Author: Anonymous
Publisher: Grey Oak/Westland
Price: 175/-
Pages: 175
This book caught my attention especially due to the interesting title and a more interesting the anonymous author. The book is a story of a small but ambitious accountant, Hitesh Patel, in a large audit firm, who gets into the maze of political & corporate sleaze to rise to the stardom as the rising youth icon, and entrepreneur. The story takes dramatic turn with Hitesh where he is finding to firm his feet in the new founded success while trying to find a worthy life partner.
While rising to all the success, Hitesh’s world turns upside down, when he gets trapped in a political turmoil involving his company amidst a corporate scam, a murder and a falling government. A time where all his friends and his well wishers turned their back on him, leaving him to face this all alone. This is story of a boy with middle class values and ambition to fight and survive all this sleaze, his story of finding true friendship and love in life.
The simplicity of the book works very well for the reader and the characterizations are well done. The pace of the story is really fast and the author doesn’t take too much time get to ravel the plot, the events unfold at a pace that the author manages to retain the reader’s interest throughout the story. The only downside with the book I felt was that it climaxed a bit early, the unravelling of the plot happened a bit too quickly. I was hoping some details and further characterization would be in place to show the strength of the character of the protagonist. Overall the book is a light hearted spicy page turner covering corporate and young middle class ambitions. A very good read for the someone looking to experience the new age Indian literature.
Summary: A good book with new look at the corporate world and the world of sleaze and political funding in corporate. A light and interesting read, must pick up for someone looking for a book to read during travel.
Rating: 7.5/10
PS: I have changed my rating scales from 5 to 10 to ensure I can have better reflection on books which are very close
Tags: Books, Corporate, Life, Love, Philosophy
I think this commercial totally cuts across the human mindset. I could so much relate to the fact that how we can get so involved with our future aspirations that we always forget to indulge and enjoy the present. The fact that aspirations keep on rising and so does our age; sometimes we find that the time has simply passed and we didn’t even had a glimpse of how it.
Recently I celebrated my 30th birthday, which made me realize that it has been a long time since I have been gracing the mother earth with my esteem presence. I feel that I too have been responsible for trying to run the rat race behind the perfect life. It started from the first position in the class to percentages in the board examinations, lead me to fight for an engineering seat and then an MBA degree. When I thought the fight was over it started all over again for the high paying jobs, better designation, buying a car and a house. And after all that it still continues for a better car, second home, exotic vacations, larger pay checks, and still larger egos. I was wondering is it all that my life has been about? Are these the things which define me, me as an individual as a person? Are these the most significant things in my life?
Surprisingly the answer to all the above questions is a big NO, surprisingly these things are which matter the least. If you have made the right choices and been sincere to what you have done in life, sooner or later all these things fall into the place. What make the life different is how you made the people around you feel, and how the people touched you and your life? The fact that you have felt love and friendship in your life; the feeling where you know with or without the “social perks” you would still be loved and cherished for who you are make all the difference in the world.
I can’t help feeling so blessed and lucky to have felt all of the above in these 30 years. On this birthday, Wifee and my friends planned a surprise where they all will come at 12 in the night to wish me. They meticulously planned almost every detail and people re-arranged their schedule to make it at the right time. Now, being one smart a** that I am, I had already got a whiff and was able to predict almost what was being planned by Wifee & the friends. As soon as they all gathered outside the hall, Wifee had left the door unlatched when everybody dashed in startling me while wishing Happy Birthday. It was such an over whelming moment and a very happy one too. Life is not worth without love & friendship surrounding you to make you feel special.
Though I claimed that it was my instincts and eye for detail that I actually was able to guess they were coming. But one thing which I didn’t confess was that more than the instincts and eye for detail it was my longing and faith in them that helped me do it. I was so sure that neither the Wifee nor my friends would let my birthday go by without making me feel special. I guess it was my anticipation of them as a part of my life and my trust in them, which they not only kept but also pushed it higher than I could have thought, that made me sense their plans.
So there was a bash and a lot of fun, and yes I was not surprised as the Wifee and the friends have expected it. But then sometimes not being surprised can be much more rewarding and comforting than anything else in the world. Having a Wife who would love you beyond you can imagine, having friends who can make a dull evening to a bright sunshine. With pleasures like these life is good and then sometimes we add a little extra chocolate cake to it.
So another year has ended, 2011 was good for me personally and professionally. I became a published author, had some great personal high moments, got a promotion, was recognized and appreciated for the hard work that I had put in throughout the year. All in all a year which was well spent some joys, some regrets but still full of life. However, this blog got grossly neglected during this year which is one of the regrets of 2011.
As I have already written I despise the general idea of the new year for my own reasons. However, after moving to Bangalore and living with the family I have started having our own kind of celebrations. Every New Year we identify a resort or a hotel on outskirts or weekend getaways in Bangalore and stay there for couple of days celebrating the New Year. We had a blast, spending the evening by the riverside enjoying the scenic beauty, a bit of dance, a bit of teen patti, antakshari and loads of fun. Here are some pictures I clicked of the place we visited.
