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T.J. Power's "The Dose Effect" weaves a compelling narrative around the delicate balance of brain chemistry.
 
There have been titles such as "The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge, which explores the remarkable plasticity of the human brain and its capacity for rewiring itself through experience and therapy, "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman, which implicitly underscores the role of underlying neural processes in shaping our judgments and decisions and "Dopamine Nation" by Anna Lembke that delves into the neurobiological underpinnings of pleasure and pain.
 
But T J Power’s book is a visual experience. Here are our five Bookstrapping insights.

1. The discovery of hormones, key players in the broader spectrum of body and brain chemistry, was a gradual process. Ancient physicians recognized the influence of certain organs on behavior, but the concept of specific chemical messengers traveling through the bloodstream emerged much later. T J Power delves into oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and endorphins in detail.


2. In an interesting supposition, Power puts hunter gatherers into the modern environment. It is evident why our dopamine level drops due to access to sugar, oxytocin level falls because of phones and social media, serotonin levels falls because of no exposure to sunlight and endorphin levels fall due to sedentary lifestyles. He also shares his personal story which makes it more engaging.


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-commercial-books-the-not-so-literary-cousins-of-highbrow-literature-48984.htm">Bookstrapping: Commercial books - the ‘not so literary’ cousins of highbrow literature</a> 


3. The author highlights that our brain is a survival expert. Therefore, understanding brain chemistry is the key. It empowers us to comprehend the biological basis of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This knowledge can lead to more effective treatments for mental health disorders and foster a greater appreciation for the intricate and delicate balance that governs our inner world.


4. Reading this book reminds us that recognizing the power of neuro-chemicals allows for more informed discussions about the ethical implications of manipulating these systems and encourages a more compassionate and scientifically grounded approach to understanding the human condition.


5. Making deep social connections, exercise, eating healthy, reading books and having a purpose are the natural forms of happiness, says TJ Power.


TJ Power has a Masters in psychology and runs the DOSE Lab. He also runs Neurify, a health and performance training company. In the book he offers techniques to stack your doses and improve your effectiveness. Its written for the young consumer- and TJ uses his understanding of neuroscience in the layout of the book to begin itself and the structuring of his chapters. 


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: T.J. Power's "The Dose Effect"

How groundbreaking was Nalanda, really?

 
Of all the reasons that a place of learning might achieve prominence, location is NOT the first one that comes to mind! But Nalanda situated near the Magadha capital of Rajagriha, had this massive advantage, stresses author Abhay K in his book, Nalanda: How It Changed The World.

 
The location was blessed by the great Gautama Buddha who visited Rajagriha, spent time at the Pandava Hills, begged for alms in its streets and meditated there. He also gave some of his most important sermons there. Naturally many disciples of the Buddha emanated from Rajagriha making the place known for its scholarly culture and giving Buddhism wings. And yet, Buddhism died a natural death in India over time, losing out to Brahminism. Curiously enough, other than history buffs, here’s a book every marketer must read; to understand the age old principle -‘differentiate or die!’


Here are our five Bookstrapping insights:


1. Nalanda was never a university built with a blue print. It was initially a stupa in honour of Sariputra, the scholar. Then it became a Vihara for Buddhist monks and finally it evolved into a University (Mahavihara) in the 5th century of the common era. Even after this, monasteries and temples and libraries kept getting added and Nalanda became the seat of great scholars across myriad disciplines. Wow!


2. Talking about his journey to write this book, “Writing Nalanda was like the flow of a river,” says author Abhay K. “When a river starts from the mountains, its currents carry immense force, and along the way the river gathers a lot of material and meanders here and there and then flows calmly before merging into the ocean.”


3. The idea of a ‘university' in the modern sense is recognized as having arrived in the European world via the Arabs; but where did the latter get it from? Archaeologists believe that the medieval Central Asian Islamic colleges called the Madrasas are nothing but an Islamicized form of central Asian Buddhist colleges called the Vihara. The square-rectangular courtyard structure of the Buddhist viharas is considered to have inspired the courtyard structure of colleges and universities across the world, including Oxford and Cambridge.


