Mary Buffett, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs

Mary Buffett is the ex-daughter-in-law of Warren Buffett who has perfected the art of writing books about the craft of investing the Warren Buffett way. I think after the initial few books, her homework disappoints. Ever since her first book "Buffetology", I have been reading every book of hers invariably co-authored with David Clark. In the last few years, the pace of her writing has become hecti...c as she is turning this out into a Buffett franchise that should take care of her retirement planning. Warren Buffett - is the usual prefix - what follows are sub-titles like "management secrets", "the art of stock arbitrage", "the interpretation of financial statements", and now the latest "stock portfolio". I dont think she is able to add new stuff than her previous books in the new one which analyses for the nth time how to value GEICO or Coke or Washington Post and at what prices Buffett picked up. The trouble is when you run of the filial proximity to the Buffett family and the intellectual steam that used to oil the mathematical workings that underpinned her unveiling of the "secret" of a billion-dollar investment, you realise it is time to stop buying her books. You are better off following Warren Buffett's op-ed articles in NYT or his Annual Report letters (coming up in April again) or his occasional interviews in Fortune, Bloomberg (like the last article on Gold just a few days back). Its time Mary Buffett stops fooling the public with old hat knowledge. Her finest hour came with the Buffetology workbook and maybe those two books on Stock Arbitrage and Interpreting Financial Statements.


Talking about the franchisees - thats a whole new world - a sole preserve of American writers. My experience is that the publishers will churn out these titles on a binge until colossal failure greets them. Like "Rich Dad/Poor Dad" series or Donald Trump's "How To..." or those books by Jeffrey Fox or Ken Fisher. I am strictly limiting the references to books on finance and investing/real estate etc. Look at the heap of books that have come up within a month of Steve Jobs' passing. I found Walter Isaacson's bio the best biography but soon followed other rival reporters and greedy publishers - you have books promising more of Steve's "little kingdom" and I-quotes and other I-conic trivia. The franchisee builds to a crescendo then drops to a tedium faster than a S-curve. A great deal goes without quality checks - and one should discern well before picking such books. My threshold for picking such books is quite high - hence I usually learn the hard way after burning deep in my pockets.

Vara Mullapudi s/o Mullapudi Venkata Ramana

Vara Mullapudi s/o late Mullapudi Venkata Ramana garu best friend of Bapu garu is an ace director who is about to taste big time success. He has learnt all the tricks of trade in directing from Bapu uncle and on scipt-writing and welding language from his father. He is a versatile talent - a dubbing artiste (remember that rich baritone in "ఐతే" (as Inspector Sivaji)), a story-writer ("మర్యాద రామన...్న"), a narrator ("కోతి కొమ్మచి"). He binges on movies and is a mightier reader than even Bapu garu. I am attaching a link of an article he shared with me sometime back. This piece was written in memorium of his father's lasting friendship with Bapu garu. You can read it from this online link in a Telugu magazine brought out by NRIs. I told him if ever he is tired of films, he should take up writing as a full-time career like his legendary dad - Vara's prose has the same verve, variety, panache, self-deprecation, humility, humour and warm innocence that Telugu readers know about his father. Mullapudi name lives on in the household and will rule the Telugu hearts. If you don't know Telugu, I apologise - but this piece is the best eulogy written by a son for his father. It celebrates the friendship of Bapu-Ramana and also brings out the humanity of Vara's father in a subtle way. It is delicate, delicious, and heart-warmingly good - like having a nice hot and spicy Andhra meal. తెలుగోడీ సత్తా సరుకు అంతా ఇందులో ఉంది. ముళ్ళపూడి భాష పదును పన్చ్ స్పష్టంగా ఉన్నాయి.


http://www.eemaata.com/em/library/tana-2011/1761.html?fmt=rts

12 Angry Men Movie

"12 Angry Men" is voted one of the top 10 films on imdb. I saw this film at a workshop on Negotiation strategies many years ago. One helluva movie. Black and White but worth its reel in gold. Henry Fonda produced and acted in this 1957 movie directed by Sidney Lumet. Good to see the movie again with dad today- who likes movies with judicial largeness.


