Bookish

 Sandeep Das was my college mate at RVCE, Bangalore, where he was pursuing computer science and i was doing chemical engineering. I knew him from distance as a debater and quiz freak who represented the college and brought laurels. This practical and non preachy book, "Hacks for Life and Career" for any millennial, is a ready recknor and go to guide for various finance, economics and analytical jargons in an easily understandable/relatable style. I enjoyed reading this book, although 2 to 3 chapters a day and recommend it to anyone, who is interested in understanding business and finance a bit more! 

 # Six Billion Shoppers by Porter Erisman #  A major part of any economy is retail which leads to massive addition to GDP and growth. However retail depends on the disposable income of people in that country on which e-Commerce thrives. This book written in a lucid style by one of the early Vice Presidents of ALIBABA who himself being an American brings a clear & first hand perspective on companies ( Amazon & eBay in the US alongside ALIBABA, Tencent, Lazada in china ) and regions (America and China). These are then compared with emerging markets in India, south east asia, Latin America and Africa in detail. What stands out in this book is author's focus on the culture, innovation, unique opportunity and challenges online shopping poses on the lives of people in all these regions. The no of pages dedicated in the book for each market also shows the order of importance from high to low i.e.China, India, South Asia, Latin America and Africa in that order!

  The Drugs ( Antibiotics) don’t work : By professor Dame sally Davis  - Excessive use and abuse - self medication  - Not completing the prescribed course - Abuse of antibiotics in poultry  - Abuse in animal breeding  - Cheap copycat pharma companies - Silence of scientific community  - Third world challenges - lazy and lousy governments

Tashkent Diary ; A book by S Umesh  " This book is a consise biography of the former PM of India Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri Ji, focussing more on the events prior and after his sudden demise in 1966 @ Tashkent, USSR "  Foreword : Shri Venkaiah Naidu                       (Hon. VP of India) ################################# When Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri ji died in Tashkent these happened.... These are facts! a) There was no postmortem despite his family insisted on it!  b) His family was not allowed to even reach his mortal remains for many hours after reaching Delhi!  c) Lal Bahadur shashtri was warned by the indian embassy ( Mr Dutta was the ambassador then) not to stay in the villa arranged by the host USSR due to security reasons instead was asked to stay with indian high commission but PMO cleared it!  d) The Russian doctor who examined Shashtri ji after his death did not sign in the death certificate w...

ನಲ್ಮೆಯ ನರೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ ನಮಸ್ತೆ  ಹೇಗಿದ್ದೀರಾ....ನನ್ನ ನೆನಪುಂಟಾ? ಕಳೆದ ತಿಂಗಳು ಊರಿಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗ ನೀವು ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿತ್ತು ಕಳುಹಿಸಿದ "ಕನುಸುಗಳು ಖಾಸಗಿ " ಓದಿದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಥೆಗಳೂ ಕುತೂಹಲವನ್ನು ಉದ್ದೀಪಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗಿವೆ.  'ರುಕ್ಕುಮಣಿ'ಯಲ್ಲಿನ ಅಮ್ಮನ ಪೂರ್ವ ಮತ್ತು ಮಗಳ ಪ್ರಸ್ತುತ ಗಳ ನಡುವಿನ ಜಿಜ್ಞಾಸೆ, ಮನೆಯ ಕಾಪಾಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂಧಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದ ಗುಟ್ಟುಗಳು, ರುಕ್ಕು ಮತ್ತು ರೋಜ್ ಎಂಬ ಭಿನ್ನಗಳು , ಅಮ್ಮ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಬಂದದನ್ನ ಮಗಳು ಅರಸಿ ಹೊರಟಿದ್ದು ಮತ್ತು ಬಲಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು!  'ಕೆಂಪು ಹಾಲಿ'ನ revealed and unrevealed, ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕ್ರೌರ್ಯ (ಹಾಲು ಮತ್ತು ರಕ್ತ ಅಂದುಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಾ ), 'ಭೇಟಿ'ಯಲ್ಲಿನ ಮೀರುವಿಕೆ ಮತ್ತು ನೀರರ್ಥಕತೆ, 'ರಿಕವರಿ'ಯ ಅಸಹಾಯಕತೆ ಮತ್ತು ವಾಸ್ತವ, 'ಅಜ್ಜಿಯ ಕಥೆ'ಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಾಣಿಸುವ ಮನೋವ್ಯಾಪಾರ ಮತ್ತು ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಔದಾರ್ಯ, 'ಹಿಂಸಾರೂಪೇಣ'ದಲ್ಲಿನ ಹಸಿ ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯ, 'ಸಾಕ್ಷಿ'ಯ contradiction ಮತ್ತು ಇವೆಲ್ಲ ಕಥೆಗಳಿಗೂ ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥೈಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಸೂಕ್ತ ಆನಿಸುವಂತ " ಕಥನ ಕುತೂಹಲ" ಕಥೆ ನನಗೆ ಬಹಳವಾಗಿ ಹಿಡಿಸಿತು.  ಆದರೆ ''ಕನಸುಗಳು ಖಾಸಗಿ'' ಕಥೆ ನನಗೆ ತುಂಬಾ ಡ್ರಾಮ್ಯಾಟಿಕ್ ಅನ್ನಿಸಿತು, ಸಿನಿಮೆಯ ರೀತಿ ಅನ್ನಬಹುದು.  ಈ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಕಥೆಗಳನ್ನೂ ಒಂದೇ ಗುಕ್ಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿದೆ....

 #A good book but OVERRATED # Just finished reading " Jonathan Livingston sea gull " story and i must say, this is one of the most overrated books of our times 🤭 Richard Bach is very good in explaining the nuances of flight (himself being a pilot) and tying it to the fable he unravels by employing the SEAGULL bird, but the fable itself is known to mankind for ages! The books like these are more accepted by business freaks across the world for its VALUE than literary or social communities for its MEANING!

Bernie Sanders says that the only lobby which wins 98% of the time in the US Senate is the Big Pharma lobby.  What is big Pharma?  'Big Pharma' comprises of Huge pharmaceutical companies mainly from US and Europe (Pfizer, johnson and johnson, gsk, eli lilly, Bristol mayers Squibb, Roche, Astrazeneca, Merck and co, Novartis, Bayer, Sanofi etc.)  What do they do? These companies are into life saving medicines for cancer, heart diseases, organ rejection, psychological drugs, rare drugs etc these are also called as branded drugs because they are developed by the Pharma Companies themselves by putting in lot of efforts and money into R & D or atleast they say! Why are prices high?  One of the main reasons why these companies keep the price of these medicines high is inflated research and development costs.They also unilaterally rise the prices of these medicines without any logic and consultation. In the past 20 to 25 years the cost of some of the life saving medici...