How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - A Book Review

"There's far more information in a Smile than a frown. That's why encouragement is a much more effective teaching device than punishment."

Introduction:
GENRE: Fiction
AUTHOR: Dale Carnegie
PAGES: 278
YEAR OF PUBLISH: 1936

Dale Carnegie is an American writer, lecturer, and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills. Dale Carnegie was a poor farmer's boy and the second son of James William Carnegey and Amanda Elizabeth Harbinson. He was born in 1888 in Maryville, Missouri. His first job after college was to sell Correspondence courses to ranchers after which he moved on to selling bacon, lard and soap for Armour & Company. He soon started teaching a course in public speaking and how to influence people which became quite popular seeing hundreds of thousands of people seeking the course. This was simply because at that point in time there were philosophies but no concrete & practical methodologies which were taught.

The book is written in straight forward Chapter by Chapter format, each chapter comprising of one principle followed by real world examples of its implementation by - well known figures to people in normal corporate jobs taking the course. The prose of the book is quite simple to understand, and though the book was written in 1932, the principles are still as valid in the present time as they were in 1932. This could be attributed to the fact that human response or behaviour remains the same when subjected to certain conditions.

Principles:

The book is divided into four parts containing four different categories, each in-turn containing various principles about it. These are as follow:

Part One: Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. "If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive"
2. "The Big Secret of dealing with People"
3. ""He who can do this has the whole world with Him. He who cannot walks a lonely way"

Part Two: Six ways to make people like you
1. Do this and you'll be welcome anywhere
2. A Simple way to make a good first impression
3. If you don't do this, you are headed for trouble
4. An easy way to become a good conversationalist
5. How to interest people
6. How to make people like you Instantly

Part Three: How to win people to your way of thinking
1. You Can't Win an argument
2. A sure way of making Enemies - and how to avoid it
3. If you're wrong, admit it
4. A drop of honey
5. The secret of Socrates
6. The safety valve in Handling complaints
7. How to get cooperation
8. A formula that will work wonders for you
9. What everybody wants
10. An appeal that everybody likes
11. The movies do it. TV does it. Why don't you do it?
12. When nothing else works, try this

Part Four: Be a Leader: How to change people without giving offence or arousing resentment
1. If you must find fault, this is the way to begin
2. How to criticise - and not be hated for it
3. Talk about your own mistakes first
4. No one likes to take orders
5. Let the other person Save face
6. How to spur people on to Success
7. Give a dog a Good name
8. Make the fault seem easy to Correct
9. Making people glad to do what you want.

Most of the above principles written are kind of self-explanatory. However, Dale Carnegie iterates and re-iterates it in the book that these principles will not work if you wish to manipulate people. Only genuine interest works. This is because most of us can understand quite well when we are receiving false compliments. For "Of Course Flattery seldom works with discerning people. It is shallow, selfish and insincere. It ought to fail and it usually does. True, some people are so hungry, so thirsty, for appreciation that they will swallow anything, just as a starving man will eat grass and fish worms." Thus, in order to master these principles, one has to take the first step and be genuine and take an interest in other people. After all, that is the whole purpose of taking this course. Nothing appears magically and the only thing people are really interested in are themselves; it is the basic human behaviour.

Let me re-iterate this with an excerpt of the book giving an example:

"Look at the letters that come across your desk tomorrow morning," (emails, in the present context) "and you will find that most of them violate this important canon of common sense. Take this one, a letter written by the head of the radio department of an advertising agency with offices scattered across the continent. This letter was sent to the managers of local radio stations throughout the country. (I have set down, in brackets, my reactions to each paragraph.)

Mr. John Blank,
Blankville,
Indiana

Dear Mr. Blank:

The.company desires to retain its position in advertising agency leadership in the radio field.

[Who cares what your company desires? I am worried about my own problems. The bank is foreclosing the mortage on my house, the bugs are destroying the hollyhocks, the stock market tumbled yesterday. I missed the eight-fifteen this morning, I wasn't invited to the Jones's dance last night, the doctor tells me I have high blood pressure and neuritis and dandruff. And then what happens? I come down to the office this morning worried, open my mail and here is some little whippersnapper off in New York yapping about what his company wants. Bah! If he only realized what sort of impression his letter makes, he would get out of the advertising business and start manufacturing sheep dip.]

This agency's national advertising accounts were the bulwark of the network. Our subsequent clearances of station time have kept us at the top of agencies year after year.

[You are big and rich and right at the top, are you? So what? I don't give two whoops in Hades if you are as big as General Motors and General Electric and the General Staff of the U.S. Army all combined. If you had as much sense as a half-witted hummingbird, you would realize that I am interested in how big I am - not how big you are. All this talk about your enormous success makes me feel small and unimportant.]

We desire to service our accounts with the last word on radio station information.

[You desire! You desire. You unmitigated ass. I'm not interested in what you desire or what the President of the United States desires. Let me tell you once and for all that I am interested in what I desire - and you haven't said a word about that yet in this absurd letter of yours .]

Will you, therefore, put the.company on your preferred list for weekly station information - every single detail that will be useful to an agency in intelligently booking time.