Its a wonderful story of how a jury has yet ...to decide on a first degree murder charge of a middle-aged man by his 18 year old son. Twelve men must decide, collectively and unanimously, whether the major son is guilty of the charge of murder or not. The jury is locked up in one room the entire duration of this exercise - it starts with 11 men saying "guilty" and one (Henry Fonda) saying "not guilty". And then the magic of negotiation begins with Henry Fonda disarming the rest of the jury with facts, cold facts, and dexterous reasoning and credible leadership skills. I got the film DVD through flipkart and unabashedly recommend it to connoisseurs of good cinema. Screenplay by Reginald Rose is fiery and clinical at the same time. It remains a riveting courtroom drama that you would ever see - a non pareil in that genre. Of course, Sidney Lumet, who is born into the performing arts went to give many other acclaimed movies - "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network" and "Ther Verdict" (as recently in 1982). Patrons of Art Cinema in Hindi would recall the same movie was the inspiration for the movie "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla".

When stock markets go up

When stock markets go up, we are skeptical. When they go down, we are pessimistic. We are never optimistic about the market but it moves on until one day you realise the risk is not what you imagined but being out of markets. This is an inexorable law!

Today is World No-Google Day

I was accidentally googling something and found out that the World Teacher's Day is Oct.5, not Sept.5 as celebrated in India. World Children's Day is celebrated on Oct.20 and not on Nov.14 (as in India). It appears Indians are poor at marketing themselves in areas where there is an opportunity. On the other hand, a Valentine's Day or a Halloweens or a Mother's Day or Father's Day and even such day...s as today - World Cancer Day are celebrated without questioning. Mothers Day and Fathers Day should be celebrated everyday - and doesnt just apply to NRIs who dont even visit their parents once an year. Incidentally, World Book Day or World Reading Day, if I get it right, is celebrated on William Shakespeare's Day on April 23. I dont know if it helps in improving reading habits - does it mean you can read once a year and then you are done with it for the next 365 days? Anyways, the point is clear: Indians are pathetic at marketing their own icons of Peace/Children/Teachers/Art(like Tagore)/Love(Mother Theresa)/Science(CV Raman) to the world outside. Incidentally, my wife's favorite day of the year is 7th March - World Mathematics Day - because she is a mathematician! And thats not the birthday of Srinivas Ramujam either! Jocularly, some Indians dont know what to do on a Father's Day too! An ill-informed friend of mine, years back, bet on a Rs.500 that Father's Day means October 2nd - because thats the birthday of the father of the nation!

Books about Pakistan

Pakistan is one country that never ceases to interest Indians especially those born around partition time like my father. So, it has always been my duty to quench his voracious reading appetite on books about Politicians and generals in Pakistan. He has read every book written about/by Jinnah, Bhutto, Musharaff. This somehow kindles a Hitchcockian interest in him - to read about Pakistan. So, you... can understand the glimmer of curiosity in him to read about Imran Khan by the cricketer himself.


"Pakistan - A Personal History" is a good book written to canvass himself (Imran Khan) to a nation torn asunder. Its a well-written book and Imran Khan deserves like every crooked politician a fair chance at the government. What is amazing to me is that the book delves more into his personal life through boyhood days to cricket and cancer and his many marriages and suddenly shifts gears into a political commentary on the state of affairs of Pakistan for the last 15 years which is as interesting as India. A cricket all-rounder cannot have such a masterly pavillion's view of politics in his own country especially when he has distanced himself from his country for so long until the recent past. Which is why, when we read that book "Pakistan: A Personal History" it turned out we read the same stuff somewhere. We found the answer alarmingly as a sidenote after the last page: "I have referred MJ Akbar's book "Tinderbox: A History of Pakistan" in writing this book". It turned out he has copied copiously from the book - to draw from MJ Akbar's magesterial sweep of history about Pakistan.

