...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...