4. Aryabhatta was one of many greats who studied at Nalanda. This is the man who assigned a place to zero and calculated the exact length of the solar year, a thousand years before Copernicus and Galileo. The scholars at Nalanda also had a profound influence on China - with the celebrated Xuangxang and Yijing leaving written evidences of Nalanda’s glory. Author Abhay K remarks that other countries where translated Buddhist works from the Nalanda period are found are Bhutan, Nepal, Japan, Mongolia, Siberia, Kalmykia and Tibet.


5. The author offers a good range of explanations for Nalanda’s decline - foreign invasions, the resurgence of Brahminism and the decline of patronage to Buddhism.


Abhay K is a poet. His prose is disarmingly simple. And its simplicity is his gift to this present generation. But its Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s quote that delivers the final blow, “When the Brahminical faith inculcated universal love and and devotion to God, proclaiming Buddha to be an avatar of Vishnu, the death knell of Buddhism in India was sounded.”


Differentiate or die?

<a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-the-paradox-of-surging-authors-and-dwindling-readers-60851.htm">Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.</a>

Bookstrapping - Nalanda: How It Changed The World by Abhay K

The curious paradox of the author boom amidst declining readership raises several critical questions. While the ease of publishing has led to a proliferation of books, the attention economy remains fiercely competitive. Competing with countless digital distractions, traditional reading habits are getting reshaped. Over the last decade or so, the very definition of who is an 'author' is shifting shape. Oddly enough, this may be good news for book lovers. 


Here are our five Bookstrapping insights -


1. The ease of publishing and shifting publisher roles is here to stay. Self-publishing platforms, such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, and IngramSpark, have democratized the publishing process. The publisher as gatekeeper has switched to modern publishers as enablers, empowering individuals to share their stories. 


Anyone with a manuscript and internet access can become a published author. The desire to tell stories, share knowledge, and leave a lasting legacy remains a powerful motivator. Qualitative aspects remain a powerful albeit subjective tea-time conversation. BUT every author who pushes to be read, expands the conversation around books.


2. Books are not just a business by themselves; but also a means to build a business. Many books are written with a view to creating personal brands and conduits to business; these are marketed heavily in non-traditional modes as well. Other books are about organizations wanting to document their histories for posterity. The value of these books - to the stakeholders - is beyond the MRP of the book. These books become corporate giveaways and training tools. 


3. For many, writing a book is a personal accomplishment, regardless of commercial success. Self-publishing also provides an opportunity for self-indulgence; like getting your own portrait painted. However, there's more to this trend; as more and more niche audiences thrive online, creating dedicated communities around specific genres and topics, the era of the million-copy bestseller has made room for the small quaint book that touches your heart. Friends and family who would never have otherwise picked up a book; become readers. 


4. In contrast to the clutch of bestselling authors who are global names, there are several regional success stories. Digital marketing tools, including social media, email marketing, and online advertising, have provided authors with direct channels to reach their target audiences. Communities where reading is celebrated with an element of added motivation, become powerful enablers. 


5. Readers are book hopping too. The rise of audiobooks and e-books have provided alternative consumption methods, catering to evolving reader preferences. People are listening to books and switching between titles on Kindle; getting into specific chapters and out of them - rather than reading a book cover to cover. 

 
So how does one reach a consensus on a serious author and a valuable book? A few trends emerge; English-language books, particularly those from the US and UK, enjoy significant global popularity and are widely exported. There is also a balanced distribution of authors by gender; except in genres, like romance and young adult fiction, which tend to be dominated by female authors. 


Books in other languages, particularly those from culturally rich regions like Latin America and Europe, are gaining traction now through translation and increased international exposure. Every author is contributing to building a reading culture, even if it is to promote their own book.


Let the movement prevail! And lets allow democracy to shape this new future. Its infinitely better than a world without books!


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: The Paradox of surging authors and dwindling readers

The stock markets have been in the news for a massive correction. In the first two months of 2025, Indian stocks lost $520 billion; higher than GDPs of Pakistan and Bangladesh!

