You Can Get It Done by Liisa Kyle (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

18th Book of 2024

I remember reading a book by Jan Yager named “How to finish everything you start” which obviously talked about how we can ensure that we just don’t end up starting a lot of things but not completing most of them. Thankfully, after couple of years, I got to read a book almost on the same topic named “You can get it done” written by Liisa Kyle who’s a PhD holder. This 136-pages book published by Aleph also has a tagline- “Choose what to do, plan, start, stay on track, overcome obstacles and finish”.

 

Liisa’s writing style is very friendly which makes this book readable for everyone right from school to senior citizens. She has divided the book in small chapters which makes it easy for the readers to read the whole book in a single sitting or continue reading a chapter every day and finish it gradually in 10 days. I read the hardcover version and it is very portable to carry while traveling. In the initial chapters, Liisa helps us understand how she has structured her book and it is something I have read for the first time. She mentions different stages where we are stuck in our journey of starting something to quitting it and helps us navigate directly to the chapter which shall provide resolution to our current problem in the process.

 

This makes this book of a great utility value. It’s not only about reading the theoretical knowledge but understanding the direct application of it. The book starts with the concept of a Plodder or Burster which helps us understand our approach towards a particular task. Author motivates us here telling that we can be both depending on various tasks hence even if we aren’t on track for few, we need not get disappointed. This tells about the empathy value that author has added in her writing.

 

Initially itself, at a segment, author asks us to leave the book and identify our issue with the task completion for a week and then come back to understand further. I liked reading this unique way of engaging readers with the book in a passive manner. Every chapter is full of activities which are real fun.

 

I enjoyed reading the section where author tries explaining how morning time has more energy as well as creativity due to the uniqueness of this phase where we have just got up experiencing dreams which gives wings to our imagination. This is a totally new concept about morning times and what a way to introduce it to us.

 

In the vision board chapter, author tries to help the reader group who have not even identified what tasks to get involved in. Author explains the process in stepwise manner which is so exciting to understand how a human being can identify the work of their interest and joy. Amazing!

 

As mentioned above, again at a middle junction in the book, author mentioned how we can get back to our project rather than continuing to read the book as the sole reason for picking it is to understand how to work on our project and finish it. Haha! At this point, she tells which chapters to target ahead in the book in terms of how we are doing with our tasks that we have started monitoring since we started reading this book.

 

In the last chapters, author describes different kinds of inner enemies sitting within us who gets activated at different trigger points. She also provides amazing solutions to help us kill those inner enemies and proceed ahead with our goals.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I felt that the book is written getting inspired by the new Agile methodology under which corporate world has started working. It makes us start something, review it in between and accordingly quit few irrelevant tasks and ensure other important ones get finished by the end of the sprint cycle. I wished if author could have focused more upon the personal goals along with professional perspective as well. She tries to specify the personal elements as well but the solutions sound similar to the ones which are effective in the professional setup. Author also ends up repeating several concepts in different chapters which makes it boring at times to read the same thing twice or thrice.

 

Overall, this book is surely a good booster for us when we get stuck in a phase where we are unable to pursue whatever we started doing. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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High-Functioning Anxiety by Dr. Lalitaa Suglani (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

17^th Book of 2024

We have found many articles and stories asking us to concentrate more upon our mental health and give it priority just like we give to our physical health. Unfortunately, not many institutions/public figures walk the talk. I am glad that one of the publication houses I follow, Hay House India, regularly publishes books which are based upon the topics related to our mental health. I read their previous book which was about self-love and this time, I read a book which is about anxiety. “High functioning anxiety” is written by Dr. Lalitaa Suglani in around 225 pages which also comes up with the tagline- “A 5-step guide to calming the inner panic and thriving”.

 

Lalitaa introduces us to the concept of High functioning anxiety which is not like regular anxiety but a different purview wherein people experience anxiety while still being able to function well in their daily lives. People with high-functioning anxiety may appear successful and well-accomplished, but they may also be struggling with internal feelings of stress, self-doubt, and fear. This made me curious to read further as most of us go through such phase where we process normally but we always feel anxious within.

 

The initial chapters are a different experience to read as author introduces us with various types of HFAs wherein she explains how some childhood experiences and treatments transform a certain kind of our attitude which starts defining our personality. The chapters help us relate with several types as we can associate them with us. Author also clarifies that we can be completely one of them or a combination of multiple types. In further chapters, she tries to mix up two HFA types and explains how we might be struggling with such personality traits. These writings help us understand the concepts well and evaluate how we have been processing ourselves until now.

