How would one explain the Kindle to Charlie Dickens…?

No wait; that’s a separate blogpost. Let’s get to know Charlie a little better first.

Charles Dickens: The name conjures up visions of plum pudding and Christmas punch, quaint coaching inns and cosy firesides, but also of orphaned and starving children, misers, murderers, and abusive schoolmasters. Dickens was 19th century London personified – he survived its mean streets as a child and, despite being largely self-educated, possessed the genius (that trademark leftie trait) to eventually become the greatest writer of his age.

Charlie was born on February 7, 1812, the son of a clerk at the Navy Pay Office. His father, John Dickens, continually living beyond his means, was imprisoned at the Marshalsea(a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark) in 1824 for failing to pay his debts.

A 12-year-old Charles was subsequently removed from school and sent to work at a boot-blacking factory – earning six shillings a week to help support the family. This experience cast a shadow over the clever, sensitive boy, and became a defining episode in Charlie’s life. (He would later lament, “How I could have been so easily cast away at such an age.”)

This childhood poverty and feelings of abandonment, although unknown to his readers until after his death, would be a heavy influence on Dickens‘ later views on social reform; and not least on the world he would create through his fiction.

Not surprisingly, Dickens’ characters are some of the most memorable in fiction.

Often these characters were based on people that he knew: Wilkins Micawber and William Dorrit (his father), Mrs. Nickleby (his mother). In a few instances Dickens based the character too closely on the original and got into trouble, as in the case of Harold Skimpole in Bleak House, based on Leigh Hunt, and Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield, based on his wife’s dwarf chiropodist.

Their names, too, are funkier than most. Characters such as Sweedlepipe, Honeythunder, Bumble, Pumblechook, and M’Choakumchild are recognizable as Dickensian even by those unfamiliar with the stories.

Charlie’s friend and biographer, John Forster, said that Dickens made “characters real existences, not by describing them but by letting them describe themselves.”  Characters such as Scrooge (miserly) and Pecksniff (hypocritically affecting benevolence) became defining terms in everyday vernacular.

Charlie would go on to write 15 major novels and countless short stories and articles before his death on June 9, 1870.

He wished to be buried, without fanfare, in a small cemetery in Rochester, but the Nation would not allow it. He was laid to rest in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey, the flowers from thousands of mourners overflowing the open grave.

Incidentally, among the more beautiful bouquets were many simple clusters of wildflowers, wrapped in rags.

More about him later, though; must get back to my very empowering ‘Five Point Someone’.

In the meantime, please feel free to buy/rent, and academically fondle thereafter, the following Dickensian Classics at INDIAreads;

1. A Christmas Carol: You know the tale, you’ve seen the movies, but if you haven’t read the book you’re missing half the story. Dickens‘ little tale of human redemption has a million versions out there; make sure you get the original at INDIAreads.

2. David Copperfield: Charlie’s eighth novel was a thinly disguised autobiography, with many of the story lines mirroring Dickens‘ own life. ”Dickens never stood so high in reputation as at the completion of Copperfield.” – John Forster, Dickens‘ friend and first biographer.

3. Great Expectations: Strongly autobiographical again; though not as openly as in David Copperfield. Charlie actually reread Copperfield before beginning Great Expectations – to avoid unintentional repetition. Called Dickens‘ darkest work by some, it was very well received by Victorian readers and remains one of his most popular works today. Many consider it his greatest use of plot, characterization, and style – and a masterpiece of literary work.

At the 2010 Lit Fest;

1. Catherine Clement, French intellectual and author of ‘Edwina and Nehru: A Novel’ and Nayantara Sahgal, Jawaharlal Nehru’s niece discussed the roaring affair between Jinnah and Sarojini Naidu. “It is well known in France. Why is it not spoken of in India?” asked Clement. Came the reply, “Because our national leaders are not allowed to have sex organs.” Sahgal and Clement also agreed that Sahgal’s ‘maamu’ was a beautiful man while Edwina was ‘nice’.

2. The toothsome Bangladeshi author Shazia Omar had to be shepherded through crowds of autograph-seeking men. Subsequent to getting her autograph on brand new notebooks came the question, “What is your name, madam?”

3. Hanif Kureishi, irritable about being on a panel called ‘Migrant Words’, snapped, “I have moved a few kilometres within London. That’s the extent of my migration.”

4. At one Litfest venue (the Mughal Tent), speaker Amitava Kumar stopped to salute William Dalrymple, who’d just entered. He went on: “I hear Dalrymple is soon taking over the world. This is how the East India Company began; one Mughal tent at a time.”

5. Hearing a ‘whoosh-whoosh’ sound, Wole Soyinka paused mid-reading to peer down his chin at the mike: “Is my beard doing something?”

Earlier, Soyinka had the pleasure of being introduced by Urvashi Butalia as ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’.

6. Sidin Vadukut (then first-time author of comic novel Dork), on the Jaipur Litfest experience: “It’s like a college fest, except you don’t go home — you just grow older.”

7. During a session titled ‘Bin Laden after Bush’, Javed Akhtar jumped out of the audience to accuse Steve Coll of being part of an American conspiracy to pretend Bin Laden was still alive. This, in January 2010.

