Book Review - Out of my Comfort Zone

Steve 'Tugga' Waugh or Iceman Steve as he was popularly known never had the talent of a Tendulkar or the Charisma of Shane Warne nor was he intimidating on the field like McGrath nor was he as flamboyant as Jayasuriya but if you look into what he has achieved in his nearly 20 years of cricket you will easily acknowledge Steve as one of the greatest to have played the game, his sheer grit, discipline and never say die attitude is something cricket fans will speak for generations. This book is quite detailed I would say really detailed and is spread over 700 pages but still worth a look for anybody having interest not only in cricket but in general about sports leadership and management.

The initial parts of the book is from Steve’s younger days in school and local school cricket which I was not very interested in, the interesting part starts from his journey into the Australian team lead by Alan Border , his initial failures and successes , rapport he shared with some of his senior team mates from New South Wales and how they helped him gel into the national team , various anecdotes from his cricketing tours in the Subcontinent , the Ashes and the West Indies make it interesting to read.

I can only imagine what it means to win the Ashes for the Aussies or the English only after reading this book, the intensity in which the Ashes are played seem to be much more than a typical India VS Pakistan match. Many epic test matches and incidents over the 80S , 90s and 00S take you back down memory lane, most notable amongst them are the 1986 Chennai test against India which ended in a tie, the 1995 Trinidad and Tobago test against the windies and the famous face off he had with Ambrose, the Eden Gardens test against India which saw the heroic innings from VVS and Dravid, the 2003 Adelaide test which again saw VVS and Dravid get the better of the Aussies and the infamous incident involving McGrath and Sarwan.

Steve has also shared some memorable moments in the book, insights into Australian Cricket culture, the loneliness of being a captain, the highs and lows associated with the success and failures of your team, winning the prestigious Laureus award , playing the Ashes, the Frank Worrell Trophy ( version of Ashes aginst the Windies), his association with Udayan a NGO based out of Kolkatta and his love for India ( initially it was love to hate ), his first meeting with Mother Teresa , the bribing and match fixing controversies that rocked the cricketing world which involved senior layers from India, Pakistan , Australia and South Africa. The resurrection of Australian cricket under John Buchanan and Waugh himself is something worth going through, it offers lots of life lessons, be it on team play, strategy, planning fitness and discipline something that the previous generation of Aussie cricketers had not taken very seriously.

Some nice little superstitions which cricketers follow, Steve himself had this red handkerchief which he always carried with him while playing right from the days he started playing for Australia in mid 80s till the day he retired, he was so particular about it that in one of Ashes tour in England he had forgotten it back home and was going through a rough patch on the field, he immediately asked for this hankie to be couriered to him to England.

Steve hasn’t been very generous in his praise about other cricketers especially non Australians but the few that he has praised include our own Maestro Sachin ( for his talent and cricketing mind) , Dravid for his professionalism and perseverance( btw the foreword to this book has been written by Dravid and both of them have huge respect for each other ), Sehwag for his dare devil style of playing , Wasim Akram for his sheer bowling ability, Hansie Cronje, Ambrose, Walsh, Alan Donald ,Waqar, Imran, Muralidaharan and Lara .

BTW a quick fact Waugh made his test debut against India and also played his last test against India maybe that’s why his special love for India.

If you want to know the life story of an inspiring sportsman and what it takes to become one, do read this book.

Book Review - The Marwaris From Jagat Seth to the Birlas

Very few books have been written on Indian Business history but these series of books edited by Gurucharan Das make up for it. The book primarily deals with what factors have led to make the Marwaris extremely successful businessmen not only in India but also outside of India.

A good amount of information about where these Marwari businessmen came from, how they migrated across different parts of India and set up businesses is covered in the book. A lot of comparison between the family firms set up by Marwaris and the Jewish family firms (mainly into money lending) is presented, the manner in which these small firms scaled up from money lending to becoming leading Industrialists in pre and post-independence Era is explained in detail. Marwari is a generic term which refers to the business community who were predominantly from the Marwar region in Western Rajasthan, they were typically Agarwals or Jains. It is interesting to note that most of these Marwari firms were not only into money lending to the peasants but also the preferred business partner for the smaller kings and also the East India Company when the British came into India to set up their trading business in India.

