This time I got a mail from Atul Dislay (a close friend from NIT Allahabad). He sent 4 books and recommended to read all. One of the book among them was "Who moved my cheese" by Spencer johnson co-author of  The One Minute Manager ~ (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983)' and The One Minute Sales Person ~ (Johnson & Wilson, 1984)'. Just few days before this mail, I heard about this book from my cousin and a friend, that it's a great book. The book was published in 1998 and contains only 96 pages.

Who Moved My Cheese? is often distributed by managers to employees as a motivational tool, but the lessons it teaches can benefit literally anyone, young or old, rich or poor, looking for less stress and more success in every aspect of work and life. This book has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and has been translated in 42 different languages. The story is very short that I completed it in the process of document verification in passport office Bhopal. But the lesson from the book is not comparable to the size of the book.

Lets first meet to the Characters of the Story...

Who moved my cheese? offers you four imaginary characters and they are:

1. Sniff
2. Scurry
3. Hem
4. Haw

Sniff and Scurry are mice whereas Hem and Haw are 2 persons who are as little as mice. All 4 of them keep moving around the maze looking for cheese to feed them. Eventually, they land up at a cheese station that is full of cheese. Looking at the large quantity of cheese, they feel content and think that it will last them a lifetime. In life’s way, suddenly all the cheese disappears from the station leaving all four of them stunned. However, in reality, the cheese had been decreasing gradually but they failed to foresee it.

The story tells you what you are going to gain when you adapt yourself to the situations around you rather than to suffer at one place. Cheese, in this book, stands as a metaphor for all the things that we pursue in life. It may be a job, relationship or anything that holds significance to us.The maze is where you look for what you want – the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The disappearance of cheese, in the book, implies to change.

I can't write more about the book because the book itself is very small. Despite the fact that one can finish it in 1-2 hours, it has great amount of thoughts and learning.

According to the author the book will help someone to:

• Anticipate change


• Adapt the change quickly


• Enjoy change


• Be ready to change again and again.

There is lot more story in the book that will make you think about what you are doing now and whether it is the time to change or not.

I will highly recommend this book to everyone. Read the book and enjoy it! It’s worth a read.

About the author:

Spencer Johnson is an M.D. who has become better known for fixing ailing corporations than healing the sick, first with his 1982 business classic The One Minute Manager (coauthored with psychiatrist Kenneth Blanchard) and then, unforgettably, with Who Moved My Cheese?, a word-of-mouth sensation that eventually remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years and has been translated into 42 languages.

Dr. Johnson's education includes a psychology degree from the University of Southern California, an M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons and medical clerkships at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.

After reading many good reviews about Ravi Subramanian, I tried with his last book, ‘God is a Gamer’. This is the first time I read Ravi Subramanian and gave a thought to review this book.

Comments from top magazines:

FORBES: ‘Banker by Day, Writer by Night’.

TIME OUT: ‘Impressive entertainment value’.

From the back of cover: What happens when you cross Gamer, Banker, Politician and Terrorist with virtual money?

From the bestselling author of If God Was a Banker comes the first ever bitcoin thriller. God Is a Gamer is a world where money means nothing, martyrs are villains, predators are pray, assassination is taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems.

Moving from Washington’s congress to Delhi’s finance ministry, the beaches of Goa to corporate boardrooms of Mumbai, this is Ravi Subramanian’s most gripping novel yet.

My Review: The book starts with a mesmerizing prologue that introduces the reader to the finance industry and its boundless surroundings, the whistle blower site wiki leaks, plenty of politics and the dark world of bit coins.

Assassination of US senator, happens. FBI and other investigation parties are under pressure to solve the case. The investigation leads Adrian scott, FBI special agent, to the illegal trading website Cotton Trail, where he get to know about Bit-Coins, the virtual money.

