Books ReadList - April-2024

 I am in Irvine, California, US from over a couple of months and have some spare time to reflect on my life -the most important questions i always ponder upon - personal life, quality of my life, quality of my thoughts, how i m spending my time, Am I doing it right? Am I enroute to be a good father? Am I enroute to be a good individual?? It struck as it always when I m adrift, that I have been to self indulgent in spending time with any random movies that I could lay my hand upon. It struck to how many books I have started lately but haven't had the commitment to finish. So i took a break from the movies and completed two books, I had carried with me for this trip. Also the fact that I was away from my family left me with a lot of time to fill up with something. So after watching a lot of movies (and a lot of work ) in the first half of my trip, I thought why not read a few books and see if I still feel reading books is fun :-) As it turns out, I had started to feel disconnected with myself, not being in tune with myself, confused about my thoughts , opinions etc., As it has happened almost always holding a book and internalizing the distilled knowledge by wisemen has helped me to keep my head in the right direction. And so this was just what I needed to do at this point.

The first one by Benny Aguiar about Rajiv Gandhis political ascension to the prime minister ship and the state of events which he was a witness to. Was a compelling read on several points - To enrich knowledge of events in not so distant past, to know about emergency, Assam peace accord, Punjab Peace accord and how it was all worked out. The reading about Indo-Srilanka and why he did what he did. The Good will with which he assumed office and how his thought process changed as he started becoming a seasoned politician. Also it struck me how each of these are very logical things any man (probably like me :-) ) would have taken, if I had been in his path and also somethings which were bold/blunders.. I liked that fact that I had a moment to put myself in that situation and think what I or anyone would have done so that I can understand/relate/criticize better :-)

   George Matthew Adams comes up with book in a very presentable format with one idea explained within 1 page with each page having a quotation either from Napolean Hill or someone worth reading. All the topics are timeless values worth reading or re-reading once in several years if not months. Thank you George Matthew Adams, Grateful for all the learning.

Started Another attempt at reading the Bible. I stumbled upon this as the hotel guys were generous enough to place one at every room. The last time I lay hands on a bible was several  years ago and I probably have forgot all the readings. so I m starting another attempt at reading this and the journey of reading both the old and new testament combined in a single edition is exciting (Now i m assuming that i ll finish one of them at least here :-) ). But nevertheless Its an opportunity to complete some readings and hope to pick up some learnings as i wade through it.