Night Fall - by Nelson DeMille

What is common between Captain Jack Sparrow and John Corey? Both are the main protagonists of a form of fiction. Both are raunchy, sarcastic with a wonderful sense of humor. And both mouth wonderful one-liners.

‘Night Fall’ is a thriller written by Nelson DeMille that stars John Corey. This book has been in existence for a while now but I got my hands on it quite recently. At the outset, this book looks menacing, running close to 600 pages. But once you start delving into the story; the dialogues, the punch lines and the humor engulf you. Some of you may even curse the author for not making it bulkier.

This is a typical western thriller set around an ex-NYPD detective and his wife who go about investigating a plane crash that took place five years earlier. Though the official reason for the crash was documented as a mechanical failure and the case was closed, Corey has reasons sufficient and powerful enough to believe otherwise. Even coping up with numerous forms of political pressures and non-cooperative bosses, he struggles to get his hands on a piece of evidence which would help justice prevail.

The plot, in itself, is neither novel nor captivating. I mean, seriously, how many hundreds of books have been written on the above lines? Writers like Frederick Forsyth and Robert Ludlum must have written at least fifty books between them, with not very different plots.

Then, what makes this book different?

‘Night Fall’ does not have the serious tone akin to the other books of the same genre. At times, the grim tale is narrated to the point of being frivolous. Quite often, the reader is distracted to forget the main plot of the book and he ends up enjoying the humor in the previous event. The plot, in itself, is wafer thin and about a hundred questions are left unanswered. The ending could have been much better and more conclusive. It seems that DeMille suddenly ran out of both steam and ideas to bring the book to a more logical and justice-always-prevails ending.

The character of John Corey stays with you even after you have finished off the book. His witty one-liners and ‘pissing matches’ (as the author calls them) with his bosses and colleagues, not to mention his wife, are charming, to say the least. Just to give you an idea –

(John Corey is to go to Yemen on a special assignment)
Lady Lawyer: Who do you want to have the power of attorney?
John Corey: Who did Elvis Presley use?
Lady Lawyer: How about your wife?
John Corey: You mean if I am missing or kidnapped, my wife will have access to my checkbook, savings account, credit cards and my salary?
Lady Lawyer: That’s right.
John Corey: What if I show up a year later and find out I am broke?
(The lady lawyer laughs)

Go for this book if all you need is a good and entertaining read. Go for this book if even a lack of a strong and concrete plot does not bother you much. However, if you are also a serious reader like me and want a more profound and satisfying read, there are many better ones to choose from.

Nuc Venture - A Perfect Venture - Part 2

First Day

After a short (and a little boring) talk by the organizers, people started checking into their pre allocated tents when Mr. Bechara Lal (name changed again to protect the identity of the individual) found that his tent was already occupied by some Australians (non – Nucleites). Mr. Lal was with his wife and 10 months’ kid and they had to wait under a tree for 2 hrs till they could finally settle. Nobody got to know what the actual problem was all about but the Lals had to face a considerable discomfort. Problems like this are bound to arise in situations like this but probably Nucleus needed to organize the show better and have a contingency plan in place.

Afternoon saw half of the campers with their boots, goggles and digicams set out towards a distantly visible mountain peak for trekking. Wait! Did I say trekking? Trekking involves mountain climbing, it required ropes, it needs considerable athleticism and above all it is adventurous and fun, isn’t it? Well, that is what around 80% of the people (who were first time campers like me) thought. But TREKKING turned out to be mundane, going half of the distance in a bus and the rest trudging along winding pathways. No doubt, the path was sloping up but we were not climbing, just walking. We were exhausted, legs ached and sweat dripped. Children were unable to keep up and their parents were unable to carry them. The show was a complete flop and everybody was bitter about it later. Aren’t there better things to do rather than walking for 3 km and back? Doesn’t Nucleus need to check this before? We had a little talk with the external trip organizer, Mr. Bala (original identity retained) about it. Aren’t there better areas around to trek? Yes, he said. Then why the hell did he choose this path? He said that the choice was not his. Nucleus had made all the decisions. We thought we would confront the Admin people about this later but later it was booze time and as you might have already guessed, the issue was closed – unresolved.


