Book Review : When to Rob a Bank: A Rogue Economist's Guide to the World

When to Rob a Bank: A Rogue Economist's Guide to the World By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

(This story was published in BW | BusinessWorld Issue Dated 19-Oct-2015)

Why things are the way they are?

The economist-journalist duo is back and they have packed their multiple punches that they delivered over the last few years of blogposts into this wonderful compendium, quirky titled 'When to Rob a Bank'. The authors have bucketed their blogposts from their hugely famous ‘Freakonomics’ blog into 12 chapters with each chapter maintaining its own distinctive theme.

Have you ever wondered social costs of mediocrity? Did you know that most books can be bucketed into 7-template theories? Or what would be your

modus-operandi if you were a terrorist? Or did you know that there is load of behavioral-science hidden behind designing menus? These and many other mundane observations from the real-world are dissected by the author duo and the evidences are broken down in an unconventional manner and woven into a story thereby stimulating the reader.

The book is another freakingly fantastic read from the author’s stables after their hugely successful earlier titles : “Think like a Freak”, “Freakonomics” and “SuperFreakonomics”. Stephen J. Dubner is the journalist while behavioral-economic thinking is brought to the table by Steven D. Levitt. The author-duo truly demonstrates ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and the thought-patterns after reading the book would truly leave an indelible mark on the reader.

The duo's casual, personal and opinionated style of writing is a treat for any ardent reader and more so if you are a behavioral economist. The biggest win of the authors is their brilliant and captivating storytelling which makes the reader think beyond the norm and present to him some facets that the reader would not have otherwise thought about. So, the next time when you do not tip the air-hostess or catch someone lying or cheating, you can reason beyond the norms of morals and ethics and also think about the economics of the act that drives many of the decisions.

An enthusiastic reader of the Freakonomics blog can probably complain that the blogposts are already available for free on the public domain, but the artful curation of the blogposts into themed chapters makes the book a salivating read. But the complaint that many authors are resorting to publishing their blogposts into books is a valid complaint coming from the web-savvy.

The 50 Books Project

The idea was to make sure that my complete bandwidth in 2015 was put into books, other than the usual time spent on work and other sundries. And Oh Boy! It was indeed a fabulous year. So much learning - both indoors and outdoors - just by observing people and playing the cards suitably. I can safely vouch for the fact that 2015 was indeed one of the best years of my Life wherein I started understanding Life and the various nuances associated with it. I think this year wouldn't have been possible, had it not been for the escapade in end-2014 that took me to Amritsar and Nepal. The days spent in the Golden Temple at Amritsar and the Monastery in Lumbini(Nepal) made me realize what I was doing wrong and more importantly -- what had to done; and prepp'ed me suitably (This needs a blog post in itself, but we will save it for later!).

Nwayz...

Target was to read 50 books this year - and restrict it to Non-Fiction so that I learn something in the due course. Started off the year with a few readings on Strategy, but soon Economics pulled me in and before I knew it, I was neck-deep into my field of interest -- namely Behavioural Economics. Read a dozen odd books on this topic and my thirst has only increased since then. A Masters degree in Economics or Philosophy would be really nice, but let's see where the journey takes me to. A few courses on Coursera also added the much needed fire to this otherwise subdued interest.

So, the first question would be, which was my best read in 2015? Michael J. Sandel's book on "Justice" was probably the best for it completely opened my eyes to the idea of Justice and how it is different from Law. The cross-correlation between Justice, Law and Ethics has intrigued me for quite sometime as I see people behave in ways that are not totally rational and how the frameworks in the society are established to safeguard the interest of the collective and establish a certain order and decorum. Reading this treatise on Justice and understanding the behavioral aspects of Economics made me realize how we humans are not entirely rational and certain, if not all, make decisions that are not in the best interest of the society, or in other words - are not value maximizing decisions or transactions, and how the society has to deal with it.

Clayton M. Christensen's books on Innovation were a pleasant surprise to me and helped me theorize certain innovation cycles as I see them unfold in the industry. "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz and "Sources of Power : How People Make Decisions" by Gary Klein were other notable reads. My readings since November, were mainly on the digital medium, as I had many TO_BE_READ articles and wanted to reach a count of zero unread articles in my feed reader. As the year came to an end, I found solace in Bhagvad Gita by Eknath Easwaran. This is a 3 part series, and am already quite intrigued by Volume-1.

So, next question is : Did I finish reading 50 books? Well, technically, I read close to 38 books (click here for the list) , but on top of this, I read close to 15 text books relating to various management disciplines. To add to this, my feed reader(I use Feedly) presents close to 400 articles from my various subscriptions on a daily basis, out of which I end up reading dozen odd long form articles on weekdays and double that on weekends. So, well yeah! A year of good reading indeed.

Go Exploring!

So what's in for 2016? I will prefer to do as per the flow(as has been my style in travelling as well), but I think I am going to keep the track on Bhagwad Gita on and finish the trilogy. I also intend to read some titles by our former President S.Radhakrishnan. And read more of Behavioural Economics. "Irrational Exuberance" still evades me and few other titles related to innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership are in my TODO. I would also like to read Aristotle and Plato this year; while 'Meditations' by Marcus Aurelius has been in my TODO for a few years now. I also have to catchup on the pending reads on Anthropology and Neuro-Psychology. A few reads related to Design and Visualization would keep my appetite going while understanding Law and Justice will keep me closer to many practical realities.

So, let's see where 2016 takes me. Some in my wishlist, though :

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
2. Phishing for Phools - The Economics of Manipulations and Deception by George A Akerlof , Robert J Schiller 
3. The Hard Thing about Hard Thing: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
4. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
5. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
6. Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists by Raghuram Rajan
7. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard H Thaler
8. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg 
9. Irrational Exuberance by Robert J. Shiller
10. Who Gets What - And Why The Hidden World of Matchmaking and Market Design by Alvin E. Roth
11. Your Strategy Needs a Strategy: How to Choose and Execute the Right Approach by Martin Reeves
12. Theory of Justice by Rawls 
13. What Money Can't Buy by Michael J. Sandel
14. 10 Judgements That Changed India by Zia Mody

Book Review : Corrugated Slices : The Social Jalebi

(This book review was published in the BusinessWorld magazine dated 15-June-2015)

The Jalebi Trilogy gets its third and final book titled 'Corrugated Slices : The Social Jalebi'. Taking on the Jalebi as an anecdotal reference, the author Shombit Sengupta tries to juxtapose the jalebi's contortions and tortuosity with an European eye, that is, looking at Indian scheme of things and behaviour patterns with an European style of looking and observing.

The author's career started off sweeping floors for a few years and went onto run his own Company for many decades and the translation of these experiences is this trilogy. The unpredictability of the jalebi's contours is cross-referenced in every possible way with each and everything that the author observes or has experienced. Spread across many sections, with the author meandering from Shah Rukh Khan to civets, the reader is sometimes confused with the author's message. Though the book seems to be an easy read, the lack of a linear story-telling makes this otherwise scrumptious sugary delicacy unappealing and reader is seen trudging along the seamless interconnections.

Book Review : The Rich by John Kampfner

(This book review was published in the Business World magazine dated 1-June-2015)

When Gordon Gecko utters  his famous words of Greed, for the lack of better words, being Good, little did we comprehend the thought process that goes into psychology of the money-making business that has rarely changed for generations. John Kampfner in The Rich: From Slaves to Super-Yachts: A 2,000-Year History (Hachette) shows us that the gap between the super-rich and rich (not to mention the poor) has only continued to widen and grow as he focuses on the world of haves and have-mores in his brilliant treatise on The Rich.

