Muses of Murari

Now a days, I am reading more and more, non-fiction books. Now, this book, I have selected, when I dropped in Landmark, talks on niche markets, that are served well by Internet, which otherwise, could not be accessed well. The title of the book or its blurb or the praise on the book covers, did not influenced my buying. And also this book is not even a runaway best seller. But, true to its title, it is niche book, which could be low ranked in terms of popularity. This book authored by Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired magazine, speaks his theory/observation - the Long Tail.

In the sales graph, drawn sales numbers against the commodities like movies, music or books ranked, one can see, the popular ones occupy huge spikes in left side of graph. The curve starts to dip with low ranking, and the tail of the curve contniue to drag and interestingly never reaches zero. This means, we have huge number of non-popular music, books, movies, which never cease to get sold. But they get sold, in small numbers. If huge number of commodities, sell in single digits every month or quarter, which will itself earns any company, a good profit and sometimes earns more than what mainstream popular ones do. This is made more possible than ever, only due to internet, the author argues.

This is a good observation. Companies like Amazon, Netflix, Rhapsody, harped on to this theory and reaping the benefits. The author went on to explain, with some real time examples, his theory of how we are swammed with lot of choices and the tools to filter them and given the echaustive list of niche products that are aligned with tastes of individuals. Author also explained the retail stores and how they have many (physical) disadvantages and can’t come close to what their online counterparts can think of or do. For example, Amazon’s ingeniuos strategy to list the local vendors’ products in a centralised website, which not only helps the customer to have a look at exhaustive list, but also helps vendors to reach the customers near & far. And also reduces the massive inventory overhead. 

Author talks about the wide variety of choice, which is driving the individual to look for the niche books, niche music or niche movies. The blockbusters or best sellers are no more the reasons for must-watch or must-see, since, we have huge system in place, to get the information and pocess logistics to select some obscure book or not heard-of movie, of individual tastes and preferences. And also on the power of recommendation, from the fans and how the fan following can make or break the product or services on internet.

Anderson discusses that this medium, is world of amateurs. Amateurs of many and many things. He points out amateurs’ contributions can some times successful, stating examples like online encyclopedia Wikipedia and amatuer astronomers. The examples are lucid and to the point. He demystifies the idea of “too much choice” problem. If we are to pick up some exotic jam, among 250 types of jam in a store, we might some times don’t choose the jam at all, which might like. The author argues, that this is not problem of choosing over a lot of variety, but, the problem of not sufficient tools to search over. It is limitation and not a rule. He observers, if were to choose something over the internet site, like say for example, searching some book on obscure topic in Amazon, we not only retrieve the book we want, we also get information on the books, of the same type. This is a truly advantage of doing business online.

The main concept about the book, is the long tail. The hundreds and thousands of low ranked numbers, books & movies need not necessarily be low quality. There are many low ranked, that might interest many, many people. These products might never seen the light, if the internet were not to play the role, it is doing now. People, now have huge amount of information and also tools to filter them and to choose according to their individual tastes and preferences. This group, has a huge potential to grow. A big business can built around this group. This is what companies like Netflix, Rhapsody doing, the author points out.

The book is full of facts, concepts, articulated with simple graphs and offers a very good read, provided the area of your interests fall into internet or economics or business or just being a open minded book reader. This book, I got introduced to this book, in some blog post, which I don’t remember, and also the book is not that much popular, like, unlike massively popular book, The Da Vinci Code. Still, I could find it, some how using internet (blogs), that it fits my taste. And also read somewhere, that it got tremendous response, both in terms of reviews & sales. This is what the Long Tail, is all about!

Yesterday’s launch by ISRO, to moon is another big story that will keep runnning in our sensational media circles until some other news eclpises it. The achievement of launching the lunar probe, by Indian rocket scientists is extremely commendable. The moment the launch declared successful, there were lot of stories milling around in the news media. There were questions raised like, why spending nearly 4000 million rupees, when half of the country is dying in hunger. Lots of discussion on availability of Helium-3 in moon, which has potential to emancipate us from power shortages for centuries! And on the space race, with China. And also some notes on extra-terrestrial living. And this event is dubbed as natural extension of present ISRO missions like launching satellites. Manned space trip is also in radar and ambitious space odysseys to the planets like Mars and many more. 