At the 2009 Lit Fest;

1. Authors Ira Pande and Namita Gokhale, cousins, began a session by chattering jovially amongst themselves, completely oblivious to the audience, and apologising for the same later: “Sorry about this, when Namita and I get together we turn into a Johar Mahmood show and forget all about the audience.”

2. Bruce Palling, a journalist for over 40 years and well-known travel writer, recalls seeing Colin Thubron being addressed scornfully by a visa officer at the Indian High Commission in London.

Thubron, whose novels and travel books have stopped just short of the Man Booker Prize but earned him the sobriquet of “gentleman traveller”, was apparently trying to assert himself as a delegate for the Jaipur festival but the documents he was presenting, rather than earning him a visa, seemed only fit to draw derision. Bruce, with all his experience of India pulled him gently aside and counselled in a whisper, “Colin. Just go back home and come again tomorrow with an application for a tourist visa.”

3. Amitabh Bachhan, attending the festival to release ‘Bachchanalia’ (a book in his honour) was seen brandishing his trademark native wit. When a crowd gathered on an overhanging terrace came too close to the edge and an announcer requested them to move back, Amitabh translated, “Peeche hat jao nahin toh aap meri godh mein giroge!” (Please get back, lest you fall in my lap)

4. When a young school girl asked Nandan Nilekani, what prompted him to write a book, the Infosys co-founder replied, “I wanted an invitation to the Jaipur Literature Festival.”

5. Vikram Seth revealed that he had to buy a copy of his own book to read in one of the sessions, as he’d arrived at the festival without any copies.

6. Final Night. Writers’ Ball at the Jaipur City Palace. Chetan Bhagat was seen asking Vikram Seth for an autograph.

As India’s young rock-star novelist tried to convince the cranky genius (who sat there fretting with a wrinkled brow) to write something meaningful on a scrap of paper for his sister (or someone), a journalist (standing with Seth) noted that he might consider adapting the kind of line Asimov is reputed to have taken in such situations: “I’ll never forget our marvellous night on the beach.”

Seth guffawed, and Bhagat got his autograph.

People!

2012 is about to be quite a year; doomsday predictions notwithstanding.

With a star studded line-up of authors and titles to choose from, rest assured the literary roller-coaster at INDIAreads is not about to stop anytime soon.

Check out these gems that may be pre-ordered at INDIAreads shortly;

1. I’ve Got Your Number – Sophie Kinsella (Feb 2012): When Poppy loses her engagement ring and her mobile all in the same disastrous evening, it seems making use of a phone she finds by chance, abandoned in a hotel bin, is the obvious solution.

But inevitably her life becomes entangled with the real owner of the phone, a high-flying businessman called Sam who becomes increasingly irritated when Poppy can’t resist meddling in his affairs…

2. The Oath of The Vayuputras – Amish Tripathi (Oct 2012): Book Three in the hugely popular Shiva Trilogy – after ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ and ‘The Secret of The Nagas’ – keeps the feeding frenzy going.

3. Emerging India: Economics, Politics And Reforms  – Bimal Jalan (Jan 2012): A collection of essays written over 20 years, this is an essential read for anyone seriously interested in the history and future of India’s development as a nation.

4. Didi: A Political Biography – Monobina Gupta (Jan 2012): Gupta brings her experience as a journalist and commentator on the politics in West Bengal to paint a fascinating portrait of the woman who defeated the longest-serving communist government in the world; and is fast emerging as one of the most important political figures in India today.

5. When Loss is Gain – Pavan K Varma (Jan 2012): Action-packed yet contemplative, Pavan K. Varma’s first novel is a powerful story of love and loss, despair and hope, chance and destiny, and the true meaning of joy and sorrow in every human life.

6. Rahul – Jatin Gandhi & Veenu Sandhu (Jan 2012): .Who is Rahul Gandhi—the real man—beneath the hype and the hatchet jobs? What are the ideas and influences that propel him? Who are his advisers? And how will he tackle his new responsibilities as his mother, Sonia Gandhi, makes way for him? Two young journalists, Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu, trace the evolution of the Rahul brand and explore the fascinating relationship between modernity and dynasty in this incisive political biography.

7. Neglected Poems – Gulzar (Jan 2012): Neglected only in name, these poems represent Gulzar at his creative and imaginative best, as he meditates on nature, delves into human psychology, explores great cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and New York , and confronts the most telling moments of everyday life.

8. Micro – Michael Crichton (Jan 2012): An instant classic in the vein of Jurassic Park, this boundary-pushing novel has all the hallmarks of Michael Crichton s greatest adventures with its combination of pulse-pounding thrills, cutting-edge technology, and extraordinary research.

Three men are found dead in a locked second-floor office in Honolulu. There is no sign of struggle, though their bodies are covered in ultra-fine, razor sharp cuts. With no evidence, the police dismiss it as a bizarre suicide pact. But the murder weapon is still in the room, almost invisible to the human eye…

9. Smart Trust – Stephen M. R. Covey (Foreword by Indra Nooyi) (Jan 2012): Find out why trusted people are more likely to get hired or promoted, get the best projects and bigger budgets, and are last to be laid off. This book will forever shift your perspective as it reveals and validates once and for all the transformational power of trust. Reading Smart Trust will help you thrive in an increasingly unpredictable marketplace.