 
With the markets seemingly limping towards recovery, we review Trillions by journalist Robin Wigglesworth, a somewhat historical book about why the creation of index funds (now popular!) was not an overnight success. The book personifies the quote, "all progress depends on the unreasonable man,” attributed to George Bernard Shaw.


Wigglesworth’s book traces the development of the idea that hedge funds and investors can never do better than an index fund in the long run. It is just a question of minimizing costs. Warren Buffet famously bet on this and won!


Despite this, trying to beat markets is part of human nature. People want to do something active with their money instead of being passive. However, ‘passive investing’ has become the bedrock of finance today. Very few investors understand where and how this practice emerged- so anyone who wants to understand modern investing will do well to read this book.


The book features names that investors are not familiar with- for eg; Louis Bachelier, the French mathematician whose early-20th-century work on the random walk laid the groundwork for index fund and mathematician Jimmie Savage, who discovered the work of Bachelier. This led to a study of the random nature of stock prices.


Wigglesworth explains why the indexing revolution has saved investors, billions of dollars in fees and has shaken up the investment industry. It has also created a more democratized landscape - allowing small investors access to diversified portfolios previously available to institutional investors only.


He also raises provocative points about the pitfalls of indexing, most notably the inability of index funds to adapt to new economic or social conditions. The other aspect is the concentration of power in the hands of a few - thanks to the success of the index funds.


Summing up, the creation of index funds was an inconvenient truth. That’s why only a few smart, passionate outsiders who were looking for a way to apply the academic research they studied to real-world investing kept it alive. Isn’t this how all disruption happens?


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/why-ai-may-never-match-the-human-brain-59191.htm">Why AI may never match the human brain!</a>

Bookstrapping: Trillions by Robin Wigglesworth

We are in the middle of 'Brain Awareness week', a period from 10th to 16th March dedicated to increase public awareness about the brain and to celebrate the wonders of the mind and brain.


So, we look at one of the greatest books ever written, 'A brief history of intelligence' by Max Bennet. He talks about LUCA- the last universal common ancestor and how we evolved from a soup of molecules back then, to the present day. 


The book talks about five breakthroughs over time, that changed our brain forever. These are our #Bookstrapping insights. 


Breakthrough 1 - Learning was not the core function of the first ever brain that appeared roughly 600 mn years ago in a multicellular body. The brain was meant to help the body steer towards good and away from bad. This established the basis of movement and associative learning. 


Breakthrough 2 - This was the learning by doing phase in which we learnt through trial and error. Attributes like curiosity and pattern recognition appeared. The brain also grasped the concept of three dimensional space, enabling us to recognise where we were and remember the locations of things.


Breakthrough 3 - This is the phase where the brain learnt by imagining, thanks to the neocortex. Episodic memory emerged - which meant the ability to recall past events and use these to adjust behaviour. The motor cortex also evolved, allowing vertebrates to plan movement better. 


Breakthrough 4 - The social brain emerged. Now we were able to infer the intent and knowledge of others and acquire skills through observation. We also learnt to take an action now to satisfy a 'want' in the future!


Breakthrough 5 - Not only did we move from foraging fruit to eating meat, we also learnt to SPEAK! Thanks to the gift of language, ideas could now be perpetuated down generations! The brain became bigger and cooking emerged to give the brain the energy to grow larger! 


We have now taken these breakthroughs further by reading and writing, resulting in unprecedented progress! Our brains are so evolved now that we may create our own likeness! But this is easier said than done, considering that the present brain has been billions of years in the making! Can AI have its big moment without appreciating the last billion years of achingly slow progress?


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Why AI may never match the human brain!

Women's voices in literature have not only created new categories, but also maintained a balanced narrative of the world we live in. On the one hand, translations from global languages to English are commanding their place in the sun.


In this category, several authors have done this convincingly. Let's mention the artistic Koreans! There's the famous Han Kang who wrote the sensitive ' Vegetarian' and the evocative Kim Ji Yoon who wrote the empathetic, humane 'Yeonnam-dong's Smiley Laundromat.'


