The wane of Social Networking

Everything in life waxes and wanes. And Social Networking is no exception too. But strangely, the hype created isn't really over, and the wane has begun already. While there is no doubt that the phoenix will rise once again, it is surely a surprise that people have started moving away so soon.

It is a fact that FaceBook has virtually taken over our lives. Everything we do has to be informed to whoever is waiting in real time, and we reached a stage when we keep refreshing the screen to see whether there are any new likes and comments on what we had for breakfast today.

There are people who I know who've already taken their profiles off Facebook (and everything else too), and that was when I realized that there is a feature on FB, which allows you to hide your profile for a while, and then whenever we wish to come back into the world, we just need to click and confirm.

So it is a thought out move from FB too - they've expected that people will come and go, and they're bang on target - intelligent R&D! Social Networking has an uncanny ability of dragging the most introverted individual into its charms, and their lives are never the same ever again.

After a couple of years of being in a Big Boss house, people are bound to get fed up! Privacy suddenly rears its head and announces with a vengeance that it is time to shut up and sit tight for a while, and that probably is what's happening right now. 

For many people, being on FaceBook and Twitter means it is mandatory that they voice their opinion, though they don't really have one. That is why we see so many tweets from eccentric people like Ram Gopal Varma (#RGVZoomin)! Being silent online is even more difficult than being silent in real life :)

The good thing about getting away from Social websites is the time will be spent pursuing other interests - reading books (the real ones), playing games, getting out of the house, or even watching TV! 

But then, this change is cyclic too - a few people will reclaim their lives - albeit temporarily - and others will step in, and then they'll interchange positions after a while. The gap is bound to make the people miss online interaction, and they'll find it to be even more rewarding the next time they come along.

Anyway, the face of Social Networking is changing. Anna Hazare will bear testimony to that, as will the Egyptian revolution - both of which are unthinkable without FaceBook and Twitter. 

So the next time you feel your online social life is taking over your real one, just step back, deactivate your account temporarily, and enjoy the calm! It is absolutely acceptable to do so, and when you come back, your coolness factor will only rise ;)

Anatomy of a Debacle

In hindsight, everyone is a certified genius. It is quite easy to analyse something gone past, and this post is no different. However, if we don't atleast do that, when will we learn? And when will we prod and wake our slumbering elephant?

The AMRI hospital debacle at Kolkata is no different. A few days ago, 7 of the directors - all pillars of the Kolkata business community - have been put in prison, and the hospital has been sealed. One of the key promoters was the Emami family, which is in the process of investing 300 crores to set up a network of hospitals across the country. No prizes for guessing the status of that proposal now. 

How do you hold people accountable for a tragedy like that? How is putting people in prison a closure for what happened? 

In the movie Aparichitudu (Aparchit in Hindi, Anniyan in Tamil), the protagonist wants to file cases on a bunch of government officials for being negligent, leading to the death of his sister by electrocution. Though the solution may sound crazy, doesn't it have a semblance of logic in it? When Niira Radia started singing, who is who of the Indian Telecom industry fell from their perches and landed up in Tihar. A few of them are still there too. That is hindsight too, isn't it?

The real question of this blog post is about why our people stretch the rope to see how much it can bear before it breaks. Each of us does it, and it is an accepted way of life for us. We keep pulling and using the rope till it finally snaps and we land on our backs. Radia did the same thing, as did Ramalinga Raju, and now the AMRI gang. Reddys in Bellary did the same thing, as did Modi of the IPL. But the strange thing is that there are hundreds of such cases in the works, and they are all out in the public. Why is there no mechanism to act on them before they become full-fledged tragedies?

As in the AMRI hospital, there are thousands of buildings filled with people all over the country, where the fire prevention measures are virtually non-existent. How many movie theatres do we have functioning fire fighting in? Millions of buildings don't even have fire exit plans. The same discussion can be had with every other complaint - provision for parking, backup emergency services, and so on. And we know it too. Most of us reading this post work in a building that works the same way.

There is a wonderful statement that Vijay Mallya made a week ago - he remarked that half the aviation journalists in the country would be out of a job if KingFisher Airlines got out of trouble! Though he made the remark with loads of frustration, there is truth in it. We are fed a staple diet of 24/7 news, and news gets outdated 24 hours later. We don't remember the airplane skidding off the runway in Mangalore, and we don't remember the last train accident. We don't remember 26/11 and the fact that it could happen to us in our nearby train station. That is why bomb detectors are just for display, and additional security personnel are just for VIP movement.

But I don't have a solution for it. Like the first line says, in hindsight, we're all geniuses. 

The era of fear!

Why are we so afraid of everything? So many fears, so many insecurities! With so much of technology at our disposal, if we are so worried, how were our ancestors living? If we take a comparison, they should have been positively terrified!!

We have a mobile phone for every member of the family, and yet we are so worried about them - 5 minutes don't go by without us getting a phone if we are delayed somewhere! We were having dinner at a truckstop Dhaba a few days ago, and every single truck driver - there were a dozen or so - was on his mobile phone. Whether they were chatting with their families or with their agents, they were constantly chattering, and that made me wonder - what were they doing a few years ago when there were no mobile phones? They go out for months at a time, and there was hardly any contact with their family! Today, we abhor silence. We have forgotten living with ourselves - thanks to the fear epidemic!

