Sunday pot pourri

1. Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan by Michael Hutt, published by OUP, pp 328, Rs 525

2. Codename God: The Odyssey of a Man of Science by Mani L Bhaumik, published by Penguin India, pp 224, Rs 275

3. Customer Mania!: It’s Never Too Late to Build a Customer-Focused Company by Ken Blanchard, published by HarperCollins, pp 208, Rs 330

4. Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals by Thomas L Harrison, published by Warner Books, pp 272, Rs 795

5. One Up on Wall Street by Lynch Peter, published by Penguin, pp 318, Rs 695

Unbecoming citizens :

This book was prompted by the arrival in Nepal during the early 1990s of some 95,000 people of Nepal ethnic origin, who claimed to be citizens of Bhutan, who had been wrongfully evicted from their country. Very few outside Nepal believed the refugees allegations in the early years of their exile. Even 12 years later, not a single refugee has returned to Bhutan. The book is based on research conducted in Bhutan and Nepal during seven visits to the region between 1992 and 2001, and particularly on interview-based life history research in the refugee camps in Nepal. The narrative pauses at intervals to reflect on the relationship between national, cultural and ethnic identities, and on ways in which history can be constructed and utilised to buttress competing claims. It deals with specificities of Bhutanese issue in detail and draws out its broader implications for a world awash with refugees.

Codename God :

Is God dead? Are religion and faith merely opiates of the masses? Is science responsible for driving a wedge between man and his maker? Till about 400 years ago, belief in divine power dominated world thought. With developments in science and increasing philosophical scepticism, man appeared to lose faith in God. But science itself has proved to be a false god, leaving in its wake a disillusioned and despondent mankind. In Code Name God, Bhaumik, one of the pioneers of LASIK, the technique that made corrective eye surgery possible, demonstrates how both spirituality and science are essential for human beings and how one can strike a perfect balance between the two. The author, who as a youngster lived in Mahatma Gandhi’s camp, details his incredible rags-to-riches journey and his equally remarkable search for meaning in life, which make for a motivational saga as he strives to achieve the golden mean between science and spirituality.

Customer mania! :

The One-minute Manager meets Yum!, the world’s largest restaurant company, in this practical guide to making superlative customer service drive your business to success. Customer Mania! tells the story of a company Chairman and how his quest for superlative customer service has become the driving force for empowering his staff and growing his business. By embracing David’s philosophy and projecting the vision themselves, the whole workforce helps the company become a leading worldwide success. Written in the parable style of all his previous books, this is actually the first to be based on a true story.

Instinct :

In addition to learning a great deal about what Harrison refers to as “entrepreneurial DNA” and “the DNA of success,” I also thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because the material is so well-organised and presented with a clarity and eloquence I seldom encounter in books which respond to questions such as these: What prevents one person from evolving and adapting to change (while there are others who get ahead) regardless of the obstacles that stand in [their] way?; are some people naturally endowed from birth with characteristics that invariably lead to success?; and if so, what about those of us who may not be so genetically gifted?; are we doomed to a lifetime of repeated failure if those qualities don’t come naturally?; is success the product of something in our DNA or something we learn?; or is it some combination — a genetic, instinctive predisposition that we can enhance at crucial moments in our lives by using learned skills and abilities? Harrison offers his own responses to these questions, and explains reasons for his conclusions.

One up on Wall Street :

This book has become a classic of personal investment literature for good reasons. For one thing, watching Lynch lampoon Wall Street and its cadre of institutional investors is rich fun. He is, perhaps, the foremost money manager in the US, thanks to the success of Fidelity’s multibillion-dollar Magellan Fund. Lynch says when EF Hutton speaks, the average investor ought to take a nap. Although this is an updated edition, most of the content dates to “pre-bubble” 1989. It offers haunting warnings about stocks with inflated price-to-earnings ratios. Warning to novice investors: Lynch is a Wharton grad who’s been in the market since his college days and, as such, he tends to see stocks as simple and straightforward. Like the “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffett, he’s a quintessential value investor who looks for undervalued companies in nuts-and-bolts industries. The difference, as Lynch puts it, is he buys those companies’ stocks, while Buffett buys those companies. We recommend this book to those who govern their own portfolios.