Musings

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...