The Italian writer of historical fiction - the elusive Elena Ferrante- Time magazines' pick of 100 influencers of 2016 is an important contributor to this genre. Ferrante is believed to be a pseudonym for Rome based Anita Raja and her four-book series called the Neapolitan Quartet has warmed hearts all over the world.


Closer home, India's Gitanjali Shree blazed a new trail with her Booker prize winning 'Tomb of Sand' originally written in Hindi. Much before her was Indira Goswami, one of the pre-eminent contemporary Assamese writers. Her eminently famous and thought provoking 'The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker' remains a placeholder for an entire generations' attitudes and limitations.


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-a-tribute-to-a-nobel-laureate-31935.htm">Bookstrapping: A tribute to a Nobel Laureate</a> 


Another school of contemporary women's literature is a STEM- based backdrop . For eg. author Ali Hazelwood, who has a PhD in neuroscience! Her latest book 'Deep End' features ' power exchanges' between its ambitious, romantic protagonists and is set in Stanford University.


There's also the idealistic fervour of Alexene Farol Follmouth- also known as Olivie Blake, who believes that fiction must have a purpose. M 'To allow yourself to be known is to allow yourself to be wounded," she writes in 'Januaries', a book which features 14 short fantasy based stories. One is about a magical bridge that appears every now and then and has its own caretaker who grants wishes. There is also a deliberation about marriage, which the author defines as 'taking a residency in an unfinished house with a very, very long hallway, such that you cannot see the end from where you stand, and you are only allowed to progress through one room at a time.'


Write to us about more thought-provoking women's voices in contemporary literature on reeta@reetaramamurthygupta.in


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ A reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta

Bookstrapping: Damsels, distress and literary prowess

Over 60 literary festivals are organized across the country. None of them focus on celebrating India’s military history. And India ought to have more war stories than most countries, given how conflicts have shaped the nation's history.

 
Cmde Srikant B. Kesnur felt a compelling need to fill this gap! “We felt the need for a dedicated literature festival on Geopolitics, Military and Social Sciences,” he says.

 
The first such LitFest is being organized at the historic National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai and is being called the Max City VoW LitFest. Historian and army veteran Probal Dasgupta, who has helped curate the fest says, “Between 1914 and 1918, close to 1.5 million Indian soldiers participated in World War I but 74,000 of them did not come back—these are official figures. But we haven’t told their stories. In 1915, Indian soldiers registered the only Allied victory in the Gallipoli campaign. The irony is that Sikh, Punjabi and Gurkha troops who recorded the victory are forgotten. We don’t even have official histories of the 1962 (India-China) and 1971 (India-Pakistan) wars!

 
Author Sanjeev Sanyal of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council talks about a different kind of gap; the language gap. He says, “Indian literature is going through a big renaissance over the last ten years. Different kinds of topics ranging from history to geo-politics and fiction have proliferated. There is clearly a big pool of excellent writers in India now although a lot of the serious writing in non-fiction is concentrated in English. We need this to spread to Indian languages where modern non-fiction is still dependent on translations.”

 
The challenge with writing history is of course, that no two historians are likely to agree with each other. “Any television debate shows that we do not agree on what happened yesterday, so why do we expect historians to agree with happened 2000 years ago? What matters is that the different narratives are based on available evidence,” Sanyal adds.

 
This LitFest provides a platform away from Delhi for discussion on politics, policy, wars, geography and history. It also seeks to uncover India’s position in the world through the medium of literature. Mumbai-based author Vaibhav Purandare weighs in, “I see more writing emerging at the intersection of India and the world. My book ‘Hitler and India’ describes in detail Hitler’s hatred and contempt for India – a truth which has been kept from public view for decades. So much history is yet to be properly recorded and so much sense is yet to be made of India’s relation to the world - past and present.”


