaudible. I would have loved to hear more from Josie, she seemed like fun. Or her wise boyfriend Ezra.

Considering limited perspectives in the book, the author has peppered with chapters describing their sex life. Some of it, while making nice reading, did not move the story forward in any way.

Considering the genre, a YA Romantic Fiction, this book has done well. I loved the use of simple language and a good mix of narration and dialogues. Also, as a connoisseur of the art of writing, I loved that the paragraphs were of different lengths.

I could not identify the perspectives of some of the characters like Mia's dad Richard. He was working for a corporate and the company was changing its hiring and firing policies. Why was he resisting change? He has had fair share of changes in his life and had handled them quite well. In addition, he is accustomed to be take care of by his much younger daughters. So when it comes to a young boss who wants to introduce his ideas, why the long face?

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"A Prodigious Pachyderm's Paradoxical Predicament"

2023-10-01T15:30:00.004+05:30

(I asked ChatGPT to write a funny story in Tharoor style using pompous words. Suggest a pompous title. This is what it came up with.)

In the annals of zoological chronicles, there existed a most prodigious pachyderm by the name of Percival, resplendent in his unparalleled ponderosity. His colossal countenance commanded attention from all corners of the verdant veldt, and his elongated proboscis, which seemed a veritable marvel of nature, was a source of endless amusement among the savannah's flora and fauna.

One fine morning, as the equatorial sun bestowed its iridescent benediction upon the wilderness, Percival, in all his elephantine grandeur, embarked upon his daily constitutional, ambling forthwith through the heart of the savannah. It was a regal procession, befitting the stature of an elephant of his exquisite eminence.

Now, dear reader, it must be elucidated that Percival harbored a peculiar penchant for papyrus, and he was known far and wide as the most erudite elephant to have ever graced the savannah's sylvan halls. His bibliophilic proclivities, however, proved to be a paradoxical predicament, for his hulking heft often led to cataclysmic calamities in his quixotic quest for knowledge.

On this fateful day, Percival, in his unquenchable thirst for the written word, happened upon a diminutive library ensconced within the recesses of the savannah. It was a hushed alcove, an oasis of erudition amidst the sprawling serenity of the wild, and it contained a plethora of precious tomes, the provenance of which could be traced to the most venerable scribes of the animal kingdom.

With an air of lofty sagacity, Percival, ascertaining that no other creature was within the vicinity, decided to partake in this bibliophilic banquet. He extended his proboscis with a finesse that can only be described as biblio-dexterity and gingerly plucked a volume from the dusty shelves.

Alas, dear reader, the inherent irony of this situation was that while Percival possessed unparalleled acumen in the realm of literature, his physical prowess often eluded his intellectual endeavors. As he perused the pages of an antiquated treatise on the "Epistemological Implications of Territorial Marking in the Ailuropoda melanoleuca," a resounding crash reverberated through the library's sylvan sanctuary.

Percival, in his zealous pursuit of enlightenment, had inadvertently brushed his monumental posterior against a rickety bookshelf. A cascade of esoteric encyclopedias tumbled in a cacophonous crescendo, burying the erudite elephant beneath a mound of learned literature.

The denizens of the savannah, both great and small, converged upon the scene, their laughter resounding like the chorus of a comedic opera. Percival, his pride injured more than his ponderous body, emerged from the literary landslide, his majestic mien now somewhat comically askew.

And so, dear reader, it was that the prodigious pachyderm's pursuit of profound wisdom resulted in an inadvertent spectacle of scholarly slapstick, a paradoxical predicament indeed. As Percival lumbered away from the bibliophilic battlefield, his regal countenance remained unshaken, for he had learned a most valuable lesson: that in the grand tapestry of life, even the most erudite among us must sometimes revel in the absurdity of our own pomposity.

Learning to say 'Yes'

2022-09-23T22:31:00.000+05:30

"Will you marry me?"

"Mr.Ram, our client has an opportunity that will catapult your career. However, it will involve you relocating to another country for four years at least. We will provide everything you require. Are you interested?

"I know that I hurt your feelings. Can you forgive me?"

"You need a risky surgery immediately. Can you sign this no indemnity certificate?"

"Do you want to learn French?"

What are common with all these questions?

One, they are all difficult decisions with far reaching implications. Two, best answer is 'Yes'

Traditional wisdom advises you to 'Learn to say No'. But as the above questions show, saying 'Yes' is very difficult.

Saying 'Yes' is far more difficult than saying 'No'.

Why?

Saying 'No' maintains status quo. It doesn't have any other ramifications.

Saying 'Yes' is fraught with risk, uncertainty, long-term impact, potential happiness, potential regret, change...

Given a situation where 'Yes' is expected, we try to delay and buy time to read up more, to discuss with family ....

We stall. We hesitate to say 'Yes'.

Sometimes desperation forces us to say 'Yes'. I have a friend who lost his job in the middle of the nineties. He was desperately looking for a job. As luck would have it, an acquaintance was starting the dealership of a car polishing solution. He was given a chance to become a franchisee. In his desperation he said 'Yes' to to this opportunity.

He had zero experience in running a company. But he soldiered on. in his first year, the company had two employees including himself. In the first year his business had a revenue of 2000 Dollars

Today his business employs over 140 people and clocks 2 Million dollars a year.

"I was very scared of starting a business. Had I got a job offer, I would never have got into the business", he tells me.

Why wait till we are desperate before saying 'Yes'? Why we wait to say 'Yes' till it is the only option available?

Another friend, an accountant by profession, took a year of unpaid sabbatical to produce and direct a movie. He invested his own money.

"I wanted to follow my passion", he told me.

Today he heads the India Consulting arm of a Fortune 50 US Multinational.

Despite his achievements, he is proud of his coveted membership in the IMPPA (Indian Motion Picture Producers Association) and get invites for all the glitzy Bollywood award programs.

He decided to say 'Yes' to a risky opportunity.

Then there are cases of people were scared to say 'Yes'.

Back in 2003, when I was working for an IT Company in Bangalore, I met Suresh in the Office. He was my colleague in my previous company which was a major steel maker in India. I had said 'Yes' to a major career change in the year 2000 to move from Manufacturing Industry to IT Industry and from the security of a government job to the risks of a job in the private sector.

Suresh told me that he left our previous organization and has joined my current company. I was very happy for him. I assured him that it was the right decision.

Three months later I met him again. He told me that he is going back to his previous employer.

"My family is pressurizing me to move back to a government job", he told me.

I implored him to stay back. I tried to show him the long view where he would have relocated to US and be earning salary that the government company could never match.

He left anyway. He said 'No' to an awesome opportunity.

I felt very sad. We were very close.

Unfortunately most of the people I know opted for 'No' when offered new opportunities. Some of them never even looked around for opportunities.

Decades later, they are doing the same job, experiencing the same experience day after day, year after year.

In the movie 'Yes Man', Jim Carey character decide to say 'Yes' to any opportunity for the next one year.
One year later, he is a changed man, more experienced, wiser...

Author John Maxwell says that most people spend time 'Running away from what they fear". That is saying 'NO'.

He suggests that "Instead people should run towards what they are afraid of". In other words say 'Yes'.

Mark the number of times you say 'No' in a day as against 'Yes'. I bet that former is a predominant response.

In 2016, I decided to follow Jim Carey and say 'Yes' to any new opportunity that came my way. Almost immediately I got an opportunity to work in an area that was evolving and about which I had no idea. This involved IFRS15 (hearing it for the first time) and Oracle Revenue Management. I was supposed to learn the concepts and the product in just two weeks and deliver a corporate training.

In my previous avatar my responses would have been filled with Ifs and Buts and Risk Mitigation Strategies and I don't haves (experience, knowledge, not my area etc)...

I said 'Yes' since I was the 'Yes Man'. I decided that I will make it work.

Fast forward two years, I became one of the few experts in that area. I did multiple corporate trainings to leading companies, did one implementation and traveled abroad and had a lot of fun.

That is the power of Saying 'Yes'.

Decide to start saying 'Yes' from today. Studies show that people are more happier 6 months after they say 'Yes' to change.

Will you start saying 'Yes' from today?

If this post inspires you to take action, let all of us know.

Passing away of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

2022-09-18T18:49:00.000+05:30

There was a sad news on Sunday 14th of August. In the morning Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (RJ) called the 'big bull of Sensex' or the 'doyen of Indian stock market' passed away at Mumbai Breach Candy Hospital. He was obese and was suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes for a long time.

RJ Started investing in the market in the mid-80s came off on his own in the early 90. Either individually or through his company Rare Enterprises, he was an early investor in many of the current blue chips like Titan, Karur Vysya bank and others.

Millions of retail investors follow him and make buy-sell decisions based on whether he bought or sold stakes in a company.

This article is not about stocks or Investments even though you cannot separate them from RJ as a person. It is about personal change.

Change can be of two types; minor change is like changing the route you normally take to the office or ordering something different in restaurant that you go regularly (that's a big one for me)

Major changes affect the direction and flow of your normal life. They could include changing your job or relocating to a new city, marriage, divorce, birth of your child etc.

Or, starting a new airline, if you were RJ

RJ has always been an investor who invested in shares of company and grew his wealth as the company moved from start-up to small cap to Midcap to large cap and finally to becoming a blue chip.

In his book ‘The cashflow quadrant’, author Robert Kiyosaki, discusses four sources of wealth. He calls them EBSI. E stands for Employee, who earns income through salary. S stands for self-employed Professional, like doctor, freelancer etc. B stands for business owner, and I stand for investor. The investor (I) creates wealth investing in businesses created by business owner (B).

All these days RJ remained an investor. In the meantime, his colleagues who started investing almost at the same time as RJ, had gone on to establish highly successful business enterprises. For example, his compatriot Radhakrishnan Damani created a highly successful retail chain DMart, that he launched in the market recently. The share price of the company has grown five-fold since launch (IPO).

RJ must have felt an emptiness somewhere. He decided to start a business.

