Publish with Us

Follow Penguin

Follow Penguinsters

Follow Penguin Swadesh

© 2020 Penguin India

Make Money the Chanakya Way!

Posted on by Penguin India

Radhakrishnan Pillai’s latest book, Chanakya and the Art of Getting Rich is a holistic study, written for anyone and everyone. The book is the result of his fascinating insight and research into the master diplomat, administrator and economist (before the term existed) and the man behind the Mauryan empire, Chanakya- the ancient author of the Arthashastra. Pillai has deftly extracted the maxims most relevant to wealth-creation from the Arthashastra’s vast  scope of statecraft, economic policy and military strategy, and interspersed it with modern examples, bringing  practical wisdom from the 4th century BC to guide contemporary ambitions!
Chanakya and the Art of Getting Rich begins with the simplest of questions-‘Do you want to be rich? If you replied in the affirmative to the most basic of all ambitions read on for some tips from the Guru of all gurus.
Aanvikshiki, the science and art of thinking.

‘Clear thinking is the foundation of all good decisions. According to Chanakya, clear thinking and calculated decision-making are the first qualities a person needs to  develop. A person who cannot think clearly will always have great difficulty assessing a situation, evaluating the scenario and taking a decision that is the best in the given circumstances.’

Keep your spiritual and material life distinct

‘“No business in charity, and no charity in business” is a well-known adage in the business world. What this means is that one should never do charity for profit nor run a business as a charitable activity.’

Eternal Vigilance

‘One has to fulfill one’s duty of keeping an eye on the wealth one already has. If we are not alert and vigilant about the wealth we already own, it will deplete and eventually ebb away.

Ethical wealth is long-term wealth

Remember, the key to ‘big money’ is to understand the ‘right money’. One can become rich very fast too, but mostly through shortcuts. . Ethics are very important when it comes to amassing wealth. Illegal and immoral wealth does not stay for long.

Channel your ‘wealth potential’

Everybody cannot make money in every field. The smart ones are those who can identify which field is meant for them.  Chanakya has a formula for that. In the first book of the Arthashastra, Chanakya talks about finding your swadharma. Swa means ‘your own’ and dharma is nature. If you come to know what your true nature is, wealth will come to you naturally.

Find your guru

‘You may have all the potential to become rich. But, the fact is that you still require a mentor and guide to become rich.’

Know your political environment

‘If you want to expand your business and become rich, think about the place you are in. Read about the government policies that affect your area, your city, your business, your country.. Any changes in policy have a ripple effect—if they don’t touch you directly they will affect other things that will affect you in return.

Keep your Equanimity and carry on

‘Equanimity Is of Paramount Importance A person who desires to become wealthy should also develop another important quality—equanimity. This state of mind is comparable to a lamp which is steady and calm, and the flame does not flicker.’

The Blueprint of Success

‘As the famous saying goes, ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’ So if you want to put into action any roadmap of wealth creation, then plan the whole strategy. It is like drawing your blueprints before you start the construction. Thinking is the blueprint required before you get into action’

Money attracts money.

‘Wealthy people become wealthier. But if you do not take care of the wealth you own, it will slip away. So learn the art of managing your wealth well so that it can grow, not deplete.’

Accountability in Accounting

‘Chanakya says, “He [the leader] should check the accounts for each day, group of five days [week], fortnight, month, four months [quarterly] and a year.”’

Partnership Is a Way to Wealth

‘No one person can have all the qualities required for success. Therefore, to succeed, it is good to have partners. Partnerships are about complementing each other. Partners make up for each other’s weaknesses and support each other’s strengths.’

Quotes to Celebrate Roald Dahl Day

Posted on by Penguin India

Roald Dahl is one of the most beloved authors of our time and has encouraged children world over to read. Known to use fun, self-created words, he has created a magical world for children to grow up in, inspired from his own life as well as his imagination. With plenty of laughter and lots of lessons to be learnt, his books are the perfect companion for children (and adults too!).
On occasion of his birthday, we got together quotes from fifteen of his books to remind us why we love him so. Take a look!

