Book Review: Don't Sweat The Small Stuff at Work

by : Richard Carlson

Recommended reading for all the guys who get stressed out.

He has some great - absolutely common sensical advice for all of us.

The ones which I really loved were these :

* Don't dramatize the deadlines
* Have some 'no phone' time at work
* Make the best of the corporate travel
* Remember to acknowledge
* Make a list of your personal priorities


There are obviously many more here. Very well written. Very meaningful.

Blogs I love : Third Umpire on Cricket 

by Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm


This is a beautifully written blog. The only problem with this blog is that Sridhar is not writing frequently. There is one post on November 10th, another on October 22nd  and before that in March 12th of 2009!! That is too infrequent for such delightful writing.

Take the latest post on "Thank you Steve Davies". It raises questions on why India is so bull headed in not accepting the UDRS. And, I have felt much the same. The argument that the technology is not perfect does not wash. The umpires are far from it. So, why not go with an improved version even if it might still have some flaws?

I completely agree Mr.Sridhar. He thanks the umpire Steve Davies who blundered through the series and  who could have cost India the series against Australia but for some luck going India's way finally.

Take a look at the other post talking about whether BCCI is up to it. Very good post.

So, my dear sir, why don't you write more often? Please do!!

The Language of Cricket

I love cricket. I am in love with the language of cricket even more than the game itself.

When I was a kid, my father used to tell me about the field placements. Though I did not understand a word of it, I liked the sound of all those field placements. I liked 'slip', 'gully', 'point', 'midon', 'midoff' and so on.

As I grew, I fell in love with the game and at the same time, I continuously used to translate these words into my native language - tamil - and fell in love with these words even more!!

See, for example, 'slip' - if you translate it in any language - means that you fall!  Add the interesting twists of 'first-slip,'second-slip, 'third slip' and so on, translate and visualize so many people falling down on top of each other, I am sure you get the feeling! And then that other word : point. Again, in any language, the meaning is the same : it is a singular thing which can be made with a pen or pencil. Then you try translating the other placements such as 'cover', 'extra cover', I can never quite stop laughing!

I have never quite understood why you should have a field placement called thirdman but a reserve called the
twelfth man? On top of it, the bowler can bowl a chinaman. The one who is batting is called the 'batsman' and not just a 'batter'. What is this fascination with 'man' in cricket? I have not really understood this.

It is called a run and yet, the bastsman, for all we know, can walk. Nowadays, even that walk is called 'doing a ranatunga', after the great Srilankan Captain, who used to 'walk' his runs. If you walk, but not run, should it be still called a run? But it is still called one.

Even more bizarre thing is this : it is counted as a 'run' even when somebody else is doing the running. It happens often enough when one batsman is injured and yet is batting on.

The 'wicket keeper' actually does not keep any wickets.

He is in fact, as far away from the wickets as possible. Especially when a fast bowler is bowling. He in fact tries to break down the wicket as he tries to run out the batsman or tries to stump him. Since he is the only person with the gloves on in the fielding team, shouldn't he be called a 'glover'?

Bowling comes first. Catching comes later. And yet, when the bowler catches off his own bowling and the batsman gets out, it is said 'caught and bowled'. Shouldn't it have been 'bowled and caught'?

The bowler bowls the ball and the ball is actually there. And yet, magically, sometimes it becoms a 'no ball'. 

The sign language cricket has is also fascinating. The finger goes up when the wicket goes down and yet the real wicket - the stumps, need not go down.

In recent times, the finger which goes up can even be crooked and it still is out...

Both the hands go up, it is a six.

So, one hand should go up when it is three? But, no, actually, hands don't really go up when somebody scores three. Funnily, just one hand goes up it is called 'bye'. The umpire is not bidding bye here. The captain is sure to bid bye to the wicket keeper if it continues...

It is a 'good bye' for the batting team and not so a good bye for the fielding team.

The 'wide' is something even the lay man can understand from what the umpires shows. He actually extends both hands in their respective directions and you can understand that it is a reasonably logical one and not really a wilde one.

For a long time, I thought that for somebody to get out 'Leg Before the Wicket', the basic requisite is that the ball has to hit the leg first. However, it is not so. Even if the ball hits the helmet of the batsman, as a Sachin Tendulkar would tell you, he can get out 'LBW'.

As if all these crazy languages of cricket is not enough, nowadays you also have this 'Duckworth and Lewis'. The D/L system, as it is called, came into sharp focus in a world cup match when just before the rains the South African team was cruising to a win and suddenly, after the showers, the "best runs scored" system told them that they needed to get a 21 run of one ball. Just before that stoppage, they required 22 off 13 balls. There was plenty of artificial light. There was plenty of time. It was a crucial match. The spectators who had paid for the match were willing to see it through.If the D/L system was there, it would have set a target of four runs to tie the match! But, the D/L is not without its critics and controversies!! Is it applicable for a shorter version as the T20? Is it applicable if we were to have a 25 over a side but two innings one day match? (It would still be only a one day match!!). There are questions.

Well. You can expect nothing less from a game which has taken the name of an insect to start with.

It is full of fun, full of surprises and full of funny language which just adds to the fun quotient!

என் கவிதைகள்  (My Poems)

This is a blog about my poems. I apologise for those who don't know tamil....

என்னுடைய பழைய நோட்டுப் புத்தகங்களை எல்லாம் புரட்டிக் கொண்டு இருந்தேன். ஸ்கூல், மற்றும் காலேஜ் சமயத்தில் எழுதிய சில கவிதைகள் கண்ணில் பட்டன.