I don't know what it is with these Indian Businessmen, whenever they have cash the first business that day think of is Airlines. Vijay Mallya did it, owner of a successful company wanted to do it (investors brutally punished this move by almost halving the market price of the shares of his company. It is yet to touch its earlier high) ...

Globally Airlines have been a loss-making industry since Inception. The high level of competition, government oversight, price conscious passengers, high employee acquisition and retention costs, all of which makes it a perennial loss-making industry.

But Indian Businessman can't have enough of it.

Maybe it is Katrina Kaif modelling for Kingfisher that did it. Who knows?

RJ decided to start his airline company, he named it Akasa - Sanskrit word for Sky - airlines. The airline completed its Maiden flight on 7th of August. Many newspapers published pictures of a jubilant Rakesh ji travelling in the maiden flight. Flight was from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. On 14th August, airline had its first flight from Bangalore to Kochi.

By then RJ had left for his heavenly Abode.

As I said before, he passed away early morning on the 14th.

I was sitting in my hotel room in Ahmedabad when I read the news on twitter.

Starting a new airline was a major change for RJ.

Culturally Indians are wary of major changes. They strive for the security of the predictable. The belief is that major changes almost never come alone, they come in threes. In Malayalam they say 'onnu thottal moonnu', meaning 'if it happens once, then it will happen thrice'. They know that the first major change is under their control,but unpredictability of the remaining two makes them wary of changing anything.

There is this story of an Indian businessman who continued construction of his house because an Astrologer told him that as soon as he finishes construction he will pass away. His house was an eternal work in progress.

He passed away anyway.

Now we come to the end of the story.

Launching an airline was the first change for RJ. This was followed by unfortunate event.

I guess the third change is for his family not to have him at the breakfast table.

One final unrelated thought.

RJ passed away on the 14th. 15th August was a holiday.

On Tuesday 16th of August, the market closed up by 200 points.

Was it a mark of respect for RJ or was market showing who is the boss?

The one hour thought experiment...

2022-08-24T21:16:00.003+05:30

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone"
-- French Philosopher Blaise Pascal

I have been sick and bedridden for the last five days with the illness showing no signs of abating.

My typical day goes like this.

Getup
Check Twitter, play wordle, do two lessons on Duolingo
Put the mobile down, watch TV
Close TV after binge watching for 2 hours.
Pick mobile, check Twitter, tweet on politics, retweet some random tweets, check Facebook, post my thoughts (usually nonsense), play spider solitare. Put the phone down in disgust
Pick the phone, check WA, my stock portfolio, read some random articles, watch multiple youtube videos. Put the phone down in disgust
Watch TV for another hour
Pick phone, check battery, keep it for charging
Try to sleep. See a dream. Wake up, pick the phone, google to check what the dream meant. Google says 'Dude go back to sleep'. Put the phone down in disgust.

After five days, one wakes up the reality. One is addicted to mobile phone.

That wasn't good. I should do something about it.

I decided to do an experiment. I will not touch any device - mobile, laptop, kindle, TV Remote, nothing, any book or pen for one hour. I will just lie down and try to be as 'thoughtless' as possible. I will observe my mind and my thoughts. If any outside thoughts interrupt my meditative flow, I will be aware of it, make a mental note of it to pursue later, gently push it aside and move back to my 'thoughtless' state.

No input or output devices for the next hour. That is it.

So it begins.

I lie down and close my eyes preparatory to moving into a relaxed meditative state. Then I start coughing.

I am worried. Why is this cough not subsiding even after 5 days? Should I do some checkup? Is it COVID variant? Doctor says it is allergic cough. What am I allergic to? How do I find out. Let me check webMD.com...

Wait.

What will I have for dinner? Gosh, I am famished. I will have bread toast and dry subzi. Not sandwich, though. Subzi should have that delicious aroma that will make you want to eat despite my illness. How do I get that flavor. Let me check tarladalal.com

Wait

I want my bread toasted golden brown. Our cook burns the edges and I don't like that. Let me search Google Images for 'White bread toasted to Golden Brown' and show it to her. Let me download the image now. It will take a minute.

Wait.

A couple of days ago, I dreamt that I was on Baby Gomati bus to Njaliakuzhi. Is it the right name? Let me check google.

Wait.

News is that Adani it taking over NDTV. Apparently he got hold of Ambani's 29 percent stake through backdoor. The strategy should be fascinating. I saw and article link on this subject on Twitter. Let me check this out.

Wait.

The Canon printer is not working. Let me raise a service request on Canon.com.

Wait

Adani's business is completely dependent on Modi. What will happen to him when Modi is gone? He will have to build bridges with many new leaders. That will be interesting. Let me post a Facebook post about that.

Wait.

Why is my mind wandering too much? Let me check google to see how I can control my mind.

Wait.

There was a meditative technique propounded by Leo Babuata of Zenhabits.com. You keep your eyes open and look at a distance and gradually start looking at the space in between till you gradually come closest to your face.

I try that.

Man, this is good. Why am I seeing two images of the same thing when I concentrate? I read that it is because both right and left eyes send the images to brain and brain syncs them and present you will one image. When you concentrate, you brake that sync process.

Fascinating. What is the scientific term for the Sync process. Stereovision? Let me check google.

Wait.

Have you noticed that the hindi letter for Ya as in Yaar and the English letter for y look the same? This is too much. I have been using both these language all these days and never saw this.

Are there other similar letters? Let me google.

Wait.

I want to listen to the song 'Karunasagara Kai Thozhunnen'. I want to listen to the part Matsya - Koorma - Varaha - Narasimha - Vamana. Let me see if it is available on Wynk app on my mobile.

Wait

Lying on my bed, I listen to 'Never have I ever' playing on TV. Last I watched, Devi and Paxton had got into a big fight. Did he apologize and patchup? Let me check the episode on Netflix app on my mobile.

Wait

I think the dress that Maitrayee's wore for her interview with Fallon is Fabulous. I read that it has become a rage. Let me check Insta.

Wait.

Why do men have to always apologize? They are always wrong, that is why. Or, are they? Let me check Quora to see if someone has asked that question. Answers will be interesting.

Wait.

Today the afternoon tea tasted better. Am I improving?

Today I sent feedback to ITC Narmada. Hope they improve their performance.

We had Roti and Panneer Butter Masala in Peshwari restaurant of ITC Narmada. Like all other north Indian restaurant, they also give raw onion as complement accompaniment. Did you know that if you sprinkle a little chhat masala on the onion and then eat it with PBM, the flavour explodes inside your mouth. I have been eating this stuff for thirty years and I did not know this.

How does this taste change paradigm shift happen with a sprinkle of Chhat masala? Let me check google.

Wait

What are the other similar culinary secrets I did not know? Let me check google.

Wait

Chef Ranveer explains these well. Let me check his video of Panneer Butter Masala on Youtube.

Wait

Why do I have this compulsive desire for instant answers? Let me check Google.

Wait

I look at wall clock. It is now one hour and fifteen minutes since I started this experiment.

I never once touched the cell phone. I am not addicted to my phone.

Yeyyyy.....

Mats Wilander in Durgapur - A story in Twitter thread.

2022-08-24T01:01:00.000+05:30

Let me tell you a cute little story.

Today I was watching a short video of Mats Wilander of Sweden defeating Pat Cash of Australia to win the 1988 Australian Open. 1/n

The name Wilander triggered this memory 2/n

It was way back in 1989. I had joined Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) as a 'Junior Manager'. DSP was one of the five big steel plants under the conglomerate Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). 3/n

In addition to Durgapur, the plants were located in Bokaro in Bihar, Bhilai in Chathisgarh, Rourkela in Odisha and Salem Steel Plant in Salem, Tamil Nadu. 4/n

In addition to the five biggies, SAIL also owned some smaller steel plants and iron ore mines. One of those smaller steel plants was Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), which as the no-nonsense name suggest produced Alloy Steel, which is a special steel (Think of Fortified Wheat, if you will. Same concept) 5/n

SAIL provided hostels for Bachelors to stay. For those working in DSP we had the 'Durgapur House' and for those working in ASP, they had the ASP Hostel. We shared a common mess. 6/n

Layout clear? Two hostels, one mess. 6/n

Now we come to that day in 1989. 7/n

I came to the mess at around 7.30 AM. As I entered I could see one ornary looking bloke sitting there quietly chewing his poories. He was so into eating that he did not look up to acknowledge my presence. 8/n

When he looked up I saw that the it was a face that will never write a thousand letters. May be a staff memo. Well no. 9/n

An unremarkable proletariat cog in the wheel of the giant steel machine. 10/n

I switched on the TV. The first news item to hit me was 'India's Ramesh Krishnan beats World Number One and Reigning Australian Open Champion Mats Wilander" 11/n

Stunning, right? I was stunned, and thrilled and excited. 12/n

I had to share my excitement with someone, anyone. There was only one person in the vicinity. 13/n

This cha chomping chupandale. I will have to do with him. I can't carry this orgasmic ecstasy for too long. 14/n

So I take ma plate (see that subtle change in tense from past to present, don't be tense) of Poories and walk up to him. 15/n

I sit opposite to him. His lips twitch to show his unhappiness with me selecting that one seat among 20 available in the room. 'Why', his eyes asked.

(Relax ma bro, I bring thee good tidings). 16/n

"Ramesh Krishnan defeated Mats Wilander in Australian Open. Big win for India", I set the ball rolling. 17/n

I would have expected an ecstatic response. At least as much enthusiasm as possible on a working day. A bit of enthusiasm? No? 18/n

"What?" he asked.

Thank god, he didn't hear what I said in the din of his tea chugging. I repeated my previous observ. 19/n

This time he heard. For sure he heard. I waited with bated breath (what is that anyway) for his ecstatic response. 20/n

He replied finally. With a different question.

