Win Fast By Siimon Reynolds

Win Fast By Siimon Reynolds reveals some cutting-edge techniques

that one  can apply quickly to be more productive, disciplined and

healthy.  Once the suggested methods are applied regularly and

become a habit then one can achieve high levels of success both in

personal and professional life.

The Art of being indispensable at work by Bruce Tulgan

This book talks about how to collaborate and become  a go-to person at the
workplace without affecting your mental peace and health.

Review: The Art of Being Indispensable at Work: Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done

The Art of Being Indispensable at Work: Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done by Bruce Tulgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These days doing your job has become a lot harder, it requires a lot more that it ever did. You collaborate with a lot more people than ever before. you have to collaborate not only with your boss and your peers, but all over the organization chart - up, down, sideways and diagonal. In addition to your direct boss, immediate teammates, you probably serve a seemingly unlimited number of people in these internal teams in your organization. And your colleagues are also in the same boat with you.

You and most of your colleagues make commitments and promises to deliver for each other. Most everybody wants to be that indispensable go-to person and depend and deliver for each other.

But if you are not careful about your commitments then you may end up doing over commitments which can muddle your priorities and your important tasks are left undone or done ineffectively. If you are not able to finish your own work, how would you become indispensable for others ?

As collaboration is the latest revolution sweeping across the workplace because of the globalization, We need to look at it more closely. Collaboration manifests in different ways with different names in any organization. It can be called matrix management, dotted-line reporting, cross functional coordination, self managed project teams, lateral cooperation, interdependency etcetera.

The main goal of collaboration is speed up and improve -
-- information exchange,
-- decision making,
-- planning,
-- resource sharing,
-- execution.

In a collaborative working environment you should be ready to work with everyone and anyone. Think about corporate departments that provide common services to all other departments, like the IT department or the Payroll department. If Anyone in the organization has a problem either with their computer or paycheck they come to these two departments. In a collaborative environment you are required to manage more working relationships and produce richer, more flexible products and services faster.


What is the main problem with collaboration ? Getting what you need from your lateral colleague is difficult because there is no way to hold them accountable without clear authority. The author here talks about something called over commitment syndrome. Which is defined as -

Inundation of requests + No Accountability + EIMJ (Everything is my Job ) = Over commitment Syndrome

This syndrome emerges when everything in your list is told to you as urgent and important by the persons who made the request. New priorities are added to the list everyday. There is competition for resources. You keep saying yes to each other but at the end of it you let down each other.

And, if this continues and you remain over committed then the time will come that you would start feeling to resist any new work coming towards you and you will also become more aggressive while making requests to others for some work. It ends up with spoiled working relationships. and , it becomes detrimental to your goal of becoming that GO-TO person in the organization that you always dreamt to become. Author calls this - Siege mentality which is more like you are fighting your rescuer when you are in over your head.

Most people bounce back from the siege mentality sooner or later but they start saying “Yes, Yes, yes” again and it leads them back to the overcommitment syndrome which again leads them back to the “siege” mentality and which again leads right back to saying “No, No, No”.

So, How to get out of this no-win cycle ?

It is a fact that in any organization everybody needs something from others all the time. And above all the lines of authority are usually unclear and there is always a room for confusion. In this situation the author suggests to use real influence where people work for you because they want to. But he wants us to adhere to two things.

What is the first thing ?

The First thing is, Regardless of how much influence you have, never ignore authority. Somewhere someone is making decisions. You should ensure that you are aligned with your boss and the leadership.

What is the second thing ?

The Second thing is, do not put pressure of any kind on people to get them to comply. That will make people root against you, and wish for your failure.

Now the author says that, The real influence a go-to person achieves by serving others. Stop focusing on what other people can do for you and focus instead on what you can do for them. Make yourself super valuable to others. The more value you add, the more truly invested others become in your success. The author says that - that’s how you become indispensable. That’s how you use real influence and become a real go-to person.

As per the book following are the characteristics of a go-to person with real influence -
#1 incredibly valuable to others.
#2 Are very good at their job.
#3 have positive attitude and double on hard work
#4 Take personal responsibility and get things done.
#5 Are creative and tenacious but do the things by the book and follow orders.
#6 Do all the things consistently, almost every time.

Now, if we talk about the structure of the book, There are 8 chapters in this book .

The first chapter “Fight over commitment syndrome” talks about the over commitment and it’s affects..

The second chapter “The peculiar mathematics of real influence” is on how to create real influence.

The third one “Up and down chain of command” talks about alignment on ground rules, priorities etcetera with your boss and leadership.

The Chapter 4, talks about when to say no and how to maximize your gains while saying yes.

In the chapter 5 “Work Smart”, the author talks about mastering the best practices, repeatable solutions and job aids.

In chapter 6 “finish what you start”, the author talks about how to finish one work at one time and how to have and manage a long to-do list.

In chapter 7 “Keep Getting better and better at working together”, the author talks about building long lasting work relationships.

In chapter 8, Go-to-ism is the art of being indispensable at work, the author talks about finding and building new go-to-people wherever and whenever you need them.

Finally the verdict, This book is highly practical in the suggestions that it makes and the approach that it suggests. I liked this book and now I think that I have some idea about how a person can become indispensable in any organization.


View all my reviews

Infinite Gamification by Toby Beresford

Review: Infinite Gamification: Motivate your team until the end of time

Infinite Gamification: Motivate your team until the end of time by Toby Beresford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is about Gamification and its application to improve the motivation of your team. It talks about the 3 phases that are required to complete any Gamification program. These phases are - Analysis, Design and Evolution.

I have never read a book on Gamification and after reading the title of this book, the first question that came to my mind was - What is Gamification ? Is Gamification good or bad ?

With a little bit of research I found that Gamification may be a new term but the idea of using game-thinking and game - mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences isn’t exactly new. The Military has been using games and simulations for hundreds of years. These days It can be used to increase engagement in any area like online marketing of a product or a service or to increase learner’s engagement in education.

Gamification is also being used heavily in the health sector to change behavior, to aid in cognitive and physical development of children.

Humans like playing games. And, Gamification works by encouraging people to engage in desired behaviors by taking advantage of this tendency of humans.

A typical finite Gamification program has a beginning, middle, and end. The end reflects in an epic win, a top level, a complete collection of badges.. But, an infinite Gamification program works well in situations where you desire a continuous improvement and the program is designed to continue forever. The book talks about both of these two concepts but it’s main focus is on Infinite Gamification.

As I said earlier the Most of the programs fit into the finite gamification model and the programs end when the learner passes the final hurdle and achieves supposed mastery.