The author runs through the individualities starting from Marcus Licinius Crassuw, from the Roman times, to the likes of The Krupps, Andrew Carnegie and Mobutu Sese Seko. The theme throughout the book is money and wealth and the process of making and accumulating it. Kampfner never romanticises his subjects and his discernible commentary is restricted to the subjects alone and ignores the families and friends.

The rich live in a parallel world and belong to a globalised and gilded class flaunting their opulence in their own ways. The author deep dives into a world in which power, influence and position are the pillars of the new establishment and creating and maintaining the reputation is the motivating force. The rich swoon and fraternise on each other’s yachts as the tax regime and infrastructure go hand in hand with glamour and gigantism, to give birth to cities like Dubai. The panorama of the current wealthy people includes the sheikhs, the oligarchs, the geeks and the bankers with a combined wealth to buy out complete economies and also to bequeath important and much needed political muscle, while societies continue to indulge the super-rich.

The fossilisation of the previous dynasties of billionaires has been a wakeup call to the current super-rich, as the latter has indulged in ‘philanthrocapitalism’ for serving the broader societal needs. The moral commitment of the Giving Pledge is overshadowed by words of Buffett when he says “enough so they feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing”.

Envy, detest and abhorrence often runs across the reader’s mind as the author profiles some of the wealthiest who have ever lived on this planet. While the reader might sometimes be embarrassed with means adopted to accumulate the wealth, the author maintains a distant journalistic view, only reporting what he sees and observes as he concludes that the victory of the present super-rich is a product of the 2,000 years of history. 

Book Review : Neuromarketing in Action

"Neuromarketing in Action" by Patrick M.Georges, Anne-Sophie Bayle-Tourtoulou and Michel Badoc.

Of Purple Cows and Grey Matter

When was the last time you missed reading the fineprint in an advertisement or a document and it later came to haunt you. The smalltext or fineprint specifically targets the information processing rule in the brain that calls out 'The smaller it is, the more insignificant it is' and hence you gloss over them. Do you realize that men with sports cars attract women because behavioral scientists believe that you can only invest in unnecessary objects if you are healthy and strong, after you have met your required needs?

What happens when Oliver Sacks meets Seth Godin? Cross-disciplinary research is in vogue these days, and the field of neuro-marketing perfectly fits into this space. The authors, Patrick M.Georges, Anne-Sophie Bayle-Tourtoulou and Michel Badoc, are Professors at HEC (Paris) and teach marketing. The much needed neuroscience to this mix is brought by Patrick who was the head of neurosurgery earlier. The book details many recipes for the marketing initiatives to be successful both internally (your boss and inside the organization) and externally (end customers).

The different aspects of neuromarketing are presented to us in digestible chunks across different chapters. The authors talk start with the foundational series on marketing, neuroscience, and then juxtapose neuromarketing and slowly build upon it to explain different facets of this subliminal marketing that they aptly highlight as 'talking and selling to the brain'.

When your sub-conscious is rekindled by an external stimuli to make you choose a product, would you question the ethicality of the process? The tenet of 'The brain must confuse myth and reality' to establish the product placement in the customer's memory is highly intriguing. So, do we always attach electrodes to the heads of our customers and wait for the regions of the brain to be lit up to take a call on our marketing schemes? All this talk of the rational intelligence and sensory marketing confuses whether we are helping the customer make the right decision or are we trying to help just sell our products across.

The end chapters talk on value marketing, permission, brand and interactive marketing. Value Marketing aims at surprising customers by innovative strategies and differentiated products while permission marketing is like a bait wherein the communication happens only after taking the customer’s consent and taking an active interest in their interests.

The authors have done a fabulous job of detailing many neuromarketing recipes but the lack of story-telling is visible. The examples spread only across a few lines in some of the scenarios do not bring the much needed depth to the subject at hand and gives a text-book feel to the treatise. Nevertheless, the book is an occupying reading into this fascinating subject to be followed-up by more intriguing research on buying behaviours, decision sciences and neurobranding.

The Pursuit of Truth

Snippets from "The Pursuit of Truth" by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan .....

In the lectures on Hindu View of Life, I present Hinduism as a progressive historical movement still in the making. Its adherents are not custodians of a deposit, but runners carrying a lighted torch. The weaknesses of the Hindu faith which have drawn the institution into disgrace and are today blocking the way for social advance are due to a confusion between Tradition and Truth. We must preserve the spirit of Truth which will guide us all into truth. God does not say, "I am Tradition", but He says, "I am Truth". Truth is greater than its greatest teachers. We must realize that the history of the race is strewn with customs and institutions which were invaluable at first and deadly afterwards. Gross abuses which still survive require to be cut off with an unspairing hand.

To surrender our vanity and love of ourselves and expose the naked ribs of reality may mean anguish and sacrifice but it is worth it. Truth, according to Mahabhatrata, is penance and sacrifice of high order. It says "Truth is always natural with the good. Truth is eternal duty. One should reverentially bow unto truth. Truth is the highest refuge. Truth is duty, truth is penance, truth is yoga. Truth is the eternal Brahman. Truth is said to be -- sacrifice of a high order. Everything rests on Truth". Truth and reality, not falsehood and semblance, are the foundations of lasting friendship, of spiritual life. These friendly revelations have little in common with the exhibitions of spiritual nudism where the sinner speaks exultingly of the depths of sin from which he has emerged to emphasize the heights to which he has attained.

It is by suffering that we understand. The condition of true human life is to suffer pain and endure loneliness. Only those who live outwards lives without being touched inward depths can escape suffering.  Often suffering is not punishment but discipline. When the great blow falls, when we stand in the our darkest hour, shocked, baffled, defeated for the moment, when life has completely lost its savior, when we are tempted to cry "O God, art thou dead?" or with one mightier , "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"; when we hear no response even to such a cry of despair, when utter silence faces us, when the foundations slip away and the world seems to be cracking all about us, we have to bear it all , face the storm, cling to hope and believe in love. All this means suffering and it is through suffering that we learn and grow.

Book Review : Value Proposition Design

(This book review was published in the Business World magazine dated 4-May-2015)

The World of Management Books which is inundated with many titles on the Creation, Sustenance and Evolution of Value in enterprises and business got another member in its fraternity. Alexander Osterwalder(author), Yves Pigneur (co-author), Greg Bernarda (co-author), Alan Smith (co-author and art direction) and Trish Papadakos (design) have created the handbook titled ‘Value Proposition Design – How to create Products and services customers want’. The book comes as a perfect sequel to their earlier book titled 'Business Model Generation'. The set of authors call themselves the Strategyzer crew, as they run a website of the namesake.

The authors had introduced the nine Building Blocks, namely Customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure, as part of their the Business Generation Model(BGM)Canvas. While the BGM canvas creates value for your business, the Value Proposition (VP) Canvas helps you create value for your customers.

The authors claim VP Canvas is a plug-in tool to the Business Model(BM) Canvas and just like the BM Canvas allows you to visualize Business Models, the VP Canvas allows you to visualize Value Propositions in greater detail. Both canvases perfectly integrate and work hand in hand and this statement is especially valid as Value Propositions and Customer Segments live inside the framework of the BM canvas and expatiate upon it.

