To be read – Scion of Ikshwaku by Amish Tripathi

After a long hiatus I’m writing about a book. It’s not that I’m not reading any book lately. On the contrary my book reading spree is on an all-time high. It’s just that I’ve built up such a great momentum that most of the books are finished from start to end in a single go. And I don’t feel like writing a review well after the book is finished.

And there is another observation on my part. Most of the book I’ve been reading of late are in form of e-book only (I got comfortable with it at last). I found out that my reading speed is much faster for it.

I could have ordered this book in e-pub format too but for the fact that in this case the hard bound version was economical than e book (Strange!!!)

Now to my take on it.

Once this author (Amish Tripathi) is not a new author for me. In fact I’ve read all his previous three books. (The famous Shiva trilogy)

I had mixed feelings towards this book mainly for two reasons.

One, his previous trilogy started with a bang but ended like a damp squid.

Second, Shiva as deity has an aura of mystique built around it (The destroyer good, creator of dance, an ascetic yogi). Enough grey shades to build a fascinating story around it)

Rama, on the other end seems too simplistic and morally upright to create a good story.

Also the full story of Rama is by heart for every Indian. It can prove to be real challenge for the author as there will be no novelty or suspense here. Readers can always predict the things to come.

I only hope this time the author is able to accomplish what he could do last time (ending the series on the high note)

The positive factor this time is that the end is already confirmed (Everyone knows the climax of Ramayana). He can think about all the time that how all the sequences should lead to that end (My observation is that last time he could not link all the sequences in a linear manner)

The challenge on the other hand is that Ramayana does not have a happy ending at all if you go till the very end (Killing Ravana is a happy part but story goes on after that, And agnipariksha of Sita and other incidents are not so happy at all)

All said and done, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

PS : I’m currently watching Siya Ke Raam on Star plus  Sometimes it gets really confusing as I’m reading, watching two different versions of Ramayana.

My Birthday - Time to plan and reflect

Had my 33rd birthday yesterday. A reminder that time never stops; keeps going on and on.
In any case, when you are on wrong side of 30. A birthday is always an event to make you feel depressed. You are constantly reminded that you are not getting younger with time.
I personally view birthday like the occasion of new year. A day to reflect on goals set last year and to plan for new goals.
In any case the new year in not very far from my B'day. So that I can fine tune the goals set at one stage on other.

This year was the first in which I actually jot down list of my goals. Here is snapshot of my post in January
http://idle-reflection.blogspot.in/2015/01/goals-new-year-resolutions.html


As you can see its pretty comprehensive list. No point in adding further goals to it. What is of utmost importance is to find out the cause of failure in achieving these goals.

I had a mixed blessing in this regard. That in the list above, there is one goal (or rather sub goal) which I not only achieved but rather exceeded my target set for year. So basically I will be seeing what different I did for this goals compared to other ones.

Now it can be said that compared to my other goals. It was an easy one. But the reality is different that that. The most disappointing aspect is that I'm not able to work at all on the goals. Or the target set against the goals were too ambitious or vague.

The most unfortunate part of my not achieving the goals is that on most of them the work is not even started. I would have taken solace in the fact that progress is there in most of the goals, only target were not achieved but unfortunately that's not the case

Comparing that to my goals of books, it's actually lack of any kind of headway is the main cause of concern. Also it's very easy to see what has been done differently.

For one the goal was well defined and 

Easily measured. (You can define your reading challenge and track progress on good read). I started out by deciding that I'll read 15 books in a year and as I realized that I'm moving ahead of schedule keeps on revising the goals. (Currently it's at 20 books). 

This time around first thing I'm gonna do is to put number for my goals. There are two parts of measuring the goals. How much and by when. By when part is already taken care of as it's yearly goal. How much part I need to categorize.

Another salient feature of book reading goal was that it was already decided regarding how I'm going to find time for this activity.

It takes me two hours to Commute to office (one way) out of which around one hour is spent in metro only in which I can very comfortably read books.

So to sum up. My goals will remain more or less same. Only more measurable

Graffiti

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde 

Graffiti

Politician a person who'll stand for nothing but re-election

the Incredible banker

Book name The Incredible banker
Author Ravi Subramanian

My first and foremost criteria for any book I read is the type of language and what can be loosely defined as the flow of the narrative
This book scores on both the points although that is something you expect out of a thriller fiction
A basic glance over the reviews of this book tells you that its about the big bad world of banking
The main protagonist in this book is GB2 or great Boston global bank

But what's really well described in the book is workplace politics. As someone who has more than 10 years of experience in industry I can really relate with the incidents described in the book
How people carry grudge in their heart for years due to an out of place promotion. How even in big MNC corporations you don't find good talented persons for a job because everyone is more interested in covering their backs
How sometimes settling personal scores takes higher priority for people than overall well being of the company
Even though the climax of the book is a bit of dampener and you can guess the secret and the culprit fairly easily. Still it's a good smooth read.
Also the word red in incredible in title of the book is highlighted for a reason. You'll understand this after reading the book
To summarise
Pro
1) Good flow
2) easy to understand (no high nosed queen's English that makes a dictionary required for reading)
2) corporate life is indicated in a very realistic manner)

Con
1) suspense is easily give away
2) weak ending
3) tendency of morally righting one person (really a thorn in the flesh as everyone else is shown perfectly in grey shade as everyone is in real life) making a hero out of one person looks unrealistic even after he is wronged. (May be the author wants to make a happy ending)

Goals update 2d) - Job

Now to my Achilles heel, Job search. In my view one of the major reason for lack of my personal growth is that I’m very bad in job searching. Even after around 10+ years of working experience. I’m still in my third job only. The story is very simple.