["Preferred list." You have your nerve! You make me feel insignificant by your big talk about your company - nd then you ask me to put you on a "preferred" list, and you don't even say "please" when you ask it.]

A prompt acknowledgment of this letter, giving us your latest "doings," will be mutually helpful.

[You fool! You mail me a cheap form letter - a letter scattered far and wide like the autumn leaves - and you have the gall to ask me, when I am worried about the mortgage and the hollyhocks and my blood pressure, to sit down and dictate a personal note acknowledging your form letter - and you ask me to do it "promptly." What do you mean, "promptly"? Don't you know I am just as busy as you are - or, at least, I like to think I am. And while we are on the subject, who gave you the lordly right to order me around? ... You say it will be "mutually helpful." At last, at last, you have begun to see my viewpoint. But you are vague about how it will be to my advantage.]

Very truly yours,
John Doe
Manager Radio Department
P.S. The enclosed reprint from the Blankville Journal will be of interest to you, and you may want to broadcast it over your station.

[Finally, down here in the postscript, you mention something that may help me solve one of my problems. Why didn't you begin your letter with - but what's the use? Any advertising man who is guilty of perpetrating such drivel as you have sent me has something wrong with his medulla oblongata. You don't need a letter giving our latest doings. What you need is a quart of iodine in your thyroid gland.]

Now, if people who devote their lives to advertising and who pose as experts in the art of influencing people to buy - if they write a letter like that, what can we expect from the butcher and baker or the auto mechanic?"

Isn't that how we all think when we open our laptops and access our daily work emails? Let's be honest, we are all thinking along these lines - when we get our company's newsletters telling about how big they have become or they got the advertisement on Times square or how they got a new website up and running, and so on and so forth. And can you see what mistakes the companies are making in those newsletters or emails? I think it's self evident.

You have to take interest in people. Period. You have to talk about what they want, and not what you want - a mistake fatal to a Sales person's career. There are various principles that are talked about in the book but this is what forms the core of those principles to apply. These were followed by Lincoln to Rockefeller to any great man you know. These are being followed by the successful entrepreneur you see or even by a normal person in your office who have made great progress in his career of which you're so jealous of.

Conclusion:

Talking to the point, the book is worth reading. For everyone who are willing to make a change in their life, this book is worth its salt. The style of writing is simple and easy to understand to an average or even a new reader and the principles very practical. As they have stated in the book, you can read and re-read each chapter and can treat this book as a working handbook; or as they have stated in the book:

In order to get the most out of this book:
a. Develop a deep, driving desire to master the principles of human relations,
b. Read each chapter twice before going on to the next one.
c. As you read, stop frequently to ask yourself how you can apply each suggestion.
d. Underscore each important idea.
e. Review this book each month.
f. Apply these principles at every opportunity. Use this volume as a working handbook to help you solve your daily problems.
g. Make a lively game out of your learning by offering some friend a dime or a dollar every time he or she catches you violating one of these principles.
h. Check up each week on the progress you are making. Ask yourself what mistakes you have made, what improvement, what lessons you have learned for the future.
i. Keep notes in the back of this book showing how and when you have applied these principles.

I highly recommend this book. A Timeless bestseller indeed!

You can also read a short version of this review on Blogger.

A Man called Ove - A Book Review

"Men are what they are because of what they do. Not what they say."

Introduction:
GENRE: Fiction
AUTHOR: Fredrik Backman
PAGES: 337
YEAR OF PUBLISH: 2012

A Man Called Ove was published in English in 2013 written by Swedish Columnist, blogger and writer Fredrik Bachman. The book became an instant bestseller which sold millions of copies worldwide. When the English version of the book was released, it went on the New York Times Bestsellers list and stayed there for 42 weeks! The character of Ove created by Fredik Bachman became widely loved and admired by all.

The above quote is just what Ove believes in. Well why wouldn't he? The world has become full of those incompetent idiots with their big phones, ignoring signs, fools who cannot drive a manual car as if its rocket science and IT consultants who cannot even reverse a small Chinese car with a trailer attached. Not that Ove liked chinese cars. For him, one can tell what kind of a man a person is by the sort of car he drives. Ove is a very particular man who likes to do things the right way and want others to do the same. He is a stickler for rules. "Rules are Rules afterall".

On first note Ove will seem like a cranky old man. It was when you dive deeper into the book and get to know him better that you couldn't help admiring Ove and his ways. He is a sort of man who will call an Idiot a idiot on their face, a man with zero political correctness and zero tolerance for anything or anyone who does not do things properly.

Plot:

The book begins by Ove trying to buy an Ipad. He asks the Sales assistant while shaking the white box and eyeing it suspiciously if this is one of those 'O-pads'. The assistant confirms that it is an 'I-pad'. Ove asks that it is a computer then. The sales assistant is nods and then shakes his head and tells Ove that some people call it a tablet and some a surfing device. But Ove just want a good computer, how hard is that to understand? Well after Ove uses some choice words for the Sales assistant and storms out, the book makes the reader to start forming opinions about Ove. But the person who forms an opinion about Ove is in for a surprise as he moves on to the upcoming chapters.

