The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

It is definitely a book on concepts that are new, unique and brings out how epidemics spread in society. However, the first one or two chapters clearly puts the context pretty clearly. After that it becomes a bit of a drag. The same things being told again and again. The book does not create any new enthusiasm in the later chapter. In initial chapters Malcolm Gladwell introduces the concepts with interesting examples already. In the end he again tries to elaborate with cases which do not seem to be adding any additional value.

Although the book is an all time great, I will still rate the overall style not something that can hold your attention for too long.

Gopabandhu Das - by Shreeram Chandra Das (1976)

One of the very early freedom fighters yet quite unknown to the India at large. The man who brought congress to Orissa and started the nationalistic movement for one India in Orissa. The book is written as a consideration to how great a leader Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das was. I think important that such text be published which can influence the people of India on the contribution of Orissa to the Indian freedom movement and how some people in remote corners of the country have carried out selfless service to a mankind. A land known more for its natural calamities, deaths of hunger than its strong cultural heritage and art owes forever to this man for its existence.

A must read book for anybody to know a bit about some selfless souls of our times.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff and it's all small stuff - Richard Carlson (1997)

I will refrain from writing a review on this book as this book is small stuff as well :-). Well the point is not that. Very nice book and will suggest if anyone is interested in knowing about life it has good potential of introducing life skills. Surprisingly, the moral is very similar to the Karma yogi philosophy "Karmanyebaadhikaraste Ma phalessu Kadacha na" and nothing more. Once, one learns to be a karma yogi the book is just too obvious.

But in any case, I will add my own view points on the subject. I think over a period of time as we become more and more competitive in the society we have tried to evaluate everything. Things we like or may not like. We want to evaluate it against a set of metric and dissect everything to small stuff which we can extract. That person is like that. This person is nice. I think we have started comparing every feeling we encounter to the best feelings we ever encountered in life. In fact, no one is away from this neither the author nor the summary writer. We have to learn one life skill to accept things as they are. Accepting does not mean killing to fire to change. But, not to complain about it. One more point I feel is important is not to be non-competitive. I guess the less we know the more we try to compete.

If you have read chanakya niti sometime in your life you might have heard "Namrati Phalanti Briksha, Namrate Gunina Janaah" - You will find a fruit bearing tree bowing down, wise men are egoless as well. However, we do not see that in real life with the wise men we know of. One reason could be, in society we have created the system we have a competitive means of identifying the wise. Eliminating the competition is important. Bringing in competition with self will probably eliminate some of that. Am I a more learned man than I was yesterday? Am I a better person than I was yesterday? are probably some questions we should ask.

Finally on the book: Must read. But will be hard to digest if you still are battling with the small things. I could not accept all the points in the book. I feel they are because I am not yet out of those illogical needs in my life and not that the book is wrong.

HBR on The Mind of the Leader (2005)

Good and nice book to read. However, it will not give a quick tip to become a great leader. Ultimately you will realize you are a leader if you have followers. There is no 2 minutes leadership skills available to train. Why should one read this book? To open your horizon is all this book can offer. Like most HBR articles and collections this is doing no more. There are all kinds of leaders in the world. Morality and leadership again are not related. In the political circles we know there are corrupt leadership at various levels. Yet, there are highly moral leadership as well. Couple of articles like the one on Manager and Leader can arouse your mind. This clearly distingguishes those differences. From most part there are some salient points that are clearly coming out if you analyze each of these text deeper.

• Every Leader has a viewpoint or focus
• Every Leader has followers
• Every Leader has an ability to influence

Beyond this I guess any discussion on leadership is dissection of facts, which will definitely open your mind and may make you immune to surroundings and styles of leadership. I guess that is what for most we learn from life anyway.

Overall good read if you just look at it from a perspective of gaining additional viewpoints. Not recommended if you look at it as a self help and leadership guide.