We have security guards posted at apartments and we live in gated communities, yet we don't send the kids out for a little while to play. Are we afraid of the unknown because it is in the dark or are we afraid of it because we doubt our ability handle it? We are way more empowered than the people who lived on earth before us, and yet we are no where close to their level of relaxedness. The more we have, the lesser we sleep. There has to be something wrong there, right?

We are afraid of infections, insects, animals, atheists, technology, travelling, death, disasters, fire, freaks, and this list can go on and on. We are afraid of people in the family, of neighbours, of strangers, and of god! Where will this end? As children we are told (and quite seriously) that the darkness is our enemy and that the bogeyman will take us away if we don't do everything that is told to us. As we grow, we develop our own fortresses to keep the bogeyman out, and finally we realize that there are no exceptions! With age, we even fear our own body's inability to compete, and finally we die afraid.
Is this part of evolution too? We know that the Western world is quite afraid. They earlier turned to the East for solace. Today, China and India are more worried than the rest of the world put together! If Africa steals our livelihood, we've had it! Woolly Mammoths became wild elephants, and from there, they've turned docile enough to pick a rupee from the hands of a kid and give him a smack on the head in the form of a blessing. It is terrified of a little stick in the hands of the mahout, and is tied with a tiny piece of rope. We've gone beyond that elephant. We tie ourselves up and put the blame on the rest of the world. Everyone else is responsible for our insecurities, and everything is a Phantom.
We go out and embrace new technology, and we are more afraid for it. It is like the proverbial shoes being left outside a temple. Every possession increases our fear level, while actually they are meant to keep us safer. Ever new child entering the family, along with joy, brings in unknown fears. When we watch Discovery TV, we see that animals can sniff out fear. Actually, humans can sniff fear too. But tragically, we grow off them. We consume others' fear with glee. Strangely, that fear doesn't make us braver. The one who thrives the most on other people's insecurities is the one most afraid!
And this fear comes out in the form of Anger. No wonder everyone we look at on the street (and at home) is angry most of the time on most things. It is a fact that we are becoming more brittle and weak as generations pass. Is this nature's way of keeping us safe?

The Fifth Witness - My Review

This is probably the third or fourth novel of Michael Connelly that i'm reading, and this guy is truly a master of the courtroom drama. I actually started reading Connelly because I had run out of Grisham books, and the real master isn't writing that aggressively any longer. If you head over to Michael Connelly's website, you will see that he has been a real disciplined writer - since 1992, the author has churned out 25 books - which is more than a steady book a year - consistently! Not all of his books are legal thrillers, but i've still not gone beyond that genre from Connelly.

The Fifth Witness is a complicated courtroom story which has enough twists and turns to keep the reader riveted. I read this on my iPad, and it came to about 1350 pages in ePub format - so quite a lengthy book; and you'd better not start reading on a weekday evening if you have to go to work fresh the next morning.

Though we call the genre 'fiction', it never entirely is. Every single trend we see in fiction stems from happenings in the real world, and that is true in the case of legal thrillers also. Long gone are the days of Atticus Finch and How to Kill a Mockingbird, where there was a clear delineation of good and bad, and guilt was a prevalent undercurrent throughout the story. The early days of Grisham had that tinge too. However, with the advent of full time investigators, ambulance chasing defence lawyers, and politically motivated prosecutors as a mainstream part, the whole legal world has moved into shades of grey. What we have is light grey and dark grey; no more white and black.

The Fifth Witness, and its protagonist Michael Haller (the same guy from the bestseller The Lincoln Lawyer) operate entirely in that grey area, but with a solid surprise at the end. And when I say 'Solid', it really is! Makes us feel a bit sorry for the lawyer after all he does, and we appreciate his final decision too. Hopefully, Connelly will write a novel or two more with Haller in his new avatar.

Connelly has a tremendous grasp of the situations in real-world America, and weaves them beautifully into the story. Owing to a lack of business stemming from a market that's down, Haller moves onto foreclosure cases, which are a dime a dozen, etching out a decent living. As expected, one such case turns into a murder mystery, and that is what forms the crux of the novel. I'm not giving out more of the story, and I seriously recommend that you don't look up the story from elsewhere. It is worth reading.

Unlike the Lincoln Lawyer, there is no single theme running us through the story. There are a lot of factors at play here - foreclosures, politics, family complications, organized crime, and of course, a cracking time in the courtroom of Judge Perry. In fact, most of the story is set inside the courtroom, and that is great! 

I've become a fan of Connelly, and look forward to lapping up his other 20 novels I haven't read :)

Earn Fabulous with Blog Advertising

It is so exciting to share this information that bloggers can earn great. Isn’t it great if a review or article written in a blog earns good amount of money? There are a few websites on internet actually that help bloggers to find payers and also advertisers to find good bloggers. It would be surprising to know how these firms online can help advertisers find expert bloggers and bloggers to find good payers. This may seem quite simple, however, it is not. Though internet has several bloggers and advertisers, it is surprising to know that it is quite difficult to find the right ones unless through these websites.

Firstly let us see how blog advertising can be of great help to the advertisers.  Advertisers can get quality blogs at really low prices to get targeted traffic to the websites. Blog advertising helps effective branding online and creating a buzz about the products or services. A better search engine ranking can be achieved through this and they can also get feedback from other bloggers in the same niche. Surprisingly, they can post an article for as low as $1 or a sponsored article for as low as $5 through these blog advertising firms online.

