Message sent to twistntales@yahoogroups today.
Hi all,
Books books and more books! Rain or sunshine, weekday or weekend, for those of us addicted to reading, reading is a tonic, a booster, an energizer, a refresher, a calmer, a “balm”er …… sad are those who do not enjoy the pleasure of books and do not get transported to magical lands !
For those who believe in this magic, here’s another world of books that presents itself week after week with a kaleidoscope of varied hues.
New Arrivals :
Inspiration:
“Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Relin @ Rs.395/- (349pgs)
Greg Mortenson is a high altitude climber trying to summit K2. After 2 unsuccessful summit attempts, Mortenson finds purpose in life. Working with nothing but gut feel, energy and raw courage, this book shows us Mortenson's journey from being a dreamer to successfully setting up series of schools in inhospitable high altitude zones of karokarram. Through areas of complete civil non governance, inhospitable terrain, tribal codes, and high anti american feelings, Mortenson has successfully ploughed his way through innumerable obstacles, and it is a complete triumph for the human spirit. It reminds you a little of the Alchemist. Solo and self driven, it shows that one person can really move mountains. Brilliant book. Highly recommended. Don't borrow, buy it. It helps Mortenson's cause!
“One Life to Ride: A Motorcycle Journey to the High Himalayas” by Ajit Harisinghani @ Rs.195/-(224pgs)
Beginning with a beautiful cover page, the book continues with its tryst with capturing the rugged beauty of the roads leading to Khardung –la. An entrancing travelogue of a journey performed by a practicing speech therapist with a yen for the dugh ...dugh...dugh of a Royal Enfield bullet! Beginning with the description a trailer ride from Pune to Goa, the actual action begins with plans of a 4300 kms motorcycle journey, solo until New Delhi .Once the journey begins, the witty, incisive reflections gives the reader a feeling of actually being there with the author. The tea – stall encounters of digital camera entranced village folk, mysterious sufi saints, the pleasure of riding on silk smooth roads maintained by the Border Roads Organization and the brave faces of Indian soldiers guarding our border in hostile conditions ..are just not to be missed.
“The Greatness Guide 2: 101 Ways to Reach the Next Level” by Robin Sharma @ Rs.195/- (203pgs)
The Greatness Guide 2 excites with uncommon advice that energizes delights! ’Be so good that they can’t ignore you’,’ Ask to Get’,’ Live an Intense Life’ are just a few. It aims at helping you to get to world class at work and in life, discover happiness and make the most of it, have more fun, simplify your personal and professional life. Each of the 101 simple yet powerful lessons are the proverbial egg-ons, so any random page could bring about that 360 degree change you’ve been aiming for.
“More Notes From the Universe: Life, Dreams and Happiness” by Mike Dooley @ Rs.560/- (218pgs)
In this second book in the ‘Notes From the Universe’ trilogy, the author again acts as liaison for the Universe serving you reminders to help keep readers grounded, excited, smiling their way to enlightenment .Each of the few lines on the beautifully designed page gently prods one to contemplate and concentrate on oneself and our thoughts. ‘There is no predicament that can’t be turned into an advantage and no burden that cannot give you wings….’It’s this wise!
“An Hour to Live, an Hour to Love” by Richard Carlson & Kristine Carlson @ Rs.580/-(61 pgs)
A profoundly moving book that shows the importance of treasuring each day as the incredible gift that it is. Savoring each little joy that comes our way in life makes us realize that actually the things we love most never really cost much money! What if we were given just an hour to live? How would we spend it? Whom would we call? Whom would we want to be close to? What would we want to say? This book can ask some really meaningful queries which will make us sit up and pay good attention to the way our life is shaping up.
“Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity- How to Develop the Focus of A Warrior and the Peace of a Monk” by Kamal Sarma @ Rs.670/- (194pgs)
From practicing spirituality to training for leadership, the author comes a long way and this book contains a fair amount of the skills and knowledge gleaned from such a momentous career span. Dealing with the scenario when every person encounters challenges, personal or professional, the author lays down a clear and succinct game plan to disallow stress to overcome calm. Simple techniques and proven skills to enhance mental resilience are drawn from age old wisdom of monks as well as warriors. The inclusion of an audio CD makes understanding and practicing these techniques easier and effective.
Philosophy:
“Pointers from Ramesh Balsekar” by Gautam Sachdev @ Rs.250/- (99pgs)
The author has been a keen follower of the preaching’s of the Advaita sage Ramesh Balsekar since February 2000 and this book describes the pointers with which life’s situations can be calmly dealt with, how to enjoy the little pleasures of this gift of life and how to convert each pain and sorrow to peace and a new treasury of knowledge and experience.
“Advaita on Zen And Tao: Insights on Huang Po & Lao Tzu” by Ramesh Balsekar @ Rs.300/- (194pgs)
Advaita sage Ramesh Balsekar, author of over 20 books discusses Indian Philosophy and aims to form a confluence of the eternal philosophies of the Advaita, Zen and Tao. He draws from the deep recesses of all three philosophies to find that common thread which weaves the truth of every life, the power of the mind and the basic concept that ‘All there is, is Consciousness’. Through the 90, brief chapters the author explores the theories of Zen Master Huang Po and Tao Master Lao Tzu.
Management:
“The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together To Create a Sustainable World” by Peter Senge @ Rs.895/- (406pgs)
From a senior lecturer at MIT, author of several bestsellers like ‘The Fifth Discipline’,’ Schools That Learn’ and ‘Presence’ is this book, brimming with inspiring stories from companies across the globe and people at various levels who have shown a positive path towards tackling social and environmental problems all around the world. Expounding the necessity of cross boundary collaboration to create a sustainable world for the present and future inhabitants .Stories from archives of Alcoa’s water use reduction goals, GE’s eco imagination initiative and Seventh Generation’s decision to shift some of their advertising to youth –led social change programs reinforce the faith that ‘Yes! Good things can be made possible!’
“Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way” by Jeffery Liker @ Rs.450/- (562pgs)
After The Toyota Way, and The Toyota Talent, now comes The Toyota Culture, also by Jeffery Liker. When Toyota spells success, it makes it worthwhile to peep into what lies beneath the Company’s policies. An inside scoop of the people centric culture that sustains consistent growth, innovation and profits, is what the author lets us have. From attracting an exemplary workforce to using top-down and bottom–up planning process to involve everyone in achieving break-through goals, this book is a mine of information on Toyota’s recipe for sustained success.
Fiction:
“The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S Lewis @ Rs.595/- (766pgs)
A fine collection of seven original novels, this magnificent omnibus is a real treat for lovers of Narnia. Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures and epic battles between good and evil rivet you to every page. Each of the seven novels is a masterpiece in itself, drawing the reader into a land where magic meets reality.
“Devil May Care: A James Bond Novel” by Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming @ Rs.395/- (294pgs)
Bond Is Back .He is also back in the swinging 60’s! With hashish and heroin doing rounds in Britain and France to reach out to the rest of the world, the plot unfolds in Paris with Bond on a three month sabbatical which is rudely interrupted when a British airliner goes missing over Iraq …but with a willing and able accomplice like glamorous Scarlett Papava, he is more than willing and able to take on his most dangerous adversary as yet -’Dr.Julius Garner’. A good, old fashioned ;) Bond thriller, just right for a weekend read!
“The Secret of Lost Things” by Sheridan Hay @ Rs.395/- (354pgs)
Finally! A bookstore who - dunnit with intrigue in every page and realization that words are money and deception is power. What lies beneath the façade of simple bookselling is a ruthless bidding and competition to secure rare books by well….rare means and make mounds of money. It’s all about ethics and copyrights and how effective they really are.
“The World According to Bertie” by Alexander McCall Smith @Rs.275/- (329 pgs)
A 44, Scotland Street novel, this is woven by one hundred short chapters which contain random observations, memories, conversations and run –ins between some really eccentric characters! An artist, a gallery assistant, an anthropologist, a mummy terrified young Bertie, an heiress in search of true love, a harangued pet dog and more! Interspersed are some amusing sketches and some really thoughtful prose. It makes one realize that it would be a good idea if - some times, grown ups had better act like children to resolve the problems they create for themselves and children had better be left to savour their childhood before they reach the stage of the inescapable commitments of adulthood.
Indian Writing:
“The Sea of Poppies” by Amitav Ghosh @ Rs.599/- (515pgs)
The first of his new trilogy of novels, this master storyteller takes us on a journey of human interactions and bonding, of separation and confluence and a common urge...to reach their chosen destination. A vast ship Ibis sails through the Indian Ocean to the Mauritius and the people on board are a fancy motley array of sailors, stowaways, coolies and convicts. Set in the times of colonial upheaval of the mid nineteenth century, the intermingling of a bankrupt Rajah, a mulatto American, a widowed village woman blends a curious mix of jahaj-bhais. Between the Opium wars in the backstreets of China, from the poppy fields around the Ganges an epic journey begins.
“Families At Home” by Reeti Gadekar @Rs.295/- (266pgs)
A debut novel by Berlin based author, this is a book short listed for the Man Asian literary prize 2007.Set in turbulent ‘90’s, with Delhi as a backdrop, a story of murder/suicide, corruption, power play, ethical aberrations and human eccentricities that plague an upper-class ,politically connected business family .The difficult choices and dilemma faced by the investigating officer Nikhil Juneja, his own failings and the mind boggling interconnections and betrayals of the police force is brought to fore …so who can be trusted? Does truth ever prevail...intriguing tale.
“Neglected Lives” by Stephen Alter @Rs.225/-(182pgs)
A debut novel first published way back in 1978, this unerringly humane novel makes a comeback to reveal the otherwise veiled lives of an Anglo-Indian community in picturesque surroundings of Debrakot. When Lionel leaves behind a reckless love affair in Lucknow and reaches Debrakot, he is inescapably drawn into the lives of its inhabitants; only to discover troubling secrets, tragic emotions, fascinating characters, tenderness, affection and more heartbreak but finally, true love.
“Renuka” by Stephen Alter @Rs.250/-(224pgs)
The author’s fourth novel is set in the hill station (Landour, Mussoorie).It tells of the friendship between Renuka and Rachel two women from distinctly different backgrounds and their conversations and interactions reveal to the reader an entirely fresh prospective of each culture amidst a love –hate relationship between the local residents, Renuka and Rachel. Fifteen chapters, each beginning with a delicious recipe by an inhabitant of the hill station and involving that character make this an interesting presentation and a perfect backdrop for a plot involving women, women and women.
“T’Ta Professor” by Manohar Shyam Joshi, translated by Ira Pande @ Rs.299/-(139 pgs)
Set in a sleepy hamlet tucked away in the Himalayan climes of Almora, this is the brilliantly sketched story of Kashtivallabh Pant, ’dubbul MA ‘-his preoccupation with British habits criss cross his study of Hindi and History, thwarted ambitions, sly contention for power in the school where he teaches, forays into amorous relationships stifled by social inhibitions and a friend who also is a fierce contender for all that he covets! Humorous as well as touching this is proof that human traits know no boundaries of geography, culture or time. This classic from an iconic figure of Hindi literature who wrote the screenplays for serials like ‘Buniyaad’ ,’Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne’ and ‘Hum Log’ is effortlessly translated by Ira Pande, herself an established authoress and dedicated translator of Kumaoni literature.
Others:
“Young Rangers” by Sunjoy Monga @ Rs.350/- (144pgs) – Nature/ Environment
‘A way for today’s youth to come together for our Earth’ is the motto of this superbly crafted book, brimming with smart ways in which to sensitize youth about the importance of ecological conservation. From soil conservation to air pollution to global warming, the naturalist, writer, wildlife cinematographer author explains and explores each topic, bringing out the changes that human’s have brought about. Various innovative and simple methods are discussed to encourage young people to be more ware of the repercussions of their behavior on the environment. With sufficient picture plates, examples and a glossy set of pages, this is a fun way of learning all about what’s around you.
“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” by Jeremy Scahill @ Rs.570/-(550pgs) – Socio Eco
Winner of the George Polk book Award, this fully revised and updated version of ‘Blackwater’ is the blood chilling account of the rise and success of the world’s most secretive, private mercenary army and its effect on today’s war on/of terror. From the gory streets of Baghdad to sleazy New Orleans, the U.S war machine’s sweeping orbit stuns and scandalizes one and all. With a chapter wise reference note at the end of the book, one can’t but wake up to the truth about today’s wars. They are all just mercenary.
“A to Z of Health Challenges after Thirty: A Practical Guide to Know Your Health Needs” by Ashok Jain @ Rs.225/- (290pgs) – Health.
As the title suggests this is a practical guide to correctly handle the physical and psychological changes that occur in our body after 30’s .With hectic lifestyles and nuclear families, often times one loses track of age (!) and with no voice of experience around, it could be easy to dither about some really common ailments or changes in the body; which could merely warrant a simple change in life style or maybe a good, thorough check up of the systems. The doctors tackle with gentle gusto almost every ailment that could visit a 30+ person and classify, describe and explain possible remedies .If not for the remedial measures, the fact that such afflictions are common to all persons at some point in their life can actually relieve one’s anxiety.
More new books:
“Discovering The Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights” by Frits Staal @ Rs.495/- (419pgs)
“The Gravedigger’s Daughter” by Joyce Carol Oates @ Rs.295/- (582pgs)
“Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource” by Jeffrey Gitomer @ Rs.1005/- (291pgs)
“Happiness and Other Disorders” by Ahmad Saidullah @ Rs.299/- (255pgs)
“Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted” by Ian Ayres @ Rs.350/- (260pgs)
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker @ Rs.295/- (261pgs)
“Keep off the Grass” by Karan Bajaj @ Rs.195/- (259pgs)
“Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future” by Iain Carson & Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran @ Rs.395/- (336pgs)
“Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength” by Diana McLain Smith @ Rs.935/- (289pgs)
“Smoke And Mirrors: An Experience of China” by Pallavi Aiyar @ Rs.395/- (273pgs)
“Rubbish Boyfriends” by Jessie Jones @ Rs.225/- (436pgs)
“A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian In Pakistan” by Farzana Versey @ Rs.295/- (279pgs)
“The Ghost” by Robert Harris @ Rs.255/- (400pgs)
“A House In The Old Style” by Ananda Mukerji @ Rs.295/- (311pgs)
“A Case Of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hanif @ Rs.395/- (295pgs)
“Bone China” by Roma Tearne @ Rs.295/- (400pgs)
“Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter” by Pankaj Ghemawat @ Rs.695/- (257pgs)
“Go Kiss The World: Life Lessons For the Young Professional” by Subroto Bagchi @ Rs.399/-(239pgs)
“A House in the Old Style” by Ananda Mukerji @ Rs.295/- (311pgs)
“Wolf Totem” by Jiang Rong @ Rs.525/- (527pgs)
“The Post –American World” by Fareed Zakaria @ Rs.499/- (292pgs)
“The Go- Giver: A little Story about A Powerful Business Idea” by Bob Burg and John Mann @ Rs.225/- (132pgs)
“The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels” by Michael Watkins @ Rs.695/-(254pgs)
Happy Reading and see you at the Store!
From the team at
twistntales
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
3 books of joy !
The last 2 weeks have been amazing... suddenly after a pause, i have read 3 brilliant books in a row ! And i have not even started with "Sea of Poppies" ... i need to breathe before i begin that.
First off the block was "Limping to the centre of the Earth" by Timeri Murari. This is an account of Murari's account of his Kailash parikrama and the walk to Tibet through the Indian Government ITBP route. The book is very good, extremely well documented, and one can actually live the journey. For those of us who have been through this journey before (I have in May, 2006), it is a re - living of every step. The Kailash yatra is easily one of the most ardous of all journeys. But its a journey also into the unknown, of cultures, of languages, of unpredictable weather and all this combined with the raw elements of nature make this a completely spiritual experience. Murari, though not religious has also felt and described the spiritual aspects of this journey. Its a brilliant book, if you enjoy mountains, cultures and Kailash. I do, and i loved the book. Highly recommended. This is a true twistntales bestseller.
Without a pause, i started on the Narmada book. This is another journey that i have been wanting to make, ever since i read "The Sacred Virgin" many many years ago. That was a journey done by Ambassador car. This one is Brilliant ! "The Narmada" by Amrit Lal Vegad is a recent translation, of a book originally written in Hindi.
