1 The Bonfire of Vanities – Tom Wolfe 2/5

Nice story, but liked the movie better. Centers around a bond salesman, who gets in trouble for “running over” a black guy in Bronx. A bit miffed about the ending, though.

2 Justine – Marquis de Sade 0/5

Scintillatingly boring

3 Batman: The Killing Joke – Alan Moore and Brian Bolland 3/5

It is a bit difficult for me to rate a Batman comic, since “The Killing Joke” is the only Batman comic I have read so far. It presents Joker at his best, like in the movie “The Dark Knight”, but struggles to match up to Heath Ledger’s presentation. But then “The Dark Knight” was a very long movie, while “The Killing Joke” is a 46 page book and the former came two decades later and may well have drawn inspiration from the latter.

February

4 Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora – Philip Hinchcliffe 2/5

5 N or M? – Agatha Christie 2/5

6 A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar- KA Nilakanta Sastri 2/5

I find Indian history sad. This book isn’t any different, portraying South India chaotic, disorderly and well, illiterate. I would not be surprised if the Republic of Rome in its last century (126-26 BC) churned out more books for history than the subcontinent till 1900.

A nice book to start off understanding the history of South India. It gives an overview of the history till 1600s. However, the book, in its latter part, spends too much time listing down the books written and the monuments built during this time period. I would have preferred if the author had gone deeper into the society of South India, to understand its evolution and growth. Although, that may have not been possibly due to lack of sources at the time of writing (1950s)

On a related note, it would be also be interesting to note how much of Hinduism is copy pasted from Jainism.

7 Istanbul : Memories and the City – Orhan Pamuk 3/5

Pamuk beautifully portrays the recent melancholic past of Istanbul, while lacing it with his own life (Perhaps with some retcon). The feeling of sadness grows on you as the books progresses, as you experience the same melancholy of the author. Though we, in India, do not have to live with the burden of a failed ancient city like Istanbul, it is not unlike the melancholy of a failed civilization.

March

8 Batman: Year One – Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli 3/5

Although the books dwells on the origins of Batman (and Catwoman), it was the backstory of Commissioner Gordon that I impressed me more. Batman is still a work in progress, yet to plunge into the element of darkness that he takes on when he faces the Joker.

9 The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller 4/5 Recommended Read

I did not like the drawing. But the rest of the book was brilliant. The finale, I thought, was well crafted pegging the darkness of Batman and the righteousness of Superman against each other. The book is a multi threaded nightmare of a story, which eventually falls into place by the end, all the while peppered with talking heads intend on caricaturing Batman as the bad guy.

10 The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea – Translated by Wilfred Schoss 2/5

One of the oldest travel guides you can find in the world. Written in the second half of first century AD, it gives a name-place-thing-ruler of the sea route from Suez to India.

11 Caesar: Life of a Colossus – Adrian Goldsworthy 4/5 Recommended Read (For the history buff, especially)

A detailed review of Caesar’s life with an excellent overview of the society that shaped him.

When he was 18, Caesar was told by Sulla to divorce his wife. He refused. Sulla was at the peak of his powers and refusing him would have meant certain death. Still, Caesar refused. Caeasar would grow on to exceed Sulla’s career as a general and, more importantly, as a sovereign, reaching out to the entire Republic of Rome that ruled the shores of the Mediterranean, and not just the elite of the City of Rome that ruled it.

April

12 Moses and Monotheism – Sigmund Freud 3/5

Freud puts forward the idea that Moshe (Moses in Hebrew) was an Egyptian who pushed the Egyptian Aton religion onto Jews. He also says there was another Moshe who introduced volcano god Jahwe to Jews and both these religions would later combine to form Judaism. While he relies mainly on psychoanalysis to show this, there are other facts that do make it sound probable – Circumcision was a common Egyptian custom (Even in third millennia BC) that it is more likely that Jews (and later Muslims) copied it from Ancient Egyptians than be a result of an ancient bond between Abraham and God; Moshe is an Egyptian word meaning “Son”.

I do not accept his psychoanalytic explanation though, because I do not believe individual psychology can be extrapolated to human society like that. Also, he relies on inheritance of memory which is also not proven.

On a side note, it was pretty boring to read his explanation for psychoanalysis. Perhaps an indication of how much it has become part of common parlance since Freud (Or maybe I watched too much Frasier while growing up).

May

13 The Siege – Ismail Kadare 4/5 Recommended Read

In this historical fiction, Kadare takes you to the middle of a medieval siege in Albania and makes you part of it by including you into their lives. It is not just a mere description of a war, but more the story of the life of the soldiers.

14 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 1/5

Somebody killed this story and I am sure it was the butler who did it.

15 The Revenge of Gaia – James Lovelock 3/5

Though he does fall into propaganda distribution now and then, the book provides the sad tale of the future awaiting humanity. However, the book falls short of showing how continuing our ways can lead to our extinction. At best it can be said a near extinction event can occur. Which is more or less fine, since he then proposes humanity reduce its population to 0.5-1 billion if we overcome the impending global crisis. Personally, I feel many will die, irrespective of climate change or not. We can’t outrun natural selection for ever.

June

16 Danger in Darjeeling – Subhadra Sen Gupta / Tapas Guha 3/5

17 The Epic of Travancore – Mahadev Desai 1/5

It is a bit difficult for a Keralite Christian born 50 years after the Temple Entry Proclamation of the Travancore State to evaluate its significance. But the Act removed untouchability in the state with the stroke of a pen. However, unlike India, the untouchability prevalent in Travancore as well as a the rest of Kerala was more of a religious nature than a social one. In Kerala, restrictions were made on certain parts of the community from approaching temples and worshiping in them (Primarily the poorer sections, but also the upper class Ezhavas). But there were no such restrictions in education and health care and many of the so called “untouchables”, especially among the Ezhava, were well educated.

After giving the context of the Proclamation, Desai who was Gandhi’s secretary during the independence movement, presents several speeches Gandhi gave in Travancore before and after the Proclamation. Mostly philosophical in nature (and repetitive since similar speeches was delivered in different locations), it was curious to note that Gandhi rarely invoked the mythological / Godly side of Hinduism during his speeches.

18 Feluda: Stories – Satyajit Ray 3/5

A nice little mystery book.

19 The Color of Law – Mark Gimenez 2/5

A book behind its time. The Author spent a lot time on unethical work culture of the US legal profession, which in today’s time is fairly well known. He sticks to what he knows best. Would be interesting to see how he can evolve from here.

July

20 The Dark Knight Strikes Again – Frank Miller & Lynn Varley 3/5

More a Justice League book, than a Batman book, The Dark knight Strikes Again continues to pit Batman against Superman but with Lex Luthor now in charge of the latter. The plot developed nicely with Batman re-forming the JL to take on this dystopian Lutherverse, but fizzes out in the end.

21 V for Vendetta – Alan Moore & David Lloyd 4/5 Recommended Read

The Joker story that never got told because he is portrayed to be perfectly sane.

22 Kerala Under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan – CK Karim 2/5

For a book set out to question the disinformation on the usurpers of Mysore, Hyder and Tipu, it does a creditable job. Unfortunately, the author could have made a better case had he chosen to remain objective about his venture. He belittles the Battle of Nedumkotta of 1789 when the Travancore Lines were held successfully against the Mysore army, as a minor skirmish. It is said Tipu was injured in this battle, though the author puts forward conflicting reports about it to show it may not have been the case. However, he fails to explain the three month delay by Tipu to launch his final assault on the wall. But the biggest spin would be with respect to the road network set up by Tipu as the backbone for trade and commerce in Malabar and better communication between towns. He shows the reliance on manual labor for transportation of goods and comments on the rarity of wheeled traffic. This may have been true, but by doing so he ignores the vast network of waterways that was the backbone of the 2000 year old trade and commerce of Kerala.

On the whole, it does appear while Hyder was a good general, Tipu was a good ruler. But neither had diplomatic skills which led everyone around them to unite in war against them. It also fails in absolving the two of their excesses in Malabar, since the author states clearly that Hyder came to Malabar with conquest in mind. Had Hyder chosen to first develop amity with his neighbors, history of India may have well been considerably different.

On a side note, the author seems to utterly disgusted by the practice of polyandry among the Nairs, though he fails to mention the polygamy of Islam (Though I doubt the Muslims of Kerala ever practiced polygamy).

