Tata


Morgen Witzel - 2010
    1 Lakh/ below US$ 2500 car), is set to change our perception of India': on the threshold of becoming a truly global brand.*s oldest and most respected corporate brand. With a major international presence, in a variety of areas including steel, tea, chemicals, communications and software, Tata now stands 65th in the world brand valuation league. But what is the Tata brand all about? What are its values? How do people perceive it, in India and around the world? In this absorbing and informed book Morgen Witzel digs into the heart of the Tata enterprise, describes its origins, how Tata's reputation and image evolved, and how the group has worked to transform that image into a powerful and valuable brand. Tata: The Evolution of a Corporate Brand goes to the core of the Tata ethos to explore the unique relationship between the Tata group and the Indian people, a relationship that goes beyond the achievements of a successful business to its social contributions for its employees and the society at large. Finally it asks how that reputation will be perceived and understood as Tata moves into global markets. Whether you re an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or an interested Tata loyalist this book will help you understand the durability of the brand and inspire you with the values it holds onto in the global economy.

Sahir Ludhianvi - The peoples poet


Akshay Manwani - 2013
    So great was his stature as an Urdu poet that he never had to mould his poetry to suit the demands of film songwriting; instead, producers and composers adapted their requirements to his poetry. His songs in films like Pyaasa, Naya Daur and Phir Subah Hogi have attained the status of classics. This exhaustive biography traces the poet’s rich life, from his troubled childhood and his equally troubled love relationships, to his rise as one of the pre-eminent personalities of the Progressive Writers Movement and his journey as lyricist through the golden era of Hindi film music, the 1950s and 1960s.

The Namo Story: A Political Life


Kingshuk Nag - 2013
    From his humble beginnings as a RSS pracharak to his rise in the Hindutva ranks, and from being Bharatiya Janata Partys master planner to one of the its most popular and controversial state chief ministers, Modis mantra of change and development is gradually finding many takers. Though he evokes vastly different reactions among the citizens for his alleged role during the Godhra aftermath, what is absolutely clear is that he indeed is racing towards the centre stage, making the 2014 General Elections look more like a Presidential system where, you either vote for him or against him. And that, as they say, is the Modi effect. Kingshuk Nag paints the most vivid portrait of the extraordinary politician who is poised to take on a new role in the coming years.

The Making of Don


Krishna Gopalan - 2013
    No one involved with the making of the film foresaw the kind of overarching impact it would have, not only in terms of its success at the box office but in spawning a cult phenomenon that would stay strong more than three decades later with its slick theme, fantastic music and unforgettable dialogues, that is what nbecame. The journey of Donwas not an easy one. Shot over four years, it faced several hurdles before making it to the theatres. While the casting and music of Don have now acquired legendary status, there were some close shaves before it all came together: Iftekhars role of the cop was eyed by a big star of the 1960s getting Kalyanji-Anandji to compose the score called for a delicate balancing act, it was only thanks to the shrewd advice of a mentor that the super-successful Khai ke paan Banaras wala was included at the very last minute. And, wonder of wonders, it was not Amitabh Bachchan who was paid the most for the film. Through a fast-paced narrative born out of interviews with the cast and crew and supplemented with rare photographs from the directors archives, The Making of Dontells a tale that is as compelling as the one that finally made it to the big screen. Engaging and captivating, this is the story of one of Bollywoods most memorable classic.

Irrationally Passionate: My Turnaround from Rebel to Entrepreneur


Jason Kothari - 2020
    A few years later, he transformed Valiant into the third-largest superhero entertainment company in the world after Marvel and DC Comics and sold it for $100 million.Jason then became a professional turnaround leader and went on to transform distressed. Indian Internet icons Housing.com, FreeCharge and Snapdeal, helping save billions of dollars in value, and advise giants like technology investor Softbank and real estate developer Emaar, who have invested billions of dollars in India. Irrationally Passionate reveals the inside story of how a rebel, train-wreck kid transformed himself into a successful young entrepreneur and business leader who became one of the top ten paid executives in India while only in his 30s.From getting his first job as an assistant to Jackie Chan in Hong Kong, to learningstrategy from champion Muay Thai fighters in Thailand, to tackling huge personal setbacks, to becoming a CEO in 60 seconds, among many other stories— Jason’s inspiring journey across countries, industries and companies has something for everyone, right from students to entrepreneurs to corporate CEOs to even parents of students and entrepreneurs.Irrationally Passionate is a highly personal, authentic, open and complete account of a young entrepreneur’s life. Brimming with practical advice and philosophical insights, it will force readers to reflect on how they perceive life, work, family and spirituality by giving them a fresh perspective.ABOUT THE AUTHORJason Kothari is a passionate entrepreneur and business turnaround leader. While still in college, he acquired the bankrupt US-based Valiant Entertainment and led its transformation as the CEO to the third-largest superhero entertainment company after Marvel and DC and a sale for $100 million, a record industry return.Subsequently, Jason was the CEO of Housing.com, where he led the transformation of the distressed company and a merger with News Corp’s PropTiger to create the $350 million industry leader.Following this, he was the Chief Strategy & Investment Officer of Snapdeal, where he played a lead role in transforming the distressed company from a monthly loss of over $20 million to a profit, the first for an Indian e-commerce company. Jason was also the CEO of FreeCharge, where he led the sale of the company to Axis Bank for $60 million.In addition, he has been a senior advisor to Softbank; Noon.com, a Middle Eastern e-commerce company that has raised $1 billion; and is a Board Director of Emaar India, which has over $2 billion in real estate assets. Jason holds a B.S.from The Wharton School and lives in Mumbai.He is also Executive Producer of the upcoming blockbuster movie Bloodshot (Sony Pictures) starring Vin Diesel releasing worldwide on March 13, 2020.