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-of-sita-rama-dharma-and-love-56859.htm">Bookstrapping: Of Sita, Rama, Dharma and Love</a> 

 
The festival will also see former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s book, How India Scaled Mount G20, Air Vice Marshall Arjun Subramaniam’s Shooting Straight, Lt Gen Y.K. Joshi’s Who Dares Wins (a Vir Chakra awardee for his role in the Kargil War), and K.V. Ramesh’s Lights, Camera, War, being launched. 

 
Speaking about the need to mainstream ‘military’ literature, Probal Dasgupta adds, “The lens we use to view war stories needs to undergo change. Currently, they are viewed in isolation. Must we categorize these narratives of war, as separate from other stories about our society? After all, these stories are observations on societies in conflict, much like accounts of Hemingway, Sassoon and Wilfred Owen's works did for the west in the 20th century.”

 
An exciting weekend for Mumbai as 50 authors, 18 sessions and two iconic venues Kitabkhana and NGMA come together to celebrate this uniquely themed festival on 1st and 2nd of March. As a nation state, we are yet to take the reins, when it comes to storytelling about our own history. An opportunity for all passionate writers and historians, no less.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Have Indian writers overlooked the country’s military past?

Indian student politics is not very well covered in literature. This is strange, given that from Narendra Modi to Arun Jaitley to Lalu Prasad Yadav, here have been many student leaders to political stories in India. Easily the most referenced book in this genre, is titled ‘Students and Politics in India’ by Anil Baran Ray. 


Written in 1978, the book is a case study of student activism in one Indian university, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The book extrapolates what happened in BHU during the 1950s and the 1960s and draws some conclusions relating to the rest of India on student political activism.

 
There are also a few academic books, covering student politics in Orissa (by Subash Chandra Hazary in 1987, covering student leadership at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack) and one on Assam written by Jagannath Upadhyaya in 2017, about the All Assam Nepali Students' Union).

 
The other missing link in Indian origin literature seem to be comprehensive biographies about our female chief ministers. And there have been 18 such leaders so far, Sucheta Kripalani being the first. A few of them have been authors themselves. Here are our five Bookstrapping insights on this theme.


1. The most ‘literary’ CM was undoubtedly Jayalalitha. She wrote a novel, Nenjile Oru Kanal (A fire in my heart), which she said was partly autobiographical. There are several biographies about her too- ‘Jayalalithaa: A Journey’ by Papri Sen Sri Raman and Renu Kaul Verma, ‘The Lone Empress: A Portrait of Jayalalithaa’ and ‘Amma: Jayalalithaa’s Journey from Movie Star to Political Queen’ by Vaasanthi. There are many more books in Tamil. She was also an avid reader and confessed to having read books on history, (the series on the Tudor dynasty written by Jean Plaidy), Kahlil Gibran and Hegel, as well as Rajaji’s translation of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.


2. Number two on the list would be Nandini Satpathy, the erstwhile CM of Odisha who was a well known writer of fiction. She wrote one anthology ‘One Step Towards the Sun; Short Stories by Women from Orissa’ and another book ‘Uttar Purusha’. Her biography, Nandini Satpathy: The Iron Lady of Orissa was authored by Pallavi Rebbapragada.


3. Mamata Banerjee has written ‘My Unforgettable Memories’ which serves as a memoir of sorts and also, a book of her poems. There’s a biography about her by Monobina Gupta titled ‘Didi - A Political Biography.’


4. Sheila Dikshit has authored two books, one a coffee table book Dilli Meri Dilli (Before and After 1998) and an autobiography Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life.


5. A handful of chief ministers have a lone literary signature. Sushma Swaraj has a book ‘The People’s Minister’ written by Sushmita Datta and Gujarat’s Anandiben Patel has a book ‘Dare, Dream, Do: The Extraordinary Life Of Anandiben Patel’ co-authored with Anurag Garg. Sucheta Kripalani has one biography titled ‘A Trailblazer of Change’ by A.K. Gandhi. Mayawati too has one biography titled 'Behenji’ by Ajoy Bose. There are a few small titles in Hindi too.