But, in real life, mastery doesn’t happen just because you have completed the education process - there is still the need to adopt the skills into your day to day life and then perform them well.

It is in these two latter stages - adoption and performance - that infinite gamification becomes more important.

The Book says - A sustainable program that motivates teams and individuals to continuous improvements is the goal of infinite gamification. Examples of infinite gamifications are -

• The Oscars - where status is awarded every year
• Time Magazine’s person of the year - where status is accorded based on the media coverage
• English Premier League - where status is based on the results of games played.
• Transparency Index - where countries compete not to be shamed at the bottom of the index.

In Fact in most businesses you can find infinite gamification such as -

• Employees of the month
• Scores in loyalty programs and so on.

The next question comes to mind, why does a manager, a marketer or a leader need to Gamify ? the author answers this by saying that - Leadership usually involves an infinite gamification program to influence colleagues or direct subordinates and infinite gamification equips them with a new powerful influence tool. At some level leaders signpost the behaviour they want to see in others. It might be as simple as ‘doing or not doing’ with a graded level of achievement. One example of this could be whether a salesperson contacts 10 prospects or not per day. In return we calibrate our behaviour to the score given to us as we all are sensitive to scores from childhood. And this is where Gamification becomes a powerful effective tool for leaders.

Most Infinite gamification programs are based on scores, be it the Oscars or the English Premier League, Because consciously or not we all keep track of the score that matters to us. With the rise of the digital world, we are now presented with more scores than ever. How many followers do I have, likes for the post etc. the book says that a well- designed score enables you to succeed. A badly designed score drives negative behaviors - like apathy, cheating, or other wrong behaviors.

Sometimes, the badly designed scores can wreak havoc. For example - People taking selfies from roof tops risking death in the quest for more social media likes.

So a badly designed infinite gamification program can kill you. It’s worth taking the time to design the score well.

The book says that any new Gamification program comes into fruition in three main phases -

• Analysis
• Design and
• Evolution

What is done in the Analysis phase ? In the analysis phase the requirements are clarified. Target players are located. And, Existing infinite gamification programs, score cards, leagues are identified for the target players. In this phase you will hear the terms like - Prime Directive, Data Sourcing, Score Context, Stake Holder Analysis, Player Motivation, Players Opt-in Spectrum etc.

The Next phase is Design. In this phase you would come with a design for a Scorecard and a League. A Scorecard will be based on some score algorithm evaluating many metrics. Using Score card players will get feedback on their progress. And using League, Players can compare their progress with others. Please note that, A player can be an individual person or a team who is participating in the league. In this phase you will talk about - Vanity and Clarity Metrics, Lag and Lead Metrics, Score Methods, Ranking methods, Later Arrival Handling, Leader board Layout, Scoreboard Layout, Badge Design etc.

The third phase is - Evolution. The infinite gamification program iterates and changes over the time. The best programs have processes in place to manage change. Without Evolution, Program can break and result in unwanted side effects and disengagement. In this phase you will hear about the maturity model, Metric Maturity, player Maturity and committee which will affect Evolution.

Finally the verdict on this book. This book is nice and it can give you ample information to start an infinite gaming program to change the behaviour of your team or their responses in certain situations. The book nicely explains the basics of Gamification.

You may want to explore another book on the same subject -

Gamification by Design : By Gabe Zichermann.


View all my reviews

Review: Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization

Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization by Scott D. Anthony
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Innovation is something different that creates value but it is an unnatural act in most of the organizations. This book is about innovation and how to make it a day-to-day habit in any organization. This book can be used as a practical guide for building a culture of innovation in any organization. The book suggests to ingrain certain habits by using behaviour enablers, artifacts, and nudges.

The book is divided into two parts - the first part sets the foundation and The second part provides practical tools and tips and inspiring stories to help drive cultural change.

The approach that the book suggests is the convergence of four streams of research -
-- Organizational culture
-- Habit change
-- Innovation enabling behaviors
-- Innovation enhancing structures and systems

Let’s talk about how organizational culture impedes or enables the innovations to fail or succeed.
Organizational Culture
Now the first thing, How do you bring cultural change in any organization that enables innovations to succeed ? The enemy of innovation inside most organizations is institutionalized inertia that is reinforced in systems and norms.

Cultural change is not a paint-by-number exercise. The solution for your organization needs to be tailored to your unique goals, current context, and history.

How to create a culture of innovation ? the authors say - don’t bring foosball tables at the workplace. Don’t run useless campaigns exhorting people to give their new ideas on a particular day called “Free thinking friday” . Don’t do all these things. The authors suggest use of BEANs to hack habits. Beans are inspired by habit-change literature. A bean is - behaviour enabler, artifact and nudge.

The organization will have to work at the ground level with the employees where they will have to define specific behaviours that succeed in enabling innovation. those behaviours are like -
Innovators are curious,
Innovators are customer obsessed
Innovators collaborate,
Innovators can work efficiently even if there is ambiguity in the system or work space.
Innovators feel empowered.
Innovators think about future requirements while addressing the current needs.

Now how to ingrain these behaviors into any organization ? The book says that success requires focussing on changing people’s daily habits through a series of interventions, and then ensuring that the new habits stick and scale.

How Do you change a habit ?
Habit change requires engaging people’s rational, logical side and their emotional and intuitive side.
Habit change requires a multi front battle which uses a combination of mantras, nudges, and social interaction to change people’s behavior pattern.
To Reinforce the desired behavior - goal setting and achievement and social comparison and encouragement can be used.

Here the authors suggest use of BEANs to change the impeding behaviour and engrain new habits which enable innovation to succeed.

What are the behaviour enablers - these are the direct way to change behaviour -
-- Developing a daily ritual
-- Building a wider community
-- Having access to a coach and counsellor
-- Create simple checklists or user guides.

Artifacts are physical and digital reinforcers that connect the first two ideas. Artifacts include -
-- Prizes and trophies
-- Physical Avatars that reinforce the desired changes
-- Picture and visuals that serve as background reminders
-- Physical objects that sit on desks or in conference rooms.

What are nudges that can be used to change behaviour ? nudges are an indirect way to change the behavior.
Making the desired behavior default.
-- Having reminders.
-- Creating and sharing stories
-- Using physical office design to facilitate specific behaviour.
-- Providing some form of comparison

The book also talks about a case study where it provides a step by step guidance on how to conduct a six week sprint to develop practical interventions and catalyze a group of change agents for innovation to succeed.


PART II

Part II contains practical tips and tools and inspiring stories to help you drive culture changes that sticks and scales. Short sections are organized into chapters tied to the phases. A phase is what a would be innovator should follow :-

Phase 1 - Discover Opportunity by Being curious and customer obsessed. In this phase you discover the problem that you want to solve.


