Rahul Writes

Most of us would have come across someone in our life whom we consider “perfect”. For me, one of our professors was one such with his exceptional academic brilliance, amazing sense of humor and a great strength of character. I will always remember Dr. Narayanan as a “perfectionist”. It is natural for us to strive towards becoming a perfectionist too. Though I am not saying that we would become “perfect” one day because perfection is not a destination but a manner of doing things.  

Some days back I read the following paragraphs, which made me think about the same issue again with a different angle.  

“Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for PowerPoint slides and abstract data. Stories with a little drama seem to be enjoyed by our feelings and, more importantly, are remembered far longer than any dry slide filled with analytics. Personal stories also create a more intimate atmosphere. Intimacy suggests friends. Friends suggest people who are not trying to take advantage of one another.  

Our logical minds worry about awkwardness in a presentation. But up to a point, most people seem to feel more comfortable with less-than-superman speaking qualities. It makes the speaker more human. It makes the speaker look more vulnerable. Vulnerable means he is less likely to aggressively attach our decisions or beliefs, and that makes us more comfortable. A little awkwardness also feels real, not slick or phony. When we feel someone is being slick and phony, we are much more likely to reject the message.” 

Ref: P54, John. O. Kotter, A sense of Urgency.  

The first paragraph would still sound doable to a student of perfectionism as it tells that at places using the right brain would be more appropriate than the logical left brain. It tells about the learning pattern, which each perfectionist would also understand. Not everyone is blessed with very accurate memory and engagement activities in the form of stories etc. are very effective in achieving higher retention by our brain. But how should we take the second paragraph?  

Should we then purposefully make some mistakes in our PPTs or make some fonts appear bad in contrast? Or should we fumble during our delivery or at times fake losses of memory or slips of tongue? If such things happen by mistakes, should we grin and smile? Should we borrow some words from the kids or street children or should we also drop some tea over our neckties? I hope I am making my point clear, though I am a bit exaggerating.  

What do you say? While I don’t doubt the second paragraph, I am more worried about the implications. Should we keep it as “comforting” words for those who don’t achieve the “perfect” result, or should we actually look forward to practice it? If we agree with the later, are not we planning to make a mediocre world?  

- Rahul

Also posted here [Link]

Some time back, the present J&K Chief Minister and son of Farooq Abdullah (I think this is the introduction), Omar Abdullah joined the micro-blogging site Twitter. I am not sure if he took blessings of Shashi Tharoor, the former UPA minister of state (I think this is not his introduction though) who lost his ministry due to his Tweets (his famous ‘holy cow’ address to the reigning dynasty of India). But Omar seems to have made a quick progress. He has now divorced (I am neither saying Twitter-wallas get divorced, nor that divorcing is any progress) and he is making use of Twitter. I don’t say whether he is using right use of it or wrong, because by the time you understand if it was right or wrong you are either sent packing or forgotten, but I am just saying that he is “using” Twitter. That may sound like a useless usage of use, but I hope you would conclude something only funny after following his adventures with the tweeting:  

“J&K CM Omar Abdullah and his wife Payal Nath have separated after 17 years of marriage. This was confirmed by the chief minister on Twitter on Thursday. 

Reacting to the report, Omar tweeted: “While it’s true my wife and I have separated, speculation about the motives and my future actions are unfounded, untrue, I appeal to the media to please allow me and my family privacy. Am sure you will appreciate that I have not let this affect my work.” 

“Stories about my remarriage are completely false, concocted. It’s a pity, while repeating these lies, no effort was made to ask me the truth,” Omar tweeted. 

He further added: “My family and I will not be issuing any more statements or taking any further questions about any of this.”” 

Source: TNN, Sep 15 [Link] 

There are many inherent issues here.  

First of all, he is speaking all this on such a public platform like Twitter and he is speaking all this on indeed a private matter (divorce). Yet he desires to be granted “privacy”. Even people with no interest in his family life would have got to know about his marital affair (not used in conventional sense) due to his own Tweets. Secondly he claims to have kept his work life unaffected by this separation. What kind of a husband would remain immune to such a tragic happening like a divorce with a wife of 17 years? Thirdly, while he is complaining that “no effort was made to ask me the truth”, he adds in the end that he and his family (excluding his now divorced ex-wife I guess) will not be making any more statements. Forget about making statements, they will not even be “taking any further questions about any of this”! Yet, his complaints persist that the media didn’t ask him “the truth”! Well, for any such matter people are not expected to tell the “truth” and would rather be making political statements. And on the top of that, people of India (of which his home-state J&K is a part of) have given up believing on politicians’ words (I hope he remembers that he is one politician) a long time ago! 