Second Day

The cream of the entire trip, the MAHA event, the time for which everyone had been talking from a couple of weeks – RAFTING. This was the best part of the entire trip for almost everybody. The day was ‘almost perfect’ but as the popular saying goes – ‘Perfections are never noticed, only imperfections are’. After a truly eventful and much enjoyed day, things were being wrapped up. We had finished rafting over 15 km stretch on the holy Ganges and the last thing of the day was a free jump into the water from a 20 ft rock. Most of us were non swimmers and the organizers were giving us all the necessary tips before the jump. Keep the body straight, don’t tilt sideways, and don’t fold the legs, try to take the plunge in a straight line. It all seemed ridiculously simple and common sense on the rock but off the rock, every piece of advice melted down instantly. We curled into a ball or stretched our hands and the impact with the water down was always painful. The most unfortunate of all was probably Leo, the lion king (this incidentally is the e mail id of that guy). Leo had folded his legs and the impact with the water gave him a severe effect in the lower part of his abdomen. Poor Leo was not even able to walk properly in the rest of the trip. In the night, his tent mates went to the Admin people for some medicinal and professional help and SURPRISE – Nucleus had not thought of this earlier. So there was no medicine. When pressed, the Admin guy in charge gave a Paraceutemol tablet (250 mg), a drug used for normal body aches, with a very sound advice – tell him to sleep. Oh, we had not thought of it. Thanks a million for such a brilliant idea.

Organizing and managing an event is not just about arranging for the journey. It is also about being able to predict the possible and probable emergencies and planning for them. The issue with Leo was quite serious, so serious that Leo had taken 3 days leave after the trip and used medicines for a whole week. Not being prepared for such an emergency is sort of being a failure in managing the event.

That night saw people boozing and puking heavily as it was the last night of the trip. At about 2 AM, there were six of us on the edge of the Ganges sitting on the rocks smoking and shouting gibberish. One of us suddenly decided that he did not have enough swimming during the rafting and got into the water before anybody could realize what was happening. The current was quite strong there and this guy was a non swimmer plus quite drunk and by the time we all came to our senses, it seemed it was too late to do anything. Fortunately, there was a very good swimmer among us (who had till then forgotten that he was) and the rest is history. I understand that there is very little that Nucleus can do in situations of this sort but there is a river barely 100 mts from our tents, booze was there and it is pretty obvious that people are going to get drunk and then cool themselves at the edge of the river. True, we were warned hundreds of times; true, we are old enough to ought to take care of ourselves but again a human life was almost lost that night. What started as fun would have come to a sad and tragic end. To be prepared for the worst unpredicted situations is not a quality that every manager possesses.


Epilogue

Fortunately, there are not many episodes like this, so my piece of literature (thanks for letting me call this) ends before you get bored (if you are not already). There have been quite a many accident Nucleus had been exemplary in handling with and such incidents are out of scope here and hence not mentioned. Please understand that it is not like I had a horrendous time and now I am persuading Nucleus to do away with the idea of Nuc Venture. I too had loads of fun, had found half a dozen very good friends, smoked my first joint and felt very much like Richard Branson must have when he made his maiden trip into skies in a hot air balloon. Nuc Venture would even find a mention in my autobiography (I plan to write one some time). It is just that being a part of the Six Sigma group, I felt that it is part of my job to bring up defects in the process so that we achieve perfection the next time we attempt it.

Looking forward to the Nuc Venture next year.

Three cheers to the Nuc Venture.
Three cheers to Nucleus.

Nuc Venture - A Perfect Venture - Part 1

This is a piece I wrote when I was working in an organization called Nucleus Software, India as part of the Six Sigma department. We had these annual outings which were called Nuc Ventures. Our editor in chief wanted me to write something for our annual magazine on our ventures, but ultimately did not like the piece for obvious reasons.

