My reading glasses Evolution Cradle

I took a book for reading after a good gap of more than two months which is pretty unusual for me actually. As I was not able to built a tempo for reading. I took an easy gratitious pick. A combinaton of thriller and mythfiction. So how it goes. Lets see.

One of the first thing I noticed even before staring the book was that this is a new author for me. I have a tendency to compare all these authors with Dan Brown as that was my first brush with this genre. Subsequently I ready Ashwin Sanghi a few others but never quite had the same kick. Personally I find that Dan Brown has more tension in the plan typical of a thriller while enfusing the book wtih tid bits of history and religion. Whereas Ashwin Sanghi and others (including this author too) does not have same tension in the plot plus they have more mythology than history which does not tie as well.

The main protagonist Chad who is a scientist trying to create a cross species with his team of three more scientists. After a chance discovery leds them to a breakthrough. They were referred to another scientists related with Hitler himself who also tells them about a secret and sinister society with plan for world dominance (Vril Society). I would not spoil the plot by going into more details. But the scientist duo embark on an adventure across India

So as per me, what works for the plot. 

There is a nice colloqial quality to the plot and story keeps on flowing nicely. There is understated humour in conversation without overdoing it which I appreciates. It was a nice spin on Indian mythology that the authors linked mythological characters as half human half animals cross species experiments. The multiple and parallel narratives in the story are also well handled compared to some of the other books that I have read. As for the main twist in the end, the author do tried to throw some breadcrumbs foreshadowing it.

But somehow I have more complaints than praises for this book and a bit of disappointment as this genre is close to my heart and I feel that its a golden oppotrunity squandered by the writer.

So what does not work for me in the plot.

First I firmly belive that there should be some basis for flight of fantasy. Its always good to include some sort of disclaimer in the book and list the body of references in the end for further reading if ther reader is more interested. I found that sorely missing. 

The first chapter itself included some wild theory to form basis of Cow worship in hindues. The theory propogated is that "cow was probably the first complex multicellular organism after the Ice Age. So, basically, the dinosaurs disappeared but the cow magically appeared right after that. Cow never followed the basic principles of evolution like we humans did. It was as if it just appeared out of nowhere." Without any scientific literatur to backup it up. I found it as a cheap shot to appeal to a certian audience. 

Secondly I feel there are too many concepts forcibly squeezed into a single book. such as 

"Kauravas in Mahabharata as an example of embryo splitting and cloning "

"Reverse Aryan Migration"

"Divine weapons from Mahabharata"

"Ajanta and Ellora Caves made by gods"

"Nuclear weapons used in Mahabharata"

"Yetis in himalaya"

"Hidden city of Sangri-la"

"Zoroastrian religion practiced in Afganistan"

If only author would have let go of the temptation to include everything in the same story. It would have been more coherent and compelling read.

Also I was expecting that Author would touch upon a bit on the moral and ethical dilemma involved when men tried to be God or interfere in natural order.

There were four scientists in the team but Fourth member is not mentioned at all once the story took place. Even in the end She was not mentioned,  forgotten?

Its funny how less we know about our ancient civilization apart from some made up claims to boost our ego. 

PS : Not only I took to book reading after big gap. I'm writing a book review after an even bigger gap. I had this problem of immediately jumping to my next book after one read leaving very little time to get my thoughts in order and write a review of the book.

Sales and Entrepreneurship

24 December 2020

I’ll start the post with a useless trivia first as off late I'm fascinated by these useless tidbits of information. The information is that I'm writing the post in the morning on my mobile one day before Christmas. This is important for me as I have been struggling to post blogs for quite some time now and is under extended writer's block currently. Hence this small effort to break the shackles.

Okay now to the main topic, Sales and Entrepreneurship. I'm neither in Sales nor an entrepreneur right now. So why do I want to write on this topic. My current profile can be termed as product management or application engineering or Sales engineering or Proposals or technical sales. The very fact that we have so many names for the role makes it amply clear that my job can be viewed at many different angles. To separate wheat from the chaff. I'll like to define it as a crossroad, from where one road leads to Sales and second to Machine designing. I have been always more inclined to Sales than design due to various reasons. And this job is giving me opportunity to transition into Sales gradually (at least for now). Entrepreneurship on the other hand is always a long-term solution or dream for me. Hence this post.

 

To give some insight into my current company, it started only in this infamous year of COVID 19. Is an Indian arm of newly formed group. Hence, we have very limited visibility among the target customers. We have a very lean team hence not many people in Sales right now. As part of application team, I am present in all customer meeting, attest for serious customers. In other words, the situation cannot be riper for my transition into Sales.

I'm trying to remain focused and don't try too many things at once as its always a good thing to start with basics and built a solid foundation 

Firstly. I'm mentally preparing myself to be ready to front customer and give our company's presentation at short notice (I already had an experience where I was asked to present about the company at last moment and I struggled). Obviously like everything else,  its getting better with more practice. 

