A Journey to Inner Peace

 A Journey to Inner Peace explores the art of living a balanced, harmonious life amidst daily challenges. The book delves into understanding emotions, managing stress, and fostering meaningful relationships while offering practical insights and actionable tips. Drawing from psychological principles, real-life experiences, and timeless wisdom, it guides readers toward self-awareness and emotional resilience. With relatable anecdotes and thought-provoking exercises, it empowers individuals to overcome life's hurdles and rediscover calmness. Whether you're seeking personal growth or simply striving for a more peaceful existence, this book serves as a compass for navigating the complexities of modern life with grace and clarity.

The book is available at https://www.flipkart.com/journey-inner-peace-tranquility-guide/p/itmac7bac57e4af9?pid=9789334208931

Stay in Your Comfort Zone

 Stay in Your Comfort Zone by Jeya Balaji challenges the popular notion that success lies outside your comfort zone. This insightful self-help book explores the value of embracing your comfort zone as a place of happiness, security, and inner strength. Drawing inspiration from thought-provoking anecdotes like the Mexican Fisherman parable and Diogenes' wisdom, the book offers practical advice on navigating risks, avoiding unnecessary struggles, and finding fulfillment in simplicity. Written from an introvert's perspective, it advocates for calm reflection and strategic action to expand one’s potential without succumbing to societal pressures. A refreshing take on personal growth and contentment!

You can find the book at https://www.flipkart.com/stay-your-comfort-zone-finding-peace-familiar-places/p/itmb1513f1760ef7?pid=9789353510961

An idiot who sold a ship

Author: Vijay Walia
Interesting book on self help, inspirational, and a text for sales person. The most I liked in the book is the simplicity. Lots of anecdotes are given from different walks of life. Pictorial presentations are nice. Each chapter is short and crisp, with continuity between the chapters.

Not sure how much depth and stuff this book contains; but definitely worth a quick read or as a light reading.

The author address himself as 'I', 'He' or 'the idiot'. Quite confusing to know which person he is addressing. 'The idiot' mentioned in so many places seems artificial and irritating.

Stocks for the long run

When we think about stock market, immediate images that comes to our mind are ups and down of daily graph, quick money, double in short etc ... also the sad face after the bear attack. Herd mindset rules while chasing the brands and over priced items. The events are perceived more as a random act and hence reducing the trading to that of gambling.

Rare are those try to deduct some sense out of the rush. Observing the money flow and the trend. Those are the ones looking into the fundamentals and the technicals, choosing a method for their own style. They do invest wisely and be peaceful.

The book "Stocks for the long run" is for a person looking for ways to have a smooth sail through the market. The language is very simple for anyone to understand the concepts. Lots of sample data, historical facts, well researched ideas are presented throughout. Author Jeremy J Siegel puts forward many case studies of rise and fall of companies, market crashes, predictions etc.

Ever wondered how the stock exchanges list the companies and categorizes them? This is explained in a nice manner. Also there are methods for filtering out good companies. Those methods are explained along with comparison. The book touches upon other investing tools and checks the historical returns derived from them. Thou major discussion of the book happens at the American financial backdrop, there is a chapter devoted for Indian and Chinese markets and how we will be influencing the world economy.

Would recommend this book to anyone interested in making money through trading.
Btw, by 'long run', the author hints 15 to 20 years :-)

Manage your investment risks and returns

Good old book from early 90s. Concepts and topics discussed are relevant till date. The main theme of the book is to walk through different investment vehicles and study the different types of risks involved in those.

Some of investments analyzed are bonds, preferred stocks, stocks, securities, tangible assets, non marketable investments.
These investments are analyzed from risk point of view, like purchasing power risk, interest rate risk, business risk, financial risk, liquidity risk, reinvestment risk, market risk.

The dynamics of these risk, controlling means, are touched upon.

As a case study, three different motivated investments compared. Emergency fund accumulation, saving for major expense, retirement investing require totally different style of planning and process.

Very good read for anyone into investment. Would suggest to read basic materials and then read this book for risk handling.

Kural 6

I used to read a page from my Kural book. Trying to make it a daily habit. (I remember my grandpa used to do that). Thought I can share 1 kural out of 10 each day. It would be a random one among the 10.
The thing I like in Kural is the abundant wisdom packed in a concise format. Apart from this, we will be able to pick up a subtle message or context out of it. It would be a new dimension to look upon and enjoy. Let me try to show such cases here.

