Book Recco: Half - Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao Transformed India

Not much is known about this former PM of India in spite of being the first Non Nehru Gandhi family member to complete a full five years as PM. Hence, I was curious to read this book and finished it wiser.

This is the story of a true blue Congressi, Nehru Gandhi Loyalist who was made Andhra CM and then PM for the same reason - his perceived weakness and lack of vote base. While Manmohan Singh is popularly perceived as the Finance Minister who liberalized India, this book paints a picture of how PM Rao plotted and enabled all of that. How he deftly planned and maneuvered his party the opposition and the country is detailed.

The book has an interesting chapter structure chronologically followed by specific chapters on important topics. This focus helps ease of understanding as a simple chronological narrative may have been tougher to grasp. Topics covered include the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Managing Sonia Gandhi, Nuclear Policy and his foreign policy

Check Half - Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao Transformed India out on Amazon

Book Recco: Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace

This Auto-biographical book details the various transformational initiatives by a second generation Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler. This helped Semco become a Great Place to Work and of course employee happiness and profits multiplied. 

If you are a leader in an organisation, you will find this book thought provoking. This book is more than 20 years old and was probably much ahead of it's time, but is relevant event today.

This company

- Reduced hierarchy

- Shared profits with it's employees

- Allowed flexible work times even in a factory setting, (imagine the reasons you have heard or thought for not allowing this in your workplace!)

- Resiliently weathered many national inflationary phases and economic downturns

- Allowed employees to democratically decide almost everything from production goals to office architecture to even salaries and hiring their bosses

- Employees gave feedback on their bosses twice a year and their managers had to meet a certain level

- Enabled their employees to become entrepreneurs by setting up 'satellite' companies that then  supplied to the parent company

- The author also shares how he transformed from a workaholic to almost completely working from home and spent lesser time 'directing' his company

Check out Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace on Amazon

Book Recco: The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre

The most gripping non-fiction book I've read!

The first few chapters set the context of the main character slowly rising in tempo leading to a feverish pace towards the end. The last third of the book is unputdownable. This is the story of Oleg Gordievsky a KGB spy who became an MI6 double agent. As the most senior KGB agent to defect to MI6 during the cold war he probably averted a major war and possibly changed the course of the cold war itself by hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

While the book referred to real-life people including world leaders throughout I completed the book thinking this was good imagination merging fiction with the truth. It was only during the epilogue it struck me that I should Google the names, I was shocked to realise all of the characters were true and the book was non-fiction!

This book was more gripping than most fictional thrillers I've read! I suggest reading the book and then checking out Wikipedia so that the story isn't spoiled for you. Leave a comment if you enjoyed the book

Book Recco : A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I had tears in my eyes when I finished this heartwarming, funny story about a grumpy old man and the community he lives in. #MustRead #5Stars Can't wait for the movie by #TomHanks

Some quotes that stayed with me

‘Loving someone is like moving into a house,’ Sonja used to say. ‘At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without their creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.’

Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it’s often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.

Book Recco: Crowdfunding: The Story of People

Do pick up this book if you are looking to understand Crowd-funding, it's history, why it's needed, what are the various types, challenges and future predictions. It's backed by a lot of data and could be overwhelming at places for a non-serious reader.

While this book has examples of great crowdfunding campaigns, this is not a how-to book on crowdfunding. If you do not understand crowd-funding at all, you will finish this book a believer. I found the first few sections very academic, but largely the book was great to read.

The book also has a section on Non-profit fundraising which covers Bhumi's own experience shifting from smile tickets to Give fundraisers and also quotes me "Crowdfunding platforms are democratic, if an NGO has engaged and communicated sufficiently to build a base of fundraisers and donors, their size doesn't matter"