Shyam Govind's profile

Shyam rated:

He was not perfect. He was not philanthropic. He was erratic in his demeanor. He was pricky. He was many a times rude in his opinion. He was bipolar in his judgements. You were either a genius or a bozo.

He was all that you would NOT want to be and all that you would really want to be.

A book that does not pass a judgement. A book that does not eulogize him. A perfect "One more thing..." by the best CEO the world has seen in the recent times.

A must read !! You got to know why & how the old adage "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." still stands the test of time and makes one rich too !

Shyam rated:

First the facts :

- It gives you a clear insight into what you should focus on. i.e. not money but your passion and your life. GOOD.
- It is an extremely popular book and will anyway sell. AGREED.

Now, My opinion :

I read this book around 2-3 years back. I was thrilled by the beauty of the "revelations" it suggested. I tried doing what the book suggested. The garden, the lighthouse, the sumo wrestler, the pink wire cable, the stopwatch, the roses and the winding path of diamonds - the seven timeless virtues, which will give you an enlightened life.

I agree with the points... but after reading a lot of such self management books, I kind of realize that all these self management books help only to an extent. Knowing these things does help. Definitely. But applying them all, in your day to day life is not really a practical thing to do. It looks very artificial. At least it did for me.

So read this books and apply only things that you really value and you'll do much much better. Do not try to follow all the advices to the T. Just accept what you believe in and leave the rest.

Then and only then, in my opinion, reading this book makes any sense.

Wish you guys a wonderful life ahead.

- Shyam

Shyam rated:

Never has there been a book, that has moved me so much as this book has. Never has there been a book, that has rocked me to the core as this book has.

It taught me that honesty is one of the hardest but the most fulfilling characteristics one can have. It's difficult and it is a life long effort because the other road tempts you at every moment in the journey of life. That road is often easy. But truth and honesty gives you this exhilarating feeling of freedom and fearlessness that once tasted, you long to have it again and again.

I can never get over this book. You need not adore Gandhi to read this book. All you need is an open mind and a daring heart.

Shyam rated:

I have always believed Times books and its business to be more money-oriented than quality-oriented.

The thinking remained same with this book.It is just a compilation of predictions by Bejan Daruwala on all the star signs. Times just cashed in on it. That's all.

Nevertheless, this book is definitely a good pass-time. I picked it up after I liked what was written for my star sign, when I read it in Landmark. Of course, these guys would always ensure good things are highlighted more and bad forecasts are as subdued as possible.

But still, it is a good pass time. :)

For the more serious readers, it contains month wise and week wise predictions. ( if that info helps ).

Shyam rated:

There have been many authors cashing in on the Steve Jobs fad going on ever since he died. This is one such attempt.

The good stuff :
The book covers everything - right from his childhood to his death. It even covers his sister's eulogy.

The bad stuff :
There is nothing new in the book. And it is also not the best one available to know about Steve Jobs. ( Having read 4 books on him till now, I can easily recommend you reading the Walter Isssacson biography. That's the best I have read on him. )

The writing style is just about average. The author herself has taken all the information from publicly available sources. So, nothing great there.

Final verdict :
You won't miss anything if you skip this book.

Shyam rated:

This one book can move your entire thinking. It has the power to influence your choices, your taste. It is just impossible to ignore the lucid writing and logical approach to Physics.

This book is pre-graduation level. I still remember ( very vividly ) the days when I prepared for IIT JEE from this book. It cleared my fundamentals so well that even now, Physics remains my favorite subject.

There are some books that you would like to always keep with your self. This surely falls in that category.

Buy it and blow yourself away !! :)

Shyam rated:

This is my first book related to improving presentations... and it just blew me away. Me, being a Steve Jobs fan did play a role in that and even otherwise, I feel this book very finely summarizes why Steve Jobs Keynotes are so wildly popular.

It begins with first how to make a story ( first on paper ) before when opening your presentation software. And then goes on to how to create mind blowing slides. Further it talks about the best ways to be an awesome presenter. And finally it asks the reader to follow one known golden rule to ensure an effortless and insanely great presentation - PRACTICE !

On the negative side, I felt the book could done even better by taking two or three case studies and shown how to go about the steps he mentioned i.e. creating a story, making quality slides and then giving the awesome presentations.