Apart from Advertisers, publishers and bloggers can also be benefitted through blog advertising. Publishers especially, can earn up to 80% of the revenue share for each written and posted article which is quite impressive. As mostly the money earned would be transferred through PayPal, it is quite easy for the publishers to withdraw at any time. Another added advantage is that he publishers can use this money to advertise their sites through these online firms again. Blog advertising is today a business that creates a win-win situation. Log on to find one best firm now! 

The Murder of King Tut - My Review

James Patterson is seldom associated with anything other than thrillers, and rip roaring fiction, which keeps us awake late into the night, bleary eyed. So when a book titled The Murder of King Tut bears his name, it is bound to be mistook for another word play on a fictitious thriller.

But surprise! This one is for real, and is really the murder story of King Tutankhamen, who lived and ruled Egypt about 3300 years ago!

Firstly, the idea itself is quite fantastic. If a mainstream Archaeologist or History buff wrote this story, it would have been relegated to the  libraries. For James Patterson to put aside the next Alex Cross manuscript and dive into history is fabulous by itself. And you really don't know whether the book is Fiction or real History, or a Biography - Patterson mixes all his writing styles on this one. 

The book starts with a personal introduction by James Patterson, and several times in the course of the book, he brings the narrative back to first person, from his personal point of view. We see him talk about his publisher, his co-author on the book - Martin Dugard, and about the pending manuscripts on his writing desk. We also get a rare peek into the workday of this prolific word-smith.

The Murder of King Tut, is not really a fictitious story. The author would have taken a few liberties while putting together his own version of history - especially as the whole story has been picked up from staid objects like fragments of pottery and carvings on broken tomb walls, but in general, it is a well-researched report on a case that has gone cold thousands of years ago! While historians largely believe that King Tut died due to an injury suffered on a cart accident, there is a group of them who believe the child-Pharaoh was murdered, and Patterson starts there. The amount of research the authors did for the book is spectacular, and Patterson himself says so in the prologue. 

The Murder of King Tut is also the story of well-known Egyptologist Howard Carter, whose team actually found the tomb while digging through the Valley of the Kings. His story is woven with King Tut's, interspersed by Patterson's present time musings, and in all, make for great reading!

If you have any interest at all in History, you will lap up the story, as it takes us right into the twists and turns of an ancient epic. Even if you don't enjoy Egyptology (in spite of all the masala involved in their lives!), The Murder of King Tut remains a first class murder mystery - albeit with a spin. Seldom do we get a mainstream writer like James Patterson writing a story simultaneously in three times - 1500-1300 BC, the late 19th Century, and present day - all in one book!

Read it :) Not something that will keep you awake all night, but will help you appreciate the writer better. I do now.

The changing face of online Real Estate

The internet has changed the way we live. For any kind of business transaction, the first place we turn to today is online.

Real Estate is one of the fastest changing fields of business, and online, the field is undergoing radical changes. Earlier, we had to go down to a nearby realtor or two, and spend a few weeks hunting for properties. But with the internet, most of the preliminary work has gone online. We now can search through thousands of properties from the comfort of our home, check out a few we like, bookmark them, show them to the family, and then finally go for a site visit to a couple of them.

Top online sites like Realtor Vancouver have dozens of prime properties flowing through their website each month, and they help us save hundreds of hours in preliminary research. We can filter properties based on various criteria, and then find out more information about the properties we find best suited to our needs.

And the prices are lower online too - as is obvious. Costs of listing a property with a leading online realtor are much lower than with an offline one, and the responses are much quicker. 

If you're looking for a property in Vancouver, head over to a site like kevinfrank.ca - Kevin is among the most respected realtors in Canada, and he consistently gets his hands on the best properties on offer in the region. Check the site out - you will save loads of time and money in the bargain, and could move into your dream home in a few days from now!

No such thing as Capitalism!

Robin Hood would be glad! And there is nothing wrong with it either. This post is just a spout of a whale, with lots of air inside.

There aren't so many types of the economy as we have been led to believe. No, we are not in a Capitalistic economy, and no, Communism isn't dead. And even a kid knows that there is nothing called Socialism anyway - never has been, never will be. Just a creation of our grey-area lovers who are paid to create something for the world to fight about.

Coming back to the topic, it has always been a mix of what we today call Capitalistic endeavours, and Communistic ideas. The world has always been taking from the haves and giving it to the have-nots. In doubt? Who pays the taxes? Yes, our business people find loopholes to avoid paying their due, but they do pay some part of it. And VAT, Luxury Tax, Sales Tax, Customs, Excise, and Entertainment Tax can't be avoided anyway! And whether it is Jayalalitha giving out Televisions and Refrigerators, or Nitish Kumar (and more recently Mayawati) pleasing a massive vote bank by distributing lakhs of bicycles to school-going girls, who is bearing that cost? Obviously the government's coffers need to be filled through some legal means - a.k.a. tax. This has been in place since time immemorial, and like I mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with it. Just a way to keep the equality in the society going. Else, which guy from Juhu Beach will gift a million televisions so the masses in Dharavi can watch soaps in the afternoon? 

When Robin Hood did the same thing back then, he was banished to the forests of Sherwood, and though he still remains a hero to many, was called an Outlaw. When communists did this (albeit with a little more gusto than needed), they were shunned, and even shot! When the Church did the same, they were called names, and when America does that to fight wars in Afghanistan, they are saving the world!! Wow, talk about hypocrisy :)

Free health, Free education, Free ration, and yes, free electronic gadgets (including laptops now!) are being funded by the people who pay their taxes. That is the truth, and will remain so for eternity. And there really is no widening of the gulf between the rich and the poor - as more and more people get rich, the inflow into the government increases, and naturally the lifestyle of the so-called poor changes - it is all an equation, that's all. No concept of rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Of course, with Montek's now-infamous 32/- a day concept, there are anyway no 'poor' people left in India. We've eradicated poverty with a single number - 32!

