The Monk as Man - Sankar (2003)

Written about a century later to the death of the great monk this book explores the life of the great Saint. Being a saint he was not completely cut off from family. Maintained a regular association with his mother and looked after her as any son would take care of his parents in difficult times. His indulgence with food was unique as he was a great cook in all kinds of world cuisine while enjoyed feeding and feasting. No doubt struggled with weight and related health issues due to it. His love and attraction for tea is also quite significant. He used to smoke heavily as well. However all these indulgences has not stopped him from achieving the larger purpose of spiritual progression. Lastly a large part of the discussion on the book is on his illhealth that had come several times on the way of his purpose. But he has set aside all the barriers in emerging victorious. The book makes you realize such great soul who has achieved his purpose is also not immune to indulgences of a common man. Though lived a short life shy of 40 he definitely achieved many lives' dreams. 

Read it if you just want to know the personal life of the Saint. Doesn't have teachings in the book.

Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood's Bad Boy - Yasir Ussman (2018)

 The original and only bad boy of Bollywood is what Sanjay Dutt is mostly known as. However, generally forgiven by masses as a star kid and movie goers have generally loved his stardom though the brief period of extreme emotions in mid-90s. The book is a simple 200 odd page easy read look out into the actors life that you can flip through in a few hours. Simple language not much of complexities or narratives that explains strong emotions. 

In short a simple star kid who had access to money than most normal kids of the period, had a penchant for breaking rules and indulge in all that came to his mind - drugs, wine, women or guns. Somehow family and people around even his rivals found a liking for him. He has never defended his positions nor have been apologetic about his indulgence, almost been innocent in his indulgences. 

If you have to read a biography from which you do not want to make any serious effort to pick up a moral and just want to read about an actor who is popular and his rollercoaster life here is a book for you. Just statement of facts, even the author does not try to defend any of the actions of the actor nor has been over critical of his misgivings. From that standpoint alone, I will consider this book worthwhile to read. 

In some sense, you also see the actor has been pretty candid about his life, he admitted his mistakes, has accepted his life as a convict and been jailed for the same. Whether he should be considered good or bad or a role model, I think somewhere the moral fabric around a person's life can be kept aside when we look at people around us. 

Naveen Patnaik - Ruben Banerjee (2019)

When you have a political leader who is so silent and so cut off from state politics from his early days of life, it's really hard to find much from his life, more so his unpublished life. Ruben Banerjee presents a very balanced view, not something you can say overtly positive or negative about the person. Not something that's not known of the person from his political life post-1997 which is the life of a modern non-spiritual Saint. Someone who is broadly cut off from any attachments yet in the thick of every aspect of the state as the longest-term chief minister in India. Although the son of a famous daredevil father who has the charisma to rule over the hearts of many Odias, the son is a suave silent political master who knows to be powerful among all highs and lows. Both had very different styles of taking political life. 

While the political struggles have been talked about in detail, why he wins is a chapter dedicated to his accomplishments in running a state for almost 20 years and improving the financial and social value of the people. Lastly the ability to maintain a consistent image that is distant from his early life socialite is definitely a plus for him.

A must-read and almost unputdownable. 

PDF Explained - John Whitington(2011)

 The book is good introduction to PDF but has left lots of details away. One can get a good understanding of 1.3 or 1.4 but PDF specification gets more complex after 1.5. So some of those parts must make it to the book. I prefer Developing with PDF for more advanced concepts though. Liked this book for the hand editable examples that are very useful to explain someone about PDF. 

Being in Safari Online collection this book adds a lot of value to customers. 

Developing with PDF - Leonard Rosenthol(2013)

 I normally do not write commentary on technical books as they are kind of associated with a period and as technology moves on new technology shows up. The books get outdated too soon. This one is about a technology that has almost seen maturity. PDF specification is pretty much a mature specification. Post release of the ISO-32000-1 published in 2008, the pace of development in PDF spect has become really slow. The PDF 2.0 spec is more of minor updates and not a major rewrite. The book is published in 2013. So very much current in that respect. The good part about this book is, it covers the high level features of most of the PDF specification. Text, Graphics, Optional Content etc. There are only countable books on PDF specification as such. Many books are available on the libraries that can be used to read and modify PDF specification documents. But purely a book that speaks of file specification is only countable few. From that perspective the book has lots of information look forward to. Secondly, being part of the Safari Online collection of Oreilly, most technical libraries will have access to the book. 

If you are looking forward to working on PDFs then this is a important book to keep. For advanced users of PDF specification is the book to refer to. 

