Monday, December 26, 2016

Book Review #101: Crooked Minds - Creating an Innovative Society By Kiran Karnik

Title: Crooked Minds – Creating an Innovative Society
Author: Kiran Karnik
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: Innovation Ideas/Society and Social Science
Pages: 220 (Hardbound)
Source: Advanced review copy from Publishers

What it takes to being innovative or inventive? What are the roles that an individual, society, organizations, governments, cities, states and countries play in building those sustainable models? What are the pros and cons of doing the same? What are the parameters that one should and must consider while innovating? How those markets can be capitalized? These are some of the questions that any entrepreneur will face in their lifetime while they’re trying to establish a new venture of their own.

This is a book that speaks about those challenges of setting up an innovative culture in any aspects and in any scale. Be it an individual contributor or a team, each one of them can gain a good insight from this book on how to take a step ahead. Innovation is something that requires out of the box thinking in each and everything that a person or an organization does. But, what are the pitfalls or lessons that one needs to incorporate in dealing with such aspirations? This book specifically deals with that ideas where the entrepreneurs can get a new perspective altogether.

The book has various sections covering wide range of topics which deals with the innovation. Author Kiran Karnik, a man of many credentials, has crafted a well researched and thought off book that could create an interest among individuals who can take up the role of entrepreneurs. The author emphasizes the fact that exploiting and capitalizing the Indian innovation market (popularly called as “Jugaad” market) and tap into those areas which is not yet been given full research and importance. He has given numerous examples of companies from Indian and international arena. 

One such example is the organization called “Zip Dial” a venture setup by a foreigner in Bangalore which purely exploited the Indian invention of “Missed Call” concept and started out a huge organization based on this very comical idea. Zip Dial has assigned a specific number to their clients where customers can give missed calls to it and immediately the customer would receive the required information regarding that product or services at no cost. This is purely a win-win situation for both customer and the company. This was proven a game changer for the company Zip Dial, and they went on to add nearly 500 clients as their customers in few years of starting it up. Zip Dial was acquired by Twitter recently.

Further reading into the book, we will also get to read stories of the startups, now big companies like Uber, Netflix, and Airbnb. These companies have had their basic idea of exploiting the untapped markets and created a niche out of it. Now, Uber has definitely changed the concept of how the customer will book a taxi service and how Airbnb has asked the users to become hosts for strangers in their country by sharing their accommodation for a nominal fees setup by the customer themselves.

The book also covers some of the important aspects regarding the logistics considerations while setting up the new company. From the Indian perspective, author has carefully probed and analyzed the major metro cities and the advantages and disadvantages that it provides to support a new venture. He has eloquently explained about cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata and so on. He also emphasized the 2nd tier cities like Ahmadabad, Cochin, Surat, Pune, etc…

Author also expressed his concern regarding the government policies that are available in promoting the innovation and startup cultures in the country. Also, he has suggested the new entrepreneurs to reach out to specific government bodies to avail the facilities and funding for their startups. This includes from various fields and not only IT sector.

The author has made some good amount of research on the standings of India on a global startup scale. India’s ranking in the yearly patent filing category. How India is faring low compared to USA and China in filing and procuring the patent rights for their unique designs and concepts. He has explained the importance of obtaining the patents to inculcate the habits of safeguarding the intellectual property rights of an individual and organizations.

The book also stresses about the need of the high quality university requirements for our country. How a globally recognized institutes would result in fostering a startup culture and why India is basically lacking these kind of infrastructure. For sure, India is struggling with old syllabus in our technical universities and is not keeping up with the pace of the changing world. The book has a clear explanation of the importance of higher; advanced technical education. This is the need of the hour if we want our younger generation to compete with others globally to make a mark in the startup initiatives and making them a success.

Overall a must read book for all those aspiring entrepreneurs. This will give you a fair idea of how competitive this world has become in terms of setting up new ventures. I would definitely recommend the readers to buy this book.

My Rating:
5/5

Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.


Monday, December 19, 2016

Book Review #100: Chanakya in Daily Life By Radhakrishnan Pillai

Title: Chanakya in Daily Life
Author: Radhakrishnan Pillai
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: Life Lessons/Motivational/Non-Fiction
Pages: 272 (Paperback)
Source: Advanced Review Copy from Publishers

Life is all about doing the right things in the right way. As the old adage puts it out “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad”. There is a clear idea of what to learn and what not to learn from vast amount of sources. But, what if you find everything in a book that is combined as a one stop solution for all those life lessons? The book “Chanakya in Daily Life” by Radhakrishnan Pillai would fill that gap. This book is all about differentiating between what is right and how to tread that path.

The blurb at the back cover of the book says “Life is unpredictable and full of challenges. One wrong step and everything can come crashing down. In such a scenario, one often wishes for a roadmap of life, but how is that possible?”

This book is a clear roadmap for all your doubts and worries ranging from personal, professional and family life. Taking example of an Indian guru, Chanakya and his ever popular work Arthashastra, author has come up with a book that can be read every day and for lifetime too. The book is broadly and rightly classified in to three different sections. The first part deals with the individual life and lesson that can be learnt and adopted in one’s personal life. The second part of the book deals with the professional life that teaches what one must do in their professional life. The third and final part of the book teaches the importance of a family life. Each part holds its importance and is equally connected to the other two. One cannot have a sounding personal life, but lacking professional or family life satisfaction. It is interdependent on each other and this book explains the best way of handling all these things diligently and in a profound way.

In the first part of the book, the author discusses the personal life of an individual. The ideas ranges from waking up at a certain time every day, daily ritual, exercise for the body and the mind, relaxation, developing tastes in music, inculcating the habit of reading, having a hobby that could become a profession one day, sleep duration, breaking and planning the day into productive hours, imparting the knowledge of astrology and up to what extent one can believe in  astrology, practicing meditation, food habits, financial goals, creative hobby, finding a guru, having a personal philosophy, etc.. Each chapter holds a valid point and a direction in which one can master these habits. Each chapter is explained by keeping a reference of Chanakya’s Arthashastra.

