Rahul Writes

Books V2

The old man & his God

This one from Sudha Murthy is just another book from her. And she is a genius ' for her nobleness and honesty packaged in her simplicity. It tells stories of the common Indians ' painting all their beautiful and ugly faces. All are real life stories. Like the man who 'used' his cancerous son to beg and made lakhs of rupees, and in the end left him die; the old man in the temple who declined to take a 100 rupee note; the mother who couldn't part with her infant girl child; father who donates medicines and son who asks for publicity; the wife who led a 'perfect' life and ended up being treated for depression, and so many other real-life stories which make us reflect our inner self. At Rs 150, this is a perfect gift to yourself, and then to family and friends.

The Secret

I avoided this book by Rhonda Byrne for long, since I hate anything gives impression of craving for publicity and which rides on the herd-mentality of others. Now, I read every page of this book. It is such a simple book and tells the 'secret' which we all practice in some way or the other ' the fact that like attracts like and if we 'think' good, good things will come to us. So if I love others, I will also get loved. But there is a catch. If I repeat weight-loss all the time, then I will end up growing fat, since life neglects the accompanying words and will hear only 'weight'. So, we should do 'positive' and not 'avoid negative'. At Rs 550, the book sells more on our curiosity than the real stuff. But who didn't realise: common sense is the most uncommon thing these days?

Brida

This latest book by Paulo Coelho is again a near-master piece. This book is all about 'soul mates'. The main concept is that our soul takes rebirth in this world ' and some times our souls divide into two parts. And hence our soul mates are also somewhere in this world and we may or may not see them. The aim of our life is to recognise them and meet them. But since it is very much possible that more than one of our soul mates are present around us, we would have to go through much suffering if we happen to know two of our soul mates. ((Now, whole of this soul mate thing has been explained in the reincarnation theories with much more simplicity ' that we take birth with many of our past-life friends and family members around us ' but in different roles. And hence my wife may come as my teacher in this birth.)) ((And in psychology, this can be explained by our stereotypes and mental impression of good and bad people that we form unconsciously.)) For Paulo Coelho to come up with this theory of soul mates is surprising. And many more surprising things are scattered here and there. Overall, it is again a very good book by the author. Paulo Coelho has the ability to mix divinity with drama, sacredness with chickens and is the best fiction writer in our present generation. At Rs 295, this best seller is for the Paulo Coelho fans; the beginners can start with some other books from his fold.

Romeo and Juliet

I read the abridged version of this famous Shakespearean play for the first time now. The story starts of how Romeo was in love with a girl who had rejected him. And he remained a sorrow face until he sees Juliet who is the daughter of their enemy. Shakespearean characters always fall in love at the first sight. So Romeo and Juliet also fell in love just by seeing each other. And in the tragic developments of the story line riddled with miscommunication and misunderstandings, both had to do suicides in each other's memory. Good that now I know about Romeo and Juliet: better late than never :)  

PS: You know Vaidehi? There was some problem, her blog posts and friends list vanished. Can you add her as friend again? Here is the link: [Vaidehi]

Books V2

Self help

The Coward's guide to conflict

This book has a very interesting topic. It claims to have "empowering solutions for those who would rather run than fight and win". And it starts with a quote from Ken Blanchard, "If you are a coward like me when it comes to conflict, then this book would be perfect for you. I now appreciate the need for conflict, and I am getting even better dealing with it".

But the book doesn't deliver what it promised.

"Many times our first response to an upset individual is to quite our voice and stay calm. Does this really calm the other person down? In most cases it doesn't have a calming impact because the person feels like you don't understand how upsetting the situation is to him.

A better approach is to match the intensity (voice volume, rate, etc) of the conversation without verbally attacking, and then slowly soften your voice."

This is the only take-away from this book for me; though I am not sure if I would really shout the next time :) As such the book is written in a lucid way, with lots and lots of practical examples and real life situations. But what it lacks is to prove that those many examples were worth the effort in reading them.

Good one, if you are interested in the topic, have plenty of time to read, and don't expect miracles.