 

In one of the sections, Lalitaa explains Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in such a way that even after knowing about it previously, it felt like knowing it in an easier and better way. Author highlights upon the fact how we are always striving to please people and become favourites by killing our inner desires. She throws upon the light to the fact that we should be concentrating upon our real self and lead the path to self-awareness.

 

Author has nicely divided the 5 chapters where she concentrates on each of the 5 steps before moving on to the next. Each chapter consists of case studies, author’s personal experiences, self-reflection questions for us, setting the boundary section etc. which helps us understand the topics rather than just reading blindly. There’s one concept of the “Wheel of Life” in the latter part of the book which nicely divides our life in different sections and help us understand how to give weightage and priority to each of them than missing one of these important elements of life.

 

In the end, author ends the book giving us few reference points to follow in order to overcome the High functioning anxiety. Reading the last step and chapter gives a relief as mostly the book is about the problems thriving within us whereas the last pages give us positivity and hope that we can push ourselves out of this zone.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that author has explained each concept a lot which could have been summed up in a better way by reducing the length of each chapter. The case studies and examples used are repetitive which starts becoming a painful experience to read time and again. The chapters have so many sections and their respective sub-sections that I have ended up missing the flow couple of times. Author could have structured the sections within the chapters in a better manner.

 

Overall, this book is insightful and helps us understand how we can treat the anxiety within us which is gradually taking us towards mental health issues. I would give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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Time to Come Home by Damini Grover (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

  

16^th Book of 2024

There are many self-help books which tells us about multiple things to fix which ends up being ineffective as we tend to forget most of the pointers. There are rarely any books which focus on one aspect of many things we need to do which can itself help us solve many critical issues we are facing in our life. There’s one such book which happened to be beneficial in this aspect which I have just completed reading – “Time To Come Home” written by Damini Grover. This book published by Hay House India in around 275-pages also has a tagline- “Sowing the Seeds of Self-Love for Lasting Happiness”.

 

As the tagline is self-explanatory, the book talks about the benefits of bringing in the aspect and quality of self-love in our attitude and daily lives to ensure that we give prominence to ourselves before anyone else. Damini just doesn’t pick self-love out of many qualities that we must possess to chase happiness. She starts the book by helping the readers understand why self-love is important and how we end up becoming a confused and lost personality by keeping ourselves last in the last of our priority list always.

 

Damini’s writing skill is such that it made me tough to believe that the book has been executed by an Indian author. She has a writing style which is global that makes it relatable for readers across the world. She has chosen very friendly language to make us delve into the concept and apply it in our lives. She is a counselling psychologist herself but doesn’t complicate things by adding jargons related to several theories and chemical reactions happening within us. She keeps things simple to help readers understand how they can understand the missing patterns in their behaviour and start correcting them gradually to achieve long-lasting happiness.

 

Damini takes the readers through the journey in a manner that it never bores you. She has included many conversations between a psychologist and the person seeking therapy which helps us understand the mindset of the victim and relate with it. We tend to understand how we are also facing issues that one of these communicators are. It helps us concentrate more in these sections where we find things which signifies our own status quo. Similarly, there are many stories/incidents mentioned by the authoress that helps us understand the concepts well.

 

Rather than just providing theoretical insights, Damini also includes written exercises after important chapters that helps us recollect our thoughts and revaluate our approach and provide answers as to how we are going to improve those aspects immediately. These exercises are mind-juggling and helps us get into the groove and apply the actionable. It provides us the clear path to walk upon to achieve the ever-aspiring happiness.

 

There is a section where authoress mentions how even after knowing everything and being certified psychologist, even she falls into this trap now and then but she makes regular habit to get out of it by following the mentioned steps. She helps us understand how we need to treat a lot of personality issues that we have acquired from our childhood and experiences. She throws light on concepts such as reparenting where we need to nurture values again in our core system in a new way to lead a better life. She introduces us with concepts on how we can embrace gratitude and forgiveness, follow affirmations rightly, cultivate the art of authenticity and follow the journey even after achieving the goal.

 

Overall, this is a great book which is enough interesting for you to finish in few sittings yet I would suggest to go slow to grasp the beauty of it. I give this book 4.5* out of 5.