The authors approach starts from the VP canvas which sets the stage for further design thinking leading to testing and followed with constant monitoring of the metrics leading to evolution of the value proposition. The Design, Test and Evolve cycle is an iterative and never ending process in such a way that the value proposition is always kept relevant to the customers.By observing and identifying the customer's task and understanding their needs and their pains (problems) and gains(outcomes or benefits), design thinkers need to develop a product or a service that delivers value. And this is one of the best ways of achieving the Product-Market fit. The authors conveniently call this as Pain Relievers and Gain Creators in the Value Map.

Though the colorful diagrams and emoticons make the text engaging, overdose of it though out the book does cause some color-overload and leads to some distractions as some of the emoticons are not exactly relevant. The book is primarily meant for practitioners who can make use extensive use of frameworks and guidelines as part of their design thinking.

Book Review : Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done by Mick Ebeling

[This article was published in The Hindu Business Line on 16-Mar-2015]

When Tony Stark in his lab fixes the limb of the Iron Man suit and goes on and creates multiple and better versions of the limbs, the audience hardly realizes the bionic expert's potential in the real world. When Technology meets Humanity, the arena just opens up a million fold and prospects are numerous. What was a chance invitation to an art gallery turned out to be a roller coaster ride for our author Mick Ebeling, changing his career path, his life and also the lives of many - near and far from him – in the due course. 'Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done" is a collection of a few chapters from Mick's life in the Maker avatar as he takes us on this adventurous, yet path-breaking ride wherein Humanity is the greatest benefactor at the end of the day.

Mick Ebeling is an award-winning TV and film producer as well as an author, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He also is the founder of the Not Impossible Foundation, a nonprofit organization that oversees Not Impossible Labs, which works with state-of-the-art technology to create practical and cheap solutions to some of the problems that we humans face. Mick's inspirational journey and his DIY(Do It Yourself) attitude leads him to create simple gadgets that solve often overlooked yet much needed human necessities. 

The author recounts his experiences with technology adoption and how it ended up changing many lives. One of the first is the The EyeWriter project.  The EyeWriter project tracks the development and implementation of a painting tool for a young graffiti artist (named Tempt). Tempt is a graffiti artist who is stuck down by ALS and hence is not unable to use his limbs to express his art. EyeWriter, a device which looks like a pair of glasses developed by Mick and his team, lets ALS patients to draw just using their eyes. The device is a low cost eyetracking system developed using inexpensive cameras and open source software. Tempt’s start communicating again and the emails that he sends to Mick and the whole dynamics of making the EyeWriter even more functional and powerful is sublime to the reader. Tempt’s nirvana moment is best portrayed when he says “That was the first time I’d drawn anything since 2003. I felt like I had been held underwater, and someone finally reached down and pulled my head up so I could take a breath”. Mick's thought process and his philosophy of development is best portrayed in this story which sets the right backdrop for the rest of the book.  

Committing to a problem, and then figuring out a solution seems to be the modus operandi. 'Commit'(Yes), then figure it out 'how', in such a way that 'why' is self-demonstrating is the mantra that Mick espouses and is often seen evangelizing.  With regards the ‘how’, he lays importance on Singularity of Focus, Giving it Away, and Beautiful-Limitless Naivete as driving forces in his creative process. Mick lays a lot of emphasis on open sourcing the solution, as this is an extremely potent force for easier collaboration amongst people who are geographically dispersed and for the easier access, assimilation and implementation of the final solutions. The idea of ‘Help One, Help Many’ is only possible when the solution is given away for free, makes reduction in costs and exploration of alternative schematics and technologies.

The author does not share any recipe or any roadmap or a charter of how to achieve the Impossible, but shares his own hands-on approach and experiences which are true testaments of his thought processes. The style of First Person Singular across the whole book makes the read extremely light and it feels like a big blog post being transformed into a book. Sometimes, the author takes the reader to a fantasy land with so much energy radiating from the former. Mick comes off as a guy who is an excellent project manager or a highly energetic motivational coach (a.k.a Kabir Khan in Chak De). His ability to spot the problem, commit to it and then collating resources and the constant iterations to better the result is a constant reminder to all the Managers to hone their thought processes.

One of the most intense experiences is his sojourn into the war torn Sudan for Project Daniel wherein the author ends up printing 3D prosthetic limb for a young boy(Daniel) who loses both his hands at the age of 14. The author risks his life and takes many important decisions, but is often seen asking self-prophesying question of : “If not now, when? If not me, who?” And hence underlining the importance of each individual's capacity for betterment of humanity. Mick crosses enemy lines thereby putting even his life on danger in the extremely volatile Sudanese territory, but his singular focus on solving Daniel’s physical disability keeps him on the driver’s seat. The reader is almost transported to the scene of action in Sudan wherein after being fitted with the prosthetic limb, Mick narrates the scene as : “Daniel had never tasted chocolate before. And if you think the sight of a kid seeing his own hand wave to him for the first time would warm your heart, imagine the sight of that kid feeding himself, for the first time, a chocolate brownie. Daniel, of course, ate three”.

Collaboration is the key in any such kind of a compelling venture that leads to a greater good. When people with different and limitless expertise work in tandem, the opportunities are never ending. The author is humble and keeps reminding about his team and the volunteers who popped in from various nook and corners of the world during brainstorming, prototyping and made his dreams and the devices a success. But how to motivate people to spend enormous amounts of their time and psychic energy on a project, any project for that matter, other than the monetary component? Mick states that the beauty of the Not Impossible concept is that they simply put the problem out in the open and wait for motivated people to find it. People find their passion, their calling, and end up taking the problem and do that it for the forseeable future; thereby making the calling more meaningful for themselves.

By bringing in the personal dimension, the author keeps the reader extremely close to the events that are happening, and at times, almost makes the reader an onlooker. "Not Impossible" belongs to a genre after reading which you are very much prompted to join the author's bandwagon and put in the best efforts to change the world one step at a time. Adrenaline rushes through at some places and the reader cultivates a deep respect for the author for his efforts. The book is an important milestone in the Maker movement. Chris Anderson's 'Makers' set the stage a few years back and Mick's book, takes it one level up. The book does not lay down a charter or rules or commandments for innovation, but sheer story telling from the Maker's perspective makes it an enjoyable read.

This book is a slap on the face of those skeptics and pessimists who harbor the thought of "Sorry, this ain't gonna happen" and give up even before a game begins. This is not about winning and losing. This is not about fighting. This book is about creating experiences for humanity by leveraging technology that makes people rediscover their lost talents and bring their smiles back. Or as Mick states it 'Technology for the sake of humanity'.

Mahabharata

What is here is found elsewhere,
What is not here is nowhere.
- Mahabharata I.56. 34-35

In 2013, I got an opportunity to read the following four books on Mahabharata along with countless online posts and articles.

• Jaya : An illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattnaik
• The Difficulty of Being Good - On the Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das
• Yuganta - The End of an Epoch by Iravati Karve
• Ajaya by Anand Neelakantan 

Mahabharata is an extremely complex treatise on humans and relationships. Rules when reinforced in one chapter are broken in the very next one. Tolerance being espoused in one context is totally frowned upon in the other. By the end of it, you are pretty much confused, for the subject does not clearly lay down rules for the common man to follow. Unlike in Ramayana, where Ram clearly follows the 'rules'(dharma), Mahabharata is scattered with characters who are imperfect in their own and also in the larger moral ecosystem. A quick jab on Ramayana here is that Ram who is supposed to be 'mariyada-purushottam' is frowned upon when he leaves Sita in the forest. The context has to be understood. That, Ram leaves Sita in the forest for he does not want his wife to live with a tainted tag with him. Though he can live with Sita as-is, his love for Sita is visible when he states that he cannot see his 'praja' question him on this subject. 