Ove is living alone after his wife passed away after a long illness. She was the only person whom he has ever loved. Ove's mother passed away when he was a boy and so he lived with his father. His father who worked for the railways was a man of principles. A man who stuck to his set code of ethics, a man who did things with his hands and Ove learned the same. To quote an excerpt from the book -

His father never raised his fists. Not to Ove or anyone else. Ove had classmates who came to school with black eyes or bruises from a belt buckle after a thrashing. But never Ove. "We don't fight in this family", his father used to state. "Not with each other or anyone else."

He was well liked down at the railway, quiet but kind. There were some who said he was "too kind."

Or to get an even better understanding -

That year, to stop him from rattling around the house on his own, he also started going with his father to work at the railway yard after school. It was filthy work and badly paid, but, as his father used to mutter, "It's an honest job and that's worth something."

Once Ove found a wallet with more than 6000 Kronor while cleaning a train coach. He worked for a man named Tom who was dishonest and not at all liked among his colleagues. They both were in the coach at that moment, when Tom saw it - he was ready to raise his fists on Ove. That's when Ove's father interjected in between and Tom backed down. Ove's father asked Ove that it is his decision for what to do with the wallet and Ove chooses to submit the wallet in the Lost property office and when the woman behind the counter who couldn't believe her eyes and says not many people have ever handed back the money, Ove's father replied, "Many people don't have no decency either". And that's how Ove went on - doing not what is likeable but what the honest and decent thing was to be done.

The book goes on with Ove trying to commit suicide not because he was depressed in a crying all the time sort of way but because he truly & honestly and in all rationality could not see the point of keeping on living without his wife in this world where people easily replace their cars with a different brand and do not know how to do things with their own two hands. Ove fails every time. He also has a new neighbor - a software consultant with a middle eastern pregnant wife called Parvenah and two kids - people who cannot reverse a car with a trailer. With time, Parvaneh is persistent to be make Ove their friend. And Ove being who he is, retorts and complains but always does what is the right thing to do. Their is also Jimmy, another of Ove's overweight geeky neighbor for whom Ove's wife cared for when his mother died.

And that is just a small sneak peek at who Ove is. Undoubtedly, Fredrik Backman has penned one of the very lovable character in literature. If you're going to read this book beware, this is going to touch your heart in one way or another and I think that is why it was hailed so much when it appeared in the market and keeps on selling even to this day. We all need a character like Ove who says what is right not what is convenient and who does the honorable thing, in this time when everything is becoming so 'Politically correct'.

The book is written in such a way that each line will keep you entertained and engrossed in it and is filled with so many wonderful lines that will just mesmerize you. For instance -

1. "Ove, only a swine thinks size and strength are the same thing. Remember that." And Ove never forgot it.

2. People also called him antisocial. Ove assumed this meant he wasn't overly keen on people. And in this instance he could totally agree with them, More often that not people were out of their minds.

3. We always think there’s enough time to do things with other people. Time to say things to them. And then something happens and then we stand there holding on to words like ‘if’.

One of my favorites -

4. Ove feels an instinctive skepticism towards all people taller than six feet; the blood can’t quite make it all the way up to the brain.

And for our readers who lean more towards the Romance genre -

5. He was a man of black and white. And she was color. All the color he had.

I became so attached to Backman’s character that there was so little I could do to stop reading. I was reading while I was having my food, I was reading in between my office tasks and I was reading when I was not sleeping.

It would not be wrong to say that no matter what kind of a person you are, if you're a reader then this book will manage to pull at some emotional cord in you. And what would become of human race if it was not for emotions!

A must read bestseller!

MOSSAD: The greatest missions of Israeli's secret service

GENRE     Non-Fiction, Military
AUTHOR  Mickel Bar Zohar & Nissim Mishal
PAGES      360
YEAR OF PUBLISH  2012
RELATED BOOK Mitrokhin Archives, Sword & Shield, Beyond Hitler Grasp,No mission is impossible

“For unsung heroes, for battles untold, for book unwritten, for secret unspoken, and for a dream of peace never abandoned, never forgotten." 

These are the dedications of the book. The statement is enough to make you understand-what contains the book are neither initials or the end of Mossad's operations.

Imagine a struggling man in his mid-twenties asked to work for a secret service in return for family support. He has no option but to go for it. He is trained, molded as spie and sent in the nest of the enemy. He grows there, gets recognized, finds the network with top officials. Every major program of the country is under his radar, living in the near to military headquarters, sending intel to his fellow men. With his input, his country stopped many potential threats. They are in the best position to attack or defend themselves. One day, he gets caught and torched to hell. His mates try all measures for his return but fail. He dies as a hero.

Yeah !! It is one of the stories in the book. The above plot is from Damascus, Syria. All missions in the book are no less than an epitome of brilliance in their work. Readers will have wooo feeling after every chapter. There are numerous characters, complex network and excellent analyzing skills that gives result only Mossad like organization can achieve.