The first chapter is devoted to the god. The sixth couplet talks about virtue and abstainism. May be interpreted as a definition of god, one who has control over the senses and with pure virtue; folks who adapt god's path will have a great life.
Another way to look at this kural is, one who controls the senses and leads a virtuous life will enjoy a prolonged joyous life.

If god was a banker

Very few books fall in the category read-through-in-the-night. This book made it. I thought of reading couple of chapter before sleep, but ended up reading the whole book in the night. The story line was so catchy that there was no break point to leave the book down. Great book!!(Note to self: Never ride bike after a night out; couldn't open eyes while riding)

The book narrates the corporate world and the power struggle in it. Each chapter takes a twist+turn and carries a suspense till the last page. We feel sorry for Swami at many instances. Real life business practises are narrated when required. Adequate eroticity sprinkle to turn the heat on.

As with the recent book, the author, Ravi Subramanian, made his story run through Marina beach and Nariman point - which makes the Indian readers at home.

Few points that didn't vibe well in the book:

• Lack of Stability in characterization. All folks in the play are quite clear, except Sundeep. He swings between extreme intelligent, aggressive guy to a total stupid. Many a time he does senseless deeds and foolish decisions out of greed. All of a sudden, indication about his intelligence, skills of past or present are highlighted - as thou to compensate the black image furnished in earlier chapters. Then again it goes down and starts showing a foolish Sundeep. Not sure if this see-saw effect was intentional by the author.
• Too many names to remember. Most of the chapters introduces a new character. Some of them dont last over a para or two. Too many such names made me to skip all names and it was difficult to keep track of who is who.
• Flimsy ending. The last few pages were far from reality. An ex-employee, Aditya, being invited (he was flown from Mumbai to NY) to go through a sensitive case. Also Tedd & management confronting Sundeep and then giving options for his exist.As I haven't climbed any corporate ladder, I cannot confirm if these are feasible or not.

Overall, if you like a story line on money, power, sex .. this is a good book to read.

Freakonomics

I wanted to read this book for a long time and happened to buy this recently. Real life scenarios are narrated in puzzle like manner and the answers surprise us. To apply our scientific mind on trivial matters produces interesting results. For example, to study the business dealers' business or a sumo wrestlers' life style etc are nicely covered in this book.

For a long time I was suspicious about the manner society names their children. Example, a name Ramalakshmi Ammal seems to be from a far gone era. May be a catchy name at that time. Many of the upper society folks named their daughters, later on the lower sector started using that name. Upper society had to move to a new set of hype names, say Lakshmi or something.

Freakonomics explains the naming trend and many other topics. Good read.

Eleven minutes

This book is about how an innocent girl morphs into a prostitute. The author, Paulo Coelho, explores about the world of the prostitutes, how makes them keeps going, the dreams they carry etc. Through the lead, Maria, we come to know about the customers she has. In spite of being in high post, earning good or well to do status, men have the fear of failure and fragile inside.

We had read about love and sex in many books before. Here is yet another view.

(Not sure how many google searches will be wrongly directed to this blog due to those two famous and looked out words)

A Short History of Nearly Everything

As the title says, almost all corners of Science is touched upon. Right from the formation of universe, rocks, volcanoes of the earth, ancient creatures, DNA structures, and more are discussed in a laymanistic simplicity. The flow of these topics are also wonderful. Had thrown lots of light upon life of the Scientists who worked in different eras. Amazing to peek into their personal life too, like who the 19th century chemist foolishly inhaled poisones gases, the enemity between different researchers etc.
A very good read for anyone curious to know our origin, stuff we are made up of, where we are and other Scientific inquiries. The book is by Bill Bryson.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Remember reading this book during college days. Couldn't recollect much of the story thou. Yesterday I had to travel alone in a taxi for 2 hours. While looking around for a book, got this one. Suitable to spend 2 hrs or so.

The first part of the book talks about how general trend in people and what kind of inertia hold them back from moving out of the flock. Also the kind of struggle and hardship of successful people. Particularly the kind of changes they have to make and willing to go through tough time due to different life style.

Second section is quite heavy with meta-physics and after life stuff. The highest thing that to be worked out is - love. Guess westerners have the notion of seeing love as the ultimate thing to go for.

