Swetha Balla - aNobii

Books (56)

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- The God Delusion (77)
- By Richard Dawkins
- Reading since Nov 4, 2009
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- Wings of Fire (2)
- An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam
- By Arun Tiwari, Abul Kalam
- Finished on Nov 19, 2009
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- Dabawalas
- By Shrinivas Pandi
- Finished on Oct 29, 2009
  
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Dabawalas

The 'Dabawalas' is the story of the dabawalas in Mumbai and the lessons that are to be learnt for building lasting success based on values. It's the story of Mumbai's homemade food delivery mean, a 115 year old enterprise that is run by semi literate group of people and still has an error rate of o ... (continue)

The 'Dabawalas' is the story of the dabawalas in Mumbai and the lessons that are to be learnt for building lasting success based on values. It's the story of Mumbai's homemade food delivery mean, a 115 year old enterprise that is run by semi literate group of people and still has an error rate of one in 16 million transactions! The success of the business depends on their ability to deliver all the dabas on time and the fact they have managed to achieve it with such a low error rate is remarkable.
The book comprises of dialogues between Raghunath Megde (President of Dabawala Organization), Gangaram Talekar (General Secretary of Dabawala Organization), Anita Dalal (a journalist and well-known business consultant) and the author, Shrinivas Pandit.
The theme of the book is pretty simple in that the dabawalas did not get lost in the mad rush to increase their profits and thus burdening the customer. They truly believe in and practice the maxim "Customer is God". It's an inspirational story and helps reinforce the fact that values and ethics are more important than anything else.
In addition to the dialogues, it would have been interesting to see elaboration on some of the ordeals that the dabawalas go through and additional stories/dialogues with other members in the hierarchy in addition to Raghu and Gangaram.

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— Oct 29, 2009 | Add your feedback
- If God Was a Banker
- By Ravi Subramanian
- Finished on Oct 28, 2009
  
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If God Was a Banker

Talks about the virtue of having ethics in a highly competitive work environment.

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— Oct 28, 2009 | Add your feedback

- Education and the Significance of Life
- By Jiddu Krishnamurti
- Finished on Oct 27, 2009
  
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Education and the Significance of Life

If you are one of those who believe that the current education system is flawed, you will definitely like this book. This book poses a lot of questions on the relevance of current day's education to life. Krishnamurti emphasizes that education is not about giving people a skill-set to wade through ... (continue)

If you are one of those who believe that the current education system is flawed, you will definitely like this book. This book poses a lot of questions on the relevance of current day's education to life. Krishnamurti emphasizes that education is not about giving people a skill-set to wade through life, but helping them achieve self-awareness which in turn gives internal peace.
This is not a book to be summarized, but to be read and pondered upon. It is to definitely to be read by everyone who is a teacher or a parent.

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— Oct 27, 2009 | Add your feedback
- The Kite Runner (277)
- By Khaled Hosseini
- Finished on Oct 23, 2009
  
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The Kite Runner

Pretty similar to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - the political turmoil in Afghanistan, people moving to other countries, people dieing and building/cities being rummaged. Human redemption forms the main theme of "Kite Runner". I personally found "A Thousand Splendid Suns" more powerful and gripping ... (continue)

Pretty similar to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" - the political turmoil in Afghanistan, people moving to other countries, people dieing and building/cities being rummaged. Human redemption forms the main theme of "Kite Runner". I personally found "A Thousand Splendid Suns" more powerful and gripping compared to "Kite Runner".

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— Oct 23, 2009 | Add your feedback
- A Thousand Splendid Suns (126)
- By Khaled Hosseini
- Finished on Oct 21, 2009
  
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A Thousand Splendid Suns

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a painful story of all the hardships that two Afghani women go through. The complex political situation in Afghanistan provides the backdrop for the story. A twist of fate causes these two women to come together and the story describes the suffering they have to go th ... (continue)

"A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a painful story of all the hardships that two Afghani women go through. The complex political situation in Afghanistan provides the backdrop for the story. A twist of fate causes these two women to come together and the story describes the suffering they have to go through and how their love for each other and Afghanistan conquers everything. Reading this book helps me not only realize the painful situation in Afghanistan but also how fortunate we are to have the freedom we have, the family we have, the education we have, the jobs we have etc. Love indeed does make us act in really strange ways and helps us overcome all obstacles!

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— Oct 22, 2009 | Add your feedback
- 2 States: The Story Of My Marriage
- By Chetan Bhagat
- Finished on Oct 20, 2009
  
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2 States: The Story Of My Marriage

2 States - The story of my marriage picks up from 5 Point Someone left. The story narrates the life story of the protagonist post IIT Delhi. Chetan Bhagat mentions that although there is an element of fiction in the book, it has been inspired by his own family and experiences. 2 States is a witty ... (continue)

2 States - The story of my marriage picks up from 5 Point Someone left. The story narrates the life story of the protagonist post IIT Delhi. Chetan Bhagat mentions that although there is an element of fiction in the book, it has been inspired by his own family and experiences. 2 States is a witty story about a North Indian (Punjabi) guy and a South Indian (Tamilian) girl falling in love at IIMA and then later trying to convince their parents and relatives about the marriage and the issues they have to deal with in the process.
The book like the other books written by Chetan Bhagat are easy to read and are usually written in first person. A good portion of the book speaks the culture in North India vs. South India, the "wedding priorities" of North India vs. South India, the prejudices North Indians have against the South Indians and vice-versa. Although, the observations are on the harsher side, the author added a humorous touch to the observations and it has to be accepted that what has been written is indeed very true!

