Books

I am reading two books currently. 'Choice' by Eliyahu Goldratt is an exploration of his theories which he made popular in his earlier books. Essentially, the power of common sense, or logical thinking applied to business or life problems, is what he explores. Written as a dialogue between his daughter and himself, it seems quite a good read- I am about halfway through it. The second one I am simultaneously reading is "Sand in my bra and other misadeventures". This is an edited book of hilarious travel stories by various women writers. One describes how a lady had to walk with a bag of groceries in one of the middle east (gulf) countries, crossing a road, cars and a group of men, while trying to balance a loose pair of underwear to prevent it from slipping to the ground. Another hilarious story is of a woman visiting a Thai nightclub with its own 'special' stuff. The book is fun, and nicely written, though the authors are diverse.

Another book I read recently is "Surely you are joking, Mr. Feynman" , about a scientist who was a normal, but curious kid, and his days as a college student at MIT, his 'presentation' to an audience full of nobel laureates including Einstein, and other interesting tidbits.

An interesting week

Last week was interesting. First, I got to golf on a miniature chip-and-putt golf course at a college in Salem. It is easy to make it, takes a little more than a lawn in a frontyard (large frontyard). It can be a great pastime, for those into the game. Saves you the expense and time of going to a snobbish course. I also attended a business promotion meeting of Netherlands investment authority in a city hotel. Looks like equations are really changing from colonial times. Now Europe wants India to invest in their countries. This gave us a chance to look at academic collaborations with Netherlands based business schools. Our b-school already has two such collaborations for student exchange etc. with two different European schools-in Germany and France.

The New Year

2009 has been hectic so far, what with a tour of some six cities in the North and three in the south within about 15 days. This was to interview students for admission to our b- school. Very interesting to interact with young guys and girls across towns, sampling the local flavours of food and culture. The highlight was a kite-flying experience on the rooftop of a Jaipur hotel. Udaipur was also a place worth looking around in, with its serene palaces and lakes.

The headlines on TV look almost surreal and disconnected, when one takes off to visit various places. Why we can't discuss anything better than one or two sick happenings for three or four days in a row is something only TV news editors can answer-or maybe they can't!

Anyway, we have more news channels and hours than we need. As with everything else? Choosing between 100 channels of trash is only occasionally interesting. Thank god for something like the sports channels or the handful of comedy shows. They are so refreshing.

Comedians as Heads of State

 Seriously (!), it's not such a bad idea. We already have the Ukrainian Prez., the Punjab C.M. and in the past, Trump and Bush (OK, not ...

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