Inspiring Thoughts may be considered food for action. With a similar pathway of ingestion, digestion and assimilation to yield nutrition, this boost of motivational food has a different outcome on psychosomatic coordination. Inspiration can be imbibed once conscience is raked in for the need of an improvement is aroused in a human being. Who else can tweak this effect than the philosopher scientist and the erstwhile President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
At the very onset, President Kalam instills a surge of introspection—‘what would you like to be remembered for?’ One has to streamline his life tending towards immaculate perfection that would in turn benefit the saociety leaving behind an indelible chronicle for the posterity to adopt. Dreaming is the harbinger of motivation. So children should dream at full throttle. The author sounds his clarion call – ‘dream-thought-action’ to be the cornerstone upon which students can scaffold their strong edifices. About creativity, the author says, it indicts a maverick solution through ‘unexplored path’. The author puts in succinct criteria for creative leadership. The author speaks of failures and disability to give its pragmatic interpretation that heralds a yet more effective improvisation. He talks of the tandem action of learning, creative thinking and construction, becoming knowledgeable and thereby progressing the nation. The author lays down a benchmark for enlightened citizenship with three parameters of education, religion and economic prosperity. He points out that an education system needs to be hale and hearty to produce a happy child. About science he says, it should be pragmatic to impart technology to ‘develop tomorrow’. Reading the book is an elevating experience ennobling to undertake a daunting mission.
Inspiring Thoughts on Health & Wellness; Meera Joshi (Ed.); Rajpal & Sons; Pp 104; Rs 95.00
Health is an asset. It takes a rigorous regimen in everyday chores to safeguard it. A person needs to be discerning enough to feel the need for it, thereby a prodding to egg him on. Also the paucity of time in modern hectic schedule plays spoilsport to sports life scuttling our wellness. In this collection, Meera Joshi has culled such maxims that would suffice to tie those loose ends together to revamp the drooping health of men and women. The editor swoops down on those impediments and hurdles that peter out one’s resolve to pursue a healthy life.
This collection has quotes of accomplished people from all walks of life, writer, poets, philosophers, doctors, biologists, statesman, economists, politicians – Marcus Cicero relates the tandem action of mind and body, Herbert Spencer calls ‘the preservation of health is a duty….physical morality, Plato says on human exercise as its preserver, Thomas Carlyle, HW Longfellow’s raillery on shunning a doctor, Mark Twain, Samuel Johnson, Ernest Hemingway declares his health to be the main capital, BKS Iyengar tells about endurance through yoga, ancient Greek doctors like Hippocrates considered the father of medicine gives his prescription, Charles Darwin speaks on the dire need for acclimatisation, Napoleon Bonaparte talks about ‘the chief articles in my pharmacy’, Thomas Jefferson upholds walking to boon life, Laura Bush on desired lifestyle, John Adams among others. Quotes have also been taken from scriptures like the Yajur Veda, the Atharva Veda and sayings of Buddha as well. A quote from World Health Organization refutes a common belief that absence of any disease vouchsafes the state of well-being. Witty sayings of these people are likely to give fillip to sagging spirits of any reader. The book reminds us of the Latin saying – mens sana in corpore sano that is sound mind in a sound body.
Inspiring Thoughts on Management; Meera Joshi (Ed.); Rajpal & Sons; Pp 104; Rs 95.00
Management is the catchword of the day with the world going gaga over it. But the real challenge lies in the integrating of managerial acumen in one’s profession with panache. This collection ascertains several misplaced notions, bolsters several ignored concerns and highlights several bottomline concepts that play pivotal to multifarious roles. Making big plans is like laying the foundation of an enterprise and its rules are but common sense optimally streamlined. Customer satisfaction rules the roost and so utmost priority need to be accorded towards their appeasement. About human resource management, Chris Lewis says, ‘Hire an attitude train a skill’.
To make head-on impact crisp sayings of astute entrepreneurs, economists, politicians, philosophers, statesman and visionaries have been included. Mackenzie quips in the ultimate aim of management in mere nine words, Sam Pitroda speaks of urgency of an entrepreneur, Henry Ford spills bean over towering success; on time waste, Keynes distinguishes between an active and dormant enterprise, the management guru Peter Drucker banters on effective action, ‘basic task of management’ and relieving leadership from a superman status; combating bottlenecks, Mark Twain puts faith in proper taring to lay the golden geese, Bill Gates lauds ardent craving and pooh-poohs hot heads , JJ Irani stresses on coupling vision and action, Nani Palkhivala says of the telescopic benefits of energetic activity, Charles Darwin exposes the efficacy of survival, Rahul Bajaj on the hoopla of leadership, John F Kennedy ropes in learning to boost leadership, CK Prahlad says on progressive zest of a comany, Ralph Waldo Emerson on trusting fellow men, Henry David Thoreau, Lady Margaret Thatcher on the motive behind seeking opportunity, John Rockfeller on the mantra to charter success, Richard Nixon on maverick leadership among others all find a mention with their natty message to its readers. The books portends bright days –‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it’.
All the three books have small pages with hardly a couple of lines of maxims upon each of them that hold out a vision in totality. The snappy adages have a riveting effect to rope in reluctant readers for a perusal and linger thereafter. The pages have a blurred and yet flamboyant picture in the background to catapult the effect of these nuggets of wisdom. The hundred dictums in each cover a wide spectrum and its pizzazz surges a fresh lease of life.
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