The Code by Mukta Mahajani (Book Review: 4.75*/5) !!!

1745th BLOG POST -->>

The 3^rd book of the year which I picked up to read was again from my favorite publication house, Jaico, named “The Code” written by one of the prominent authors, Mukta Mahajani. The book also has the tagline of “Awake the hidden wisdom of your heart”. I have always hated reading any kind of short stories- either fictional or non-fictional. It has been on very rare occasions when I have liked a book consisting of short stories. This book gets into this rare shelf of my book consisting of my favorite books featuring short stories. Authoress has divided the book into few prime parts such as Conquering the Ego, Controlling Over-competitiveness, Mastering Overexpectations, Overcoming Jealousy, Curbing Overambition, Taming Anger and Beating Procrastination.

Each of these parts have several stories proving us why we need to follow a certain pattern in our life which can awaken the hidden wisdom of our heart. After every story, authoress has shared a paragraph referring it as “THE CODE” which is such a gem that I wanted to click each one of them and get it framed. Before this, it has only been in the case of Robin Sharma’s books and few other couple of authors where I have found every chapter or paragraph as gem. The questions on which authoress wants us to contemplate has been shared after each chapter which is such an introspective session that you would find it very hard to answer those questions and the moment you find an answer for that, you would understand the power of the story and “the code” shared just before those questions.

The book provides wonderful insight on the personal and professional life. What I liked about the stories shared by the authoress is that all of them are so unique and distinct that you will never get bored of reading them even in one single sitting. I took 5 stories each day and I must say many of those have got ingrained in my mind and personality. Another good thing that I need to mention is the quotes that authoress has mentioned before beginning of every story. How wonderful those quotes are that I just want to remember all of them and keep them with myself just like “the codes”. Overall, this is one of the rare books where I liked almost all the chapters. I would rate this book 4.75* out of 5. Highly recommended! Mukta, I am fan from today onwards.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA 

Kumar Mangalam Birla by Drimi Chaudhuri (Book Review: 3.5*/5) !!!

1744th BLOG POST -->>

What I like about books from Jaico is that their focus is so passionate on the self-improvement that even if you are not liking any of their books still at the end of it you would find some motivation and inspiration through it. One of their best series is where they publish short biographies on India’s great personalities for us to know about them and learn from their experiences and lifestyle. The latest such book I ended up reading recently from Jaico is on the life of Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla written by Drimi Chaudhuri. The book discusses 10 secrets of Success from the life of Mr. Birla such as Dreaming Big, Aiming High, Learning from the Past, Building and then Expanding, Evolving with the World, Building a World-class Team, Keeping our Cool, Being Humble, Keep Learning and Being Prepared to Succeed.

Drimi has very well discussed the life of Mr. Birla on how he takes on from his previous generation from Birla dynasty and rather than falling on his knees, brought more name to the empire and made it grow like never before. The values and principles that he followed in his life is discussed which makes evident a lot of things about what such personalities live by to ensure they succeed at the end of all. It is nicely discussed how he enabled so many verticals and succeeded in almost all of them. And even in those he could not perform as well as others, he either ended up them successfully by merging together with another entity or selling it off keeping the sanctity of the institution alive.

The book is divided in ten chapters where each of them talks about one of the secrets of Success that the author has extracted out of Birla’s life. The decision-making techniques and transformation by Kumar Mangalam Birla is nicely appreciated in the book- the one which impressed me is the way he allowed non-vegetarian food in the office campus which was a strict NO before him as the whole Birla family had been strictly pure vegetarian. The words by the previous generations as quoted in the book tells how relevant Birla’s style of working has been that despite making some big changes in the existing culture, the earlier generation still adored his workstyle.

Overall, the book is a nice short read. I give it 3.5* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA 

Ballad of a Belle by Rahul Tushar (Book Review: 3.75*/5) !!!

1743rd BLOG POST -->>

There are few books you pick for their title, some for their cover page, some for their synopsis, some for their overall presentation in case when you are not aware about the Author. This book that I have just ended up reading has a title quite difficult considering the average readers in India which most of them won’t understand. What impressed me to pick this book up was the synopsis which arose quite a curiosity within me to read about this protagonist- Aarti who is basically from Kashmir and another girl, Priya, who is there to teach her about life against envy, jealousy, greed and treachery. The name of the book is “Ballad of a Belle” which basically means a slow romantic/sentimental song of a beautiful girl/woman (if I go through the dictionary meaning).

The book is almost 300 pages published by Addyyan Publication written by the debutant, Rahul Tushar. Talking about the writing style, I must say from nowhere it can be said about the author being a debutante with the way he carries the story from one plot to another without any of them sounding less interesting than the others. With each page, the story only keeps getting better as the protagonist of the book finds herself in new relationship and challenges of life with one constant always- Priya Majoomdar, her friend. The narration is very well handled which manages reader to stick with the book until its finished. I read this book while traveling to my office in Mumbai Local and I must say, it really became hard to keep the book in bag without completing it as the excitement after each page has always been high to know what happens next.

