...shoOOonya...

  Well, 2012 turned out to be an interesting year. The world was supposed to end. It didn't. How disappointing ;) I changed jobs mid-way in 2012 and my life changed. It was a career shift and I began at the bottom of the learning curve learning too many new things on regular basis. I had to learn quick and had to learn too many. My domestic travel increased exponentially and I took as much as 25 flights in 6 months while the international flight count in the first half of the year was about 16. Put together, I was in air for over 40 times in the year – a new high for me and by the looks of it; this trend might continue in 2013 as long as I continue in KPMG – at least 4-6 flights every month – leading to an annual mark of around 50. The extensive travel above meant that I stayed significant time away from home and family. A rough estimate would put that easily between 25 to 35% - almost one-third. Guess, I have been bit hard by the Travel Bug  

The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.   Got this in one of the email groups and found it inspiring enough to place on my blog for future reference.    

What have I got myself into ...   I have been too busy to blog lately ...   past 2 weeks have ben a blurrrr .... non-stop working for 13 days from last Monday to this Saturday with no break ...   What have I got myself into ...   Every morning, for 13 consecutive days, I am standing in front of an audience in full suit adressing them ... i find it wierd ... On one particular day, I was in Taj Vivanta Resort in Goa in a conference room next to the swimming pool conducting a workshop ... the contrast of my suit and the swimwear outside was not lost on me ...    Just Imagine ... My first ever trip to Goa ... I am at Taj resort .... and I spend the whole day in a workshop ... reaching Goa the previous evening in dark and leaving again in dark ... ... such are the lives of a travelling consultant ...     What have I got myself into ...   I had plans for almost one blogpost every 2 days in this month with quite some thoughs zooming in my mind about th...

Here's what I read in an email from Facebook … " Your timeline: You have settings that help you design how your timeline will appear to others, like hiding things from your timeline. Remember that this only impacts whether those things are visible on your timeline. Those posts are still visible elsewhere, like in news feed, on other people's timelines, or in search results. You can delete your own posts from your timeline or activity log, or ask someone else to delete a post you're tagged in. " Were you aware of this? This clearly means that by making some settings, you might have hidden or blocked some content from appearing on your timeline when viewed by others but those things are still there for people to discover through other means. This is not only interesting but scary for people. Many a tragic incident have happened where people have tagged other people on stupid photos or written stupid comments on their profiles; things which would ra...

  We have seen the movie (Hollywood Disaster Movie '2012') and even heard/read about the mythical Mayan Calendar which ends on 21 st December 2012 (21-12-2012) … and its interpretation being … the world comes to end on this day (and hence no calendar beyond that date) I read a couple of fiction novels related to the Mayan prophecy … made for some interesting read. So … what if the world really came to end on 21 st Dec. With about 10 days to go for the 'Doomsday' … what would you do if they told you this was for real and you really have just about 10 days of breathing time. So here's my top-of-the-mind things to do ……. 1. Spend a day with maternal grand-parents, some close relatives etc 2. Spend a day or two calling up, emailing, texting, meeting close friends and dear friends. Tell them how I feel about them and their importance in my life.   3. Check with Travel Agencies about Foreign Holidays I can schedule … if possible, book t...

The author wrote to me with a request to review his book and I agreed for a very simple reason. It has been some time since I have read anything emotional so I was thinking of picking up something along those lines. When the review request for this one came up and I read the cover blurb, it was a quick one to decide. I enjoyed reading the book as it gave a perspective of the protagonist who is suffering from autism and hence ignored by most or taken advantage off, if not being made into a clown for their personal entertainment. He leads a life wherein he is completely ignored by his family and gradually he learns to keep himself out of their sight to avoid trouble. He then chances upon an event which changes his life and gives meaning to his otherwise non-existent life. He is noticed and talked about … but is this really happening. Are people really talking about him or someone else? There is a nice set of regular predictable day-to-day characters which are believable a...

  Continued from previous post …   11. Novel: The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (The new Sherlock Holmes Novel)   It was delightful news to hear that someone 'officially' got the endorsement / permission to write a Sherlock Holmes novel. Antony Horowitz has done a good job of writing a full length gripping Sherlock Holmes novel keeping the original essence of Conan Doyle writing intact and in fact delivered more than a regular Sherlock Holmes story. It was nice to see all the usual characters of Sherlock Holmes stories play a role in this novel – Sherlock Holmes and Watson (of course), their landlady, the Baker Street Irregulars, Mycroft, Lestrade, Watson's Wife … with each given a significant space in the novel. A simple case leads to a larger and more dangerous case which poses a threat to Sherlock's life. It's like a major case cocooned inside a smaller one. It was a very good novel to read and I enjoyed it. I would certainly recom...

