Thumbs up/down in October

Starting this month, thought I will start a thumbs-up/down post listing out stuff I liked or disliked during the month, broadly classified mostly under these categories: photography/travel, books, movies, personal finance, others.

Hoping that the one line reviews / tips / recommendations would help a few.

For October, my thumbs-up list.

Photography / travel:

1. Picture this: How pictures work – wonderful book that tells you how to create engaging pictures using just simple shapes and colors
2. Sri Lanka Spice Jet fares (Chennai – Colombo round trip costs 3500INR)
3. Journey through Java – Mitchell Kanashevich’s ebook
4. Backpacking Ninja’s travelogue
5. Lonely Planet Thorn tree forum – any travel related question guys, this is the place to ask!
6. Forclaz 70 backpack from Decathlon – MRP is 3499, but member price is INR 2399. Register at Sportsforlife site to become a member. You will get a Decathlon membership free in 24 hours (For Bangalore guys). Use the membership to save money on your travel / sports related purchases. Don’t forget to buy me coffee, .
7. CAM completing one year

Personal finance:

1. Kingfisher American Express card benefits keeping for travellers esp (11k bonus miles, 3 upgrade vouchers, better points, etc. But costs 5k.)

Books:

1. Three cups of tea – great book on a man’s mission to promote peace one school at a time
2. Lonely planet Sri Lanka – has helped me a lot in planning my trip

Movies:

1. Cave of the yellow dog – brilliant Mongolian movie / documentary
2. Kite runner – another brilliant movie based in Afghanistan
3. Children of heaven – wonderful Iranian movie (Bum Bum Bhole is based on this story)
4. Touching the void – documentary of a climber’s true story of survival amidst odds in the Andes

My thumbs-down list

Travel / photography

1. Craft and Vision team pumping out too many ebooks / products every month
2. Nikon products availability in most stores in Bangalore
3. Travel related price rise for the approaching Nov/Dec season (Christmas/holiday/New Year/ etc have pushed prices up)

Personal finance:

1. ICICI Kingfisher World credit card : needs 1.5L salary per month for eligibility

Books:

1. Mylib, Bangalore. My lending library needs to add more books to its collection.

Movies:

1. Enthiran (Robot) – hugely disappointing. Dear Shankar, grandeur alone doesn’t make a movie click. Rajini was good, but not quite enough. Ash.. well… forget it.
2. Bangalore theatres that charge nothing less than Rs 300 per ticket

The family just got bigger

News!

My family just got bigger! The additions are a Mr Nikkor 10-24 and a Ms SB600.

Recently I decided to take my photography even more seriously. But photography skills are not sold on Adorama, Amazon or flipkart. They sell only equipment and books.

So I did the quickest and easiest thing I could. I bought new gear! Yay!

And, I have more coming my way soon, esp if my trip to the US happens (May)

• Manfrotto / Gitzo tripod – mostly a 055xProB with a 498RC2
• Nikon ML-L3
• Circular polarizer
• GND filter
• A telephoto length macro lens
• SU-800 commander
• Light meter
• 2nd speedlight
• misc stuff

Does it make me a better photographer? Nay! Its the same old baggage behind the camera… perhaps more confused now with more gear.

Now, to add more knowledge to handle this additional stuff, I have purchased a few books.

1. Light – science and magic by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver, Paul Fuqua
2. Photographer’s eye by Michael Freeman
3. The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes by Joe Mcnally
4. Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques by Harold Davis
5. few more from this list

I know there are those who don’t read books so as not to get influenced by other’s style… to maintain their individuality.. blah blah, I don’t give it a blink. As long as I improve my skills, I am fine.

Whether the gear and books will help me gain knowledge is another question. And whether the knowledge will help me gain better skills is yet another question. And whether the skills will help me take good photos is yet another question. I will conveniently not talk about them.. at least for now.

Now, before anyone bats an eyelid about the cost…

• yeah, its a big hole in my smallish pocket
• if I invest it somewhere and let it compound for many many years, my daughter will have a few lakhs more as her inheritance (will help her buy her Nikon stuff maybe). But hey, I would expect her to support herself fully beyond her higher education!
• I let all my personal finance learning over the years out of the window… and just let my heart follow a passion! You gotta break rules at times!
• opens up a lot of areas for me, which may (or may not) be a great help over the next few years
• I feel it is more of an investment than an expense (too nascent maybe)
• my savings is still in pink health (maybe its just me dreaming… )

For those that are inclined towards psychological explanations and behaviour patterns, there is a better explanation of such acts. Read more about it here.

PS: If you are a photography enthusiast, let me know what you are secretively planning for, to buy next! (And pray that your spouse doesn’t read about it)

Writing a book on Neilgherries

This has been a long long running thought.

To write a book on Neilgherries (called Nilgiris today).

Why?

• To satisfy the (poor?) writer in me
• I grew up there
• I love the place
• I want to tell the story of how wonderful it was 100-200 years back and how it is now
• I want to write something and can’t think of anything else
• I want to publish my own photographs of birds, animals and landscapes somewhere
• I want to dedicate something to my dad, and he will love my idea of a book on Nilgiris

Read the rest of this entry »

Books: Exchange, barter, borrrow

I just decided to open my bookshelf to all!

Please have a list of books that I have have.. 95% of them are original first hand copies. (I usually don’t buy pirated books, but once in a while, I agree, I do). The collection is not great, but most of them are fantastic books covering a range of topics like finance, management, personal development, etc. No fiction, I gave away almost all of my fiction collection a few years ago.

Now, if you are a book lover, you can either

• exchange these for books of yours
• just borrow my books free for a couple of weeks, with the promise that you will return it in same condition without damage (I hate guys who dog-ear books)
• exchange these books for anything that I am interested in, cds (esp documentaries), coins, stamps, whatever!!

Please click next at the bottom to see the other books.

Books an investor should read

“Which are the best books that any investor should read?”

Many people have this question.

I have attempted to answer that question in this post. I have read almost all the books listed here. But have included a few which I haven’t read too, because the reviews of those were very good and from very reliable sources. I have indicated the ones I haven’t read yet. Okay, here we go!

Basics
Any investor who has a strong hold on the basics is leaps and bounds ahead of the one who doesn’t. I would say every single book in this basic section is a must!

1. One up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch. An amazingly well written book, one of the best for both the novice and the expert.
2. The Intelligent investor by Benjamin Graham. The bible! Miss this and you can’t be an intelligent investor.
3. Common stocks and uncommon profits by Philip A Fisher. Great book on long term growth and focus oriented investing
4. The essays of Warren Buffett. The master at his very best!
5. The interpretation of financial statements by Benjamin Graham. A simple book on balance sheet basics.
6. Richest man in Babylon by George Clason. A timeless classic on personal finance.

Further reading
Once you have completed the basic books and are thirsty for more, please choose from this list. Read the rest of this entry »