As fluid and absorbing as stories, the portraits are marked by a deep sense of authorial empathy (less)

As fluid and absorbing as stories, the portraits are marked by a deep sense of authorial empathy.Also, rarely have the common people of that period been represented so vividly and the work gives us remarkable insight into their modes of thought, social norms and religious beliefs--in the process of being redefined but still faithfully pursued by the simple folk who believed in the permanence of the old ways (less)

Written with rare honesty by one who has been part of The System, the book dwells on the underlying processes through which so many urbanites have been marginalized as slum-walas, forced to live on pavements or in jhuggi clusters, and how a small number of urban development-walas are letting our cities slowly die. The real problem, Gita argues, is not the pervasive urban squalor that offends us all, but rather the moral and intellectual bankruptcy that sustains it.

The stories used in the book are not uniqueurban dwellers are witness to them every dayand the author stays clear of painting a static overview of the slum problem through statistics and stereotypes, preferring, instead, to highlight the human aspects of the problem. The book does not provide yet another original solutionrather the reader is left to find answers to the question: what can you do to solve the problem and what are you waiting for? This thorough and uncompromising analysis is a must-read for all those concerned with urban issues (less)

This erotically appealing love treatise is replete with unnerving, and at the same time, entertaining stories which will leave you enraptured and enthralled. It is like a multicoloured tapestry woven thick with liaisons of emperors, princes, queens, princesses and commoners alike, based on the accounts of the contemporary historians, chroniclers and travelers.

It is strewn with erotic verses, lyrics, couplets, and Persian and Sanskrit odes, which serves as a golden thread interlacing the tapestry. The author takes you on a filght to the ethereal regions of romantic escapades, torrid affairs, and lascivious frolics of the sultans of Malwa.

The book portrays, in graphic details, the sensual peccadilloes of the bored, restless shrinking violets-the Mughal princess. History is a long and tedious task of recording the toll of human life and the utter devastations wreaked by the sword and the bullet-but this treatise, though in the form of fiction, vividly and fascinatingly records the ruins and havocs left in their wake by love affairs, court intrigues, envies, jealousies, terrible vengeance, etc.

A wholly absorbing account of incidents and anecdotes which will quicken the readers heartbeats and leave him spellbound (less)

D. Bajpai : A biographical sketch by V.

N. Misra / K.

D. Bajpai : A deep scholar, valued colleague and a trusted friend by A.

Avasthi / A tribute to Prof. Bajpai by M.

Rao / Prof. K.

D. Bajpai : Some reminiscences by Ajay Mitra Shastri / An Ekalavya's tribute to the Acharya by R.

C. Sharma / The renaissance man by K.

K. Chakravarty / Prof.

K.D.

Bajpai : My venerable guru by K.S.

Shukla / Country's leading indologist : Prof. K.

D. Bajpai by P.

N. Chopra / Tribute by T.

P. Verma / Indian art history Congress and Prof.

K.D.

Bajpai by R.D.

Choudhury / Research Papers : I. Pre-History And Proto-History : Iron in war in India (up to 300 B.

C.) by Radha Kant Verma / The manifestations of proto-historic culture in Madhya Pradesh : A current appraisal by D.

Dayalan / Some observations on the Chalcolithic copper-technology of eastern India by Pranab K. Chattopadhyay / Excavation at Padri : 1991-92 : A preliminary report of the second season's work by Vasant Shinde / The late Rgvedic Aryans and archaeology by Krishna Kumar / A fresh look on the problem of dating of prehistoric rock art by D.

P. Sharma and Madhuri Sharma / Eran excavations : Chalcolithic culture and the iron age by K.

K. Tripathi / A note on new discoveries at Mothara (dist.

Mandla, M.P.

) by Chaitanya Saxena / II. Epigraphy And Numismatics : The Pathari inscription of Parabala : A reappraisal by Brahmanand Deshpande / Alampur inscriptions of Malla Maharaja by M.

D. Sampath / Melpaluvur inscription of Rajaraja Chola I by S.

Swaminathan / Some new Chola inscriptions from North Arcot district by L.K.