யாம் பெற்ற துன்பம் பெருக இவ்வையகம்!! உங்களுடன் 'ஷேர்' செய்யத் துணிந்து விட்டேன்:

கவிதை 1 : 10th படிக்கும்போது எழுதியது. 'அறுவை போட்டி' ஒன்று நடைபெற்றது. அதில் கலந்து கொண்டு, சில 'கடி' ஜோக்ஸ் சொன்னது மட்டுமில்லாது, இந்தக் கவிதையும் சொன்னது ஞாபகம் வருகிறது. பரிசு எதுவும் கிடைக்கவில்லை. அடியும், எதுவும் கிடைக்கவில்லை:

"அறுத்தலும் குழப்பலும், அறுத்துப் பின் குழப்பலும்,

 அறுப்பாரையும்  அறுத்து, அவரையே குழப்பலும், 

 அறுத்து, அறுத்து,  அறு சுவை காணலும், 

 அறுப்பார் அவர்க்கே அழகு"

மற்ற கவிதைகள் பின்னர்!

Book Review : Echo Burning by Lee Child

I have come to like Lee Child's character, 'Reacher'. The lonely guy who wants to be alone is interesting. Somehow he lands into trouble. Somehow he rescues people. He stands upright. He fights crime. He is very passionate about justice...

This story is not different. It is all of that. Jack Reacher gets a lift just when he was looking for one. And, from smebody he would have least expected it. The woman, who gives him a lift expects him to kill her husband. Reacher investigates and lands up in the middle of loads of trouble. And, the husband gets killed. Apparently by the wife herself. Why is the question. Then the story unfolds itself. 

The first half moves very slowly - unlike the other stories I have read before of Lee child's Reacher stories. But, the second half makes up for it. There are some holes in the logic. For example, why should the Walker guy try to cover up the killing? Why kill only the husband? Why not the wife also and make it look like a scuffle? Who is going to suspect him of all people?

But, with all the holes, it makes up for a good night's read. With diverse characters such as Carmen Greer whom you don't know whether to trust or not, the lady attorney who is a gay, the grandmother Rusty, who hates mexicans and rascist to the hilt, the horses and the ranch, it is rich in detail.

My Take (in a lighter vein) on Management

1. Matrix Management Approach

When I first joined the MBA, I had not fully realized it. But, over the years one tends to become a little wiser. Now I know for sure. All that one has to do really well in MBA and in any kind of presentation, however high one goes up in the organization, is to show a 2 X 2 matrix.

If one wanted to come across somebody who is 'cool' and who is somebody intellectually above all others, all one has to do is to show some 2 X 2 matrix with interesting labels stuck in them.

How does one do it? I will teach you:

Step 1 : Take up a 2 X 2 matrix.
Step 2 : Put a variable on the  x axis and another variable on the y axis.
Step 3 : Now, you have got a box of 4 sections. (this is actually not a step...)
Step 4 : You have to ensure that you have a low vs high on the axis from one side to the other.This has to be done on both the axes.
Step 5 : One should label the boxes. But, if you find it very difficult to do,one can actually leave the labelling of the different boxes to the audience.They will toil hard, label it and think that you are a genius!

Let me take a few 2 X 2 matrices and explain the funda to you:

Example one :

Work	High	Desired by company	Ideal condition
	Low	Current condition	Desired by employee
		Low	High
		Wages

Example 2 : Let us take some other words and see whether we can make some meaning out of them :

Let us take Man & Woman. Can you come up with a matrix here? And explain it away? Try it!! My try is given below!


My attempt:

Man	High	Masculine	Human
	Low	Animal	Feminine
		Low	High
		Woman

See? With more and more practice, it takes almost no effort.

You can come up with a 2 by 2 for almost any 2 variables!

I don't mean to be mean to the management Gurus but I have almost always been fascinated by their ability to come up with a limitless supply of the 2 by 2s as much as their ability to think through complex issues. I have also marveled at the ability of people to make this thing even more complicated by adding a twist and making it a 3 by 3 matrix.

For example, we had that simple BCG matrix - which looked at the business growth rate and one's relative position in the market. We had a simple and peaceful 2 X 2 matrix.

Then came the GE matrix with the same kind of axis (though with slightly different terminologies) but with a twist : now you had to navigate through a 3 X 3 matrix and 9 cells instead of a benign 4!!

I have always marveled at this!!

And then I read Covey. What a way to steal the world with a simple urgent vs important matrix!!

Well. I am truly in love with this matrix approach to management. It looks simple. Whether I am able to understand what I am articulating or not, those who listen to me go with a feeling that I am intelligent and that I know!!

What more do you want?!

You should really try this. When you are in the office and when a power point ppt with some 117 slides are being shown by someone out to impress his hard work, and when you are really unable to stifle your yawns, you should take a notebook and doodle and see which are all the words which you can connect as above in a 2 X 2 matrix.

Try it out and let me know!!

Trend Spotting : 2

India is supposed to be a young nation. more than 50% of the population is below 25 years. It is the youngest nation and it is going to stay that for quite some time. In this being young, we can very conveniently ignore the old. The number of people who are old is not small.

The estimates are like this : in the next 10 years, that is by the year 2020, we will be a 133 crore population country. To my mind, this itself is a lower estimate. However, even if we take this estimate, about 7.6 crores of these people are going to be 65+ years. 37 crores are going to be under 15 years old. 88 crores are going to be in the age group 15 to 64 years. By 2050, about 25% of the population will be 60+ years.