In the second part of the book, author discusses the professional aspects of an individual. This part mainly focuses on how one should behave and adopt a disciplined professional life. Author has discussed topics ranging from going to the workplace, pondering over the day to day task, preparing for the day in advance, developing the interpersonal skills, handling the team member and co-workers that has different mindset and thinking capacity than yourself, training people, daily documentation of work, developing the contacts in a working place, how to give a recognition for your sub-ordinate, what one must follow while appointing a manager, what one should do in case of work related travel and how one can adopt these leisure hours to productivity, how to plan for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly review meetings, and finally how one should plan for their retirement in advance. These lessons for sure are relevant even today. As per Chanakya’s reference in Arthashastra, each and individual lesson explained in this chapter would make a king wise and assertive in the long run. So does a common man when he adapts a tiny bit from these sections in to his personal life.

The final part of the book deals with the family life and its importance for an individual and how it is connected to the personal and professional life. The author discusses various facets of one’s family life and how Chanakya has prophesied in this Arthashastra regarding a King’s family life and how it is still relevant in present world scenario. This chapter begins with the duties of the householder and what best one can offer to his family at his abilities. What is the purpose of marriage and how one should treat his spouse, what are the advantages and disadvantages of sex that can impact a family life of a person, how one should take care of his family and provide basic necessities for his dependents.  How to educate their children, what is the best way to bring up their children, the power of family prayer. What are the lessons one can learn for being a good parent, why imparting the concept of charity to children should be encouraged, and how to give personal individual space for each family members. This part ends on a chapter of how to feel gratitude for whatever things we have obtained in this life from their family.

Overall, this book is not a regular one time read it and forget it affair. This book can be read again and again. You can start in any chapter and it still makes profound sense. A book that can be considered as a package of life lessons in all three important aspects of a human life. I would encourage readers to buy this book. This is definitely a collectible stuff.

Few famous Chanakya’s quote that are used in this book:

-       Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
-       There is some self interest in every friendship. There is no friendship without self interest. This is bitter truth.
-       As soon as the fear approaches, attack and destroy it.
-       Once you start working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
-       Learn from the mistake of others, you can’t live long enough to make them all by yourselves.


My Rating:
5/5


Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Book Review #99: Taking Wings And Winning By K.V. Subramaniam

Title: Taking Wings and Winning
Author: K.V. Subramaniam
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: Startup Stories/Management/Non-Fiction
Pages: 230 (Hardbound)
Source: Advance Review copy from Publishers

In today’s competitive world, setting up a new company is a tedious and challenging task. There are many parameters, aspects, ideas, processes exists that one should follow diligently in order to succeed. The unflinching determination and an innovative idea should be the focus of any startups. What this book might offer is not a regular mumbo-jumbo of how your startup should be setup or what are the guidelines should be followed. Rather, it is the story of a company that has been setup with a zero experience in the particular field and yet, the company has passed all the hurdles and established a name in the business arena.

This is the story of a company called “Reliance Life Sciences” authored by its very own President K.V. Subramaniam. The author was the person who took the responsibilities of setting up this company from ground zero. Given his background, he was more of a management expert, expertised in energy and utilities sector and little or no knowledge about Biotechnology or any clinical research medical industry. But still, with an enormous support from the Reliance group head and chairman, Mukhesh Ambani, this company took its birth as a novice in the industry and today it is one of the top contenders in the field of Biotechnology, Stem cell research and other medical based products.

The book gives us a clear and a detailed explanation of how this company has been conceptualized at the first place. Author has described his inspiration of taking the responsibility of setting up this company with his own personal traumas in his family in his younger years. The need of advanced medical equipments, medicines and other related products are the need of the hour in a country like India as per the author’s assessment. So, he started off with the basic plan of understanding the industry in the first place.

As we read through the book, we get to read a lot of initial planning that has been put to set up this company. What was the management decisions made, how the team has been recruited, how the real estate has been procured, how the plant came into existence, what was their action plans on the crisis management, how they managed their finances, what are all the pitfalls they had to face, how they overcome the resources issues, how they strived for the top notch quality in their products and finally how did they sustained in the race, is all well documented and an inspiration to read from the book.

Having the backing of a huge organization like Reliance doesn’t necessarily proves that a new company can be managed without any bottlenecks. Each company has its share of pains and pleasures. So does the Reliance Life Sciences. In terms of working as a team, they had to endure lot of adverse situations from the likes of industry experts who are hell bent on working in a specific way and would not budge to the rules and regulations of a new company. This is true in terms of any startup. Once we recruit people that claim they are experts in some of the core areas, we cannot ask them to tow the line, but it doesn’t mean that, they are allowed to work on their own accord. This is precisely what happened with Reliance Life Sciences too. Especially when it comes to research experts or scientists, they work like they have all the time in the world. So, how did they manage to make people to work for them?  How their people management system was was effectively put in place? These are the grey areas that a startup is more concerned, and this book provides a clean and simple explanation on how to manage that kind of egoist personalities.

There are also a few examples of money laundering cases in Reliance Life Sciences where they had to take drastic measures on top officials in order to stay clean and work with utmost morals and ethics. This is one area where a startup should focus on disbursing their funding. If too much of money spent on the extravaganza of few people, then the company is bound to answer their investor for the amount of money they are spending.

Overall, I guess this book is a step by step guide to establishing a new company and how to make it a success. It has great lessons on people management, finance management, property management, quality control, human resource, administration, logistics, procurement, contracts, micro managing, etc... I would definitely encourage readers to buy this book and read. It will surely give you a fresh perspective on the task that you’re ready to take up.

My Rating:
5/5


Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review. 

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Book Review #98: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History By Sanjeev Sanyal

Title: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History
Author: Sanjeev Sanyal
Publishers: Penguin India
Genre: Geo-political History/History/Maritime History
Pages: 374 (Paperback)
Source: Personal Copy

Being a regular reader of the history I was fascinated by this book by the author Sanjeev Sanyal. Having read his previous book "Land of the Seven Rivers" I was all eager to read this new book. In his previous book, he talked about the seven important rivers of India including the mighty Saraswati River. The Land of seven rivers was summed up in one line as “Seven Rivers (Sapth Sindhu), One Country, Five Millennia, Startling History”.