The account of a journey by foot done 8 years back, in bits and parts (2 weeks at a time) all along the Narmada, is brilliant. I love rivers. Amrit Lal Vegad is an accomplished artist. His take on nature, on the river, on the peoples that inhabit by the banks, the cultural nuances are refreshing and are a delight to read. Another tnt bestseller !
The next is an international bestseller, making it to India now. "Three Cups of tea" has been eagerly awaited, and yes i picked the first copy in my store ! Greedy me ! But guys, it is truly a brilliant book. Books like Kite Runner and 3 cups of tea happen once in a while.
Greg Mortenson is a high altitude climber trying to summit K2. That's what drew me to this book in the first place. After 2 unsuccessful summit attempts, Mortenson finds purpose in life. Working with nothing but gut feel, energy and raw courage, this book shows us Mortenson's journey from being a dreamer to successfully setting up series of schools in inhospitable high altitude zones of karokarram. Through areas of complete civil non governance, inhospitable terrain, tribal codes, and high anti american feelings, Mortenson has successfully ploughed his way through innumerable obstacles, and it is a complete triumph for the human spirit. It reminded me a little of the Alchemist. Solo and self driven, it shows that one person can really move mountains. Brilliant book. Highly recommended. Don't borrow, buy it. It helps Mortenson's cause !
twistntales has often highlighted some lost but brilliantly written books, and these books come highly recommended at the Store. This post is a wider effort to do just that. Some of these books never show up in any bestseller list, but are honestly far far better than many that appear on the list. In the past, twistntales (tnt) has recommended "Book of Rachel" by Esther David, "Diddi" by Ira Pande, "The legends of Pensam" by Mamang Dai, "Moin and the monster" by Anoushka Ravishankar and so on... None of these made it to any list, but believe me, if you haven't read them yet, you have lost out.
First off the block was "Limping to the centre of the Earth" by Timeri Murari. This is an account of Murari's account of his Kailash parikrama and the walk to Tibet through the Indian Government ITBP route. The book is very good, extremely well documented, and one can actually live the journey. For those of us who have been through this journey before (I have in May, 2006), it is a re - living of every step. The Kailash yatra is easily one of the most ardous of all journeys. But its a journey also into the unknown, of cultures, of languages, of unpredictable weather and all this combined with the raw elements of nature make this a completely spiritual experience. Murari, though not religious has also felt and described the spiritual aspects of this journey. Its a brilliant book, if you enjoy mountains, cultures and Kailash. I do, and i loved the book. Highly recommended. This is a true twistntales bestseller.
Without a pause, i started on the Narmada book. This is another journey that i have been wanting to make, ever since i read "The Sacred Virgin" many many years ago. That was a journey done by Ambassador car. This one is Brilliant ! "The Narmada" by Amrit Lal Vegad is a recent translation, of a book originally written in Hindi.
The account of a journey by foot done 8 years back, in bits and parts (2 weeks at a time) all along the Narmada, is brilliant. I love rivers. Amrit Lal Vegad is an accomplished artist. His take on nature, on the river, on the peoples that inhabit by the banks, the cultural nuances are refreshing and are a delight to read. Another tnt bestseller !
The next is an international bestseller, making it to India now. "Three Cups of tea" has been eagerly awaited, and yes i picked the first copy in my store ! Greedy me ! But guys, it is truly a brilliant book. Books like Kite Runner and 3 cups of tea happen once in a while.
Greg Mortenson is a high altitude climber trying to summit K2. That's what drew me to this book in the first place. After 2 unsuccessful summit attempts, Mortenson finds purpose in life. Working with nothing but gut feel, energy and raw courage, this book shows us Mortenson's journey from being a dreamer to successfully setting up series of schools in inhospitable high altitude zones of karokarram. Through areas of complete civil non governance, inhospitable terrain, tribal codes, and high anti american feelings, Mortenson has successfully ploughed his way through innumerable obstacles, and it is a complete triumph for the human spirit. It reminded me a little of the Alchemist. Solo and self driven, it shows that one person can really move mountains. Brilliant book. Highly recommended. Don't borrow, buy it. It helps Mortenson's cause !
twistntales has often highlighted some lost but brilliantly written books, and these books come highly recommended at the Store. This post is a wider effort to do just that. Some of these books never show up in any bestseller list, but are honestly far far better than many that appear on the list. In the past, twistntales (tnt) has recommended "Book of Rachel" by Esther David, "Diddi" by Ira Pande, "The legends of Pensam" by Mamang Dai, "Moin and the monster" by Anoushka Ravishankar and so on... None of these made it to any list, but believe me, if you haven't read them yet, you have lost out.
Monday, June 9, 2008
The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination
Harvard University Commencement Address J.K. Rowling
Copyright June 2008
As prepared for delivery
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International' s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for sending this Shibani :)
I found the video for this here.
Copyright June 2008
As prepared for delivery
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
The first thing I would like to say is 'thank you.' Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International' s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for sending this Shibani :)
I found the video for this here.
New New books !
Message sent to twistntales@yahoogroups today.
Hi all,
When schools begin, parents too can return to a routine! Phew! Welcome back to sanity, early mornings and more time to work!
Yes, at twistntales, activities revolve around the school calendar, and though the books come in fast and newer and newer books keep happening all the time, the reviews slow down a bit. But for those of you who have continued to drop in, I’m sure you have been delighted, everytime.
And hey, thankyou …. To all those who have kept enquiring about our well-being, every time a mail gets delayed! Feels good.
We have 3 books making the news in recent times. One of course, is Amitav Ghosh’s “The Sea of Poppies”. It is bound to be a superhit, Amitav Ghosh easily taking top honours amongst Indian writers.
But its about the other 2 books, that we will like to inform you about. One of them is Gauri Dange’s “3, Zakia Mansion” (reviewed below). Many of you know Gauri, both as an established writer with her byline in the erstwhile Maharashtra Herald, and as a family counselor. Her debut novel, 3, Zakia Mansion recently released, is now available at the Store.
The other book is “One Life to Ride” by Ajit Harisinghani. Ajit is an Enfield Bullet enthusiast, and at 54, had the longest ride of his life. This book is an account of his journey from Pune to Khardungla Pass. No travel/ road/ bike buff should miss this! This book, (yet to be reviewed) is also available at the Store!
And now for other new books:
“Barack Obama: The New Face Of American Politics” by Martin Dupuis and Keith Boeckelman @ Rs.295/- (167pgs)
Inaugurating a series on women and minorities in politics, this book gives an exciting view of the American political landscape. Teamed with the tale of the meteoric rise to political fame by Barack Obama- only the fifth African American to serve in the US Senate, this book reverberates with the compelling thoughts of the Presidential candidate about issues like justice and social security. Obama gives more meaning to the American dream- clearly.
“The Shape Of The Beast: Conversations With Arundhati Roy” @ Rs.499/- (271pgs)
Fourteen interviews, conducted between Jan 2001 and March 2008 bring out the views of Arundhati Roy about matters closest to her heart. People displaced due to dams, Gujarat genocide, Maoist rebels are just a few topics. Unabashedly political, with typical candour the authoress shares her feelings and convictions with the reader.
“Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India” by Dileep Padgaokar @ Rs.550 (263pgs)
In India by the invitation of Prime Minister Nehru, Roberto Rossellini, the renowned neo-realist film director concentrated on the newly emerging, metamorphosing India and it was here that his life changed. His meeting Sonali Dasgupta, wife of a documentary film maker and mother of two children. Dileep Padgaokar traces sale of a remarkable man who fell under the spell of a woman, a Country and its people.
“The Other Indians” by Vinay Lal @ Rs. 295/- (159pgs)
In the era when Indians have made known their presence notably in the field of medicine, engineering, software, hospitality and other service sectors, the author gently traces this exodus and settlement of Indians abroad as well as the impact on India and the host country. Phenomena like the Ghadr movement, struggles over the rights of citizenship, the emergences of ‘temple culture’ are well described and analyzed.
“Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff @ Rs.1270/- (286pgs)
Defined as a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, gain experience and scourge information, support and ideas- The Groundswell phenomenon is what the authors deal with in this book.
“Chicken Soup For The Indian Soul” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Raksha Bharadia@ Rs.275/- (302pgs)
This special edition featuring outstanding stories by stalwarts like Tanuja Chandra, Shiamak Dawar, Arun Gandhi, Sanjeev Kapoor, Narayan Murthy and many more makes an inspiring read and also gives one a rare insight into the background and backdrop struggles and tribulations that these people who are successful today had to overcome yesterday.
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch @ Rs.295/- (207pgs)
A computer science professor at the Carnegie Mellon, the author had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. What ensued were a series of heartwarming , sensible lectures which underlined the importance of overcoming obstacles, enabling the dreams of others and making the most of every precious moment in life. He writes unhesitatingly about his tough old-school English teacher mother, his auto insurance selling dad, the journey to becoming a computer science professor and in general about all those things he did to make life work for him.
“Viva Santiago” by Colin Fernandes @ Rs.199/- (137pgs)
The heavenly locales of Goa combined with an erratic Delhi University student’s life make this fun filled, kaleidoscopic novel with a strange twist in its tale a charming holiday read. The encounters of Alonso Gonzalez in Goa come replete with the sounds and flavours, sleaze and social intrigues of the land of forever holidays. Snapshots of young kids, an old home, a favourite lighthouse increase the appeal of this book and one can’t but helplessly get totally involved in this plot.
“The Girl With The Golden Parasol” by Uday Prakash @ Rs.250/- (205pgs)
From one of contemporary Hindis’ most important voices comes this novella revolving around the love between Rahul and Anjali and the cultural malevolence that surrounds them. How politics and power can bring ordinary people on the brink of devastation is brilliantly depicted here. Clearly indicating the undercurrents of social divide prevalent in society, the story sends across a message of how, true emotions can triumph even amidst adverse conditions.
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga @ Rs.395/- (321pgs)
A darkly humorous story about the struggle for success and lucre- this details the life and ever changing morals of small town Balram- son of a rickshaw puller who begins work in a tea-shop and dreams of a high-flying well paid job. With a break into the realm of vehicles- as a chauffeur, Balram’s re-education commences and the tiger now seeks escape from the cage of servility to become his own master. This journey to entrepreneurial success does raise eye brows-the way is not too simple and the plot evermore amoral and totally irreverent!
“3, Zakia Mansion” by Gouri Dange @ Rs.200/- (163pgs)
A first novel from an editor and practicing family counsellor, this is a story of a young girl’s journey from adulthood to a family life, motherhood and the rude realization that just having a family does not ensure having warm relationships, a sense of belonging and an independence of personality. Shaheen’s turbulent marriage, her emotional estrangement from her only daughter, her search for a life of dignity brings together unlikely characters and yes.. a happy ending.
“A Golden Age” by Tahmima Anam @ Rs.295/- (276pgs)
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, this is an eye opening story of revolution, hope and courage which springs from unexpected quarters and the great lengths that that can be traversed in the name of love. Short listed for the Costa first novel award, the book has an effortless narrative; the story of Rehana, married to Iqbal at the toss of a coin, widowed after she had two children, separated from them when her childless brother in law vied for their custody, re united after much struggle only to be torn apart in a war for an independent new country… her struggle to reunite her family and live her own life makes an inspiring read.
“Limping To The Centre Of The World” by Timeri N Murari @ Rs.350/- (287pgs)
Mount Kailas is the most difficult pilgrimage in the whole world. But the author, with a bandaged knee made the ardous journey and back moving purely on a spiritual, not religious faith. Kailas calls, and when He calls, there is no chance to rethink. Circumstances and situations in life re-align themselves to help you make it to the top, inspite of the most excruitiating circumstances. He set out on a 200km trail up to Lipu Lekh pass into Nepal and the Dolma La pass on the parikrama. In freezing cold. The author’s interactions with fellow travelers and random encounters with Tibetan monks, French backpackers, German anthropologists and more such interesting people enliven the rigours of his tedious journey undertaken for one reason- Bhima his ‘temporary’ son is about to undergo a major surgery.
“Narmada: River of Beauty” by Amrit Vegad @ Rs.250/- (187pgs)
The personal travelogue of award winning artist and writer captures the geography, sociology, culture and economics of the river Narmada’s course from its source to the final flow. A travel/pilgrimage undertaken from 1987 onwards-times when there were no well laid roads and no cell phones, the author narrates his encounters with the villagers who live on the banks of the river, their simplicity, generous hospitality, his nerve racking journey through rains, sun and forests as well as incidents like encounters with a pair of cobras and a run-in with ants. Simple language and evocative sketches make this an authentic peek into the real India with the river Narmada as a lifeline.
“Travels with Herodotus” by Ryszard Kapuscinski @ Rs.295/- (275pgs)
From a much acclaimed and awarded Polish author is this rare literary treat…a superb translation of his final book which is a travelogue spanning continents and cultures. His traveling companion is but a copy of ‘The Histories’. The thoughts of the author and Herodotus, though separated by twenty –five centuries intertwine to produce this unique work of reportage an insight .While Herodotus’s reports were based on interviews and intelligent surmises- with no help from maps (non existent in those times), or the weatherman, Kapunscinki’s reportage effortlessly mingles with myth and aberrations and succeeds in bringing out a more correct and true picture of the cultures and histories of the places that he visited.
“Seeing Is Believing: Selected Writings On Cinema” by Chidananda Das Gupta
@ Rs.499/- (295pgs)
From the founder of the Federation of Film Societies of India and an authority par excellence in the world of cinema, comes this book which brings together some of his finest writings on the subject of cinema. Articles about origins and history of parallel cinema, the national film awards, portrayal of women, politics and films and of course the heart beat of every movie- the song! Spanning the past six decades, he ventures to study the works of five of the Nation’s best film-makers – from Satyajit Ray to Shyam Benegal.
“Complete Book of the Olympics” @ Rs.1200/- (1181pgs)
This 2008 edition is a mine field of lore, information and anecdotes from 112 years of Olympic history. It contains full descriptions of rules and scoring for every event included in the Beijing Olympics as well as names and a brief introduction of the top eight finishers in every summer event since 1896.The inclusion of vintage photographs and relevant statistics make this a true sportsperson’s cherished copy!
“Allie Finkle’s Rules For Girls” by Meg Cabot @ Rs.299/- (198pgs)
Allie Finkle’s parents are on the move. From a house with her own pretty pink room to an old home in town, Allie’s world is altered- but what about her rules? Allie explores how much she loves rules and why! Young ladies, check them out!
Newer Books:
“Young Rangers” by Sunjoy Monga @ Rs.350/- (144pgs)
“One Life to Ride: A Motorcycle Journey to the High Himalayas” by Ajit Harisinghani @ Rs.195/-(224pgs)
“The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S Lewis @ Rs.595/- (766pgs)
“The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together To Create a Sustainable World” by Peter Senge @ Rs.895/- (406pgs)
“The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back: Overcoming the Behavior Patterns That Keep You from Getting Ahead” by James Waldroop and Timothy Butler @ Rs.425 (325pgs)
“Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way” by Jeffery Liker @ Rs.450/- (562pgs)
“Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity- How to Develop the Focus of A Warrior and the Peace of a Monk” by Kamal Sarma @ Rs.670/- (194pgs)
“Pointers from Ramesh Blasekar” by Gautam Sachdev @ Rs.250/- (99pgs)
“Advaita on Zen And Tao: Insights on Huang Po & Lao Tzu” by Ramesh Balsekar @ Rs.300/- (194pgs)
“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” by Jeremy Scahill @ Rs.570/-(550pgs)
“More Notes From the Universe: Life, Dreams and Happiness” by Mike Dooley @ Rs.560/- (218pgs)
“The Greatness Guide 2:101 Ways to Reach the Next Level” by Robin Sharma @ Rs.195/- (203pgs)
“The Sea of Poppies” by Amitav Ghosh @ Rs.599/- (515pgs)
“A to Z of Health Challenges after Thirty: A Practical Guide to Know Your Health Needs” by Ashok Jain @ Rs.225/- (290pgs)
Happy Reading and see you at the Store,
From the team at twistntales
Hi all,
When schools begin, parents too can return to a routine! Phew! Welcome back to sanity, early mornings and more time to work!
Yes, at twistntales, activities revolve around the school calendar, and though the books come in fast and newer and newer books keep happening all the time, the reviews slow down a bit. But for those of you who have continued to drop in, I’m sure you have been delighted, everytime.