Lateral Marketing - Philip Kotler and Fernando Trias de Bes (2003)

A very simple yet very effective framework to bring in innovation in any marketing set up. The basic concepts is fairly simple choose one of the 4Ps and apply one or more of the following transformations:

1. Substitute it
   
2. Invert it
   
3. Combine it
   
4. exaggerate it
   
5. Eliminate it
   
6. Reorder it

A gap will be apparent due to these transformations. The idea is to create an offering which is relevant to the gap created. The difference between lateral and vertical marketing is, while lateral marketing emphasizes on creating gaps and filling it with new offerings, vertical marketing creates a segment where a gap may not be apparent and a segmentation can create a new range of offerings. An excellent example given is of a heavy consumer vs a normal consumer. The gap does not exist yet through vertical marketing concepts you will typically create an offering (bigger container) for a heavy consumer purely for targeting. Overall, as per the authors lateral markets create new markets while vertical markets create better segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) thus grow markets. Both kinds of practices have their own advantages and one cannot be replaced for the other.

Unlike brainstorming where ideation is a team effort, lateral marketing concepts can be used by individuals and more over lateral marketing is far more focused as it's conceptually based on changing part of an existing paradigm. The book also suggests methodologies for storing unused ideas for later reference.

A must read for any marketing executive.

A Search in Secret India - Paul Brunton (1934)

The book is about Paul's search for a guru and achieving realization in the end with help of his master Ramana Maharishi, one of the greated seers of modern times. Written in a simple language and aimed towards western audience, I think this book also provides a lot to learn for native Indians to understand their own country.

Must read if someone is trying to get an idea of existence of various forms of yoga that is practiced still in India.

The Cathedral & The Bazaar - Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revoloutionary (2001) : Eric S. Raymond

The book although published in 2001, there articles presented in various different times. In last five years open source initiative have taken software to new areas and heights. I guess some of the ideas presented may have not be very relevant in today's times. There is a lot of new advances like Microsoft being more standards concious are not part of the book. Two articles I felt were important to understand the open source community at large:

1. Homesteading the Noosphere
2. The Magic Cauldron

The reason I liked the two articles as the first one talks about the community and how the gift economy works and the second one is about how to create a business model around open source and the sustainability of the same. I think the revolution is a long way to go. However, the way open source is fuelling the evolution of software there is a possibility of software as services may work out as the eventual model.

However, there is still some time may be in next 2-5 years.

A must read book for anyone who wants to understand the vision and motivation of open source. But, I still would say this book is not enough still to provide the needed insight to model a business around open source as there are not enough data to create a perceived value for your business.

Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (1999) : Edited by - Chris DiBona, Sam Ockman & Mark Stone

This book is a bit dated in comparison to changes that have taken place and the acceptability Open Source Software has garnered over the last five to six years. Of course, the examples used may not be all relevant to the current context. For example, the lack of software project management practices are actually gone. We see more accurate and much more well thoughtout design documents in many open source implementations. There has been large number of companies who have started to contribute to open source in a bigger way. It will be probably hard to imagine a company today can shut its eye to open source.

What do we learn from this book?

This book is about vision as seen by almost big names in the open source community. All have there unique outlook for open source. Some do it because they believed in the cause, some out of frustration and some may have seen a business need to accept it. It's a place where people having variety of interests have come in to create a community of "Diligence, Patience, and Humility" while preserving "laziness, impatience, and hubris" of individuals as Larry Wall has put it.

An interesting read to understand various facets of one of the neo-technology movements of our times.

Innovation Happens Elsewhere - Ron Goldman and Richard P. Gabriel

This book introduces Open Source initiatives in a different light. Unlike the standard OSS gurus writing about how freedom is not granted etc., this book goes a bit deeper to create a marriage between open source and business. Of course there is nothing like a free lunch. Hence, do not expect yourself to get a complete Open Source based business plan after you read this book. It will give a clearer understanding of the Open Source processes, licenses, motivation factors and how you can use all that to your advantage if you are building a business model around open source software.

A must read if you are looking at using open source as part of your business strategy.

The Google Story - David A. Vise (2005)

Nothing Succeeds like Success - I guess the strategic impact Google has brought about to dotcom era is significant. This book describes some of that. Some parts of it may sound like more fiction than real. Some parts will look bizarre. I guess that makes this company a proven ground for the iconoclast.