The characterization is handled very insightfully as each and every character in the book seems to be having their own story in the back-end which is also given importance along with the tale of the protagonist- Aarti. The characters of Aarti, Priya, Sanjive, Dilip, Arun, Stan and Sheetal remains ingrained in your mind even after hours of finishing the book which says a lot about the skills of the author. Another great thing that has been handled is the way author discusses about the Kashmir’s fact in the initial phase of the book then to the Corporate politics and in the end about the politics involved in mega-projects handled by big businessmen in India. All these social phenomenon is very nicely discussed in the book. The equation of Aarti and Priya is the USP of the book out of many colors and themes that the Author have tried touching.

Spoilers Ahead…….

Now talking about the drawbacks of the book: - The cover page is kept quite dark matching with the story of the book but I would have suggested author to add little more colors to it as the book is not only about darkness in the protagonist’s life. Secondly, there are too many deaths in the book which becomes irritating and unjustified after a point of time. It seems author is doing it only to add more darkness in the protagonist’s character. Thirdly, the way protagonist gets into each relationship so easily without giving 2^nd thought to her already hell of a past is quite surprising. Fourth, the ending could have been positive after all that the protagonist had suffered in her life. Fifth and the last, the book is priced quite high.

Overall, the book is a quite nice read and I have big expectations from the author’s 2^nd book “The Sinful Oracle” which has been introduced at the end of this book. I give “Ballad of a Belle” 3.75* out of 5.

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA 

The Experience of Meeting The Man Who Changed My Life- ROBIN SHARMA!!!

1742nd BLOG POST -->>

Sometimes few people or books or things change your life at the most unexpected time and your life doesn’t remain same after that. I was in 12^th standard and had no goals or objectives in life. The only thing I loved was to be on text messages with my loved ones and spend as much time as possible over it. Similarly, cyber cafes in India was a new thing then and I loved surfing Internet and exploring new websites every now and then without even realizing the amount of money, time and energy I was wasting in it. One day, someone asked me to read this book by an author called Robin Sharma named “Who Will Cry When You Die?”. I liked the book’s title like anything as I was having suicidal tendency then and I thought it is something which I would like to read and know.

The very next day I went to the railway station’s Wheeler Book Store and asked for this book. I saw that the book has 100 chapters of a page each which seemed easy to finish. I finished that book within a night and when I turned its last page, I was a self-realized and self-evaluated person already. I had got changed for life. I understood how important this small thing called Life is and how big we can transform it into with just few basic manipulations in our daily routine. I went to the Railway station again on the next day and bought “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”- the most popular book of Robin Sharma. After reading this one, I just couldn’t sleep for some days in frustration and irritation of how much I have already ended up wasting myself.

Few days after this, the first Big Bazaar got opened in our city and I went with my mother for some shopping. There was a small book section there which luckily had only Robin Sharma’s books and one copy each of only those books which I had not read till then. I went to my Mother and requested her if she can buy all of them for me. They were quite sum of amount considering the middle-class budget. My mother rather than giving silly excuses of buying and finishing one and then going on for purchasing the next book, in a hope that at least her only son is thinking of reading something allowed me to put all the books in the cart. After some days we went for vacation to our native town which has 36 hours of railway journey. I carried all these dozen books of Mr. Robin and finished all of them in the journey and at my native town under open environment in my maternal grandfather’s farmhouse.

After reading all his books which were published then in 2010, I was someone with whom even I started enjoying the company. I had become so positive and wilful. I never said NO to any challenge post then and did some tasks I believed earlier I would have never been able to even discuss them leave picking them up and actually executing them. A boy who was failure at everything started getting better. The one who failed twice in his Junior College passed his High-school, bachelor’s degree and two Master’s degree without failing in any subject even once. Even with Blog that I created myself, I have been able to take it up to a certain level all by myself just with the belief, confidence, inspiration, energy, motivation and will this man called Robin Sharma has charged into me.

He is the only writer in whose work I find every sentence a motivational quote. He just does not know how to write a normal sentence. Every sentence he writes is like those great carvings on Taj Mahal. It seems he has taken a lifetime to craft each sentence. Every sentence is legendary and special and impactful and what not. His words are epitome of energy and there can be nothing over that which you can point at and say makes you feel limitless as human being. I had wanted so much to meet him since I finished completing just his first book which had changed my thought process for the very 1^st time but I knew it was nearly impossible considering he stays in USA and comes India very rarely. But fortunately, with an event being arranged by Jaico Publication and Crossword Book Store, I booked my tickets for this special workshop which was to be conducted by the man himself on the principles he has discussed in his latest book named “The 5 AM Club”.

I had gone with so much of emotions that I am going to experience a person live who has changed my life that I was uncertain how I would react on seeing him in flesh and blood infront of me. And how should I express my feeling of seeing him speak in front of me and providing so much of motivation, inspiration with his great insights on life. He is a man with such positive vibes that the moment I saw him in front of me and till now after 9 hours of it, I can still feel the vibrations and energy within me. And this is not a normal excited feeling which shall go away after some time. It has 100x impact than what his book has had over me. Now I am beginning to look at my life ahead with more excitement and energy. The handshake opportunity that I had with him shall stay with me all my life to pull me up whenever I fall down in life.