Asian histories have been rendered in a biased manner since time immemorial. As a famous saying that goes, until an animal has its own history, the history of the hunting will always glorify the hunter. If we take any history curriculum in Indian education system, we can read leaps and bounds of Mughul Empire, the British regime, the Sultanates and such similar accounts. 

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to read the histories of Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas in greater detail and their glories have been limited to few pages here and there. This book, one of a kind in its genre, breaks that stupor and gives us a riveting account of how the Indian Ocean has shaped the human history. Indian Ocean is itself a big mystery. It holds many unresolved or undiscovered history that is hidden deep into its core. Author Sanjeev Sanyal tried to uncover this in this vast researched and well articulated book and succeeded in satiating his readers.

The book opens up by a fascinating tale of how the Pallava dynasty has traced an heir to their Kingdom when the erstwhile King, Parameshwara Verman II died in 731 CE. A delegation of Brahmin scholars, which travelled across the Indian Ocean to the far ends of Cambodia, and got back an heir that traced his roots to the Pallava dynasty from five long generations ago!! Thus, the reign of Nandi Verman II has started.

Hundreds of questions pop up as we read further through the book. For example:

Why did Vasco Da Gama worship in a Hindu temple when he set in India for the first time?

Why there are fossil remain of marine animals have been found in the Himalayas?

How come the Parsi community of India embraced the Guajrati culture so effortlessly?

How did the Sinhalese come to Sri Lanka?

What was the connection of the Sri Vijaya Empire with the Chinese?

How did the world’s second Mosque (King Cheraman Perumal) have been built in Kerala, India? What was the motive behind it?

How did Portuguese and Dutch have taken advantage in conquering parts of India?

How come we see oriental faces of engravings by Pallavas?

And so on…

The Ocean of Churn begins its journey even before the formation of the Indian Ocean. It talks about the super continent called Gondwana (This name is derived from the Gond tribe of the central India) that existed more than 270 million years ago and the mighty Saraswati River and how it dried up due to the tectonic plate shifts, how the Himalaya has been formed, and how the races have been migrated from India to outside world. This book traces the history through the Ocean way. How people set up its civilizations, how their trade hub got established, what was their commercial aspects, how they dealt with various traders inside and outside their territory and so on.

Sanjeev Sanyal views this history as Complex Adaptive System. Given his background in Economics, where he considers multiple factors act upon a system to determine the direction it takes. From Harrappan times, Indians have been trading with the world in many ways. Maritime trading is the major aspect during those times when land routes were hardly discovered. The powerful Chola king, Rajendra Chola made a naval attack on the Sri Vijaya Kingdom of Sumatra by 1025 is one such example. Chola Empire was one of the powerful empires in the entire South Asia region during that time. There were a major geo-political-economic alliances or rivalries between Indians, Chinese and the Sri Vijaya Kingdom.

Kerala being the hub of the maritime trade have witnessed a vast amount of geo-political-economic tradeoffs. As a testimony to those, even today in Kerala, we have the world’s second Mosque and India’s first mosque (Cheraman Perumal Mosque) built by the king Cherman Perumal by the orders of Mohammed the prophet himself in 629 AD. We also get to see the memorial of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas fame), a disciple of Jesus, who visited Kerala via sea route.

Overall, this book is a well researched one. It starts right from the origin of India Ocean due to the tectonic plate shifts and ends right at the transformation of Bombay to Mumbai with the reclamation of land over the Ocean. This book is full of rich details of all Kingdoms that throve around the Indian Ocean, Indian coastline, and several islands of the Indian Ocean that also had cultural trade ties with India and its Kingdoms.

Author personally visited several of these places that he mentions in his book. It shows what kind of painstaking research that he has put in this book. It is extremely informative and knowledge enhancing. As the author himself remarks at the end of the book “A systematic bias I have found in the existing literature is the preference given to the writers and sources from outside the continents.” This is evidently true, as we are fed with the histories that are written by mentally enslaved minds. It is time to look through a new perspective and stop looking towards the west for our recognition. India was and is an ancient lands with many millions years of history. Authors like Sanjeev Sanyal should be encouraged by reading these kinds of books.

My Rating:

5/5

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Book Review #97: White Clouds, Green Mountains By Ruskin Bond

Title: White Clouds, Green Mountains
Author: Ruskin Bond
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: Short Memoir/Short Stories
Pages: 135 (Paperback)
Source: Advanced review copy from publishers

Ruskin Bond is a master story teller. When it comes to capturing the essence of nature and beautifying it exceptionally through writings, then, Ruskin Bond tops that list. He wrote an excellent collection of stories that describes the vast range of North Eastern region. This book mainly has the stories of nature, mountains, rivers, animals, birds, rains, snow capped mountains, etc… Author also dwells little into his personal details by writing two short stories on his adopted family and penned few pages describing his life along with them.

The book “White Clouds, Green Mountains” describes the stories of author’s sojourn in his hometown Mussoorie and his stay at various places surrounding this area. His encounters with the nature, the birds, and the animals are a treat to read from this book. The book has a collection of over 10 different stories that describes the nature, animals and birds.

A story that titled “Songs of the Whistling Thrush”, in which, the author speaks about a bird that has made its nest next to his bedroom window. He has seen this bird perched on his window and singing the sweetest whistles. As the days passed by, he sees the bird has formed its nest near the window and there are three eggs of that bird. Amused at the sight of it, author exclaims in jubilation saying, what if all these birds (young ones and old ones) started to sing in next few days, and for sure he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on his writings.

Another story that titled “Travels with my Bank Manager”, in which, the author writes about his experiences with his Bank Manager Ohri, who takes the author on a surprise trips across the valley to see some rare birds and animals. Though the author always finds these trips as tiresome, but he seems to enjoy a lot. He hasn’t forgotten to mention an embarrassing event where they had to eat Dog biscuits in order to satiate their hunger, when they were out of town and stuck in the middle of the forest.

In one of the stories that titled “The Kipling Road”, author finds the traces of the route that was long used by another famous writer Rudyard Kipling that visited Mussoorie a few years back. He got the leads from his friends from abroad regarding the Kipling’s visit to his town.