"Who?" 21/n

"Ramesh Krishnan from India. He defeated Mats Wilander of Sweden, who is the current world champion", only thing I omitted was the name of the game. Should I have mentioned it? Was it too late. 22/n

After all who didn't know that Open was in progress? 23/n

He got up to leave. "I am sorry that I don't know anyone by that name. I work in ASP, may be this Ramesh works in DSP" 24/n

Do you hear that hissing sound. It is my ego deflating. 25/n

How should Organizations handle 'The Great Resignation'

2022-03-02T09:43:00.005+05:30

This article was first posted in LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6904301546314571776/

There has been a recent focus on the 'Great Resignation'. People are quitting their jobs and leaving.

As an employee of a company, people sign three contracts. The first one is an economic contract. Company pays employee for her time. Everyone signs this contract.

The second one is the social contract. The employee becomes a part of a team. They go out to team lunches and team dinners, they laugh and have fun at the workplace. They celebrate together. Going to office becomes fun.

The final contract is the Emotional Contract. Employees realize that the company stands for something, the company helps them in times of need, media and LinkedIn talks well about their company.

They become proud of being an employee of the company. The company is a family. They 'own' it. They know that their voices will be heard and their views respected.

Emotional contract is a life-time contract.

The path is always the same Economic -- Social -- Emotional.

The most important aspect is that as one moves up the chain, it becomes more and more difficult to quit.

Work From Home (WFH) due to COVID has upended this chain. Since every interaction is formal, the contract remains economic.

COVID is a reality. Social contract is not coming back for a long time.

Can Organizations move directly from Economic to Emotional?

Yes. By using the greatest tool ever available to man.

Appreciation.

Appreciate the employee at every opportunity. Create opportunities to appreciate. Appreciate big and small wins. Let employee know that she is a part of a team and her work is adding value to the company and the customer.

Use grand words like 'Amazing', 'awesome', 'Stupendous', 'Gold Star'. Go all out. Don't scrimp.

Appreciate in public. Use real words, not just canned LinkedIn marketing material.

Also. Do not criticize. Ever.

Read it again. Never criticize.

Appreciation without criticism is how they train dogs to jump through hoops.

Appreciation creates employees who are loyal.

And if they leave? They become the company's greatest ambassadors.

Appreciation doesn't spoil people. It just makes them want more of it. They will do whatever it takes to get more.

"If we appreciate, people will assume that what they are doing is sufficient. They won't learn", people say.

That is not correct. Also it assumes that the boss knows more than the employee. 'Oh, I have balance in appreciation account waiting to be distributed. If only the employee would do something to earn it'.

Giving appreciation is the responsibility and job of the boss. Earning it is not Employee's responsibility.

Try it for a month, a quarter. Try to 'catch people doing right' rather than 'finding whats wrong'.

Results will be exceptional.

Anyone can 'find whats wrong'. We are all wired that way.

It takes something special, something different to 'catch them doing right'.

And that is the route to excellence.

How many of you regularly appreciate others' contributions?

Two types of leadership

2021-08-13T20:54:00.003+05:30

These days I occasionally go cycling around South Bangalore. In these dawning peregrinations I come across many different things.

There are two groups of stray dogs that I see occasionally. I am always impressed by their difference.

One group is always calm and composed. It is led by a big male dog, visibly passive and most of the times silent. It ignores most of the 'noise' around it. Passing vehicles, honking horns, cyclists, cows.. nothing impacts its composure.

It never barks but commands a kind of allegiance from the other dogs in the group. All of them are calm and well in control.

But if they perceive real danger or intrusion, the leader is first off the pack, leading it from the front and ensuring that the pack is protected.

Looking at the leader, I am always reminded of Dr.MMS. He too was calm and composed almost to the point of perceived as being passive. He learned to ignore the 'noise', all the dirt that his opponents and even those in his party threw at him.

He looked pliable but when it really mattered. like during the Indo US Nuclear Deal or handling of the Global Recession, he was aggressive and on top of things.

The other pack is lead by a noisy and jumpy leader. He is always agitated, always barking and always nervous and neurotic. He seems to believe that noise is the same as action. A car passing by, the entire pack will run after it all barking and yelping, a passing cow is enough to excite the leader.

They invariably bark at passing bikers. But if any biker stops and get off his bike, he and the pack will run helter skelter.

Just like the leader, the pack is also jumpy and neurotic. They seem to perceive that everyone is their enemy and they believe that noise substitutes action.

And one more thing. Since the first pack is stable, they are also healthy. Since the second pack is nervous and jumpy, they are always running around looking for food and get into fights as they encroach the territory of other packs.

The groups are almost identical in every respect. Only difference is the temperament and priorities of the leader of the pack.

Seven Games People Should Play

2021-07-27T22:26:00.010+05:30

In the book 'Games people play', author Dr.Eric Berne talks about the various emotional games people play in their transactions. All the games are harmful to the relationship and weakens it over time.

This article is the reverse, here I am talking about the various games that people should play to get the best outcome for themselves in the long-term. People take years to learn these and by the time they do, they find that they have already missed the bus.

This article is for everyone who are struggling in their life and their career. It covers almost all of us. These are the advises that I would have loved to get at a young age.

The main benefit of these games is that you can start on these games any time. The results will almost immediately start showing.

So here we go

1. Compounding Game:

This is also called the 'Consistency Game'. Compounding is the greatest miracle ever invented. In short simple words, what ever you do consistently compounds over time. Even if you are taking a single step everyday, it will compound over a period of time. The trick is to keep doing it everyday. Writing 100 words a day compounds to over 30000 words a year, which is equivalent to an e-book. Considering that a single A-4 sized page is about 500 words, writing one page a day is equal to 5 ebooks in a year.

Imagine that!

Compounding applies to every aspect of your life.

The problem is that everything compounds. Compounding doesn't care if the habit is good or bad. So choose inspirational goals and habits and be consistent in sticking to the habit.

And let compounding do the rest.

2. Wealth Game

It is not important what 'income' you get. What matters is how you invest and save the income you generate. It is very important to know the difference between Income and Wealth. Wealth is what you make of your income. If you spend all your income, you will end up without any wealth. The language of income are 'salary', 'revenue', 'wage', 'term deposits' etc. The language of wealth are 'Net worth', 'Portfolio', 'Investment', 'Equity' etc.

You could be earning a million dollars a year and still retire poor. Or you could earn average pay and retire exceedingly wealthy.

In the book 'The millionaire next door' the authors point out that American Doctors are some of the most highly paid professionals (high income) in the country, but they are also the ones who struggle to maintain their lifestyle post retiring from their jobs.

3. Now Game

The 'Now Game' can be expressed as 'Act Now'. It is normal to dream about the bright future. You may be planning for higher studies, or would be interested in moving to a new area of work altogether. You may plan to shift to a new place and may dream of buying your own home.

Whatever be your dreams, the time to act is 'NOW', the present moment. You could sit down 'NOW' to make a plan to raise money to buy the dream home. You could read up 'NOW' on how to get into your dream university for your higher studies. You could plan NOW, you could prepare for that Certification 'NOW', you could write that article 'NOW', you could even dream 'NOW'.

Don't waste your 'NOW' doing non-value added tasks. Even if you want to watch Netflix, plan for your leisure time 'NOW'

'NOW' game is even important at a young age since there is an illusion of infinite time availability at that age.

4. Happiness Game

There is a Quantum Physics concept of multi-verse as opposed to universe. Every decision you make takes your life in a different universe that is unique to you. This means that the only thing you need to have is a criteria for making important decisions in your life. That criteria should always be 'Happiness'. You must always take decisions that will make you happy. If you are unhappy with the outcome of a particular decision, make a new decision. Move on and keep moving on. Never compromise on your happiness.

Far too many people spend far too much time doing things that makes them unhappy. Focus on happiness may often create uncertainty. You will always be plagued with doubt about your decisions. That is worth it especially if you play the 'Happiness Game' along with 'NOW' game.

5. Valuation Game

Today is 23rd of July 2021. Today Zomato listed in Indian Stock Market and immediately crossed a market cap of 1000000 Million Indian Rupees. There are about 20 companies listed in the Indian Stock Exchange with that market cap. The funny thing about Zomato is that it is yet to make profits. People are buying the company shares for its potential to generate profits and wealth in the future.

Valuation is the new game in town.

Earlier we spoke about the 'Wealth Game'. It is about how you invest your earnings to build wealth. Wealth is generated by your efforts. Valuation goes a step beyond and look at how you are able to build a community of followers. The mechanical part of valuation is to become and entrepreneur and have something to offer that people demand. Beyond that the valuation game is about inspiring people to follow you and spread the word, it is about branding and perception management.

Amazon did it, Flipkart did it, Apple did it....

So can you.

This is the game you want to be in.

Please note that if you come out of the 'Income' game to the 'Wealth Game', you have made huge progress. 'Valuation Game' is not for all

6. 'One Step' game

There is this story of a Chinese Emperor who assembled all the wise men in his kingdom and asked them to identify a single wise sentence that will bring both happy and sad people to reality.

After three days they came up with the phrase 'This Too Shall Pass'

If you are excessively happy and gloating about your success, remember 'This Too Shall Pass'

If you are sad and is focused on your failure, remember 'This Too Shall Pass'

Remember that all the great journeys are made one step at a time. There is no doubt that in your life you will be faced with challenges that may seem insurmountable. These challenges could make you anxious or depressed depending on their nature. If you are working towards a major goal, the challenges could lead to anxiety.

Whatever be the nature of the challenge, remember the 'One Step' game. Keep focusing on the next step and ignore everything else. You will surmount it in the end.

This too shall pass.

PS: I came to realize the nature of this game after a long time. Late as it may have been for me to realize it, the awareness of this game has been the single greatest lesson for me so far I think.

7. 'Health' Game

The fifth rule in the article 10 Rules of Writing, author Margaret Atwood asks the writers to 'Do back exercises. Pain is distracting'.

