BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS WEEK

AN ATHEIST GETS THE GITA

Galyna Kogut, Rahul Singh

Rupa Publications, Rs 295

‘Will this make us happy?’ This question troubles 25-year-old IIM graduate Anveshak Jigyanshu, an investment banker in Singapore, as he meets his two-decade senior Charan Saket. Their conversation reminds the reader of the dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna. Anveshak, a self-proclaimed atheist, is mesmerised by the compelling arguments put forth by Charan as they both explore the world of science and its limitations, what proof means, the dilemma of ethics and finally, what real and everlasting happiness is. In a way, Charan explains the essence of the Bhagavad Gita. Slowly turning from a disbeliever to one who accepts logic, Anveshak discovers the key to his question.

In a tightly gripping narrative, the authors gently persuade the reader to relook and understand the essence of the Bhagavad Gita in the modern world. This book will change the way one looks at happiness.

THE COMMONWEALTH OF CRICKET

Ramachandra Guha

HarperCollins India, Rs 499

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind is a first-person account of this astonishing transformation. The book traces the entire arc of cricket in India, across all levels at which the game is played: school, college, club, state, country. It presents vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons, and international stars.

Cast as a work of literature, The Commonwealth of Cricket is keenly informed by the author’s scholarly training, the stories and sketches narrated against a wider canvas of social and historical change. The book blends memoir, anecdote, reportage and political critique, providing a rich, insightful and rivetingly readable account of this greatest of games as played in the country that has most energetically made this sport its own.

The Happiness Trail:

A Road Map to Success

Ramesh Venkateswaran

HarperCollins India, Rs 299

We live in a fast-paced and highly competitive world. The last few years have seen changes not witnessed in centuries. Have all these developments increased our sense of well-being? Data seems to suggest otherwise!

The Happiness Trail shows us an attainable, contextual way to achieve two seemingly complementary goals, happiness and success, that we many a time discover to be contradictory.

In The Happiness Trail: A Road Map to Success, Ramesh Venkateswaran lays down five easy-to-follow approaches to a happy and successful life, which he calls the five I’s: Integrity, Interact, Involve, Imbibe and Impact.

Armed with this road map, the ever-elusive happiness seems within reach and success a natural consequence.