Most of the Marwaris migrated towards the Eastern part of India and set up their trading firms in and around Calcutta, Assam and to an extent Bihar also, while some of them ventured towards Bombay but it was usually the Parsee and the Gujarathi businessmen who dominated the trading empires in Bombay.
Over the period of 19th century many of these family firms had graduated from just money lending, to private banks to becoming dealers for various multinational products from Europe and this set the stage for the MNCs to enter India post-Independence.

The reader get a good overall picture of what fundamental traits the Marwaris have to make them so successful in the field of business. The most important of them being a good accounting method (Parta as it is called), ability to allocate capital in the most efficient and productive way and form a good network within their own community to help each other in times of distress. What initially started of just Opium and cotton textiles trading over the years has now seen Marwari firms into various industries be it old economy or the new age business. As the fundamentals of business management haven’t changed much the family firms have changed and adapted to the new paradigms of business.
Case in example is of the Birla group which has been extensively covered by the Author and also taken input from the book Business Maharajas by business historians Swati Piramal. The challenges faced in today’s complex business world be it about succession planning, corporate culture etc etc is something the new generation of Marwari firms have to deal with. The GD Birla group seems to have got their act together by appointing professionals to run the company but the family still monitors it on a regular basis and also involved in key decisions, something that other first generation non business group will have to learn from.

A good book for anyone interested in knowing Indian Business history and the rise of Marwari businesses in particular.

Book Review - Tigers of the Snow

Anybody interested in the history of mountaineering in the Himalayas should read this book, the author Jonathan Neale has done lot of ground research, conducted interviews with former climbers mostly from Europe and off course last but not the least the Sherpas. The book is written to present to the readers an unbiased account of what happened in the early years of climbing the various peaks in the Himalayan range between the 1920s and 50s. There is enough literature which have written about the experiences of the climbers from Europe and America but nothing has been written from the perspective of the Sherpas who are the most important people in any expedition. The book attempts to give the Sherpas also called as the “Tigers of the Snow”their due share of credit which has mostly been eluding them for a long time.

The early part of the 1920s saw many expeditions led by various European nations all of them trying to conquer the big peaks in the Himalayan range which were mainly the Everest , K2, Kanchenjunga, Annapurna and Nanga Parbhat. A good amount of information of the Sherpas ( Tibetans who migrated into Nepal and India) and their life style and what made them the people of choice to assist and ferry goods in expeditions are given in details. Most of the expeditions preferred these mountain men as they were physically suited to this altitude more than the others, their strength and Iron will to survive in high altitudes was something that made them the first choice compared to any other clans who were also ready to do the job of a porter (ferrying goods from camp to camp along the mountain). Needless to say in spite of their huge contribution to the expedition they were still treated like second grade citizens, the Europeans particularly the Germans and the Brits. Things however started to change somewhere in the mid 30s after a series of setback to many expeditions most important among them was the expeditions to Nanga Parbat ( the naked mountain , the ninth highest peak in the world and considered more deadly to climb then the Everest) .

The Germans after many attempts to scale Nanga Parbat planned another one in 1934 with almost 20 Sherpas as part of the troop , things looked comfortable but as the days progressed the captain of the troop realized there were running out of time and money , there was tremendous pressure way back at home with Adolf Hitler personally monitoring the progress of this expedition, there was some sort of political rivalry between the British and Germans in who would scale the peaks in the Himalayas first and make their country proud, in this whole rush a series of fatal mistake by the captain led to death of all but three from the troop of about 30 people which included German climbers supported by the Sherpas.

Similar setbacks happened in the expeditions to K2, Kanchenjunga and Everest leaving the Sherpa community with not just loss of lives but also confidence and the fact they were not treated as equals when it came to sharing equipment, sharing tents and compensation for the job done added insult to the injury. Things slowly started to change for the good with the Sherpas taking more control of the happenings during the expedition, they were more proactive in giving warning signs, setting up tents and handling the Logistics during the climb. Initially this probably led to lot of friction especially amongst some of the European climbers but it slowly started to change and quite of few of them started getting the recognition they deserved.

