Too many books to read…too short a life.

Here are my books roundup of 2010, 11, 12, 2013

After my 2013 post an ex-colleague of mine in TW, Apoorv, suggested some of his favourites.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr.Feynman!
by Richard P.Feynman

Feynman is this famous Theoretical Physicist who was involved in the top secret Atomic bomb project that brought World War II to an end. He also won the Nobel Prize for his work in Quantum Physics. Theoretical Physicists should be boring guys right? Wrong! He is one hell of a guy. The book is full of  pranks he played on others, observations of how ants march around and the experiments he did with them, how he mastered the drums in Brazil, how he learnt Portuguese, experienced astral projection on salt tanks.. it is an endless list. I am writing this post almost after a year and still Feynman’s jaunts are fresh in my memory.

Thanks to you Apoorv, 2014 got to a brilliant start.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

Buoyed on by the success of Feyman, I took up this second book. It was outright hilarious to the core. How the demons will try to create havoc and everything will go wrong. The Omen kid will be a dud and they will try to salvage the situation.

But I quickly lost interest – this might be strange – but I was never a fan of the British style writing. Have given up on Ask Jeeves too – sorry Jeeves fans!

This book is hilarious at first but then I got bored quickly – the humour becomes monotonous and the laugh turned into a smile to an acknowledgement to a hmm and I stopped.

A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hoseni

What was I thinking when I picked this one up. Perhaps it was too much humour and I wanted to bury myself in sorrow. This book started alright, but it got darker and darker. And more darker and more depressing. And even more depressing and more tragedy started coming in endless procession. Mariam and her husband’s second wife with her baby try to run away to Pakistan from Kabul and they get cheated and were sitting in the Police station pleading the policeman not to tell their husband. And I could not take it any longer.

Stay away from this even if you are a sucker for these kind of stories – will put you in depression all day. Why does anyone write these things?…. sheesh.

Buddha ( Volumes 1 thru 7 )
By Osama Tezuka

This is a Manga style comic and is a brilliant portrayal of Buddha and his life. And ton of work has gone into creating this magnum opus. Each page has got so much detail that I would not like to turn the page. Have to take it in slowly and let the content sink in. I first planned to read one volume a month. But by May I could not wait any longer and finished the rest in May itself.

Strongly recommend – won’t make you a Buddhist – yes there are a few Buddhist gyan spread out – but its too less and not impactful – but you will enjoy the story of how a religion was born and how Buddha struggled all along.

Adultery
By Paulo Coelho

My all time favourite author’s new book. Was a dud. A perfect challenging life as a Journalist, a loving Husband, two kids, living in the best place on earth – Switzerland and she decides to ruin it all by committing adultery – why? Well read the book for the pages and pages of justification.

Towards the end she and her husband do a para gliding session and she becomes an eagle in her mind and reforms herself – this part is why I worship Paulo Coelho. Just for this brief part towards the end I forgive you Paulo! Awaiting your next book.

And you can give this a pass. And Winner stands alone too. Pick up any work of his and get yourself spiritually entertained.

Three Body Problem
by Cixin Liu

This is a Science Fiction out of China – not that well known but it should be. I rank it along with Dune and Enders World. Involves Aliens and Multi Dimensions.

If Interstellar gave you a headache because of 4 dimensions in the end –  the story goes into 11 dimensions. There is Virtual Reality, bit of History of Civilisation and Quantum Physics, Spirituality, Aliens and Nano material.

Very strong recommendation if you are a Sci Fi fan. Will love every page of this book.

Jupiter Travels : Four Years Around the World on a Triumph 
by Ted Simon

Mid 2014 I got stuck by the Biking virus – which seems to be striking all middle aged men. And one day I had to spend 6 hours in Delhi airport waiting for my flight. Was researching on bikes and stumbled on this very interesting book and thanks to Kindle had it in my iPad in no time and started reading. Oh I love technology. Years back in Bangalore, I read about an author called Neal Stephenson in Wired magazine and hunted for his books all across Bangalore – but could not find a single work of his. Later I got his books in Kindle.

Back to this book – this crazy British journalist decides to take his Triumph bike around the world. He starts just before the Egyptian war with Israel and rides his bike right across Africa till the very tip – and what a journey he has – with punctures, accidents, miraculous escapes, help from kind souls, thieves. He has a very holier than thou attitude at the beginning but it eases off and starts appreciating people more as the story progresses.

The story slows down after he crossed the Atlantic and is arrested and kept under lock up in a Brazil police station after being suspected of espionage. He is out now and is travelling across Argentina. I open this book whenever I am stuck with the routine virus – my passport to a different alternate life – as I ride pillion with him experiencing what his soul experienced some 5 decades back.

HyperSpace
By Michio Kaku

Interstellar woke up the suppressed curiosity in me about Space and Multi Dimensions.

This is a good book that tries to follow the hunt for the Grand Unified Theory. The new developments in Quantum Physics and how close are we to unravelling the truth about the universe. Reading this helped me understand Three body problem better on how the secret to the Universe is hidden in the sub atomic particles.

If you have read Brief History of time, which was written some 2 decades back I guess, this is a good continuation of it and covers the astonishing progress we have made during this time.

And for 2015…

The Martian

Already half way through – simply brilliant – this is the 2014 Book of the year as voted by GoodReads. And one of the important characters in the book is the head of Mars Mission – his name is Venkat Kapoor – and I find it very distracting 🙂

Being Mortal

I already got a recommendation for this by Prakash from my college.

One of Chetan Bhagat’s 

This year want to read Indian authors, and want to read the most successful writer of our times.

The Suitable Boy

It has got 1500 pages or so.. bring it on.