Continued from previous post … 5. ACD Shorts: The Man with the Watches by Arthur Conan Doyle Just like another one of ACD shorts about the missing train … this is about the event of passengers who disappear and appear in a running train. 3 Passengers disappear from a running train and a dead one appears in their place. The curious thing about the dead man is that no one saw him enter the train and he had several watches with him. Several theories (some of them quite outlandish) are proposed but none satisfies nor convinces the people in England who are stumped by the mystery.  The mystery is only resolved when a man writes after several years about his involvement in the event and how it all happened. The explanations are fairly simple and straightforward but interesting nevertheless. 6. PKD Shorts: Roog by Philip K Dick This was yet another strange story with Dogs and something called Roog. Frankly, I was unable to make head or tail of this tale. I am usually...

After 2 months of Indian Author dominance, November gets one novel by a foreign author in the form of the new Sherlock Holmes novel; while the Indian dominance continues with 3 novels coming in for review. The novels of the month were 'The Bankster' by Ravi Subramanian and 'The Edge of Machete' by Abhisar Sharma; both received for review from BlogAdda. I also received the 500+ page novel 'Collision of Dimensions' by M V Ravi Shanker directly from the Publisher. Last but not the least was the new Sherlock Novel – the House of Silk. I also read (or let us say 'tried to read but eventually abandoned') a short novel by Philip K Dick - 'Radio Free Albemuth'. With 4 novels this month (which included the 500+ pages one too), the short stories got less time and hence their count took a hit this month as compared to previous months. Amongst the short story regulars I read 5 by Philip K. Dick and 5 by Arthur Conan Doyle giving a short story coun...

This was the second one that came from Blog Adda for review this month. Reading this one was an interesting experience ... reminding me of 'similar' Robert Ludlum novels In many ways, 'The Edge of the Machete' by Abhisar Sharma was like a Robert Ludlum novel which has elements of CIA operatives, international espionage and touches of middle-eastern and Russian groups that are involved in international terrorism with a plot that has global implications. Abhisar's story is set against the backdrop of the Afghanistan-Pakistan (AfPak) region with characters belonging to several militant groups from the region as well as the protagonist coming in from the CIA. I could draw certain parallels with a story by Robert Ludlum. Besides the elements of Ludlum, Abhisar's writing style also has some Ludlum like characteristics. It felt like reading Ludlum and THAT I think is my biggest compliment for Abhisar. The story has brutal executions and horrible tortures de...

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz was a surprise find for me. It was delightful news to hear that someone 'officially' got the endorsement / permission to write a Sherlock Holmes novel. Now the thing to be seen is how well the new author has done his job of writing a full length gripping Sherlock Holmes novel keeping the original essence of Conan Doyle writing intact. Anthony has successfully retained the writing style of Conan and it was a pleasure reading it. I also realized that this is the only full length Sherlock Holmes novel since Conan Doyle only wrote 56 short stories and 4 long stories; never did he write a novel with Sherlock Holmes.  It was nice to see all the usual characters of Sherlock Holmes stories play a role in this novel. Usually, Conan stories did not involve too many of the regulars but Anthony was not restricted by the short story format so he was able to include all the characters – Sherlock Holmes and Watson (of course), their landlady, the Ba...

I somehow had the feeling that 'Son of Sardar' would be anytime better than 'Jab Tak Hain Jaan' … So with wife and 2 kids (not mine) in tow, we caught up a late night show of SOS.   SOS was my reaction during and after the movie. <SOS bole to 'save our souls' .. the ancient distress call by ships in peril> Forced and Confused Expressions pasted on Ajay Devgn's face … a very good and capable actor reduced to a clown (and not even an entertaining one). Same goes for Sanjay Dutt. Nothing much to be talked about the rest of the cast including Sonakshi. Easy to forget songs further made forgettable by worth remembering choreography. SOS was a sorry film. I blame the Director for the debacle. I advise you to keep away from the SOS screens to simply Save Your Souls