And hey, thankyou …. To all those who have kept enquiring about our well-being, every time a mail gets delayed! Feels good.
We have 3 books making the news in recent times. One of course, is Amitav Ghosh’s “The Sea of Poppies”. It is bound to be a superhit, Amitav Ghosh easily taking top honours amongst Indian writers.
But its about the other 2 books, that we will like to inform you about. One of them is Gauri Dange’s “3, Zakia Mansion” (reviewed below). Many of you know Gauri, both as an established writer with her byline in the erstwhile Maharashtra Herald, and as a family counselor. Her debut novel, 3, Zakia Mansion recently released, is now available at the Store.
The other book is “One Life to Ride” by Ajit Harisinghani. Ajit is an Enfield Bullet enthusiast, and at 54, had the longest ride of his life. This book is an account of his journey from Pune to Khardungla Pass. No travel/ road/ bike buff should miss this! This book, (yet to be reviewed) is also available at the Store!
And now for other new books:
“Barack Obama: The New Face Of American Politics” by Martin Dupuis and Keith Boeckelman @ Rs.295/- (167pgs)
Inaugurating a series on women and minorities in politics, this book gives an exciting view of the American political landscape. Teamed with the tale of the meteoric rise to political fame by Barack Obama- only the fifth African American to serve in the US Senate, this book reverberates with the compelling thoughts of the Presidential candidate about issues like justice and social security. Obama gives more meaning to the American dream- clearly.
“The Shape Of The Beast: Conversations With Arundhati Roy” @ Rs.499/- (271pgs)
Fourteen interviews, conducted between Jan 2001 and March 2008 bring out the views of Arundhati Roy about matters closest to her heart. People displaced due to dams, Gujarat genocide, Maoist rebels are just a few topics. Unabashedly political, with typical candour the authoress shares her feelings and convictions with the reader.
“Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India” by Dileep Padgaokar @ Rs.550 (263pgs)
In India by the invitation of Prime Minister Nehru, Roberto Rossellini, the renowned neo-realist film director concentrated on the newly emerging, metamorphosing India and it was here that his life changed. His meeting Sonali Dasgupta, wife of a documentary film maker and mother of two children. Dileep Padgaokar traces sale of a remarkable man who fell under the spell of a woman, a Country and its people.
“The Other Indians” by Vinay Lal @ Rs. 295/- (159pgs)
In the era when Indians have made known their presence notably in the field of medicine, engineering, software, hospitality and other service sectors, the author gently traces this exodus and settlement of Indians abroad as well as the impact on India and the host country. Phenomena like the Ghadr movement, struggles over the rights of citizenship, the emergences of ‘temple culture’ are well described and analyzed.
“Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff @ Rs.1270/- (286pgs)
Defined as a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, gain experience and scourge information, support and ideas- The Groundswell phenomenon is what the authors deal with in this book.
“Chicken Soup For The Indian Soul” by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Raksha Bharadia@ Rs.275/- (302pgs)
This special edition featuring outstanding stories by stalwarts like Tanuja Chandra, Shiamak Dawar, Arun Gandhi, Sanjeev Kapoor, Narayan Murthy and many more makes an inspiring read and also gives one a rare insight into the background and backdrop struggles and tribulations that these people who are successful today had to overcome yesterday.
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch @ Rs.295/- (207pgs)
A computer science professor at the Carnegie Mellon, the author had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. What ensued were a series of heartwarming , sensible lectures which underlined the importance of overcoming obstacles, enabling the dreams of others and making the most of every precious moment in life. He writes unhesitatingly about his tough old-school English teacher mother, his auto insurance selling dad, the journey to becoming a computer science professor and in general about all those things he did to make life work for him.
“Viva Santiago” by Colin Fernandes @ Rs.199/- (137pgs)
The heavenly locales of Goa combined with an erratic Delhi University student’s life make this fun filled, kaleidoscopic novel with a strange twist in its tale a charming holiday read. The encounters of Alonso Gonzalez in Goa come replete with the sounds and flavours, sleaze and social intrigues of the land of forever holidays. Snapshots of young kids, an old home, a favourite lighthouse increase the appeal of this book and one can’t but helplessly get totally involved in this plot.
“The Girl With The Golden Parasol” by Uday Prakash @ Rs.250/- (205pgs)
From one of contemporary Hindis’ most important voices comes this novella revolving around the love between Rahul and Anjali and the cultural malevolence that surrounds them. How politics and power can bring ordinary people on the brink of devastation is brilliantly depicted here. Clearly indicating the undercurrents of social divide prevalent in society, the story sends across a message of how, true emotions can triumph even amidst adverse conditions.
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga @ Rs.395/- (321pgs)
A darkly humorous story about the struggle for success and lucre- this details the life and ever changing morals of small town Balram- son of a rickshaw puller who begins work in a tea-shop and dreams of a high-flying well paid job. With a break into the realm of vehicles- as a chauffeur, Balram’s re-education commences and the tiger now seeks escape from the cage of servility to become his own master. This journey to entrepreneurial success does raise eye brows-the way is not too simple and the plot evermore amoral and totally irreverent!
“3, Zakia Mansion” by Gouri Dange @ Rs.200/- (163pgs)
A first novel from an editor and practicing family counsellor, this is a story of a young girl’s journey from adulthood to a family life, motherhood and the rude realization that just having a family does not ensure having warm relationships, a sense of belonging and an independence of personality. Shaheen’s turbulent marriage, her emotional estrangement from her only daughter, her search for a life of dignity brings together unlikely characters and yes.. a happy ending.
“A Golden Age” by Tahmima Anam @ Rs.295/- (276pgs)
Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Independence, this is an eye opening story of revolution, hope and courage which springs from unexpected quarters and the great lengths that that can be traversed in the name of love. Short listed for the Costa first novel award, the book has an effortless narrative; the story of Rehana, married to Iqbal at the toss of a coin, widowed after she had two children, separated from them when her childless brother in law vied for their custody, re united after much struggle only to be torn apart in a war for an independent new country… her struggle to reunite her family and live her own life makes an inspiring read.
“Limping To The Centre Of The World” by Timeri N Murari @ Rs.350/- (287pgs)
Mount Kailas is the most difficult pilgrimage in the whole world. But the author, with a bandaged knee made the ardous journey and back moving purely on a spiritual, not religious faith. Kailas calls, and when He calls, there is no chance to rethink. Circumstances and situations in life re-align themselves to help you make it to the top, inspite of the most excruitiating circumstances. He set out on a 200km trail up to Lipu Lekh pass into Nepal and the Dolma La pass on the parikrama. In freezing cold. The author’s interactions with fellow travelers and random encounters with Tibetan monks, French backpackers, German anthropologists and more such interesting people enliven the rigours of his tedious journey undertaken for one reason- Bhima his ‘temporary’ son is about to undergo a major surgery.
“Narmada: River of Beauty” by Amrit Vegad @ Rs.250/- (187pgs)
The personal travelogue of award winning artist and writer captures the geography, sociology, culture and economics of the river Narmada’s course from its source to the final flow. A travel/pilgrimage undertaken from 1987 onwards-times when there were no well laid roads and no cell phones, the author narrates his encounters with the villagers who live on the banks of the river, their simplicity, generous hospitality, his nerve racking journey through rains, sun and forests as well as incidents like encounters with a pair of cobras and a run-in with ants. Simple language and evocative sketches make this an authentic peek into the real India with the river Narmada as a lifeline.
“Travels with Herodotus” by Ryszard Kapuscinski @ Rs.295/- (275pgs)
From a much acclaimed and awarded Polish author is this rare literary treat…a superb translation of his final book which is a travelogue spanning continents and cultures. His traveling companion is but a copy of ‘The Histories’. The thoughts of the author and Herodotus, though separated by twenty –five centuries intertwine to produce this unique work of reportage an insight .While Herodotus’s reports were based on interviews and intelligent surmises- with no help from maps (non existent in those times), or the weatherman, Kapunscinki’s reportage effortlessly mingles with myth and aberrations and succeeds in bringing out a more correct and true picture of the cultures and histories of the places that he visited.
“Seeing Is Believing: Selected Writings On Cinema” by Chidananda Das Gupta
@ Rs.499/- (295pgs)
From the founder of the Federation of Film Societies of India and an authority par excellence in the world of cinema, comes this book which brings together some of his finest writings on the subject of cinema. Articles about origins and history of parallel cinema, the national film awards, portrayal of women, politics and films and of course the heart beat of every movie- the song! Spanning the past six decades, he ventures to study the works of five of the Nation’s best film-makers – from Satyajit Ray to Shyam Benegal.
“Complete Book of the Olympics” @ Rs.1200/- (1181pgs)
This 2008 edition is a mine field of lore, information and anecdotes from 112 years of Olympic history. It contains full descriptions of rules and scoring for every event included in the Beijing Olympics as well as names and a brief introduction of the top eight finishers in every summer event since 1896.The inclusion of vintage photographs and relevant statistics make this a true sportsperson’s cherished copy!
“Allie Finkle’s Rules For Girls” by Meg Cabot @ Rs.299/- (198pgs)
Allie Finkle’s parents are on the move. From a house with her own pretty pink room to an old home in town, Allie’s world is altered- but what about her rules? Allie explores how much she loves rules and why! Young ladies, check them out!
Newer Books:
“Young Rangers” by Sunjoy Monga @ Rs.350/- (144pgs)
“One Life to Ride: A Motorcycle Journey to the High Himalayas” by Ajit Harisinghani @ Rs.195/-(224pgs)
“The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S Lewis @ Rs.595/- (766pgs)
“The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together To Create a Sustainable World” by Peter Senge @ Rs.895/- (406pgs)
“The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back: Overcoming the Behavior Patterns That Keep You from Getting Ahead” by James Waldroop and Timothy Butler @ Rs.425 (325pgs)
“Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way” by Jeffery Liker @ Rs.450/- (562pgs)
“Mental Resilience: The Power of Clarity- How to Develop the Focus of A Warrior and the Peace of a Monk” by Kamal Sarma @ Rs.670/- (194pgs)
“Pointers from Ramesh Blasekar” by Gautam Sachdev @ Rs.250/- (99pgs)
“Advaita on Zen And Tao: Insights on Huang Po & Lao Tzu” by Ramesh Balsekar @ Rs.300/- (194pgs)
“Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” by Jeremy Scahill @ Rs.570/-(550pgs)
“More Notes From the Universe: Life, Dreams and Happiness” by Mike Dooley @ Rs.560/- (218pgs)
“The Greatness Guide 2:101 Ways to Reach the Next Level” by Robin Sharma @ Rs.195/- (203pgs)
“The Sea of Poppies” by Amitav Ghosh @ Rs.599/- (515pgs)
“A to Z of Health Challenges after Thirty: A Practical Guide to Know Your Health Needs” by Ashok Jain @ Rs.225/- (290pgs)
Happy Reading and see you at the Store,
From the team at twistntales
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Pile of new books all @ the Store !
Hi all,
It’s been a while.
Unfortunately this year, due to unforeseen reasons, we had to call off all our scheduled reading sessions and the planned treasure hunt. Disappointing for a few of us who had planned a great deal for these events. However, us being twistntales, we shall bounce back and surely we look forward to doing a treasure hunt in the future.
Meanwhile, a great many new books at the Store, listed below, very few reviewed. We hope to catch up on our reviews and hopefully get a few more done by the next mail.
We have also added to our team. Two former tnt-ians return to the fold. Shradha, who worked with twistntales in our early years, comes back to strengthen the Operations Team. She joined us in early April. Dhiraj, who used to be with tnt on a part-time basis in our first 2 years, now returns as a full time employee. Welcome back, Shradha and Dhiraj. Your return could not have been better timed, helped us cope with crisis.
We have not announced a “Star of the Month” for the past couple of months, not because we have been wanting in “Star” performance, but because some of our stars are too shy of being acknowledged as Stars! Check twistntales.blogspot.com for details!
Without much ado, let’s get on with the books,
“The 3 Mistakes of My Life” by Chetan Bhagat @ Rs.95/- (257pgs)
With Ahmedabad as the backdrop for his third book, Chetan Bhagat ventures into the minds of the youth with a bend towards cricket. This book tells the fate of the dream of three friends who wanted to make it big in the field of cricket and what communal riots did to their dream.
“Cold Steel: Lakshmi Mittal And The Multi Billion-Dollar Battle For A Global Empire” by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey @ Rs.650/- (323pgs)
The gripping story of the biggest and most hard –fought industry takeover of recent years is skillfully analysed in this book featuring the’ Stallions of Steel’. Fast paced and compelling, the intrigue and strategies of the business world come to the fore and makes one realize the impact of mergers and takeovers on countries and continents. With unprecedented access to major players and papers, the authors have succeeded in documenting a phenomenal deal, replete with the subterfuges, loop holing, internal skirmishes and unabashed thirst for power.
“Brida” by Paulo Coelho @ Rs.295/- (299pgs)
What does one do when one turns to learn the art of magic? This is the engrossing story of beautiful, young Brida’s quest for her kind of knowledge and her soul mate. The journey of every person’s anxiety of the future and curiosity of what lies further in life is mystically explored.
“The Painter of Shanghai” by Jennifer Cody Epstein @ Rs.395/- (486pgs)
Spanning the era of 1913 to 1957, this storyline transports one to the exciting mix of countries that Shanghai let flourish on its land. It is here that the story of PanYuliang, a young orphan is admitted into the life of being a concubine to a government inspector. Throughout her tumultuous life there is one passion that endures – her hope and aspiration to become a painter. Pan Yuliang lives and succeeds as she chose. This book is her story.
“The Trouble with Physics” by Lee Smolin @ Rs.275/- (392pgs)
From a pioneering theoretical physicist and the critically acclaimed author of ‘The life of Cosmos’ and ‘Three roads to Quantum Gravity’ is a book which focuses on the five major challenges faced by modern physicists. From the problem of quantum gravity to the problem of the unification of the particles and forces and the mystery of the dark matter and dark energy, the author journeys through the advancements (and glitches) in modern physics. The last of the twenty chapters are real eye-openers, which deal with the basic concepts of science-what it really is and how it works.
“The Back Of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” by Dan Roam @Rs.845/- (278pgs)
Out to promote the concept of ‘visual thinking’ the author brilliantly illustrates how squiggles, dashes and arrows could represent major brainwaves and translate into whopping sales figures. His step by step guidelines for how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual-thinking tools are a great help in clearing some and overcoming some communication gaps; as well as dramatically improve your ability to share your insights.
“Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayavati” by Ajoy Bose @ Rs.499/- (277pgs)
Ajoy Bose in his inimitable style and penchant to get to the crux of every matter presents the background of the meteoric rise of school teacher, Mayavati to Chief Minister of UP Mayavati, Behenji. Through the fifteen chapters of this book, Mayavati’s determined journey from being a Dalit person to aiming at Prime Ministers chair is brilliantly scripted. Mayavati has changed the face of politics in India, turning old assumptions upside down and restructuring power equations entrenched for centuries. With her in-your-face political style, unabashed display of accumulated wealth and mercurial nature, she is perhaps, the most enigmatic Indian politician for decades.
“The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama” by Pico Iyer @ Rs.499/- (252pgs)
A book by Pico Iyer ensures, automatically, an adventurous ride with the author, wherever he leads and whomever he meets! This book is no exception. The encounters with the Dalai Lama, his philosophies and vision his grit and the passionate plea for peace leaves one mesmerized, yet aware of the hidden life and transforming ideas that conviction in justice can promote. Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his fathers) for the last three decades- an ongoing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Moving from Dharamshala to Lhasa, Tibet to venues in the West, where the Dalai Lama’s pragmatism, rigor and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, The Open Road illuminates the hidden life, the transforming lines and the daily challenges of a global icon.
“Goodnight and God Bless: On Life, Literature and A Few Other Things with Footnotes, Quotes and Other Such Literary Diversions” by Anita Nair@ Rs.399/- (287pgs)
A warm and wonderful collection of pithy bedtime ruminations, this book is about books, authors, events- all and sundry, personal anecdotes, snippets of a conversation and any random thoughts that flit across the authors mind. Rendered in a witty and ironic manner. Quirky sketches and foot notes make this an intriguing leisure read.