For a more detailed review please look at:

http://sammiereviews.blogspot.com/2006/06/google-story.html

Karma Cola - Gita Mehta (1979)

This book opens up the darker sides of Indian religious sects and gurus. How the foreigners have found themselves getting trapped into it in the late 60s and early 70s. The book has highlighted the darker side only. Hence, one should not state that Indian religious practices are all immoral. Also, Spiritual tourists have gained much more knowledge of Indian religions rather than getting inclined towards the rituals. A lot more information is getting publicly available today than it was in getting to know about India. However, the darker sides still exist and one needs to be careful before deciding to be part of a belief system or cult.

Getting to Yes - Roger Fisher & William Ury (1991)

The book is considered an authority in dealing with negotiation game and it lives upto it. Written in simple and thorugh examples it shows steps how negotiation skills should be developed to make it more effective. Although, the importance of negotiation skill cannot be undermined may a time most negotiations ultimately get into being positional bargains. Here the authors have cited how by bringing the problem and not the people get into setting a platform of principled negotiation.

Does that mean negotiation is a simple exercise once you read the book? Ideally yes. But, as most books of self improvement are associated with lot of practice. The book also is assuming at many places the existence of well defined and operational legal systems for quick redressal. However, in many countries even that could be a problem. Secondly, what if a party withdraws after the negotiations are worked out. These are some of the points the book does not reflect much upon.

Overall a must read for every professional.

Sai Baba's Mahavakya On Leadership - Dr. M. L. Chibber (2005)

Lt. Gen Chibber has brought out the essence of leadership succintly in a book which is more or less a book which is a breeze read with lots of morals to learn. Most of the time when you pick up a book from a religious sect you tend to believe the book will be inclined to one particular viewpoint. However, this book is certainly not. It creates general awareness of how leadership is to be viewed from a practical direction. Leadership qualities of Benjamin Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill has been quite well described in the book. In the last chapter, there is a brief coverage of how parents and teachers can groom leadership. There is a definite connection which has been drawn of leadership and spirituality. As selfless service which is the mark of a leader cannot be addressed so easily unless there is a definite connection of drawing the energy from a source.

A different book on leadership which will make you think.

The Bhagavad Gita - A Walkthrough for Westeners - Jack Hawley (2001)

A remarkable book on an Indian philosophical ocean by a great western scholar. The book will make you feel as if it has been written by a person who has identified himself with the Bhagvat Gita in his own life.

The book describes Gita having 3 parts:

1. Realizing Self and Selfless Action - Chapter 1-6
2. The Very Nature of God - Chapter 7-12
3. Attaining Liberation Now - Chapter 12-18

A must read for anyone who is looking to understand what is the reality all about.

Know Your Reality - Swami Virajeshwara "HAMSA" (2003)

A gift to realization written by an undisputed master of Advaita. The book comprises questions that devotees have asked him and his answers to those questions in simple understandable form. The dialogs will reveal the differences between Dvaita and Advaita, the sole purpose of life and all those philosophical thoughts that comes to one's mind.

A must read for a person who wants to realize what Hinduism is all about.

By the River Piedra I sat down and Wept - Paulo Coelho (1994)

A book of love, shyness and ability to over come it. A well written book however the ending is a bit ordinary. The description of the "Other" in us which stops us from taking any firm decision is very well described.

Overall, a good book to read.

Rules for Revolutionaries - Guy Kawasaki (1999)

Guy Kawasaki masterfully brings out the ingradients that makes great products, concepts and innovations thrive. Written in simple and comic language the book unfolds the common mistakes people do in realizing their innovation spirits. Companies tend to get trapped towards death magnets and die. In fact the concept of death magnet is really nice. As start ups many companies start believing quite a few of them and large corporations get to some other death traps. Breaking away from such traps can only make a firm create substantial innovation which can lead them in providing superior products or services.

What is that the characteristics of a revolutionary?

1. Create like a God
2. Command like a King
3. Work like a slave
4. Don't let bozosity grind you down.
   

Once again the work like a slave does not mean to work all the time. Even a book which tells you to work hard necessarily believes the importance of work and life balance.