Health game along with the NOW game are the two most important games in the above list, I think, even though my favorite is the 'One Step' game. Whatever be your potential, you cannot achieve anything if you are not healthy. Learn to manage your health by regularly doing physical, stretching and meditative exercises. Stand up often. Drink water often.

This advice is even more important in these days of sedentary lifestyle. Your body is your tool, it is important that you keep it in top condition.

That is it. These are the seven games that people should play to achieve happiness and success in their life.

Best wishes.

Phase out of Calibri....

2021-05-06T22:00:00.000+05:30

Microsoft is phasing out Calibri Font, I am not liking it one bit.

https://www.wired.com/story/calibri-default-font-microsoft-moving-on/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-intl-en

I remember that for a long time I was a fan of Arial font. It had heft. Much like a Eiffel Tower, Arial font towered over fonts like Times New Roman and Book Antiqua of the same font size. It had heft and a kind of grandfatherly friendliness.

Arial had another advantage that it filled pages. So a normal five pager went to seven pages giving me that illusion of achievement. I liked it.

Microsoft default was Times New Roman. My first task after opening a document was to change from Times New Roman to Arial. I did not like Times New Roman. I did not feel that the font gelled with my liberal philosophy. With its sharp edges and a formal, authoritarian look and feel, it felt like something out of Hitler's Germany.

I had brief flings with other fonts like Lucida, Comic Sans and Tahoma, but I always returned to Arial.

Then came Calibri.

My first exposure to Calibri was while reviewing a proposal when I was working with Oracle. I immediately liked the font.

It was cute and small and rounded and pretty and had rounded edges and a flow that Arial lacked. In front of Calibri, Arial looked tired and boring. Calibri had zest and chutzpah and joie de vivre. Working on Calibri meant that my mind did not have to feel the cognitive dissonance of a great idea covered in a bad font (oh mi gosh, I called you a bad font, sorry Arial). I could focus on making my article 'really' good rather than making it 'look' good. I could add my personality even to formal documents.

Calibri nurtured my soul and lifted my spirits and boosted my creativity. With Calibri, I felt like a new man.

Calibri has been my default font for the last ten years. I have written reams of documents, blog posts, articles, proposals and reports in that font. I have gotten used to Calibri.

That is why the news that Microsoft is switching its default font came as a jolt. It was like a part of me was being phased out.

I have seen the replacement options, they look good.

But they are not Calibri.

Naive Super By Erlend Loe

2021-02-28T18:08:00.002+05:30

Naïve. Super by Erlend Loe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book over a couple of days. This coming of age book is simple and easy to read. The author is the protagonist and as a 25 year old, he is trying to understand the meaning and purpose of life. The author Erlend Loe is a Norvegian and this book was touted as Norway's 'Catcher in the Rye'.

Most of the book is self-observation, observation of the world around and developing a perspective towards life.

The author is highly influenced by the writings of scientist Paul Davies. He seems to have taken a liking to the concept of time. As per scientific principles, time is affected by gravitational pull. The more the gravity, the faster the time moves.

This has two implications. One, as you go higher, time moves slower and you age slower. The second aspect is even more profound, there is nothing called time. I mean if the time is different at the bottom of Empire State Building and on top of it, which time is right? Since you can't answer it properly, I mean every meter you move higher the time moves slower, it implies that there is nothing called time.

This is a great philosophical question. The author do not discusses this in detail, but it is obvious that this puzzle is something that he spends a lot of time thinking about.

Towards the end of the book author visits America and as is wont, that country provides him with some answers that he was looking for.

A good coming of age book. (even though the protagonist is 25).

There are two things that impressed me about this book. One is a list of items that the protagonist admires and appreciates. These are definitely the items that he is grateful for. The list is very exhaustive. Some of the items in the list are hammering, sitting on the loo, having someone rub his back, music, friendship, water etc.

I have read it a number of times that you must start and end your day by being grateful for your blessings. I never understood this. Till I read this book, that is. I am healthy in general. When I see very unhealthy and sick people around me, I guess I must be grateful for my health. Likewise, I live in my own home, I have a great family, my mother is healthy and stays near where I stay, I have some work to do and something to look forward to when I wake up in the morning, I have clean bowels every morning (I remember the time when I struggled over three years with extreme constipation), have food to eat and water to drink....

I mean there are a number of things I must be grateful about.

Another list that the protagonist makes impressed me. That is the list of things that he saw each day. He observes and sees a lot of things. Love and pain in the eyes of people, nasty behaviours, kindness, politeness, rudeness, even simple things like a man sitting on the side of the road drinking water from a bottle. When I look back at my day, I can't remember a single thing I saw. Which is equivalent to not seeing anything right. What the author is doing is what is known as mindfulness. Just observing without any judgement.

That is Zen.

By the way, I loved the first paragraph. Great start to the book.

View all my reviews

Highlighted Quotes

Something is going to have to happen.
I thought time was time and gravity was gravity. Evidently that’s not the way it is
It’s been a long time since I worked up a real sweat.
I speculate about making a list of things that excite me today. I find pen and paper, but notice that I am hesitating.
I should never have stopped running.
For some reason I suspect that I know too much about things it’s stupid to know a whole lot about.
An animal is an animal, he reckons. You can’t blame the dog for being ordinary.
He is a human being living in disharmony with almost everything.
If it’s already nothing, there’s no reason to say it in a more complicated way
(The universe) has about a hundred billion stars the size of the sun. These numbers are so absurd that I strangely enough find myself in a good mood. It’s all so immense. I think Paul feels a bit like this as well. There is so little I can do to make a difference. It is liberating.
I sit there thinking that I’m a really good guy and never mind space and time and all the rest of it.
When the universe is ephemeral, one can easily feel that human existence is meaningless. Why should I do anything at all?On the other hand it is tempting to try and make the best of it. I’m here, anyway.
many people are in a position similar to mine. That they know a helluva lot, but don’t quite know what to do with it.
They’re strange things, girls. One can’t avoid them. They’re so pretty. And they’re everywhere. There’s something very strange about girls. First they’re not there and everything is a little difficult. But then they’re there, and things become nicer.
Americans seem to live according to the simple theory that two is better than one, three is better than two, etc. For example, they believe two hundred dollars is better than one hundred. It’s a cute theory.
(He is walking someone else's dog in the park, he says that people will mistake him for a dog owner) Seeing as I’m not a dog owner in New York, that also means everybody else could be something other than what they seem to be. That means it’s impossible to know anything at all.
Everybody is good at something.
Presents are important. Little presents are often better than big ones.

The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns

2021-02-23T16:26:00.002+05:30

The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished reading the book 'The Woman in White Kimono' written by Ana Johns. What a brilliant book!!! Undoubtedly the best book I have ever read (I have read many). The book is crafted with perfection, with each word like an iridescent Pearl connected by glowing golden thread to form an exquisite Pearl necklace of ethereal beauty.

The book is a confluence of two stories that run in parallel till they come together in a brilliant symphony.

What makes the book stand out is that it details real incidents that happened after the US occupation of Japan between 1954 and 58. Each page is evocative and I was crying for most part.

It tells the story of Naoko Nakamura living in the Japan of the 1950s. US Forces are still in the country and there is a lot of resentment in Japan towards the occupying forces. Relationship between American men and Japanese women are strictly forbidden.

It is in this background that 17 year old Naoko falls in love with Jimmy Kovac, an American Soldier, whom she affectionately calls Hijame. They get married and Naoko finds that she is pregnant with Hijame's daughter. Jimmy has to suddenly leave for America and Naoko is faced with a series of personal tragedies having no one to support her.

Using evocative narration and Japanese Philosophy as background, Ms.Johns weaves a magical story that tugs your heart in each page. The reader celebrates and grieves with Naoko. She is a picture of grit and resilience and we get immersed in every one of her challenges.

In her 'Afterward', the author ask us not to judge the characters of this story. Those were tough times and mistakes were committed on both sides, US as well as Japan. While Ms.Jones ask the reader to be compassionate, it is very difficult to remain stoic as you read about the tragedy of Naoko developing in front of our own eyes.

I cried copiously as I read this book. Except for a brief moment of happiness, all that Naoko faced in life was unbearable sorrow. Even three hours after reading the book, when I think of Naoko (as I write this review), I still cry.

While this is not an 'all ends well' story, reading it elevates you as a person. After reading this book, I will never be the same person. My universe has changed after I read this book.

This book is a collectors item. Thank you Ana Johns for writing this poetry in prose.

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Book Review: The Guest List By Lucy Foley

2021-02-22T17:30:00.008+05:30

The Guest List by Lucy Foley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I bought this book because it was Number One in the Goodreads reader's choice. I guess the book was okay.

The book toggles between points of view and chronological sequence like a teenager surfing the web on his laptop with some fifteen tabs open. While I could understand the points of view, they are not actually points of view, but more like description of experiences narrated by different characters, the mixing of chronological future, past and present in dizzying frequency, left me dizzy.

This is touted as a mystery, but as far as mysteries go, this left me wanting. I mean, for a long time there is no mystery, while the menacing cloud of something terrible about to happen is present through out the book. I start every chapter hoping that some crime is going to be committed only to discover some character going through the pangs of personal experiences.

The book doesn't 'grip' you from start to finish, if you see what I mean.

The author expertly 'hides' clues out in the open, much like Agatha Christie. When I read the relevance of the clues later, I am like 'How did I miss it?'.

I am a visual reader, but could not really visualize the ambience in which the story evolves. I mean, I understood that it was an island, ok, but I could not visualize where the land ended and the bog started, for example. Or where the land ended and beaches started. One of the reasons may be that most of the movements happen in the evening and night accompanied by the howl of winds, so one cannot 'see' the landscape.

The author expertly describes the personal crosses that each character bears in the story, you could easily identify with the challenges faced by each character.

One of the reasons I could not really identify with the story was that it is set in Ireland, which is an unfamiliar country to me literature wise. The only Irish book that I read and remember was 'How Green Was My Valley'. That ignorance might have impacted my ability to visualize or identify with some of the aspects in the story.