“A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and small number of great ones.” – Going Solo
“It is almost worth going away because it’s so lovely coming back.” – Boy
“Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything? Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first.” – James and the Giant Peach
“No book ever ends, when it’s full of your friends…” – The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, as long as somebody loves you.” – The Witches
“You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” -The Twits
“The magic finger is something I have been able to do all my life. I can’t tell you just how I do it, because I don’t even know myself.” – The Magic Finger
“What I have been trying so hard to tell you all along is simply that my father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvelous and exciting father a boy ever had.” – Danny The Champion of the World
“A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men.” – Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray,

Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install,
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
“I understand what you’re saying, and your comments are valuable, but I’m gonna ignore your advice.” Fantastic Mr Fox
“For a few brief moments he had touched with the very tips of his fingers the edge of a magical world.” – George’s Marvellous Medicine
“Tortoise, Tortoise get bigger, bigger. Come on Tortoise grow up, puff up, shoot up! Spring up, Blow up swell up! Gorge! Guzzle! Stuff! Gulp! Put on fat, Tortoise, Put on fat! get on, Get on! Gobble food!!” – Esio Trot
“If you are good, life is good.” – Matilda
“’Meaning is not important, said the BFG. ‘I cannot be right all the time. Quite often I is left instead of right.’” – The BFG

The Roald Dahl Reading Challenge

Posted on by Penguin India

Author Kate DiCamillo said, “Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” Which book or author would make the perfect gift of reading for a child? One name popular across generations is Roald Dahl.
Roald Dahl is a favorite among children and grown-ups alike, thanks to the fun adventures he takes us on! From books for 4 year olds to 13 year olds, all children are bound to love him! His loving characters and creative words are sure to keep your child (and even you) hooked!
Depending on their age, these are the books by Roald Dahl you should pick up for your little ones, and give them a fun challenge to read them all!

4-7 Years: 

Opposites

Busy little hands can lift the flaps to discover the opposites with iconic illustrations of Dahl’s much loved characters from the one and only, Quentin Blake.
123

With beautiful, bright, colourful illustrations from Quentin Blake, plus a lift the flap surprise at the end, this is the perfect first baby book for all budding Dahl fans.
Billy and the Minpins 

Billy’s mum says he must never go out through the garden gate and explore the dark forest beyond. So, one day, that’s exactly what he does! There he meets the Minpins, tiny tree-dwelling people whose children are the size of matchsticks. They live in fear of the terrible, galloping GRUNCHER. Will it gobble Billy too – or can he find a way to defeat the hungry beast?
 
8-10 years:
James and the Giant Peach

James is  very lonely until one day something peculiar happens. At the end of the garden a peach starts to grow and GROW AND GROW. Inside that peach are seven very unusual insects – all waiting to take James on a magical adventure. But where will they go in their Giant Peach and what will happen to the horrible aunts if they stand in their way? There’s only one way to find out . . .
The Twits

With filthy hair all over his face and horrid plots growing in his mind, Mr Twit is one of the nastiest people you’ll ever meet and Mrs Twit is just as bad and even uglier! But they don’t stop at tricking each other: neighbouring children and even the local birds are in danger, and that’s where the Muggle-Wumps come in. This family of monkeys has had enough of the Twits’ tricks and, with the help of the handsome Roly-Poly Bird, they decide it’s time for sweet revenge…
The Witches

The Grand High Witch of all the World has gathered together the witches of England for an annual conference at the Hotel Magnificent in Bournemouth. Their agenda is the elimination of all the children in the country and the prospects for their young victims look bleak. But the Grand High Witch and her cronies have reckoned without the spark and ingenuity of a young guest at the hotel and his rather brilliant grandmother…
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

WHOOSH! Inside the Great Glass Elevator, Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket and his family are cruising a thousand feet above the chocolate factory.
They can see the whole world below them, but they’re not alone. The American Space Hotel has just launched. Lurking inside are the Vernicious Knids – the most brutal, vindictive murderous beasts in the universe.
So grab your gizzard! Hold your hats! Only Charlie and Willy Wonka can stop the Knids from destroying everything!
 

10-13 years:

Boy; Tales of Childhood

As a boy, all sorts of unusual things happened to Roald Dahl. Boy, Roald Dahl’s bestselling autobiography, is full of hilarious anecdotes about his childhood and school days, illustrated by Quentin Blake.
Going Solo

In 1938 Roald Dahl was fresh out of school and bound for his first job in Africa, hoping to find adventure far from home. However, he got far more excitement than he bargained for when the outbreak of the Second World War led him to join the RAF.

Words of Wisdom from our Beloved, Ruskin Bond

Posted on by Penguin India

Ruskin Bond has been capturing hearts with his writing for many years now. Most of us who grew up reading his work are happy to read almost anything by him especially as we realize how beautiful and relevant his quotes always are. Here are four quotes by him, that we hold close to our hearts from his new book, The Beauty of All My Days.




The Beauty of All My Days is Ruskin Bond’s latest book. Each chapter of this memoir is a remembrance of times past, an attempt to resurrect a person or a period or an episode, a reflection on the unpredictability of life. For more posts like these, check out our Facebook page!

