The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Hh !! Thats what I said when I finished reading.

I selected the book by because of the cover and the tittle. A deliberate attempt to explore different kind of reading. I was not disappointed however I feel I may have spent that time reading something else.

Its a very light read. I realized that it was a trilogy while updating my profile on Shelfari. Next time I pick up a book I will check the views of other readers. The book uses lot of Swedish names and places. Book gives a glimpse of Swedish culture particularly about Freedom & Constitution. Book is all about what secret police had to do to cover up its mistake made several years ago. Secret Police was setup to protect Sweden and it turned into an illegal function, in the end all of its surviving officers arrested.

The story line starts with a big bang, Salander is admitted to the hospital with a bullet in her head. It keeps surprising you in the initial parts. It then drags with the history of Sapo, Secret Police of Sweden, investigative journalist Blomkvist, Berger, Evert Gullberg etc... Possibly to create or build suspense. I lost interest at this point, urge to finish the book kept me going not. The story ends with Ginnai brilliant questions in the courtroom and fortune of Salander.

There are many loose ends ... Salander’s interest in research, mathematics, her twin sister, fortune that she had, Figuerola’s interest in Blomkvist which one may find hard to explain.
You would not mind if you have skipped this book.

Fingerprints that you leave

What fingerprints we leave?

After our each interaction, meeting, project, work etc...

To inspire others we need to increase our awareness about our fingerprints.

Yoda: You do or you don’t. There is no try.


I attended a 2 day training workshop. It was on Inspiring High Performance. Though there was nothing different from the most of the training programs, the other key things that I liked.

Frame of Mind framework - working from the edge.

Traveling without ticket to Pune

I left early morning 5 ‘o’ clock for Pune. Took a Rickshaw to Kanjur Marg, smiled at the sign “Ticket window on the bridge” on the bridge at railway station, unfortunately it was not working. The operational window was on the other end of the platform. I missed 2 local trains and time by the time I reached the far end. I had to reach Kalyan station by 6:35am. Plan was to take Indrayni Express from Kalyan and reach Pune by 9:30am. Assuming there will be no ticket checker in the morning. Boarded the next local and decided to buy the ticket at Kalyan.

Local train was on its time, but just before the Kalyan it began crawling. I reached Kalyan at 6:30am. Rushed to the ticket counter only to find long queue. Train was to arrive at platform no. 5. So I rushed. It was early morning and platform was crowded. Train arrived at the platform and as it slowed down people were sucked in the vortex created at the doors. I offered myself in the vortex to get sucked in. I was happy, got a good seat.

It was the first seat from the entrance. Suddenly a young chap, fairly built, with broad shoulders, reddish mouth - suggesting he chewed gutka, with long hair (Sanjay Dutt in Sajjan), dark broad Ray-ban glasses, strikingly shiny blue shirt bent over me and inquired how does the ticket checkers behave in this train. He spoke in typical mumbaiya accent. He justified his questioning without a pause. He said last time the ticket checkers were bad. They had thrown him in jail. This time he would prefer paying the penalty rather going to the jail. He was happy that he was carrying sufficient cash.

I couldn’t reply. He was asking me ! another without ticket traveller. People around laughed and suggested to sit and pay the fine if ticket checker turned up. My co-traveller sitting next to me offered him the seat.

A without ticket traveller asking a stranger who happens to be without ticket traveller about the consequences of without ticket travel. Amazing !!

One little step - Trek to Peth Fort near Karjat

After kinda settling in Mumbai, we decided to go out. Trekking was one of the many things we had in our long list of to dos. It was a while ago that we had gone trekking. We were deciding on the place. Ease had to be kept in mind - perhaps a right KPI for a wrong person. No guesses, climb was difficult, but more for us, less for Rishabh and a cake walk for Ubis ( our lovely dog).

All the forces joined hands to stand united against us. Can’t blame being late - I always end up getting credit for it, but we could not find our best trekking clothes, forgot our bag filled with energy supplements for climb, took the most longest route (I have to write my two lines on this route). Geeta, our expert navigator will dispute it. And for the first time in my life in the middle of the road amongst the BEST buses, most ugliest looking trucks, rickshaws, taxis & numerous cars we stalled. Ran out of fuel. People looked at us with sympathy. I was expecting otherwise. A cleaner jumped from the adjacent truck, Geeta got down, a rickshawala came and pushed us to the side of the road near a bus stand.

The same rickshawala took Geeta to the nearest petrol pump, while we waited helplessly in the car. Ubis was wearing a red t-shirt began to sweat. Her barks attracted more attention than we were getting. We were searching Geeta in all the rickshaws that were coming towards us. Soon Geeta emerged out of one large and one small bottle of petrol. She poured it in the belly of car and took us to the same petrol pump to fill it full.

The family was determined to conquer. Though it was 10am, were terribly late, go something to eat and continued our conquest.

