Dear 2011

Dear 2011,

    Finally our relation is coming to an end. Though you have not treated me well..though you have punched me on face, kicked me in stomach...you have taught me many lessons and made me stronger than before. I cannot ask for more.

You have shown the true colour of many people around me..but most importantly you have shown ME who I AM. Thanks a lot for that.

It was really nice meeting you.

Buhbyee...

Regards,
Srikar 

My Book List - 2011(May-Dec)

List of books I have read since May and my ratings...


NON FICTION

Good

• The McKinsey Way - Ethan M. Rasiel 
• It Happened In India - Kishore Biyani
• Simply Fly - Captain Gopinath
• Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion And Purpose - Tony Hsieh
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant  - W.Chan Kim
• The Goal -Eliyahu M.Goldratt, Jeff Cox
• The Winning Way -  Harsha Bhogle, Anita Bhogle
• I Have A Dream - Rashmi Bansal
• On Writing - Stephen King
• The Dip: The Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit - Seth Godin
• Poke The Box - Seth Godin
• The Polyester Princess: The rise of Dhirubhai Ambani - Hamish McDonald
• Unusual People Do Things Differently - TGC Prasad
• Courage: The Joy Of Living Dangerously - Osho 
• Freedom: The Courage To Be Yourself - Osho

Average

• The Bootstrappers Bible - Seth Godin
• The Dream: How I learned The Risks And Rewards Of Entrepreneurship - Gurubaksh Chahal
• Plot & Structure - James Scot Bell
• Wings Of Fire - A P J Abdul Kalam
• Rich Dad Poor Dad -  Robert T. Kiyosaki

Bad

• Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch: Theory In Management - Arindam Chauduri

FICTION

Good

• The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
• Love Story - Erich Segal 
• Life Is What You Make It - Preeti Shenoy
• God Save The Dork - Sidin Vadukut
• Revolution 2020 - Chetan Bhagat
• Love, Life and All that jazz - Ahmed Faiyaz
• I am Not Twenty Four...I have been nineteen for five years - Sachin Garg
• The Goat, the Sofa and Mr Swami - Chandrasekar R 
• Chanakya's Chant - Ashwin Sanghi
• Train To Pakistan - Kushwant Singh 
• The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
• The Last Man In Tower - Aravind Adiga
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
• To Kill A Mocking Bird - Lee Harper

Average

• Illusions - Richard Bach
• The Alchemist  - Paulo Coelho 
• Dork: The Incredible Adventures Of Robin ' Einstein' Varghese - Sidin Vadukut
• Along The Way - TGC Prasad
• The Quest For Nothing - Anand Anurag
• Reality Bites - Anand Anurag
• Urban Shots - Paritosh Uttam 
• One Night At The Call Center- Chetan Bhagat 
• A Roller Coaster Ride - Saumil Shrivastava  
• Between The Assasinations - Aravind Adiga

Bad

• Few Things Left Unsaid - Sundeep Nagarkar 
• Can Love Happen Twice - Ravinder Singh 
• 34 Bubble Gums And Candies - Preeti Shenoy
• My Friend Sancho - Amit Verma
• Horn OK Please... Hopping To Conclusions - Karthik Iyengar

Currently Reading...

• Direct From Dell - Michael Dell
• Rework - Jason Fried
• Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid - C K Prahalad

Must Watch Videos

Framework of happiness

The ultimate reason why we do anything is 'to be happy'. 

In his book " Delivering Happiness" , Tony Hsieh - CEO of Zappos.com, stresses on the
'science of happiness'. He mentioned some of the frameworks of happiness and showed their
relation with business.

Tony suggests to build a business focusing on the 'Culture' or the 'Core values' of the company that leads to the happiness of everyone related to it (employees, customers, etc..) instead of just profits.

The framework I am discussing here is one of the things that he mentioned... 

This Framework says that there are three types of happiness 

1. Pleasure.
2. Passion.
3. Purpose.

Pleasure: 
This is the first type of happiness and we are very familiar with this one.

Here we constantly chase pleasures.

Generally we are in constant chase of money and material comforts thinking that they make us happy.

This happiness is about the momentary positive emotions we feel because of pleasures. We will be happy here only if we have a continuous inflow of stimuli...which is very difficult to maintain.


Once the source of stimuli goes away our happiness levels drop immediately. This type of happiness has the shortest life of all the three.


People do the jobs, even if they don't like, to enjoy the comforts/benefits that it offers. Once they

get them, their happiness graph goes to peak and declines gradually again to initial point as they get bored of it. Then, they want something else and after getting it, the same happiness graph follows.


This is like the horse running for the carrot in front of it. Once it gets the carrot there will be /should be another carrot to rise its energy levels. Many times we, like the horses, run for the things in front of us thinking that they would bring happiness but most of the time we are wrong.


Some people after realizing the importance of 'sustained happiness' go after their true 'passion'/ 'calling' instead of 'pleasure'.


But many spend their entire lives in pursuit of pleasures without realizing that this happiness  fades away quickly. They don't realize what brings them a 'sustained happiness.'


