Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The non-mistakes of his life !
Inaugural Speech for the new batch at the Symbiosis BBA program, Pune - 23rd June, 2008 – Chetan Bhagat Writer of 3 Mistakes of my life
Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.
Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.
I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?
Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.
To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good.If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.
I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge.And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.
Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India . From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result– at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India , so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.
Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.
There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.
Thank You.
Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college, leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are few days in human life when one is truly elated. The first day in college is one of them. When you were getting ready today, you felt a tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates - there is so much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy most, if not all the time.
Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park. A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they will cut their own birthday cake.
I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age, the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull, dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is lost. So how to save the spark?
Imagine the spark to be a lamp's flame. The first aspect is nurturing - to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard against storms.
To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is possible for you. It isn't any external measure - a certain cost to company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big achievement. But it isn't the purpose of life. If that was the case, Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won't be working hard to make a better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good.If you study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level. Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of nature's design. Are you? Goals will help you do that. I must add, don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes - Life is a tough race, it is a marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.
One last thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes. One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from the yoga practice. The teacher said - don't be serious, be sincere. This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather, how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It's ok, bunk a few classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not programmed devices.
I've told you three things - reasonable goals, balance and not taking it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame. These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration, unfairness and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the expected return. If things don't go as planned or if you face failure. Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how much failure can hurt you. But it's life. If challenges could always be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge.And remember - if you are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or potential. And that's where you want to be.
Disappointment's cousin is frustration, the second storm. Have you ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is especially relevant in India . From traffic jams to getting that job you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don't know if you chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely lucky, but it took me five years to get close to a release. Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain enjoyment in the process rather than the end result– at least I was learning how to write scripts, having a side plan – I had my third book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions in your life - friends, food, travel can help you overcome it. Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few opportunities in India , so many stars need to be aligned for you to make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high, and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty damm lucky by Indian standards. Let's be grateful for what we have and get the strength to accept what we don't. I have so much love from my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don't get literary praise. It's ok. I don't look like Aishwarya Rai, but I have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her. It's ok. Don't let unfairness kill your spark.
Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others.
There you go. I've told you the four thunderstorms - disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful years of your life. If someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends. And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And there is something cool about saying - I come from the land of a billion sparks.
Thank You.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Farewell Shama !
Shama walked in one day, knocking over a pen stand !
She asked about vacancies... she looked imploringly at Tia and Jahnavi, "don't you guys want to leave?".......
She waited patiently till it was time for Tia to go... I gave her a call. She was excited, but painfully shy. After a few days of "Punishment corner" (in tnt, all newcomers have a mandatory week long stint in the kids corner, so that they learn about kids books first), Shama needed goading. One customer a day, she had to walk up to and talk !
Today, we have to ask her to shut up ! Shama started "People love us" .... This is one activity that all tntians do. Look out for that one or two customers who have made that special effort to get here ... from bby, from nasik ... or those who remark on why they love to shop for books at our store.... everyday we have our "wow" moments .... record them in our notes .... and then, "people love us"
Shama hated notes. And she hated me writing them. Boss was banned from writing notes ! Shama loved the extra attention that her hair got in the Store !
But most of all, Shama was a willing worker, excited, full of energy. Shama has been our "Star of the Month" on atleast 3 to 4 occasions, but has steadfastly refused to allow me to announce it to the world. She has chipped in time and again when we have been short staffed. And anything was too complicated, everything else was COOL
As Shama goes back home intially, and then maybe bby, for us, memories remain. Shama @ Infy -"I have packed and shifted boxes all my life", @ tnt - writing reminders in her hand, her jokes, some of them on a very tiring day ... like in the truck back from Hinjewadi - her jokes helping us release stress !, lip balm, with animals, and most of all, illegible handwriting !
Shama, that we are going to miss you is known. But maybe now, your friends and family will find you more acceptable, you won't talk about the Store all the time !
She asked about vacancies... she looked imploringly at Tia and Jahnavi, "don't you guys want to leave?".......
She waited patiently till it was time for Tia to go... I gave her a call. She was excited, but painfully shy. After a few days of "Punishment corner" (in tnt, all newcomers have a mandatory week long stint in the kids corner, so that they learn about kids books first), Shama needed goading. One customer a day, she had to walk up to and talk !
Today, we have to ask her to shut up ! Shama started "People love us" .... This is one activity that all tntians do. Look out for that one or two customers who have made that special effort to get here ... from bby, from nasik ... or those who remark on why they love to shop for books at our store.... everyday we have our "wow" moments .... record them in our notes .... and then, "people love us"
Shama hated notes. And she hated me writing them. Boss was banned from writing notes ! Shama loved the extra attention that her hair got in the Store !
But most of all, Shama was a willing worker, excited, full of energy. Shama has been our "Star of the Month" on atleast 3 to 4 occasions, but has steadfastly refused to allow me to announce it to the world. She has chipped in time and again when we have been short staffed. And anything was too complicated, everything else was COOL
As Shama goes back home intially, and then maybe bby, for us, memories remain. Shama @ Infy -"I have packed and shifted boxes all my life", @ tnt - writing reminders in her hand, her jokes, some of them on a very tiring day ... like in the truck back from Hinjewadi - her jokes helping us release stress !, lip balm, with animals, and most of all, illegible handwriting !
Shama, that we are going to miss you is known. But maybe now, your friends and family will find you more acceptable, you won't talk about the Store all the time !
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Fantastic books for you !
Message sent to twistntales@yahoogroups.com on 16th July, 2008Welcome to another round of some very inspirational, hardly known books. Again, lovingly reviewed.
Just a word here about our reviewers. We have a few young folks, some students, all of them who work part-time at the Store, all of whom come from different disciplines of study.
Sonali, who works weekends is a science and math person, but with an insatiable curiosity for everything! From gardening to cuisines, she is the person who thinks up the quips for the blackboard outside. She writes with flair and élan.
Tia, who loves to read and write! Though she’s finished with us almost a year back, she keeps coming back to add love and flavour to our reviews! Jahnavi, who too finished with us last year, is back again for another short stint. While both love chick lit, and all genres of fiction, Tia particularly excels and writes with great sensitivity on femininst, hope, healing and nurturing books.
The others Shama, Shradha, Kshitija and yours truly, add our two bits when it comes to books of our choice. This month will also see a send-off to Shama (standing red hair? remember?), as she leaves Pune to go home after her graduation. We are going to miss Shama (and all her jokes), who has now been with us for little over a year. Good luck, Shama, we hope you do “the coming back” stints like the others as well! All these youngsters add a lot of joy and charm to our bookstore, and we hate to see them move away!!
Now we go to the main purpose of this mail!
New Arrivals:
Personalities:
“Unbowed: One Woman’s Journey” by Wangari Maathai @ Rs.360/-(295 pgs)
‘How I longed to able to write something and rub it out. When I finally learnt to read and write, I never stopped, because I could read, I could write and I could rub.’
Born in the Kenyan Highlands, Wangari Maathai was educated in the United States and became the first woman in East and Central Africa to gain a Doctorate, in 1971. Later, she founded the Green Belt Movement, Kenya’s famous environment and human rights campaigning group. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
“Unbowed” is the story of the woman behind the degree, the individual behind the organization. Maathai writes lovingly of her native Kenya, of listening to the birds around her home and a stream named Kanungu where she would gather firewood for the house. She writes of ‘taking America back to Kenya with her’:
‘There is a persistence, a seriousness, and a vision to America: It seems to know where it is going, and it will go in that direction, whether you like it or not.’
This perseverance and direction would be her backbone through a tenuous future.
Filled with fertility and charisma, spanning different worlds and changing times, Maathai’s writing is the story of planting and nurturing, in every way we can.