A good amount of details about high altitude, the need for acclimatization, the finer details and technicalities of mountaineering, frostbites and its dangers and avalanches are covered and make you nervous about how these people did what they did about 80-90 years back, numerous lives were lost because of high altitude sickness, frostbites but that never stopped people from trying again year after year until the summit was finally conquered.

Surprisingly all major peaks were conquered between 1953-1956 including the most feared of them the Nanga Parbat and the mighty Everest .A good amount of information that went into the conquest of Everest in the 1953 is given, the planning that went into it, the thought process of the captain of the expedition John Hunt and his strategy for the final assault are worth knowing, as per plan the captain had made two teams the first was of two Englishmen and the second was as Edmund Hillary the New Zealander and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay , Hunt being an Englishman wanted someone from England to reach the summit first and make this event coincide with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth which was to happen in the coming week but somehow due to bad weather they couldn’t carry on and the chance to ascent was now given to Hillary and Tenzing.

Finally On that event full day of May 29th 1953 the two men scaled the mighty Everest and stood and could see into Tibet, they shook hands, Tenzing hugged Hillary and they patted each other. The mighty Everest had taken many lives but was finally conquered, both of them took pictures with their Ice Axes and flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations. When they came down everybody asked which of the two men on the rope had first got to the Summit, Tenzing and Hillary agreed between them not to answer this question, It dint matter , they said, they had done it together and the fact remains that Hillary wouldn’t be there without Tenzing and Tenzing wouldn't be there without Hillary.

Book Review - Infinite Vision

Book Review - Infinite Vision
How Aravind became the world's greatest business case for compassion
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I had heard a lot about Aravind Eye Care Hospital (Madurai) but never knew about what their contribution to Eye care in India and the world was until I saw this book and decided to buy and read it.

The authors have done a fantastic job to not only introduce us to the now very popular Aravind model of Eye care ( Low cost , high volume and high value model) but also described in detail of how this whole model evolved over a period of more than 3 decades.

The model which its founder Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy started ( in the late 70s in Madurai) works on the main principles of Integrating innovation with empathy, business principles with service and outer transformation with inner change. At a time of his life after retiring from active Govt service Dr V ( as he was popularly known in the medical circles) decided to start of this 11 bed eye care nursing home in Madurai , the underlying spirit of service was at the core of this project. Realizing that this low cost model for the poor would not take him to far to achieve his mission of curing avoidable blindness, Dr V then used the cross subsidy model where in patients who want to pay can pay an amount their choice , patients who could pay market rates paid it and poor patients who could not afford it were treated free . This model has succeeded and survived for the last many decades and is still going strong at Aravind Eye care till this date.

The whole philosophy of this venture was to reach out to maximum no of poor people and cure avoidable blindness (cataract) and not to turn away anyone who cannot afford treatment. Dr V and his team ( many of whom were his family members ) have successfully used assembly line operation methods even in hospital management which has helped them provide affordable eye care at a fraction of the cost compared to other hospitals in India and the west. A laser like focus on cost, standardized processes, metrics and feedback have helped Aravind to cut cost of an typical cataract surgery and also hugely impacted productivity , a typical doctor at Aravind does about 2000 cataract surgeries a year while the national average is about 400.

The spotlight on Aravind and how it has managed to scale this socially committed business operation to multiple cities across Tamilnadu and build the largest eye care hospital chain is worth understanding.

Dr V who had been influenced a lot by Sri Aurobindo ( hospital named after him Aravind is another name for Aurobindo ) his constant questioning about life and its purpose and all his teaching seem to be the corner stone while this organization was being built.

To get some statistics Aravind in all its centers put together see 7500 patients daily, does about 900 eye surgeries daily ( cataract glaucoma etc etc) 5-6 out reach camps in village are done daily , 500-600 tele-medicine cases daily, 7000 Intraocular lenses produced at their lens manufacturing facility daily.

