What happens when you read a lot of history books?

I have completed "Gray Mountain" by John Grisham. Though I have been an ardent fan of John Grisham and his legal background novels, its been more than three years since I read his books. In fact its just not John Grisham, but for last six years my interest fiction has declined. I am not sure if this changing preference is because of the way the book is written or I am seriously bored of fiction. That's the debate for now.

So when I started on this novel after long, my expectation on the book were very high. I wanted a joy ride of emotions: suspense, happiness, tragedy, heart wrenching drama, some heroism and a happy ending. But the book let me down. The plot seems to hold me at the seat edge occasionally but then it left the grip too early before I can soak in the suspense. Similarly some drama and some tragedy were involved but it did not match my expectations. All this means only one of the following three:
1. The plot is not great
2. The story was not told properly
3. My expectations were high.

Given the reviews and the plot seems to be pretty good. The story telling style for a veteran like John Grisham must be a seasoned one. So my belief is that my expectations from this was high. And pondering on the reasons of such high expectations, I sense that my previous few books based on political and natural history, had set the bar high. The journey through centuries on how things unfold (even though you know the end-result) has probably made my cravings for drama, suspense high. So my opinion for now is that, if one is involved in history, he can never go back to fiction with same interest. And did you say you did not like history at school because it was a drag and dull?

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Gray-Mountain-John-Grisham-ebook/dp/B00LM9S7H6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

What to plan as interiors in Living Room?

I have just been through a bout of planning interiors for my new home. So here I put my wisdom about things to go in living areas. Its more like a checklist of things to consider. Here we go:

1. Book Shelf (a very big one if you are a voracious reader like me)
2. Place to dump our sacks as soon as we come back from office
3. Display shelf for mementos and show pieces
4. Drawer to keep bills, petty documents and other knick-knacks
5. Drawer to keep some domestic hardware including hammer, pliers, screw drivers, insulation tapes and all
6. Shelves to stack up used newspaper. Plan atleast for two months stack, lest you end up running to Radhi-wala every month
7. Shoe stand, drawers for shoe polish, brush and other accessories.
8. Wifi Modem point
9. TV Unit with provisions for Set-top box, DVD players, Music systems, DVD storage
10. Wall to hang-up family photos, religious depictions and art work
11. Easy access place for note books, diaries, pens, markers, calendars
12. Place to hang keys

Please add for anything got missed

Review of Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond

When I first heard the title of the book, for me it is a very unlikely name for a history book. At end of the read, I am now fully convinced about the importance of these to civilization's natural history. This is one of the best books on natural history. Most history books are on political history and some ( like the Empires of Indus) touch natural history tangently while speaking about political history. The amount of research the author did is quite evident from the book. But it's just not research, giving a scientific approach in reducing conclusions from the facts is what makes the author differ from other. The presentation style is also pretty interesting. In most history books,  there are two parameters to be discussed: Timeline and place (and sometime different personalities). I have read books which go back and forth to cover both timeline activities and place activities. Else they will not be able to give a complete picture. However Jared has taken a unique way of circumventing this problem. (and prob that made the read more interesting!!). First he dwells upon the timeline activities. He speaks about people's early movements, evolution of farming, evolution of germs, evolution of technology and so on. Once he has traversed the timeline path (comparing different regions), he then dwelt upon the region-specific activities. The last few chapters cover the summary of different regions. This is the best solution for the conundrum of writing easier history books. 