Meanwhile, In India NYIB (Newyork International Bank) faces a trouble and also Swami, the operation head of the bank. An scammed email tries to fetch money from their customer’s account. Swami approaches his friend Aditya for advice. Aditya was a part of NYIB but quit to start a third party organization eTIOS to handle banking operations with his friend Sundeep. Aditya and Sundeep also runs a gaming company called Indiascape. The three had become friends while they had worked together in the initial days of NYIB.

A twist of Malvika’s death, CEO of NYIB, in her birthday party makes the story more interesting. What is the link between the goings in US and India? You must read the book to know that.

Varun, a long lost son of Aditya  met after a long time. He is a drug dealer and a genious, who hands over the gaming business of his father.

The book is a quick read as each chapter is not more than 2-3 pages having many sub-stories running in parallel. The plot is tight which will hooked you up with murders, scandals, crime, deception,, investigations, romance and a couple of steamy scenes till the end of the book.

Do I recommend God is a Gamer?

If you love thrillers and want to read an interesting one, you must read it.

My Rating: 3.5/5

About the Author: Ravi Subramanian is an Indian thriller writer, having written six bestselling books.  An alumnus of IIM (Bangalore), he is currently head of a leading financial institution.  A career banker and financial services professional, Ravi has worked with various multinational banks for over eighteen years. .

He is the award winning author of Six bestselling books: If God was a Banker (2007), I Bought the Monks Ferrari (2007), Devil in Pinstripes (2009), The Incredible Banker (2011), The Bankster (2012), Bankerupt (2013) and GOD IS A GAMER (2014).

If God was a Banker won him the Golden Quill readers choice award in 2008. He also won the Economist Crossword Book Award for The Incredible Banker in 2012.  "The Bankster", released in 2012 won him the Crossword Book Award in 2013.

Every year, graduating college students are told they are destined for success. But what are the habits and behaviors that actually lead to success?  The book title itself says, that the author is an engineer from India’s top most college. As we know about students, whether they are from IITs, NITs, IIMs or from any college of India (specially from IIN), their habits are almost same everywhere. Experiencing the life of IIT, Rajeev Agarwal, founder and CEO of MAQ software found himself to write a book about the path he followed for a successful carrier.

I got this book from Training and Placement representative (Himanshu Keshri) of our class, when the company visited our campus for selection process. The book doesn’t contain a story or motivational stuff. It is fully based on authors' own experience. You entered in a college, loaded all technical stuff in your mind, got the degree and get placed, Hurray!!! What after that?

According to Mr. Rajeev, transitioning from college to workplace could be difficult. Graduates should be determined to their work, they should take care of health in terms of long race, and must take important decisions before the age of thirty. The author has pointed out many self-experiments which will make that transition simple and secure.

The author shared his habits, behaviors and thinking in professional life. He has shared a list of must read books from different categories as well as suggested to make reading habits.Mr. Agarwal has explained that how successful people set their goals? How they note their own states to check whether they are performing below, average or good?  How they maintain their dedication?  How they always starve to learn something new? He has also explained a proper nutrition, daily exercises and about taking rest.

The book really contains very important stuff. I highly recommend this book ( specially to those who are turning form graduates to employee ), because the author is not a professional writer and also the words of a successful CEO can surely be helpful for our career.

About author: Rajeev Agarwal is the founder and the Chief Executive Officer of MAQ Software. Prior to founding MAQ Software in 2000, Rajeev worked at Microsoft Corporation, Redmond for nearly 7 years. Rajeev Agarwal holds a B. Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, a Master's in Engineering from Iowa State University, Iowa, US, and an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US.

My rating: 4/5

So finally I did finish ‘The Rozable line’. This is the second time I am going to review Aswin Sanghi’s book.

Before my review, here are some comments from popular Newspapers and magazines.

“… a book that will have you biting your nails ever so often…” – The Hindu

“… Sanghi dishes out a heady misture…” – The Telegraph

“… Dan Brown has an Indian challenger in Ashwin Sanghi ” – The Week

“… A chilling story swirling between continents and centuries…”- Deccan Herald

“… Sanghi’s flair for religion and history is clearly visible…”- The Statesman

“… My review …”-

The book is a theological thriller which roams around the birth, incarnation, crucifixion, survival and the death of the Jesus. The author penned down it in such a way that once you start reading, you would definitely want to give your time to the book (but its not a book you can finish in 1 or 2 days).  British news magazine has been mentioned Ashwin Sanghi as an Indian challenger to Dan Brown and the extensive research to write this complex and great book itself is a proof to this comment.