Now, let us focus on the 7.6 crore people who are going to be 65+ All of them are currently 55+ years old. A lot of them are looking at retiring in the next 5 years. A lot of them are already bewildered at the rate of change. A lot of these people are clueless about social networking. Though some of them are savvy, a vast majority of these people don't know what facebook is all about. A vast majority of these have not operated internet. For a vast majority of these, even mobile phones are alien.

All of them are going to be 65+ and are going to be very very lonely.

Just look at the number of news items showing dissent of the young people with their parents.

In TN, there is an actress, (Saranya), who goes missing and her mother files a complaint with police. The actor daughter surfaces and clarifies saying that her mother is torturing her.

Another actor's daughter (Vanitha Vijayakumar) accuses her parents of threatening her with life for the past 15 years.

There is enough and more news in the papers of sons and daughters chasing their parents away.

The number of old age homes is increasing.  

What was a 700 odd number in 1998, by now, must have reached 2000+ mark. In the net, no clear stats are available on the status of number of old age homes in the country.

Another reason why these old age homes are flourishing is very interesting. In the previous generations, people used to have 5 to 6 children at least. In their old age, even if they were not happy with one son and the respective daughter in law, they will move to another son. Even if they were happy somewhere, they still kept on moving around.

I remember my grandma, living with us for a few months and then moving onto living with my uncles for a spell of a few months each. This used to happen in almost every family across India. One lived with the eldest son for a couple of months, then with the next son and then a few days with a daughter and then back with the next son for a few months and so on.

This had the effect of lowering the 'burden' on each of the wards and also ensuring that the old people had someplace to go even if at one place they were not entirely happy or some quarrels happened.

This simply does not happen anymore. Already, the current crop of grandparents are having lesser number of children than their previous generations. The current crop of parents have one or at best 2 children only. Which means that the kind of safety valve which was there earlier is not available anymore.

Suddenly, the grandparents become a burden on their sons and daughters. And, worse, they have nowhere else to go.


The old people end up feeling increasingly lonely, bewildered and lack companionship. Increasingly, the computer at home means that even the children, who would otherwise have given them company, don't anymore.

Even the grand children, who, in the previous generation would have listened to stories from their grandparents, now, play video games or are already on facebook with their friends.

It is going to be frightening to be old in this country. The country, where elders were respected and extended family was the norm, is fast becoming full of nuclear families where the old have no place.

So, it is very simple to see the next trend : No place to be old in India...

It is sad...but that seems to be the situation. If you are wealthy old man, you can at least get into a decent old age home. If you are not so wealthy and cannot afford a good old age home, well then...God help you...

Let us see what this means for different set of stakeholders in India. For entrepreneurs and marketers, it means huge opportunity. They can and I am sure will make a difference in this also. There will be corporate sponsored old age homes soon. There will be pension funds which will enable one to get into a decent old age home in his choice of geography. There will be insurance companies which will help people to settle down with endowments for their old age. There will be home and realty builders who will take your house back on lease back arrangements to enable you to live peacefully in your old age. There will be a host of appliances which will target the old people to live by themselves without any help from anyone during this period of loneliness. There will be laws ensuring specific comfort levels for the older people when they travel, when they commute from one place to another and so on.

There may even be awards for youngsters who regularly go and visit their parents or grandparents in the old age homes...sounds cruel but that would be better than such a thing not happening at all...

Trends we can see : 1

This is going to be one audacious try. But, I guess that is fine. It is going to be lots of fun writing this and watching whether my feel is coming out right or not. OK. What is this about? I am going to try and figure out the underlying trends based on what I am reading / seeing in news / magazines / TV and so on and so forth.

I am not going to pretend these are "Mega trends"

My takes for the first trend spotting are as follows:

1. I was reading the sex survey 2010 in The India Today. More and more boldness is what we see. We also see that women are ready to come more and more out of their marriages. You also see the second and third marriages happening more often.

Sunandha Pushkar marries for the third time and is happy about it.

Shashi Tharoor, on his part, also gets into his third with Sunanda and is also happy and open about it.

Vanita Vijaykumar, the daughter of tamil actor Vijaykumar, has 2 sons from her first marriage and one from her second. While the second and third marriages are seemingly on the raise, there are single mothers who taut their wards.


Sushmita sen has two children and is not even married once. Both are adopted children. The 1994 Miss Universe is quite happy about it.

You look at the other side of this spectrum, you get to see that gays and lesbians are scoring important legal victories.

You also see lots of couples living in and absolutely happy about it.

You see Kareena and Saif living together.

And, so do Bipasha and John Abraham.

So, a very simple first trend : Marriage as an age old institution is in trouble. Deep trouble.

When time is scarce, when you don't know whether you can commit, when you don't know how much you would love a person, when your career is important and is more important to you than anything else, and when the woman is as free as the man in terms of both economic and how open she can be to the world, it seems as if there is no need for marriage. So, will the number of marriages come down? I think it will. Would living in go up? Yes. It will. So, what happens to children? I think they will learn to cope up with the uncertainty of living with a stranger who is the current 'father'. What will this trend lead to? What are the opportunities it will bring to marketing people and the cinema dudes? What problems will it bring to those and all of us? How, as a parent, I would take it? These are questions which require some deliberations, debates and discussions.

