Greetings My Well wishers

I’ve written a lot on my passion for movies and also sometimes on my love for music. Other than that, I wrote on topics relevant to social issues and philosophy.

Today I’m sharing with you another passion of mine. Reading Books. Not My Academic Books.

I’ll start with my list of Non-Fiction Books that I’ve been hooked to and I’ll kept it very short and simple this time.

Unlike the Greatest Movies I’ve written about, these books are not the 10 Greatest Non-Fiction books ever written, but they are just my personal favourites. You may or may not like them. But I would love to know your pick as well.

So, Here are my 10 all time favourite Non-Fiction Books

10. Rude Food (By Vir Sanghvi)

Former Editor of “The Hindustan Times” and popular TV Show host Vir Sanghvi compiles a Delicious Collections of His Gastronomical writings on Indian and Global cuisine. The Rude Food Column appears in almost every issue of Brunch – Hindustan Times’s Pull Out Sunday Magazine. And this book is a collection of his best Rude Food Articles from 2004 to 2006.

Truly every Gourmet’s Delight.

9. Istanbul (By Orhan Pamuk)

A Transcendentally beautiful book written by Turkey’s greatest living author, Orhan Pamuk. Its Orhan’s tribute to his hometown, the Turkish capital where he was born, he grew up and still lives. His Memoirs of the city which is a melting pot of Asian & European cultures, a dethroned Ottoman Empire and the coming of age of a conservative Islamic nation plagued by communist rebellion into a Progressive Republican Power in Europe.

Never have I read writings about one’s hometown to be so poetic and seductive as Orhan Pamuk’s in Istanbul.

8. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (By Dale Carnegie)

I’ve read the Shiv Kheras & Arindam Chaudharis and even Paula Coelhos and the Chicken Soups and who moved Cheese’s, but no Book has ever motivated me the way this Dale Carnegie masterpiece has.

If you read the entire book, theres a 1000% chance that you will be an Optimist even in the least favourable situations & most hostile environments. This Book makes you take out all the negative energies in you and makes you realise that no matter how much dark the world has become, theres still some light.

This book is strongly recommended to everyone who wants to make his/her Life Stress Free.

This book has taught me a Mantra that I’ve implemented in my life – “Forget Yourself by becoming interested in others. Everyday do a Good deed that will put a smile of joy on someone’s face.”

7. Timepass (Protima Gauri Bedi’s Autobiography)

When I first got this book, I was least interested in it. My friend Vishal was strongly recommending it but I thought, the Late Protima Gauri Bedi was not such a prolific celebrity, her life’s tale won’t be intriguing at all.

I was proved wrong, one day I casually started reading the book and I was hooked and hooked until I finished reading half the book. Legendary author Khushwant Singh was right about the book, “No one will be able to put down Timepass once he or she starts reading it.”

What kept me hooked to the book was the fact that unlike most Mumbai celebrities, Protima Bedi was Brutally Honest, Straightforward and very Candid while describing her life’s tumultuous journey. She was least Diplomatic and Politically Incorrect all the time. She had no shame talking about the men in her life, her crushes, her heartbreaks & even her sex life.

She also made us recall the fact that all the Big Stars we see on the screen are no larger than life people, but ordinary mortals like us and they too make mistakes.

6. The Argumentative Indian – Writings on Indian History Culture and Identity (By Prof. Amartya Sen)

This is the one book that makes you genuinely proud of being an Indian. Its this book that taught me why India is a Land of Endless Spirituality and Unreasoning Mysticism.

And the author of this extraordinary book is Nobel Prize winner Prof. (Dr.) Amartya Sen was no surprise to me. Its Prof. Sen’s brilliant work that proves how great India as a nation is which has taught civilization, science, arts & economics to the entire world and how rich has been India’s intellectual heritage and why Emperor Ashoka was truly the Greatest King ever to have lived on planet earth and why the Vedas and The Bhagwad Gita are the Greatest Almanacs of Knowledge & Wisdom.

5. The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (By Malcolm Gladwell)

Most fans of Malcolm Gladwell love his recent book Blink, but I prefer The Tipping Point.

