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Books

26
December

Good Vocabulary - For A Better Thinking

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

I have always admired the Anchors in BBC and CNN from my childhood days for two important reasons.

1.Their command in the English Language. Ease of use and Fluency.
2. Vocabulary rich Language they use.

The amount of words we learn every day is like a bell curve. In the early age during the school days we learn new words every day and after a particular saturation point we just abruptly stop this activity. The curve then falls down and me you will also just admire other people for their vocabulary rich conversation. One point I would like to stress here, by saying Vocabulary Rich I am not mentioning using Verbose language, but using the apt words in the places though they are simple words the proper usage makes it more powerful.

Reading and Listening are the two activities which I forgot. These are the two important activities which will make the bell curve go up and down like a Sensex Graph. If you read and listen regularly then you are like a bull market else you will be a bear market.

So to start with, I was not able to read any novels or an Editorial of a newspaper,as I had to refer the dictionary at least thrice to read a paragraph. So I was struggling to cultivate the reading habit as well as to improve the vocabulary.

Then one of my friend suggested the following books to start with, so that we will learn some important most widely used in English in a better way rather than just memorizing the word meanings.
1. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis
2. 30 Days to a Better English

Reading the above two books properly will arm you with at least 500 to 800 New words. Which will give you an edge to start with reading. These two books present every word in a easy way to us and make us enjoy the words. After reading these two books my appetite to new words has increased, and I am on a constant search everywhere to learn new words.

So if you are by any chance sticking in the bell curve you can start with these two books and prosper like the Indian Equity Market :)


Category : Books | Reviews | Blog
10
May

Back to Basics

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

I think many of my friends out there who spent time with me in group studies will never forget this Big book which we had in our engineering syllabus. When I read this book in my sophomore days it imparted a very little knowledge to me.

We always gave importance to C, C++ and finally the Lingua Franca JAVA. Our talent was judged based on how well one can code in any one of the above with importance in the given order. Here in these we write the code, see the results pat ourselves on our success. So this was the best part of our engineering syllabus.

Then came the concepts that had a second round of importance Theoretical Computer Series - Advanced Data Structures, Algorithm Analysis, Theory of computation and Discrete Mathematics. If one explains these concepts well he would be called as a technical Buff. They were considered amongst us as the one who will be giving the next generation of new algorithms and new Languages.

Next , “It’s already done. We need to know the concepts alone – series” - Database Management Concepts, System Software and Operating Systems. These were only improve our knowledge on the computer field, but since we did not try any thing to implement in this more than a Cross compiler which I did as my placement project.

Finally, Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing series – The ultimate abstract concepts where we enjoyed sometimes by laughing at Turing tests and cried sometimes at evaluations in NLP.

But now, in the four grouping I gave, I am working with the third one. I am not working with C, C++ or Java. Rather I am not writing any algorithms. My last algorithm which I wrote was for my Fractal Image Compression using Fractal dimension. This has been selected in one of the International journals, will soon give the info once it is published.

I am not in Powerset to give some AI or NLP solutions. Now I work with database, database and database only. I try to write good number of Sqls and PL/SQL statement every day.

But after working with database almost a year made me read this Database concepts book. Lots of insights I had. So many concepts now are so clear to me. Right from Relational Algebra & Query Evaluation to Transaction & Concurrency control every thing strikes clear to me. The Edgar Codds 12 rules had been my favorite and still remain the same.

I am feeling better after having one revision on my basic study material. You may also give it a try :)

Category : Books | Blog
23
March

An impetus for Change – "Thank God its Friday"

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

I used to feel exasperated because of work sometimes and would be eagerly waiting Friday evenings, so that I can take a break. I relax for the weekend and would start the cycle again. Job for me, used to be a 9 – 10 hour slot of weekdays and most of the times it stretches more than that till 15 or 16 hours when the situation demands. I have felt stress because of this extra strain and would feel like running away from this. But most of the programmers would face the same pressure when deadlines demand.

Fish, by Stephen Ludin & Co is a must read for people who feel sick to work, lost energy to engage or passion for performance in work.The authors have paralleled a famous fish market (Pike Place Fish Market) and a financial corporation on the factors of energy, enthusiasm, passion and attitude to work.

