Change Your Life- Review

Click on the above image to read the full review.

Title: Change Your Life
Author: Sneha Mehta
Publisher: Random House India
Publication Year: 2013
Language: English
Genre: Self - Help
Binding: Paperback
No. of Pages: 252
Price: ₹ 199
My Rating: 5/5

Ambi Pur And Love

I can’t smell stuffs. I don’t know why, but I simply can’t.

Specialists and experts belonging to the medical fraternity have given this lack-of-sense-of-smell a weird name. I don’t remember now; I do not want to remember. It depresses me. It hurts me.

I have been subjected to the lamest of jokes in schools, with my fellow classmates and ‘friends’ making a mockery of my plight. I was nicknamed Trash Bin.

I didn't know the smell of freshly cooked Maggi, neither of stale egg, and that, in school, tormented me. Whenever any of my friends didn't like the food in their tiffin, or the contents had decayed, I was offered the food, and my unsuspecting mind gobbled them up with full satisfaction. It was only the next day when my stomach realized the pain and I was swept into hours of frenzied horror.

Smell and taste were the sense perceptions I lacked, and I so often missed their beauty.

However, things did take a sharp turn one fine Sunday morning when my wife suddenly spoke out of nowhere, “We need a freshener.”

I remembered having gone to the market last week, and one of my purchases included a room freshener. I reminded her of the same.

“Nay, not that. I meant a freshener for our car.”

And then it struck me. I have been using a car since the last three years, but had never resorted to the fragrance emitting devices that are so popular in the market nowadays. The reason was obvious. My numb nose wouldn't feel the sweet perfume, and thus I found such a device futile.

However, for the sake of marital harmony, I had to now attach the device in my car. I started surfing the net, checking the prices of numerous car fresheners that flooded the market, but the high number of options confused me further.

As always, Indiblogger came to my rescue.

I chanced upon the Ambi Pur Contest that provided the participants with an Ambi Pur MiniVent Clip, and invited the users to write their experiences. I thought, “Wow! Why not.” I quickly requested for a sample and updated my details in the page.

A few days later, the sample arrived. I was at home then, and the courier guy delivered it right into my palms. I placed the package on the table, and started unwrapping it. Soon, the much awaited device came out.

“This is so cute!” my wife remarked. What should I say now? She had never used those words for me, and for a moment, I did feel jealous.

The Ambi Pur perfectly fitted in my car, and to be honest, it did add a certain degree of charm to the interior of my vehicle that was otherwise devoid of any adornment. The design was sleek and had an aesthetic appeal to it. My jealousy soon turned to pride.

“Let’s go on a long drive,” my wife said. Now that felt like going back to the days when we were dating, and yes, it did feel good. Our marriage had hit a dead end, and I often felt guilty about the fact that I neglected her feelings owing to my own irritation over the lack of sense perceptions that I had.

So off we went, into the wide open road, midst the traffic jams of the city, the honking auto rickshaws, and the speeding buses …

Off we went through the busy streets, the office going crowds rushing past, the street dogs chasing each other, the birds flying high into the Promised Land …

And we reached.

“ Isn't this the place?” My wife asked me in astonishment.

“Yes, it is.”

I could see the smile gleaming in her eyes. We were back to where it had all begun.

This was the place where we had confessed our love to each other, where I had proposed marriage, in the conventional ‘bend-on-your-knees’ manner, with a shining diamond ring.

We were at the Paradise Spot, a high hilly point that overlooked the bustling city. Here, it was quiet and peaceful, its serenity a stark contrast to the maddening crowd that flowed below.

We sat inside, the AC turned on, the Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip reflecting her joyous mood.

“I am sorry,” it was time for my confession, “I have always ignored your wants, perhaps, due to my lack of smell and taste. I always felt the world lacks fragrance, ‘cause that’s how my life has been. But today, when I saw you smiling, basking in the freshness of Ambi Pur, I realized how much I have missed in life. I can’t smell the freshness, but I can definitely perceive it in your eyes. I have always dreamt of this moment, and today, Ambi Pur made me live it. I love you.”

She hugged me, tears streaming down her cheeks. I held her tight. The Gods blessed our love, and it started to rain.

The Ambi Pur Mini Vent clip changed my life. Love was back, and so was our happiness.

Life

Is Living

In A Moment

Defining The Smiles

Of People We Love And Care
Brightening Our Lives
With Blissful Joys
Me and You
We, Us
Yes

We expect big changes to happen, but sometimes, it is these small moments that bring out the true magic of life.

Ambi Pur will always hold a special place in my heart. It didn't teach me to smell, but it taught me to smile.

Isn't that what we all need today?