We were planning for Lohagad, but Geeta with some of our friends had decided to spent evening in Karjat. Our plan was to finish the trek in Lohgad and join them on our return at Karjat. We checked Peth fort was nearest to Karjat and decided for it to reduce the travel. On the net it neither looked difficult and nor popular. We negotiated our way to the base location at 13:00hrs. It was the only shop in the village. A group of 80-70 people from Oracle was already there. We were centre of attraction especially with the local dog population. Everyone wanted to be with her Ubis. Geeta collected some local info and made few friends.

We had some chai & biscuits and left for the trek at 13:30hrs. Oracle group had left 15 mins before. The local shopkeeper was behind carrying supplies for the Oracle group. The trek was 1 hour walk to the next village and then 30 min steep climb to the pinnacle. We started...



I was with Rishabh & Ubis was with Geeta. We started at a good pace and Rishabh who was leading us started infiltrating in the group ahead of us. We had to walk uphill and very soon I was breathless. Only thought that crossed my mind was about my age. Geeta was also uneasy. Rishabh looked a bit irritated. Ubis poor baby did not know what was in store. In-fact none of us knew. We paused at a turning, the big group of Oracle had split into several smaller groups. Nearly all stopped at this junction to click snaps adjust and move on. We saw few people calling it off and started to walk down. At this point I believe nature had ensured that all the pollution is cleansed from our body. Rains took care off anything remaining on our body. I could see my mind chastened and preparing to face the challenge. Mostly it is occupied with daily stuff and keeps fighting. I liked the shift. I could sense the same happening with others around me. It started raining, I clicked a quick picture before packing the camera. We stood against the rocky wall, but decided to enjoy the rain.


All marched with renewed rigor and energy. It started pouring heavily, soon Rishabh was walking against the streams of water flowing down from the hill. All of us were completely drenched. Rishabh kept a nice pace, old man was always behind him. He was encouraged by the people as he kept moving ahead of them. He also inspired them to continue and keep up. In 30 mins we reached a plateau. The surroundings were lush green. Ubis freaked out. It was the first brush with nature for the 6 month old puppy. Rain stopped and allowed us to enjoy the view of mountains covered with greens separated by the streams of white waterfall. I was clicking the come pictures when Rishabh saw a small water fall. Photographer in me saw the nice background and clicked the best family picture so far.






Rishabh just freaked in the waterfall.


That was the Pinnacle of the fort, which was our destination.




We were 30 mins away from the village. We continued on our mission.



On our way we took stopped to take some rest.



Ubis was enjoying her walk, but she had not eaten anything since morning. She was all the time in car. So we stopped and gave her Parle G tonic. which we had bought along with Poppins for Rishabh from the shop at the base village.



All of us were having a good time. But 30 min walk was just too long. We stopped enjoyed the fields around, played in the waterfalls and made our way through the puddles.



Nice weather, beautiful surroundings, free mind ... kept us moving... Rishabh enjoys every moment ... Like every trek, in this too he managed to find a stick to stick.



Geeta & Ubis looking happy.



The puddle ...




Finally we reached the village at the foot of the fort. By this time we were almost leading.



Ubis helped Rishabh is carrying his stick.

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept - Paul Coelho

The book is philosophical. Had Geeta not suggested, I wouldn’t have read it, though it was in my library of new Sony eBook reader. Total number of pages, 81 was very encouraging.

Start is slightly confusing rather difficult to comprehend as it is philosophy. But it turns out to be very interesting and well written. It uses analogy to explain the concepts, which I do often. But books touches spiritual concepts which are hard to explain without analogy. The explanation and use of the characters to explain them is brilliant. Spirituality and uncertainty in finding it is beautifully elaborated.

Book keeps toggling between love, religion, spirituality & work. The conflict and their effect on our life is described in simple manner. Follow your heart and God will help you to reach your destination. It talks about pain & suffering deliberately disguised and kept in the paradise to experience happiness.

Amazing book, worth a read. Can be finished quickly.

Every Second Counts - Lance Armstrong

This is the first book that I read on my new Sony eBook Reader. Apart from the joy of using the new toy book itself was gripping. I read a biography after a long time. The book is all about enduring pain & not quitting. Lance Armstrong says Pain is temporary but quitting is permanent.

Armstrong talks about the fights, fight with Cancer, fight to win Tour de France races & fight to keep his marriage. He was able to win all the battles because of people around him which he calls Team. He has spelt out very basic and true ingredients of Team Work.

He also defines competition and readiness or preparation. One is ready to win / compete only when one says ‘Ok, Bring it on.’ Since cycling is a sport, he emphasized respecting competitors and acknowledging their achievements. Other interesting area of competition is improving continuously and not just only practicing which sounds a cliche’.

Book sometimes becomes a drag, especially during the race. He won it 5 times, by the end you actually know the route of the tour by heart.

A good read overall. Very motivational.