Book Review : Private India

"Private India " is co authored by  Ashwin Sanghi and James Patterson. Sanghi has previously authored  best sellers like Chanakya’s Chant and Krishna Key. In this book he has partnered with America’s mystery-teller.

I havent read any of the author's work earlier.Looking at their profiles , I started reading this book with "great expectations". The story begins with a good suspense and is plotted in the city of Mumbai

A series of murders seemingly linked to each other come out and the investigation is with private investigators. The head of "Private India" is the chief investigator and he has an international boss.Private India is portrayed to have a rock solid investigation team with "state of the art "  investigation aids and unlimited brilliance.

The  thematic series of murders when being investigated makes you suspect almost all the characters that are introduced and the suspense is maintained throughout the end.

With such a story line, did the book keep me interested?  my answer is no. Because, the theme of the murders is not so strongly explained and is also diluted with another sub plot of "terrorism".

Adding too many twists, too many suspects and trying to link a lot of events and personalities unsuccessfully makes the book a bit of a "Drag".

The authors also keep highlighting the "sad past"  of the investigators, which do not draw a connect to the storyline till the end . ( or atleast, I couldnt figure out the connect of their background and the storyline. Possibly, they are connected to the sequel or the prequel?).

Some excerpts from the book which I found was interesting-

Having located The Nine Durga Avatars of Hinduisim , they sat down at an illuminated desk.

The mother goddess - Durga- has three basic forms and each of these has three manifestations thus resulting in a total of nine avatars. Each night of nine day festival of  Navratri is dedicated to one of the nine avatars.

....and found the chapter that described the first avatar of Durga. She was known by the name Shailputri.

......"The name Kushmanda is derived from two seperate sanskrit words"..Kushma which means warmth and anda which refers to the cosmic egg. So kushmanda is considered to be the creator of egg- shaped universe."

"The name Chandra ghanta is a combination of two words- chandra and ghantha. ..The night of the murder as per the almanac was a half-moon night. The half-moon is also a symbolic representation of  a bell.

....The Eighth avatar was mahagauri, depcited with a fair complexion and holding a drum.Finally, the ninth incarnation - known as Sidhdhidatri- was shown with four arms holding a discus, a mace, a conch , and a lotus"

If you want to find out more about the avatars and the murders that are depicted in the book, you may pick up a copy of  the book. But don't blame me for any disappointments as I hope I have forewarned you enough  of what to expect from the book.

Verdict :- "Two" many cooks , spoil the book.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Bundle of contradictory investment advise - Equity or PPF or FD?? :-)

Self explanatory ( with my notes :-) ) snippet from a newspaper.

EMI on debit cards, Don't fall into this trap!

The following article talks about  EMI option on your debit card for purchasing a TV.

1. You can use your Debit card to purchase a TV.

2. For this, You need to have an FD with the bank which  pays you around 9%

2. You can  borrow from the bank up-to 90% of the FD for the TV purchase - paying an interest of around 13%

Your money is with the bank for which you earn 9% and bank lends it back to you for 4% more. why should someone avail this facility at all. To make the bank rich???

If at all you are desperate to get the TV, break your FD and go buy that "damn" TV.

If you want to buy a LED TV in the next two months, you could save for it, flash your credit card or use the zero-interest option. But if the TV is a Samsung one and your banker is ICICI Bank, you could also use your debit card and pay through equated monthly instalments (EMIs). At 13 per cent a year, the interest rate on reducing balance is substantially lower than a credit card's 36-45 per cent a year, as well as 15-25 per cent for personal loans.

However, you should have a fixed deposit with the bank and only 90 per cent of the deposit amount will be lent to you for a purchase (to buy an LED TV worth Rs 50,000, you should have a fixed deposit of Rs 55,556). Also, currently, the facility is only for Samsung products.

Since the fixed deposit will earn interest at nine per cent for 390 days, the effective rate of interest on EMIs is five per cent annualised (13-8 per cent). You will continue to earn interest on the fixed deposit. Also, as interest is on reducing balance, the net outgo will be less every month, says Suresh Sadagopan, founder Ladder7 Financial Advisors. full article

Personal finance blogs- new finds this week

I discovered  a few  good personal finance blogs and posts , which I though should share through a post.

The good thing is that if some one is keen to learn about saving/investing , then the world of personal finance blogs has information in plenty. Of course, there can be information overload if you don't use your discretion as a reader.

Happy reading!

Value investor professor :- This post is a short auto-biography by professor. I happened to get the link to this page when I was browsing through another site.

A few other finds:-  Stable investor , Blog for personal finance calculators - Freefincal and another comprehensive site on personal finance.

Heights of poor service #Kun hyundai adyar car service

We all longed for privatization when government was running all the businesses a couple of decades ago. While privatization bought about a relief and seemingly increase in quality of service, the ultimate truth seems to be different for me. Either it be banking,telecom or any other service, until things go wrong with theservices, it is a great going. But when things are not ok and you complain, the response to grievances from the so called big business houses seem to be pathetic.Here's one such example

I had given my car for service to Kun Hyundai at Adyar sometime last year. When the car was returned to me after service at my residence, the floor of the car was so unclean and I immediately complained. They apologized, asked to me send the car for cleaning and then I had to sacrifice using my car for a day for their mistake.

I did the biggest mistake of the year in the beginning of this year. I gave my car for service to the same folks again. When my car came back, the mats were filled with mud ( as though, it was delivered straight from a beach trip). When I complained, usual apology and the trip of the car to their workshop followed ( at the cost of my petrol and myself using an alternate mode of transport for another day). 

When the car was delivered back to me, the interiors were dirtier than earlier. I was annoyed, asked them to refund my money and wrote a strong mail to every email address of Hyundai ( including the Korean expat CMD). After 30 minutes of my mail, the service manager was at my doorstep. He was full of regret ( "acting", as I realised later), offered to clean my car and also promised that in one month , He will get my car serviced for free. He did all this to take a signature on a feedback form stating that I was satisfied with the service.

When a basic cleaning which is part of the service is not done properly, how can I trust the list of other activities that they claim in the bill to have been complete ( example, Engine oil change, etc)

Six months have gone by, time for car service again.! I didn't hear back from the service manager later. The promise was just to get off with my complaint at that point of time.:-)

Long live the service of such great organizations. 

I write this post to let the world be aware of the wonderful service that I received and to encourage people to complain whenever they are cheated.!