Srinivasan / Notes on 'Puramdara-Nandana' by S.P.

Tewari / Some observations on Tiruppattur inscriptions by M.D.

Sampath / Kundeshwar copperplate of Chandella Queen Satyabhama of the year 1060 by S.K.

Sullerey / Arang copperplate of Amarsimhadeva of (Vikram)0 year 1792 : A study by L.S.

Nigam / A new inscription of Ghiyathud-Din Tughlaq Shah from Sahar, Mathura district, U.P.

by M.F.

Khan / Numismatics sources of the early history of Madhya Pradesh by R.K.

Sharma / Some Mediterranean finds at Adam by Amarendra Nath / III. Art And Architecture : The Buddhist bronzes of Surocolo by Lokesh Chandra and Sudarshna Devi Singhal / Buddhist monasteries in Nubra Valley, Ladakh by R.

C. Agrawal / Buddhist attitude to women as reflected in the jataka stories and art by Ratan Parimoo / Some rare early sculptures from Gokarna : Their significance by A.

Sundara / Jaina and Saiva Temples at Ghusai, dist. Mandsaur (M.

P.) by B.

L. Nagarch / The Pratihara Temple of Sitamadhi : Some interesting features by A.

K. Singh / A study of Hari-Hara-Hiranyagarbha images in M.

P. by M.

Rao / Karttikeya in the art of Haryana by Devendra Handa / A note on some recently discovered sculptures from Maldah, West Bengal by Bimal Bandyopadhyay / The newly discovered image of Risabhanatha at Sri-Surya Pahar (Assam) by R.D.

Choudhury / Defence system at Vijayanagar (Hampi) by Channabasappa S. Patil / Syncretistic images from Udayesvara Temple at Udaipur by Shiva Kant Dwivedi / Fresh light on Kakanmadh : A Kachchhapaghata Temple at Sihonia by Alok Tripathi / The temple at Batesur : An assessment by Ahmed Ali / Unique Remains of Chalukyan (Solanki) art, "Rani-ki-Vav", Patan, Gujarat by Narayan Vyas / Art and architecture of Siva Temple at Deo-Baloda by V.

K. Bajpai / IV.

Society And Economy : Women's right to immovable property : A case study of two Chandella Queens by K.K.

Shah / Sati and the proprietary rights of widows (An Analysis of Antiquity and Relationship) by Ashvini Agrawal / Contacts between Karnataka and Greece in the early centuries of the Christian era by V. Shivananda / Maritime contacts and shipping activity in ancient India by B.

K. Gururaja Rao and L.

N. Swamy / V.

Culture And Religion : The age of the imperial Guptas : Resurgence of Hindu culture by G.D.

Shukla / A study of material world in Buddhism by Bimalendra Kumar / Was Chaulukya King Kumarapala actually converted to Jainism? by Veena Budholia / Origin and antiquity of the Lakulisa Pashupata cult by M.C.

Choubey / Antiquity of Ganesa worship by K.M.

Suresh / Nehru on Indian cultural expansion is South-East Asia by Rachna Mehrotra / VI. Aspects Of History : Kingship and the cult of Devaraja in Cambodia by K.

M. Srivastava / Identification of King Ama : A fresh appraisal by Shyam Manohar Mishra / Bundelkhand in the Harsa and Post-Harsa period by K.

L. Agrawal / Political geography of North Arcot Ambedkar district by S.

Rajavelu / The role of women in Indian independence Movement : A study of some unknown facets by J.P.

Mishra / Revolt of 1857 in Jabalpur by P.S.

Mukharya / Significance of the Mass-awakening programme of the Home Rule Movement by D.K.

Joshi (less)

Kalyan Varma did it. 'CONNECT THE DOTS' is a sequel to 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' and is the story of 20 enterprising individuals without an MBA, who started their own ventures.

They were driven by the desire to prove themselves. To lead interesting, passionate, meaningful lives.

Some of the entrepreneurs featured in the book are:Kunwer Sachdev, Founder, Su-kamR. Sriram, Founder, Crossword BookstoreGanesh Ram, Founder, Veta (Vivekananda English Training Academy)Satyajit Singh, Founder, Shakti Sudha Industries Their stories say one thing loud and clear.