Now whenever I drive, the Ambi Pur Mini Vent Clip is always with me. I am not superstitious, but it has turned out to be my lucky charm.

Signing off with one of my favorite car songs. I am sure you would love it :-)

This is my official entry to "Escape Into Freshness" contest organized by Indiblogger in association with Ambi Pur.

She was my Girlfriend! Or ... I thought so!! - Review

Click on the image below to read my review of She was my Girlfriend! Or ... I thought so!! by Deovart Verma and Prakash Shelke.

Title: She was my Girlfriend! Or ... I thought so!!
Authors: Deovart Verma, Prakash Shelke
Publisher: Parlance Publishers Pvt Ltd
Edition: Paperback
Language: English
No. of Pages: 216
Price: ₹ 149
My Rating: 2/5

Doors

For you, my love, these doors stay awake

Rhyming with your footsteps in cold wintry flake.

The day when you departed, never to return

Shaking with my miseries, these eyes did burn.

I cried, and I laughed, till I drove myself mad

Oh, dear dear love, have I always been this bad?

Perhaps you could forgive, a chance I would say

Why did we have to go through this damned darkened way?

Questions aren't my forte, answers I seek neither

The flowers in our garden have started to wither.

The world too needs us to be together

Why did we run away from this brash weather?

Let's not stop before we start

Promises we made, why shall we part?

Tomorrow, with the sun, will you shine by my window

The doors will clap, as I embrace your shadow.

Lips will curl, and eyes will melt

True love for you is what I have always felt.

This Poem is shared with Theme Thursday - Doors.

"There Is Something In English Bites! For You To Chew, Relish, and Cherish"

Manish Gupta is a banking professional. When not crunching numbers he is busy engaging with and examining the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the English language. He also likes trivia, travelling, adventure sports, delving into human psychology, and giving professorial discourses to colleagues, family and friends, and practically anyone who can give him a patient hearing. An engineering graduate from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, he lives in Mumbai with his wife Deepali, a medical professional, and daughters Tamanna and Prakriti.

To read the full review of English Bites! click here.

I never knew that one can improve his/her vocabulary and word power in English until I came across 'English Bites!' Today, I am in conversation with Manish Gupta, the author of this brilliant book.

Congratulations Manish on the success of English Bites! It was a pleasure reading it and I, along with the readers, would like to know more about you.

Amrit, I thank you for reading and reviewing my book on your blog. I am glad that you liked it and found it useful in further fueling your love for the English language.

How did you come up with this unique concept of increasing word power in such a fun and easy going manner?

To answer this question, we need to get a little bit into my background. I grew up in Rohtak, a small and sleepy town in Haryana in the 1970s and 80s. The only English I spoke was in school and that too to respond to questions of my teachers in the class. I looked down at English as an alien tongue merely suited to the narrow field of academia and with no particular use once someone got into the real economy.

As a result, I was horrible in all aspects of communication. My active vocabulary was extremely limited, pronunciations & spellings were terrible (as I refused to accept English as a non-phonetic language that it largely is), sentence construction was poor, and my fluency was severely compromised.

The thought of improving my English started in Class XI after facing acute embarrassment in front of my third and final crush (and her family) when I could not speak even one correct sentence of English with a foreigner we met during a family vacation (and she did).

This thought took a serious turn once I landed-up at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh and came face-to-face with far more fluent and erudite specimens from convent schools from metros and towns much bigger than my hometown. I also noticed how I used to get tongue-tied while attempting to make a small conversation in English with or even in front of the convent educated colleagues and that hurt…really badly.

This thought was further strengthened when I realised to my horror that English had long outgrown the narrow confines of academia and become extremely relevant and in fact an absolute necessity in the real economy. So much so, that I would need to face group discussions and interviews where my proficiency in this language will be put to the real test to get into one of the best engineering jobs offered on campus.

Having lived all my school life in disdain for this alien tongue, the grossly neglected subject of English made me realize its importance, its vastness, its complexity, and my far less than self proclaimed ‘photographic memory’ all at once. I needed something quick and in large doses to beat the convent educated types in their own game and seal the best job offered in the campus in my name and after gaining some industry experience, successfully compete with them once again for admission into a top-tier MBA program.

       

Let me confess here that I had drifted towards an MBA after realizing that no specialist (read post-graduate) medico girl will consent to marry a Bachelor of Engineering in an arranged marriage situation I had found myself in after many crushed crushes. Marrying a medico was a childhood dream; the flexibility of working hours that profession allows (a must for raising a happy family) is only a later realization.

