3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success by Meera Gandhi (Book Review: 4*/5) !!!

  

30^th Book of 2022

 

I remember reading snippets from Ankur Warikoo’s first book “Do Epic Shit” all over on Instagram and LinkedIn. It is written with a very user-friendly strategy which allows reader to open any page and read it as every page is independent and insightful. Author, Meera Gandhi, has gone a little more creative with her style of writing in her latest book which I have just completed named “3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success”. As you can find that the title of the book describes the number “3” along with three words i.e. Peace, Joy and Success. Similarly, the book is divided into sections which again talks about three main aspects of life: Work, Life and Self. Further, drilling down into this, in every chapter that author has written to guide us about something, it begins with Three basic tips to deal with it. Hence, reading every chapter will make you feel as if you are watching an Instagram reel which is trying to guide or inspire you in as less words as possible.

 

Meera’s writing style is very easy-to-go which will allow every age group to read it easily without being lost in difficult words or unwanted jargons. The chapters are of just 1-2 pages which makes it easy for you to keep turning pages and finish the book within 2-3 hours itself. Though, I would suggest to read 2-3 chapters everyday and journal your thoughts about it before moving ahead as it will prove more insightful and effective in this manner.

 

I liked how Gandhi has mostly mentioned events and experiences from her own life in order to make the reader understand the concepts she wants to speak about. It all then sounds real and something you tend to believe in. Generally, self-help books only speak in bullet points or hypothetical situations but here, authoress’ attempt to speak to us as an elder sister who is sharing her own instances with us and how it made her learn the same, helps us adopt it immediately.

 

In the Work-related section, author has not been unreal like many articles these days which only talks about how work should be done casually prioritizing only yourself. She has ensured that she covers important aspects to be professionally or entrepreneurially successful by emphasizing upon academics, hard work, leadership, ownership, entrepreneurship, goals creation, conflict resolutions etc. Starting book with such aggressive content makes you feel over-charged and motivated to give your best in whichever field you are. This has been a good approach over starting the book with other two topics which are mainly on calmness.

 

The chapters in Life and Self sections are almost of the same kind hence there’s nothing prominent about isolating this into two separate parts but yet Meera has tried to focus on few pointers in each of these bifurcated categories to make it easily graspable. She speaks about how we can keep our life positive, radiant, balanced, abundant and active. She gives tips on how we can deal with problems and difficult situations in life. The importance of friendship and holding onto these special people is given prominence in one of the chapters.

 

Further, in the last section, author takes bit of a spiritual turn and repetitively tries to bring light upon the importance of yoga, meditation and mindfulness. I loved how she tries to speak on these topics without getting into depth but how she felt after participating in it is elaborated which will make the people wanting to get into this side of activities give it a try. This section basically covers two of the major topics mentioned in the title of the book – Peace and Joy. The closing thoughts – which is the last chapter in the book explains a concept with the example of an acorn. It was such a great way to finish this book. It gives you sense of positivity that we are limitless and powerful enough to bring big changes through us. Author’s way of talking in the book also teaches how to remain grounded and humble even after achieving success in life.

 

Overall, this is a short book which you can easily finish in hours and learn a lot from it. I would basically recommend it for students as they need these insights early in their life to understand the priorities well. I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

The Protectors of Kavaach by Pranay (Book Review: 4.25*/5) !!!

  

29^th Book of 2022

Long time since I have been away from books and wanted to get back to reading as I am still around 7 books behind my yearly target and a week has already passed for the last month of the year. I needed a book which could generate interest within me not only to finish but enjoy it too. Knowing that I love books based on mythology, epic and ancient history, I picked Pranay Bhalerao’s latest release named “The Protectors of Kavaach” which is also the first book in Kavaach trilogy. The book is published by the author himself in around 309 pages which seems to be a lengthy book but once you’ll start reading it, the surprise elements and the thrilling aspect keeps you glued. You’ll be able to finish it before the estimated time for sure.

 

The book speaks of three different timelines- 600 BCE, 570 BCE and the present times. The characters from the 600-570 BCE are the same whereas the ones in the present day are another set of people trying to understand the super-natural activities happening with and around them. While reading the ancient history, you will get the references of Mahabharat and you’ll love relating those parts with the epic characters. The present-day section has characters which makes you relate them to the ones you read in the ancient history section and this fight keeps the reader within you excited and curious. It’s mainly about safeguarding Kavaach which is being secured by someone in every generation and the ritual should continue.

 

Talking about the writing style, Pranay’s command over the language is impressive. The way he has been able to explain the action scenes between the characters – mostly the fighting scene of Kaal in the jungle is something which tells about his calibre. Similarly, as he is a technology professional, the implementation of cyborgs in the present-day story gives an amazing thrilling angle. His choice of separating the ancient story in two different parallel sections of 600 BCE and 570 BCE has been such a perfect implementation that more than present day, I wanted to just keep reading about these two sections and know why the relationship dynamics have changed between the same characters within the time span of 30 years. The way Pranay defines the whole aesthetics of mine, kavaach, coals, Trishula tells us about his creative and imaginative prowess. His creativity is embedded in almost every segment.