For Communism to survive, there need to be Capitalists. They are inter-dependant, and every economy in the world thrives in that grey area between the two. It is just word play to create more 'intellectuals' who wear spectacles and carry large bound folders. If an economy is in shambles, it is just because of the people who facilitate this exchange - who move the money through the respective channels. And the government (of every country in the world) is always the biggest money-launderer, and they are legal :) How else can the tax money of an employee be converted as a poll sop to Prabhavathi? 

The only tragedy is that when we do it, it becomes illegal. Poor Robin Hood knows. And so do all the money launderers in the country - Julian Assange will give us that list soon. When they do it, it is called good governance! 

Long live Democracy (yes, that's a farce too!) :)

Scuba Diving at Netrani Island!

It often happens that amazing experiences come our way when least expected.

Life is beautiful when such experiences keep cropping up more and more often :)

SCUBA diving at Netrani island was one such little gem, which just happened - no planning, no preparation. We were on a trip through Karnataka (actually sort of a pilgrimage by road) and we saw a poster for SCUBA at a restaurant while having lunch. One call to the company, and a visit later, we decided to stay back in Murudeshwar for another day - just so we can dive, and boy! Are we glad we stayed back :)

Dreamz Diving, run by Mr Rawat and his team, is located at Murudeshwar and has a branch at Goa. Netrani Island, about 18 kms off the coast of Murudeshwar, is supposed to be the best diving spot on mainland India (and we came to know that after we finished the dive and came back!). 

Four of us set out for the PADI Beginners dive at about 1030, and reached the dive spot at around 1145. Mr Rawat, and two of his divers - Sunil and Surendar took us down upto about 25 feet, and we were in wonderland! 

Contrary to public opinion Diving does not need us to be master swimmers! Even if you don't know the fundamentals of floating, a beginners dive is do-able. Afterall, we don't get to do anything in the dive! We are literally carried along by the dive master :) Once we get used to breathing through the apparatus, and to adjusting the buoyancy control, we are good to go. Takes about 10 mins to get used to it, and the remaining 20-30 mins is sheer bliss! We had good visibility that day, and the coral reef was pretty much teeming with fish of all colors, shapes, and sizes. It truly was like being live inside Discovery Channel.

The dive costed us 3500/- per head. Goa and Andaman are slightly cheaper, but that is because the dive shops do much more business, and the diving teams are seldom small. The experience of being the only divers at a spot is not something you can get at Goa! And like Mr Rawat anyway mentioned, Netrani is supposed to be a much better dive spot.

Diving gets you hooked. I'm already looking forward to the next step - of the Basic and Open water PADI courses. 

If you are looking to dive, Dreamz Diving is a great option. Murudeshwar is well connected with Goa and Bangalore. It is on the Konkan Railway too. Accommodation is quite economical (as it is a pilgrimage town) and the dive shop will take care of the rest. One word of advice is that if you are going with family, or as a large group, insist on a bigger boat - we went on a fishing canoe, and unless you are used to the sea, it could be quite terrifying :) And yes, Dreamz Diving has underwater photography included in the package, and if you are lucky, you will see Dolphins on the way too (we saw two schools of them). 

Till the next such experience comes along, we keep dreaming of waterworld!

A fan's tribute to Asterix!

I absolutely love Asterix.

And so do millions of readers from around the world. No other comic in the universe has as much re-read value. I've probably read every Asterix book a dozen times atleast - and I don't get bored! Each time, readers find something unique and unseen before in the drawings and expressions of Goscinny and Uderzo, and it is real sad that so few of the comics got made.

There are fan clubs, and there are several people who pay to tribute to Asterix in their own way. Cities have boulevards named after him and Obelix, and there is even an Asterix museum in his beloved Gaul. But no one is as much a fan as Peter Kessler is. The term 'fan' is not adjective enough for him. He's eaten up every word and every line that ever came in an Asterix comic, and he certainly must have spent years researching Asterix in order to come up with his tribute - The Complete Guide to Asterix.

The guide is every bit as delightful as an original Asterix comic (and probably even more so!). Peter gives us a behind the scenes like never before. I'm not a big fan of comics, but I am fairly certain that no other comic series has had such a solid researcher among their legion of fans.

If you remember your Asterix, you will recall that there are several quirks which are so endearing. And you will also remember that the beauty of these books is their illustrations. The amount of detail which goes into every single drawing is unbelievable! Get a book handy, and open up any page - you will agree. Unless there is something which actually points things out to us, we won't realize the magic of these images! For instance, did you know that the artist (through the character of Asterix) has a fond spot for drawing chickens? There are hundreds of chicken which are drawn obscurely in each book, and we don't even realize it! The expressions of these chicken are utterly hilarious!! And I would not have known about them save for Peter Kessler's drudgery!

The Secret Potion has a recipe which is, well, secret! But there are several books in which one or the other ingredient is revealed. Most of us would recollect Mistletoe. But the rest of the ingredients? Peter has a section in his book where he has a list of ingredients - collected from all the books put together! So we could probably brew it ourselves now - provided we have a golden sickle and the right cauldron (oh, and yes, the druid Getafix)!