10. The Innocent – David Baldacci (Apr 2012): Freelance hitman Will Robie gets a job from the US government. Even as he expertly nails his target – a suspected enemy of the country – he sees something at the scene of crime which he suspects will have deadly consequences …

Does he need to change sides to save lives, including his own…?

11. Untitled Memoir – Salman Rushdie (Sep 2012): The memoir will cover Rushdie’s childhood, his family life – he has been married four times – and his time in exile.

12. The Limpopo Academy of Private Investigation – Alexander McCall Smith (Apr 2012): The new installment in the perpetually delightful and bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.

Precious Ramotswe is back and, as usual, her plate is full.  She’s called in to tackle a mysterious disciplinary problem at her adopted daughter’s school. Her infinitely trustworthy assistant, Grace Makutsi, is having trouble adjusting to wedded bliss; a problem to test even the formidable talents of Mma Ramotswe. And the estimable Clovis Andersen, author of The Principles of Private Investigation – the No. 1 Ladies’ prized manual – has arrived, right there, in Botswana, on a case of his own. Bush tea, anyone?

13. Home – Toni Morrison (May 2012): The latest novel from Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

An angry and self-loathing veteran of the Korean War, Frank Money finds himself back in racist America after enduring trauma on the front lines that left him with more than just physical scars. His home–and himself–may no longer be as he remembers it, but Frank is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from; a place he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits childhood memories and the war, that leave him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he thought he could never possess again. A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding himself–and his home.

14. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel (May 2012): In this sequel to the Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall, Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn. From history’s darkroom, this novel offers a speaking picture to the modern world; a vision of Tudor England so recognizable it defies archaism. It is the work of one of our greatest writers at the peak of her powers.

15. Betrayal – Danielle Steel (Mar 2012): A renowned film director confronts an act of unimaginable treachery—and the first devastating blow will not be the last.

In this riveting novel, Danielle Steel reveals the dark side of fame and fortune. At the same time, she brilliantly captures a woman’s will to navigate a minefield of hurt and loss—towards a new beginning.

16. Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo (Feb 2012): In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book by the Pulitzer winner, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human; thanks in no small part to three years of uncompromising reporting.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’ carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

- Christopher Hitchens  (13^th April 1949 – 15^th December 2011)

That was Hitchens for you. Writer. Orator. Contrarian.

But just how much of a non-conformist WAS Hitch..?

In his 2007 polemic ‘God is not Great’, he gave short shrift to the “insulting” suggestion that cancer might persuade him to change his position (he was a heavy smoker/drinker) where reason had not, arguing that to ditch principles “held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favour at the last minute” would be a “hucksterish choice”, and urging those who had taken it upon themselves to pray for him not to “trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries”.

Writing in his 2010 memoir ‘Hitch-22’, Hitchens said that he hoped and believed his “advancing age has not quite shamed my youth”, disavowing the “’simple’ ordinary propositions” of his younger days in favour of the maxim that “it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties”.

“One reason, then, that I would not relive my life,” he continued, “is that one cannot be born knowing such things, but must find them out, even when they then seem bloody obvious, for oneself.”

A die-hard atheist, Hitchens’ contempt for all things ‘religion’ may be gauged from the following excerpts;

” Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

“Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.”

“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.”

“Religion looks forward to the destruction of the world…. Perhaps half aware that its unsupported arguments are not entirely persuasive, and perhaps uneasy about its own greedy accumulation of temporal power and wealth, religion has never ceased to proclaim the Apocalypse and the day of judgment.”

“The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.”

Buy the following Christopher Hitchens books at INDIAreads;

1. God is Not Great (2007)

“[A] pleasingly intemperate assault on organized religion…”  - Kirkus Reviews

“An intellectual willing to show his teeth in the cause of righteousness.” – The New Yorker

“Thank God for Christopher Hitchens.” - Esquire Magazine

One hell of a religious read.” – New York Post

2. Thomas Paine’S Rights Of Man – A Biography (2009)

“Hitchens is a political descendant of the great pamphleteer, “a Tom Paine for our troubled times.” - The Independent, London

“Christopher Hitchens at his characteristically incisive best” – The Times, London

3. Hitch-22 (2010)

‘If Hitchens didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be able to invent him.’ - Ian McEwan.

‘Christopher Hitchens is one of the great conversationalists of our age and his wit, style and erudition are brilliantly deployed in this glittering autobiography. Hitch-22 sparkles with funny stories, treasurable quotations, witty apercus and deft descriptions.’ - Sunday Times

4. Arguably (2011)

“Anyone who occasionally opens one of our more serious periodicals has learned that the byline of Christopher Hitchens is an opportunity to be delighted or maddened-possibly both-but in any case not to be missed….His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and altitude. He is as self-confident on the politics of Lebanon as on the ontology of the Harry Potter books….I still find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining we have, even when-perhaps especially when-he provokes.” (Bill Keller, New York Times Book Review )

New releases

1. Non Stop India – Mark Tully: Jugaar may loosely be translated as ‘muddling through’, or making
do. This quintessentially Indian ability has seen India through numerous crises which would have
easily dispirited a less resilient people—four wars, for instance. But while jugaar can be said to
have served India well in the past, it has a downside.