Kumar Rahul Tiwary

Book: The coward's guide to conflict

Author: Timursiny

Publication: Magna publications

Price: Rs 175

Edition: 2003

Amazon: [Link]

Rediff Shopping:[Link]

Books V2

Spiritual

Messages from the masters

Dr. Brian Weiss' first book 'Many lives many masters' was an eye opener. I had written about it once. Dr. Brian, through his scientific finds came to know and prove that we all are souls who take re-births. This book is also in the series and goes one step further. I will just put some excerpts from the book:

~*~

The concept of reincarnation explains and clarifies our present life relationships. Often events in the distant past are still influencing current relationships.

We choose our parents, who usually are souls with whom we have interacted in prior lifetimes.

Even before her birth (i.e. when she was in the womb), she was able to observe and evaluate hairstyles.

Babies and young children are often aware of the loving spirits or energies around us, but their communication skills are limited. We adults tend not to believe them, relegating their observations and perceptions to the realm of imagination and fantasy. Yet what they are aware of is often very real.

When we die and our souls progress to higher dimensions, we take our behaviours, our deeds, our thoughts, and our knowledge with us.

We all know about the skills of some of the seers and clairvoyants of the East, such as Paramhansa Yoganand, but people with similar abilities also exist in the Western world.

Spirits as well as people are of many levels. Those of the lower levels can transmit misleading or even harmful messages, usually to people of limited mediumistic ability or lack of proper spiritual development.

Happiness comes from within. It is not dependent on external things or on other people. Never give your power to anyone else.

~*~

Book:                Messages from the masters

Author:             Dr. Brian Weiss

Publication:       Piaktus

About author:    www.brianweiss.com

Rediff Books:     [Link]

Books V2

Business / Management

Key Business Concepts ' a concise guide

When I had started the category Terms and Fundas , I had in mind explaining the terms which are more frequently used in business management and which non-professionals find difficult to understand. This book intended to do exactly that. It says, "Key Business Concepts provides a clear guide to strategic business terms and models for the practicing manager and business student".

But after going through it, it seems the author who was a president of a consultancy firm, got diverted and forgot the SMART formula. The terms he explains are as simple as: leadership, development, competition, culture, etc; though in the later half of the book he tries to make up by explaining some models like BCG Matrix. But he doesn't explain the terms as he should have, to a layman. Plus most of the latest terms in vogue in business are missing. He tried to explain simple terms in non-simple way. This may be explained by the fact that the book is a translation from Swedish.

Not recommended. Interested should find some similar book on the theme, or I can write one :)

Book:        Key business concepts ' a concise guide

Author:     Bengt Karlof

Publisher: Routledge

Price:        Rs 150 (1993 edition)

Amazon Link with reviews and details: [Link]

Books V2

Business / Leadership

Men of Steel

Vir Sanghvi is one of the most famous contemporary journalists in India. When HT's Mumbai edition was launched in 2005, Vir carried out a leadership series of articles covering India's great business leaders talking about their personal life. This book covers eleven such Men of Steel, namely, Ratan Tata, Nandan Nielani, KM Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Azim Premji, Subhash Chandra, Uday Kotak, Bikki Oberoi, Nusli Wadia and Vijay Mallya.

Thanks to this book that now I know how Vijay Mallya had to live like an upper-middle class boy when the family of his father's other wife enjoyed the super riches, why Nusli Wadia was associated with the BJP and what was his conflict with Dhirubhai, how Bikki Oberoi (East India Hotels) didn't do anything till 32, how Uday Kotak fought to collect Rs 30 lakh to start his business, how Subhash Chandra almost lost his empire to Star Plus, how Azim Premji is as passionate about soaps as about softwares, how Rajiv Chandrasekhar separated his family disputes from business ones, how Sunil Mittal made one of India's finest companies from scratch, how KM Birla turned his 8000 crore company (1995) into 34000 crore (2005), how Nandan Nilekani started to create a 'un-Marwari company', and how Ratan Tata became Ratan Tata.

One thing that comes out after reading all these great leaders is their humility. Ratan Tata is a very shy man. He is even said to be 'a loner and unable to make friends'. Sunil Mittal doesn't take any credit for his Airtel, but says he was just 'chosen by God' to do all this. Nandan Nilekani was an 'unattached' person, he admits, "I was told that my approach to life was too cerebral. I was told that I was too much of an observer. If I was going to lead an organisation then I needed to show passion." Kumar Birla, during the interview kept saying, "What is to ask me?", and after some time said "this is so boring". Also, he blushed and seemed awkward when recalling how BITS Pilani people hero-worshiped him. And Azim Premji's children travel economy class

A very good book for those who want to know 'more' about these leaders. It is not a collection of biographies. Also good for those who want to get a glimpse of corporate India's true flag bearers.