The History of Dogmatix (he was not a part of the first books), the evolution of the drawings in Asterix (the first books looked nothing like the ones we go ga-ga over!), the introduction of several characters we are so used to (Unhygienix, Cacafonix, Geriatrix), and a delightful section dedicated to the ladies of the village - all of them find place among the chapters of this treasure, and believe me, you will certainly want to read every single Asterix book once again - with this guide by your side!

One confusing aspect of Asterix (especially to those of us who are not schooled in the royal language of Latin) is the expressions of a certain pirate, and of Caesar. All of the Latin sayings used in Asterix books have been explained in the guide, and now I can appreciate better why the Pirate captain gets so livid with the old man each time their ship is scuttled by the gauls :)

Oh, there's much more. This is a book which not only has to be read, but is to be preserved and handed down the generations - along with the much-thumbed (smelt, licked, and digested) editions from the Asterix series. There is a foreword from Albert Uderzo himself, and it is quite a memoir!

In India, we might find it difficult to get a physical copy of the book. Try for an online edition instead, or order one from Amazon. 

This one is a real gem! Thanks Peter Kessler! May you be blessed with a cauldron full of the magic potion, and a lullaby from Cacafonix!

Best property for sale Vancouver

Many know that Vancouver is one best place both for investing in real estate or owning a property for a life time. Off late, it has also been found that there is an increase in property for sale Vancouver as compared to previous month. Be it a commercial property or a condo to live in, property for sale in Vancouver is worth every penny one invests on it. However, it also depends largely on the realtor who fixes the deal. It is very much important to choose the best real estate agent for getting the latest listings for sale to help buyers. For sellers, the agent should also have the best strategies in place to get the right price.

When it comes to property for sale Vancouver, the west side like Kitsilano is the best place to choose. Not only because of beautiful properties located here but also because of the excellent neighborhood and environment too. Today, one can find the best realtor to show the right property for sale Vancouver right from home through internet. There are a few websites on which one can find all the information about the realtor and how he or she can be helpful in buying or offering property for sale Vancouver.

The newest listing of properties for sale, latest real estate news in the region, tools like mortgage calculator, are all available on a few websites today. Real estate agents on the internet not only provide information about property for sale Vancouver but also serve as purchase partners too. They enable the buyer to get the property at best price. For sellers too, the online real estate agent can be the best partner providing strategies that enable one to enhance the price and get the best deal. Log on and find more details from the realtor himself! 

Give them their piece!

Dear Sonia (ji), Manmohan (ji), Kiran (garu), Azad (ji) and whoever are the other people the 'high command' has designated to continue this mess till the election (which, by the way is theoretically in 2014), please give them their state. It really does not matter whether a few districts go this side or that side. It absolutely is of no practical concern to us whether we stay united or not - seriously! 95% of those people who either support or reject bifurcation are either stake owners in something commercial stemming out of this split (or not), or cows who have been herded into the mob. Every one knows that! Even the people in 'Telangana' or whatever they'd like to call it know, for a fact that they are stakeholders in something they don't yet understand.

But why trouble us? We have suffered enough already, haven't we? Most of the rupee we earn and pay to the government anyway goes into secret channels which no one (read as NO ONE) can decipher. And now, we have to pay for some guy's emotion! Pray tell us, what have we done to suffer these four hour power cuts? From coming Monday, that power cut is going up to six hours! Anyway half the state is paralysed. The other half which is working, is getting no help, and now we have to put up with this too?

Six hours of power cut in a city centre, and honestly, most of the people who are suffering though these hours really don't care whether a new state is carved out or not. Why should our offices be closed (no inverter will last for those many hours, will it?)? Why should we swelter when we've done nothing wrong - except may be pay all our bills on time? Why can't we get travel reservations to attend to personal or business matters? And even if we do get tickets, we don't know whether the vehicles will run! All those people striking for close to 20 days now are going to get paid anyway (it is bound to happen - and you will pay them a bonus for Dusshera too!). Whose money are you paying out when no work has been done in this period? Obviously our money!! We work and fuel their strike, is it? And you reward us with power cuts for six hours a day. Why does Hyderabad - where all this nonsense is headquartered - get away with just four hours of power cut? All these days, Hyderabad had just two hours of power cut, when we had to work in the darkness for four hours already. 

All this monumental loss of productivity will have to be refilled somewhere, right? Where will it be? Petrol will further go up - it is afterall, the easiest way to filling the state's coffers. Bus fares, electricity bills, property taxes,  VAT, and all those other channels which fuel the state's 'growth' are bound to go up! And who suffers through it all?

When will this tamasha end? Won't we be allowed to do our work in peace? Are we asking for too much, leaders? We pay our taxes on time. We don't strike, we don't complain. We make do with whatever the state is (or isn't) doing for us. And no, we are not demanding for a separate (or unified) state. Then why punish us? Don't we have a say? Afterall, we seem to be funding this agitation anyway!!

James Patterson's Finest!

The reason this post is not about a single book is because I've been on a James Patterson Binge over the last few weeks, and have devoured several books from the author. In fact, James Patterson has been one of the most prolific authors of all time, and several of his books made their way into my reading list. Recently, however, I laid my hands on an ebook collection comprising of the entire collection of Patterson's novels, and put them on my iPad. Since then, the binge has been on.

