Ikigai – Book review

Ikigai is a book written by Hector Gracia and Francese Miralles. Ikigai is a Japanese term which means “Reason to live“. The book justifies it’s title. It is a short book, consists of 9 interesting chapters.

There are few things that I learned from the book which is worth highlighting.

Logotherapy –

Logotherapy was discovered by Viktor Frankl.  It follows different approach to treat the depression or existential crisis. Unlike most therapies that delve into the patient past issues, it helps to uncover patient’s future aspirations. For example the first question asked by Frankl to the patient was,”why do you not commit suicide?”

Go with the flow –

This concept is similar to the “live in the moment” theory. While doing any task do not think about past or present just concentrate on the task at the moment. There are higher chances of the increasing the stress while multitasking which impact our health gradually. These lines from the book will help to clear the picture :

“We often think that combining tasks will save us time, but scientific evidence shows that it has the opposite effect. Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people. Our brains can take million bits of information but can only actually process of few dozen per second. When we say we’re multitasking, what we’re really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately, we’re not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our energy alternative between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.“

Antifragility –

Antifragility is an interesting concept. It means getting more stronger while dealing with adverse conditions. As per wikipedia, The concept of antifragility was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, Antifragile. It is beyond resilience. In other words, we can say that not only surviving the bad condition and getting back on the feet but becoming better version of yourself while facing them.

It is an interesting read but I will not say this book changed my life like few people claimed post reading it. I got to know more about Japanese people and reason of their long life through this book. I love the fact that this book is talking about east culture which is rare to find.

Droplets of love – Book Review

Story

The book consist of three beautiful love stories. First story is “The Confusion”. It is about business graduate Kirti Mohan and a start up firm MD Pushkar Srivastava. Pushkar hired Kirti by mistake, he was interested in hiring someone else for different reasons. What Pushkar does after realising his mistake is the story of confusion.

Second story is “A love”. The story is set in the early 90s. It is a love story of Madhuri and Shashikant. Madhuri is married to Najeer, an 56 year old man. Shashikant is a doctor live nearby their house.

Third story is “The Stage”. This is the story of Mohan and Vanaika. They get attracted towards each other during college fest.

My review :

Among all the stories first one is my favorite “The confusion”. While reading this story I do not feel like putting down the book. I can actually imagine these characters. Kirti’s simplicity with confidence and Pushkar’s straight forward attitude made this story very interesting.

Second story also stand second on my favourite list in the book. It is a tragic love story. You can feel the pain of Madhuri while reading the book. Third one is a short and cute love story. Love can happen anywhere, anytime even on the stage of college fest.

I like the writing style it’s simple and understandable. There are small sketches in the book that looks adorable.

Kirti Mohan in a saree

I liked Pushkar’s character the most. Honesty and straightforwardness of this character is commendable. At times, he appears unprofessional and this is what makes this character closer to reality.

I recommend this book. This valentine season if you are looking for some cute love stories, this book is for you.

Cold Cock – Book Review

Story

The story is basically about a regional channel “Birha/Birhan” to be launched soon. It is narrated through the point of view of a channel employee “Ashwin”. Ashwin and his girl friend Mynah are co-workers in this channel. The story starts with the corporate heads Dakshina Shetty (DS), Swapan, Ram Charittar, Imran discussing their plan to launch this channel Birha. As story progress forward we witness that all the characters struggling to solve big and small problems coming their way during the process of launch. How these problems changes their life is the story of the Cold Cock.

Review

This is the debut novel of author “Mukul Ranjan”. I have never read any book based on Indian television industry (specially fiction) so this book gives me different outlook to understand the working of this industry. Through this story author provide some insights of TV channels way of working which made this book different from others. Their struggle looks real all credit goes to author’s writing and his experience in tv industry. 

I do not liked the character of Mynah, the female protaganist. There are few places where her reaction do not look justified specially the way she treats her boyfriend, Ashwin, but we can find many girls like Mynah around us. Few women do not understand the real meaning of women libration and modernization. They misuse their freedom and do not realize when they are crossing the limits. Somewhere due to this reason I do not like their love story much.

Overall, I liked the book and will recommend others for light reading. I hope we will get more interesting work from the writer in the future.

Jasmine Builds on Shifting Sands – Book Review

Synopsis :

It is a self help fiction book written by Sanjay Desai. Two stories are beautifully amalgamated by writer in one book. The first story is started with the prologue. I will suggest that don’t skip the prologue ( it is suggested by writer as well in the book) if you miss the prologue then you will not get the essence of book.

The first story started with Sanjay’s meeting with guruma “Ma Krishnamayi”. He came with the question in mind that left him sleepless at night. To answer that question guruma share the story of Jasmine, this is the start of second story and end of prologue.

The book begins with Jasmine selection in a beauty contest. After winning this contest she get introduce to Ms Jaiswal, who later became her mentor and guide in the fashion world. She face few problems in her career. In the journey of solving problems she gets the true meaning of life and truly understands herself.