“The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” by Barack Obama @ Rs.250/-(362 pgs)
Barack Obama is known in his public life as a US Senator and now as a Presidential hopeful. In “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama brings his personal to American politics. Writing on issues such as faith, opportunity, values and of course hope, Obama’s prose is frank and filled with humility.
He writes, not simply as a man of politics, but as a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic. He defines himself as ‘pro-choice’ above all else, and his writing is mostly shorn of ‘political language.’ His ‘hope’ is backed up by solid, humane solutions and a clear vision.
Perhaps the most striking factor of Obama’s writing is its empathy:
‘One thing about being a U.S. Senator – you fly a lot.
…but there are things you can’t see at 40,000 feet.’A dreamer, a doer, a man whose diplomacy is balanced with sincerity, one who is unabashedly in touch with his feelings, “The Audacity of Hope” is filled with Obama’s hope of what he might bring to his country.
“Barack Obama: In His Own Words edited by Lisa Rogak @ Rs.425/-(166 pgs)
‘I’m certainly black enough to have trouble catching a cab in New York City.’
Since delivering his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama has been hailed as the clear saviour of not only the Democratic Party but also the integrity of American politics.
This book of quotes from the presidential candidate allows those who aren’t as familiar with his politics to learn quickly where he stands on a range of issues facing America, from abortion, Afghanistan, immigration and nuclear weapons to religion and the ‘war on terror.’
SocioEcoPol:
“Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia” by Ahmed Rashid @ Rs.495/-(404 pgs)
Since 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq, the West has been fighting a ‘War on Terror’, through force, and through the building of new societies in the region. Having reported from Central Asia for a quarter of a century, Ahmed Rashid shows clearly why the war in Iraq is just a sideshow to the main event. Rather, it is Pakistan, Afghanistan and the five Central Asian states that make up the crisis zone, for it is here that terrorism and Islamic extremism is growing stronger. Rashid brings into focus the role of many regional issues in supporting extremism, from nuclear programmes to local rivalries, ineffectual peace-keeping to tyrannical rulers.
With unparalleled access and intimate knowledge of the political players, “Descent into Chaos” chronicles with chilling accuracy why Islamic extremism is now stronger than ever
“A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan” by Farzana Versey @ Rs.295/- (279 pgs)
‘You need not be deported,’ said the retired army general.
What follows is not deportation, but the beginning of an exploration that is nuanced by the identity of the narrator: an Indian Muslim woman travelling alone in a space notoriously difficult to negotiate vis-à-vis its history and politics.
In the course of her journey, at times interrupted, through the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar, Farzana Versey finds herself struggling with her own identity.
‘When I was on the soil of the land of the pure, my impurity struck me. I was the emotional mulatto,’ she writes.
The author weaves together vignettes of living and travelling in a complex society where the personal becomes the political, eventually painting a picture of a changing nation with a unique mix of religious tradition and barely-in-check liberalism.
“The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria @ Rs.499/-(259 pgs)
For Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, the great story of our times is ‘the rise of the rest’ – the growth of countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, which is generating a new global landscape. Global power is shifting, and wealth and innovation are bubbling up in unexpected places: the tallest buildings, biggest dams and top-selling movies are all being built or made outside the United States.
The current political debate in much of the first world is utterly out of touch with this broad development, obsessed with issues like terrorism, immigration and economic panics.
Zakaria draws on lessons from the two great power-shifts of the past 500 years – the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States – to tell us what we can expect from the third shift.
As the political role of the US shrinks, Washington needs to move towards sharing power, building legitimacy and creating coalitions – for the future the world faces is the post-American world.
“Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anti-Caste Intellectuals” by Gail Omvedt @ Rs.400/-(275 pgs)
Emphasizing the continued relevance of the anti-caste intellectuals in the era of globalization, the author compacts the product of five years of research and writing in this book .With extensive studies on the subject of ‘Utopia’ as imagined by the visionaries spanning five centuries, the book unfolds the simplistic ideals that these visionaries earmarked for a society that would be a level playing field for one and all. With Dnyan and Bhaktibhav (reason and ecstasy) as the underlying themes in this book, the author packs in some wonderful translations of significant literary works of Chokhamela, Janabai, Kabir, Tukaram, Periyar Pandita Ramabai and Ambedkar.
Inspiration:
“The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea” by Bob Burg and John David Mann @ Rs.225/-(127 pgs)
“The Go-Giver” tells the story of Joe, a true go-getter. Joe yearns for success, but feels as though the harder he works, the further he gets away from his goals. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from a legendary consultant known simply as the ‘Chairman.’
Over the next week, the Chairman introduces Joe to a series of ‘go-givers’: a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the ‘Connector’ who brought them together.
With them, Joe learns the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, and how to open himself up to the power of giving.
Imparted with wit and grace, “The Go-Giver” is a tale about putting others interests first and continually adding value to their lives.
“Go Kiss the World: Life Lessons for the Young Professional” by Subroto Bagchi @ Rs.399/-(237 pgs)
‘Go, kiss the world’ were Subroto Bagchi’s blind mother’s last words to him. They were to become to guiding principle of his life.
On the strength of these words, he went from humble origins to extraordinary professional success. In “Go Kiss the World” he writes of the ‘personal-ness’ of his success. He attributes his sense of wonder, his desire for connectedness to a larger whole to his simple upbringing. He urges us to remember that it is the ability to include, and not merely intellect that makes a leader.
‘You build ingenuity in order to survive,’ writes Bagchi.
‘You trust strangers and, hence, strangers trust you.
You become an interesting person, because you have lots of stories to tell.
Finally, you learn to move on…’
With the simplicity and gentle teaching that characterized “The High Performance Entrepreneur,” Subroto Bagchi shares the warmth that he has put into each moment of his work.
Management :
“Butterflies Be Gone: A Hands-On Approach to Sweat-Proof Public Speaking” by Arthur H. Bell @ Rs.250/-(122 pgs)
Speaker’s nerves!
For many of us, those words spell disaster. Whether it’s giving a speech to a conference room full of colleagues or socializing at a party, speaker’s nerves can be uncomfortable at best, and career-damaging at worst.
An accomplished speech coach to thousands, Dr. Arthur Bell uses tested techniques, probing quizzes and real-life anecdotes from fellow sufferers to teach you how to get over that churning stomach and those sweaty palms.
“Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron Mcmillan and Al Switzler @ Rs.275/-(228 pgs)
“Crucial Conversations” gives you the tools to handle life’s most difficult and important conversations, say what’s on your mind and achieve positive outcomes.
You’ll learn how to:
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive
• Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want
So pick a relationship, a crucial conversation today, and put your best into it.
“Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter” by Pankaj Ghemawat @ Rs.695/-(230 pgs)
In our supposedly globalized economy, businesses are advised to charge across borders as if the whole world were one seamless, flat marketplace. Ghemawat argues that the world is ‘semiglobalized.’ Through accessible, fact-driven analysis, he explains how the global business environment is defined by the differences that arise at borders.
“Redefining Global Strategy” offers a reality-based view of globalization – and practical tools to help your business cross borders profitably.
“The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders At All Levels” by Michael D. Watkins @ Rs.695/-(240 pgs)
You’ve just been promoted to a new leadership position. You’re not sure of the challenges or how you will meet them. All you know that you have three months to get on top of the job – or fail.
This book is your road map for taking charge quickly and effectively during critical career transition periods.
Written by noted leadership transition expert Michael Watkins, “The First 90 Days” outlines proven strategies that will dramatically shorten the time it takes to reach what Watkins calls ‘breakeven point’: the point at which your organization needs you as much as you need the job.
Whether you are charged with launching a start-up or sustaining a high-performing unit, this book will help you to develop a transition acceleration plan that is tailored to your situation.