But that's just a tiny-miny improvement in the book. The reader should ideally apply mind and be creative himself.

Go ahead ! Read it. A preview is available on amazon for you to check the contents.

- Shyam

Shyam rated:

I first heard about it from a friend's FB comment that - If you want to know how money works, you have to read the Ascent of Money.

Documentary first - It was somewhere at the back of my mind until I saw its channel4 documentary. The 6-part documentary goes into each chapter of this book and explains it pretty well.

About the book - The book is a goldmine of financial history. But let me tell you, reading it is not a breeze. There is a lot of jargon used although the author has tried his best to keep it to the minimum.

The narration is not the best but if you are interested in knowing the financial history, you'll find it interesting. Some parts are really awesome. Some, a little dull.

Final verdict - Over all, a nice book if you are interested in financial history. I would still suggest to watch the documentary first, on youtube. You won't be disappointed.

Hope it helps.

Worth a buy. Some awesome advices interspersed with some dull, boring, cliched advices ( clearly these ppl contributed for the sake of it or for the sake of money they were paid, if any. )

Some advices/anecdotes from the personalities were gems. There were some points/advices like the one from Jignesh Shah, Chairman - Financial technologies which goes :
"Results matter, not the efforts !" that were an eye-opener.

or the one from R Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director - Tata Sons saying about taking care of your health.
"How would you take care of your car if you were told that it was the only car you would have for your whole life? Well, your body is the only car you will have for all your life. You cannot change it, so look after it like your own car."

From Aditya Puri, MD - HDFC Ltd. who shared something like,
" I would be lying if I told you that I always wanted to be the MD....all this business about planning a career graph doesn't work. It's a bit like being on a boat in a river - you make the course as you go along. At all points, you face your share of obstacles and proceed further. "

Or Javed Akhtar getting an advice from his dad's friend to become a grass cutter. But on the condition that he becomes the best grass-cutter in the world, so that if President of India wants the Rashtrapati Bhavan laws to be trimmed, he should be the person he thinks of.
" No work is insignificant, the worker could be. Whatever you do should be what you really want to do, what your heart desires. The security is in your excellence, not in the job."

Do not expect too much from the book but you can buy it, if you are interested learning about what these personalities have to share.

It's anyways only at the price of a good magazine.

- Shyam

Shyam rated:

I always believed a book is exactly like a movie. A good one can move you to tears and evoke a varied set of emotions that will port you to another world ( Remember "Forrest Gump" or even "3 idiots" ? ). A bad one, will make you feel like killing yourself for choosing it ( Remember "Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag" ?? Sorry, if you got a migraine attack just with the name... :) ).

This is a book that falls in the first category. It is a story about a girl who is extra-ordinarily talented. A great future beckons her. She goes to one of the best commerce institutes in the country and later joins a premier management college in Mumbai for her MBA. All set to take the corporate world with a storm.

But suddenly, as in almost every book, life takes a sudden turn and her life comes to a full stop. Two psychiatrists and two suicide attempts later, she is unable to even read a complete sentence. Even a small ray of light from the window scares her to the wits end.

She is getting engulfed in a wide range of emotions that has made her life and living meaningless.

Bipolar Disorder - that is the technical name of the disease. The story ends with how she overcomes all of it and embraces life all over again.

It also gives an insight of the social stigma that comes with a mental illness. It tries to make us understand that mentally ill people are not "crazy" or "lunatic". It is just a another kind of disease like a physical one, which needs to be treated.

In many ways, I relate to this book a lot. The girl here is a Mallu girl and goes through the usual conflicts between this generation, more open minded and last generation, relatively conservative. This is although a universal problem across India today; it is especially true for a Keralite.

I'll quote from the book itself, to give you an idea :

" How could I explain a thing like love to them? Their middle class values, their proper Indian upbringing and everything they stood for, had no place for trivialities like love and romance. If it happened, you pretended it didn't. You brushed it aside and moved on, as life was hard. You studied, you got a job and you got married to the person your parents chose for you. This is what they expected and that is what their way of life was. It was simple and direct. There was no way they would understand passion, love and emotions. There was simply no place for anything like that in their minds or lives. "

Final verdict : 4/5

Worth reading definitely ! And it's just 65 bucks on flipkart.

Keep living and keep rocking !