Facts on the Formative Years of the Most Powerful Corporation in the History of the World

Posted on by Penguin India

The East India Company controlled half of the world’s trade and deployed a vast network of political influencers at home and abroad. Yet the story of the Company’s beginnings in its formative years remains largely untold.
In A Business of State, Rupali Mishra offers critical insights into the rise of the early modern English state and the expansion and development of its nascent empire.
Here are some interesting facts about the Company’s inception, the way it maintained secrecy and access to information and how it managed its reputation in its initial years:
The formation






 
Secrecy and Access




Reputation


Drawing on a host of overlooked and underutilized sources, Rupali Mishra’s account of the East India Company reconstructs the inner life of the Company, laying bare the era’s fierce struggles to define the difference between public and private interests and the use and abuse of power. Available Now.
For more posts like these, follow us on Facebook!

4 Brands that Won Customers’ Hearts

Posted on by Penguin India

‘Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning’ – Bill Gates

Games Customers Play by Ramesh Dorairaj deep dives into how reaching out to end consumers can give brands actionable insights. Such insights can then be translated into some change in the brand’s product design or delivery or service management, which makes their product or service more desirable.
Here are case studies of successful brands we all love, that gained customer affinity by reaching out to end consumers in innovative ways:
Asian Paints

Asian Paints did something different: it reached out to the end consumer. The house or building owner did not want to manage multiple vendors to get his house or office painted. Sensing this, Asian Paints co-opted upcoming interior design consultants who went to a potential buyer’s location and photographed his house or office rooms. They then loaded it into a software running on their laptops and showed the owner how different colours would look when applied.
Asian Paints also hired painters who would take those colours and paint the house.
P&G

Fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers like P&G and Unilever compete to get premium retail space. P&G chose a path of consumer-focused innovation.
P&G designed a programme called Living It, where its employees lived with potential customer for several days. A.G. Lafley, its former CEO, cites an example of how Living It helped reach out to the end customer. The Living It team studied the laundry activities of women from lower-middle-class families in Mexico and realized that hard water was a real problem. Softeners were needed, but softeners meant multiple rinses. This meant quite a lot of water, not available in abundance in the semi-urban and rural areas of the country. Figuring out the solution to this problem resulted in the launch of Downey Single Rinse.
Johnson & Johnson
Trust increases the perceived switching costs in a buyer. Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, finds a place in Barron’s list of the world’s most respected companies, almost every year. It ranked first in 2016 and in 2017 it was seventh in the list. In 1982, Johnson & Johnson had to recall 31 million bottles of Tylenol (an over-the-counter drug for mild fever and the like) as some deranged person had put 65 mg of cyanide into capsules of Tylenol on some store shelves, leading to the death of seven people in the Chicago area. They had to spend about $100 million to recall all Tylenol capsules.

Such actions improve customer faith that even when things go bad, the seller is capable and willing to rectify the situation without considering the cost of such remedial action.
YouTube star Lily Singh aka | | SuperWoman | |
Consider the case of Lily Singh, a Canadian of Indian origin. Her YouTube channel username is | | SuperWoman | | . From 2010, she started publishing videos of skits that have three characters: father, mother and daughter. All three roles are played by her.

By 2016, her YouTube videos had been viewed more than two billion times and her channel had twelve million subscribers. The twenty-seven-year-old is a UNICEF Global Goodwill ambassador and has been named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2016. She undertook a tour of places with a significant Indian, and Punjabi, diaspora. She visited India in 2017. Singh reached audiences directly using YouTube, eliminating the middlemen of the entertainment industry.
———–
Games Customers Play, a thought-provoking book by Ramesh Dorairaj, shares valuable perspectives on what drives buyer-seller relationships. Available Now!

Meet the Characters from Smoke and Ashes

Posted on by Penguin India

Sam Wyndham and Surendranath Banerjee, two extraordinary officers in the Calcutta police, share a great bonding as a team and as friends. They’re on a mission to solve two suspiciously similar murders, while keeping their personal lives and secrets aside.
Set against the historical backdrop of the Non-cooperation movement and the intense battle for independence, Smoke and Ashes is a pacy historical fiction packed with mystery and action.
Right from the beginning till the very end, these two enthralling characters, though not perfect, will have you rooting for them:
 
Meet Captain Sam Wyndham

 

 

 

 
 
Meet Surendranath Banerjee

 

 

 

 
———-
With the British Raj and the political tensions during the fervent fight for Independence at its heart, Smoke and Ashes is a thought provoking read that will transport you to a different place and time.
Abir Mukherjee has beautifully juxtaposed real people like Subhash Chandra Bose and Prince Edward, in this captivating fiction in a way that feels authentic to their real lives.
AVAILABLE NOW!

