Reflections

A book by an Anonymous writer, with a title such as "Scammed - Confessions Of A Confused Accountant" - is a book most of us would be attracted to, given the spate of revelations that has kept the media busy and working overtime! It also conjures up images of numbers, balance-sheets, convoluted cross-holdings and such like, given the word "accountant" in the title. So it was that I picked this book with a combination of eagerness and doubt - I was frankly in two minds, more so since the previous two books (Akbar and Tamasha) were fabulous - and I didn't want to break the run! But I was in for a pleasant surprise, as the book exceeded expectations, turning out to be refreshing light and quick read! Your first impression on picking up the book is the slick binding and superb cover - sleek elegant and stylish. Rarely have I seen a book that is so stylish. The binding is excellent but firm, and the font used is simple and very easy to read. All in all, ...

A brand new configuration : 'via Blog this' It is nice to see a semblance of balance echoing through the Tablet Device majors now... a sense of sanity if you will. There seems to be an increasing realisation that the Indian market is based on different factors, and requires almost a paradigm shift in approach. This can only augur well for the entire trade - customers and employees alike, companies and stakeholders alike.  History has proven that India's telecom market has grown along an entirely different path in comparison to the established markets of the west. For example, here the advent of pagers and mobiles happened almost simultaneously. Further, within the mobile space, there was heavy - almost cutthroat - competition, which placed intense pressure on pricing. The combination of the 2 factors drove the pager industry into the ground. The intense competition has forced the players to innovate constantly, which resulted in lower prices at the customer le...

Cigarette Smoking is injurious to health… a statutory warning that appears on every packet of the death – stick… Death Stick? { http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=death%20stick } Well all of you agree that I am right, that I am sure of. But exactly how? And what are the effects? These nuggets of information are always couched in friendly terms – something that I do not agree to. So, my contribution is given below, a no-holds-barred brutal statement of bare facts.       THE PROCESS OF ADDICTION  Smoke is inhaled through the mouth, and goes into the lungs, where nicotine is absorbed by the blood and reaches the brain in 7 seconds approx! Yes, just 7 seconds. And no, nicotine is not the only evil involved as you shall note below. {This is for advocates of low-nicotine cigarettes}. And a further no: cigarettes are not the only source of nicotine, there are other household sources - they are only the most potent sources; the othe...

This is Book-3 of the series Empire Of The Moghul, focusing on Akbar and his life About The Series This series is about The Mughal Dynasty - its origins and genesis, growth and lifestyle. The genre of the book is historical fiction. For an understanding of the concept and genre of historical fiction. please refer: http://reflectionsvvk.blogspot.in/2012/01/book-review-empire-of-moghul-raiders-of.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_fiction The Plot The book opens with a newly-crowned 14-year-old Akbar, and deals with his growth from a dependent unsure and relatively naive young king into a self-reliant and confident young emperor. This part has been dealt with very well, and the focus is on the young king's thoughts, impressions and mistakes, the slow but sure alienation with his mentor Bairam Khan and the reason's thereof, his relations with / expectations from / treason by Adham Khan - Mahamanga etc.This has a very material impact on the later par...

| Video | Man run over twice by trains on Delhi-Agra line, dies | News Videos from India Section Videos | - India Today : Graphic Footage - viewer discretion recommended! Disturbing video! 'via Blog this' Insaaniyat Kahaan Hai?  aapas mein gham baantein jo ham phir na rahein aise sitam kahane ko hum insaan hain ... vo insaaniyat kahaan hai jaago sone vaalon suno meri kahaani A man gets run over by a train - these things happen, unfortunately. What doesn't happen is people gather around him - but no one helps him. A second  train comes by and runs him over...  Police has been informed - turns up late. Ditto Ambulance. But no one helps this poor guy - and he dies... stomach turning! And get this: the media is crying out loud - why did no one help him? Will someone tell me why the person shooting the video did not help this unfortunate soul???? What was the videographer doing????  Who took the pictures? And people are blaming the  amb...

