The World is Flat - when read after six years of publication!

Hi Guys,

I thought I would be writing a review of the book when I started reading it yesterday. But then after reading some 50 pages, I knew I was not going to read further. It was then I realized the timing of reading a Non Fiction book is very important. In the fast moving world, a lag of 2 years would mean much.

The book I started reading was ‘The World is Flat’ by Thomas L. Friedman. A journalist by profession, he has written about how the world has become more and more flat in the 21st century. The book was released in 2006 and the book is a much acclaimed book and has received many awards. My college library decided to buy a huge bunch of these books and I happened to see them. Just because of the reason that there was a huge bunch of these books and the cover was interesting, I wanted to read the book.

After starting to read the book, I realized that the book would have been a good read in 2006, but not anymore. The author says about the different incidences and technologies that helped the world to become a global village. All the recent growth stories of IT companies in India and manufacturing companies in China, we know many of the facts told in the book.

When I started reading the book, I thought 2006 is just 6 years back and it is a comparatively new book. But I didn’t realize many things and in particular the growth of technology over the years. When my brother joined an IT organization back in 2005, not many people knew about the Organization. We had to explain about the company to people. But, today the phenomenal growth has made many people aware about the industry. In 2006, not many of knew about the Social networking sites or Skype. The concept of Outsourcing was there, but again not many of us knew.

I am still not sure of how many people know about the technologies for our mind has a tendency to believe that everyone knows what we know and everyone doesn’t know what we don’t know. But, I am pretty sure that the book is written for people in Corporate Organizations and everyone in the organizations must be aware of these concepts now, which makes the book an outdated one.

The other thing is the book has no detailed analysis and is just like an extended magazine article. So, when the facts are known you don’t have much use.

All this makes me realize that when I start reading a Non Fiction book next time, I need to be sure of the context of the book, the time of publication and its relevance to today’s world.

Happy Reading!!!

P.S: The above thoughts are my personal opinion. Many of you can find the book interesting and know more from reading the book. 

The Cricketer who is perfect, yet again!

Hi Guys,

I’m back in my comfort zone again. A post about Cricket. A cricketer who has been amazing in the recent days. But it’s not with his Cricketing skills, but his orating and writing skills. If you have been following Cricket recently, it is an easy guess. It is Rahul Dravid.

I haven’t seen live telecast of Cricket for many days (as I never got any chance). I heard from many of my friends that Rahul Dravid was doing a brilliant job in Commentary Box. He is so much into Cricket and he has the amazing ability of analyzing things and interpreting them beautifully.

The first time I knew Dravid was such a good Orator was in December 2011. Indian team was touring Australia and of course, no one knew it would be his last test series. Rahul Dravid was invited to deliver the Bradman Oration and he gave a spectacular speech covering all aspects of the game.

The way he had described things, the way he had researched things that happened in the past and how it impacted the game. He strongly said that Indian Cricket is not just power and money. It has much more than that. He went on to say how many cricketers have come from small towns and how they fought against the odds to become successful.

After setting up the base, he moved into the topic of what is troubling cricket these days. He spoke about the sparse crowds for many matches in India. He went on to say how poor audience would affect the big picture. He said, ‘We are performers and entertainers. We love the audience’ He said a wonderful point that Disrespecting the fans is nothing but disrespecting the game. He went on to speak about the three formats of the game. In short, it is the best Oration on Cricket I have ever heard.

After he finished his Cricketing career (quite abruptly), ESPN realized the potential and grabbed him. He has been doing wonderful things. He has created a completely new dimension.

The article he has written today about MS Dhoni is a spectacular piece of article. He has done a wonderful analysis and has concluded that India can’t find a better captain than MS Dhoni (in the current situation). He has said Dhoni needs to understand the team better and he has wonderfully compiled what has been actually happening. He has made it very clear that no one is in good form and if you do not want Dhoni as the captain, who else can be? Is there anyone eligible to fill the position? His arguments make absolute sense.

Indian fans are very sensitive. A win can take the Cricketers to height of pride and a loss can pull them to the range of Villians. It is high time we understand that our team is in a transition phase and you can’t do wonders in a single day. Of course, there are some problems. But we need to focus on the problems rather than creating new problems.

Coming back to Rahul Dravid, he has been doing a wonderful job. The Cricketing World needs people like him. The audience love it and of course, I am one among the audience. Looking much more from Rahul Dravid V2.0.

Happy Reading!!!

Was there a Ghost?

Hi Guys,

Wish you all a very Happy New Year! I wanted to write a post around the end of December 2012 or atleast the very starting of 2013, but then I had a hectic schedule.

The first post of 2013. I was thinking of what to write about and then decided to write about an interesting incident that happened some months ago. It is about how our mind can think about things and have an immediate effect.

This is something like a continuation of the post in which I had written about one of my friends seeinga ghost. I wrote this one in October 2011 and if you haven’t read it, read it before continuing with this post.

After that particular incident happened, it became a hot topic in my classroom and many a times lot of comedy stories were running around in explanation of the incident. It was somewhere around March or April last year. I just went to their room as a few other friends were also present.

I was bright summer afternoon. We were playing cards for some time. The topic of Ghosts somehow came in. Apart from the regular roommates, myself and two other friends were there. We started ridiculing them saying how things might have gone terrible that day and it might have been someone else and it can never be the ghost.

The one who had actually seen (or the one who said so) got angry. He said a lot of other incidents too have happened. That night was not the only time it happened. On a particular day (might be a full moon day!) one of the room mates had a dream. In the dream, he went out of the bedroom to see that there was a long corridor with so many doors on either side. There was a wall painting with a Horse picture. The next day, he went upstairs for the first time and there was the same Horse picture in the window.

In another incident, a girl who lived in the opposite house has seen a girly figure sitting in the staircase at an awkward position. The stair case was in the other side and to go to the stair case a door in between has to be opened and the door was locked. In yet another incident, one of these guys had gone to the terrace to dry clothes. The terrace is protected by an iron gate and when he returned back, he found that the door was latched from outside and no one else was in the house at that time.

After some time, these guys went to have food. Myself and two of my friends (who were not staying there) were there. We were continuing with our Card game. It was some time. My mind was already playing games with me. A few days back, I had seen the movie 1408. The movie had many such scenes. In one particular scene, all the key characters whom he thinks are actually alive will be ghosts. I was thinking what if these guys come out as ghosts.

The first guy said, ‘I was having a thought in which everything in this room can come out as ghosts’. The second guy said that he was also thinking the same. I said that I was too thinking of the same. 2 seconds later, we were outside the room and standing in the Balcony. We no longer wanted to go inside the home, before the actual roommates came.

I don’t know whether the incidents happened for real or not. But for sure, the house was not having a good name around. No one was ready to occupy the big portion that was empty in the second floor. From what these guys had heard from around all the tenants who had come previously had fled the house within a few months. I still don’t know how we had the same thought at the same time. Was it a coincidence or something else?

I never really believe in the superstitious things like Ghosts. But when something like these happens, our mind automatically deviates and lead us somewhere.

Happy Reading!!!