Describing his personal family details, author has penned a story that titled “And Now We Are Twelve”. Author gives us a brief account of his adopted family and fair share of their names. He also mentions about his grandsons with whom the author had shared a special camaraderie.  He also mentions about the places they have lived along all these years and the houses they have shifted, the female members of the family, the male members, the kids and toddlers with whom he has lived all these years and grown old with them.

We will also get to read some other interesting stories from the book such as The School among the Pines, The Night the Roof Blew Off, The Last Truck Ride, In Search of the Sweet Peas, White Clouds, Green Mountains, etc… overall, a nice collection of short stories along with some personal details of the author. Not a recommending material, but worth the time pass.

My Rating:
3/5

Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review


Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Book Review #96: A Song of Many Rivers By Ruskin Bond

Title: A Song of Many Rivers
Author: Ruskin Bond
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Pages: 132 (Paperback)
Genre: Short Stories
Source: Advanced review copy from Publisher

Ruskin Bond’s books are always a treasure of experiences. The little amusements of life is captured luminously by the author. Ruskin Bond is able to strike a chord with his readers with another book that speaks about the vast range of North Eastern culture, atmosphere, rivers, forests, mountains and the mighty Himalayas of India. This book is not a regular Ruskin Bond’s ghost stories collection. This book covers the aspect beyond his regular flavor. This book contains the vivid details of rivers, mountains, forests, rains, etc…

A Song of Many Rivers is the first short travelogue of the author where he spent some quality time travelling the important rivers and shrines in the Northern India. This particular short story captures the vivid niceties of the rivers like Alakananda, Ganga, Bhagirathi, Yamuna, Jamuna, Suswa, Rudraprayaga, Nandaprayag, and such several places. Author not only explains the exquisiteness and tranquility of these rivers, but also includes the historical background of these important rivers. Especially, the story of the river Bhagirathi and how it merges with the river Ganga and what was the story behind it.

Further reading into the book, we get to read few more, yet interesting stories like the Wilson’s Bridge, From the Pool to the Glacier, Ganga Takes it All, Angry River and so on.

Wilson’s Bridge is an interesting tale narrated by the author when he visited the village called Harsil, situated near the banks of river Bhagirathi on the way towards the Hindu piligrimage, Gangotri in Uttarakashi. The story revolves around a person called Wilson and his wife Gulabi. The local folklore has believed that, Gulabi, the wife of Wilson has committed suicide by jumping off the bridge that Wilson has constructed many years ago, citing the reason that Wilson is cheating on her by having an illicit relationship with another woman. The interesting part is, still people would see Gulabi at night near the bridge as a ghost jumping into the river sometimes.  Author also narrates his own experience of seeing this woman. The tales ends on a tragic note and we witness a young wife of a person committing suicide that toured along with the author and his team.

From the Pool to the Glacier is the tale of author’s childhood. He along with his two other friends discovers a pool near his house. They feel elated by the sight of it, as they thought they were the first to discover this trail of water. So, it happened one day that, they all decide to visit a glacier in Himalayas. They took the help of a Sherpa boy called Bisnu. They trek their way towards the glacier and had the best experience of their lifetime. The narration of the vast beauty of the Himalayas should be savored by reading this story.

The most interesting story in the book is the Angry River. This is the story of a girl called Sita that lives on an island along with her Grandfather and Grandmother. They have little livestock and few hen birds to support their daily breadwinning. It so happened one day, when Sita’s grandmother fell ill and had to rush to the hospital down the hill. Her grandfather decides to take his wife to the hospital and warned Sita that a possible flood might happen as it was raining heavily. As expected, the same night when Sita’s grandfather left for the hospital, there was heavy downpour and the island village started to submerge in the torrential rain. Sita decides to follow the instructions given to her by her grandfather. First, she climbs rooftop to avoid the flood. When the water reached the roof level, she climbs on to a Peepal tree, and hoped for the best. As it was destined for the worst, the tree also started to bend towards the water. As a miracle, Sita was saved by a boy called Krishan. Soon after all the floods have subsided and she reconciled with her grandfather, she longed to see this boy and kept looking at the Flute that boy has given to her as a gift.

Overall the book expresses some of the mundane life aspects in a great lucid way. There is no denying that, the reader will enjoy reading such stories. I would definitely recommend it to others to read it at least once.

My Rating:
3/5


Note: This book was given to me by the Publishers in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Book Review #95: The Empty House - Collected by Ruskin Bond

Title: The Empty House
Collected and Compiled by: Ruskin Bond
Author: Various authors
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: Supernatural/Horror/Children Stories
Pages: 158 (Paperback)
Source: Early review copy from Publishers

Stories that are horror and supernatural are always a fascinating experience. These kinds of books intrigue any reader, and especially the fans of horror stories. The mild horror slowly seeps into your mind and makes you wonder at length. Being a huge fan of horror stories, I definitely enjoyed reading this collection of 11 short stories by Ruskin Bond. Ruskin Bond never fails to amuse his readers. Be it his own stories or collected stories like “The Empty House”.

“The Empty House” is a book of short stories collected and compiled by Ruskin Bond that includes his own story “Gone Fishing”. Among the collected stories, the story of Empty House by Algernon Blackwood adorns the title of this book. The book has other stories like “Mrs. Raeburn’s waxwork” by Lady Eleanor Smith, “Thurnley Abbey” by Perecval London, Chunia Ayah by Alice Perrin and so on.

The book beings by the story of one of my favorite author Rudyard Kipling titled “The Return of Imray”. This is an interesting story that holds the suspense till the end. Imray is disappeared and despite many attempts to find the whereabouts of him, the result was in dismay. After few months, Imray’s bungalow was rented by Strickland of police and the narrator of the story is now inside this bungalow. During the stay in that bungalow, the narrator experiences some strange movements of figures. Even Strickland’s dog is quite disturbed. The very next day, Strickland and the narrator finds a snake up by the corner of ceiling cloth, which is disappearing into the roof space. When Strickland climbs up to see, to his horror, he finds Imray’s dead body up there with its throat cut. Upon interrogating the servant of Imray, the servant confesses to the crime citing the reason for which there is no rational explanation.

