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

World of Motivational Books and Me

The market is full of motivational books and motivational speakers. I know few people, who buy only motivational books but I am not sure they are reading it or not (following the things mentioned in the books is different question). My question is “Are these books are really helpful”? Sometimes, may be for some people it can be life changing and for some people it may be not that effective. I heard few people saying that “The Secret” was a big help for them.

I was a big fan of motivational books in childhood but when I grew up I kind of lost faith in it, not any particular reason but I found some more interesting books like fictional novels. Sometimes some character inspire me from these novels books too.

Recently after a long time I have read a motivational book thanks to my husband (he bought it for himself and I can’t resist reading any book lying in front of me). Only things I can say my experience was good because it motivate me to develop some good habits.

This post is written for inspire topic proposed by me Edition 274

The Monk Who Sold Ferrari

I am reading this book second time but I have to confess that first time I left it in the middle. I was a teenager back then and this book was full of “gyaan”. This time situation is different and I am able to understand the essence of the book. May be sometimes we need something to motivate us.

The benefit of motivational books is you always feel good after reading it and try to implement some good habits in our life. The things mentioned in the book are not unknown but it often disappears in our busy life schedule.

The story is not very interesting but in between motivational paragraphs are good. The story is about a lawyer who quits the practice after getting depressed from the monotonous life and get serenity among the Sages of Sivana from Himalayas.

Few lines from the book :

• Ancient Rule of Twenty-one: if you do anything for twenty-one days in a row, it will be installed as a habit
• Every second you spend thinking about someone else’s dreams, you take time away from your own.
• Enlightened people are priority driven.
• What a life! All that money and all I could eat was bread and water.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

If you are an Indian, this book will make you think “What going on my servant’s mind. Is he/she plotting something?”. But then you realize we are middle class people, what will they get from us? We are also someone’s servant (may be sophisticated one but yes we are servants).

I like the book, it portrays bitter truth of India, mainly focuses on master/servant relationship. It is a story of a servant working for rich family in New Delhi. His dream of becoming rich and getting rid of servant’s life (which he called rooster coop in the book) bring twist in his life.

It is like emotional ride, first you sympathize with the narrator then you hate him and at the end it seems like may be he is right. Writer used metaphor creatively and language is simple. The book is good, writer got few awards too but if you don’t like India to be criticized, this book is not for you.

Few lines from the book go straight to your mind like :

• “Do we loathe our masters behind a facade of love – or do we love them behind a facade of loathing”.
• Just because drivers and cooks in Delhi are reading Murder Weekly, it doesn’t mean that they are all about to slit their masters’ necks. Of course they’d like to. Of course, a billion servants are secretly fantasizing about
  strangling their bosses.
• “But I complain about the police the way the rich complain; not the way the poor complain. The difference is everything.”
• “Go to Old Delhi,and look at the way they keep chickens there in the market. Hundred of pale hens and brightly colored roosters, stuffed tightly into wire-mesh cages. They see the organs of their brothers lying around them.They know they are next, yet they cannot rebel. They do not try to get out of the coop. The very same thing is done with humans in this country.”

Mrs Funnybones: She’s just like You and a lot like Me

Yes, She is like me. The book is the collection of her daily journal entries. Mostly her funny moments with the family including her mother, son (called her Prodigal son in book), daughter (baby), husband (Man of the house) and servant (desi Jeeves).

Unfortunately, I have read “Legend of Laxmi Prasad” before this book, which is not as good as this one. She writes non fiction better than fiction, it’s understandable as it is hard to write about the things which is not relevant to you.

There are few incidences mentioned in the book that I can relate with, like I also found Karva Chauth most overrated festival and a bit filmy, I also don’t believe in magical black thread, magical godmen, don’t think much about dresses while going out etc etc.

She is good with sarcasm. It is a fun book and good for light reading.

Loved these lines :

1. There are 146 countries above us where the men have longer lifespans, and the biggest blow is that even with four wives who don’t fast for them, the Arab men outlive our good old Indian dudes.
2. A wise woman keeps her hands firmly in her pockets and does not accidentally unzip anything, including her mouth.
3. I misfit here, like most women that enter families which are so different from theirs.
4. Our little satellite reached Mars because it was called MOM. If it was called DAD, it would still be circling the Earth, lost, but not willing to ask for directions.
5. Life is full of contradictions. We crave security and independence in equal measures.

Godaan

Munsi Premchand was a great writer indeed. Every character was so well written, while reading the book you feel like living in a village.

It’s not a kind of book I usually read but it feels wonderful to read the old classics belongs to your own country. Few chapters are dedicated to women not women empowerment but what writers thinks about women. He expresses his feelings through Mr. Mehta’s character. I like this character the most. He is a philosopher and the women coming to his contact realizes their true self.

I loved the book, it is bit depressing but in the end everything was coming on the track (except the debt part).I would recommend this book to those who love the real hindi literature.