August

23 Doctor Who and the Crusaders – David Whitaker 2/5

24 Sandman #1: Preludes & Nocturnes – Neil Gaiman 3/5

Dark and playful – Always an amusing combination.

25 Sandman #2: The Doll’s House – Neil Gaiman 3.5/5

Dark and NOT playful. A book seemingly left in the foreshadow.

26 Tales from Firozsha Baag – Rohinton Mistry 3/5

The author captures the lives of the Bombay Parsi community with intricate details and brings them alive in front of the reader.

27 Litanies of Dutch Battery – NS Madhavan 3.5/5 Recommened Read for a Mallu

Read NS Madhavan’s Litanies of Dutch Battery – Historical fiction about an island community off Kochi from 1950. The author gives a real feel about the life of the people from that time, but given its nature as a historical fiction, it need not be taken as the Gospel Truth (Pun intended). The translation is littered with Malayalam and issues that are specific to Kerala of that time, so a non Mallu may not be able to relate easily with it.

28 After the Quake – Haruki Murakami 1.5/5

Six shorts but not quite enough to keep the reader engrossed in the Murakami fantasy universe.

September

29 The Simulacra – Philip K Dick 1.5/5

Time travel can be a mischievous gift, but only if properly used. Got let down with the ending.

November

30 Sandman #3: Dream Country – Neil Gaiman 3/5

31 Sandman #4: Season of Mists – Neil Gaiman 4/5 Recommended Read

32 Sandman #5: A Game of You – Neil Gaiman 2.5/5

33 Dr. Bloodmoney – Philip K Dick 3/5

When it comes to creating dystopian future, Philip K Dick is the master weaver. Yet another book in that genre peppered with racism, destruction and the occasional megalomania.

34 The Cat Who Walks Through Walls – Robert A Heinlein 2/5

The story started off nice enough off but by the middle the author seems to have lost the plot quite literally. Heinlein has filled the second half with another story which has very little connection with the first half.

35 Batman: Under the Hood Volume 1 – Judd Winick 3/5

36 Batman: Under the Hood Volume 2 – Judd Winick 2.5/5

37 Sandman #6: Fables & Reflections – Neil Gaiman 3/5

38 Sandman #7: Brief Lives – Neil Gaiman 4/5

39 Sandman #8: World’s End – Neil Gaiman 3/5

40 God Save the Dork – Sidin Vadukut 4/5

Dork is back, fumbling through his life as a business consultant challenging the norms of the investment banking industry while maintaining an overseas relationship with his girlfriend. The sequel, a laugh riot like the first one, improves on the original with a seemingly dumber version of Dork and scores with a better ending than the first one.

December

41 The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman 4/5

Deliciously enchanting. Jungle Book with a twist, which is how Gaiman calls it.

42 The Forever War – Joe Haldeman 3/5

While the story starts off in a manner similar to Starship Troopers (The movie, not the book), it evolves in a deviant manner. Using a millennium long timeframe, the author beautifully explains the cultural and social changes in society driven purely by war.

43 Sandman #9: The Kindly Ones 3/5

44 Sandman #10: The Wake 4/5

45 Sandman #11: Endless Nights 4/5

Finally started a collection of graphic novels and considerable lesser time to read in comparison to last year, being a businessman and all.

Reading List

Though I may need to find some cure for book shopaholism pretty soon.

Currently Reading

The Alien Years – Robert Silverberg
Stories – Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio (Editors)
Zorba the Greek – Nikos Kazantzakis
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories – Edgar Allan Poe
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

Left Unread (for later)

Notes from Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Odalisque – Neal Stephenson
Roverandom – JRR Tolkien (Tales from the Perilous Realm)
The Great Indian Novel – Shashi Tharoor
The Middle Sea – John Julius Norwich
Mein Kampf – Adolf Hitler

January

1 Pirate Latitudes – Michael Crichton 2/5

The story summary gives a misleading picture. Still, a nicely written story with a good finish.

2 The White Castle – Orhan Pamuk 3/5

A tad too philosophical for me, as the narrator, an Italian scholar sold off as a slave by Ottomans twins with his master, a Turkish scientist. Excellent description of 17th century Ottoman Turkey.

3 Gateway – Frederik Pohl 3/5

Roll the dice and off to a journey where no one knows what can happen. Sounds like a video game. Still, interesting premise.

4 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams 3/5

If you need to get away from this world, read the disjointed works of Douglas Adams which lacks a consistent plot line, but makes complete sense by the end just like 42.

But never read them back to back 5 Life, The Universe and Everything – Douglas Adams 3/5

6 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold 3/5

A murdered girl watching over her family and friends (and her killer) from the beyond the grave. Kinda perverse, but strikes an emotional chord.

February

7 The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown 1/5

As I turned the final page of the book, like an oncoming truck it hit me. Although the tryst of Robert Langdon in the Dan Brownesque world started as a miraculous spark from the synapses of the cerebrum, The Lost Symbol was drowned in the cecum of the human body as the secret nourishment that can give a human being longer life (Some cultures refer to this nourishment with the nomenclature “food”), after it is stripped off from the last vestige of this amazing nourishment by the secret society of Stomachos and its allies; duodenum, jejunum and ileum.

8 The Last Theorem – Frederik Pohl & Arthur C Clarke 2/5

Aside from the part that the central character happen to have my first name and leads a pretty good life, I found this book disappointing. Having been written by two of the most prominent scifi writers, I reckon it came with too much baggage of expectations.

9 Magic – Isaac Asimov 1/5

The Azazel stories were nice with the usual twist in the end. Some predictable, some not so. But half of the book was related to essays Asimov had written on fantasy, which unless you really want to read them, will find boring. There was also a Black Widower mystery story, but the plot was centred on misdirection, probably why it was put in this book.

10 1984 – George Orwell 3/5

Expansion of Animal Farm. But the totalitarian regime of the book is just a scale higher than most governments in present world. It is also easy to forget the book only represents a narrow section of the community.

11 Dork – Sidin Vadukut 3.5/5

Loved it. Kind of a Bertie Wooster & Dilbert combo.

May

12 From the Holy Mountain – William Dalrymple 5/5 Recommended Read

Dalrymple tracks the Christians in Anatolia, Levant and Egypt, unburdened by the beliefs of the Roman church and preserving Christianity as it was before Nicaea. The similarity of Islam, considered by many Byzantine Christian scholars as a version of Arianism, and Eastern Christianity is brought out. One concerning trend is the religious oppression in the region, which no religion is spared from, be it the Muslim, the Christian or the Jew. The book has a strong Christian undertone, which can be ignored.

13 The Day of the Barbarians – Alessandro Barbero 2/5

A nicely written narrative of the context that led to the Battle of Adrianople and its effects on the Roman world. It has been written for the layman, but at times Barbero do waver from a neutral point of view.

Battle of Adrianople (378) was the first major defeat of the Romans against their Germanic neighbors in 350 years. Many see it as the beginning of the end of the Roman empire (Not me, of course). Ironically, though it was the Eastern Empire that lost in Adrianople, it was the Western Empire that succumbs to the Germans a century later.

14 Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C Clarke 3/5

Interesting read, once u get the hang of it, but a bit incomplete in the end.

15 The Songs of the Distant Earth – Arthur C Clarke 2/5

An expansion of Clarke’s short story “The Other Side of the Sky”. It got a bit boring since I had read the original only a few months back.

16 Flow My Tears, the Policemen Said – Philip K Dick 3/5

A tad psychedelic, with inconsistent realities in the same story. It took me some time to adjust to the theme, but the book seemed to have left me in a semi-conscious state by the end.

June

17 So long, And Thanks for all the Fish – Douglas Adams 1/5

Not much hitchhiking happening in this book, and the story line has certain “non Adams like” consistency to it.

18 A Fall of Moondust – Arthur C Clarke 3/5

Exciting story till the end, with a level of uncertainty maintained throughout. I wouldn’t call it a space fiction though. It is just that it is set in space, like in a restricted environment.

19 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K Dick 3/5

Dystopian world lets you define a whole lot of unusual premises.

20 Blink – Malcolm Gladwell 1/5

Intuitions are a double edged sword. Thanks for telling me something I already know.

July

21 The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick 2/5

Retconned history with WWII swinging the other way.

22 The Complete Stories Volume 2 – Isaac Asimov 3/5

Mostly short stories from the 50s. Not restricted to scifi, including a fantasy story and one that I would consider alien abduction porn. Gives you a view into Asimov’s early thought process, some which matured over the years, like the history based “In a Good Cause” (which I absolutely loved) and some that were dropped (fortunately).