Movies I enjoyed : Mouna Raagam

Mouna Raagam (Tamil: மௌன ராகம்; English: can be roughly translated as "Silent Symphony") is a 1986 Tamil film. It was directed by filmmaker Mani Ratnam. To my mind, it is the best film by the director - though a lot of people think "Nayakan" is his best film.

The score and soundtrack are composed by Ilayaraja, and the film's cinematography is by P. C. Sriram.It got nominated for the best film award.

The story is simple : the heroine is a playfull girl. She falls in love with a boy who is as mischevious and playful as she is. The lovely boy confronts and robs from a police officer so that the patient that offier assaulted can be treated. The girl understands the reason behind this 'bad' act and this is the reason why she falls in love. As they are about to be married, the police comes in and apprehends the lover boy. He tries to escape and in the ensuing melee, gets shot at and dies. The girl goes into a deep trauma.

But, the parents look for another boy. There is a "pen parkkum padalam" and a genteleman comes- sees the girl. Falls in love with her and consents to marry her. The girl does not want to be a burden for their parents any more. So, she marries him.

But, the marriage is only in the name. She avoids any physical contact by her husband. So, what does the husband do? She tells him the story so far and why she is avoiding him. And, on top of it, she wants a divorce!

The genteleman goes about absorbing all of this quietly. He understands the trauma and accepts her as she is. He is willing to give her the divorce and the freedom that she wants. But, slowly and steadily, the girl starts falling in love with her husband!

That is the story. How, patience, understanding and acceptance of the other half improves the relationship, how it heals the wounds and gives it the time it requires is beautifully shown. Revathy and Mohan do well in acting. Karthik did a quick, witty, beautiful role.

The dialogues were simply superb.

I watched this movie when I was quite young - when I was in my college. I remember thinking : if I ever get into this kind of a situation, how I would handle it and whether I can be as sensitive and understanding as this film's hero.

To my mind, it was a landmark movie in Tamil films.

Movies I enjoyed  : The Terminal

I Watched this movie recently when I was travelling. Absolutely brilliantly portrayed by Tom hanks. The story is quite simple. The comedy - drama focuses on a person trapped in the airport - neither able to move into the country he has chosen to come to nor being able to go back to his country - because that country has been 'derecognised' by the country he has walked into. A 2004 movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, it shows the story of a man trapped. in a terminal at JFK International Airport when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time cannot return to his native country, the fictitious Krakozhia, due to a revolution. This is supposedly inspired by the 18 year stay of the Iranian refugee, Mr. Mehran Karimi Nasseri in the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Terminal I, Paris, France from 1988 to 2006.

Tom Hanks plays Viktor Navorski in this film, a man who comes from an Eastern European country to New York. However after he left his country war broke out. This means that Navorski is now a man without a country since US does not recognize his country any more. Hence, he is denied entrance into US. But, since he has arrived legally, he cannot also be deported back.

He cannot speak English well. But he starts to learn and adapt and understand others. This makes the security manager, who wants to expel him, extremely unhappy.

Why Navorski came there, what are his drives, why is he prepared to wait for 9 months in the airport, what does he do to live out there form the rest of the story.

I would say that it is a fantastic story. A story which brings out the idiocy of policies of countries and how they are at cross purposes with human life. How simple rules can become asses quickly. How human will triumps over everything.

Vavorski simply says "I wait". It melts even the toughest of the hearts.

How to take life simply. How to treat everyone - including the one who means harm to you with passion. How to take simple joys in life even though your life itself is not great. All these are lessons from the movie. I enjoyed watching every bit of it. Lovely movie. Worth watching.

Blog Review : Vaaram oru Alayam

It takes stupendous effort to put up a blog like this one. Going to temples; collecting information about the deity, the goddess, the temple tree and so on and giving a commentary also.

This is fantastic. It tells you how to reach out to a particular temple. It tells you when the pooja happens in that temple. Very very good blog for all the religious people and those who love to go to a temple. Serves as a quick compendium for all of those who love to go to temples.

Very good effort. Please keep it up.

Blog Review : Khana Peena

For a guy like me who has interests in restaurants, this is a delicious blog. It reviews all kinds of restaurants across the country though I think I saw a lot more from Mumbai. Photographs of those dishes, what was good and what was bad : all that is put in there. Serves as a good starting point for the foodies!

Very interesting blog.

Blog Review : Think Loud : Carnatic Music Raagas

Another master piece of a blog. He has taken different Raagas and provided film songs and a lot of typical carnitic songs in that raaga. He has given the lakshna of the Raaga also - the aarohan and avarohan of the Raaga also are given.

Simply outstanding. It is a joy to read the blog.

The icing on the cake is the number of song - links that are provided. All the links are from Mediafire so that it is very easy to keep downloading all the songs. It took me a very long time to down load a lot of the songs that I loved.

Keep the good work Sir!!

Blog Review : Raagas in Film Music

I enjoyed this blog. Very informative. Collecting so many songs, categorizing them under the different raagas..it takes fantastic effort. Not just in one language. There are songs from Tamil Films. From Telugu films. From Hindi films. Means that the author is good in these languages and also in spotting the Raagas.


And the collection is also very good.


Recommended for anyone who is interested in Raagas, listening to songs based on raagas and especially old songs!!

The Youtube links makes it even more interesting since we can actually "see" the song!!

Good effort!!

Keep it up!