“Rational People Adapt Themselves To The Imperfect World.
Irrational People Try To Make The World Perfect.
Therefore, All The Progress Of The World Depends On The Irrational People.”

Quality, Six Sigma, CMM, ISO – whatever we call it, it ultimately boils to one thing – Aiming for Perfection. In fact, the word ‘perfect’ is so often used in our day to day life that it has become redundant and lost the real essence. Even with a couple of errors, a person / process gets away termed as ‘perfect’. Even the renowned methodology of Six Sigma has a leeway of 3.4 defects per million opportunities. (For those of you who don’t know, I am in the Six Sigma IBU). I sincerely believe that there is nothing like being ‘almost perfect’ or ‘99% perfect’. It is either that we are perfect or not. Period. Perfection is the dream of many, tried by few and attained by one. We, being the proud employees of a CMM level 5 and a successful Six Sigma implementation company should continue to strive to be the privileged ones. Perfection in our processes, perfection in the execution of ideas, perfection in whatever we do. In this light, do we not need to aim for perfection even in our annual tour called Nuc Venture – perfection in terms of being without any untoward, unpleasant incident? Here, I make a humble attempt to point out a few incidents during our venture without which the entire exercise could have been termed as perfect – ‘The Perfect Venture’.


This would serve two purposes. One, improvising the present process and making it more pleasant and enjoyable the next year. Two, this should definitely make a good reading. I may be insane or a pessimist googling for greyer shades on a rosy canvas as you might probably be thinking now, but like I have said before, the irrationals have always brought and will continue to bring all the progress in the world.


Get…Set…Go


A March Thursday at 9:45 PM in the Nuc campus. There are around 100 people assembled, some chattering, some busy heaving heir luggage into the bus and some smoking (I was in this elite group) and everybody excited – damn excited! It was precisely at this time that some female (why is it always a female) walked to one of the organizers and said that there was no sitting space in any of the buses. A natural Sherlock Holmes, the organizer set out to investigate. After much checking, cross checking and re-cross checking, he let the cat out of the bag. People had reserved seats for their friends and their friends’ friends without bothering to check whether they have already settled down somewhere else blissfully unaware of the chaos they have created. There was one hot punk called Hrithik (name changed to protect anonymity) who had five seats reserved for him while he was cozily settled in somewhere else. There were a lot of changes and dislocations before everybody could be comfortable. A few bright minds put forth an idea that probably the organizers should have allotted seats to each and every voyager in the same way as they had divided Nucleus into five batches. That would have been more interesting and a smart piece of management. That might also have got a few unfortunate people like me a more interesting seat mate rather than a boring and snoring roomie.


In the bus


The fun started at sharp 2200 hrs IST as scheduled and there was a huge collective roar from everybody. Adreline was pumping high, heartbeat was above average for the most and the aimless shouting was soon succeeded by singing. The chartbusters came first, old item numbers came next and the junk in the last. People began to seek the assistance of a secondary device rather than the human throats. Mobile phones did not have the required decibel strength when suddenly Hrithik realized that he had remembered to pack a few CDs, just in case required. ‘Thank God’, ‘Sexy’, ‘Lovely’, everybody was relieved and happy. Then came the jolt, the harshest one of the entire trip. Dadaji (our bus driver who looked as if he was 500 years old) turned back, adjusted his cowboy style hat and said ‘This bus has got no stereo’. ‘Oh No’, ‘My God’, ‘Jesus’, confusion coupled with disappointment mixed with helplessness (have you got a name for this abstract noun?) was writ large on everybody’s face. People started getting restless and boisterous. I had a ghoulish time with my drooping room mate who would occasionally get up, wipe his mouth and ask – ‘where are we?’ Did he expect something like 24 11’ 3” North East on NH 26, 143 km North East to Noida? If only the bus had a stereo, if only we were intimated earlier to arrange for our own audio devices, if only we were more prepared, the reminder of the journey would have been much more pleasant.