Passion:
This type of happiness is known as 'flow' or 'state of being in the zone'. Here you are engaged in

the work you do and time flies by without your notice.

Flow is different from pleasure. In pleasure you feel it...you know it... but in flow you cannot feel

anything...you become one with your passion. You get engaged in your passion.

Knowing your 'higher strengths' will help you in achieving this type of happiness.

You have a passion and you are happy pursuing it. But can you still go a higher stage of happiness?? 

Yes.

Passion leads to satisfaction but still it doesn't complete the picture.

That is why many successful people work for a greater cause/ purpose after sometime in their careers.

Purpose: 

This type of happiness is about being part of something bigger than yourself that has a meaning to you. It is using your higher strengths in the service of something or someone.

This gives a complete satisfaction.

It doesn't have to be something like philanthropy always. If the work you are doing touches the lives of many people/ have a positive impact on a large scale...it leads to complete happiness.

Unlike in 'pleasure'...in 'passion' and 'purpose' the happiness graph doesn't fall down but stays

there.

According to the research, pursuit of pleasure has almost no contribution to the satisfaction. Purpose has the strongest effect on satisfaction and then comes the passion. And pleasure matters only if you have both passion and purpose.

We tend to think about  'pleasures' first then passion and finally purpose.

But as Tony Hsieh says, the right strategy would be to first find the purpose and focus on our passion and then enjoy the pleasures that you meet on the way. This leads to 'sustained happiness'.

In other words focus on your passion with a purpose and pleasures follow.

Behind that song...

When I was in 8^th class, our teacher asked whether anyone of us can sing. Boys did not respond but many girls pointed out one girl. Teacher asked that girl to sing. She hesitated initially. But when teacher forced her, she agreed on the condition that one of her friends should also sing along with her. Teacher agreed.

The girl pulled her friend along with her– and they both stood in front of the class. I did not know her name then.

The two girls whispered something to each other. I thought they were discussing on which song to sing. In a minute they began singing…

   Every night in my dreams I see you I feel you…(Titanic)

I did not know from which movie that song was. But I liked it. Maybe it was because of the girl who was singing it.

There was something in her that attracted me. She was ‘beautiful’…I did not know any other word to describe her at that time. It was like a first-time-happening kind of feeling

Her friend stopped singing in between and ran to her place. The other girl stood there with a what-should-I-do-now kind of look. I thought even she will follow her friend. But she didn’t.

The teacher comforted her – “Don’t worry. It is ok. You can sing alone.”

The girl starred angrily at her friend who left her­ and then continued the song. Throughout the song she kept her head down – may be stage fear or shy...don’t know.

I was just looking at her. Just her. I couldn’t see anything but her. The way she adjusted her hair…the way she smiled…her innocent looks…spelled a magic, ringing bell in the heart of every boy in the class. Though she was dressed in the same uniform like the rest of the girls, she was different. I did not know why.

Immediately after finishing the song she ran to her place and everyone clapped. Some of us were still in her magic and even forgot to clap. Our teacher appreciated her.

When I came out of the school that evening, she was waiting outside on the other side of the road. I thought she was waiting for her friend or for someone to pick her up.

I wanted to talk to her. Something was holding me. But still I headed towards her. I was just few steps from away her. At least I wanted to ask her name and say that she was a good singer.

I went near and stood next to her. She was looking somewhere else.

When I was about to say “Hi”, one of her friends waved at her and she immediately went towards her friend without even noticing me.

I did not know what to do. Looked around. Saw some of my friends on the other side of the road. So I crossed the road and joined my friends with a smile hiding any sign of disappointment.

My eyes were searching for her though I was talking to my friends. The girl got into an auto with her friends and went away.

The next day when our teacher was noting the attendance I came to know the girl’s name.

Since then whenever I hear the Titanic song this incident flashes in my mind.

Behind every person’s favourite song there is an untold story.

   

The best thing about b'day = 'Gifts'

Thanks a lot friends for your wishes and for these 'enlightening' gifts :) These books plus the ones I am reading now should keep me busy for the next few months. 

Unusual People Do things Differently - Review

Author : T.G.C.Prasad

Price   : 399/-

Publishers: Penguin Book India

My Rating : 4/5

The description on the back of this book is very apt. So I am pasting here the same :

Unusual people are ordinary people who strive hard to do extraordinary things. They are sensitive to nuances, look to provide lateral solutions, dare to think out of the box, and often end up changing the rules of the game.

T.G.C. Prasad presents the views and experiences of sixty-five individuals, from well-known names like Mike Lawrie, Azim Premji and Mother Teresa to a chef, a masseuse and a service boy, with whom he has had meaningful interactions and who have inspired him. He includes people from a broad professional spectrum; CEOs, doctors, the director general of police, realtors, an attorney, a chartered accountant, a consultant and a sports coach are among those who make his list. Singling out a dominant factor from each person’s story, he outlines the journeys these people undertook and the behaviours they exhibited, and shows how these link up to the results they achieved.