It is really chest thumping and moment of pride for us, that our country, is now, a part of the elite group of countries, dealing in sophisticated space exploration. Though, the moon has been conquered more than five dozen times so far, still this late achievement is a significant step to our country. The space exploration, would not solve our present day political problems and for that matter, it be of no help in dealing with our day-to-day problems. But, it is matter of prestige to show the country’s measured, yet untappped scientific prowess to the world. 

There are hell lot of reasons, why we don’t have world class scientific people. Even, if we do have, either they were exported to countries like US or they waste their natural skills in industries like IT, pushed by their family commitments or simply mesmerised by money. I don’t know what we can do to solve the present crisis of lack of world class scientific think-thank here in India. But, we can do something on this Chandrayaan-1 story. And it can do some magic, if the present achievement is handled adeptly. If this story is marketed well across the country, it could inspire an entire generation. We have around 50 % of our population in and under twenties. Imagine, this moon mission, if fed well, through school curriculam, workshorps, educational programs in TVs, internet, creating sci-fi movies, video games and in other knoweldge dissipation mediums, children would get inspired to take science streams as their career options. This inspiration comes to children by seeing those who did it/succeeded in doing it. For example, when Sania Mirza succeeded at international tennis level, it slowly created a demand in our country. The demand was for tennis coaches. Lot of children, got inspired and started to learn playing tennis. Thanks to the mass media, that showed Sania’s success. We can’t say, that we will get another Sania Mirza or Serena Williams or Raefal Nadal, from those children who got inspired. But, certainly there will be inspired citizens, unlike many of their previous generation counterparts. Who knows?, we might get a world class tennis player better than Roger Federer! Similarly, this Chandrayaan-1 story, if propagated to our millions of children in proper channels, they will get inspired and start to dream BIG not only in space studies and but it will also kick interests among children in other science studies. When the space race had started between US and Soviet, an entire generation in US was inspired and many students took science streams. The entire country was captivated by the space craze. Why such a thing is not happening in our country. Partly, due to lack of true leaders and visionaries and also partly, due to our family values. 

Of course, parallely, our inept government policies should be reformed. More policies, to encourage quality of our education, atleast in higher education sector, should be created. We need clear leadership, to create a congenial atmosphere, in terms of quality of educational infrastructure and in terms of funding to the reasearch institutions, that can encourage the talented people to work for their ideas, their dreams and ultimately lifting our country from the embarrasing position of near zero world class scientific research output.

I didn’t read much of Jeffrey Archer’s books. Just the title and the blurb content of this book, teased me to spend some couple of hundred rupees to buy it. The book is not great in any sense, but it gave the glimpse of prison life. Though the prison life may not be same everywhere, but the narration in the book has thrown enough light, that how it looks like, in one of the developed countries in the world.

Jeffrey Archer wrote a series of diaries, while he was serving in prison, and released them as "A Prison Diary". This book is its first volume.

In the book, Archer described every day & every hour of his experiences, which, I felt a bit drag. To write the experiences in three volumes, you don’t have any other better options! He narrated the real experiences of prisoners and shared their stories to the world. In one instance, he told a moving story of a prisoner, who was outrageously sexually abused in his childhood, and ditched by his lover after a decade of living together and later arrested for a criminal act, which he never performed! The prisoner had to spend major part of his life in the jail. Archer appreciated for his voluntary role of a prison listener. Later, the prisoner had attempted suicide. I re-read this entire passage. I was really moved by his story. And it is unpleasant to learn the dark side of life, which many of us might never come to know, let alone experiencing it!

And there’s bit lengthy passage discussing various types of drugs like marijuana, heroin, cocaine and the author described the explanation given by a fellow prisoner, who was arrested for drug dealing. And the author pointed out, some of the unfortunate crimes committed by the prisoners, which, many of them repent for their mad acts performed in the height of craziness. The author lead the reader to peak into what the prison world look like. The reader can easily understand, from the way the author has written, that the, Time, which often we complain that we don’t have to do enough things, is available in plenty.

Overall, this first version of Jeffrey Archer’s prison diary, is not revelation of any kind, but certainly leaves the impressions of the prison life.

Here is my short take on the film Hancock.

When Hancock (Will Smith) starts flying, in the initial phase of the film, I was wondering “what crap?”. May be, this is because, we are conditioned to see the super human stunts performed only by comic characters & also only with certain kind of uniform!

