Confessions Of A Serial Dieter - Kalli Purie

Seriously?!! There are people who actually do this - wow! I mean I have lived to eat and yet I am an amateur in my family. Gourmandism runs in my family….we can discuss food for hours together at endless length. Thanks to either my metabolism or the stress levels at work (;)) I have managed to stay in a reasonable shape. But I am amazed at the author's perseverance to achieve what she has achieved. It is indeed a feat! Especially considering the fact that she also comes from a family of foodies.

A very well written and light memoir, and the author brings a flavor of the 'Punjabi' humor to her writing. What I would have liked to see is more on the fitness aspect. I am a firm believer of eat what you want and what you can, (well that's changing a bit after I have entered the elite 30s club!) and clean it up with a regular and disciplined routine of exercise.

On a lot of counts I disagree with what the author has written - appearance and looks don’t really matter so much. Yes they do matter the first time when you have just one chance to prove, to make the sales pitch of your life! But hey, why think tactical...if you are aiming for a long term view then what really matters is your personality, your attitude, your approach towards things. The impact of the appearance fades off after a while, what stays on is what is actionable. So in that sense everything isnt about appearances! But yes, on a few counts I do agree that at times appearances matter.

We are already starting to see the evils of obesity in India - the increase in the diseases of the rich, the McDs and Dominos food becoming more popular with kids, the evils of the television to which kids are glued to...all this is eventually going to lead to an 'Americanized' society in India! So rather than promoting the kids to go to Hitler farms and various other tortures, just set a good and clean example of eating and exercising to your kids.

After all "We always make time for what we really want to do"!

A light reading, but I could not relate to some of the things dished out by the author and the diet experiences that she has shared!

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

"Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always" Nana's advice to Mariam, and how true!

A Thousand Splendid Suns is one of the best written fiction novels I have read in a long time! The story is set in the backdrop of Afghanistan's troubled war times - the rule of the Taliban and its impact of the same on the lives of Mariam and Laila.

Khaled Hosseini has done a superb job in depicting the life of a common man in Afghanistan before and during the Taliban rule. Theatre, arts, music formed an integral part of Afghanistan's culture. I liked the way the story has been written - the reference to the Soviet invasion, the war fought by Mossud and then the impact of the Taliban rule has been brought in, but the focus remains on the lives of Mariam and Laila.

Mariam is an illegitimate child born to Nana and Jalil. She adores her father Jalil who spends only a few hours in a week with Mariam. As Mariam grows up, she starts demanding more of her dad's attention and one day demands that he should accompany her to watch Pinocchio. Mariam spends the entire night outside her father's house waiting in anticipation, hoping that her father will accept her as an integral part of his family. Little does she know that her mother had been right from the beginning. In that split second, when Mariam spots the known face hiding behind a curtain, Mariam's dreams of a big happy family are shattered. The iconic image of her father is shattered and she realizes that the love and affection her father had bestowed upon her was nothing but guilt. Unfortunately Mariam has to pay a heavy price for this unfortunate truth. When she reaches home, she sees her mother's body hanging from a tree! Mariam's world has changed in the last 24 hours, she has lost the only person close to her, her image of the man she adored has been shattered to pieces and she has no one to count on.

Mariam is given shelter in her father's house, but this time the place which she longed for all the 15 years of her life suddenly feels claustrophobic to her. She knows that she doesn’t belong here...and yet she doesn’t know what she should do or where she should go. Just like her fate was sealed at her birth, her future life also gets dictated by the legitimate wives of Jalil. Mariam is married off to a much older man, and packed off from Herat to Kabul.

Kabul brings another entirely new chapter in Mariam's life! She is subjected to the whims and fancies of Rashid, who is expectantly waiting for a child from Mariam. When both of them realize that Mariam cannot conceive a child, she is subjected to brutalities and domestic violence. When she first entered Rashid's house, she was expected to remain protected from the other men behind the veil, which is a new experience to her; however she feels nice that Rashid feels protective towards her. But when she discovers porn magazines in Rashid's room, she finds the entire situation very ironical!

