Tales about the Monk's Ferrari!!

The other day I was browsing at the Crosswords bookstore, my favorite pastime these days, and came across the book titled "I bought the Monk's Ferrari"! Surprised and amused, I flipped through the volume and realized that it had no relation whatsoever to the bestseller "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" other than the fact that both were self-improvement books.

The author, Ravi Subramanian (an IIMB passout) must be commended for astutely choosing this title to readily bank on the top-of-the-mind recall! The title sure makes heads turn, though the cover could've been designed better. However, I found the book to be just one other amongst run-of-the-mill Self-Help books. The author goes out of the way to establish the 'Ferrari' connection and that looks artifical. Nevertheless, the fact that some of the 'ten commandments' stand out and prod the reader to imbibe them, shows that the author has managed to partly achieve what he set out for.

Traffic Signal

Yet another week day and I'm on my way, driving down to the office. The signal blinks orange briefly before finally turning to red and bringing the traffic to a halt, well almost, except for a handful who honk and rush away as if their life depends on they jumping yet another signal!

As the crowd grumbingly await their turn, the next bout of business has already started. Women carrying babies trot about asking for money to feed the kids. Old men and others horrifyingly disabled move around pleading for change. Urchins run about the vehicles, peering into some and prodding others for money. This is a daily sight, in almost all the city junctions that are even slightly traffic-worthy. This business happens with unbelievable uniformity - people zip in, do their bit and zip out as the signal turns green. One cannot help but notice this similarity to the pit stop of the Formula Racing cars and its nano-second precision

All these bizarre comparisons apart, it is heart-rending to see young and old people toiling the streets for change, by volition or by force. Day-in and day-out they get hardened in the grind of this world and grow up as brazened souls with a can-do-anything-for-money attitude. In my opinion, the only way to cure this is to say NO and discourage all forms of begging.

As the Chinese proverb goes: "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Whatever little contribution you'd want to make, direct it towards rehabilitation of these people and in aiding them earn a decent living. When people uniformly stop yielding to begging, the needy would be forced to look at other means.

The Kite Runner

I chanced upon this title at a friend's book collection some months back, though I'd heard about it earlier. I was initially a little hesitant about reading this book, as I thought it might be a literary overdose. However, I did finally pick up both the books of the author Khaled Hosseini ('Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns') when I visited Delhi.

The book (Kite Runner) was simple, poignant and brilliant! The author has managed to recreate the average individual in Amir - weak with insecurities, yearning for recognition and acceptance (in his father's eyes) and his scruple gnawing at his heart awaiting redemption.

Hassan’s is a character closer to Bollywood – fiercely loyal and blindly forgiving. Though it may look filmly and slightly unreal, the strength of this character makes you cry, and I was no exception. Even moving out of the narrative, Hassan lives on in the character of his son, and perhaps thats the way the author wanted it to be.

The story and characters apart, some other things I liked most about the book: the author powerfully paints a vivid picture on your canvas and lets you live through the scenes alongside the characters, and quite often deep into their psyche as well; a first-rate account of the contrast of Afghanistan, before the Soviets and after the Taliban; the liberal use of pashtun words and phrases gets you closer to the characters; the Kite festival and its cult following.

For all those still ‘considering’ on whether to read the book – please do, it is highly recommended.

PS: I’ve just browsed through the first few chapters of the next book, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and it sure looks promising - equally powerful and moving... 'for you, a thousand times over....!!'

Book I just read - "The Alexander Trilogy"

I just completed the Alexander trilogy by Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi (the translated version, ofcourse!). If I were to sum up my experiencev in a few words - "What a book it was!!". I just lapped up the three volumes, in every sense of the word. I've always been facinated by medieval warfare, master strategists and bold adventure. 'Alexander' was all of this and more. The books describe in gripping detail the birth, meteoric rise and equally rapid end of a conqueror, who was considered superhuman and a demi-god by his contemporaries. For people (like me) who had just encountered Alexander in their history books at school or in other short stories, this tome would open up a world of interesting information not just about Alexander, but about the contemporaries, cultures and customs of his era.

The author has meted out a brilliant treatment to the subject and you get a feeling of watching the protagonist upclose and you get immersed in his day-to-day activities, his triumphs and also his dark moments. This has led me on a spontaneous quest to works of a similar genre by other leading authors and also of other famed works by this author.

More on this shortly...

'Expensr' - The Next Disruptor

Recently, CNN's Business 2.0 magazine had come up with a compilation of the Top 10 startups that are most likely to topple existing industries or create entirely new opportunities, named 'Next 10 Disruptors'.

One of them that caught my attention was a startup named 'Expensr', that has been co-founded by an Indian by the name of Shawn Gupta. The idea is unbelievably simple! Its a handy, free on-line tool that helps you manage your personal finances by tracking your budget and daily spending habits, with a very user-friendly GUI. One of the smart features that propels its popularity is social-network feature that helps you compare your spending habits against your peer group around the world. (https://www.expensr.com/)

At firsthand, I really couldn't believe that this concept could make it into the coveted list rubbing shoulders amongst other invention-based startups. But then, as has been rightly quoted in the magazine "Disruption can be hard to see, even when it's right in front of your face"!!

Spamming as a vocation!

Please don't get me wrong.. No, i've never tried my hand at it! However, chain-mailers have always fascinated me. I've come to believe that their's is one of the most creative jobs!! They manage to dupe fairly intelligent people to send out copies of essentially stupid mails with untrue information to everyone on their list.

Now what is the motive of these chain-mailers? Simple: They get a kick in seeing their message go around the world with minimal effort and at no cost. And at times if people are extra stupid, they manage to extract sensitive information as well. They appeal to people at two levels: rational and emotional. Most people succumb to one of these. Its interesting to see how they do it.

At a Rational level, they bring out the inherent greed in people. Sample this: "Bill Gates would pay $1000 for every mail forwarded as it helps him to test some Microsoft mail tracking software". This hoax mail went round the whole world in 1997! Even if Gates had paid a tenth of the money, Microsoft would have gone bankrupt years back!! Another irritating mail is that of Yahoo or Orkut deleting accounts of people who don't forward the mail to everyone on their list.

At an Emotional level, people are suckers to do a LOT of good without spending a penny out of their pocket! How many times have we heard of a baby with 'small cell cancer' or some other unpronouncible disease looking for help and that a poor sponsor will donate $1 for every mail sent. There are ones with emotional blackmails like "If you love your parents forward this or else, shame on you"!

There are other specimens that curse people with definitive things like a break-up or worse, 'bad sex for 5 years'!! God save the victims :)

Taking it too far.. Pizza 'dhabha' Hut

Last week when I walked into a Pizza Hut outlet in Hyderabad Central, I was handed a queer looking menu.. Upon flipping it open, I was shocked for a second as to whether I was in a road-side dhabha on the national highway! An all-pink menu decorated with hindi words and coarse-looking pictures was definitely not palatable.. To add to it, items like seekh-kabhab pizza to what not, made it even worse.. I am certainly not against dhabha kind of food, but I'm against it being served in a place like Pizza Hut..

The multinationals are taking the concept of GLocalization just too far.. Anyone would drop into a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut for the westernized brand and the authentic food (ofcourse with a little Indianization).. However, this kind of far-fetched moves would dilute the brand's perception and worse, might not bring in the additional expected customers..