Book Review [171] : The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind

'The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind' by Dr. Joseph Murphy is the first book i read this year. It has a very high rating and more than a million copies have been been sold since its inception. It was first published in 1963 and since then it has been translated in more than 30 languages.

I found this book very effective. It talks about how to bring positivity in life and how to achieve calmness/greatness. Some may call it pseudo science but it is what it is. Similar concepts we learn when we meditate or do guided meditation or indulge in Yog Nidra. Break the connections between conscious mind and the outer world and let your subconscious mind take control.

Its an old wisdom that says 'Think good and good follows. Think evil and evil follows. You are what you think all day'. It was correct then, it is correct now. 

Nothing can disturb you but your own thoughts. The suggestions, statements or threats of others have no power. What the other person says or does can not really annoy or irritate you except when you permit him to disturb you. You should not let some one else to disturb your peace of mind.

 

Do the thing you are afraid to do, and the death of fear is certain.

Spread light not darkness. 

Spread positivity not negativity.

Spread goodness not evil.

Stay positive, stay good and always make your mind free from all doubts and negative energy. Always start the day on a good note and end the day with a good note. You are the captain of your soul, master of your fate. World is yours dear friend.

Highly Recommended (10/10).

The Border Gavaskar Trophy - It hurts

India - Australia Cricket matches have always fascinated me and i never miss following these matches since early 1990s. Our team in 1990s was known as Tiger at home and lamb overseas. I dont remember winning any memorable series overseas then. The best outcome was always a draw as it happened in England when Sourav and Dravid declared their arrival in 1996. We came very close to win third Test match at Johannesburg when South Africa struggled for a draw chasing 356 to win, they were at 228/8 at the end of last day. Another opportunity soon came in Bridgetown Test match against West Indies in 1997 when chasing 120 to win we were bowled out at 81. This loss still hurts. 

Things changed once Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman established themselves as world class batsmen and we started winning matches abroad but before that we had a terrible series loss in 1999-00 BGT in Australia. We lost all the matches in 3 Test match series and all matches were one sided except the first match at Adelaide. Captain Sachin was the lone warrior with occasional contributions from Sourav and Laxman. Kumble scored more runs than Rahul Dravid. Sachin's team was a poor batting team and this was the first tour of Sourav, Dravid and Laxman. The Umpiring was pathetic and Sachin was wrongly given out at crucial time.

 

 

 

2000 was a crucial year for Indian Cricket. The match fixing scandal, ouster of some senior players and captaincy of dynamic Sourav changed Indian Cricket forever. We reached World Champions Trophy Final in 2000 first major final since Hero Cup Final in 1993. We have a formidable batting line up and an above average bowling unit.

 

The Final Frontier as Steve Waugh called 2001 series was the series that revolutionized our Test Cricket and it gave a new dimension to India - Australia rivalry. Steve Waugh won 16th successive test matches and he was on the verge of winning 17th one at Eden Gardens but a Miracle happened. First Ganguly (48) and Laxman stitched a very significant 4th wicket partnership of 117 runs. It was followed by miraculous 5th wicket partnership of 376 runs between Dravid (180) and Laxman (281) and then another miracle happened on last day.

 

The Sehwag-Sachin-Dravid-Ganguly-Laxman combo saw us winning and drawing many test matches during the first decade of this century. This rivalry that started in 2001 series reached its pinnacle in 2003-04 series and India became the first team in many years to draw the series at Australia and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (started with lone test in 1996 in Delhi). The 2003-04 BGT series was the most important series between two teams full of super stars and coming almost 8 months after 2003 World Cup India-Australia final. Sourav in the very first match of the series played a Captain's knock of 144 (196) at Gabba, Brisbane. India was at one point of time 62/3 (with Sachin,Sehwag and Dravid out) and Sourav took us to 409 in response to Australia's 323. This inning galvanized our team and we drew the series 1-1. I still think we should have won Sydney Test. Our all batsmen (Sachin, Dravid, Sehwag, Laxman and Ganguly) performed really well. Kumble and Agarkar were bowling stars. Dravid won us famous Adelaide Test scoring a brilliant double century in first inning followed by a half century in second inning. Sehwag score brilliant 195 at Melbourne and Sachin 241 at Sydney. Laxman contributed in almost every match.