Review :

As I mentioned earlier I like the prologue of the book. The story mentioned their takes you to the different world.

The starting of second story didn’t appeal me much as I was not able to connect with the fashion world and it reminds me a bit of “fashion” movie but as book proceeds the story gets interesting. The introduction of character Bala changed the tone of story.

I really like the thing that writer has shown fashion world in a nicer way. The character of Shaheen Jaiswal and Bala keep your faith intact that nice people are still present in cut-throat industry like fashion.

The growth of Jasmine’s character is very interesting. Although one can’t connect to professional problem of this character but on personal level her issues are very similar to ours. Her spiritual journey is mesmerizing, her transformations are inspirational, specially her dedication towards giving 100% to the task at hand.

I was hooked with the last pages of the book, very nice climax. Epilogue ends the first story. I love the epilogue too, it makes you think about applying these practices to your life.

The writer tried to rediscover the spirituality in new way and connect it to the modern world beautifully. Indeed a good read for me.

These lines from the book inspired me :

“In spiritual terms, that’s the state of no-mind. In that moment, your mind and body are one, immersed with just intent of dance. All your focus is on dance. You are not thinking of any outcome or anything else, and you have no attachment or anything: you have no-mind.”

I hate my curly hair – Book Review

“I hate my curly hair” is a illustrated book. It is a story of little girl with curly hair. Other kids from the school find her different (because of her hair) so they keep teasing her.

It is difficult for a small girl to maintain a strong curly hair, even combing them became tedious work. Her brother keep teasing calling her hair “noodles”.

Then an incident happened which changed her life. A bully came to the school and piled on the agony. During her struggle with the bully, she get to know the value for her hair and started loving them.

Kids will love this book for sure. People from other age group will also find it’s entertaining. It teaches to love yourself no matter what others are saying and to stay brave in difficult situation. This book reminds of a very good friend of mine from school. Back then she has also struggled with the same problem of being teased because of her curly hair so I have seen the situation which author is saying about.

Author Divya Anand has beautifully knit the story in poem. This book is based on her own experience. I love the illustrations done by ‘Rujuta Thakurdesai’. The cover of the book is so cute, it made me pick up this book.

 

Irrationally Passionate

Overview :

Irrationally Passionate is a life story of Jason Kothari. In prologue, he mentioned a sweet story of his childhood when he tried to bargain with a local shop keeper in Agra and get the chess set for the price in his budget.

He is an Indian but born and spent most of the childhood in Hong Kong . He mentioned his initial days as nomadic as they frequently moved to Paris, US and then back to Hong Kong . Although his life was full of comforts but he faced the racism in his childhood and it left a mark on his memories.

He shared story of his problem with drugs, alcohol and getting involved in frequent fights and how he overcame with the problem with the help of his family and his Will power. After getting over with alcohol problem he get more focused on his studies and got admission in Wharton University , Pennsylvania. His life transformation from drug addict troubled teenager to focused student of greatest business school is really admirable. His dream of becoming entrepreneur is started getting shape.

Buying Valiant Comics during college years, Working as Housing .com and Freecharge as CEO and turnaround in Snapdeal fiasco, the book is full of inspirational stories.

Review :

The book is full of positive thoughts and energy. After reading this book you will feel like go and do something good with your life. You will feel motivated. Preaching something is very easy but proving your point with live examples is different.

The language of book is simple and easy to understand. Not a single dull moment but in few places, there are little bit technical terms are mentioned which author has explained too.

For me, best part of the book is :

• It has so information to absorb . Author has worked in many streams, and given details about it. Starting with Valiant Comics (entertainment) , then housing.com (real estate), Snapdeal (e-commerce), freecharge (e- wallet), through this book we get overview of how business works on these streams.
• Author belongs to humble family and become entrepreneur with average skill set because of exceptional quality of never giving up and hard work. It is very inspirational.
• Growing up aboard doesn’t mean to disconnect with your roots. A line from book “You ‘ll never know how fortunate you are to live in India, until you have been made to live somewhere else”.
• Being passionate about what are doing keep you alive.

Book Details :

Author : Jason Kothari
Publisher : HarperCollins
Genre : Non-fiction/Memoir
Price : Rs 599/-

Yakshini

Overview

The book is written by Neil D’Silva in horror genre. It is a story of a girl named Meenakshi. Meenakshi or Meenu is seventh child of Renuka and Shantaram. They wanted seventh child as a boy but a girl child is born instead. They lived in a village of Maharashtra called Vatgaon .

Meenakshi life get changed when she turns 15. Her incredible beauty changes the behaviour of men when they are around her. She looks more mature than her age and this became the reason of worry for her parents when the prospective groom Harikumar came for her elder sister decided to marry her instead. In between, two boys got missing from the village. They blamed her and atmosphere of village became hostile for her.