Phase 2 - Blueprint compelling ideas by being collaborative and customer obsessed. In this phase you come up with tangible idea that solves the problem that was identified in phase 1

Phase 3 - Assess and test ideas By being adept in ambiguity and by being empowered. This phase involves picking up an idea, looking at it from multiple angles, separating facts from assumptions, testing rigorously and adapting quickly.

Phase 4 - Move ideas forward by being empowered and collaborative

For each phase the book talks about 4 things -
beans that include behaviour enables, artifacts and nudges. The book lists around 101 BEANS used by various companies and book talks about around 40 of them in detail in this book.

, There are also bean boosters that help maximize the impact of selected beans.

Each section has one or two inspirational case studies.

Each chapter has a tool to help. For example in phase 1 - Being curious is a must for being innovative. The book suggests a tool called - curiosity quotient which can give you an idea of how curious you or your team are ?

Finally, the verdict. The book is good. It has a lot of examples in the form of beans, case studies. This book gives a fair idea of how to inculcate the habit of innovation in your team at granular level by using various tools. It can be started with a small team and then scaled to the whole organization. I liked this book and certainly learnt that building an innovation oriented team may not be that difficult.


View all my reviews

Eat Sleep Innovate By Scott D Anthony

Innovation is something different that creates value but it is an unnatural act in most of the  organizations. This book is about innovation and how to make it a day-to-day habit in any organization. This book can be used as a  practical guide for building a culture of innovation in any organization. The book suggests to ingrain certain habits by using behaviour enablers, artifacts, and nudges.

The Business of Friendship By Shasta Nelson

Review: The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time

The Business of Friendship: Making the Most of Our Relationships Where We Spend Most of Our Time by Shasta Nelson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Video Review - The Business of Friendship by Shasta Nelson

I am not here to make friends - this is what we often hear at work . This book challenges this notion. And, the author believes that this philosophy of not having friends has caused a lot of damage to the employees at work places. They often feel lonely, left out and nowhere to go in the face of any difficulty in office.

Why do relationships matter at work ?
--Because you want to enjoy working with the people around you in the office.

--You want to trust the people around you to support you when needed.

--You want to feel valued.

--You want to come to office because you feel part of something bigger.

We may not want to be best friends with everyone. But, wouldn’t we want as many as possible good friends in our life ? but what stops people from making friends at the office ? What are their fears ?

Do they fear that -

--What if a manager delays firing of a person because he is his friend ?

--What if a manager hires someone who is his friend ?

--Two employees, who are Friends, competing for the same promotion ?

--What if I have to start supervising a friend of mine ?

--What if I hire a friend and he doesn’t perform well ?

--What if a friendship leads to a sexual harassment ?

These are the questions that people generally raise when it comes to friendship at work. But Aren’t these risks already there in the world ? What would you do if your boss is not a friend of someone but still favors him ? Are these issues really new ?

We could be against friendship at work and have no friends but that doesn't protect us from jealousy, gossip, drama or feeling left out.

More loneliness leads to less empathy to others and we take more offences then we become more defensive and then we are more likely to hurt others. We need connections with others to overcome loneliness just like what food would do for hunger and water would do for thirst.

How many of us feel that we have a meaningful relationship at work ?
Research shows that the more intimate and meaningful the relationship at work, the more easier you would find the work there. And, you are willing to take on any work.

Handling the stresses alone is not a good idea. If done, you feel more tired, and it causes more wear on your body.

Social isolation adds stress on our body and makes them more fertile for diseases.

Loneliness hurts one’s health badly. .

What are the core factors of happy life - number of friends, closeness of friends, closeness of family, relationships with coworkers and neighbors. Together these features explain about 70% of personal happiness.

People with friends at work are happier at work.

As per research, the single best predictor for well being is enjoying how you spend our days. and, the most important is with whom you are spending the day and not what you are doing. A most stressful and high - responsibility job can be rewarding if one feels supported, part of a team, engaged, believed in, cheered for, and appreciated.You want to enjoy your work more, make a few friends.

As per study by Gallup, We feel seven times more engaged if we have at least one best friend at work. As per another study, Without a best friend there are 37% chances that we often or always feel lonely at work.

Feeling connected to those with whom we work regularly shows up as the number one factor for our job satisfaction. If you want to like your job, feel better physically, increase your mental and emotional health, and report greater happiness and energy, then make a close friend at work.

Loneliness at work causes more mistakes , makes less productive and gets you sick every now and then. UK has a minister on loneliness , it is estimated that companies in UK lose around $3.5 billion due to lonely workers who are less productive, take more sick leaves, change job.The cost of disengaged employees is not cheap. Employees with friends have stronger immune systems, lower rates of anxiety and depression, recover fast from surgeries, and show up to work with more energy.

We can protect our bodies from absorbing stress , feel more hopeful, and strengthen our mental health through relationships.

It's one thing to simply assign a bunch of people to a project or task and quite another to have the confidence that they’ll maximize their collective strength, consider diverse ideas and take the risks to pursue big ideas.

In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they are about brains, but in the future they will be about the heart. What skills the workers most depend upon today- interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and good written and spoken communication skills. The skills that are required by employees to have good relationships at work are the same that are needed by the companies to have good relationships with their customers, vendors etc.

20 to 60 % of our population show up at work with loneliness.

If two people have many things or few things in common like having kids of the same age, same religion, same ethnicity it doesn’t ensure that they will be friends.

A healthy relationship should have three factors, everything that we name and want in our relationship fall under these three categories -
Positivity means positive feelings + Consistency means consistent interaction
Vulnerability means meaningful sharing

No one wants to be embarrassed, punished , or thought less of for sharing ideas, revealing needs or risking what would be perceived as failure.

Psychological safety is basically to groups what trust is to any two individuals.

This book is easy to read. it forced me to think about my office relationships. I was initially uncomfortable with the idea of having Close friends at my workplace. but now I realize that having a BEST friend in your team is the best thing that can happen to anyone at work.

The author shares many ground Rules to establish such a friendship.If we follow them then this whole process of having friends at work can be rewarding.

There are some more books on friendship, which can be further explored -

View all my reviews

Whatever Works By Thalma Lobel

Whatever Works: The Small Cues That Make a Surprising Difference in Our Success at Work—and How to Create a Happier Office by Thalma Lobel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book is about the small cues that make a significant difference to our success at work.
Another book by the Thalma Lobel is - Sensation.

How do self help books today look like ? Vast majority focus on one obvious and important subject and lay out its secrets and conclusions methodically. Most of these books harness obvious factors like harnessing motivation, getting organized, networking, and so on.