The script started to thread well, when Jason Bateman met Will Smith. But the pitching for all charitable work by Bateman, which happens twice in the film, was bit drag and not so impressive. Single public act of saving from bad guys, does not justify heroship. Charlize Tharon character was interesting till she shows her true nature. The concept of ageless super powers beings in pairs (couple) and the reasoning behind pairing  - couple will lose their powers, if they are close to each other and become like normal human beings - are not at all hi-fi. But adds to story line well! The way, Hancock (Will Smith) transorms into super hero, from rough & hated guy, is not inspiring even. The visual & sound effects are worth watching out. Overall, I don’t like the film.

Only two things were pretty impressive to me. They were, Will Smith’s super performance (as usual) and Charlize Theron’s gorgeous looks! Man, I am falling for both!

I hit trough point today. My energy was just draining away. With the sinking will, I also felt guilty. It was not guilt of doing wrong. But, guilt of punching (not literally) some one who is facing hardship and expressing a hint of resignation.

I saw people, including myself, bargain hard when we buy things from road side vendors. It is so common in India, we mettle our bargain prowess in buying things from the poor vendors. But, when we go to some swanky mall, or plush restaurant, we just throw away the money, not even considering the worthiness of products or services. The reasoning behind is well worth a study. But, that’s not the point. The point is, why we are so partial, when it comes to dealing with the poor? Why we are hitting the people who are at lowest strata of the society and living on the small margins. They already living in a different world. They are becoming poorer and poorer, by the day. For them, the whole point of existence is to find the next meal. We often spend carelessly, but, we contemplate a lot to give to the poor, not for charity, but for buying something from them.

I feel guilty. The single expression on the face of that fruit vendor, I saw today, thrown enough light. Provided, the quality of product or service is good, I don’t want to bargain for meagre amount, which will mean BIG to downtrodden. So I will not, hereafter.

Searching a house to live, in Bangalore is bit difficult process. Finding a good house to live, is bit more difficult. Finding a house which is Vaastu compliant, is the most difficult job.

My search started with one criteria along with other basic look outs. That is the Vaastu compliant house. I don’t have any beliefs in Vaastu Shaashtra, but my father has great faith on it. He is also expert in it. 

Initially, I started the search on my own without help of any house broker, as the they demand one month rent as commision. I searched all the online classifieds. I was particular to find house in few areas, as the house should be commuting distance to my office. With Google Map, BTIS info & classified websites, I started to hunt for houses. Initially, I was clueless on Vaastu gyan. So phone calls to Chennai would fly like anything, and clairfy with my Dad, only to get rejected replies. This happened for a dozen houses, after I got comfortable with basics of Vaastu!

Then I started to reject houses with just sight of them! The thing is, it is extremely time consuming and pain in ass job, but at the some time, it gave me opporunity to learn different things. First, I learnt basics of Vaastu well. Second, people’s greediness. Third, but not least, having extensively searched houses, got familiar with new areas and new routes in Bangalore!

The rents in Bangalore are going skywards. For a decent 2BHK house in good areas like Koramangala, will cost minimum dozen thousand ruppees. If the place of the house in strategic position, then cost will roof pass through 20k or so. Areas like these, one will get all facilities and matches latest lifestyles. But it comes with a price. Traffic. Commuting to office in these areas, is every day struggle. So this pushed me to look for house, near to my work place. This in fact, pushed me to outskirts of the city. This is first compromise.

I rejected nearly triple dozen houses, for not being square or rectangle in shape, for having cross entrance, for having cut in corners, for having extensions, for having runinng roads perpendicular to the houses, for having Kitchen in corners where only bed rooms are allowed, for having temple besides the house, for having empty space besides the appartment and many more.

This was building frustration in me and at the same time, I had learnt how to be perserverant in times like these. For days, I had two shifts of work. One is office work and other is house searching work that starts after 7 p.m. I also started to see houses all over the city, but within commutable distance to my office. I compromised with traffic also, and searched for 1 BHK houses in areas like Koramangala. But, nothing worked.

Then, I went with house brokers/agents. These guys showed me houses I never saw. But, the same old problem. Either, if the house is Vaastu compliant, it will be in remote part of the area or if the house is good, then Vaasthu has no place in it.Many brokers wasted their vehicle fuel, phone calls with me. They would have been fuming with me. In one case, I made a deal with a person working for real estate company. The deal is, if he searches for a good house in the areas I have specified, I would give him commisson, without involving his company. I bargained to some amount. After that I had no calls from him! I know a broker well. I told him I need house, but he never returned any calls. I think, last time I paid him less. This could be reason!