Aravind’s journey from an eye care hospital to a manufcaturer of Intraocular lenses to Ophthalmology medicines and a few Ophthalmology equipment and opening of Aravind Training institute ( trains doctors and other hospitals to help them learn and implement Aravind model in their country ) is well documented . Aravind till this day trains doctors, nurses and support staff from various countries in Africa and Asia, they learn about the Aravind model and how to replicate the same back home.

All this has bought them a lot of praise some of which are the Padma Shri for its founder Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy numerous awards and grants from leading social impact funds and organizations like Acumen, Skool, Schwab and Gates Foundation. Innumerable no of business schools have included this case study in their MBA programs including the most famous of them Harvard.

Succession planning, scalability model like in any organization is a challenge and Aravind is no different, what started of as business based on compassion today's stands at the crossroads with the new generation facing the dilemma of the road ahead. With increasing competition w and growing materialism the generation now at the helm face this challenge on how to retain the founding principles when this institute was started.

An excellent read, not only to understand the challenges faced in delivery of low cost eye care but also understand and reflect upon why businesses need to be more compassionate in their outlook.

Book Review - What I Talk about when I talk about Running

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer in both fiction and non fiction categories, quite popular in the literary circles, his books have been translated to more than 40 languages and have won numerous awards. Murakami also happens to be an enthusiastic leisure long distance runner and Triathlete and this book is all about his memoirs as a runner and triathlete.

I had heard a lot about Murakami and about this book, may be my expectations were too high and I expected to read more about running techniques, form etc etc in this book, never the less I think overall it is an above average book.

The author has written the book like a memoir, he talks a lot about importance of being fit and how he used running to get in shape. Being an author needed him to think a lot and maintain his creative thoughts flowing and to relax and let go the tension he started running long distances. He has given enough advice to runners on importance of training and building stamina and strength to avoid injuries. His own span of long distance running for more than 25 years has taught him many important life lessons the most important of them being discipline, focus and hard work.

Marukami stresses a on training, building muscle memory and most importantly listening to your body and then talking a call if you need to push or stop. His experience as an Ultra Marathon in an event in Japan exposes some of his beliefs that he had before the race and shows how ultra marathons can be such a humbling experience.

The author shares his experience of training and running in the big marathons of the world including the New York City Marathon and the prestigious Boston Marathon and his transformation to a Tri athlete.

The best sentence I liked in the book read as follows
“ If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I would never run again “

A quick read if you are at an airport in transit or taking a short flight, not something you can add to your collection but if someone gifts it to you certainly read it once even if you are not a runner.

Book Review - The Siege The Attack on the Taj

Multiple award winning Investigative journalists Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott have put together this detailed book on what exactly happened on that eventful night what we popularly call as 26/11 , the attack on Mumbai.

A lot of research and time has gone while writing this book, the authors have met with various people associated with this incident, traveled far and wide, met numerous government, police and Investigative authorities in India and Pakistan and have tried their best to present an accurate account of what happened on this fateful day that bought Mumbai to a halt, all though they themselves claim that there may be many contradictions in what people they met have said and what some other books on the same subject may have written.

Quite a few chapters have been dedicated to create the background of how this Operation was planned, the early days  of getting David Headley on board how he ( original name Daood Gilani double agent working for ISI and FBI)  was inducted into this operation, the details of his stay in Mumbai and his multiple visits to the Taj Palace to get an idea of the layout etc etc have been detailed out well.

The authors have also met multiple Lashkar leaders to understand how their organization works and what kind of relationship they have with the ISI ( Intelligence unit of Pakistan) .A lot of ground work has been done to understand how the 10 Lashkar attackers ( Fidayeen) who came to India had been selected for this  Operation Bombay, what kind of training schedule was followed, how the religious indoctrination took place, the physical training that one needs to undergo in these training camps in remote north west Pakistan, the technology training that they undergo( learning to use GPS devices, Internet Phones ) and Marine training that they underwent ( as the plot was to enter mainland India via a Boat from Karachi to Mumbai) .At the end of it all ) was a graduation ceremony where the gift was a Matchbox, a goat and a Knife ( things most needed to survive in case of any eventuality)

A minute by minute details of what all happened from the time they left Karachi, how they captured an Indian boat as they approached Mumbai and killed it Captain and used it to enter mainland India through Mumbai. All the strategies that they had rehearsed , the team formation, the locations that they will start attacking( Taj Palace and Towers, Trident-Oberoi, CST and Chabad House) are written in such detail that one can imagine oneself in such a situation) .