Engey Brahmanan by : Cho. Ramaswamy

An engaging story by Cho. With lots of questions and answers from Hindu scriptures it explains - or at least tries to explain who is supposed to be a 'brahmin'. The one who lives his life only by taking 'biksha' - that is  by begging for food; the one who does not save anything for tomorrow; the one who studies vedas and scriptures, the one who does homams and yagas, the one who prays for everybody's benefit everytime he prays, the one whose only work is to teach others, who does not expect any material benefit for his teaching, the one who treats all his students equally, the one who imparts all his knowledge to his students - he is the one who can be called as 'brahmin'.

Cho goes onto show that nowhere in vedas or in bagwat gita, it is said that the 4 castes are based on birth.

It is pretty clear that there is none called as a brahmin these days in the true sense of the word!!

Out of Poverty :  What works when traditional approaches fail 

By : Paul Polak

To my mind, this is one of the most important books that I have read on the topic of poverty and how to get rid of the same.

The gist again, is simple : Go where the poverty is and observe it first hand. Live with the people for sometime and see why they are suffering. See what needs to be done to make them earn money for themselves.

No governmental organization and no world level organization - whether it is the gram panchanyats operated from Delhi or the world bank operated from God knows from where - tries to figure out why exactly people are poor.

Written by a man who has the personal experience and expertise on what he is talking about, and who started the International Development Enterprise (IDE), which is helping people around the world, this book is certainly an eye opener in thinking about poverty.

People are poor because they have no work sufficient enough to earn money. They don't have consistent work to get out of poverty. They may own land but they don't know what to sow and what agriculture they should do. They are all rain dependent. They are all people dependent. They also depend on a host of others for their equipment and so on. Can we get those equipments simplified? For example, can the drip irrigation be done at the fraction of the cost of how it is done in Israel? Can agricultural methods be taught to them so that they can get the crops going in a profitable manner? What are the practices which take away from making the profits? What makes agriculture very expensive? Can that be tackled?

Those are the questions the books asks. The author has lived in Napal. In India. In Indonesia. In vietnam. Where it really matters and has observed people in first hand. Has worked with them.

One simple line struck me : Don't give the rural poor people anything free. Teach them how to get work. Teach them how to make money and how to make it profitably. They can take care of themselves from then on.

Very true.

Secrets of a CEO Coach : Your personal training guide to thinking like a leader and acting like a ceo 

by 


D.A.Benton

Interesting book. Most of the points are the usual ones such as know what you are saying, walk the talk etc. But, what I found most useful are the set of questions. There are a number of questions that the author poses for you to think through. Right from your background, who your parents were, how happy were you in school and onwards to your responsibilities in your job. That walk through the entire life history throws wonderful insights into yourself.

I jotted down the points and I started answering them. It reveals lots of insights into the person that I am and why I relate to my job the way I relate to it. It also tells me a few things that I haven't really considered till now. To that extent, a very useful book.

A Bias for Action : How effective managers harness their willpower, achieve results, and stop wasting time


By : Heike Bruch & Sumantra Ghosal

I think I first read this book around 2005. I don't think I understood it fully then. But, I could appreciate the book a lot more when I read it again now.


The gist of the book can be summed up in one sentence : how do we get ourselves into purposesful, goal directed action taking? How do we ensure that our teams do this all the time?

Is it that we don't know what to do? And if we do know what to do, why is it that we don't do things which are critical to us? Which are critical to the organizational well being? What stops us? How can we break these barriers and move towards getting things done?

What is purposeful action? It is defined as consistent, conscious and energetic behaviour. How do we balance these with the experimentation and flexibility which are absolute must in organizations? How do we get deep personal commitment to that goal?

The authors come up with a simple 2 by 2 matrix to explain all the above. On x axis, you have` energy levels : low or high. On y axis, you have the focus. Low or high. You have 4 archtypes now. Those who are the frenzied : high on energy but low on focus. They just keep doing something to occupy themselves. There are the procrastinators who lack both the energy and the focus. These people harm all the teams and mar the organization. There are the detached. These are focused but are lacking in energy levels may be because a personal sense of commitment is missing. And, then there are those who are the purposeful who have high energy and focus levels and who come across as reflective and calm amidst chaos.

What is this energy? For people to be energetic, they must believe that the action to be taken and being taken is subjectively meaningful. They must be able to take proactive action and initiative. Their need to act should also come from whithin. And, only when they have exceptional energy levels, do they make exceptional efforts when tackling heavy levels of workloads.

Here, I remember Jack Welch's credos : Being energetic, Able to energise - are the key traits of a manager. Absolutely that is exactly what the authors are also talking here.

What is focus? It is the energy channeled towards a specific outcome. Focused managers are goal oriented. They keep moving towards achieving that one goal in spite of any obstacle being placed on their path. They ensure that all their activities are towards that goal and ensure that the activities don't clash with each other or detract from each other. Focus also requires phenomenal personal discipline. The focused manager must be able to concentrate on the job on hand, should be able to crystalise the actions that he needs to do and should be able to cull out meaning from the many noises surrounding his job and actions.

The book gives many case studies where people from different quadrants ended up in the high energy - high focus - purposeful quadrant and then pulled their companies out of the woods.

I enjoyed reading this book. I often wonder whether I have the required focus and energy levels to consistently do a great job for my company. And, if I lack either, how do I continuously prod myself to find the right levels of both.

Buy.Ology : Martin Lindstorm

Why do people buy? This is an age old question which smart marketers have been trying to answer. There are endless number of market research techniques which try to answer the same. There are survey methods, there are projective techniques, there are observational methods and so on and so forth. But, nothing gives you a clear cut answer in terms of what excites the consumers and why they end up buying what they buy. Or, for that matter, why they don't buy inspite of having come close to buying you many times.