Here is the summary of the book giving a quick insight (without being a spoil sport). The book highlights on the early movements of man-kind. The humans after evolving in Africa has spread across the land-masses of the globe by 40,000 BC. After the Ice-Age, the different continents evolved different eco-systems which acted as a catalyst for evolution of different cultures/habits/perspectives/technology. Food production almost evolved across different continents independently (except Australia) by choosing and cultivating plants from wild forests. This has slowly started inculcating farming as a practice. For making farming easy, they need more muscle power. Also once farming was established, societies got settled. This also called for alternate food source as they no longer were nomadic hunters and warriors. This led to domestication of wild animals for farming and for alternate food source. (except for dog which was domesticated way back in stone age all other domestic animals like cow, goat, hen, pig were domesticated in this age). Both these were the root cause of all our illnesses (literally). They brought in germs. Over centuries, some groups started developing immunity over these germs. As farming progressed and domestication improved, people had spare food and spare time (they were no longer roaming). So other inventions like tools, technology, arts came into existence. This include farming tools and techniques, musical instruments, writing, using copper, bronze and iron. Iron/steel led to creation of better armory. Then as people started living in groups and growing, they formed bigger societies. Some societies which started as bands moved to tribes which meta-morphed to chieftain and then to states at different points of time. The farming, technology and germs moved easily across Eurasia because of longer spread and almost similar climate. The societies which were isolated to these developments include Americas, Africa and Australia. Though some of the societies have independently developed a few of these , they did not mature as it did in Eurasia because of the lack of conducive factors. (like North to South climatic differences, or geographical restrictions including deserts, mountains, islands). All these factors gave an edge for the Eurasian societies to have an upper hand over other societies. And they have ended up occupying most parts of the world.

Book Link: http://www.amazon.in/Guns-Germs-And-Steel-Everbody-ebook/dp/B00DQ8GDV8/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Negotiation or Bad Qualification?

 Most people claim a sale as badly qualified, but works behind the scenes is something entirely different. From what I have seen, in retrospection it is easy to say the failure is because of improper qualification/quantification. Except for few out-liers, most people will never disclose the budget and so the sales person has to go with guesstimates or gut-feel numbers. There is no way to get a number to qualify/quantify. This makes it look improper qualification in hindsight where-as it will not appear so in day-to-day scenarios. With no knowledge on numbers and mounted with pressure to close the deal, the only window left is to show the money-advantage to customer. I would believe that if a sales person is negotiating then it shows the product is not highly rated by the customer and alternatives are available for customer. If the product is the best, any sales person would stick to his stance on price and would not start negotiation.

Difference between Marketing and Sales

Time and again, I get this questions. So thought will create a blog post around it.

Marketing is a “Pull”. It helps in reaching out to prospects, showcasing the product/service, capturing his attention and bringing him to an Interaction Point (Outlet, Incoming Inquiry platform including website, call center, email). Some alternate goals of marketing include brand awareness, increasing brand/product recognition, educating the customer of the new product/service. 

Sales is a “Push”. The Sales function starts when the prospect comes to an interaction point. The prospect can come either from Marketing or by a Sales person digging out a hidden prospect (through networking, references, cold-calling). Sales functions include: understanding the customer needs, mapping the product/service features to his needs, agree on format of delivery, timeline and price, close deal by signing agreement or getting Work Order. Sometimes additional functions might include: keeping customer in good humor post sale (for references/positive feedback), seeking references/feedback, ensuring delivery of goods/services in agreed terms, payment collections.

Solo-Travels ..

I have done a lot of trips travelling alone. Most of the times, because the situation demanded and sometimes out of choice. At end of all those travels, the most frequent question I encountered was " How can I travel alone? If I were you I could never do that". But as mentioned earlier, most of the times, the situation demanded that I travel alone (you always have those friends who desert you in last minute), so I better enjoy and learn from it than keep cribbing. Though enjoyment is something which I cannot quantify, So I like to note down a few learnings from the solo-travels:

 

1. You trust your self more than you usually do. If you have to drive for six hours, you need to trust yourself that you will not sleep behind that steering. If you have to make a choice on where to stop on way, you trust your decision making capabilities.

