KVPPVRAO
Cerebrate Life
Book Review: The Great Speeches of Modern India
The problem with reading history books written by historians is that the content is invariably colored by the author’s own beliefs and…positions. When you are reading a certain historical event, you can rest assured you are reading the author’s interpretation of the event. ¶ So when I saw the book titled The Great Speeches of Modern India, I had no second thought in picking it. And was I glad I did! ¶ In the first part of the review, I capture some of my thoughts on the book overall. The second part is my personal views on Gandhi Vs Nehru.
RK Kuppurao2 days ago
If a template is all you can offer
I tweeted sometime ago that “if a template is all you offer, you really don’t have much to offer”Let me explain. ¶ For the purpose of this post, the term “customer” can mean anybody you interact with — not just money-paying person seeking products/services. ¶ Too many times, we get locked into this mode of supplying a template somebody comes to us for an answer. This could be in a business transaction or employee motivation or anything for that matter. No emotions, no empathy, no niche, no expression of desire to help.RK KuppuraoApr 24, 2010
Net Neutrality
One of the reasons we — the consumers or the end-users of the internet — are relatively unaware of the meaning of Net Neutrality (NN) is…that, we have always had it good and took NN for granted. We were not aware of internet being any other way. ¶ But now the moment has come when you have to necessarily know the meaning of NN. Because you have the rights to know what information you have access to and what information you are deprived off as an information consumer. Because we risk somebody else altering what we experience on the internet.RK KuppuraoAug 5, 2010
Book Review — Cockpit Confidential
If you have noticed, there is a pattern. My previous book review was about a flight attendant writing about flying — and this book is about…If you have noticed, there is a pattern. My previous book review was about a flight attendant writing about flying — and this book is about a pilot writing about flying. Patrick Smith is a first-officer (I think) who writes about flying — or more specifically, answers the FAQ of flying. Why we should turn off our phones, what the airline jargon mean, how safe flying is, how safe airports are and all things in-between.RK KuppuraoJan 18, 2015
Book Review — Cruising Altitude
Among the many books I have read and reviewed on this blog, I bet the topic of this book is different.Among the many books I have read and reviewed on this blog, I bet the topic of this book is different. This book is about a flight attendant’s account of a career in the air travel industry — part memoir, part tell-all, part tips and tricks on how to make your journey pleasurable to yourself or miserable to others (your choice!). ¶ At the outset, the airline industry is heavily seniority based. This may seem true for any profession — but in many ways, this is quite literally true with the air…RK KuppuraoDec 29, 2014
Book Review — An Accidental Prime Minister
I heard about — and bought — this book right during the Indian General elections of 2014, at a time when the end of Dr Singh’s…I heard about — and bought — this book right during the Indian General elections of 2014, at a time when the end of Dr Singh’s administration was almost in sight, Modi’s soaring win was seen as inevitable. ¶ Manmohan Singh is someone I have lot of respect for. He is a sound economist, practical politician and focuses on development as well as on growth. He has been at the helm of India — either as FM or PM or External Affairs Minister — during landmark events in the history of post…RK KuppuraoDec 18, 2014
Book Review — An Uncertain Glory
I begin this review with the authors’ quote of Shobhaa De, a political commentator.I begin this review with the authors’ quote of Shobhaa De, a political commentator. ¶ The India we are lauding forms but a microcosm of this vast land. It is the India of the elite, the privileged, the affluent. The only India we want the rest of the world to see and acknowledge, because we are so damned ashamed of the other. Ashamed. And Ignorant. ¶ No, this is not a half-full or half-empty glass situation nor can it be reduced to an individual being or not being an optimist.RK KuppuraoDec 16, 2014
Book Review — Outliers
I am a sucker for empirical analysis of larger-than-life phenomenon — especially those that make suggestions along the lines of “this is…I am a sucker for empirical analysis of larger-than-life phenomenon — especially those that make suggestions along the lines of “this is what conventional wisdom suggests…but here’s the REAL reason”. ¶ Outliers is a brilliant book — at its core, it says successful people become successful for reasons beyond what meets the eye/ media/ rags-to-riches fairy tales and he attributes majority of the real reasons to “history and community” and “opportunity and legacy”.RK KuppuraoDec 9, 2014
Book Review — A Southern Music
I first started writing a review for this book in the form of a letter to the author, and later changed my mind.I first started writing a review for this book in the form of a letter to the author, and later changed my mind. In the letter version are many questions I had written as I read the book, hoping to pose them to the author some day. I am still hopeful. ¶ The author TM Krishna has sometimes been sung as the rare personality that challenged the prevailing conditions of their profession, while still being at the apex of popularity.RK KuppuraoFeb 8, 2014
Why I moved to Medium
I had previously hosted my blog on Wordpress hosted version, using AWS’s EC2 based hosting service, which in turn used a Wordpress…Multisite AMI from Bitnami. ¶ Everything went well. Until it did not. ¶ One day I noticed my blog had crashed. I started troubleshooting and several hours later, I found myself asking me 3 questions — ¶ Why did the site crash? ¶ How did I forget the MySQL root password ¶ Why am I here? ¶ #3 was perhaps the most important. Over years, I had become conversant with LAMP, but I am not a L guy, A guy, M guy or P guy.RK Kuppurao3 days ago
The next big thing
The next big thing is about to happen. If you noticed, that is.The next big thing is about to happen. If you noticed, that is. Phone OEMs like Apple and Samsung crushed the economics of phone buying, hitherto completely dominated by the carriers, with little or no say from the OEMs, even on their own profitability. Even the mainstream devices were feature-locked and enabled only with the carrier’s blessings. In other’s words, in the game of “who needs who”, the carriers had the winning hand.RK KuppuraoJan 26, 2015
Software defined phones
There was a time when people’s “cool” factor was measured by how small their phones were.There was a time when people’s “cool” factor was measured by how small their phones were. Innovations in hardware and manufacturing segments allowed phone makers to pack more transistors into the same form factor and as a result, phones got better and smaller. ¶ There is now a reversal of trend of making bigger phones — mostly to offer the convenience of longer battery life and larger display. Early innovators such as Blackberry, Palm and Compaq are completely out of the game, and the current…RK KuppuraoSep 25, 2014