“The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage” by Robert Kaplan and David Norton @ Rs.1810/- (320pgs)
Tackling the issue of developing a system to manage and execute important strategies bang on, this book ,by its six step process aims to teach us how to (a)Develop a strategy by clarifying goals and conducting strategic analysis,(b) Plan your strategy by selecting theme based measures, targets and initiatives, (c) Align organizational units and employees to your strategy, (d)Plan operations through priority setting and resource allocation,(e) Monitor and learn from operations and strategy and (f) test and adapt your strategy.
To oversee all these processes, the authors introduce the ‘Office of Strategy management’-which serves as a sort of a orchestra leader to result in an organization that gains a real execution premium by being able to quickly and reliably execute its strategy.
“Financial Planning: A Ready Reckoner” by Madhu Sinha @ Rs.345/- (270pgs)
“Financial Planning” is meant for lay investors, financial planners and students pursuing courses on financial planning. The book includes solved problems on retirement planning and over 350 questions and answers of the time value of money. Besides these, it dwells on mutual funds and other investment products currently available.
Madhu Sinha has been counselling numerous investors on financial planning and brings to her book a distillate of her ‘rich’ experience.
“Cases in Entrepreneurship: The Venture Creation Process” by Eric Morse and Ronald Mitchell @ Rs.495/- (427pgs)
“Cases in Entrepreneurship” is the first book to be based on a cognitive framework of entrepreneurship. From searching for venture opportunities to financing to harvesting the value created in the business, this is a canny and systematic study of the steps towards a successful venture creation.
Fiction:
“Chasing Harry Winston” by Lauren Weisberger @ Rs.195/-(278 pgs)
From the author of “The Devil Wears Prada” comes the story of three best friends and their pact to change their lives over the course of a year. Over raspberry mojitos one night, Emmy vows to find a man on every continent for some no-strings fun while Adriana is determined to secure a five-carat Harry Winston diamond on her fourth finger. Leigh on the other hand, has a gorgeous boyfriend and a great job. So what needs to change? Maybe literary bad boy Jesse Chapman can help her to figure it out. Sassy and insightful, this is the perfect pick-me-up for blue days.
“A House in the Old Style” by Ananda Mukerji @ Rs.295/-(311 pgs)
‘Caught between tradition and the new ideas from the West, our behaviour could be quite unpredictable, the queer, tangential outcome of the pulls and pushes of our inner tensions.’
Youngest-uncle, octogenarian and master-storyteller, is the cherished eldest member of his deceased brother’s family, and lives with his large extended family in an old colonial mansion in Allahabad. The stories of his youth are a great hit with the children of the house.
Then Swapan, his corporate son, comes home for the Durga Puja festivities and feels duty-bound to take his father away with him, into the tightly nuclear confines of his own family.
But can stories survive away from the comfort and courtesies of a traditional Prabashi household?
“A House in the Old Style” is a gently humorous novel about the pleasures and disappointments of an old-fashioned family with old-world values. Most of all, it is about stories and storytelling, and how the stories within us grow with every human life that touches our own.
Young Adults:
“Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions” edited by Stephanie H. Meyer and John Meyer @ Rs.250/-(323 pgs)
Edited by the founders of The Young Author’s Foundation, “Teen Ink” has been showcasing the work of more than 25,000 teens since 1989. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork brims with the enthusiasm, anxieties and challenges that the teenage years bring. From first love to first loss to highest achievement, this book celebrates teenager-hood in the tradition of the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books.
“Double Click: A Foxy 4 Adventure” by Subhadra Sen Gupta @ Rs.195/-(169 pgs)
At St. Teresa convent, in the bustling heart of NewDelhi, reign the foxy four. Mandy –with fashion as her passion, Padma-the computer nerd, Jahan-the mobike loving racing queen and Charu-who considers her presence in the group is totally essential because they’re all so crazy! The favourite extra curricular activity of this daring foursome is solving mysteries and in this book they’re bang on the trail of the cruel schemers who have abducted their classmate Simran. Weird phone calls, cryptic entries in a diary, searches in the bylanes of Old Delhi, run –ins with different sort of people add adventure to this read…catch up gals!
Other new books at the Store:
“A Bear for Felicia” by Jerry Pinto @ Rs.150/-
“A Blue Hand: The Beats in India” by Deborah Baker @ Rs.499/-
“The Words of Gandhi” Selected and with an introduction by Richard Attenborough @ Rs.175/-
“Ping: A Frog in Search of a New Pond” by Stuart Avery Gold @ Rs.95/-
“Self Portrait Che Guevara” by Ernesto Che Guevara @ Rs.695/-
“Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth” by Rick Riordan @ Rs.350/-
“Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving and Listening” by Daniel Gottlieb @ Rs.395/-
“A Golfer’s Logbook” by Lee Pearce @ Rs.750/-
“Stage Directions: Writing on Theatre 1970-2008” by Michael Frayn @ Rs.1335/-
“Why is God Laughing?” by Deepak Chopra @ Rs.445/-
“The Five Rules of Thought: How to Use the Power of Your Mind to Get What You Want” by Mary T. Browne @ Rs.520/-
“Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa” by Martin Meredith @ Rs.600/-
“Tree of Smoke” by Dennis Johnson @ Rs.535/-
“Inheritor Industrialists: Secrets of their Success” by Raghu Palat @ Rs.175/-
“The Star Principle: How It Can Make You Rich” Richard Koch @ Rs.595/-
“Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be) Longing In Contemporary India” by Parmesh Shahani @ Rs.395/-
“Bombay Rains, Bombay Girls” by Anirban Bose @ Rs.195/-
“The Zoya Factor” by Anuja Chauhan @ Rs. 295/-
Happy Reading, and see you at the Store,
From the team at,
twistntales
Just a word here about our reviewers. We have a few young folks, some students, all of them who work part-time at the Store, all of whom come from different disciplines of study.
Sonali, who works weekends is a science and math person, but with an insatiable curiosity for everything! From gardening to cuisines, she is the person who thinks up the quips for the blackboard outside. She writes with flair and élan.
Tia, who loves to read and write! Though she’s finished with us almost a year back, she keeps coming back to add love and flavour to our reviews! Jahnavi, who too finished with us last year, is back again for another short stint. While both love chick lit, and all genres of fiction, Tia particularly excels and writes with great sensitivity on femininst, hope, healing and nurturing books.
The others Shama, Shradha, Kshitija and yours truly, add our two bits when it comes to books of our choice. This month will also see a send-off to Shama (standing red hair? remember?), as she leaves Pune to go home after her graduation. We are going to miss Shama (and all her jokes), who has now been with us for little over a year. Good luck, Shama, we hope you do “the coming back” stints like the others as well! All these youngsters add a lot of joy and charm to our bookstore, and we hate to see them move away!!
Now we go to the main purpose of this mail!
New Arrivals:
Personalities:
“Unbowed: One Woman’s Journey” by Wangari Maathai @ Rs.360/-(295 pgs)
‘How I longed to able to write something and rub it out. When I finally learnt to read and write, I never stopped, because I could read, I could write and I could rub.’
Born in the Kenyan Highlands, Wangari Maathai was educated in the United States and became the first woman in East and Central Africa to gain a Doctorate, in 1971. Later, she founded the Green Belt Movement, Kenya’s famous environment and human rights campaigning group. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
“Unbowed” is the story of the woman behind the degree, the individual behind the organization. Maathai writes lovingly of her native Kenya, of listening to the birds around her home and a stream named Kanungu where she would gather firewood for the house. She writes of ‘taking America back to Kenya with her’:
‘There is a persistence, a seriousness, and a vision to America: It seems to know where it is going, and it will go in that direction, whether you like it or not.’