Hence, I set aside the word lists, my failed attempts at mugging, and started creating interesting stories and anecdotes to make indelible imprints of this foreign language in my mind. This was the genesis of the book. It took a lot of research and creativity, but it was a matter of survivability. It was the only thing that could have rescued me from definite depression and elevated me to think and speak like an erudite gentleman.

Once I started revising the book in 2008, I had two dominant thoughts in my mind. The first thought was that this is an opportunity to spread a culture of making teaching (not necessarily limited to language learning) less bookish and pedantic and making LEARNING more FUN. The second and equally, if not more, powerful thought was to put in my bit to make sure that language does not become a handicap for anyone to realize their ambitions and dreams!

How was the entire process, right from the inception till the point the book got published?

You may find it hard to believe but this manuscript was in the making for over 20 years and this has influenced a lot of content in the book. It started as an idea in my second year of engineering way back in 1989-1990 when two of my closet friends and I resolved to publish a book each before we turned 21. This, we agreed, had several advantages.

§   Till Class XII, I stayed in the campus of a girls’ college with our row house facing the girls’ hostel and had left this beautiful environment to join Mechanical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh (a subject no girl dared to join in our year and many years before and after). While this led to a deep appreciation and understanding of how God re-balances our lives, it also made our resolve to attract attention from the few girls from other depts., amid very strong competition, even harder. What better way to attract attention than project our multi-faceted personalities, mastery over the English language (we had declared we were writing books in English medium), and great sense of humour (my book was supposed to be a FUN book).

§         Make us look precocious in the eyes of potential employers after Engineering, interviewers during the MBA admission process, and potential parents and other family members of the post-graduate medico girl I was destined to marry in an arranged marriage situation that I had found myself in after many crushed crushes.

§   Give us an additional source of annuity income plus a decent advance, with which to fund the MBA education. Annuity income stream was reserved for annual vacations in exotic foreign locales.

I thought I had written a masterpiece by the time our final placements ended (spoiling my grades in the process) and was still a few months shy of turning 21. My other friends, who were writing on ‘quizzing’ and ‘poetry’, had pulled out of this pledge while they were still in their teens.

My manuscript then hibernated for 20 years as I got busy with my first job at Tata Motors, an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, my banking career at a major multinational bank, and family life. The manuscript was preserved on a 3.5 inch diskette in Microsoft Word 2000 that refused to open on my old PC, when I thought of reviving my work of art in the year 2008.

Fortunately, the handwritten version (‘manuscript’ in the real sense of the word) had survived well on loose sheets of paper, which I promptly transferred on my PC and started editing and expanding it at the same time. By the time I finished in 4 years (working on weekends), I had landed up re-writing the entire book. 
  

When it came to publishing, I realized that there has been an explosion of books in the Indian market in the past 3-4 years. Thus, a freshly minted author had little or no chance to get his manuscript a fair evaluation with the top publication house, unless the manuscript was, in their assessment, a masterpiece and/or immensely suitable as a script of a block-buster movie. I did send it to a few publication houses directly and their lack of responses despite passionate follow-ups told me it didn't fit either of these two categories.  

Fearing I will exhaust all the top names though this route, I sought the expert intervention of a literary agent. He critically assessed the quality and marketability of the manuscript before submitting it to the select set of publishers that are interested in publishing this genre of books. It took less than 4 months after submission of the manuscript to the literary agent for me to sign a publishing contract with Penguin Books India.

Thereafter, life became hectic as I had to incorporate the extremely valid suggestions of my commissioning editor Shahnaz Siganporia, who made me connect my disparate chapters on different subjects into a single story that started from page 1 and ended at page 334. Then the copy editors Mudita Mubayi-Chauhan and Paromita Mohanchandra took over and made me relearn the rules of grammar and punctuation.  Finally, after 9 months of hard labor, the book came to life. 

What do you feel lacks in our current education system? If you had the power, what changes would you like to see that would lead to a smoother and well planned system?

In India, 4% of children never go to school, 42% drop out before they finish primary school, and 90% drop out before entering college. In government schools, as per one study, 25% of the teachers are absent on any given day. On the days they are present, only 50% are likely to be teaching at any given time. This is distressing and a sad reflection of the state of affairs in the vast majority of schools in our country. Private schools, by and large, provide better quality education, but they are beyond the reach of the masses.

In my view, government needs to get out of school education, handover the existing infrastructure to responsible corporate houses, change laws that allow them to make a small profit, and subsidise their costs so that they become efficient and well-run institutions. The subsidy can be given directly to schools to allow them to provide varying levels of tuition waivers to the children of lower income families. Government can create a robust regulatory and supervisory framework (on the lines of TRAI, IRDA, SEBI, RBI, etc.) for the education sector.

