Pebbles of Wisdom by Sadhguru (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

1814th BLOG POST -->>

For me, Spirituality means Sadhguru as he is the one who has made me understand it better than anyone else. He speaks bigger things in such easier language that it becomes a possibility for you. Other Yogi Gurus that I have tried following either speak too basic that we already know through our parents or grandparents or speak in such difficult philosophies that it becomes a thing for old and not for us. This has made me read many books written by Sadhguru regularly since last few years and in each one of them, even if there are few repetitive things, I have managed to find out something new which excited me to learn more. This made me go for a small book named “Pebbles of Wisdom” published by Jaico which consists of around 108 quotes or one-liners said by Sadhguru in some or the other instances.

I have never spent money on any such books as I always feel that why would one pay anything above Rs. 50 for something that can be completed or finished within an hour of reading in times where we already have abundant knowledge available for free on Internet. But somehow, I had purchased this book in the initial period of me getting into Spirituality because of excitement which I actually read now after years of having it in my shelf. I just wanted it to be my last book of the Year 2019 so that I could end the year spiritually in terms of my reading journey. I also didn’t want to rush into a book hence needed a shorter format but an insightful one. And this book has been just that.

To begin with, one should go for this book only if one has followed Sadhguru and learnt basics otherwise everything shall just be words without meaning for you which shall irritate you more and take you away from Spirituality. If you have gone through the concepts that Sadhguru endorses, this book shall work like caffeine for you where you would get answers for so many confusions in life through the quotes that has been collated in this book and feel energized and positive suddenly.

Every quote is unique which makes your perspective about every topic have some viewpoint to keep into analysis for some days before changing yourself completely for good. The catalyst that each page and quote is, I must say, that 108 seemed to be very less at the end of the book, it should have been around 500 such quotes as with every page, I felt I was getting wiser and learning to feel gratitude more and more with many of my perspectives getting changed gradually too.

The quotes talk about everything – your mind, your life, your body, what you eat, how you eat, your responsibility towards planet, how you should treat the nature, your relationship with trees, your attitude towards other people, your mortality, meditation, yoga, patriotism, joy, peace, happiness, power of breathing, yogis, money, humility, ego etc. This book covers every nature of human being and every relationship that he maintains. It helps you to understand things from spiritual perspective and go for self-introspection and gradually towards self-realization and then, self-improvisation.

This is one of the best short reads for people into Spirituality. It is just that you need to be spiritual before picking this one. It shall finish within 30-40 minutes itself. To gain more from it, you shall have to keep re-reading it whenever you have time. The only drawback that I found in this book is that there are certain contradictions as some quotes speak something and then another one speaks almost opposite about the same topic. This is because the whole explanation of the same is not provided and just the quote is shared which might create confusion. Except that, I feel that there should have been more quotes in the book.

Overall, I loved it. I give the book 4.5* out of 5.

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA 

We-Men@Work by Sanchita Ganguly (Book Review: 4.25*/5) !!!

1813th BLOG POST -->>

This year the number of books that I read on gender equality or on how girls should be empowered enough so that they have equal rights as boys is commendable. When society changes, such small steps such as a column in a newspaper or a blog post or a book plays a big part in spreading it in people’s mind. But then it also becomes equally important to ensure that the subject is treated with care in order to assure that wrong messages or ideology is not being spread that it ends up doing more damage than any kind of good for the society. One book that I recently completed reading on the same topic is written by a woman herself, Sanchita Ganguly, with the title “We-Men@Work” which comes with the tagline “A Conversation Starter for Practicing Gender Neutrality at Indian Workplaces”. The book is published by Notion Press publication in around 150 odd pages.

Sanchita’s motive behind writing this book is so pure and apt that you can feel the intention in each and every sentence. As I mentioned above, writing books on such topics becomes a big responsibility and I must say Sanchita has owned it very perfectly. This is one of the rare books I have gone through where it is not about demeaning men for the sake of proving that women are being pulled down from opportunities etc. Generally, it becomes very easy for any writer or columnist to write on how men are favoured over women and thus prove that both the genders are not at par with each other and women needs to be worked on. But here, Sanchita speaks without any bias being a woman herself, which is very commendable. Her 1^st sentence itself in defining the book is that both the genders are biologically different and she carries this very well throughout the book on how both of them should be dealt with respectively.

The 1^st chapter talks about how Gender Neutrality is different from Gender Equality which gives the book a great start as we are able to understand what actually is needed to be done to ensure both the gender feels that rules are meant specifically for them which has not been made by keeping them out of picture. Author then talks about how the shift in approaching gender starts early while we are growing up as kids, while searching for suitable match for marriage, pregnancy time and other many occasions. Author also covers how in workplace, the rules and regulations doesn’t do justice to both the genders always which creates very tough environment for both of them to prove their excellence and loyalty.

I am glad author also covers the dilemma of men’s work-life balance thing as this is something which no one speaks about but the way author has discussed in this book reassures my faith in authors speaking on this topic. The book also mentions the important question that who can help to beat this concern and bring the change and this being the last chapter is also a nice closure to this book which creates high expectations in you that if you try, there shall be change, also, things shall be changed accordingly by others too.

The book can be finished in a single sitting because of the way it has been published plus the division of chapters etc. The book has only positive vibes even after being on such complex topic. Few drawbacks that I would like to mention in the end of this review are:- The cover page should have been brilliant for this well-written book. Also, the title of the book is written in such a manner that you might not be able to understand what exactly it is. The book should also have discussed the recent Me Too movement and how it impacts the genders specifically. The way IKEA is given as an example occasionally, author should have come up with more such real-life examples to show how the things are already in place and these can be replicated easily. There should have been little more research.

