The BOOK that inspired me

India is booming ... India is rising ... India is shining! The euphoric achievements of Indian capabilities in information technology and other sectors, and the country's growing economic might and superpower potential have been possible at the cost of and in spite of the darkness that still surrounds.

In this context, I have found Edward Luce's In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India to strongly proclaim and underscore two facts: problems are always there and managing your way through them is the only way out.

As a second-generation entrepreneur, I believe that Luce's thoughtful and thorough book, which is an unsentimental evaluation of contemporary India against the backdrop of its widely expected ascent to great power status in the 21st century, is an account of managing the evens despite all odds.

It is aptly said, "Yunan - Misra - Roma, sab mit gaye jahan se; baat hai kuch, ki hasti mitt ti nahi hamari" (Great civilisations of the likes of Greece, Egypt and Rome all have faded with time; but there is something in it that makes the Indian civilisation still survive).

Abhishek Khaitan, MD, Radico Khaitan

In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India
Author: Edward Luce
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Price: Rs 630
ISBN: 0316729817

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