Hunt for the next book

Having finished "Inspector Singh Investigates: The Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder"  I am in the process of finding the next best book to read. Should I go for profound and poignant Indian novels such as 'A Fine Balance', 'Lessons in Forgetting' or any Anita Nair's books or should I go for Japanese thrillers or should I go for stay-whole-night-and-complete kind of sci-fi novels?

For almost two months now I was in a state of book-drought thanks to 'English August' by Upamanyu Chatterjee. I haven't been able to complete it for the simple reason that the book is not compelling enough to invest time every day reading it. I have to admit it is one of the most funniest novels I have ever read depicting the story of a IAS officer posted in remote village called Madna and the realistic descriptions of the lackadaisical attitude of people in authority, the kind of hold they have on uneducated villagers, their lives in general were accurately portrayed and make you part of the lives in 40's India. The problem is it doesn't seem to hint at where the story is progressing. Almost half way through and the novel is still about the same set of people with their idiosyncrasies. As much as it made me laugh it also made me sleep quite wonderfully I might add.

Here is my review of Inspector Singh Investigates novel that I am re-posting from GoodReads -

This is a murder mystery involving a certain Singh from Singapore on assignment to Malaysia to save a high profile Singaporean celebrity accused of murder. Though this definitely is a page turner it doesn't really show any ingenuity in the police thinking or clever wits of a detective. Without giving much away the police only find out who the murder is by the murderer's own confession. Pity.

Was looking for a thriller on the levels of Keigo Higashino Devotion of Suspect X but was severely let down. Good time pass read. 

I have now decided to remove the The Vishnu Puri chronicles from my to-read books as even that has a similar pot bellied sardar investigating murders. Ain't fair eh? So be it.

Coming back to the task at hand in order to avoid this predicament of knowing what to pick up next, I had chosen the root of tagging books with 'Want to Read' on goodreads. Sadly I see that it isn't helping me. Some of the ones I chose aren't available in Indian store and for the ones that are makes me think there must be better ones out there! Ironical isn't it? The reason they are there as 'Want to Read' is because I had spent considerable amount of time zeroing in on them and to make this part of search anyway.

I digress. When it comes to book selection the only God I look up to is the one and only Jai Arjun. No matter how many other book reviewing websites I have dug up, I always come back to his. His reviews are impeccable and I just lap up to the books he recommends. There were one or two instances where I didn't enjoy as much as what he wrote about a particular book. I am trying very hard to remember about someone who told me that he/she also does go through the same route of selection.

I did something similar for movies until Roger Ebert passed away. Thankfully I now have moifightclub blog. Well currently though my search is still on. Will update the blog with the one I chose.

Note- somehow I am highly inclined to Japanese thriller.

Edit-
Finally I have chosen 'The Bone Season' surprising myself and even Jai Arjun maybe. Touted as the next best thing to happen to Literary World since J.K. Rowling.

Funny ways how your mind works

It is a habit of mine that I get a urge to eat something that I like and keep my stomach full whenever I accomplish some difficult task racking my brain for long time during my office time. Earlier this used to translate to eating Chicken Biryani or Chicken Soft Noodles during lunch and if its a snack time that would be one plate Rava Masala Dosa or Samosa Cutlet etc.This was during my bachelor times.

After marriage though my appetite has changed for good but my cravings didn't. I only found out yesterday. There were 3 issues plaguing me since last week. Yesterday I was able to successfully close two of them around 5 in the evening. It was snack's time and my regular coterie of friends weren't around. Anup was off to his driving school, Nitin was sick and had taken half day leave and that left only Hegde. Somehow it doesn't work. Anyways my stomach was growling with anticipation.

I rushed to the ground floor where we had the common eateries for the building. My first thought was to have a nice warm soup and be done with it. I went to Shanghai Shef only to be shooed away saying they were closed until 5:30. I then went to sandwich maker but then I thought "Heck I am not going to pay 35 bucks for one sandwhich with two bread slices and some aloo. Come on I almost get to eat whole 4 slices of bread at home once every two weeks or more than that". I ruled that out.