It has led to a dangerous complacency: the belief that since India has managed to ‘muddle through so many times before, there isn’t much need for a sense of urgency in tackling the problems it faces. In Non Stop India veteran journalist Mark Tully draws on his unmatched knowledge of India, garnered from thirty years of living in, and reporting from, the country to examine how this approach impacts her much-touted prospects of becoming an economic super-power. From Maoist conflicts to huge industrial houses; from the Tiger project to farmer suicides; from the Ramayana to the remote valleys of the north-east, Tully examines India’s myriad negotiations with modernity and her prospects for the nextcentury and beyond.

2. Get To The Top – The Ten Rules For Social Success by Suhel Seth: When it comes to getting
ahead in life, who we know is as important as what we do.How do you draw people to you?
Impress the powerful? Make an impact and extend your circle of acquaintances? Cultivate
influential friends?

Suhel Seth, a man who knows almost everyone there is to know in the country, brings you the
ultimate guide to social success. From the secret to throwing a successful party to the benefits
of befriending the less important half of a couple, he gives you canny advice and strategies to
become a successful networker.

Inspiring, provocative, and wise, Get to the Top is the ultimate book about wielding soft power.

About The Author :

Suhel Seth is the Managing Partner of Counselage India, the only strategic brand management
and marketing consultancy in the country advising chairpersons and CEOs on branding and
marketing.

His clients include R.K. Krishna Kumar of the House of Tata, S. Ramadorai of TCS, Analjit Singh of
Max Hospitals, Pawan Munjal of Hero Honda, Sanjiv Goenka of the RPG Group, and Prannoy Roy
of NDTV.

Suhel writes columns in The Financial Times, Hindustan Times, The Telegraph, and The Indian
Express on current affairs and has co-authored two books on Calcutta with Khushwant Singh and
R.K. Laxman.

3. Classic Saratchandra Volume I – By Saratchandra Chattopadhyay – Translated By Malobika Chaudhuri & Sunanda Krishnamurty: One of the greatest Indian novelists of the early twentieth century, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay is unputdownable even seven decades after his death. His canvas of human relationships is rooted in the everyday lives of families in turn-of-the-century Bengal. Saratchandra’s carefully crafted stories, brimming withemotion, and his sharply etched characters, are unforgettable. This omnibus that brings together eight of his novels in translation is a collection to be cherished.

Biraj Bou, Parineeta (A Married Woman), Palli Samaj (The Village Life), Arakkhaniya (The Unprotected), Srikanta, Devdas, Swami (Husband), Grihadaha (House of Cinders)

4. Secrets – by Ruskin Bond: This brilliant new collection of stories by one of India’s best-loved storytellers richly evokes Dehradun of the 1940s, with its quaint cinema halls and crumbling villas, its modest chaat-shops and ubiquitous tongas. But, as young Ruskin—the narrator in these interconnected tales—soon discovers, not all is as it seems in this sleepy town. Behind the tranquil facade, Dehra is home to a cast of colourful characters: from plucky old women to possible murderers.

‘The Canal’ is a joyful tribute to adolescent mischief and adult resolve, in which a group of roguish boys must face the consequences of antagonizing the much-feared Miss Gamla. ‘Over the Wall’ celebrates the resilience and hard-won dignity of a man ravaged by leprosy as he struggles to come to terms with his malady. The dashing young army captain in ‘At Green’s Hotel’ might be the perfect gentleman—or a murderer. And in ‘The Skeleton in the Cupboard’, an old scandal is revived following a chance discovery, leading to wholly unexpected results.

By turns charming and poignant, witty and exhilarating, Secrets is vintage Bond.

5. The Mahabharata Volume 4 – Translated by Bibek Debroy: The Mahabharata is one of the
greatest stories ever told. Though the basic plot is widely known, there is much more to the
epic than the dispute between Kouravas and Pandavas that led to the battle in Kurukshetra. It
has innumerable sub-plots that accommodate fascinating meanderings and digressions, and
it has rarely been translated in full, given its formidable length of 80,000 shlokas or couplets.
This magnificent 10-volume unabridged translation of the epic is based on the Critical Edition
compiled at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

The fourth volume of the Mahabharata includes Virata Parva and almost all of Udyoga Parva. It
describes the Pandavas’ thirteenth year of exile which they spend in disguise in King Virata’s court.
When, during their stay, the Kouravas and Trigartas invade Matsya to rob Virata of his cattle, the
Pandavas defeat them in battle. With the period of banishment over, the Pandavas ask to be returned
their share of the kingdom. This is refused and Udyoga Parva recounts the preparations for the
inevitable war.

Every conceivable human emotion figures in the Mahabharata, the reason why the epic continues to
hold sway over our imagination. In this lucid, nuanced and confident translation, Bibek Debroy makes
the Mahabharata marvellously accessible to contemporary readers.