23 Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman 2/5

Kinda disappointing. Nicely written fantasy, but lacked the suspense I would have preferred it to have.

24 Mostly Harmless – Douglas Adams 2/5

The grand finale, where all things that did not make sense in the series yet, still do not make sense.

25 Unfinished Tales – JRR Tolkien 2/5

Only for the hardcore fans.

26 Poirot’s Early Cases – Agatha Christie 4/5

Amusing little mystery book. The villain is at times allowed to get away, even.

27 The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester 4/5

Nice little story about committing murder and getting away with it while being chased by telepathic cops. The interplay between the two protagonist and the antagonist (Though one can never decide who is who) keeps the story interesting till the end, though the end gets absorbed in philosophical gobbledygook.

28 The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway 3/5

I may have been able to appreciate it a bit more had I known something about fishing. Sort of open ended, about whether it was a happy or tragic.

29 Man Plus – Frederik Pohl 2/5

The underlying theme of inevitable doomsday never really came into fore till it was explicitly described in the end. It mostly stuck with the main theme – the central character’s personal struggle during his transformation from human to Martian. Not many surprises.

August

30 The Crimes of Love – Marquis de Sade 2/5

From the man that gave name to “sadism”, the book is a tone down one. But then it is what it was supposed to be, written in the latter days of the First French Republic. Mostly run of the mill drama, but not entirely.

31 I, Alex Cross – James Patterson 2/5

The typical Alex Cross novel – the usual investigative novel with some twists and turns, though unfortunately the “twists” were pretty predictable.

32 Waiting – Ha Jin 3/5

Beautifully written story about a Chinese life in the sixties and the seventies. Ironic ending.

33 Barbarians at the Gate – Bryan Burrough & John Heylar 4.5/5 Recommended Read

Well researched and in detail. Next time I miss a deadline I can say, when Ross Johnson submitted his 23 billion dollar bid (1988 rates) for RJR Nabisco, he was late by a minute. [Not that it mattered though, the board went for another round of bidding.]

34 The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans and the Battle for Europe – Andrew Wheatcroft 2/5

I would have preferred to see more commentary about the Turkish side during the battle. Oddly enough the Turkish side seemed entirely dependent on their Grand Vizier, while the Habsburg side had more than enough people of note. I am not sure whether it is due to lack of research on author’s part (or lack of material to research) or due to a heavily centralized nature of Ottoman hierarchy.

In retrospect, the 1683 Siege of Vienna was doomed from the start. The probability that the Ottomans could hold Vienna for long was unlikely. Given the logistical and manpower requirement of such an attack, the end would have been a failure had they not managed to hold Vienna like Constantinople in 1453. Instead they should have invested in building a Hungarian client state which could attack Vienna on its own or with Ottoman support, rather than the other way around. Or, it could have taken on Zagreb and Free City of Trieste and then attack the Venetians who were attacking their Greek bases.

35 The Tales of Beedle the Bard – JK Rowling 1/5

The purported fairy tales of the wizard world, though the book fails in comparison to the works of the brothers Grimm. Extremely overpriced as well.

36 Imperium – Robert Harris 4/5

In the midst of the military domination of the Late Republic of Rome, with its generals Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar wrecking the world unheeded, it is easy to forget the greatest theater of power – The Roman Senate. Though a historical “fiction”, the author brings to life the Late Republic of Rome with its political intricacies and foreplay. The book accompanies Cicero on his road to becoming a consul as he adapts to the changing political life around him with alliances and performances that would surprise many.

September

37 Stalin’s Ghost – Martin Cruz Smith 0/5

One of the worst books I’ve read. Too many parallel plot lines to start with (though they all are connected to the antagonist), and one of them gets forgotten somewhere in the middle of the story. The most idiotic thing I found was the protagonist being almost killed by a “stray bullet”, an event that had no impact on the overall plotline. Though the book summary talks about Stalin’s ghost coming back from dead, it may be a better title for the antagonist’s political overtures – created and killed by Stalin’s ghost.

Still better than Ashok Banker’s Gods of War and Chetan Bhagat’s 2 States.

October

38 The Fall of Jerusalem – Josephus 2/5

About the Roman conquest of Jersualem in 70 AD. Heavily pro Roman though the author was a Jew (But he was captured by Romans and switched sides). A lot of hatred, either for the author on the leaders of the various factions in the city or for the leaders on the citizens of the city. A war of attrition in the end, rather than of skill or resource. Results are often tragic in such cases.

39 The Complete Stories Volume 1 – Isaac Asimov

40 Hercule Poirot’s Christmas – Agatha Christie

41 The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler 3/5

One of the issues of reading a really old popular story is that the theme may be all too familiar since it has been copied too many times. The second is that part of the storyline may not make sense any longer (like an illegal racket for porn magazines). Once you take that out, the story is a pretty good crime novel. Extremely descriptive as well.

42 The History of the Church – Eusebius 2/5

A good overview of Early Christians, though early Christians seems to have been a suicide cult, a non violent version of today’s Islamic terrorist. He describes the martyrdom of the early Christians and the heresies of the early religion. However, he does not venture into detail of many of the heresies, their followers and their fates.

He quotes many theologians before him, but mainly relies on circular logic and rhetoric to explain away the heresies. Unsurprisingly no mention of Jesus’ progeny, other his brothers, the eldest forming an integral part of the early Church. Perhaps surprisingly no mention of Christmas, though… there are extended debates on Easter. It may be a reflection of pre Nicene Christianity.

Excessive use of adjectives and lot of words spend to tell very little. (May have been an MBA).

Sadly though the book finishes around 324 AD, before the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and has not mentioned of Arian Christianity which the author apparently favoured (before switching to Nicene). He reveres Origen (Declared a heretic in 553 AD) as a great theologian. It would have been interesting to see what the author would have thought about later Christianity. His content is mainly Roman, leaving Armenian acceptance of Christianity to the sidelines.

43 Liar’s Poker – Michael Lewis 3.5/5 Recommended Read if you are an MBA

Amusing book about the goings on at Salomon Brothers in their heydays in the 1980s. Easy read and to the point, giving an overview of Salomon’s growth as well as his life at Salomon. Puts the 2008 financial crisis into perspective. Could relate to the Epilogue of the book extremely well. Almost.

November

44 The Aryan Debate edited by Thomas R Trautmann 3/5

Nice presentation of articles presenting the mainstream viewpoints of the Aryan debate. Though the editor seems to prefer one over the other in his introduction, his commentary otherwise is neutral. However it completely ignores the religious aspect on the IVC dwellers, which is essentially what I was looking for – A way to understand the transition of the Asura / Deva Vedic religion to the the Ahuric Parsi & the Vishnu / Shiva / Deva Hindu religion.

45 King of Vagabonds – Neal Stephenson 3/5

Neal Stephenson makes Tom Clancy look like a short story writer. This book is the second part of a three part book in a three part series. Having said that, the book does present an intriguing incomplete plot which hopefully will end eventually. The main leads, Jack and Elisa, has an amusing Homer and Marge Simpson sort of a relationship, but manages to have their hands deep in the political intricacies of the 1680s Western Europe.

December

46 The Ghost Writer – Robert Harris 3/5

Stepping into a dead man’s shoes is never easy, especially when it may have been the job that led to his death. As the protagonist begins to unravel the life of his client, a former British premier being charged with war crimes, and his predecessor, his autobiographer, things get only murkier. The book keeps up suspense to the end, ending with a nice twist. Completely different from his usual genre of historical fiction, but definitely an excellent read.

47 Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote 3/5

Cute, but sad.

48 After Dark – Haruki Murakami 2/5

A book for the story teller. The ending is too open ended to give it a coherent plot.

Not quite 52, but close. Helps when you spend half the year doing nothing at home.

Reading List

Currently Reading

The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe
Justine – Marquis de Sade

Left Unread (for later)

The House of the Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Odalisque – Neal Stephenson
Roverandom – JRR Tolkien (Tales from the Perilous Realm)
Istanbul – Orhan Pamuk
The Great Indian Novel – Shashi Tharoor
The Middle Sea – John Julius Norwich
Mein Kampf – Adolf Hitler

But getting back to work led to a huge trough.

