Reflections

I went into reading The Verdict - Decoding India’s Elections with 0 expectations, anticipation, excitement, and a thirst of knowledge alongwith a concomitant increase in my understanding of my India, and its electoral realities. After reading it, I can honestly state that the anticipation, the excitement was worth it; the thirst of knowledge as well as my understanding or at least appreciation of the Indian Electoral realities and the trendlines has been increased by a significant extent. And yes, it does help us decode the elections! THE BOOK This is a book on, primarily, Elections in   India, Predictors, The art of Analysing, Opinion Polls / Pre-Election Polls / Exit Polls more than anything else. It goes deep into the polls, the method that should be adopted, the method/s that is / are in practice, and the analysis of the same. It gives a detailed explanation alongwith a comprehensive statewise analysis in the process. That said, to be completely honest, the book also ...

Vedant : My Personal Interpretation This is a question I answered on a Whatsapp group; wherein someone asked what is Vedant; the below is my response. It is my interpretation basis my reading of the reference material given in the bibliography Vedant is in simple terms, the path to reach The One God, The Creator. It recognises only the presence of One Creator, known by many names. It mandates a certain lifestyle - mark my words; it is not choice, nor is it force It is a mandate in the sense that without living that lifestyle you cannot progress; as you sequentially move forwards towards adopting the lifestyle, your progress happens on the path, and vice versa. So, an understanding of Vedant requires first an understanding of the lifestyle it requires, mandates. This is a curious thing – it doesn’t mandate in written, but you cannot succeed unless you walk the path with a genuine effort to acquire these qualifications; Vedant - The Lifestyle Vedant places extraordina...

The author of this book – The End Of Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global   Economy – is the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King . After reading this book, I can state that either I know more about Global Markets and Economics than this person, this author; or that this book is just meant as a blatant defence of the Central Banking System, more so the Western Banking System. Frankly, the author looks at Western Banking in isolation, which given the connectivity of Global   Markets, is outright erroneous. Further, the author has tried to   mount a robust explanation of the Crisis of the Economy, and yet has failed to confront the many, many errors that have happened, as clearly documented in other Books, some which have been Reviewed on my blog.   What can I read into this, when someone so clearly knowledgeable and brilliant, ignores such obvious things? THE PLUSES The initial part of the book starts well, with the examina...

Why do we Humans have to have labels as identifiers? Mother, Father, Son,, Husband, Religion, Nationality, Belief System, Designation, Education… and many, many more. These labels are what makes us tick, these labels are what define us; we, all the time, are trained by society to think in terms of labels only. Throughout life, you are either a person of some belief system, someone’s father son daughter husband wife brother employee boss… and more; all the time, every time- society identifies you by an identifier that is external to you; a label… and we, in our ignorance, accept the label as our reality. In time, we not only accept these labels as our reality – we modulate our actions, thoughts and responses as per the label we accept at that point in time. To us, these labels become our reality, our entire existence; this leads us to having a firm belief in, a firm status in, and a rock-solid acceptance plus idenfitication plus unity with these external labels. So complete is ou...

The current book has been on my target for a long time – any title that says “Gandhi, The Management Guru” is sure to be a fascinating read for an avid Gandhian like me, and nothing less than a pilgrimage into the mind of one of the greatest human beings to walk the planet, a true Mahatma in every sense of the word. I cant even say his name – to me, he will always be “The Mahatma”. And that is how I will refer to him here…. The Mahatma.   That said, all things happen at the right time; and having 78 books on my to-read list meant this was in my inbox ever since its launch. In the interim, I managed to read at least 2 other authentic    books    on    The Mahatma, including his Autobiography. For the record, the Autobiography has not been reviewed; I frankly don’t find myself equal to the task of reviewing that great book, a must read for all! I will deviate from my usual review format for this book; regular readers will note that this is r...

Why are we here? And what do we do in our lives? Whoever we may be, whatever we may be, whatever language, caste, race… why are we Humans here on this Earth, in this creation? We are born in pain – and are condemned to die in pain. The mid period, what we – for some strange reason - call “life”, is where we   grow, educate, work, marry, work, retire, and die. In the meantime, we acquire goods which we treasure. We acquire knowledge which we treasure. We acquire a good name which we treasure. And, one day – one day, all of the above – ALL of it, will cease to matter. Why then do we do all of this? For what reason? Take a moment, and think. Our material possessions will one day go to someone else; they aren’t yours, never were and never will be.   You are not getting out of here alive, that much is certain; in fact – it is the only thing that is certain. So- all your treasured possesions – friend, you are not taking them with you. तुम्हारे मेहेल ये सारे यहीं रेह ...

THE LEGENDS OF A STARTUP GUY by PRACHI GARG One does not look to find an entertainer in a Business Book; this category is usually reserved, analytical factual, in depth, serious – several of these, or indeed all of these. But here, this current book – is an out-and-out entertainer. This isn’t a criticism; it is an excellent book indeed, serious, with deep lessons and learnings. But at the same time, it is also an entertainer from page 1, making it a unique book, easily rated 5 stars, a must read book. And not only for Startups; the book   has lessons for all Business. THE BOOK The Book is the story of a fictional startup, told in a indirect implied {not quite so “implied” either, come to think of it!} backdrop of the Sanaatani pantheon of Gods. Yes – you read that right. It has Shiv, Ganesh, Kailash, Srujan, Chintan and more… a complete package. What do they have to do with Startups and/or Business? I shant tell you. Get the book – Sorry! Suffice it to state ...