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Wise & Otherwise : Experience Is The Best Teacher
Dec 10, 2009 02:26 PM 28613 Views
(Updated Dec 10, 2009 03:19 PM)

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Wise And Otherwise : Experience Is The Best Teacher


There are plenty of self help books available today giving steps and points to make our life worth living. Books such as, “How to be successful”, ”How to find Happiness”, Or the recent book “Discover the Diamond in You by Arindam Chaudhuri”, so on and so forth. I do not like to discredit the writers, for they must these books after much thought, research & experience. However after reading a few of these books, I feel they change nothing, the change comes from within.


I still remember the day I picked up this book, “Wise and Otherwise” in Sapna Book house to gift my nephew on his birthday. It was with a bit of an apprehension as to whether this was just another one of those books that tell us how to lead our life. But fortunately, I found it surprisingly refreshing & interesting.


The author Sudha Murthy has well managed through these realistic incidents to convey more about life’s lessons than any self help book could ever do. Wise and otherwise is an autobiographical collection of around fifty one short stories, anecdotes & incidents from Sudha Murthy’s life.


The stories are simple, inspiring, interesting and heart touching.This book first published in 2002, Wise and Otherwise has sold over 30,000 copies in English and has been translated into all the major Indian languages.


The author Mrs. Sudha Murthy is the wife of Narayan Murthy the founder of Infosys. She runs the Infosys foundation, which focuses on taking health care and primary education to the disadvantaged and underprivileged sections of the society. She is also an avid traveler and a writer. In this book she recounts some interesting experiences from her life.


Sudha Murthy started writing books just few years back. Within a short period fifteen books of hers are published. Four of them are on computers, some others are- travelogues, novels and collection of articles written periodically for various columns.She writes in Kannada and English. Some of her books are translated in more than fifteen Indian languages.


This book is a collection of fifty-one meaningful short stories, each one of them is a gem. Message and inspiration in every chapter. Most of the stories are in fact real life experiences of Sudha Murthy. The author narrating her experiences with various kinds of people she meets during her philanthropic work in the Infosys Foundation.


The author through realistic stories tries to illustrate the greatness of the Indian culture. Through the small stories one can learn the various aspects of the Indian life There are some emotional & meaningful stories like, a selfish person dumps his aged father in an old-age home after declaring him to be a homeless stranger, and there was a man who bought in his own father to the foundation claiming he was a destitute. Finally when that man died he willed his money to his son and not the charity which took care of him in his last days.


A tribal chief in the hilly region teaches the author that there is humility in receiving too, a tribal with no schooling, practicing a highly principled philosophy of life – give when you take; do not take without giving”. When Mrs. Murthy accepted the gift, the old man told her, “There is grace in accepting too”.


A sick woman remembers to thank her benefactor even from her deathbed. These are just some of the eye opening stories about people from all over the country that the author recounts in this book.


The first and foremost aspect of the book which I like is its simplicity. The real life incidents are narrated by the author in simple words, without any attempt at glamour or extravagance. The language is simple that there is no need of dictionary to understand it.


The moral of the realistic stories varies from humility, humanity to social issues & problems. The stories are of the common people & their day today life’s experiences. It’s not about the page three or parties of rich & famous. The heroes of the story are simple & common people. These simple & beautiful stories give an insight about India. The author aptly combines proper events in order to compare and contrast the mentality and mindset of the people across the country.


This book is a good read for those who do not find time at a stretch to read as it is a collection of short stories. With each story running just around three to four pages, the book is a very light read and requires not more than a few hours to complete. This book is not for the literature & technology crazy people.


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