Lord Krishna in one context wherein he advises Arjuna on the righteous path of dharma and truthfullness, also directs Bhima to attack Duryodhana under the belt. Many of these sacrosanct beliefs have been hushed under the carpet of Dharma. The common man does not understand the concept of Dharma with so much vagary as in the context of Mahabharata. The confusion is only built up more when you read different perspectives by different authors. But this confusion with different perspectives should be actually understood and appreciated and reflected upon more.

Dharma in its simplest definition is :

"One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself. This, in brief is the law of Dharma" - Mahabharata XVIII.113.8

As Gurcharan Das states,

The political ideology of Mahabharata rejects both the amorality of Duryodhana as well as the idealistic position of the earlier Yudhisthira in exile.  

The epics tentative world of moral haziness is closer to our experience as ordinary human beings in contrast to the certainty of the fundamentalist. Its dizzyingly plural perspectives are a nice antidote to the narrow and rigid positions that surround us amidst the hypertrophied rhetoric of the early 21st century.

It is not dharma or right conduct that the Mahabharata seems to teach, but the 'subtle' nature of dharma - its infinite subtlety, its incalculable calculus of consequences , its endless delicacy

In the present world, wherein there is a fad to label themselves as a 'rebel' and give up everything and go to the Himalayas, Mahabharata defines "Nishkama Karma" and states that life is not about going to the Himalayas, but about living self-effacingly in the world like Bhishma.

Ajaya by Anand Neelakantan is an extremely potent book for I have not heard of many other books who treat the subject from Kaurava's view point. The author lays a very strong foundation and the questions asked by Suyodhana and his moral rigmarole make a very interesting talking point. Highlighting Suyodhana as a lover of romance is something that no other author has tried so far. Ajaya is not a book if you are new to Mahabharata for it can lead to a very wrong impression of the treatise - DO NOT read it if you do not know the story of Mahabharata.

Claiming that I have become wiser by reading these books would be a joke as I have just started my path towards 'Understanding' the values implied in each of these treatises. One needs experience coupled with theoretical knowledge to gain higher echelons. And I am happy that I just started scratching the surface with these readings. The question is not if I am going to reach my destination , but the path itself is challenging to me.

To quote GD again, Mahabharata is a continuing repository of crisis in the public discourse of classical India.

Book Review : Dalit Millionaires

Dalit Millionaires by Milind Khandekar

(Book Review was published in the Business World Magazine Dated 30-June-2014)

Success is not served in a platter. One has to work hard and stumble on numerous hurdles and overcome them, before one sees the light of the day. Though this is ‘global-gyaan’ in almost all the management and self-help books on entrepreneurship,  the problems are exacerbated if one belongs to an under privileged class in a country like India with a diverse community set. Bring together the life stories of successpreneurs from such an underprivileged class and what you get is similar to Milind Khandekar's 'Dalit Millionaires' - a collage of 15 Dalit entrepreneurs who have carved their own niche in the society by becoming millionaires and leading their own business empires.

Probably the best symbolism of the success can be seen in the very first chapter on Ashok Khade who owns two pens - one which he bought 30 years back for Rs.3.50 and the Montblanc pen that he owns now for Rs.80,000. The protagonists in each of the chapters recount their own struggles with the 'system' and how they have sometimes benefited and how most of the times their resolve has been their biggest asset which has led them to bigger glories during their journey of life. Be it the 'Food King' Sarath Babu who had to lie to hide his poverty or Devjibhai Makwana who couldn’t buy a plot of land due to the discrimination that he had to face in the society or Savitaben Parmar, who sold half-burnt coals from cloth mills to support her family but is now known as Savitaben Koylawallah to whole of Gujarat, ‘hard work’ is an ingredient that each of our Dalit Heroes keep referring to when asked about their ‘success mantra’.

The story of Kalpana Saroj is probably the most captivating as she sprouts back to life from a suicide attempt after being married off at 12 and harassed by her in-laws, and then almost trampled over in the busy Bombay, was on the cross-hairs of the gangsters, but now owns Kamani Tubes Ltd. Women in The ability of the phoenix to come back to life from its own ashes is a repeating theme in all these stories.

The author is careful enough to point out that, of the 15, only 3 or 4 have benefited from the reservation in place during admissions into the academic institutions or getting a job. And follows it up by saying that almost all the heroes benefited only post-1991, that is the era of liberalization when our economy was opened up for the world market. Though the latter observation is interesting, but is questionable and is probably out-of-place.

The author has interviewed all the heroes at the end of the chapters with the same set of 10 generic questions. The book is an easy read for all those who are thinking of starting something of their own. The author has a small recipe at the end of the book which will help you ponder on your abilities and also some of the processes that needs to be adhered to.

Overall, the book is a quick and easy read and it’s best to read one chapter at a time and relive the lives of the protagonists in each of the chapters. The world of business and entrepreneurship truly honors these heroes.

The book has been translated by Dr.Vandana.R.Singh and Reenu Talwar from Hindi book by the same author titled 'Dalit Karodpati'.

Book Review : Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating by Paul Oyer

[This article was published in The Hindu Business Line on 12-May-2014]

When apples cannot be compared with oranges, is it pragmatic to compare and learn about economics from the world of online dating? Can the adventure of finding a prospective spouse online follow the trends of supply and demand? Does the process of buying and selling have any correlation with the way you choose your date? How do you think a book could be structured where there is no talk or special treatment of commodities, and economics is explained in a context where no money is being transferred?

"Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Economics I Learned from Online Dating" is a result of what happens when an economist and a Professor who teaches and sees economics everywhere sits down and correlates his experiences and observations with the world of Online Dating.  Paul Oyer, the author of the book, is a Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and has around two decades experience in economics training.  The book published by the Harvard Business Review Press is divided into ten chapters wherein the author reflects upon different facets of online dating and economics in simple terms. Key microeconomics concepts like search, signaling, adverse selection, cheap talk, statistical discrimination , thick markets and network externalities along with apt story telling makes it a mellifluous read.

At the very beginning of the book, the author is careful enough to assert that the partner market is one where both sides have to settle for each other, just as in the job market. It's different from grocery shopping, as in the latter the groceries don't have to love you back. Lying, the non-cooperative part of game theory, coupled with exaggeration is often seen on dating websites. Factors like appearances (especially height and weight), income often digress from the actual, and there is an honest attempt where everyone wants to seem as attractive as possible and not fatter, poorer and uglier.  When talk is cheap and profile inflators have incentives to tell lies, then would you lie to beat your competition? Without getting into the morality of this practice, and the questionable veracity of the information, the author points out a few examples of offline verification in China and Korea which generates the right 'signal' for the prospect but also is an expensive process. Companies under pricing shares at an IPO to signal quality and make it easier to raise more cash in the future is one such that signals you really mean what you say.

  

Demand, the most crucial concept in economics, is driven not by the product but by other users, and hence demand is driven by demand, and this phenomenon of network externality is best cited using the example of an online dating site where no one wants to be the lone user using the website. A product has a network externality if one added user makes the product more valuable to other users, very similar to malls and singles bars in the physical world. And hence size of the market also matters, in what is being termed as 'thin' and 'thick' markets where the options available in the market also drive the buyers and sellers suitably. Wider set of opportunities leads to shopping around and the author introduces us to the sly technique of 'exploding offers' which can lead to some interesting dynamics.

