Review: Simply Fly - Captain Gopinath

Simply Fly by G.R. Gopinath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Captain Gopinath is Indian version of Richard Branson. Like Branson, Captain set up many business and sold it when he find the another idea to pursue.He is living his life to fullest and his autobiography "Simply Fly" records everything in detail. He has done everything, a man can dream of doing in his life time.

Captain Gopinath had very humble beginning, born in a village later studied in sainik school. After completing NDA, he starts series of ventures starting from
fighting in Bangla liberation war,
Left army with 6000+ cash in hand
Converted forest land to fertile agricultural land
Become role model for farmers by turning agricultural venture to profit
Won prestigious award for agricultural improvements
Run bike dealership and gave to one of his employee
Tried his hand in Udupi hotel
Immersed himself in Agriculture Consultancy
Started helicopter company
Later took a leap in to low cost airlines.

One thing about Captain Gopinath which stood out from other successful people is, His strength to improve and adaptability.He is completely different from his family background where most of them are Government job holders. He started most of his business with very low capital, most of the capital he borrowed. He had the dedication to finish the task and courage to return the loan. Captain participated in Bangladesh liberation war and contributed his part in winning but Politics is the only ground where captain never able to taste success.

A must read for Indian Entrepreneurs as Captain Gopinath explained his detailed journey in "Simply Fly". Starting from
1. His struggle to get power connection to his land
2. Getting bank loan when his land not generating any profits
3. Struggle to get permission for running helicopter company in detail.(took more than 2 years)
4. Ups and downs of running helicopter and low cost airlines
5. How to scale your business. As operations scaled, captain hired international level experience people to run the operations. This is very important step in business. As operations scaled up, most of the cases cofounders can't deliver  as situation demands

Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey : Buy Now
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Watch Captain Gopinath in Kannada show Weekend with Ramesh

Review: Prabhakaran: The Story of his struggle for Eelam

Prabhakaran: The Story of his struggle for Eelam by Chellamuthu Kuppusamy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars






With curiosity to know how Prabhakaran built an army and ruled part of the country, I started to read "Prabhakaran: The Story of his struggle for Eelam" book. While reading this book, Went through lot of emotions . Even though I felt book is bit biased towards Tamils, "Prabhakaran: The Story of his struggle for Eelam" throw light to Sri Lanka struggle from the start.

As LTTE completely destroyed in 2008, I was in dilemma, Is LTTE Soldiers/Prabhakaran lives are waste? I think no, Only because of their fight whole world came to know the injustice Tamil people facing in their own land. Because of their fight, Sri Lanka government came down to peace talks with negotiation like separate state for Tamil. If there is any slight improvement in living standards of Tamil or the way Sri Lanka government treat tamil people, credit goes to sacrifice of Tamil fighters.

Re-learnt important lessons of life in LTTE journey, listed below.
1. Don't depend on anyone, you have to fight your war.
2. Non Violence is not the only solution exists, Sri Lanka government invited Tamil delegates to peace talks only after LTTE/Armed forces come in to seen.
3. No one help/support you without their benefit like Indira supported LTTE
4. However strong you are, you can't simply win against locals easily(IPKF)
5. Winning others trust is no big deal, having unity among us for long time is big deal.
6. Irrespective Whatever religion people belongs, nobody follow their religion. Humans are just driven by common features like anger, group-ism and unsecured.

I expected author will showcase the situation of Tamils Post LTTE era.
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