Cool as always ....

List of books to read ...

2007-04-24T20:54:00.001+06:00

A selected list of books – I got good review about .This list is not in any specific order.
Have read some books and looking forward to read some more .
It might help you guys to select a book --- enjoy reading …..

1)'Lust for Life' sometime back.Its a biographical novel on the life of
Vincent Van Gogh.
2) Gone With The Wind
3) Catch 22
4) Waiting For Gobot.

5) "Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior"
Author: Craig C. Pinder
Publisher: Prentice Hall
6) "The Alchemy of Desire" by Tarun Tejpal.
7) "A Million Little Pieces" -- Gurpartapsuriya
8) The best of bits & pieces.
9) "What u feel u can heal" by john gray
10) Polar bear pirates and their quest to reach fat city"by Adrian
webster
11) "Lee Kuan Yew : The Man and His Ideas"
12) Erich Segal's Doctors.
13) Code Name God by Mani Bhaumik
14) Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies.
15) "Snapshots from Hell - The Making of an MBA" - Peter Robinson

àA bunch of books on management related stuff.

12) Tom Peters - Circle of Innovation
13) Maverick - Ricardo Semler
14) Managing Radical Change - Sumantra Ghoshal
15) Every Business is a growth business - Ram Charan
16) Getting to Yes - William Ury
17) Getting past NO - William Ury & Gang
18) The Ffth Discipline - Peter Senge
19) Made in Japan - Akio Morita ( A very simplistic book though )
20) First, Break all the rules - Marcus Buckingham
21) Best Practices - Arthur Andersen

Fiction author - Eric Van Lustbader - Works include
22) Ninja
23) Dark Homecoming.
--
24) Iacocca -My Years at General Motors
25) Bill Gates' Business @ Speed of Thought
26) The Road Ahead
27) HANNIBAL "Eat the Rich" by P.J O'Rourke

27) LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA: GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
28) One Hundred years of solitude GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

29) Made in Japan (Akio Morita)
30) Unnatural Leadership (err...not sure)
31) Borderless World (err....its abt globalisation....)
32) Kotler on Marketing (Philip Kotler...a masterpiece)

33) Father Son and Co - Tom Watson Jr (IBM)
34) Only the Paranoid Survive - Andrew S Grove(Intel)
35) In Search of Excellence - Tom Peters and Bob (Robert) Waterman
36) The Discipline of Market leaders - Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema
37) Focus - Al Ries

PG Wodehose
38) Thank you,Jeeves
39) Right Ho, Jeeves
40) Jeeves In the Offing
45) Something Fresh
46) Pigs Have Wings
48) Mike and PSmith
49) Leave it to PSmith
50) Damsel In Distress

Agatha Christie
51) The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd
52) Curtain:Poirots Last Case
53) Murder on the Orient Express

Charles Dickens
54) David Copperfield
55) Great Expectations
56) Oliver Twist

Michael Crichton
57) Jurrasic Park
58) The lost world
60) Congo

Mario Puzo
61) Godfather
62) The Sicilian
63) The Last Don

Frederick Forsythe
64) The Day of the Jackal
65) The Odessa Files
66) The Negotiator

Robert Ludlum
67) The Bourne Trilogy
68) The Matarese Trilogy

Alistair Maclean
69) HMS Ulysses
70) Guns of Navarone
71) Force 10 from navarone
72) Bear Island

Dan Brown
73) The Da Vinci Code
74) Angels and Demons

James Halperin
75) The Truth machine

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thommasin
76) The Rule of Four

Thomas Harris
77) Silence of the lambs
78) Hannibal
79) Red Dragon

John Irving
80) The Cider House Rules

Jeffrey Archer
81) Kane and Abel
82) Not a penny more,Not a penny less

Sidney Sheldon
83) Bloodline
84) The Naked face

Eric Segal
85) Love Story

Nicholas Sparks
86) The Notebook
87) A walk to Remember

Ian McEwan
89) Atonement

Margaret Atwood
90) The Blind Assasin

Evelyn Waugh
91) Brideshead Revisited

John Grisham
92) The Firm
93) The Runaway Jury
94) The Bleachers

Amitav Ghosh
95) The Hungry Tide
96) The Glass Palace

Shashi Tharoor
97) The Great Indian Novel

Roald Dahl
98) The collected stories of Roald Dahl(Complete)

Edgar Allan Poe
99) The Fall of the house of Usher
100) The Cask of Amontillado

James Clavell
101) Shogun

J.D.Salinger
102) Catcher In the Rye

Leon Uris
103) Exodus

George Orwell
104) Animal Farm
105) 1984

Aldous Huxley
107) Brave New World

Anthony Burgess
109)A clockwork Orange

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
110) 100 years of solitude
111) Love in the time of cholera

