Two States : Chetan Bhagat

A Brief History of Time: Stephen Hawking

The Man-Eater of Malgudi : R.K.Narayan

Just finished the book. As with all the Malgudi-centric work of RK Narayan, this is indeed a page-turner. RK Narayan has this style of writing,  so elegent and natural that it takes the reader to the this mystical small town feel.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish : Rashmi Bansal

 

This book is certainly a good composition of indian entrepreneurs educated at IIMA. Some of them are well known such as founder of Naukri.com. Some are people behind brands such as Sintex.

The title of the book was inspired by Steve Jobs famous Commencement speech at standord.

One of the good insirational business books I’ve read in recent times.

The White Tiger: Aravind Adiga

This is  a fiction I’ve read after a long break. There’s a lot of chatter about this book ever since it work the year 2009 B prize.  I do not have much fascination about reading fiction writing, however since this is a Booker winner I’d given it a try.

The book portrays the darker side of India, much like the movie slumdog millionaire. The book is a narration of Balram, a driver turned Internet entrepreneur, written as a letter to the Chinese premier. Why should Balram write a letter to the Chinese premier? It goes  rather strange and unexplained in the whole book!

The book is rather interesting to read in the first half. The life of the Balram as a driver and servant, references to a place called ‘Darkness’  are true to reality, but the latter half of  the book is rather out of touch with reality. As described in the book, Balram robs and murders his master and runs away to Banglore with 7 lakh rupees. With the stolen money he setups his own travel company to ferry employees to IT firm.  How can a illiterate boy, with absolutely no charisma or prior business acumen all of a sudden create this well managed business? Arvind Adiga do not have an answer to this in the book!

The world outside relates to India as as one of the BRIC states competing and cooperating with China in the world economy. It also sees India as Outsourceing  destinations. The book is primarily written for an audience outside India who can very well relate to Bangalore , China and outsourcing.  One of Balram’s master is an US returned guy  married to an American. Again an attempt to relate with an western audiance.  The outside world hardly can relate of Balram the protagonist in this book.  Arvind Adiga’s attempt to relate the two world is really a failure and far remote from reality!

I’ve read Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things. God of small things is certainly is a book deserving a Booker Prize, but this one by Arvind Adiga is certainly not frankly in my opinion!

India: A Wounded Civilization by V S Naipaul

 I found an excellent blogpost on the book  here

I generally like the way VS Naipaul writes, but does not necessarily agree with his beliefs. I’m sure tons of people would agree. Go follow the amazon comments.

Naipaul refers to RK Narayans novels in the book and in a way accuses him of  not mentioning about the politics!

The books will certainly be of interest to people who are born after the emergency . Again, the matter we do not know how much of these are well researched and how much is from prejudice.

The Tipping Point : Malcolm Gladwell

Made In Japan : Akio Morita

  This  story of Sony and its founder Akio Morita. Certainly different from most of the American  business stories we get to read.  The book is a 1998 edition and Sony, Japan and the world had undergone a sea change since. But most of what Akio discusses in this book had remained intact.

He starts the with the world war era followed by US occupation and how it changed Japan during those days. It was in these days that Akio, son of a prominent business man started with the idea of a company. He had developed a solid technical foundation  in engineering and sciences working for the imperial army that later helped in setting the Sony company. The book has vivid stories of how the first tape recorder takes shape and many of the now defunct transistor radio, VCR and walk man. The book gives insight about the world before the transistors when the vacuum tube ruled the world.

Details of how Sony was established in America and Europe is quite interesting. The books delves into the psyche of a Japanese business as opposed to the American way of business. 

Written in the 80s , the book has little reference to the business world as we know today with WTO . Its surprising to note that the book has very little information about the technology we know today with the Internet and the personal computers and mp3 players and cell phones.

What’s more relevant  to note in the recession ridden world of today is the the frugal lifestyles of Japanese businessman.  While US CEO earn millions in pay and perks, Japanese CEOs  earn many order less than the Americans. Interesting to note that Akio mocks the US culture to sue. Millions spend by US corporations to save their back from frivolous lawsuits could be used for in R&D and adding value to the customers.

King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan….: Anupana Chopra

Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag – Jim Corbett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsi-k1-wZBc