Saving My Knees: How I Proved My Doctors Wrong and Beat Chronic Knee Pain


Richard Bedard - 2011
    Richard Bedard was a journalist in his mid-40s, living abroad, when he was diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome, or chondromalacia patella. His burning joints made his life so miserable that he fantasized about hacking off his kneecaps. Four doctors failed to help; one said he would never get better. His physical therapist finally gave up too.Unable to sit normally, he quit his job. Unemployed and desperate, he launched a year-long, round-the-clock experiment to save his knees. He read from scores of clinical studies, medical textbooks, health newsletters. What he discovered left him stunned. There was a familiar story about what patellofemoral pain syndrome was and how to treat it: The advice to focus on strengthening the quads. To stretch. To take glucosamine. To forget about cartilage healing, because that never happened.And that story was completely wrong.Armed with this knowledge, he fashioned a plan to get better. Within two years, he fully recovered. This compelling story chronicles a long journey of healing and discovery. It shows that a patient’s true ally isn’t simply hope, but informed hope.

Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan


Daman Singh - 2014
    My mother smiles encouragingly. My father shows nosign of having heard. He is immersed in an editorial,no doubt another scathing comment on the state ofthe nation. Bravely, I continue. I say I am thinking ofwriting a book about them.' Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan is that book. In 2004, Manmohan Singh became prime minister of India. Over the next ten years he led the country through opportunities and challenges,not without some controversy. But this is not that story. This is the story of what went before, and it is told by his daughter Daman Singh. It charts the journey of a young boy growing up in undivided India, battling family hardship to pursue his dream of higher education, determining his intellectual and moral compass and learning to live life on his own terms. It is equally about Gursharan Kaur, the womanwith whom he made that life. Vivacious and talented Gursharan, the centre of the family and of the circle of friends they shared. And about their three daughters, Upinder, Daman and Amrit, growing up with aresilient mother and a workaholic father who stepped into the limelight.Based on conversations with her parents and hours spent in libraries and archives, this honest and affectionate memoir provides new insights into the former prime minister and his wife. Movingfrom Gah, Nowshera and Peshawar; through Amritsar, Patiala and Hoshiarpur; to Chandigarh, Cambridge and Oxford; then New York, Bombay and Geneva; and on to New Delhi, this intimate portrayal of two lives is also the history of a nation unfolding over half a century.

Stories from the Panchatantra: 5 in 1 (Amar Chitra Katha)


Anant Pai - 2008
    Animals are portrayed with human characteristics and they talk and have emotions. Each story has a moral and has beautiful pictures describing the stories. Each story talks about doing a good deed and how negative acts are met with punishment.The Jackal and The Drum is a story about a jackal who hears is scared of a sound but eventually decides to investigate the origin of the sound. of Crows and Owls is a story about the birds deciding on who their king will be and they decide on the owl. But a crow steps in to give his counsel, resulting in the end of the relationship between the crows and the owls. How the Jackal Ate the Elephant is a story of how the jackal plotted a way of defeating the king by telling him that he had done the impossible task of devouring an elephant. The Dullard and Other Stories is the story of a failure of a man, a man who has good common sense and how he uses it to succeed in life. Stories From The Panchatantra: 5 In 1 (Amar Chitra Katha) was published by Amar Chitra Katha Private Limited in 1998 and is available in hardcover.

Unlikely Hero: Om Puri


Nandita C. Puri - 2009
    Discover the Om Puri no one knows about - the tongue-tied actor from Punjab with stars in his eyes; the incorrigible flirt in drama school; the connoisseur of food and expert cook; and the complete family man. Featuring amusing anecdotes with his family, shocking episodes with the stalwarts of Indian and British cinema, and the nail-biting suspense of his love life, the tale is complemented by rare and unusual photographs. Told with wit, honesty, and élan, this book is a fitting tribute to the inspirational tale of Om Puri - one of the most talented actors of India.

