A House For Mr Misra - Review

Each of us have different goals in our life – both personal and professional. When it comes to personal, mostly our goal is to buy a house. Maybe 10-20 years ago, many had building a house; today, not many can afford it. And, imagine having a dream or goal of building a house on the seashore where the sea wakes you up with its own music, talks to you throughout the day and daily sings you a lullaby when you go to sleep! Too much imagination, right? Jaishree Misra is taking us exactly through this dream of hers (or theirs!).

In a land where every application needs to go through twenty departments, and any thing has a law that says “thou shall not do that!” making people resort to loopholes is beautifully narrated in this book. One of the qualities of a book is how best you can see what you are reading, while you are reading. I must say that throughout the book, Jaishree has done a great job. The book starts with bringing a lively London in front of our eyes – the Borough market, Soho, the West End and the Covent Garden; and not to mention the organic juice and the joyful morning walks.

A sudden gear shift occurs when they come to India to build their dream sea-side house – a true sea-side house and not the usual lake-view apartments that we hear all the time in Bangalore where it really means that you can watch all the filth from your own apartment fills the lake. In a 200 page book, it is really impossible to narrate the entire episode of building a house, but for Jaishree, this was doable. The entire cycle of selecting the land, getting approvals, approaching the builder, architect and the staysuits that followed it is beautifully narrated. Sprinkled with subtle humour throughout, and with excellent choice of words, you enthusiastically read without worrying about food, water, rain etc., Be it the maid, the Trivandrum corporation, or the snake-bite night, it makes you laugh and enjoy, and more importantly you forget the zillion problems that you would be thinking about, otherwise.

I loved every bit of this book. I had to go to a place as a guardian to my family (without any business there actually). I started the book at 9 a.m. and I got it done by 2 p.m. I am usually a slow reader, but, for this book, I wasn’t. All credit goes to the author for such a wonderful book, and to Mr.Misra without whom this book wouldn’t have been in the first place as well as the humour that he added to this book.

Inside Chanakya's Mind by Radhakrishnan Pillai - A Review

Radhakrishnan Pillai seems to have a very simple goal! "I will make Chanakya and his Arthashastra as the foundation for my works, and I will extract the juice and will serve it to you. You can be a student, a business man, a teacher or whoever. It is my simple goal." And, I must agree that he succeeds this time also with "Inside Chanakya's Mind" like his earlier books "Chanakya in Daily Life" and "Corporate Chanakya". Yes, Chanakya's work "Arthashastra" is such a treasure that India and the world are blessed to relish! In his current work, the author focuses on "Aanvikshiki" or the science of thinking. We have frequently heard the quote, "Watch your thoughts, they become words, Watch your words, they become actions; Watch your actions, they become habits…", but no one really told us how to think. All the time we hear about "Think, Think, Think!", but no one really teaches us this art. Pillai fills this gap neatly by dedicating a whole book for this art! (In fact, it is unbelievable that his daughter is named "Aanvikshiki). For those, who have been blaming their family, their company, their neighbors, the neighbor's dog etc., on why they couldn’t think correctly, this book is a boon.

The book starts by explaining the root of Aanvikshiki, what it really means and why is it so important. It pacifies us when we know that "the process of thoughts can be taught" and elates us when we read that the practice of this important art that bring about a significant change in our thoughts, speech and action. Isn't that what we just read in the quote above? The author expands on the beautiful base that he has laid out in the first chapter by explaining the different types of thinking. He wonderfully categorizes the thinking into six different categories and explains each of them. He does it so by referring to Chanankya's quotes & verses from Arthashastra. For example, leadership thinking is all about working for the benefit of others - and, in that sense, a parent is also a leader. And, when you are an individual contributor in a company, you go through the process of creative thinking and so on.

Then comes the different models of thinking. It isn't enough to just categorize the thinking; it also depends on the model how you think through each of these types. The next chapter on the seven dimensions of thinking is a real gem. Chanakya's works were based on the old times - when there was a kingdom and the king ruled with his ministers. But, we call that a democracy and corporate. By explaining these seven dimensions with seven parts of a kingdom - the king, the minister, the country, the city, the treasury, the army and the ally, the author makes our job easy to relate it with the current environment. It is just that we have a different environment and different players. And, in any case, there is going to be a competition - whether we are studying in a school, or working in a corporate. It is very important to hone ourselves with the process of thinking about competition which is more important than the other seven - and the author dedicates one complete chapter (and I am not sure if it is directly proportional to the details Chanakya covering it in his work). There are some important things that we understand are very important, but we neglect - because we are not interested, or often because we do not have enough time. The chapter "The Other Side of Chanakya" helps us with why we must do the stuff that we often ignore. We will not have complaints if everyone follows Chanakya's teachings on management. The author crisply categorizes it the chapter on management - which I think every corporate and government should make it part of their organizational principles.

And, if we think it is all about corporate and its management, no, it is not! Even for individuals who often procrastinate, there are beautiful lessons - the process of decision making, prioritizing work. I think in a social media centric world where virtual friends occupy most of our day (and night), these principles should sharpen our process of thinking to live more on the reality side. All in all, a very good self-help book aimed at improving our process of thinking and our overall welfare (and others).

PS: This book was received, read and reviewed as part of Flipkart’s Blogger Review Program