This book is a bit different. This book focuses on elements that either we think that they do not matter or we are not aware of. There are so many extremely valuable and interesting findings in psychology that should be made available to everyone, not just to professionals.

What does this book contain ?
What are the small - small things YOU can do to improve your life at OFFICE,

Did you know People focus better and be more creative with the ambient noise of a coffee shop ?

Did you know that the phone conversations, also called halfalogues , are the most distracting for co - workers ?

Did you know that the presence of a plant in one's physical space improves attention and recovery after performing a mentally fatiguing cognitive task ?

Did you know that nature is a reliable stress reducer/buster ?

Did you know that Women feel that they are more scrutinized, than men, for their appearance in an open office ?

Did you know that Light and brightness influence self control and self awareness ? it will motivate the employees to adopt the behaviors that impresses around them.

Did you know that darkness makes people feel disconnected and distant from others and increases the feeling that they can do what they want ?

There so many such information that the book talks about. this book is very interesting
and once you start you wouldn't want to put it down. it talks about our day to day life and how we can use latest research to our advantage and make everyone's life better around us.

I see that some of the things that she talks about offices is already implemented by some experts in my office. but I never knew why it was so ? It is good feeling that I know that now. I am going to put one live plant on my office desk now.

Also, Author's writing style is good, the way she has weaved the research info in the book is interesting.

Overall, I liked this book. I think that this book is highly informative and useful. I recommend this book - Read it ! Read it !! Read it !!!

5 stars

Video Review of the book

View all reviews

8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility By Yeo Chuen Chuen

8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility: How to Lead and Inspire in the Real World by Yeo Chuen Chuen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



How easy IS IT to change ? It is always difficult, and often paradoxical. You have an idea to start a business in your field but you do not want to quit your regular job and because you do not want to lose that regular income that pays your bills.

The book talks about solving the various paradoxes, 8 to be precise, that a leader may face at workplace or in life.

It provides a model called Re4 which is - Reconstruct, Refresh, Renew and Rebuild to navigate through all these paradoxes.

Here, Reconstruct is about finding the truth in any problem. This can be different from what people perceived initially. and, Refresh is about cleaning up the dirt, the mess that was hiding the truth. It can be prejudices, it can be ineffective rules etc.

And, The Third Re is Renew. Renew is the change that you want to make. It can be a change in behavior you want or you want a change in attitude and so on. and Rebuild is about the new skills and actions needed to implement that change. So it can involve training, new processes etc.

Overall, the book is good. the book is worth reading the way it has discussed the paradoxes. I rate this book 3/5.

Video Review - 8 Paradoxes of leadership skills

Review: The 12 Rules of Attention: How to Avoid Screw-Ups, Free Up Headspace, Do More and Be More At Work

The 12 Rules of Attention: How to Avoid Screw-Ups, Free Up Headspace, Do More and Be More At Work by Joseph Cardillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Attention is connected to every single thing we think, feel, and do at work and elsewhere.Either we regulate this mental faculty or it will regulate us. And, This book talks about how our attentional machinery works and how we can manage it.

The Author recommends that You can practice the 12 rules of attention one at a time until they ingrain and begin to flow naturally. You can also consult them whenever slip ups and work related issues arise. Find the specific rules that pertain to your situation. Reread the related chapters and tools suggested in the chapter to help you refresh and re-balance.

The author wants to create a baseline information of your attention where your attention level is - bad, good or excellent during a normal work day. Then the author suggests various techniques to improve them.

This book is nicely written and structured well. All the chapters have a very good number of examples, a LOT of exercises to understand the concepts. Book has a glossary where all the
terms used in the book are defined. I liked this book and I recommend to every one who is interested in improving his/her Attention. I rate this 4/5.

Video Review of the book -

View all my reviews

Book Reviewing is an Art ...

How to Review a Book ?

When I review a book I take care of a lot of things. In the beginning, when I started reviewing books, the only thing which I considered was whether I liked it or not. but over the time I understood that reviewing a book is a multi-faceted activity where I need to look many aspects of a book . following are some of them which I give importance to while reviewing/rating a book -

1.) How the book looks ? 

The physical appearance of a newly released book matters a lot. is the font of the book good for me ? how many lines per page the book has ? depending on the genre of the book I may or may not buy it.  A poor paper quality can put me off unless the price of the book has been drastically cut and the book is relatively small under 100 pages. 

if the book  is an old classic then the cover doesn't matter. The  cover page tells me a lot of things about it. If I have not heard about a particular book and I see it in a book store for first time then the only thing attracts me towards a book is, first,  it's cover, second, it's title. the cover of a book can be simple or complicated but it should be soothing to eyes. and, it should match the genre of the book. 

2.) Introduction Part of the book

I always try to scan through the introduction part of a book and try to understand the process the author has gone through while writing the book.  I also go through all the recommendations that some people might have given about the book and check if I have ever read any book recommended by them. if I have not liked the book recommended by them in the past I become more careful and I think more about purchasing that book and try to look for some more information about the content of the book.

3.) Table of Contents section of the book 

This part of the book gives me ample idea about the structure of a book. I have seen many books, where I get the feeling that the book's main theme, as per the title of the book,  would have ended in 3 parts but one more part was added just for the sake of it. I have seen this mainly in self - help books.

4.) Actual Content of the book

If I have gone through the first three steps and the book looks promising to me, I purchase it and start reading at some point of time. I try to see how the read is - is it pacy ? slow ? or both ?  if the book is non fiction, does it have enough info graphics to explain the topics ?  how is the language of the author ? Is the author repeating the same thought multiple times ? I try to get into the mind of the author and try to see the content from his perspective. I make note of anything important that I find in the book, it can be any nice quote or a very good sentence which I have never heard. anything good that I can find in the book I try to note it down somewhere and use it while I am writing the review the book.

5.) Writing the review of a book

Now the most important part of the book. I start with giving credit to anyone who facilitated the book review and with a thanks note. Then, I try to give summary of the book in two sentences and then I elaborate it with my own understanding of the book.

The important task in reviewing the book is, how much of it you can keep remembered after you finish it ? This is mostly required for non-fiction books. To keep this under control, I generally try to summarize each chapter after I finish. remember,  it's not verbatim . it's my own word that show my own understanding of the chapter. but be careful, it should not be too big, if you find this overwhelming, then start to summarize each page or paragraph and then build this habit from there step by step. this way a time will come when you can easily summarize a chapter or multiple chapters. but generally I restrict myself summarize each chapter that I finish.  then A time will come where you can hold the summary of chapter in your mind. all you have to do it repeat all the chapters, every time you move to a new chapter of the book. It's not easy , but you will get it over the time.

