Sunday, March 13, 2005

The pacifiying powers of Carnatic music...

Govind says:
"Carnatic music, I believe, has enormous powers. It can pacify a disturbed mind with enormous strength."

How true that rings!

Saturday, March 05, 2005

The Mayonnaise Jar and Coffee!


Got an email this morning which was all about "The Mayonnaise Jar and Coffee".

To all the golf (and goof) balls in my life, salut! There are times when I have felt that I have bothered a little too much about the sand in my life and given the golf-balls secondary priority. Even the best golfers lose their focus off the ball, while trying to figure out how to avoid the sand-traps on the course. Ofcourse, there's stuff which neither qualifies as sand, nor as golf-ball material....thats what they call the ROUGH :) in golf-lingo!!!!!
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What's buzzing right now?
Dont Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty



Friday, March 04, 2005

CEOs and writing

Was linked via Amit Varma's blog to an amazing article by Jerry Rao, paying tribute to the great RK Narayan. Having read a good deal about Jerry Rao (he was one of the honchos with Citibank, before he started Mphasis), coupled with the fact that RKN is one of my favorite authors, I couldnt help but read it.
The Indian media makes mini-celebrities out of the CEOs of multi-national banks like Citibank/Bank of America etc. Having read quite a few of those columns, I have been left with not much regard for their writing abilities. Some CEOs are just better off managing their company, while there are others who are unlucky doing both.
I dont mean to malign any CEOs. IMHO, Jack Welch's book "Straight from the gut" is one of the best books I have read recently. But I cant really come up with a single other CEO-writer I enjoy reading. Mahesh Murthy is pretty good, but then havent read too many of his columns recently.
Overall, I'd say that most people enjoy reading how CEOs achieved whatever they did, but the buck stops there. I [personally] dont like to hear them preach about things slightly beyond their sphere - things which any individual can possibly understand & handle on his own. Case in point - the budget analyses! Every businessman has his 2 paisa worth on it for sure...while the CEOs either treat the budget with disdain or go overboard in their praise and hype!
Jerry Rao writes pretty well...very well infact. He writes about the simple and subtle tone to RKN's writings, and his article would have made the old man proud wherever he maybe!
So that's that..