Milan Kundera
112) The unbearable lightness of being

Franz Kafka
113) The Trial
114) The diaries of Franz Kafka

Ayn Rand
115) FountainHead
116) Atlas Shrugged
117) The Pickwick Papers and The Wisdom of teams

118) "Barbarians at the gate" by Brian Burrough and John Helyar.
119) The Argumentative Indian. Amartya sen

2007-01-29T21:28:00.000+06:00

Me and my stars.. my cousins

2007-01-29T21:19:00.000+06:00

Wave of losing bachelorhood

2007-01-07T20:43:00.000+06:00

Wave of losing bachelorhood

It is new wave, in the heart of the Bangalore, the change was visible to my naked eyes .. wait a minute I am not talking about skyscrapers of IT boom nor I am concerned with the infrastructure of the city. It is wave of losing bachelorhood – Bachelorhood of my buddies.

Time changes people and change is for good – Is the change really good?.. I doubt?

Last weekend I was in Bangalore for some official work, luckily I got time to meet buddies from my college days. Saturday- I landed in the Bangalore at around 8 in the morning , I called up my event coordinator (Santhel) in Bangalore office , he directed me to the our Bangalore office . From cab window I can observe the infrastructure is better now, at least roads are better than Pune. From airport to office it took me less than thirty minutes .Office was having a deserted look, I reached reception and called Santhel once again, he told me that the event will start in half an hour. Meanwhile I gave a buzz to all my friends in the Bangalore and informed them that I am in the city and requested them to keep their diary free for the evening.

I was here for a special recruitment drive, soon people started popping in and the work started to gain pace. The schedule was tight and I was continuously interviewing one after other. I started feeling hungry; I had a look on my cell it was around 2:15. We took a break for launch, Jay Kumar – head Symbian initiative Bangalore, took me to one of the typical south Indian restaurant. As I was not in the mood to have spicy food, I had South Indian thali – it was beautifully served with Curd, Papad, Rice, Samber, Pickles, Gongura chatni, some veg (don't know the names),pulav and Mysore sweets.The food was delicious,but I was not able to finish all the rice and stuff.I liked the sweets most, it melts in the mouth, Jayakumar told me it is made from only of sugar and ghee.

While returning to office I got a call from one my colleague “Jassi” .She was waiting for me in the office. Jassi used to work with me in pune office, she was transferred to Bangalore office .She is such a cute baby, it was really great to see her. Without wasting too much time I took her with me to the cabin where I was taking interviews.I got some help from her in the interviewing process. By 6:30 pm we were free from the day’s work.

Jassi took me to the nearest mall – ‘Forum’ – It was very crowded -- crowded like rugs n rats. Somehow we managed to get in one of the restaurants we had some snacks and chatted for a while.

In between I got call from the Nihar (my college buddy) we all planned to meet at Nihar's place .We had a brief look at shops in the mall and did some window shopping. Not to mention Bangalore crowd is cool, especially girls from other parts of the country. But nothing likes Pune babes.

Jassi got call from her sis – she was on the way to pickup Jassi and Shashi (one of my college buddies) was on the way to pick me up to Nihar's place.

Jassi left with her sis and Shashi (Ckt) made me wait for a while, ultimately he showed up , we meet after a year – Circuit will remain ckt at least for this life.I will be happy if proved wrong .

In no time we reached Nihar's place - Here is the change – a very evident change. Nihar was looking good, he has put some weight but he always needed to put some. He got married in May, he introduced me to Rekha (Bhabhi ji -- which she hates to be addressed as). It was first time I have meet spouse of any of my friends, it was a different feeling. The house was neat and tidy- very different from our hostel rooms. I was feeling proud for my friend, they have build their nest with lots of care and it was evident that every straw of this nest was bound by love.

In some time we were joined by Das (the tension kid) and followed by the Kundu (the pocha ). Kundu was accompanied by his wife Diya. Diya is beautiful girl – with typical Bengali features. In short I will say Kundu is dam lucky to get such a life partner.

Rekha served some sweets and fruits to us, and apparently I was the only person having it. We pulled leg of Das – the 'Tension kid' was worried for the helmet and violation of the traffic rules. We chatted for a while there, the discussion revolved round topics -- how other friends are,who is next get married, what is the right age to get married, how these married guys are feeling etc Then we all went out for dinner to near by restraint. The ambiance was great, bar was near and smoke mixed with the fumes of liquor was reminiscent of our college day’s SWAD .We ordered the food, in the mean time Reddy joined us for the dinner. There the discussion continued, I was thinking that I also need someone special to organize my life .The wave of loosing bachelorhood was so strong that I was finding myself intrigued by it.

After dinner we greeted each other and dispersed. On my way back to hotel room I visited Das's room ... a typical bachelor’s room. I reached my hotel room at 11:30 0’clock.

Next day I was free by afternoon I called up Kundu and reached his place. I still remember the days when we used to drink till we drop – those sweet college days where we have tested every extreme of our selves – right from how much we can drink to how long we can dance to how much heat we can bear -- that is what gave us the fighting spirit.