James Patterson has a terrific (if slightly predictable) style of writing. Most of his novels revolve around the homicide mystery - atleast the ones which involve Alex Cross. In fact, his other genres are also murder mysteries, but what sets him apart from the rest is that he does not try to hide the identity of the perpetrator like most other novelists. Serial killers like Gary Soneji, The Wolf, The Jackal, and Jack and Jill, are as well defined as the hero himself - or even better! Patterson sure has a liking for psychos, and he spends tomes to delineate the exact personality (or disorders) the protagonist suffers with.

After gouging myself on Jack Reacher novels, I actually find it strange that the hero is not glorified. Alex Cross is a hero who is unassuming, and humble - which is quite strange for his abilities!

Last week, I read Patterson's first two novels - Along Came a Spider, and Jack and Jill - back to back, and it was almost like watching a serial. There are a lot of carry-on characters, and villains simply don't go away! They keep coming back again and again, and are almost like family members in Patterson's novels. It is not a bad technique - you don't need to create a whole new persona yet again :)

A few weeks ago, I read London Bridges (which I believe is has the worst anti-climax I ever read in fiction), and the book has a whole range of bad guys - some of whom are carried forward from the first books of the author. So if you read Patterson, know that these baddies don't go away! They will keep coming back in every other book.

And the reason I use the plural here is because every Patterson novel has multiple baddies fighting for the attention of Alex Cross. So each novel is actually two or three murder mysteries woven into one - with parallel stories happening in Washington DC - and strangely, it works for Patterson. 

Ok. Patterson is not among my favourite authors, but the books are good reads! In the author's own words, 'There are thousands who don't like my writing. Luckily, there are millions who do' :) If you are looking to start off on the Alex Cross series, start from the very beginning. It'll make sense as you go along.

Apple drags you in!

There was a nice little tweet floating around a few days ago - Three apples changed the world. One seduced Eve, One awakened Newton, and one was in the hands of Steve Jobs. The tweet went on to ask which one people felt was most important to this generation. And if you truly belong to these times, the answer should be obvious!

Apple is not just another technology company. Actually, Apple products don't sell because they are technologically superior - they are that too, but more important is the brand. There is nothing which comes close to the image of a bit-off apple behind your gadget. Suddenly, the person holding the device is transformed in the eyes of the beholder to the status of an ultra-geek. And in today's world, a geek is an amazing guy! He is the casanova of the modern world, and is the most popular guy around! No wonder really that Apple is counted as the world's #1 brand - even ahead of Coca-Cola in certain surveys.

But then this post is not to wax eloquent about Apple and Steve Jobs' achievements - there are tons of them, but the post is about the way the company drags you in and does not let you go :) It is not a complaint, but that is exactly what happens. Once one Apple product comes home, there is no other brand which can satisfy. From the most basic version of iPod to the most expensive MacBook, all of them grow off each other. The funny thing is that an Apple product owner does not happily buy another brand's product - in spite of the huge cost difference! This is not my personal opinion - most Apple gadget owners would agree! Even if we buy another brand, it is only option # 2.

Once iTunes sets up on our PC, it brings with it QuickTime. Then comes Safari browser (which, by the way, is quite good, and never crashes!). From there on, it is just a matter of time before another Apple product enters your home. Now that Apple is aggressively coming into India through resellers and authorized dealers, the excuse of availability is not valid either.

But strangely, not a single Apple product can be termed 'Value for Money' in the strictest sense of the word. Yes, they are very good. And yes, they are very safe. But when we get to comparing them with the competition, it is very obvious that we are paying more than what we would normally pay any other brand for a similar product. A fully loaded tablet with Andriod (where the apps are easier to get) including a phone will be available at a lower price than the iPad 2 which is not a phone. But 90 out of 100 people will still go in for the iPad 2 - honestly, just to flaunt it :)

That is why we don't see people put covers on their Apple products - what is the fun of covering up the logo - lest someone think it is a China product in a similar design ;) Our local computer dealer actually suggested an innovation - he showed a few iPad size cases which come with a cut-out area in the back of the case at the exact place where we see the logo! Our marketers know exactly why people buy their iPads!

In India, Apple hasn't even begun to do serious branding. All they do is to put up their bit-off Apple in front of stores, and people flock in! Globalization is for real.

And I know for a fact that my next phone is going to be an iPhone and my next computer a Mac :) You get used to these things, you know! Apple owners will agree with this. Jai Steve Jobs - the third Apple is certainly more thought-provoking than the first two :)

PS - I went on Google images to search for an image to use on this post, and typed 'Apple'. The first three images were not of the fruit - they were of the company's logo! Hence proved.

The strange case of Diesel cars in India!

Every car owner would have had these thoughts run through the mind on several occasions - especially if their car runs on Petrol.

Each month, when the credit card statement comes full with fuel transactions, frustration reaches a level which is not healthy for human beings, and then starts the hunt for a diesel vehicle.

Last week, the urge to save big on a diesel car took over me. Afterall, in commercials and on brochures, diesel driving people are depicted as sharp, savvy, and eternally smiling - even while filling fuel at the pump! And petrol car drivers are reduced to counting their fellow idiots on the road, with a dog for company!

Compared to them, the expression on my face while filling petrol into my pre-historic petrol guzzling vehicle is quite horrid. Especially when my card is maxed out, and the fuel needle does not go beyond half :(

So I headed out to all the showrooms in town to take test drives of the vehicles. Realization!!!

