I have a Dream

Author: Rashmi Bansal
ISBN13: 9789380658384
Edition language: English
Literary awards: none
My Rating: 4/5

I really liked this book. It was so overwhelming to read a piece of work only based on the social service many people have undertaken. This book carries interviews of 20 idealists who have decided to make a change in the world we live in. Some of them have taken social service as a business and make money by applying management principle to it. Some of them belong to the regular class of social workers and yet some others are monks who have taken the path of spirituality.

Reading this book was a very humbling experience. To learn that these people are very ordinary people like us and yet they took the oath of making a change in this world and decided to do so without hesitation actually made me contemplate on what i am doing with my life.

Siddhartha

Author: Hermann Hesse

ISBN13: 9789380005607

Edition language: English

Literary awards: None

My Rating: 3/5

I would not deny the fact that this fiction has wisdom in it but seriously it could not grab my heart. In one line this book is about a boy named Siddhartha who ultimately finds nirvana (or what ever it is) at the end. Thus there is the hero, a Brahman boy, going after a courtesan in search of love, then falling into that kind of a life style and regretting after a long time. Learning from a ferryman about life.... blah blah... seriously speaking there is nothing new that any movie these days does not talk about.


This book was written long back, very long back and seriously back then I am sure this kind of a story might have inspired generations of people, but at this age and time all what is written in this book is totally cliche. I know that lot of people love this book. So please if anyone else has different opinions please enlighten me as I might have missed out something that you probably loved about this book. My opinion is just this: the story in this book has been told in numerous other ways in books/movies. Thus this book really did bore me.

THE DIFFICULTY OF BEING GOOD : on the subtle art of dharma

Author: Gurcharan Das

ISBN: 9780143418092

ISBN13: 9780143418092

Edition language: English

Literary awards: None

My Rating: 5/5

Why be good when being bad is considered to be cool?

Why does always bad things happen to good people?

In a society where people get away by doing bad things, why should people still believe in Non-Violence and Dharma?

Is a "bad person" never good? Does not the "good" sometimes become bad?

Ultimately what is good and bad?

The above questions might have passed through your mind at least once in your lifetime. Thus, what does being good mean? Why be good? It is at this juncture that this book tries to find meaning to the word Dharma by dissecting the characters in Mahabharata one by one and discussing their behaviour patterns. While reading the book, one might often wonder whether a person can be called inherently good or bad? Isn't there a Raavan hiding in each of the righteous Ramas of the world. Or, to put it in the modern version wasn't a part of Voldemort there in Harry Potter himself.

I have never found it so hard to write a review for a book that I absolutely loved. I fear that my review however times edited would not do justice to it. The theme of this book is so close to my heart that after reading the summary given at the back of this book, I just could not hide my happiness in finding a book that talks about some queries that I have had all along my life till now.

For an introvert like me who can easily be outsmarted by others and to have to smile at the same person (cursing myself for my lack of ability to express myself) the theme of this book is relevant in my day-to-day life. The question of "why be good?" has occurred to me many a times in life.

From my experiences in life so far, I have learnt that a person can never be categorized as good or bad. It is difficult to draw a straight line between good karma and bad karma. The matter is subtle: delicately complex. This has been beautifully discussed in this book through various chapters disseminating each character of The Mahabharatha and also including political/corporate figures from everyday news in some places.

Still my favorite chapter is The Krishna's Guile with the tagline "It is the way it is". All through the Gita, "The Krishna" preaches about being righteous but during the Kurukshetra War he makes the Pandavas win by trickery. Duryodhana questions this approach while dying and Krishna replies with a simple "somethings are the way it is". This is my favorite because it helps in finding peace with many situations in life when we fail to find logic in what has happened.

I loved this book and I am sure that this is going to be one of my bibles (books I love and would read, re-read, re-re-read..... and by heart and treasure in life). I would recommend this book to anyone anytime as its relevant in all ages. 

The Winning Way: Learnings from sport for managers

Author: Harsha Bhogle & Anita Bhogle
ISBN: 9380658322
ISBN13: 9879380658322
Edition language: English
Literary awards: None
My Rating: 3/5

Well.... this book is well written. There are lot of examples of how we can learn from sports, which implies that lot of research has been done to write this book. Or maybe the author being well versed in this area knew well what to write.

This book is strictly for managers or the management of any organisation to read. Thus as I picked up this book thinking only about Harsha Bhogle and liking the genre to which this book belonged(self help), I didn't find it helpful for me or rather to give it 5 stars. But that does not mean that this book this not worthy of it.

As I said, this book is well written and good amount of work has been done to write this book. But, it is just that I being not a manager or head of anything (!!!) could not find this book fully appealing. But if anyone who is a head of any organisation reads it, I am sure they would find it interesting and appealing to them. Then, this book will be getting its deserving 5 stars. But, for now only 3 stars from me.

Swarabhedhangal

Author: Bhagyalakshmi
ISBN13: 9788126439348
Edition language: Malayalam
Literary awards: none
My Rating: 4.5/5

This book is an autobiography of a Malayalam dubbing artist. She has secured numerous awards for her profession and is one of the few people who came to this field when the existence of such a field was not known to many.

She has had to remove a lot of thorns to make her life and in this auto-biography she goes into each of her experiences in life. Her father died when she was 3 years old and thereafter she had to grow up in an orphanage. Her mother was a cancer patient and died when she was 6 years old. There after she grew up under the protection of her mother's elder sister. After this aunt's death she had to undergo torture from her mother's younger sister. thereafter she leaves that house.

Her life does not stop throwing stones at her even then. Her marriage ended up in divorce with 2 kids. She falls in love at middle-age and looses it later. Life is a series of ups and downs for this lady. She has emerged from all this and more as a very independent and successful lady. I salute you madam!!!

This is a good inspiring book. some parts may seem being repeated but still the experiences in life of this lady is heart-melting. happy reading!!!

It Happened In India: The Story of Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Central and the Great Indian Consumer

Author: Kishore Biyani
ISBN: 8129111373
ISBN13: 9788129111371
Edition language: English
Literary awards: none
My Rating: 3.5/5

here are some points i felt about this book.

* good book for entrepreneurs to learn about the retail business.

* liked kishore biyani's attitude.

* felt that the book in itself is an advertising strategy to get the big bazzar to reach more people.

* pretty much the same stuff going on and on again about how he tried to reach out to the public and indianize his brands.

* easy to read language.

* a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes are present.

the book explains about how kishoreji's businesses were established. but the last few pages were what i really enjoyed reading. the last few chapters deals with the idea of living, success, failure etc in kishoreji's point of view. he also explains the way he mentored himself by reading numerous book.