I met people with different personalities. I saw landlords with genuine characters. You can just read them and say they are gems! And there are landlords, who just qoute what rent his neighbour is getting and not seeing the real worth of their houses. In one particular case, a house with very two small bedrooms and total space of not more than 500 sqft qouted Rs. 9500 p.m. After some talk, he was generous to reduce Rs. 300! Bullshit, that house not worth even 5k. I got pissed off really. In one of the ads, the advertiser posted about a house with 100% Vaastu compliant. I went there only for that reason. He played silly and cheap game of negotating rent. He advertised for 9k and on phone he told me 10k. After talking about extra charges, he came to 9k and said he can’t reduce any more. This does not matter. But, he wasted my time to see a house which he claimed 100 % Vaastu, which is in fact zero percent Vaastu compliant. I really can say, that he does not know what Vaasthu is? But why that kind of advertisement? Why people are not honest? I felt like blasting him, but I restrained myself. In another instance, one advertisement showed me 2 BHK in Koramangala for 8.5k. I went to see the house, only to realise, it is in one of the cornermost part of that area and from the look of it, I could guess it wont be even 400 sqft. People want to milk money. They built houses just for that reason. Ok, thats fine. But, why building houses for cats and dogs and qoute market prices? I became so frustrated. Why the hell people see this has business avenue, after all, its people going to live!! Are we become so greedy?

Finally, after weeks of struggle, hundreds of phone calls, I saw a house which had basic Vaastu and also satisfied other parameters. Then with some bargain, I got the house for decent rent and also economical brokerage. All these confusions are due to one criteria, house being Vaastu compliant, which my father keenly insist on. I can’t say no to him, so went with the whole process.

Then recently, my parents came down here and we had traditional puja. There, my heart sank, when my father pointed me a minor Vaastu mistake in the house.  My father is not satisfied. I accept it, that I oversaw it. The feeling of incomplete search stills hangs on. Now, I got to keep aside all the brickbats that I bound to receive and look for happy living! Now, what I want to understand is, how really Vaastu works? and why it is important and why I need it? For first two questions, recommend me some reading or pour gyan yourself in the comments section. For last one, I will contemplate after studying the answers of the first two questions by sitting in the North-East corner of my new home!

True to its title, the topics discussed in this book are not sequential drilling. You need more focus on reading, to get what author is trying to put his points. In one of the instances, the author, who himself claims as a voracious reader, tells that each new book, he reads, leaves new impressions in his mind. Few days back, I  read this book, which left me wondering all the incidents are pre-determined and not random in nature. Now, this book, tells us exact opposite and also more about alternative histories, probability of one’s success in markets, blasts conventional wisdom, here & there, ridicule MBA holders!

The author discusses most of the counter intuitive & arcane topics of probability and amazes me, explaining them with simple examples. He discusses something called skewness and how he uses the concept in his day to day trading. I don’t know to what extent I understood, but the stuff I grasped makes very sense.

The author tells, the successful people are equally competent with those who are not. But, what makes the person is successful is truly a chance or luck that would have helped him. He also argues how successful people, not recognizing the random nature, fail drastically at some points. He quoted couple of examples, how successful managers earned high reputation, by making profits consistently over the years. And one fine day, how they lost more than what they have earned in years, by just sticking to their adamant stance. One random event, strikes like sighting a black colored swan, it will have a huge impact. This, author calls it as Black Swan.

If one has succeeded in something, people will relate all the incidents in his/her life and spun stories that talks on so and so attributes that made him/her success. Is it not true? We have seen so many such stories about Warren Buffet. It is not that we discredit those who succeeded. We would have seen people, whom we think are not worthy of what they got in life. We also observe sometimes, some one was in right place & right time, so that things went a breeze and made him successful! Is it not random luck? Author discusses a good example - when you allow a large group of monkeys and force them to type using type writer, there is a good probability that, one monkey comes up with exact text of Iliad! Will that same monkey can write Odyssey, the next time? Bang on! Same way, author argues, if some one succeeded in a very large group, then he won’t consider who wins. It is just a chance that some one won.

I read this book with very long time interval, which made me loose many interesting points from my Grey cells. This book is a stimulating read. So re-reading this book is not a bad idea. Next time, when you do not succeed on something, quote this book to your girl friend!

