Books and Me

The year 2011 brings a great change in my life, it turned a guy who never read more than a few pages of book into a voracious reader. Now reading is my favorite pastime and I realised that reading brings maturity and wisdom in oneself. This page of my blog is dedicated to book reviews of all the books that i loved to read.

Who Moved My Cheese – Dr. Spencer Johnson

“Who moved my Cheese” is a 94 pages book in big print and can be read in less than an hour. This book deals with change, the only constant thing in the world. The book introduced four imaginary characters two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people Haw and Hem. Theylived in a maze and everyday in the morning, they went in search of cheese. One lucky day they found a big deposit of cheese at cheese station C. The two little people get accustomedto it. They believed that the cheese there was sufficient for the rest of their lives. They became idle and in morning, started reaching late at Cheese station C. Things were fine till one day they reached station C and didn’t find any cheese there. As it seemed, it disappeared in one night or either the earth or the walls had eaten it. They got frustrated and became angry they cried out “WHO MOVED MY CHEESE”. On the other hand absence of cheese at cheese station C didn’t surprise Sniff and Scury. They had an idea that cheese supply was decreasing there and one day cheese would get over. In spite of being annoyed or became angry they start searching for a new cheese station where they could find some more cheese. They toiled a lot and finally found a new cheese station i.e. Cheese station N, bigger than previous one.

On the other hand Haw and Ham remained there, waiting for someone to come and return their cheese. Later on, Haw realised that the cheese would never come back and he suggested Ham to move in search of new cheese station, but Ham was not ready to accept the fact that cheese could get over . He was not ready to accept the change. He believed “It’s not fair” that someone had moved his cheese. On the day, he reached the Cheese Station C he threw out his Shoes and other equipments. He also suggested Haw to remain there and to wait for someone who had moved there cheese. But Haw had realised that no one would come to return there cheese so he finally decided to move in search of new Cheese Station. Since its after a long while he was moving in maze, he found it quite difficult toguess the routes. He was making notes on walls so that if one fine day Ham would change his mind and start in search of cheese station. These notes should help him. Haw was finding it quite difficult to search a new station as he was not that much familiar with the maze then. He was cursing himself for not starting early but on other hand consoling himself for better late than never. One fine day he found a new cheese station, Cheese station N, He was surprised as he never saw a bigger cheese station than it. There he found two mice Sniff and Scury. Haw thought that it would be much better if Hem too followed him and no one knew what would happen to him.

The simple book deals with change, Cheese is being used here as a Metaphor, it can be anything like a relationship, a job etc. When the person finds that his Cheese is being moved, he is not able to accept the fact and want to live in past and remain unhappy. We must accept the change and try our best to live with that change.

Siddhartha – Herman Hesse

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse is one of the wonderful books ever written. Siddhartha is a story of a young man who throughout his life tried to follow his inner voice. Story begins when Siddhartha left his Father’s house for search of enlightenment. He believed that he couldnot worked as Brahman because there were many other Brahmans like him and he did not born to do the same thing, he wanted inner peace of mind and soul. He along with his friend Govinda left his Father’s house and went to forest to live the life of Samanas.

In forest, he learnt to deprieve himself of worldly pleasures. He fast for days and suppressed all wordly desires. But after years he became bored of that life too. He came to know that Buddha was staying in a nearby village, He along with Govinda went to meet Buddha, but he realised that buddha attained all wisdom by himself and wisdom couldnot be communicable. So he left buddha and moved on leaving Govinda there.

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As he moved on he reached a village Samsara. There he meet a youg women Kamala, he was in love with her and tried to win her. In order to win over her he became a merchant so that he would be able to give her presents. His life had changed, he was no longer the older siddhartha. Lust had caught him, He gambled and Drank wine. Time passed away and one day he realised what he was doing. He was ashamed of all that and left Kamla with his unborn son. He moved on and reached a river. He tried to do suicide by drowning himself in the river but while he moved in river, he realised that river was saying something to him. River was laughing over him. He changed his plan and slept there in woods after some time he was wakened by someone. He found it was Govinda, his old friend. Govinda was not able to identify him because he was wearing beautiful clothes and shoes. They talked with each other about their lives till then and departed.

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As Siddhartha moved on he meet a ferryman, Vasudeva. Who became his friend. Vasudeva was a philantrophic man with a big heart, he was a good listener. Siddhartha worked with him on boat and was spending his life. One day Vasudeva found an old lady in woods been biten by snake. He took her to home. When siddhartha saw her, he realised it was kamla. His son was also there with her. They were unable to save Kamla. After Kamla’s death Siddhartha looked after his son, but young siddhartha despises his Father’s politeness and one day left him. Siddhartha was heart broken. He wanted to know the reason why it happened to him then he realised one day he did the same thing by leaving his Father’s house. The life had took a full cycle. After sometime he meet Govinda his old friend and realised that he was a real disciple of buddha but no different from many other disciples. He had blindly followed the teachings of other rather than teaching himself with trial and error, and he had no regrets for his life.

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The sole aim of life is not to earn money but to create dreams and later on fulfil those dreams. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is the story of 25 such IIM Ahmedabad graduates who dare to see big dreams and later on devoted everything they possessed to make those dreams come true. They choose the rough road of entrepreneurship. They believe life is something beyond selling soaps. They wanted to do something big and later on had done something that is an example. They were diverse in age, in outlook and the industries they made a mark in. But they have one thing in common, the passion for their dreams. Their life was something more than placement and salaries.

Nothing is impossible if you have will power and patience. Every big business was at the stake of ending at one or more time. There were bad times but the people who own that business had faith in their hard labour and they took the bad time as challenege. In this book from Sanjeev Bikhchandani who own naukari.com to R Subramanian who own Subhiksha had at one time were in such a bad situation that they didn’t carry on their business further but they carried on and later on created an examplefor others to follow.

The ultimate aim to get into IIM is not to make money nor to get placement but to be at place from where you pursue follow your dreams, who would believe that a graduate from IIM who had been taught management for 2 years later on started Sugar mill and other had started a school. But its all about your inner satisfaction. Do what you want to do.

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Life is all about risks, there are so many if’s and but’s. There is always a possibility of failure in anything we do. But we need to do is to believe in ourselves, When Deep Kalra had started makemytrip.com the internet was not under essential commodity. The chances of failure of his business was more than its success. Later on when they started booking train tickets, they had to rely on irctc.co.in for booking purpose. What if for one day irctc.co.in’s servers got down. They would loose all the credit the reputation they earned, but they took risk and later on made the biggest online travel portal.

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What is important in life is the peace of soul and mind. Do what gives you happiness. Do what makes your dreams come true. Have faith in God and yourself and never ever give up. If you chase something long enough, sooner or later you will get lucky. If you are lucky then you will do it very soon, if you are moderately lucky then you will do it in sometime but if you are terribly unlucky then you will do it in some more time. The important thing is later or sooner you will do it.