So coming back to the New Years, the most prominent tradition in New Years for me are the resolutions. I love doing New Year resolutions and then trying to follow it all throughout the year. Last year I made multiple visits to Coimbatore with my boss, in one of these trips my boss inquired if I would mind listening to a discourse by his spiritual guru. I mean no matter how disinclined you are spiritually but you cannot say no to your boss; so I agreed (in my defense all my colleagues travelling with us agreed too). He then played a discourse called Dinacharya which was old I guess given on last eve of 2007, where his guru TT Rangarajan discussed the concept of Dinacharya and emphasized on promising to oneself on doing something for 365 days a year and then keeping that promise. The discourse was inspiring and visionary which challenged one to push the limits, and it would be an understatement to say that I was really impressed. Though I haven’t joined the institution but I have the Discourse with me and I keep hearing it once in a while to find self inspiration. If you are looking a spiritual, practical and yet inspiring way to keep yourself motivated you should try listening to that discourse. I have decided that the following activities would be my new year resolution which I would be try and accomplish this year.
1- I will do some form of physical exercise everyday of the year, minimum 15 minutes every day. This can be walking, gym, running, playing or anything else but at least 15 minutes every day.
2- I will update this blog at least four times every month.
3- I will update my professional blog at least once a month.
4- I will learn to play Tennis this year. By the end of this year I should be able to play tennis in the full court without a handicap.
5- I will be more responsive on my personal email. I will reply to any email I get on a working day within the same day.
So these are my New Year resolutions which I would try and follow religiously, what are yours?
Tags: Celebrations, Philosophy, Photography
Author: Sidin Vadukut
Publisher: Penguin Books
Price: 199/-
Pages: 240
I had reviewed Sidin’s first book Dork some time back, if you haven’t read about it you can read it here. I have been following Sidin on his blog (which he hardly updated these days) and twitter (which is a frequently updated medium) since a long time. In his writing, Sidin has a very distinct sarcastic style humor which clearly, is his forte and he has succeeded to bring out some of the best of his humor in “God Save The Dork”.
This book is a sequel to Dork, which was the story of Robin Einstein Varghese, a dumb consultant who makes it huge on sheer luck and coincidence in a consulting firm. The sequel is based out of London where Robert is on secondment for a consulting assignment for a global bank. The story keeps taking interesting turns with every disaster Robin faces starting from exploring the British culture to presentations over wireless microphones, fraud executives and SEC investigation.
The book again takes a hard jibe on the management consulting industry and the practices it follows, the story is interesting filled with unpredictable events and disasters which keep our protagonist on his toes. The book is a light read with humor generously spread across the evenly paced story, there is no intense track which would force you to think but then the jokes and tragedies on Robin Einstein Varghese would ensure you never have a dull moment while reading the book.
Summary: A great light hearted humor book which one could enjoy laughing over those highly paid management consultant and their ways. A must read if you have been related to the management consulting industry.
Rating: 4/5
Author: Neeraj Chhibba
Publisher: Rupa
Price: 140/-
Pages: 257
I had reviewed Neeraj’s first book Zero Percentile around two years back. I liked that book and thought it was a really good attempt at the story telling. When I saw his second book I knew that I had to read it and hence I got my hands on Zero Percentile 2.0 Missed IIT Kissed Gurgaon. This is the sequel to his first book and takes off from where the first book got over. Pankaj is back from Russia and Motu, Priya, and Nitin are out of college, moving to the next phase of life.
The story is woven around entrepreneurship where all the friends come together to start a software consulting company. The story is woven across the professional conflicts and personal relationships where marriages and friendships are compromised on the altar of ambition and values. The story focuses on a multiple socially relevant issues like, ethics & values in corporate India, AIDS, treatment of special children in our society, and failing marriages due to over ambition; despite all the issues in picture the author maintains the track which is a delight for the reader.
The characterization in the book is good and since Neeraj has maintained the uniformity from the last books the characters are more realistic and create a direct connect with the reader. The pace of the story is something which works very well for the book, the continuous chain of events happening one after the other keeps the reader glued throughout the story. Corporate espionage, cyber attacks and a hostile takeover, if one likes corporate thrillers this would definitely be of interest. Compared to his earlier book this one has a lot of depth and improvisation not only in the plot but also in the method of storytelling. The skewed time frame he has used between the chapters keep the reader informed and aware despite being a bit confusing.
Though the book is an individual and there is no compulsion to read it as a sequel, but there are a few references of the story from the first book which the new readers might miss; given that the sequel is coming after two years it is a bit difficult to recollect the details.
Summary: Overall a great book set up in the emerging entrepreneurs’ corporate; a fast paced and entertaining read.
Rating: 3.5/5
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