Book’ish – Recent Reads.

NO RULES RULES –

Let’s be clear, No Rules Rules is 100% about the company’s people and culture, not about it’s business and content. Although, one can see how the culture is such a big part of it’s business strategy and at the heart of how they get things right. The book offers some great insights (with clear examples) into how Netflix manages an unorthodox innovative culture, despite it’s size and global spread. As writing styles go, full marks to how the straightforwardness, simplicity and candor with which it is written reflects the culture we’ve often heard about.

Surprisingly chill read.

THE CORRECT ORDER OF BISCUITS –

1. Lists
2. Random lists
3. Ridiculously random lists
4. Brilliant ridiculously random lists
5. Precious brilliant ridiculously random lists 

Definite pick-me-up on a blah day. The book combines my love for lists, puns and the weird; it doesn’t get better than this. Quirky, fun and intelligent.

I hope there is a coffee-table collectible version of it in the works. Will re-read multiple times.

SOMETIMES IVORY, SOMETIMES SAND –

Brazen hope and survival 🤍

Two strong female protagonists, both different yet similar as being survivors in their own journeys. Set in a fictional land, their lives collide unexpectedly and they grow together to face societal and political challenges. Slightly verbose at times but otherwise a captivating storyline, definite single sitting read.

Borrowed from the poem Udaipur (early morning), the title of the book is for when paradoxical events come together –

It’s been weeks
That I’ve been trying to figure you out…
But you’ve kept me on the surface
Sometimes ivory,
Sometimes sand.

STAR STRUCK: CONFESSIONS OF A TV EXECUTIVE –

As a media person, having started my career in India, this book was a treat. It offers a great glimpse into the Star India journey and transformation, answers some of the why’s to the decisions taken and gives an insight into the thinking that went behind it. I would have liked to know a lot more.

There are some gems inside that he has penned from his experience, the one that stayed with me is when he says “Presenting a counter-response is essential to test the waters and flush out the real intent”, when dealing with a crucial decision in his life.

Pacy, easy to read and well worth the wait.

The Heart asks Pleasure First

Raw emotions, pages and pages of it…treated gently, treated wisely. This should feel heavy, with the imagery and the metaphors and the poetry. But it does not.

“A flight of yesterdays.”

Words definitely don’t do justice to the depth of everything i’ve just felt, overwhelming and a bit unnerving.

“To love. All kinds of it.”

Daya (mercy) and Aaftab (sun), their love too much to fit in a divided world.

“Now she wrapped up her dreams.

Now she folded them into a paper plane.

Now she aimed for the wastepaper basket.”

Then there’s Wasim (the brother) and Colin (the friend) and Asha (her mom) and Gyan (her dad).

“A pan of food critics.

A float of dancers.

A clutch of families.

We are all the same. Bones, muscle, souls, blood, shame, hate, joy.

Love.”

Read, it’s beautiful.

Remnants of a Separation

Every once in a while you come across a book that makes you feel deeply. Remnants of a Separation is one where the author takes you on a journey through endings, beginnings and more importantly the chaotic and heartbreaking in-betweens experienced by some of the families who were victims of the divide on both sides of the border. Traveling back to another time with them and feeling what they felt, living their memories through artefacts and heirlooms they carried during the migration.

During these times, it provides the human lens of seeing people as people, emotions as emotions through the partition, without any other biases.

Remnants of a Separation, in all honesty it was the cover art that first caught my eye. Chapter 4: The Maang-Tikka of Bhag Malhotra ♥️

The author has a twitter and instagram account where she shares more, and it has become a morning ritual of sorts to go check for updates.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