“Thakur: A Life of Sri Ramakrishna” by Rajiv Mehrotra @ Rs.250/- (178pgs)
From a personal student of the Dalai Lama, a familiar face on television and a celebrated documentary film maker comes an illuminating and intimate biography of Sri Ramakrishna- Who called to the inner minds of millions of people and helped them gain peace and knowledge about their own ‘self ‘. From Sri Ramakrishna’s birth, childhood and family to his journey seeking peace and ultimate Mahasamadhi, the author gently explores the charisma of the Guru who was more friend than teacher to each of those who believed in him.
“The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian” by C.S. Lewis@ Rs.125/- (240pgs)
When a prince, denied of his rightful throne attempts to regain his inheritance in the land of Narnia- mysticism, mystery, adventure and a war of titans to uphold their honour is what ensues. Now a major motion picture, this is the perfect opportunity to capture the essence of ‘Prince Caspian’. To aid your imagination are picture plates from the movie inside the book!
“The Ultimate Book of Useless Information” by Noel Botham @ Rs.295/- (212pgs)
Did you know why the ‘quark’, a subatomic particle is called a quark? How did the term ‘chortle’ originate? What’s the highest scoring three- letter word in scrabble? Slyvester Stallone used to sweep the lion cages in New York cities Central Park Zoo! Cyprus has a map on its flag! To know more and learn better about people, countries and even the weather look up this book. It’s all there- together!
“Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul” @ Rs.275/- (302pgs)
“Allie Finkles rules for Giris Moving Day” by Meg Cabot @Rs.299/-(197pgs)
“The Other Indians – A Political and Cultural history of South Asians in America” by Vinay Lal @Rs.295/- (148pgs)
“Asset Allocation – Balancing financial risk” By Roger C.Gibson @Rs.625/- (366pgs)
“Barack Obama: The New Face of American Politics” by Martin Dupius and Keith Boeckelman @Rs.295/- (167pgs)
“Limping To the Centre of the World – A journey to Mount Kailash” by Timeri N Murari @Rs.350/-
“Viva Santiago” by Colin Fernandes @ Rs.199/-
“The Bioscope Man” by Indrajit Hazra @Rs.299/-
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch @Rs.295/-
“The Girl with the Golden Parasol” by Uday Prakash @Rs.250/-
“Seeing Is Believing – Selected writings on Cinema” by Chinanda Das Gupta @ Rs.499/-
“Bhowani Junction: A Magnificent Novel of Empire and Its Aftermath” by John Masters@ Rs.350/- (414pgs)
“Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies” by Josh Bernoff @ Rs.1270/- (286pgs)
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga @ Rs.395/- (321pgs)
“The Shape Of The Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy” @ Rs.499/- (271pgs)
“Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini In India” by Dileep Padgaonkar @ Rs.550/- (263pgs)
“An Hour to Live an Hour to Love: The True Story of the Best Gift Ever Given” by Richard Carlson and Kristine Carlson @ Rs.580/- (61pgs)
“Meanwhile Upriver” by Chatura Rao @ Rs.250/- (206pgs)
“Jalyatra: Exploring India’s Traditional Water Management Systems” by Nitya Jacob @ Rs.295/- (264pgs)
“The Power Of Focus For College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life” by Les Hewitt @ Rs.250/- (289pgs)
“Rage, Reconciliation And Security: Managing India’s Diversities” by B.G Varghese @ 495/- (266pgs)
“Think India: The Rise of the World’s Next Superpower and What It Means For Every American” by Vinay Rai and William Simon @ Rs.495/- (284pgs)
“Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade” by Bill Emmot @ Rs.695/- (313pgs)
“The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad” Edited by Syeda Imam @ Rs.399/- (395pgs)
“The Second World: Empires and Influences in the New Global Order” by Parag Khanna @ Rs.795/- (466pgs)
“Atisa and the Seven Wonders” by Anu Kumar @Rs.175/- (139pgs)
“Mulla Naseruddin” by Sampurnan Chatterjee@ Rs.195/- (162pgs)
“Every Mans’ Speaking Tree” @ Rs.150/- (206pgs)
“Sacred Banana Leaf “@ Rs.375/- Tara Books
“The Old Animals Forest Band” @ Rs.395/- Tara Books
“My Best Friends Life” by Shari Low @Rs.225/- (390pgs)
“Commonwealth Economics for a Crowded Planet” by Jeffery Sachs @ Rs.695/- (386pgs)
“The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul” by Patrick French @ Rs.595/- (555pgs)
“Selected Poems: Gulzar” translated by Pavan K Varma @ Rs.295/- (116pgs)
“The Long Partition And The Making Of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories” by Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar @ Rs.495/- (288pgs)
“The Game Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation” by A.G Lafley and Ram Charan @Rs.855/- (336pgs)
“The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President” by P.M.Nair @ Rs.250/- (147pgs)
“Derek’s Picks: The Best Quizzes Of Derek O’Brien” @ Rs.250/- (347pgs)
“The Boxwallah and the Middleman” by Raj Chatterjee @ Rs.250/- (206pgs)
“Superstar India: From Incredible To Unstoppable” by Shobaa De@ Rs.350/- (456pgs)
“Splendour In The Grass: Innovations in Administration” Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India @Rs.495/- (305pgs)
“The New Age Of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value through Global Networks” by C.K Prahlad and M.S Krishnan @ Rs.695/- (278pgs)
“Drop Dead Beautiful: The Continuing Adventures of Lucky Santangelo” by Jackie Collins @Rs.245/- (516pgs)
“There’s no such thing as a Self Made Man” by Prahlad Chaabria @ Rs.550/-
“Extraordinary Child – Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre” @ Rs.375/- (297 pgs)
“Outlook money – Life Insurance” @ Rs. 75/-
“Silent Raga” by Ameen Raga @ Rs. 395/- (452 pgs)
“A New Beginning – The Turnaround Story of Indian Bank” by Ranjana Kumar @ Rs.675/- (301 pgs)
And lots and lots more, not even listed.
Do drop in and take a look!
From the team at
twistntales.
It’s been a while.
Unfortunately this year, due to unforeseen reasons, we had to call off all our scheduled reading sessions and the planned treasure hunt. Disappointing for a few of us who had planned a great deal for these events. However, us being twistntales, we shall bounce back and surely we look forward to doing a treasure hunt in the future.
Meanwhile, a great many new books at the Store, listed below, very few reviewed. We hope to catch up on our reviews and hopefully get a few more done by the next mail.
We have also added to our team. Two former tnt-ians return to the fold. Shradha, who worked with twistntales in our early years, comes back to strengthen the Operations Team. She joined us in early April. Dhiraj, who used to be with tnt on a part-time basis in our first 2 years, now returns as a full time employee. Welcome back, Shradha and Dhiraj. Your return could not have been better timed, helped us cope with crisis.
We have not announced a “Star of the Month” for the past couple of months, not because we have been wanting in “Star” performance, but because some of our stars are too shy of being acknowledged as Stars! Check twistntales.blogspot.com for details!
Without much ado, let’s get on with the books,
“The 3 Mistakes of My Life” by Chetan Bhagat @ Rs.95/- (257pgs)
With Ahmedabad as the backdrop for his third book, Chetan Bhagat ventures into the minds of the youth with a bend towards cricket. This book tells the fate of the dream of three friends who wanted to make it big in the field of cricket and what communal riots did to their dream.
“Cold Steel: Lakshmi Mittal And The Multi Billion-Dollar Battle For A Global Empire” by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey @ Rs.650/- (323pgs)
The gripping story of the biggest and most hard –fought industry takeover of recent years is skillfully analysed in this book featuring the’ Stallions of Steel’. Fast paced and compelling, the intrigue and strategies of the business world come to the fore and makes one realize the impact of mergers and takeovers on countries and continents. With unprecedented access to major players and papers, the authors have succeeded in documenting a phenomenal deal, replete with the subterfuges, loop holing, internal skirmishes and unabashed thirst for power.
“Brida” by Paulo Coelho @ Rs.295/- (299pgs)
What does one do when one turns to learn the art of magic? This is the engrossing story of beautiful, young Brida’s quest for her kind of knowledge and her soul mate. The journey of every person’s anxiety of the future and curiosity of what lies further in life is mystically explored.
“The Painter of Shanghai” by Jennifer Cody Epstein @ Rs.395/- (486pgs)
Spanning the era of 1913 to 1957, this storyline transports one to the exciting mix of countries that Shanghai let flourish on its land. It is here that the story of PanYuliang, a young orphan is admitted into the life of being a concubine to a government inspector. Throughout her tumultuous life there is one passion that endures – her hope and aspiration to become a painter. Pan Yuliang lives and succeeds as she chose. This book is her story.
“The Trouble with Physics” by Lee Smolin @ Rs.275/- (392pgs)
From a pioneering theoretical physicist and the critically acclaimed author of ‘The life of Cosmos’ and ‘Three roads to Quantum Gravity’ is a book which focuses on the five major challenges faced by modern physicists. From the problem of quantum gravity to the problem of the unification of the particles and forces and the mystery of the dark matter and dark energy, the author journeys through the advancements (and glitches) in modern physics. The last of the twenty chapters are real eye-openers, which deal with the basic concepts of science-what it really is and how it works.
“The Back Of The Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures” by Dan Roam @Rs.845/- (278pgs)
Out to promote the concept of ‘visual thinking’ the author brilliantly illustrates how squiggles, dashes and arrows could represent major brainwaves and translate into whopping sales figures. His step by step guidelines for how to clarify a problem or sell an idea by visually breaking it down using a simple set of visual-thinking tools are a great help in clearing some and overcoming some communication gaps; as well as dramatically improve your ability to share your insights.
“Behenji: A Political Biography of Mayavati” by Ajoy Bose @ Rs.499/- (277pgs)
Ajoy Bose in his inimitable style and penchant to get to the crux of every matter presents the background of the meteoric rise of school teacher, Mayavati to Chief Minister of UP Mayavati, Behenji. Through the fifteen chapters of this book, Mayavati’s determined journey from being a Dalit person to aiming at Prime Ministers chair is brilliantly scripted. Mayavati has changed the face of politics in India, turning old assumptions upside down and restructuring power equations entrenched for centuries. With her in-your-face political style, unabashed display of accumulated wealth and mercurial nature, she is perhaps, the most enigmatic Indian politician for decades.
“The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama” by Pico Iyer @ Rs.499/- (252pgs)
A book by Pico Iyer ensures, automatically, an adventurous ride with the author, wherever he leads and whomever he meets! This book is no exception. The encounters with the Dalai Lama, his philosophies and vision his grit and the passionate plea for peace leaves one mesmerized, yet aware of the hidden life and transforming ideas that conviction in justice can promote. Pico Iyer has been engaged in conversation with the Dalai Lama (a friend of his fathers) for the last three decades- an ongoing exploration of his message and its effectiveness. Moving from Dharamshala to Lhasa, Tibet to venues in the West, where the Dalai Lama’s pragmatism, rigor and scholarship are sometimes lost on an audience yearning for mystical visions, The Open Road illuminates the hidden life, the transforming lines and the daily challenges of a global icon.
“Goodnight and God Bless: On Life, Literature and A Few Other Things with Footnotes, Quotes and Other Such Literary Diversions” by Anita Nair@ Rs.399/- (287pgs)
A warm and wonderful collection of pithy bedtime ruminations, this book is about books, authors, events- all and sundry, personal anecdotes, snippets of a conversation and any random thoughts that flit across the authors mind. Rendered in a witty and ironic manner. Quirky sketches and foot notes make this an intriguing leisure read.
“Thakur: A Life of Sri Ramakrishna” by Rajiv Mehrotra @ Rs.250/- (178pgs)
From a personal student of the Dalai Lama, a familiar face on television and a celebrated documentary film maker comes an illuminating and intimate biography of Sri Ramakrishna- Who called to the inner minds of millions of people and helped them gain peace and knowledge about their own ‘self ‘. From Sri Ramakrishna’s birth, childhood and family to his journey seeking peace and ultimate Mahasamadhi, the author gently explores the charisma of the Guru who was more friend than teacher to each of those who believed in him.
“The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian” by C.S. Lewis@ Rs.125/- (240pgs)
When a prince, denied of his rightful throne attempts to regain his inheritance in the land of Narnia- mysticism, mystery, adventure and a war of titans to uphold their honour is what ensues. Now a major motion picture, this is the perfect opportunity to capture the essence of ‘Prince Caspian’. To aid your imagination are picture plates from the movie inside the book!
“The Ultimate Book of Useless Information” by Noel Botham @ Rs.295/- (212pgs)
Did you know why the ‘quark’, a subatomic particle is called a quark? How did the term ‘chortle’ originate? What’s the highest scoring three- letter word in scrabble? Slyvester Stallone used to sweep the lion cages in New York cities Central Park Zoo! Cyprus has a map on its flag! To know more and learn better about people, countries and even the weather look up this book. It’s all there- together!
“Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul” @ Rs.275/- (302pgs)
“Allie Finkles rules for Giris Moving Day” by Meg Cabot @Rs.299/-(197pgs)
“The Other Indians – A Political and Cultural history of South Asians in America” by Vinay Lal @Rs.295/- (148pgs)
“Asset Allocation – Balancing financial risk” By Roger C.Gibson @Rs.625/- (366pgs)
“Barack Obama: The New Face of American Politics” by Martin Dupius and Keith Boeckelman @Rs.295/- (167pgs)
“Limping To the Centre of the World – A journey to Mount Kailash” by Timeri N Murari @Rs.350/-
“Viva Santiago” by Colin Fernandes @ Rs.199/-
“The Bioscope Man” by Indrajit Hazra @Rs.299/-
“The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch @Rs.295/-
“The Girl with the Golden Parasol” by Uday Prakash @Rs.250/-
“Seeing Is Believing – Selected writings on Cinema” by Chinanda Das Gupta @ Rs.499/-
“Bhowani Junction: A Magnificent Novel of Empire and Its Aftermath” by John Masters@ Rs.350/- (414pgs)
“Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies” by Josh Bernoff @ Rs.1270/- (286pgs)
“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga @ Rs.395/- (321pgs)
“The Shape Of The Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy” @ Rs.499/- (271pgs)
“Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini In India” by Dileep Padgaonkar @ Rs.550/- (263pgs)
“An Hour to Live an Hour to Love: The True Story of the Best Gift Ever Given” by Richard Carlson and Kristine Carlson @ Rs.580/- (61pgs)
“Meanwhile Upriver” by Chatura Rao @ Rs.250/- (206pgs)
“Jalyatra: Exploring India’s Traditional Water Management Systems” by Nitya Jacob @ Rs.295/- (264pgs)
“The Power Of Focus For College Students: How to Make College the Best Investment of Your Life” by Les Hewitt @ Rs.250/- (289pgs)
“Rage, Reconciliation And Security: Managing India’s Diversities” by B.G Varghese @ 495/- (266pgs)
“Think India: The Rise of the World’s Next Superpower and What It Means For Every American” by Vinay Rai and William Simon @ Rs.495/- (284pgs)
“Rivals: How the Power Struggle between China India and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade” by Bill Emmot @ Rs.695/- (313pgs)
“The Untold Charminar: Writings on Hyderabad” Edited by Syeda Imam @ Rs.399/- (395pgs)
“The Second World: Empires and Influences in the New Global Order” by Parag Khanna @ Rs.795/- (466pgs)
“Atisa and the Seven Wonders” by Anu Kumar @Rs.175/- (139pgs)
“Mulla Naseruddin” by Sampurnan Chatterjee@ Rs.195/- (162pgs)
“Every Mans’ Speaking Tree” @ Rs.150/- (206pgs)
“Sacred Banana Leaf “@ Rs.375/- Tara Books
“The Old Animals Forest Band” @ Rs.395/- Tara Books
“My Best Friends Life” by Shari Low @Rs.225/- (390pgs)
“Commonwealth Economics for a Crowded Planet” by Jeffery Sachs @ Rs.695/- (386pgs)
“The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul” by Patrick French @ Rs.595/- (555pgs)
“Selected Poems: Gulzar” translated by Pavan K Varma @ Rs.295/- (116pgs)
“The Long Partition And The Making Of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories” by Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar @ Rs.495/- (288pgs)
“The Game Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation” by A.G Lafley and Ram Charan @Rs.855/- (336pgs)
“The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President” by P.M.Nair @ Rs.250/- (147pgs)
“Derek’s Picks: The Best Quizzes Of Derek O’Brien” @ Rs.250/- (347pgs)
“The Boxwallah and the Middleman” by Raj Chatterjee @ Rs.250/- (206pgs)
“Superstar India: From Incredible To Unstoppable” by Shobaa De@ Rs.350/- (456pgs)
“Splendour In The Grass: Innovations in Administration” Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India @Rs.495/- (305pgs)
“The New Age Of Innovation: Driving Co-Created Value through Global Networks” by C.K Prahlad and M.S Krishnan @ Rs.695/- (278pgs)
“Drop Dead Beautiful: The Continuing Adventures of Lucky Santangelo” by Jackie Collins @Rs.245/- (516pgs)
“There’s no such thing as a Self Made Man” by Prahlad Chaabria @ Rs.550/-
“Extraordinary Child – Poems from a South Indian Devotional Genre” @ Rs.375/- (297 pgs)
“Outlook money – Life Insurance” @ Rs. 75/-
“Silent Raga” by Ameen Raga @ Rs. 395/- (452 pgs)
“A New Beginning – The Turnaround Story of Indian Bank” by Ranjana Kumar @ Rs.675/- (301 pgs)
And lots and lots more, not even listed.