The next story that I liked the most is, The Empty House. It’s a story of a supposedly haunted house. The main characters of this story are Jim Shorthouse and his aunt Julia. One day, Shorthouse arrives to see his aunt for a weekend visit. He had received telegram from his aunt only that morning and he arrived soon with excitement and mystery. The moment he embraced her, he felt a surge of electrical shock like condition. Julia, a maniac of psychical research was all excited to visit that Empty House as she got the keys.

As the two enter the old house, Aunt Julia relates a brief history of the brutal crime that initiated the haunting. “’It has to do with a murder committed by a jealous stableman who had some affair with a servant in the house. One night he managed to secrete himself in the cellar, and when everyone was asleep, he crept upstairs to the servants' quarters, chased the girl down to the next landing, and before anyone could come to the rescue threw her bodily over the banisters into the hall below.’"

The tension continues to build as Shorthouse and Julia are certain they hear a man sneeze next to them. Then it happens, with a sudden jolt as powerful as the one that accompanies the first appearance of the old woman in “House on Haunted Hill,” “Facing them, directly in their way between the doorposts, stood the figure of a woman. She had dishevelled hair and wildly staring eyes, and her face was terrified and white as death. “She stood there motionless for the space of a single second. Then the candle flickered and she was gone—gone utterly— and the door framed nothing but empty darkness.”

And the third story that I liked from the collection is, “The white Wolf of the Hartz Mountains” By Frederick Marryat. This is the story of serf’s people. A family of three children and a father. Krantz is the only surviving member of a small Transylvanian family whose history has been marked by violent death. A family whose father murdered the mother, after catching her in an act of infidelity, then fled north to the Hartz Mountains (Germany) of the story’s title. There they live a harsh and lonely existence that settles into routine until, while hunting one day, the father sees and pursues a white she-wolf. Just as he draws a bead on it and is preparing to fire his rifle, however, it mysteriously disappears. On the way back to the family’s cabin, though, he encounters a man and daughter, half-frozen, looking for shelter which he, naturally, offers.

The beautiful young woman becomes an “evil stepmother” to the storyteller and his siblings. The oldest brother begins to note her strange nocturnal disappearances where, upon returning, she invariably goes to wash herself. What could she be doing out there? Many of these nights of her absence are also marked by the howl of a wolf, seemingly just outside the window of the children. Hmm… Slowly, as the evil deeds of this “woman” mount up, young Krantz’s fear of her transforms: “…but I no longer felt afraid of her; my little heart was full of hatred and revenge.”

I would encourage the readers to read the remaining stories from the book. It’s a great collection of horror stories from past. It still holds that suspense and thrilling factors. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

My Rating:
5/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Book Review #94: 31 Miles:Can we ever win against ourselves? by Vinita Bakshi

Title: 31 Miles: Can we ever win against ourselves?
Author: Vinita Bakshi
Publishers: Rupa Publications India
Genre: General Fiction
Pages: 220 (Paperbound)
Source: Advanced Review Copy by Publisher

There are certain epochs in one’s individual life where it takes a substantial twirl and the whole thing happens so fast that one cannot fathom the rationale or judgment behind it. And undoubtedly, it poses some vital consequences when this happens in the middle of the life. The book “31 Miles” precisely narrates the midlife crisis of a woman who has lost a sense of control over some events that has changed her entire life.

The protagonist of the novel is a middle aged woman, Manasa, aged about 40 years. Growing up in a traditional orthodox family left her no choice but to give her consent for an arranged marriage at a young age. Now, she is well over 40 years, blessed with two beautiful daughters Malvika and Shonali and an ever loving husband, Abhijit. She considered herself as a regular Indian middle class home maker with the sole intention of taking care of her family and giving the best of her abilities to keep everyone happy. She grew up with no concerns whatsoever. But, an ill-fated episode made her to lose trail of her life and go into deep crisis which occupies the next part of the novel.

Sitting at home doing mundane tasks made Manasa to distaste her life. One day she decides to join a cuisine course. There, she befriends some affluent people that changed her perspective towards life. She now considers establishing her own company that specializes in the nutritious food, new food recipes and everything related with food. In order to keep herself in this advanced technical world, she learns computer and most significantly she decides to make her presence in the social media world. She opens her account in one of the popular social media websites and to her surprise she sees many of her childhood friends. One among them was Rajan Chopra. Though she was quite familiar with that name in her memory, she couldn’t relate this person to any of her childhood friends. Within few days, Rajan Chopra introduces himself as Manasa’s elder sister classmate and befriends her on social media. Slowly unanticipated events started to unfurl between them.

Rajan Chopra, the strange character from the novel starts to communicate more candidly with Manasa. He started sharing couplets, poems and Bollywood songs with Manasa to win over her. This is the important part of the novel as far as I can see. Now, readers shouldn’t judge the protagonist as too naïve and pretentious that falls for a guy at this age. Manasa never experienced this kind of admiration even from her husband. She felt surreal to hear Rajan’s swaying words every day. As the days progressed, Manasa was absolutely immersed with this outlandish man. She started to develop feelings towards him.

In a general sense, befriending strangers online is not advised. Teenagers at present are the most affected people. So, what would possibly happen when grownups, who are new to this social media circle, that doesn’t know the consequences it would have on their life, befriends strangers? Things can get hideous if they start interacting with them. There can be many appalling experiences. Our protagonist exactly faces the same experience in her life.

The next stages of the novel are the main part which I am not including in this review. 
Manasa became too emotionally involved with this man and she started to feel culpable towards her husband and daughters. Was she able to meet this mystery man? What was her thought process when she decides to meet him in person? Was this man as genuine as he appeared to her in social media? Was Manasa ready to give up everything to get back to this person? What happened at the end? Has everything become normal again? To know the answers, read this book.

Overall, the book is quite impressive. As a debutant author, Vinita has done a brilliant work. The language is simple and narration is lucid and engaging. The best part of novel is the emotions expressed by the protagonist Manasa. You can vividly capture those moments while reading. Personally I felt that the novel is bit stretched. It could’ve been reduced by 20 to 30 pages. Apart from this, the novel is quite brilliant and I enjoyed reading it.

