Review: The Lottery

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jackson starts by telling a story that appears so slow, that the reader relaxes, and maybe brings a cup of hot chocolate to enjoy with a nice warm read. It's a village setting, warm season, total population 300, everybody knows everybody, and all are anticipating, enjoying, waiting to get back to their lives.

It's a good peak into not only village life, but human nature. The themes in this story have been critically analyzed, and those analyses have been analyzed too. There's so much in this little story that it can fill you up and leave you thinking about it for days. It's one of those books that stay with you, for a long time. Maybe, forever.

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When you fetishize — as opposed to value — something, you wind up celebrating the idea of the thing rather than the thing itself.

—Jonathan Mahler 

My weight loss - 5th attempt - Part 1

So I start again on this journey. This time, more knowledgeable, and also older, with slower metabolism, than before. Beaten a number of times.

A lot of things are different now. I have support! My wife (bless her soul!) is very supportive. In fact, all I have to do is just eat and sleep, and she can take care of cooking the mot nutritious and healthy food on which I'd automatically become healthy.

I started January 8. At around 142 Kgs. Sigh. I put on an extra 40 kgs in the last three years. They were, after all, a tough three years! But I am going back.

Today is January 19. So basically 5.5 weeks. So far the weight loss has been 9-10 kgs. I am stuck at 132 since last 1.5 weeks. I wonder what the reason is.

My goal weight is 75 kgs. Starting weight is 142 kg. So I had to lose 67 kgs. Of which now, only 58 remain.

If I continue to lose 1-2 kgs per week, it will take me from 8 to 16 months to lose it all. So far, the pace has been great. It has been 2 kg per week, but last week it's been zero. Let's see how it goes this week, then I will make some more changes.

Review: Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As gripping as the vicious teeth of the Dracula whose story this is. Every vampire movie, book, story seems like a cheap replica compared to this original classic. Like all great fiction, this book talks about human nature, character and tells an enthralling, entertaining story. Stoker takes us slow, sometimes he takes us fast, when it times to end, it's subtle, like a soft click. Highly recommended bed time reading.

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Review: The Fasting Cure

The Fasting Cure by Upton Sinclair
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is a very valuable read. In an age, in which the only affliction we have is caused by overeating, and in which hunger is seen as something scary and detestable, this book offers a very fresh perspective. That hunger is comfortable, and is as important for growth and health as nourishment and sustenance. It talks about an era in which people considered losing weight as a sign of weakness, and wanted to gain weight to be healthy, in which people wanted color in their cheeks and spring in their step. Mainly, this book also recounts numerous stories of people fasting, in old age too, to get rid of the diseases. The author makes no claims of scientific authority, he simply explains what he did, and what he advised others to do, and their results, good or bad. And invited the readers to do their own experiments. In an age when we're told "Do this, not that" this kind of narrative is very refreshing, to say the least. 50 pages are enough to get anyone interested in "The Fasting Cure" for all diseases, after all, Hippocrates said, "Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness."

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Book Recommendations by Simon Sinek

BOOK

Man’s Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl
Beacon Press, 2006

This is essential reading for anyone interested in the topic of purpose. Because Frankl’s personal experience was so extreme, the lessons are that much more stark. And, most importantly, his lessons are universally applicable to all our lives.

BOOK

Turn the Ship Around

L. David Marquet
Portfolio Hardcover, 2013

So many leadership books are either theoretical (written by people who study it but don’t do it) or by people who look back and try to explain how they did it. Though both valuable, most leadership books are also very hard to implement as prescribed. That’s what makes Marquet’s book is so remarkable. A submarine commander, he used to obey traditional models of leadership … until they failed him. Unable to change any variables (people, technology or equipment), the only thing left for him to change in order to achieve success was how he acted as a leader. Based on real life events, Marquet presents his ideas in a superbly practical way — perfect for implementing.

BOOK

Guns, Germs and Steel

Jared Diamond
W. W. Norton & Company, 2005

I’m a fan of books that challenge our assumptions, and Diamond offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world. Learning to challenge existing assumptions is core to effective leadership for it trains us to keep an open mind.

BOOK

1421: The Year China Discovered America

Gavin Menzies
William Morrow Paperbacks, 2008

This is another book that trains us to keep an open mind. It offers a theory of how the Chinese discovered America 70 years before Columbus. The practice of being open to new ways of seeing things makes a leader open to the ideas of others — an essential characteristic of great leadership.

WATCH

Senna

Universal Pictures UK, 2011

I cry every time I watch this documentary by Asif Kapadia. It is the most remarkable illustration of what it means to do something for the love of it. It draws a stark contrast between someone who does something for the passion versus someone who does something for the numbers.

WATCH

Kumaré

Lorber Films, 2013

Though not intended to be a documentary about leadership, Vikram Gandhi’s exploration as to why we look for gurus to follow is a perfect metaphor for true leadership. Namely, when those we choose to follow encourage us to find our own strength.

BOOK

Quiet

Susan Cain
Broadway Books, 2013

Leaders needn’t be the loudest. Leadership is not about theater. It’s not about dominance. It is about putting the lives of others before any other priority. In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead. Simply being ourselves is more important — and more effective.

Review: 1984

1984 by George Orwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was an enjoyable and scary read.

Having read Animal Farm, as I was reading this, I couldn't stop myself from thinking why Orwell was against Socialism so much. I still don't know the answer.

But, IF, he was someone motivated to propagate for capitalism and against socialism, he did an amazing job of highlighting what can go wrong if totalitarian governments are allowed to be.

Though a lot of it we're even seeing in capitalist governemnts.

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