Book Review: How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company

How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company
-- Varun Agarwal

 This is the story of Alma Mater Store, and 2 graduates, just out of college (one quits his first job after a few months to work full time on this venture, and the other couldn't come to terms with something like working for someone else).

Having seen several young entrepreneurs from close quarters during our recent stint at Microsoft Accelerator, the whole story sounded so familiar to me.

Anu aunty is one of those fussy neighborhood aunties of Varun (co-founder of Alma Mater and the author), who believes that all a kid should do in life is get perfect scores in every exam that's thrown at him/her, clear the first interview that they ever attend, grab the first promotion in their batch at work, start paying EMI for car and house before turning 25, and be the most sought after bachelor/bachelorette (by uncles and aunties) in the neighborhood.

Varun, a Bangalore dude from Bishop Cotton hated all that to the core and always dreamed of starting his own company along with another classmate Mal, of course, whenever they were 3 beers down. After several such beer sessions, one day they finally brave anu aunty and come up with a detailed business plan (on a tissue paper in their favorite watering hole) to start a company that sells customized T-shirts and Hoodies for alumni of popular schools. Alma Mater Store is born.

As is the case with many young and not so young entrepreneurs, their 'detailed business plan' had just a few lines. Get T-shirts printed for different schools and somehow sell them. They just felt that its a cool idea. That's it. They figured out the rest on the way as Dick Costolo of Twitter famously said, "The key is to just get on the bike… and the key to getting on the bike… is to stop thinking about ‘there are a bunch of reasons I might fall off’ and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way."

They could add several schools from different cities in India to their online only store in a couple of years, and even started delivering overseas. Their company was worth a million dollars, within no time. As the author says, no Porsche cars or bungalows worth million dollars, yet. But, they are living their dream and may reach there one day.

Book Review: Wise Enough to be Foolish

Wise Enough to be Foolish

-- Gauri Datta Jayaram

First things first. For the first time, I am reviewing a book written by a person, whom I personally met and even ran together, a couple of long runs over the weekends.

Wise enough to be foolish - For me, the oxymoronic title sounds very philosophical and playful, at the same time. And, the same feeling lasted through out the read.

It's about a girl narrating her story, right from her infancy through adulthood, taking the reader through the idiosyncrasies that one person goes through in one's life. Most of the readers would be able to connect with the narration, at one place or the other, and hook. There is nothing extraordinary about the girl. Probably, that's what helps the connect happen. It's just that she happens to be wise enough to be foolish, more than once, by choice or by default.

She grows up wishing her parents to be more of friends than goal-setters, goes through a relation built over a few years of companionship that breaks up with no obvious reason, turns out to be wise enough to take several foolish sounding decisions like clearing every penny of her savings to fund marriage of her maid's daughter, and deciding to marry a person whom she was yet to meet in flesh and blood etc.,

As per me, the best part of the book is, everyone feels special about at least one person in their lives. Oneself. Either at narcissistic levels or moderate :-) And, one would want to tell one's story to the world. That's exactly what the author did, claiming it as based on a true story (may be, her own). It's all more interesting and worth the reader's while, as, despite being her first book, the author has shown excellent story telling skills and made it a gripping read.

Book Review: Social Media as Watchdog

Social Media as Watchdog

-- Ravinar

I came across this book, which is a compilation of blogs written by the author at media-crooks, when a friend of mine shared one of the blogs criticizing the biased or crooked role being played by Main Stream Media (MSM) and how Social Media (SM) can take on MSM.

Manish Tiwari, the then spokesman of Congress, said "Anna Hazare is head-to-toe corrupt" when anti-corruption campaign was at its peak.

Nidhi Razdan of NDTV tries hard to push her agenda and gets ripped apart by a British MP, a couple of days back.

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN tweets that deaths in Assam in 2012 were very less compared to deaths in Gujrat in 2002 to attract enough attention by (his) MSM, when MSM was questioned about (lack of) coverage, and later regrets for his insensitivity when SM blasts him.

Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN does a 'live show' with recorded clippings as answers to her 'live' questions and later 'deeply regrets' for 'the bug', when SM brings it out.

BBC changes the headline of an article overnight from 'sarcastic question' to a 'praise', as it was based on wrong statistics quoted by some source and corrected later. And, SM gets credit here too.

And, my favorite: A very active leftist friend of mine on SM comments on a news website when a statue of Saraswati was destroyed inside a University in Hyderabad - "Oh! these stupid Hindu fundamentalists are going everywhere. Why did they build a temple inside a University? " :-)

As people like me spend a good amount of their reading time reading news and analysis (and some people spend a lot of time even watching such things on TV), it is worthwhile to know the modus operandi of the stuff that they are consuming. If the readers/viewers are not attentive or patient enough to ponder, they would soon get sucked into the game plan of these extremely glib liars, who are working full-time, pushing their own person agenda under the veil of reporters.