This perseverance and direction would be her backbone through a tenuous future.
Filled with fertility and charisma, spanning different worlds and changing times, Maathai’s writing is the story of planting and nurturing, in every way we can.
“The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” by Barack Obama @ Rs.250/-(362 pgs)
Barack Obama is known in his public life as a US Senator and now as a Presidential hopeful. In “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama brings his personal to American politics. Writing on issues such as faith, opportunity, values and of course hope, Obama’s prose is frank and filled with humility.
He writes, not simply as a man of politics, but as a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic. He defines himself as ‘pro-choice’ above all else, and his writing is mostly shorn of ‘political language.’ His ‘hope’ is backed up by solid, humane solutions and a clear vision.
Perhaps the most striking factor of Obama’s writing is its empathy:
‘One thing about being a U.S. Senator – you fly a lot.
…but there are things you can’t see at 40,000 feet.’A dreamer, a doer, a man whose diplomacy is balanced with sincerity, one who is unabashedly in touch with his feelings, “The Audacity of Hope” is filled with Obama’s hope of what he might bring to his country.
“Barack Obama: In His Own Words edited by Lisa Rogak @ Rs.425/-(166 pgs)
‘I’m certainly black enough to have trouble catching a cab in New York City.’
Since delivering his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama has been hailed as the clear saviour of not only the Democratic Party but also the integrity of American politics.
This book of quotes from the presidential candidate allows those who aren’t as familiar with his politics to learn quickly where he stands on a range of issues facing America, from abortion, Afghanistan, immigration and nuclear weapons to religion and the ‘war on terror.’
SocioEcoPol:
“Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia” by Ahmed Rashid @ Rs.495/-(404 pgs)
Since 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq, the West has been fighting a ‘War on Terror’, through force, and through the building of new societies in the region. Having reported from Central Asia for a quarter of a century, Ahmed Rashid shows clearly why the war in Iraq is just a sideshow to the main event. Rather, it is Pakistan, Afghanistan and the five Central Asian states that make up the crisis zone, for it is here that terrorism and Islamic extremism is growing stronger. Rashid brings into focus the role of many regional issues in supporting extremism, from nuclear programmes to local rivalries, ineffectual peace-keeping to tyrannical rulers.
With unparalleled access and intimate knowledge of the political players, “Descent into Chaos” chronicles with chilling accuracy why Islamic extremism is now stronger than ever
“A Journey Interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan” by Farzana Versey @ Rs.295/- (279 pgs)
‘You need not be deported,’ said the retired army general.
What follows is not deportation, but the beginning of an exploration that is nuanced by the identity of the narrator: an Indian Muslim woman travelling alone in a space notoriously difficult to negotiate vis-à-vis its history and politics.
In the course of her journey, at times interrupted, through the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar, Farzana Versey finds herself struggling with her own identity.
‘When I was on the soil of the land of the pure, my impurity struck me. I was the emotional mulatto,’ she writes.
The author weaves together vignettes of living and travelling in a complex society where the personal becomes the political, eventually painting a picture of a changing nation with a unique mix of religious tradition and barely-in-check liberalism.
“The Post-American World” by Fareed Zakaria @ Rs.499/-(259 pgs)
For Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, the great story of our times is ‘the rise of the rest’ – the growth of countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, which is generating a new global landscape. Global power is shifting, and wealth and innovation are bubbling up in unexpected places: the tallest buildings, biggest dams and top-selling movies are all being built or made outside the United States.
The current political debate in much of the first world is utterly out of touch with this broad development, obsessed with issues like terrorism, immigration and economic panics.
Zakaria draws on lessons from the two great power-shifts of the past 500 years – the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States – to tell us what we can expect from the third shift.
As the political role of the US shrinks, Washington needs to move towards sharing power, building legitimacy and creating coalitions – for the future the world faces is the post-American world.
“Seeking Begumpura: The Social Vision of Anti-Caste Intellectuals” by Gail Omvedt @ Rs.400/-(275 pgs)
Emphasizing the continued relevance of the anti-caste intellectuals in the era of globalization, the author compacts the product of five years of research and writing in this book .With extensive studies on the subject of ‘Utopia’ as imagined by the visionaries spanning five centuries, the book unfolds the simplistic ideals that these visionaries earmarked for a society that would be a level playing field for one and all. With Dnyan and Bhaktibhav (reason and ecstasy) as the underlying themes in this book, the author packs in some wonderful translations of significant literary works of Chokhamela, Janabai, Kabir, Tukaram, Periyar Pandita Ramabai and Ambedkar.
Inspiration:
“The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea” by Bob Burg and John David Mann @ Rs.225/-(127 pgs)
“The Go-Giver” tells the story of Joe, a true go-getter. Joe yearns for success, but feels as though the harder he works, the further he gets away from his goals. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from a legendary consultant known simply as the ‘Chairman.’
Over the next week, the Chairman introduces Joe to a series of ‘go-givers’: a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the ‘Connector’ who brought them together.
With them, Joe learns the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success, and how to open himself up to the power of giving.
Imparted with wit and grace, “The Go-Giver” is a tale about putting others interests first and continually adding value to their lives.
“Go Kiss the World: Life Lessons for the Young Professional” by Subroto Bagchi @ Rs.399/-(237 pgs)
‘Go, kiss the world’ were Subroto Bagchi’s blind mother’s last words to him. They were to become to guiding principle of his life.
On the strength of these words, he went from humble origins to extraordinary professional success. In “Go Kiss the World” he writes of the ‘personal-ness’ of his success. He attributes his sense of wonder, his desire for connectedness to a larger whole to his simple upbringing. He urges us to remember that it is the ability to include, and not merely intellect that makes a leader.
‘You build ingenuity in order to survive,’ writes Bagchi.
‘You trust strangers and, hence, strangers trust you.
You become an interesting person, because you have lots of stories to tell.
Finally, you learn to move on…’
With the simplicity and gentle teaching that characterized “The High Performance Entrepreneur,” Subroto Bagchi shares the warmth that he has put into each moment of his work.
Management :
“Butterflies Be Gone: A Hands-On Approach to Sweat-Proof Public Speaking” by Arthur H. Bell @ Rs.250/-(122 pgs)
Speaker’s nerves!
For many of us, those words spell disaster. Whether it’s giving a speech to a conference room full of colleagues or socializing at a party, speaker’s nerves can be uncomfortable at best, and career-damaging at worst.
An accomplished speech coach to thousands, Dr. Arthur Bell uses tested techniques, probing quizzes and real-life anecdotes from fellow sufferers to teach you how to get over that churning stomach and those sweaty palms.
“Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron Mcmillan and Al Switzler @ Rs.275/-(228 pgs)
“Crucial Conversations” gives you the tools to handle life’s most difficult and important conversations, say what’s on your mind and achieve positive outcomes.
You’ll learn how to:
• Make it safe to talk about almost anything
• Be persuasive, not abrasive
• Turn crucial conversations into the action and results you want
So pick a relationship, a crucial conversation today, and put your best into it.
“Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter” by Pankaj Ghemawat @ Rs.695/-(230 pgs)
In our supposedly globalized economy, businesses are advised to charge across borders as if the whole world were one seamless, flat marketplace. Ghemawat argues that the world is ‘semiglobalized.’ Through accessible, fact-driven analysis, he explains how the global business environment is defined by the differences that arise at borders.
“Redefining Global Strategy” offers a reality-based view of globalization – and practical tools to help your business cross borders profitably.
“The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders At All Levels” by Michael D. Watkins @ Rs.695/-(240 pgs)
You’ve just been promoted to a new leadership position. You’re not sure of the challenges or how you will meet them. All you know that you have three months to get on top of the job – or fail.