The remaining women chief ministers, V. N. Janaki , Shashikala Kakodkar, Syeda Anwara Taimur, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Rabri Devi (there’s one book that calls her Lalu’s Masterstroke), Uma Bharti, Vasundhara Raje, Atishi Marlena and Mehbooba Mufti don’t seem to have any books written by them or about them. Adding Rekha Gupta now to the list.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

CM Rekha Gupta may inspire books on student politics, women CMs

Rama and Sita may not be the couple that comes to mind on the weekend post Valentine’s day. But the fact remains that theirs is possibly the greatest love story India has every known. There’s a lot of mytho-fictional work around their love story. Different perspectives, all of whom seem to agree on one thing - their devotion towards each other. Arguably, it was Ashok Banker’s “Ramayana Series", an eight-volume effort, which propelled the genesis of this burgeoning mythology genre. 

 
This week, on Bookstrapping, we take a look at five books that highlight the love of the characters in the Ramayana.

 
1. What if ‘Dharma’, was not just duty, but an alignment with the higher forces of love, that make the preservation of our world possible? Author Dena Merriam talks about this, in her book 'The Untold Story of Sita: An Empowering Tale for our Time'. She tears away the patriarchal lens through which the story is traditionally viewed. In this book, told by the people of Sita’s household, the role of the sacred feminine is front and centre of the narrative. Sita’s life and message are particularly relevant for the modern age when a new understanding of feminine wisdom and leadership is needed.


2. Arshia Sattar’s book ‘Lost Loves’, makes you meet the human side of Ram in eight essays. The book fuses the King and the man; how does Ram express his anguish after losing his beloved? She says, “A God who can forget his divinity in order to show us the enormously tragic consequences of our frailties is surely far more compelling than one who remains unreachable in his distant righteousness and perfection. It is precisely in his failure that we learn, it is in his crushing personal defeats that we understand the meaning of our lives. If we see Rama as one of us, the Ramayana becomes more poignantly a story that explores the human condition rather than one that stridently declares the unimpeachable nature of divinity.” Touche!


Read More: <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/brand-makers/bookstrapping-enlightenment-in-conversation-with-sadhguru-56052.htm">Bookstrapping - Enlightenment: In conversation with Sadhguru</a> 


3. Dr. Charu Walikhanna, a Supreme Court lawyer and a former member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) writes a book on how Sita often flouted the conventions and norms of her time. Titled ‘Sita Returns’, she pitches Sita as a woman who stood up to Ravan, and raised two children as a single mother. She talks about how Sita may have undergone two trials by fire, but the ordinary Indian woman faces trials every day! Lessons for our times perhaps?


4. Another hidden gem is Sita’s Ascent by Vayu Naidu, in which the love story of Sita and Rama is constructed through a string of remembrances. Indeed when Sita comes to know about Rama’s order banishing her to Valmiki’s Ashram, she is devastated! She gets abandoned in the ashram by Lakshmana under instructions from Rama. She accepts her fate and begins to live in the forest where she has two sons, Lava and Kusa. Although she had “reached a point past caring for social opinion,” she remains devoted to Rama. Vayu Naidu is a PhD scholar in Epic and Oral traditions of Ramayana and Mahabharata no less!


5. Our last pick is Kavita Kane’s book ‘Sita’s Sister.’ Remember Urmila, the wife of Lakshmana? This book traces the love between Urmila and Lakshmana - the much ignored love story in the Ramayana. The book suggests that Urmila, who refused to go on the 14 year old exile, has her own travails. How does she survive with her husband gone for 14 years? What sacrifices does she make for her love so that Lakshmana could focus on protecting his brother and sister in law, even as he gets fatally injured during the war against Ravan?


Which is your favorite love story based on the Ramayana? Share it with us.


Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

Bookstrapping: Of Sita, Rama, Dharma and Love

On the 3rd anniversary of our column ‘Bookstrapping’, we bring you an insightful conversation with the yogi, mystic and visionary Sadhguru. His most recent book ‘Enlightenment’ is written in a style that's both fluid and undecorated; he writes to be understood.

