Letters to Sam

Author:       Daniel Gottlieb

Published:   2008

Publisher:    Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Paperback: 176 pages

Buy from Penguin India a lower priced Indian edition.

There is a saying, "If life gives you a lemon make lemonade out of it".

This very well applies to Daniel Gottlieb, the author of this book who is a psychologist. At a young age of thirty three, an accident made him quadriplegic and confined to a wheel chair for life. But in spite of this debilitating disability, he tried hard and developed a tremendous mental strength which enabled him to develop his career as a successful psychologist over the last thirty years. He has counseled and helped people to deal with their mental agony through his consulting sessions, articles and books and also as a talk show host.

In this book he shares his perspectives on life as observed from his wheelchair .He says his clients, his talk show audience and the readers of his articles have taught him "a great deal about courage, longing, and what it means to be human'. And these perspectives and the lessons he learnt  he wants to pass on to his grandson Sam who suffers from an autistic disorder. Each of the thirty odd chapters in this book  is in form of a letter to Sam. They are lessons on - perfection, kindness, love, compassion, frustrations, desires, justice, happiness, peace, loss, gifts of life, death etc. All these letter try and answer the question "What it means to be human?".

There is another saying - "The best things in life come in small packages".

This slim pocket-sized book is definitely one of the best books I have read this year. Chapters are short, simple and touches your heart.

In a very reassuring manner it motivates the readers to accept the reality of their suffering and effectively deal with it.

A must-read for everyone especially for long suffering patients and their caregivers !

Look forward to reading its sequel "The Wisdom of Sam".

P.S. While reading this book I was reminded of  Hrithik Roshan's character in the Hindi film "Guzaarish". It has Hrithik  Roshan playing a quadriplegic who as a Radio Jockey spreads hope and laughter among his listeners. May be this character was partly based on Daniel Gottlieb who hosts a very popular talk show "Voices in the Family".

Links:

1. Daniel Gottlieb's Website
2. Excerpts from the book : Two chapters - Lap Time & Give Kindness a Chance

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The Templar Legacy

Author:         Steve Berry

Published:   2006

Publisher:    Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.

Paperback: 560 pages

A  Da Vinci Code- like adventure  about Knight Templars and the hunt for the Great Devise which holds the key to the secret behind Jesus Christ's resurrection. 

Partially based on facts.

Fast moving and interesting though somewhat confusing  with too many characters and clue.

A good time-pass reading .

However if you have read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code you can give this book a miss unless you have nothing else to read.

An Excerpt from Chapter 1. 

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The Art of Living - Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka

Author:        William Hart

Published:   1988

Publisher:    Embassy Book Distributors

Paperback: 180 pages

Vipassana is an ancient meditation technique originally taught by Gautam Buddha 2500 years ago. It is aimed at effectively dealing with the misery in life - tensions, agitation, unhappiness, suffering etc. - we experience in this world and achieve peace and equanimity of mind thereby  leading a happy life.

Vipassana technique is based on self-observation and introspection. It is a non-sectarian approach, so one need not be a Buddhist to follow it.

S.N. Goenka a retired industrialist is one of the most recognized teacher of Vipassana in the present age. This book is based mainly on the discourses given by him during a ten-day Vipassana meditation course and to some extent the articles written by him.

There are ten chapters in this book corresponding to each day of the course. At the end of chapters there are excerpts from the Q&A session and a typical story choosen among the several stories narrated by  S.N. Goenka.

A well written book which provides a a spiritually inclined person very good introduction to the technique of Vipassana. It got me interested enough to ponder over the possibility of attending a Vipassana course at some point of time. But the prospect of getting cut-off from the 24X7 connected world for 10 full days is rather daunting. Wish I had the capacity to let go of temptations of the modern world at least temporarily.

Links:

1. The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation a text based upon a talk given by  S.N. Goenka in Berne, Switzerland. 
2. Introduction to Vipassana Meditation by S.N. Goenka : A 17 minute video discourse.
3. Vipassana Research Institute : Established by S.N. Goenka in 1985 for the purpose of conducting research into the sources and applications of the Vipassana Meditation Technique.

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Agile Coaching

Authors: Rachel Davies, Liz Sedley

Published: 2009

Publisher: The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Paperback: 240 pages

This book is a must-have tool of an Agile Coach ! Highly recommended reading for every one in the agile team as well!

Read more about this book

Delivering E-Learning

Author:       Kenneth Fee

Published:  2009

Publisher:   Kogan Page

Hardcover: 200 pages

Buy from Flipkart

In this information age one cannot afford to keep away from the potential benefits which e-learning can deliver. However the subject of e-learning is still misunderstood and still accounts for only 10 % of all the training though its popularity seems to be on rise. 

The author Kenneth Fee through this book presents a complete strategy of design, application and assessment of e-learning initiatives.

The focus of this book is on the process of learning rather than on the digital technologies that enable e-learning.

There are seven main chapters in this book.

Chapter 1- Understanding e-learning: Corrects some of the common misconceptions about e-learning and defines e-learning, the three components of e-learning and five different models of e-learning.

Chapter 2- Advocacy of e-learning: Provides guidelines on recognizing and overcoming objections to e-learning and influencing effective e-learning implementations.

Chapter 3- E-learning strategy: development:  Discusses the know how of devising and implementing an effective e-learning strategy which is aligned  with the organization's learning strategy as well as its overall business strategy. 

Chapter 4-  E-learning strategy: suppliers and resources: Demystifies the digital technology associated with e-learning and examines ways of classifying the technology vendors and integrating them in the strategy in a most effective manner.

Chapter 5- E-learning strategy: learning design issues: Explains how e-learning design is different from the design for other media and shows how to make e-learning program work well by pointing out the pitfalls to be avoided in this process.

Chapter 6- E-learning strategy: measurement and results: Discusses the various approaches that can be taken to evaluate an e-learning program and how they can be linked to strategy development.

Chapter 7- Learning more about e-learning: Gives pointers to further information in terms of web references and annotated bibliography.

 Epilogue - Offers some  thoughts on the future trends on e-learning.

Most of the chapters have a section called "Virtual Round Table" where the author consolidates the responses of six international experts on e-learning to the following questions he asked them in separate interviews:

• What  are the big issues in e-learning at the moment?
• What works well and what doesn’t work so well in e-learning?
• What the main trends in e-learning are at the moment?
• How e-learning will change in the future? What it could look like in 10 years’ time.

There is also an illustrative case study which runs throughout the book. It is about how a learning and development manager with a leading UK retailer successfully implements e-learning in her organization.

 

Quite a concise, well-written, introductory  book on the e-learning strategy  which also provides insights on how to manage e-learning effectively.

A MUST READ for every learning and development professional taking first steps towards e-learning.

Useful Links:

• Table of Contents (detailed)
• Author's website
• Author's blog

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Exploring Indian Railways

Author:      Bill Aitken

Published:  1994

Publisher:   Oxford University Press

Hardcover: 292 pages

As a kid I used to look forward to train journeys a lot. And I still do. This interest in trains led to my picking up this book from the library. Though this book was somewhat outdated (last published in 1994) I was expecting  interesting accounts of some fascinating train journeys undertaken by the author , interspersed with interesting anecdotes and facts about Indian Railways. But I was rather disappointed. This book devotes much space to the bureaucracy and politics prevailing in Indian Railways around the time the book was written. Though in bits and pieces some interesting information is available, by and large I found this book rather boring and outdated.

I rather keep this review short and not waste too much time writing about the book which I wish I had not read at all.

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Prince of Ayodhya - Book One of the Ramayana

Author:        Ashok K. Banker
Published:  2005
Publisher:   Penguin Books India
Paperback: 534 pages


 

The story of  Ramayana takes me back to my childhood days when I  used to repeatedly hear it from my grandfather who was a great storyteller. His vivid narration had a deep impact on me and I myself at the age of 5 or 6 started telling the story of Rama to whoever cared to listen and appreciate!
Nowadays I prefer Mahabharata to Ramayana since I think the characters in the former are more realistically portrayed.  However  this book - Prince of Ayodhya : Book One of the Ramayana -  written by Ashok Banker has rekindled my interest in Ramayana enough to look forward to reading its sequels too.
I had always thought of Ashok Banker as a pulp fiction author and had not cared to read any of his books.  I could not have got to reading even this, had I found the book - The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi  - I was looking for in the library.  Tripathi's book has received good reviews for its contemporary treatment of Lord Shiva's story. But it so happened that  "The Immortals of Meluha "was not available so I picked up this book instead since it seemed to be of the same genre i.e. modern interpretation of a mythological figure.
The book begins with the Author's note where he tells us how Ramayana came to be written by Valmiki and subsequently by many others who followed him, each adding their own interpretations and embellishments so that  " there are as many Ramayanas as there are people who know the tale, or claim to know it. And no two versions are exactly alike". Then Banker proceeds to say what was his motivation to add yet another version of this great epic to the literature. 
This volume deals with princes Rama and Lakshmana  being sent with Sage Vishwamitra to protect the yagna (sacrificial rites) he is performing from getting disturbed by  the Asuras. The princes successfully accomplish this mission by killing the demons Taraka and Subhahu. 
Now this is a bare outline of this volume. Banker through his creative imagination and interpretations has added sub-plots and incidents not found in any of the previous versions of Ramayana and has described them very vividly. This has bloated the size of the book to 500 odd pages based on this outline. Yet  not in any point of time while  reading it I was bored. This itself speaks of the author's story telling prowess.
Visit the Wikipedia entry about this book where plot summary and a section on how it differs from the original Valmiki Ramayana is provided.

Recommend this book for a light and entertaining reading. But definitely won't  recommend it to highly religious and pious people who look upon  Rama as a God. 

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