Reviews by rammesh

My Favorite Books

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Don't say YES when you want to say NO
Zen and the art of motor cycle maintenance
Emotional Intelligence
Color Therapy
Numerology
You are what you wear
 

Seven Habits of highly effective people

I saw this book eight years ago when I was a college student in the table of my cousin, Bhagirathi. She is a doctorate and was working with ICICI in a very responsible position (no wonder she was reading this for her success). Frankly, it was too heavy for me and it did not impress me much. It was three years ago, when I went to see my brother I gave a genuine attempt to know more about this as he was also reading this book. Soon, I bought the book and I started reading this book. For me today, it is like a bible. I would like to keep this next to my bed always.

Read my detailed comment on the book and Covey's thoughts here

Don't say YES when you want to say NO

One of the books I read in my beginning of professional life to improve myself. The inspiration was my room-mate that time (shit! I forgot his name) who was having this book. As I was a soft guy (now also I think), I was finding it difficult to survive sometimes in a tough environment. Indeed the book was a good eye-opener and I could find myself getting improved. Certain thoughts were really astounding: You have to be assertive and aggressive depending on what the situation warrants.

The practical application of what was discussed in the book was when I went to the canteen to have food when I was working late hours. Although it was my mistake to go late for food, the cook said that the curry got over but I was really aggressive enough to demand for an alternative. I patted my shoulders myself for my behavior.

Really a book worth reading once. Good eye-opener.

Zen and the art of motor cycle maintenance

My brother Kanan gave me this book and asked me to try if I like it. It was a kind of different book for me that time. I still remember the comparison the author makes for life.

Good book. Would like to read again, if time permits.

Emotional Intelligence

I had read a brief article about this subject/book in a leading magazine when I was in Satyam. The topic was really different and interesting and I decided to buy it soon. But was a pleasant surprise for me to get this book as a gift from Santosh - one of my colleague. I am still reading this book and it has lot to know about. The explanation about Brain is excellent. Also about the scientific explanation behind emotion. The author must have made a research before writing this book.

Excellent book, I am sure.

Body Language

While I was a student there was a real chance to know little about this subject. My sister - Rohini (what a beautiful name! - it is the name of a star) used to prepare for competitive exams and she was buying a magazine regularly. An interesting article titled 'Body Language - Reading others through gestures' used to appear in that magazine. It was true that the article attracted me much because of its rich pictures. After reading a couple of articles, I decided that I will buy that book to know more as the subject was very interesting. But it took two years for me to really buy the book from Gangarams, Bangalore.

The author of the topic is Allen Pease. The study made on people though empirical is excellent. Although the author confirms that the theory could hold good only for Americans, Europeans and Australians, I have found that to be true universally - mostly - true. Ever since I read the book, I have been observing people whenever possible to confirm my understanding.

Having mastered a little, I thought I will share my knowledge with people what I know and so I started writing about my observations in the in-house magazine of Satyam - Connect. It was a good experience.

Interested more in the subject, I thought I will try to know more. Fortunately, I had a chance to read another book by Julius Fast. Though this book is not illustrative and exhaustive, nevertheless, it is quite informative and worth a read.

Color Therapy

I had a chance to read a book on colors again in my cousin's house. Since the book was talking about something different, I got fascinated and started reading. I don't recall all the contents as it was more than 10 years ago I read this book (and ever since I have been trying my best to buy the same somewhere but in vain). It talked about four primary colors and four secondary colors from which a person's character can be gauged. Both the mood at a moment and his general characteristics can be found - the author says. Very interesting.

I wrote an article about this in an in-house magazine when I was working in BPL, Bangalore and I got a cash prize too. (Good eh!)

Incidentally I found some similarity with what the author discusses with what I read from Cheiro's book on Numerology. For example, Cheiro says, No.6 people (people who are born on 6th, 15th and 24th of any month) are often lazy and think too much; he recommends them to use red, pink and blue as the favorite colors and black as the color to be avoided. Color therapy also says that people who prefer black tend to be gloomy and think on their own. I also found interesting observations with red, gray, yellow and white. (More about this soon)

Numerology

Cheiro says numbers have some meanings and each person has a birth number. This number is from 0 to 9. You need to add your date of birth - just the date - together and bring them to a single digit number. This is your birth number. Each birth number has some characteristics defined. While it is beyond debate whether to believe this or not, I just think this way. If something is interesting and if it has some relevance and if you like it, just appreciate it. With that interest, I tried to know more about this. Sooner, I found something meaningful.

You are what you wear

Frankly speaking I was attracted by the title, when I first saw this book in Satyam library. I was thinking if this book will talk about the masks we wear in different occassions, to suit ourselves and better behave. But actually the book talked about the dress code only. It really matters what we wear for different occasions and how it affects/suits.

Can try once, if you believe - I believe.