Bhagat Singh vs Sobha Singh | Sir Sobha Singh | | The New Indian Express : 'via Blog this' This is an old post; to the best of my knowledge, this plan has since been dropped since I have not read anything about it since this article linked above from The Indian Express Amazing act of brilliance and insensitivity on the part of the "honourable" Government of India.. apparently, they are intending to rename Connaught Place after Sardar Sobha Singh - the man who gave evidence against shaheed-e-azam Sardar Bhagat Singh..... This is carrying things too far - naming of an important landmark after a person is a great honour, and not to be taken lighly. As it is we are in the habit of naming everything after Nehru-Gandhi, instead of deserving people. Cant we think of any other, better candidates - Homi Babha, Mother Teresa, Major Dhyan Chand, MF Hussain, JRD Tata, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel etc etc- the list can be literally endless! http://en.wikiped...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant For every Englishman who came to India with original  thought, there were 10 who were incapable of original thought, and 100 who were capable of only original evil; Satyagrah was known as passive resistance: nonsense - there was nothing passive about it - Shashi Tharoor  Shashi Tharoor has covered the ground with these 2 brutally frank lines that indict the british; Jaswant Singh far more detailed, as he examined in scholarly detail the divide and rule policy and the eyewash of governance; Versaikar detailed the 1857 reprisals in Jhansi by the british in an eyewitness account; Bipin Chandra covered some of it in his book on independence; Nehru gave in vivid detail the systematic destuction of the Indian People.... All  the above are Indian writers; nearly all are great thinkers and patriots (Versaikar was a simple citizen who wrote an eyewitness account). None has covered the brutal destruction that charactarise...

The ultimate test of the quality of a book is simple: if the characters tend to stay with you after putting down the book then you can safely bet that the author has penned a story of quality - one that has binding power, with superb characterisation and a nice flow in the plot. And the current book - Tamasha in Bandargaon  - has all of that, and more... it slowly grows on you and grapples you, ensnares you in the storyline very much like a creeper vine clutches a tree! (Sorry Navneet - could not think of a more apt description) Tamasha In Bandargaon is penned by Navneet Jagannathan. He works for an FMCG major, and writes in his spare time. This is his first book  About The Reviewer Why? Simply because opinions on each book depend largely upon the interests, intellect and understanding of the reviewer! I wanted to underscore this point simply to highlight the quality of the book under discussion. I am a person who loves to read primarily Thrillers, Indian Histor...

Online Retail... frankly, only a few months ago I would very likely have thought of it in utter disdain - not for India; long way off; etc etc etc... One fine day, I got a mail in my inbox - A voucher offering 2 mocktails at Barista @ 99/- (or some such); Pay Cash On Delivery . I was surprised, and frankly tempted- COD. No security issues, I thought. Unfortunately, I still did not make the connection, and put it out of my mind as a sales promotional effort undertaken by the host organisation. Well, as it turns out, gmail (or any other mail for that matter) had other ideas, it seemed. A few mails from other such examples later, I cottoned onto an online site stating Pay Cash On Delivery! Hold on a minute, I thought. What's going on? To my mind, and to be honest - to most other people's mind, the biggest stumbling blocks to increased penetration of online retail in India lay in the low penetration of Credit Cards / Debit Cards, Low Consumer Awareness, Resistance toward...

"Goodbye California" is a rare book from the Alistair Maclean Stable - you will not find it available in most book stores. It might be available in the online stores, though. I had picked this book up  last year, read it and kept it away... my attention was drawn to it when I was  looking for a change from my usual genres. How do you review an Alistair Maclean Book? Close to impossible, with each story being a roller coaster ride full of twists and turns. You cannot give any details of the plot - delve into it in any level of detail, and you run the risk of spoiling the reader's fun. In a review, you have to give the reader a reason to either pick up the book, or stay away. To do that, you have to peel away some of the story. And in the case of the present author, doing that requires a delicate balance and precaution as to how far you can go with your words. Yes, I am enamoured by the style of Alistair Maclean - let me admit that at the outset. Despite that, th...