Mossad's glory precedes its name. Protecting a naive nation, surrounded by enemy country(s),  its intelligence and covert operations, ensured its security.  I found a complete package of adventure & thriller in all the twenty-one chapters. From dismantling Syria’s nuclear facility, getting a Russian Mig 21, slowing down Iran's nuclear program for almost a decade, destroying dams that were supposed to restrict water supplies to Isreal, huff !! I can go on and on. There are failure stories too but god !! what graceful failures. The tone of the writer is soo simple that you can picture the events going on.I don't know about you but I was completing 4-5 chapters in one sitting. It is kind of pulls you back for one more story, one more and one more. 

I am reading lots of non-fictional books but what military and its stories tech can you is beyond comparison. I have added Sword & Shield in my reading list. 

A similar military book that pulled my attention was Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals Lead and win. Though it was a self-help book but created a lasting impact.

We are RBR providing Book Reviews for many bestsellers. The reader can get a precise summary that will help to decide which book worth their time. Content here is highly generic and its objective is to ensure reviews with an unbiased perspective. The common genre includes Nonfiction like biography, self-help, management guide, economics concept-oriented & psychology.

VISIT www.reviewbeforeread.com for exciting reviews.

Book Review The Prince : Niccolo Machiavelli

Genre : Non Fiction, Political Science, Classics

Author Niccolo Machiavelli

Pages  140

Year of Publish 1532

Related books  Art of war, Chanakya Niti

About the author

Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1527) was an Italian diplomat and philosopher. Born in the renaissance period, he is often regarded as the father of modern political science. The major part of his life was under the service of the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in Diploma and military affairs. He came into focus after the publication of his first book The Prince(five years after his death). His realistic rather than ideal division of politics gained worldwide acceptance and haters. 

Book review The Prince

Earlier, I never heard of this book. One day I saw it on the desk of my colleague in the office. As a typical bookworm- I stared it with curiosity, flipped its back cover, and checked the table of contents. Within seconds I decided to read. The next minute, I borrowed it from him. If you are Indian, you must be knowing Chanakya Niti, a jewel from the history of governance. Well, The Prince can be called its western reincarnation. It was written in the 15th century, so I was ready to read some complex classic writings. From beginning to end the author remained blunt towards his teachings. There is a high chance for readers to find its disturbing ideology. And within no time, they may tag it as absolute rubbish. So, here is my disclaimer for you-'I am here to share the content of one of the most famous books of all time. I am not recommending this book. It will your call. 

Summary of The Prince 

The prince is regarded as one of the first works in modern political philosophy. The writing focuses on two things. Firstly, State-' all forms of organization of supreme political power.' Secondly, Price-'the ruler of the state'. The author says we live in a society where ideals do not get the expected admiration and support. Even when everyone wants to see things as morally sound, they do not act in that way. The prince who understand this enjoys the public hands over him. It doesn't mean that the prince should start behaving rowdily. The window dressing has to be for a person which mosses want to see that is morally correct. Focusing on enemies Machiavelli suggests, a potential enemy can be dealt in two ways - making them friends for crushing them that they don't stand a chance. Companies we see as epitome success has been in the bloodiest lawsuits to survive. A Prince has to make sure his hands remain clean before the eyes of the public. Delegating dirty and difficult jobs to others and keeping forfeited and noble work to oneself. Support this statement author shares a dirty incident- Prince of a state wanted to capture territory. He asked his soldier to capture the place at any cost. The soldier along with his men kills innocent people and gain control. When Prince reaches his captured location he senses the dissatisfaction and hates for him. He orders to kill the soldier and tell the masses this wasn't the way he wanted this place. The prince distributes food and clothing to the people and gains support.

Quotes from The Price 

1. How will life is different from how we auto live that he who studies that ought to be done will learn the way to his downfall rather than his preservation. 

2. Any man who tries to pick good all the time is bound to come to ruin amount the great number you are not good. Hence they bring must learn how not to be good and use that knowledge or refrain from using it as necessity requires. 

3. The vulgar crowd always taken by appearance and the World consists chiefly of the vulgar. 

4. Men ought either to be well treated or crushed because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries of more serious ones they cannot. Therefore, an injury turned to a man or to be such kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge. 

5. Prince must delegate the difficult tasks to others and keep popular on for themselves.

Immortal Talks - A Book Review

“Are you aware that you are not a body? You have a body.” chorused the elder Mahtangs.

Introduction:
GENRE: Spirituality
AUTHOR: Shunya
PAGES:160
YEAR OF PUBLISH: 2017

Mahtangs (better known as Mathangs) are the tribal people residing in the forests of Mount Piduru in Sri Lanka. This tribe, similar to the sentinelese, choose to be cut off from modern civilisation but save for this they cannot be more different from the sentinelese. Mathangs are the followers of Lord Hanuman and descendants of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana from The Ramayana. Apart from this, the Mathangs are said to be very spiritual and with good reason. It is said that the Mathangs are visited by Lord Hanuman in every 41 years. Quite interesting isn’t it?

All of this came to light in the year 2014 when a researcher was studying the behavior of the tribe and completely oblivious at the time as to what he was going to find! Fascinating!