It was the break from work that changed a few of my life priorities. Earlier, I was just moving with the flow, going where life took me. It is then I realized there is more that I can do with my life than ruminating away in some office for the rest of my life. Even in my earlier job, despite the fast-track growth path the company had placed me in; it was still too slow for me. There was always a sense of wasting away my potential at work. With no job to hinder me, I was able to search out what I wanted to do and go ahead with it. So, I spend my break developing my writing, brushing up on history and chasing the stuff my dreams are made of (Okay, the last one was a bit of a stretch). Of course, I was not looking to earn anything out of this, since that was not the point anyway.

And I liked it.

Unfortunately, it was not a long term option, because I did have to start earning eventually, especially with a hefty education loan to pay off. So, I got back to work. The intent was to do both – Go ahead with my life and carry on with my job.

That, unfortunately, never got realized.

My writing dropped as I managed to write only one post the past year. The job took too much of my time that I rarely got much time to share beer with friends (Not that I drink, but you got the point anyway). There were some good times, with a bit of travelling around the country in November meeting old friends and making new. Not to mention the long hours I lost in the pages of the many books I read the past year, but it was a bit of struggle in getting my job to yield me that free time. The only high point of my last year of “employment” was a visit to Manila (My first foreign trip since I was 4) for a week, which I truly enjoyed, but that was just an exception. Otherwise, the job mirrored my first year with the same company with nothing much to write home about. And I am as broke as I was before I took up the job.

So, here I am another year later with another throw of the dice. Another resignation, not like the last time though. The new management has cleaned the system, but are now faced with a more serious question of the long term sustainability of the company.

Back on the job trail yet again, moving on from the last year and into the new.

Why do I do it?
Because I choose life – my life.

And in case you are looking for new year resolutions, I’ll settle for two more –

1) Not to buy any book till I read the 37 unread books I own currently (shown below)

2) Run 100 metres in less than 13 seconds (Personal Best is 11.7 seconds set in 1999 during my heydays as an athlete in school)

Author’s Note:  I do understand today does not signify a new year on the Gregorian calendar (Although it is probable that some tribes in remotest corners of the Amazon rainforest or the Siberian wastelands may have their new year now), but I prefer to borrow Arthur C Clarke’s logic on location of equator – Beginning of the year is an arbitrary point in time decided by humans and I decide to choose now as the beginning of a new year.

It was on a Sunday evening in a BPO office in T Nagar. Few organizers had already come and they apparently knew each other from earlier events. There was a vague recollection of the Futurians that I was reading about in Asimov’s autobiography. The discussions started in the lines of organizing the resources, roping in more sponsors and the sessions registered for the event.

On the whole, BarCamp seemed to be exactly what I had expected it to be – A group of bloggers talking about blogging and related stuff, networking and building contacts and the works. But it catered to a rather niche set of bloggers, a set that I was not part of – the techie kind. By the time the organizers started brainstorming about new session topics, I was already lost in the syntax.  I did contribute though, making a mention of plagiarism of bloggers by newspapers, though that spiraled into a completely different, but hotly contested debate. It was fun to listen to the discussions, though my techie knowledge still remained in the fringes of their world.

Despite the lack of interesting topics (For me), I was still interested in taking part in the event, just out of curiosity (Also because I am not the type who likes to miss out on networking opportunities). But as it turned out, I had to give it a miss due to a delayed postponement of my college reunion to the BCC2 weekend.

Coincidentally, the next opportunity wasn’t that far off. I was in the process of shifting from Chennai to back home in Kerala in December 2008, when the third edition of Bar Camp Kerala was announced. Unlike the city based BarCamps that I’ve came across elsewhere, Kerala had a more state oriented view. It made sense to have a state wide location since, at least for me, Kerala is more like a widespread city, than an actual state.

BarCamp Kerala 3 (BCK3) was hosted in the CUSAT college grounds in the city of Kochi. I reached an hour late having traveled from my hometown 70 kms away from the city. The first session was already on the way and not surprisingly it was something techie – About ASP.NET (Hmm, my NIIT days predated .NET).  The next session fortunately was not that techie and I did have couple of queries to ask. A non techie blogger left some interesting live commentary of his experience in the tech driven event, which on the whole was a pretty interesting experience. I met up with the organizers and chatted with some of the participants later on. I stayed on for couple more of sessions and left for a short visit to the city of Kochi post lunch.

BarCamp Kerala 4 (BCK4) followed BCK3 pretty quickly at the IIMK campus in the city of Kozhikode. It was conducted during Backwaters, an annual B School competition at IIMK, though the participants of the event were mostly the techies from the earlier event and some of the IIMK students. The event turned out to be a disappointment, since it came with corporate involvement. Combine a corporate event and MBA students and you can pretty much predict how the event will end up.

The focus was on innovation and brainstorming and ideation seemed to be the buzzwords. The sessions came and went, though the underlying nature of a corporate event in B School stayed put. I had prepared a slide for the event, which in the end I chose not to present, since I felt it didn’t fit the innovative theme of the event (The slide was on the Second Punic War). Besides, I had old friends to meet. I left by tea to catch up with couple of high school friends in the college canteen (They were in the senior year at IIMK).  Incidentally, we had a brainstorming session there as well, which turned out be a lot more creative and fun.

Tweetups are the latest trend of the social media universe. People on Twitter meeting up for coffee. Informal chat. I doubt there are any regular tweeps (slang for twitter users) who tweet regularly from my hometown. So, I went to Kochi for their second edition of Kochi Tweetup on April 18 2009, referred to as #coktup (“#”, commonly referred to as hashtags, are used to tag tweets to a particular topic, the topic here being Cochin Tweetup, abbreviated for brevity as coktup). It was in a coffee place in Ernankulam and almost a score of Kochi Tweeps had turned up.

Varying topics were discussed ranging from the recent verdict against PirateBay to the IPL match playing on TV in the background. It was nice catching up with people who you converse online every day and good to meet few more. There were attempts to live tweet the event, though the only people managed to were via mobile (No wonder it is one of the main users of twitter). There was a net connection, but there were some technical issues that needed to be sorted out before live tweeting via computer could be made possible. They were still sorting out the issues when I left, having to leave early to get back home.

BarCamps and Tweetups give opportunities to meet new people, to understand them and like all geek groups before them, even Asimov’s Futurians from the 1930s or Dilbert’s Programmers & Aerobic Instructors Community, these also seem to be mostly male dominated in attendance.

BarCamp Kerala 5 occurred on May 3, 2009. But I missed out on that one, as I was traveling with my college buddies from Masingudi to Bengaluru to Chennai. Fear not. Plans for BarCamp Kerala 6 seemed to be already underway and a BlogCamp Kerala as well, which I hope will be not that tech oriented. But it remains to be seen whether I’ll be in Kerala during the time of the events.

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5th February 2005, New Delhi

Good f(x)

Pre Script: f(x) = Morning if time < 1200
Afternoon if time >1200 and < 1500
Evening >1500

This is me reporting live from Delhi.

The weather is cold up here. The temparature’s gone down to -16 degrees below freezing (Added : A double negative, in case you missed it). The dawn crept out of the death of the night life with the sun rising in the east. As the sun sets and the cold winds churn the city, the youth of the city shed the skins of the student life to have fun and party.

Earlier …

I started off at February 1 2005 AD, 1:15 PM 25 seconds from my home with my dad. This was my first time in North India, so my dad insisted he will come, though he was recuperating from an angioplasty. We placed the the luggage in the car. The driver turned the key in the ignition. (If the reader can add the sound of a car starting, it will be extremely helpful).

Everyone knows the sights and sounds of Thrissur (Added : I was writing to my school friends most of whom were from my hometown) , so I am skipping that. The train was late as expected.  So off we went, bidding adieu to the “city” of Thrissur at around 3 O’clock.

The train journey was long. There were a couple of army men going to Kashmir to defend the country from external threats. There was also a group of players from Punjab and Haryana who had come to play the National Champonship for Indoor Cricket.

Yeah. You read that write, Indoor Cricket (First time I’ve heard of it).

Unfortunately for us, they were given only a half ticket concession, whatever that means. So, the compartment was overcrowded for the entire journey. They were pretty friendly, talking about their journey and the cricket matches. There was a mention of how they ordered “upma” thinking it was a sweet dish and found out it was quite the contrary.

We reached Delhi on 3rd of Feb. From there we went to straight to the National Institute of Immunology (Where my uncle worked) and ran into a school friend who was doing a project there. My uncle gave me an introduction of the work he was doing related to the gene mapping of tigers. There was also lot of interesting stuff regarding animals there,

[Author's Note : The following paragraph about the girls at NII has been deleted, in case the friend from NII happens to go through the mail.]

