Mark Zuckerberg posts a public challenge/goal for himself at the beginning of every year and in 2015 it was to read a new book every two weeks. “Power no longer buys as much as it did in the past. In the 21st century, power is easy to get, harder to use - and easy to lose.

“Introduction to Data Mining” by Pang-Ning Tan, Michael Steinbach and Vipin Kumar has been recommended to me as a great book to learn about Data Mining. Read the first chapter and it felt very inspiring as though it was beckoning me to keep at it and read more. Thought I will capture notes as I read.

There are many books that when I think back on them, I have this lingering feeling that either due to reading quickly or not taking notes, I didn’t really take in the full essence of the book. There is more to be understood and when there is time, I need to get back to it.

Amir Aczel’s “Fermat’s Last Theorem” begins with this amazing quote by Andrew Wiles. Yes ! he is the one .. the mathematician who solved the most famous unsolvable problem in the history of Mathematics . Over a span of 3 centuries, thousands of brilliant and hardworking men and women were at it.

6/17 It was Krishna’s wedding. Krishna, my closest pal during childhood; my first best friend (first best friend !! does that sound strange ? well ! at different times in life I had different best friends. Guys with whom I had nothing to hide and who hid nothing from me.

The story starts with Makar , an aged gypsy conversing with the author. It is dark , the wind is heavy , the campfire is blazing furiously ..yet Makar , smoking his huge pipe , was unfazed. It was as though these heavy conditions never affected him.(reminds me of Vikram-Betal stories of chandamama !

The “The Kings General” is unlike any novel that I’ve read. It’s as pacy as a modern day thriller. Reminds me of “Gone with the wind” though. It is about Richard Grenvile, the king’s General in the west, the bravest amongst the brave, the lion of the times, the king’s darling, the rebels’ dread and about the only woman in the world he cared for : Honor Harris – a beautiful lady who was crippled just a day before their marriage in a tragic accident.