Ginger & Cardamom

Srivats did this tag on his blog and it was supposedly on one of the most interesting subjects in my life, Books. So I decided it would be fun to do it. So here I share with you my take on one of my passions, books-

One book that changed my life:
Every book we read affects us in one way or the other. But the books which have had the most impact on me are-

Bhagwad Gita
Richard Bach- One

Select Essays by Bertrand Russel

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Autobiographies of Lee Iococa & Carly Fiorina

The book you have read more than once:

All the books mentioned in the point above and

Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts

Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand

Q&A- Vikas Swarup

Five Point Someone- Chetan Bhagat

Snapshots from Hell: The making of an MBA Peter Robinson

Jonathan Livingstone Seagull & Illusions - Richard Bach

Arthashastra by – Kautiliya

One book you would want on dessert island:
Harry Potter Series

Bhagwad Gita

PG Woodhouse

Ayn Rand Series

One book that made you laugh:

Calvin & Hobes

Haven’t read much in Humor though

One book that made me cry:

None though Oliver Twist & Tuesdays with Morry made me very emotional

One book you wish you had written:

None I wish I would write my own book

One book that you wish had never been written:

Coffee Table Books, I never am able to understand the purpose of Obnoxiously high priced books with fancy pictures. It actually spoils all the purpose of the books existence rather focuses on the kind of money people have.

One book you are currently reading:

The great Secret- Talks on Kabir by Osho

Words of Kabir- Sam Kerwal

Another book on Kabir which just has the title as Kabir

One book you have been meaning to read:

Shivaji: A Hindu Ruler in Mughal India (I can’t read it as it is not available in India, as it is banned)

In the Company of Women - I have read it now, but I actually waited for it so long. The book was in news and controversies and our school library had a copy. I asked to issue it (was in class XII then) and I was refused that it was not meant for us, I actually took it up with the principal that how can a school library has a book which is not fit for class XII students after all it was the senior most class. Anyways was not able to get my hands on it and when I actually got an opportunity to read it, it was 3.5 years later.

So this has been my journey with the books till now. So hows your journey to the wonderful world of books has been? If you are into reading and love your books and find this tag interesting, please feel free to do it.

Ever since I have developed a fascination for books authors have been a part of conversations around me. Until today my perception of an author used to be of some kind of celebrity, some what like the Katrinas and Shahrukhs of the world. We all know they exist and in real, but they seem to live in a different world. When I got an opportunity to attend the book launch (for the first time in my life) in form of an invite for the launch of 34 Bubblegums and Candies, the first book from the author Preeti Shenoy, I grabbed it with both the hands.

My excitement to meet live with an author, who I used to follow through her blog, took me to the destined place well one and a half hours in advance to ensure I didn’t even a single minute of it. I walked in the crosswords and saw her books being displayed on the showcase. I picked the book in my hands and felt the cover page and the back page details which I had been seeing on the website on actual paper as a book. I kept the book down as I didn’t want to read it before the launch actually happened. I wanted to hear the author and her feelings for her first book before diluting her reactions with my own perception of the book.

The launch started at the predetermined time and in came the person who was very much a normal human being and changed my perception of authors. I was expecting someone with a somewhat stylish Brit accent indicating the flawless English usage and pronunciations. A minute of conversation dawned on me the realities of an author. The launch was triggered by her introduction and a welcome note by the crosswords team.  

The launch was presided by Anuja, sharing the dais with Preeti, who in words of Preeti herself is one of the most energy spreading people she knew and also fostered a passion for Preeti’s writings. She started her address with the answer to the question which was haunting everyone’s mind, what made her traverse the journey from being a blogger to becoming an author. She talked about how a sudden and unfortunate turn of events made her realize the value of every days in her life and more the value of our life being lost every day because we fail to live up to it. She also added how the snippets or experiences of our lives are perfect analogies with bubblegums and cadies and helped her derive the name and concept of her book 34 Bubblegums and Candies.  

Preeti concluded with reading an excerpt from the book. After which another excerpt was read by Anuja and her experience with the author and how she could correlate with the book and could swan how the every bubblegum and candy in the book has come out straight from the heart of the author. The ceremony was drawn towards the end with some games and an interactive question answer session with the author herself. The ceremony marked it closure with the signing of the books by the author.

What stole the entire show and made it so special for the guests and the author herself was the gesture by Atul & Purvi, for whom the author is a full-time devoted mother of two. They made very cute little bookmarks for the guests present in the launch and personalizing them for each one of them. You can read about the entire effort put in by the kids here, by Preeti herself. I being the lucky one got one of the bookmarks, which says “Dear Prateek, Thanks for buying my mom’s Book.  By Atul and Purvi”

@ Atul & Purvi: The bookmark is awesome. I will always keep it with me to remind me of you two.

Attending this book launch was an amazing experience for me specially to realize how the heart of an author goes in every page of the book to actually make it happen. How some unfortunate incidents can be changed by a person’s outlook to create something positive and meaningful out of them.  There were lot of moments where I could actually connect with the author and also feel the inspiration and inhalation out of the book. The most engaging part of the ceremony was when Preeti read a chapter on Radiators & Drains. She talked on glimpses of people around us, how there are radiators who emit constant positive energy spreading a feel good around us and then there are drains which actually feed on our own energy and exist only to pull us down. The chapter concluded on how one should surround himself with Radiators and avoid drains. This one was a certainly the bubble gum for me, I have been thinking of it since the moment I have heard it and read it and then re-read it.