The new answer that Lindstorm comes up with is the brain imaging technique. This is a medical technique used to look into the the brain for any lesions and so on. But, marketers are now trying to use it to see what brain activity happens when consumers see an ad, when they see an image, when they are excited and so on.

And, Martin Linstorm says that this is the new way to go!

But I guess we need to wait and watch. This has potential but I guess it is just too early to become overjoyed!

Written in Bone : Simon Beckett

A forensic anthropologist (never heard of such a profession before reading this novel!) goes to an island where a body is reported to be in a funny state.

He goes there and finds that its head is torched out. Nothing else is damaged in the hut the body is found. A storm blows across and the island is cut off. And, there are more murders which start happening. The place that Dr.Hunter, the forensic specialist stays in, gets caught in fire. He escapes miraculously. But, a policeman was not so lucky. He dies in a separate fire. A journalist who is pursuing them gets killed, hacked to death and then torched.

So, who is doing it and why?

Made a very interesting read.

Full of twists and turns and you find that there are subplots all over the place.

The only thing is that it makes a very gory reading. But, written very well.

A quick look on the novelist : Simon Beckett

Dumb Witness : Agatha Christie

Interesting story from the queen of crime. An old woman, surrounded by relatives who would like to gain from her, falls from the stairs. It is believed that the terrier, Bob has left the ball that it plays with on the top of the stairs. A few days later, she dies. Her death is believed to be from natural causes. However, she has written a letter to Hercule poirot, which, mysteriously, reaches Poirot only after she dies.

So, what has really happened? Did she die of natural causes? Did Bob, the dog, really was at fault?

That is what Poirot unwields finally!

As in every other Agatha Christie's novel, the build up is slow but surely it picks up pace and the denouement is very good!

For a full account of the plot, check here : Dumb Witness : the complete plot

To know a detailed account on Agatha Christie, check this : Agatha Christie

The Last Frontier : Alstair Maclean

There is no need to talk about the writing powers of Alistair Maclean. This novel is no different. Great writing. Frenetic pace.

The hero, Michael Reynolds is a british agent. He is sent to wintertime Hungary to rescue the nuclear prof. Jennnings who has been captured by the communist government against his wishes. How the mysterious "Count" and the even more mysterious "Jansci" help him is the story.

Fighting against all odds and pulling it off is the theme here also. The story also gets into a lot more in depth study of human nature. It talks about how people who fight war come to hate it and turn pacifists and fight a different kind of war from then on.

Very interestingly put together. It has also been filmed.

A Prisoner of Birth : Jeffrey Archer

A fantastic Jeffrey Archer book. Great plot. A person who is held for the murder of his friend, though he did not commit it, escapes to avenge it. But, he escapes as another person whom he resembles. Did he avenge it? Did he join his sweet heart? How did it all go down?

That is the plot.

But, the usual vintage Archer language throughout. The twists and turns. And, a lovely ending which warms your heart. Good fun.

In the Lap of the Buddha : By : Gavin Harrison

This is a book by a person, who chose bhuddism as his religion. A person, who was afflicted with HIV+ diagnosis and whose life lay shattered, he tells us his story of how he decided to fight the war of the disease, how he fought the demon within himself, how he fought off the anger and the fear and the self hatred which comes with the diagnosis.

He goes on to tell us about how to confront the physical pain and also the fear of death. He talks about the eternal question of "Why me?"

He gives guidance on his method of how to meditate. How to look at your body with love and kindness. How to meditate with love and kindness for your enemies who have wanted nothing but your downfall and destruction. How to love those who used you.

How to finally free yourself from the clutches of revenge seeking behaviour and fill yourself with love and affection so that there is nothing but love is left in you.

When I started reading the book, I was curious but also suspicious of what I will gain from this. The book looked like one more book on meditation. But, boy, was I wrong. I am glad I read the book.

When you read this, you understand the words of the one who has suffered through and in spite of his suffering and his still continued pains and ravages, has chosen to forgive all, who has chosen to love all, including himself. Unconditionally.

Beautiful book.

What are you going to be when you become big?

I was talking to my son Balaji as I drove him to his school this morning. I was asking him, playfully, "what are you going to be, when you become big?" He thought for a while and said "I am going to be a Doctor". I was asking him what kind of a doctor that he wants to be. He didn't know. He is all of 4 years now. And he has not yet made up his mind on which part of the human body that he wants to take up as a Doctor.

He then smiled at me and asked me : "what are YOU going to BE when you become big?"

I was taken aback. I haven't really contemplated my future in exactly those terms. Becoming big? For me? I was at a loss for words. I told him that I have already become big. That I am going to office.

He laughed. He disagreed with me. "I don't think you have become big. You are small only, only bigger than me". I smiled at him, again being at a loss for words. He asked again. "When you are through with the office, what are you going to be?"

By that time, his school had come and I dropped him off along with his sister Meenakshi.

I still haven't figured out the answer..

At times what kids ask you make you think a lot deeper than you have previously done...!

Guess I have to figure out!

I remember asking my daughter, Meenakshi the same question couple of years back. When I asked her, she thought for a!while and said, emphatically, "I am going to be a Mother!".

Well. One never knows how the kids will answer your questions. But, one can be sure that whatever their answers be, they make you wonder and make you think of things that you haven't really thought before!

Kapil's Korner : Blog Review

Kapil's Korner is a very nice blog. Interesting thoughts. Very interesting reflections. There are some reviews too. Nice photographs adorn the blog. Uncluttered. Simple to read. Flowing.