Lord Hanuman is said to be among the 7 people who are said to be immortal. It is believed that every 41 years Lord Hanuman visits the tribe to teach and imbue divine knowledge to them. The Mathangs record the teaching of Lord Hanuman every 41 years in a Log book. Fortunately, the log book is now with an organization called ‘Setu Asia’which is trying to translate the book. Okay this was a short introduction to who the Mahtangs (or Mathangs) really are. Now let’s jump on to the book.

Summary:

The book begins with Hanudas, a devotee of Lord Hanuman, who along with 2 other devotees is following some tribal people in order to observe and try to establish communication with them. Hanudas used to live an elite lifestyle with his family in Toronto and was neither religious nor spiritual. His wife dies in a car accident and later he loses his only son to drugs and paranoid schizophrenia. This leaves him to be completely hollow – ‘like a hoop which lets things pass through it. No sorrow. No pain. No regret.’ It was then that he encounters an unusual scene. He leaves for India and comes in contact with a Guru who gives him the name ‘Hanudas’ and explains to him that it was not a hallucination indeed. Gurudev explains it was because only pure souls can experience that. He explains that Hanudas encountered such a scene because after his son’s funeral his mind was absolutely blank, completely free and detached from everything the external world has to offer –

‘Your soul, like the majority of humans of this era, is asleep. Your soul awoke for a brief period of time on the day you buried your son’

After that moment he experiences a divine epiphany and leaves to wander – in search of nothing – in a pursuit to awaken his soul. He eventually feels that he has reached his destination when he comes across this tribe known as ‘Mahtangs’. He along with 2 more sages tries to approach the tribe but are rebuked by the leader and hence finds himself following and observing the tribe. Very soon he deciphers the meaning of the set of seven symbols he had collected from the Mahtangs. It translated as follows: ‘The immortal Lord Hanuman comes every 41 years to impart supreme knowledge to his disciples, the Mahtangs’. Over the course of next several months, he collected thousands of such symbols, or the puzzles wherin lay enshrined the entire knowledge Lord Hanuman imparted to his disciples.
He, with the help of other sages, deciphers these puzzles and documents them. These finding are henceforth explained in the form of different chapters in this book.

My Review:

The religion – Hinduism (it actually is Sanatan Dharma) – is the oldest religion that exists today. It is the only religion in which even if you are an atheist, you are still a Hindu. It is the choice of the seeker whichever and whatever form of god he/she wants to embrace. Even the belief that he/she does not believe in god is a form of belief and hence that person is still a Hindu. It is a religion which is based on the practice of looking for the absolute truth which involves science more than anything. I will not be exaggerating when I confidently claim that all the things that modern science is discovering now has already been mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads many thousands of years ago. It is more about Spirituality than being a ‘Religion’ in the strictest sense of the meaning of the word, and is FAR different from what is perceived by the masses. It is a way of Life, which is clearly evident by the contents of this book.

The book is written in a very simplistic manner which enables the reader to understand even the most complex workings of the truth of what the soul is, what is life, the movement of the soul from one body to another, the life and death cycle, the Karma-Desire, etc. If I have to describe my experience of reading this book in one word, I will choose – enlightening. The way in which everything was explained is very simple and effective. The reader is able to imagine every scene as if it is happening right before their eyes. The way in which everything is explained is extraordinarily simple, effective and quite enjoyable at the same time. The prologue of the book describes how Hanudas comes to find all the symbols and puzzles and the rest of the book in chapters and in the form of stories of the same tribe explains the subtleties of the extraordinary way in which the universe works, who we are and how to get out of this endless cycle of birth and death in Maya.

Those of you do not know, Maya is everything you experience. It is everything that you sense i.e., see, feel, hear, taste, touch. Maya is said to be an illusion. It is the physical world which follows the rules of space-time and the human soul which is stuck in this Maya thinking that it is the only reality experiences endless cycle of birth and death. The purpose of the human soul is to break this cycle and attain Moksha viz., unification with the absolute – the Bramh.

The book along with this also explains what the soul really is. How it goes from one body to another and what it experiences when it is out of a body. Not only this, the book also explains the type of souls there are, what are the characteristics of the soul which resides in birds, animals and humans. The struggle between the soul to be free from the shackles of birth and death and the limitations posed by the human body which understands this world to be the only reality and the Karma-Desire scale of balance is beautifully explained in one of the chapters titled ‘The Mermaid’ in the form of a story.

I definitely enjoyed reading this book. I’d say that it must be read at least once in a lifetime irrespective of which religion, caste or sex you belong to, or what belief system you have. Read this with an open mind because as the Vedas says, there is only one absolute truth rest everything is different realities varying from person to person.

Skullcandy Riff Wireless - An Audiophile's review

★★

Company: Skullcandy Inc.
Headquarters location: Park City, Utah, United States
Founder: Rick Alden
Founded: 2003, Park City, Utah, United States

Skullcandy in the India's Audio market:

Skullcandy is a well known name in the Indian Audio market. They sell from low-end to premium (looking) headphones and earphones. Over the years, Skullcandy has garnered many fans across the country. According to Statista, Skullcandy has been among the leading Headphones and Earphones brand in France in the year 2018 and is one of the known names in the US market, perhaps not as premium as it is known in the Indian market. However, when it comes to India the game gets a little tricky to play. According to Fortune, the market in India is THE most important market for Skullcandy to capture. Skullcandy have a contract with a company called BrandEyes Distributers Pvt Limited which is Skullcandy's official distributor in the South Asian market.

