I have picked up a few books for this month. The choice of titles and topics is an interesting mix:
DragonStrike by Humphrey Hawksley and Simon Holberton is a fictitious thriller, in which United States, Europe and Asia become entangled in what can be called the World War III. The book was written in late ’90s and the imaginary war takes place in 2001. Even though this is a work of fiction, the authors have adapted ‘facts’ from a lot of sources. This book was released much before the other immensely popular book on IndoPak nuclear holocaust called DragonFire.
A Call to Honour by Jaswant Singh - This is the seventh book by Jaswant Singh, a prominent face in the BJP party. The book has recently created a furore in the Indian media with the disclosure of the existence of a mole in the Prime Minister’s office some years back. I picked up this book after browsing through it for sometime. It gives a very vivid picture of the thought process of a man who steered India clear of the diplomatic diktats after the nuclear tests at Pokhran. Would be writing a review on this book soon.
iCon:Steve Jobs - The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon. I have always admired Steve Jobs for the sole reason that he had the guts to start another company of his own and make it big; and that too after getting fired from the company he founded. The book chronicles the second coming of the most influential person in technology and the legacy he has created.
What Goes Up by Eric J. Weiner - This was picked up on a whim. The title of the book says it all - “The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street - As told by Bankers, Brokers, CEOs and Scoundrels Who Made it Happen”.
It has been an interval of nearly a month since I posted last. Well, the month has been extremely hectic for me with a lot of interesting developments taking place in different spheres of my life. However, I would like to focus on the latest that has caught my fancy. I have been reading up on various corporate performance measurement systems, right from Six Sigma implementations in services industry to the balanced scorecard approach. I have started to like the balanced scorecard approach for the simple reason that it provides a very wholesome view of the performance of an organization.
Though I am still a tyro in this field, most of my future posts would be about what I am learning on this topic, and my view and thoughts on ways to approach a successful balanced scorecard implementation.
 
Mumbai monsoons are back. The city was in a mess today, and normal life came to a halt once again. Here are a few pictures that I had clicked in the morning. I had been waiting for the rains to slow down, so that I could leave for office in the morning. Today was an important day as I had a training scheduled for my team. Armed with my laptop, I just reached the main gate of my society, Takshila. And behold!! There whole road right outside the gates was flooded with nothing plying and the autos nearly in water. So I just came back and changed, and went out again to capture the interesting sight.
As I was going to put the pics online, the electricity also went out. However, the laptops saved us, as we ended up watching two interesting movies with our lappies running on battery.
The pictures are from outside the gate of my residential society - Takshila - in Andheri East.
Shit happens !!! And in case you are looking for proof - today’s Brazil vs. France match epitomized the ‘adage’ to the fullest. Brazil, the world champions for five consecutive years, could not make it to the semi-finals, and were brutally dominated by France throughout the quarter-final match. France had the perfect strategy up their sleeve - being a strongly defending team, they scored an early goal (Full credit to Zidane and Henry) and then kept Brazil at bay for the rest of the match. Brazil lost 1-0.
It was the worst of the times … 4 yellow cards for Brazil … half-hearted attempts at getting the ball into the nets … Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano - all lacklusture performances.
It was the best of the times … France were superb on the field … Henry, Patrick Vieira, Franck Ribery and Florent Malouda were a pleasure to watch … Zidane’s superb touches and virtuosi control.
I was supporting Brazil since the very start of the world cup, and I know another person who would be extremely disappoinated with this loss. Anyways, Portugal beating England was a welcome change and I loved that match. Somehow, I always have a thing about siding with the underdogs - for the simple reason that the passion to succeed is greater than the drive to defend.
Coming back to Brazil vs. France match, the winning team made it obvious that they were not easily intimidated. I would just wait for the next world cup, hoping that Brazil sports a mix of new and old “fit” players, who are not only innovative on field but also ready to experiment. The textbook techniques of playing football are not going to work for Brazil. They completely lacked the fast-passing and attacking manouvers in the game today.
One can only point out the mistakes and rue about them in disappointment. Whatever teams go into the semi-finals now, this World Cup will not be the same without Brazil.
 
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