BRAToSPHERE

Tag: book

  • A matter of Rats – Book Review

    Amitava Kumar. The name demands respect. and book with his name on the blurb commands immediate attention and possibly a call to action. To read it immediately.

    As soon as i had discovered this book, at an airport book store i guess, i knew i had to read it. It was written by Amitava Kumar, and about such a personal narrative. his own town. Patna. And with my connection with Bihar i just knew i would be interested.

    On my recent March trip to Bihar, i got to see live what it is like, in the hinterlands. My travels there allowed me to travel across the villages in Taxi’s and general trains. A life full of hope is all that i could see. Aspiration builds in right from childhood. A hard internal desire to get out of the place i guess. And Education gets unparalleled attention by far. Post the trip, i read through the book just to realise that there is much more to Bihar.

    The rather obscure title of the book – “A matter of Rats” gives you the sense that it is going to be interesting. I had long back read about this interesting downtrodden community in Bihar called the Musahari’s, or Rat Eaters. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCAoBjfaEbE gives you a better picture. (Do not watch if you get disgusted easily).

    Amitava here talks about rats in a myriad ways as part of lives of people in Bihar. The chapter skilfully manages to evoke the chaos, filth and the stark reality in the lives of people there. The other chapters talk about life in Rural Bihar and Patna and their vagaries.

    The small short book is a easy read and in all the chaos and the myriad ways of life, this book stands out to bring the stark world of Bihar – a state of colossal failure and chaos. It is not only the past of Bihar that is in ruins.

    The book is narrated from three perspectives – one, people like you and me, who are city bred and after completing studies have moved out of the state. Second, is of people who due to lack of proper education have not been able to do very well, but have still managed a decent life by escaping out of the state, and third is of people who are still there out of compulsion and disdain and continue with their own way of life.

    Overall, this book does not stand out as one of the best from Amitava and looks more like a string of essays put together with a common theme of Bihar. It could be a newspaper series.

    But yes, it stands out as one of the finest narratives in English language on Bihar. (Probably because there is so little written about the state in English litereature)

  • The Seeker – Book Review

    I remember reading Karan Bajaj’s books many years back. Sometime in 2009 i think. Keep off the Grass was a fresh campus story, unlike the wave of the other semi-autobiographical love stories in campus books that did the rounds back then. I also read his second book after the first one, and was mildly disappointed. Whoom! Karan vanished since then. He was not on the blogosphere, and no book released for long.

    And then, sometime last spring, i saw a Facebook ad with Karan, and immediately got reading. Coming up to his life, and his new blog made it feel like meeting a long lost friend. Then i got to know about the new book, and immediately knew i had to read it. More so with the subject of the book being in my realm of interests – spirituality and finding self.

    The seeker (published as “The Yoga of Max’s discontent”), like the title of the book is the story of Max. A hot shot investment banker who is confused in life and his quest for the inner self takes him on a tour of a lifetime.

    After a devastating event in new York, Max is inspired to travel to India to seek the inner truth of life and sets off on a journey. The Himalayas are the obvious suspect and Max lands up at the foothills. Without a plan, nor practise, Max endures a near fatal trip to the hills and then realises that the way to ultimate truth is not so straight forward.

    The story now takes him to Mumbai, the underbelly of the country for a plot which seems force fit to fill in a force fit physical intimacy scene. A quick chapter in Mumbai and then the hero moves on to a non descriptor location somewhere in Tamil Nadu in Southern India. This is where the plot thickens up. The daily struggles in the ashram, ripping off the basic beliefs and shaking up the core necessities we all take for granted is a revelation.

    Here, with the fear of being a spoiler, i need to mention the part where Max has an argument with his Guru regarding the food sharing part and then has a bigger realisation of how the same food can be used for a larger purpose. The entire plot in the ashram makes one feel as if you are physically present there while this was happening. It manages to transport the reader to a different world altogether.

    The climax is where the book takes a peak and ends on a high with the basic simplicities of life explained. This was the KungFu Panda moment, where the reader realises the truth lies within ourselves. Would not dwell any deeper to avoid spoiling the experience of reading it.

    Karan’s writing is lucid, and following his blog makes one feel how sorted the person is. The fact that this book was written on a sabbatical makes it all the more inspiring.

    Overall, a must read for anyone even faintly interested in the funny thing we call, Life.

  • Predictably Irrational – Book Review

    Economics for the masses. This is how I classify this book. Freaknomics made this genre famous, and introduced millions into the everyday Economics.