Analysis:

The Riff Wireless model of the Skullcandy headphones is one among the mid to high range headphones available in the Indian market. Priced at Rs. 4999 which is equivalent to $66.10 in the current market price in India. The looks are premium and eye pleasing which on the first glance gives a fairly impressive vibe. The sound is the signature Skullcandy sound - a little high on the Bass with good enough clarity in music with little to no compromise on treble. The earcups are comfortable and the headphone is suitable to be worn for a long duration. Overall, a pretty decent, good Bass, overall balanced sound producing headphone with Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20KHz and Total Harmonic Distortion: <1% (1mW/500Hz). It comes in a box with a charging cable, user guide and 2 year warranty guide.

So far so good? Well, hardly. The points that the headphones gain in terms of sound quality takes a dive when it comes to the hardware build quality of the headphone. The band that holds the earpiece is made of brittle low quality plastic which will crack or snap off within a month of light usage. So much for the premium sound quality! An average Indian guy spending that amount of money to buy one headphone is not going to like that. Not one bit. So the question arise that is skullcandy deliberately cutting the costs by using low quality material in the manufacture process of these headphones? Because if that is so, then it may not fare very well for them in the India's audio market.

Another negative point for some about these headphones can be that these do not come with an AUX port and are totally wireless to use. Therefore, the buyer must keep these things in mind if he wishes to purchase this headphone. The complaint with the poor quality material has been constant from the headphone users and is still not addressed properly by the company which seems more intent of increasing quantity than quality.

Verdict:

Personally, I am more of a Sennheiser guy. I bought a Wired Sennheiser headphone about 4 years back and it's still kicking without any issues in it's sound or hardware quality. I have had a very bad experience with both Skullcandy headphones and earphones. In the course of 5 years I might have bought around 3-4 skullcandy headphones and earphones combined. I quit buying it and switched to Sennheiser instead which was so so much better in all aspects! I bought these headphones recently thinking to give it another try (and their was good discount available on the website. *wink*) and it did not even take a month for its plastic band to crack.

Hence, I will not recommend buying these headphones. There are better options available in the market in this price range.

Skullcandy must learn how to play:

Skullcandy do not seem to be bothered with the negative responses from the customers which is a very grave mistake it is making. Unsure whether it is the same case with the audio devices manufactured in U.S. and other countries or just with India but the company using low quality material for manufacturing the audio devices has been a constant complaint of the users in India, who do not seem to be getting any assurances, returns or improvements.

Hence, Skullcandy has to significantly improve their game if they wish to remain and survive in the long run because with the current 'No to Chinese products' campaign in India, a great opportunity is about to open up for other-than-Chinese companies in the Indian market. The question remains that whether Skullcandy is smart enough to recognise and capitalise on the opportunity. A word of advice though to the company, an Indian consumer is very much different than consumers in any other country. To quote an article of Fortune India - "The Indian customer is very well researched and more demanding than other customers. They are very empowered in terms of what their rights are as consumers. So, after-sales service is a huge focus for us. For Skullcandy now India is a very important market globally."
With the advent of True wireless headphones in the market, the stakes have increased greatly. Though it is still in the R&D and improvement stage for other companies (other than Apple which has patented its true wireless tech), Skullcandy has launched its own TWS models among other companies which frankly speaking will pose a great blow if the company do not gather their wits about their product quality. Therefore, buck-up Skullcandy! Focus more on the quality of product and customer satisfaction than on the bottom line and sales.

Prey by Michael Crichton - A Book Review

“They didn't understand what they were doing.

I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.”

Introduction:
GENRE: Science Fiction
AUTHOR: Michael Crichton
PAGES: 507
YEAR OF PUBLISH: 2002

For those of you who are not very familiar with the genre and are wondering from where have you heard the name of Crichton, I have only two words for you which are enough to introduce and give you a fair amount of idea who this brilliant writer is - 'JURASSIC PARK'! Yeah, that's right! That great Spielberg movie which created such a sensation and sprang to be on the favourite list of people of all ages, came out from the pen of Michael Crichton in 1983. The readers may be surprised to know that this book was considered to be made into a movie but apparently the story - it's concept was so frightening at the time that they feared it can induce mass panic and protests. (Personally, when I read this book a few years back it swept away the ground beneath my feet - it instantly sucked me in with it's brilliant storyline and impeccable & quite simple-to-understand writing of Crichton)

But it does not mean that Jurassic Park, as awesome as it is to read, in any way overshadows Prey. Prey has a life of it's own. It is also one of the best books of Michael Crichton up there with Jurassic Park, Congo, The Andromeda Strain, etc. The book contains one of the most interesting themes for a science fiction enthusiast - Nanotechnology. Of course, since this book was released, there have been miles and miles of advancement in this field, but the way Crichton weaves the story surpasses the belief that it will be 'backward' compared to today's advancements. Hence it might not be wrong to say that his vision was far beyond his years. Unlike hard sci-fi authors like Greg Egan or Stephen Baxter Crichton aimed his science writing at the layman and this is probably the secret of his huge commercial success. 13 of his books have been adapted into movies.