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With tears of happiness in my eyes, I just can't believe more in God and Life. I shall always cherish these 2 hours and handshake with this incredible man- @robinsharma who changed, or say, gave me my 2nd Life. Thanks @jaico_publishing_house and @crosswordbookstores for making this possible. There is nothing more truer than dreaming passionately! #the5amclub #BookReview #BookReviews #BookReviewer #BookBlogger #MumbaiBlogger #Bookstagram #BookstagramIndia #Bookphotography #Bookaholic #Booksclub #Books #WritingBuddha #bibliophile #readersclub #BloggerLife #robinsharma #author #reader

A post shared by Abhilash Ruhela (@writingbuddha) on Feb 16, 2019 at 7:04am PST

 It has been such a Dream Come True moment for me. 16^th February has become an immortal date for me now which shall be celebrated each day in the memory of this special day which has surely transformed my life little more the impact of which shall be visible sooner and stay for the longest possible time. I thank the organizers for making it possible and also would like to appreciate Tisca Chopra for conducting such a beautiful session for a short period when she was on stage with him.

Thank You God and Universe for Providing Me This Opportunity.

Some pictures from the event:- 

ABHILASH RUHELA

Love kills us or do we kill love?

1741st BLOG POST -->>

Today’s the day of Valentine's when most of us celebrate relationships. There’s always lot of jokes going around about the pros and cons of being single or committed but as it said, how much you enjoy your singlehood, you want to end up getting committed once with the person you find yourself getting compatible with without thinking about what the future of this relationship would be. In the beginning of every relationship, it is felt as if this is going to be an endless odyssey which both of us shall walk together until one of us shall leave our mortal body but the realization dawns after few weeks when the affair of love gets little old.

No one wants to initially think about the limitations a love relationship comes with. Everyone believes and wants to believe that this is an endless saga that shall stay with us in every moment when we feel weaker at times. It is only when one realizes that most of the weakest moments of life are those which are caused because of this relationship itself, isn’t it? Loving someone is inevitable. You do not have control over it. Expressing your love is one hell of a task which not many can do. But these days because both the genders are associated since childhood very closely, love happens and it is expressed after an incidental kiss or physical intimacy already takes place. Holding each other’s hand itself clarifies both the person that something has been brewing in our hearts and it is only after some time that the final claim of love takes place until then it is all unsaid and adventurous.

A relationship takes away a lot of energy from you. A relationship needs a lot of involvement. Though everyone of us feel like it should keep walking in background along with our daily chores but it does not. It stops the moment you stop giving it the demanding attention. You have to slog very hard in a relationship. But the coolest part is that this slogging looks beautiful. No one complains about this until some day it all comes down to your ego, space, trust issues, time issues, commitment issues, loyalty issues, self-respect and personal life. It is only when you start losing the already set world of yours because of this new addition in your life do you start feeling the burden of this relationship or this relationship as a burden.

Love is beautiful and magic for sure. But remember, this love is never in the person you love, but within you. With time, we start considering love to be the person we are romantically involved in. We should be consciously aware of it in every moment that this love resides within us. That person has just been the trigger for it to be expressed and displayed. Otherwise, you are full of love already and you actually do not need anyone to feel you are in love. But then, God has created the two genders for some reason, right? So let’s not take away that from the creator. What I mean to say by saying that do not consider love to be in the person you are with is to ensure that your sanctity and your consciousness for yourself stays as it is irrespective of howsoever supportive and amicable your partner is.

The whole goof-up begins when you start expecting and dominating. You are then treated like a dog. Your self-respect is then tarnished every now and then. You become a slave of someone’s ego. You have to bear the mood swings of another person and think if you have done something wrong which made them react so unevenly. This is all very gross. The relationship if is named “Love”, then it should always display love. If a person makes mistake, it should be acceptable by them within minutes after committing. Judging your partner’s patience in relationship will only kill the feeling slowly. If that is what you are waiting for, continue disrespecting the relationship by keeping yourself and your mood above the person and relationship. But if anyway this matters to you then remember, the person with you is expecting love every moment. Even when there’s disagreement, arguments, unwanted discussions, just after the end of it, love is still expected immediately. If it does not come along with all of these, then the relationship is killing both the people or say, both the people are killing the relationship.

This Valentine’s Day, promise yourself that love is meant to be dived into without thinking about yourself, your breathe, your body, your existence. In that moment of diving, you only want to dive and swim and experience the new life. Always remember the moment when you were diving into this. Now that you have experienced and realized that there’s equal amount of challenges in the relationships as the excitement and fun, don’t forget the initial feeling you had. But if the relationship is not adding value to your life and is only giving you stress, then remember, it’s better staying single on such Valentine’s Day because as said, love is already there within you, you need not search it in someone who does not have respect for your existence in their life. This day is for feeling the presence of love within you first and then in the person you are with and celebrating this together. This is all I had to say on this beautiful day. Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers. Go and express your love like never before. Or else, sit silently with eyes closed and feel it within you.

P.S:- I apologize to all the readers who have been posting comments and mailing about my disappearance. I hope I shall be more active from now on. 

Thanks.

ABHILASH RUHELA