decline in reading habit and other woes

I grew up reading books. The fondest memories i carry from my childhood are of reading novels, classics, comics, and anything else i could get my hands on. The sweltering heat of india gives young boys ample time to read books. I was reminded of the virtues of reading once again, after reading Gurcharan Das's The elephant paradigm: India wrestles with change.( I have nothing but immense praise for this book... an intelligent, articulate and compelling set of essays on the current state of India and its grapples with globalization. btw ..Gurcharan Das served as the CEO of Proctor and Gamble in india and has an MBA from HBS. )

My grandfather was an avid reader...it was his library which i discovered as a boy. He has original british edition books: of classics like Don Quioxte and Shakespeare. I used to intermingle these books with the ever-popular Enid Blyton novels (Famous five, secret seven series) and comics like Tintin and Asterix the gaul (its is funny how my american friends have never heard of these books, let alone read them). But my most memorable set of stories, which i still cherish to this day, are the timeless classics written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle involving his famous detective: Sherlock holmes.

The bigger question is this... Have I stopped reading? Have I fallen prey to the mind-numbing effects of modern day electronic botch: internet, television and video games, that i have forgotten the wonderful world of black and white, of smells from a new book, the joy of curling up to read without a worry in the world. I realize that the newer generations absorb knowledge and ideas from multimedia rather than the print. However, its my contention that the world created in our mind, by reading a book, is more powerful and much more interesting than the interpretation given by a movie or TV adaptation. I definitely agree that it may be worthwhile to check out the movie after reading the book. I cringed when i saw the hollywood adaptation of H G Wells timeless classic The time machine . Maybe some books should be kept away from Hollywood....

Having said this, i promise myself.... I have to start reading again!!!

LA trip

We took off for LA for the weekend... just like that.. bad idea!!
no hotel reservations... bad idea
no clue what to do...... bad idea

But the trip wasnt so bad.. wasnt that good either... we drove up for 5 hrs to LA (this is the first time i have done this despite being in california for a couple of years). The road-trip was BOOORING. We had no hotels..but thanks to my marriott rewards (consulting does have its advantages), we got a nice hotel.
But we were amazed that in LA, there are so many beautiful places (beverly hills, 3rd street promenade), yet just within a block or two away, was the worst looking urban sprawl one could imagine. We were kinda disappointed.. plus the heat and the freeways (yes the freeway of death..405) put the final nail in our "easy attitude of northern california" aura.

I liked Beverly hills though...i also went to see UCLA campus and anderson school. Not too many people on campus due to summer... was great.. I told myself that i should plan to keep UCLA as a potential school too.

Later, we spent a nice evening at a "different" indian restuarant in venice beach called Preetams... a nice blend of california salad and greens with indian food thrown in...nice concept and tasty food (very RARE in healthy foods...).

while coming back, the trip was uneventful except there was a burning car on the freeway... It was the coolest thing i have ever seen on american highways.

Venture capital for Nanotech: issues and ideas

Couple of venture capital firms are interested in nanotechnology, but none so much as DFJ (draper fisher jurvetson). Steve Jurvetson in particular has put a lot of stake (and reputation) into many Nanotech startups including Memgen, NanoOpto, Nantero, etc. Most of these companies have some solid ideas and I am happy for the increasing interest (and awareness) of Nanotechnology in everyday life. Heck, i even read an article on small systems in a southwest inflight magazine.

here is my nanotech bite for the week: In terms of manufacturing systems, we have always envisioned production systems which have the associated sensors and control systems to ensure the product is conforming to specifications and quality. However, with the advent of nano-sensors and MEMS, one can envision similar systems inbuilt into the product itself. In a way, this is where the "self-assembling" idea kicks in. A system which can guide the "product" along the assembly line to assemble suitable parts specifically deisgned for that product would completely eliminate the need for specialized schedules for prodcuts of varying specs. This is an idea in infancy but if there are some VCs and entrepreneurs who wish to "capitalize", please contact me in 2-3 years when i will have my full business proposal ready :).

enter the matrix videogame and other trivial pursuits

I have been killing myself (and my eyes) with this new game called "enter the matrix" by atari. I didnt buy it, just rented it from blockbuster. In case you wanna cheat at that game.. here is the link to one of the cheatcodes which i found useful. I know this is not the best way to enjoy a game but then i had to return the game in a couple of days. Well, the game was okay..but i didnt like the fact that Neo and trinity and other cool MATRIX characters were absent in this game. The music is great and some scenes are nice too.

Next up...we are going to see fleetwood mac in concert today at the HP pavillion in san jose...more on that coming later.

My latest pet peeve is Vietnamese food. I have had some (seemingly) authentic vitenamese food in a small San francisco chinatown restaurant (i wish i remembered the name)..but the spicy prawn fried rice had a unique tomato based flavor with a tangy semi-sweet aftertaste. I loved it...

Work is busy as usual. I just finsihed a letter report for a client in LA.

office space: my all time funny movie

here is a link to a review on the film.

Is modern management theory so warped that you have more managers than workers??