Sanjay de Silva lives in Colombo, under the thumb of a controlling Sri Lankan father, having lost his English mother at an early age. When his father is diagnosed with cancer, he feels the ground shifting under his feet, the balance of power realigning. Though it is something he has dreamed of all his life, he is uneasy when it happens. Learning that he is entitled to live in England-thanks to his half-English parentage-he arrives in south London.
It is 1980, the start of the glorious blue-rinsed Thatcher years, when every girl looks like Princess Diana but not every boy looks like Prince Charles. He meets and falls in love with a fellow Sri Lankan, Janine, who is old enough to be his mother and famous within the acid-tongued Sri Lankan community as ‘a hooker of the very highest class, with royal connections’.
Sanjay manages to buy an old wreck of a house in Brixton and succeeds, against all odds, in converting it into two flats. But all is not well with that house. At night there are voices . . .
This is the story of south London’s first Asian builder who in eight years developed and sold eighty-four flats, cashing in his winnings just before the crash of 1988. But at its heart it is about grief: how each of us copes in our inimitable way with the hidden mysteries of family and the loss of loved ones. Because, as Sanjay is about to find out, grief is only the transmutation of love, of the very same chemical composition-liquid, undistilled-the one inevitably turning to the other like ice to water.
Catagory: Health, Family & Personal Development
Making Excellence A Habit
One of the few practising doctors in India who contributed to research, education and charity in such a large measure, the book documents the fundamentals of what makes a person achieve meaningful success. While hard work, passion and focus emerge as winning lessons, delicate and tender learnings from Dr Mohan’s life, such as empathy or spirituality, are not forgotten.
Written in Dr Mohan’s sagacious and affable voice, and peppered with examples of his bold and unusual ideas such as planning a diabetes expo or conducting a country-wide diabetes study, this book is a behind-the-scenes account of a person honoured internationally for delivering path-breaking care to hundreds of thousands of people with diabetes.
The Right Choice
Should money be the primary factor in picking a job? When do I pursue an MBA or a second MBA? Should I switch industries to move ahead?
The Right Choice delves deep into the ten frequently faced dilemmas in a person’s career, such as the ones listed above. The author shares his wisdom and experiences from his illustrious career as one of India Inc’s longest-serving CEOs. In his trademark straightforward and lucid style, he shares lessons and learnings on each of the ten dilemmas. The book also contains insights and perspectives from twenty-four highly experienced professionals.
A successful career is not a straight line; it has many twists and turns where you are faced with difficult choices. Practical and inspiring, The Right Choice is a must read corporate management book and a career guide that will help you navigate these difficult situations-and win in your career.
ANUSHA SHETTY – BHAVYA MISRA – CHANDRAMOULI
VENKATESAN – DEBJANI GHOSH – HARI MENON –
HARISH DEVARAJAN – KIRTHIGA REDDY – M. DAMODARAN –
MEENA GANESH – PAVITRA SINGH – PIYUSH PANDEY –
PRAKASH NEDUNGADI – PRIYANKA VIJAYAKUMAR –
RAKESH KUMAR – RAMA BIJAPURKAR – ROHIT KALE –
R.R. NAIR – RUCHIKA GUPTA – SONNY IQBAL –
SUDHANSHU VATS – SUJATHA DUVVURI – BALARAMAN V. –
VANI GUPTA DANDIA – VIVEK GAMBHIR
Grains of Stardust
Offering a unique expression of thought reflecting feeling more than meaning, Grains of Stardust is a synesthetic stream of consciousness that does not distinguish between journey and destination, but meanders unchecked upon the river of human emotion.
‘Read my poetry out loud
Breathe it in
and taste the letters pour out.
A delicious sound.
Do you hear the colours take form?
Feel the pages move you
as you float in space
make some space
Open your mind
and get inside
and see all that
shimmering
marmalade liquid.
Grains of stardust‘
You Only Live Once
What if you ran away from your life today?
Twenty years later, three people are looking for you.
One is dying to meet you again.
The other wishes you had never met them.
The third wishes they could have met you at least once.
You are one person. Aren’t you? But you are not the same person to each of them.
Find the answers about your own life in this story about searching for love and discovering yourself. Join a broken but rising YouTube star Alara, a struggling but hopeful stand-up comedian Aarav, and a zany but zen beach shack owner Ricky. Together, take the journey to seek the truth behind the famous singer Elisha’s disappearance somewhere by the deep sea in Goa.