Kundu's place is complete home and not just a house, the crockery is neatly displayed in the showcase and all things covered in a homely manner. Diya served some ice cream; we all had some chat and watched Kundu's marriage video. The marriage was as usual full of the rituals and customs. Diya prepared some snacks – it was fabulous – the ingredient of love was making it rock (as it was been cooked more for kundu than for us – Hahahaha), I was feeling at home.

From Kundu's place I went to Brigade road with Shashi to meet my friend Dhaval and Reddy – Dhaval was with his wife Dhara, we went to one of the finest restaurants of the city –Ebony. It is open air restaurants on the thirteen floors; the view of the city was majestic. It was drizzling and that made the place awesome. We had some bear and then some more n more n more n .... And food after some bear always seems to be great.

We greeted each other and dispersed. Next day early morning I board my fight back to Pune. I always used to say – One can either be happy or married but I found my friends 'happily married’.

On my way back to Pune I was thinking it’s not that bad a wave – Wave of losing bachelorhood. Its time to get swept by this WAVE.....

Serendipity -- A movie, A word, A feeling.

2006-10-06T19:33:00.000+06:00

Serendipity -- A movie, A word, A feeling.

I watched this movie on one of my friend’s laptop. It is simply superb …
I am irritated by the routine K series Hindi movies, which I usually find difficult to understand.

A critic, a judge and a jury member - no I am none among these, so I am not imposing any judgment about movies.
Its as simple as it sounds – liked a movie and thought of writing about it.

As per the Oxford dictionary ‘Serendipity’ literally means “Good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries”. Personally I don’t think that in romance one needs the good luck.

This is a nice romantic movie that revolves around the two characters; one believes in serendipity and other has to rely on the mercy of the magic word ‘serendipity’ to work.
The movie is knitted with series of fortunate accidents and is very well directed (as per my perception).

Being a mathematics student – Probability of getting back the note marked by you with out one’s conscious efforts is very low, but the probability of this event is never zero. Also the probability of two people picking the same number out of a set of hundred numbers is low -- but mind it - its never zero. On the other hand the probability of getting back a marked book after being sold to some unknown bookseller in the same town and putting the conscious effort to get the book increases but it can never be one. The whole movie revolves around such events

On contrary to the romantic movies it is more of a realistic movie, where belief is the key. One gets simply attracted to other person and has no choice but to live with it. Serendipity binds the two persons and their unconscious minds seek the other person they are attracted to. The two do all kind of stupid things to meet each other with out even knowing each other’s names and by destiny they meet.

The only message from the movie is - pursue your passion; no matter what it is. I will use the word –’jackass’ yeah - you need to be a ‘jackass’ to purse your passion. No matter how stupid it seems to others, you need to be passionate for none other than your self. Passion drives one crazy but some times it is the craziness that is badly needed. To reach on the other end of the river you have to put efforts, the means of transport is irrelevant.

To feel the touch of the movie watch it. For myself I have burnt a CD and will never mind sharing it.

Definition of True Friendship

2006-10-04T15:09:00.000+06:00

Shaks on the Move.............: Definition of True Friendship

Adjustment is a Sin...

2006-10-04T12:56:00.000+06:00

Adjustment is a Sin...

Life->Taken it the way it comes, Challenge it the way you want, Control it the way no one ever did....

As my friend Shakun says: Adjustment is a Sin …A simple power statement.

The very moment you adjust you comment a crime against your self. It is the worst kind of crime where the accused is the victim.

Adjustment starts from the time when one is a 3 year old innocent school child … and system loads him with a burden of “knowledge baggage” which weighs at least half his own weight. The innocent doesn’t know he has to carry the baggage for one third of life and that too to realize the dreams imposed on him by someone else.

The education system of our country is not only governed badly but what makes it worst is the social expectations. The expectations are rigid and path you are forced to travel is narrow, you quite often bounce into the other rats like you, who are made to run the same race.

Yah..I am talking about the Indian society where the ‘imposed aim’ of the newborn is to become a doctor Or an engineer Or at the most a CA.
These are very good professions to choose but why does a mother of three years olds ask the question to his child in her so called social circle.
"Beta tell us what you what to be?" … And the innocent answers - "Doctor / Engineer".
Does the innocent really know what he wants to be after 20 years? Does he understand it?
Does he mean the answer!!!

I am not against socialism nor do I say parents should not expect anything from their children. But yah I don’t believe in the system, which creates immense pressure on the every individual.

Let us not adjust our selves to this social system let us break these shackles and live the life the way we want, not imposing any expectations on any one.

My life - 'Sand in hand'

2006-03-29T21:06:00.000+06:00

My life - 'Sand in hand'

"If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic " --- Hazel Henderson

This quote explains the title best. Change is the most persistent thing and it’s change, which made me a blogger.