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Aunties of Vasant Kunj by Anuradha Marwah (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

15^th Book of 2024

Fiction is my favorite yet somehow; I always get into non-fiction but I regularly miss it even when non-fiction provides me the comfort it does when the days aren’t going well. Luckily, I got my hands upon a wonderful fiction this time named “Aunties of Vasant Kunj” written by Anuradha Marwah. This 300-pages book published by Rupa Publications is author’s 4^th release and her experience is evident in every paragraph. Talking about the cover page first, the way the designer has captured the essence of all the characters in the book by embedding related accessories is a witty work indeed.

 

Author has very nicely crafted the book which is based in a six-months’ time-frame describing the lives of three different female energies where each of them are different from the other two. Keeping Shailaja as the main protagonist, Anuradha ensures that she still gives equal importance to Nilima and Dini. Writing a book on 3 characters where each one of them have their own space is something which has been nicely handled. The way their background is provided through story-telling makes the reader understand and visualize each one of them quite clearly.

 

Anuradha has also based the characters in similar conditions but deriving from different types of situations. At one point, authoress makes it clear to us that all three have been derived out of her own life experiences which makes it even more interesting in terms on how she has broken down her tale in three different parallel stories. I enjoyed reading their individual lives in the beginning and the process in which all three of them meet each other.

 

The arc through which all the characters travel engages us throughout the story and we want to see how they move further. Definitely, most of the turns that comes in the story are predictable and old but yet the narration keeps you hooked. Not only the main characters but authoress tries to keep even the other supporting characters say something important. They are not there just to fill the spot. Either the maid, mother-in-law or daughter – everyone has something particular to say through their conversations with the main characters.

 

Written by a female based on all the female characters gives an impression that the book shall be pro-woke-feminism but thankfully, it is not so. The characters are flawed and even if their ego doesn’t let them believe it, authoress speaks it boldly to the reader. Even when Dini’s character is itself one of women activist’s yet you won’t get uncomfortable reading it because other characters around her makes her realize that this is not how it works in practical life. Sections of the book speaks on the role of father in children life, proper closure in relationship from both the ends, not going ahead with court cases against men just for the sake of it etc. I am glad authoress chose this path rather than making the book impressionable only to the woke generation.

 

We are generally habitual of reading books based on girls who are in their 20s or early 30s but here, we get an insight on how the lifestyle of women in their 40s must be. It is wonderful reading the way they have to deal with relationships, job, divorces, marriage, in-laws, kids, neighborhood, societies, judgment etc. There’s a section where two characters lose their job at the same time and the way the same scenario is treated differently and the different lessons provided with the respective cases is phenomenal. Similarly, the challenges faced by a homemaker is also given deserving prominence in the book.

 

There’s a large part of the book where Buddhism is discussed and even when it consists of humorous sections, Anuradha has ensured that she doesn’t end up disrespecting the religion in any manner. She has handled it with maturity. Similarly, she ensures that if she has mentioned a locale in the title of the book- Vasant Kunj, she makes it informative for the readers to understand how is the life in such areas where people fight for water issues and electricity usage every morning and night. Anuradha has used her wit and sense of humor to make it a funny and engaging read throughout. The only issue I have is with the length of the book. It could have been down by 50 pages easily.

 

Overall, this is an interesting read which you’ll enjoy with smile and laughs in between. I give the book 4 stars out of 5.

 

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A Billion Dreams: Decoding Flipkart’s Growth Story by Varadharaju Janardhanan/M.H. Bala Subrahmanya (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

14^th Book of 2024

Out of many transformations that my generation has experienced in front of them, the evolution of start-up ecosystem is one of them. And it all began with Flipkart in 2007 when E-commerce industry had just begun in India with lots of excitement and doubt among consumers. Author-duo Varadharaju Janardhanan and M. H. Bala Subrahmanya has tried to explore the whole arc of Flipkart’s development in their book named “A Billion Dreams”. This 150-pages short book also has the tagline called “Decoding Flipkart’s Growth Story”.

 

As the title of the book says, it does full justice to it by going deeper into how Flipkart managed to initiate their ecommerce startup in India where there wasn’t even access to Internet to many in the era of 2G internet. Indians, with the habit of touching and verifying products before purchasing, trusted the new website and accepted it with all the new promises the website was making. The book deeps down into the journey how Flipkart became one of the first unicorns of India in 2012 and with all its great strategies, became decacorn within 2 years itself in 2014.