Yakshini is a form of deity that lives inside Meenakshi. Yakshini was cursed to live inside a human body. This curse change the fate of everyone related to Meenu. Krita (another deity) come occasionally to rescue her from difficult situations.

Review

Yakshini is a supernatural horror book. The theme of the book seems complicated but writer executed it very nicely. The writer has perfection in horror genre. The book is very interesting and I was hooked to it till the end. I like the first half of book very much and second half is also good but I do not like Meenakshi’s miseries so it is less appealing for me.

My favourite character is Harikumar. At the beginning, he seems like typical Indian men but gradually his true nature came into the picture. Meenakshi internal dilemma portrayed very well. Her character development is very good from a small town girl to city girl and then Yakshini’s taking over her senses.

The narration is also very good. I  I recommend this book.

About Author

Neil D’Silva is a famous for writing in horror genre. He belongs to Mumbai. He won the Delhi Literature Festival in 2015. His novel Maya’s New husband and Yakshini has been acquired for screen adaptations.

The review is done as a part of blog chatter review program. More details are available here

An Unsuitable Boy

This book is an autobiography of famous filmmaker Karan Johar, son of famous producer Yash Johar.

Being rich is a not key to happiness and money can’t buy everything. Karan’s started book with a very touching prologue.I like the chapters on his childhood very much. He mentioned how one incident changed his personality completely, from a introvert, less confident child to amiable popular student.

The chapters on his initial career as a filmmaker and on Dharma production are also very interesting. You will get to know some of inside film making facts.

I don’t like the comparison of Lagaan with K3G. Yes, they were released on the same year, may be K3G earned more than Lagaan but you can’t compare a magnificent movie like Lagaan with an average commercial movie like K3G.

I don’t like him as a person or as a filmmaker but after reading this book my views are neutral about him. Best thing about this book is his honesty.

If you are looking for any kind of gossip you will be disappointed, the image he has created for himself this sounds impossible but it is true. Overall it’s a nice and quick read.

Few excerpt from the book

“Actually, there was a lot conflict and consideration in kuch kuch hota hai.
Rani is writing eight letters to her daughter. What did she write in the first three letters? Gagagoogoo?
And how did she know Kajol was going to be free and available. I’m envious to conviction I had in 1997 when I wrote it because today that conviction got too logical.”

Khullam Khulla

This book is an autobiography of actor “Rishi kapoor” as title suggest the book is “khullam khulla” he made many open revelations about him and people related to his life. It is a nice attempt by actor. Initial chapters are really good specially on “Raj kapoor”. He discussed about his father’s affair with the leading actresses and his alcohol problem which was a bold step.

The book got me hooked except few chapters in the mid. He talked about everyone even all music director and singers also who gave his onscreen voice. To my surprise he talked more about Amitabh Bachchan” than his son. I agree that it would be difficult for him (a romantic hero) to survive in action era. He said, “Amitabh was an action hero in the era of action films. As such writers gave him the lion’s share and he had the author backed roles in almost all the films.”

In conclusion, the book is good for light read. You will get the chance to look inside a actor’s life, to witness his depression and his success.

Rating – 3.6

Price – ₹ 600 (quite high and not justified )

Writer – Rishi Kapoor along with Meena Iyer

Before you breathe

Overview – Before you breathe is a crime thriller book written by Tanushree Podder and published by Harper Collins. A small town called “Ramsar” which believed to be “free from crime” baffled after two consecutive break-ins, first in a doctor’s clinic and second one is at Shekhar Sharma’s residence but surprisingly nothing is stolen. Shekhar Sharma is a affluent inhabitant of Ramsar.

A retired Colonel Arjun H. Acharya along with a local inspector Timothy Thapa started the investigation of unusual crime but next day another tragedy was waiting for them, Shekhar Sharma died in a suspicious circumstances. Now they have to find out whether it is an accident or murder. As investigation proceeds Colonel discover new facts about Sharma family which involve Sharma’s wife Supriya, niece Naina and niece’s husband Alok Rajpal.

Review – The book is a part of a Colonel Acharya mystery books. It was a gripping read. I love the writing style, it is a bit descriptive. The Colonel Acharya seems like desi poirot. He himself confess in the book that “H” in his name stands for Hercule and is a big fan of Agatha Christie’s book (like me).

I like Naina’s character development, she is depicted as shy and introvert at first but gradually she became more confident. The background stories of three main characters are well written and not at a single point you feel confused. The Characters like Geeta, Laila, JJ, judge are not used that much in the plot line but discussion among them shows the possible things that can happen and guide the Colonel in investigation.

If I have to opt a favorite character, I will go for Timothy Thapa. He sounds reasonable and take a stand against his nagging and stupid boss whenever needed. The book keeps me guessing all the time but end is bit predictable.

About Author – Before you breathe is written by Tanushree Podder. This is her seventh novel. She was born in Delhi and worked for corporate sector few years. Then she quit the job and follow her passion of writing. When she is not writing, she loves to travel around the world.

The review is done as a part of blog chatter review program. More details are available here