You don't need a fancy degree or a rich daddy to dream big and make it happen. It's all in your head, your heart, your hands.

top Book Reviews of Connect The Dots (Author Signed Copies) Write a Review Read All Reviews (11) 17 of 17 people found the following review helpful: Great reading Review by Amrithaa Had pre-ordered the book, so got an autographed copy too. Have read 5 stories so far, and each one stays, cos it's written so well, and the stories of each of the entrepreneurs are so inspiring.

I also like that there's no melodrama and all the interviewees seem to accept things for what they are (for example, Ranjiv Ramchandani when asked if he decided not to cut corners wrt the quality of his t-shirts says, nah it's just that i was ignorant about the quality! Great read, and like i tweeted, possibly the best spent 100 rupees so far..

!Was this review helpful? Report Abusive Timely book on Indian entrepreneurs, very rich tapestry of characters, "Yes, we can" infectious spirit, terrible mixing of languages, but still great value for money! Review by Dr. Suresh JeyaRaman As Gurcharan das points out in India Unbound, Indian entrepreneurs and businesses haven't got the right kind of press they deserved for a very long time in our own country.

Rashmi Bansal's latest work, "Connect the dots" and her earlier "Stay Hungry..

." hold a candle to the Indian entrepreneurial community and its zeal and spirit in a very commendable manner by highlighting a wide gamut of startups.

With IT and by its extension "Infosys", in danger of becoming THE ONLY example and model of a successful startup being mentioned everywhere, this book is all the more welcome. Successful people from all walks of life such as restauranters, a nature photographer, a T-Shirt maker, a housekeeping services provider, a bookshop retailer, student-activists-entrepreneurs, a housewife-turned-cosmetics-maker, "car-sticker"-marketing-guy are all featured in this book.

One coudn't ask for more variety, really. Good pick, Rashmi.

What an eye for variety. Well done for that! Indeed, this is one of the greatest services that this book and her previous book make.

In a **'knowledge' and 'new/old' economy** jargon obsessed world, it is very very important to realise that there are larger but unspoken wheels that are imperative in keeping the wheels of economy and society moving. Such a tapestry is much needed in today's Computing obsessed India, and we are in real danger of becoming monochromatic, or to use a more appropriate modern word, "binary" (pun intended) in our world view, however small it may be.

Rashmi sticks to her strengths; as the bard would say "To thine own self be true". As with her previous book, the narrative is quasi-first person; the author interviews the study on various facets of their life.

Rashmi is gifted with a chatty writing style and the narrative is very fast paced. Once you begin a biography, the book becomes "unputdownable", so to speak.

Since the interviews are with the founders themselves, making them relive their past and their past decisions, their self-belief, their sincerity, their hard-work all suffuse the book from every page. On the negative side, this ends up providing a one-dimensional, albeit very flattering view of the founders.

As the old saying goes "You can never make omlettes without breaking eggs"; certainly the founders had difficult times, made compromises or did thoughtless things that others noticed? Rashmi never makes the attempt to get a "second opinion" so to speak. A family member, or the founders' "man-at-arms" who were around since the early days could have easily brought in that nuance which for sure would have enriched and elevated the book further.

For example, in her previous book, Subhiksha and its founder were presented in (my opinion,) vainglorious terms while it was public knowledge even then that chain was in doldrums. Perhaps, she could get balancing views (or to put more bluntly, opposing views) to bring a more complete picture of the business and wealth creation process to the reading audience.

One can easily sense that the nature of the book is to inspire others into thinking "Why not me there, in those very shoes?". But Rashmi would do well to realise that a book that inspires so much should also point out life's thorns on the rose stem in order for people to appreciate that "Life is certainly not a bed of roses" for everyone.

In fact, I feel that would make the audience even more appreciative of the "heroes and their adventures", i.e.

, the metaphorical "blooming of the rose" even more.Despite my earlier point on the need for non-IT stories, it was the story of Lasersoft's Suresh Kamath and ex-Yahoo inmate (ooops! cubicle pun intended) Kalyan Verma that made the largest impact on me.