Midway through the book, the focus of the story changes to Laila, who is much younger than Mariam and lives with her parents on the same street where Mariam lives. Laila and Tariq are in love with each other; but due to the war situation, they have to accept their fate and part ways. Laila's tragic experiences of parting ways with Tariq, and then her parents losing their lives in a bombing attack leave Laila devastated. Rasheed rescues Laila and gives her shelter and protection with the sole intention of marrying her. Mariam, although is in a lousy marriage with Rasheed, feels threatened by Laila's presence. The lives of Laila and Mariam, the miseries that Laila and Mariam have to bear under 'Rasheed's rule', the influence of Taliban on the people of Afghanistan has been beautifully captured in this novel. The lashings that Laila has to take from the Taliban officers because she is walking alone, unaccompanied on the streets, just so that she can meet her daughter Aziza brings shivers down the spine. Afghanistan might not have been the most developed of nations, but women there were educated and working professionals at one point. Since the civil war started in Afghanistan and since the Taliban took over, women were oppressed and subjected to being slaves - literally! And this is still the case in many parts of the region.

The sacrifices of Mariam for Laila, Aziza and Zalmai are inspiring. Laila gets back to a normal life with Tariq and the kids, but aches to get back to the soils of Afghanistan. She visits Herat, and visits the kolba where Mariam grew up. She finds that Jalil has left behind his entire legacy to Mariam. The war has impacted Jalil's family as well, he lost his children to the war and died a lonely death. Jalil had hoped that Mariam would come back to Herat one day and forgive him! Laila uses the money left behind by Jalil to help build the orphanage in Kabul.

The narratives, the influence of television, the love for movies like Titanic are all representative of the fact that people of Afghanistan are no different from people elsewhere. It is unfortunate that the people of Afghanistan had to suffer under the Taliban rule and get caught in the middle of the Al Qaeda and the USA bombings.

All in all a very well written book, and an extremely touching story. If you like fiction, this is a must read.

The Case of the Bonsai Manager - Gopalakrishnan

"You cannot give what you don't have. You cannot have what you don't give!"

Since centuries, there has been a natural urge to have a protectionist attitude towards knowledge. Knowledge was never shared openly and widely because of the fear of losing it. But with the advent of technology, you can share as many bytes as you want, you will not be deprived of your share unlike a hard-bound book.

Bonsai Manager has many such interesting topics to discuss throughout the book. What I loved about this book is the way the author has used examples of nature to explain management principles - brilliantly done! And it is such a simple book to read - I will always remember the two incidents mentioned in the book - the one on the peculiar growth of eucalyptus tree in Australia and the other one on the impact of socializing - the robin vs the blue tit bird!

The core of the book is about how stunted growth should be avoided by managers. And how intuition should form an integral part of decision making for any manager. Analysis and scientific approach to decision making should be complemented with the intuitive sense. The author shares his vast experiences from HUL and TCS; however at times I found these incidents a bit of a ramble, I would have loved to read more of his analogies between nature and management.

The author talks about BRIM - brain's remote implicit memory. This part of the implicit memory has all the processes, all the data which is stored in your brain for years and years....and in order to engrave something in the implicit memory, one needs to practice, practice and practice. Another aspect which needs to be considered is immersion - you need to be so passionate about what you do that nothing else matters! It is a great gift to enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy - only then can you immerse yourself fully and completely.

In order to avoid a stunted growth, one also needs the right kind of environment - the author talks about the case of the stunted crocodiles. Apparently, some of the crazy fads of the rich people is to keep crocodiles as their pets! And in order to accommodate these giant reptiles, the baby crocodiles are kept in smaller spaces so they end up having stunted growth. An average crocodile is about 15 mts in length, but if you stunt the growth, the crocodile is not more than 7.5 mts long! So the context of your surroundings is also very essential.