The 2007-08 BGT was also very exciting series though clouded by poor Umpiring or cheating by Australia. India should have won the Sydney Test and sealed the series but the Umpiring stole it from us and we lost the series by 2-1. Kumble was our Captain and he performed really well with batting and bowling. This was another great performance by Team India. Entire batting and bowling unit performed really well. This series was as good as 2003-04 if we ignore the first Test match Melbourne.

The 2011-12 BGT was another hyped series though we lost it miserably. We lost all the matches just like 2011-12. Our batting did not click neither our Captain MS Dhoni showed any spark. There was no inspiration any where. The Old Guard of Indian team failed miserably. I still don't understand how this super strong batting line succumbed like this.

 

 

 

The 2014-15 BGT was the last series under MS Dhoni. We played it hard and saw great performance from Indian side though we lost it 2-0. The two matches we lost were also very close. Virat Kohli emerged as a great Test batsman.

 

 

2018-19 (under Virat Kohli) and 2020-21 (under Ajikinya Rahane) BGT are our greatest Test achievements. We won both the series. Our entire batting/bowling unit were simply superb. We got heroes in Rahane, Shardul, Pujara, Pant, Ashwin, Vihari, Jadeja, Sundar, Bumrah, Shami etc. The way Rahane led India to amazing 2-1 victory in absence of Virat Kohli cant be described in words. Rahane had rookies like Shubhman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar etc and he made history. It was like an Indian B Team (devoid of star batsmen) winning against ever ferocious Australia in their own backyard.

 

This year i was under the impression that we would repeat the stuff of 2018-19 and 2020-21. Our team looked very strong on paper and we started really well with Bumrah firing on all cylinders and winning us Perth Test. The rejoining of terribly out of form Rohit Sharma had a negative impact on team lining up and we simply could not recover from Adelaide loss. Bumrah heroics and inspiring partnership between Washington Sundar and find of the series Nitish Reddy gave us solid chance to win the match. The last hour docile captaincy by Rohit Sharma on 4th day gave Australian last pair to solidify their position. Still 340 runs from 90 overs was a gettable target. The lack of intent shown by out of form Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and utterly irresponsible Rishabh Pant cost us this match. The heroics of Bumrah, Nitish, Sundar, Jaiswal and occasional brilliance of Siraj were spoiled by terrible Kohli, Sharma and Pant.

 

After following so many India - Australia series (1999-00, 2003-04, 2011-12, 2014-15, 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2024-25) i can say one thing with absolute confidence that these series are not just another series. They test the real leadership quality of captain. It does not matter how great you are as batsman or a bowler but if you don't have nerve and steel then you will sink your team in the great bay. Whenever our team succeeded in Australia it was mainly because of three factors - Batting line up, bowling line up and a good captain. If any one of the three is missing you cant win in Australia. It was Sourav who inspired India in 2003-04, Kumble in 2007-08, Kohli in 2018-19 and Rahane in 2020-21. This series our batting looked OK because of depth, our bowling looked great because of Goat Bumrah but we have a very under pressure and terribly out of form captain and because of that entire Team is paying the price. We need an inform player as our captain.

 

I really like the line from the movie 'Dark Knight' and i changed this line a bit:

 

'Either you retire a Hero or play long enough to see yourself turning into a Villain'. Its a high time for Kohli and Rohit to resign from International Cricket and perhaps Jadeja should also think about it.

Its a terrible way to say good bye to 2024. This year saw us winning T20 World Cup and Rohit played an amazing role in it. Both played amazing Cricket in 2023 World Cup. Its a good time to say good bye. Thank you Rohit and Virat for your amazing contributions to Indian Cricket and thanks for the amazing moments you both gave us in last 15 years or so.