Suresh's firm goes out of its way to "teach people to fish instead of feeding them fish". His reaching out to handicapped people and "non-BTech streams" left me truly misty-eyed.

Would I have done something like that in his shoes, on my own volition? I don't think so. But after reading about him, I ask "Why Not?".

And that's such an extraordinary insight about oneself a 'different' person's life story can bring! Every 4th rant I hear about from various modern Indian workplace halls today is the "frustration, meaninglessness, want to break free" cry. But how many of us channel our gall in a meaningful manner? One person did.

Kalyan is such an individual. And thank you Rashmi for collecting gems like those.

But by far, my biggest gripe with the book is Rashmi's rampant mixing of Hindi and English in her writing. I found it much more in this book than her previous one and it was driving me to distraction and exasperation at times.

Rashmi, I have news for you. Very unfortunately, not everyone in India is well-versed in Hindi nor do they have any interest in being forced to follow it.

Without getting into the politics of learning Hindi, etc., I feel it is quite possible for a writer of Rashmi's calibre to convey an effective message in just plain English.

Some examples: I was floored with the term "Kitabi keeda" title and had to ask around for what it meant. Turns out it conveys the meaning "book worm", which itself is a very commonly used English phrase among Indians as well.

Why not stick to that? Prem Ganapathy's bio was liberally 'littered' with Bombay slang (so I was told). They might have as well written those lines in Prem's mother tongue, honestly! It would not have made any more difference to my understanding.

That is just plain laziness to let the lines stand as they were uttered. Rashmi, as a writer, it is your job not to merely 'transcribe' but to convey meaning and better understanding to the readers.

One can argue that the lines are meant to convey the 'down-to-earth' persona of the hero, but that was already communicated via the impassioned description of his hard and difficult childhood in clear, simple English! And like her previous book, this book can always be translated to another local language without resorting to unnecessary phonetic acrobatics in English. So, Rashmi my one complaint to you is this: Please tighten up your writing.

You are clearly a writer with some calibre and flair for it, and you are famous now. So much more is expected from you.

This last diatribe notwithstanding, the book holds an excellent mirror to the lives some very diverse group of obviously talented individuals. It is well worth reading about them and inculcate some traits into our lives as well.

After all if Newton himself said "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants", it will be wise to inject that humility into our lvies as well.My recommendation.

Get yourself this and Rashmi's previous book. It is time we stopped quoting Lee Iacocca (and many other western self-made biographies) for inspirational quotes and started identifying with our own local and homegrown heroes.

And heroes they all are. So is Rashmi Bansal to some extent for chronicling their exploits.

Dr. Suresh JeyaRaman.

Was this review helpful? Report Abusive Connect the Dots Review by Abhinav Kumar Really a nice book. I found this work of the author much better than the previous one "Stay hungry Stay foolish".

Persons mentioned in this book really struggled a lot to stand where they are now. I liked the chapter on Prince group, Su Kam, Crossword, futuristic techs like Reva cars.

I make it a point to read atleast a story in a day to inspire me and to keep the hunger and fire in me.I would be looking forward for the next book with another set of people with thier inspiring journey.

RegardsAbhinav Was this review helpful? Report Abusive Dots..

Review by Kashyap..

Got the book reading it..

. its so good.

..

very happy that it was author signed ..

.consider myself lucky;) cos iam a huge fan of stay hungry stay foolish.

..

now this book will surely beat that..

. and thanks to flipkart for giving me a superb book with a discount of 45rs, author signed , timely delivery and last but not least at the comfort of my home order facility.

..

thank you for all that and one more promise hereon any book i would order only at flipkart ..

thanks once again :):) Was this review helpful? Report AbusiveWhat do you think about this product? Write a Review Read all reviews of Connect The Dots (Author Signed Copies) ( 11 reviews) (less)

Kalyan Varma did it. 'CONNECT THE DOTS' is a sequel to 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' and is the story of 20 enterprising individuals without an MBA, who started their own ventures.

They were driven by the desire to prove themselves. To lead interesting, passionate, meaningful lives.