The main focus however remains on what happened in the Taj Hotel ( Pride of the Tata Empire) , the manner in which the gang of four entered this lowly guarded five star entertainment hub and how within a few minutes took over the entire hotel , leaving the various occupants and employees of the hotel in complete disarray.

The authors have spoken to many survivors of the attack and taken their accounts of what it was like to spend time ( some spent almost 36 hours ) while these terrorists were going one floor after another and one room after another recklessly spraying bullets and killing many of them .The various employees of the Hotel and a few guests in the hotel  from India and Abroad who were present there some of whom had shown tremendous bravery to remain till the end and help others is something we readers should really appreciate.

A lot has been said about our system and its under preparedness and the red tape associated in the decision making (like time taken for NSG to arrive, the equipment used by the Police etc etc )

A good weekend read but will make you angry and sad at the same time, angry about the fact that more than 150 innocent people  lost their life and sad about our under preparedness to handle such situations and attacks

Book Review - Caravans Indian Merchants on the Silk Road

This book is a part of series of books under the name of ' The Story of Indian Business' and it is mainly about the Multani and Shikaripuri merchants and how they went about building their trading empires in Central Asia .The much romanticized Silk Route as the west have called it was not an easy route that was built overnight but it was built with lot of effort, time, resources and money being spent to make it happen.

The book starts of with firstly throwing away the popular narrative that it was the East India Company and the Dutch who were the first to introduce cross border trade from the northern parts of India.The fact is trade between this region and Central Asia and Europe can be traced to as early as the Ghaznavid period in the 900 AD.

The merchants from Multan ( now in Sind province of Pakistan )most of them from the Khatri and the Arora Community and some even from the Muslim community had traveled far and established trade links in Central Asia( now covering Iran, Afghanistan, Azherbaijan, Uzbekistan and parts of Russia). Trade prospered and was encouraged by the Delhi Sultanate under the Lodhis and also under the various Mughal Kings most prominent among them being Akbar. They realized that it  was in their own interest that they did enough to ensure smooth trade happening between their traders and the far off lands in central Asia. The main incentive being the tax collected from the traders, the same was reciprocated by the rulers in these lands across the Hindu Kush Mountains. The kings took many steps to ensure that the road that the traders took to move their caravans , camels laden merchandise was free from enemy and attacking tribes by deploying armed guards and outposts along the route, had enough trees with shades for these traders to rest and enough wells to provide for drinking water.

The major cities that hosted these caravan merchants from India also referred to as Multani or Shikaripuris were Bukharan, Ishrafan, Baku, Samarkhand etc etc all of which had thousands of merchants from India coming year after year and settling down in separate settlements given to them to sell their goods. The main goods they sold were textiles, Indigo, Sugar, Rice and human capital in the form of Slaves and in return they used to bring back Horses ( to be used in the cavalry) fruits, and wool.What ceases to amaze today's historians is also the fact that these merchant s who were predominantly Hindus were very adapt in setting up businesses in there Islamic states of Central Asia, which speaks volumes of how important it was for the local rulers to keep trade and business going, many a times there was friction between these merchants and the locals but the rule of law ensured that the business interests were never harmed.

Various travelers from Europe who were passing through central Asia were is awe of the network that these traders from India had built in the central Asia . They not only were involved in trading but also offered a complete set of financial services including money lending ( Shroff community) and also brokerage services for the farm produces( Dalals ). The concept of Hundis or Bill of Exchange where in to avoid carrying cash across long distances people to carry home to India just a piece of paper with coded language in it and presents it on their arrival in India and get their money here is something that the Multani traders had mastered and is something the European travelers were very impressed with and write about it in their chronicles . They also mention these traders from Multan, Shikaripuri and few Marwaris also were much better and smarter than the famed Jewish money lenders.