  A hatrick in cricket is a good thing. 3 wickets in a row are pretty awesome. Whenever there is something that occurs thrice in a row … we call it a hatrick … but then … it is not always good things that happen thrice in a row. A case in point being my being away from home on my birthday 3 times in row in 3 consecutive years. In 2010 … I had to travel 2 hours before the stroke of midnight … I was in mid-air when ordinarily I would have been wished 'happy birthday' In 2011 … I had travelled a few days earlier but nevertheless, on my birthday, I was not at home In 2012 … once again fate plays the same old joke on me making me travel on the day before my birthday forcing me to be away amidst strangers on my birthday This year, I am in Mundra (375 km away from Ahmedabad in Gujarat) on a client engagement I have not spent a single birthday with my wife yet … so u can imagine the anger / sadness / frustration and so many other emotions tha...

I read about the novel somewhere and the blurb sounded interesting. I wrote to Leadstart (the publisher) about 'Collision of Dimensions' and they were kind enough to send across a copy of the book for review. This 500+ pager novel has an interesting premise and the story develops in an interesting manner. The characters, the 'Force', the events woven into the plot were decent. There is something called 'character development' which is completely missing from the novel. The character which comes into possession of the Force is supposed to undergo character development due to the Force but nothing really happens. The powers that he begins to become aware of are not really great … a bit of premonition is not really powerful enough. Mumbai is the scene of action and I don't know why the author has got the geography of Mumbai wrong. There are several factual errors regarding locations within the city. Too much of geographical details of a place will seem ir...

Travelling to Vadodara versus travelling to office in Mumbai I recently went to Vadodara for a meeting. Travelled in the morning and was back after a meeting between 12 noon to 2 pm. Catching a flight at 3.45 PM, I was home before 6 PM in the evening. The flight time from Mumbai to Vadodara is less than an hour So I was wondering … every day I travel for about 75 minutes to reach office from my home … and the time of travel between Mumbai and Vadodara is less than 60 minutes. Isn't it strange? We need far superior local travel solutions that what we have today if not for anything else but to conserve the millions of man-hours we waste in inefficient travel …

Remove the James Bond element and Skyfall is a pretty good movie. But then, I am negatively biased towards Daniel Craig as Bond and so is my review for Skyfall. I somehow never liked Daniel Craig in the James Bond character. I have this Pierce Brosnan image of Bond – flair, womanizer, electronic gadgets, gadget loaded cars, car chases, high tech weapons and gadgetry of the villains, international espionage, global threats & conspiracies etc. Skyfall and Daniel Craig do not meet these expectations of mine and hence did not impress me.  The only car Daniel Craig manages to use is actually an old one ... not a techno wizardry of Q. Also, the villain in Skyfall seems to be a weak character who does not really wreck havoc although he is supposed to be more capable than Bond. The climax wasn't explosive enough (although full of explosions). The 'Q' wasn't impressive enough nor was his work. There were even things/events in the movie which seemed in...

First look at the cover from a distance and you can be forgiven to think of this as a Batman Book. The cover draws inspiration (my personal thoughts) from the Dark Knight poster. With the book in hand, you realize its different but the appreciation for the cover design and styling does not go. I have written about the cover designs of Indian novels improving over the past year or so and this is yet another example of a superb cover design. The novel starts out with a bang … CIA, arms pilferage to terrorists, blood diamonds … and then contrasts to another incident where a old couple in kerala is caught up in the vicious trap of the local police and their son goes through the pain of seeing his father being humiliated and then moving away from the country where a couple of years later, he is a victim of a nuclear disaster. After this 'start-with-a-bang', the story sort of fizzles out … The author then begins to introduce different characters of a bank in Mum...

  Continued from previous post …   23. ACD Shorts: The Lost Special by Arthur Conan Doyle How does one make an entire train disappear? No, we are not talking illusionists or magicians here. We are talking of a train disappearing off the tracks while in motion and police are unable to trace it for years. It is only the confessions of the man who was behind the disappearance that solves the mystery.   24. PKD Shorts: The Chromium Fence by Philip K Dick In future earth, people are divided on the basis of habits and preferences. The population divided between naturalists and purists. One follows the image of humans created by the marketing of the cosmetic companies. People have to choose allegiance to one of the sides and the fence sitters are scorned upon by either side. Elections are held and one side wins. The other side is forced to comply with the rules laid by the winning side. A very interesting perspective on how humans get divided over trivial. In t...