Anyway, I am happy that I have finished reading it.

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Book Review: The Joys of Compounding: Author: Gautam Baid

2021-02-18T10:57:00.003+05:30

I spent a lot of time reading this book (from January 8th when I started to February 17th when I
finished). There is a lot of curated work - mostly quotes from Munger and Buffett and a lot of advises and suggestions, unfortunately original ideas are few and far between. I wish Mr.Baid had focused more on detailing his experiences, him being an accomplished investor. The book sparkles in the few areas where he addresses his experiences in investing in Indian market.

Mr.Baid had a great opportunity - a confluence of knowledge, experience and communication skills, where he could have written a book on investing in India. The country has evolved significantly over the last twenty years, and Mr.Baid was in the market in almost 15 of them. The last twenty years has seen a mega crash and multiple mini bull markets. There is a lot of human interest stories out here many of which he will be privy to.

That would have been a heck of a book.

Mr.Baid read and referred a number of books and articles while researching this book. The bibliography is impressive. I have read some of the books that he refers in the book, most of them over the last two years. So the only areas that added value to me are his personal experiences. I found the section on 'being an empathetic investor' very useful.

There is no doubt that Mr.Baid writes well. I hope he writes the next book from his heart rather than from his head....

The Midnight Library: Author: Matt Haig

2021-02-12T20:11:00.000+05:30

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book after seeing the recommendations on Goodreads. This book was selected as the best book on Fiction Category in 2020. The book starts off with negativity and despair. Nora Reed is a champion swimmer and a philosophy major. Due to various choices she made in life, at the age of 35 she finds herself in despair and depression. As her cat (named Voltaire, after the French Philosopher) dies, she goes into deep depression and takes sleeping pills to commit suicide.

In the interim stage between life and death, Nora finds herself in the midnight library. There she meets her librarian and mentor Mrs.Elm who tells her that this is her 'personal library'. Each book is a story of a different life that Nora could have lived in the 'multi-verse'. She is given an offer that she can experience her different lives. Every time she gets disenchanted with one life, she will come back to the library. As long as she is living her life the clock will remain at 00:00:00 hours. The moment she finds that she doesn't have any more life to live, the clock will start moving and she will die when the clock strikes 00:01:00.

Nora explores different lives In one, she is an Olympic Swimming Champion who became a world leading motivational speaker. In another she is a scientist doing Climate Change Research in the Arctics. While she is a musician in another, she is a philosophy professor in Cambridge or a Brewer in Latin America in others.

In some of her lives, her parents and her brother are alive.They are dead in others.

The book uses concepts from the quantum physics like quantum superposition and multiverse to tell Nora's story. These advanced concepts are explained in very simple language in this book. The book also uses advanced philosophy of Thoreau and Aristotle to describe Nora's life. Despite the liberal usage of these advanced ideas, the reader never feels overwhelmed or bored.

As an Engineering Student who has studied physics during the graduation, I found the relationship between advanced physics and human experiences very fascinating. In quantum physics there is a concept of 'Quantum Superposition', explained lucidly in the idea of 'Shrodinger's Cat'. In simple terms, it states that tiny particles like atoms and it components remain in multiple states at the same time. They take a specific state when they are measured.

The story says that when a person is in a state of confusion, it is equivalent to an atom existing in multiple states. Every time the person makes a decision (activity is measured), he goes into a specific state. Human life consists of many possibilities. The story of life is written at every minute. Since the story is ever changing and evolving, the only thing you can do well is to use the current moment to the best of your ability and try to take decisions that could take you to your ultimate destination.

It is important to remember that each decision we take has an opportunity cost of choosing one life and leaving many potential lives on the sides.

In the penultimate chapter, Nora pens her learning from this experience. She realizes that the only thing she has in her control is the present moment. It is important to use it well.

I was also fascinated by how quantum physics closely allies with the Indian philosophy of Maya which states that there is no absolute truth. Everything is perspective. At the start of this book, Nora feels that there is no meaning to her life and she is depressed. After spending her time in the library, she comes back to the same life all happy, positive and charged up.

Life is the same, only change is her perspective.

Great book. Learned a lot about my life as well.

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Anna Blanc: Author: Jennifer Kincheloe

2021-01-20T13:34:00.001+05:30

Through 46 chapters, this mastodon of a book flattered to deceive. In the beginning I was rooting for

Anna Blanc, the heroine, I still am, but this book left me disappointed. The sad part is that it has a lovable heroine in Anna Blanc, intelligent, passionate and mischievous. But for most part, her intellect is underplayed and where it is described, the author speeds up the description to get it over and go back to describing Anna's feelings and emotions, much like a kid rushing his homework so that he can go out and play.

The story idea is excellent and had a lot of potential. A young passionate and intelligent girl going after a murderer in the California of the 30's. But that is where the idea stops. The story line is handled in a casual manner.

The story is set in the US of the 20s when woman are fighting for their right to vote. Anna is a rich girl who lost her mother when she was a child. She has been brought up by her strict and loving father (nowhere in the book it is mentioned that her father is 'loving', I think I am attributing the 'loving' trait to sate my need for Gestalt). Anna has to behave like a rich woman and do the duties expected of

her like getting married, having children and doing charity work etc.

Anna is intelligent and becomes bored quickly. She wants to change the world.

The book starts at a torrid pace. By the end of the fifth chapter, Anna has already eloped with her paramour, been arrested by the police, has participated in suffragette movement, has smoked for the first time, and is planning to join the police force as a matron, which was the only police job available to women in that period.

By the 18th chapter Anna has learned typing, heard about someone killing the prostitutes, got engaged to Edward Wright, became a police matron in disguise and had her cover blown by a policeman Joe Singer. I wrote in my diary that 'a coherent story has not come out so far. The reader roots for Anna, of course, but where is the story? Where is the challenge? In a couple of places, the author gives us a peek of Anna's deductive powers, but so far she has not used it'.

After reading thirty chapters, I wrote in my diary that " the book is still picking pace. Anna is still 'reading books', 'pacing up and down', 'finding that many prostitutes have died in recent times', 'is confused if she wants to kiss Joe Singer', and 'is lying on the bed thinking about her nether parts'. While one part of the reader's brain roots for Anna, the other part is screaming 'get a move on. You are clogging my reading target for the year. Do something' "

Too many things happen in the last few chapters of the book. Anna learns that the same monster who was murdering prostitutes has murdered her friend Eve. To catch him, she disguises as a prostitute. Even here, someone blows her cover and her photo is in the front page of the local newspaper. That was the last straw for her father to disown her.

I have never read about any person more prone to have their cover blown than Anna Blanc. Why does she disguise at all?

In the last couple of chapters Anna is taken to Edward's country house, and is found out by the real murderer. Of course, Anna sets fire to the murderer and escapes. If there is one thing that she does better than getting caught, it is extricating herself from tight situations.

Of course I am not gonna tell you how she ended up there.

Fast narrative without going into anything in detail is the main trait of this book. Author starts with suffragettes movement, and just as the reader wants to know more, she moves on to the brothel murders, elicits reader's interest in the murders, drops the murders, and segues to 'Boyce Hill Fiend' or something. After building excitement about the fiend, with reader very eager to know how he is tracked and caught, the reader is informed, just in a matter of fact tone, that he was arrested based on his portrait that Anna got painted.

Even the heroine Anna flits from one thing to another just like a butterfly or something. Just as one gets interested in Anna's line of thought regarding the brothel murders and want to know more, she decides to go in search of Joe Singer to 'passionately kiss him'. If she is not actually kissing him, either 'she is lying helpless in is muscular arms' or 'is thinking of him and has all these unknown emotions stirring up in her nether parts'.

Anna thinks so much through her 'nether parts' that you could mistake her for a him.

Till the penultimate chapter of this big book, we have no clue about the identity of the brothel killer and the same is thrust upon the reader suddenly like a jack in the box or something. Upon realizing the identity of the killer, I was like 'wait, what?'

Till then in the book, Anna had suspected so many people of being the murderer that if the murderer himself had not confessed, and vehemently confessed again, I would never have agreed to her opinion and would have been bracing for another five chapters of 'Gauzet from the house of Faucet'

Thank you murderer for the confession.You saved me time.

The last minute spurt reminded me of a relaxed marathon runner who remembers, in his last two laps, to his dismay, that he had forgotten to switch off the gas at home and rushes to get the marathon over with so that he can go home to switch off the gas.

What I liked, and the reason I continued reading this book till the end, is the amused tone and the great language. In my mind I could see the author writing parts of the book with gay abandon with a smile on her face as she described Anna's emotions. Author throws up surprising and amusing comparisons in many places. I loved the way she writes.

There is one sentence that embodies her skilled use of language. I loved it above all else for its great use of 'show, don't tell'. She adjusted her drawers. She adjusted her drawers again. She adjusted them and adjusted them and adjusted them, until finally, with a little cry of satisfaction, she was finished adjusting them.

Simply brilliant!!

Book Review: The Inner Game of Tennis: Author: W. Timothy Gallwey

2021-01-11T19:10:00.002+05:30

Have you ever wondered why, in the movie Matrix, Morpheus kept insisting that Neo was 'The One'? What did he mean by 'The One'?

Well, I did wonder for a long time. It remained a mystery till I read the the book 'The Inner Game of Tennis' written by Tim Gallwey.

Mr.Gallwey analyses the human mind using the game of tennis as a proxy. A typical tennis player plays two different games on the court. One is the outer game - the physical game that he plays against the opponent. The other is the Inner Game - the game played between two different aspects of his mental self.

The competitors that play the inner game are Self 1 and Self 2. Self 1 is the judgemental, criticizing, part of the personality. Its focus is on finding faults and pointing out the mistakes made by Self 2. Self 1 suffers from recency effect. It is only focused on the here and now and has forgotten the lessons learned over the life time.