Co-opetition - Barry J Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger (2004)

You realize a management book has done its bit when it survives a decade of conceptual frameworks review. Unlike Porters five forces this book focuses on a Value Net based on customers, suppliers, competitors and complimentors. The inclusion of complimentors makes it particularly interesting. The rest of interaction is much like a collection of factors that are individually analyzed with samples from various industry verticals, technology to airlines to consumer goods.

The factors (called as PARTS) discussed are:

1. Players

2. Added Values

3. Rules

4. Tactics

The factors are finally aggregated with the scope. 

Some striking facts: Most Favoured Customer is essentially a loss to a customer as he gives away his ability to bargain. If a large customer signs an MFC she essentially ensures that she invariably gets to receiving end of the bargain. The same gets to the position of even govt who bargain in favour by making such legislations in changing rules. As a small player or new entrant it may be ideal to enter the market in a subtle short duration bargain than a long term contract and reduce visibility of the competitor. Price wars invariably can be detrimental to a smaller player because it will not permit it to expand a new greener market. Buyers consortiums can be a good way to discover a well bargained pricing in a contractual obligations of indemnity in nature. Pricing bundling and unbundling make the comparables so hard that there is a kind of fog or unknowns that remain in deals that act win-win for everyone. Car buyers remain loyal to their respective brands with direct financial benefits like bundled credit cards. And many more...

For a change, the game theory principles are presented in a very clear explainable fashion than a bunch of number crunching probability payout matrices. 

Of course, when two professors of ivy league B-schools present an authoritative text as this you start thinking, is there any real numeric basis to it. I think there are some rudimentary examples but the explicit complex details are kept out. I will consider this a perfect biz executive book than rigourous research presentation for academics. If you have been a product manager, strategist, a marketer or a sales manager you may find this book almost unputdownable. Someone has read thru the games you have played...

Fermat's Enigma - Simon Singh (1997)

Enigma was the German crypto system that has been decoded by the allied forces surreptitiously to win over the axis powers' every secret move. Fermat's last theorem is in a sense a similar puzzle that baffled the mathematical community over 350 years. The books is written for common understanding without dabbling into mathematical details and hence very useful. The first part is about the development of mathematical system and development of scientific temperament from Pythogoras to Fermat. The last part is about development of systems and how Andrew Wiles managed to tackle the problem. The book has a few interesting puzzles talked about as well. The game theoretic truel is particularly interesting one. 

What is there in Fermat's theorem?  x^n + y^n = z^n does not have any integral solution for n > 2. 

Fermat in a margin note has teased to the mathematical community that he had a proof for the same but too long to be mentioned in the margin notes. It's called the last conjecture not because it's the last one he mentioned but it's the last one that mathematical community proved. With several attempts taken to solve the conjecture it was established the theorem has relations to:

1. Elliptical equations
2. Modular computations
3. Galois groups

While Andrew Wiles approach was to relate between several of these seemingly unrelated mathematical islands and bring home a 20th century solution to a 17th century puzzle. Skeptics are still engaged in finding out further solution to the 17th century solution for the 17th century puzzle. As much as Andrew Wiles was responsible for the solution of the theorem who eventually proved a dual Taniyama-Shimura conjecture, the Japanese scientists Taniyama and Shimura cannot be discounted for their efforts in establishing a dual of the Fermat's Last Theorem. 

Simon Singh has done an excellent job in keeping things simple for a complex problem and ensuring common man can appreciate the mathematical hard work. But do not expect any mathematical details in the book. 

Bullet Trains - Rakesh Kumar Rousan (2016)

Bullet trains  are not absolute new technology the history dates back to almost 80-90 years. However, only 15 countries have been able to develop the right infrastructure and systems for the same. When India came up with the plans for the same in 2016, a lot of questions came to mind. Will there be indegenous technology? Will we find a technology partner? Who will foot the bills? Some of the questions are answered by the book. However, most importantly this book actually talks a lot about the challenges with the high speed trains. Also, answers why such tains need complex infrastructure that needs a complete rethinking in designing the systems around it. With all the limitations highlighted per the author the bullet trains still are an important investment for India at large and must be taken into consideration for 9 sectors currently identified. The book also talks about the history, development and usage across the world in all countries. The technical superiority and differences are also highlighted between these systems.

Overall will recommend the book to understand the bullet trains in general and get an bird's eyeview of the technology and its usage.

Most importantly, the book is currently available for free with NBT collection of hundred books during national lockdown due to COVID-19.

https://www.nbtindia.gov.in/NBT_FreeBook4.aspx

The Bridge in The Moonlit Night and Other Stories - Manoj Das (2015)

National Book Trust published a collection of books from eminent authors. This collection of stories by Manoj Das contains stories that are published under various occasions and publications yet having a common theme. And theme here is of perception and deception. Each story is kind of laced with observations that are perceived by different actors and is different from each other. When the complete story unfolds one understands every person is enslaved by limitations of his own perception. Story starts with a politician who carried a seeming love interest to a fellow freedom fighter yet could never express in public, a nudist camp to be organized that never happens eventually, a lady who marries a crocodile and retells her story to a westerner who seem to be awestruck with the story tellers presentation, a general who leads a whole army struggles to deliver a performance on a stage, a jealous friend who ensures two lovers never come close to each other and in doing so struggles with his act all his life.