Oyer calls the entire world of online dating to be a game of hidden information and 'statistical discrimination' - people invariably end up hiding information about them which can lead the reader of their profile to be judgmental, but he is careful enough to point out that people act in a manner that hurts members of a certain group though they have no negative feelings toward that group. He cites examples in the real world from locking your car while riding through a poor neighborhood to racial profiling in airport security, where some sort of statistical discrimination continues to exist and can work in people's favour at times. This is primarily due to statistical relationship and correlation rather than the individuality of the person involved. But before you cringe with the examples, he cautions and observes that the detrimental effects of stereotyping are pervasive and substantial. 

The chapter on Positive Assortative Mating is probably one of the most interesting chapters in the book wherein the author states by citing various research methods that the 'best' always pair of with the 'best', when it comes to physical attractiveness, income, race, education etc and this is essentially a non-random scheme and can be easily ordered. Though we might end up being paired with people who are more like we are in terms of characteristics, the author gives us insights into negative assortative mating, wherein people at the opposite end of spectrums might end up being productive for the organization when paired together as guilt and shame can come into the frame forcing high-output from even a poorer performer.

The author talks about good looks, education and higher salaries in what could be a controversial penultimate chapter and states quite bluntly that 'it pays to be attractive' as studies show that attractive people end up getting paid better. There are brilliant insights in this chapter on how completing a year of education can actually lead to better pay and how education indeed has a big causal effect on the money that you bring back home.

Author's sense of humour is reflected all throughout and especially in the last line of every chapter. His treatment of the subject is highly compassionate and the light hearted story-telling makes it a worthwhile read. The lack of a prescription to succeed in the world of Online Dating and anecdotal evidences all the way from online advertising bidding wars to dynamics in a homosexual couples, keeps the reader engaged even if the reader is clueless with the dating lores. The formatting of the book necessitates credits as it is done in way such a way that understanding is not an afterthought while reading. The multi-paradigmacy style is often seen as a winner in contemporary books and the author has furthered his analytical repertoire by cross correlating economics with other societal practices and structures. 

Selected Lines:  

When picking a life partner, I don’t get to pick the best one available. I get to pick the best one available who picks me back. In this way, the online dating search process is much more similar to the job search process than it is to the house hunting process.

My partner is truly wonderful. If I kept looking, I could probably do better. But I have to earn a living, make dinner, practice the piano, and do a bunch of other stuff. So I’m going to settle for this person and move on with life. It could certainly be a lot worse.

Book Review: The Nanologues by Vanessa Able

(This story was published in BusinessWorld Magazine Issue Dated 27-Jan-2014)

Horn OK Please / Safety on the Road is Safe Tea at Home

In a land where driving on the roads has no associated Vulcan logic, a British lady drives the World's cheapest car covering 10,000 odd kilometers around the country, alone. With a car named Abhilasha, GPS named Delilah and Ganesha on your car's deck and loads of advice from fellow friends and well-wishers, chances of going astray are very rare. The author, former editor-in-chief of Time Out Magazine, nevertheless, takes her chances with her steed - a yellow Nano LX - in this adventurous journey spanning the length the breadth of India. 

The author recounts her experiences with doddery trucks, shifting gears, rear view mirror chronicles, blaring horns and high-beam horrors as she tries to keep sanity intact on the road and her resolve constantly put to test. Author has interjected her experiences with loads of journalistic story telling. The story of the production line of the Nano, rendezvous with Ratan Tata, kids running around her car or a Maharaja who wanted to buy her Nano, figure along with her travails of finding places for a loo-break in this beautifully narrated travelogue. Her literary excursions with the sign 'Horn OK Please' painted at the backside of trucks and various other road signs tickle the funny bone somewhere. 

Ms.Able also gives a brief introduction to behavioral economics wherein she talks about 'aukaat' and 'jugaad'. The pecking order of the road does place Nano at the bottom of the highway-pyramid, and so does the mindset of a middle-class family when she succinctly states 'who wants to be seen driving the cheapest car on the market if you're trying to show yourself as being on the up?'

On her return to Jersey, the author compares herselves to a cat amongst the pigeons as her maneuvers are something of an errant on Orwellian roads. Her skills acquired subconsciously in India are reflected rather hoarsely when she honks rather impatiently at a pregnant woman in a car park.

The author's three month long journey is converted into what she claims as this 'over-sentimental silent eulogy' as she whizzes and zooms past vehicles by the end of the journey. The book is an enjoyable read and is littered with Brittishisms all throughout. The latter along with adequate research on each of the places infuses a much needed vigour in this travelogue than making it sound as if the author is driving from Point A to Point B. 

The US/UK version of this book is being released under the title 'Never Mind the Bullocks' in 2014.

Ashwatthama's Revenge

The character of Aswatthama in the Mahabharata has always fascinated me. It was interesting to read the character analysis of Aswatthama in the book 'The Difficulty of Being Good' by Gurcharan Das. Though the other chapters in the book were equally captivating, I found the one on "Ashwatthama's Revenge" to be of high calibre and of immense importance in the present societal scenario(s).

A quick intro to Aswatthama:
- Son of Dronacharya and Grandson of sage Bharadwaja; and hence a Brahmin(and not a kshatriya)
- During Mahabharata, Yudhishthira tells a lie that Ashwatthama is dead['Ashwathama hathaha kunjaraha' -- In Sanskrit "Ashwathama hathaha" means 'ashwathama is dead' and "kunjaraha" means 'elephant'. Yudhishthira utters 'kunjaraha' slowly so that Drona cannot hear it] and this causes Drona to drop his arms(as his son has been killed) and descend his chariot and meditate. Dhristadhyumna decapitates Drona then.
- Actual fact : An elephant called Ashwatthama was slain by Bhima. Yudhishthira had to tell this lie(at the instruction of Krishna) for there was no other way to defeat Drona. Angered by this lie which led to his father's death, Aswatthama swore to kill the Pandavas. At night, he spots an owl ambushing crows sleeping on the trees. He gets an idea and decides to attack the Panadava's camp at night; he kills all the children of the Pandavas who were sleeping inside the tents. It is said that Ashwatthama had the blessings of Mahadeva(Shiva) and hence this was possible.
- Arjuna and Ashwatthama are the only two to have the knowledge of invoking a Brahmastra; this was taught to them by Drona. Drona did not teach Ashwatthama to withdraw the weapon as he felt that a brahmin would never have the use of invoking the weapon.
- When Pandavas came searching for Ashwatthama, post the massacre of their children, the latter invoked the Brahmastra and Arjuna did too. The clash of the two weapons was suitably stopped by Vyasa(as it would have led to total annihilation), but as Ashwatthama did not have the knowledge to withdraw his weapon, he directed it towards the womb of Uttara(Abhimanyu's wife) who was pregnant - to end the dynasty completely.
- Ashwatthama was subjected to a curse(his Prarabdha karma).
- Curse of Immortality : "he will carry the burden of all people's sins on his shoulders and will roam alone like a ghost without getting any love and courtesy for 3000 years. He will have neither any hospitality nor any accommodation; He will be in total isolation from mankind and society; His body will suffer from a host of incurable diseases forming sores and ulcers that would never heal"

This post is by no means my attempt to understand and research Ashwatthama better, but is to highlight some of the notes from the chapter which is to be used for further analysis.

