Book Review: Indira - The life of Indira Nehru Gandhi

INDIRA -The life of Indira Nehru Gandhi

Often it is reckoned that a particular hobby runs in the family. Though I doubt the generality of this statement, I am happy to announce that my family falls under the bracket. My sister too has a liking for reading/writing and here is a guest post by her.

Author: Divya Rao

“India is Indira and Indira India” – This was how the Indian National Congress branded Indira Gandhi. Indira Nehru-Gandhi is the daughter of India’s freedom fighter and the first prime minister of Independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, but to the world she was known for much more than just being the daughter of a famous personality. Indira Gandhi led India, the world’s largest democracy, for nearly two decades. She was voted the Woman of Millennium. In  1983 commonwealth meeting, Indira Gandhi looked the most regal and powerful of the three women present. The other two were the Queen of England and Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of UK.

The book INDIRA – The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi is a biography written by Katherine Frank. It is an exhaustive, well-researched and revealing biography of Indira Gandhi. It is a 500 page thick book of extremely small print. Katherine has to her credit three other biographies and Indira’s biography is her fourth. This former experience provides author the confidence and thoroughness in her work.

The book starts with Indira’s father Jawaharlal Nehru ‘s family details, his education and his marriage to Kamala. The book explains in great detail the turbulent and disturbed childhood of Indira amidst her father’s freedom movement and his arrests, her mother’s illness and the world war. The only real education she received was from her father through his letters and by travelling around the world. Indira’s passionate relationship with Feroze Gandhi is also given some focus.  Around the time of India’s Independence she returns back to India with Feroze on tow. After India’s Independence Indira’s life is all consumed by politics, first as her father’s hostess and then as the prime minister of India. The role of Sanjay Gandhi and later Rajiv Gandhi in Indira’s term, as prime minister, forms the remainder of the book. The events leading up to her assassination is very interesting and well handled.

The initial days of Indira Gandhi where she was mostly traveling with her sick mother and she herself in bouts of depression was hardly interesting. This part of book feels almost like a history academic textbook with facts and figures and nothing else. Author couldn’t have made justice here because during Indira’s initial days she was completely overshadowed by her father and she herself showed no personality. Nehru intimidated her and she merely followed him everywhere he went. The book picks pace only after Indira returns to India, around the time of Indian Independence and gets involved in politics. The drama begins and story unfolds only after she becomes the prime minister of India – around 300^th page of the book. This is when her life becomes ‘Not a Normal, Banal, Boring Life’.

The author does a brilliant job in portraying how Indira metamorphoses from a docile, dumb doll into the Great Dictator describing her insecurities, her fears and her struggles throughout. This makes the book very convincing. However, as all biographies, the book is partial to the subject and her views. All other’s view gets a mere mention or passed off as baseless rumours. Some of the well-known rumours of Indira’s life are not mentioned at all. The author has also restrained from expressing her own interpretations and judgment on Indira’s life.

I recommend this book as a good read for those who want to know the history of India, about what transpired after India’s freedom, how politics and corruption became synonyms of power at the Centre. Pre-requisites of this book include knowing about India’s freedom struggles and partition of India.

After reading this book I am mighty impressed by Indira Gandhi. She was great in foreign relations, thanks to all her travels and influence because of her family background, getting the attention and aid that India needed. Her beliefs were leftist and she sought order over democracy. The public’s experience of emergency was that daily life seemed less erratic and stressful, prices fell, peace and order restored. Off-course, she had her weaknesses, Sanjay Gandhi being the biggest threat. I am convinced of what Indira believed – only she could take care of India, without her India would fall apart.

About the author:

Divya is a busy working mother and a total prankster at heart (though she pretends to be otherwise). You can find the result of her recent writo-mania here.

Book Review: The 7 habits of highly effective people

The 7 habits of highly effective
 people

I introduce......
Often in life we come across motivation from unexpected means. My motivation to start a blog came from a rather disappointing exam! And how thankful I am that I did not succeed in the exam for I could never have jumped into the knowledgeable world of blogging. 2.5 months of blogging, reading and a tad more blogging, I came across a guy who defied normal conventions of job security and set out to find a better world on his own- Anil Bhandary. I also happen to realize that the world is indeed small and Anil happened to be my college senior and we have many common friends. To let you all enjoy his powerful yet laid back writing, here is a guest post by him. Enjoy madi!

Anil talks...
'Self-help': The first thing that comes to my mind as I read the title of the book. I dislike the word. Why? Because it has come to represent something fake. Don't get me wrong, I love improving myself and I believe in the concept of self-improvement, but this word has come to represent duplicity: smile more and make more friends, think positive and your problems would be solved, if you can think it you can achieve it - kind of bullshit. Well, if those were to really happen I would have, by now, been leading a billion dollar MNC and would have been partying in some beach in Hawaii islands. I'm not.

And thank god, this book isn't one of those kind of self help book.

What this book isn't? It isn't a band-aid, the quick fix kind of self help book.  

What this book is? This is an inside out book. This book, I think, if read and implemented will make you effective. Two reasons why I think so. One: The 7 habits that the author introduces are not new. It focuses on making you aware of what is innate, it tries to show you what you are chiefly made of in the core. Two: The author tells you stories from his own life and experiences which you can relate to.

In my 6th class, I used to go to a store nearby to school to buy the Center Fresh chewing gum. Once in my hand, I would open it. Chewing gum looked normal. I would, then, use both my hands to break it apart. As I did that, the blue gel from heaven would ooze out. I would place it in my mouth which would take me to a higher level of blissfulness. When I returned back, I would take the other half and repeat. What a experience! :)

This book is like that center fresh chewing gum. From outside it is like just another bubble gum, just another self help book. But on the inside, the insights will make you feel fresh and equipped.  

What you will find inside? Author starts with your world, your paradigm to give an astounding practical example of how you and other person need not agree and yet, both be right. With that revelation you will be able to open up to (obvious) self-discoveries that he shares further. Contents - He divides the book into 3 parts

1. Private victory (3 habits) : Your way to Independence 
• Habit 1 - Be Proactive : He tells being proactive is more than just taking initiatives. It means as human beings we are responsible for our own lives. Responsibility is the ability to respond.
• Habit 2 - Begin with the End in Mind: Though this seems obvious, he shares interesting stories of why we tend to ignore this point. 
• Habit 3 - Put first things first: Stories of we confusing important things with urgent. And why we should start focusing on the important.
2. Public victory (3 habits) : Your way from Independence to Interdependence
• Habit 4 - Think Win/Win : Author talks of our urge to focus more on the winning which is not always good and leads us into understanding Win/Win.
• Habit 5 - Seek first to understand, and then to be understood: Introduces us to the 5 kinds of listening and tells us why it is also important to seek to be understood. Probably the most toughest habit to practice.
• Habit 6 - Synergize: Sum is greater than its parts. Author explains of the creative energies that comes when we synergize.
3. Sharpen the Saw (the 7th habit) and grow Inside Out: This is about preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have - you. 

The habits sound obvious, but the way he introduces them is interesting. He stretches some stuff, but I would trade it for what I can learn. This book teaches you achieve things in the hard way, the way that is in alignment with your principles, your values. Your true way.
My verdict: Must read
Who is this book for? Not for everyone. This is for people who dare to look inside themselves, who can take responsibility for their situation and who believe that you can grow inside out.

Now the ball is in your court.

Anil concludes...

I resume.....
About the author: Anil quit his job recently to live his dreams. He tells stories of exploring and living at his blog. Apart from writing, he likes doing anything that creates connections and makes him feel alive. Often he shares some cool stuff at the blog's facebook page and tweets also.