Many Lives, Many Masters

Dr. Brian Weiss narrates a true story of his treatment of Catherine, a
patient suffering from unknown fear. Hypnotic exercises conducted by
Weiss takes her to her past lives and she describes around ten to
twelve of her past lives of the total eighty six of them she has lived
through. She connects to psychic forces and suggests Dr. Weiss of
facts which he felt were known to very few people. Every life
Catherine learns a new aspect to life and the current life as described
expects her to realize the importance of trust.

Overall a very interesting book to read to read. However, the truth of
such facts and the mention of masters the great souls who control the
universe connecting to the living beings is still looks unusual
though.

Ignited Minds - APJ Abdul Kalam (2002)

Dr. Kalam has reached the heart of the children to deliver the message
he knows best. How to build a better India? Various big tasks ahead
are told in simplistic manner while their impact on the people at
large can be far fetched. The humbleness with which he has described
the facts will touch people of all generations although the book is
primarily written for children.

A must read for people to realize what modern visionary of India can
think and deliver.

The Mind of the Strategist - Kenichi Ohmae (1982)

When it comes to business strategy this book will be always remembered as a compendium to successful strategy designing. Crisp clear and almost surgical approach to designing strategy. Although, the book theorizes a lot on key success factors and other such ideas, I guess the best it brings out is in the examples it presents. Ohmae's knowledge and depth in business is truely getting reflected in this book.

A must read for any manager who ever will remotely be reflecting on strategy.

Scientist's search for Truth - Swami Virajeshwara

Just unputdownable. In search for the eternal question Who am I, the Swamiji renounces all the materialistic pleasures and careers and commits himself to the profound belief of finding the truth. After a fairly long search he finds the eternal truth of I am Sunya. The ego-less state of existence, where God is everywhere and man is just nothing.

The book describes the presence various means of approaching the truth like Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga and Raja yoga. Swamiji has described his practical experience with Jnana and Raja yoga while also cited examples of others following the paths of Bhakti and Karma to achieve the truth.

The description of a Bhakti yogi in the epilogue is quite an interesting read.

More details about the books and other works of Swamiji can be found in:

http://www.swami-virajeshwara.com/Truth.htm

History of the Art of Orissa - Charles Louis Fabri (1975)

One of the pioneers researchers who has studied Orissa Art and Culture very closely. Particularly, the temples of Orissa and the difference of art forms in various times. Sculptures in Orissa has been influenced significantly from Buddhist, Parsis and South Indian cultures significantly. The existence of two yogini temples in close proximity definitely specifies the society's belief in the occult.

Fabri has kept his descriptions close to the art and have not explored much of ancient Oriya civilization. The degradation of skills of artisans have been pointed out categorically over the periods.

Excellent book to read if you are looking forward to understand Orissa's temples. It was an eye opener for me in terms of existence of temples which I had no idea of.

Man's Search for Meaning - Victor E. Frankl (1984)

A personal experience of a person who has spent a substantial period in a Nazi concentration camp and survived it. The torture to which a person is exposed in such a camp it's obvious to ask these question why does a man feels like surviving that even. In fact, is it worth to tolerate such pains?

To answer this question the author finds answer in logotherapy. A search for meaning in a person's life.

Interesting read. Seems quite obvious yet very powerful as a concept.

Yuganta - The End of an Epoch - Irawati Karve (1991)

Yuganta is a unique depiction of the Mahabharata the grand epic of the Hindu religion. The book tries to rationalize the epic and present it from a terse logic and definitive view point rather than from a religious view. What was the epoch which defines the times of Mahabharata. I see five concepts through which the times of the epoch of Mahabharata can be described.

1. Non-existence of a concept of an Organization as described by a systems theory.
2. Every person in those times had a framework of operation of his own and he made it public for others to know.
3. The personal frameworks which created ripples in the social framework defined during those times is a central theme of Mahabharata.
4. Every framework was rigidly defined and defined with precision upto words. Any concept which was not fitting into the framework was treated ruthlessly.
5. There is no concept of ethics in Mahabharata. It's a time of definitive systems like a defined law.