Notes:
From 'The Difficulty of Being Good' by Gurcharan Das on the subject of "Ashwatthama's Revenge"

• legitimacy of retributive justice
• He is intent on revenge though he is aware of of its terrible karmic consequences

  Truly, if killing my father's murderers,
  The Panchalas, as they sleep in the night, means
  Rebirth for me as a worm or a moth, I shall
  Suffer it gladly.

• The Mahabharata has been called 'an epic of revenge' and Ashwathama happens to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time
• Vengeance has the power of an instinct. The 'lust of vengeance' and the 'thirst of revenge' are so powerful that they rival all other human needs.
• vindictiveness damages the core of the whole being
• If the good person suffers, then the bad person should suffer even more : this is an idea that seems embedded in the human psyche. Consciously one denies it, of course, and proclaims piously, 'I'm not the sort of person who holds grudges'. Yet one unconsciously applauds when the villain 'gets what he deserves'. Wanting to punish a villain or seeing him punished is ubiquitous in literature, movies and politics. 
• retribution is useful because it brings a 'profound sense of moral equilibrium impelling us to demand that people pay for the harm that they have done to others'
• punishment on the grounds of social control: it provides an incentive for a normal person to comply with laws, helps reduce crime and thus maximizes human welfare
• according to Jean Hampton : the aim of punishment is not to avenge wrongdoing or to inflict pain and injury on the offender but 'to annul the offender's claim of superiority'
• doctrine of proportionality is consistent with human intuition - Exodus 21:22-25
• The rod of Punishment is to applied differential and according to Law, not haphazardly; Punishment may be censure, imprisonment, gold, expulsion, severing limb from body, or execution. Banishment, death and the various corporal afflictions should not be imposed for any trivial reason. - Mahabharata XII.122.40-42
• Forgiveness is the strength of the virtuous
• to fight is easy, but to forgive is difficult. To be patient is not to be weak, to seek peace is always the wiser course.

  We who were the conquerors have at last
  been conquered by the foe...
  How can we call it victory when we are the ..
  Vanquished
    - Mahabharata X.10.9

• forbearance vs forgiveness : while forgiveness  suggests a degree of 'self-righteousness', forbearance points one in the direction of the classical virtue of magnanimity. The magnanimous person is forward-looking and does not differ the 'victimization; complex of the forgiving person.
• Nicomachean Ethics
• The word 'jehad' is rarely found in the Quran but is referred to 199 times in the Hadith, which was written 2 centuries after the death of the Prophet.  The Wahabis interpreted Jehad to mean a holy war, even though it had actually mean 'striving'; a Mujahideen was originally not a holy warrior but one who strives.

I want to point out that revenge is an extremely dangerous weapon, and request you not to form any kind of opinions based on the notes above. 'Revenge' and 'Punishment' are to be understood and analyzed in different contexts and are extremely complex topics; the path of 'peace' and 'love' is to be always followed. Am in the process of understanding Mahabharata and its characters based on commentaries and perspectives from different resources and it always keeps puzzling me and leads me to explore and research more on this topic.

Book Review : 'The Good, The Bad And The Ridiculous' by Khushwant Singh

Encounters In India and Land Beyond over a Scotch

The Contents read a list of names spanning two pages - back to back. Some names stuck a chord whereas some were completely new. My eyes involuntarily searched for 'Mahatma Gandhi' and I jumped to the page number to read it. Some blurbs:

He took a vow of celibacy in his prime, but without consulting his wife, which I think was grossly unfair. He would sleep naked beside young girls to test his brahmacharya. He could be very odd.

And thus the stage was set for reading this book that contained the profiles of  many prominent people while he opens up a closet full of facts that are not widely known :) Having read Jug Suraiya's 'The Great Indian Bores', it always fascinated me to read opinions of prominent people from other equally great people - those who have been in 'their' circles.

In the Introduction, Mr.Singh states:

I am a voyeur and a gossip. I am also very opinionated.

..and this set the mood even better. I love people who are opinionated; because they generally have very 'strong' opinions on things they believe in and do not try to be politically right; and hence Mr.Singh does not fear criticism when he states uncomplimentary things about dead people.

Perspectives are more interesting, enthralling and captivating than Narrations. And especially when the perspectives are from one of the most prolific writers whose life has spanned multiple generations(almost a century!), then it carries a lot of credibility along with interesting innuendoes. If the perspectives are spewed with sexual escapades and with frequent usage of the word 'bosom', then you are all the more sure that the author has to be no one else but Khushwant Singh saheb.

'The Good, The Bad And The Ridiculous' is Khushwant Singh's presentation to us of what he had to undergo while meeting many famous and not-so-famous people during his lifetime. His opinions are candid and the felicitousness of the prose makes some of the characters jump out inspite of the verbiage spanning just a few pages.  We are looking at a book that spans 200 pages with 35 characters being commented/profiled upon. That does not leave a complete character analysis of each one of them, but some extremely witty lines interlaced with the Author's smugness.

He is outright blunt in rejecting or expressing his animosity to certain people - like Advani; whereas, he also hides his inclination towards some, in the veil of 'ambivalence' - like Indira Gandhi. The biggest piece is not on his relatives or political leaders, but his boss - VK Menon; followed by a close second of Giani Zail Singh. The shortest is on Promita Bedi - like her streak on the Juhu Beach. The author's perspectives give you an introduction to even those whom you have never even heard of before - especially to the non-baby-boomers.

This book will be a great gift to your grandfather or dad or uncle who was born around Independence(baby-boomers) and has read and seen those characters either in the newspapers or on the tele. For the gen-x like me, who dig History, this is always an interesting book, for you get an inside peek into the lives of many, from the eyes of Khushwant Singh -- You will not be blamed, as it is Singh sahib who is peeking :)

Book Review: Reva EV: India’s Green Gift to the World By Dr SK Maini

(A variation of this review was published in the Business World Magazine dated 23-September-2013)

In the last week of July, BMW presented to the world the company's first electric car that was mass-produced. Called i3, it was priced upwards of 45,000USD and was looking ravishingly neat. And a few weeks before that, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Modors, unveiled the Battery Swap System for Model S that was faster than filling your gas tank. And a part of the World went gaga about them while the remaining still slept in the darkness and continued to ride the gas powered vehicles, let alone know about the other brands of EVs.

In our own backyard, Reva is a very popular name and is sometimes seen as a small animal zipping past the traffic. Though Reva or any other EV for that matter has many challenges for it to become mainstream, the success of Reva lies in the fact that it has continued to remain on the roads and be produced for a very niche market and is priced at one-tenths of the contemporary EVs. Professor Maini in his new book 'RevaEV' goes onto state that Reva has been getting really rave reviews and is not restricted to the Indian roads but is also being exported to a many other countries. What started as a small project in a tools industry has gone onto become an award winning car that has been mainly built using indigenous technologies. During the due course of the book Prof.Maini highlights the various achievements and breakthroughs that were seen during the development of the EV and how managing limited resources made them cost-competitive compared to many other EVs in various segments.

My biggest disappointment with this book would be that Prof.Maini is often seen repeating what he has already stated and continues his paeans on his son Chetan without much going into the emotions. The book, though a quick read, is seen lacking the 'rigour' that could have otherwise made this book an enjoyable read and an object of possession for posterity. Remember that RevaEV is probably one of the biggest achievements in our auto-industry as it was developed purely from inbred technologies and is truly our 'Green' gift to the World. The book lacks the depth that could be gone into some of the challenges that were faced, than merely stating them point wise. Though comparing with Lee Iacocca’s Autobiography would be inevitable and not do justice to the efforts, but Prof.Maini could have used some flavours of the ‘relentless pursuit’ that is often seen in the Auto Industry and given us some splendid insights.