P.S. : I was so impressed by the author, I bought his other book - The Black Swan

That was the time, when motor bikes looked like gigantic machines and had impression that only mighty can ride them. I saw them with awe. I rode, imaginarily, spelling aloud a heroic story behind my ride, with producing sounds like running bike, on a parked two wheeler. I had an innocuous confusion, when I see different letters & numbers on the plates, which seem to be bizzarely hanging out, in front & back sides of the vehicles. It was like a puzzle to me, waiting to be solved. There were lot of trucks plying nearby my locality, with letters like “AP”, “TN”, “KA”, followed by some irrational random numbers, which I thought only my math teacher can solve. I kept wondering what they mean to me and to the rest of the world. On one fine morning, while I was merrying around, a sudden light of insight crossed me. AP - Andhra Pradhesh, TN - Tamil Nadu, KA - Karnataka. “Wow! These vehicles are from those states! What a discovery?”, I felt. Then I became the greatest discoverer of having found a fact on my own, at a small age! Then the story of raise of a great intellectual, started to mull over & kept running for days….. All happened, in my tender mind.

When I think about this now, I feel silly. But, it was one of the nostalgic moments which refuses to fade away.

Which is evergreen industry? Which industry will exist till the man kind exist on earth? Which industry that keeps up with changing times and never short of business?

I think the answer to all these question is Media Industry. I was thinking for quite a while and amused to find how media - TV news channels, newspapers & other related outlets, getting some or other hot news that keep our minds buzzing with events, sequences, information, statements, predictions, expert opinions, until the next major breaking news comes in. 

If we just rewind our short memory of public events, one can see some news or other always topping the newspaper headlines, prime time TV news & online journals. Let’s start from Jan, 2008. Started with lot of hoopla with Reliance Power IPO, then Indian stock market crash, double digit inflation, zooming crude oil prices, Noida murder case,  terror blasts in cities like Bangalore, UPA-Left drama, Government’s confidence motion, India’s performance @ Olympics, nuclear deal, CERN experiment, Delhi blasts and latest US financial crisis. 

Some or other things keep them busy and in turn burden us with unwanted news. In the process, they also inject an element of non-reality, report arguments for and against, statements, comments, all lead to utter chaos. By the time, some light at the end of the tunnel is seen for a problem/public event, some other news is picked up and the former is faded out in the depths of public consciousness. The new story again goes with the same cycle, but with new vigour of public attention. It is getting increasingly repetitive cycle. At the end, we are left with a feeling, “the world is not heading to a peaceful existence”. 

Is there any considerable amount of good news reported in the media? Every newspaper page turns to evil stories. Is there any insipirational stories or the people who made things that changed lives of other people? NO. B’cos, they are taken care in special magazines. Our newspapers report hardly any good news. Either they are stuffed up with all bad news or advertisements or celebrity personal life or Pg3 glamour. I mean bad things,  that include everything that are unwanted, unnecessary & the ones that doesn’t produce good feelings or good thoughts.   

In the good side, the Industry is inventing itself with changing times. They have hugged the online space well, which previously threatened their own existence. They started to diverse in to other businesses. Like the mammoth media group in South India, which has footprints in industries like TV channels, newspaper, cable, dish TV, is now into film production. Some have taken soical initiatives like Lead India compaign, Teach India compaign. This is good strategy. It is one of the best way to reach the hearts of the educated Indians & at the same time increase the readership figures. One news channel played good role in bringing justice to the powerless, whom most often left, fighting with mighty political will. It is like bringing the story to the view of the entire nation, then the pressure dynamics will deliver the justice to the unvoiced victims. These are the some of the ways, where media plays excellent roles in the society. But, these are done only by the few exceptional groups.  

A country like India, which has huge & diverse population and supplies unlimited market variables, media companies have enormous potential to grow.  Our opinions, are going to be more & more influenced with what we read in newspapers, what we see in TV news channels. The media can gravitate, the way we perceive the public events & our reactions to them and on one day in the future, we might not be surprised, if we find that it dictates the process of our opinionation.

There are few politicians in our country, who display the moments of grit and determination with the utmost leadership qualities and and also put foward things that are good for the nation. Our prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh is one among them. 

His name will now be etched at least for two things in India’ history, which have changed the course of our nation. The 1991 economic reforms and now, the 2008 Nuclear deal. I am proud of you, Mr. Singh.  Truly, your spine is made up of steel, as today’s TOI’s editorial pointed out.