    Having said that, this is not a book on Economics. Don Ariely, the author, has this unique style of writing which makes one feel that he knows him for years. This is like a friend talking to me about my own irrational behavior.

    A psychologist might scoff at this book, writing it off as another take by a behavior economist into people’s behavior and predicting that by testing decision making empirically. The basic assumption that Humans behave rationally is questioned by the Psychologists and this is the base premise of this book.

    One important takeaway from the book is the importance of Money, or rather the lack of it, in influencing people’s behavior. It is re-iterated by multiple examples that Money is the most expensive way to incentivize and social norms and society pressure acts as a better incentive. The basic thing we grapple with on a daily basis – Actual vs. Perceived value.

    One other important message derived in this book is the fact that most of us are somewhere deep within a little dishonest. We would not dare steal money openly from others, but when there is a layer in the middle, it lowers our inhibition. Yes, that guilt free extra tea bag in a hotel room does count as dishonesty, if it is not your normal behavior. All corporate frauds and white collar financial hara-kiri is seen from this lens and does offer a convincing insight on why people commit the fraud.

    This book makes us realize all the irrational decisions that we have been making on a daily basis.

    So, now you know why you fall for the extra 5% off on a book on amazon.in, in spite of knowing that you probably do not want to read and will probably never read that book ever again!

    Predictably Irrational!!

  • What i talk about when i talk about running – Book Review

    Haruki Murakami. Counted among the world’s greatest living novelists. This warranted enough interest to immerse in his world to realize the magic. After going through the entire bibliography of his English translated books, I picked this one up hoping to further motivate myself to prepare to run a marathon.

    The person is Inspiring. After all the respect I had gained reading about his books and achievements, he left me awestruck when I discovered that he has completed an ultramarathon!

    This book is like a memoir of the author’s running hobby (appears like a serious profession in the way it is done!) and his thoughts while running. The book is about the influence running has had on him as a person and thus on his writings.

    The book details out his preparation and his thoughts during various important runs of his life. I particularly like the parts of the book when the author talks about specific events, like the original marathon course in Greece or his preparation for the triathlon.

    Running and Writing, both require discipline and considerable amounts of self drive and motivation to keep one going. They are both lonely professions to talk about, and that is where personal reflections help the best. As individualistic pursuits, these pursuits allow you to have complete control to chart your own territory and define your own boundaries.

    As an aspiring marathoner, I could totally relate to the various experiences and the thoughts that have been detailed here.

    The author is a gifted writer is a known fact now globally. His sheer simplicity and the easy narrative wins hundred percent points.

    A must read for anyone with even a slight interest in Running or literature (The fact that you have reached reading till here indicated your interest!), should read this book. Off I am, to get my hands on the remaining books by the author.

    Suggestions, anyone?

  • Design to Grow – Book Review

    With Coca-Cola in the title of the book itself, this book got into my must read section. That the book is on the design process within the company and outside raised my curiosity and I immediately started reading this book on my pad.

    The world is no more as we knew it, so would say the old timers. For a 125 year old company like Coca-Cola many things have changed and evolved, except maybe for one thing – the uniquely great taste of Coca-Cola. Not many people know the complexity behind the powerfully innocent fizzy drink. There is obviously more to the world’s largest beverage company than the fizzy drink that bears its name.

    The book is not about design, as the conventional design that we know of. It details the concept that design thinking is not for the specialists alone! It is something that can, and should, be applied by anyone in the organization to get through almost any challenge. It is not a cosmetic change applied, but a methodology of integrating different disparage items into a well-oiled orchestra, to produce a symphony. Design is about bringing in cohesiveness amidst the entire chaos.

    The book is filled with anecdotes of how little changes done at the elementary background level made huge impact. Among many examples, my favourite is the one on “Design Machine”. As a regular user of the tool, it intrigues me that why could someone not think of this earlier. As a matter of fact, it is still not implemented at most of the major MNC’s I know of. Such simplicity with such wide scale system wide impact, removing layers of redundancy and saving on costs, bringing in agility in the execution.

    Agility. A key trait of a startup and a desired quality by every organization worth its salt. The author suggests planning backward for agility. Instead of the normal process of planning and then measuring its results, start with results and then form your plans around it.

    The design with purpose process can create real substantial value only when scale and agility are combined, and this achieved with the power of Design.

    A good book for anyone interested to know the workings of a company and a must read for startups.