Mr. Gladwell is a Virgo like yours truly and so he comes with a God Gifted ability of analyzing things with a very optimistic, open minded and unbiased approach (Us Virgos are gifted with this). Ok no more Bragging.

No book has better explained that fact that how a small idea, message or concept and instantly spread like a virus and gain a cult following.

Gladwell also proves that if The Right (and Confident) People are involved with a project or a venture and that project/venture has been created with a noble intention, then that project/venture will go on to become an unstoppable success. And Gladwell makes the reader aware about the ingredients and what role they play for your unstoppable march to the Zenith.

4. The Age of Reform (By Richard Hofstadter)

This book will shut up each and every Anti-American in the world (Mr. Prakash Karat and his party included). Its a Pulitzer prize winning book that traces American History from the Progressive Era to the Great Depression and the New Deal. A book that is a genuine evaluation of why America, with the help of visionary & selfless reforms went on to become the richest & the most powerful superpower in the world by creating symbiotic relationships between government, education, and business and why it still is the world’s most Dominant Force.

India should learn a lesson or two from this book if it actually needs to become a superpower.

3. India After Gandhi – The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (By Ramachandra Guha)

Ramachandra Guha pens down the journey of a great nation that was raped for over 3 decades by imperialist powers and was an area of darkness when it achieved Independence. Guha narrates the journey of that wounded nation slowly growing to become the Fastest Growing Economy in the world.

The USP of the book is the perspective it is able to provide on some of the important developments in the Indian political scene in the last two decades. The rise of Hindu nationalist parties; the tendency towards decentralization evidenced in the growing strength of regional parties; the increasing importance of caste: all these trends, because of the scope and time line considered, do not come across as isolated but as part of a larger story of ebbs and surges.

In telling his stories, Guha liberally quotes and excerpts from reports, newspapers, essays of traveling journalists, and recently released archives and letters: his narrative is a deftly crafted collage.

2. The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung) – By Sigmund Freud

Originally written in German as “Die Traumdeutung”, the record of a process of self-analysis, the book became the foundation for a new scientific methodology, therapeutic treatment, and cultural consciousness.

This is the book that introduced us to “The Ego” and how “The Unconscious & Dream Fulfillment were co-related and how all dreams were forms of wish-fullfillment.

Many psychoanalysts have hailed this book as one of the most important contribution to psychology.

And My all-time Favourite Book is

Think. Think. Guess

1. City of Djinns (By William Dalrymple)

Many books, essays, articles, poems and blogs have been written about how Delhi (My Hometown) is such a great city. I’ve read them all, from Khushwant Singh to Indrajit Hazra to Sushmita Bose to Sadia Dehlvi to Renuka Narayan to Mayank Austin Soofi to RV Smith to Tabish Khair and even Ruchir Joshi, but all these Desis are overshadowed by the firang from Scotland – William Dalrymple.

If Shantaram was a firang’s tale of his Love for Mumbai (In fiction), William pens an account of his initial years spent in Delhi, and man he does it like a Hardcore Delhiwallah.

With this book, Dalrymple proves why Delhi truly deserves to be the Capital of India.

In this book, Dalrymple investigates the world of the first British inhabitants of the city who “went native”, the Mughals, the Tughlaqs, ending with ancient Hindu origins of the city as described in The Mahabharata. It also talks of the Emeregncy period of the 70’s and the anti-Sikh Riots of 1984. Not only that, Dalrymple talks about the Qawwalis at Hazrat Nizam-ud-din Dargah on Thursday Nights, the Hustle Bustle of Connaught Place, The Punjabi underbelly of Delhi, the Bylanes of the walled city, the Hijras and even the Prostitutes of GB Road. Dalrymple also talks about the Delhi’s swish set (The Page 3 Crowd), he explains why Bina Ramani was Delhi’s Socialite Number 1 and how Rohit Bal is Delhi’s very own Yves Saint Laurent. No one ever got know Delhi and present it better than William Dalrymple.

The book followed his established style of historical digressions, tied in with contemporary events and a multitude of anecdotes.

Well that sums up my list of Top 10 Non-Fiction Books (My Favourites that is). It would be interesting to find out if some of my Top 10 also feature in your Top 10 list.