November, 2010 archive
Review: The Caged Phoenix by Dipankar Gupta 0
The book , “The Caged Phoenix – Can India Fly” is another realistic look at India today. The author has used his field studies in factories and villages to find out the actual extent to which poverty has declined and finds that it is still widespread.
He says ” The Indian affluents like to believe that they are not just a world apart from the grime around them, but in fact , world class”. Another interesting discussion on perception vs reality in India . The distance between the elite and the poor is so large, that they have no empathy for the millions who work for them and contribute to their wealth. He contrasts India with Europe and England where the Whig aristrocrats went out of their way to devise policies to protect the poor and improve their condition. He believes that India can grow only if the government can efficiently deliver health, education and other public goods.
The Caged Phoenix – Can India Fly – by Dipankar Gupta
Publisher : Penguin Books India
Pages : 322
Review : Games Indians Play by V.Raghunathan 0
The book Games Indian Play – Why we are the way we are looks at the possible reasons why Indians are individually hardworking and intelligent, but as a nation, a large section of the population remains illiterate , lives below the poverty line and public infrastructure is poor.
Some of the features of Indians which are discussed in the book include low trustworthiness, lack of self regulation and sense of fairness ( not the Fair and Lovely kind), mistaking talk for action . He uses game theory to find the reasons behind this behaviour . He narrates several incidents where Indian businessmen out to make the quick buck, lose out in the long term. The “crab in a bucket” syndrome makes difficult for an individual to excel however good he or she may be, when every one around trying their best to pull the person down. Western countries like USA, Germany, France, Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea appreciate talent and hard work to a much greater extent, which is why they are economically so advanced.
Games Indians Play – Why we are the way we are by V.Raghunathan
Pages : 170
Publisher : Penguin Books
Review: Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murty 0
This book looks at the pros and cons of life in USA and India through the eyes of Gouramma , who has lived in Bangalore for most of life and whose son Chandru works in the USA. She fails to appreciate the many qualities and the hard work of her Indian daughter in law Vinuta and blindly ignores the many faults of her US based daughter in law Jamuna, till it is too late.
A general reflection on how talent and hard work in India is rarely recognised, but a person with less talent or knowledge is revered just because he or she is US based. The book was originally written in Kannada , so like Mahasweta reviewed earlier, certain nuances are lost in the English translation.
Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murty
Pages : 142
Publisher : Penguin India
Review : The Great Indian Middle Class by Pavan K.Varma 0
The book ” The Great Indian Middle Class” looks at the evolution of the Indian middle class from the pre Independence era till date. The author notes that Jawaharlal Nehru , the first prime minister of India was modern, had a scientific and rationalist outlook and did not care much for religious rituals.
However, in recent years as people have become wealthier and acquired more materialistic goods like consumer gadgets, many of them have also become less modern in some ways, blindly spending time and money on irrational activities. He notes that an educated middle class person will publicly denounce some of the harmful traditions like dowry , but will privately do exactly the opposite. In the chapter ” Inner Landscape” , he notes that “The young in the middle class are even more susceptible to blindly imitating the West than their parents were”, which is very true.
He concludes by noting that a nation will not be considered great or a superpower if only a small section of its society is wealthy, but when it also treats its poor and vulnerable with care and concern. This book gives a very realistic glimpse of Indian society society, shorn of all the hype and gloss.
The Great Indian Middle Class by Pavan K.Varma
Pages : 243
Publisher : Penguin India
Review : Wise & Otherwise by Sudha Murty 0
This is a collection of 50 short stories which reflect the good, bad and ugly facets of human nature. Most of the stories are 2 to 3 pages long, but provide glimpses of society today.
One thought provoking story is “The truth about women” , Page 144 , where she reflects that though women have equal rights on paper, in reality their status is different in India and harassment from narrow minded men is common. She also notes that in countries where women are truly treated fairly and with respect are those which also enjoy the high per capita income.
Wise & Otherwise by Sudha Murty
Pages : 224
Publisher : Penguin books
Review : Connect the Dots by Rashmi Bansal 0
If you read the news and reports in the mainstream media, being an entrepreneur in India is simple – have a good product or service at a competitive price, do some marketing. But the ground realities are very different, there is no shortage of companies (especially the bigger ones) who will try to destroy your business by spreading false rumours and using every dirty trick in their book to harm you.
“Connect the Dots” has stories of 20 Indian entrepeneurs who have built their business . While she covers the usual things like the finances, branding, product, marketing, the best part of the book are the underhand methods companies use to damage / destroy their competitors. Dirty tactics may work for commodity products , but unhappy people are unlikely to produce results if it involves innovation or research. A good read for any one who is planning to or has become an entrepreneur after a corporate job and has no family business background or support.
Connect the Dots by Rashmi Bansal
Pages : 305 (excluding photographs)
Publisher : Eklavya Education Foundation