Back to present …

As I was saying the next day started, with the sun rising in the east.  I had to go all the way to Ghaziabad for my first GD/PI. It was in the afternoon at 1330, but we were not sure of how to get there. Finally, we managed to find an auto to take us to the Delhi-UP border from where we hoped to catch a bus.

The auto guy was pretty trustworthy. He straight away informed us that his meter did not work and informed us of a set rate. (Yeah, right). Anywho, we managed to get to Ghaziabad without much hassles.

What happens next? How were the girls at Ghaziabad? Read my next mail. Ran out of time.

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9 February 2005, Hyderabad

Back to Delhi (Well actually Ghaziabad),

So I walked in wearing my new Raymonds suit to give my best for the panel. I ran into a friend from TIME in my hometown. He had just completed his GD in the morning and was about to leave. They were calling people alphabetically and there was no shortage of girls whose name start with R. But it could throw up some funny situations as well. Apparently they had a group of 12 in the morning all with the same name – Rahul. Would be a fun GD especially if the panel wanted to address someone by name.

I had reached a bit early. There was a girl from Ranchi and guy from Delhi who were also waiting for the evening sessions to start. We chatted for a while. The guy had a three year workex, was a Six Sigma Black Belt and had a call from IIMK. Wow. Now, that is a lot.

The GD was good to go. The guy next to me was a Sikh. I foolishly enquired whether he was from Punjab, since I was under the impression at that time that every Sikh was from Punjab. Fortunately, he took it lightly and informed me he was from Noida.

There were 12 people in my GD group. And 5 girls. Pretty high number of girls for a GD. Among the GDs I gave last year, only at Amrita University were there more than two girls.

The first girl was from Hyderabad. She apparently remembered me from the TIME classes there, when I attended the post CAT GD/PI sessions. I think I’ve seen her, but couldn’t recollect.

The second girl was from Delhi. She is from Andhra, born and bought up in Trivandrum and currently studying in Delhi and happen to know Malayalam. She had lovely eyes and looked great with her hair cut short. Was dressed kinda informal though, in sweater and trousers.

The third girl was from Punjab. Had a good smile.

The fourth girl was a Delhiite. All executive looking in her suit. Good looking girl. She basically controlled the GD. Was too good. Worked in TCS.

And the last was the girl from Ranchi I had met earlier.

So, that’s it for the girls from Ghaziabad. As for my GD, it was crap. I barely spoke. Don’t think I’ve had worser GDs that these. Not much expectations. The interview was semed more like a formality. They asked five six basic questions. Seemed like they had already rejected me after my weak GD.

After the process was over, my dad and I left for NII. We took couple of buses back, first from Ghaziabad, which seemed to be a marketplace on wheels, with 5-7 vendors selling stuff all the way. From the UP-Delhi border, we took another bus to NII. This one seemed to be sticking to the UP border. It took a gruelling two and a half hours to reach NII. For a while we were worried we had got on the wrong bus, especially when we saw outposts of Indo-Tibetan Border Police and Border Security Force. For a while I thought we had reached Tibet. But they dropped us off right next to JNU (which was adjacent to NII) in the end.

The next day, my dad and I had a trip in the Delhi metro. Was real cool. I was actually expecting a subway like in Kolkata, but as it turned out it was a sky rail. Shows you how much I know about Delhi. Got off a place called PratapNagar. Wish I hadn’t, because it was not a place I would have willingly gone to. The skyrail ride was pretty cool. You should try it next time you are in Delhi.

Dad had some business stuff to take care the next couple of days. We left Delhi on Monday to Hyderabad. Just got here today morning. I have a presentation and interview scheduled.

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10 February 2005, Hyderabad

Well, finished my interview today. Was a big disappointment as far as the girls was concerned. Completely unexpected it was though. There were around 500-600 ppl coming in for presentation/interview on the day. The B School had around 14 centers around the country and all were having a combined selections process. There were lot of girls, but nothing compared to Ghaziabad.

The presentation went OK. I had prepared one on “Mergers & Acquistions”. I was part of an 8 member group. The other members in the group asked questions after the presentation. Pretty standard stuff. The interview  followed. Three member panel. Asked questions relating to acads, job and hobbies. No complications there either. Everything was over by 1 o’clock. The complication was that the announcement of the result on the same day. Not many B Schools do that. So, I had to wait till the end of the day.

The results came in at 6 o’clock. Didn’t do that bad. Secured myself a seat in Hyderabad. Well, if things don’t work out elsewhere, I’ll be back in Hyderabad next year.

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14 Feburary 2005, Thrissur

This is me back in Thrissur after a long and grueling trip. My third GD/PI was a major disappointment. Just 1 girl. There were a total of 17 in the group. Reached IIM-B an hour early for the GD. The selection was for Delhi based B School. Got lost a couple of times before finding the GD venue, within IIMB. Fortunately ran into someone else who was also searching for the place. (We would join the same B School later). There was a 15 minute essay preceding the GD on “Possible solutions for the Kashmir problem”. The GD was about “Religious beliefs are rational or irrational. Do they do more harm than good?” It went well for me. A satisfactory change from my usual GD performance. The interview was pretty informal. We had an alumni asking most of the questions. That went on OK.

After the GD, I had lunch with few of my school friends. My dad had left for Kerala the previous day. So I was on my own. We went to a pub afterwards and took a couple of pitchers (hic), I mean pictures there. My friend happens to be the worst photographer one can ever find. He took a couple of photos of us and messed it up both the times. The girls who were sitting behind us were more dominant in the picture.

Bought Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear” from Bangalore. Reached half way. Will give a review once I am done. (Added : Yeah, we used to review  a lot of books back then)

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20 February 2005, Manipal

My next process was for a B School in Manipal. Met a school senior while I was waiting for my interview. Didn’t talk much. He was in his second year there. Ran into another guy whom I knew from my PC days as well.

The B school happen to have a very long process starting with an extempore. For some unknown reason, I got stuck at the word go and froze. There blew any chances of selection. The GD and PI went okay. Incidentally, one of the faculties in the panel was in my panel the previous year as well, when I attempted CAT the first time.

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24 February 2005, Bangalore

Something unprecedented happened when I started off to Bangalore yesterday. The train actually came early. The station announcement said the train was going to come at 10:10, but it came at 10. Mind you, the scheduled time was actually 7:40 and the train was running 2.5 hours late.

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25 February 2005, Bangalore

Finished off my last process so far. It was a B school in Indore. My interview season is unofficially complete. BIM Trichy has to put up their list and if I get a call it will be late next month. NMIMS I had already decided to forego thanks to an additional fee for attending the next round. Also, my performance wasn’t that great and I was vary about their reserved seats.

Things started off at 0900. 25 guys (no girls) divided into groups of three. We were divided into groups of eight (I was in an all Mallu group incidentally). Finally a small enough group that can actually have a decent GD without going to the fish market. I was the only non engineer (Might be helpful for selection). Everyone had high percentiles except for me and this other guy with 96.5 percentile. One had 99.99 percentile while another 99.97. Tough.

We had a case study for GD. A bank gets robbed. The teller lets the thief leave with the money, chases him down and captures him and becomes a hero. The problem is he broke the rule by chasing the robber. Bank policy was to wait for the cops. The Manager is been advised to let him off as well as to punish him to make sure it does not set a bad precedent. We discussed for 15 minutes and a 5 minute discussion summary followed.

As for the interview, they asked me a few questions from acads and some GK stuff (mountain ranges in India, earthquakes, tsunami, monsoons). I think the interview was quite short compared to others, but it isn’t easy to figure out from the interview room. Anyway, expecting the results in early April. They have interview on 31 Mar anyway.

Funny story. While we were chatting before the interview, we were comparing the percentages of engineering given out by different universties in Kerala. One of the guys who was from REC Calicut said, his friend’s neighbour had criticised him for getting only 75 in engineering. She was saying her granddaughter was getting 99 percentage. The funny thing was that her granddaughter was studying in LKG. Nice way people compare marks. Don’t expect the Indore guys to do the same anyway. Incidentally, though all of us were from Kerala, none of us spoke a word in Malayalam.

After the interview I caught up with another school friend at the Koramagala CCD. He had also completed a long inter state journey for MBA admission. Fortunately for him, he had cleared one of his interviews and was headed for Pune in the spring. I also bought a copy of Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress and Deception Point for reading on the way back.