Do drop in and take a look!
From the team at
twistntales.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
On Mother's Day
WHEN GOD CREATED MOTHERS, GRANDMOTHERS, GREAT GRANDMOTHERS, GODMOTHERS.
by Erma Bombeck
When the good Lord was creating mothers,grandmothers, great-grandmothers, godmothers and all who mother us, he was into the sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said, "Have you seen the specs on this order?" "She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; Have 180 moveable parts... all replaceable; Run on black coffee and leftovers; Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; And six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said," Six pairs of hands...no way!"
"It's not the hands that are causing the problems," said the Lord. "It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."
" That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. " One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, "What are you kids doing in there?" when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here infront that can look at a child when he goofs up and say 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."
"Lord," said the angel, touching his sleeve gently, "Come to bed. Tomorrow..."
"I can't," said the Lord, " I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger... and can get a nine year old to stand under the shower."
The angel circled the model of the mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.
"But tough!" said the Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure."
"Can it think?"
"Not only think, but it can reason and comprimise," said the Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak, " she pronounced. "I told you you were trying to put too much into this model."
"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "it's s tear."
"What's it for?"
" It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride."
"You're a genius!" said the angel.
The Lord looked somber. "I didn't put it there."
Happy Mothers Day.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Hot Library Smut
Dreams...what are we but they, magnified and shaped with love...
If I have my way, these will be my home for atleast a week each...
If I have my way, these will be my home for atleast a week each...
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Life goes on ....
Thank you all for your support and empathy.
We lost one of our closest supporters and cheerleaders on the 18th of April. When i announced in Jan, 2002 that i was planning to open a bookstore, he sent me a card, "Congratulations ! You have a new job" ... i'm sure he must have spent hours in all card shops in Vasant Kunj, before he settled on this one.... and decided to correct the appropriateness of the card."Few could envy you", he said.
Books have always been a passion in the family, both mine and Shankars. For my father-in-law, books had to be devoured, underlined, notes written in margins - esp. his favorite physics and popular sciences. He died hoping to publish his physics writings, which were so fundamental and foundation shaking, he was hoping to take a crack at the Nobel !
We will miss him. Walking into twistntales looking straight at "Physics" rack. We now call it "sciences". It was a Kumardhara, tnt combo in his Van.
And thankyou all the others, who didnt think twice to pitch in to keep the Store running. thanks, jahnavi, kshitija, sonali. Shradha, you couldn't have re-joined at a more appropriate time. Welcome back.
But there's more. For one person who's too shy to be acknowledged as "Star" of the month. And she's been star on more occasions than this, but hasn't allowed me to acknowledge publicly. Thanks. We know who this is. Thankyou.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Remember
we are journeying through grief
and we
are together...
tears and loss are part of our deep growing
we grow in mourning
sometimes apart
and thinking always
of one another
what rose-leaf memories
we share
and shared with those who left us
how hard we hold hands
letting our loss seep through
into one another
whenever an I turns a head
to ask a difficult question
there is always a you to hold it close...
and we
are together...
tears and loss are part of our deep growing
we grow in mourning
sometimes apart
and thinking always
of one another
what rose-leaf memories
we share
and shared with those who left us
how hard we hold hands
letting our loss seep through
into one another
whenever an I turns a head
to ask a difficult question
there is always a you to hold it close...
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Summer Activities Mail
Hi all,
Greetings of Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Baisakhi and Visu. As the different parts of the Nation welcomes the new year in the course of this week, here’s us at twistntales wishing everyone of you a great beginning to the new year and hoping that prosperity fills hearts and minds with goodness and generosity, along with coffers, of course !
As usual, we at twistntales have a full summer calendar with our Sunday Morning Reading Sessions, and the one big activity to keep young minds active and bright.
Most of our events in the past have been innovative, interesting, challenging and extremely good fun for the kids who have participated. From our Street Plays (2003), Craft n Mask Workshop (2003), Karadi Rhymes concert (2004), Red Umbrella Library (2005) to the Young Journalist workshop (2006) our annual event each year has been fun, educative and completely enjoyable, both for us and the kids participating.
This year we plan a TREASURE HUNT for kids in the 12 to 14 yrs age group. We expect kids to be riding in their bicycles looking for clues (in teams) and cracking the jackpot. The Treasure Hunt will happen within Gaikwad Nagar and Anand Park localities.
Many of you know Sonja Chandrachud and must have read about her new book, “The Potion of Eternity”. Sonja is a long time friend of twistntales, having participated in many of our earlier reading sessions. This year, we are doing a reading of her new book, “The Potion of Eternity” and the Treasure Hunt is going to be based on her book. The winning team has a basket of goodies waiting!
The Treasure Hunt happens on Saturday, 3rd May @ 9am. We expect it to be finished by 1pm. Kids desirous of taking part in the Treasure Hunt need to register at twistntales. The registration charges are Rs. 500/- per kid and will happen on first come basis. Kindly do not call us after registrations close, and we shall not hold places …. Thanks!
Our regular Sunday Morning Reading Sessions start with Sonja’s book on 13th April. For those of you who are new to this, every summer during school vacations, we have our Sunday Morning Reading Sessions – these are free sessions for kids done by happy volunteers. Every Sunday, 11 to 12 noon. A suitable story book is selected appropriate for age group, and the volunteer reads out to interested kids who sit around (in mats outside the store). Often these sessions become pretty interactive, and at the end of an hour, we have newer stories created by the kids. All in all, these are fun sessions and we hope that kids will get into reading, and give Cartoon Network and Pogo a miss!
Given below is our calendar for April/ May. From this year, we are trying to include one session each in local languages, seeing the way our kids struggle in Hindi and Marathi languages in School. Do call us and let us know if you or kids would be interested in attending any of our sessions …. We need you to register your names as per session, and we shall give you a timely reminder!
Sunday Morning Reading Sessions:
Date Age Group Topic Volunteer
13th Apr 12 yrs + A Potion of Eternity Sonja Chandrachud
20th Apr 5 to 7 yrs Marathi Stories/ Poems Sonali Adkar
27th Apr 8 to 10 yrs Mathematwist Savita Narayan
3rd May (Sat) 12 – 14 yrs Treasure Hunt twistntales
11th May 7 to 9 yrs Hindi Stories Neema Pathak Broome
18th May Under 5 yrs Animal Stories Tripuri Godbole
Do call up and register for our sessions – it helps us to organize seats. The session for kids under 5 happens on 18th May and is compulsory for parents to attend. Do rush in with your names – also for the Treasure Hunt.
And now for books:
Some interesting books from alternate publishers:
“Godhra: A Journey to Mayhem” by Nirendra Dev @ Rs.295/- (203pgs)
From the special correspondent with the ‘Free Press Journal’ comes this very well researched book. The twelve chapters incorporated by the author sequentially deal with the background of Gujarat’s communalism, the actual event of the train halt at Godhra railway station, the bloody aftermath of the heart rending incident and its economic, social and political effects and consequences. The book does not shy away from openly citing names of persons, high ranking officials, political outfits and even social organizations (NGOs).
“On The Cultural Front” by Ritwik Ghatak @ Rs.100/- (119pgs)
In 1954, Ritwik Ghatak sent in this thesis to the communist Party’s offices in Calcutta. In it he presented his entire understanding of both national and international culture, and underlined the crucial role of the Communist artist who could take up the responsibility of creating awareness and a soft corner for communism among the common masses through plays, literature, documentaries and films. This extraordinary thesis lay in the records of the CPI (M), Calcutta and was only recently discovered and printed.
“Prithviraj and Prithvi Theatres: Prithvi theatre yearbook” by Prithviraj @ Rs.395/-
A tale of a young Pathan who came to Bombay, becomes a film actor and goes on to become an memorable icon in the field of theatre is beautifully depicted in this unique yearbook. The story of Prithvi theatre which crisscrossed the country for 16 years, performing topical plays and setting an inspiring example of the power of positive influence on society unfolds with every flick of a page and the black and white photographs with quotes from newspapers to eminent artistes makes it a treasury of memoirs!
“The School and The Society” by John Dewey @ Rs.195/- (127pgs)
A pioneer in educational reforms, American philosopher, psychologist, John Dewey’s thoughts and ideas have been greatly influential around the world and this book is one of the most popular and most translated publications in the field of education. It aptly describes the rationale behind the University and elementary school that made his perspective on teaching so famous.
“Constellations of Violence: Feminist Interventions in South Asia” edited by Radhika Coomaraswamy & Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham @ Rs.400/- (260pgs)
This volume gathers together some reflections on the complex and shifting dynamics and gender in South Asia. With eight chapters authored by eminent feminist writers and meaningful excerpts from studies conducted at various levels and locations in society, this book comes as an eye opener about the current reality of numerous women subjected to different kinds of violence.
Lots of new books in the Store:
Fiction:
“The Successor” by Ismail Kadare @ Rs.510/-(207pgs)
The winner of the inaugural Man Booker prize is a brilliantly crafted novel revealing the searing indictment of political skullduggery and oppression. The successor of Albania’s dictator is found shot and dead. Amidst speculations and counter allegations arises…. the ghost of the successor! Blending dream and reality this is a mystery of perspectives that promises to seduce and surprise till the very last page.
“The Kitchen God’s Wife” by Amy Tan @ Rs. 395/-(415pgs)
A heartwarming story of secrets kept from her daughter by a mother, a friendship that does survive forever, memories of a faraway land and resurrecting life in foreign soil, this book is a classic Amy Tan tale. It’s a delightful as well as sombre take on cross cultural shifts, rifts and resettlement. The underlining fact is of course – the human spirit- whichever country, religion or creed it belongs to, dignity makes it remain beautiful and indomitable.
“An Offer You Can’t Refuse” by Jill Marsell @ Rs.245/- (409pgs)
Lola accepts ten thousand pounds from her boyfriend, Doughie’s mother to stay away from him and then ten years down the lane, when a twist of fate brings back Lola and Doughie face –to –face, begin the fireworks. Filled with complexities that can be created only by two people in love with each other but who hate to admit it, this funny exasperating, tear –jerker but ending on a positive note could be a great answer for that warm summer night read! Also, Lola works at a Bookstore called Kingsley’s
“A Prisoner of Birth” by Jeffrey Archer @ Rs.250/- (530pgs)
A chilling murder mystery, cleverly crafted and deliciously delivered, Archer’s most powerful novel since Kane and Abel has characters that linger on long past the spellbinding finale. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, of love and loyalty amongst two young lovers, a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat and a partner in a business firm.
“Gardens of Water” by Alan Drew @ Rs.495/- (338pgs)
A stunning debut novel, it traces the story of Sinan whose orderly life is shaken beyond belief by an earthquake in Istanbul. Stripped of his home and his livelihood, it hits him hard to accept the aid of American missionaries in his own land. Under the rubble in the streets of his beloved city lies buried his trust and hope but not his determination to be a good husband, protector and provider to his family; what ensues post –earthquake is his story of struggle and survival but not at the cost of his dignity.
Indian Writing:
“The Armageddon Mandala” by Gopal Mukherjee @ Rs. 395/- (574pgs)
The book is about Allen Ginsberg, a self-declared private eye in the town of Snowdrop and how his life changes drastically after he encounters an Indian ascetic named Gyani. When Ginsberg takes up Gyani’s offer to collaborate with him on a case, strange things begin to happen. Ginsberg finds himself trapped in a vortex of bizarre rituals and life threatening ordeals that defy explanation. He suddenly realizes that the toughest task ahead of him seems to be for him to adapt to his new identity and prevent…. a planetary holocaust!
“The Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Divakaruni @ Rs.495/- (360pgs)
From the author of best selling novels like Queen of Dreams, The Mistress of Spice and prize winning story collection Arranged Marriage, here is a re-imaging of the epic The Mahabharata - spoken from the point of view of Draupadi aka Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava Brothers. Striking a chord with its timeless relevance in today’s war torn world, we are transported back into a time that is half history, half myth but wholly magical! Giving a refreshingly new interpretation of the epic we are enthralled by the magnetism of Panchaali who redefines for us the world of fiery warriors, Gods and the inescapable hands of fate.
“The Cyber Gypsies: A frank account of life and travels on the electronic frontier “ by Indra Sinha @ Rs.400/- (392 pgs)
A personal confession of a cyber –surf addict, this book is an eye opener about the global on-line obsession.’Bear’ is the protagonist who can sacrifice his family and work just for his nightly dose of cyber-reality, in which he may encounter anything from witches to techno paths planning to virus a nuclear plant! His intense entanglement in the ‘web’ piles on to lead him to a personal and moral crisis .How he escapes is what the book is about.
Philosophy/ Inspiration:
“The sun rises in the evening” by Osho @ Rs.250/- (239pgs)
Osho the learned takes us on an immense journey with Yoka Daishi, a great Zen master through this book. These sutras are known as shodoka, the ‘song of enlightenment’ and in his inimitable way he gives us a refreshing look into the world of Zen- a living, breathing, moment –to –moment experience of the here and now.
“One master one disciple: A thrilling spiritual adventure” by Jyotii Subramanian @ Rs.250/-(173pgs)
Written as memoirs, this book is a journey of spiritual awakening through the book, the author evolves not only as a spiritual seeker but also as a more balanced human being capable of handling adversity with courage and dignity. Initiated into Kriya Yoga by Swami Gurunath, she shares her paranormal experiences, which generate wonder, and underlines the strong ties that bind the Guru and the true disciple. The book includes a helpful glossary of Sanskrit words and nine, easy to practice ancient yogic techniques.
“All Rise” by Robert Fuller @ Rs. 300/- (203pgs)
Fuller identifies ‘Rankism’ as the chief obstacle to achieving liberty and justice for all. He does realize though that without it organizations could become dysfunctional and so, he details a society in which all are equal in terms of dignity. He goes on to offer hope and practical solutions for fashioning a world where human relationships are governed by respect and every person’s right to dignity is affirmed.
“50 Prosperity Classics” @ Rs. 660/-(305pgs)
An excellent compendium of some classic books that help us understand what Prosperity is. This amazing book lists the best hot -shot ways presented in different books to attract prosperity, Create it, Manage it and then give a little of it back to society! Each of the fifty chapters handle excerpts and comments, from and about authors such as James Allen, Warren Buffet, Peter Drucker, Rhonda Byrne, Benjamin Graham, Napoleon Hill, Suze Orman, Ayn Rand, Donald Trump and many more inspirational icons.
“Who stole my energy?” by Ariana Trinity @ Rs. 195/-(194pgs)
This interesting book deals with the theory of maximizing human energy in today’s world. In this modern world, it is easy to feel completely drained of energy, and not know why. So, the author explains how various factors like fear, anxiety, boredom and anger have a negative impact on human energy and how positive emotions and attitudes can keep us feeling forever fresh. She goes on to aid the reader in some self-transformation techniques, which can enhance one’s health, wealth and relationships
“A promise is a promise” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer @ Rs.150/-(90pgs)
A touching, true story of a mothers incomparable love for her daughter, this book really makes one sit back and wonder about the power of the human mind’s will. For more than thirty years, Edwarda has been in a comatose state and her mother Kaye has kept vigil at her bedside, feeding her every two hours and giving her insulin every four hours around the clock. This tenacity of a dedicated mother has attracted miracles, including the spiritual apparition of The Blessed Mother. Only the reader can surmise, whether such encounters are fact or imagination of the human mind.
