‘Go, kiss the world’ were Subroto Bagchi’s blind mother’s last words to him. These words became the guiding principle of his life. Bagchi grew up amidst what he calls the ‘material simplicity’ of rural and small-town Orissa, imbibing from his family a sense of contentment, constant wonder, connectedness to a larger whole and learning from unusual sources. From humble beginnings, he went on to achieve extraordinary professional success, eventually co-founding Mindtree, one of India’s most admired software services companies. Through personal anecdotes and simple words of wisdom, Bagchi brings to the young professionals lessons in working and living, energizing ordinary people to lead extraordinary lives. Go Kiss the World will be an inspiration to ‘young India’, and to those who come from small-town India, urging them to recognize and develop their inner strengths, thereby helping them realize their own potential.
Archives: Books
Ganesha on the Dashboard
Take the way we go about buying a new car. We identify an auspicious date and time, then proceed to break a coconut, plonk a plastic deity of Ganesha on the dashboard and zoom off at great speed, refusing to wear our seat belts.Supposedly educated, smart and tech-savvy, Indians can be surprisingly unscientific in their daily lives. Think of the crores spent every year remodelling homes according to Vaastu, in the hope of changing luck; and the continued horrors of female infanticide, because it is only the son who can help the father’s journey to heaven . . . This unsparingly critical, scathingly analytical book points out the shocking lack of scientific temper among the vast majority of Indians, and how this holds us up as a nation in the twenty-first century.
God’s Own Office
James Joseph was in his late thirties, well ensconced in his job as a director with Microsoft, when he decided to take a family vacation in Aluva, Kerala. His six-year-old daughter tasted a jackfruit from a tree in their own yard and remarked, ‘Daddy, this is so delicious. I wish I could eat the fruits from this tree every year.’
Part memoir, part how-to, this is his amazing story of starting out from the backwaters of Kerala, becoming a corporate captain in America and then finding a way to have a successful career while working out of his village in Kerala.This book also contains tips and techniques for anyone frustrated with living in cities. How do you set up a home office? How do you integrate with the local community? Where do your kids go to school? How do you convince your company to give you this opportunity? God’s Own Office may well inspire you to transform your life.
The Future of Competition
The Future of Competition argues that in a world in which information is readily available to everyone, the role of the customer has changed dramatically.
Once passive recipients of the products and services companies created for them, customers are now active participants who actually co-create the value they receive from products and services they help develop, test and distribute.
In the 1990s competitive advantage was derived from the ‘core competencies’ (the activities a company does better than anyone else), but in the future it will come from how proficient companies are at providing opportunities for customers to co-create unique experiences.
Prahalad and Ramaswamy present four key building blocks that will enable companies to co-create the future with customers-transparency, access, dialogues and risk management-and illustrate them through rich examples from a wide range of companies. As bold and far-reaching as Competing for the Future a decade ago, this book will redefine strategy for the information age.
The Essential North-East Cookbook
If there is one part of this country that is still to be discovered, at least in terms of its cuisine, it is the North East. Those who live in, or have visited the seven sister states” Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura” would tell you that the kitchens of the North East are the source of an extraordinary range of dishes that blend tradition and innovation in unexpected ways. The basic tribal diet of jungle produce has over the years been shaped by the influence of various other communities: the Thais, who once ruled over some parts of the territory the Chinese, because of their proximity and the Bengali migrants, and it is this unusual combination that makes the food of the region unique in India. Lightly spiced, with hardly any oil, and flavoured with herbs that are now available in stores across the country, the stews, chutneys and curries in this book can transform the most ordinary meal into an exotic experience.
The Essential North-East Cookbook
If there is one part of this country that is yet to be discovered, at least in terms of its cuisine, it is the North-East. The kitchens of the North-East are the source of an extraordinary range of dishes that blend tradition and innovation in unexpected ways. The basic tribal diet of jungle produce has, over the years, been influenced by various other communities-the Thais, who once ruled over some parts of the territory; the Chinese, because of their proximity; and the Bengali migrants-and it is this unusual combination that makes the food of this region unique in India. With a variety of new recipes from the eight states of the North-East-now including Sikkim-this updated cookbook will help you transform the most ordinary meal into an exotic experience.
Surviving Men
What every woman (and most men) should know about Indian men . . .
Bestselling novelist and columnist Shobhaa Dé gives us the provocative, no-holds-barred guide to the India man. Among questions she asks and answers are the following:
· Are men worth the time women spend on them?
· Is it possible to actually love a man?
· Are men any good in bed?
· Do men have real feelings?
· What men are most anxious about?
Selective Memory
Shobhaa Dé has been many things to many people: supermodel, celebrity journalist, bestselling author, friend, rival, colleague and confidante. In this engagingly candid memoir, a woman who has been a familiar face and name to millions (although few known to her) finally reveals the true self behind the public persona.
Insiders know that besides her commitment to work and the frantic pace of her life, Shobhaa Dé’s first priority in life has always been her family. Here she writes poignantly of her early years, and of her relationship with her parents and siblings, her husband and her children.
Written in a consistently confident and candid voice, Selective Memory: Stories from My Life is remarkable for the honesty with which it captures the essence of a fascinating woman who has become a legend in her own time
Speedpost
The relationship between a mother and her children is unquestionably the most special human bond there is. In this book, bestselling author Shobhaa Dé writes a series of letters to her six children on the key concerns of every mother and child in the twenty-first century: family values and tradition; discipline and the familiar bugbears of telephone calls, late nights and internet chats; growing pains and the adolescent anxieties about love, sex and friendship; religion and God, the eternal verities; and the challenge of being a responsible parent.
Rich, compassionate, loving, witty and wise, these letters will touch the hearts of readers everywhere.
The Transformed Mind Reflections on Truth, Love and Happiness
In his characteristically endearing and informal style, His Holiness the Dalai Lama examines the nature of the human mind and emphasises the need to transform it if we want to lead more fulfilling lives. In the form of several discourses delivered over a period of nine years, he talks about suffering, happiness, love and truth, and imparts practical wisdom on issues ranging from religious tolerance to world economy. Stressing the need for compassion and non-violence, the Dalai Lama reiterates the essential goodness of the human heart and teaches us how to live and die well, reminding us constantly of the responsibility of our actions and thoughts, and the interdependence between action and result. Wise, inspiring and always candid, The Transformed Mind gives us hope and solace in this new millennium.