Amar Chitra Katha!

Amar Chitra Katha!

Truly unfading memories! No doubt, my love for books, as a kid, started with Amar Chitra Katha stories. I think they were more than entertaining comics, and more than just pictures and text. There was a takeaway in every book, and each story enriched imaginations of young readers. How else do you expect the kids to visualize Tennali Ramakrishna and his acts? When television was a luxury couple of decades ago, Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) did the fine job of storytelling and helped the young learn effortlessly.

Times have changed, ACK’s founder Anant Pai is no more. Even the organization is also managed by different promoters now, but brand of Amar Chitra Katha has evolved and remained immortal.

If you have kids at home, why don’t you sit with them and play ACK videos for them on your TV or YouTube? Even better, if you switch off TV and handover the hard copies, helping them learn the traditional way. When they grow up, they may write about it on their blog and remain thankful to you.

Opinion: Discount wars between Flipkart and Amazaon

If you buy books regularly from web, you would have noticed that 66% off on popular books (Independence Day offer) on Amazon got over last weekend. During the offer period, the books available on discount were also changing on almost daily basis. And I think Amazon was quite successful in attracting traffic and acquiring the new customers.

Flipkart responded to this offer by giving similar discounts on same titles but I could see that it was limited to very few titles. As Amazon ended the offer, Flipkart too was very quick to roll back. I suppose they use a software engine to match the prices. Amazing thing these algorithms do.

My order on Amazon got delivered in a card board box, books were safely arranged, some of the books were shrink wrapped and some were not. Delivery guy sported a Samsung smartphone for taking digital signature which helps in closing the transaction when customer signs on it. The only drawback was, delivery guy could accept only cash as he did not have the device to use my debit card. I just had to tender exact change.

While it is anybody’s guess that Amazon’s offer was a promotional effort, it showed that price wars can go any extent benefiting the customer at the expense of these portals. Now Indian consumers have a choice with Amazon whose breadth of inventory and service levels match with Flipkart. My friends & colleagues confirmed that they too are checking the prices on both sites before placing an order.

This is just the beginning. Let us wait and see where the intensity of completion between these two firms will lead to. Until then, book lovers can romance more books.

Book Review: A biography of an anonymous person!

This fictional biography of a soldier set in Tipu Sultan's times makes a wonderful read as it combines history, folklore and poetry in varying proportions and keeps the reader engaged till end. This book is not the story of just this soldier but could be of any soldier in his times. And it provides a different perspective than conventional history books.

Author (Krishnamurthy Hanur, a retired professor) has put to use his multi talents of a researcher and of a historian. His knowledge of interactions of society, culture and kingdom’s of their times influencing each other and shaping the lives of the people is commendable. I guess this work would get translated soon into other languages while I wait for a new book from this author.

Book Review: A Fistful of Rice

Even though things are a lot different at SKS Microfinance now, knowing its past would not hurt. In fact, reading this book would bring motivation to do some thing of your own and touch the strings of making a difference in the society.

The book begins with a woman (who was denied a small loan) asking 'Am I not poor too?' to Vikram Akula, then a volunteer in a NGO. It makes him think of possibilities of extending help in a scale which are beyond the reaches of small social not-for-profit organizations. It brings determination in him to build SKS.

Like any entrepreneur who builds an organization from scratch, Vikram also goes through hardships, leaving the comforts of living in US along with his parents. He rather chooses to bring a difference in villager's life in India, starting from his home state of Andhra Pradesh. His decision to not to live in US costs him his marriage too. But the determined Vikram moves on with his purpose in life.

SKS scales up, gets noticed by everyone including the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. The capital which was hard to come by in the initial days comes in leaps and bounds. And the book ends with a woman who has borrowed from SKS, asking 'Am I not doing well?'

A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability

Decoding fineprint

Business world is not entirely fair. Not surprising, isn't it? But in what all ways corporate can twist the information in their favor and commit frauds?

Auditors job is to assure that the financial statements they audit are true and there are no accounting frauds. But they are paid by the corporate who are supposed to be investigated. You know the outcome. Remember Satyam’s case?

Hospitals depending on their scale (50, 100 beds or so) along with the facilities they offer have to earn their depreciation. They need minimum of number of patients to keep their business going. If there are not enough new patients coming in, existing patients will have to extend their stay or have to go through series of tests, check-ups one more time. In maternity hospitals, deliveries which are supposed to be normal can turn into cesarean section deliveries depending on the utilization % of the hospital at that time or return on investment promoter is expecting. Death of humanism? Yes, it is a chapter’s name in this book ‘Bullshit Quotient’ by Ranjeev Dubey.

In Casino, house always  wins (almost). How else they can operate if there are equal of chances of winning for both the participant and the house? Stock market is also run by market makers who set the odds and lets you play. If you are lucky to pick the same side of operators, you will make money but not for long as the game changes. How many small traders find success in the market? What does it reveal?

Pick the book to clear out some of the myths which corporate world wants us to believe.

Bullshit Quotient: Decoding India's Corporate, Social and Legal Fineprint