2. You start trusting strangers: In one of these travels, I was feeling quite bored and needed company. I gave a ride to a hitch-hiker. On way I got to know that he had something very pressing to attend and was thankful for the ride. When I picked him up, I had no clue on who he was and what harm he can cause to me. But just went along trusting him and felt happy. The other time I had to leave my baggage with a waiter, and though I was initially scared, I had to do it but never regretted for it.

3. Introspection makes you understand your self: In a busy mechanical city life, we do not get time to introspect. Most of the solo trips give ample time for this.

4. Enough time for serious musings: Every once in a while, we need time for some serious musings on careers, life paths, relationships, finances. The long trips help giving ample time for them.

5. Make better aware of surroundings: Without someone to care or discuss, we become better aware of the surroundings. We have our antenna up for scares, threats, humor and romance.

 

And finally for catching up with friends on phone: Those old friends whom I was supposed to call, but never got time for that phone call in my busy life. Your solo-trip, will give those coveted hours to call all those buddies.

 

Now after marriage, I do not know how many more solo-trips I will do, but definitely want to go whenever my heart feels.

Gaining Wisdom ..

In my view there are only four ways one can gain wisdom:

 

1. Live by the age: Grey hair indicates that a person has lived his life through different ages, situations, ups and downs. Living by the age will anyways make someone definitely wise

2. Travel far and wide: Travelling shakes one from his/her comfort zone. One is exposed to new situations, uncertainties, fears, cultures, thinking. Also one learns to trust one self more, trust strangers, understand unsaid rules, open eyes to new processes, mind-set, views. These make one think out of box, open to understanding the innate drivers, tolerant towards different cultures/people and provision for newness. With this one is bound to become wise (even without living the age).

3. Talking to different people: Talking to different people again opens our mind to diff mind-set, alternate thinking, make us tolerant to different ways of conducting things and helps us understand humanness in a different way. (without travelling or living by the age)

4. Reading more: I will sum this with one statement, a punchline from crossword book-store chain.. " You do not open a book, you open your mind."

 

In my view the last one surpasses all other forms because it comes with least limitations. One can buy/borrow a book at a economical price unlike where one needs to spend a lot for travelling. Similarly one need to not live by the age to gain wisdom nor one needs to have the luxury of time to talk with a lot of people.

I am smiling!!!!

Miracles happen.. and they happen at the least expected hour. One does not know the reason why everything is going in one's favor but the very fact it is happening brings smiles. And when such a rush of things happen, one knows there is someone/something which is making these happen. Savor these unexpected turn of events in April last week and early May:

1. The tatkal tickets got booked so easily as though it was normal booking. Summer time is peak vacation season and IRCTC is notorious for crashing all the while during tatkal hours.

2. Its 6:15pm the train and we are still 12kms away from the Tirupati station. The Narayanadri departs at 6:20pm and there is no way we can make it to the station for the train. We do the next best option, go in the cab to the next station and hope to catch it there. We go at 6:50pm to Renigunta, when the expected departure is 6:45pm. But Voila!! the train is yet to arrive when we reach Renigunta though it started on time at Tirupati. Another 15mins before it arrives.

3. Registering the apartment and going around the Registrar office is a painful ordeal. I still have to adjust for almost Rs.5L for the payments to builder and the Registration process. So with all the glim prospects I go to the apartment builder for negotiating a deferred payment but yet get the apartment registered. Voila!! He agrees with any discussion. The next thing when I go to bank, is that they let me know I can use another 1.75 Lakhs for registration. This blessing came even without asking anyone for help. Next is the date for registration. SBI is notorious for a long drawn processes. Upon request for registering the apartment, I was given a date one week from hence. And I do not have that kind of a luxury. I will be on a honeymoon trip subsequent week and then reporting to office grinding the piled up work. So by only bet was the next day. With a bit of persuasion, the officials accept for getting the apartment registered the next day with a small work around. The registration process itself happens in two hours, and when did Govt. offices become so efficient?