Last part was too much .. purposefully painting a messiah image to the hero. It was able to cure a bird whose wings were immobile. Lots of followers and enemy camp and so and so.

A nice inspirational book.

Aladdin Factor

Book is interesting. Authored by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. There are many things to learn from the book. A sudden awakening, that most of us don't know, is what to ask in life. The barriers in asking are discuss in detail with lots of samples.

Systematically analyzed fear and tips are provided to overcome. That part is very useful. The narration in the book is definitely positive and will help anyone to bring themselves up. Handling change, the beginner's difficulty are discussed well.

Lots of cartoons, quotes, life incidents all over the book made the reading live, easy and comfortable. However, the Aladdin story didn't stick together with the topic. Also I felt the later part of the book kind of redundant (the chapter from 'Ask at Home'). There are many narration from salespersons' diary. Talks about how they cracked some of the difficult deal or situation. Many seemed to be 'yuck' and beyond normal people; may be that is the extra skill acquired by salesmanship and the author suggest others to learn.


Can be read once.

The selfish Gene

Very interesting book by Richard Dawkins. The book throws a different perception about world and life. The way genetic materials behave, think, plan etc are amazing concept. The scientific findings are given in a layman format. Analogies like functioning of computers, science fiction stories etc help a lot in understanding complicate topics.

Earlier I had many doubts like the male attraction
This books clears such doubts and open our eyes on many areas. For eg, I had been in the impression that the beautiful feathers, tusks, lion's facial hairs etc are ornamental and luxury. Looks like they have purpose and also used as measuring gauge to check the animal's health. (this is comparable to the by gone practice - while searching for a bride, the groom's side ask if the girl can sing or dance. )

Many of our day to day simple acts have roots till the pre-historic animal rituals. Just to mention few of the fascinating ideas :

• limited resource enable species to slowly evolve and acquire new skills or new equipments


• why do other birds feed cuckoo's baby (at the cost of their own)


• on a general scale, why predominantly males wander off or break out of relationship?


• what is the significance of diamond ring for proposal?

Read the book Selfish Gene to get many more questions answered.

btw, the soldier anecdote is pulled from this book.

I bought the Monk's Ferrari

The title of the book was catchy and made me to take a look inside (guess that is what author, Ravi Subramanian, expected to happen when he framed this title)

After flipping few pages and reading a chapter, I bought the book. Quite interesting thoughts. Particularly I liked the "work-life balance" topic - a different line of thinking than what is popular trend now. This ought to be interesting for anyone aspiring to climb up the career or establish a corporate empire.

Apart from that, the book is yash (yet another self-help) book. The word Ferrari is sprinkled artificially all over the book; and that was irritating. The last chapter throws some clarity for doing so.

Usually these kind of books drag us to Newyork or SFO, where we are alienated. The Ferrari story line happens at Hyderabadi roads and Mumbai buildings, and so makes us feel at home. Hope we get more books like this.

There is no connection between "Monk who sold his Ferrari" and this book, except the title and few places where author mentions about the earlier book. That was a disappointment for me. I was hoping a dramatic scene where Ravi meets Julian to negotiate the Ferrari and strikes a deal :-)

After watching the sequel of a movie, most likely we feel that the original was better. Same feeling I got with this book compared to "The monk who sold his Ferrari". (Not sure if I can compare). Said apart, this new Ferrari book is worth reading once.

Book: The Circle of Innovation

Happen to pick this book written by Tom Peters. It is quite interesting.

Many useful tips on thinking in the direction towards new dimension, unfolds our thoughts for a better way of living. Very nice way of illustrating the danger of clinching to old ideas and the benefit of taking risk into new arena.

Thou the book is more than 10 years old, the ideas are still fresh for these days.

More than the above, the unusual fonts, random pictures, etc etc made the book easy to read.

How to cut a cake

Read this book recently. Amazing to know how mathematician sees the world. For most of the problems around, we can explain in a scientific way. For eg, the book talks about tangled phone cards. The reasoning behind tangling cords are interesting.

There are many interesting views to learn. There is a chapter on security, that is - how to authenticate oneself without revealing much to the party which is questioning. As the techno-systems becomes complex and social structures adapt to technology, such issues will be popping up. A correct balance between security measures and personal space ought to be achieved.