Main pillars of the story are religion, politics and terrorism which in turn relate the end of the world in 2012 and also pointed to the debated question of Jesus being buried in India. Ashwin Sanghi has an extra ordinary talent of linking the historical facts that you can’t predict, till the end of the story.

Since a review should consider both positives and negatives, so now I would point out some negatives which could be better for users understanding. First of all, the book will take you to the journey of many countries, continents and subcontinents of different centuries. Along with this, around 200-250 characters are there, that your mind would swirl in it. It is not possible to keep track of all these information from one chapter to another. The book is too confusing, that at times I felt that few of its scenarios are so irrelevant.

For a normal reader, here is a suggestion. Go for the two most awesome books of the author, Chankya’s  Chant and Krishna key (Superb books worth reading) and  then if you want,  try this one, that too on your own risk because its too tough to understand.

Overall it was a good read but I wouldn’t recommend it.

My rating: 2/5

A Punjabi gentleman and a close family friend told me ‘In life, ninety-nine per cent is about good luck! Just remember that, son.’

I asked, ‘But uncle, what about the balance one per cent? Surely that must be hard work or talent?’

Laughing loudly, he said “The final one per cent? That’s called bloody good luck, my boy! ”.

This is the great start of “13 steps for bloody good luck” first non-fiction by bestselling author Ashwin Sanghi. He has written three books The Rozable Line, Chanakya’s Chant and The Krishna Key. All of these books are best selling. He also co-authored a thriller “Private India” with James Patterson (world’s leading thriller writer).

I preordered this book on amazon which costs me only 50 Rs.  The book was delivered to me during my semester examination so I waited till the end of my exam. The book contains only 148 pages which can be finished in one and half hour but I didn’t finish it yet. Why???

Here is my review…

The book is really great. It will definitely give you the magnate to attract the good luck at you. Ashwin Sanghi considered two types of people in the world, one who believes in luck and others who don’t.

In starting chapter he tried to prove that Luck really exists whether you believe in it or not. He gave examples of many real life events and stories to prove that. We know that each successful person have one of the quality in them whether it is positive attitude or confidence or focus or hard work or talent etc. but what about lucky people? Many of them have neither of these qualities but they have the “Shakalaka Boom-Boom pencil” with them.

What did they do? Is good luck a god gift?  Or it is just a myth? All these type of questions are answered by the author in only 13 steps by giving suitable examples for each step.

First he mentioned the Three ‘R’s concept: Raise, Recognize and Respond. In next chapter he mentioned the Attitude and Approach of some great personalities. After this he explained all 13 steps connecting these three R’s with Two A’s (attitude and approach) using a tabular format.

The author also mentioned some other concepts such as, how your luck depends upon others luck, Six degree of Separation, inner wizard and inner-critic, a dip or a cul-de-sac, two types of risks(calculated risks & foolish risks), three types of luck (Circumstantial luck, Constitutional luck and Dumb luck). The short stories inside the book are all real and very meaningful because they belongs to many great personalities like authors, actors,  CEOs, sports person’s, politicians, musicians , scientists and many more.

As I said before that one can finish this book in 1 and half hour but one must give it the time it needs to understand the sayings of the author. If you read these 148 pages then you will realize that what you think of LUCK is all wrong because of Ashwin Sanghi’s dive into the ocean of Bloody Good Luck. The content of the book is awesome. If you want to know that how some people are so lucky then it’s worth reading this book specially those who curse their luck, they will know what actually LUCK is!

“Lucky people are lucky because they expose themselves to more opportunities by being willing to do new things, meet new people or travel to new places.”

My Rating- (3/5).