 

One thing that I like about Rupa Publication is its initiative of telling such inspiring and informative stories through their short books which can be finished within a single sitting. Even being a fast read, the authors doesn’t compromise on the story and helps us understand every aspect of the business. They describe how Flipkart went through the investment spree and got big cheques from biggest investors of the world. Further, how they themselves opened a venture unit for investment in new startups themselves once they got established.

 

Similarly, it’s interesting to read one of the best strategies of Flipkart where they started acquiring businesses or getting into mergers and acquisitions to ensure that they benefit from the achievements of the other firms – either in terms of their talent pool or the logistics/network they must have created which Flipkart won’t have to create from scratch. Their Entrepreneurial culture mindset is regularly mentioned in the book which talks about how they groomed and motivated their employees in briefing new ideas which are out of the box. They either implemented the same in Flipkart or helped a group of employees create a new start-up.

 

One amazing fact about Flipkart remains that they created a work culture in such a manner that many of their employees created their own successful start-ups after leaving Flipkart and in many of these cases, Flipkart themselves turned out to be the initial investor to give them wings. This tells a lot about the leadership mindset the firm and its founders have rather than killing the dreams of their employees by adding clauses.

 

The book discusses very well on several challenges that the firm faced in the first few years and how the company found solution for each of them. It serves as a very big example for all the management folks as well as people interested in opening a start-up of their own. Authors have very intelligently added a section after every chapter called “Add To Kart” which mentions the key take-aways that we need to remember from the chapter. The book has a lot to learn from entrepreneurship aspect. I have never been an aspirant of starting something of my own but the growth story of Flipkart definitely motivated me to think something which I can own and nurture like them.

 

The only concern that I found with the book are few repetitive stories of their growth time and again which becomes boring. I feel that authors should have either gone from timeline perspective or strategy perspective and spoken about all the related events in a single space. But authors have been little confused in that sense and spoken about few elements every now and then which makes you skip few paragraphs.

 

Overall, this is a perfect book for younger children and start-up aspirants. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. Definitely recommended!

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A Fly on the RBI Wall: An Insider’s View of the Central Bank by Alpana Killawala (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

  

13^th Book of 2024

Whenever it’s about Indian institutions which are regularly in news and closely linked with people’s life and country’s progress, we, the public want to know about it’s internal process- such as DRDO, ISRO, BCCI etc. Hence, it has always been an amazing experience reading APJ Abdul Kalam’s autobiography as we get an insight upon how the intelligent brains work towards creating a missile and achieving their goal through its launch. One such institution is RBI. All of us wish to know how it functions and what actually happens behind the door. Alpana Killawala’s book “A Fly on the RBI Wall” is a wonderful book in that context as authoress has worked as an RBI official on the designation of DGM and gives us her honest observations of her experience with the country’s central bank.

 

I have myself been involved with RBI and its officials while working on their software products hence while reading, I was able to relate and empathize with many scenarios that Alpana has mentioned in the book. This 223-pages memoir is a perfect page-turner as authoress has been able to narrate her work experience in a manner where you get to learn about her milestone but most importantly, you get to know about RBI’s gradual change in its mindset as well. She worked with Communications department and therefore, she mostly tells the story from that lens. Still, the fact about how RBI functions and the challenges she faced remains the same with every individual involved with the institution working in any department.

 

I am glad the way she has bifurcated her book in order to make it an exciting read for us by timelining chapters not based on her timelines but as per the Governor’s tenure. This gave her a wonderful platform for expressing how each Governor helped RBI in their own manner and how they were different from each other. Her book mentions the tenure of the following Governors- S. Venkitaramanan, C. Rangarajan, Bimal Jalan, Y. V. Reddy, Duvvuri Subbarao and Raghuram Rajan. Alpana has this wonderful way of expressing her views where she speaks about each of these Governors in a manner where she is able to tell their good and bad points without making it feel biased or demeaning. She has done it with such elegance that no one can ever raise finger on this book with respect to insulting the Central Bank or their highly respected Governors or any officials.