As the book title goes, there are two chapters devoted to sharing cake among n number of competitors. The solutions suggested are practical and would satisfy all the participants. It is relevant at global scale as water sharing bloodshed is just around the corner.

Author, Ian Stewart, had written advanced mathematical concept with layman-istic simplicity and with a lighter vein. Happy reading.

Book: 80/20 CEO Vaman Kamath

I bought this book in the weekend. Since it is a thin book with lots of white space, I was able to read in a day. This book is an interview with ICICI Chairman, Vaman Kamath. Lots of information packed in each section and since the sections are two page long, it is easy to read. Inspiring thoughts and ideas, dynamic nature of business environment, attitude of change managers, how business identify talented and sidelines bottlenecks .... these are few topics of interest.

There is a discussion of Gujarat money scarcity rumour. Very very interesting and amazing way the bank handled the situation. We could feel the heat while reading. Btw, I read the net version of the story and it portrays how the world perceived the event. The inside story is much more thrilling :-)

The book gives the challenges at a CEO's office. Nice narration and interesting tales in the corporate world. Good read for anyone in the career path, particularly for the guys aspiring higher up.

Reading classics

So far I had seen two classifications in Indian classical literature. The first category narrates some event, person or a story. Either events and person are explicitly named to identify or portrayed as generic characters like hero, heroin, mother etc.

The second category deals with morality/code of conduct/mannerism of people, social norms and ethics. There are many such books. Other day, one such book was lying in my desk. Friend of mine picked the same and glanced through it. He wasn't very happy about what he was reading. He felt those do s and donts were impractical; also a waste of time to go through such materials.

That was an interesting remark. Are all our ancient wisdom a waste of time? I was thinking in this line. Here are few thoughts came out.

In our modern age, we have hundreds of authors writing self-help, personality development books. In a sense, these books are the continuous progeny of the ancient moral texts. Most of the do s and donts of a by gone era may not be applicable today. However, we cannot throw away all of them as useless ideas.

If they are not applicable today, why should someone read them? I read to gain an insight into the ancient world. What was their social practices? Which are the pressing issues they had to address? Reading history itself has lots of advantage. A good reason for human being to go through history pages is not to commit the same mistake again.

Apart from these mundane reasons, there are recorded facts and findings which stands good in spite of the deadly factor called TIME. For example, recently I was reading a newspaper article about harmful effects of hot water bath. Due to regular usage of hot water for head bath leads to headache, memory loss and other brain related issues. This is due to sudden raise in the temperature during bath. Mainly this affects the brain. Since this info was new to me, I was surprised to read this; also worried because I am take hot water head bath on a daily basis. Found a remedy for the above situation in an ancient literature. Different protocols are suggested for cold water and hot water bath. Following that could reduce the effect of the above brain attack.

Suggestion to my friend is, to read books of wide range and variety. One need not follow everything written in the books. However, it is essential to expand our horizons by exposing to different ideas.

Elephants

Read a small book on elephants. Amazing facts about them.

When we think about capturing elephant, we recollect the familiar method of digging a pit and camouflage it by leaves and branches; and capture the elephant that falls into it without knowing the same. This book illustrates another method to capture an elephant herd. This involves thousands of men working as a team. They dig a massive excavation which can hold may be 100s of elephants. Thick teak stems are placed inside the pit. Imagine a big circular well which is planted with teak close to the inner wall. A heavy door is available in a portion of the wall. A slope is raised from this door up to to the ground level.

Once the construction of this trap is readied, they locate the herd. Start making loud noise with instruments (hmm .. it would have been awesome to listen to hundreds of instruments). They direct the elephants towards the slope and finally into the well. After getting them in, they lock the door.

Elephants are starved, so that they don't have enough energy to fight back. People walk in through the teak columns with spear. They check the elephants, if found not suitable, they release them in the wilderness. Each elephant is assigned to a mahout. The wild elephant is approached with 2 tamed elephants until it is tamed.

This looks like old method. Modern hunters use darts to capture animals as a faster and easier means.

Ancient wisdom

GA sent a link to our internal newsgroup. The link contained discussion about a book, "Pride of India". It was a well researched book about the Scientific frontiers India was leading ages ago. The author clearly illustrate the acheivement made by Indian and what we are lacking today. Gives a direction to move towards.

Worth reading.