Summary:

So let's get back to Prey. The protagonist of our story, Jack Foreman is a house maker who was shown the door by the organisation he faithfully worked for called 'Media Tronics' when he discovered an internal scandal involving the owner of the organisation itself. He is an experienced professional whose work was to manage and build computer programs which were based upon the behaviour of animals in nature. This was in context to the development of nanoparticles and robotics. Jack had a large experience building AI programs based upon the behaviour of animals in the animal kingdom, in particular, the predators in the animal kingdom. This was because the predators are driven towards achieving their goal i.e., hunting, and could change tact according to different circumstances.
Jack lived with his wife and 3 children in a suburban home. His wife was employed in a company called Xymos, was working on a 'hush-hush' type Pentagon project and was frequent to a classified facility in the middle of Nevada desert. She was often late and sometimes did not return home at all. She became aloof, short-tempered and took little or too much interest in her children's lives. Her behaviour was becoming erratic from her usual self for Jack. It was then he started suspecting that Julia might be having an affair, only if he had known at that time that the truth was more daunting and scary. Jack consulted a friend of his who's a lawyer and with his advice he started being on a lookout to gather any solid proof to confirm his wife's affair. So far, he was not successful. Meanwhile strange things starts happening in his house. An mp3 player suddenly malfunctions, one of the kids, Amanda, develops inexplicable illness which clears up equally inexplicably as soon as the doctors put her under an MRI scanner. Julia doesn’t help—she’s hardly ever home now; Jack sees her driving back to work on the day of one of his kid's birthday in her car which showed a silhouette of a man sitting with her who was not there in the car before. Now, he’s convinced she’s seeing someone else. His wife's behaviour was becoming more erratic but so far there was no sign of any affair. It was then that his wife dropped the bomb on him.

One night Julia returns late at night and asks Jack to watch a recorded video. He agrees. The video shows his wife making a presentation with a man lying down on a stretcher. She goes on to explain in the video that Xymos has created micro cameras which behaves as a swarm and can penetrate the tiny blood vessels in the heart of a human body which opens up many possibilities in the medical field. But towards the end of the book it is found that the US Military has taken over the project and is trying to weaponize it by researching it in a desolate facility located in Nevada where Julia spends most of her time.

Fast forward, Jack runs into one of his former colleague who invites him back and that is when Jack gets to know that he is indirectly involved in this success too. His work in "distributed parallel processing or agent-based programs" is being used and Xymos is working with Jack's former company and is using Jack's old team on the site as Xymos is using some of that programming to get the nano-things to work together. Jack heads out to Nevada, where he learns that some of the micro-machines have apparently escaped from the facility and they've started acting on their own. And they're out of control. These machines seems to be adapting and learning as time passes on and to make matters worse, they are multiplying! They have solar panels to work using solar energy so there is no way to turn them off manually and they are not responding to any of the programming commands. They can form swarms and made by using the Prey program - they are hunting! Crichton terrifies the reader who is a fan of science fiction, especially the one who has a decent knowledge about science, by another of his idea about how these micro-machines are multiplying which. It's by producing them using the biological process of multiplication of bacteria - E-Coli in various chambers of the tanks and stabilizing them.

Towards the end, it turns out that Julia is completely infected and the swarm has completely taken over her. She goes on to infect all the others in the facility but Jack catches her and fights back. He finally figures out how to become immune by swallowing a virus which attacks the bacteria through which the machines were being produced. Jack escapes the facility through the backup helicopter that arrives leaving Julia and others infected in the facility as the plant overheats and explodes due to methane built up because Jack had disabled the vents. Jack flies away knowing fully well that Julia was the one responsible for everything that happened. He gives a dose of the virus to the children to protect and kill any traces of the machines that might be remaining.

Conclusion:

The novel terrified a lot of readers. It is gripping, thriller and laced with the signature Crichton stupefyingly brilliant story making through the most weirdest of theories that just might point in the right direction in actual research. Rumor has it that this novel infuriated many citizens in the U.S. who even protested against any research and development that was being done in the field of AI and nano-tech, making Crichton extremely famous once again establishing him as a novelist in Sci-fi genre whom we are not likely to forget for a long long time. We will go back and keep reading his works, partly for the mad, brilliant ideas and partly because of the thrill packed in them through his characters.

The One Minute Manager - A Book Review

Will this be fit for your organization? Is this simple and sound technique for management in your company?
Check it out.

Immortal Talks - A Book Review

“Are you aware that you are not a body? You have a body.” chorused the elder Mahtangs.