P.S: There is a sequel to this novel coming up in future!!

My Rating:
4/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange of an unbiased review.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Book Review #93: Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman

Title: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Author: Daniel Kahneman
Publishers: Penguin
Genre: Non-Fiction/Decision Management/Cognitive Psychology
Pages: 512 (Paperback)
Source: Personal Copy

How often do we really think we are making the right decision? Or, do we really think that whatever we have assumed or professed as true indeed? What about all those decisions we have made all these years? Does it always make us more contented that we’ve made them or was there any slight doubt that we would’ve thought a moment before we made that decision? Does being regretful is anywhere related to the decision we make or does that not at all related to our thinking minds? There are thousands questions for a questioning mind when you begin to read this book. In first few pages itself all our so called beliefs that we held dear to us all these years will be shattered brick by brick. That doesn’t mean that, this is a book that changes your thinking overnight and you can be more assertive and cognitive in an instant.

A book like “Thinking, Fast and Slow” is not a one time affair to read end to end. It has more to do with the assessing our minds in each page we turn. The decisions we make consciously or unconsciously have a profound impact on the overall journey of our life. Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate, has crafted a well analyzed, well researched, well documented book. Each and every experiment or survey that he has conducted throughout his life about decision making, cognitive assessment, character forming, opinions that we have on all and sundry has been articulated exceptionally in this book.

One such example where I liked the most is, when the author and his associates conducted a survey on “was Gandhi older or younger than 144 years when he died?” Obviously, the answer the public gave was less than 144 years. When the same set of people asked a different aspect of this question like “how old they thought when Gandhi died?” and this time people picked up the answers as between 80’s and 90’s. On the next attempt when the people were asked “if Gandhi was older than 44 when he was died?” the expected answer was older. When he asked “how old Gandhi was when he died?” most of the people picked up the answers in late 50’s and 60’s. This particular experiment shows that, people tend to come up with their own set of beliefs in answering a question that had nothing to do with the reality and certainly had no impact on their choices. This is just a tip of the ice berg when it comes to convincing people. The people at marketing department knew the nerve of people and they try every way to manipulate its target customers by feeding information subtly and manipulate them into making decisions in favor of them.

There are sections from the book where the author deals with the concepts of forming an opinion on persons. What do we really think when we decide about a person as so and so? Do we really care about going to the deeper level of research before deciding the character of a person or do we just form an opinion with the vague information that is available before us? One such example that we can read from the book is about a female who is banker and a feminist. So most of the opinions formed on this particular case are, either the woman is a banker or a feminist. The question of she being a feminist banker seems an absurd opinion. But why do we make such assumptions? What runs in our mind when we read bits of information on a person and we have a picture of themselves with all the characters that we assumed that fits into that person? Author expressed his opinion that, most of us will use limited information to make decisions on someone. The questions we ask ourselves most of the time is, “Can we trust them?” “Are they friendly enough?” “Are they going to be a good human being?” “Are they competent enough?” etc…

This brings us to the main argument. Are we really making our decisions emotionally rather than rationally? Author explains in simple two system concept. System 1, in which a person reacts to almost everything instantly. It is devoid of mind body co-ordination. This is explained with a simple 2X2 multiplication. And, there is System 2, which is more rational and laid back. It never responds to events in a jiffy. It consents our mind before blurting out the response. A simpler example to this is, computing the results for 17X34. System 2 always monitors the System 1.

In conclusion, reading this book has shaken me greatly. I am convinced by the vast amount of research work about the psychology of the decision making that most of my choices so far in life have been taken without having a second thought. “What if?” reactions were always ringing in my mind while I was rummaging through the pages. Taking a decision in haste and try to rationalize it later is what we have practiced in all our lives. We try to come to terms with it than to analyze in the beginning.

Author was right on when he convinces his argument that people are incredibly quick to jump to conclusions, make decisions without enough information, and have their decisions greatly influenced by the bits of information they have in their hands. This book will certainly makes you think twice about how you make the decisions. Slowing down the process and thinking right is the one take away from this book while you read and savor it.

My Rating:
5/5 

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Book Review #92: The Laughing Skull By Ruskin Bond

Title: The Laughing Skull
Author: Ruskin Bond
Publishers: Rupa Publications
Genre: Short Stories/Children’s stories
Pages: 112 (Paperbound)
Source: Review copy sent by Publisher

Ruskin Bond is a well acclaimed author and most loved children’s writer in India. Most of our childhood days have been filled with the stories of Ruskin Bond. His short stories with little added horror and humor have always been a fascinating experience for any children then and now. One would always wonder how Ruskin Bond manages to write such simple, joyous tales all the time. Each and every story that he has written is refreshing. Stories that are mild horror and filled with fragrant smell of nature makes anyone wants to read again and again.

This book is one of those books where you can just sit on a lazy day in your cozy chair and start rummaging through the pages and go nostalgic all over again. Frankly, I stopped reading children books a long time ago. But still, when I was approached by the publishers to review this book on my blog along with three other titles from Ruskin Bond (Which will be reviewed shortly), I couldn’t say no to it. This is Ruskin Bond. My whole childhood was filled with the tales I’ve heard, read from his books. I just enjoyed this book like I always enjoy any books from Ruskin Bond collection.

The Laughing Skull, though it is the title of the book, it is the first story. There are nearly over 30 such short stories. Some are little horror and some humor. Additionally, other stories which are of funny ghosts, stupid ghosts, scary ghosts and what not.

The Laughing Skull is a funny story of a Skull that the author received from his doctor nephew. He put that skull on a mantelpiece at his home. Slowly, he felt that he was being watched by this skull. Feeling little strange, author decided to put that skull in a cupboard. After few moments, the cupboard started shaking violently, and the skull just popped out of cupboard and started bouncing up and down. Feeling little scared, the author wraps this skull in a box and tries to send it back to his nephew and goes to post office to deliver it. Within minutes of dropping this box at the post office, the skull started chasing the author straight out of the box. Author then decides to put that skull inside a football and gave it to a school. Felt relieved for few days, author started to miss this skull. It was an odd feeling. So, he decides to search this skull and get it back to his home. In his quest, he goes to a fortune teller and was surprised to find his skull lying with him. With enough persuasions and monetary compensation, author was able to successfully retrieve his skull from that fortune teller and kept that skull on the same mantelpiece in his home and felt an odd relaxation that he has never felt before.