I am sure these measures will also help in improving the teaching methods and in elevating the standard and motivation levels of our teachers.

Who are your role models in life?

It is hard to pin-point one person and I feel blessed to have had a fairly well rounded support from family, teachers, friends, and books in the process of growing up. I draw inspiration from people who have conviction, passion, and clarity of thought; who have ability to work hard and courage to challenge the status-quo; who do not take themselves too seriously; and who spend some of their resources to achieve the higher purpose of life and some of their time playing with children and taking care of elders.    

Which writers do you admire the most? If you had the chance to re-live your life as someone else, who would you choose?

I stick mostly to non-fiction and while there are too many favorite books and authors to list, I love the simple and relatable humor in books by Sam Levenson, the life skills taught by Dale Carnegie, and the seminal work on English etymology by Norman Lewis, Wilfred Funk, and Henry Hitchings. In the recent past, I have read and thoroughly enjoyed books on Mind, Passion, and Happiness by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, Dr. Carol S. Dweck, David Rock, and Ken Robinson.

If I were to relive my life, I would not be able to choose anyone else. There are parts of others that I admire and get inspired by, but as a whole, I enjoy being myself.  

After 'English Bites!' what next? Will your next book focus also focus on the English Language or are you planning to bring forth another subject in an interesting manner?

I guess when you write a book, you give it your all. My stock of ideas is now empty but it doesn’t mean that I will not write another book. Book sales and readers’ feedback and appreciation are extremely strong motivators in rapidly refilling one’s reservoir and giving new ideas and different perspectives to make more meaningful and interesting books. However, I would like to stick to writing in a similar genre (laugh as you learn). Feel strongly about and need to put in my bit to make sure that that language does not become a handicap for anyone to realize their ambitions and dreams!

What do you do when you are not writing?

Till recently, I used to work as a Managing Director and Head of Sales for Treasury and Trade Solutions division of a major multinational bank in India. I have now decided to take a plunge in the field of education, training, consulting, and executive coaching and will shortly start working with an organization that works for the underprivileged children at the school level.

In my personal life, I now live by the principle of learning one new skill every year (pity, I understood and adopted this only a few years ago) and have dabbled in adventure sports (like skiing, paragliding, bungee jumping) and getting off the beaten track while travelling. I plan to hone my moderate skills in singing, gardening, and cooking next. I also like to delve into human psychology and waiting for the day when someone will actually pay me for my wise counsel.

If you had to change something in your book, what would that be?

There are indeed a few more things I can do with the book. I would add chapters on sports, technology, fashion, and anything else the younger generation suggests. Since these additions will made the book too voluminous, I would split the book into two, each about 220-250 pages long. I would also like to add some more interesting aspects of my life so that the reader gets a more balanced dose of English language in a fun read. 

Finally, what would be your message to all the readers?

The book is a crazy mix of facts, fiction, and real-life. It is full of amusing incidents, anecdotes, jokes, and a lot of interesting trivia. If any one of you believes that English language is a handicap (big or small) in your career advancement, your social acceptability, and affects your self confidence, you can take a look at English Bites! If you are a language nut, you can take a bite too. There is something in there for you too to chew, relish, and cherish.

The book is the story of my life. It begins when I am in high school and much of the damage to my understanding and grip over the English language has already been done. It ends when, even after spending 20 years as a devoted student of the English language, and having achieved my goals of getting into engineering, securing one of the best jobs engineering has to offer, getting into a top-tier MBA program, a medico wife, kids attending convent school, and a reasonably senior position in a multinational bank, I am stumped by new discoveries every other day. So much so that I find some unfamiliar English words in the nursery rhymes of my kids. My extended student life as far as English language is concerned continues and it’s an exciting journey. Come, join the fun.

Thanks a lot Manish for your time. All the best for your current and future goals.

Thanks Amrit. I wish you all the very best….have a great life!

Chooyoo (Chrysanthemum Festival)

(Image Source: http://chevrefeuillescarpediem.blogspot.nl/2013/09/carpe-diem-306-chooyoo-chrysanthemum.html)

I sip nectar

gifted by mountain sages

amidst yellow petals

This Haiku is shared with Carpe Diem - Chooyoo (Chrysanthemum Festival).

Clue

that mysterious smile

what's cooking inside her mind

never had a clue

This Haiku is shared with Haiku Heights - Clue.

Sunday

perhaps, I suppose

even the sun rises late

a lazy Sunday

This Haiku is shared with Haiku Heights - Sunday.

English Bites! - Review

A book that provides easy solutions to problems faced by language learners.