Two questions which actually float my mind are not about radiators and drains around me. The question is about me am I a radiator or a drain? If I need can I change myself to be one or the other by efforts or being a radiator or drain is imbibed through our genes? And more importantly is a radiator emitting energy at all points of time in all moods and in all situations? I have my own perceptions to these questions but no definite answers. I am not sure if there are any.

P.S.: I have read the whole book cover to cover already within 2 hours of the launch. Initial feedback is if you like non fiction without any storyline; this one is worth reading and every word of it. A detailed review will come later after chewing the multiple bubblegums & digesting the sweet candies.

 

Book Binge

Read the following books during 5th May & 31st May-

1- Almost Single
2- 3 Mistakes of My life
3- Arranged Marriages
4- iWoz
5- Six Thinking Hats
6- Mirza Ghalib -Biography
7- Banker to The Poor
8- If god was a Banker

The 3 Mistakes of My Life

Warning: This post contains Spoilers

Chetan Bhagat is one author I have always respected and adored. And the respect doesn’t comes because of any great pieces of literature he has written with enlightening people with a lot of new perspective of life but because he brought to life the habit or the joy of reading to what I would call Indian masses, specially the youth. His art of story telling is such amazing that the audience can actually correlate so much with the characters that they find it irresistible to keep the book down. It made them wonder as they were a part of story and the readers voraciously turn the pages to live a bit more of the characters. Even his second book was very good. Now that his third book was very much awaited and obviously very high hopes pinned to it.

I bought the book yesterday as soon as it was available on stores yesterday. Last time I saw such a craze and the volume of books being sold was for last book in the series of Harry Potter. However I brought the book and read it in a single stretch of 3 hours. The book is very typical Chetan Bhagat; an Indian setting in an easy and flowing language. The book is very well written in terms of ease, readability and flow of story throughout the book.

The story is setup in a backdrop of Gujrat, the mail lead of the story Govind is a guy who tries to commit suicide and emails his suicide note to the author. The author traces him from far across the world and comes to meet him. The story continues in the flashback completely. Here again like Five Point Someone the main character Govind takes a back seat as his friend takes a stronger role as Ish. The story is setup in the backdrop of Gujrat Earthquake and then Riots.

The characters have been well etched out and the overall read is quite good but the book lacks the sharpness of Five Point Someone. Somehow it looks to be half baked and looses finishing touch. Till the first mistake when Earthquake happens the reader remains at the edge of the seat and feels the passion of the three guys to grow the business. But after that the struggle to resurrect and low paced second mistake and third mistakes are too late in the plot and sometimes reader looses touch with the characters. And actually most of the events in the second half of the book were quite predictable and made the reader feel monotonous at times.

Chetan has tried to put in a lot of stuff and issues in one single book through one single story politics, passion, greed, hatred, and cricket however the mark that is left by the book is not so strong. Despite touching on such steaming topics like politics & religion through cricket but still it lacks that joi de vivre in the story.

Ps. I understand that it is unfair for this book to be compared to Five Point Someone but I believe it is Chetan’s Own Benchmark

The Tipping Point: How Little Things can make a big difference.

I completed tipping point yesterday night and I must say it is a fascinating experience to read this book. It talks about the epidemics, in general the mechanism by which a normal situation turn into epidemic. It talks about how very small things add together creating such a huge difference. Malcom Gladwell describes tipping point as the magical moment when an idea, trend or social behaviour crosses a threshold, tips and spreads like an epidemic. He says that there are three important laws which make an idea tip. The first one he calls as the law of few, in which he describes how important are the people who are part to spread the idea. He says that for an idea to spread it should be passed through some special kind of person in the society called connectors, mavens and salesman. These are the people with wide and influencing social contact. These are either people with large sphere of acquaintances and friends, those who are respected for their and the general people prefer following their opinions. The second law he calls as stickiness factor. The stickiness is the concept that if an idea is heard by a person then he or she should be able to remember it.. He talks about some TV show designed for kids called sesame street which tipped because its content stuck to the kids. Then finally he acknowledges the power of context where he says that the situation of the passing of the idea is also very important. He talks about the normal human attitude of attributing the characteristics as a whole without considering the situations. For ex we say a person X is honest, we mean that he is honest with friends, family etc. It's not necessary that he will be honest at work too. Then he talks about the group dynamics and the magical number 150. He talks about the fact that in any group if there are more that 150 people then they all won't be knowing each other individually. That's the capacity limit of the human brain, and he explains how this is being used in business for competitive advantage. Then finally with the help of two case studies he concludes that for an idea to tip and to become an epidemic it's required that all the small things discussed are the ones which make a major impact.
Overall the book was a very good read. Though it became a bit boring and monotonous at some instances but things were well explained. There were a few problems specially for an Indian like me to relate to the concepts which were duly explained with the help of the US TV show which is difficult to relate to any example in India. But the essence was clear. The cruise through the 259 pages of the book was really a very enriching experience. Adieu.