The Inscrutable Americans - Anurag Mathur (1991)

A culture shock faced by an Indian who has decided to make USA his home for a year. Born and brought up in a small town in India, Gopal suddenly lands in the the alien land which completely changes his values and morals. Every step he takes makes him land up in a new situation. Hilarious yet makes a person realize US is not just what is hollywood, there is more to a US life that is certainly not all about scoring with opposite sex.

Good to Great - Jim Collins (2001)

Rather than writing a review summary for the book I felt it will be probably more important to go further in explaining the book. This is an excellent book but can be interpreted wrongly by some people who may want to use it to get some personal gains and not create a true good to great company. Some people, particularly managers or executives who may use this book to brainwash subordinates in trying to gain some mere small benefits may not agree with me. I am sorry this explanation is not meant for them. They are most welcome in showing people what they think is right as long as no one is interested in believing those dreams.

Here is something that typically is told about good to great companies and hence one should be very careful with the popular misinterpretation of the book.

It's about right people not right work

Most people say flexibility is key to a person's growth. Well it's a fact. But, if your role changes every fortnight and if you are not aware of the roles and responsibility of a particular position you are bound to get to a doom cycle. When right people are hired it's their job to create the right responsibilities and right directions. But, if they do not get that freedom to create then probably the company is telling only false stories to hire people and later to discover the organization is in an unplanned mess.

Good to Great Companies do not explicitly plan

Well completely wrong. Most of the companies mentioned are very clear of their core strengths and they keep focused to that and deliver that. They improvise in nitty gritty of details or the product and services they provide. Look for the defects in your product if it's clear that there is too many of them and the product development teams is not accepting them with a spirit of urgency or willingness or all the features of the products are decided without you knowing what is going on definitely that is a clear indicator your company is probably not designed to move from good to great.

It's all about hard work silly

Well very simple statement made at most companies who never come out of a start up cycle. Smart work is about doing it once and doing it right. If you are putting more effort than is required take a look if you are actually doing it right the first time. If you don't work smart you only have to put in more effort. Good to great is about developing core skills and focused knowledge management, hard work is not the solution for good to great. If you can work smart that is the key for success ahead.

Developing culture

An organization culture is an important activity that needs to be built up for every good to great company. Should that organization culture challenge the establishment or location culture or culture of the people? Very simple management principle in any industry in the Key Success Factors (KSF). In IT industry it is clearly the people and HR practices. Ask yourself the following questions. Can I talk to someone in the HR department regarding the people's problem? If the answer is no then I guess the organization has shown no interest in developing the KSF the industry needs most. Secondly, has the organization been sensitive to people's needs or local needs. If it has taken any of your holidays from you has it compensated it back in some sense. Did you enjoy going to office on a holiday. If the answer is no then then again this is a company that's using you and not giving you enough to be with it. Last but not the least if a company says working longer hours is a culture then this should be the last place to work as they are surely not interested in the employee developing his/her skills and interests.

Level 5 Managers

This is the key factor for Good to Great companies. Ask yourself what did the CEO last talked you the recent football match or the great golf game he played with "Bill Gates". How many times he has shown interest in having lunch with you all? Did he ask you if you had a good sleep when he knew that you were working late. Sense of humility is to do with empathy. And if that's lacking then I guess you are missing a Level 5 manager right there. Without a level 5 manager the whole of good to great is a big farce. Do you want to be part of it and be laughed at or sit outside and watch is a choice that you should make for yourself.

Mediocre But Arrogant - Abhijit Bhaduri

Just like I cannot say that "Five Point Someone" is an IIT book, this is a typical book on MBAs. The theme is more a person's life in a social get up that is alien to him before he gets in there. He dislikes some parts of the academics and likes some. Creates his associates, his lovers, experiments with life, the best that life can give him.

Then what is this book about?

It's a book about students who away from their homes are rediscovering themselves, learning about everything including the attractions to the opposite sex. The writing style is lucid and makes the book unputdownable.

