Saturday, September 12, 2009

Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents by Minal Hajratwala

A very refreshing and interesting book about Indian diaspora spread all across the globe. I have always been very interested to hear about someone's personal account of how their near and dear ones settled all across the globe. Every family in India these days has somebody or the other in popular countries like USA, Canada or UK. But, what has always interested me is about those Indian who have made some of the most obscure countries their home. That too for decades and in some case for centuries. I have seen Gujarati traders of East Africa who have been trading there for generations. Similarly I was intrigued by cricketers of Indian origin in other countries.


This is the book that describes about author's extended family's migration from India to Fiji, USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Africa. Author herself was born in the USA, spent time in New Zealand and then returned to the USA. Her parents grew up in Fiji.


If you read this book, you will understand how Indian diaspora got to where it is now. You will learn about indentured labor which was so essential for colonialism especially after the abolition of slavery. Although this reads more like one particular family's memoir, you will surely relate to it and understand a lot about the general phenomenon.


It is usually hard to keep readers interested when things become very particular to one's own family. Author does a fabulous job. She does not write pages after pages about her family alone. She just uses their names and incidents as a backdrop but tries very hard to bring out things of commonality and importance relevant to the heart of the matter - that's Indian diaspora all over the world.


This book reads more like a nice novel than somebody's family memoir. That's what got me finish this book. I must say I read it in record time as well. Fairly large book. But, the style and narration is very good. You become part of the book. Characters become very familiar. You will want to know more and more about them. Very well crafted.


Cheers!


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Sunday, September 06, 2009

Wonderfully fair

"It is better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than buying a fair company at a wonderful price." - Warren Buffet


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Praise & Criticize

"Praise by name. But, criticize by category." - Warren Buffet


This works. Praise by name. Sometimes we fail to praise an individual because we may be concerned that praising an individual may affect the team dynamics. As long as we over do it and make our praise gets into the head of that person, that's ok.


Cheers!



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Death

How often you think about death? If you are like the most, hardly ever. For many people, death becomes a familiar topic in the middle age. Parents pass away. Elderly people whom you saw while growing up pass away. Relatives pass away. I think once after you are 30 years or so, news of someone or other's death becomes all too familiar. In last 3 years alone, I got so much more familiar with death than anytime before with the passing away of close relatives, family friends etc.

Death is a reminder to 'make rest of your life best of your life.' Everyone will continue to be alive till the purpose they are born to serve is incomplete. Most of us, anyway, do not know what we are born for. Not a blame on us. Sometimes the divine force just drives us towards that purpose without us knowing about it consciously. Risk is that sometimes if the purpose becomes overtly clear, we may unnnecessarily resist and make life more painful than it has to be. As they say - 'pain is inevitable. suffering is not.'

Cheers!

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