Some of the entrepreneurs featured in the book are:Kunwer Sachdev, Founder, Su-kamR. Sriram, Founder, Crossword BookstoreGanesh Ram, Founder, Veta (Vivekananda English Training Academy)Satyajit Singh, Founder, Shakti Sudha Industries Their stories say one thing loud and clear.

You don't need a fancy degree or a rich daddy to dream big and make it happen. It's all in your head, your heart, your hands.

top Book Reviews of Connect The Dots Write a Review Read All Reviews (11) 7 of 7 people found the following review helpful: Dots..

Review by Kashyap..

Got the book reading it..

. its so good.

..

very happy that it was author signed ..

.consider myself lucky;) cos iam a huge fan of stay hungry stay foolish.

..

now this book will surely beat that..

. and thanks to flipkart for giving me a superb book with a discount of 45rs, author signed , timely delivery and last but not least at the comfort of my home order facility.

..

thank you for all that and one more promise hereon any book i would order only at flipkart ..

thanks once again :):) Was this review helpful? Report Abusive6 of 7 people found the following review helpful: Timely book on Indian entrepreneurs, very rich tapestry of characters, "Yes, we can" infectious spirit, terrible mixing of languages, but still great value for money! Review by Dr. Suresh JeyaRaman As Gurcharan das points out in India Unbound, Indian entrepreneurs and businesses haven't got the right kind of press they deserved for a very long time in our own country.

Rashmi Bansal's latest work, "Connect the dots" and her earlier "Stay Hungry..

." hold a candle to the Indian entrepreneurial community and its zeal and spirit in a very commendable manner by highlighting a wide gamut of startups.

With IT and by its extension "Infosys", in danger of becoming THE ONLY example and model of a successful startup being mentioned everywhere, this book is all the more welcome. Successful people from all walks of life such as restauranters, a nature photographer, a T-Shirt maker, a housekeeping services provider, a bookshop retailer, student-activists-entrepreneurs, a housewife-turned-cosmetics-maker, "car-sticker"-marketing-guy are all featured in this book.

One coudn't ask for more variety, really. Good pick, Rashmi.

What an eye for variety. Well done for that! Indeed, this is one of the greatest services that this book and her previous book make.

In a **'knowledge' and 'new/old' economy** jargon obsessed world, it is very very important to realise that there are larger but unspoken wheels that are imperative in keeping the wheels of economy and society moving. Such a tapestry is much needed in today's Computing obsessed India, and we are in real danger of becoming monochromatic, or to use a more appropriate modern word, "binary" (pun intended) in our world view, however small it may be.

Rashmi sticks to her strengths; as the bard would say "To thine own self be true". As with her previous book, the narrative is quasi-first person; the author interviews the study on various facets of their life.

Rashmi is gifted with a chatty writing style and the narrative is very fast paced. Once you begin a biography, the book becomes "unputdownable", so to speak.

Since the interviews are with the founders themselves, making them relive their past and their past decisions, their self-belief, their sincerity, their hard-work all suffuse the book from every page. On the negative side, this ends up providing a one-dimensional, albeit very flattering view of the founders.

As the old saying goes "You can never make omlettes without breaking eggs"; certainly the founders had difficult times, made compromises or did thoughtless things that others noticed? Rashmi never makes the attempt to get a "second opinion" so to speak. A family member, or the founders' "man-at-arms" who were around since the early days could have easily brought in that nuance which for sure would have enriched and elevated the book further.

For example, in her previous book, Subhiksha and its founder were presented in (my opinion,) vainglorious terms while it was public knowledge even then that chain was in doldrums. Perhaps, she could get balancing views (or to put more bluntly, opposing views) to bring a more complete picture of the business and wealth creation process to the reading audience.

One can easily sense that the nature of the book is to inspire others into thinking "Why not me there, in those very shoes?". But Rashmi would do well to realise that a book that inspires so much should also point out life's thorns on the rose stem in order for people to appreciate that "Life is certainly not a bed of roses" for everyone.

In fact, I feel that would make the audience even more appreciative of the "heroes and their adventures", i.e.

