Musings

Recently, when I was traveling back from US to India, there was a 4 hour layover in Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. The in-flight meals were not too great. The in-flight entertainment gave me good company. I had watched two back to back movies and was quite tired when we finally landed in CDG. I had managed just over an hour of sleep on the flight from Boston to Paris and was hoping to get some shut-eye in CDG. But hunger pangs voted out my sleep plans. We were down to our last few dollars and didn’t have much money to indulge in fancy food. We went in search of a café in the airport to have a light breakfast. We knew we could not rely on the meals served in the flight and needed some reinforcement for the nine hour flight ahead. We went to this café in CDG. I got myself a Pain Au Chocolat and Cappuccino with some reservations about my choices. But, the minute I bit into the bread, it simply melted in my mouth. It was truly delicious and the coffee was excellent too, worth spending o...

This is the second book that I have read by Mary Higgins Clark. I like her style of writing. The novelty in this book is that the killer is introduced right in the beginning and he/she talks about how the whole killing act started and what he/she plans to do next. Of course, the killer's identity is revealed only in the end although you can guess somewhere in the middle of the book who the killer is. The story is about a couple of women (Erin and Darcy) wanting to help a friend who is doing research on the dangers of answering personal ads. They decide to answer the ads to contribute to the research. Erin goes missing and is found killed. Darcy is the one who had suggested that they help their friend and also have some harmless fun meeting interesting people. She is driven by guilt and is determined to find the killer. Darcy discovers that Erin is one of many such victims. There is the usual whole bunch of suspects cleverly woven into the story based on the clues found and the comm...

• If the proverbial six degrees of separation can be validated using social networking sites like Facebook. It should be easy to pick two random profiles in Facebook and see how many links it takes to connect them. • Why the government didn’t choose the underground metro option in Bangalore given the recent statement by the transport minister that tunnels are cheaper than underpasses and bridges. This would have possibly avoided cutting down of the few trees that are left, avoided litigation from property owners whose property had to be acquired to build the metro, avoided disruption of businesses during the construction phase and would have avoided the narrow roads from becoming narrower. • If admen deliberately make ads that irritate you so that they stick in your mind more than the interesting ones. I don’t know about you all but I don’t remember the products for the good ads. But, I definitely remember the product for the irritating ones – Saffola Arise and the latest Nirma ad top ...

I was one of those kids who didn’t think too much about career while studying. Things just happened. I completed my 12th and for a majority of Indians, there are two popular choices - medicine or engineering. Hospitals and diseases give me the fright and it was a no-brainer for me to opt for engineering. I graduated at a time when software industry was booming and happened to get picked up by a well known software company. So, like most of the city dwelling Indians, I started my software career and continue to work in the IT industry. If things just happen to you and you like what is happening, you are lucky. I am not one of those lucky people. My job is just that – a job. And, now that I am a lot more mature, I think about what profession I would have possibly enjoyed. A couple of careers that I envy – writers, hosts of travel shows, restaurateurs, food critics, movie critics, book reviewers. But, grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I happened to read an article ...

Outliers (Author: Malcolm Gladwell) is one of the very few applied psychology books of its genre that I liked. Over the past few years, my taste in books has changed. My initial love for detective novels and suspense thriller genre made way for fantasy and romance books for a while. I have also read a lot of self help, management and economics books. I borrowed this book from a friend of mine with a lot of trepidation as I am now extremely wary of some of these business books. Some of the books I read recently that left a very bad after taste in my mouth are The World is flat, Tipping Point, 7 habits of Highly Effective People. I find them quite boring after the first 50 pages as I get the sense that the author is trying very hard to make a 200-300 page book out of what is merely a maximum of 50 page research paper. The stories and examples the authors give to substantiate their reasoning get quite tiring and repetitive after sometime. Either that or the book gets into a “preach...

I am as annoying in complaining about the advertisements in the middle of interesting programs on TV as the ads are in annoying me. Have you ever said to yourself “There is nothing more annoying than a soft drink ad in the middle of my favorite game of cricket or a gripping movie or TV series”. Whenever I see these ads, I swear I will never buy that product. But, when I think about it, ultimately, I think Marketers do manage to “pull a fast one” on me and achieve their purpose by exerting exactly the kind of influence that I think I am wise to. I think I understand why these ads work on most of us. The market is now flooded with numerous brands. When you go shopping for a product, you will most likely see a whole range of brands that would leave anyone baffled. You know a couple of these brands from TV. Human nature being the way it is, you would like to appear informed. You would want to feel happy about your purchase. You would like to feel that you know yourself best and that you ...

I asked for strength, and God gave me difficulties to make me strong. I asked for wisdom, and God gave me problems to solve. I asked for prosperity, and God gave me brain and brawn to work. I asked for courage, and God gave me danger to overcome. I asked for love, and God gave me troubled people to help. I asked for favours, and God gave me opportunities. I received nothing I wanted... I received everything I needed!