But his views on TV are a bit idealistic and sound familiar to those early halycon days of Bhutto, Benazir, Musharaff. In an interview with Rahul N of Headlines Today, he was impressive about Pakistan but bewildered about Kashmir, India and the policy that would shape Pakistan's relationship with India, and most of all, an unpardonable ignorance about Pakistan's anti-India terror camps. He is talking about "engaging" with such camps to bring a political solution. No wonder, even the US is wary about Imran Khan's rhetoric. He used to go after the Indian batsmen those days, now he is going after the Indian media nowadays and using it rather cleverly well. Whatever be his naivette and silly utterances, the youth of Pakistan are rallying behind him. I hope he succeeds in democratising, de-militarising Pakistan more so that it ceases to disturb India.

The last time I read a book about an aspiring politician from a celebrity sportsman background was "Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov. That was a joy and a celebration of life from History's greatest Chess Player with little references to politics and plenty of lessons. Reading Imran Khan is a bit more painful, and boring at times - like a political manifesto.

Why I love The Hindu

Thoroughly impressed by "The Hindu's aggressive ads in paper and TV taking on the likes of "The Times of India". The ad aims to take a direct potshot at Times of India - for feeding readers with mindless drivel on pageants and gossips and page-3 profiles and not giving them stuff thats relevant, useful or rooted in Indian heritage. During my journalism college days, we had an ebullient editor one Mr Jagadeesan who was holding out "The Hindu" newspaper and pointed out everything they do right editorially (though may not always have the content you like to see). The quality of reporting, the neutral stands on most mattters, the vibrant letters page, the many supplements that only keep getting added everyday of the week, the way the stories on page 1 are laid out - no story has a "runner" (like, say, turn to page 12 for more and so on), uncluttered reportage and layout, fonts that keep changing with the times (pun unintended), emphasis on developmental journalism and narrative panache, the group that brought out Businessline - my favorite business newspaper.


Mr Jagadeesan was right in 1992 - there will be no interference by Advterising Divion into editorial matters and there is almost always a "Kaizen" of sorts happening - continuous improvements in printing quality, supplements, new insights, features like "Reader's Editor", "Literary Review", "Cinema Plus", etc. Of course some legendary analysts like KK Katyal or GK Reddy are not there anymore but the paper never compromised on ethics. The staffers still get humble but inflation-adjusted paypackets, the ladies get a Kancheevaram saree every Diwali and the gents get a Pattu Pancha. Every employee of "The Hindu" group gets lifetime subscripiton of the newspaper besides Sportstar, Frontline etc.

Way back in 1978 itself, when it completed 100 years of existence, the newspaper was voted as one of the six great newspapers of the world on line with the likes of Manchester Guardian, La Monde, Times London, and New York Times. Amongst the initial bunch of pre-1900 newspapers which grew from strength to strength - "The Hindu" alone has created a respectable tag for its stories, reporting and associate publications. Not "The Statesman" (which shrank after CR Irani and SK Datta Ray), not the ToI as they have commercialised news, legalised page 3 as another celebrity league, and vandalised local news into coteries serving different interests. Of course, "Hindu's family feuds even though a strict Iyengar secret keeps getting out into the open and gives some salicious salvation to newbies like "the Mint" to comment on their goings-on. The newspaper is also disliked by many for it's haughty views on the Sri Lankan issue, BJP, communist shortcomings, secularism and love-hate relationship with the politicians in Tamil Nadu but the paper is very clear for what it wants its readers to notice it for - conservative but egalitarian. It is in that sense very Nehruvian in its views - Nehru always believed that the ruling majority must encourage and respect the minorities else the minorities can feel threatened to air their views or assert their cultures otherwise. "The Hindu" follows this in publications - they may not appease the "Hindus" but they never isolate the "minorities". Ethics wise also, they deserve a pat. Who else but "The Hindu" could have sacked the great cricket journalist - R.Mohan. It is interesting how the Times will respond to the changing times.