The real player, who plays the outer game is Self 2. Also called the 'body' or 'intuition', it carries all the lessons that has been learned over the life time and knows how to handle every situation. In a way Self 2 is the real boss. But like a tamed elephant, it has forgotten its power and meekly surrenders to the criticism by Self 1 and hides back in the shell.

Since Self 2 is the repository of all the experience and wisdom that one has learned over the life time, it should be the real 'boss'. Ideally the Self 1 should be the meek one standing on the sidelines while Self 2 drives the agenda.

Self 2 is a quick learner. It learns through pictures, videos or imagery. Another great tool for learning is visualization. Self 2 doesn't care for words. If you want Self 2 to do something, show how to do it. Suppose you want to hit to the far corner of the court, visualize the ball clearly in your mind as it hits your racket and flies over the net to the backhand corner. And then start hitting without judgement and ego. Let the body be, let it adjust the reality to the imagery. Learn to trust the body. You will see that over a very short period of time, you are able to consistently hit the target.

The body refers to Self 2. It knows what to do and how to do it. One has to just trust the body and let it do. It will deliver results quickly. That is the power of Self 2.

Observation and visualization is how children learn all the time. I remember when I was a child, I saw a tailor sewing a handkerchief. I saw him choosing the thread of the right colour, threading the needle and converting the raw piece of cloth into a beautiful hanky. I came home and took the cloth and sewed my first ever hanky. It came quite good. No one taught me the rules. No one taught me the 'process' of threading a needle. ("now you make sure that the thread goes through the hole in the needle at a 40 degree angle"). I just observed, learned and let go.

As we grow older, we allow self 1 to take control. We become slaves of 'SOPs' and 'Processes'. We learn to inhibit our spontaneous Self 2 and it become meek and timid and goes into its shell. This has a paradoxical effect of actualizing Self 1's criticism.

Ego and pride are the realms of Self 1. They have no place in Self 2. In fact they weaken Self 2 by taking the focus away from 'the actions' (what Self 2 does) to 'the outcome', which is the ken of Self 1. Self 2 will do an excellent work if you do not let your ego take any credit. He gives an example where he let the body play the game and he got 90% of the first serves in. He was so proud of the way he did it that he boasted to a friend about 'how his serves have become awesome'. The moment he said it, he found that he had 'lost it' and it took months to get it back.

The concept of multiple personalities is not new. Freud called them the id, the ego and the superego. Transactional Analysts called them child, parent, adult. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahnemann called it the 'System 1' and 'System 2' thinking.

(Do not mix them, mind you. Especially do not fall to the temptation to mix Self 1 of Gallwey with Kahneman's System 1 and Self 2 with Kahneman's System 2. These are different. System 1 thinking refers to impulsive, emotional way of thinking. System 2 thinking is also called 'Deliberate Thinking'. )

Now coming back to the question that I asked at the beginning of the post. Who is 'The One'? 'The One' is who have integrated both Self 1 and Self 2. He is neither judgemental not critical. His entire 'person', the body and the mind react together to any challenges. If he overcomes the challenges, he is not proud, he doesn't go bragging. If he fails to overcome, he is not sad. He reflects on the failure, integrates the lessons to his pool of knowledge and move on to the next challenge.

While reading the book, I couldn't help wonder how the ideas are very close to the Indian philosophy as explained in Bhagavad Gita. Mr.Gallwey says that Self 2 works best if the focus is on the game rather than on the outcome. This is what lord Krishna told Arjuna in 'Gita'. 'Do your work. Credit is not for you to take. You job is to do your duty'.

Gallwey also says that for self 2 to work, a clam mind is required. The way to achieve it is by focus. And focus is what Indian tradition of yoga is all about. Gallwey talks about 'feeling' the shot. 'Feel how the racket sits in your hand, feel how it hits the ball', he says.

This is what Dr.Sanjeev, our Yoga teacher tells us every time. As we do our asanas, he tells us to observe how each part of our body 'feels' (That 'feel' word, again)

Always observe, without any judgement, how your body feels. For example, as I write this my pen 'feels' cosy in my hand, I feel my grip tighter as I write a few words, I 'feel' the ink forming new words on the page. As I focus on my feeling, I feel myself totally immersed in the present. Focusing on how body feels at any moment is what is meant by living in the present.

Eureka!

As one focuses on how the body feels, one becomes more relaxed allowing Self 2 do even better. And that becomes a virtuous cycle.

Earlier we discussed how visualization and imagery are important for Self 2. Even these have their roots in yoga. Bihar school of yoga that Dr.Sanjeev taught us is primarily about visualization. The single most lesson for me was about why visualization is important for Self 2. Understanding this was like finding the last piece of visualization jigsaw.

The beauty is that you don't have to visualize for a long time. Even visualizing for a minute is effective. Spend five minutes visualizing how the day would pan out and it will. Of course, the more the time you spend on visualization, the more vivid the imagery, the better. But even a minute of visualization is helpful.

The best part of the book is when Mr.Gallwey discusses different mind games that people play on a tennis court. The games vary based on your motive. You can either play to win, play to make friends or play for health or enjoyment. Since the concept of different mind games is important, let me dwell on the games a bit.

The first game is called 'Good-O'. The aim of this game is to achieve excellence and the motive is to prove oneself 'good'. There are three sub-games to the main game of Good-O. These are Perfect-O, Compete-O and Image-O. The aim of Perfect-O is to achieve perfection. The external challenge is the never closing gap between one's idea of perfection and one's abilities. The internal challenge is self-criticism and loss of motivation.

The second sub-game under 'Good-O' is 'Compete-O'. The aim of the game is to do better than others. The performance is measured against the performance of others. The motive is to be at the top of the heap. The external challenge is that there will always be someone who plays better than you. The other challenge is that you are growing older everyday so there will be someone younger coming up who has more energy and enthusiasm than you. The internal challenge is you are always comparing and hence are never satisfied. You will move between inferiority and superiority. You lose spontaneity.

The third sub-game is 'Image-O'. In this, you try to win through style. The objective is to impress others. Challenge is one cannot impress everyone.

The second main game is called Friends-O. The general motive is to make friends. There are three sub-games to Friends-O. They are 'Status-O', 'Togetherness-O' or 'Spouse-O'. The objective of Status-O is to keep up with the Jonesses. The challenge is the fear of losing the social position. The objective of game 'Togetherness-O' is to be with friends. The challenge is social ostracism. The objective of the game 'Spouse-O' is to spend time with the spouse. The motive is to overcome loneliness. Internal challenge is the constant doubt if loneliness can be overcome with tennis.

The aim of the third game 'Health-O Fun-O' is to improve health or to have fun. The sub-game 'Health-O' is to improve one's health. The external challenge is to find someone who shares your views. The internal challenge is the doubt if this is working. Another internal challenge is the shift to Perfect-O. The objective of Fun-O is to have fun. Winning or losing is not important. The challenge is that it will degenerate into Self 1 games.

The third sub-game is 'Learn-O'. This is played to meet Self 2's need to learn. However, this could soon degenerate into self-criticism.

The challenge is that one game can quickly degenerate to another game. For example, you start at Fun-O and suddenly it shifts to 'Compete-O'. So Self 1 is on compete mode while Self 2 is on fun mode.

Guess who wins.

The theme of the book is how you allow the wise Self 2 to guide your life by keeping the temperamental Self 1 at a safe distance. The entire focus is on winning the 'Inner Game' . So a natural question is, if the outer game is not important, why should one try to win the outer game? Mr.Gallwey says he has struggled with this for many years.

This question if fundamental to the ideas covered in this book. If Mr.Gallwey has 'struggled with it' for a few years, I guess he must have lost a few years till he resolved the confusion in his mind, much like how my confusion about the role of money pushed my career back by a few years. Author Michael Simmons calls it 'Junk Learning', which is defined as 'any learning that is harmful and impedes your growth'.

The answer to this question is that high level of competition strengthens Self 2. They expose it to crucial challenges and teaches it how to handle them. This learning then gets applied to similar challenges in future.

This book elaborates on Self 2, but does not say anything about the role of Self 1. There is no doubt that there is genetic role for Self 1. Without that it would not have survived generations. So what is its role?

I don't know.

* * * * * *

Even though this book is about tennis, it has brought up remarkable understanding about how I work as a person.

For example, Mr.Gallwey talks about how one starts on one game, say 'Fun-O' and how quickly it shifts to 'Compete-O'. This happens to me all the time. I start off by wanting to enjoy, wanting to 'nurture and nourish' my soul and before I know, I am in the compete, self-critical and tense mode.

But game of 'Compete-O' is made up of different set of rules. The reason I am tense is that as I shift my mental state from Fun-O to Compete-O, I still play by the rules of 'Fun-O'. My racket is made of Cheap rubber (good for Fun-O, but in Compete-O, you get taken to cleaners) and I continue to take too many risks (again good for Fun-O, not for the other game).

This is the dichotomy that has been holding me back all these years. In everything. Take Udemy course for example. I started off by enjoying preparing all those slides and presentations. That was 'Fun-O'. Wanting to publish it in Udemy portal shifts my game to 'Game-O', to win. This game has different rules that I must learn and adapt. The game 'Publish Udemy-O' has rules like 'Create Great Videos', 'Be Professional' etc. I cannot sit at home and prepare casual videos. I understand that.

Do I?

Game-O has different rules. I have a disinclination to understand them and practice them. Because I am afraid that I will fail.

Oh my god. It is fear of failure after all.

That is what has prevented me from putting the full effort (learning the rules and playing to win) in any task. My entire adult life has been a litany of things I have tried, excelled even, but did not take to the next level of 'Game-O'

In summary,

I start by playing to enjoy

I excel

I want to move to 'Game-O'

I am afraid of putting the effort to learn the rules of the game

The root cause is fear of failure. Self 1 is messing with me.