I don’t really think his statements and Tweets needed such a serious dissection. But blame Twitter, as even I hang out there some times.  

- Rahul

This is a shocking piece of news one friend posted in our Alumni group. These are exact words with names removed for privacy:  

(…) (2000-2004) beaten and injured by some Pakistanis in Edison, NJ 

Hi Friends, 

I heard a shocking news yesterday and thought would share the same with you. 

Our beloved mate of NIT Durgapur Alumni ‘(…)’ was in trouble yesterday with some of the Pakistanis in Edison, New Jersey. 

While he was returning from a Pakistani shop after office in Edison a Pakistani crook punched in his leg on his way. 

He fell down with the heavy baggage he was carrying and got a fracture in one of the hand. He did not indulge himself with any confrontation with them. 

Somehow he managed to get admission in hospital and got released in late night. 

Today his health condition is good. 

Also posted at [Link]

‘What the dog saw and other adventures’

By: Malcolm Gladwell

Allen Lane (an imprint of Penguin Books)

ISBN: 978-1-846-14294-9 

This has been one of the most revealing books I have ever read. In this book, the author goes so deep researching into things so diverse, that one can only feel awestruck at his intellectual capability. Reading this, and slightly starting to look beyond the obvious, as the author does, we would see a whole new world in front of us. The theme of this book is to find answers to all small and big questions in our minds. Getting into the mold, we develop amazing new ways to look at things.  

I simply can’t afford to write a full review of this book of over 400 pages with content as wide and diverse and researched as deep into. I would simply list the “contents” summary, for my own reference and in case you feel curious enough, just reach out to Malcolm Gladwell.  

Part-I: Obsessives, pioneers and other varieties of minor genius 

1.   The Pitchman: Ron Popeil and the Conquest of the American Kitchen

2.   The Ketchup conundrum: Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?

3.   Blowing up: How Nassim Taleb turned the inevitability of disaster into an investment strategy

4.   True colors: Hair dye and the hidden history of postwar America

5.   John Rock’s error: What the inventor of the Birth Control Pill didn’t know about women’s health

6.   What the dog saw: Cesar Millan and the movements of mastery 

Part-II: Theories, predictions and diagnoses 

1.   Open secrets: Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information.

2.   Millian dollar Murray: Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.

3.   The picture problem: Mammography, air power and the limits of looking.

4.   Something borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life?

5.   Connecting the dots: The paradoxes of intelligence reform

6.   The art of failure: Why some people choke and others panic

7.   Blowup: Who can be blamed for a disaster like the Challenger explosion? No one, and we would better get used to it 

Part-III: Personality, character and intelligence 

1.   Late bloomers: Why do we equate genius with precocity?

2.   Most likely to succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell why is right for the job?

3.   Dangerous minds: Criminal profiling made easy

4.   The talent myth: Are smart people overrated?

5.   The new-boy network: What do job interviews really tell us?

6.   Troublemakers: What pit bulls can teach us about crime? 

- Rahul

Also posted at [Link]

‘The Undercover Economist’

By Tim Harford

Abacus

ISBN: 978-0-349-11985-4 

I have read Freakonomics and when I read its author’s praise for this book (Steven Levitt: “Required reading… It brings the power of economics to life”, I couldn’t remain but excited about it. And what a read it has been.  

Tim Harford is an economist and a member of the Financial Times editorial board. He is now a writer, but before this he worked for Shell, the World Bank and then taught at Oxford University. Through this book, Tim wants to tell us that economics is not pure theory, but it is at its best when applied to solve day to day problems and to answer simple questions in our day to day life. He starts with giving a description of how complex the “economics” is when we think about the various works needed to bring one cup of coffee for us to enjoy. Often, we don’t think much behind the apparent and hence don’t appreciate the big picture. Throughout the book, the author touches one interesting point after the other, providing us with insights which we never got before. He explains how open markets leads to most efficient economy, how “scarcity power” guides the high rents and premium, how ‘marginal’ land is of central importance, how unskilled workers oppose immigration of unskilled workers for their own selfish reasons, how our laziness to go some more steps results in shops at strategic locations ripping us off, and how supermarkets charge more for trivial features and we don’t even know.  

He explains how “price targeting” is best for the companies (but it is not so for customers and hence is controversial) and how IBM’s low-end laser printers were actually costlier to make than high end printers. The portion on “efficiency versus fairness: can we handle the truth” is also amazing (case on pharmaceutical companies and pricing methods). He thinks ways to control traffic (concept of marginal cost), evaluates if “green campaigns” are any good at all, and explains the impact of “imperfect information”. The last chapter is on how China is on fast track to richness and why. But it presents a balanced picture, the authors also shows the dark sides of China’s growth.  