The heart of this trading firms that they built was the family firm which ensured that things do not go wrong as they all were part of an extended family or at least the same cast.Trade in this route prospered for a long time until the mid 1800s but after due to Russian invasions, invasion of Multan by the Sikhs, Marathas and British and instability in the Afghan region somehow this once famous busy trading route got dull as traders started looking for new pastures and route.

The book has been written By Scot Levi a Professor at Ohio State University and is more like a text book format taking reference from many books, papers and Chronicles but is worth reading to understand how trade happened and what techniques were used by these shrewd masterful traders from Multan.

Book Review An Unfinished Agenda

Some dream, some discuss and very few actually do it, this is the story of Dr.Anji Reddy, son turmeric farmer and his journey from a humble town called Tadepalli in Andhra Pradesh to getting his business Dr. Reddy's labs listed on the New York Stock exchange the epicenter of capitalism. A book written by Dr.Reddy himself about his early days as a chemical scientist and how his entrepreneurial journey started.

A lot of details about the policy environment during the 60's in India like the MRTP act, price controls specifically related to Pharma products have been described in detail and will give the reader an idea of how difficult it must have been to start an enterprise in India. In spite of all the ups and the downs and multiple failures Dr.Reddy's is one among the few Indian Pharma success stories that has created tremendous wealth for all its stake holders.

Very few might know that Dr Reddy's was the first company ( all though it had a different name then) to make bulk drugs at such a large scale in India, while older stalwart Indian pharma companies like Cipla and Ranbaxy were too apprehensive to get into the bulk drugs market , Dr Reddy's takes this huge risk and comes out with quite a few block buster chemicals like Metronidazole, Sulfamethoxazole, Ibuprofen etc etc.

The book also gives an overview of the golden period of the 60s and 70s which is often reffered to as the golden era of antibiotics when penicillin, Norfloxacin, Ciprofloxcin became extremely popular in treatment of various medical complications. We also get to understand how competitive the international pharma market is and why there are so many litigations, patent infringments every now and then in the pharma world, the sheer size of business opportunity and stakes make it so competitive. DRLs journey outside India, especially the lucrative markets of western Europe and US are well explained with all details of challenges faced and is a lesson for future generation of Indian companies that might want to enter the US market.

DRLs foray into drug discovery and its moderate success in this field, the failed acquisition of German company Betapharm( at that time it was the biggest Pahrma aquisition by ann Indian firm) , DRLs entry into Biotech and DRLs CSR initiatives have all been elaborately detailed out.

Lots of anecdotes of Dr. Reddy's work style, why Hyderabad is the pharma capital of India,how he dealt with the MNC competition when he started the business, his relationship with industry peers like legendary Cipla Boss Dr.Yusuf Hamied, Bhai Mohan Singh of Ranbaxy, how they decided to name a molecule of the glizatone family as Balaglizatone in honor of Lord Balaji etc etc make it all the more interesting.

Lots of technical stuff that mostly a pharmacologist or a organic chemist can only understand have been written, I personally did not understand most of it but I sure understood one thing that Dr.Reddy was fascinated by chemistry and medicines and never ending ambition to find new methods to produce drugs and thereby reduce cost and make it more affordable to people in the developing world.

The dominant theme throughout the book was about good science, affordable medicines and reasonable business sense to deliver profits.

A good read to understand the early years of the Indian Pharma Business.

Book Review - The way of the Runner

A completely new subject - Book on Japanese Running.......

The two countries that most of us know about when it comes to long distance are Kenya and Ethiopia, however very few of us know that Japan is also a very serious and seasoned competitor in the world of long distance running having had 5 Boston Marathon winners till date and many more top level finishes in major races around the world. Japanese and their obsession with distance running is something unknown to a large part of the leisure running community

Author Adharanand Finn an Englishman who is also a very serious leisure runner has written this very engaging book about this journey and stay in Japan to find out what has made this sport so popular in Japan. Finn after having spent time with the elite Kenyan runners now shifts base with family to Japan and in his year long stay meets various stake holders in the Japanese running community.

