Pakorakorner

Title: The Last Lecture Author: Prof. Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow If you have never heard of Prof. Randy Pausch a good place to start is here. He died of pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008 after battling the disease for over a year and a half. This book is based mostly on his lecture at CMU (where he was a Prof.) and was written along with Jeffrey Zaslow of the WSJ. The book follows the lecture for the most part except ...

Title: Confessions of an Economic HitmanAuthor: John PerkinsThe author worked for several years for consulting firms that encourage under developed (and developing) countries to accept large loans from the World Bank (and other similar institutions that provide financial aid) for large projects with the basic intent of eventually controlling the local governments and their policies to serve the needs of American Corporations. He calls it "corporatocracy"."Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out ...

Title: India's Politics -- A View From The BackbenchAuthor: Dr. Bimal JalanThe author was the former head of Reserve Bank and then went on to become a Rajya Sabha MP.The underlying theme of the book is that coalition Governments at the center are here to stay. This trend brings with it its own set of issues and if not addressed soon enough could result in further deterioration of the political system as whole and hurt the country and its standing ...

Title: No God in SightAuthor: Altaf TyrewalaThe author deserves credit for taking an interesting approach -- Each chapter is written in the first person for a different character in the story. All characters in the book are based in Mumbai and it is a good reflection of the variety of people in the city and their daily lives.The book starts promisingly but unfortunately, it does not quite come together in the end. This was rather disappointing. The title of ...

A new book, titled India Arriving, has just been released. It is authored by Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Sr. Research Scholar,Stanford University.You can read a sample chapter (which looks interesting) and order the book. I haven't read it as yet but hope to read it some time in the near future.

The popular belief in the business world is that if you have the clout, the reach and the money you can sell anything. Kishore Biyani, founder of Big Bazaar, seems to have done precisely this. His book "It happened in India" is supposedly a bestseller with more than 1,25,000 copies sold. I saw a huge stack on sale, at where-else? Big Bazaar!

Title: Inspite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern IndiaAuthor: Edward LuceThis is a well researched book that addresses the various changes happening in contemporary India on the social, economic and political fronts. The author has met with people from so many different walks of life in India ranging from politicians, god-men, bureaucrats, businessmen and women, IT employees, etc and put together a very interesting book. He nicely combines these meetings he has had with historical aspects like ...

Title: The Caged Virgin -- An Emancipation Proclamation for Women & IslamAuthor: Ayaan Hirsi AliType: Non-fictionThe first thing that strikes you when you read this book is the author's admirable courage and deep conviction. Influenced almost entirely by her personal life experiences, she takes on the entire world of Islam, head on! The author was born and raised in Somalia and eventually became a politician in the Netherlands. Having seen and experienced first-hand the challenges of growing up as a ...

Harry Bernstein, a 96 year old man published his first book titled "The Invisible Wall". See the article. Admirable spirit indeed! Apart from the fact that he was 96 years old, the other interesting fact is that he sent the book directly to the publisher(without an agent), in this case, Random House UK. NY Times published a review of the book."If I had not lived until I was 90, I would not have been able to write this book," ...

Title: By the River Pampa I StoodAuthor: Geeta Abraham JoseType: FictionThe story revolves around families belonging of the Syrian Christian Community of Kerala, India. The story set in Kerala, involves the Christian Community tied to an ancestral home with hard core "mallu" sounding name, inter-caste marriage complications, joint family squabbles, religious issues, you name it. It is hard to imagine that this book was not inspired by Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things. It has all the parallels ...