But then nature has also proven that threatening conditions cause adaptation and reallocation of resources. Snails in certain region typically grow to have a shell size of 4 mm thickness and their longevity is about 4 months; however in a simulated experiment crayfish were introduced in the same environment. Crayfish thrive on snails as the primary source of food, but interestingly the moment crayfish were introduced, the protective shells of the snails actually grew to 8 mm thickness. Because of which their longevity increased to 12 months! Even if there a threat persisting, one should not succumb to camouflage, mimicry or simulation behaviors! This is where the integrity and core values make an individual stand out!

The author narrates an interesting quote about the Toyota leader in the 1980s, when Toyota was a major threat to GM. At one point the Toyota leader was planning to bail out GM because he was worried that the lobbyists in the USA will go back to protectionist policies and in the long term it might harm Toyota! So, threats are needed for healthy competition. Managers who tend to remain in comfort zone and want to manage threats will not go very far ahead - threats actually provide the real balance!

The buzz word for a long time now has been networking! It is extremely essential to socialize and network with people around you. One of the best forms of information gathering is via socializing, and the robin / blue tit example explains this beautifully.

However, one cannot have a parasitic relationship - there needs to be collaboration and co-operation. Typically one feels that if there is a shortage of resources, it becomes a direct barrier to superlative performance! However, nature again proves us wrong. The author explains how various species in Australia co-exist although there are limited resources. One example which struck to me was how the eucalyptus tree in Australia has large holes at the base. The holes might tend to make the base less stable, but the holes provide shelter for possums which in turn leave nutrient rich droppings as a form of rent. Amazing right! This form of co-operation can be fostered when one person's gain does not become another person's loss. A manager's job is to manage this aspect!

Additionally, the author talks about how important it is for a leader to have long feelers, ability to listen, not be blinded by the folly of power. And lastly he talks about the housefly's compound eye with 4000 lens pointing in various directions. How it is important for a leader not to be blinded by the compound eye!

All in all a very interesting read, minus the parts about HUL and TCS :)

Only Time Will Tell - Jeffery Archer

My first ever fiction novel was "The Prodigal Daughter" by JA and I had loved it! Had read all the JA novels available, and so far The Prodigal Daughter remains my JA favorite.

Only Time Will Tell starts off in Jeffery Archer style, you actually feel the characters. JA's writing style makes you ponder if you will ever make friends like Giles Barrington and Al Derkin, you crave for a mentor like Jack Tar...thats what I love about Jeffery Archer novels. He breathes life into the characters. However, although the characters are strongly sketched, the story somehow ends abruptly...very unlike JA. I was disappointed reading this one...

The backdrop is the rise of Hitler, and the possibility of WW2 is inevitable. Harry Cliffton, the protagonist, is a fatherless child and as he grows up he realizes that the death of his father is a well protected secret by the family. He happens to meet an old man by the name Jack Tar, who not only becomes his mentor but a life-long friend. Little does Harry know that his mother, Jack Tar, his school teacher and Miss Monday, the music teacher, have instrumented the whole act of ensuring that Harry is motivated in studies and choir singing rather than pursuing his dreams of working on the docks.

The parts where Giles confesses to have stolen candies to save Harry from being expelled from the school, as well as Harry's loyalty towards Giles are very sentimental. Harry starts noticing that although Giles's mother is kind and does not bother too much about Harry's background, Giles's father makes obvious, in not one but many ways, his resentment towards Harry. The first half of the book has Jeffery Archer's flavor; but the second half of the book lets you down.

While the first part of the book sketches out each of the characters, the second half of the book is all about the deep secrets about Harry's father's existence. Giles's father is potentially the birth father of Harry, and hence his animosity towards Harry becomes apparent. However, the twist is when Harry falls for Giles's sister, and potentially his half sister. The story ends abruptly in the last 50 pages, where Harry leaves his bride at the altar and migrates to the United States, where he gets arrested. Harry uses a false identity to enter the States, and the identity of the person used is being charged for murder! Thats how the story ends....well sorry for the spoilers, but I generally read the first 40-50 pages and then switch to the last page, and then read the rest of the book :) There was no logical end to this book, but after reading the book I googled and found out that this a tri-series and was already planned by JA. Well, only time will tell....