I then went ahead to the general counter where they serve all kinds of assorted food where you get all kinds of chat, poha, samiya, cut mirchi, bajji of various kinds and so on. My first pic was Cut-mirchi. I stood in the queue with 5 guys ahead of me. By the moment two guys left, I had a change of heart. Wasn't it too oily for?. I went back to the menu and then decided I would have dosa. Then again don't I get dosa twice every week, why should I buy and eat? Then I thought samsosa which I outright rejected in my mind. I was also in the queue in the meantime and it was my turn.

Quickly on the spot I decided I am gonna have one Boost. This was done not to embarrass myself as the guy at the counter already saw me in and out of the queue twice. It would be pretty awkward to make a hat-trick of it. Upon finishing my order I had a really good laugh with the way my mind works and no wonder people tell me I am confused all the time. Damn it, the one thing that I want to get rid of but comes back to me like a long lost acquaintance, mingling with you nonstop.

First off I need to get hold of Shrivas, who had recently told me not once but almost 2-3 times in the last week "Itna confused kyon ho bhai?"

H to the S to the B to the C - HSBC

My relationship with HSBC dates back to almost 7 years now and they have kept their word not to charge me annually. Few years back when they shortchanged the bonus points, I felt absolutely cheated. A bonus points of 1000 that fetched 750 bucks now gives only 250. They never kept their promise of increasing the credit limit. That was the second shock.

I did inquiry around to immediately looking for alternatives. I mean what the heck why should I keep losing the goodies? The other ones I tried were HDFC, Axis itself and of course the Citi. All these demanded a mandatory clause of 15K spending per year. The reward points too I saw that were actually same across the banks. I stuck to this. On top of all this I am making great effort to stay away from credit.

Excepting for the months expecting variable pay,  we were able to achieve it quite well. For good number of months there were absolute zero transactions. I hope to continue on that.

Anyways the sudden interest in bank has come about because of the latest new security device that the bank has delivered. After completing all the PIN generation and security set up etc. I realized that with the new set of security I would first need to enter my username, password, then enter security device password get the security code, and then enter that number to finally enter it.

Its frustrating to the tilt. Suckers.

The Extras that matter and hurt

First it starts at the outer layers on the face, on the cheeks, near the chin. It then builds up on the stomach, then it takes over your thighs and before you realize, it then creeps on your hands and legs. The once fit body becomes a constant irritant and taking two steps at a time walking a staircase makes would start feeling as if you have done an hour of trekking without a break. Deplorable and absolutely pathetic.
Deep within myself I know tomorrow is the day and I vow to keep it.This extra bit of fat hurts the most and matter the most. 

Dangers of Pass-By Date

Among many things I have been reading (a lot actually) be it on web, quora, twitter, zite, flipboard and so on, one of the comments in an article caught my attention. The commentator talks about the idleness and the complacency exhibited by millions of working Indians post marriage. I can just look at myself in the mirror and give a resounding stamp of approval for the theory.

I look around among my colleagues and friends its the same story. Excepting the times when someone looks for a job change, the zeal and the desire to excel and gain knowledge is sorely missing. This quest for knowledge need not be in one's own field. It also may be related to some other professional courses that one can take up like the hundreds of MOOC's that are available free of cost. With a baby thrown in after few years one can as well forget it. Doing one's work in a day itself will tire them out leaving not much scope for further development.

I am without a doubt in this dangerous zone and it's really scary. On top of that being part of support all I am able to help is in troubleshooting issues occurring in Prod and not adding any value to myself in terms of learning. As the Dev team keeps building components here I am languishing lethargically doing nothing of significance. It's as if my pass-by date is stuck on my forehead and having nothing new to bring to the table.

I have to set this right and I have to do it right now. I shudder to think if I leave my brain to rot and relish in this 9-7 lifestyle will be extinct by the next cycle. I have to start setting targets, giving presentations, learn new things and make this habitual.

"Don't take medical seats, your life will never set. You have to keep on reading and writing exams for ages together before you settle. Even then you would need to upgrade" This used to be my oft-repeated quote to many a post-intermediate folks. Thing is this basic motto extends to everyone. This kinda reminds of one of the recent advertisement for Kaun Banega Crorepati where a guy refuses to study further thinking all that was needed to learn was over only to find himself losing out entirely in his profession.

I pray I don't bccome that guy. The things I need to set out to accomplish would start with mastering of XQuery, SQL Server Replication, SQL Server MDX and the biggest of all - Hadoop with BigData.

Godspeed.