There are few other stories which we might have already heard off. Susanna’s Seven Husbands for example. This little tale of a vicious woman, who supposedly married seven times and directly or indirectly killed all of her seven husbands one by one. This was an interesting tale that was narrated by a servant to the author. This story was made as a Bollywood film under the title “7 Khoon Maaf”.

We also get to read stories that are paranormal. One such story is the story of two sisters and a single brother. Usha is the eldest among her siblings Binya and Suresh. This is a story when one day Usha decides to visit town nearby. She had to cross the deep forest from her home to get to the town on the other side for the essential purchases. But there was a strong rumor among the village that, the forest is haunted during the night. One day Usha went across the town to make purchases and while returning there was heavy downpour in the forest and she couldn’t able to cross the forest before dusk. She decides to take shelter in the abandoned house in the forest. During night, she hears strange voices as if someone is calling her. She found out that, it was her brother and sister who came finding her all the way from village. So, all three of them decides to stay till morning. During their stay they were hearing many haunted voices, people calling their names etc… Once it was dawn, they started to village. Usha hears a voice saying goodbye. She thinks it was her brother or sister. But both of them walked silently. Then all three of them again hears the same voice shouting goodbye, goodbye.

The book is full of such suspense filled stories. We also get to read few stories like two brothers story that is full of morale. Story about an idiot husband, vicious wife and a helpful ghost. Story about a haunted swimming pool. Story of a paranormal pillow, etc… It is quite fascinating to go back in the days when such simple stories were filled with enough horror, suspense and thrill. I had similar experience even now while reading this collection.

Overall, a definite guide to go back to those childhood days. Reminisce all those beautiful days where you just want to read Ruskin Bond all day under your blanket. I would highly recommend it for everyone. Live you childhood once again.

Note: A review copy of the book was given to me by the publishers in return for an honest review.

My Rating:

5/5

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Book Review #91: Johnny Gone Down By Karan Bajaj

Title: Johnny Gone Down 
Author: Karan Bajaj
Publishers: Harper Collins India
Genre: General Fiction/Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 324
Source: Personal Copy

Rarely few books keeps us engaged from page 1 till the end. Especially with the new age Indian authors, who write mostly the college romance, marriage and such similar stuff? This has become a mundane affair to see every tom, dick and harry who claim themselves as authors and writers. There is no fresh perspective whatsoever with it. 

Johnny Gone Down, by the author Karan Bajaj is nothing of that college romance as such. Though it has its fair share of college story but, it’s just at the beginning and the novel takes an entirely different route. I liked this novel. It has all those elements that a reader expects. If I may say so, it has more than what one would expect from a relatively new author.

The plot of the novel seems quite unusual from the page 1 itself. We see the protagonist in a gun duel bet, where he can lose his life in any moment. At the pull of each trigger, the protagonist imagines what transpired his life to this end. He imagines his happy days, his sorrowful days. His other opponent, a cancer patient, who is in a need of money to perform his daughter’s wedding is ready to give away his life in a snap. This gun duel is quite impressive as it helps the story to move forward. 

The readers will be in a strange quest before even starting with the initial few pages. As the title by itself is more intriguing. Why the hell this book is named Johnny and why he has gone down? The readers begins with this question in their mind. The protagonist of the novel is Nikhil Arya or Nick. Born to a wealthy NRI parents who moved out of India to settle in America. He lost both of his parents while he was young. As charming and studious as he is, expectedly Nick gets his ticket to MIT, Boston. 

Well, the story does start from his last examination day. He and his friend Sam begins their unplanned trip to Cambodia. But what awaits at Cambodia is a surprising factor. The country that is torn by the rebels uprising had made it worse for the civilians. Expectedly, the protagonist does gets stuck in Cambodia, but the fate had other plans. While Nick rescues Sam by showing his passport as his friends. And, he gets caught by the rebels and story takes it first major turn.

As one reads through the pages, more or less, the story goes on in a predictable mode. The readers could guess what might happen. The protagonist was captured and made to rot in closed jail for about two years. By somehow, he escapes from there and finds himself in a monastery in Thailand. 

In Thailand, our protagonist Nick, thought of staying for a long duration than he was anticipated initially. He learns meditation, he becomes a teacher and a monk as well. The quest continues further as we read through. Nick, now travels to Brazil to set up their meditation school. There he finds a different life altogether and he ends up being a drug lord and money launderer. He meets Marco, a drug lord, who happened to get saved by our protagonist Nick. There is a special love track in this part of the novel that might shape the future of our protagonist.

As the book progresses in each page, we feel a sense of urgency to see what is in store for Nick. From Brazil, his journey takes him back to USA. There he is homeless, cashless and even identity less. The writers can actually construct the most unbelievable events that makes no sense in real life, but still, in this novel, like any regular novel, the unthinkable happens. At the age of nearly 40, the protagonist Nick learns to code and builds an alternate virtual life game. Now here is the overdone part in this novel. How much ever the readers tries to comprehend the luck factor of Nick, it doesn’t become a convincing factor. He finds himself in the most horrid situations, but he has this extraordinary luck factor, that binds his fate in safe hands.

So, as the novel inches in for climax, we feel a sense of relief that, something good will happen to this Nick or let him die peacefully at least. Quite expectedly, he meets his childhood friend Sam, now a big tycoon of media industry. They meet and greet each other and share their whole bunch of successes, failures and stuff, like a reunion. There, our protagonist, changes his name from Nick to Johnny for a better future, but decides against it and let the JOHNNY GO DOWN!!

Overall, a good attempt with the contemporary style fiction. The story is quite unthinkable. Readers should come to terms with many events in the novel, because it happens only in fiction world. Language is simple and lucid. Can be read within few hours. Not highly recommending stuff, but yeah, you can give this book a shot. Worth it.