 

The characters are treated beautifully. The emphasis given on Aryana and Kaal is commendable. The way their camaraderie and growing maturity of their relationship is portrayed makes you imagine the whole segment as the one we saw in the recent RRR movie. Similarly, the present-day section makes you relate many scenes with the Brahmashtra movie. Saharshee’s character and the whole ambience of ashram is again done justice with. His views towards Kaal and the kind of treatment given to Kaal by him is an interesting section to read. It reminds us of Dronacharya-Eklavya scene or the whole Karna section in Mahabharat. Similarly, Rudra and all the characters along with him are given an emotional touch which makes you cheer for them whenever they are involved in a fighting or action scene. Rudra’s relationship with his grandfather is applaudable. I just feel that more coverage could have been given to the team of Shaurya, Teena and Shaksheet too. They sound like an isolated gang in the story. Haha!

 

Initially, the book might be a slow-read as you are trying to understand the three different timelines plus the multiple characters where each of them are being given certain importance in the story. But the moment you start understanding the characters and their persona, the story starts getting on you. The blend of fiction, fantasy, mythology, religion, history, science and super-natural elements make this book an outstanding attempt of making the reader visualize everything in their brain. Author has been successful enough in making you see the world he has created. I was very skeptic in the pre-climax section of the book as things were being narrated very slowly so I thought if there would be an amazing set-up with which the book will be ended - Thankfully, the climax has been such an astounding experience that I just can’t wondering how the story would proceed in the second book of this series.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I must say that the book could have been edited well – atleast by making it shorter by 30-40 pages. I felt that the story had lots of scope of adding philosophical element which has been missed out by the author. Adding that would have given many great insights about human minds and life in general. As I mentioned above, I found few characters little ignored – giving equal weightage to them could have made it more actionable. The whole section where a story is written in the italic form which a character reads sounded quite underwhelming as it didn’t have a very strong bond with the current plot. Lastly, I felt that the author wrote the book from pitching it to movie-makers for adaptation hence many scenes sound more like reading a movie screenplay than book.

 

Overall, this is an interesting read and one of the fresh stories I have read this year from this genre. I would give this attempt 4.25* out of 5. Looking out to read the 2^nd part of the story soon. Hope Pranay releases it by 2023.

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WRITING BUDDHA 

Rethinking Money and Capital by Swapnil Pawar (Book Review: 4.25*/5)

  

28^th Book of 2022

 

I have actually never read books on economics though I have read many books on personal financial management. I recently picked a book named “Rethinking Money and Capital” written by Swapnil Pawar which is of around 365-pages. It also has a tagline which specifies the subject covered in this non-fiction book- “New Economics for QE, Stimulus, Negative Interest, and Cryptocurrencies”. Author has tried his best to explain some concepts in easier language to ensure that every reader reaps benefits out of it. There are some parts which are really easy to understand whereas there are few terms and concepts which are difficult to comprehend. I believe people from economics background would love deep-diving into the concepts that author tried explaining but for a layman like me, the book will be effective only in sections.

 

Author discusses nation’s economy in detail and tries to elaborate on what all aspects impact it – either positively or negatively. Swapnil tries to make us understand how things actually works from a nation or world point of view. The concept of supply and demand is thrown a light upon through which how money is not a resource like other constraints like land and minerals is proven. The role of both- businesses and government is specified in various chapters in order to make us clear about who can drive what and how. I liked the way author explains inflation and factors resulting to it and what remedy can be taken against it.

 

The book talks about the improvement needed in both- developing and emerged economies. The chapter on Savings and Investment is my favourite as it spoke about concepts I knew prior and getting to learn it from an economist’s perspective made it more interesting. It was very new for me to know about how investments are funded and the whole procedure of it. While giving examples or talking about the whole evolution of few theories, the way Pawar explains the whole curve starting from 17^th century is interesting to read. It’s like knowing our history from financial aspect too along with reading a throughout economics book.

 

There is a very good example where author tries to explain the value of Rs. 100 currency note against Rs. 100 meal. Reading it made me change my whole perspective towards having money as savings with me or valuables purchased from it. The difference between expenditure policy and fiscal policy is written almost in a way that you’ll feel as if you are reading some research paper on the topic. It’s so apt and resourceful. Author uses the concept of Money multiplier model to help us understand the concept which many financial influencers speak upon i.e. compounding effect of money. Similarly, Swapnil elaborates on what he means by modern money and that’s another new term and perspective I got to read about.

 

The whole loan system and how bank makes money out of it vs how we can look at the credit system from customer point of view is thrown light upon in the last few pages. I really liked the way author has divided even the chapters into sections and further, sections into sub-sections. Within the sub-sections, there are bullet points which makes it evident on the kind of determined knowledge and research author has invested his time in. Overall, this book is great for economics experts but little overwhelming for laymen. I will still give it 4.25* out of 5 for its focused detail on the topic and doing justice with it.

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WRITING BUDDHA