Secondly, I’m reaching into my network to collect relevant information about prospective customers.

Thirdly, I’m working on improving company's corporate presentation (which I target to finish in this year). 

Fourth, I’m going to write my elevator pitch which I'd like to keep a bit longer. 

Fifth I'm going to listen to all the company's presentation for my company on YouTube etc, I understand there are not many of them plus even less in English, Hence I will look at our competitor’s presentation as well to understand how they present their company 

 

I could have done on and on and one. But I know that execution is my weak point compared to planning. Hence, I'll stop here and focus more on how to implement the steps listed above.

Now coming to the second parts. Enterpreneurship. All the points listed above on sales are relevant for an Enterpreneur too. As broadly its always better to have Sales related orientation for running any business. But its not only about sales. There are various other factors too like risk taking, reach out to team. Leading not only your peer group and sometimes your superiores as well. Building your personal brand with prospective customers and network. Gathering business intelligence. Working more on presentation. And last but not the least, self discipline and will power to finish the task even if its monotonous or something that you didn't enjoy. It starts with setting small small targets and putting max effort in achieving them 

As my current company is in a start up phase, I'm gaining the experience of various challenges involved in setting up a company.

Also I'm trying to gain some insight into the financial matters as well for which U have no prior experience.

In the nutshell, I need to have visibility about all aspects if business If I wish to fulfill my dream of entrepreneurship. I have started my journey with baby steps in that direction.

 

Birthday - A day to reflect

20 October 2020

When I started this blog good six years ago. The occasions like Birthday, New year etc were my favourite topics since it was very easy to write on them. Plus out then; I was very keen on planning anything and everything. I used to think that writing about the goals was a sureshot way to achieve them. I was consuming lots of self-help books and was also a member of Toastmaster Club back then which is a sort of non-profit organisation for developing your leadership and communciation skills. Gradually reality dawned on me that discipline, will power and constant, sustained efforts are more important and planning is just the first stop towards acheiving your goals.

Gradualy I came out of that vicious circle. First I let go of my reliance on self-help motivational books. Regarding toastmasters; I finally it in 2014 after crawling to clear the first level of 10 speeches( I had joined it in 2012). I wrote last blog post on my Birthay in 2015 as I could not see any positive results regarding acheiving goals. In fact, I stopped writing about so called goals on occasion of New Year too.

22 December 2020

The date stamp should give an idea about my struggle with blogging. Seemls like my birthday and new year post will be combined into single post now. I'm going to go out on a limb and after eating the humble pie; I'm inclined again to make some sort to plan with goals and milestones to follow in coming year. The next year is special and unique in more than one ways. firstly, we are well within the age of COVID virus. Secondly I have more than enough spare time on my hand right now unlike my situation some months back. Right now my challange is more on putting the spare time to good use rather than finding any time out of busy schedule. One thing I'm very sure is that I need to change the very approach from last time and it will start from the goals itself. Even though my idea remains same of personal improvement but I dont want to rely on cliche goals of reading more books, more blogs, reducing weights etc. All of these are actually a process, not the milestones I wish to pursue. Some of the goals I have in mind are as below

Learning new Language - Spanish

I always treat polyglots with admiration. In our hyper-connected world, knowing more than one languages is one of most relevants skills to gain. Its all the more relevant in my case as my current organisation has its head quarter in Spain. Moreover Spanish is one of the most widely spoken language perhaps after english and hence it makes good sense to learn it. I also found useful source in terms of YouTube channel to learn Spanish. But now I need to follow it religiously. My target is to look for any official certification course in Spanish and pass it.

Upgrading the qualification and skills  - Robotics

I have been fascinated by Robotics and Simulation for quite some time now. It looks magical and appeals to my childhood sense of wonder. Fortunately both these streams are part of my job and hence I have been motivated to master these fields from a purely professional point of view too. In spur of moment at startingof year, I had enrolled into a Robotics course offered online by IIT. But it did not end well for me. From the vey beginning, I was late and not prepared for this course and was playing catch-up only for the most part. In the end, I did not appeared for the exam as there was no chance I could clear the exam and earn the certificate. The only positive gain from the exercise that I had made one small beginning into Acedemic Robotics. My target is to enrol into another course and this time, actually earn the degree.

The last thing is to ensure that I incarporate my effort toward achieving these goals in daily routine. Else this activity is limited to another blog post only. I have always been an early morning person but the unseasonal cold wave is testing my resolve to leave cosy blankets early in the day.

PS : I realized that my car is also around 6 years old now. It means that I started this blog at the same time I bought my car. Just an useless trivia but I found it interesting.

I'm adding this section of blog post from my phone in the morning. It's just some edits in terms of correcting grammatical errors plus I added few lines here and there  But nonetheless, it's a small step in right direction.

Hope I could continue this