English Bites! My Full pro of English Learning Formula is the story of a man who goes from being tongue-tied in school to becoming a smooth- talking banker. Through a series of hilarious personal adventures and misadventures, Manish Gupta provides easy solutions to problems faced by language learners. So, whether you're a vernacular speaker, a GRE/ GMAT/CAT/XAT aspirant or just a language nut, English Bites! will expand your vocabulary and improve your verbal ability. It may even help you love the English language a little more! 

Add over 1000 new words to your vocabulary and figure out easy and effective ways to expand your word bank. Combine etymology, mnemonics, jokes and anecdotes to better your understanding of the English language. Differentiate between similar sounding words and learn to use them right. Improve your general knowledge with trivia that spans brand names, automobiles, fine dining, love, money, banks, science and B-school jargon.

About the Author

Manish Gupta is a banking professional. When not crunching numbers he is busy engaging with and examining the vagaries and idiosyncrasies of the English language. He also likes trivia, travelling, adventure sports, delving into human psychology, and giving professorial discourses to colleagues, family and friends, and practically anyone who can give him a patient hearing. An engineering graduate from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, he lives in Mumbai with his wife Deepali, a medical professional, and daughters Tamanna and Prakriti.

Let me be honest … when I first heard of English Bites! I thought it would be just another plain old boring English guide, ready to serve aspirants of GRE and other such competitive examinations. True, this book will definitely enhance your vocabulary and add several new words in your mental dictionary; but boring? No definitely not; rather, far from it.

English Bites! isn’t a long discourse on word building and language strengthening; rather it is a unique methodology to build up your vocabulary and improve your verbal skill. You don’t need to wrack your brain worrying about the complexities of this language anymore. You just need to sit back, relax, with a cup of coffee, and go lazily through the pages.

And yeah, do keep a pen and notepad by your side. That’s recommended.

The book is divided into several chapters, each dealing with different phases in the author’s life. Manish Gupta starts with his school days and moves on to engineering. Once he completes it, Manish is lured by the prospect of obtaining a management degree. Through his dedication and hard work, he gets into the prestigious management institute, XLRI. When he gets settled comfortably in his job and career, the author decides to get married and as planned by destiny, meets his match. They exchange marital vows, and after a few years, Manish and Deepali, his better half, are blessed with the amazing joys of parenthood.

Doesn't this feel like reading a story? Where does learning English fit into this? I know these questions must be raining in your mind. Let me sum it up for you in one sentence - this is a story that will take your English skills to heightened glory.

The author explains how he initially struggled with the language, often stumped by new words that he couldn't comprehend. However, with help of friends, he decides to delve deeper into this subject, and devises techniques that helped him enrich his knowledge on this matter. Manish Gupta collates these techniques and presents them in a lucid and coherent manner in English Bites!

What really clicks is the style of narration. The flow is smooth, and at times you feel that the author is there right in front of you, sharing with you his experiences that are encased in the pages. The tone is quite informal and packed with humor, and that’s what I really find effective when dealing with a serious subject. Certainly, I wouldn't have liked another monotonous drag that could have further complicated the matter, instead of simplifying it.

English is magic, and Manish performs his tricks effectively. It’s really interesting to know about the origins of several words that he has described in this book. For example, I have always believed that French Fries originated from France, but God, I was so wrong.

The interesting anecdotes and snippets keep you engaged every moment, and take you through the brilliance of the English language. The chapters are well segmented, and cover a wide array of topics, ranging from food to medical, and even nursery rhymes. However, I do feel that the author should have written a separate chapter that would have dealt with his school life. In this book, there is just a brief mention on that, and not a dedicated section to it.

 I do have a complain though, and a serious one – Why didn’t Manish write this book earlier? I wish I didn’t have to wait so long to experience this delicious side of the English Language; but then, good things come to those who wait.

The tagline of the book says – “My Foolproof English Learning Formula.” I agree. I now look at the pen and notepad, and feel glad to see the innumerable new words that I had jotted down in the course of reading this book. Truly, one of the best books to increase your fluency and command over the language, as well as improve your general knowledge.

Title: English Bites!

Author: Manish Gupta

Publisher: Penguin

Publication Year: 2012

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

No. of Pages: 334

Price: ₹ 250

My Rating: 4/5

This Heart Serves A Purpose

this heart serves a purpose

to crack, to break

and to wound

naive soul

that knows not

fails

to judge the inflicted pain

kneeling in miseries

this heart serves a purpose

to heal, to bless

and to cure

split arteries of pleasure

contentment

this heart serves a purpose

to live

to die

to smile

and to cry

this heart serves a purpose

and so do

you and I

This Poem is shared with Sunday Scribblings - Purpose.