6. Lucknow Boy – A Memoir by Vinod Mehta: Sharp, insightful, shocking, delightful. In this
sparkling memoir, Vinod Mehta, India’s most independent, principled – and irreverent – editor
finally tells his own story.

And by any reckoning, it is an extraordinary story. Mehta grew up as an insouciant army brat from a Punjabi refugee family, in the syncretic culture of Lucknow of the 1950s—an experience that turned him into an unflagging ‘pseudo secularist’. Leaving home with a BA third class degree, he experimented with a string of jobs, including that of a factory hand in suburban Britain, before accepting an offer to edit Debonair, a journal best known for featuring naked women. With the eclecticism and flair that were to become his hallmark, he turned it into an intelligent, lively magazine, while managing to keep fans of its centrespreads happy. The next three decades saw Vinod Mehta becoming one of India’s most widely- read and influential editors, as he launched a number of successful new publications, from the now legendary Sunday Observer to the weekly newsmagazine, Outlook.

This remarkably candid memoir, with its ringside view of many of the major events of our times, brims over with wit, wisdom, scandal and gossip. Mehta recounts with zest how he was wooed and then summarily sacked by sundry media proprietors when their much-vaunted respect for editorial freedom broke down in the face of political pressures. There are riveting accounts of his encounters with personalities from the worlds of politics, business, films and the media. There are masterly pen portraits of personalities ranging from Shobhaa De to V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Sonia Gandhi. ( And ofcourse, Mehta’s dog Editor who now, like his master, gets quantities of fan and hate mail.) There are the stories behind the scoops Mehta has brought before a fascinated public, from the alleged mole in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, to the cricket match-fixing scandal, to the Radia Tapes.

Embedded within these racy tales are thoughtful insights on Indian politics and society. There are valuable lessons, too, in Mehta’s inside stories of his successful media launches, in his tips for aspiring journalists, and in his struggles for editorial independence through his nearly four-decade-long tryst with Indian journalism.

COMING SOON

1. Diary of A Wimpy Kid – Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney: The sixth book about the comic adventures
of Greg Heffley and family. The funniest books you’ll ever read!

Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent. Or at least sort of. The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for
the holidays?

2. God Save the Dork – The Incredible International Adventures of Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese by Sidin Vadukut: Maestro management consultant and strategy guru Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese has been dispatched to London to the Lederman account. Things in the mother country are not all tally-ho as Einstein must make do with convoluted remuneration, temperamental digestion and a comely coworker who revels in mixed signals—not to mention a bizarre conspiracy by museums all over the city to frustrate his every attempt to imbibe in high culture.

Things are not all that much better with his love life. Gouri insists that he go to Madame Tussaud’s and take a photo with the Shah Rukh Khan statue. But who will pay for the entry ticket? Gouri’s father is not the proprietor no? Then? Just when things look like they can’t get any worse, Lederman threatens to shut down the project. Panic ensues. Once again Dufresne Partners turns to their most resourceful, inventive, original, strategic, out-of-the-box-thinking employee.

‘India’s Dilbert.’    – DNA
‘Nothing else skewers corporate India’s assorted silliness so accurately. Or so funnily.’   —Outlook
‘Unputdownable.’   —The Hindu
‘[Dork] will have you in splits.’   —The Asian Age
‘Hysterically funny.’    – Hindustan Times

‘I want to put a dent in the universe.’

These words best describe the tenacity and vision of Stevie Jobs; the man who turned a drab technology
company into a pop-culture phenomenon.

I never personally interacted with Stevie (rrreally, you might ask as you roll your eyes), and yet I do it —
we all do it —every day when picking up an iPod or working on a macbook. These devices aren’t dumb
terminals. Each one has a story, both in creation and execution.

So while he may not be with us anymore, he has still managed to leave a lasting impression in our
minds, our hands, and our ears. Let us get to know our friend a little better.

1. “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences,” he once said. “So they don’t
have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions.” Billy Gates, he suggested,
would be “a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger”.

2. “I don’t wear the right kind of pants to run this company,” he told a small gathering of Apple
employees before he left in1985, according to a member of the original Macintosh development team.
He was barefoot as he spoke, and wearing blue jeans.

3. When asked what market research went into the iPad, he replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job
to know what they want.”

4. He was the ultimate arbiter of Apple products, and his standards were exacting. Over the course of
a year he tossed out two iPhone prototypes before approving the third, and began shipping it in June
2007.

5. As an eighth grader, after discovering that a crucial part was missing from a frequency counter he was
assembling, he telephoned William Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett spoke with the
boy for 20 minutes, prepared a bag of parts for him to pick up and offered him a job as a summer intern.

6. In 1971, he collaborated with Steve Wozniak on designing, building, and selling blue boxes: devices
that were widely used for making free – and illegal – phone calls. They raised a total of $6,000 from the
effort.

7. In 1980, he lured John Sculley to Apple to be its chief executive. A former Pepsi-Cola chief executive,
Sculley was impressed by Stevie’s pitch: “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared
water, or do you want a chance to change the world?”