Except the above few points mentioned, I must say, this book can be a catalyst at least in those minds who shall go through it. I give this book 4.25 stars out of 5. Please do read it if you believe in starting the change by being the change yourself.

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA 

Movie Review: Good Newwz: One of the sensible comedy movies! ****

1812th BLOG POST --->>

There used to be a time in Bollywood when we got comedy movies every now and then and it was fun watching them but slowly, the frequency in which they come has become very less and over that, most of the comedy movies are so disappointing with no-brainer that we end up missing them to save ourselves from their atrocities to our brain. And talking among the Superstars who are actually known for doing comedy movies are only two- Govinda and Akshay Kumar out of which Govinda is away from the game and even Akshay Kumar comes with silly Housefull franchisee in the name of comedy. But this time his choice of being part of the movie- Good Newwz has been so exceptional that it can make him rethink if he has to end up doing only patriotic stuffs or should make equally good comedy movies too.

Good Newwz is about IVF – a topic that needs to be spoken of with people to ensure that people adopt it sooner to ensure happy life. But it comes with its own funny plot where the sperms get exchanged and now the two respective pregnant women are going to be giving birth to a child who is born with sperms of not their husband but someone else. This makes the plot of the movie too funny with incidents where both the couples are in confused mind whether they should be happy of getting pregnant after 7 years or worried about this. On the top of this, both the couples belong from different segment of society- Akshay-Kareena are from affluent rich Mumbai-based couple whereas Diljit-Kiara are from Chandigarh wearing weird fashionable clothes and talking in broken English. Hence, the conversations between them create a lot of laughter moments.

Being one of the mindful laughter movies which shall always be listed in best comedy movies made in this decade, the movie also talks about many issues or mindsets such as:-

1.       The reservations people have for going with IVF way of reproduction.

2.       The way men don’t empathize much with the feelings and issues women goes through in pregnancy.

3.       How in metro cities people in awe of career growth procrastinate the topic of having children.

4.       How society doesn’t let a couple roam freely once they are married and don’t have kids around them.

5.       How people are not going for adoption believing that it can’t replace the feeling of having own blood.

6.       How abortion is casually given as an option by men without thinking once about the woman who is carrying the baby.

7.       The way high-class society has reservations in accepting or bonding with a middle-class society as their regular friends.

These are few observations I had while watching the movie which I am sure you shall also be able to identify in the scenes when it becomes prominent without sounding too preachy. I am purposely not mentioning the scenes to not ending up having this as a spoiler review.

Dialogues are very nice and they are able to make you laugh like mad, smile and even cry at times. The cameraperson has done a wonderful job along with the recce team as even the home and hospital interiors are captured so beautifully that you shall fall with love in Mumbai once again. The songs are okay which gel up with the ambience of the movie but are forgettable. The climax is beautiful which makes this movie special.

Performance-wise, Akshay Kumar, like always, does justice and plays his part so perfectly that most of the times he is the one who ensures that comic timing is pitch perfect which entertains the audiences. Kareena Kapoor, in her role, swings beautifully from a smart corporate high-class employee to a simple woman who has motherly feelings and expectations at home. She has done a very good job. Diljit Dosanjh is at par with Akshay Kumar in ensuring that we are entertained and his way of dialogue delivery etc. are fantabulous. Talking about Kiara, she displays her acting prowess as she plays a character completely opposite to what she played in Kabir Singh and does perfectly well with her comedy scenes too. With this, the supporting cast such as Adil Hussain and Tisca Chopra have also played an important role in the movie as Doctor couple.

Overall, the movie gives you a wonderful vibe as a movie buff and as this is one of the rare sensible comedy movies in this decade, I will not shy in giving this movie 4 stars out of 5. Please go and watch this movie.

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA 

The Heart of Success by Om Swami (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

1811th BLOG POST -->>

Just as in movies, we appreciate the combination of few Actor-Director and ensure that we watch their movies always without missing any of them, for readers, there are similar successful combination of Author-Publisher where we ensure that we don’t miss reading the book of an author if published by a specific publisher. One such combination I always love is of Jaico Publication and Author Om Swami. As I had begun reading spiritual books few years ago, there were many books of Om Swami that I went through and understood complex terms and philosophies easily with the help of his beautiful writing.

This time, Om Swami has done something different and come up with a book more on Business Principles than Spirituality which is something refreshing and exciting. To start with, the cover page of the book is so beautiful that I picked the book because of it and later got to know that it’s by one of my favorite authors. The name of the book is “The Heart Of Success” with the tagline of “6 Business Principles To Up Your Game”. As the author was once into the corporate world before he took up spirituality, he has practical experiences of the game and that is what he shares in this great book.

Author shares the six sacred principle where the initials of each alphabet in the word “SACRED” are used to define each point such as to implement the pointers in life- S for Self, A for Approach, C for Competence, R for Resources, E for Efforts and D for Destiny. Similarly, to implement in Business, the pointers are as follows: - S for Sales, A for Accounting, C for Customers, R for Returns, E for Energy and D for Determination. I will not discuss what author has described within each of these points but I must say it’s a distinct approach towards how we handle ourselves in life and business and how we can bring great change by applying a different process and approach.

Reading about how author himself dealt with challenges in getting few things accepted at the management level plus other stories and funny scenarios that are mentioned in the book makes it an interesting read rather than just pointers and bulleted points within them. Author makes you walk with him in his own journey and learn from the applications he made in his process. The book not only ends with this but also discusses “The Insanely Epic Model” where again a word is identified from the alphabets in the word “EPIC” to derive the pointers which can help us in becoming brave and epic such as E for Enthusiastic, P for Persistent, I for Independent and C for Clear.

Overall, the book teaches you in how to excel in your working style and life which is of great help with easier implementation. I give this book 4 stars out of 5. Looking forward from more such books from Om Swami.

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA