I got 'new funda' about reading. Here it is: Watching, Hearing & Speaking is a natural talent inherited by each man to observe nature. But reading and writing are 'artificial' which humans inculcate to record their observed data and learn from them as case studies. Hence, we remember more from cinema, music and speeches delivered lively to us. Reading books is a tough process because it requires patience to understand answer to our curiosity. But, if not practised both cinema, art and literature will perish with the time of an individual.
I really want adaptation of the essence in the translation of books in different regions to understand their culture. Artificial and imposed culture will never survive, how homogeneous it may appear. Books fill this artificial way of life to inherited one, because they are reflection of society's dreams, emerging trends, ambitions, past and faults. I am enlisting the names of books read by me in 2009 with their background and my feedback. [Ratings are highly personal.]
Yugnayak Vivekanand (3 parts)- Swami Gambhiranand- Hindi- 7/10
Detailed biographic account of Swami Vivekanand and his thoughts.
I dare !- Parmesh Dangwal- English- 8/10
Biography of Kiran bedi and what makes her say, I dare !
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish- Rashmi Bansal- English- 8/10
Collection of the inspiring tales of 25 entrepreneurs of IIMA with simplicity and wisdom lines.
India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha- English- 8.5/10
Very balanced contemporary history of India from 1947 to 1985.
A better India, A better world- N.R. Narayana Murthy- English- 8/10
Speeches delivered by author about his vision, corporates, economics, ethics and India coming through his lifetime experiences.
Everybody loves a good drought- P. Sainath- English- 10+/10
Jouranlism showing detailed daily picture of how people live under usury, drought, health and educational predicaments as a result of government mis-management in the name of development of poorest districts of India.
India Unbound- Gurcharan Das- English- 9.5/10
It is the history of India's economy transformation from Independence to Global information age.
Would recommend 'Burden of Democracy' by Pratap Bhanu Mehta and 'India's Newspaper Revolution' by Robin Jeffrey.
ReplyDeleteI've read Guha's book last year too. I thought it was a great and much needed book, lots of research went into it obviously. I hope he is working on translations to other Indian languages.
ReplyDeleteSure, I will try to read them before summers...Thanks for the referal.
ReplyDeletehey nice blog!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Vipul for visiting my blog.
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