It is an amazing read on practical economics and I am sure you won’t be disappointed by reading it.  

© Rahul

Also posted at [Link]

‘Bansi Ki Dhun’ (in Hindi) / ‘The Magic Flute’ (Krishnavatar Part-1)

By Dr. KM Munshi

Hindi Translation by: Omkarnath Sharma

Rajkamal Paperbacks

[ISBN: 978-81-7178-817-0] 

One of my very kind friends gave me a set of books called ‘Krishnavatar’ written by Dr. KM Munshi as a wedding gift. I had heard Dr. Munshi’s name many a time, starting from my childhood when we remembered “books and their authors”. Jai Somnath is a very famous account from Dr. KM Munshi’s pen.  

“Bansi Ki Dhun” is the first volume of the “Krishnavatar” series. Dr. Munshi has also written many other books on mythology, like a novel called “Bhagwan Parshuram”. The author has researched whole lot of scriptures to find facts and stories around Lord Krishna, whom many including the author accept as an incarnation of God. The scriptures included Srimad Bhagavat, Mahabharat, Harivansh Puran, Vishnu Puran, Bhagavat Puran, Padma Puran, Brahmavaivart Puran, Geet Govind, and Garg Samhita. In author’s words, all these scriptures not only present different accounts of the events happening during Lord Krishna’s life, but at places are even opposite to each other. He says that Srimad Bhagavat and Mahabharata are two scriptures which are source for all subsequent scriptures written on Lord Krishna, but even these two books contain very opposite traditions.  

“Visheshkar pratham do granthon me (Srimadbhagavat and Mahabharat) jo anya sabhi granthon ke aadhar hain, bilkul hi vipreet paramparaon ka samavesh hai. Baad ke sabhi granthon me apne-apne rachna kaal me lok-manas par Sri Krishna ke prabhav ke saath-saath us kaal ki adhyatmik avasyaktaon ka bhi varnan milta hai.” (P vii) 

“Banshi ki dhun” has been written in the form of a novel. It is essentially a story, which starts with giving a learned historical account of the Yadavas and the ancestors of Sri Krishna, describing the background to Sri Krishna’s birth and up to the assassination the evil king Kansa. It tells about the atrocities of Kansa and how the people awaited for the birth of their rescuer (taranhaar) and also how Devki and Vasudev had to part with their eighth son so as it can live and one day it will kill the evil king Kansa. At times if we don’t read the “whole” of the story and think about only one or two events in particular, we may get confused. This book provides the stream of history and mythology, without any forced artificialness. In fact the author has written this book in a very scientific manner; he doesn’t see Sri Krishna as Lord Krishna with a hallow behind his head but describes him as a human, and tries to explain how a small cowboy “gwala” did so many acts of courage (which people called miracles) that people started worshipping him as “Lord” and an avatar of God. This is why almost anyone can read this book, even the atheists would be very happy to read it and I believe they would appreciate this amazing story from the life of Sri Krishna.  

The portion of the book where the author describes the games and tricks of baby Krishna (Kanhaiya or Kanha as he was called with love); where he troubles Ma Yashoda and Nand Baba; when local girls in the villages just become infatuated with the charm of this young boy who is only 7 years old, such portions have become so wonderful that while reading my eyes often flooded with tears. There is not much of religion in the pages neither is there any blind faith or miracles described as if coming from some other world. Krishna’s story is as if it is our very own. We can see Baby Krishna in our younger children around us and his playfulness in their naughtiness. Perhaps it is the result of such soul-touching stories about young Krishna, that I think every Indian mother would must have called her son as Krishna or Kaanha with love at some point or the other.  

The portion about Devki and Vasudev’s sacrifice is heart touching and readers can feel a part of their intense pain. The stories of Kansa’s atrocities would make readers enraged too. But the joyous and lovely games played by Krishna would make the readers feel a kind of love, which can only be described as “divine”. 

This book is essentially a novel, with some portions coming out perhaps better than any work of fiction. The author has been fair enough to accept that the stories about Radha are not from credible sources and are even unreliable. As the author writes in a note on page-95: 

“Radha hamari lok kalpana dwara srijit raswanti gopi hai. Uska udbhav kahan aur kis prakar hua, yah theek se nahi kaha ja sakta. ‘Mahabharat’, ‘Harivansh’, aur sambhavtah 8vi shatabdi me rachit ‘Bhagvat’ me uska ullekh kahin nahi milta. Dusri or, ‘Silappadikaram’ namak prachin Tamil granth me Nappinai naam ki Krishna-patni ke roop me uska ullekh kiya gaya hai. Isi prakaar lagbhag dusri sadi me rachit “Radha Saptshati” namak granth me uska ullekh hai. 8vi sadi ke baad kai Prakrit bhasha ke kaviyon ne, adhikanshtah Shringar Rask e kavyon me, Radha ka ullekh kiya hai.  