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Author’s Note : I do sympathize with my friends who had to read these mails in 2005. My PJs are really bad. But it will be unfair to them if I let off others from reading them.

I had two interviews lined up for the day –  A tech support job in a Hyderabad based startup and for a database administration role in an FMCG company. The first company took its time in getting there. Blame it on the traffic. At least, I could relish on the last sip of cold coffee from the machine as I watched water droplets trickle down across the windows.

It was a curious turn of events that brought me to Bangalore in the first place. I had been here only for a week, on a bootcamp from NIIT Ravipuram (Kochi). After enduring a fruitless couple of months of MBA interviews, I was distraught over the options available. With only a BBA from the local university, I didn’t see many immediate career options. CA was too tedious and long. I wanted to make better use of my memory than remembering all the legal nuances attached (I still have trouble forgetting the definitions in the Indian Contract Act 1872). I did not like auditing either. It felt like doing an autopsy, when you could have spend time finding a cure. So MBA, it was gonna be.

I went back to the Java book that I was fishing through. It has been two years since I wrote my last program and everything drew a blank. No. Cross that. Void, as per programming parlance.

… If you use too many nested ifs, you might end up being a headcase. Use switchcase instead … Int is a datatype and has no connection with the Ents in LOTR … The other datatypes are short, long (Hey, is this the stock market?), float, byte (?)… .

Time for a quick bite.

CAT was easy enough. I didn’t have any major concerns, though an IIM call was unlikely. But GDs have always been my Achilles’ Heel. I prefer to wait till everyone is done talking before I start.

(Hmm. This sandwich is good.)

But I needed a filler while I attempted CAT again. And that meant looking for a job.

The recruiters have finally arrived. They will be conducting some written tests and will be coming up with another shortlist after that. Damn! There goes the thin layer of hope I was holding on to. Back to the drawing board.

Getting a temporary job in my hometown wasn’t difficult. But I had been there for most of my life. I wanted a job outside Kerala, to learn about the people outside the state. For that I’ll need to rely on my computing skills than my accouting ones. And so I went back to my old NIIT center to see if they knew of any jobs available. It had been two years since I had gone there. In all likelihood they won’t even remember me.

The written test went ahead smoothly and I was shortlisted for the interview. First hurdle crossed.

I had shelved a programming career for a management one two years ago. I had completed a two year course at NIIT, but I still had two more years to complete my degree. Now with an year gap, I would have to get back to my programming roots.

The interview was a bit tricky. Though the job was for technical support, they were looking for good candidates who can become programmers may be six months down the line. They were not overtly concerned about your programming language skills either, since they used Delphi, which not many knew.

In hindsight putting my CAT percentile on the CV (On my mom’s insistence) was tactless. It was obvious that I would not be looking to commit to the company for a long period. Post MBA, it would be easy for me to get a job for ten times the salary they were offering (Which incidentally I did get) and given my academic background, MBA would have been the natural next step.

I reached the NIIT office early morning, but they were not able to help me much. Fortunately for me, I ran into one of my former faculties who was still teaching there. She informed me they’ll let me know if  anything comes up. I wasn’t expecting opportunities to prop up out of thin air, but at least I’ll be in the checklist for a while.

Having realized that I was a bit nervous as I awaited the final results. The other interview was to be in Whitefield, in the outskirts of the city. But I needed to stay at the center till the results came, in case there is another round of interview. As the clock ticked on, it grew more and more likely that I’ll have to skip the interview at Whitefield. There was no communication from the first company either. Dejected, I walked back to my hotel in Majestic and booked for my tickets back home. I called back home to inform of the results, rather the non-result.

The next day I got a call from Kochi telling me to report to Bangalore in two days. Apparently there was a bootcamp being organized for recruitment and they needed to sent a team. Couple of the students had dropped out in the last minute and they needed someone to fill in. As I had gone there only the day before, I was drafted in. Everything fell in place at the right time.

My dad told me to get in touch with NIIT. NIIT had contacted them (Since I had left my home phone as the contact number) to inform that I had cleared my interview and had to report to the Bangalore Stock Exchange the next day for induction (The company had a support team there).

Epilogue : I would shift to Hyderabad later, where after one month of further tests and training I was shifted into programming (with a marginal salary hike ). I left the job a few months later, before a GD/PI filled February 2005, satisfied with the learning acquired over the past months.

It was my first time in Mumbai. A sea of people quickly engulfed me and I had to move before I was vanquished into oblivion. Millions travel on the local trains everyday as Mumbaikars head for their offices and homes. Some, like me though, would be hopping trains from one suburb to another searching for jobs in the city.

I had decided to take some time off my “busy” schedule in Mumbai to visit few of the places hit in the dastardly attack. Taj and Oberoi were a bit beyond my means (or so I presume) and the Chabad House was too non-descript. So, I settled for the hopefully cheaper Café Leopold.

I had a faint recollection from the omnipresent news media on the scene that the café was close to one of the main places that was attacked – CST, Taj, Oberoi and the Chabad house. Assuming it was CST, I took a train there expecting to get directions from there.

An elderly shopkeeper was busy tending his shop across the street. He greeted me with a smile when I approached him, thinking me as a new customer. The smile turned into a frown when I asked him I was looking for Café Leopold.

99% of the time I’ve seen people willing to help strangers looking for directions to their destination. But 1% of the time the people may not be able to help you since they themselves don’t know the place (Usually happens when people asks me for direction). Sadly for me this was one such occasion.

The shopkeeper frowned with disappointment as he informed me he had not heard of the place. He enquired if I had an address, which I hadn’t. Disappointed, I moved onto the nearest bus stop. In this era Google Maps and Nokia Navigator, it is difficult for people to not find a well-renowned place, but I had access to neither.

A long haired wannabe at the bus stop told me it was near Coloba, but I didn’t know where Coloba was. I called up a friend familiar with the area who recommended I take a cab and said it was near the Taj. Unwilling to spend on a cab, I asked around for directions to the Taj. Though not as famous as its namegiver in Agra, the Taja Mahal Hotel was a piece of the city heritage. A suit told me it was half an hour down the road and so off I went, on with my journey to find Leo.

A cool evening had replaced the unpleasantly hot afternoon. With the wind in my face, it was a pleasant walk down the road, sipping an overpriced half litre Pepsi bottle (Note to self: Mumbaikars charge two bucks extra for cooling) towards the Arabian Sea on whose shore stood the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Soon, I came upon the illustrious Gateway of India and what I presumed to be the Taj Mahal hotel next to it. Tourists went around taking photographs, while affluent school kids enjoyed the sea breeze with a glass of water melon juice.

The kids confirmed me I was looking at the Taj, but they also had no idea to the whereabouts of Café Leopold. I was starting to wonder whether there actually was a Café Leopold, when the pushcart vendor selling the water melon juice to the kids told me to go down the road, take a right, left and a right. Thanking him, I took the road he pointed towards, while he gave further detailed instructions.

The problem with lengthy directions is that you will easily forget them or end up being confused about them. Thirty meters down the road the pushcart vendor pointed out, my mind drew a blank on his detailed instructions. Hastily I enquired a car driver parked next to the Taj, who informed me to continue on and ask later.

4% of the time I’ve seen people give the wrong direction unintentionally because they were not sure of it themselves.

As I reached down the road and asked again, I got the impression Café Leopold was near Hotel Oberoi and not near the Taj. Since people still were not familiar with the Café, I chose to ask for directions to Oberoi, rather than the Café. Soon, I was gazing at the tall Trident hotel overlooking the Arabian Sea and a distant Mumbai skyline.

One of the many patrons walking on the Marine Drive along the sea showed me workers rebuilding damages on Hotel Oberoi from the 26/11 attacks, though I felt the Trident Hotel next door seemed more like the terror victim on the news than the smaller Hotel Oberoi. He also drew a blank when it came to Café Leopold as he went back to his evening business papers.

Next I approached one of guards at Trident who informed me he was new and was not familiar with the surroundings. Disenchanted by the general lack of awareness of Mumbaikars over Café Leopold, I closed my camera and packed my bags to get back to CST. Seeing my disappointment, the guard directed me to a more experienced employee of the hotel, looked like a baggage handler, who was glad to give the directions. He told me it was near the Taj and when I mentioned I was coming from there, he told me to take the road next to the Trident and look for Regal Cinemas.