Not About Review, Some times, I would give a brief summary of the  book and most of the time I talk about some part of it , author's style of writing, how the book ended or started ?  was the book slow in the middle ? was the author able to explain the concepts well ?  is the author using simple words or using heavy words like Salman Rushdie ? I never completed  any book of Salman Rushdie because of difficult words that he uses. Do the characters in the book fit in well ? and so on .. after I while the review becomes my own and I can write anything that I feel about the book and no body can stop me from doing that :) ..

Above all , Develop your own style of reviewing a book ... . and most important - read your review twice, may be once, before you publish.

I hope I made sense to you, please do leave a comment below. it matters to every blogger :)

CALM in the Midst of CHAOS By Kiran Dintyala

This video talks about the book CALM in the Midst of CHAOS  By Kiran Dintyala. 

Lie #9 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham | Jitendra Vishen | RB3

Lie #8 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham

Lie #7 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham

Lie #6 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham | Jitendra vishen | RB3

Lie #5 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham

Lie #4 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham|Jitendra Vishen|RB4

Lie #3 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham|Jitendra Vishen| RB3

Lie #2 Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham

Lie #1 from Nine Lies About Work By Marcus Buckingham | Jitendra Vishen ...

immunity to change intro

CALM in the Midst of CHAOS By Kiran Dintyala| Book Review & Summary in H...

Review: Calm in the Midst of Chaos: Dr. Calm's Prescription for Stress-Free Living

Calm in the Midst of Chaos: Dr. Calm's Prescription for Stress-Free Living by Kiran Dintyala
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[ Note : I got this book from netgalley for free and this is my honest review of the book]

In This book, the author, Dr. Kiran Dintyala talks about how one can remain calm when faced with chaos around you. he talks about some principles, exercises and meditation techniques to be followed to stay calm under such situation.

There are seven parts of the book covering various aspects of stress and how to prevent. the focus is more on prevention than managing it. Its actually right when author says that when we are born we stress less but as soon as move towards adulthood we start experiencing the stress. there are various reasons for the. the author nicely identifies them in this book and also provide the remedy on how to handle them.

The author provides a solution called P-E-T which involves classic 3 Principles by Sydney Banks + 2 exercises and one medication technique ABC - Affirmation, Breathing and concentration. He has provided the details steps to perform this.

Overall focus of the remedy is to keep calm under any circumstances.

Overall the book is good and I liked it. I rate it 4/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Develop Your Leadership Skills

Develop Your Leadership Skills by John Adair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Communication is the sister of leadership” ― John Adair ( From the Book )

This book by John adair is a simple practical guide for any one who is about to take a team leadership role in any organization. This book talks about basic leadership skills. It is generally believed that no body can teach leadership to anyone and it is a skill that a person has to continuously learn by being proactive and reflective.

What are the qualities that are necessary for a leader ? some qualities are so fundamentals that without those a leader can lose his credibility. But these skills are not sufficient in themselves alone to make you seen as leaders. qualities of leadership -
1.) Enthusiasm - You won't find a dull leader
2.) Integrity - This quality makes people trust them.
3.) Toughness - Leaders are often demanding people , their standards are high, they are resilient and tenacious.
4.) Fairness - they do not have favorites. they treat individuals differently but equally.
5.) Warmth, humility, Confidence

And, There are four types of authority commonly found in leaders but the leaders don't rely on only one :

1. Authority by position and rank: "Do this because I'm the boss."
2. Authority by knowledge: Authority flows to the person who knows . example - Captain of a ship.
3. Authority by personality: Charismatic leaders
4. Authority by morals: Some one like Mandela

Now, what functions leaders exactly do ? There are 8 functions that are fundamental to leadership -

1.) Defining the task : Define What , why and how to do a task
2.) Planning : Planning is key. plan for contingencies, alternate routes. ensure team members are involved.
3.) Briefing: Communicating objectives and plans to the teams effectively.
4.) Controlling: direct, regulate, restrain, and encourage the team members toward completing the tasks and objectives.
5.) Evaluating: Evaluate progress and making adjustments as needed.
6.) Motivating: Understand people's inner needs and how they function to motivate them.
7.) Organizing: structure of people and teams.
8.) Providing an example: Act yourself as how you'd like your team to act.

Great leaders also take interest in developing leaders for future.

I liked this book and rate it 5/5.

Related Video :

View all my reviews

Review: The Gropes

The Gropes by Tom Sharpe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Book by Tom Sharpe is starts well then slows down for a while and then picks up the speed in middle.

The Story is about Gropes, a Northumberland matriarchy. its origins back to an encounter between a seasick Viking deserter and an unattractive nun rejected by the rapers. After an unpromising start, the Grope women have ensured the centuries-long domination of the Grope women by means of kidnap, forced matrimony. occasionally they allow their women to go out and marry and stay in the cities. one such girl is Belinda. Belinda after marrying to a city guy comes back to the grope hall with Esmond, with intent to marry him. and, the story unfolds. there are many things that happen to the parents of Esmond and his uncle. the book is full of events.

Overall the book is OK.





View all my reviews

Review: Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want by Beverly Kaye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book says - Study after study confirms that career development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving retention, engagement, productivity, and results. and, In this book the authors talk about these benefits and various methods to discuss career development with employees.

There are several myths that managers believe. and, these myths stopped them from discussing career with the employees -
There is simply not enough time.
-- If I do not talk about it, they may not think about it, and the status quo will be safe. Employees always have growth on their minds, whether managers address it or not.
--Since employees need to own their careers, it is not my job. Managers have an essential role to play in helping and supporting others to take responsibility.
--Everyone wants more, bigger, or better: promotions, prestige, power. When asked what they want to get out of a career conversation with their managers, most employees are simply looking for ways to use their talents creatively.
-- Development efforts are best concentrated on high potentials, many of whom already have plans in place. Managers will usually see a significant return on the development they invest in their high potentials, but they only make up a small fraction of an organization's population. A small investment in the massive middle doing the bulk of the work could yield great results.

Remember :
-- People recognize and respond to genuine curiosity on the part of their leaders
-- Quality questions asked with a spirit of curiosity can facilitate conversations that will allow others to change their lives
-- Studies have shown that employees in every sector are starving for feedback
-- With the right support people can grow right where they are. Finding ways to grow talents, explore interests, and build capacity within the context of employees' current jobs is completely within a manager's sphere of influence

To Help achieve career goals of employees, a manager should facilitate exploration of three "sights" in an employee - Hindsight, Foresight, and Insight.
Hindsight- What is it that employees loved to do in the past?
Foresight- A big picture look at business and environment changes that can affect future
Insight -It's convergence of hindsight and foresight where manager and employee jointly determine the full range of ways to move forward and the actions to take to achieve career objectives.