A must read.

http://mediocrebutarrogant.blogspot.com

Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy - Bertrand Russell

Excellent read. Although, I read it long long back may be almost ten years back, this is the best book which described the method of induction the best I have ever come across. If you are really keen in logic, mathematics and want to know how all these theories evolved this is the definite book to read.

ABC of Relativity - Bertrand Russell

A Russellian attempt to make Relativity understandable to common man. I think Bertrand Russell has tried his level best to make it as lucid and simple as possible yet the most important thing here is to remember the words from Einstein, the father of relativity.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

The book lives upto it. You can read it if you want. This book was really beyond me.

The Man Who Divided India - Rafiq Zakaria

One of the books that exposes Jinnah to the extent that you start having doubts how come so many people were following him on values that Jinnah never followed. Being a good netizen I will not like to get into the controversies that this book can create and debates that can follow.

It's worth reading for every individual who feels partition was avoidable and on the hindsights looks as the ugliest outcome of Indian freedom movement.

A Must Read.

India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

An autobiography of the forgotten hero of Indian Freedom Movement. He served the longest term of Congress president and till India actually became independent. This book after long controversies saw the day of light in 1997. Detailed, straight and critical in its style provides the differences that existed during the freedom movement and how difficult was it to conceive of a country which never existed as a single government. More over it also describes if partition was really necessary for India. Some of the questions raised also are characteristics of each personality Nehru, Patel, Gandhi and Jinnah.

A nice read to realize the true team work of Indian politics of pre-independent India. Shows unparallel knowledge and wisdom of the author.

My Experiments with Truth : Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

A book that shows what it means to be a Mahatma.

Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the conciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works.
We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come. - Einstein

If there minority is just one voice that speaks the truth the truth shall prevail. - From the movie Gandhi when Gandhi was asked how come being a minority the Indians could change the views of the British Govt.

A must read for anyone who wants to know what India is all about.

His Fifth Woman - A Play by Vijay Tendulkar (2004)

This critical appreciation is submitted as a project assignment for a course I have registered for.

Introduction

The play by Vijay Tendulkar brings out the essence of oppression towards the fair sex in gory details in the Indian Society particularly in the lower income group of the society. Short, yet a depiction which leaves a little to imagination to the reader in treatment of woman as an object to fulfill one's desire is all very clearly shown in the play. The play exposes a man's sexual ego even after death and long past his death which makes even afterlife unsatisfactory for him.

Characters

The play has the following characters performing on stage:

1.Shakharam
2.Dawood
3.The Woman
4.A brahmin
5.Bunch of Crows
6.A nurse
7.A Ward Boy
8.An Afterlife Man
9.Chitragupta

However, I feel the characters which from a story perspective is important are the following:

1.Shakharam
2.Dawood
3.The Fifth Woman
4.And her husband
5.His first wife

We will try to read through the story from the above mentioned five characters rather than from the angle of the play and try to see how each character's outlook is for women in general.
The Story

The Fifth Woman

A woman bread in the simplistic social values taught to her as husband as the sole authority of a woman's existence. With all the vices the husband may have she thinks the husband is her whole sole protector even after his death and is protecting her all through her life. This faith has led to her accepting all the ill-behaviors done towards her by her husband's first wife, even the sexual hunger of Shakharam, which she willfully accepts in full respect to her husband's soul. A woman who has not revolted against the social injustice and has surrendered to fate. She feels she is even duty bound to Shakharam for the food and shelter he has provided to her.

The First Wife

In a male dominated society, which has bestowed on her very little power to execute her prowess upon, has identified the hapless Fifth Woman as the sole target to release her anger and throws her out of the house. Something she could not have revolted against the will of her husband had he been alive. A thing to note here is, although the man has been behind all the miseries of the this woman she identifies another victim as the cause of her sorrow. This is the most sorrowful part in the male dominated society a woman is living in helplessly.

