Reviews and recommendations

Everbody wants to contribute to the society in need as much as they can and donating Money is not the only way to do that. The easiest way we find to contribute is by giving away our old and used clothes and things to the people in need. But do we ever give a second thought about the clothes provided by us   are even   useful to the people or not? We just mindlessly give away all the old clothes we find at our place but are those clothes even useable? Here is where GOONJ comes in picture. Anshu Gupta founded this organisation in 1998 after leaving a well paying   corporate. He made this huge selfless move because he believed in his cause. And the cause was that rich or poor everybody deserves the right of proper clothing! The concept of GOONJ is optimum utilization of resources. No matter how good our intentions are to help people, donated clothes always end being misutilized. He observed that people in need were not getting the required clothes and people we...

Kahlid Hosseini’s stories are based on war torn Afghanistan, not exactly war stories but how the war had ripple effect on the lives of the people of Afghanistan at that time. His story makes you curious and makes you feel and think. This is one of the peculiarity of Khalid hosseini’s story that some parts of the story stay, it stays with you. Same is with this story. And the mountains echoed is not specifically about the destruction due to war but due to loath and greed and selfishness in humans heart. This stories goes through 3 generation and unfolds each layer slowly and beautifully. Its about people leaving Afghanistan due to war or other reasons and then visiting and re visiting their pasts. There are some bold topics taken up in this book like homosexuality and rebellious woman in Afghanistan! There were few characters’ story I felt were left incomplete ( how did Roshi coming to America and write a book, Idris after returning from Afghanista, Gholum after his father di...

So what you have failed! So what you took the risk which everybody was telling you not to take! So what you didn’t take a good advice from your well wisher and now you are screwed! So what your life is not going anywhere you have planned! You have reached the rock bottom, now you do what? You Accept it! You accept that you made a mistake. Feel it. Don’t try to suppress the feeling, because even if you try to it will still be there somewhere in the back of your head always bugging you. Its okay! Its life. It happens. Things don’t always go as per your plan no matter how good your intentions are. So Relax! You are a human being you are allowed to make your share of mistakes! We are intelligent species, we obviously will learn from our mistakes. We don’t need to hear “learn from your mistakes” we are in some way sort of programmed to learn from our mistakes. So now the actual problem is How to overcome the GUILT of failing or losing?       ...

This is a book I randomly picked up while strolling through my towns public library. The title caught my attention how can you make money without using money in real estate? The answer is simple and everyone knows it. The main idea of the book was to help explain the financial management to the normal crowd eager to invest but are afraid to take risk. Sorry to say but the book turned out to be disappointing but there are few points worth discussing. It  does start with explaining  the real estate business but strays off to explaining the unreleated topics how to start and manage a business. And in real estate also it just explains or discusses about the things we already know. Pichai gives so much emphasis on Survey and investigation of property before buying and rightly so. Another point is “ patience is the key”. And the last and most important point discussed is never be afraid to fail or lose. Instead learn from the bad situation, adopt that lesson learned to imp...

I picked “I have a dream” for whole and sole reason to motivate myself. Lets talk about the writing style. The first few stories where the writer used hindi lines from the original interview was cringe worthy. I was not able to understand in the beginning if it was the author or the interviewee speaking. The book could have been presented better rather formed better. Now the content part. The stories in this book were very inspiring. This book gets you in thinking gears. Infact some stories in this book had pushed me to do more research in certain field in which i am interested, if only it was well presented. And being a Bollywood freak I would say movies should be made on 2 stories one on Sulabh sauchalay and second Parivartan of Arvind kejriwal. There were so many heart touching stories where people gave up on a flourishing thriving career after IIT, IIM or in foreign country and chose to serve our Motherland by improving the lives of strangers who are helpless or unp...

I completed this book in a food court over a strawberry smoothie in 3 hours. A simple and amusing journey of Rusty. This book was kind of special because i was able to connect with the helplessness of Rusty. The sense of not belonging to anywhere but everywhere. Rusty’s journey of running away from a toxic home to discovering a whole new world is as simple as it is fascinating. It touches all the right chords of the sense of independence, the sense of friendship who are your family, the first love and the loss of it and the struggles you go through when you have to start the life from the scratch again after losing everything. The book teaches us to look for one single reason to not give up and find peace and meaning in life even if you have lost everything. This book is a light read which you can complete in few hours of a bored holiday after noon or few hours of train journey.