Working with employees around hindsight and foresight helps to generate insight into the world of possibilities that exist for those who want to move forward and toward their career goals.

Managers should give hindsight information to the employees in the following area -
-- Technical skills - needed for day to day work
-- Soft skills - Communication, collaboration, teamwork, and networking.
-- A set of career intangibles - Continuous learning, resilience in the face of change, and a natural curiosity about the world and its endless possibilities.

Feedback :
Managers should encourage the employees to get feedback from others and while doing so they should focus only on following three things : ABC -
1. Abilities - Strengths, skills,
2. Blind spots - Any behaviors that might get in the way of an employee's success
3. Conditions - Environments where employee can make greatest contribution and factors that could trigger stress or other negative reactions.

Enjoyed !!! 5 Stars

View all my reviews

Review: Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World by Marcus Buckingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

According to the book following are the nine of the most prevalent lies about work and the truth behind them:
Myth #1 - Company culture impacts employee retention.

Research shows that employees actually care more about the
teams they belong to than the companies they work at.

 Myth #2 - Planning is essential.

 

The world moves too fast for plans—a better strategy is to regularly provide teams with the best, most up-to-date information possible.

 Myth #3- Goals stimulate better employee performances.

Instead of having employees set goals, companies must galvanize their workforce by having a meaningful purpose and shared values.

 Myth #4- The best employees are well-rounded.

Employees who are encouraged to focus on their unique strengths are
more effective than those who try to be good at everything.

 Myth #5- Constructive feedback is necessary.

Employees don’t need feedback—they need their team leaders to give
them frequent positive attention. ask them what strategies/activities works for them in the current/past work. and, there gut feeling about what will work in future.

 Myth #6- Leaders should rate their employees’ performances.

The only things that human beings can accurately and
reliably rate are their own experiences and feelings.

 Myth #7- Some employees have more potential than others.

Everyone has the ability to learn and improve.

 Myth #8- Work-life balance is the key to happiness.

Rather than trying to balance out jobs they hate with personal time,
people must learn to focus on the positive aspects of their jobs.

 Myth #9- Leadership is a set of predictable traits.

When it comes to effective leadership, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy.

View all my reviews

Review: Creating Passion-Driven Teams: How to Stop Micromanaging and Motivate People to Top Performance

Creating Passion-Driven Teams: How to Stop Micromanaging and Motivate People to Top Performance by Dan Bobinski
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Key Ideas -
• Great managers spend time being “Builders” who mentor the team members and build them up to become valued members of the company with a passion for their work.
• The Organizations need clearly defined job duties and responsibilities for all team members.
• Positions should be classified as either leadership, management, or front-line employees. Each classification should understand what its raw product is, what its process is, and what its outcome should be.
• Micromanagers are often front-line employees who are promoted to management and not given
the training needed to understand their new roles.
• Micromanagers thrive on hearing that they are doing a good job, and they often step in to fix things their employees should be responsible for.
• To stop micromanagement, managers should think differently about their roles and to understand that a new set of core competencies are expected of them.
• People with higher Emotional Intelligence scores are often better managers than people with lower scores.
• Regular communication, even casual “water cooler conversations,” are good opportunities for managers to keep team members in the loop and motivated.
• When managers delegate tasks, they should delegate responsibility, authority, and accountability.
• Meetings should always have a purpose.
• Good listening skills are essential in gaining the trust of team members.
• Conflict should never be allowed to fester; it should be dealt with quickly and openly.
• Good training programs can save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars by reducing employee turnover rates.

View all my reviews

Review: Win the Heart

Win the Heart by Mark Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book talks about Employee Engagement in any organization. It talks about CARE :

-- Connection - Talk, Talk Talk.. encourage more conversation among employees
-- Affirmation - Appreciate your employees more
-- Responsibility - give more responsibility , more freedom to work
-- Environment - an environment where it's easy to work , it's easy to communicate, easy
To raise concerns , pointed addressable feedback

To get deeper into the concepts discussed in the book one is suggested to read the another book by the same author - Win the heart - The field guide.

I liked their book and rate it 5 stars.



View all my reviews

Review: Work On Your Game: Use the Pro Athlete Mindset to Dominate Your Game in Business, Sports, and Life

Work On Your Game: Use the Pro Athlete Mindset to Dominate Your Game in Business, Sports, and Life by Dre Baldwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book by Dre Baldwin pushes you to apply following four principals in your life and transform yourself into a professional -
1.) Discipline
2.) confidence
3.) Mental Toughness
4.) Personal Initiative

The most important think which I liked in this book is the steps suggested by the author to get rid of your hyper self consciousness and fear of success.

As per him, success is straightforward: Understand what you want, make a decision to get it, work hard, and believe in yourself.

View all my reviews

Review: The Lost Boy

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is about the life of the author at foster homes during his teens ( 12 - 18 years to be precise). After being abused by his mother for years he is saved by his school teachers and is sent to foster homes after one another.

The story of the author really touches heart .

View all my reviews

Review: Main Pakistan Mein Bharat Ka Jasoos Tha

Main Pakistan Mein Bharat Ka Jasoos Tha by Mohanlal Bhaskar
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This book by Mohanlal Bhaskar , an Indian spy, is about his days in Pakistan and in it's jails. and he was one of the few spys who was well educated and probably because of that he got a better treatment in the Pakistani jails. which also made sure that he could safely return back to India.

The most interesting part of the book , which I liked most, was his discussion with a Pakistani sub Inspector Raja Gul Anar Khan. where he explains the hatred of Pakistanis towards Indians and to him how his family generations back converted to Islam due to force and how their Hindu relatives boycotted them. I think that those reasons were true and even today hinduism doesn't have any mechanism to take back it's own people back. any way, this book is about a spy's life in Pakistan and how they would collect information from there and send it back to India.

The only thing I could understand from this book is that people in Pakistan and India suffer from similar bureaucratic system even today. India is a far more better because it never went into the hands of the army the way it happened in Pakistan frequently and that as per the author of this book is highly corrupt and killed it's own citizens in Pakistan mercilessly.

This book also gives idea about the life of an average Pakistani in 60s and 70s.

I liked this book a lot and I rate it 4/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book . The story of the book is OK , first part is also pacy and it kept me glued. But the second part dragged and in third part is hazy.