8. In September 1985, after leaving Apple, he started NeXT Inc, with the intention of building a
workstation computer for the higher education market. Although NeXT never became a significant
computer industry player, it had a huge impact: a young programmer, Tim Berners-Lee, used a NeXT
machine to develop the first version of the World Wide Web at the Swiss physics research center CERN
in 1990.

9. If he had a motto, it may have come from “The Whole Earth Catalog,” which he said had deeply

influenced him as a young man. The book, he said in his commencement address at Stanford in 2005,
ends with the admonition “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

10. Stevie was a stickler for design details. Bruce Tognazzini, a former user-interface expert at
Apple who joined the company in 1978, once said that Jobs was adamant that the keyboard not
include “up,” “down,” “right,” and “left” keys that allow users to move the cursor around their computer
screens.

11. His pursuit of aesthetics sometimes bordered on the extreme. George Crow, an Apple engineer in
the 1980s and again from 1998 to2005, recalls how Stevie wanted to make even the inside of computers
attractive. On the original Macintosh PC, Crow says Jobs wanted the internal wiring to be in the colors of
Apple’s early rainbow logo. Crow says he persuaded Jobs it was an unnecessary expense.

12. Within months of taking control at Apple once again in May 1998, Stevie flexed his power on Apple’s
Cupertino, Calif., campus. He replaced four of the five top executives with former NeXT underlings. He
issued emails forbidding employees to bring pets to the office or to smoke, even in parking lots. He
threatened to fire anyone caught leaking company documents.

13. Stevie was typically hands-on in the creation of the iPhone. People familiar with the matter say
the former CEO was the one who made a decision to change the screen of the iPhone from plastic to
glass after he unveiled the product at the Macworld trade show in 2007. The iPhone team scrambled
to procure glass that would meet his standards, so the devices could be manufactured in time for the
launch.

14. Those who knew Stevie say one reason why he was able to keep innovating was because he didn’t
dwell on past accomplishments and demanded that employees do the same. Hitoshi Hokamura, a
former Apple employee, recalls how an old Apple I that was displayed by the company cafeteria quietly
disappeared after Jobs returned in the late 1990s.

15. He insisted that the first Macintosh should have no internal cooling fan, so that it would be silent – putting user needs above engineering convenience. He called an engineer at Google one weekend with an urgent request: the colour of one letter of Google’s on-screen logo on the iPhone was not quite the right shade of yellow. He often wrote or rewrote the text of Apple’s advertisements himself.

16. Stevie was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit a “reality distortion field”, such
were his powers of persuasion.

17. When Jobs and Wozniak were designing the first Macintosh computer, he remembered the
calligraphy lessons he had taken after dropping out of college in 1972. He decided to incorporate the
fonts he had learned into the Mac. “It was the first computer with beautiful typography,” said Jobs.
Windows would later use these fonts as models.

18. A significant thing about Stevie’s public performance and interviews was his use of the
pronoun “We”. Almost every time Jobs spoke, he never said “I”, and said “We” instead. During an
interview at D5, Walt Mossberg curiously asked him, “Who’s ‘we’?” Jobs replied, “Well, ME!”

19. Stevie had been a dedicated vegan ever since his teenage years. At the age of 19, in Reed College, he
explored strange diets which, according to him, would let him get rid of all mucus and hence the need to
shower.

20. A title of one of the press articles written about Stevie’s difficult character was “The Trouble
with Steve Jobs.”According to Robert Sutton, Stanford management science professor and author of
best-seller “The No Asshole Rule,” “The degree to which people in Silicon Valley are afraid of Jobs is
unbelievable. He made people feel terrible; he made people cry.”

21. Stevie studied Zen Buddhism in his youth. He used to say that he wanted to become a monk in a
monastery in Japan instead of starting Apple. But his guru Kobun Chino Otogowa later made him think
otherwise.

22. Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of News Corp.’s Fox Filmed Entertainment, recalls an incident. “He
came into a meeting one day and said, ‘Hey, you want to see something cool?’ And he reached into
his jacket and pulled out the first prototype of the iPhone,” Gianopulos said.”It was like someone had
shown you the first rocket ship.”

One could go on. But one shall not. For one is free.

One could, however, direct you to http://www.indiareads.com/book/steve-jobs-exclusive-biography :
where you may buy or rent (for a frraction of the price) Stevie’s exclusive biography written by Walter
Issacson; Harvard Graduate, Rhodes Scholar, and long time Stevie confidante.

MALCOLM GLADWELL

Born on September 3, 1963 in Hampshire, UK, Malcolm Gladwell is the best selling author of books like Blink, Outliers, Tipping Point and What the Dog Saw. Inspired by his Jamaican mother who wrote a book titled, Brown face, Big Master, Gladwell became a journalist and since 1996 he has been on the staff of  The New Yorker magazine. In 2005, Time magazine included him in its list of 100 most influential people. Gladwell’s books generally deal with social psychology and all four have been best sellers.

Some of his famous quotes include:

“The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.”

“Instinct is the gift of experience. The first question you have to ask yourself is, ‘On what basis am I making a judgment?’ … If you have no experience, then your instincts aren’t any good.”