Will you be able to find Elisha? Or will you end up finding yourself?
No Straight Thing Was Ever Made
As a person with mood disorders that sprung up in her late teens, Urvashi Bahuguna had to navigate being the first person in her Indian family to admit to and seek help for a mental illness. The changes and challenges which came with this admission and the actions that followed not only impacted who she became as a person but also everything around her-from her interpersonal relationships, both familial and romantic, to the way she walked among her friends and peers and the manner in which she connected with art, literature, popular culture, they all became new and unknown.
Through these deeply honest essays that move between personal narratives, anecdotes from conversations and research-driven storytelling, Bahuguna traverses the opportunities and roadblocks that come her way with the tools she has available to her. From a writer of astonishing talents, No Straight Thing Was Ever Made bravely discusses the many facets of living with mental illness.
Good Health Always
HEALTHY AND INFORMED COOKING FOR THE INDIAN KITCHEN
Preparing a meal for someone is an act of love, says Charmaine D’Souza, a nutritionist and a writer of many kitchen exploits. In her latest book, The Good Health Always Cookbook, D’Souza, along with her two daughters, Charlyene and Savlyene, offers the reader a peep into her childhood memories and her comfort food. With more than a
hundred recipes using easily available ingredients like jau, ragi and bajra, and local Indian fruits and vegetables, D’Souza gives you ample ideas for dishes that will not only tantalize your taste buds but also provide immense nutritional value. From healthy oatmeal bars to finger millet bread, from amaranth crepes to buckwheat molten cake, from hara channa chaat to spinach brownies, the book infuses a variety of ingredients to reinvent traditional recipes. Anecdotal, easy to follow and packed with useful tips, The Good Health Always Cookbook takes you on a delightful culinary journey.
Susegad
‘Susegad’ is a Konkani word that has no exact translation in English. Goans use it to convey the sense of contentment, fulfilment and relaxation that everyone associates with Goa and its culture. Clyde D’Souza, bestselling author and proud Goan, shows us the wonderful, unique elements that help Goans achieve susegad, and what you can do to add a pinch of this magic to your life, no matter where you live.
As Clyde takes us on a journey through Goa’s beautiful beaches, lush greenery, exquisite cuisine, mix of Portuguese and Konkani culture, its history, festivals, music and architecture, you’ll learn what makes Goans tick and how they’ve created habits and routines that lend happiness and calm to their lives. Interviews with noted Goans, short stories, recipes and pictures in this book bring out what it means to be Goan, and help you find your own susegad.
Coaching
This book lucidly illustrates how a leader can bring out the very best in people by coaching them, and how coaching can unleash creativity as well as innovation while inspiring teams to play to their potential. It also examines how coaching helps leaders maintain a fine balance between managing and guiding, and between appraising and supporting their teammates. While many excellent books have been written about leadership, talent and coaching, this is a rare book that stands boldly at the intersection of leadership and coaching.
This is a book for our times. Businesses are facing a new reality, characterized by a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world. This new reality has forced organizations to depart from conventional command-and-control practices to a completely new model – a model in which leaders support and guide, rather than instruct and control, their team members.
Exploring some of the key ingredients of impactful leadership, Coaching offers tips and tricks, backed by research and incisive insights, on how to become an effective leader-coach. Peppered with interesting anecdotes and analogies, drawn from sports, performing arts and other walks of life, the book is a breezy read. Interviews with corporate leaders and academics further enrich the narrative. Guaranteed to make for a very interesting read, the book will be useful to leaders, aspiring leaders and especially those that wish to transition from being just good leaders to extraordinary ones.
Design Your Thinking
Creative problem-solving is at the heart of innovation, and some of the world’s most innovative companies are very systematic in following this approach. Most people would assume that creativity and discipline can’t coexist, and that only when resources are replete and the talent best-in-class can one be creative. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, creativity thrives amid constraints and calls for great discipline.
Pioneered by IDEO and Stanford d.school, design thinking is one such approach that draws inspiration from the realm of product design. However, it shouldn’t be narrowly associated with the world of start-ups and technology or thought of as something limited to product development. The method is increasingly being used in a wider context and can help us address a vast array of problems.
This book attempts to offer a practitioner’s perspective on how the tenets, methods and discipline of design thinking can be applied across a range of domains, including to everyday problems, and help us become expert problem-solvers through the use of the appropriate toolsets, skill sets and mindsets.