Margo and Quentin are childhood friends and towards the end the high school Margo plans an adventure with Quentin to take revenge from the her classmates who had hurt her at some point of time in the school specially her boyfriend Jase. And after that Margo disappears. now the second part of the book is all about putting together all the clues Margo left behind to find her current location by Quentin and his friends. (view spoiler)[The third part of the book is about how Quentin and his friends reach Margo. (hide spoiler)].

Over all I rate this 2/5.






View all my reviews

Review: Of Aakash and Aarti

Of Aakash and Aarti by Govind Sharma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book by Govind Sharma is about about Aakash and Aarti. One had troubled childhood and moves towards drugs and spoils his life . And, another one is stricken with poverty and moves towards trapping a wealthy person.

The story of the book is good but could not hold me for long. The writing style of the author is good but it fails to keep me glued to the book. The book is neither a crime fiction nor a love story but has a little bit of both and probably because Of that There is no strong character in this book.

The story just moves on without causing any excitement.Inclusion of notebandi in the plot was interesting. I thought that character of Rajeshwari could have been more powerful.









View all my reviews

Review: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book talks about concentration of mind and distractions that we face in our work life as well as in personal life.

The idea that this book puts forward is to minimize the distractions or the shallow work and do more DEEP work. The books tells some strategies about how to do it.

Also, this exhorts the reader to quit social media which kind trains the brain to be distractive most of the time.

I liked This book andand rate it 5/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Catalyst

Catalyst by Chandramouli Venkatesan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of those great books that make profound impact on ones life. The author talks about why some people succeed and some fail at work and in life.

Almost all people succeed in the first half of their careers but fail to succeed in second part. The author explains some reasons for it and those are full of wisdom. He simply Said that working for 15 years doesn't mean that you have become expert in your work. You have to continuously work on your productivity otherwise there will be chances that a person with lesser experience but with better productivity will be more suitable for the next level.

And, author gives equal weight bumblebees and honesty in work culture. Without it their can be downfall in your career.

I liked This book a lot and rate it 5/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Listen to my Heartbeat

Listen to my Heartbeat by Prajna G.S.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Note: I won this book in Goodreads giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

This book by Prajna is a story of a group of friends in a college. The girls are in first semester and the boys are in final semester. They spend time together in The college for almost six-month And then move on in their respective lives.

Trisha and Aysha are school friends and together they get admission into a top class college . There they meet Rohan, Danny and Aryan. And they come together as group and spend team together. Aryan expresses his love for Trisha to her , she doesn't reject it but takes a while to make up her mind. Aysha and Danny also come together after some hiccups. Trisha wants to take care of her mother first and then think about her relationship with Aryan. And after one-day when she finds her mother admitted to hospital by her neighbour as she was out on a college tour she is filed with guilt and asks Rohan to leave her so that she can focus on career and mother with undivided attention. After some years everybody is settled in their jobs and Trisha meets Aryan again at Aysha and Danny's engagement and they decide to marry along with Aysha-Dannny's marriage.

The story of the book is Ok .it could have been more Pacy.

I found Trisha's decision to leave Aryan a bit amateur. Also they didn't have to wait for 7 Years to meet again since both of them were in touch with their common friends.

This is OK book. I rate it 3/5.


View all my reviews

Review: At CrossRoads : Greed for Love and the Love of Money

At CrossRoads : Greed for Love and the Love of Money by Smita Maheshwari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Note: I won this book in GoodReads giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

The book is about Frank and Lydia and people around them.

Victor is dating Lydia despite being engaged to Amy and Frank informs Lydia about it and Lydia finds herself in deep turmoil. and she leaves Glensefield. Frank was not able to find her next 5 years until he visits St. George. He meets again Lydia and their love blossom again. Everything is fine but Frank's wife comes to know about it and she visits St. George and insults Lydia. In response, Lydia marriages to another businessman. But fortunes turn in such a way that her husband dies and Lydia is all alone again and Frank is beside her but she is not interested.

The story moves smoothly. In the hustle bustle of the business deals, the focus is always on Frank and Lydia. The story also talks about how the greedy financial corporations caused the 2008 financial meltdown across the world.

I liked the book. the author's writing style is also good and I liked it. I rate this book 4/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Maya: Seven Wonders of Life

Maya: Seven Wonders of Life by Sidhartha Satpathy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This Book has a good collection of short stories. There are seven short stories in the book. some of them are heart-warming. there is one character called "Maya" in almost all the stories.

It starts with the story of Rohan who is born into a family of doctors and is not willing to take the family profession forward and leaves his parents home. then there is the story of Mahavira who had to leave his house because of the political violence due Kaveri water issue between Karnataka and Tamilnadu. On other note, the story has strengthened my belief that no violence can happen in our country without the political patronage. politicians always find a way to put the people against each other in the name of states, religion, language etc .

Then, there are a couple of stories of young lovers who try to cope with the failure, some, even after years.

In the end, there is a story of Ele, an elephant. who probably, in the end, realised that there is a cost to pay for independence.

The writing style of the author is good and all the stories are good. I couldn't select a favourite story from this collection as there are two contenders - Horata and Love it flow !!! - Ele .

I rate this book 4/5.




View all my reviews

Review: THE LUTERON KA TEELA

THE LUTERON KA TEELA by Ravi Ranjan Goswami
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a small story about a bandit in the Chambal. the story is good and author's writing style is also good.

Kailash Pandey, a bandit, abducts a bunch of people who were returning from a marriage. the bandits leave the bride but abduct the groom, his father and few more people and demand ransom. meanwhile, Kailash Pandey has an old clipping of a newspaper which contains details about his grandfather and he asks one of the captives, who was a Teacher, to read it for him as it was in English and he was not able to read it. After knowing about his Grandfather he becomes restive. and the story takes an unexpected turn.

I would like to see more books on this subject from the author.

this is a beautiful story and I rate it 5/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Bayaan-e-Shikhar

Bayaan-e-Shikhar by Shikhar Balwani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a good collection of Hindi/Urdu (also typed using Roman Script so if you can't read Hindi letters you can read it in Romans) poems by the poet Shikhar Balwani. He has written the poems on some very general topics - Love and Separation, Society, Relationships, Friendship, and Loneliness.

I found the section on Love & Separation quite Good and this section has some really good "Shers" or couplets. look at the following -

Tere Intezar mei Din Raat me tabdeel ho geya,
Ab tou aaja ki dil bahlane ko meri Parchai bhee na rahi |

It was really romantic !!!!

While Talking about Society he says -

Bada Badnaseeb sa Lagta Hai ye shehar,
ghar to chote the hee, Dil Bhi Chote ho gaye hain.

Its really true about the big cities where people live in apartments and do not know and do not want to know who their neighbour is.

I liked the other parts of the book as well where he talks about relationships, friendship and loneliness.