Though the book fails in many quarters, it would be interesting to watch how the technology from EVs are used in other spheres of life and how EVs are molded into over the next decade. Do vanilla EVs have a chance to compete or do they need to rely upon standby gasoline powered engines for longer journeys. Would they command the label of being a 'Glorified Golf Cart' or indeed become an object of mass-consumption? We will wait and watch.

Book Review : My Journey by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

You are pretty much hooked when your grandpa tells you a story; for you know that the story is straight from his heart and might have many anecdotes which might lead to other interesting stories and observations. And this is the feeling when you read Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam's new book "My Journey".

A sequel to his previous books, this book is written the usual candid way, but the author has made this book deeply personal - his father, mother, sister, brothers, temple priests , mentors and many other characters who made an impact during his upbringing - figure in different stories.

As Dr.Kalam states, the book is not a linear account of his life, but events in his life that had a deep impact on him and how they taught him various facets of life and made him understand, appreciate and learn from them. Failures, dejections and death are part of life and Dr.Kalam talks about how he managed to tackle the different challenges that kept surfacing during different stages of his life. Talking about each of the chapters in this review would do no justice to the review or the book, as the stories on their own have a lot to teach to all of us alike. The honesty and the candidness in the stories is something that the author has perfected in all his books and that keeps the reader hooked and turn the pages with anticipation to know more.

It is but natural that you develop a sense of new vigour and energy when father-like figure helps you and shares some of their experiences in their life when you are experiencing tough challenges in life. Dr.Kalam is that elderly person who is all guns out in the support of GenX in realizing their dreams but at the same cautioning them of the various speed-bumps that might arise from time to time and how one needs to learn and rebound from these experiences. When his dreams of becoming a Pilot failed and walls closed in on him, a dip in the Holy Ganges at Rishikesh followed by spiritual enlightenment at Sivananda Ashram made him stronger and carry on with his life. He states:

"Each setback teaches us a new facet of life and something about our own responsibilities. When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realize that these recources are always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives".

A quick read, that can be finished in just a few hours, but I would request you to read each chapter slowly and soak in the enthusiasm and the humility that Dr.Kalam professes. The simplicity reflected in his life is also shown in the book. During the read, sometimes you slip into a state of nostalgia wherein your think about your childhood and that person that helped you learn something very trivial that is helping you a lot now - you credit them for their efforts and this I believe is what Dr.Kalam tries to stress at various junctures. Be it the sea or the boat or the morning walks with his father or the different people appearing in his life, every thing or person has something to teach us and we should always be all ears and eyes open to learn from them and further our life.

Dr.Kalam ends the books with a quick summary of his Journey from being a boy in the coastal town of Rameshwaram to India's top-most office and says ...

"Hard work and piety, study and learning , compassion and forgiveness - these have been the cornerstones of my life"

In Summary : Highly recommended short read.

Book Review : Butterflies on the Roof of the World By Peter Smetacek

The Butterfly Diaries

(An edited version of this story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 08-Apr-2013)

At Singapore's Changi Airport I glanced upon a board that mentioned the presence of a Butterfly Garden. Unable to hide the childlike curiosity, i quickly ran towards to it only to enter into a beautiful mini rainforest ensconced in this concrete and glass structure; I wasn't sure when i last saw a butterfly in Bangalore. But that is not a problem with Peter Smetacek, who runs the Butterfly Research Centre at Bhimtal in Uttarakhand, works on the taxonomy and zoo geography of Indian Lepidoptera, published closed to 60 papers on the subject, is an authority on Indian butterflies and moths and is also the author of the beautiful book titled 'Butterflies on the Roof of the world: A Memoir'. Credits to this book that i came to know that word 'lepidoptera' is actually the term that acts like a collective noun for moths and butterflies.

A super-imposition of a memoir and travelogues, the author paints a rich tapestry with beautiful landscapes and butterflies fluttering around and takes us into small ecosystems high up in the mountains that are perfect havens for different species of butterflies and moths. And though interspersed with the Latin scientific names of the species of the butterflies, Peter takes us into forests, ravines, meadows and streams during his quest to document Lepidoptera at different altitude ranges. The different altitudinal ranges include bands from plains till 1500m, the second from 1600m to 3000m, the third from 3000m to 4000m and the last belt comprising of butterflies in the trans-Himalayan area from 4000 to 5800m above sea level. Having worked on Lepidoptera for more than 30 years, Peter shares his fascination for these fragile and short-lived creatures from his central vantage point.

An extremely entertaining and informative narrative, the book indeed sometimes enthuse us with a sense of adventure and prompts us to pack our bags and get on a quest to explore these butterflies in their natural habitats. The author also shares his interesting observations about the behavior of these butterflies. The butterfly's wing shape, color and pattern all help it in surmounting the challenges in the nature, and the author mentions how techniques such as motion camouflage and silhouette recognition that are actively used by the Lepidoptera also end up being used by our modern air forces. He also shares an interesting insight that though butterflies are generally held responsible for pollination, it is the moths that are responsible for pollinating most flowers above the tree line on the southern face of the Himalaya.

Loads of interesting trivia about the butterflies throughout the book is what adds an extra dollop of ice-cream in this drool worthy sundae. For example, did you know that butterflies use their wings not only to fly but also to reflect solar radiation onto their bodies and that the clouds obstructing the sun can sometimes make them inactive? And that the word 'butterfly' actually originated from the pale yellow colored butterflies (known as Brimstones) in England that looked like butter? These and many more.

During his quest in the inaccessible regions of Kumaon and Garhwal, our butterfly tracker has had his own share of interesting experiences, be it the sedating honey, dried caterpillars that are used as aphrodisiacs or a new record in India of little-known butterfly that was recorded earlier in remote Pamirs and in a village in Tibet. In the last chapter, Peter underscores the importance of moths and butterflies as bio-indicators of ecological functions and groundwater without being overly melodramatic about nature conservation. He highlights the importance of these little creatures in our larger ecosystem and also to our own sustenance and mentions how forest fires and depleting green cover are affecting the butterflies to vanish from certain regions.

Full marks to the author in this masterpiece that many readers will cherish in their bookshelves for a long time. The tapestry wouldn’t be complete without the added life and depth that the author has carefully spread across his canvas.

Book Review : Three Mediocre Books on Corporate Preparedness

(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 21-Jan-2013)

There is no magic formula for making it big in life. It’s all about your preparedness and how. These three books are trying to look at corporate preparedness and make a feeble attempt to teach the subject to its readers. While Make It Or Break It by Partha Sarathi Basu is a guide for the novice in the corporate world, Daddy’s Logic by Anthony Rose encourages us to get out of our cosy cubicles and get going. Jack’s Business by Gabriel Fuchs is a manual on how to tame greed, something that has built and broken industries in many parts of the globe.

Basu is finance director for India and South Asia at AkzoNobel. His books include Why Not. . .! Racing Ahead with Mentors. His latest book mainly targets aspiring teenagers or young professionals who are just about to start a corporate life. Through fable-like stories as examples that prepare young professionals to manage everyday life, Basu acts like a mentor and motivator. And in that effort, he performs well, though he is not great. His examples portray real-life scenarios in any office and show how a young executive should prepare so that her early career remains “successful”. To Basu, success merely means not committing any blunders due to the lack of knowledge of corporate culture and being aware of one’s environs. There is no protagonist and the author spews out rule after rule meant to ensure a trouble-free career as well as cordial relationships with peers and seniors.