Book:        Men of Steel: (India's business leaders in candid conversation with Vir Sanghvi)

Author:     Vir Sanghvi

Publisher: Roli books

Price:        Rs 295

Kumar Rahul Tiwary

Books V2

Business / Women's Studies

America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers

The bottom-line of this book, which the author has rightly put up as the first chapter is: women are the largest pool of untapped talent in the US, and if the US companies have to remain competitive, they have to utilize this resource more and more and see women managers in top positions. The author calls this "America's Competitive Secret".

She goes through the whole psyche of the issue. She finds that male managers have 'command and control' as their leadership style, while women have 'interactive' style. She says, the days of the command and control leadership style are over, and today's organisations need interactive style for their survival and prosperity. She also talks about 'Sex role expectations' and 'sex role spill over'. And how women react to the discrimination: denial, collusion, acceptance, challenge, and flight.

As such, when I started reading this, I thought the author was really biased towards women, or against men. Yes, she had an agenda: she wanted to prove that it was indeed important for corporate America to tap women's talent. But throughout the book, she analysed things fairly and was reasonable in her arguments. And she is honest. Read this what she says about herself: "I graduated from UCLA un 1951 with a major in sociology. Why sociology? Because like most women in those days, I had no career plans. I didn't like math or science, and sociology seemed a good major as any. Like other women, I went to college to broaden my horizons and find a husband ." And she was honest throughout the book. Another example of rational and just analysis: "I hear reports from female professionals who feel that women leaders treat other women managers poorly. Interestingly, one study has found that women who inherit companies rather than work their way to the top don't treat women subordinates well or promote women to management positions."

The book has numerous examples, how women managers were discriminated against, kept out of the loop, offended, just because they were women. And all examples have employee names, designations and organisation names.

A good book to broaden your horizons :)

Book:        America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers

Author:     Judy B. Rosener

Publisher: Oxford paperbacks

Price:        Rs 475

Amazon Link with reviews and details: [Link]

PS: You can read this book free here: [Link] Thanks to google Books!

Books V2

Social Studies

Everybody loves a good drought

Written by P. Sainath, a freelance journalist, this book tells the real life stories of India's poor. He made tours of India's poorest districts during his fellowship from Times of India during 1993-95 and this book is a result of his research.

In the author's opinion, poverty in India is very different from that in countries like Somalia. "Here, you can have the mandatory 2400 or 2100 calories a day and yet be very poor. Many who don't starve, get very inadequate nutrition."

For example, he tells a story of Naupada, Orissa, where in the name of experiment of upgrading the local bulls with higher breed of bulls, they (govt agencies and an NGO) extinct the local Khariar bulls. And out of the artificially inseminated cows, "eight calves were born, very small, useless ones".

He tells stories of the quacks who hold degrees in Ayurvedic medicine from some forgotten universities and then distribute allopathic medicines and have two quick fixes: to infuse water and give tetracycline injections. He paints the picture of rotten public health system in the rural India. 20% of hospital beds are in rural India, where 80% of Indians live. So still (1995) TB claimed 4.5 million lives a year, diarrhoea about 1.5 million.

About education, read this: 60% of primary schools in India have only one teacher. 50% don't have drinking water facilities, and 85% don't have any toilets. 40% of children who drop out of education system, do so because of economical conditions. 60% of 'general quota', 70% of dalits and 80% of tribal students drop out after class 5, and still the governments are so adamant at pushing reservations in IIMs. No one thinks about primary education it seems.

The book also tells how the government schemes don't reach those whom it is intended to. It talks about water problem, crime, lenders and crooks, displacement and emigration, and whole lot of issues that poor Indians face in their daily life. I got the first edition, published in 1996; I hope new edition has updated statistics. It can go without saying that the state of the poor is still the same in India. The best part of the book is that it is more of a 'real account' and less of statistics. A good one for those interested in the social studies or social work.

Book:        Everybody loves a good draught

Author:     P. Sainath

Publisher: Penguin Books

Price:        Rs 295

Amazon Link with reviews and details: [Link]