They elaborate on how a notorious department known for its indolence in work into the most productive department of the company. He explains how we can make people work and make them understand how we can also enjoy work. This gives a new perspective to work – Work with fun and enjoy work.

Category : Books | Blog
12
March

A Tribute to Sheldon

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

Amidst the world cup exhilaration and the pandemonium due to the rampant inflation and stock market fall I missed to make a post on this. This should have been posted a month ago, but better late than never.
I never had the habit of reading until my sophomore days. Even I was one among the crowd who used to comment others for their reading habits as bookworms and bibliophiles. I was annoyed many a times when my friends used to sit with bulky novels which were authored by some weird names. But ingenuously speaking it was the fear of English which withheld me from reading those novels.
Once I had a bet with my friend Gopal, on reading the ‘Master of The Game’, written by Sidney Sheldon. The bet was to complete the book. Though I had the fear of verbose language in it, I was determined to read that, due to the bet. I completed the book in four days. But that did not stop me; I read all his 18 books in the next six months.
After I started reading novels, the next thing was critics and comments on various authors. For Sidney Sheldon there were loads of criticism among some of my friends that his works are too much feministic, sensual and simple. But for me though it was like that, his English was not too verbose and also at the same time not slipshod. You don’t have to master a dictionary to follow what he wrote.
He had no profound philosophy to promote. He wrote about lives of people, mostly ordinary - their highs and lows, their kindness and meanness, dreams and disappointments. I have seen many of the college girls religiously reading Sheldon’s novels, because most women felt they were their own stories. He had many bestsellers in his kitty though they were not approved by critics. He did not bother for critics; He was bothered only on readers. “The Naked Face” – Sheldon’s first novel which was scorned by book reviewers sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel found a mass market in paperback, reportedly selling 3.1 million.
I consider “The Master of the Game” as his Magnum opus, not since I read that as my first book, it was an excellent narration for six generations. I would rank his works in the following order.

  1. Master of the Game
  2. If Tomorrow Comes
  3. Bloodline
  4. Rage of Angels
  5. Morning, Noon and Night
  6. The Naked Face
  7. A Stranger in the Mirror
  8. The Best Laid Plans
  9. Tell Me Your Dreams
  10. Windmills of the Gods
  11. The Sands of Time
  12. The Doomsday Conspiracy
  13. The Stars Shine Down
  14. Nothing Lasts Forever
  15. The Sky is Falling
  16. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
  17. The Other Side of Midnight
  18. Memories of Midnight

Sheldon once quoted that - I try to write my books so the reader can’t put them down. I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It’s the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial : leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter.

Today I am reading 2 to 3 books every month; this habit has to be attributed to this master story teller, who may not have taught me moral thoughts but had induced a vigorous reading habit in me. He has implanted a habit in me.
I eulogize for him today as one among the millions of Sheldon readers, we miss you!
Category : Books | Blog
9
March

Financial Literacy = Financial Independence

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

Keeping this big idea in mind Robert. T. Kiyosoki has wonderfully crafted his book Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book is worth reading to have a change in an individual’s financial outlook. The mention of Robert Frost Lines on

Two roads diverged in a wood,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost, from ‘The Road Not Taken’

holds good not only for the idea he has conveyed but also to Kiyosaki’s new way in delivering a financial guideline.

You can also give a try , since I could sense a lot of change in me after reading the book.

Category : Books | Reviews | Blog
5
March

The World Is Flat …Do You Accept This ?

Posted by Hariharan Ragunathan (0) Comment

Thomas .L Friedman,in his book World is Flat , has lucidly described the most important phase of LPG - The Globalization. The classification of globalization into three periods based on Country, Company and Individual was one thing to be noted.

The catchy lines on description about the call-centers ,Outsourcing and software companies in bangalore , made me re-read it umpteen times. Though the main reason behind reading it numerous times was, I also belong to the same Crowd :)

This is a must to read , for Software Professionals working in Indian IT companies.

Category : Books | Reviews | Blog


 HARIHARAN RAGUNATHAN
 Hyderabad, India


This is a place to express my opinions on things which I stumble on in my day to day life. The views which I have expressed are my own opinions and not meant to disparage anything or any one.