Liar's Poker

Gives you a peek into the world of investment banks.

India: A Million Mutinies Now

This is the best book on India that I have ever read. It takes us on a journey into the lives of a number of Indians (late 80's). And in the process exposes the various issues that India faces or had faced in that time period. It made me reminiscence my childhood days living in India. Reading this book makes me want to time travel in the 80's. Mr Naipaul's narration is excellent. Reading the book was so easy, i felt as if i was traveling and meeting people along side Mr Naipaul. I highly recommend this book.

Productivity

I have picked up a new book: Getting Things Done: Art of stess free productivity

User and User Account Management as a Service

Since the last few days I have been wondering as to what is the most important thing to keep in mind while developing an application for a new/startup company. And the more the think about it the more i realize the importance of having a separate application for managing user's accounts (money accounts and also the user details stuff). This is very important because you never know in what direction the company is going to grow. The company might decide to add a few more applications or a few more revenue generating business lines. Having a separate application for user account management will ensure that the business can offer all applications to all users and customers.

Some Indian History

Since the Sunday I have been reading a book called The Argumentative Indian. The book is a collection of essays by Amartya Sen.

The essays are primarily on Indian History and Culture. Here are some of the interesting topics the author has touched upon:
1) Hindutva: The Author portrays the negative influences of the militant Hindu culture.
2) China and India: The author writes about the interaction between India and China between 5th century AD and 11 the Century AD.
3) Class in India
4) Gender in India
5) Secularism

Overall, I am not very happy with this book. For me it has been a very slow read.

Indian's reading this book will feel that the author is stating the obvious. (Well when I pick a history book or a book on Indian culture i look for a different perspective than what is preached by indian history and social studies text books)

On Slumdog Millionaire

What is the big deal about Slumdog Millionaire winning the Oscars. A lot of my countrymen were rejoicing the fact as if the Indian Cricket team had won the world cup.

Hello.. open your eyes, it was the England team which won. And on a closing note, i think there was nothing for any Indian to be proud about in what was depicted in the movie.

And whats with Anil Kappor thanking only the Indian Audience. The movie made 100 times more money in the US than in India.

Travelling in the 90's to some of the loneliest places on earth

Hey everyone, just finished time traveling the 90's. Well, since the last 2 weeks I have been reading a book called Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of The World by Pico Iyer. Mr Iyer entertainingly recounts his travels to North Korea, Argentina, Cuba, Iceland, Bhutan, Vietnam, Paraguay and Australia and that too towards the end of cold war. Oh man, how i wish i could do that.

I really enjoyed the book. After reading this book I have been bitten by a travel bug. I really would love to travel alone along the Indian coast by bus and train. Lets see how the plan goes.