Things you didn’t know about India’s struggle for Independence

Posted on by Penguin India

15th August 1947, a memorable and historical day for all Indians. While we may have learnt about India’s struggle for independence in school, India Since Independence, analyses the challenges India has faced and the successes it has achieved, in the light of its colonial legacy and century-long struggle for freedom. It is is a remarkable account of a nation on the move.
 
The story of the forging of India, the world’s largest democracy, is a rich and inspiring one. Read 6 facts you didn’t know about India’s struggle for Independence:
 
1. To go against the status quo Indian politicians had to remove an educational block.
 

“It [educational system] encouraged learning by rote, memorization of texts, and proof by authority . The rational, logical, analytical and critical faculties of the students remained underdeveloped; in most cases the students could reproduce others’ opinions but had difficulty in formulating their own.”

 
2. India = Britain’s Satellite Economy.
 
The British government was unwilling to offer India the support it needed to develop its industries. The choice was between economic underdevelopment or independence.
 

“India’s policies were determined in Britain and in the interests of the British economy and the British capitalist class. An important aspect of the underdevelopment of India was the denial of state support to industry and agriculture.”

 
3. The British dug their own grave by unifying the country
 
 The British established a uniform system of administration which penetrated even the country’s remotest areas.
 

“Combined with the formation of a unified economy and the development of modern means of communication, colonialism helped lay the basis for the making of the Indian nation.”

 
4. Dissent within the parties became India’s strength
 

“Congress did not insist on uniformity of viewpoints or policy approach within its ranks. It allowed dissent and not only tolerated but encouraged different and minority opinions to be openly held and freely expressed. In fact, dissent became a part of its style.”

 
5. Originally, Gandhi believed religion and politics went hand in hand
 

“ In his early years, Gandhi, a deeply religious person, emphasized the close connection between religion and politics. This was because he believed that politics had to be based on morality , and to him all religions were the source of morality…but when he saw that communalists were using religion as a sectarian belief system to divide the people, he overtly began to preach the separation of religion from politics.”

 
6. Civil rights trumped over ideological differences.
 

“Political trends and groups otherwise critical of each other and often at opposite ends of the political or ideological spectrum vigorously defended each other’s civil rights. The Moderates—Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendranath Banerjea and others—defended the Extremist leader Tilak’s right to speak and write what he liked.”

 
 
———————————————————————————————————————
 
A thorough and incisive introduction to contemporary India.
AVAILABLE NOW

A Must Read Crime-Thriller Trilogy

Posted on by Penguin India

A Rising Man

India, 1919. In the bid to have a fresh start Captain Sam Wyndham takes up an important position in Calcutta’s police force. He is summoned to look into a terrible murder of an official, as a warning to the British to leave India.
With the stability of the Empire under threat, Wyndham and the quick-thinking Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee must solve the case quickly. But there are some who will do anything to stop them…
 
A Necessary Evil

India, 1920. Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee are visiting the kingdom of Sambalpore to investigate the dramatic assassination of a Maharaja’s son…
As Wyndham and Sergeant ‘Surrender-not’ Banerjee endeavour to unravel the mystery, they become entangled in a dangerous world­—riven with internal conflicts regarding the throne.  They must find the murderer, before the murderer finds them.
 
Smoke and Ashes

Set against the backdrop of the fervent fight for Indian independence, and rich with the atmosphere of 1920s Calcutta, Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee is the brilliant new historical mystery in this award-winning series.
Battling a serious addiction to opium, which he must keep a secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force, and haunted by the memories of the Great War, Captain Sam Wyndham has been called to investigate a gruesome murder. With the aid of his sharp Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, Sam must try to solve the two murders, all the while keeping his personal demons secret, before somebody else turns up dead.
 
Set against the backdrop of the fervent fight for Indian independence, and rich with the atmosphere of 1920s Calcutta, Smoke and Ashes is the brilliant new historical mystery in this award-winning series.
AVAILABLE NOW!

Know More About Kalki from The Sage’s Secret

Posted on by Penguin India

It is the year 2025, and twenty-year-old Anirudh starts dreaming of god Krishna. With these recurrent dreams of the god and his life flashing through Anirudh’s mind, he has many tribulations to go through as he slowly comes to terms with his real identity – he is the last avatar of Vishnu. Now the onus falls on him to restore the balance between good and evil.
The Sage’s Secret by Abhinav, is a gripping tale of god Vishnu’s avatar – Kalki, and the story of its manifestation. Here are a few things to know about the character of Kalki from the book:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
This gripping read is the first part in the Kalki Chronicles, which unveils the greatest legend of the Kali yuga.
AVAILABLE NOW

error: Content is protected !!