Kitnay Aadmi Thay : Completely Useless Bollywood Trivia


Diptakirti Chaudhuri - 2012
    Packed with 50 lists and 500+ entries, it is a multiplex of pointless Bollywood gyaan. Separated in eight logicless sections and with out a contents page (or index), it is a book for dipping into and zipping through. Remember your favourite Bollywood film fast, actionpacked, mad, packed with colourful characters and a little bit of everything? Well, they made this book out of it. About the AuthorDiptakirti Chaudhuri has been a salesman for more than twelve years now having sold soaps, soft drinks, oils and newspapers all over India. His obsessive love for movies is a hereditary disease, which was nurtured during his engineering and MBA college days. When not watching or reading about mov ies, he writes about them on his blog, Calcutta Chro mosome (http://diptakirti.blogspot.com) or discusses them on Twitter (@diptakirti).He has published a book for children on the 2011 cricket World Cup. This is his second book.He lives in Gurgaon with his wife, a son and a daughter. None of them shares his obsessive love for the movies. Yet.

The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan


Namita Devidayal - 2018
    He broke hearts and he broke rules. He tinkered as furiously with his car as he did with his instrument, which he transformed technically to create the new sitar standard. And always there was the music, at the centre of his being, protected and unharmed—music that contained the sound of ‘fairies dancing, elephants walking’. Vilayat Khan saw music. He was the man who made the sitar sing. .Namita Devidayal, author of the acclaimed bestseller, The Music Room, recreates the extraordinary life of an artiste who fundamentally and forever changed Indian instrumental music. She follows his footsteps from Calcutta, through Delhi, Bombay, Shimla and Dehradun, to Princeton, USA, where he spent his last years. Filled with previously untold stories about the man and the musician, this is an intimate portrait of an uncommon genius. .It is also an absolute feat of research—and storytelling. .‘Vilayat Khan and Ravi Shankar promised each other they would never perform together after this. Kishan Maharaj later told someone, ‘If these two eyes of India play together again, one will shut for ever.’ i

The Tiniest Mansion - How To Live In Luxury on the Side of the Road in an RV


Tynan - 2012
    The Tiniest Mansion will teach you how to convert a small RV into a rolling palace with all the comforts of your home, plus the freedom to live anywhere you want without paying rent.The Tiniest Mansion covers everything from the essentials like choosing an RV, generating power, and dumping your tanks to more extravagant projects like installing marble floors and building an entertainment system.This book is a practical guide for anyone who is living in an RV or is considering it. Tynan, who has been living in an RV since 2006, shares all of his hard won secrets of RV living in this book.

Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Celebrity and Editorial Photography


Michael Grecco - 2006
    His beautiful, insightful work is all around us--on movie posters, in advertising, on magazine covers, everywhere. “I delight in inspiring people,” he writes. “I want them to stop, think, and feel.” Now Grecco shares the secrets of great portraits with photographers at every level, in Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait. Sections on cameras, illumination, film and digital, creativity and conceptualization, connecting with the subject, and having a point of view, plus intriguing case studies that show “how I got that picture,” make this book a resource photographers will use again and again through the years. Whether the subject is a star or a soccer mom, Grecco shows how to add artistry, drama, wit, humor, and personality to their portrait.

Made in India: A Memoir


Milind Soman - 2020
    There's more to Milind Soman than meets the eye (although, as his legions of female fans will agree, what meets the eye is pretty delish).Combining in himself the passion of an entrepreneur, the mind of a nerd, the discipline of an athlete, the curiosity of an explorer, the heart of a patriot and the soul of a philosopher, Milind has made the stunning-and apparently seamless- transition from champion swimmer to supermodel to actor to extreme sportsperson to women's fitness activist, enabler and proselytiser, all in one lifetime.How does he do it? What makes him tick? On the twenty-fifth anniversary of 'Made in India', the breakout pop music video of the 1990s that captured the apna-time-aagaya zeitgeist of post-liberalization India and made him the nation's darling across genders and generations, Milind talks about his fascinating life-controversies, relationships, the breaking of vicious habits like smoking, alcohol, rage, and more-in a freewheeling, bare-all (easy, ladies-we're talking soul-wise!) memoir.Co-authored with bestselling author Roopa Pai, MADE IN INDIA is a rare glimpse into the mind and heart of a very unusual man that will leave you thoughtful, awed and inspired.

Portraits of Power: Half a Century of Being at Ringside


N.K. Singh - 2020
    Singh has been a formidable civil servant, an empathetic politician, a keen chronicler of India’s socioeconomic history and the quintessential academic that academia never got. His life’s work, as chronicled in this book has indeed been intertwined with the progress India has made. In many such cases, Singh has been not just an active contributor but has also given shape to those many momentous decisions—whether through the use of diplomacy or the rigours of understanding the mechanism of the levers of power or, for that matter, by consensus building.Portraits of Power is not just an autobiography of a man, who for several decades has played an active role in India’s march towards becoming a formidable economy; it is indeed, on multiple levels, a book that profiles myriad institutions that work in harmony to make things happen. And in everything that N.K. Singh has done, so in this book too, there is both incisive clarity and insightful anecdotal heft.This book helps readers navigate the vast complexities of India but in a way that is stark and yet elegant.From personal happenings to national movements, Portraits of Power covers it all.