“Truly successful decision-making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”

“The Tipping Point is the biography  of an idea, and the idea is very simple. It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”

“We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that’s the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success – the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history – with a society that provides opportunites for all.”

“If you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires”

“We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.”

KIRAN DESAI

source: guardian.co.uk

Born on September 3, 1971 in New Delhi, Kiran Desai is the winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize. The Daughter of famous writer Anita Desai, Kiran made a mark with her second book, The Inheritance of Loss. Her first book Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard was publishes in 1998. She is currently in a relationship with Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk.

September 5 is Teacher’s Day, the perfect time to tell your favourite Sir or Ma’am how much they mean to you. The perfect opportunity to show them that you might be naughty, you might slack on your homework or get caught passing chits in class, that you might call them names behind their back or shout in joy every time they are absent, but in your heart you know that the day when you make your mark in this world, you will look back fondly and say, To Sir, With Love….

Here are ten must read Teacher’s Day books:

1. To Sir, with Love by E.R. Braithwaite : A must read for every child and adult, this book outlines the author’s experiences as a teacher in the slums of London. At the heart of it lie many issues including racial discrimination, but what is most touching is the relationship between a teacher and his students.

2. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom: Upon learning of his former college professor and mentor’s impending death, Mitch Albom–award-winning sportswriter, “New York Times” bestselling author, and TV commentator–visited Morrie Schwartz every week. “Tuesdays with Morrie” is Albom’s extraordinary chronicle of their time together, a book filled with laughter, sadness, joy and peace.

3. The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley: An inspiring journey into the lives of families and teachers in the poorest communities of India, Africa, and China who have successfully created their own private schools in response to failed public education. Wandering into the slums of Hyderabad’s Old City, Tooley was initially shocked to find it overflowing with small, parent-funded schools. Could these be the answer to help achieve universal education?

The Beautiful Tree movingly uncovers the efforts of poor communities in education, and finds competent, committed entrepreneurs who have started schools catering to slum children. He discovers young, engaged teachers, passionate entrepreneurs, and teaching models that work to ensure that students are engaged and learning. He finds that even among the unrecognized private schools, average teacher attendance, and English and maths proficiency surpass the apathetic government school system.

4. Three Cups of Tea and Stones in Schools by Greg Mortenson: In 1993, after a terrifying and disastrous attempt to climb K2, a mountaineer called Greg Mortenson drifted, cold and dehydrated, into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram Mountains. Moved by the inhabitants’ kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome.Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five schools – especially for girls – in remote villages across the forbidding and breathtaking landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just as the Taliban rose to power. His story is at once a riveting adventure and a testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit.

5. Tisha by Robert Specht: Anne Hobbs is a prim and proper 19-year-old schoolteacher who yearns for adventure. She finds this and much more in a town with the unlikely name of Chicken, located deep in the Alaskan interior. It is 1927 and Chicken is a wild mining community flaming with gold fever. Anne quickly makes friends with many of the townspeople, but is soon ostracized when she not only befriends the local Indians but also falls in love with one. A heartwarming story in the tradition of Benedict Freedman’s classic, Mrs. Mike, Tisha is one of those rare books that stays with the reader for years, beckoning to be read again and again.

6. My Teacher is My Hero by Susan Reynolds: In this collection, readers meet more than 50 great teachers who have made all the difference in their students’ lives. Each essay is written by a contributor whose experiences reflect the enormous impact a great teacher has had on his or her life.

7.  Anne of the Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery: Anne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge:the Pringles. They’re known as the royal family of summerside – and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they want as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty – and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside’s strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles is only the first of her delicious triumphs.

8. The Awakening of Intelligence by J. Krishnamurthy: his comprehensive record of Krishnamurti’s teaching is an excellent, wide-ranging introduction to the great philosopher’s thought. Within general discussions of conflict, fear, violence, religious experience, self-knowledge, and intelligence, Krishnamurti examines specific issues, such as the role of the teacher and tradition; the need for awareness of ‘cosmic consciousness’; the problem of good and evil; and traditional Vedanta methods of help for different levels of seekers. Krishnamurti discusses these themes with Jacob Needleman, Alain Naude, and Swami Venkatasananda, among others.

9. Victoria and Abdul by Shrabani Basu: The tall handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail, he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year, he was established as a powerful figure at court, becoming the queen’s teacher, or Munshi, and instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Scottish gillie, the queen had at last found his replacement.

10. The Bethlehem Murders by Matt Rees: For decades, Omar Yussef has taught history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favourite former pupil, George Saba, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Yussef is convinced that he has been framed. With George facing imminent execution Yussef sets out to prove his innocence.As Yussef falls foul of his headmaster and the local police chief, time begins to run out for this teacher-turned-detective. His classroom is bombed and members of his family are threatened. But with no one else willing to stand up for the truth, it is up to Omar to act, even as bloodshed and heartbreak surround him.

FREEDOM is, “the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires”

- Bertrand Russell

Now time, traffic, access or price issues, will no longer be an obstacle to your reading desires!

This Independence Day, INDIAreads bring you the Freedom Offer: read anything, anywhere, anytime!