Running took center stage in Japan mostly after the world war, running was used more as a community building exercise in those difficult times and since then has been becoming popular year after year, the most popular events are the Ekiden ( running relays as they call it ) where teams of anywhere from 5-12 members run over distances from 21 kms - 220 kms sometimes Ekidens last for more than a couple of days.

Ekidens are held at various levels right from the shcool level to corporate championships. In such a scenario it is quite natural that the pool of runners is going to be huge and unlike
other countries like the US or UK running and being part of a top corporate Ekiden team is not a bad idea to make a career and living out of running.

It is no surprise that the timings of many of the top university level runners in Ekiden is on par with some of the best professional runners in the west off course nothing compared to the east African runners. The level of intensity and popularity with which people compete, watch and cheer the top Ekiden runners speaks volumes about how ingrained running is in their culture( Many Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes also are recruited to be a part of Japanaese Ekiden corporate teams). The most popular Ekiden, Hakone Ekiden is to Japan as what Super Bowl is to America or FA cup is to Europe.

That brings the author to a question, why is that in spite of such intense competition and such a large pool of talented athletes, why arent they able to beat the Kenyans, many reasons have been attributed to this which include training.

Japanese believe in this core philosophy in life that if you need to achieve something you have to work hard and the same is used in the field of long distance running, they focus more on covering long mileages very week, running on asphalt roads unlike the Kenyans whose training is more tactical and in the trails on soft mud. This strategy of the Japanese has often lead to runners getting injured at a very young age and hence not reaching their true potential, coaches in Japan focus on discipline to such a large extent that they rarely tell the runners that they should also enjoy what they are doing unlike the Kenyan training atmosphere which is much more fun and relaxed.

As it is the Japanese are known for hard work and putting in long hours at office, the same culture seems to have been carried to the running field also where focus is to always train hard and run long something that the east African runners cannot relate to when they come to Japan and train with the Japanese for the Ekiden runs.

In japan sports is not just about winning but it about using sport to unify body with the soul and that is why they take running so seriously , and Ekiden running is not about an individual running but the team running in harmony, Finn also runs a few Ekidens during his stay in Japan and has very nicely detailed out what it takes to run in an Ekiden. Finn also meets the Marathon Monks also known as the Daigyoman Ajira who is pursuit of spiritual enlightenment run a thousand marathons in thosuand days, they use the time when running in these long distances to reflect upon life and its purpose to attain spiritual mastery.

The pinnacle of success for runners in Japan is winning the Ekiden and that is why so many of them take up to running, even an Olympic qualifying or win cannot replace the thrill that these runners get when they win the biggest Ekiden run in the country which is the Hakone Ekiden. For a Japanese runners who is part of an Ekiden it is not just another team and a run, it is all about Bushido( loyalty , courage and honour) that is how seriously they take this event and competitive running in general.

Finn also writes about his interaction with the country's biggest running star at the moment ,Yuki Kawauchi and his philosophy in life, Yuki has resisted the temptation of joining a Ekiden team to avoid the pressure of performance, instead Yuki who has a regular day job trains on his own and run about 10-12 marathons in a year, in fact a couple of years back he finished 6 marathons under 2 hrs:12 mins time. After having finished 14th in the Tokyo marathon ,Yuki shaves his head as as mark of punishment on himself for faring so badly on home ground, such is the commitment and insanity with which some of these athletes in Japan train .Finn gives another example of a Japanese marathoner Kōkichi Tsuburaya who finished 3rd in the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 and the fact that he let his home crowd down he then takes a vow to get gold in the 1968 Olympics , unfortunately due to some health issues he cannot take part in the games of 1968, unable to bear the ignominy he kills himself and a day later his body is found with the bronze medal in hand.

A lot of research has been done to see why the Japanese have not yet beaten the Kenyans and many reasons have been attributed to it the most important being the training regime itself somethings which is also endorsed by the legendary long distance running coach and Boston Marathon winner Alberto Salazar of the Oregon Project.

A good engaging book, with a decent dose of humour and at the same time you get a glimpse of Japan's obsession with long distance running.

Book Review - Merchants of Tamilakam

Book on Business History and Trade
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A very underrated subject caught my attention and hence decided to pick up and read this book, after reading this book
about the merchants from Tamilakam I can confidently say the seeds of globalization started way back during this era ie about 1500 years back.

