The Real You by Radhanath Swami

A crispy square book, with crispy pages and intriguing cartoons in it, a fabulous cover with a heart shaped tree and a lot of orange tint in it is what meets the eye when you behold this little book for the first time. The book emanates an aura, an aura of knowledge and wisdom and that is exactly what it contains. The truth is that the simple yet reverberating cover of this book is what attracted me to the book in the first place but once the pages started getting turned the impression was only reinforced. 

The takes flight into an altogether alien world of knowledge and wisdom right from the very first page  and with these beautiful lines about love. "The nature of love is to give.". The book is not one long story about the search for truth or anything magnanimous. Like so many of its successors that strive to preach the same values and wisdom, this book is a collection of nuggets of knowledge all presented in simple and suggestive tone yet having in it a take it or leave it manner.

The book is discontinuous and not knitted together from page to page and chapter to chapter. They are separate and utterly isolated, at times they are even worlds apart. That being said this book is not one raucous and discordant debacle, but on the contrary the book is well organized in a way. All theses little nuggets of wisdom are classified broadly into several chapters and each nuggets is kept trim and concise. The whole book is one succinct attempt to teach life's lessons, concise and straight to the point. This is a book that appears in the way it should appear, truth needn't have to give explanations, they serve only to diminish the purpose of truth and pollute its sanctity.

A striking feature of this book is the numerous cartoons that appear in the book, They sometimes support and at other times intrigues sometimes even serving both these purposes. They give a sense of innocence and simplicity to the hard and tough nuts of wisdom that appears along side these beautiful sketches. Mr Suresh Sawant does a brilliant job in giving a sense of approach-ability to this book, that may only be surpassed by the cover and its design simplicity. Radhanath Owes much of the books success to Mr Suresh in this sense.

"This book is a collection of pearls of wisdom, in the necklace of life, for the beauty of soul" This is how that book is described as in the introduction and I find this statement perfectly true and apt for the book. This is not a story or a myth but a collection of wise words and wisdom. This books aims not to teach you life but to show some of life's vital points and The book does not preach how to learn but gives you points to start planing how to live on your own. This is book is not a one stop place for spiritual awakening but a fun, tiny guide book to life.

Lost

Stranded in the crowded Island, Often I find myself alone.

Staring at the starry water that knows not malice.

True its heart it shows me my wet eyes and the damp face,

It knows not my heart and cruel in disposition it stands.

Yet it tells me a tale of lost hearts and valor.

It tells of battles frivolously fought and lost for no reason.

I stare and stare back at me does the truth.

That I stand alone in a crowded island, Stranded I stand.

Sitting under the palm tree, On its lofty sand beaches,

I realize I wrong the boat and the voyage.

Yet marooned I should not be for my crimes.

In passion of utmost carelessness they were done.

I live not that life of moderation and revel in flaming passion do I,

The sin of such life is the peril of loneliness.

Over the expanse and adrift in its care is a boat.

A boat that I have missed for all that that was not to be.

Burned in the high flames of vanities passion was the plank.

And lost was the ride that was only mine to ride.

In this paradisaical expanse I stand, falsely wronged.

I stand stranded on a crowded Island, forever alone.

Destined am I to the case of invisible bars, 

Of lost dreams and careless passion.

Destined am I to this lonely abyss,

Of very slow decay of perpetual loneliness.

The Story of Amazon.com by Sara Gilbert

“The Story of Amazon.com in a nutshell”, that is what this book could easily and accurately be described as. To begin with the book is short and matter of fact; it covers almost all of the things that have happened in its 19 year existence. It covers the rise of Amazon.com and the perils it faced in the process. All the major milestones that the company achieved have also been covered. In short it tells a short story about amazon.com and how it came to be.

Sara Gilbert has done a commendable job in confining the whole story of amazon.com to a mere 65 pages and that is counting the illustrations as well. The story is kept really trim and most of the details irrelevant and not is kept out. In fact the “Story of Amazon.com” is a de-facto account of the evolution of amazon.com and leaves out any personal touch to it. There is no explorations to into the lives of Mr. Bezos nor of any one otherwise connected to the Amazon Story.

Sara does draw our attention to the various problems that the company faced and the long years it spent without ever turning any profit and the dark times it endured during the dot com burst. The hardships are again stated matter of factly and how the company managed to survive these treats not presented inspirationally either. But she does get her points and facts correct and she doesn’t leave anything either except what really helped Amazon.com become an industry leader in its domain. I would personally feel better had the book been a little longer and contained more about the rise of Amazon.com from the American dream perspective. But then again this book is not the ardent analyst, but for the young reader who could learn a lot about entrepreneurship and innovation form the story of Mr. Bezos.