Car manufacturers are literally fleecing customers into buying diesel cars! There is absolutely no way by which a Diesel Ritz would cost 6.5 lakhs, while a Petrol one would come at less than 5. Seriously, there is nothing in that engine to justify that price hike. The same phenomenon holds true for all cars which have diesel and petrol versions. Ford, Tata, Chevrolet, Mahindra, Maruti, Volkswagen, Honda, and all the other manufacturers know this obsession, and surprisingly, they are all united in making an utter Giraffe of the customer.  What is even more surprising is that these ‘manufacturers’ actually don’t own the complete car. They get the engines from some poor company like Fiat (which has an atrocious market penetration in India) and just build a body around it. We must really be blind – the engines of Maruti Swift, Ritz, Tata Indica Vista, Fiat Grande Punto, and probably a couple of other cars in the segment are all the same! The much touted K-Series is not really from Maruti, but is from the Fiat stable. So in reality, we will be getting the same engine irrespective of which of these cars we drive – with a few subtle modifications of course.

Ok, so what did I do with this info? Did a little calculation. My petrol car gives a mileage of about 9-10 kms in the city. A diesel car would give say 16 or 18. Considering today’s fuel prices, the cost per km on Petrol comes to about 8/- and if I buy a diesel car, it’ll come down to say 3/-. So the saving per km is Rs 5/-. I average about 20000 kms a year, and that’ll come to a saving of Rs 1,00,000/- on fuel costs. Now that is an incorrect calculation for two reasons – once Diesel gets deregulated, the margin between petrol and diesel will come down drastically, and then we don’t spend the same for maintenance. But even at that rate, it’ll take over 2 years just to recoup the additional investment on a diesel car. If my fate laughs, and diesel and petrol do manage to come to the same price range, Jai Hind!

The decision to put off buying a diesel car is easily taken after this, but what is more difficult is the thought leaving the mind. Each time I convince myself that my present car is the best option available, there comes along a full page Ad in the newspaper touting some other ground-breaking technology (from Fiat obviously) and people stand in front of a board (like during the presentation ceremony of IPL) and sign their names under fantastic mileage figures like 40 and 50 kmpl!! But no, I will be firm, I will be firm, I will be firm… at least till someone comes up and boasts of the mileage and power their Vento gives.

Owning a car was never this tough!

Only Time Will Tell – My Review

Two things are actually quite clear from this novel -

1. Jeffrey Archer is undoubtedly the master of impersonation!! Half his novels – including Sons of Fortune, A Prisoner of Birth and this one – are based on the same Impersonation formula which has ruled Bollywood for decades!

2. This book is obviously an outcome of the immense success J K Rowling has had with Harry Potter. The idea of making a series instead of a standalone novel, the break-up of the book into different part’s of the protagonist’s life, and even the name of the hero – Harry Clifton – are an indirect ode to the fabulous Potter series.

But that does not mean Only Time Will Tell is not brilliant!

It is great to see Archer at the top of his form once again – after the forgettable Prisoner of Birth and False Impression. Only Time Will Tell has been announced as a five-part compilation, and i’m already waiting for the next instalment of Harry Clifton’s life.

In choosing the location for the story, Archer picked his own hometown – of Weston-Super-Mare, and he has absolute grasp over the region, its culture, its history and all the quirks that are so peculiar to British Life. Since the book begins at in the 1920s, there are even more of them! Archer is masterful in guiding us through the life of Harry – from when he is five years old to when he turns 20 and the book ends.

Only Time will Tell is bound to be a masterpiece – and not just in scope. The story and its characters are brilliantly sculpted – like in all of Archer’s books, but the real mastery here is the multiple narrative that the author chooses over a linear variant like he normally prefers. Each part of the book is told through a different character, and they all weave in beautifully. It is immensely satisfying to step alternately into the shoes of Harry, Old Jack Tarrant, Hugo Barrington, Emma, and Mrs. Clifton in turn, and to the author’s credit, the story never slackens – even when the narrator changes.

There is something magical about all novels written around the sea and ships, and this one is no different. Life near the docks has its own romance, and every page in the novel bears testimony to that. There are a few twists and turns that are predictable – especially to Archer fans who’ve gobbled up everything written by the master. But still the book doesn’t bore us and makes us read through at a go.

The story of the first part begins at the end of the first world war and at the start of the second. That gives the second book a completely different premise and in Archer’s hands, it is bound to shine – as did all his earlier novels of the period. I’m already looking forward to the second one, and hope it comes out soon – and not like Harry Potter which came out once a year!

Welcome back, Mr.Archer!!

Worry drives the world!

In Freakanomics Steven Levitt writes an analysis on parenting, and asks a very valid question – if parents were not constantly worried about their kids, who will buy all those millions of ‘must-have’ products that are being made?

I’m convinced that the driving factor for the whole world’s economy is ‘worry’. Unless people start worrying and start being afraid for things which were normal till then, the economy does not move forward.