The book draws data and facts from multiple sources to trace and undertand the political,business and trade ennvironment
that was prevalent in Tamilakam. Tamilakam refers to the area in the Deccan plateau predominantly consisting of people
bound by the Tamil language.

Trade with the outside world was something that came naturally to the merchants of Tamilakam, there are many pieces of historical
evidences which show trade happening with Rome in the 2nd and 3rd century, merchants from Tamil country exporting spices in exchange for metals, horses, brocade etc etc from the Roman mechants.

The Sangam Era was also a important phase where trade with the external world only increased with Tamil merchants taking big risks and travelling to China and south East Asia to sell their goods.

There are numerous instances in the tamil epics like Silappatikaram and Manimekalai which talks about the role and the various aspects of trade by the merchants of Tamilakam. Tamil Country had a big advantage of a long coastline and the merchants used it to their advantage to travel by ship across the high seas and establish trade links, the ports of Mamallapuram, Tondi, Nagapattinam were major trading ports built during the 5th-10th century.

The various dynasties that ruled Tamilakam like the Pallavas, Pandyas and the Cholas and their support to the merchant community have been well highlighted. Of all the dynasties the Cholas deserve a special mention as they used military conquest to not just capture new territory but also to grow trade and business.The phenomenon of why urbanization which lead to formation of cities like Kanchi, Madurai, Tanjavur which became major trading hubs and market places has been explained well.

The role of the temples, how they were funded, what standing they had in the socio,political and economic aspects of society during this era is detailed out well in the book. How merchant guilds across different trades were formed to protect their interest and negotiate better is something which we see today also in industry trade associations is also explained in detail. Capital formation, tax structure and collection , city administration , monetisation of state and temple assets are all concepts which were well used in this period itself.

A quick read to get a glimpse of our rich business and trade history.

Book Review - The TCS Story

A definitive guide not just on how India's largest IT company TCS was built starting from the mid sixties but also about the early days of the IT industry, the challenges it faced and how the leadership overcame these challenges. 

The book also highlights the vision the Tata Group in general has about the future, about business and its role In society and how the company is committed to performing it's roles be it on the corporate side as a responsible profit making business or as a committed citizen to the overall development of society around it.

Former CEO Ram has outlined the various milestones the company has been through in the last many decades right from buying it's first mainframe, winning a big order from major Swiss bank, delivering software for national stock exchange NSE in India, reaching it first billion dollar sales target, becoming one of the top ten IT companies in the world to listing it's shares on the Indian stock exchange exchange and making it the most valuable Indian IT company on the stock exchange.

All in all a good read about how a nascent industry took birth in India and scaled to great heights in the decades to come by.

Book Review - Intel Trinity

Anyone even remotely connected with the semiconductor industry should read this definitive guide of how Intel Corp becomes the most important company of the digital age, silicon valley and its impact on humanity.

A combination of three unlikely technocrats who came together from Fair child Semiconductor and then founded Intel...the trinity of Bob Noyce know for his vision and jaw dropping risk taking ability, Gordon Moore , the soft spoken technological genius ( founder of the Moore's law ) and Andy Groove( author of Only the Paranoid Survive) the business Wizard with super human energy is stuff of legends.

The defining moments when Bob Noyce co-invented the Integrated circuit ( had be been alive in 2000 he would have got a noble prize for the same) , the creation of the revolutionary 8086 Intel microprocessor which powered millions of computers in the 80s and last the greatest hitech marketing campaign of the century which is Intel Inside for the pentium chip is beautifully detailed out.

As with most businesses complacency and fatigue seems to have crept in and Intel has been caught on the wrong foot with nothing really worthwhile to contribute in the mobile era and have lost the game to more nimble companies from Korea and the Valley itself.

Nevertheless great corporations dont die away easily and are known to comeback with even more greater products and intel with its technological prowess is capable of doing it .

Book Review - Bhujia Barons

Well researched book about one of the biggest food brands in India, offers insights into how typical Marwari businesses start and flourish and also how the future generations have adapted themselves to take the business to the next level.