The one thing I especially liked and is quite fascinating about the book is the amount of pictures that they have put in, they can on their own merit tell you the story of amazon.com and they complement the book rather well. One can just browse through these pictures and read the side notes left here and there in the book and understand the whole story that Sara is trying to say. Sara Gilbert has created a rather light hearted book that could be read with nothing more than just the willingness to open the first page, the rest is a fast and well aided journey through the 19 years of amazon.com, more like a tour of the whole thing.

Sara Gilbert clearly has her audience cut out, and she has made it clear that this is not for the serious corporate researcher in you but for the casual reader who would enjoy a little information and may be do with a little inspiration from it too. In fact this is exactly the kind of book I would gift my adolescent son just to get him to read a book.

In Association with JAICO PUBLISHING HOUSE.

Severance

And old unfinished poem I wrote in another lifetime, recently found in the moth infested pages of my old diary.

By what coins shall this debt be paid,

By what currency this loan be settled.

By what act shall atonement be achieved, and

By what valor shall this friendship be bought.

I don't know why I wrote nor what prompted these words, But somewhere they connect to me, like sons to father and creation to creator.

Why I want Modi as my PM

Before any one rushes to the end and starts commenting that Modi is communal, Let me just say that I am well aware of that argument and let me say that I have weighed that aspect too in my decision. Now that the disclaimer has been given let me get to the core of it. Which is that I want Modi as my Prime Minister and now I will get on with why I want him as my Prime Minister.

I am neither Pro-Congress nor Pro-BJP and for that neither am I Pro-Any Party. I despise them all equally. I believe the purpose of democracy ( in India at least ) is not to select the ideal man to rule Indians but to select the less evil one to do that. We do not select between Good and bad, we select between worse and worst. Given the choice between bandits and looters its a hard choice to make right? to find the ideal thief to steal our wealth. I am sure no other nation extends its denizens this particular privilege.

Coming back to Modi, For any one who is following Indian politics and the Lok Sabha election campaign with even half an eye will be aware that Mr Narendra Modi, the now Chief Minister of Gujarat has set his eyes on the ultimate prize. As always the nation is divided among him and our present Prime Puppet Mr Manmohan Singh, did I just say Prime Puppet? I actually meant Prime Minister, but I guess its easy to get confused among those two designations. The congress camp has unleashed the old and rusted argument that Mr Modi is communal and The BJP camp has unleashed the old, but not so rusted argument that Mr Singh is useless.

As it is customary in civil societies, I will address the chief acquisition that Mr Modi is communal. Frankly speaking I cant say whether he is communal or not, because I have no evidence supporting or opposing it, congress says that he is the chief reason for a riot that happened 11 years back and BJP says that Muslims in his own state support him. I just don't know which is true and I also believe that an alleged involvement in a crime that happened 11 years back cannot be given such high weightage as opposed to all the wonderful things he seems to have done in his home state that he has been ruling for a very long time. After all politics and politicians has such a short memory span and attention span.

I will confess one more thing out right, I am supporting Mr Modi, not as much because of his good deeds as to the grim deeds of the ruling party. The only thing the ruling band of bandits seems to be doing well is that they have been relentlessly looting the citizens with such finesses that most professional thieves and criminals look like total amateurs. They must have in this five year tenure relived the nation off a sizable portion of its GDP by stashing it away in Switzerland or Cayman islands.

The present government has let the rupee fall like a lead ball and no one seems to be bothered to catch it in its free fall. Even our not so honorable finance minister has asked as to let the rupee be, it will stop when it has too. I wonder if that's the case what he does in his office hours. Any way I am not pointing fingers here I am just laying my case for my supporting Mr. Modi as being the Prime Minister of India. On the contrary to the present ministry, he seems to know economics and development quite well with his state contributing a sizable chunk to the Indian Economy. I rather leave the state of Indian economy and the battered rupee at his care that the ones that bought it here.

Anyway as this is becoming rather long and complicated, i will quickly point out that I support Mr. Modi because I don't trust Mr Singh and his capability to rule. They are way too corrupt. Secondly Modi cannot be communal just because he is a Hindu, that's absurd. Thirdly the present economy has been ruined by the present government and we need a change so that it can be revived. The government now is way to distant from the 'aam admi' or the 'general public' as pluto is from the sun.They seem to intoxicated by power that a sabbatical will only do them good. Mr Modi appears to be a more powerful, capable and determined leader and icon than the silent and unimpressive Mr Singh who looks more like a mint condition doll. By the sheer measure of thing that they have done and the things they have not done Mr Modi is more deserving of the post of PM. And lastly he looks more of a prime ministerial material than Mr Singh.

I just hope that I wont be thrown in jail for speaking my mind, You can never know. 

DISCLAIMER: Anyways the things I mention are only the things that I feel and by no means do I claim them to be true or more seriously as facts. You are free to agree or disagree with me but you are not allowed to bash me, nor force upon me any view point. I have a mind and last time I checked it was fully functional and I am capable of making my decision. Thanks but I don't need your help in that regard. That aside you can comment here anything, but just remembering to sensitive to every ones views even though you may disagree with it.