Just log on to INDIA’s fastest growing online LIBRARY and BOOKSTORE @ www.indiareads.com and get the books of your choice delivered to your doorstep at no extra cost!

Enjoy Mega discounts on all book purchases + free shipping!!!!*

And that’s not all, for every purchase above Rs 750 made before midnight August 20, 2010, you take home a best seller of your choice, absolutely free!

This INDEPENDENCE DAY, INDULGE your senses FREELY!!!

If your billed amount is Rs 750 or more, choose from the following freedom basket:**

Any Chetan Bhagat or Noddy title ***

Shop worth Rs 1500 or more and take home one of the following best sellers:**

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Select any Sidney Sheldon title***

That’s not all, if you have space, time or price issues, then just join the INDIAReads Online Book Rental Library and rent the latest best sellers for just Rs 150 per month. There are no due dates, no late fees and no travel hassles!! The Books are delivered to your doorstep!

Activate your Library membership before August 20, 2010 and get a best seller from our freedom basket absolutely free!!! And yes, you choose the title!

If you have opted for a monthly membership, choose from:**

If you have opted for a Smart Plan (Six monthly), you can take any of the following title:**

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Paulo Coelho (Brida, Alchemist, Manual of the Warrior of Light), Nicholas Sparks (Bend in the Road, The Rescue)***

This INDEPENDENCE DAY, gift yourself and your loved ones the freedom to read anything, anywhere!!! Join the growing movement of booklovers across INDIA

“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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*** Any title by this author will be sent to you.While we will try to accommodate your request of title, in case it is not available, we will send you any book by the author which is in stock.

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e) Please note that in case of Agatha Christie, Chetan Bhagat, Noddy books, Sidney Sheldon Paulo Coelho and Nicholas Sparks, any available title will be sent.

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What is a person’s greatest desire in this world? Happiness? Wealth? Health? Peace of mind?

The world’s greatest secret then undoubtedly, is the talisman to attain these. And it is a fairly simple one, or so says Og Mandino. Just remind yourself each day that, “I will win, and I will become a great salesman for I am unique.” That, in short, is the age old secret to “lasting wealth, health, happiness, and most important…peace of mind,” that Mandino shares through his motivational The Greatest Secret in the World.

This is no regular “how to” book. Nor is it a discourse on philosophy or mind control. Though Mandino maintains that this book contains the great secrets handed down to young Hafid (of The Greatest Saleman in the World fame), 2000 years ago, frankly these “secrets”  are oft repeated and oft heard. The greatest secret in the world then is not how to find the road to success, but rather how to journey on it and not go astray. And this is what makes this book unique.

Mandino does not simply preach. He offers you a crash course on success, one that requires 10 minutes of your time, each day of your work week for 45 weeks . If you can do it, it’ll change your life and if you can’t, then in Mandino’s own words, “the money spent on this book has been wasted.”  A burning desire to succeed is not enough. We all dream of a great tomorrow, but that tomorrow never does come.

So Mandino extorts you to sit up and make today great. And you can do it because, “You are nature’s greatest miracle….you are rare and unique and the ultimate product of several million years of evolution.  Both in mind, and body, you are far better equipped than Solomon or Caeser or  Plato to make something beautiful and meaningful of your life. You have a greater potential than anyone who has ever lived before you! ” Of course that also means that anyone born after you will always have greater potential than you, but let’s not get cheeky here.

The Greatest Secret in the World is truely an inspiring book because it relentlessly eggs you on. It is engaging, it is colloquial and it is challenging. It even contains a success recorder diary to enable you to gauge your progress. It is designed as a lesson. You read, you follow and then you record your actions. When Mandino believes that you are on the right track, he takes you to the next lesson and once again you read, follow, record. So it continues for 45 weeks. Of course most people will admit that they read the book in one or two sittings, at least for the first time. It is difficult to pause and wait patiently for the next lesson but it might just be worth it.

Through this book, Mandino teaches you to self examine, to identify your bad habits, to focus on your strengths and to control your moods. He takes you back to the basics -Don’t take others or yourself too seriously. Don’t procrastinate. Live each day as if it is your last- only this time, he ensures that you don’t just preach, but you practice. He constantly questions you, taunts you. Can you do it? Do you have the discipline, the self control? Will you give up? And in proving that you won’t give up you gradually become adept at mind conditioning, which Mandino believes is central to success.

I have just one grudge against Mandino. It might be that at the time he wrote this book, professional women were a novelty but did he think that only men desire success? Only they want health, health and happiness? His books are all addressed to men (Greatest sales man, not woman or person). He tells you to decide what job title and salary you want to achieve at the end of your 45 weeks crash course and share it with no one but your wife.  Disastrous, especially in a world where one has to at least pretend to be gender sensitive.

That apart, The Greatest Secret in the World is one of those rare books that focuses on action, rather than on mere words. Follow it and success is guaranteed because, “failure will never overcome  you if your determination to succeed is strong enough.”

Rent The Greatest Secret in the World and other Og Mandino books from INDIAreads Online Book Rental Library cum BOOkstore. Plans begin 2 just Rs 150 per month. Join Now!!!