The Husband

Buys a wife thirty years younger to him in age, like a slave from a slave market. Very little can be told about how oppressive the society allows a man to become to fulfill his sexual desire. The superiority that man gets of his manhood is clearly depicted when after death the man ceases to exist to have the sexual superiority and grapples in deciding whether let his soul move to a peaceful recluse after a struggle of life. This man identifies woman as an object of desire which he can buy and tie to her a sacred thread, yet very little can he do to protect his woman.

Shakharam

The most described character in the play, yet does he deserve a mention. What do really women to him other than a definition of white slavery? A contractual relationship of give and take for the food and shelter he can provide a woman for staying with him. A self proclaimed messiah to women, is that a reality? When the husband bought a slave Shakharam bought over the Fifth Woman everyday for the carnal desires as and when that came to him. She does not even provide the social protection of marriage or a sense of respect for the woman to provide her a respectful life in the society. The Fifth Woman lived with him, provided for his desires although not accepting to the fact that he has a right on her body, yet her body was to be left abandoned as unclaimed object when she was little use to him after death. Of course, Shakharam was way away from being social, he had no respect for the women he lived with. More over, when he conducts the last rights for the fifth woman he is seen terribly upset, confused and completely annoyed with the whole situation. If Dawood were not available he would have definitely left her unclaimed. As soon as she cremates the fifth woman he is ready for his search for the sixth woman.

Dawood

A soul who has not come across many women in life save the women he had his carnal pleasures satiated in the whore house or the women he interacted who came to stay with Shakharam. Always, respected the women who stayed with Shakharam thinking that there was real respect Shakharam had for those women. He in fact completely bears all expenses related to the fifth woman's cremation. In a society with so much of torture for women he seems to be the only hope who shows some true respect for them as humans.

What does a woman really want?

This is something differently put forth in the story. At one point through the crows who do not eat the offered food and the final tale of fifth woman in Chitragupta's court.

Shakharam's belief that he has done enough for the woman and has taken enough pains in giving back the woman what he received in return. There is a point the crows reject the food and finally attack to eat all the food when they hear the sacred thread has been left to burn in the funeral pyre by Shakharam. There are two distinct meanings that can be attributed to this. One the crows were not hungry and when they got hungry when they ate the food as has been mentioned by Shakharam. The second aspect could be the fifth woman's only symbol of marriage was passed on to her in dignity, a small respect that she always deserved as a married lady, the sacred thread which she never allowed Shakharam to touch.

In the end the fifth woman after her death describes her desire of having a level playing ground where she is not subjected to male domination. A place which has values beyond just physical needs of a tyrant male. Will she get that ever?


About the Author

Vijay Tendulkar is a prominent playwrite, social commentator, political essayist, and screen and television writer. His writings have influenced the Marathi literature for over forty years. Some of his famous works are:
Shantata!!! Court Chalu Ahe (1967)
Shakharam Binder (1972)
Kamala (1981)
Kanyadaan (1983)
Ghashiram Kotwal (1972)

The Fifth Woman (2004) is a prelude to the Shakharam Binder which is probably the first English play written by the author. Written in simple English, it has communicated and presented the social status of a woman's life on the streets of India and the level of torture she is exposed to.

Vijay Tendulkar is an eminent screenplay writer. He has written original scripts and dialogs for eleven Hindi movies. Some of his movies are:
Nishant (1975)
Manthan (1977)
Akrosh (1980)
Ardh-Satya (1983)
Aghat (1986)
These movies remain as the flag bearers of "parallel Hindi cinema".

The author has been honored with many awards. Some of them are:
Sangeet Natak Academy Award (1971)
Filmfare award for original screenplay (Akrosh 1981, Ardha-Satya 1983)
Padma Bhushan (1984)
Maharastra Gaurav Puraskar (1990)
The Janasthan Award (1991)
The Kalidas Samman (1992)
The Saraswati Samman (1993)
Dinanath Mangeskar Award (2000)

The IITians - Sandeepan Deb

The book definitely makes you think if you are from IIT and particularly if you have lived a pseudo Bengali life in IIT, Kharagpur. When I made the comment pseudo bangali there is nothing wrong I mean. One most important thing that Kharagpur has taught me and I guess to many of the fellow alumni as well is to not to have fear to voice a fact and strong motivation towards cultural activities of all kinds (a strong Bengali trait).

