A Fly on the RBI Wall: An Insider’s View of the Central Bank by Alpana Killawala (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

  

13^th Book of 2024

Whenever it’s about Indian institutions which are regularly in news and closely linked with people’s life and country’s progress, we, the public want to know about it’s internal process- such as DRDO, ISRO, BCCI etc. Hence, it has always been an amazing experience reading APJ Abdul Kalam’s autobiography as we get an insight upon how the intelligent brains work towards creating a missile and achieving their goal through its launch. One such institution is RBI. All of us wish to know how it functions and what actually happens behind the door. Alpana Killawala’s book “A Fly on the RBI Wall” is a wonderful book in that context as authoress has worked as an RBI official on the designation of DGM and gives us her honest observations of her experience with the country’s central bank.

 

I have myself been involved with RBI and its officials while working on their software products hence while reading, I was able to relate and empathize with many scenarios that Alpana has mentioned in the book. This 223-pages memoir is a perfect page-turner as authoress has been able to narrate her work experience in a manner where you get to learn about her milestone but most importantly, you get to know about RBI’s gradual change in its mindset as well. She worked with Communications department and therefore, she mostly tells the story from that lens. Still, the fact about how RBI functions and the challenges she faced remains the same with every individual involved with the institution working in any department.

 

I am glad the way she has bifurcated her book in order to make it an exciting read for us by timelining chapters not based on her timelines but as per the Governor’s tenure. This gave her a wonderful platform for expressing how each Governor helped RBI in their own manner and how they were different from each other. Her book mentions the tenure of the following Governors- S. Venkitaramanan, C. Rangarajan, Bimal Jalan, Y. V. Reddy, Duvvuri Subbarao and Raghuram Rajan. Alpana has this wonderful way of expressing her views where she speaks about each of these Governors in a manner where she is able to tell their good and bad points without making it feel biased or demeaning. She has done it with such elegance that no one can ever raise finger on this book with respect to insulting the Central Bank or their highly respected Governors or any officials.

 

As the title of the book goes, authoress concentrates upon how she has been just a small fly in this big world of RBI where one can’t think of doing anything enough prominent to change the way RBI functions – but yet, she was able to change multiple things on her individual level by insisting upon the change. When she joined RBI, she tells how difficult times it was because of Harshad Mehta scam and the market fall that happened just after. Her frustration with the rigid style of working made her resign but she understood soon that she can’t expect things to change instantly but if persisted, can happen in few years down the line. This is what her objective as a Central Bank employee became and she conquered many of her wills by opining her thoughts in front of Governor.

 

Her sense of humor is incredible which is evident in the way she has explained many scenarios where just a sentence makes us giggle. Few silly comments or functions at RBI also makes us think how such traditional institution takes it own time in matching up with the modern way of working. A person working in a department could change so much to bring contrast in how RBI drafted circulars, amendments, press releases to how RBI governors wrote and spoke speeches to how they interacted with media and what they did beyond their working hours is enough inspiring for all the working professionals who believe that they can’t do much in the job world.

 

In the end, author also throws light upon how Rajan’s comments would irritate government and their sour relationship impacted RBI. She also brings up the topic of demonetization and explains how RBI did its job effectively despite it not being the decision-maker. Alpana also speaks up on the current Governor- Shaktikanta Das regarding how he has balanced things well in terms of communicating as a Governor and has been non-controversial till now unlike previous Governors.

 

Definitely, while reading you can sense Alpana’s inclination towards few governors but that’s understandable because you always like the Boss who gives you wings. You tend to ignore their mistakes because of professional benefits that you get. Lastly, author speaks about both- good things about RBI and what it needs to improve as an organization which stings every employee and citizens. Overall, reading this book has been an amazing experience. It teaches a lot. I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

1700 in 70 a Walk for a Cause by Gita Balakrishnan (Book Review: 3.25*/5) !!!

 

12^th Book of 2024

 

There are times when you leave any kind of physical activity and you need a great boost to get up and restart. There can be no better medium than a book to give you that push which can help your procrastinated state to moot your status quo. Thankfully, I got my hands upon 1700 in 70 by Gita Balakrishnan at the right time. This is an autobiography written by the 53-years old woman who walked 1700 kilometers in 70 days to let the world know the importance of designers and how designs can lead to betterment of citizens living with and around us.

