Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Goal

I recommend this book because...
This book opens the eyes of anyone interested in management to the fundamentals of running a business. It is wrapped inside a very interesting (and yes, even thrilling!) "real-life" story which is written so well that this book could be a best-seller just because of it.


The Goal is a fictional story about Alex, a manufacturing plant manager, struggling with the success of his plant as well as his marriage. His plant has undergone a serious downturn despite various improvements with new technology and higher efficiencies. He’s been given an ultimatum to turn the plant around or it will be shut down and the story is about his struggle and realizations of trying to recover the plant. His work centric lifestyle drives his wife to question their marriage and she moves out on him during this time so Alex is in a real bind and has to find ways to save both his plant and marriage!

Give it a try and you will know reading management novels is sometimes interesting too.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Eat Pray and Love

I just finished Elizabeth Gilbert's much-celebrated travelogue memoir, Eat Pray and Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. I must say I have mixed feelings about the book.
I read this book because it was showcased in Oprah's book club and also I was curious to know what the author had to say about India.

Here is what I think:

1. Before leaving for her journey Elizabeth had received an offer from a publication to write a book on her travel. So I think she started her journey with one of the intent of writing a book. It felt as if she was experiencing everything from the point of view of writing a book.
2.She has not mentioned in the book how exactly she managed the money part for 1 year of her travel. If anyone who has money to travel for an year without worrying about the financial aspects would have written a similar kind of a travelogue (probably better!)
3.Lizy goes to Italy - eats, eats, eats and learns Italian. There is nothing special about the people she meets or the incidences she has mentioned.
4. Next she goes to India. She is a separated and a depressed woman who at one point thinks that she is schizophrenic - meditation changes her state of mind completely.
6. Then she goes to Indonesia. Learns medicine from a medicine man. Elizabeth is going through problems in her marriage. She decides not to be in romantic relationship again. And guess what? There she falls in love with another man.
7. There are problems in every relationship. How does changing the partner made a difference in her life? That is not mentioned in the book...
8. She had no big epiphanies, there were no enlightening experiences shared with readers that would let us know that she has a different outlook/ perspective towards the world.
9. The readers will probably know what was different in the new relationship and how her changed state of mind helped the relationship (hopefully) to survive in her next book.
10. This book is worth reading only for the author's meditation experiences. Everything else in the book is blasé.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Pune - India



Poverty, richness, slums, huge buildings, garbage, cleanliness, temples, traffic, natural beauty, pollution, population – you name it and India has it. I visited India after three long years. Same old Pune looked new to me, it didn’t feel artificial like the western world. In one word I found it REAL…
I bring to you this video with real places, real people and real animals on the roads :)

Don’t forget to put your headphones on.

‘UNITY IN DIVERSITY’