Book Review [170] : Fooled By Randomness

I bought 'Fooled By Randomness' almost 8 years back from a shop in Bengaluru and it stayed in my bookshelf for those many years. This month i got a chance to read this book and i found it intriguing, confusing and radically important book in our chaotic world.

 

I found at times this book pretty boring and sometimes i felt that instead of giving 250 odd pages to it, the ideas could have been covered in less than 100 pages. The focal point of this book is about the role played by sheer random dice of fortune in our daily lives that we sometimes credit our skills and hard work. Nassim gives a large number of examples including the seminal example of infinite number of monkeys on infinite keyboards; there is a probability that some monkey will reproduce Iliad, Odyssey or even 'Fooled by randomness'. 

 

Another concept though very common is about 'Hindsight bias'. A mistake is not something to be determined after the fact, but in the light of the information until that point. Another linked concept is 'Survivorship bias' - We do not take account for losers in our sample size. The survivors path decide everything for make gurus though they might have been lucking in surviving.

 

In nutshell its a good book and should be read as it triggers good ideas in our brain. Sometimes or may be always its better to be a fooled by randomness. Sometimes it breaks the stalemate. In the end it is always a better practice to be a stoic and do not let randomness compromise your dignity.

 

Highly Recommended. 

Book Review [169] : Rework

'Rework' is a beautifully written work by Jason Fried and David Hansson. It's such a lovely read that you can finish it within couple of days if not in a day.

There are pretty good few lessons from this book.

Workaholics are not Heroes - It sounds pretty logical today, but I was kind of one 10 years back and I consider to be that even today. In my first job way back in 2005 I used to consider those people who leave office by 0630 PM as losers and mediocre and whose who burned midnight oil as actual geeks. This is pure poison and basically it kills good office culture. It should be avoided and this book underscores this point really well.

We should take responsibility of bad news and failures. We should not let the rumour mongers decide our response to failure.

Don't be a fake. No body likes plastic flower. Be natural and be spontaneous.

We need to know how far we can push some one. This is the thing I read few decades back from some Australian Cricket player when he talked about Steve Waugh leadership. He wrote that if Steve asks us to hit our head to the wall, we will do it without thinking twice. This is one of the most fundamental traits of a good leadership.

Perfect time never comes so don't defer your decisions waiting for that moment. Every decision made is a progress.

The single most important thing that is killing our productivity is interruption - Calls, Social Media etc. The one who can get long slot of free time can immensely improve one's productivity. 

Almost every point in this book is common sense and we all know about it but we hardly follow it. This book is about reworking on those points.

Highly Recommended (10/10)

Book Review [168] : The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant

I joined Hardoi on 14th July late evening and it took me close to three months to get things rolling and to create a kind of morning schedule. It rained quite a lot in Hardoi this monsoon and it stopped only in Sept.

I started with 'The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant' by Eric Jorgensen last week. Naval Ravikant has become a cult figure in modern techno pop culture and has been immensely popular and successful in different segments.

This book has been a refreshing read after a long time. Pithy book of ancient, medieval and modern wisdom packaged in a novel way. There is nothing new in this book but still it's a must read book for all of us specially for those who are in their mid thirties or forties. I am kind of an avid reader though I suffered kind of a lag in last half a decade mainly because of my demanding work engagements. This is my kind of a book. 

For the readers of this ancient blog I am putting here points that I like most:

• Reading/learning are the ultimate meta skill. One should never stop it.
• Distraction is a big killer and it makes your mind heavy and confused.
• Meditation every day is a must.
• Anger means loss of control over a situation and its suicidal.
• Work out every day is a must.
• One day should be kept free every week from mundane work.
• Inspiration is perishable. It should be acted upon immediately.
• Intentions do not matter, actions do.
• Become the best in the world at whatever you do. Keep refining yourself.
• World as hard as you can.
• Give more time on decision making.
• If you can't decide, then the answer is No.
• Criticise generally but praise specifically.
• Don't waste your time living some one else's life.

A highly recommended book (10/10).