4. When things are looking good, they turn sour a bit, just to indicate that we need to appreciate the Miracles. I get back to Hyderabad (from Bangalore after successful registration of my apartment). The next day I am leaving for Hongkong for the honeymoon trip. Previous day, I kept all the passports, tickets, Android Tablet in my laptop bag which is like a second skin to me. But the morning I arrive in Hyderabad, two hours after reaching home, I realize I forgot my bag in train. Never in a decade of train travel, did I lose a thing. (not even a water bottle). But that day with all the other luggage, I forgot about my shoulder bag. It contained Laptop, Passports, Wallet with driving license and PAN card, Android Tablet, mobile phone. Losing passport means, my honey moon got cancelled, all my bookings are already paid for and more of disappointment. In gist its like losing almost three lakhs worth and  also around three months of running around across govt. offices. In my mad rush I started back to the Kacheguda railway station hoping I have been lucky till date and I need that luck more than anytime now. The moment I reach, the AC coach attender, says he saw the bag but then he lost it again. He connected me to the train bed-roll supervisor, Deepak. After persuading for half an hour, they fetch me the lost bag. Voila!!  Half an hour back, I was thinking my honey moon got cancelled leaving me disappointed, I lost three lakhs in all the bookings, Losing fav gadgets/laptops meant loss of important personal data and now I am planning when I need to book a cab to go to airport. Can this happen in real life?

5. My flight to HKG got delayed by three hours. Now it starts at 4:20am and arrives in HKG at 12:10pm. Earlier when I planned the flight bookings, it was expected to arrive at 9:30am. That would give me enough time to take the visa on arrival, collect baggage, navigate through a new city to go to the cruise terminal. But now by the time I arrive at the HKG airport, the cruise boarding would have already started. The last boarding call for cruise was 2pm. So I have 1hr 50 mins to get visa, collect baggage, buy MTR tickets and reach Kowloon and take a taxi to the cruise terminal. So I was not sure if we will be able to make it to the cruise in time. I gave up the cruise vacation and started planning for the alternatives through the five hour flight journey.We finished all this and also got time to pick a tourist SIM card for mobile and reached cruise terminal by 1:40pm, good 20mins before the final boarding call.

6. When I was telling my newly-wedded wife about the series of miracles that happened after the wedding, she was skeptical about the occurrence. But I being confident of it told her to test it out. She said if the wedding was trigger of miracles, then even our wishes should be granted. And one of my previous small wishes was to spot another ship from the cruise we were on. Given the vastness of the oceans, distance from any land/harbours, the pitch dark night with all the fog around, I had no hope of spotting. Breaking our discussion there we went to grab some drinks and snacks. After half an hour, we returned to the view point on the deck just to have one last glimpse of the black ocean before we retire to our room. Voila!! We can count at least six ships in different directions. Given all above factors even the impossible seems to occur, to prove my point.

7. After the other small "lucky" occurrences, we were finally boarding the flight back to Hyderabad. Both of us were visibly disappointed from the morning as the Honeymoon was coming to an end and after a great time we need to be back at work from next day. The series of miracles, though happened, looked very scary, as they put me to the edge. (I wanted miracles but not when I was at the edge of the seat.). With the mundane life starting the next day, I expected no more miracles to occur. Just at the boarding gate, the hostess tore our tickets and announced she is changing our seats. I got mad, I have done a web check-in the previous day, so that I can get the preferred seats. And here she is announcing change of seats without my permission. I raised my voice and said she cannot do that as we already opted the seats we wanted. And her response... Voila!! She declared, we are being upgraded to Premium Economy. Now that meant a welcome glass of champagne, choice of food, complete privacy and bigger seats and leg space. Now what more can I ask for than that signature sign off to those memorable days?

 

I don't know if it is the luck that the new-lady-of-my-life brought-in or the good wishes and blessings showered on us by the elders or just coincidental. Whatever be it, it brought good times and smiles.  I will cherish these for life-time, while you can debate what made these miracles possible. :)