 

Introduction:
GENRE: Spirituality
AUTHOR: Shunya
PAGES:160
YEAR OF PUBLISH: 2017 

 

Mahtangs (better known as Mathangs) are the tribal people residing in the forests of Mount Piduru in Sri Lanka. This tribe, similar to the sentinelese, choose to be cut off from modern civilization but they cannot be more different from the sentinelese. Mathangs are the followers of Lord Hanuman and descendants of Vibhishana, the brother of Ravana from The Ramayana. Apart from this, the Mathangs are said to be very spiritual and with good reason. It is said that the Mathangs are visited by Lord Hanuman in every 41 years. Quite interesting isn’t it?
All of this came to light in the year 2014 when a researcher was studying the behavior of the tribe and completely oblivious at the time as to what he was going to find! Fascinating!
Lord Hanuman is said to be among the 7 people who are said to be immortal. It is believed that every 41 years Lord Hanuman visits the tribe to teach and imbue divine knowledge to them. The Mathangs record the teaching of Lord Hanuman every 41 years in a Log book. Fortunately, the log book is now with an organization called ‘Setu Asia’which is trying to translate the book. Okay this was a short introduction to who the Mahtangs (or Mathangs) really are. Now let’s jump on to the book.

 

Summary:

 

The book begins with Hanudas, a devotee of Lord Hanuman, who along with 2 other devotees is following some tribal people in order to observe and try to establish communication with them. Hanudas used to live an elite lifestyle with his family in Toronto and was neither religious nor spiritual. His wife dies in a car accident and later he loses his only son to drugs and paranoid schizophrenia. This leaves him to be completely hollow – ‘like a hoop which lets things pass through it. No sorrow. No pain. No regret.’ It was then that he encounters an unusual scene. He leaves for India and comes in contact with a Guru who gives him the name ‘Hanudas’ and explains to him that it was not a hallucination indeed. Gurudev explains it was because only pure souls can experience that. He explains that Hanudas encountered such a scene because after his son’s funeral his mind was absolutely blank, completely free and detached from everything the external world has to offer – 
‘Your soul, like the majority of humans of this era, is asleep. Your soul awoke for a brief period of time on the day you buried your son’
After that moment he experiences a divine epiphany and leaves to wander – in search of nothing – in a pursuit to awaken his soul. He eventually feels that he has reached his destination when he comes across this tribe known as ‘Mahtangs’. He along with 2 more sages tries to approach the tribe but are rebuked by the leader and hence finds himself following and observing the tribe. Very soon her deciphered the meaning of the set of seven symbols he had collected from the Mahtangs. It translated as follows: ‘The immortal Lord Hanuman comes every 41 years to impart supreme knowledge to his disciples, the Mahtangs’. Over the course of next several months, he collected thousands of such symbols, or the puzzles wherin lay enshrined the entire knowledge Lord Hanuman imparted to his disciples.
He, with the help of other sages, deciphered these puzzles and documents them. These finding are henceforth explained in the form of different chapters in this book.

 

My Review:

 

The religion – Hinduism (it actually is Sanatan Dharma) – is the oldest religion that exists today. It is the only religion in which even if you are an atheist, you are still a Hindu. It is the choice of the seeker whichever and whatever form of god he/she wants to embrace. Even the belief that he/she does not believe in god is a form of belief and hence that person is still a Hindu. It is a religion which is based on the practice of looking for the absolute truth which involves science more than anything. I will not be exaggerating when I confidently claim that all the things that modern science is discovering now has already been mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads many thousands of years ago. It is more of Spirituality than a ‘Religion’ in the truest sense and is far different from what is perceived by the masses. It is a way of Life. And this is clearly evident by the contents of this book.
The book is written in a very simplistic manner which enables the reader to understand even the most complex workings of the truth of what the soul is, what is life, the movement of the soul from one body to another, the life and death cycle, the Karma-Desire, etc. If I have to describe my experience of reading this book in one word, I will choose – enlightening. The way in which everything was explained is very simple and effective. The reader is able to imagine every scene as if it is happening right before their eyes. The way in which everything is explained is extraordinarily simple, effective and quite enjoyable at the same time. The prologue of the book describes how Hanudas comes to find all the symbols and puzzles and the rest of the book in chapters and in the form of stories of the same tribe explains the subtleties of the extraordinary way in which the universe works, who we are and how to get out of this endless cycle of birth and death in Maya. 
Those of you do not know, Maya is everything you experience. It is everything that you sense i.e., see, feel, hear, taste, touch. Maya is said to be an illusion. It is the physical world which follows the rules of space-time and the human soul which is stuck in this Maya thinking that it is the only reality experiences endless cycle of birth and death. The purpose of the human soul is to break this cycle and attain Moksha viz., unification with the absolute – the Bramh.
The book along with this also explains what the soul really is. How it goes from one body to another and what it experiences when it is out of a body. Not only this, the book also explains the type of souls there are, what are the characteristics of the soul which resides in birds, animals and humans. The struggle between the soul to be free from the shackles of birth and death and the limitations posed by the human body which understands this world to be the only reality and the Karma-Desire scale of balance is beautifully explained in one of the chapters titled ‘The Mermaid’ in the form of a story.

 

I definitely enjoyed reading this book. I’d say that it must be read at least once in the lifetime irrespective of which religion, caste or sex you belong to. Read this with an open mind because as the Vedas says, there is only one absolute truth rest everything is different realities varying from person to person.