“Just like that: Talks on Sufi stories” by Osho @ Rs.295/- (273pgs)
Truth cannot be taught but it can be learned, beginning with this philosophy, this book brings together Osho’s talks on Sufism and Sufi stories. With short tales of wit and some lyrical poetry interspersed in his discourses, the ‘Guru’ peels off the layers of our consciousness and introduces us to ourselves.
Management:
“Judgment: how winning leaders make great calls” by Noel Tichy @ Rs.460/-(392 pgs)
In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgement determines the fate of an entire organization. Despite its immense importance it has been a fairly foggy concept and here is where the authors step in. Having studied for decades the effects and requisites of good judgement, they offer in this book a powerful framework for making those tough calls.
“A to Z of business strategy: Quick-reference guide to principles, concepts and contemporary practices” by A.V. Vedpuriswar @ Rs.280/- (256pgs)
Arranged alphabetically, this book presents the essence of business strategy in more than 325 crisp topics. These include the principles of strategic management, insights on strategy of global thought leaders and explanation of key concepts. In today’s highly complex and competitive environment, strategy is the core of business success. Keeping this fact in mind, the author has introduced the topic right from the basics. An extensive bibliography guides you to other authoritative books and resources on the subject.
“FLIP: How to succeed by turning everything you know on its head” by Peter Sheahan @ Rs.295/- (326pgs)
In this snappy and racy book, the not –yet –30 author shares insights gained from his work inside the boardrooms of the world’s most significant companies. His funda is to succeed by turning everything you know on its head! The gist of the book is to make full use of the ‘Refresh’ icon! Think fresh, think different and take that risk to do something different is his mantra for a more dynamic, positively headed venture - adventure!
“Awakening The Entrepreneur Within” by Michael E Gerber @ Rs. 525/-(268pgs)
Beginning with the immensely inspiring words ‘A business without a dream is like a life without purpose’ this book is all about how ordinary people can create extraordinary companies. Creator of the E-Myth Worldwide, which transformed the way that small business owners grew their companies, In this book Michael dreams to inspire people to dream, envisions to help people set up their dreams (business), proposes to create means by which entrepreneurs can generate their economic freedom and makes it his mission to create a turnkey system to awaken the entrepreneur in every person who wishes to go into business.
“Death to all sacred cows: How successful business people put the old rules out to pasture” by David Bernstein Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab @ Rs.700/- (211pgs)
Figuring that formulae may be comforting, but they rarely work in the real world, the authors have come up with the truest and funniest business book to deal with this dilemma! They have detailed ways to identify sacred, inflexible rules (read ‘cows’) and guide us how to exterminate them and replace bygone theories with brilliant alternatives that promise to rev up our career in overdrive. From ‘always trust your research ‘, ‘Follow the leader’, ‘the goal of marketing is to sell a product’ to ‘Branding is expensive’ many comfortable cows are taken to task.
Memoirs:
“My Country, My Life” by L.K Advani @ Rs.595/- (986pgs)
The much awaited memoirs of a national leader who effectively combines intellectualism, integrity and mass appeal does not disappoint .The book is divided into six phases which chronologically express Advani’s views and experiences from the ‘Triumph of freedom, Tragedy of Partition; his entry into RSS, his career in politics and the tumultuous turn of the century. With a foreword by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, this book could easily be an unparalleled compendium of political upheavals in India post independence.
“Dreams from my Father” by Barack Obama @ Rs.560/- (442pgs)
Written much before Obama had thoughts of a political career, this book traces his journey through his own life. Only two years old when his black African father walked out on his white American mother, Obama travelled to Nairobi many years later when he received news of his father demise; and thus began his quest about his father’s life and reconciliation with his divided inheritance. Not only does this book stress on his desire to relate to his ‘roots’ but also illuminates the universal longing to understand our history and the deep understanding of the basic wants of a human being and what makes us the people that we are.
“A stubbornly persistent illusion: The essential scientific works of Albert Einstein” by Stephen Hawking @ Rs.845/-(468pgs)
‘Einstein’ was known not only for his groundbreaking ideas in physics but also for thoughtful views on politics, religion and the interplay between science and the world. From ‘the scientific heir’ to Einstein, Newton and Galileo we have a wonderful compilation of a number of Einstein’s essays to which the author provides introductions, giving both historical and scientific perspective.
“Intern: A doctor’s initiation” by Sandeep Jauhar @ Rs.350/- (299pgs)
An intern almost a decade ago, the author still remembers it the way soldiers remember war. From fresh idealism to surprise, irony to belief in the right conviction, the new ‘doctor’ comes a full circle to see that today’s hi- tech, high-pressure medicine is humane after all. The story of Sandeep Jauhar’s days and nights in residency at a busy hospital in New York City, this beautifully written memoir narrates the inner workings of modern medicine with rare candour and insight.
“Mukkam Post Reserve Bank” by Late Mr. V.G. Pendharkar @ Rs.130/- (Marathi)
A graduate from the London School of Economics, Mr. V.G Pendharkar served in the Reserve Bank of India from 1945 to 1979. This vast period was marked by some sweeping and dynamic changes in the Indian economy and Mr. Pendharkar was not only witness to it but also a path breaker himself. His varied experiences about the different projects he was involved in; like the representative for India at the IMF and IBRD, and the many types of people, bosses and colleagues he came across are described with wit and a rare insight in this book which has been published by his daughter and son –in –law Kunda and Arvind Kelkar, posthumously. The Kelkars are residents of Anand Park, Aundh.
SocioEco:
“Gang Leader For A Day – A Rogue sociologist crosses the line” by Sudhir Venkatesh @ Rs. 415/- (302pgs)
A gripping story of discovery, about life on the wrong side of tracks, based on research material gathered through the author’s decade long stay with the ‘Black Kings Gang’ in Chicago’s south side. When a naïve sociology student goes to find more about urban poverty in Chicago, he is held hostage by a gang. Some really unmissable experiences indeed …, which are best, experienced second hand of course! Incredibly funny and heartbreaking, this is one man’s take on understanding what makes people in gangs tick.
“Blood of the Earth: The battle for the world’s vanishing oil resources” by Dilip Hiro @ Rs.450/- (427pgs)
A gripping story of the history of oil, the global politics that it has fuelled and the probable oil wars that can be foreseen in the near future, this book awakens the layman to give a serious thought to look for alternatives to hydrocarbons. Oil, the chief weapon of any war, is now also ‘blood of the Earth’ and proving to be the ‘blood of victory’ as well. A prized commodity for which wars are fought, it definitely merits some serious thought.
“What’s Next: the expert’s guide” by Jane Buckingham @ Rs.785/- (283pgs)
From the founder and president of a successful trend-spotting company ‘The Intelligence group’, this book is a manifestation of the views and conversations with dozens of fascinating persons from a myriad range of professions; like computer sciences, acting, campaign advisors, magazine editors and architects! In a world that seems to be changing faster than ever, this book offers good pointers to how we can keep up and stay ahead. Interesting topics include-the future of city planning, robotics, the reform of student loan debt, insurance, energy and loads more!
Travel:
“Right of passage: Travels from Brooklyn to Bali” by Rahul Jacob @ Rs.250/-(266 pgs)
Possessing an amazing aptitude to transform the simplest journey into a warm, thoughtful experience, the author magically weaves his travelogues in these well presented, simply written memoirs. Covering a vast array of small towns, slick cities as well as wild terrains, the delightful descriptions of Brooklyn, Bali, Rome, Madhya Pradesh, Beirut, Dakar, Singapore, Saigon and …a lot more… educate, entertain and simply chill you out!
“Outlook Series – Wellness Holidays in India” @ Rs. 295/-(507pgs)
Introducing a relatively new topic in the realm of travel, this book marks out most of the great getaways that promise to rejuvenate and refresh the senses, mind and body. It mentions some relaxing and getting –back –into –a –healthy routine places where people admit to be regulars so they can ‘overhaul’ all their systems! From Luxury spas to naturopathy resorts, from Spartan yoga retreats to soulful meditation camps there is an amazing array of locations to simply ‘refresh’.
Others:
“The Indigo Children” by Lee Carroll & Jan Tober @ Rs. 295/-(Parenting)
This book is a tremendously encouraging guide to correctly handle extra intelligent, sensitive , uniquely modelled ‘Indigo children’. This practical handbook answers many of the often puzzling questions such as why do such brilliant children have Attention Deficit Disorder? Are these kids smarter for their age? How can we get them to mix with ‘normal’ children? This book brings profound and far reaching positive effects on the psyche of parents and caregivers of such uniquely ‘gifted’ children.
“Ramayana: A modern translation” by Ramesh Menon @ Rs.495/-
The epic Ramayana has come down from generation to generation through time immemorial and has been translated in numerous languages. Menon’s Ramayana is not a scholarly translation of the mystifying epic, but a lush, imaginative rendering of the human stories and the emotions that ‘Bhakti’ stirs. Divided into the traditional seven ‘kanda’s, the book elaborately narrates the spellbinding story of Ram and Ayodhya.
Keep reading and do turn up at the Store for our reading sessions!
From the team at,
twistntales
Greetings of Gudi Padwa, Ugadi, Baisakhi and Visu. As the different parts of the Nation welcomes the new year in the course of this week, here’s us at twistntales wishing everyone of you a great beginning to the new year and hoping that prosperity fills hearts and minds with goodness and generosity, along with coffers, of course !
As usual, we at twistntales have a full summer calendar with our Sunday Morning Reading Sessions, and the one big activity to keep young minds active and bright.
Most of our events in the past have been innovative, interesting, challenging and extremely good fun for the kids who have participated. From our Street Plays (2003), Craft n Mask Workshop (2003), Karadi Rhymes concert (2004), Red Umbrella Library (2005) to the Young Journalist workshop (2006) our annual event each year has been fun, educative and completely enjoyable, both for us and the kids participating.
This year we plan a TREASURE HUNT for kids in the 12 to 14 yrs age group. We expect kids to be riding in their bicycles looking for clues (in teams) and cracking the jackpot. The Treasure Hunt will happen within Gaikwad Nagar and Anand Park localities.
Many of you know Sonja Chandrachud and must have read about her new book, “The Potion of Eternity”. Sonja is a long time friend of twistntales, having participated in many of our earlier reading sessions. This year, we are doing a reading of her new book, “The Potion of Eternity” and the Treasure Hunt is going to be based on her book. The winning team has a basket of goodies waiting!
The Treasure Hunt happens on Saturday, 3rd May @ 9am. We expect it to be finished by 1pm. Kids desirous of taking part in the Treasure Hunt need to register at twistntales. The registration charges are Rs. 500/- per kid and will happen on first come basis. Kindly do not call us after registrations close, and we shall not hold places …. Thanks!
Our regular Sunday Morning Reading Sessions start with Sonja’s book on 13th April. For those of you who are new to this, every summer during school vacations, we have our Sunday Morning Reading Sessions – these are free sessions for kids done by happy volunteers. Every Sunday, 11 to 12 noon. A suitable story book is selected appropriate for age group, and the volunteer reads out to interested kids who sit around (in mats outside the store). Often these sessions become pretty interactive, and at the end of an hour, we have newer stories created by the kids. All in all, these are fun sessions and we hope that kids will get into reading, and give Cartoon Network and Pogo a miss!
Given below is our calendar for April/ May. From this year, we are trying to include one session each in local languages, seeing the way our kids struggle in Hindi and Marathi languages in School. Do call us and let us know if you or kids would be interested in attending any of our sessions …. We need you to register your names as per session, and we shall give you a timely reminder!
Sunday Morning Reading Sessions:
Date Age Group Topic Volunteer
13th Apr 12 yrs + A Potion of Eternity Sonja Chandrachud
20th Apr 5 to 7 yrs Marathi Stories/ Poems Sonali Adkar
27th Apr 8 to 10 yrs Mathematwist Savita Narayan
3rd May (Sat) 12 – 14 yrs Treasure Hunt twistntales
11th May 7 to 9 yrs Hindi Stories Neema Pathak Broome
18th May Under 5 yrs Animal Stories Tripuri Godbole
Do call up and register for our sessions – it helps us to organize seats. The session for kids under 5 happens on 18th May and is compulsory for parents to attend. Do rush in with your names – also for the Treasure Hunt.
And now for books:
Some interesting books from alternate publishers:
“Godhra: A Journey to Mayhem” by Nirendra Dev @ Rs.295/- (203pgs)
From the special correspondent with the ‘Free Press Journal’ comes this very well researched book. The twelve chapters incorporated by the author sequentially deal with the background of Gujarat’s communalism, the actual event of the train halt at Godhra railway station, the bloody aftermath of the heart rending incident and its economic, social and political effects and consequences. The book does not shy away from openly citing names of persons, high ranking officials, political outfits and even social organizations (NGOs).
“On The Cultural Front” by Ritwik Ghatak @ Rs.100/- (119pgs)
In 1954, Ritwik Ghatak sent in this thesis to the communist Party’s offices in Calcutta. In it he presented his entire understanding of both national and international culture, and underlined the crucial role of the Communist artist who could take up the responsibility of creating awareness and a soft corner for communism among the common masses through plays, literature, documentaries and films. This extraordinary thesis lay in the records of the CPI (M), Calcutta and was only recently discovered and printed.
“Prithviraj and Prithvi Theatres: Prithvi theatre yearbook” by Prithviraj @ Rs.395/-
A tale of a young Pathan who came to Bombay, becomes a film actor and goes on to become an memorable icon in the field of theatre is beautifully depicted in this unique yearbook. The story of Prithvi theatre which crisscrossed the country for 16 years, performing topical plays and setting an inspiring example of the power of positive influence on society unfolds with every flick of a page and the black and white photographs with quotes from newspapers to eminent artistes makes it a treasury of memoirs!
“The School and The Society” by John Dewey @ Rs.195/- (127pgs)
A pioneer in educational reforms, American philosopher, psychologist, John Dewey’s thoughts and ideas have been greatly influential around the world and this book is one of the most popular and most translated publications in the field of education. It aptly describes the rationale behind the University and elementary school that made his perspective on teaching so famous.
“Constellations of Violence: Feminist Interventions in South Asia” edited by Radhika Coomaraswamy & Nimanthi Perera-Rajasingham @ Rs.400/- (260pgs)
This volume gathers together some reflections on the complex and shifting dynamics and gender in South Asia. With eight chapters authored by eminent feminist writers and meaningful excerpts from studies conducted at various levels and locations in society, this book comes as an eye opener about the current reality of numerous women subjected to different kinds of violence.
Lots of new books in the Store:
Fiction:
“The Successor” by Ismail Kadare @ Rs.510/-(207pgs)
The winner of the inaugural Man Booker prize is a brilliantly crafted novel revealing the searing indictment of political skullduggery and oppression. The successor of Albania’s dictator is found shot and dead. Amidst speculations and counter allegations arises…. the ghost of the successor! Blending dream and reality this is a mystery of perspectives that promises to seduce and surprise till the very last page.
“The Kitchen God’s Wife” by Amy Tan @ Rs. 395/-(415pgs)
A heartwarming story of secrets kept from her daughter by a mother, a friendship that does survive forever, memories of a faraway land and resurrecting life in foreign soil, this book is a classic Amy Tan tale. It’s a delightful as well as sombre take on cross cultural shifts, rifts and resettlement. The underlining fact is of course – the human spirit- whichever country, religion or creed it belongs to, dignity makes it remain beautiful and indomitable.
“An Offer You Can’t Refuse” by Jill Marsell @ Rs.245/- (409pgs)
Lola accepts ten thousand pounds from her boyfriend, Doughie’s mother to stay away from him and then ten years down the lane, when a twist of fate brings back Lola and Doughie face –to –face, begin the fireworks. Filled with complexities that can be created only by two people in love with each other but who hate to admit it, this funny exasperating, tear –jerker but ending on a positive note could be a great answer for that warm summer night read! Also, Lola works at a Bookstore called Kingsley’s
“A Prisoner of Birth” by Jeffrey Archer @ Rs.250/- (530pgs)
A chilling murder mystery, cleverly crafted and deliciously delivered, Archer’s most powerful novel since Kane and Abel has characters that linger on long past the spellbinding finale. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, of love and loyalty amongst two young lovers, a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat and a partner in a business firm.