My pick of the blog posts :

1) the most recent "walk in the mama's garden" - superb photos...
2) 5 super tools which power my office PC - very useful...
3) Picks from Cannes Lion 2010 - I agreed with the selections. Most interesting ones...
4) 5 things I didn't know last week - I didn't know them either. If only I can put a list like this every week...!!
5) The wall project - the great wall of Mumbai - what an idea!

There were other entries as well which are worthy of mention - but I just stopped with my top 5 picks.

Thoroughly entertaining and really thought provoking.

Thumbs up for this blog!

The Montissori Method :

Vandana and I went to our kids' school on Saturday (7th August). It was an outreach program conducted by the school. Navdisha school has a few basic tenets that it lives by - all of them derived from Dr. Maria Montissori's teachings : 

•	Every child has the inherent right to life
•	Every child, irrespective of background and ability, should enjoy a full and decent life
•	Every child should be nurtured in an environment which ensures dignity, promotes self-reliance and encourages an active participation in the family and the community
•	Every child has a right to a standard of living adequate for physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development

The school is very well kept and is a very good environment for all kinds of children. Each of the teachers know about their kids by name and what the kid is doing and what the kid is capable of.

I was thinking about the kind of schools that I studied at. The Susilabai Government High School in Pondicherry, where I studied upto 5th standard. The dingy classrooms. The teachers who did not mind beating the kids. On the head. I remember the number of hits that my head took. The window there without the bars, through which I escaped out everyday after the attendance was taken. I remember the 3rd standard class room vividly. Most of the time, I was on the street with the other few kids who knew the secret of escaping. We also used to go out and buy vada and idly for the teachers. Who cared!

But, there were a few who cared even there. Mahalaxmi teacher who took maths in my 4th standard. Vijaya teacher who took English and Science in 5th standard. They really cared.

How to bring about an educational system which cares? Which allows for individual differences? Which allows each child to develop at its own pace? Which nurtures each child well? Which encourages the curiosity in the children instead of asking them to mug up facts and figures?

That is perhaps why I love this method. When my children come from school and they are still happy to learn, I know that they have not been under any pressure to learn. When they want to go back to school the next day, I know that the learning has been a pleasure for them. That is important.

Ad Review : Pepsodent - ShahRukKhan Ad : Pappu & Pappa

You can watch the ad by clicking the above or by logging into the following Youtube link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-CIzogOaD8

This is one ad which I liked. The idea of putting a cine star - one whom even the kids can relate to, is a good move. The presence of Shahruk Khan and his voice lend good entertainment value to the film. The 2 minute germ kill is coming across nicely.

But, the star can also be the problem in the ad. The Shahruk performance is so good that you forget that you are watching an ad for a toothpaste. Also, the proposition seems to lose its sting a bit by the time you finish seeing the ad.

But, overall, an extremely likeable ad. HUL seems to be taking the "time" as a measure of performance across its product categories...!

Personally, I would rate it at about 7 out of 10 on how much I like this ad...

Life After Death -  The book of answers : Deepak Chopra

The  book opens to a lot of promise. It puts evocative questions such as "what happens after death?" and whether "death is the end of life" as is naturally believed to be. With 4 deaths in the family over the last 18 months, I have been looking for some of this stuff. It starts well. It starts with the Savitri Satyavan story - which is familiar. It offers fantastic thoughts and points : "there is nothing which gets truly destroyed. everything gets transformed from one form to some other form". The eight standard physics. Energy can not be made nor can it be destroyed. The sum of energy in the universe is a constant. One just needs to know how to harness the energy which is in abundance in this universe. That thought is echoed in the book.

But, the book then gets into all the advaitic thoughts. It quotes a lot of stories from after life incidences which I have heard and read about.

At the end of the book, I did not get a handle on how to understand death. There are a lot of thoughts and points here. But, the essence is "death is not the end and it is a mere continuum into another form" gets repeated in so many words and so many pages throughout the book.

Where the soul goes, how the rishis understood all this and so on and so forth are all put over here. But, none of that has helped me understand the "why" of death. Why does it occur so very suddenly? So very violently at times? What really happens after that? Why are we unable to communicate to people who are "dead"? How do we communicate? How can we understand "death" while we are alive? After all, Ramana Maharishi was supposed to have understood "death" while he was a mere boy and that incident was the one which drove him to Tiruvannamalai...So, what happens when you die? And, how can you die before you really are dead?

I did not get a clear handle on these. Probably, one needs a lot more maturity to figure this...

ஒரு தமிழ் புஸ்தகம் படிக்க இவ்வளவு நேரம் ஆனது இதுதான் முதல் தடவை. என்னால் தொடர்ந்து படிக்க முடியவில்லை. உக்கிரமான எழுத்து.

ஜெயமோகனின் நினைவுகள். அவரது தாயின் மரணம். மரணம் அல்ல. தற்கொலை. தந்தையின் தற்கொலை. சிறு குழந்தையாய் இருந்தபோது நிகழ்ந்த நிகழ்வுகள். அம்மாவிற்குப் பிடித்த நாவல்கள். அம்மாவிற்குப் பிடித்த பாட்டுகள். கேரளத்து ரமணன் பாட்டு.

கம்யுனிஸ்டுகளின் கதைகள். அஜிதன் பிறந்தது. கேரளத்து கவிதைகள்

வ்ர்ம வ்வைத்தியரின் சிகிச்சை. தங்கை விஜி. அருண்மொழியை மணந்தது. வேலைக்கு சேந்தது.