The 65 chapters are aligned into 6 themes:

1.  Strategic and focused on the value creation
2.  Perceptive and derive creative solutions
3.  Driven by business excellence
4.  Deploy professional skills to win
5.  Passionate and lead from the front
6.  Sensitive to people and are customer centric

Though the book is divided into themes, but it doesn’t make any difference even if you read the chapters randomly.

This book is on the management learning mainly from observing people and how they react to real-life situations. Broad areas of management topics are covered - from the global level insights on mergers and acquisitions of the companies to tips on negotiating and real life examples on how to be costumer centric.

Author did a good work by succinctly conveying what he wanted to, in simple language.

There are some informative and inspirational parts that will kick your butt. I particularly liked the topics that focused on negotiating, VC’s, mergers of companies, sales tips and entrepreneurship.

If you have already read a lot of books on management/entrepreneurship then there are only a few chapters that may enlighten you..

But there are take-aways in every chapter to those who are new to this kind of book.

The author, TGC Prasad also wrote a fiction, Along The Way. Rarely we find authors who can deal with both fiction and non-fiction efficiently. Prasad is surely one among them.

Some of the insights from this book:

• Sometimes things don’t go the way we want them to. The best thing to do is to jump in at the right opportunity and make a difference.
• If you want your business to succeed, then you should have a strong desire to make money and really feel bad if you love money.
• Be patient; it’s a long way to the top. Live life as you climb.
• Successful negotiators make the other party feel that they are winning
• Never fear to negotiate and never negotiate in fear.
• People who are employed seek security in their jobs, whereas business people think about generating security.
• Strategy always has to be contextual.
• Happiness is an internal stimulus, irrespective of what happens externally. If you choose to be happy, nobody can stop you.
• Keep your needs basic and life will be peaceful.

Important questions before starting a business : 

• What are you selling ? who is your customer? Why does the customer want to buy your product or service ?
• How long can you sustain yourself and your family without a job ? can you generate business ? do you have any customers right now who are willing to give you assignments?

About the Author: T.G.C. Prasad lives in Bangalore and offers strategic, advisory, general management and HR consulting services to several start-ups, small and medium enterprises, Indian and MNC companies. He also offers executive coaching to senior management.

You can buy this book on Infibeam for 259/- here and for 279/- on Flipkart here

On Writing by Stephen King

'On Writing", a memoir of Stephen King is a must read for every wanna-be story writer. First half of the book is on King's life and the rest is about story writing. His insights on drafting and story developing are priceless. 

These are some of the valuable insights( at least to me)/interesting parts from the book:   

• Your job isn't to find the ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
• When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story.
• Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
• When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.
• Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right - as right as you can, anyway—it belongs to anyone who wants to read it.
• The door closes the rest of the world out; it also serves to close you in and keep you focused on the job at hand.
• Use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.
• One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes.
• The road to hell is paved with adverbs
• All I ask is that you do as well as you can, and remember that, while to write adverbs is human, to write he said or she said is divine.
• If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.
• Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.
• When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.
• I suggest a thousand words a day, and because I’m feeling magnanimous, I’ll also suggest that you can take one day a week off, at least to begin with. No more; you’ll lose the urgency and immediacy of your story if you do. With that goal set, resolve to yourself that the door stays closed until that goal is met. Get busy putting those thousand words on paper or on a floppy disk.
• Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal  knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work. Especially work. People love to read about work. God knows why, but they do.
• In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.
• You may wonder where plot is in all this. The answer—my answer, anyway—is nowhere. I won’t try to convince you that I’ve never plotted any more than I’d try to convince you that I’ve never told a lie, but I do both as infrequently as possible. I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because our lives are largely plotless, even when you add in all our reasonable precautions and careful planning; and second, because I believe plotting and the spontaneity of real creation aren’t compatible. It’s best that I be as clear about this as I can—I want you to understand that my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. The job of the writer is to give them a place to grow (and to transcribe them, of course). If you can see things this way (or at least try to), we can work together comfortably. If, on the other hand, you decide I’m crazy, that’s fine. You won’t be the first.
• I believed stories are found things, like fossils in the ground, The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible. Sometimes the fossil you uncover is small; a seashell. Sometimes it’s enormous, a Tyrannosaurus Rex with all those gigantic ribs and grinning teeth. Either way, short story or thousand-page whopper of a novel, the techniques of excavation remain basically the same.
• Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
• It’s also important to remember it’s not about the setting, anyway—it’s about the story, and it’s always about the story. It will not behoove me (or you) to wander off into thickets of description just because it would be easy to do. We have other fish (and steak) to fry.
• When it comes to scene-setting and all sorts of description, a meal is as good as a feast.
• In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it “got boring,” the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.
• One of the cardinal rules of good fiction is never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead.
• You can’t please all of the readers all of the time; you can’t please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time.
• In the spring of my senior year at Lisbon High—1966, this would’ve been—I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this :“Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Good luck.”
• The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting. Stick to the parts that are, and don’t get carried away with the rest. Long life stories are best received in bars, and only then an hour or so before closing time, and if you are buying.
• I must tell you, though, that confidence during the actual writing of this book was a commodity in remarkably short supply.
• The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.