Social Media as Watchdog helps the reader precisely with such information. Though we see people like Digvijay Singh making irresponsible and incoherent statements, why does MSM go to him at the drop of a hat? Why does an anchor push his/her own agenda and pass judgements and sermons, though the actual job is to facilitate others speak and let audience ponder? Why do we see the same set of people in all kinds of panel discussions? Why do large PSUs fund several MSM events, which don't spend much in advertising otherwise? Why does each news channel appear to have its own unique way of looking at things? The list goes on...

So, the bottom line is, one should consume news (whether MSM or SM) with buckets of salt (pinches and grains are not enough anymore), as everyone seems to have an agenda and are working for that 24/7 in every word they utter, be it a TV show or news paper or Twitter or Facebook. Though the author talks about how SM can help take on MSM, SM itself is severely infested already, and the logic that the author applied to MSM applies to SM as well.

As a friend of mine cautioned me when I was picking up this book, the author and his blog has clear politics behind it. And, my answer for that was: "Yes, it does. I noticed it in the introduction itself. But, when congress is governing the country for the last 10 years, you can't 'start with' criticizing BJP for today's state of affairs. And, As they say, not many are into charity. All have vested interests. But, the good part of this book is, if someone teaches you how to be skeptical, and if you really learn it, you should ideally be skeptical about that teacher as well. Otherwise, you have not really learnt. So, no harm" :-)

Book Review: Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia
-- Hussain Zaidi

Dongri is a small area in South Mumbai. The book is about how Mumbai Mafia reached Dubai from Dongri over the last 6-7 decades. It is an elaborate (~400 pages) biographic account of several (in)famous underworld dons like Hazi Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Kareem Lala, Chota Rajan, Chota Shakeel, Abu Salem and of course Dawood Ibrahim.

Author is a well known crime reporter and was the privileged one to interview Dawood a few years back, which was the last time Dawood ever spoke to media. He sourced the information from various dossiers made by Indian Govt. to Pakistan Govt. requesting extradition of Dawood Ibrahim and from the compilations of various retired officers of Mumbai Police.

While going through the biographies of those dons and in turn evolution of Mumbai Mafia, readers would be dumbstruck, to put it mildly. It has all the elements of any fictitious crime story and extremely violent Hollywood movie, and things that one normally brushes aside as just figments of writer's imagination and just impossible to pull off in real life, except that all those were real. Electronics, gold, gutka, real estate, extortion, betting (Cricket), Bollywood... where ever there was some money, there were empires created by these guys. And, there were jurisdictions and deadly territorial feuds. There were dons created and patronized by senior police officers to take on bigger dons, there were dons killed with a tip-off from their ladyloves, there were shootouts that lasted hours in broad day light in residential neighborhoods of Mumbai, there were dons who shift bases among several countries with an ease that it sounds like a backpacker's pub crawl, there were politicians who ordered arrests and simultaneously tipped and helped the criminals get out of the country forever, and there were police officers who shot dead 100+ criminals each, over a period of just a few years. 

Author presents several hard to digest events in chronological order starting from 1950 till today. As I read somewhere, politics of any country are beyond the comprehension of a common man. After reading such biographical accounts, one would realize, so is crime.

Book Review: Life is What You Make it

Life is What You Make it
--- Preeti Shenoy


It is a short story about an young, beautiful, intelligent and desirable girl, who goes from topping her class in first semester of MBA in a prestigious school to spending a few months in a psychiatry ward with a bipolar disorder in a whisker.

The take away is just as simple as the title. Ankita, the main character of the book, gets carried away by her ambitions and achievements and starts disparaging the little and precious pleasures of life, to the extent that even suicide of a close friend, with whom she was in a relation, doesn't move her much. But, that single minded pursuit of material soon takes toll on her, and vents itself out as a mental disorder, when she reaches the threshold.

With the help of an excellent counselor, she reclaims her life back and realizes that life is after all what you make it.

A very simple read. Though the pacing is not very good with story moving very fast at some parts while some parts are just dragged, it is an enjoyable read.

Dilemma of a Recreational Runner

[This post is not about competitive runners and runners who want to get onto (any kind of) podium one day, in any form]

I am a recreational runner. I have been one for more than 5 years. Started with dream runs(5-7KM), 10KM runs, graduated to half-marathons (21.0975KM) and full-marathons (42.195KM) in a couple of years. I ran 15 full marathons so far, half domestic and half overseas, some at exotic locations. And, of late, I have been plagued by this dilemma - Why "What's your timing?" becomes such an important question, when runners (even hitherto strangers) meet at these events?

I did discuss this point with several runner friends, and each have their own theories. I felt like penning it down, after seeing the disappointment in a runner today at TCS 10K, because he couldn't do his PB (Personal Best in runners jargon), and a whole bunch of his friends consoled him saying things like - "Come on! It's alright. it's just not your day", "It's not the last event. You can do better in xyz run.", "You are an awesome runner. Runners never loose, losers never run" etc., All this, because he took a few more minutes than what he planned, to finish a 10K run. And, BTW, those few minutes don't take him anywhere close to the winner, and he is just a recreational runner.

Now the discussion starts. Why long distance recreational runners get so obsessed with their finishing times? The very reasons for the participation itself are different - fitness, health, travel, fun, discipline, being active etc., Will a better timing help in enjoying more of any of those? I don't think so. Then why?

A very competitive friend of mine suggests that what one does at distance runs (at anything, for that matter) is just an extension/expression of oneself. If one is passionate about things that one pursues, and is a perfectionist, one can't help NOT looking forward to improving in run after run. You can have just one personality. Same will be expressed everywhere. Work or Play. - Sounds like a fair point. But, what if we use our competitive spirit judiciously, wherever it matters? Wouldn't running be more fun! Or, is it just impossible?

   

Another couple of friends suggest, without attaching any personality traits, it's just what running fraternity has been doing for years. Boston Marathon (With the toughest entry criteria) is the holy grail for runners. For ages, runners dreamed to participate in that. Better runners inspire and motivate us to chase them. And, we just do it. - Hmm... So, we are doing it, just because that's what everyone is doing. Basically, a mindless pursuit of the unknown. Not so convincing.

Personally, I wish I had been more occupied with the scenic beauty of Niagara Falls than with the continuous calculations in my brain, with each passing kilo-meter (to determine my finish-time), during Niagara Falls Marathon. Same is true with several other runs.  A couple of my runner friends injured themselves in this pursuit of improvement in every run, and were off the roads for several months. When I tell about my runs at exotic locations like Athens/Venice, non-runners ask me more about those places and people, and runners ask about the course and weather - flat course or hilly, hot or cold, is a PB doable, and of course my timing :-)

This is no complaining. But, it's always good to sort out the priorities, once in a while.

And, if you ask me what's my best running moment - it is when that 3 year old little girl offered me an orange candy (after carefully unwrapping, so that I can enjoy it as it is), 4 KM before the finish line during Mumbai Marathon - 2011. I didn't stop and ask her name, as it would have added another few minutes to my record breaking 5:13 finish that year :-)

Book Review: Shiva Trilogy - 3: The Oath of the Vayupurtras

The Oath of the Vayuputras
-- Amish

After reading the first 2 parts (The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas), I have been eagerly waiting for the last part of Shiva Trilogy and pre-booked it at the first opportunity. And, it doesn't disappoint.

The best part of the series is Amish's excellent narrative style. He picked up quite a few characters from Indian Mythology (maintaining similar relation among them) and created his own story around them. He dedicated significant amount of the first book to just create the stage, as the story deserves it, and exploited all that in the second book. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the third part, I felt narration of war has turned out to be a bit too long and repetitive.

A complaint that I heard from some of my friends is, the take away is not new. Well, as always, it depends on readers. If one is looking for a beautiful reading experience that keeps up one's imagination through out, one wouldn't get disappointed. Instead, if one is asking for something new, which has never been told, yes, there is not much; Except that, good and evil are just different sides of the same coin. One eventually turns into another, as it gets abused.

I particularly enjoyed the conversations between Shiva (the Hero) and the Vasudev pandits (his mentors). I found the conversations to be abstract, philosophical and profound.

Another thing that I liked a lot about the book (and the series, in general) is, except for the ability of Maharshi Brighu (a powerful ascetic saint, and mentor of emperor of India) to read minds of others by looking at their eyes, the author didn't need the help of super nature (and the God hypothesis :-) ) to make such a story interesting. Everything is perfectly rational. The kings and citizens do follow the rules set by Lord Rudra and Lord Ram (considered by many in India today, as 2 of tri-murti's who are responsible for Srishti-creation, Stithi-maintenance and Laya-dissolution), but, they are just great kings who lived exemplary lives, and formalized good governance and dictated rules for citizens to lead peaceful life. Nothing beyond.

I would highly recommend it for those who are looking for light reads, and craving for the reading experience (similar to http://www.chandamama.com/) that they parted ways with, since their childhood.