Richard Branson: Losing my Virginty

It was like eons ago that Kuldeep had suggested me to read this book, but somehow I never read it for years and then finally found the time to sit back , put up my legs and enjoy a good ride through Richard's life. The title might put off people, but its just that a title to grab your attention and have high recall and as the author himself says he always whats to be a bit cheeky when it comes to giving names;)

The journey begins rather just a decade ago with a balloon trip, and attempt to fly across the world that I and probably others will also faintly recall. The in-depth detail, imminent dangers and just trying to relive the journey hooked me on to the book. It isn't surprising that the author knows how to get you hooked on is it;). I believe this is what separates what Virgin has always done and still does today. It has its own personality, driven by its founder, of fun, cheekiness a bit rebellious but all in control. No challenge is too hard and there is always an itch to be different and deliver different products/services.

Quite surprising to know that Richard was dyslexic and isn't really a connoisseur of music , but was someone who saw an opportunity and just went ahead with it. I believe the lesson to be driven home is it be committed to one's idea and put it in the best work possible, seems an often heard cliche' but then you have such an inspiring example to substantiate.

One of the few mistakes to learn from, never try to take a short cut to success , however short and however risk less it may seem. No blots any where please.

There are very good reasons why reading the book now actually makes sense to me rather than during graduation.
It probably helps in understanding the difficulty in deciding to sell off something you have created and grown for decades in this case Virgin Music and after all that have the guts and gumption to start of and make head way in an altogether diverse industry- The Virgin Airlines.

What probably is not talked about much in the book but clearly stands out is the power of the Virgin brand. Reading this book would at-least make budding entrepreneurs think twice before naming their ventures cause after the brand is built and you wish to diverse utilizing its brand power, it might just be too late:)

Looking at the personality of the protagonist , he is someone who keeps challenging himself , a first rate jugadu inssan who always believes that nothing is beyond his reach and instead of the arrogance that most people display with that belief, he actually accepts plurality and has a clear openness to all sorts of people and solutions.

Things to take away from the book:
1.) Start off on your idea, start small and stay put no matter what.
2.) No shortcuts however tempting it might be.
3.) Enjoy and Explore life.
4.) Keep challenging yourself.
5.) If there is a system it can always be bettered.
6.) Blue Ocean baby!!

The Immortals of Meluha

I had read a lot about this book, great publicity and when I saw it on the bestsellers list had to check it out . Glad I did because I had a jolly good time reading it.

The book aims to be human version of the Shiva story, pegging the lord himself to be just another human with a twist that his karma makes him into a Lord worth worshiping. Whether this attempt had to made is a question I leave to the serious theists, I for one welcome the attempt for the purely creative exercise it requires. The most challenging tasks would have been to connect the personalities and events as stated by the scriptures and fit it into the current setting. What I enjoyed most was trying to figure out the inspirations the author used make the book come alive.

So then, at the start we have the tribal leader Shiva fighting off enemies from encroaching onto the Manasarovar Lake and from there the journey to uncovering the truth about his destiny is a fascinating story. There is the Harry Potter-esque self-fulfilling prophecy which is the crux of the book, the humanization of Shiva has been handled very carefully with the friendly jibes, the pain of inaction, the meandering self-doubts as well as the rash decisions made when the emotions run high. The caste system has been debated and book proposes the ideal system our generation would agree to, in theory. Then there is the age old saga of good versus evil with the twist of recognizing who is evil and who is good cause its always the winner who writes history.

The writing overall is amateurish , given the fact that its the author's first book it still delivers.Just maybe the oft repeated good vs. evil could have been toned down.
What impressed me was the finer details of the journey , the security and the battle plans that were provided ,this not only shows the effort but also gathers the readers involvement.
On the authenticity part, I gave up judging it when I was still half way through, especially when modern day hindi is used liberally given the fact that the story is set in 1900 B.C and even the jokes used are from 21st century A.D:). The book bases itself on the fact that everybody is god and delivers that message to a certain extent.The ending though in suspended animation which would be fit for a TV episode, but has been applied to a book just leaves me cursing the author:)

All in all an awesome book to chill out with this summer. (if you do not take the mash-up of mythology seriously:))

Ratings:4/5
Genre: Indian Fiction

100 popular books

List of 100 popular books by Guardian for World Book Day in 2007.

Bold - Books I have read.

Italics - I have watched the stories in movies/plays.
1 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
=8 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
=8 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations Charles Dickens
11 Little Women Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
13 Catch-22 Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare William Shakespeare (at least more than 70% of the works abridged)
15 Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia CS Lewis
34 Emma Jane Austen
35 Persuasion Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières
39 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh AA Milne
41 Animal Farm George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving
45 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies William Golding
50 Atonement Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi Yann Martel
52 Dune Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
62 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
72 Dracula Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks
94 Watership Down Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
100 Les Misérables Victor Hugo
So , in total 36 books read and 5 watched. Not bad i guess.