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows

2020-12-31T20:11:00.001+05:30

The book Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is written as a series of letters between different characters. The book is set in England of the 2nd World War. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands that Germans occupied from 1941 to 1945. The lead character is Juliet who is the main narrator. The supporting cast includes her friend Sophie, and Sydney, Sophie's brother. Juliet is drawn to the island and to the quaintly named 'Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society',

Juliet is a writer of note. Having lost both her parents when she was twelve, Juliet has grown up to be a self-dependent stubborn lady. Her only collections are her books. She even called off her marriage in the nick of time because her prospective husband wanted to keep all her books in the cellar downstairs. Her books has pride of place in her flat. Unfortunately, during one of the bombings by Luftwaffe, her flat was hit and her collection of books burnt to ashes. Ironically, had they been in the cellar, the books would have survived the bombings !

Juliet's tryst with Guernsey starts when she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey. He is fascinated with Charles Lamb and want to order books by Lamb. He is a member of the society and wants to read part of Lamb's books in their meeting.

The story of Society's origin are hilarious as well as absurd. Germans had prohibited islanders from killing pigs and eating pork. One of the islanders killed a pig and threw a secret party. After the dinner (and few drinks) while the party goers were going back to their homes, they were caught by the Germans. To escape from Germans, Elizabeth McKenna, the shero of the book, told them that they are coming back after attending a meeting of the 'Literary Society'.

Story of 'Potato Peel Pie' is amusing. To justify the lie that they told the Germans, the members of the group were forced to create a Literary Society. One of the members, Will Thisbee refused to attend the meeting if there was nothing to eat. Meat and butter were not available, so Thisbee came up with the idea of Potato Peel Pie made of Mashed Potatoes, boiled beetroot for sweet and potato peal for the crust. That became a hit and a part of the Society's name.

Over the next few months, through their letters Juliet gets to know about all the founding members of the Society. There is Dawsey Adams, of course, the strong and silent carpenter who loves to read the books of Charles Lamb, there is Isola Pribby, a small time farmer with a goat named Ariel and a parrot named Zenobia. She loves Bronte sisters but did not like 'Wuthering Heights' much. Then there is Amelia Maugery in whose house the society conducts its meetings, John Booker, Will Thisbee, Eben Ramsay...

Elizabeth McKenna is the hero of them all. In this book, we never come to interact directly with her. There is a miasma of mystery of Elizabeth's whereabouts all through the first half of the book. We hear of her valor and strength only from anecdotes told by other members of the society. Any time an Islander needed help, she was there. She was the one who started the society. She was the one who kept the children company when they were being shipped to London just before Germans overtook the islands.

The book is divided into two parts. In part one Juliet learns all about the island from letters she shared with her friends from island. There is a love angle in the book in the form of Raymond Markham, an American media tycoon who is wooing Juliet and wants to marry her. He is charming and funny and very courteous with her. While she thought he was a nice man, she was not sure if she wanted to marry him.

In part 2 of the book, she travels to Guernsey to live with the people there. The idea is to write a story about the power of reading books. She falls in love with the islands. The members of the society arrange Elizabeth's house for her to stay. She learns more about the struggles during the German occupation.

Germans imposed a lot of restrictions on the islanders like restricting the choice of food. Killing pigs was not allowed. The farmers reared pigs to satisfy the hunger of the German Troops. Germans ordered the islanders to grow potatoes and turnips. Everything was in short supply including food, proteins, firewood and even soaps. Many islanders had skin problems since they did not have enough soap to clean themselves. The children who were left in Island suffered stunted growth. For four years, Germans ruled the islands with an iron fist.

However as the war hurtled towards its culmination, Germans were losing everywhere. They had nowhere to go and those who were left behind on the island ended up begging for food. There is a story of a German Soldier, frantic with hunger, who kills a cat and just eats its internal organs....

Ugh....

In part 2, we come to learn about what happened to Elizabeth McKenna. We learn that she was married to a German Doctor and had a daughter, Kit. Elizabeth was a spirited person. Germans had brought young men, called Todt workers, to do all their hard work. Since food was scarce, they never fed the Todt workers. Once their duty was over, they were supposed to find food for themselves. They used to steal some fruits from a nearby farm to survive.

The farmers kept a tight watch. One day a farmer caught a Todt worker. The boy could not get up and just lay there. Elizabeth brought the child home and stealthily nursed him back to health.

When Germans came to know this, they arrested Elizabeth and send her to a concentration camp. There she was lined with other women prisoners. The entire camp was very unhygienic. Menstruating women were not given any pads and blood oozed from their thighs. There was one sadistic German lady officer who used to laugh when she saw any women suffering.

Elizabeth couldn't take it any longer. One day when this happened, she took a stick and thrashed the officer. She was taken to the back of the camp and executed.

We learn about what happened to Elizabeth from another lady, Remy, who was with her in the camp.

Raymond Markham follows Juliet to the island. She sees him behaving rudely with Kit McKenna, the four year old daughter of Elizabeth and rejects his marriage proposal. With the help from Amelia Maugery, she initiates proceedings to adopt Kit.

Juliet is attracted towards Dawsey, but he is a strong silent man who does not open up. As the story ends, Juliet confesses her love to him. It turns out that he is also in love with her, but he did not know how to tell her. The story ends with them getting married.

I did not emotionally connect with the story as I did when I read the book 'The Stationery Shop of Tehran'. The reason is that there is no flow to the stories. The 'letters' style of writing means that the story moves from one discrete incident to another. Juliet asks a question to Dawsey, 'why the name Potato Peel Pie Society'? you become alert. This was a question that you had in mind. But the next question is from Sydney to Juliet informing her that he is in Australia (Sydney going to Australia, I am not joking here). You feel let down. And ten letters down the line, when Amelia answers that question, we are like 'So what?'

Another reason why I could not connect emotionally was that there is nothing really to emotionally connect. There are many stories in the book, but there is no 'intense' story. There is the story of the society itself, then there is one of friendship between Juliet and Sydney, Juliet's brief fling with Raymond Markham, story of love between Juliet and Dawsey, there is story of Elizabeth's courage.

There is no digging deep into any of these stories. Heck, Dawsey do not even express his love to Juliet. It is Juliet who proposes to Dawsey. A story-line that could have been brilliantly portrayed, I mean you have the beautiful island, its romantic setting and the brilliant countryside to make you job easier as a writer. But no. The romance does not evoke any emotions in the reader.

Or the author could have gone deeper into Elizabeth. It looked like she had helped most of the islanders. Each of them had a story to tell, but since she was never 'alive' in the story, I could not identify with her.

By the way, did you know that the full name of Oscar Wilde is Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde? I came to know of this from a cute little story narrated in this book about Mr.Wilde visiting Guernsey. Victor Hugo wrote Le Miserables at Guernsey.

This book leaves you thinking. You realize that there are no real winners in a war. Everyone is a loser. For a couple of years, Germans were the winners. When they lost, they lost everything. The Germans left over in the islands after the war was over were begging and rummaging for food. There are stories of valor of Germans. For example, they knew that they had lost the war. Their army was hungry and tired and scared. At that time Red Cross brought food and cosmetics for the citizens of Island. The German commander ordered his troops to distribute the entire ship load to the islanders and forbade his troops from taking even a single packet.

There are good Germans like Elizabeth's husband, Dr.Christian Hellman. He hates what Hitler is doing but just like many good people, he is also silent for the fear of retribution from his government.

Just like the book 'The Stationery Shop of Tehran', this book also discusses the terrible consequences of war and internal turmoil on the citizens. Europe paid the price for two wars and responded by creating strong liberal democracies. Iran is still a work in progress. The point is that both the current generations and the future generations will pay the price for any misadventure by mad leaders. Predators from outside are always waiting to exploit the internal weaknesses of the country. A smart country will know how to manage. The main element of that smartness is respecting the people's will. Taking decisions that will benefit everyone, not just a single group

Iran of the 50s did not smartly handle the internal strife and paid the price.

What about you India?

Book Review: The Stationery Shop of Tehran Author: Marjan Kamali

2020-12-23T12:36:00.003+05:30

Marjan Kamali narrates an eternal love story of teenagers Roya and Bahman set in the backdrop of a chaotic Tehran of the 1950s. The country was young. It had hopes on a democratically elected Prime Minister with modern views to take it forward. The young 'old' country longed for a modern state rooted in the eternal values of peace and progress.

But there is political trouble in the air. While the Prime Ministerwas elected democratically, Iran was ruled by Kings. Known as 'Shahs of Iran' they expected the Prime Minister to kowtow to their wishes But the then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh refused to do that and on the other hand wanted to curtail the power of the Shahs and make Iran a true democracy.

This was not a stable situation for the country. It was polarized across two factions, one loyal to the PM and the other loyal to the king.

The love between Roya and Bahman blossoms in the Stationery Shop owned by Mr.Ali Fakhri, an old man still young at heart. He facilitates love affairs between young people.

His stationery shop is where they come to have that few minutes of privacy and intimacy. The boys and girls exchange their love through letters hidden in books that Ali passes on. Ali is the conduit that ensures space and continuity in love.

The Tehran of 50s was a young city, fancy free and full of fun. Roya and Bahman are madly in love with each other. They are both interested in poetry of Rumi. They walk hand in hand in the streets of Tehran. They go for dances and frequent coffee shops. They sip coffee from shared cup sitting in the cosy corner in coffee shops. They are young, the country is young and they are in love.

Bahman formally asks Roya's father for her hand in marriage. Baba, a progressive Iranian who considered daughters equal to sons, agreed wholeheartedly. Roya and Bahman were engaged to be married. It also helped that Bahman was a member of National Front, the resistance supporting the democratically elected Prime Minister whom Baba also supported.

As the political situation escalated, there are news of daily clashes between supporters of Prime Minister and those supporting Shah. Roya worries about Bahman.

One day Bahman disappears. A worried Roya tries to talk to Ali Fakhri, who she is convinced, knows about his whereabouts. Mr.Fakhri refuses to tell anything to Roya. One day he hands her a letter from Bahman. He writes that he was taking care of his ailing mother and given the political turmoil, he feels that it is best they get married as soon as possible. He asks her to come to Sepah Square, where he will meet her and both of them can go to the Office of Registrar of Marriages can formally get married.