Worry about mosquitoes has resulted in Good Knight and All Out becoming ‘Consumer validated SuperBrands’! Worry about hairfall and dark skin is now the driving force behind our personal care industry. Imagine if no one were worried about getting fat. Where will all these companies go? If we were not worried about ‘pesticides in our food’, our burgeoning organic food industry would be dead fish! Worry is the actual reason behind people thronging our places of worship like never before. And worry is what our finance minister is counting on when he forecasts a 9% growth rate for the coming year :)

Take for example the proliferation of mobile phones. While having a mobile certainly made sense for people who are on the move, the sheer number of phones and connections being sold every single day is absolute nonsense! We are worried about our existing provider not having signals at a certain region and hence we take in a second SIM card – with a dual SIM phone – or two separate phones! We are worried about the whereabouts of everyone at home, and we keep buying phones for everyone at home till all plug points are occupied with dangling chargers. And then come in accessories. Some intelligent guy discovered that he could goad people into buying radiation deflecting chips, and there came an industry. Worry about the phone falling out of the pocket and cracking has resulted in an ancillary industry making pouches and screenguards! The list is endless.

But then, this has not happened overnight. If Darwin were around, he would certainly have published a paper on this – the complexity of our worry is directly proportional to our intellectual evolution. Monkeys only worried about food. Early men were no different. Then they started worrying about their friends and family, and society was born. Worry about safety led to homes, worry about public opinion led to clothing. Worry about knobbly knees made wheels, and the rest is history. In the vedic times people worried about evil and the result was righteousness. Worry about religious identity resulted in catastrophic global wars – and in today’s terrorism. Worry about Bin Laden resulted in George W Bush.

I am also convinced that the sole purpose of the advertising industry is to identify and propagate new breeds of worry. If parents are worried that their kids might not do as well as the neighbour's, they buy Horlicks. If we are worried that our ankles will give out in sixty or seventy years, we buy Nike. Worry about upcoming diabetes results in sugar-free sugar which is ten times more expensive, and worry about the cable TV conking off while watching cricket sells more satellite TV connections.

Stephen Levitt is absolutely right! We grew up fine without diapers and all those terribly costly baby products. But we won’t think of not buying them for our kids. Now we have Mamy Poko Pants, which are twice as expensive as Pampers, but nah – nothing but the best  for our little bundles of joy! Worry.

If everyone stopped worrying for a month, Wal-Mart and StarBucks would be out of business, and we would be thrown into the great depression – worldwide this time!

I wrote this only because I was worried that I haven’t written anything for a while.

Does this sound familiar??

No idea if this is a real experiment or not, but makes for some mighty interesting reading! Thanks, Mr GVLu for sharing!

The Bricklayer - My Review

I have actually realized that most of my readings (fiction) over the last 6 months or so have only been books with heroes that are not really wanted by the society! From Lee Child's Jack Reacher to many others which are not worth it, I've been sub-consciously picking up these kinds of books! And The Bricklayer is no different in genre!

Noah Boyd is a new author for me, but the one-lined reviews from Fiction Greats like James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, and my fav Lee Child made this book an automatic choice.

Conceptually, it is evident that The Bricklayer - Steve Vail - would have started by dreaming of becoming something like Jack Reacher, and the author comes pretty close! Though nothing can still touch Reacher (in spite of the line by James Patterson saying Reacher should move over because Steve Vail has arrived), the characterization is quite unique.

Noah Boyd was an FBI agent for several decades and his expertise shines through in every single line written. His choice of guns, the descriptions, and the methodology used by the Bureau makes the book quite brilliant. Like Reacher takes up odd jobs, the ex-FBI Steve Vail works as a Bricklayer in rural America - and hence the name for the novel. 

The circumstances get such that Vail gets called on for an assignment, and the rest is how he brings his own set of skills to the situation and how (obviously) he comes up trumps.

The funny thing about these books is that we know before we even buy that the plot will make it almost impossible for the protagonist to win, but we also know that he will somehow come out in flying colors - and that is probably why so many thousands of books are written with the same skeleton-plot, and still they are all New York Times Bestsellers!! I know for sure that the first novels I ever get around to writing will be with the same plot again :)

The Bricklayer is immensely readable - especially as a stop gap till the next Lee Child book comes out into the market!

Vigilante - The new super-hero!

Fiction aficionados will agree when I say that the trends in the market of publishing have always been predictable. Whenever there is a major hit - like say a Harry Potter, or a Twilight, or a Lord of the Rings, there will always be hundreds of other books that'll come out on similar lines. Some of these trends stick around for a while longer than the others, but usually they'll all fizzle out - and be replaced with something else.

Trends are also applicable to novels in popular fiction. Dozens of John Grisham wannabes flooded the market with the success of The Rainmaker and The Summons. Then hundreds of writers mushroomed with the success of Sidney Sheldon and his unique style of 'Suspense, Intrigue, and Passion'.

The new trend that I see now is that of Vigilantism, and in the wake of 9/11, one really can't blame writers for taking that path! The romanticism of a loner who takes on the system and gets away with it is too good to resist - and some of the most amazing novels of the decade - from writers like Lee Child, James Patterson, and Harlan Coben - are all true to the theme.

Movies have always followed the books that sell, and this theme is no different! From all over the world we've had vigilante movies becoming sleeper hits, and surprisingly, they're hits with all kinds of audiences!

Films like Law Abiding Citizen from The USA, Harry Brown from England, and A Wednesday from India all have one common theme - a simple man steps up against the system, and gets away with it! Actually, the theme has been around for several decades, but has been popular with a different ending - where the hero is punished, and everyone goes home with the idea that while it is amazing to be able to do something against the rot, the punishment it'll attract makes it not worth it.

If films and books are pointers of the simmering ideas in the society, does that mean vigilantism is coming to be accepted by the common man? If so, will we see a proliferation of people taking the law into their own hands? If so, the next big trend will be of the state revolting against the single vigilante who forgets his own limits and goes overboard.