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I read this book after reading “Who will cry…” by Robin Sharma. In many aspects it was like reading the executive summary before the actual book…blessed me (I surely think its so!!!)… I knew exactly what I can take out….(then I sure did miss some other aspects… may be as I reflect on what I read through when I decide to would derive some other aspects as well).

The story is about a very successful lawyer finding his life’s purpose!!! I would like to put up the memory pegs, so that we can gain the maximum out of this review… so here are the pegs along with what they stand for-

1. The Magnificent Garden -> Master your mind
2. The Towering Lighthouse -> Follow your purpose
3. The Sumo Wrestler -> Practice Kaizen
4. The Pink Wire Cable -> Live with Discipline
5. The Gold Stopwatch -> Respect your time
6. The Fragrant Roses -> Selflessly serve others
7. The Path of Diamonds -> Embrace the present

This is a memory aid which helps us live our life more fully and gain the maximum out of it…after all isn’t it that we actually want…our full utilization of our time and resources will give a un-explainable and strange solace in our life…
This book is really a good one to read… thats my personal feeling… but may be the perspective you need to look at would be a bit different. You need to be in the state of mind to actually be able to appreciate what the yogi Julian needs to say… the context change would not let you appreciate the book with the same intensity as mentioned in the book…
The very creative fable is another point of appreciation… I am writing a book on similar lines and think there is definitely something I would take from this read of mine :). So it was all the more advantageous to read it now…

I had purchased this book long back…almost 2 yrs earlier…hadnt read the book till just a couple of days back.
During my internship at Quetzal, Bhushan had mentioned about the book and I recalled I had the book in my shelf…so this was on my “to read list” when I got back to Bangalore…
OG Mandiono has been regarded by many as one of the most widely read inspirational author. His books have been aclaimed to have changed the life of many…There is also a sequel to this book which I havent got my hands on… and am waiting to read…lets see when I get hold of it…
The book is about a world greatest salesman of his age and the principle he followed to reach the height he actually reached….the lessons to the salesmen are in the form of chapters in the book…each having one of which inspires us to give more to the work we do…
In brief these are the take aways…

1. Today I begin a new Life
2. I will greet this day with love in my heart
3. I will persist until I succeed
4. I am nature’s greatest miracle
5. I will live this day as if it is my last
6. Today I will be the master of my emotion
7. I will laugh at the world
8. Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold
9. I will act now
10. Believe in your strengths and ask for guidance

Read the book if you are in a low phase and am sure each of these 10 lessons will help you transform your life.

Seems like the summary of my learnings till now…that is exactly how I felt when I read this book….I would definitely put is on my must read books….
The way the book has been presented – a very simple and elegant fashion… I dont have to read through tons of pages to get this summary… 101 points to note…and each point not having more than 3 pages of illustration!!! awesome… To know what these points are read this book.
The lessons are so simple…yet powerful…follow them and see yourself transform…reveal the true potential that you possess into the daily acts….

Some books are different from others, some books try to imitate others….this is one in the first category…A completely different perspective this books gives to its readers.

Is there any relation between
the school teachers and sumo wrestlers?
the ku-klux-klan and a real-estate agent?

Why do drug-dealers stay with their moms?
Which is more dangerous – the gun or the swimming pool?
Do parents really matter?

Some of these questions are absurd…some look illogical…this book breaks these boundaries which we have self-imposed. Kindles in us the spark ok questioning…what we think may not be related may be related…

Another interesting way of looking at the book can be through the lens of causality and the correlation. Causality is hard to prove…I doubt sometime and feel there is no causality…a high correlation is what makes us feel causality…Interesting… I let others ponder over this for some time…am sure this will give an interesting insight…

An interesting read…Go ahead and read when you think the world is only the way you think it can be…

link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics
http://freakonomicsbook.com/

The title…. “The Elephant, The Tiger and the cellphone” is the indicator of his thoughts of how to India has transformed over the decade after independence. This is my first book I am reading of Shashi Tharoor…its been a different experience… Lot my friends said he is an awesome writer puts his thought in a very different way…I accept this to a certain extent, there are some areas in which I have difference of opinions…well its absolutely ok…its after all an opinion…if I had no different opinion my existence would be redundant isn’t it?

I loved the starting part where he makes a mention of India transforming from the Elephant, in its jungle directing the right and the wrong, to a tiger getting more people into its territory. He later goes on to give his views on a lot of topics…rt from his child hood, the cities he spent his life in, his experiences on various changes in India, the diaspora, the common mans life, the way Indian thoughts have changed over….

He goes on to praise Kerala for a lot of developments….some arguments I do buy but not all…I dont agree with him completely…there are also other areas where it needs improvements… he is a bit over optimistic in that sense…I got to know a lot about kerala from the book but my practical input from my surroundings is not always the same as he has tried to portray in the book… definitely it can be cause of the attachment he has to his home place….

I loved the description about Ajanta and Ellora that he has given towards the end of the book…I was on my plans to go there when I started reading the book…helped me get some idea of how I can plan the schedule of my tour… will go there soon… thanks for those valuable inputs…

Overall a very insightful book on his thought process and his hopes about India…Definitely improves the Indian Pride and shows the future is promising.

The most closest to my heart was his identification of the diversity of Indian Existence – both the prayer and the technology blended so well in the example of a software engineer coming to Putparthi…Awesome!!!

Read it at leisure when you have a lot of time at hand…definitely not a must read…but surely a worth read…