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RSS FeedFebruary 5th, 2010
When you are far from me
[This is a poem translated from a Bollywood song - video link at the end. All credit to the music writer and director. The song is a duet, hence pink and blue colors.]
When you are far from me
Remember me
And make me remember you
Don’t forget
That I will come back
I am going just for a little while
When you are far from me
Remember me
And make me remember you
When you are alone, it shouldn’t be like that
The beautiful smile that you wear now
Shouldn’t disappear when I am gone
Meet your friends
Laugh with them and make them laugh a bit
If you meet a good looking girl
Perhaps she is in need of your friendship
If she approaches and smiles at you
Then really so should you
When you are far from me
Remember me
And make me remember you
But don’t forget
That you will come back
You are going just for a little while
Translated from a song in the movie Mashaal.
December 20th, 2009
Book Review – "Above Average" by Amitabha Bagchi
When someone in your close friends/acquaintances circle writes a book, there is a desire to read it that comes from beyond just politeness and desire to further know the person. It somehow also comes from how the common circumstances have shaped the person.
When I first heard about Above Average, from my good friend Vaibhav Sinha, he made it quite a point not to build the hype up. That was a pretty good thing, because the book would otherwise fall a bit short. When I read the book, my main concern was whether Amitabha Bagchi has exhausted all the experiences of the 6 years of early adulthood in writing the book. It is not entirely clear to me whether the book is fiction or if it is non-fiction. Certainly, the author has made some attempts to change the names of the characters etc, but for anyone who knows the relevant people, the mapping jumps out. For example, Darrell appears to be Paul Benjamin. I can think of a few other mappings too, but am holding back on disclosing that.
Every single person can write at least one book – the story of their life. Question is, can they write another? If they can, they become writers; if not, that is fine too.
August 20th, 2009
Coming back to a friend
If you ask anyone about their “best friend”, usually it is someone from high school or college. Not many of the “best friends” are those from full adulthood. The reasons for this human phenomenon may be buried in simple practicality and logistics of friendship versus family life. Yet, it can be argued that human adulthood is simply not conducive to many friends. By a certain age, the psychological persona is well established, we already know enough about ourselves, and sincerity is often questionable.
Now, where I am getting at? What is up with an especially sensitive subject today, you might ask? The answer lies in the best adulthood friends. The best adulthood friends that we can hope for are books.
As I undertook a small travel, I was separated from a book that I 
was reading. Now, a book is different from a movie in two aspects. First and foremost, the book moves at the reader’s pace. If you want to take a nap, go for it. If you want to chew each sentence, do it. If you want to chew each word, well, you are slow, but go ahead. It is not possible to same extent in movies. You can pause, sure, but it doesn’t work that way. The second main difference between movies and books is that books are read in your own voice. You read the sentence as you think it was written. (Books on CD/Tape come somewhere in between books and movies, but I leave that to you as to where they fit.)
As I finish a book, a certain melancholy usually sets in. That is related to the impending departure of a friend, who stayed on a few weeks, and is probably a week or two overdue. Yet, you have not had a chance to talk everything and about everyone, but it is time now.
July 21st, 2008
Book Review: Red Tent
I have had the book for a long time, just never got around to reading it, until I just got this book on tape! So, I heard the book, then read the book again, so some of my comments may be reflecting the voice that I heard as I “read” the book.
Red Tent is a book about the clan of Jacob, who presumably lived about 2000 years before Christ. Thus, this book captures an era that was four thousand years ago. One of the biggest things that stands out is the timelessness of the story and that of the story telling. I am yet to make up my mind as to whether that is a strength or a weakness of the book. If the book’s articulation is correct, we can conclude that lovers’ games, their nervous first contacts, love and rivalries between siblings, interaction between cousins, loss felt by a mother when children grow up, none of those emotions are any different now than they were four thousand years ago.
About the only thing that seems to be different four thousand years ago and now is the ability to travel. Due to limited means, people traveled less far back then, and it used to take longer (Duh!) . Another thing that has changed is the apparent lack of jealousy of husband’s desires in those times by the multiple wives.
Author Anita Diamant writes incredibly poetically, and the book written in Dinah’s mellifluous first person voice is a delight to read as well as to hear.
One of the criticisms I heard of this book was a rabbi’s angry tirade about how this book is trying to distort history since the concept of the red tent does not exist in Jewish tradition. When I read this book, I did not get the hint that this concept exists in Jewish tradition, only that it was in this particular family as a small family tradition, and the entire family story is a piece of fiction anyway. There is no way to please an orthodox religious person.
A significant portion of the book is about child bearing and midwifery, and those sections are handled very delicately by the author.
All in all, a great book – highly recommended.
August 21st, 2007
From not so good to not so great
Just finished reading “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, and I feel a bit underwhelmed.
My friend and mentor puts it a bit less mildly: “All business books start with a known result (success) and then work their way backward from that known point.”
I don’t completely disagree with that, though I think that books such as G2G do provide some insights into the business.
Let me just stop beating around the bush, and present a chapter by chapter summary:
- “First who, then what“: Good employees, will usually create positive value on their own. That being said, there are some good workers who may struggle to create positive value if totally left without any guidance. So, practically, if you don’t know “what”, it may be difficult to get the right people, and then engage them.
- “Consider the brutal facts“: This is the “backward” part that my friend talks about. The successful companies are called the “honest” fact facers. The unsuccessful companies are called arrogant.
- “Hedgehog concept“: Gist of the book. This is really important. Identifying golden circles of a company does provide good clarity to everyone.
- “Culture of Discipline“: Basically, this is just common sense that the discipline has to be in moderation.
- “Technology Accelerators“: As the author says himself, companies should use technologies to accelerate, not provide growth opportunities. Valid point, but a bit on the simple side.
- “Flywheel and the Doomloop“: Good chapter, a bit cheesy, but the overall concept is that the transition point may not well defined. Flywheel takes time and constant improvement, and that should be the goal, not a retreat that is going to provide a sudden lift-off.
- “G2G and B2L“: I don’t think anyone considers this a real chapter, its more like trivia.
- About 80 other pages at the end of the last chapter, such as FAQs, etc (not a regular book).