 

As the title of the book goes, authoress concentrates upon how she has been just a small fly in this big world of RBI where one can’t think of doing anything enough prominent to change the way RBI functions – but yet, she was able to change multiple things on her individual level by insisting upon the change. When she joined RBI, she tells how difficult times it was because of Harshad Mehta scam and the market fall that happened just after. Her frustration with the rigid style of working made her resign but she understood soon that she can’t expect things to change instantly but if persisted, can happen in few years down the line. This is what her objective as a Central Bank employee became and she conquered many of her wills by opining her thoughts in front of Governor.

 

Her sense of humor is incredible which is evident in the way she has explained many scenarios where just a sentence makes us giggle. Few silly comments or functions at RBI also makes us think how such traditional institution takes it own time in matching up with the modern way of working. A person working in a department could change so much to bring contrast in how RBI drafted circulars, amendments, press releases to how RBI governors wrote and spoke speeches to how they interacted with media and what they did beyond their working hours is enough inspiring for all the working professionals who believe that they can’t do much in the job world.

 

In the end, author also throws light upon how Rajan’s comments would irritate government and their sour relationship impacted RBI. She also brings up the topic of demonetization and explains how RBI did its job effectively despite it not being the decision-maker. Alpana also speaks up on the current Governor- Shaktikanta Das regarding how he has balanced things well in terms of communicating as a Governor and has been non-controversial till now unlike previous Governors.

 

Definitely, while reading you can sense Alpana’s inclination towards few governors but that’s understandable because you always like the Boss who gives you wings. You tend to ignore their mistakes because of professional benefits that you get. Lastly, author speaks about both- good things about RBI and what it needs to improve as an organization which stings every employee and citizens. Overall, reading this book has been an amazing experience. It teaches a lot. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

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1700 in 70 a Walk for a Cause by Gita Balakrishnan (Book Review: 3.25*/5) !!!

 

12^th Book of 2024

 

There are times when you leave any kind of physical activity and you need a great boost to get up and restart. There can be no better medium than a book to give you that push which can help your procrastinated state to moot your status quo. Thankfully, I got my hands upon 1700 in 70 by Gita Balakrishnan at the right time. This is an autobiography written by the 53-years old woman who walked 1700 kilometers in 70 days to let the world know the importance of designers and how designs can lead to betterment of citizens living with and around us.

 

This 180-pages book is a very unique work in its own sense as authoress doesn’t try to explore much about her life but gives us a glimpse of it and then begins to talk extensively about her walkathon journey. Reading about her past makes you feel uncomfortable in the beginning but it moves you because she has moved on in life after being victim to a horrific incident like rape. It is so courageous of her to talk about it and let the world know what happened with her. She also mentions how the accused came out on bail. This tells the bad state of our judiciary system and how it can make a person suffer more than the event itself.

 

Not only speaking about her walking experiences only, Gita starts the book very nicely in terms of giving us insights on how she prepared for the same in terms of physical activity, nutrition, diet, sponsorships, social media activities etc. It tells how there’s a whole lesson of management even about such events which makes us assume that the book is only about an individual activity. One great thing that authoress have taken care is about the way chapters are planned and executed. The short chapters discuss only a small segment of this long timeline which helps us understand about her 70 days long journey in parts of a week or so. The language used to narrate her tale is also reader-friendly which makes it an easy read for all the ages and class of people.

 

The illustrations in the book helps us understand the path she covered in and through multiple states of India. It makes it easy for us to understand her journey when we read the chapters as we get the visualization of the path she has covered during this endeavor. She regularly mentions the name of even the small villages, towns and cities and explains us about its locale details, cuisines, houses, constructions, issues and people. She even mentions some local people who are going through some tough activities for the betterment of their self and society as well.

 

As I have myself visited some of the places in Madhya Pradesh such as Datia, Orchha, Jhansi etc. hence I was able to comprehend the accuracy with which Gita has described all these places and their specialties. She also keeps us updated about the kind of physical and mental challenges she had to endure through this painful journey and how she overcame them regularly. It must be applauded how she doesn’t boast much about herself but maintains the tone of letting us touch her experience of this walkathon and the grit and passion that goes to make it happen.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I only felt that authoress spoke very less about the purpose of her walk i.e. designing element and the multiple issues which the designers, artists and artisans must be going through in our country. She touches upon a few of them but this book sounds more about just the walking experience and less about the purpose of it. As a reader, I wanted to understand how a designer must be collecting details while traveling through different landscape of India but I only got a little of it. Other than this, reading the book has been a motivation and I rate it 3.25 stars out of 5.

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