Currently reading

I am currently reading Sachin Tendulkar's autobiography, "Playing it my way". Sachin retired from cricket about a year ago and at that time I wrote a post on how closely I had followed his matches and career. The man, whom I respect immensely for his humility and commitment to the game, has been an inspiration to millions of cricket lovers across the globe.

PS : (3rd January, 2014) Finished reading the book. Hats off to the man who went on to achieve greatness in spite of repeated injuries and breakdowns. Here is an excerpt from the book that left me speechless:

"It was on the eve of that West Indies match that I tried to introduce an element of fun into my batting practice. I was practicing some throw-downs from Gary Kirsten and was just about to wrap up the session when the idea came to me.I decided to close my eyes for six deliveries, just after the bowler released the ball, then I asked Gary if he had noticed anything different. Gary said he hadn't, except that my head was staying up when I was driving. I had to keep my head steady, because with your eyes shut you can easily lose the path of the ball with a very slight movement of the head. When I told him I'd had my eyes closed, he was shocked. I explained that I had watched his wrist position when he released the ball to see if it was, say, an outswinger, and then closed my eyes and visualized the path the ball would travel. After that I went a step further by keeping my eyes shut and telling the fielders where I had hit the ball, based on how and where I felt the ball on the bat. It was just for fun and I only did it once, but it did help me focus on the release of the ball, which is so important for a batsman."

That is unbelievable ! That is genius !!

Recently read

I just finished reading Civilian Warriors by Erik Prince, the founder and former CEO of Blackwater Inc. Mr. Prince presents the "other side" of the story of the infamous company that according to him was made a scapegoat for doing what it was contractually obliged to do. Blackwater, whose employees served in some of the toughest theaters of war, Afghanistan and Iraq had been the very ugly face war profiteering over the last decade. Critics of the company have always pointed to the military-industrial complex that seeks out wars that throw up huge opportunities for companies including "mercenaries" such as Blackwater to profit from the outsourcing of war activities (training, supply, search and rescue, security, intelligence, and mundane administration etc.) The author presents Blackwater's side of the story, the history of "civilian warriors" in not just famous battles but the exploration and settlement of the new world, the constantly changing and ever evolving nature of warfare, the founding of Blackwater to address particular training needs of security forces, the nature of the contracts that the company had with the State Dept and Department of Defense, the company's track record in never failing to protect anyone under their cover, the explosive growth of the company, the tragedies in Iraq that led to civilian deaths, the incessant attacks from the left and the media, the gradual erosion of public faith and the end of the company as we know it.  Although Blackwater was not the only company in the business of "battle" (there are other famous names such as DynCorp, Executive outcomes, Blue Mountain etc.), it earned the ire of the public, the Iraqi govt, and the democratic regime in Washington for reasons not just confined to their battlefield actions but also from partisan politics that needed a whipping boy. 

Good reads

Read these two books over the last month or so. Excellent ones, strongly recommended.

Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan by M.J. Akbar, one of India's prominent journalists.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies, by Jared Diamond

In the past, I have enjoyed reading Jared Diamond's other works - "Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel : the fates of human societies".