Finally with some proper direction and landmark in mind, I set out in the direction the baggage handler showed. I encountered a government worker who told me to keep going when I asked him for the Cinema. I was going in the right direction. For the first time in the day, I had to add. Curiously, he was the only person so far to have connected Café Leopold with 26/11, though he erroneously mentioned it to be the place where there was a bomb blast.

Regal Cinema soon came into view and it was playing Luck By Chance, Slumdog Millionaire and (No, not Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye) The Stoneman Murders. There was a book shop nearby when my spending frenzy took over me to buy a copy of Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers.

Café Leopold was not far off and soon I was placing an order for a beef burger (Time to be a non-conformist. I prefer chicken) and an iced lemon tea (I had already finished three bottles of Pepsi, Coke and Thumps Up by the time I reached my destination).

The place was filled with foreigners or at least Caucasians (could be Anglo Indians as well) and everyone was seemed to be having their 6 o clock beer (or other assorted alcohol) except for a mother daughter combine who had Pepsi (Diet, that too) and left.

There were few Indians in the next table as well digging into the clichéd North Indian dishes which got me wondering why they would come here for having generic food. Maybe the fact that there was one girl and four guys at the table could be the reason.

The place was expensive, but the burger was scrumptious and heavy. I settled the bill on cash and left an 8% tip before I left for the Churchgate railway station, which turned out to be much closer than CST (And happen to have a Wimpy serving Pepsi in a Coke bottle, but that’s another story).

Note : Location of Cafe Leopold and the road taken from CST maybe slightly incorrect. (Map courtesy : Google Maps)

HONK. HONK. The Volvo at the APTDC office announced itself ready for its ride to the airport. Not that it meant much. There were only four passengers and we were all deep into the complimentary copy of The Hindu they provided. The day before, one of my good MBA buddies (Thanks, Bugs) had recommended this bus service when I had mentioned I was planning to take a cab back to the airport.

As we passed through the Hyderabad city, I was astounded by the progress in the city in the last four years. I had felt Hyderabad had the better road network among the Southern Cities. But that was four years ago. The longest flyover then, at least to my knowledge, was the one in Begumpet. But that has changed completely. A long flyover connecting Begumpet to Panjagutta had surpassed it by a distance (Though I got stuck under it for over half an hour, because of some VIPs). Even more incredible is the new Begumpet flyover that now dwarves the old one by landing on old one. Then there is the 13 odd kilometer long freeway they are building connecting the city with the airport. The city is being build in an anticipation of a continuing economic upswing, unlike Bangalore were people have had to satisfice and wait for the infrastructure to be put in place later.

The airport is well designed. The lounge and the restaurants for the non travelers were open air and little birds were chirping in delight away from the hot sun. I had reached exceedingly early at the airport owing to the extra security expected. With not much to do, I checked out the airport.

There were two McDonalds and a Café Coffee Day for the fast food enthusiasts. Unfortunately, there was a power cut at McD and I had to settle for a sandwich from CCD for lunch. There were apparently five store Landmarks as well, though I only saw two. The recently (at that time) released “Imagining India” by the Infosys Chairman hogged the stands. 699 bucks! Instinctively put it down. Imagine an India where people can buy books worth 700 bucks. I finally settled down for KA Nilakanta Sastri’s “A History of South India”, though I have no clue how good the book is. The second history book in my library after Adrian Goldsworthy’s “In The Name of Rome” (An absolutely delightful and informative read).

Saina Nehwal was at the airport. She was headed for Vijayawada. This was the time when she still had a valid passport. I would have asked for an autograph, but I wasn’t sure where to ask for a signature. It was not like I would carry an autograph book around expecting to meet celebrities at the airport.

3:30 PM. The people for the 4:30 flight were called for. I got my luggage checked in and went onto the boarding area and waited for the airplane to arrive. The trip had gone well so far, though the result of the interview was still awaited. There were three more rounds, the last with their European parent, which happened after the close of work at the Hyderabad office. It was a bit awkward when I left the interview at 6:30 in the evening to see an empty, almost unlit office and a security guard waiting at the door to let me out. I met up with a couple of my MBA friends as well, one for dinner and the other for breakfast (He has a night shift job).

Things turned awry soon though. At four, the airplane was delayed by half an hour. Later airplanes were being called in to board. Every five minutes from then on, the airline added another ten minutes to the scheduled departure. I was a bit perplexed about the cause, since I was traveling by the same airliner (and I had assumed the same plane) to and fro. The later it got the more difficult it got for me to get back home, since I had to travel interstate.

6:30 PM. Finally the sign for boarding appeared and the relieved passengers were led to the airplane. Even while boarding, there was an unnecessary delay as some of the passengers were instructed to wait for the baggage trolley to arrive. Something about balancing the weight of the plane and preventing it from falling. WTF. The thought of the mechanical delay started weighing on me. The airplane was of a different make than my earlier trip, taken from its sister company’s roster.

Nervously, I waited for the flight to take off. The flutters in the stomach that had been comfortably vanquished the previous flight returned. The takeoff was not pretty, but I was glad to know we were up in the air. The lights took a long time to come back on.

Hang on, why are the windows slanted?

Then I realized the airplane was flying slanted. Do planes fly slanted, as though they were struggling to stay up in the sky? I recalled the statement while boarding about balancing the weight and prevent it from ….

Oh My God!

Everybody else seemed to be behaving normally, though. But then most of them were already asleep. Am I the only one who’s thinking the airplane may not reach back safe?

The airplane seems to finally evened out. A small sigh of relief. But not for long, as airplane continued on its slanted course. I tried to ease my mind with some music. But the first song was Sweet Home Alabama, as Steve Buscemi put it well in ConAir a song about a plane crash sung by a band who died in a plane crash. That eased my nerves, all right.

The air hostesses went on with their normal routines – Appetizers were served, trash taken away, flyers distributed. One of the air hostesses was cute, while the other looked average. Not much worth mentioning there. I was still tense as the airplane announced it was landing.

I gripped the seat belt strongly worried the plane is about to crash. The air hostess sitting in the front, the cute one, looked calm. Practically no emotion at all. The plane landed on the runway with an uncomfortable jerk. But it landed safely. I ran out of the plane and out off the airport to get some fresh air. Curiously, nobody got in my way as I hurried out of the airport. No security. Nothing.

The exit of the Coimbatore airport had an eerie feeling to it. It was desolate like a grave in the midnight. No autos, cabs and their like. No street light either (If there were, it was not well-lit). I had to walk on for ten more minutes through a dark road to spot any sign of life; near the highway to the city.

With some help from the people around, I managed to get a bus to the city. I got off the bus to a maze of bus depots. There was a depot for inter city buses, one for intra state buses and a flurry of tourist buses going around. In the midst of this muddle lay the inter-state depot which I was looking for.

I had got off at the inter-city depot where I was told I’ll get inter-state buses across the street. There I was informed to go to the other end of the depot, where I had to deal with the marauding tourist bus operators. Reluctant to shell out extra bucks for the tourist buses, I searched around for the inter-state depot.

One of the bus operators informed he had a ticket for a 9:15 bus. Fifteen more minutes. With no luck in finding the inter-state and only bus operators and clueless travelers to ask around, I finally took the ticket, partly relieved to be heading home soon. As he took the cash, he mentioned the bus was at 9:45 and not 9:15. Drained of every ounce of strength to protest, I reluctantly took the ticket and waited for the bus at the operator’s office.

9:40 PM. No sign of the bus. Annoyed at yet another delay, I asked the operator where the bus was. He kindly informed me the bus was at 10:45. The chap who sold me the ticket was an agent and had outright lied to me about the bus timings. Tired and angry, I waited for the bus to arrive, while trying to think if undue stress caused can be reasons to justify murder on grounds of temporary insanity or self protection.

While waiting for the bus to arrive, I found where the inter-state terminus was. The bus agents had carefully hidden it, by crowding in front of it. There weren’t many buses there either and I had mistaken it for just another shopping or office building.

The bus finally came at 11:00 PM and I somehow had all my senses functioning when I reached home at 3:30 in the morning. Another 90 minutes delay en route. Exhausted from the entire journey, I was finally relieved to just reach home.

As for the interview, I was later informed I didn’t clear it. The company, after going through my CV for over month, decided I lacked the experience for the role. At least, I got my travel expenses reimbursed, after waiting for two months, though three weeks were courtesy of the banks.

(To do this on facebook, go to “Notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people, then click publish.)