Roya is thrilled. On the appointed day she reaches the Sepah Square. The situation at the Square is volatile, with supporters of the PM and the police facing off each other. Bahman is nowhere to be found. As the situation escalates, Roya becomes frantic. Just then she sees Mr.Fakhri in the crowd. He sees her and comes near her. He tries to hold her and say something, but Roya pushes him and moves away from him. Just as he tries to tell her something, Fakhri is shot by the police.

While people around tries to resuscitate Fakhri, Roya edges away and goes back to her house.

A couple of days later, she receives a letter from Bahman calling off the engagement. She does not know what to do. She goes into a depression.

Baba, her father is worried that Iran is becoming dangerous for his daughters. Through his boss, he comes to know of an American University offering scholarship to Iranian girls to pursue higher days. He asks his daughters to apply for this opportunity.

Seeing that they have no future in Iran, Roya and her sister apply for and are accepted for the program.

The book now moves into the next phase of Roya's life. She is focused only on studies. She has no interest in romance. One day while sitting in a coffee shop near the university, she meets Walter. Gradually she and Walter falls in love and get married.

Tragedy was not done with Roya. She lose her first daughter, Marigold to an illness. Roya is 28 and is very depressed. But Walter is the most sympathetic husband. He supports and sustains as she goes through this terrible period in her life.

Roya has lost all her passion. She used to love Iranian Cooking. Now she hardly prepares anything fancy. Not even the arrival of her son, Kyle, rekindles the passion of her youth.

Years pass. One day while accompanying Walter for a routine medical examination, Roya goes to a nearby library. She is looking for some original Persian poetry. The librarian tells her that a stationery shop downtown has a number of such books.

As fate has it, it takes her to that part of the town on some other errand. On an impulse she decides to check the stationery shop recommended by the librarian.

As she enters the shop, she can't believe her eyes. The shop is set exactly like the one that she used to frequent in Tehran. When she saw the owner, he looked exactly like Bahman. The owner tells her that the shop was arranged in this way based on the wishes of his father Bahman Aslan.

Roya feels tizzy. She cannot believe what she is hearing. Where is his father now? she wants to know. He tells her that his father is in a Center for the Assisted Living in a nearby town.

After she comes home, she calls the center and fixes an appointment to meet Bahman.

She wants to settle scores with Bahman for leaving her in the lurch at Sepah Square and running away like a coward. She wants to tell him that she forgives him for all that he has done to her.

They meet. She is angry. When she tells him that she forgives him for not coming to Sepah Square, he tells her that he had asked her to meet at Baharestan Square at a different part of the town. He had waited for her there and since she did not turn up, he was very agitated and left. After a few days he had received a letter from her cancelling her engagement with him as she could not 'Put up with his mother'. When she told him about the letter that she received from him, about his wanting to marry another woman, he said that he never wrote such a letter.

He also tells her that he has always been in love with her.

It is obvious that someone had edited the letters that each had written to the other.

Who did it? Why? What was the motive? What happened in those few days that permanently altered the lives of two teenagers who were madly in love with each other? Who were perfect for each other in every way?

Soon Roya hears the news that Bahman is critical. She goes to meet him. As he lay unconscious on the bed, she climbs on the bed and lies there for an hour holding him close to her. Ms.Kamali handles their reunion in a beautiful and sensitive manner.

In the evening, Bahman passes away.

The book subtly and oh, so sensitively explores Roya's mind as she realizes that Bahman was always in love with her. Coming back from the memorial service, it is as if a weight has been lifted off Roya. The knowledge of Bahman's love lifted all the tension that had built in in her sensitive mind for over forty years. She brings Claire to her home and for the first time after many years, prepared khoresh-e-gheymeh for her family

As I read the last two chapters, I was crying. My throat choked up and tears were flowing from my eyes. I couldn't continue reading it. I just kept the book down, went away for some time. I came back and started reading it and started crying again. Fortunately I was sitting alone in my home and no one saw me crying.

Like an ice cream embellished with golden brown almonds, the evocative story of teenage love is embellished with the delectable aroma of the Persian Cuisine. Roya has learned the art of cooking from her maman. She handpicks the freshest of ingredients and the most aromatic of the spices from the market. Be it preparing Jeweled Rice, thick aush soup or her mother's ghormeh sabzi stew, no detail of the cooking process misses her.

The author uses Persian cooking as a proxy to Roya's emotional state of mind. When she is happy she enjoys elaborate cooking. When she is sad, she goes for bacon, ham and burgers. For over forty years after the passing away of her daughter she had given up on cooking. The author brilliantly shows the renewal of Roya through her renewed her interest in cooking her favourite Persian item.

The book is also about triumph of women everywhere. Bestowed with equal intellect, they have to fight hidden and open challenges every day. There is a line in the book that says 'Maman was right, of course, but she had to accept Baba's decision because he was a man'. That sums it up.

The story is a paean to the eternal teenage love. Shakespeare wrote about it in Romeo and Juliet, Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi wrote about the love between Laila and Majnu (Layla and Majnun). Teenage love never dies. It lives with you, it lives through you, no matter how time has passed and what happened in between. Much like water, teenage love flows over the obstacles.

There are multiple subplots in the story. There is a story of the love between Ali Fakiri and Bahman’s mother. There is another story of Claire, the clerk at the Center for Assisted Living. Much like an expert weaver Ms.Kamali neatly ties the subplots and weaves a brilliant story.

You realize the power of a great story only after you finish it. While you are reading it, the twists and turns keep you hooked in the story and finally when they all come together in a brilliant symphony, you realize it was all worth it.

Reading this book had that effect on me.

My review in Good Reads

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Marjan Kamali has written a Tour-de-force of a novel about the love between Roya and Bahman. The story is set in Tehran of the 50s, a period where the country was going through political chaos. This is the story of love, betrayal and ultimate redemption. Author weaves a brilliant tale, filled with multiple threads and all of them coming together in a synchronized symphony leaving the reader emotionally exhausted.
The author brilliantly embellishes the story with Persian Cuisine, it is almost like cuisine is a living and breathing character in the story. Persian cuisine is a proxy for Roya's emotional state. When she is happy she is excited about cooking exotic Persian Food. For many years Roya had not cooked any exotic food. In the final scene with all the weight having been lifted off her, she goes back to cooking her favourite food.
Brilliant.

Book Review: Checklist Manifesto: Author: Atul Gawande

2020-12-17T17:11:00.002+05:30

Why do we need checklists?

There are two groups of tasks. One group of tasks is beyond our capability. We may want to swim across English Channel or win Olympic gold, but those are beyond our capability.

There are many tasks within our capability. We are unable to do them either due to ignorance or due to ineptitude.

The problem is that the knowledge available in the world has been exploding recently. It is not important for one person to learn everything. That is the reason why we have experts.

The complex problems require many experts to work together. As a group they may have the knowledge or expertise. In many cases, however, they make mistakes.

Why?

In his book 'Checklist Manifesto - How to get things right', author Atul Gawande says that most of the expert tasks are complex and involve multiple steps to be completed in sequence by different experts. If either of the steps are missed or if the sequence is broken, mistakes will occur. Checklists are a way to ensure that steps are followed in a sequential order and everyone is aware of the status.

Checklists are not new. Different industries have been using them over decades if not centuries. Construction industry builds all those skyscrapers by following a detailed schedule broken down into work breakdown structure, which is nothing but a checklist showing what to do, when to do it and who will do it.

What if anything goes wrong? Construction industry uses a communication plan, another checklist, of the potential issues and the name of the persons who will certify for the project to go forward.

Aviation industry is another that uses checklists. They have pre-flight checklists, on-board checklists and in-flight checklists. In addition, the industry has checklists for every known emergency. That is the reason a flight has two pilots. In case of emergencies, on will read the checklist while the other will follow the instruction as given in the checklist.

Checklists ensure that we do not miss critical steps. In addition, presence of checklists help overcome the tension associated with emergencies and focus on important steps to be followed. Checklists bring sanity and focus on priorities in the event of an emergency. Author mentions about a checklist for single engine Cessna aircraft, which is flown by one person. All the checklists have one item at the top, 'Keep Flying'. This common sense item ensures that the aircraft is airborne. This will give time for everyone to respond.

We must consider two factors regarding checklists. First is that the first draft of the checklist will always be incomplete. It is important to test the efficacy of the checklist in multiple scenarios and update the checklists based on observations. Secondly, it is important to update the checklist for every new situation that arises.

For example, after every emergency, aviation industry updates the existing checklist and if it is a new emergency, a new checklist is prepared and circulated for wider adoption. This means that there should be a formal way to analyze each emergency, update the checklist, share the checklist widely and most important of all, track its adoption over multiple aircrafts and multiple flights.

The most important test for the efficacy of a checklist is that it becomes the universal norm.

Author finds the use of checklists in unexpected industries. For example, he has found well known investors use checklists to make investment decisions. He cites the example of one such investor. His team uses a 'Day three checklist', to be used on the third day after identifying an investment opportunity. In this checklist, they discuss if they have reviewed the financial reports of past years, if someone has looked at the fine print, etc.

Mr.Gawande is a doctor. Most of his examples are about how the complexity of modern medicine warrants the use of checklists. He led a WHO team that rolled out checklists in hospitals across eight countries. The experiment yielded astonishing results. Every parameter showed extra-ordinary improvement with the use of a simple checklist. The examples are simple and fascinating and clearly convey the importance and utility of checklists.

He gives examples of six cases where he and his team would have made mistakes and were saved because they used checklists.

I am a project manager. My work is preparing checklists and tracking them methodically till the project is completed. So talking to me about the importance of checklist is like preaching to a choir.

Still...

I enjoyed reading the book. It is nicely written, simple and easy to read. I give it 4 stars.