My Rating:
3/5

Monday, November 7, 2016

Book Review: #90: The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive? By Rajiv Malhotra

Title: The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?
Author: Rajiv Malhotra
Publishers: Harper Collins India
Genre: Non-Fiction/Language & Linguistics
Pages: 488(Hardbound)
Source: Personal Copy

This is a must read book for every Indian who is a courtesan of Sanskrit. Rajiv Malhotra has established an authoritative argument in this book by enunciating the rejoinders and refutations in the most erudite way and confronted the western narrative of the language Sanskrit.

It has been proven time and again that, we Indians, have a propensity to consent the views of a western or white man whenever they come up with any works on India. We believe every word of their elucidation, as if, it is the most sought and well acknowledged work. It is a common trait, because, when a western mind has shown interest to study India or Indian culture, we believe that these people are appealed to our culture and practices. Well, the veracity is far-fetched.

This book “Battle of Sanskrit” discourses the very same dispute in a comprehensive manner. Apparently, this is a significant work for the many Indologist scholars that are doing their research on Sanskrit since several years. Atrocity literature is not a new phenomenon for our country. It has been an instrument for most of the westerners, politically leftists and communists to perpetrate the abhorrence towards some class of people. Here in this book, the author refers to those westerners that has worked relentlessly to tarnish the importance of Sanskrit and devalued the language as oppressive, politically incorrect, and dead.

The author exclusively engaged the works of Dr. Sheldon Pollock, a distinguished Indologist as he claims and did extensive research works on Sanskrit since many decades. The author has presented us to the terms called “Outsiders” vs “Insiders”. The readers must not take into consideration that an outsider means a non-Indian and insider means an Indian. The metaphor mentioned here is basically unpretentious, an insider is someone that believes Sanskrit as a language which is sacred, liberating and alive, and this person can be an Indian or a foreigner. Whereas, an outsider means someone that believes Sanskrit as political, oppressive and dead. Again, this outsider can be someone from India or a foreigner, plainly can be mentioned as Leftists, Communists.

As per the title of the book advocates, this book mainly debates on the prominence and germaneness of the language Sanskrit. Author has asked those questions in the title of the book itself.

Political or Sacred?

Oppressive or Liberating?

Dead or Alive?

As many western minds have premeditated the language Sanskrit and made a noteworthy contributions in their own way. Amongst them were Ingalls, William Jones, Sheldon Pollock and many such peoples. But what is most troublesome in their works is, their interpretation of the language as socially oppressive, barbaric and dead. Author Rajiv Malhotra has exclusively selected several works of Sheldon Pollock and tried to give a perfect counter narrative. As per Pollock, our Vedic scriptures, Puranas, Kavyas and Upanishads were mere works of common people and that too it all happened in the Buddhist era. He also argues that, the great Ramayana essentially illustrates the social oppression and encourages violence. Rajiv Malhotra has carefully analyzed these claims and provided a completely substantial retort on why Pollock is erroneous on so many levels.

The book gives us a rational perspective of seeing the things in a diverse way. It encourages the readers to adopt the Purva-paksha. It is a call by the author to reverse the gaze of the westerners and see the Sanskrit in a more Indian way than a western way. Author also emphasizes the point that, translating Sanskrit or regional text in to English is a risky affair. This is basically because, a western vulture would take up any significant work and hand picks the bits and pieces as it suits him and presents a version that is totally devoid of what the original critical Sanskrit edition was supposedly intended to achieve. Thus the ownership of the text passes from an Indian to a westerner just because it is in English and widely read!!

This book is not a rabble rousing of Grammar or literature. It is about the politicization of Sanskrit scholarship. It reveals and studies the production of knowledge and intellectual control mechanism in a globalized modern western world. It documents the vested interests of the American orientalists that are wielding control over the Sanskrit tradition from the helpless Indian pundits and thereby break the backbone of Hindu tradition. From the Pollock’s argument it seems clear enough that, Sanskrit is something Nazi. He argues that, Sanskrit in fact encouraged the Hitler of Germany to perform the Jew holocaust.

An additional frightening aspect that Malhotra expressed is that the funding that these authors are getting globally. Even the Indian billionaires that are well established globally is establishing the organizations that funds these western scholars to execute their works. One such example is the is wealthy Infosys industrialist Narayan Murthy’s gift of millions of dollars to Sheldon Pollock of Columbia University for overseeing the translation of 500 classics by US-based Sanskritists under the umbrella called “Murthy Classic Library”. If any learned Indian doesn’t educated these billionaires about their wrong doing, then it is imminent that, we will witness more atrocity literature in the coming days that would make any Indian self-loath.

Apart from donating millions to these western vultures, the spending of Hindu funds on non-Hindu interventions to do research work is unworthy and dangerous. Pollock’s approach to Sanskrit studies is what he calls “political philology”. His sole intention is to destabilize the foundation of the country that was built on. He sees Greek, Latin and Sanskrit under the same lens. He has consistently undervalued the spiritual dimension that Hindus associate with Sanskrit, and portrayed it as a language of oppression and barbaric. This is not out of malevolence, he deserves the benefit of the doubt regarding his motives (he has for instance deplored the decline of classical studies in India, leaving a void which he now steps in to fill).

Pollock’s political motive is clearly visible from his works. To add a cherry on the cake, Pollock actually expressed his dissent over Narendra Modi. He has signed various petitions asking several dignitaries, universities, associations for inviting Modi to certain events and inauguration functions questioning them to reconsider their decision citing the very same reason that many leftists and communists and pseudo-seculars in India have been doing since a decade and a half. His motive is clear from his behavior. Pollock not only wants any Indians to interfere in his so called claims of Sanskrit authority, but also, he doesn’t want any able India minds to challenge a counter narrative. Do we want that aversion for Hinduism to have control over the Sanskrit heritage?

Overall, a well-researched book. Rajiv Malhotra had given hope for the serious Indologist and Sanskritists to take a step back and observe what they are putting themselves into. He has taken a powerful stand on the self-respect of Hindu tradition. Every Hindu should and must join hands with him in facing these atrocity literature producers.

My Rating:
5/5