I found the couplets or Shers original. I liked them a lot and rate this book 5/5.

View all my reviews

Review: 03:02

03:02 by Mainak Dhar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story of the book is about a terrorist attack by ISIS on india specially at Mumbai though that the attack takes place all over India specially in the major cities.

The attack starts with a complete blackout where electricity supply, modes of communication radio, tv, phones stops working. And we have a hero in Mumbai who organizes the common people and fights these highly trained army .

The story of the book is good and narration is also tight. As the story is built around one protagonist, so, it only talks about the things done by him though it had enough scope to get into some more powerful character and get into the picture some more people. With one protagonist the story could not do justice to the event , the attack, fully.

I liked this book and I rate it 3/5.


View all my reviews

Review: Destiny of Shattered Dreams

Destiny of Shattered Dreams by Nilesh Rathod
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Note : I won this book in Goodreads giveaway and this is my honest review of the book]

This is debut book by the author Nilesh Rathod and it is impressive.

Synopsis:

Atul with some of his friends starts a telecom company after Woking in another for few years. This is a startup company and provides services only in one city. He also faces the challenge of getting the funds to expand the operations of the company in others states. He gets an offer from a politician, who is also a minister in the central govt, to invest a huge amount on his company. Many of his colleagues are against it but finally he goes ahead with it. But very soon he realised that this is not good money for the growth of his company. And then he gets a deal from a bigger politician and the finance minister of the country and that money is invested through FDI. The company starts growing fast and it expands all over and it becomes a billion dollar company.

So far so good, during this whole thing Atul ignores his wife completely and after she gives birth to his daughter she starts living separately. And finally divorce happens. Meanwhile Atul gets involved with Aarti and they decide to get married after Atul's marriage but after the divorce Atul stops believing in the institution of marriage and a hurt Aarti marries someone else and moves to South Africa. During this, Enforcement Directorate smells something wrong in the finances of the
company and starts investigating it and finally CBI also gets involved and Atul is imprisoned for 18 months for using dirty money.

The story gives ample idea to an outsider about how the corporate world runs.
The narration of the author is very tight I didn't find any dull moment in the story.

I liked this book a lot and I rate it 5/5.

View all my reviews

Review: Zindagi Aais Pais

Zindagi Aais Pais by Nikhil Sachan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a collection of short stories by the author Nikhil Sachan. There are nine stories in the book -

1.)Phir ek Parvaz
Nanu and Subu feel threatened after a new boy Vicky comes to live in their locality and they plan to hit him someday but then they realize their mistake.

2.) Vicky Malhotra ka pyar
A young boy changes his name from Sudhir Kumar to Vicky Malhotra assuming that it will create a better impression on his girlfriend but ...

3.) Unneesh tiya sattavan
In this story a young boy sees his father as a superman as for him his father can do anything but once he fails to do and the boy realizes that his father is not a superman but later his faith in his father returns. a cute story.

4.) Basti Basti dher Udasi
This is a story about Chirag, who wants to be a writer but somehow is stuck in his corporate life. and he loses focus in his job and personal life.

5.) Ataria pe lotan Kabootar re
this is a small cute one sided love story of a boy who takes lessons from another boy to impress upon his to-be girlfriend but in the end, he makes a mess of it.

6.) Balamva tum Kya jano preet
this is a story of a Gay boy and how he comes out of the stigma of being a Gay.

7.) Cute Mohar Singh
Mohar Singh is Dabang and famous for his Dabangiri but changes completely after his marriage and his followers want him back but luckily they didn't succeed. On lighter note, this story shows the power of woman ..

8.) Bin poonchch ke Tadpol
This is the best story I found in the book, Kaju and his mother are poor. Kaju is 10 year old and when he sees his mother going out for work without any shoes then he decides that he will buy one for her and starts working on a tea stall. (view spoiler)[One-day police raids the tea stall as it employes minors and Kaju's dream of buying a shoe for her mother gets shattered (hide spoiler)]

9.) Canvas me Joote or ratrani ke phool
This is also the story I liked the most. where an old couple, who do not have any children of their own, work in school and one day the school fires the old man because he is not able to clock the timings the classes correctly.

All the stories are OK but Bin poonchch ke Tadpol and Canvas me Joote or ratrani ke phool will remain close to my heart for a long time.

I liked this book a lot and I rate 4/5.




View all my reviews

Review: Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen

Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen by O. Henry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story is about feeding the poors on thanksgiving day in U.S. . Irony is that poors get so much to eat on this single day that they fall sick and rich,supposedly, in the name of tradition want to feed poor even if they no longer have the means to do it.

View all my reviews

Review: Baaki Ki Baat

Baaki Ki Baat by Nandini Kumar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is collections of short stories by the author Nandini Kumar.

Almost all the stories are good. But I liked raj ki bat and
Ladkiyon wale the most. I found Raj ki bat hilarious and ladkiyon wale a bit sad .

In Most of the stories the central character is a woman. One of the story Bhookh is bold.

I liked the book a lot and I rate it 5/5.


View all my reviews

Review: The Dev Anand Story

The Dev Anand Story by Govind Sharma
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Note: I got this book from the author in return of an honest review]

This book by the author Govind Sharma is a biography of the famous Bollywood film star Dev Anand. the content of the book is based on media reports, author's interaction with actor's fans and social media.

The book has 11 chapters, and the last chapter talks about various awards Devanand won and lists his films in chronological order.

First two chapters of the book, start with his death in year 2011, and moves on to his early life in Gurdaspur then his graduation from Lahore Govt College, Pakistan. He was brilliant in studies.

It was a news for me that his elder brother was a freedom fighter and went to jails as well during Quit india movement started by Gandhi ji.

The missing part here is that there are no anecdotes from his childhood.

After the first two chapter the book directly moves to his struggle in Bombay and how he meets other talented people and gets work.

The next chapters talk about all the movies done by him under his banner Navketan films or others. And, how Devanand remained active till his date. When he died at the age of 88, he was still working on in one of his films which was released a few months later after his death.

The book is written very nicely, I never found a dull moment. The book is compact.

But the most important thing in any biography is anecdotes associated with the person. I didn't find many. Also, nothing much is discussed about the personal life of Devanand.

I liked this book for covering Devanand's films career nicely. And, I rate it 3/5.



View all my reviews

Review: The Olive

The Olive by Algernon Blackwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice cool Story. written around the 1920s. He and she meet at a hotel 's dining room when she throws an olive inadvertently towards him after that a spell of companionship begins between them. the interesting part is that the thrown olive could have gone anywhere in the dining room.

I rate it 4/5

View all my reviews