1. I am a Malayali, though I have very few recognizable Malayali characters except being a hard-core non-vegetarian.

2. I am an INTJ as per the MBTI test.

3. I love to eat, but only if it is non-veg and I hate seeing food go waste. I make sure that no roti or chicken is left behind, when I go out with friends

4. I skip meals a lot, which may seem to be a contradiction to the earlier point. It isn’t.

5. I do not drink, smoke or do drugs. I never needed to.

6. I hate jogging. If I want to reach somewhere I’ll either run or walk. As a form of exercise, it disrupts the rhythm of my mind (My God. What kind of excuses will I make up for not exercising?).

7. I also do not work out in a gym. The reason for this is the cold in my chest acts up when I put stress on it. (I’ll stoop to any level to find a reason to not exercise).

8. I am a history buff (Mostly European history, though), my favorite hobby is trying to understand the mind, people’s behavior and reaction and my favorite author is Isaac Asimov. You can choose or not choose to connect the three.

9. I have a very short temper. If you see me shouting or throwing things at people or kicking stuff, I’ll recommend you leave the area. However, anything that does not involve even the slightest attempt to destruction of property means that I am approaching it after clear thought and consideration.

10. I take mostly after my mom in character. I approach things with an analytical frame emphasizing on logic rather than creativity.

11. I have some genes of creativity, from my father, but I keep them in check since I am worried how it may fuse with my short temper and general liking to destroy things.

12. I am extremely disorganized in the short run, preferring to let things clutter on my desk. However, every now and then I clean up my desktop, inbox, reader and even my table and cupboard so that I appear organized in the long run.

13. I prefer to listen to people without maintaining an eye-to-eye contact, unless it is absolutely necessary (like in a one-to-one conversation). It is easier for me to visualize what is being said, since my eyes do not have a changing reference to deal with, and hence understand it better.

14. I crack too many PJs. This is partly due to the sadistic pleasure I get by bringing misery on others but mostly due to the thrill of being able to connect two far off seemingly distant points. It is a test of associative memory, developed into a reflex.

15. I am a statistician and a programmer by nature, though not by academic background or profession. I maintain four excels to maintain my day to day activities and one of them has a macro.

16. I find it extremely difficult to lie, but that do not mean I do not tell lies. I’ll let my friends be the judge on this.

17. I have the parasitic tendency of consistently wrecking my future when it is going well. It is more due to coincidence than any conscious decision.

18. I maintain two blogs – one to express my logical side and the other to explore my creative side slowly and carefully.

19. I hardly ever talk to people. Even in conversations with friends, I drift unseen into a silent corner, till I crack a PJ to everyone’s anguish.

20. Of my crushes so far, only two can be classified as love at first sight. I saw both of them in the second half of 2007 while traveling in Chennai. Fortunately or unfortunately, I know neither of them personally.

21. I prefer to play basketball barefoot, even on a concrete floor. This is because I rely on my toes to move quickly or jump. Normal shoes hinder its action. My sole has been hardened by playing on concrete, so I’ve never had any injuries from it. Forgive the pun.

22. I’ve set some goals for life. I’ve posted them on my blog earlier.

23. I consider my memory to be 99% perfect. I keep a 1% buffer in case I have to forget an assignment or an email.

24. I can recall any movie I’ve seen within 10 seconds of any frame of the movie. I don’t find it remarkable, but there are others who have.

25. I quit going to church when I was 14 around the same time as I quit studying and being a geek, became an athlete, started using a comb and got a haircut every month, instead every three months.

26(Bonus). Advice for the people I’ve tagged. Got a NY Times article of how to fill these random things. For me, #26 was the best one.

Have you ever waved at an airplane as it whizzed past above you from a nearby airport? Ever followed the jet stream of a distant plane in the sky? Traveling the skies can always capture the fantasy of any one who haven’t traveled by air. I’ve never been on an airplane since returning from UAE when I was four. Never needed to, to be honest. Air travel is often left as the travel of the last resort and that too only in case you need to travel immediately or reach the destination quickly (Of course, I mean domestic travel). But the freedom to fly into the skies, away from the stress ridden lithosphere tends to give you a sense of completion.

So there I was, waiting to board an airplane for Hyderabad at the Coimbatore Airport in early December. My dad had just dropped me off at the airport, three hours away from home. I had a copy of Neal Stephenson’s QuickSilver for company, though I hardly managed to read the book, brimming with excitement about the flight.

I had a job interview in Hyderabad, which I was pretty confident I’ll clear. They had already grilled me for couple of interviews, on top of three online tests to test logical thinking and character. And they were glad to take care of my travel expenses as well (Which was a factor while choosing air travel).

I was also planning to catch up with few of my friends there, if time permitted. I had worked in Hyderabad earlier, though I have kind of lost touch with them. There were few from my MBA batch as well.

The plane was on time and we were called on to the boarding area. The heightened security post 26/11 was visible. I had the standard carry on luggage only and had no hassles at the check-in, though there was a delay for a chap carrying six small bags. He finally managed to pack them all into a single large one. Is that what they mean by a six pack?

With no further delay, we were ushered in comfortably to our seats on the plane. I had a window seat. Not that it meant much. The sun had nearly set and barely anything was visible outside. The plane was not fully occupied and I wondered whether it was normal for airplanes to run under-booked.

There were two air hostesses – one was pretty and the other sexy. As I took the seat, the pretty air hostess approached and asked me if I could shift to the front seat opposite to hers. Okay. Wow. I was about to respond, when she continued to say, they needed someone to operate the emergency exit at the window in case of, well, an emergency and since nobody had occupied the seat, I was next in line.

Crestfallen, I proceeded to the front left window seat. Not exactly the most welcome greeting though, for a first time flier to hear that he will be responsible in an emergency, but then again she said it with a comforting tone as to say that the chances of an emergency are so remote that you have nothing to worry about. Relaxed, I put on the seat belts and looked out into to the dark night as the airplane sped to the runway.

I was worried the take-off would be strenuous, but it was to be of no concern. Though they were some flutters in the stomach when I felt the airplane accelerate, there was nothing jittery about the takeoff as we took off smoothly. I looked out of the window and the lights of the Coimbatore night were fast becoming distant like a reassuring wave saying everything was fine.

The “Seat Belts On” sign soon came off and the air hostess sitting in front informed me I can switch on my MP3 (She had earlier asked me to switch it off during take off). As I got back to my book, the MP3 was chiming to the dulcet voice of Chantal Kreviazuk singing “I am leaving on a jet plane. Don’t know when I’ll be back again” from the Armageddon soundtrack. Talk about timing.

I couldn’t read the book much. It was based in 1650-1750 Europe and America. Though the historic references were deep and interesting, I was not looking for a thoughtful book for the travel. I looked around to see how other passengers were doing. Some of the passengers, first timers like me, were eager to take photos of (No, not the air hostesses) the city lights far below as we passed over Bangalore and other cities. But mostly it was a peaceful crowd of techies and their like headed for their cubicles at work.

The city lights were a beautiful sight to watch. Lines of light escaping the shadowy darkness of the night. An explosion of activity in the middle of an eerie shroud of inactivity.

There was no in-flight movie and just a slight appetizer, by my standards, for nourishment. (No, I haven’t taken any photos like Richard Branson’s customers). But the good thing was that they had very good chocolate ice cream cooled to perfection. There were also flyers for the airline’s frequent flyer scheme (WTF, flyer for a flyer?) which the air hostesses tried to sell. Too bad, they didn’t ask me if I would be interested.

The airport soon reached the Shamshabad airport in the outskirts of the Hyderabad city. No flutters in the stomach this time. I was looking forward to a nice cold shower in the hotel once the plane landed. Not a slightest concern over the landing. The flight had gone without incident and took away any possible anxiety over the landing. And it went picture perfect as well.

I called up my dad to tell him I had reached. He was still on his way back home. Two points for air travel. It used to take me an entire day to travel on an oddly timed noon to noon Sabari Express to travel from Hyderabad to my home. The flight took around two hours only.

As I exited of the airport, I was expecting a furor like the one shown in the movie Rang de Basanti where the passengers are hounded by vendors trying to sell maps and stuff. Nothing like that here, though. The travelers were greeted by formally dressed good looking women, placed there by cab companies to get customers (No burly cab drivers trying to take away your luggage either). Since the city was an hour or so from the airport, I decided to take a cab (1250 bucks, btw). No, the good looking women had nothing to do with that decision. Besides, I could claim it later. The expenses, I mean.

The cab soon exited the airport, with “Leaving on a Jet Plane” still ringing in my ears. I still had an interview to attend …