Bhagwad Gita 

The Art of Living course is based upon Bhagwad Gita. Also it is one of my life plans to read all the holy books across all religions. Let me start with the one easily accessible.

Calculus 

It is all rusted, and want to start from basics again – so I can understand String Theory and continue my Physics education. If you know of any good book do suggest me.

Got back from an exhilarating trip to Chennai.

I was filled with nostalgia – partly because of the campus, partly my old friends – and laughed my heart out like good old days.

However there were times when was discussing the not so happy moments. Will eat the frog first and get it out of the way.

Old Age and Cancer

We are all peeking into middle age, and our parents are peeking into old age. With it brings its own challenges. We are still building our careers and with both husband and wife working nowadays  it is difficult to provide round the clock care to our parents who need total care. A few of us are going through this phase now.

For San and I – after having relocated to Mumbai – we have no family / friend support system like we had in Bangalore – it is quite a challenge. Luckily there is a Startup in this area – Portea Medicals and they supply trained nursing attendants to come home and look after the patient. This might sound as a plug for Portea, but truth is – I am really thankful for this startup for their service – and also I am doing what I recommend  my Customers to do more (  http://venkat2.blogspot.in/2014/12/fight-good-fight-startups.html –  on Customers – Trust us, Refer Us )

The next thing we discussed was cancer. It has become as common as Heart Attack or Diabetes. A friend and his brother, a Pancreatic Cancer Specialist himself, were presented with a choice for their mother suspected of a cancerous growth and they together decided to skip surgery.  Thankfully the diagnose turned out to be negative. Also heard of stories where the battle was won.

Surgery is expensive, and it leaves the human body in tatters – and does not guarantee non occurrence. Not only that – the drugs they inject are expensive, and zero research happens in India – these drugs were tested on Western Patients – are they even suitable for our Gene Pool?

It is a tough choice and I dread to make a decision like this for my near and dear.

For myself I know what I want if such a day comes and I have to decide for myself – it will be love,whiskey wine and morphine – after this little inspiring article I read in ET recently.

So with this my friends, having eaten the frog – lets move on to the other fun stuff!

Passion

One of my friends – a final year Project mate of mine – is dabbling in short films and wants to direct a full featured film – there was a session on Passion – and I believe it would have fanned the flame in his heart. Go for it boss – the journey is what matters! #weRcheering4U

And the session was a riot – moderated by a “colourful” Super senior of us from 1984/85 batch – his CEG achievement – he was suspended for 6 months for having involved in a messy fight – when he stood up for his batch mates against ragging by seniors!

Madhan Karky, an ex-CEGian and also an ex-Professor of CompSci Dept was in the panel. He happens to be the son of the famous lyricist Vairamuthu. He explained how hard it is for him to make a mark in the film industry – under the shadow of a giant. He also said how he is mixing his passion ( writing lyrics ) with his CompSci background ( he writes code to mine rhymes ). #impressed

Entrepreneurs

A good friend of mine has started up in Silicon Valley – by my calculation it will be the 9th Startup to come out of 1998 EEE batch. Some day I will be able to write a full book on this prodigy batch of CEG!

One of my batchmates has now grown his Startup to a 200 employee company and is planning to take it to 500. #hellyeah

Another – a second generation entrepreneur has turned around a business, and is setting sights on the global market. Another has put his current one on cruise control, and is starting a new one. Some are in between jobs and twiddling their thumbs whether to start up.

Also I bumped into a 1960s pass out golden senior! He had recommended our startup to his community in the early days and even arranged for a demo with the management committee. I was so happy to see him .

Had lot of learnings on hiring, marketing, scaling.. With friends you can be open and candid – wish I had more time to chat. Was just like old days – when we used to study for exam and exchange notes – felt the same camaraderie still.

The biggest take away for me was to plan my work life and home life better. Right now it is tilted way too much towards work. One of my batch mates is single handedly managing both the company and home. #respect #inspired

The Trichy Story

One has relocated to Trichy from Bangalore and was heavily marketing the city – like how Narendra Modi campaigns for Gujarat – on how the BPO industry works, how it is super easy to get a CA for a song, how the rate is set for all skill sets ( pst..pst.. cartel  ) – something you never get to see in a magazine or TV expose!

And my friend is planning to run for an election here. Hats off buddy.. be the change. We are with you in this. #yeswecan

Make in India

I missed all the morning sessions ( long story – not important ). Post lunch attended sessions – one was on Make in India. It was about Manufacturing Industry. The challenges are different. Like poor quality vendor suppliers or lack of quality labour or BE students who do not know any of the technical jargon – having come out of a Tamil Medium. And what these industry stalwarts are doing to change things. #hatsoff

Also there was a heavy dose of advise for the students to take industry internships seriously and not just go there to hang out – but get on the shop floor and learn all they can during that time. It left me squirming in my seat – once I had an opportunity to spend the semester vacation in an Electrical company in Coimbatore but I choose to spend time at Orissa with my parents. Sitting there, 18 years later I realised I missed a great experience.  #waterhasflown

Health

A few of us have a healthy paunch! While it is a sign of prosperity – it is also a warning sign. Whenever discussion meandered into the belly girth, I suggested Standing Desk. Sit only for 1 to 1 meetings or to take phone calls, but when you are working – stand. Also try to have standing meetings – meetings are short, people speak less, are attentive and it is healthy.

Remember the new slogan – Sitting is the new Smoking!

Run, Cycle to work, Take Stairs, Standing desk – so many things one can mix in a daily routine. Yes I do it all! Was telling someone – I lost my dad to high BP and heart attack. My mother has diabetes – and I am not letting genetics decide my end game. #togoodhealthforall

So thats all folks.

May CEG and its tribe shine brighter & forever!