துரவியாய் ச்சுற்றியபோது கண்ணில் பட்ட பேரழகி. குழந்தை வளர்ப்புக் கலை.

எதையுமே கதை போல் படிக்க முடியவில்லை. ஏதோ, நானே நின்று ஜெயமோகனுடன் சேர்ந்து நின்று, அவருக்கு நிகழ்ந்தவற்றைப் பார்ப்பது போன்ற உணர்வு.

இது மனதைத் தொடும் எழுத்து இல்லை. இது, மனதை அடித்துச் செல்லும் அலை. அற்புதமான உணர்வு இது.

The book which won the man booker prize.

A very angry story. Story of a boy who ran away from his home, who learnt how to drive, who drove around his master and who learnt how to survive in the city of Bangalore.

The way the story is writtin is very different. It is a letter to the Chinese Premier. The language is fantastic. It is dark. It is funny and a brand of humour which is absolutely angry and which spits at you.

It presents India as one of the filthiest of the nations. It paints the people here as those who are cunning and deceitful and cheating on a daily basis. It shows its leaders as all suckers and absolutely self centered ones.

At the end of the story , I didn't know what the story tried to tell. Is it okay to muder? Is it important to get out of slavery and being a servant to being your own master? Is survival very difficult in India? What?

The story left me troubled. I was wondering whether it deserved the booker....probably it doesn't, in my eyes.

எஸ்.ஷங்கர நாராயணன் என்பவர் தொகுத்த கதைகள். எல்லாமே சங்கீதத்தை அடிப்படையாகக் கொண்ட கதைகள். அற்புதமான கதைகள்.

"சரிவாரிலோன" என்ற தியாகையர் கதை. தியாகராஜ ஸ்வாமிகள் ராமனை நினைந்து நினைந்து உருகி பூஜை செய்து பின்னர் ஊரார் பேச்சால் காயம்பட்டு மனம் வெதும்பும் கதை. அற்புதம்.

"ஏறும் இறையும்" என்று இன்னொரு கதை. ஜெயமோகனின் கதை. அற்புதமாக எழுதப்பட்ட கதை. 'ரிஷ்பம்' என்ற பெயரிலே விளையாடும் கதை.

"உக்ரம்" என்ற ப்ரபஞ்சனின் கதை. நீஜமாகவே உக்ரமான கதை.

"வீணை பவானி" என்ற கல்கியின் கதை. அவருக்கே உரித்தான பாணியில், அழகான, உருக்கும் கதை.

"சின்னம்" என்ற வாஸந்தியின் கதை. தாஸி குலத்தில் பிறந்த பாவத்திற்காக, பாடகி படும் பாட்டைச் சொல்லும் கதை.

"திரிவேணி" என்ற கு.அழகிரிஸாமியின் கதை. இராமன் வருகிறான். தியாகையரின் வீட்டுக்கு வருகிறான். அவர் பாட்டில் மயங்கி, ஸீதாப்பிராட்டியுடன் வருகிறான். அழகான, நெகிழ வைக்கும் கதை.

இளங்கோவனின் "நகுமோமு". சின்ன கதை. ஒரு சின்னப் பெண், ஒரு பெரிய பாடகிக்கு பாட்டின் பொருள் சொல்லி, எனவே அந்தப் பாட்டு எப்படிப் பாடப்ப்ட வேண்டும் என்றும் சொல்கிறாள். நல்ல கதை.

"ஆர்மோனியம் சிரிக்கிறது" என்ற அனுராதா ரமணனின் கதை. தன் மனைவியின் அற்புதமான சங்கீதத்தை ரசிக்கத் தெரியாத மனிதர், கச்சேரி நுணுக்கங்களை பற்றிப் பேசும்போது சிரிக்கும் பெண்ணின் கதை.

லா.ச.ராவின் "ஈ ஜகமுலோ திக்கெவரம்மா". உணர்ச்சி மயமான கதை. கதையின் போக்கிலே, நம்மையும் அப்படியே படாத பாடு படுத்தும் கதை.

இன்னும் சில கதைகளும் இருந்தன. ஆனால், இந்த சில கதைகளே மனதைத் தொட்டு, உணர்வில் கலந்து, உயிரிலும் கலந்து நிற்கின்றன. புஸ்தகம் கிடைத்தால், நிச்சயம் படிக்கவும்.

The Oracle of the century:

I was wondering about the octopus which seems to have made a fantastic prophecy yet again on the german football outcome. And, exactly as it had predicted, the Germans have lost the match to Spain.

The Oracle of the Century

Suppose this octopus was in India? What would we have done with it? Oh! A lot of things.

One, we can disband with the whole process of elections to start with. Such a massive exercise can be replaced with just asking the Octopus as to which candidate is going to win.

Two, we can disband market research for most things and instead of going and asking consumers, we can ask the esteemed oracle on which product will win and which idea will win. It woudl save a lot of money and effort also!

Three, we can send all our dogs and cats and beloved fish varieties to this octopus and at least make them observe the oracle make those predictions so that all of us end up having a "predictionist" at our homes. This can even help us phase out all the astrologers and have only the animal oracles to help us with decide on the future.

Well, I think you get the drift. It is a pity that the orale is talking about football and that too, only the German matches.

Finally, I am not personally sure whether the Oracle will survive a few more days, given the wrath of the fans. They are surely going to take revenge on it!!