God is a Gamer!

When Blogadda sent me this book for review, I had very high expectations. I have heard a lot of rave reviews about his books. I expected nothing less from his current novel. As I started reading this book, I was convinced that the book would live up to my expectations.
Touted as the world’s first bitcoin thriller, Ravi Subramanian’s novel God is a gamer is woven around the lives of a few politicians,bankers,crooks, gamers with ‘Bitcoin’ and an anonymous online market place for shady deals called cotton trail playing a crucial role in the story. The plot moves from Washington's congress to Delhi's finance ministry, the beaches of Goa to the corporate boardrooms of Mumbai.
Unlike his previous books, banking does not play a major role in this book, instead the book is high on online gaming on facebook and “Bitcoin” which is touted as the currency of the future. It is very clear from the book that the author has done extensive research on facebook games/online games, bitcoins etc.,After reading the book, many gamers will understand why they are stuck at a particular level in certain online games. I had never known so much went behind a gaming console.
There are so many twists and turns thrown along with many emotions like romance, revenge, greed that the pages turn by themselves. As one reads the book,the investigator in you comes to many conclusions only to be proven wrong in the climax. Another plus in the book is the narration divided into many small chapters and most of them end in cliffhangers which maintains the suspense and whets the appetite of the reader. Setting some small differences apart, this is a really good read and I recommend this to anyone who loves thriller!
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Signing Off,
Nirvaan

Shoes of the Dead..

If there has to be one word to describe this piece of literature it is 'Captivating'. I cannot thank Blogadda enough to present me this opportunity to review this book. The genre is a refreshing change from all the rom-coms the new age Indian authors are coming up with. The way the details are presented in such an articulate fashion would make even the best in the business proud! 

The story of a farmer, who succumbs to the pressures of life, crushed by successive crop failures and the burden of debt, and finds death to be the easier way out. As fate would have it, the powerful district committee of Mityala routinely dismisses the suicide and refuses compensation to his widow.

Gangiri, the farmer's brother, who fights for justice to his brother’s widow is the main protagonist of the story, while Keyur Kashinath, The antagonist of the Democratic Party.

The tone of the book is highly empathetic and it seems to have a heart of its own. The brilliant farmer battles his inheritance of despair, the arrogant politician fights for the power he has received as legacy. Their two worlds collide in a conflict that pushes both to the limits of morality from where there is no turning back. At stake is the truth about ‘inherited’ democratic power. And at the end, there can only be one winner. Passionate and startlingly insightful, Shoes of the Dead is a chilling parable of modern-day India.

One of the lines which struck me was "Where booked enjoyed better air conditioning than half of country's population" "Where family of dead farmer owned land, compensation was denied, so that family is forced to sell off land, where they had no land, compensation was granted so that debt could be repaid in cash".

The cover of the book and the sepia adds to the grave tone which is very well complemented with the narration. This sort of humane rendition to the characters and the storyline makes the narration effective and easy to understand. The dilemmas associated with pride and poverty are very well-sketched. The dilemmas faced by committees and the discomfort faced by people are also nicely done. This is a piece that will make you amble through the corridors of power and politics of India along with a perfect portrayal of how its consequences creep into the lives of the farmers forcing them to commit suicide.

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Signing Off,

Nirvaan

A very Indian approach to management- Business Sutra

Every time I read a book, I try to find, what is different in it, and what the author must have thought before penning it down. As a Management student, business obviously excites me. We have been taught the principles of Management, which precisely are the ones derived from the practices and experiences of the western nation. Seldom do we see someone coming out with an Indian Approach to Management. There might be a Kishore Biyani who comes out with a “It happened in India” but that is not very frequent. In this book, the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and a veteran of over twenty five books and 400 articles on Indian Mythology comes up with something which was so long not thought of. Business Sutra by Devdutt Pattanaik is a masterpiece on business as it brings together the two most powerful things of our country – mythology and business (of course after cricket and Bollywood). Very rarely you come across a book on business which is so beautifully written that you remain in awe long after you have finished reading it. We might have had ‘As is belief, so is behavior, so is business. This is business sutra, a very Indian approach to management.’ We have always believed that the very base of our society has been made up on the various beliefs and myths from the Vedas and the other religious scriptures. However, to imagine the base of business being set on this is something one would have never imagined. Although I have heard tremendous things about his previous works, but this is his first book that I have gone through one, and trust me now I am going to go through all his previous works as well. True to its name the book begins with giving us a primer on comparison between the deep-seated beliefs of Indian (Jain, Buddhist and Hindu) and Western mythology that are derived from Greek and Biblical roots, and the two complimenting Chinese belief systems. You lean why the western managers have a high regard for order, while we in India are not worried with all the chaos around us. In Business Sutra Devdutt Pattanaik takes you on a mythological journey using symbols, stories and rituals to relate to how we look at doing business and how it is different from what western beliefs teach us. In fact the use of images and symbols to depict things and make business sense out of it was impeccable. He depicted things in a way I had never seen before, which compelled me to finish the book in one sitting. He questions the way of management we follow. In fact it is one of the basic premises of this book. Our approach of management is completely derived from the western approach to business, whereas the culture here, in India is quite complex and diverse than the west. How is it supposed to work effectively here? No doubt, the western approach is delivering numbers and goals but how do we justify it as the most optimal way of doing business in India or actually the many India’s that we have within our geographical boundaries?

About the Author

Devdutt Pattanaik has written over twenty five books and 400 articles on Indian mythology for everyone from adults to children. Since 2007 he has been explaining the relationship between mythology and management through his column in the Economic Times; the talk he gave at the TED India conference in 2009; and the show Business Sutra which ran successfully on CNBC-TV18 in 2012, besides numerous other lectures at Indian Universities and management institutes. 

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!