This book is your road map for taking charge quickly and effectively during critical career transition periods.
Written by noted leadership transition expert Michael Watkins, “The First 90 Days” outlines proven strategies that will dramatically shorten the time it takes to reach what Watkins calls ‘breakeven point’: the point at which your organization needs you as much as you need the job.
Whether you are charged with launching a start-up or sustaining a high-performing unit, this book will help you to develop a transition acceleration plan that is tailored to your situation.
“The Execution Premium: Linking Strategy to Operations for Competitive Advantage” by Robert Kaplan and David Norton @ Rs.1810/- (320pgs)
Tackling the issue of developing a system to manage and execute important strategies bang on, this book ,by its six step process aims to teach us how to (a)Develop a strategy by clarifying goals and conducting strategic analysis,(b) Plan your strategy by selecting theme based measures, targets and initiatives, (c) Align organizational units and employees to your strategy, (d)Plan operations through priority setting and resource allocation,(e) Monitor and learn from operations and strategy and (f) test and adapt your strategy.
To oversee all these processes, the authors introduce the ‘Office of Strategy management’-which serves as a sort of a orchestra leader to result in an organization that gains a real execution premium by being able to quickly and reliably execute its strategy.
“Financial Planning: A Ready Reckoner” by Madhu Sinha @ Rs.345/- (270pgs)
“Financial Planning” is meant for lay investors, financial planners and students pursuing courses on financial planning. The book includes solved problems on retirement planning and over 350 questions and answers of the time value of money. Besides these, it dwells on mutual funds and other investment products currently available.
Madhu Sinha has been counselling numerous investors on financial planning and brings to her book a distillate of her ‘rich’ experience.
“Cases in Entrepreneurship: The Venture Creation Process” by Eric Morse and Ronald Mitchell @ Rs.495/- (427pgs)
“Cases in Entrepreneurship” is the first book to be based on a cognitive framework of entrepreneurship. From searching for venture opportunities to financing to harvesting the value created in the business, this is a canny and systematic study of the steps towards a successful venture creation.
Fiction:
“Chasing Harry Winston” by Lauren Weisberger @ Rs.195/-(278 pgs)
From the author of “The Devil Wears Prada” comes the story of three best friends and their pact to change their lives over the course of a year. Over raspberry mojitos one night, Emmy vows to find a man on every continent for some no-strings fun while Adriana is determined to secure a five-carat Harry Winston diamond on her fourth finger. Leigh on the other hand, has a gorgeous boyfriend and a great job. So what needs to change? Maybe literary bad boy Jesse Chapman can help her to figure it out. Sassy and insightful, this is the perfect pick-me-up for blue days.
“A House in the Old Style” by Ananda Mukerji @ Rs.295/-(311 pgs)
‘Caught between tradition and the new ideas from the West, our behaviour could be quite unpredictable, the queer, tangential outcome of the pulls and pushes of our inner tensions.’
Youngest-uncle, octogenarian and master-storyteller, is the cherished eldest member of his deceased brother’s family, and lives with his large extended family in an old colonial mansion in Allahabad. The stories of his youth are a great hit with the children of the house.
Then Swapan, his corporate son, comes home for the Durga Puja festivities and feels duty-bound to take his father away with him, into the tightly nuclear confines of his own family.
But can stories survive away from the comfort and courtesies of a traditional Prabashi household?
“A House in the Old Style” is a gently humorous novel about the pleasures and disappointments of an old-fashioned family with old-world values. Most of all, it is about stories and storytelling, and how the stories within us grow with every human life that touches our own.
Young Adults:
“Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions” edited by Stephanie H. Meyer and John Meyer @ Rs.250/-(323 pgs)
Edited by the founders of The Young Author’s Foundation, “Teen Ink” has been showcasing the work of more than 25,000 teens since 1989. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork brims with the enthusiasm, anxieties and challenges that the teenage years bring. From first love to first loss to highest achievement, this book celebrates teenager-hood in the tradition of the Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books.
“Double Click: A Foxy 4 Adventure” by Subhadra Sen Gupta @ Rs.195/-(169 pgs)
At St. Teresa convent, in the bustling heart of NewDelhi, reign the foxy four. Mandy –with fashion as her passion, Padma-the computer nerd, Jahan-the mobike loving racing queen and Charu-who considers her presence in the group is totally essential because they’re all so crazy! The favourite extra curricular activity of this daring foursome is solving mysteries and in this book they’re bang on the trail of the cruel schemers who have abducted their classmate Simran. Weird phone calls, cryptic entries in a diary, searches in the bylanes of Old Delhi, run –ins with different sort of people add adventure to this read…catch up gals!
Other new books at the Store:
“A Bear for Felicia” by Jerry Pinto @ Rs.150/-
“A Blue Hand: The Beats in India” by Deborah Baker @ Rs.499/-
“The Words of Gandhi” Selected and with an introduction by Richard Attenborough @ Rs.175/-
“Ping: A Frog in Search of a New Pond” by Stuart Avery Gold @ Rs.95/-
“Self Portrait Che Guevara” by Ernesto Che Guevara @ Rs.695/-
“Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth” by Rick Riordan @ Rs.350/-
“Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving and Listening” by Daniel Gottlieb @ Rs.395/-
“A Golfer’s Logbook” by Lee Pearce @ Rs.750/-
“Stage Directions: Writing on Theatre 1970-2008” by Michael Frayn @ Rs.1335/-
“Why is God Laughing?” by Deepak Chopra @ Rs.445/-
“The Five Rules of Thought: How to Use the Power of Your Mind to Get What You Want” by Mary T. Browne @ Rs.520/-
“Diamonds, Gold and War: The Making of South Africa” by Martin Meredith @ Rs.600/-
“Tree of Smoke” by Dennis Johnson @ Rs.535/-
“Inheritor Industrialists: Secrets of their Success” by Raghu Palat @ Rs.175/-
“The Star Principle: How It Can Make You Rich” Richard Koch @ Rs.595/-
“Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be) Longing In Contemporary India” by Parmesh Shahani @ Rs.395/-
“Bombay Rains, Bombay Girls” by Anirban Bose @ Rs.195/-
“The Zoya Factor” by Anuja Chauhan @ Rs. 295/-
Happy Reading, and see you at the Store,
From the team at,
twistntales
Friday, July 4, 2008
Lively exciting lovely books !
Message sent to twistntales@yahoogroups.com on 4th July, 2008
Hi all,
Welcome to another round of lively exciting books, all lovingly reviewed for your reading pleasure. These and more at the Store!
We have added quite a few business books, especially in the areas of HR, business biographies and case studies. A few are listed below, but drop in for a wider selection.
New Arrivals:
Fiction:
“The Gravedigger’s Daughter” by Joyce Carol Oates @ Rs.295/- (582 pgs)
Hazel Jones and her young son Zacharias are liked and admired by all they meet – but they inspire curiosity too. Why is Zach forbidden to mention his father, and how did Hazel get the scars on her forehead which she takes such pains to hide? Why do they roam from place to place, settling nowhere and confiding in no one?
Because Hazel Jones wasn’t always Hazel Jones. Once she was Rebecca Schwart, daughter of German asylum seekers who fled to the US to escape the Nazis. Her father, hampered by language and chained to poverty, could only find work as a gravedigger. “The Gravedigger’s Daughter” explores the darkness that lurked on the other side of the American dream and the desperation that follows daily destitution. It is the story of one woman’s struggle to re-build herself against the crushing pressures of her past and to survive the aftermath of a life once lived.
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker @ Rs.295/- (262 pgs)
Set in the deep American South between the wars, this is the tale of Celie, a young black woman born into poverty and segregation.
Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father,’ she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Netty and trapped in an ugly marriage. Then she meets Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman in charge of her own destiny.
“The Colour Purple” is a salute to the human spirit, to the joy of discovering the beauty that comes with courage and living intensely. Celie, her pain, her discoveries, the resurrection of her spirit are magnified in their intensity. Black, poor and abused, she is the victim of a world where males and white skin are in power. Celie’s phoenix-like rise from the ashes of her past make for a gritty, achingly beautiful narrative, a celebration of the senses and the soul.
“Wolf Totem” by Jiang Rong @ Rs.505/- (524 pgs)
Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen volunteers to live in a remote, nomadic settlement on the borders of Inner and Outer Mongolia. There, he discovers an apparently idyllic, simple life based on the struggle between humans and the wild wolves who roam the plains. Chen learns about the rich, spiritual relationship that exists between these two adversaries, and what each might learn from the other. But when members of the People’s Republic swarm in from the cities to bring modernity and productivity to the grasslands, the peace of Chen’s solitary existence is shattered and the delicate balance between wolves and humans is destroyed. Set in the 1960’s, the heyday for the people of the Inner Mongolian grasslands, “Wolf Totem” celebrates a time when an age-old balance based on culture and tradition was maintained between man and animal. It is at once an evocative portrayal of a land and culture that no longer exists and a powerful insight into modern China, its history and its people.
“Rubbish Boyfriends (for anyone who’s kissed a lot of frogs)” by Jessie Jones @ Rs.225/- (436 pgs)
Everyone’s had rubbish boyfriends, but Dayna Harris has had enough to fill a skip. Now, in the throes of labour, she reflects on boyfriends past.
There’s…
Chris: Intelligent and sensitive. An aspiring rock star. As if…
Archie: Brimming with rough-diamond charm. Until Dayna discovers his true colours.
Mark: Kind to kittens and children. But what’s he hiding?
Cristian: A prince among men. Surely he’s The One? He even gives Dayna the ring to prove it!
This is a fun, frothy romp about navigating your way through relationships while trying to live life on your own terms.
“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hanif @ Rs.395/- (295 pgs)
I know I am saluting a bunch of dead men. But if you are in uniform, you salute. That’s all there is to it.
June 1988, Pakistan
General Zia is convinced there is a plot to kill him and barricades himself within the Army House, his official residence. There are plenty of people who might want him dead.
There are three army generals growing old waiting for their promotions.There is the CIA, the ISI and the RAW.And there is Ali Shigri, a junior officer at the military academy whose father has been murdered by the army.
Two months later, Zia gets into the presidential plane, Pak One, which explodes midway. Which of the plotters have succeeded?
Mohammed Hanif delivers a sharp, gripping debut, inventive and filled with suspense.
“Bone China” by Roma Tearne @ Rs.295/- (400 pgs)
Grace de Silva, wife of the shiftless but charming Aloysius, has five children and a crumbling marriage. Outside her family, civil unrest is stirring in Sri Lanka, and soon, the tensions begin to seep into each other as four of Grace’s children make the decision to leave home. But once in London, the de Silvas are all homesick in their own ways for life is not what they expected. It is only Anna-Meeka, Grace’s granddaughter, who embraces life’s possibilities, but even she must weather heartbreak and mistakes before she can acknowledge the place she has come from, and the person she has become.
A story of displacement and human development, of personal history and migration “Bone China” moves gently amongst three generations of de Silvas, carrying their struggles to preserve the old and imbibe the new, and the frailty of the idea of ‘home.’
“Happiness and Other Disorders” by Ahmad Saidullah @ Rs.299/- (255pgs)
Born in Ottawa, with a childhood spent in India and now living in Canada, The author was named a’ New Voice in Fiction’ by New York’s L Magazine. With many an award winning short stories in his repertoire, this book holds one of his finest collections of ten short stories. With a sensitivity that goes straight to heart, his narrations empathize with characters torn apart by violence and oppression. They are about a caste cursed old man devoted to his ‘holy’ cow, a simple man waylaid by mercenaries to commit a murder –with fatal consequences, a young girl with a split personality and more varying subjects. The last story also the title of the book is a witty, six paged single paragraph essaying an editors back problem.
“Keep off the Grass” by Karan Bajaj @ Rs.195/- (259 pgs) (Indian Writing)What do you do when you are a twenty-five year old Yale graduate making half a million dollars a year as a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street?
If you are Samrat Ratan, born in the USA to immigrant Indian parents, you quit and enroll in business school in India instead.
Samrat’s journey begins at IIM Bangalore where he spends his time getting high on marijuana while his grades – and his self confidence – plummet. Soon Samrat’s quest for identity turns increasingly bizarre as he ends up ‘meditating’ stoned with a Danish hippie, hanging out with a cannibal on the banks of the Ganga, and peddling soap to the formidable Raja Bhaiyya in Benares.
Does Samrat – Yale valedictorian, investment banker, convict, pothead - survive his fall from grace?
Read Karan Bajaj’s hilarious debut novel to find out.
Management:
“Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource” by Jeffrey Gitomer @ Rs.1005/- (287 pgs)
What does it take to be the best, most creative salesperson? Is it the attitude? Is it asking flawless, compelling questions? Maybe it’s about being creatively different. Based on the principles of sales education with real-world, proven results, “The Sales Bible” gives you cutting-edge information and answers you can take into the street and turn into money the same day.
“Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future” by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran @ Rs.395/- (320 pgs)
“Zoom” visits the boardrooms of car executives and shows how some are fearlessly exploring new energy sources and designs to leave their competitors millions of dollars behind. Elsewhere, the authors examine the alliances that are forming tend our addiction to oil in both the West and the growing markets of India, China and Russia. We are also introduced to the Thomas Edison of the 21st century, a legendary inventor whose work with hydrogen-powered vehicles on a pure water loop is already having a huge impact on the international market.
The global race to discover cleaner energy sources is on – and “Zoom” demonstrates just how cars could be the driving force to a better and cleaner future.
“Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength” by Diana McLain Smith @ Rs.935/- (289pgs)
Ever been on a team where people can’t get along to save their lives? Maybe the VP’s of Sales and Manufacturing bicker at every meeting. Or a seasoned veteran and rising young star jockey for position every time. According to Diana McLain Smith, great teams don’t assume that everyone will get along. They anticipate conflict and use it to strengthen their relationships. Every team is only as strong as its weakest relationship and “Divide and Conquer” provides a powerful, step-by-step approach to building a team that is flexible and strong enough to master its toughest challenges.
“A New Beginning: The Turnaround Story of Indian Bank” by Ranjana Kumar @ Rs.675/- (301pgs)
The first lady officer to become Chairman and Managing Director of a bank, she was instrumental in the successful turnaround of the Indian Bank –from barely surviving to flourishing and which earned her the sobriquet-‘India’s Turnaround Queen’ by the Economist. The book records her journey from scratch... the status of Indian Bank when she took over its reigns to its rise like the proverbial Phoenix. Her dedication, concern for every employee’s motivational needs shine through each page and her smart strategies amaze the reader. With a foreword by Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam , in which he suggests that this book be used as teaching tool for students, the twelve succinct chapters not only recount the arduous journey to success but also encapsulate the lessons learnt from the turnaround.
Others:
“Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights” by Frits Staal @ Rs.495/- (347 pgs) (Philosophy)For Fritz Staal, originally a logician, the discovery of the Vedas is a voyage without the certainty of reaching an end. Even so, his book shows that the Vedas have a logic all their own. He puts Vedic civilization into a global perspective through a wide ranging comparison with other Indian philosophical texts and religions, primarily Buddhism. Accessible, finely argued, and with a wealth of information and insight, “Discovering the Vedas” combines scholarly research with the intimacy of story-telling, making it an interesting read for the curious mind.
“Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China” by Pallavi Aiyar @ Rs.395/- (266 pgs) (Travel)‘But what did I know of China? An alien and seemingly impenetrable language; an inscrutable people; an exotic cuisine…’
Following her heart and the man she would eventually marry, Pallavi Aiyer arrives in Beijing unsure and full of questions. ‘All I knew,’ she writes ‘was that we were in love and that my moving to China would give us a future.’
What begins as a purely personal exploration expands into a journey through the many prisms and dichotomies that is China.
As a professor of news writing at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, the author is confronted with some of the brightest minds in China, and some of the most surprising. While most of them were uncomfortable with political thought and commentary, they were made to attend compulsory classes on Marxist thought. Aiyer writes of the ‘schizophrenia’ of some her students who spewed venom on American foreign policy while simultaneously asking her if she preferred McDonalds or KFC.
Aiyer’s slowly ripening relationship with a country where she is both spectator and player, where tradition and modernity are of equal importance, is heartfelt, humorous and filled with intimate insight.
“Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted” by Ian Ayres @ Rs.350/- (260pgs)
Columnist for the Forbes magazine , contributor to the New York Times , author of eight books, Ian Ayres explore the psyche of the ‘Super Crunchers’-pioneers who ‘think by numbers ‘ to find patterns in human behavior and predict the future with staggeringly accurate results. This book exposes the hidden patterns all around us and utilizing examples from real time cases; he explains this new way - to be smart, savvy and statistically superior.
Other new books at twistntales:
“The Competencies Handbook” by Steve Whiddett and Sarah Hollyforde @ Rs.375/- (196pgs)
“Beyond Training and Development” by JW Rothwell @ 495/-
“Handbook of Reward Strategies: From Intent to Impact” by Duncan Brown @ Rs.975/- (278pgs)
“Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods” by Jack Phillips @ Rs.450/- (420pgs)
“Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler @ Rs.275/-(228 pgs)
“The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” by Barack Obama @Rs. 250/- (375 pgs)
“Unbowed: One Woman’s Story” by Wangari Maathai @Rs. 360/- (314 pgs)
“Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions” Ed. By Stephanie H. Meyer and John Meyer @Rs. 250/- (361 pgs)
“Chasing Harry Winston” by Lauren Weisberger @ Rs.195/-(278 pgs)
“The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work” by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W .Johnson, Joseph V. Sinfield and Elizabeth J. Altman @ Rs.1585/-(272 pgs)
“Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia” by Ahmed Rashid @ Rs.495/-(404 pgs)
“Barack Obama: In His Own Words” edited by Lisa Rogak @ Rs.425/-(166 pgs)
“Butterflies Be Gone: A Hands-On approach to Sweat-Proof Public Speaking” by Arthur H. Bell @ Rs.250/-(122 pgs)
Also, we now have an entire selection of self-help books available in Hindi. ‘The Alchemist,’ ‘Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul’ etc are now available in translation.
Books, books books and more books. Drop into the store and make your own selection,
From the team at
twistntales,
Hi all,
Welcome to another round of lively exciting books, all lovingly reviewed for your reading pleasure. These and more at the Store!
We have added quite a few business books, especially in the areas of HR, business biographies and case studies. A few are listed below, but drop in for a wider selection.
New Arrivals:
Fiction:
“The Gravedigger’s Daughter” by Joyce Carol Oates @ Rs.295/- (582 pgs)
Hazel Jones and her young son Zacharias are liked and admired by all they meet – but they inspire curiosity too. Why is Zach forbidden to mention his father, and how did Hazel get the scars on her forehead which she takes such pains to hide? Why do they roam from place to place, settling nowhere and confiding in no one?
Because Hazel Jones wasn’t always Hazel Jones. Once she was Rebecca Schwart, daughter of German asylum seekers who fled to the US to escape the Nazis. Her father, hampered by language and chained to poverty, could only find work as a gravedigger. “The Gravedigger’s Daughter” explores the darkness that lurked on the other side of the American dream and the desperation that follows daily destitution. It is the story of one woman’s struggle to re-build herself against the crushing pressures of her past and to survive the aftermath of a life once lived.
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker @ Rs.295/- (262 pgs)
Set in the deep American South between the wars, this is the tale of Celie, a young black woman born into poverty and segregation.
Raped repeatedly by the man she calls ‘father,’ she has two children taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Netty and trapped in an ugly marriage. Then she meets Shug Avery, singer and magic-maker – a woman in charge of her own destiny.
“The Colour Purple” is a salute to the human spirit, to the joy of discovering the beauty that comes with courage and living intensely. Celie, her pain, her discoveries, the resurrection of her spirit are magnified in their intensity. Black, poor and abused, she is the victim of a world where males and white skin are in power. Celie’s phoenix-like rise from the ashes of her past make for a gritty, achingly beautiful narrative, a celebration of the senses and the soul.
“Wolf Totem” by Jiang Rong @ Rs.505/- (524 pgs)
Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen volunteers to live in a remote, nomadic settlement on the borders of Inner and Outer Mongolia. There, he discovers an apparently idyllic, simple life based on the struggle between humans and the wild wolves who roam the plains. Chen learns about the rich, spiritual relationship that exists between these two adversaries, and what each might learn from the other. But when members of the People’s Republic swarm in from the cities to bring modernity and productivity to the grasslands, the peace of Chen’s solitary existence is shattered and the delicate balance between wolves and humans is destroyed. Set in the 1960’s, the heyday for the people of the Inner Mongolian grasslands, “Wolf Totem” celebrates a time when an age-old balance based on culture and tradition was maintained between man and animal. It is at once an evocative portrayal of a land and culture that no longer exists and a powerful insight into modern China, its history and its people.
“Rubbish Boyfriends (for anyone who’s kissed a lot of frogs)” by Jessie Jones @ Rs.225/- (436 pgs)
Everyone’s had rubbish boyfriends, but Dayna Harris has had enough to fill a skip. Now, in the throes of labour, she reflects on boyfriends past.
There’s…
Chris: Intelligent and sensitive. An aspiring rock star. As if…
Archie: Brimming with rough-diamond charm. Until Dayna discovers his true colours.
Mark: Kind to kittens and children. But what’s he hiding?
Cristian: A prince among men. Surely he’s The One? He even gives Dayna the ring to prove it!
This is a fun, frothy romp about navigating your way through relationships while trying to live life on your own terms.
“A Case of Exploding Mangoes” by Mohammed Hanif @ Rs.395/- (295 pgs)
I know I am saluting a bunch of dead men. But if you are in uniform, you salute. That’s all there is to it.
June 1988, Pakistan
General Zia is convinced there is a plot to kill him and barricades himself within the Army House, his official residence. There are plenty of people who might want him dead.
There are three army generals growing old waiting for their promotions.There is the CIA, the ISI and the RAW.And there is Ali Shigri, a junior officer at the military academy whose father has been murdered by the army.
Two months later, Zia gets into the presidential plane, Pak One, which explodes midway. Which of the plotters have succeeded?
Mohammed Hanif delivers a sharp, gripping debut, inventive and filled with suspense.
“Bone China” by Roma Tearne @ Rs.295/- (400 pgs)
Grace de Silva, wife of the shiftless but charming Aloysius, has five children and a crumbling marriage. Outside her family, civil unrest is stirring in Sri Lanka, and soon, the tensions begin to seep into each other as four of Grace’s children make the decision to leave home. But once in London, the de Silvas are all homesick in their own ways for life is not what they expected. It is only Anna-Meeka, Grace’s granddaughter, who embraces life’s possibilities, but even she must weather heartbreak and mistakes before she can acknowledge the place she has come from, and the person she has become.
A story of displacement and human development, of personal history and migration “Bone China” moves gently amongst three generations of de Silvas, carrying their struggles to preserve the old and imbibe the new, and the frailty of the idea of ‘home.’
“Happiness and Other Disorders” by Ahmad Saidullah @ Rs.299/- (255pgs)
Born in Ottawa, with a childhood spent in India and now living in Canada, The author was named a’ New Voice in Fiction’ by New York’s L Magazine. With many an award winning short stories in his repertoire, this book holds one of his finest collections of ten short stories. With a sensitivity that goes straight to heart, his narrations empathize with characters torn apart by violence and oppression. They are about a caste cursed old man devoted to his ‘holy’ cow, a simple man waylaid by mercenaries to commit a murder –with fatal consequences, a young girl with a split personality and more varying subjects. The last story also the title of the book is a witty, six paged single paragraph essaying an editors back problem.
“Keep off the Grass” by Karan Bajaj @ Rs.195/- (259 pgs) (Indian Writing)What do you do when you are a twenty-five year old Yale graduate making half a million dollars a year as a hotshot investment banker on Wall Street?
If you are Samrat Ratan, born in the USA to immigrant Indian parents, you quit and enroll in business school in India instead.
Samrat’s journey begins at IIM Bangalore where he spends his time getting high on marijuana while his grades – and his self confidence – plummet. Soon Samrat’s quest for identity turns increasingly bizarre as he ends up ‘meditating’ stoned with a Danish hippie, hanging out with a cannibal on the banks of the Ganga, and peddling soap to the formidable Raja Bhaiyya in Benares.
Does Samrat – Yale valedictorian, investment banker, convict, pothead - survive his fall from grace?
Read Karan Bajaj’s hilarious debut novel to find out.
Management:
“Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource” by Jeffrey Gitomer @ Rs.1005/- (287 pgs)
What does it take to be the best, most creative salesperson? Is it the attitude? Is it asking flawless, compelling questions? Maybe it’s about being creatively different. Based on the principles of sales education with real-world, proven results, “The Sales Bible” gives you cutting-edge information and answers you can take into the street and turn into money the same day.
“Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future” by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran @ Rs.395/- (320 pgs)
“Zoom” visits the boardrooms of car executives and shows how some are fearlessly exploring new energy sources and designs to leave their competitors millions of dollars behind. Elsewhere, the authors examine the alliances that are forming tend our addiction to oil in both the West and the growing markets of India, China and Russia. We are also introduced to the Thomas Edison of the 21st century, a legendary inventor whose work with hydrogen-powered vehicles on a pure water loop is already having a huge impact on the international market.
The global race to discover cleaner energy sources is on – and “Zoom” demonstrates just how cars could be the driving force to a better and cleaner future.
“Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength” by Diana McLain Smith @ Rs.935/- (289pgs)
Ever been on a team where people can’t get along to save their lives? Maybe the VP’s of Sales and Manufacturing bicker at every meeting. Or a seasoned veteran and rising young star jockey for position every time. According to Diana McLain Smith, great teams don’t assume that everyone will get along. They anticipate conflict and use it to strengthen their relationships. Every team is only as strong as its weakest relationship and “Divide and Conquer” provides a powerful, step-by-step approach to building a team that is flexible and strong enough to master its toughest challenges.
“A New Beginning: The Turnaround Story of Indian Bank” by Ranjana Kumar @ Rs.675/- (301pgs)
The first lady officer to become Chairman and Managing Director of a bank, she was instrumental in the successful turnaround of the Indian Bank –from barely surviving to flourishing and which earned her the sobriquet-‘India’s Turnaround Queen’ by the Economist. The book records her journey from scratch... the status of Indian Bank when she took over its reigns to its rise like the proverbial Phoenix. Her dedication, concern for every employee’s motivational needs shine through each page and her smart strategies amaze the reader. With a foreword by Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam , in which he suggests that this book be used as teaching tool for students, the twelve succinct chapters not only recount the arduous journey to success but also encapsulate the lessons learnt from the turnaround.
Others:
“Discovering the Vedas: Origins, Mantras, Rituals, Insights” by Frits Staal @ Rs.495/- (347 pgs) (Philosophy)For Fritz Staal, originally a logician, the discovery of the Vedas is a voyage without the certainty of reaching an end. Even so, his book shows that the Vedas have a logic all their own. He puts Vedic civilization into a global perspective through a wide ranging comparison with other Indian philosophical texts and religions, primarily Buddhism. Accessible, finely argued, and with a wealth of information and insight, “Discovering the Vedas” combines scholarly research with the intimacy of story-telling, making it an interesting read for the curious mind.
“Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China” by Pallavi Aiyar @ Rs.395/- (266 pgs) (Travel)‘But what did I know of China? An alien and seemingly impenetrable language; an inscrutable people; an exotic cuisine…’
Following her heart and the man she would eventually marry, Pallavi Aiyer arrives in Beijing unsure and full of questions. ‘All I knew,’ she writes ‘was that we were in love and that my moving to China would give us a future.’
What begins as a purely personal exploration expands into a journey through the many prisms and dichotomies that is China.
As a professor of news writing at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, the author is confronted with some of the brightest minds in China, and some of the most surprising. While most of them were uncomfortable with political thought and commentary, they were made to attend compulsory classes on Marxist thought. Aiyer writes of the ‘schizophrenia’ of some her students who spewed venom on American foreign policy while simultaneously asking her if she preferred McDonalds or KFC.
Aiyer’s slowly ripening relationship with a country where she is both spectator and player, where tradition and modernity are of equal importance, is heartfelt, humorous and filled with intimate insight.
“Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted” by Ian Ayres @ Rs.350/- (260pgs)
Columnist for the Forbes magazine , contributor to the New York Times , author of eight books, Ian Ayres explore the psyche of the ‘Super Crunchers’-pioneers who ‘think by numbers ‘ to find patterns in human behavior and predict the future with staggeringly accurate results. This book exposes the hidden patterns all around us and utilizing examples from real time cases; he explains this new way - to be smart, savvy and statistically superior.
Other new books at twistntales:
“The Competencies Handbook” by Steve Whiddett and Sarah Hollyforde @ Rs.375/- (196pgs)
“Beyond Training and Development” by JW Rothwell @ 495/-
“Handbook of Reward Strategies: From Intent to Impact” by Duncan Brown @ Rs.975/- (278pgs)
“Handbook of Training Evaluation and Measurement Methods” by Jack Phillips @ Rs.450/- (420pgs)
“Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler @ Rs.275/-(228 pgs)
“The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” by Barack Obama @Rs. 250/- (375 pgs)
“Unbowed: One Woman’s Story” by Wangari Maathai @Rs. 360/- (314 pgs)
“Teen Ink: Our Voices, Our Visions” Ed. By Stephanie H. Meyer and John Meyer @Rs. 250/- (361 pgs)
“Chasing Harry Winston” by Lauren Weisberger @ Rs.195/-(278 pgs)
“The Innovator’s Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work” by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W .Johnson, Joseph V. Sinfield and Elizabeth J. Altman @ Rs.1585/-(272 pgs)
“Descent into Chaos: How the War against Islamic extremism is being lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia” by Ahmed Rashid @ Rs.495/-(404 pgs)
“Barack Obama: In His Own Words” edited by Lisa Rogak @ Rs.425/-(166 pgs)
“Butterflies Be Gone: A Hands-On approach to Sweat-Proof Public Speaking” by Arthur H. Bell @ Rs.250/-(122 pgs)
Also, we now have an entire selection of self-help books available in Hindi. ‘The Alchemist,’ ‘Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul’ etc are now available in translation.
Books, books books and more books. Drop into the store and make your own selection,
From the team at
twistntales,
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Its pouring books !
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
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
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
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