 

This 180-pages book is a very unique work in its own sense as authoress doesn’t try to explore much about her life but gives us a glimpse of it and then begins to talk extensively about her walkathon journey. Reading about her past makes you feel uncomfortable in the beginning but it moves you because she has moved on in life after being victim to a horrific incident like rape. It is so courageous of her to talk about it and let the world know what happened with her. She also mentions how the accused came out on bail. This tells the bad state of our judiciary system and how it can make a person suffer more than the event itself.

 

Not only speaking about her walking experiences only, Gita starts the book very nicely in terms of giving us insights on how she prepared for the same in terms of physical activity, nutrition, diet, sponsorships, social media activities etc. It tells how there’s a whole lesson of management even about such events which makes us assume that the book is only about an individual activity. One great thing that authoress have taken care is about the way chapters are planned and executed. The short chapters discuss only a small segment of this long timeline which helps us understand about her 70 days long journey in parts of a week or so. The language used to narrate her tale is also reader-friendly which makes it an easy read for all the ages and class of people.

 

The illustrations in the book helps us understand the path she covered in and through multiple states of India. It makes it easy for us to understand her journey when we read the chapters as we get the visualization of the path she has covered during this endeavor. She regularly mentions the name of even the small villages, towns and cities and explains us about its locale details, cuisines, houses, constructions, issues and people. She even mentions some local people who are going through some tough activities for the betterment of their self and society as well.

 

As I have myself visited some of the places in Madhya Pradesh such as Datia, Orchha, Jhansi etc. hence I was able to comprehend the accuracy with which Gita has described all these places and their specialties. She also keeps us updated about the kind of physical and mental challenges she had to endure through this painful journey and how she overcame them regularly. It must be applauded how she doesn’t boast much about herself but maintains the tone of letting us touch her experience of this walkathon and the grit and passion that goes to make it happen.

 

Talking about the drawbacks, I only felt that authoress spoke very less about the purpose of her walk i.e. designing element and the multiple issues which the designers, artists and artisans must be going through in our country. She touches upon a few of them but this book sounds more about just the walking experience and less about the purpose of it. As a reader, I wanted to understand how a designer must be collecting details while traveling through different landscape of India but I only got a little of it. Other than this, reading the book has been a motivation and I rate it 3.25 stars out of 5.

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WRITING BUDDHA

Sapno Ke Pankh – Choti Si Asha by Surbhi Mittal/Abhay Sahare (Book Review: 4.5*/5)!!!

 

11^th Book of 2024!

 

I read another book this weekend named “Sapno Ke Pankh – Choti Si Asha” which is written by Surbhi Mittal and Abhay Sahare. I read the Hindi version of the book as I wanted to understand how does this language entertain children through story books. I must say I am really impressed with the ease of words used by author which will help kids to understand the story and learn new words as well.

 

The book has been published by Sonalika publications who have again ensured that their children story book is written with great illustrations. This time the credit for the illustration goes to Eva Manral. I liked how she managed to illustrate all the arts and pages giving it a bit of Rajasthani traditional theme which matches perfectly with the story. Even the cover page of the book looks like a piece of art which you can hang in your bedroom.

 

The story is nicely based on a girl named Asha who loves the puppetry show she watches every day while returning to school. One day her school announces to participate in a competition where they need to present a story using a prop. She wishes to do so using a puppet but she gets upset knowing that she doesn’t have one and she might not have one due to her financial issues at home. She gets home and speaks to her grandmother about this. Eventually, how her grandma helps her achieve her target is what this story is all about.

 

The story gives a lot of lessons through its non-preachy tone and I must applaud authors with respect to how they managed to do so with such a short story. The book gives a perspective on how every kid must have a good habit out of their academic world which makes them curious and excited about learning the same art themselves as well. Author tries making children aware about the financial issues that their parents must be going through which will make them more compassionate about them and understand the difference between wants and need.

 

The story is based on a great bond that Asha shares with her grandmother which acknowledges the world-known fact of necessity of bonding between grandparents and grandchildren. Through grandmother’s ideation, book tries to teach kids about the environment-friendly alternatives they can prioritize rather than buying everything from market and adding more environment concerns. This synchronizes so well with the objective of Sonalika Publication which wishes to participate in social issues.

 

In the climax, author justifies that one can win in any competition with their efforts and not by expensive materials presented by directly procuring from market. Author herself gives a moral of the story that one needs to face a problem and find a solution rather than getting panicked. At the end of the book, there are couple of exercises and puzzles to keep children interested in solving them and get closer to the story.

 

Overall, I give this book 4.5 stars out of 5. Recommended for all the kids above 3 years of age.

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WRITING BUDDHA