Ideas & Views

Was quite enthralled by Malcolm Gladwell at the very review of this book's ideas, need not even read the book entirely. Such is the power of thoughts and ideas. Can influence people and sweep them off their feet. Its an extraordinary book explaining the reality behind commonly held myths about success. I have had conversations with Jay on some of the facts explained in this book at different points of time earlier. Stats, stats, stats. When statistics support the theory currently in vogue or unfold new theories, it makes a convincing read to a scientific mind. That's what Outliers does. Gladwell religiously has collected data to this extent. Fascinated by some of the ideas that Gladwell throws and found the comfort of a home in others. For few days after completing the read, I was in a discontented, restless mood. These questions were written all over my face - "Am I going to achieve anything now that I haven't put that precious 10,000 hours into anything so far?...

Don't remember how I came across this book 'The Palace of Illusions' but after reading the review (from source I don't recollect ), I caught hold of it from the library. Usually, books in English by Indian authors are not available in our local public library - the Prince William County Public Library. My sincere searchers for Tagore, Nehru, Rajaji , R.K.Narayan had only proved futile. Repeated requests with the chief librarian didn't change things much. Not even the award winning Jhumpa Lahiri or the titles 'English August', or 'God of small things'. Nay. But, Palace of Illusions was right there and also on 'available' status after being 'on hold' many times. The description " Draupadi's narration of Mahabarata " was enough to captivate me, not because of the feminist title, but simply its different. The same story told from a different angle, from another's perspective, viewed from a different frame of refe...

To have a book shelf with all my favorite authors' works and a rack of CD collection was something I used to desire from my high school days. Nothing else used to motivate me as much as this desire did. Some times, I had silently yearned for them too. After many years, I was able to set these up with meticulous efforts. During my recent India trip, bought a cart load of CDs to my heart’s content. I listened to them day after day. Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the quantity and quality. But kept going at it steadily. Before I realized, I got a hangover. So, I stopped listening for a while. Nothing is more music than the return of a forgone silence. After a long break, I went over the collection again today and found my all-time favorite TNS. It is a concert CD of T.N.Seshagopalan released by Charsur. I haven’t heard a TNS concert before. My experience with his harikatha earlier in SSVT was disappointing. He became a favorite because of my repeated listening of his RasaGanam ...