Review: The Hyderabad Heist

The Hyderabad Heist by Sharmishtha Shenoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: The retelling of the biggest museum heist in Hyderabad

This is one of the first in the Indian domain to be a replay of a solved museum robbery mystery. Researching from the police records , interviews and probably the criminals - Sharmishtha plays back the entire robbery and the process the police go through to solve this mystery in record time. Whilst the planning and background of the two robbers is a delightful set up like any fiction mystery caper - the way the cops go about the details also makes for a good read. I somehow felt the ending was abruptly quick and tame - which is fine because that is how the true story unravelled but the writing pace and tepidness towards that ending slowed down the wonderful momentum the initial setup provided.

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Review: Independence

Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: The distinct journey of 3 sisters in partition bound Bengal as they deal with life under the macro conditions of Independence.

Based in a small village Ranipur, three sisters have to deal with so many different challenges as the country looks to gain independence. Inter faith marriages, personal ambitions competing with societal misogyny and selflessness and its true value in a selfish society are few human aspects captured around a broader macro environment of the tensions of partition specifically around religious lines. There are a lot of aspects that Chitra tries to cover in this book and whilst it is difficult to delve deep into so many threads, Chitra tries to keep each of the threads engaging enough - leveraging the classic round robin protagonist based chapter approach to keep all the threads moving ahead. Again - with historical fiction being my Achilles heel, this book probably scores higher for the same reason. Chitra spends time on relationships between the various characters which adds to the depth of us understanding each character rather than an essay on each one's background but the situations that make them is the focus.

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Review: The Dhandho Investor: The Low-Risk Value Method to High Returns

The Dhandho Investor: The Low-Risk Value Method to High Returns by Mohnish Pabrai
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A view into value investing from a marwadi/gujarati dhandho perspective

Taking a few case studies before drilling into his philosophy for his fund Pabrai does leave with a catch phrase of "heads I win, tails I don't lose much" as a philosophy when evaluating a deal. He brings in Abhimanyu from Mahabharata battling the Chakravyuh, drawing parallels to an equity investor. WIth key concepts in value investing from his viewpoint, makes for an interesting read. He clearly has tuned his book to identify trends and retrofitting concepts to taglines that have a high recall.

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Review: The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness

The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness by Ichiro Kishimi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not sure about Adlerian philosophy but the sense I got was you own everything - even the fact that you are unhappy is your choice. Similarly being angry is our choice. The concepts are misinterepreted as Japanese origins. It is a Japanese person's understanding of western philosophy of Adler. The format is very painful amongst philosopher and student setup making it irritatingly painful to get through. Personal insults are a power struggle for an individual aiming to keep the power equation handy when they run out of ideas and other trite perspectives.

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Review: My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future

My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future by Indra Nooyi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: An Autobiographical account of the journey of a first generation Indian American woman moving to the zenith of corporate America as CEO of PepsiCo

Straight and simple, Indra goes through her journey starting from the swing in her Chennai home to landing up in the Americas breaking stereotypes and setting a trend at every step from education, higher education and so on. The humility shows for she always attributes a strong support system that helped her soar which ties back to her often out of context quote that is printed - women can't have it all. She means humans can't have it all and we need a village to achieve success and she was blessed to have one as per her.

The book doesn't delve much into the challenges she went through but speaks more of the ideas she tried out in Pepsico - the PwP - performance with purpose which she attributes to her claim to fame gets sizeable coverage in the book. One interesting fact is being true to oneself - she wore sarees in her consulting role because she didnt have budget for a proper suit and she didnt shy away from getting her job done. That's one thing she iterates through the book - people worked with her for what she brought to the table and not who she was.

One of the most hardest hitting lines is when she is made President of PepsiCo and she comes home to tell her mom - her mom chides her for not getting milk to the home along the lines of "You may be the President of PepsiCo but you are my daughter at home."

Whether there are takeaways from the book that I can apply, not too sure - but an interesting read into the journey of an individual who broke a lot of stereotypes to get where they are.

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Review: Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding

Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United States, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding by Husain Haqqani
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: The history of Pakistan-America relations from a Pakistani ambassador's perspective

An interesting perspective on the history of Pakistan and US relations as they have swung decade over decade from its creation to date and how individuals and organisations have used it to their benefit, often relationships winning over logic. The use of some common concerns of not receiving US funding and backing - moderates being toppled over by extremists, Russia taking over the subcontinuent or the Pakistan being the figurehead of Islamic nations especially in the intial boom of petrodollars.

He shared how Pakistan always tried to punch over its weight expecting the US to treat it on par with India after 1971 too and how a lot of geo-political strategies were played out driven by the country's army backed unwritten rule of using US funding to keep a disproportionate defence budget under the concern that India was slighting on the partition and would do anything to erase Pakistan from the world.

Till he isnt involved, the book seems factual and neutral in the description of personalities and the situations but the last leg involving him and the souring of his relationship with Pakistan establushment gets a bit muddled up and doesn't invoke the level of fluency seen earlier in the flow of events.

The complex US-Pakistan relationship in an ever evolving world stage over 70+ years from an almost insider's prism makes this an interesting read.

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Review: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: A self help motivational book in the form of a memoir

Continuing from her first book "Becoming" which gave us her background more so in a chronological order to becoming the first lady of United States of America, this book captures around the pandemic and after presidency but also showcases her thought processes formalised by childhood events and upbringing. So there is celebrating small wins in the quest for the bigger victory to her taking up knitting to be at peace and in control of things when everything else seems out of control.

What differs from other self help books is her style of sharing her journey and experiences to come to that advice which adds a ring of authenticity versus the academic approach most self help books may use based out of collected wisdom which anonymises the individual.

The philosophical aspects , her style of realistically setting up the daunting challenges around her whilst keeping a positive outlook provide that balance of how reality works whether you are a regular person or the former first lady of USA. I still pity the guy who dressed up as Chewbacca though at the White House party.

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