All in all, if you are a JA fan, you can skip this one. There is nothing different about this creation of JA.

DORK - Sidin Vadukut

Dork could have been a fabulously written humorous short story, but alas like our typical Bollywood movies, the book just drags on and on with the same old bloopers that Mr Einstein commits throughout the book.

The book begins with Sidin's introduction of what inspired him to write this book. I actually believed his version of the story of finding a diary of Einstein hidden below the kitchen sink in Sidin's newly rented apartment! That part was hilarious, infact I even 'bing-ed' (yeah! these days I am moving from google-ed to bing-ed, because of the NOK-MSFT alliance :) ) on the net to check the validity of Sidin's story.

The story begins with Robin Varghese aka Einstein’s campus interview experience. He hopes to be roped in by McKinsey or GoldmanSachs, but ends up with a rusty consulting firm like Dufrense Consultants. The book takes you through Robin’s rat race of becoming an associate within a year, his goof ups, his love interest(s) and finally how he manages to get ‘the break’!

The book spans over a one-year period, starts off with the Day-0 placements and ends with the episode which makes Robin a management guru! Throughout this journey, Robin repeats the same blunders in different contexts, goofs up at critical junctures but magically is able to revive himself. The ball-bearing incident is a bit stretched. Yes there are people who will blindly follow theoretical frameworks, and the ball bearing incident indicates the same for MBA grads, but the whole incident seemed to bear too much of a resemblance to a terrible version of David Dhavan-Govinda movies!

Robin's multiple screw-ups of mistaking the hiring person from GoldmanSachs as his junior, mistaking his new boss as a waiter become very repetitive throughout the book. The office culture part also was a bit monotonous - there is almost a chapter dedicated to how Robin ensures that he is in office irrespective whether his boss is in or not whereas his contemporaries are actually street smart and work only to please the boss. The love-story angle again seemed to be force-fitted.

All in all, the book is a drag and gets repetitive. You can almost predict what will happen next - someone will get drunk and there will be another screw-up!

Two States - Chetan Bhagat

After a long, long time I got back to reading books. I have been cramming over the last two years, trying to remember various two by two matrices! But that aint no reading ;) I wanted to get back into the habit of reading – absolutely anything and everything under the sun. I read almost everything except science fiction…right from comics (Archies, Tinkle, Tintin,….) to philosophy.

I got hold of Chetan Bhagat’s Two States, and thought would be interesting to read it during the break, finished it over the weekend! And it was a disappointment – a typical ‘filmy’ love story - boy meets girl, falls in love, undergoes a lotttt of struggle and then they live happily ever after! The book had subtle Bollywood-ish style in each chapter, but the end was very apt for a Bollywood movie - an arrogant and abusive father suddenly realizes his responsibilities and turns into a new leaf!

The story goes like this - the hero, Krish, (apparently loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s real life!) who undergoes so many hardships to live in Chennai! Really? There is no other dimension to his life other than being a knight in shining armor to Ananya’s family. He has no interest in making new friends or doing anything else apart from winning over the in-laws. Is Mr Bhagat trying to signal one Indian state or is he trying to subtly indicate that ‘north indians’ can never be friends with ‘south indians’ and vice-versa, only falling in love is possible! Someone rightly said that Chetan Bhagat has started writing filmy stuff to suit Bollywood producers and directors.

Not that I am a feminist, but why is it so that if a woman is successful, or is well educated, she should be portrayed as someone who cannot cook and do the ‘normal’ womanly things. Why is she always portrayed as an outlier, someone who has no interest in cooking and other normal things but is only interested in her career?

The description of the Punjabi and Tamil families was a very standard and templatized description, it was neither humorous nor entertaining. Ananya’s character was so weak, Krish is the struggler and she is the one who can’t even make an effort to cook a meal to please Krish’s mom. All said and done, the book was a disappointment for me. Very predictable, and lame!

However, I love Chetan Bhagat’s writing style, it is very simple and easy to read just lacks content. Better luck next time….