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— Oct 20, 2009 | Add your feedback

- Murder in Amsterdam (3)
- The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
- By Ian Buruma
- Finished on Oct 19, 2009
  
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Murder in Amsterdam

Ian Buruma returns to his native Dutch land to uncover the developments following Theo Van Gogh's murder. Van Gogh is murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26 year old Dutch-Moroccan for having directed a provocative movie "Submission" about women in Islam along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ian attempts at und ... (continue)

Ian Buruma returns to his native Dutch land to uncover the developments following Theo Van Gogh's murder. Van Gogh is murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, a 26 year old Dutch-Moroccan for having directed a provocative movie "Submission" about women in Islam along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ian attempts at understanding the difficulties faced by Muslims in Netherlands, the confusion the second generation Muslims undergo being unable to relate to either the liberal ways of the west or their more conservative background, the frustration of not being completed accepted and finally how all the setbacks might potentially lead to the younger generating accepting violent ways.
The first half of book introduced a lot of characters making it confusing and not so easy to follow. The use of non-English words didn't help either. But the book picked up pace and slowly focused more on the main characters - Theo Van Gogh, Mohammed Buoyeri and Ayaan Hirsi Ali and made for a more interesting read compared to the first half. I would have enjoyed the book more if the book provided more information on the background of the main characters and how it all fits together resulting in the murder of Theo Van Gogh.
The main frustration with the book however is that, Ian Buruma doesn't conclusively point out anything or provide data to support his statements or the statements of the people who have been interviewed. Nevertheless, the book provided some insights into the not-so-easy-life faced by immigrants.

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— Oct 19, 2009 | Add your feedback
- Games Indians Play
- Why We Are the Way We Are
- By V. Raghunathan
- Finished on Oct 14, 2009
  
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Games Indians Play

Games Indians Play tries to answer the question as to why Indias behave the way they do and does make for an interesting read. Game theory and behavioral economics are used to answer the question. Although, the question the book attempts to answer is interesting, most of the analysis seems to be l ... (continue)

Games Indians Play tries to answer the question as to why Indias behave the way they do and does make for an interesting read. Game theory and behavioral economics are used to answer the question. Although, the question the book attempts to answer is interesting, most of the analysis seems to be like a half-baked pie. The book starts off with establishing that most of us are perfectly rational people with selfish motives and rest of the book consists of examples establishing the fact that Indians behave with a selfish motive instead of thinking of the larger good. He concludes saying that whatever was told in the Bhagavad Gita years ago is the same as what should be done as per game theory. I am pretty sure atleast the spiritually inclined in us know that not everyone is acting as per the "dharma" (the right thing) and that is why as a society we are losing due to folks who do not follow any kind of "dharma". The analysis presented in the book should have rather been an op-ed or a simple blog post. I didn't feel there was enough meat to make it a book.
Inspite of the short-fallings, I felt the book made for an interesting read in leveraging game theory and behavioral economics with a heavier emphasis on the former compared to the latter. If not anything, it inspired me to read more books on the topics and how they can be applied in real-life :-)

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— Oct 14, 2009 | Add your feedback
- Six Suspects
- By Vikas Swarup
- Finished on Oct 12, 2009
  
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Six Suspects

Having read Q&A (a.k.a Slumdog Millionaire) by Vikas Swarup, I picked up Six Suspects. Six Suspects deals with identifying the murderer of the rich playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh during a party at his farm house. Six suspects with varied backgrounds (a corrupt bureaucrat, an Ame ... (continue)

Having read Q&A (a.k.a Slumdog Millionaire) by Vikas Swarup, I picked up Six Suspects. Six Suspects deals with identifying the murderer of the rich playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh during a party at his farm house. Six suspects with varied backgrounds (a corrupt bureaucrat, an American tourist, a tribal, a Bollywood actress, a mobile-thief and a politician) are identified at the crime spot and the police need to identify the murderer. The stories of the six suspects are narrated separately painting a picture of contemporary India. Finally all of the stories are tied back together providing insight into why all the suspects are gathered at the crime spot and possess a gun.
Although the book is not a very gripping thriller, it still does a good job of narrating six separate stories, providing glimpses of India, tying all the stories together as part of the investigation and keeping the reader engaged till the end of the book. A good weekend read!

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— Oct 12, 2009 | Add your feedback
- The Art of Project Management (7)
- By Scott Berkun
- Finished in Oct 2009
  
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The Art of Project Management

After reading several reviews, I picked up Scott's book on Project Management. It is an easy-read and I have learnt more from the book than I would have by reading various books which talk about charters, GANTT charts etc. I got a good feeling as I was focusing more on the main philosophy about Pr ... (continue)

After reading several reviews, I picked up Scott's book on Project Management. It is an easy-read and I have learnt more from the book than I would have by reading various books which talk about charters, GANTT charts etc. I got a good feeling as I was focusing more on the main philosophy about Project Management than the terminology as it relates to Project Mgmt. Although, the book has been written with a focus on Development projects, the concepts are applicable to any type of project! I would definitely recommend the book to Management interested in managing a team and the nuances associated with it.

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— Sep 30, 2009 | Add your feedback