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| Sunday, June 6, 2004 |
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| Sunday, June 6, 2004 |
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Corporate Governance in India
Nonetheless, this book has been divided into five major chapters that examine different aspects of corporate governance – its genesis, definition and function with reference to the Indian economy. Some of the information, especially pertaining to corporate structures, may be useful. This book is a sincere attempt, but leaves quite a bit of scope for improvement. One hopes John will do away with irrelevancies in the next edition so that one may find it easier to comprehend the work’s drift. Specialised professional subjects need to be focused upon sans frills and distractions.
Tearless Eyes,
Fearless Heads
This inspirational book is the product of as much the author’s interaction with people who are in need of help, as it is of deep introspection by her. Each chapter in this book has been designed to convey a specific message. For example, chapter one helps us understand the emotional crises that most women go through and realities women want their men to know; chapter three enables us to comprehend reasons behind the traps of destiny and how to handle them. The style is allegorical yet lucid. You’ll like to add this one to your bookshelf.
Sunrays for Sunday
You learn this in the short story A Box of Kisses. Happiness is a state of mind, says a paraplegic in You Have Come to the Wrong Address. But my favorite is Happiness is Making Others Happy, wherein a blind and terminally ill man in a hospital describes a fictional but alluring landscape that’s adorned with greenery, swans and ducks, to a fellow patient who’s unable to get up and have a look through the window. The latter discovers the truth only after the blind man’s death. Not only does the story bring tears to one’s eyes, one is also filled with divine effulgence that cannot really be put into words. These 52 parables are sunshine stories for they entertain and enlighten us without being pedantic. The Tandon couple recommends it for reading on Sundays – one story at a time. But you won’t be able to put it down until you’ve finished reading the entire volume cover to cover. Wanna bet? |
AN array of luminaries has endorsed this book. The
author has devoted 30 pages to forewords, recommendations and
felicitations from governors, bureaucrats and various other people who
are or were in power. John has quoted something called Felson’s Law
and has attributed another observation to Albert Szent Gyoroyi (sic).
Although I’ve come across the truism, "To steal from one person
is plagiarism, to steal from many is research" before, I must
confess my ignorance of it being branded as Felson’s Law. In fact, I’m
not aware of any thinker or wit named Felson, barring the shady
character played by Paul Newman in that Hollywood movie The Colour of
Money. As for "Gyoroyi’ I guess the allusion’s to the
Hungarian-born American biochemist and molecular biologist who won the
Nobel Prize in 1937 for Medicine. His full name was Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
von Nagyrapolt. He died in 1986. But what’s he got to do with
corporate governance? There’re several well-known and experienced
tycoons in India and abroad whose words of wisdom would have been far
more pertinent to the book’s contents.
WHEN one loses the use of an organ or limb, it’s a
traumatic experience that can’t be understood by those blessed with
healthy bodies. In order to cope with the loss one has to look within
for strength and inspiration. In 1988, Shakti Sharma started loosing her
eyesight due to
macular degeneration. Add to that a slip-disc and thrombosis and one
would’ve expected her to give up the fight. But she’s clearly made
of sterner stuff. Recalling how she’d "hungered for help" in
1988, Sharma herself became a dedicated helper as she developed innate
empathy with the "helpless, the lonely and the isolated".
THIS book’s message is clear: Small things in life
teach us more than all highbrow intellectualised tomes can, and pure joy
comes free. For instance, unconditional love from one’s children,
friends and family is a divine blessing. 