Sanskrit sahitya me Radha ka pratham ullekh Malav ke Parmarvanshi maharaj Vakpati Munj (974-994 AD) ke teen shilalekhon me aye ek ashirvadatmak shlok me milta hai. Parantu Raja Lakshmansen (1179-1203) ke Rajkavi Jaidev ne jab apne “Geet Govind” ki nayika unhe banaya, tabhi raasleela ki adhisthatri devi, Raseshwari ke roop me samast Bharatvarsh me unki kirti faili. 

Chaitanya ne unhe Devi roop me mana aur isi prakar Radhapanthiyon, Vishnuswamiyon aur Nimbark ke anuyayiyon ne unhe Devi ke pad par sthapit kiya. Prachlit manyata ke anusar wah Sri Krishna ki Divyapatni hain aur is manyata ko Nimbark ne bhi swikar kiya hai.Parkeeya prem ko atyant mahatva deti Purv Bharat ki dharmik pranali ke anusar Sri Krishna ne Radha ko apni priyatama ke roop me sweekar avashya kiya hai parantu wah patni to kisi anya ki hi hain. Jo bhi ho, Radha ke bina Krishna-katha ka vichaar karna hi kathin jaan padta hai aur samanya lok-pranalika ke anusaar jo manyata prachlit hai, wahi mujhe yogya lagti hai” (P95-96) 

This portion is slightly controversial in the sense that it has become a passionate “love story”. Krishna declares that he will marry Radha, but Yashoda, Nandbaba and even Guru Sandeepani are not in agreement with this decision. Krishna had taken birth to do great work, to relieve this world from the atrocities of kings like Kansa, and if he marries at such a young age and has a family to keep, it would be a big distraction and hindrance. Besides, this, Radha’s family were considered slightly inferior than Krishna’s. But before Krishna had to leave Radha, the book indicates that he marries Radha. Krishna says, “Chal, apne Sandeepni Guru ke paas chalen. Pavitra agni ki Sakshi dekar hamara vivaah hoga,” Krishna ne kaha. And next morning, when Krishna has to part from Gukul, he sees: “Paas me hi Radha nav-vadhu ke paridhan dharan kiye aur lajjasheel navodha ke upyukt ghunghat nikale khadi thi.” 

This book is written in such a beautiful language that when one starts reading it, one doesn’t feel like keeping it down. What a wonderful read it has been. And now I am reading its second part.  

Highly recommended to all.  

- Rahul

Also posted at [Link]

I have done shopping of books on Flipkart.com for a number of times. I have always found it very user-friendly and convenient. I have even availed discounts in the range of 30-40% on the website. More than satisfactory, I would say I have experienced customer delight through Flipkart.  

Flipkart has employed technology for better user experience in a wonderful manner. For example, it always ‘remembers’ my shipping address and asks me if it can use the same. I have now realized how well it makes use of analytics.  

During my last shopping session, I had bought a book from the brilliant author Devdutt Pattanaik. Today, I received an email from Flipkart, informing me about two ‘forthcoming’ books from the same author, titled, “7 Secrets of Shiva” and “7 Secrets of Vishnu”.

Along with this information, Flipkart offered me 40% discount on such ‘Pre-Order’. For reading my favorite author I won’t care to wait for some weeks, or even many months. So just now, I placed an order for both these books.  

Many of my friends have bought electronics items from Flipkart too. All of them feel very happy about their experiences.  

I think Flipkart is really going good to great. I hope they keep up the momentum. What pleases me more is that it is an Indian venture based in Bangalore (its founders are Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal).  

Flipkart is now being called India’s Amazon.com.

While I hope more Indian websites and entrepreneurs take some leaves out of Flipkart’s growth story and take “Made in India” brands to greater heights, I also think that Flipkart in a way has fuelled a new “reading revolution”. By making books conveniently available at our doorsteps (Flipkart delivers books through couriers at a lightning speed), it has helped a lot of readers and made a lot of regular book-buyers out of occasional buyers. I am sure its contribution from this angle is immense and would grow in the coming days.  

All the best, Flipkart!  

- Rahul

Also posted at [Link]