In world of perception is reality, Manoj Das brings up many great examples where the truth perception from everyone is not just ankle deep. While most stories you would have read elsewhere as a single the book gives out a powerful single theme to ponder over.

Most importantly, the book is currently available for free with NBT collection of hundred books during national lockdown due to COVID-19.

https://www.nbtindia.gov.in/NBT_FreeBook4.aspx

51 Lesser Known Stories from the Mahabharata - Sharath Kommaraju (2015)

These stories are side stories of Mahabharata and may not have direct significance to the epic. The stories are told giving maximum importance to the story and not the context and morals. Hence, most of the time it'll be hard to guess in what context the story may have been told. There is a general assumption that you know the central theme of Mahabharata very well. Lack of understanding there will not be remediated by this book. The author seems to have the skills to present a story succinctly, since the stories lack the context one may feel a bit of a miss moving from story to story.

A very quick read that you can finish in couple of hours, hence can be advised. For someone who looks at Mahabharata in a distict spiritual light will not learn much from such a book.

The Dramatic Decade - Indu Bhan (2017)

The books describes 12 cases that can be the most impactful in the last decade. They may not be the best judgments from a legal standpoint, but definitely the ones that have affected the Indian population at large:

1. Parliament Attack
2. Nirbhaya
3. The 26/11 Mumbai Attacks
4. The Babri Masjid Demolition
5. None of the Above
6. The Upaahar Tragedy
7. Defending Freedom of Speech
8. Lily Thomas vs. Union of India
9. The 1993 Mumbai Blasts
10. The Transgender Agenda
11. The Bar Dancers Case
12. LGBT Rights

The judicial system didn't necessarily show the speed and agility to resolve all the issues. Some issues infact continued over 20 years, in some the accused got away with a mere fine as old age considerations. Some cases the accused found ways to run away and fugitives never could be brought under the justice and extradiction could not be carried out. There are cases where justice has been delayed, cases where the quantum of punishment didn't seem adequate to make a mark but overall the courts showed the fundamental rights of the citizens are upheld higher over any other consideration. In that sense, all these are important cases. Also, in some even foreign nationals have been given their due in defending themselves in the court of law acting as state enemies. And that definitely is a very significant character the Indian courts have shown unlike our neighbors who do not show such maturity in their delivery of justice.

An overall good book to read for non-legal professionals. Legal professionals will find the book limiting in terms of details.

India's Legal System - Can It be Saved - Fali Nariman (2016)

Fali Nariman has been a leading expert on legal matters and has been a celebrated senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India. He needs no introduction to any person remotely related to law. This book is a short description on the following aspects:

1. Judicial System Pre-Indepence
2. Adoption of Judicial System post indepence.
3. Civil Courts and the flaws in the Indian Legal System
4. Criminal Courts and the flaws in the adversial justice system in India

While the judiciary role is upheld in the whole book, there are definite lacuna that have been identified. The role of judiciary and its importance to be kept independent is discussed with certain firmness.

Short and concise but definite treatment of Indian Legal System. More from a commoner's view point than a legal expert. To a practicing lawyer the book will seem to lack details.

Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice : Clayton Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, David Duncan (2016)

Needed to gift a book to the library of my hostel in my alma mater IIT, Kharagpur. It was imperative to choose a book on innovation, undoubtedly Clayton Christensen comes as the most authoritative management guru in the field of innovation. Hence, this choice.

If you have read Innovator's Dillema, Innovator's Choice or any such book by Clayton Christensen the views are always from a producers angle. Technically, the producer comes up with a new product or solution that completely disrupts the market and then market starts adopting it. And the whole saga of the adoption process is described in details with very crisp and well defined examples. This book is actually unique as it describes the innovation from a consumers viewpoint. In some sense, there is nothing completely new that has not been talked about earlier, it tells you to listen to the customer pain points to identify the real need and then build a solution that addresses that need. A very standard product management process to develop a product.

I think other than a terminology variation, like customer hires xyz service or product to address his needs there is nothing quite unique in the book. I felt over the years of research, it's Christensen who has really identified that needs driven innovation actually sticks to produce results. The concepts are told in a very different language, with the hiring terminology but I did not quite find any significant new ideas in the book.

But, as with most Christensen books, you will still gain enough to finish reading it. Hence, recommended.