“Gardens of Water” by Alan Drew @ Rs.495/- (338pgs)
A stunning debut novel, it traces the story of Sinan whose orderly life is shaken beyond belief by an earthquake in Istanbul. Stripped of his home and his livelihood, it hits him hard to accept the aid of American missionaries in his own land. Under the rubble in the streets of his beloved city lies buried his trust and hope but not his determination to be a good husband, protector and provider to his family; what ensues post –earthquake is his story of struggle and survival but not at the cost of his dignity.
Indian Writing:
“The Armageddon Mandala” by Gopal Mukherjee @ Rs. 395/- (574pgs)
The book is about Allen Ginsberg, a self-declared private eye in the town of Snowdrop and how his life changes drastically after he encounters an Indian ascetic named Gyani. When Ginsberg takes up Gyani’s offer to collaborate with him on a case, strange things begin to happen. Ginsberg finds himself trapped in a vortex of bizarre rituals and life threatening ordeals that defy explanation. He suddenly realizes that the toughest task ahead of him seems to be for him to adapt to his new identity and prevent…. a planetary holocaust!
“The Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Divakaruni @ Rs.495/- (360pgs)
From the author of best selling novels like Queen of Dreams, The Mistress of Spice and prize winning story collection Arranged Marriage, here is a re-imaging of the epic The Mahabharata - spoken from the point of view of Draupadi aka Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandava Brothers. Striking a chord with its timeless relevance in today’s war torn world, we are transported back into a time that is half history, half myth but wholly magical! Giving a refreshingly new interpretation of the epic we are enthralled by the magnetism of Panchaali who redefines for us the world of fiery warriors, Gods and the inescapable hands of fate.
“The Cyber Gypsies: A frank account of life and travels on the electronic frontier “ by Indra Sinha @ Rs.400/- (392 pgs)
A personal confession of a cyber –surf addict, this book is an eye opener about the global on-line obsession.’Bear’ is the protagonist who can sacrifice his family and work just for his nightly dose of cyber-reality, in which he may encounter anything from witches to techno paths planning to virus a nuclear plant! His intense entanglement in the ‘web’ piles on to lead him to a personal and moral crisis .How he escapes is what the book is about.
Philosophy/ Inspiration:
“The sun rises in the evening” by Osho @ Rs.250/- (239pgs)
Osho the learned takes us on an immense journey with Yoka Daishi, a great Zen master through this book. These sutras are known as shodoka, the ‘song of enlightenment’ and in his inimitable way he gives us a refreshing look into the world of Zen- a living, breathing, moment –to –moment experience of the here and now.
“One master one disciple: A thrilling spiritual adventure” by Jyotii Subramanian @ Rs.250/-(173pgs)
Written as memoirs, this book is a journey of spiritual awakening through the book, the author evolves not only as a spiritual seeker but also as a more balanced human being capable of handling adversity with courage and dignity. Initiated into Kriya Yoga by Swami Gurunath, she shares her paranormal experiences, which generate wonder, and underlines the strong ties that bind the Guru and the true disciple. The book includes a helpful glossary of Sanskrit words and nine, easy to practice ancient yogic techniques.
“All Rise” by Robert Fuller @ Rs. 300/- (203pgs)
Fuller identifies ‘Rankism’ as the chief obstacle to achieving liberty and justice for all. He does realize though that without it organizations could become dysfunctional and so, he details a society in which all are equal in terms of dignity. He goes on to offer hope and practical solutions for fashioning a world where human relationships are governed by respect and every person’s right to dignity is affirmed.
“50 Prosperity Classics” @ Rs. 660/-(305pgs)
An excellent compendium of some classic books that help us understand what Prosperity is. This amazing book lists the best hot -shot ways presented in different books to attract prosperity, Create it, Manage it and then give a little of it back to society! Each of the fifty chapters handle excerpts and comments, from and about authors such as James Allen, Warren Buffet, Peter Drucker, Rhonda Byrne, Benjamin Graham, Napoleon Hill, Suze Orman, Ayn Rand, Donald Trump and many more inspirational icons.
“Who stole my energy?” by Ariana Trinity @ Rs. 195/-(194pgs)
This interesting book deals with the theory of maximizing human energy in today’s world. In this modern world, it is easy to feel completely drained of energy, and not know why. So, the author explains how various factors like fear, anxiety, boredom and anger have a negative impact on human energy and how positive emotions and attitudes can keep us feeling forever fresh. She goes on to aid the reader in some self-transformation techniques, which can enhance one’s health, wealth and relationships
“A promise is a promise” by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer @ Rs.150/-(90pgs)
A touching, true story of a mothers incomparable love for her daughter, this book really makes one sit back and wonder about the power of the human mind’s will. For more than thirty years, Edwarda has been in a comatose state and her mother Kaye has kept vigil at her bedside, feeding her every two hours and giving her insulin every four hours around the clock. This tenacity of a dedicated mother has attracted miracles, including the spiritual apparition of The Blessed Mother. Only the reader can surmise, whether such encounters are fact or imagination of the human mind.
“Just like that: Talks on Sufi stories” by Osho @ Rs.295/- (273pgs)
Truth cannot be taught but it can be learned, beginning with this philosophy, this book brings together Osho’s talks on Sufism and Sufi stories. With short tales of wit and some lyrical poetry interspersed in his discourses, the ‘Guru’ peels off the layers of our consciousness and introduces us to ourselves.
Management:
“Judgment: how winning leaders make great calls” by Noel Tichy @ Rs.460/-(392 pgs)
In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgement determines the fate of an entire organization. Despite its immense importance it has been a fairly foggy concept and here is where the authors step in. Having studied for decades the effects and requisites of good judgement, they offer in this book a powerful framework for making those tough calls.
“A to Z of business strategy: Quick-reference guide to principles, concepts and contemporary practices” by A.V. Vedpuriswar @ Rs.280/- (256pgs)
Arranged alphabetically, this book presents the essence of business strategy in more than 325 crisp topics. These include the principles of strategic management, insights on strategy of global thought leaders and explanation of key concepts. In today’s highly complex and competitive environment, strategy is the core of business success. Keeping this fact in mind, the author has introduced the topic right from the basics. An extensive bibliography guides you to other authoritative books and resources on the subject.
“FLIP: How to succeed by turning everything you know on its head” by Peter Sheahan @ Rs.295/- (326pgs)
In this snappy and racy book, the not –yet –30 author shares insights gained from his work inside the boardrooms of the world’s most significant companies. His funda is to succeed by turning everything you know on its head! The gist of the book is to make full use of the ‘Refresh’ icon! Think fresh, think different and take that risk to do something different is his mantra for a more dynamic, positively headed venture - adventure!
“Awakening The Entrepreneur Within” by Michael E Gerber @ Rs. 525/-(268pgs)
Beginning with the immensely inspiring words ‘A business without a dream is like a life without purpose’ this book is all about how ordinary people can create extraordinary companies. Creator of the E-Myth Worldwide, which transformed the way that small business owners grew their companies, In this book Michael dreams to inspire people to dream, envisions to help people set up their dreams (business), proposes to create means by which entrepreneurs can generate their economic freedom and makes it his mission to create a turnkey system to awaken the entrepreneur in every person who wishes to go into business.
“Death to all sacred cows: How successful business people put the old rules out to pasture” by David Bernstein Beau Fraser and Bill Schwab @ Rs.700/- (211pgs)
Figuring that formulae may be comforting, but they rarely work in the real world, the authors have come up with the truest and funniest business book to deal with this dilemma! They have detailed ways to identify sacred, inflexible rules (read ‘cows’) and guide us how to exterminate them and replace bygone theories with brilliant alternatives that promise to rev up our career in overdrive. From ‘always trust your research ‘, ‘Follow the leader’, ‘the goal of marketing is to sell a product’ to ‘Branding is expensive’ many comfortable cows are taken to task.
Memoirs:
“My Country, My Life” by L.K Advani @ Rs.595/- (986pgs)
The much awaited memoirs of a national leader who effectively combines intellectualism, integrity and mass appeal does not disappoint .The book is divided into six phases which chronologically express Advani’s views and experiences from the ‘Triumph of freedom, Tragedy of Partition; his entry into RSS, his career in politics and the tumultuous turn of the century. With a foreword by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, this book could easily be an unparalleled compendium of political upheavals in India post independence.
“Dreams from my Father” by Barack Obama @ Rs.560/- (442pgs)
Written much before Obama had thoughts of a political career, this book traces his journey through his own life. Only two years old when his black African father walked out on his white American mother, Obama travelled to Nairobi many years later when he received news of his father demise; and thus began his quest about his father’s life and reconciliation with his divided inheritance. Not only does this book stress on his desire to relate to his ‘roots’ but also illuminates the universal longing to understand our history and the deep understanding of the basic wants of a human being and what makes us the people that we are.
“A stubbornly persistent illusion: The essential scientific works of Albert Einstein” by Stephen Hawking @ Rs.845/-(468pgs)
‘Einstein’ was known not only for his groundbreaking ideas in physics but also for thoughtful views on politics, religion and the interplay between science and the world. From ‘the scientific heir’ to Einstein, Newton and Galileo we have a wonderful compilation of a number of Einstein’s essays to which the author provides introductions, giving both historical and scientific perspective.
“Intern: A doctor’s initiation” by Sandeep Jauhar @ Rs.350/- (299pgs)
An intern almost a decade ago, the author still remembers it the way soldiers remember war. From fresh idealism to surprise, irony to belief in the right conviction, the new ‘doctor’ comes a full circle to see that today’s hi- tech, high-pressure medicine is humane after all. The story of Sandeep Jauhar’s days and nights in residency at a busy hospital in New York City, this beautifully written memoir narrates the inner workings of modern medicine with rare candour and insight.
“Mukkam Post Reserve Bank” by Late Mr. V.G. Pendharkar @ Rs.130/- (Marathi)
A graduate from the London School of Economics, Mr. V.G Pendharkar served in the Reserve Bank of India from 1945 to 1979. This vast period was marked by some sweeping and dynamic changes in the Indian economy and Mr. Pendharkar was not only witness to it but also a path breaker himself. His varied experiences about the different projects he was involved in; like the representative for India at the IMF and IBRD, and the many types of people, bosses and colleagues he came across are described with wit and a rare insight in this book which has been published by his daughter and son –in –law Kunda and Arvind Kelkar, posthumously. The Kelkars are residents of Anand Park, Aundh.
SocioEco:
“Gang Leader For A Day – A Rogue sociologist crosses the line” by Sudhir Venkatesh @ Rs. 415/- (302pgs)
A gripping story of discovery, about life on the wrong side of tracks, based on research material gathered through the author’s decade long stay with the ‘Black Kings Gang’ in Chicago’s south side. When a naïve sociology student goes to find more about urban poverty in Chicago, he is held hostage by a gang. Some really unmissable experiences indeed …, which are best, experienced second hand of course! Incredibly funny and heartbreaking, this is one man’s take on understanding what makes people in gangs tick.
“Blood of the Earth: The battle for the world’s vanishing oil resources” by Dilip Hiro @ Rs.450/- (427pgs)
A gripping story of the history of oil, the global politics that it has fuelled and the probable oil wars that can be foreseen in the near future, this book awakens the layman to give a serious thought to look for alternatives to hydrocarbons. Oil, the chief weapon of any war, is now also ‘blood of the Earth’ and proving to be the ‘blood of victory’ as well. A prized commodity for which wars are fought, it definitely merits some serious thought.
“What’s Next: the expert’s guide” by Jane Buckingham @ Rs.785/- (283pgs)
From the founder and president of a successful trend-spotting company ‘The Intelligence group’, this book is a manifestation of the views and conversations with dozens of fascinating persons from a myriad range of professions; like computer sciences, acting, campaign advisors, magazine editors and architects! In a world that seems to be changing faster than ever, this book offers good pointers to how we can keep up and stay ahead. Interesting topics include-the future of city planning, robotics, the reform of student loan debt, insurance, energy and loads more!
Travel:
“Right of passage: Travels from Brooklyn to Bali” by Rahul Jacob @ Rs.250/-(266 pgs)
Possessing an amazing aptitude to transform the simplest journey into a warm, thoughtful experience, the author magically weaves his travelogues in these well presented, simply written memoirs. Covering a vast array of small towns, slick cities as well as wild terrains, the delightful descriptions of Brooklyn, Bali, Rome, Madhya Pradesh, Beirut, Dakar, Singapore, Saigon and …a lot more… educate, entertain and simply chill you out!
“Outlook Series – Wellness Holidays in India” @ Rs. 295/-(507pgs)
Introducing a relatively new topic in the realm of travel, this book marks out most of the great getaways that promise to rejuvenate and refresh the senses, mind and body. It mentions some relaxing and getting –back –into –a –healthy routine places where people admit to be regulars so they can ‘overhaul’ all their systems! From Luxury spas to naturopathy resorts, from Spartan yoga retreats to soulful meditation camps there is an amazing array of locations to simply ‘refresh’.
Others:
“The Indigo Children” by Lee Carroll & Jan Tober @ Rs. 295/-(Parenting)
This book is a tremendously encouraging guide to correctly handle extra intelligent, sensitive , uniquely modelled ‘Indigo children’. This practical handbook answers many of the often puzzling questions such as why do such brilliant children have Attention Deficit Disorder? Are these kids smarter for their age? How can we get them to mix with ‘normal’ children? This book brings profound and far reaching positive effects on the psyche of parents and caregivers of such uniquely ‘gifted’ children.
“Ramayana: A modern translation” by Ramesh Menon @ Rs.495/-
The epic Ramayana has come down from generation to generation through time immemorial and has been translated in numerous languages. Menon’s Ramayana is not a scholarly translation of the mystifying epic, but a lush, imaginative rendering of the human stories and the emotions that ‘Bhakti’ stirs. Divided into the traditional seven ‘kanda’s, the book elaborately narrates the spellbinding story of Ram and Ayodhya.
Keep reading and do turn up at the Store for our reading sessions!
From the team at,
twistntales
Stories worth re-telling !
Nasscom Leadership Summit has always been a place for good story-telling and provocative thoughts. This year, the spark came not from a software veteran or a BPO moghul, but a captain of an old economy industry. Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra drew from mythology to call for game-changing innovation from the IT industry.
"One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric organization in India, and why not, in the World!
In order to walk the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have made it a default option to ask what the audience--my customers--might expect of me.
And so I found myself wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a predominantly right-brained character like myself. You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan (Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais!
Of course, I might have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible to you, but incomprehensible to me!
And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the industry has to deal with at this point.
So, I'm going to talk about something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.
Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT industry. Think of it.
You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you created something out of nothing. You created a new and global industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds.
CK Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today, there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception. And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape; you sowed the seeds of a new mental and psychological landscape. In that sense, you are truly the Brahmas of the age of liberalisation.
But creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase of sustaining that creation - to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-time affair. Sustaining that creation is obviously a longer haul, subject to many attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations.
Every time there is a new danger, he changes his avatar to a form best suited to meet that danger. At various times he has come as a fish, as a tortoise, as a dwarf. But his most interesting avatar came when he had to fight the demon Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a bad guy, who had obtained an amazing boon from the gods. Neither man nor beast could kill him; he could not be killed by daylight or at nighttime, within his home or outside it, on the ground or in the sky. All this made him pretty invincible – he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu could tackle him.
The IT industry today faces challenges every bit as complex as those Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse currency changes, rapidly escalating costs in both salaries and infrastructure and inadequate talent pools below the tier 1 and 2 institutions.
At the Company level, firms are begin to feel the penalties of poor differentiation and lack of focus (trying to be all things to all people); and an over-emphasis on high volumes and price competition.
Suddenly, the industry seems to have fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your very own Hiranyakashyap.
It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt with him. How do you destroy someone who can't be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, by day or night etc etc. The demon pretty much had all bases covered. So Vishnu took on the Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon. Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half man half lion, and therefore neither man nor beast.
He killed Hiranyakashyap at twilight, which is neither day nor night. He killed him in the courtyard, which is neither inside a house nor outside it. And he killed the demon by placing him across his knee and tearing him apart, thus circumventing the terms of the boon that he could not be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Now that's what I call an innovative algorithm!