1)      First job – Campus placement from college itself.  (duration 1.5 yrs)

2)      Second job – Need to come back to my hometown due to family reasons. One of my senior from college was already in that particular company. He called me; arranged an interview which was more of the formality and I was selected. (duration 6 yrs)

3)      Third job – After six years in my second job. I was looking for better growth prospects as my current employer was a small proprietary based company with limited growth opportunities. One of my batch mate was in a company in Gurgaon who was looking for candidates (same story repeated, An interview which was more of a formality and I was in) (duration 4 yrs and still counting)

In both the companies (second and third), I got good recognition. Some training abroad and best employee award as a proof. But my problem lies somewhere else. In today’s scenarios and my friend circle is proof of that. The quickest path of growth is through job hopping. And I’m hopeless as that. My old fashioned method of working very hard at a same company does not bring up required dividends. And that is the reason that I’m lagging behind.

There are some other missing parts of this jigsaw puzzle too like having an unorthodox degree and unorthodox line. But still the major share of blame lies with me only.

My experience shows very clearly that the easiest way of landing very good job is through networking. And due to very shy, sober and introvert nature. I’ve been very bad in this.

Secondly again due to this nature only. I’m not very aggressive in constantly looking out for jobs and also not very confident in facing interviews.

That was one of major reasons for my joining toastmasters.

My last experience shows that If you don’t move out of companies that are not doing great in 3-4 years. Then you can get stuck very badly.

Since I’ve already reached that point and moreover my company is also having some serious issues due to merger. I have to change job lest I’ll be in a very depressing situation.

That sums up why one of my major goals for this year is to find a new job.

As with all my other goals. I’m also going to make and follow a plant to achieve this goal as below.

1)      Competitors

2)      Engineering consultants

3)      Placement consultants

4)      Networking

5)      Entrepreneur

6)      Higher education

7)      Technical skills /3D modeling

8)      Communication – mock interview

Goals update 3g. Books

My fetish for books can be described with the kind of attraction some people have towards food.

Just like some people cannot control themselves against mouthwatering foods, without giving any thought regarding their possible ill effect. In the same manner I’m hungry about books. My reading list includes all sort of opposites. From autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi to books of Khuswant Singh and 50 shades of grey. From Harry Potter to Paul Coelho. From Chetan Bhagat to Mark Twain. From Angles to Ayn Rand.

But what irritates my wife most is that I even read newspaper pieces and brochures etc. used while serving street foods at vendors. My appetite for reading is never ending.

But of late, I’m trying to change this habit.  Two quotes were the reason for this. One was “What you eat / read is what you become.” (I don’t remember exactly where I read this but it stayed in my mind.)

Second I read in the school where I used to go for attending Toastmaster’s meeting. It says “Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

So enough is enough, I thought and decided I’ll be more prudent and selective in deciding what I’ll read.

After digging the internet for quite some time, I came across following illustration for Books (above) everyone should read.

There are a few books in this chart that I have already read.

Namely Harry Potter, Atlas Shrugged, Pride and Prejudice, Kite Runner, Life of PI, The Fountainhead, The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Da Vinci Code.

Some more that I have tried and could not read due to complicated Victorian English or did not like the flow.

Nonetheless the list gave me quite a few options of books to read.

So I started with Siddhartha. One major reason for that is that I’m really feeling inclined towards spiritual books right now.

Have already finished this book at the time of writing this post but the review of this book will be in another post.

PS: Again just missed my deadline with writing a blog post every 2 weeks by just a whisker. From now onward will change it to one blog post every alternate Sunday.

Goals update - February 10 2015

On to the most difficult part now.
Once the initial euphoria fades, comes harsh reality.

After 26th Jan. I was at customer site for two weeks (Schedule was very hectic), Once there I had an accident on my right hand.

To cut it short , No real progress for last two weeks,

This is the usual phase after setting big ambitious plans, You seek excuses in circumstances .

Once the initial tempo is lost. As its not possible to catch up, therefore whole activity is dropped,

Anyway at least I'm keeping with goals of one blog entry every two weeks. (even with injured hand)

Goals (New Year Resolutions)

That very well sum up the story of my life. Bit late for everything. In fact; in some areas more than a bit late.

So here I'm making a list of New Year resolutions on 26^th of Jan whereas that is something which should be done on 31^st of Dec.

Find below my list of goals (or resolutions) divided into broad categories

1)      Health – One of my Achilles heel for many years now. An area of which I want to improve for quite some time. Only thing stopping me (apart from procrastination) is series of health issue back related, stomach related and some spasms etc. The sub categories as below

a.       Exercise / Gym

b.      Running / Delhi half marathon

c.       Yoga

d.      Abs

e.      Swimming

f.        Waking up early

g.        

2)      Professional Growth –

a.       Entrepreneurship

b.      Education / degree

c.       Designing (3D)

d.      New job

e.      Networking

f.         

3)      Personal grooming –

a.       Eye Contact

b.      Communication / Toastmasters

c.       Confidence

d.      Guitar

e.      Journal

f.        Blog / website development

g.       Books

h.       

4)      Misc.

a.       Financial

b.       

Now that is a pretty comprehensive list. With this I finished the easy part. Now the most difficult part (implementation) starts.

Talking about corporate jingo. Now it’s end of forth week. With 53 weeks in this year, there are 49 more weeks to go. I shall endeavour to track the progress on these goals on weekly basis; with half yearly review (another idea from corporate life) after 25 weeks have elapsed.

PS: One of the goal is to write at-least blog entry every two weeks. So let’s see if I can meet this goal.