This self-help book is written in simple and lucid language and teaches the importance of common sense without making any effort to talk about the relevance of having dreams and how to chase them. In the preface, Renu Karnad, managing director of HDFC, calls this book a “Lonely Planet” for aspiring professionals fresh out of campus. Aptly so. And just that.

While Basu guides the path for a novice, Rose, a public relations veteran, goes beyond the customs of a cubicle. In Daddy’s Logic, he covers larger aspects of life. Spread across 20 chapters covering 20 aspects of living a regretfree happy life, these are primarily based on author’s interactions and experiences with this father over a span of 30 years. The author has superimposed advice from his daddy with examples of corporate leaders, underscoring the fact that our parents play an important part in shaping our early life and their advice is often followed and implemented even after they leave us. This book contains a surfeit of practical advice peppered with loads of anecdotes and pragmatic insights.

Fuchs talks about more than just greed, which has become a prominent keyword for any book associated with the finance industry, along with arrogance and skills. The plot is generally the same: a nobody’s quest for success sees him going on to achieve the heights and then losing everything due to his ego and greed. There is no place for feelings of guilt, sorrow or pity and the lure of fast money leads one to the fast track to success and by the time he realises that he has gone too far, he generally ends up languishing in a prison cell. The central premise of any such book is similar to the tagline “Greed is Good” from the 1987 epic movie Wall Street  by Oliver Stone.

Fuchs is a consultant and a business intelligence expert. His book claims to be based on a true story and so readers would expect something new to be told in it, but the subject has become so mundane that almost all plots read alike. Perhaps, Greg Smith’s open resignation published recently on The New York Times – ‘Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs’ — would give us a realistic feel of what goes on in the industry. Still, the book is a much better, faster and credible read than most such books.

Book Review: Makers - The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson

(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 10-Dec-2012)

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard commands the Enterprise Replicator to make “Tea. Earl Gray. Hot” and pop comes the hot beverage. This was a sci-fi movie with tonnes of similarly fascinating gadgets that looked unbelievable, but in Makers, Chris Anderson brings in similar elements of surprise. He makes a strong argument about how digital fabrication is going to aid desktop factories in the near future and how it can bring many such gadgets to life. Anderson is the editor-in-chief of Wired, co-founder of 3D Robotics and DIY Drones web communities and the author of best-sellers such as The Long Tail and Free: How Today’s Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing. His new book is all about the new wave of innovation and instant-entrepreneurship using various digital tools.

The author hails the importance of ‘doing’ or ‘making’ as the most important catalyst and claims the ‘garage-culture’ is going to lead us to a new world of innovation and great products. Calling the ‘maker movement’ an ‘industrial revolution’ does sound exaggerated at a cursory glance, but the author has done a fine job by describing the various innovations in 3D printing, digitally-controlled milling machines and laser cutters that are going to be important tools for rapid prototyping and manufacturing.

The author sees the Third Industrial Revolution as one where digital manufacturing aids personal manufacturing, and calls for the industrialisation of the maker movement. His excitement is felt all over the book as he starts off with his experiences of seeing his grandfather work in his garage, and until now where he works with people from across the globe for DIY Drones.

Today, the Web is increasingly becoming a part of our life, and the networking cable is the conveyor belt of the digital world. The cycles from ideas to entrepreneurship have reduced drastically as Web-centric and open-innovation models have led to increased collaboration between people in a geography-agnostic world.

Anderson cites the example of initiatives such as KickStarters, where innovators can post their ideas even before they produce the prototype and get funding and also get a feel of the possible adoption rates. There are no barriers to variety, and digital tools have helped customise products even when they are mass-produced. Especially, says Anderson citing the example of 3D printer, this has led to individualisation and customisation and goes on to a state where buying a 3D printer is similar to buying a front-row seat to a cultural transformation. The author’s hyper-focus on 3D printers makes it sound as good as the Enterprise Replicator in Star Trek, but we, as readers, should not get carried away, as the technology is still in its infancy.

The flowing felicity of writing makes this book extremely easy to read; one can knock it off in a few hours. That said, there are a few disappointments too. One, is the lacklustre and uninspiring cover, and the other, the lack of stories citing failures in the maker movement. Entrepreneurship has not always been about serendipity and rapid-prototyping, and it would have been great if Anderson had cited cases wherein many millions of dollars were spent with no product being delivered. The book does not spur any questions, but during the course of the read, catalogues the desirable products in the Maker’s wish-list.

Anderson makes innovation sound easy for someone who has all the right tools, and, hence, loses focus from the rigorous process that has to be followed during any product design and development. He does not unravel the mysteries of entrepreneurship either. Also, the author does not brainstorm on possible intellectual property issues that will arise with digital fabrication technologies. Custom-made coffee mugs or t-shirts are easy, but will the larger population opt for other critical things made via a Replicator?

Book Review : The The Art of Intelligence by Henry A.Crumpton

(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 23-07-2012)

We've got thousands dead. All I want is the mission. You gave it to me. I'm grateful." Thus responded Henry Crumpton (Hank) to his call of duty towards operations in Afghanistan. In The Art of Intelligence, Crumpton recounts how he joined the CIA as one of the youngest recruits, carried out operations in different geographies and rose to be the head of Special Operations in CIA's Counterterrorism Center and later as Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State. The book is packed with many instances of action that involve running agent networks all over the world, collecting valuable intelligence, executing global covert action, leading men in war, and helping defend the US — aspects that make the book a good read for students of international relations.

This enjoyable read starts with the various components of the tradecraft and Crumpton's experiences with these. The first half talks about training, recruiting and liaisoning skills. Having spent around a decade running agent networks in Africa, Crumpton says, "Good spies are like athletes; good spies are born, developed and trained." A key step, as Crumpton explains, is how CIA transformed itself with the inception of new technology. Like how usage of GPS during the war in Afghanistan was instrumental in sharing intelligence quickly with ground forces. Or how proliferation of the Web made espionage an important part of collecting digital intelligence. Familiar with tough decisions that affect many lives, he notes that though engaging the enemy lethally is important, understanding and winning over the people is crucial. Parallels could be easily drawn in a corporate zone.

The dynamics between the CIA, Department of Defence, the FBI and policy-makers figures as a running theme in various contexts. Crumpton often takes a dig at the FBI for an almost non-existent intelligence analysis and sharing mechanism with the CIA, and compares it to that of the CIA's success in thwarting al Qaeda's Millennium Plot, which used a constant feedback loop between intelligence collection and analysis.

He stresses on the need for intelligence and covert action, while underlining that it is not a magic bullet. His frustration is visible when he mentions, "We had UBL (Usama bin Laden) in our electrical-optical insights, but we had no realistic policy, no clear authority..." He also mentions how Barack Obama came into office with negative views of the CIA and how it changed with CIA's key role in UBL's death.  That said, the constant eulogising leaves a false impression of CIA being a ‘perfect' body. Also, the stress on the importance of the private sector in intelligence collection hints at publicity for the author's firm — The Crumpton Group, a strategic international advisory. The author underscores the importance of crucial leadership skills needed in challenging and risk-filled environments.

(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 23-07-2012 .This review and other book reviews by me for BusinessWorld Magazine can be accessed here. )