, the metaphorical "blooming of the rose" even more.Despite my earlier point on the need for non-IT stories, it was the story of Lasersoft's Suresh Kamath and ex-Yahoo inmate (ooops! cubicle pun intended) Kalyan Verma that made the largest impact on me.

Suresh's firm goes out of its way to "teach people to fish instead of feeding them fish". His reaching out to handicapped people and "non-BTech streams" left me truly misty-eyed.

Would I have done something like that in his shoes, on my own volition? I don't think so. But after reading about him, I ask "Why Not?".

And that's such an extraordinary insight about oneself a 'different' person's life story can bring! Every 4th rant I hear about from various modern Indian workplace halls today is the "frustration, meaninglessness, want to break free" cry. But how many of us channel our gall in a meaningful manner? One person did.

Kalyan is such an individual. And thank you Rashmi for collecting gems like those.

But by far, my biggest gripe with the book is Rashmi's rampant mixing of Hindi and English in her writing. I found it much more in this book than her previous one and it was driving me to distraction and exasperation at times.

Rashmi, I have news for you. Very unfortunately, not everyone in India is well-versed in Hindi nor do they have any interest in being forced to follow it.

Without getting into the politics of learning Hindi, etc., I feel it is quite possible for a writer of Rashmi's calibre to convey an effective message in just plain English.

Some examples: I was floored with the term "Kitabi keeda" title and had to ask around for what it meant. Turns out it conveys the meaning "book worm", which itself is a very commonly used English phrase among Indians as well.

Why not stick to that? Prem Ganapathy's bio was liberally 'littered' with Bombay slang (so I was told). They might have as well written those lines in Prem's mother tongue, honestly! It would not have made any more difference to my understanding.

That is just plain laziness to let the lines stand as they were uttered. Rashmi, as a writer, it is your job not to merely 'transcribe' but to convey meaning and better understanding to the readers.

One can argue that the lines are meant to convey the 'down-to-earth' persona of the hero, but that was already communicated via the impassioned description of his hard and difficult childhood in clear, simple English! And like her previous book, this book can always be translated to another local language without resorting to unnecessary phonetic acrobatics in English. So, Rashmi my one complaint to you is this: Please tighten up your writing.

You are clearly a writer with some calibre and flair for it, and you are famous now. So much more is expected from you.

This last diatribe notwithstanding, the book holds an excellent mirror to the lives some very diverse group of obviously talented individuals. It is well worth reading about them and inculcate some traits into our lives as well.

After all if Newton himself said "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants", it will be wise to inject that humility into our lvies as well.My recommendation.

Get yourself this and Rashmi's previous book. It is time we stopped quoting Lee Iacocca (and many other western self-made biographies) for inspirational quotes and started identifying with our own local and homegrown heroes.

And heroes they all are. So is Rashmi Bansal to some extent for chronicling their exploits.

Dr. Suresh JeyaRaman.

Was this review helpful? Report Abusive5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Great reading Review by Amrithaa Had pre-ordered the book, so got an autographed copy too. Have read 5 stories so far, and each one stays, cos it's written so well, and the stories of each of the entrepreneurs are so inspiring.

I also like that there's no melodrama and all the interviewees seem to accept things for what they are (for example, Ranjiv Ramchandani when asked if he decided not to cut corners wrt the quality of his t-shirts says, nah it's just that i was ignorant about the quality! Great read, and like i tweeted, possibly the best spent 100 rupees so far..

!Was this review helpful? Report Abusive Connect the Dots Review by Abhinav Kumar Really a nice book. I found this work of the author much better than the previous one "Stay hungry Stay foolish".

Persons mentioned in this book really struggled a lot to stand where they are now. I liked the chapter on Prince group, Su Kam, Crossword, futuristic techs like Reva cars.

I make it a point to read atleast a story in a day to inspire me and to keep the hunger and fire in me.I would be looking forward for the next book with another set of people with thier inspiring journey.

RegardsAbhinav Was this review helpful? Report AbusiveWhat do you think about this product? Write a Review Read all reviews of Connect The Dots ( 11 reviews) (less)