The book of course is a really excellent read. But, certain questions still arise which I do not think has a coverage in the book.

1. What would have happened if the people had not been to IIT but had been to somewhere else?
2. Are IITians all that good as claimed?
3. What does IIT really teach?

Answers:

1. The particular person would have been lost in achieving very little in life as mostly the people who we are discussing are middle to upper middle class good student bookworms who make it to IIT in large numbers. The set up provides them to grow to individuals who have ability to choose and reach to where they aspire.

2. Not sure. IITians are good in analytics and problem solving. Staying in a residential campus can make you a bit tough as well. But, all said and done IIT campus is quite far away from reality in many senses. A strong meritocracy which society finds hard to value and respect. Many IITians in real life and jobs have complaint of monotony, struggled hard to get to the right position they want for themselves. Whether, good or bad is a different question but definitely they are different.

3. I cannot say for others, but the only thing that I have learnt from my stay at IIT is only one thing you are just a mediocre. The guys around you are so smart that they actually make you look like a mediocre. Believe me the guy next to you feels exactly same of you. Hence, every appreciation or reprimand is purely transactional and goes away after the instance of discussion is over.

I think every IIT aspirant, their parents and IITian must read this book.

The Manual of the Warriors of Light - Paulo Coelho (1997)

Actually, it's the part of Fifth Mountain and a collection of various thoughts and quotes that comes to Elizah's mind as he is on his expedition. However, it's good as a quotation book only and there is very little take from it as a reading.


http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/manual.htm

The Fifth Mountain - Paulo Coelho (1996)

Another excellent book by Paulo Coelho on faith and love. Excellent read. May what come faith and love makes you come over all obstacles. Truely incredible.


http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/fifth.htm

Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho (1998)

A book on iconoclasts. Veronika is born and brought up in a perfect environment. Life has no challenge for her and she decides to die. Later this makes her land up in a mental hospital and here she discovers an alternative to living, a struggle as she has been warned that she will die in couple of days and ultimately she finds the love which makes her yearn for life.

An excellent book written to make you think beyond the obvious.

http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/veronika.htm

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (1988)

If you have decided to fulfil a dream the environment conspires to enable you fulfil the dream. The moral of the story that probably is one of the most read books in modern times. Translated into 58 languages this book has reached to the mass.

The details of the book can be found at:

http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/alchemist.htm

Book Reviews: Five point someone ... and One night at the call centre

Book Reviews: Five point someone ... and One night at the call centre

I do not believe in copying other people's work. But, if I know someone else has done a good job of it, I should quote him. I think by providing the link to Samrat's reviews I am doing justice to both Samrat for his reviews and the author for his amateur attempt for his second novel.

The Old Man and the Sea - E. Hemmingway

But, Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. - E. Hemmingway

So tells the wise man in about 100 pages of genious and original work which brought him the Nobel prise for literature. Written in simple English the novel is a characteristic monologue of Santiago an old man who fights eighty-three days without a fish and finally catches a large fish to be eaten away by sharks. But, he leaves no hope and brings the skeleton back to the shore as the prowess of his skill and pride.

I started reading novels very late in life. And this was my first novel and was in my school curriculum in class XII. One of the most powerful and impacting stories I have ever read in my life. I have read it numerous times when I felt down, bored or have doubted my potential.

Why a blog on book reviews?

I was a good student, which in most middle class Indian family means a bookworm. That too a person who has invested more than half his life in his course curricula. When I look at the books I sometimes feel how silly of me to spend the whole year the books which ideally should be no more than three months of reading for any one with average level of intelligence as I have.

In any case, as I started growing up (I have doubts if I am really a grown up) subsequent to joining my job I found very few things interesting that reading. Now probably I have a collection of over 500 books of various genre and reading has become a passion than a just a hobby.

I found a couple of my friends reviewing books and journals and posting them as blogs. I find it quite interesting and useful as well. May be you will find some of these notes useful. Please comment on them if you do not agree to my viewpoints.