It is a male dominated world ladies and there is no denying to that. But you can definetly watch these movies where our protagonists’ didnt bow down infront of the rules of the societies and were just badass! 1)       LAJJA. Vaidehi who just found out that she is pregnant runs from her husband who is abusive to her and has malicious intentions of killing her after vaidehi gives birth to the baby. Along the way she meets 3 beautiful strong women Maitheli, Janki and Ramdulari. Maitheli who is getting married but   her in laws are demanding dowry the   way Maitheli   takes stand for herself infront of hundreds of people, wish more girls had this courage to take stand like this. Then Vaidehi meets Janki an theater actress that to very successful in her state. Janki leaves her to be husband in a heartbeat because he listens to the rumors and starts doubting her loyalty. And then there is Ramdulaari who works as mid wife in small village and does ...

There are so many bollywood children stories that I liked but below I am sharing the movies in which the little humans won my heart. v The blue Umbrella. Based on a Ruskin Bond book this story revolves around little Biniya and shop owner of the village Nand kishore. One day little biniya finds a beautiful blue Japanese umbrella. She kind of becomes a star in the village and Nandu develops an envy towards her. The film is shot in valleys of Himachal Pradesh and it is a treat to the eyes. And suddenly Biniya looses her beloved blue Umbrella. Devastated and heart broken she tires to cope with it but within few days Nand kishore get the exact same umbrella. Biniya being smart solves the mystery of the lost umbrella. Par jitni choti Biniya use zada bada uska dil. The compassion show by her at the end would definetly win everyones heart. This movie is SLOW but very cute and worth watching. v Halo This movie released in 1996. I saw this movie when I was little and I...

The story starts with the story of Sai who just lost her parents and has come to stay with her grandfather in kalimpong. The story jumps back and forth in time, from character to character( so many characters simultaneously). The transition is very swift and it does bother in the beginning but you get used to it. This book revolves around 2 main issues. Indians migrating for better life opportunities to Europe and USA and the movement of Gorkhaland in Kalimpong. The main crux of the story is when you feel out the place what you do? When you are wronged by the world, humiliated, left out, looked down by the world. Then you do what? You work hard and you rise. You rise and exert your new found power on weak, the first person you find and think that you own them. You put out all your disgust and frustration on that person because the world was unfair to you. The description of the illegal immigrants living like rats, all stuffed in one small filthy room away from home away from famil...

This book is a collection of stories of Surats highly successful entrepreneurs. It contains 16 stories of local business firms who made it to the top and are pioneer in their fields. There are many inspiring stories to motivate and inspire young entrepreneurs. The book discusses struggles, achievement, mistakes and learning of the initial years of these millionaires with the special message by these millionaires themselves. So I will just give you a brief plot summary of the stories I found unique and inspiring. Shree Ramkrishna Pvt Ltd. Owner Govind Dholakiya comes from a very small village named Dudhala and now owns a business having turnover more than 6000 crores and with strong hold in international diamond market. His strong belief is in adopting new technology and adopting to the changing environment as soon as possible. Treat your employees well and reward them and give them all the facilities possible. He takes his business decision based on opportunity cost and Retur...

Story told by little scout about her life with her brother Jem and father Atticus. They live in a small town Maycomb with a really tight neighbourhood where ever person knows the other person by their voice. They have known each other since generations. Atticus is the most kind hearted man in the county and the most brightest of lawyer there. He is handed a rape case, a coloured man being accused of rape. This story is about the time when black people were looked down upon and they had no respectable jobs or position in America. The people of Maycomb turn against the most respectable lawyer of town because he agreed to defend a black man! A story about how Atticus bravely defends the rape accused and tries to put his side of the story with all the logical arguments and evidence is commendable! The injustice served towards the colored folks back in time will make you flinch at the end. Jem is overwhelmed with the sentence and rightly so. This book will leave you wondering about t...