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.

Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search For Everything

Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
ISBN: 1408809362
ISBN13: 9781408809365
Edition language: English
Literary awards: Puddly Award for Nonfiction (2008)
My Rating: 4/5

I should say that the book didn't turn out to be as horrible as it seemed after reading some of the reviews in GR. I actually enjoyed reading it a lot, though i would say it was quite boring in some parts.

The book is actually a memoir by the author during a time when she got divorced (a bad time in her life as she describes it) and her life looks shattered. She decides to go on a trip to 3 different places- Italy, India and then Bali (Indonesia).

As the title suggests, Italy is about eating/food, India about praying/meditation/yoga/finding yourself/nirvana and Bali is about finding balance in life.

The Italy part was really enjoyable with pizza from maples, pasta n all kind of food. But when it came to India I found it quite boring/less enjoyable. This part is about her feelings about guru gita and meditation and how she later understands them deeply. You can get disinterested with the never ending explanations. But, when it comes to Bali the novel gets better. Here she learns about balance in life from an old medicine man named Ketut Liyer. and she finally finds her love.

At the end of the book you will end up knowing a lot about the cultures and the people in the 3 places the author visits.

I think what you should remember is that this is a memoir of the author and she has written it quite frankly. There are chances that a reader gets judgmental about her decisions and about her divorce. I think one should just see this as a novel and enjoy reading it rather than give opinions on the author's life.

On the whole it was a good read and I enjoyed the movie too.:-)

The Krishna Key

Author: Ashwin Sanghi
ISBN: 9381626685
ISBN13: 9789381626689
Edition language: English
My Rating: 1/5

I can only say that I somehow finished this book. I started the book with high expectations. Though i haven't read Ashwin Sanghi's earlier books, I had heard good reviews about them. So when i got this book as a gift i decided to read it.

Now, the book is a pure fiction and one should appreciate the author for the extensive research he has done before writing the book. The references for this book is given at the end of the book. In spite of having done all this research i would say that the author could not bring all the information in a more reader friendly way into the book. Or, may be there is more information than the reader can handle. This makes one loose interest in the book after some point.

I started reading this book with an intention of giving it a 4/5 rating. But, as i continued reading, this had to be reconsidered and I ended up giving it a 1/5 which means I didn't like the book. I would like to give a 5/5 rating for the research work the author has put in. But when i think of how the book bored me especially in the second half i think the rating I gave is what it deserves.

Now, coming to the plot, the main character "Ravi Mohan Saini" has a friend "Anil Varshney" who has recovered a base plate and 4 seals that fit in it and has disintegrated it and given it to some close friends including Ravi. The base plate and the seals together makes the Krishna Key and it would open up a secret which was hidden for thousands of years. The story is about how Anil & each of these friends get murdered and Ravi being the suspect of the police feels the need to solve this puzzle.

The whole plot has many twists and turns and too many characters involved. Its more like a Bollywood movie with all the drama in it.

Read the book only if you have the patience to sit through it.