So what are the lessons for the IT industry in this story? Well, the first thing Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu reinvented himself to suit the circumstances. The circumstances have changed drastically. Reinvent yourselves.
Do I have all the answers on the modes of re-invention? No, obviously not, otherwise I'd be out there filing patents, although I can suggest two broad approaches.
First, why don't we design business models that challenge traditional industry approaches and then transform our organizations, people and processes to execute. If we simply keep knocking on the doors of clients with our traditional offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of hearing aid salespersons: our best customers won't hear the doobell!
For example, software-on- demand and open source models changed the rules of the software game. Can we not try to change the rules of the game this time around? Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of innovation has been identified with the IT industry, but is it truly innovative. Is it really game changing? Ironically, you can now look to the old smokestack industries for inspiration.
A few weeks ago, an Indian car company made a game-changing move. Maybe the Nano will ultimately not retail for a hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't have great margins, or replace as many motorcycles as it would like to, but it was a game changing move; it fired a shot that was heard around the world. Can the IT world make any such claim?
There was an old saying, apparently adopted by the IT industry, that the secret of success is to jump every time opportunity knocks. And how do you know when opportunity knocks? You don't, you just keep jumping!
So when are we going to stop simply jumping every time a client seems to sneeze, and actually create products and IP that become their own opportunities?
Let's look at new areas where India may have natural advantage. I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we didn't realize how important it was to leverage emerging innovation ecosystems in our country. He gave us the example of how, due to a fortunate coincidence, India's IT and automotive industries were situated in roughly the same geographic clusters. So why wasn't, according to Michael Porter's competitive theories, a world beating automotive telematics industry taking shape here.
Why aren't IT companies using the massive potential of India's soft power, the film and TV business to exploit technological dominance of what Telco's call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first mile' in the brave new interactive world?
Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain management) selecting the key dimensions of competitive differentiation – product vs. service, breadth vs. depth, speed of delivery, customer service responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based pricing, proprietary technology or intellectual property, and so on.
And let's be prepared to make hard decisions along the way – change people who don't fit, walk away from businesses that doesn't fit.
It's essential, while attempting this, however, to recognize that focus, differentiation and brand building require time and investment. Selling value or doing business differently than the norm tends to elongate sales cycles, which tends to put pressure on cash flow and we need to resist the temptation to broaden our offerings or slash prices just to win the business and keep people busy.
Along with re-invention, during the course of reinventing himself, Vishnu figured out the loopholes in the boon, and regrouped his physical and mental aspects to take advantage of these loopholes. That's something the IT industry can do as well. Its often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity I love that mindset. I truly believe that the adverse rate of the dollar can be viewed as the glass half empty or the glass half full. Sure it affects margins. But it's also a chance to take advantage of the loophole and buy yourselves what you don't have, so that you can regroup your structure to meet the challenge.
To me the fact that our currency is more valuable and our price earnings ratios are still higher than average, means that we can acquire the front-ends and the large IT businesses that we never thought we could before. And the bigger the better. If people are egging us on to leapfrog, then they should also cheer as you bid for companies that seem bigger fish than you. It's happening all the time today in the manufacturing sector—Tata Corus being the stellar example—and we at Mahindra, while starting from scratch, have inorganically compiled together a portfolio of acquisitions that make us the fourth largest steel forging company in the world today.
This is not without historical precedent. If you look at Japan and South Korea, both of them went through a phase of enduring the worlds' skepticism, then painstakingly building strong and competent domestic businesses, and then on the back of global liquidity support and strong price earnings ratios, compressing time by acquiring global firms and their customer credibility.
In effect, by acquiring the strengths and skill sets you need, you will regroup your profile and create a new entity, which can vanquish your challenges as effectively as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap.
And finally, while reinventing yourselves, you will have to bring in some of the aspects of the third element of the Trimurti – that of Shiva the destroyer.
Destroy for example the premise that cost arbitrage is the way to go. Recognize that the low cost, high volume offshore outsourcing battle has already been fought and won. Often, when strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like countries, tend to keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not already on the winners list, you need to think of other ways to compete on value and differentiation, rather than price and scale.
Destroy the premise that success comes only from size, and desist from comparisons with other Indian companies. There are still many IT companies in India who define success as "we want to be one of the top ten Indian IT companies". Why not, for example, "we want to be the world's #1 banking back office solutions provider"?
And lastly, perhaps the time has come to destroy the notion that the world may be your oyster but India is not. There is a huge domestic market in middle class and corporate India that has not been plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of the pyramid is profitable today. But it needs a creative destruction of the current mindset and a re-think on many of the assumptions we hold dear.
So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality. In their different ways, they both underline the same message – that it is necessary in any situation to reinvent, regroup and re-think our way out of whatever challenges confront us.
I'd like to close with one of my favourite quotes—such a favourite, that I can't even remember where I first read it:
My father thought the world would be same;
My children, however, wake up EVERY day thinking the world will be different.
Let's begin emulating our children. Time to wake up and make the world different.
( Anand Mahindra's speech at Nasscom Leadership Summit on February 13th , 2008 )
"One of the tasks we at the Mahindra Group have set ourselves is to aspire to be recognized as the most customer-centric organization in India, and why not, in the World!
In order to walk the talk, every time I'm asked to speak at a conference, I have made it a default option to ask what the audience--my customers--might expect of me.
And so I found myself wondering what this conclave of IT wizards expects from a predominantly right-brained character like myself. You certainly haven't called me here to deliver a sermon on technology. And I wouldn't even risk doing that with Nandan (Nilekani) and Kiran (Karnik) sharing the dais!
Of course, I might have been able to do that by getting one of my IT colleagues to write this speech, but then it would have been comprehensible to you, but incomprehensible to me!
And although the title of this session is 'Building a Knowledge Economy for Growth', I believe that a) All of you out there have helped build the foundations of a knowledge economy, so again, you don't need me to pontificate to you about that and b) I think there are some urgent pressures and imperatives the industry has to deal with at this point.
So, I'm going to talk about something completely different: I will talk about the Trimurti.
Most of the Indians in this audience will know the Trimurti – the trinity in Indian mythology of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. There is a wonderful depiction of this in stone, just ten kilometers across the bay, at Elephanta. Both as a businessman, and as someone who tends to see life in visual images, the Trimurti reminds me of India's IT industry. Think of it.
You people have gone through a stage, where like Brahma, you created something out of nothing. You created a new and global industry. You created a service sector that is today, a major pillar of our GDP. But most importantly, you created a perception of a new India, both in the world and in Indian hearts and minds.
CK Prahalad once told me that in universities in America today, there are almost unfairly high expectations from Indian students, because there is a huge perception that all Indian students are brilliant, outstanding. You created that perception. And within India, what you created was self-belief. You showed us what Indians could do, and now the rest of India believes that Indians can do anything. Brahma created a physical landscape; you sowed the seeds of a new mental and psychological landscape. In that sense, you are truly the Brahmas of the age of liberalisation.
But creation is only the first phase. You then have to move on to the next phase of sustaining that creation - to the realm of Vishnu the preserver. Creation is a one-time affair. Sustaining that creation is obviously a longer haul, subject to many attacks and crises. Perhaps that is why Vishnu comes not in one, but in ten incarnations.
Every time there is a new danger, he changes his avatar to a form best suited to meet that danger. At various times he has come as a fish, as a tortoise, as a dwarf. But his most interesting avatar came when he had to fight the demon Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap was a bad guy, who had obtained an amazing boon from the gods. Neither man nor beast could kill him; he could not be killed by daylight or at nighttime, within his home or outside it, on the ground or in the sky. All this made him pretty invincible – he went on a rampage, and only Vishnu could tackle him.
The IT industry today faces challenges every bit as complex as those Hiranyakashyap posed for Vishnu. It is hit by a macroeconomic tsunami of adverse currency changes, rapidly escalating costs in both salaries and infrastructure and inadequate talent pools below the tier 1 and 2 institutions.
At the Company level, firms are begin to feel the penalties of poor differentiation and lack of focus (trying to be all things to all people); and an over-emphasis on high volumes and price competition.
Suddenly, the industry seems to have fallen off its pedestal; You are facing your very own Hiranyakashyap.
It's interesting to see how Vishnu dealt with him. How do you destroy someone who can't be killed by man or beast, inside or outside, by day or night etc etc. The demon pretty much had all bases covered. So Vishnu took on the Narasimha avatar to bypass the boon. Narasimha was a hybrid creature, half man half lion, and therefore neither man nor beast.
He killed Hiranyakashyap at twilight, which is neither day nor night. He killed him in the courtyard, which is neither inside a house nor outside it. And he killed the demon by placing him across his knee and tearing him apart, thus circumventing the terms of the boon that he could not be killed either on the ground or in the sky. Now that's what I call an innovative algorithm!
So what are the lessons for the IT industry in this story? Well, the first thing Vishnu did was to reinvent himself. It was not the gentle and contemplative Vishnu who fought Hiranyakashyap – it was the fearsome Narasimha avatar. Vishnu reinvented himself to suit the circumstances. The circumstances have changed drastically. Reinvent yourselves.
Do I have all the answers on the modes of re-invention? No, obviously not, otherwise I'd be out there filing patents, although I can suggest two broad approaches.
First, why don't we design business models that challenge traditional industry approaches and then transform our organizations, people and processes to execute. If we simply keep knocking on the doors of clients with our traditional offshoring options, we'll meet the fate of hearing aid salespersons: our best customers won't hear the doobell!
For example, software-on- demand and open source models changed the rules of the software game. Can we not try to change the rules of the game this time around? Why didn't we invent Zoom technology or Virtualisation? Thus far, India's brand of innovation has been identified with the IT industry, but is it truly innovative. Is it really game changing? Ironically, you can now look to the old smokestack industries for inspiration.
A few weeks ago, an Indian car company made a game-changing move. Maybe the Nano will ultimately not retail for a hundred thousand rupees. Maybe it won't have great margins, or replace as many motorcycles as it would like to, but it was a game changing move; it fired a shot that was heard around the world. Can the IT world make any such claim?
There was an old saying, apparently adopted by the IT industry, that the secret of success is to jump every time opportunity knocks. And how do you know when opportunity knocks? You don't, you just keep jumping!
So when are we going to stop simply jumping every time a client seems to sneeze, and actually create products and IP that become their own opportunities?
Let's look at new areas where India may have natural advantage. I remember C.K Prahlad telling us that we didn't realize how important it was to leverage emerging innovation ecosystems in our country. He gave us the example of how, due to a fortunate coincidence, India's IT and automotive industries were situated in roughly the same geographic clusters. So why wasn't, according to Michael Porter's competitive theories, a world beating automotive telematics industry taking shape here.
Why aren't IT companies using the massive potential of India's soft power, the film and TV business to exploit technological dominance of what Telco's call the 'last mile' but is actually the 'first mile' in the brave new interactive world?
Secondly, why don't we try to focus on a vertical industry (e.g., telecom) or horizontal domain (e.g., supply chain management) selecting the key dimensions of competitive differentiation – product vs. service, breadth vs. depth, speed of delivery, customer service responsiveness, fixed or outcome-based pricing, proprietary technology or intellectual property, and so on.
And let's be prepared to make hard decisions along the way – change people who don't fit, walk away from businesses that doesn't fit.
It's essential, while attempting this, however, to recognize that focus, differentiation and brand building require time and investment. Selling value or doing business differently than the norm tends to elongate sales cycles, which tends to put pressure on cash flow and we need to resist the temptation to broaden our offerings or slash prices just to win the business and keep people busy.
Along with re-invention, during the course of reinventing himself, Vishnu figured out the loopholes in the boon, and regrouped his physical and mental aspects to take advantage of these loopholes. That's something the IT industry can do as well. Its often been pointed out that in the Chinese word for crisis is also the Chinese word for opportunity I love that mindset. I truly believe that the adverse rate of the dollar can be viewed as the glass half empty or the glass half full. Sure it affects margins. But it's also a chance to take advantage of the loophole and buy yourselves what you don't have, so that you can regroup your structure to meet the challenge.
To me the fact that our currency is more valuable and our price earnings ratios are still higher than average, means that we can acquire the front-ends and the large IT businesses that we never thought we could before. And the bigger the better. If people are egging us on to leapfrog, then they should also cheer as you bid for companies that seem bigger fish than you. It's happening all the time today in the manufacturing sector—Tata Corus being the stellar example—and we at Mahindra, while starting from scratch, have inorganically compiled together a portfolio of acquisitions that make us the fourth largest steel forging company in the world today.
This is not without historical precedent. If you look at Japan and South Korea, both of them went through a phase of enduring the worlds' skepticism, then painstakingly building strong and competent domestic businesses, and then on the back of global liquidity support and strong price earnings ratios, compressing time by acquiring global firms and their customer credibility.
In effect, by acquiring the strengths and skill sets you need, you will regroup your profile and create a new entity, which can vanquish your challenges as effectively as Vishnu vanquished Hiranyakashyap.
And finally, while reinventing yourselves, you will have to bring in some of the aspects of the third element of the Trimurti – that of Shiva the destroyer.
Destroy for example the premise that cost arbitrage is the way to go. Recognize that the low cost, high volume offshore outsourcing battle has already been fought and won. Often, when strategic frames grow rigid, companies, like countries, tend to keep fighting the LAST war. If you are not already on the winners list, you need to think of other ways to compete on value and differentiation, rather than price and scale.
Destroy the premise that success comes only from size, and desist from comparisons with other Indian companies. There are still many IT companies in India who define success as "we want to be one of the top ten Indian IT companies". Why not, for example, "we want to be the world's #1 banking back office solutions provider"?
And lastly, perhaps the time has come to destroy the notion that the world may be your oyster but India is not. There is a huge domestic market in middle class and corporate India that has not been plumbed. Even selling to the bottom of the pyramid is profitable today. But it needs a creative destruction of the current mindset and a re-think on many of the assumptions we hold dear.
So, in conclusion, perhaps there really isn't that much distance between avatars in the mythological sense and avatars in the technology sense. Perhaps they are both symbolic expressions of the same reality. In their different ways, they both underline the same message – that it is necessary in any situation to reinvent, regroup and re-think our way out of whatever challenges confront us.
I'd like to close with one of my favourite quotes—such a favourite, that I can't even remember where I first read it:
My father thought the world would be same;
My children, however, wake up EVERY day thinking the world will be different.
Let's begin emulating our children. Time to wake up and make the world different.
( Anand Mahindra's speech at Nasscom Leadership Summit on February 13th , 2008 )
Serendipity
'tis from a while ago. 'tis about Pollyanna - a book I first read when I was 9 and have read many times since. 'tis a really, really beautiful book. If you haven't read it, please, please do.
I found you
on a tired bookshelf.
You were nestled comfortably, quietly
between the covers of a gold-lettered Chekov
and an unexpectedly-painted Saki.
I know, because the Saki had tilted over
ever so slightly to lean uneasily on the Chekov
while the others stood unflinching, unmoved.
Somebody had pulled you out
of your secret hiding place, in idle curiosity
and not returned you to your rightful place,
had placed you face down, instead
atop the Saki, Chekov,
Joyce and Woolf combine.
What were they thinking?
That you would lie in peace
on a bed of thorns?
That you would try valiantly, to laugh
while trying to understand complexities
in our lives that don't exist?
I picked you up,
couldn't put you back
because you caught the sunbeams in the prism
in your story and twinkled
at me: simple, hopeful, cheery, honest
reflecting the life I'm most happy living.
I hope to find you
Again. And again.
I found you
on a tired bookshelf.
You were nestled comfortably, quietly
between the covers of a gold-lettered Chekov
and an unexpectedly-painted Saki.
I know, because the Saki had tilted over
ever so slightly to lean uneasily on the Chekov
while the others stood unflinching, unmoved.
Somebody had pulled you out
of your secret hiding place, in idle curiosity
and not returned you to your rightful place,
had placed you face down, instead
atop the Saki, Chekov,
Joyce and Woolf combine.
What were they thinking?
That you would lie in peace
on a bed of thorns?
That you would try valiantly, to laugh
while trying to understand complexities
in our lives that don't exist?
I picked you up,
couldn't put you back
because you caught the sunbeams in the prism
in your story and twinkled
at me: simple, hopeful, cheery, honest
reflecting the life I'm most happy living.
I hope to find you
Again. And again.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)