 
At a time when reading is arguably challenged by our attention spans, Sadhguru shows us that it is possible to write a bestseller in service of the reader. In trademark anecdotal style, he explains that ‘enlightenment’ is not a quest, but a homecoming. Its the process of coming back to your original nature. Dive right in.

 
In your book ‘Enlightenment,’ you speak about the 'calamity of the non-committed way of existing.' These are powerful words and paint a picture of a very shallow existence. How do we overcome this?


Sadhguru: Whether it is sport, art, music, dance or work, no one can ever hope to produce anything of any consequence without being absolutely devoted to what they are doing. Devotion is not about god or prayer or going to the temple. Devotion is about focusing everything you have in one direction. If you are scattered all over the place, you will only do mediocre things. Only if everything that you have is organized and thrown in one direction, it will become a fireball of success that will travel far. Devotion is about organizing yourself in such a way, your body, brain, emotion, energy and whatever the hell you may have, everything gets organized in one direction, so that you penetrate the morass of life to get somewhere.

 
There are many examples but let me take the example of Sachin Tendulkar, our Bharat Ratna. He is so devoted to hitting a ball, and he hits it like no one else can. This is devotion. His entire life is invested in one simple act, hitting a ball, and because of enormous devotion, tremendous things happen.

 
2. Are our young in fervent denial about the loss of skills due to lack of deep committed work? For eg; reading?

 
Sadhguru: You must ask yourself a simple question: is your life precious to you? If it is, then what are you going to invest this precious life in? This is something that must concern you. You must not do something because someone else is doing it. You must see what is it that really matters to you and do that. What other people say does not matter. Whatever you do, you must do it well, and you should not do anything that you will be ashamed of tomorrow.

 
3. Reading the book suggests that we misunderstand what enlightenment is all about. Are there many such misconceptions?

 
Sadhguru: There are many misconceptions about what Yoga is. In most people’s minds, Yoga means some physically impossible postures. But asanas are just one aspect of Yoga. Yoga does not mean twisting your body, holding your breath or standing on your head. Yoga is not an exercise form, it is a whole technology as to how to elevate yourself to the highest point that a human being can be.

 
4. ‘We all seek what we don't have’, you have said in the book. Are we more obsessed with personality than ‘presence?'

 
Sadhguru: Your psychological manifestations, behaviour and emotions are just manifestations of your personality. What you call as personality is an accumulated quality, a collage of many things that might or might not have happened to you. A personality is for social reasons – it has no meaning to your life. You need a personality to interact with the world. You should never have a personality when you are alone.

 
Presence is the quality of life. Presence means that as you enhance the process of life within yourself, your presence becomes more powerful and wonderful. One of the biggest limitations for this to happen is that you have invested too much in your personality. As you invest more, it becomes more rigid.

 
The less rigid your personality, the more powerful your presence is. Yoga as a process, method, technology and science is essentially to break the limitations of a certain concretization called personality and to evolve from being a person to a presence. If you are a person, that means you have made a shell out of yourself within which you operate. If you break the shell, you will no longer be a person but simply a presence – as life is.

 
5. You also add that any kind of 'lack' comes from 'what we are unconscious about.' How do we overcome lack and become powerful?

 
Sadhguru: Life is a powerful process. If you want to fulfill that, you have to be a powerful human being. This is the essence of the spiritual process, that if you dissolve your personality, your life presence becomes very powerful.

 
When you have a powerful presence that is beyond your personality, this presence can leave imprints which are forever. This is the power of the spiritual beings of the past. Though they have been gone thousands of years, their work still continues because if you use the power of your muscle, your work has a certain lifespan. If you use the power of your mind, your work has a much larger lifespan. But if you use the power of your innermost core, your work is eternal.

 
6. The idea that the earthworm the tree, every being is selfish seems very probable.

 
Sadhguru: Every life – whether it is a worm, insect, bird, animal or tree – is striving to become a full-fledged life. This is all the aspiration of every life. Every moment of their life, they are full-on, wanting to become full.

 
That longing is there in us also, but we have a little problem. Because for every other life, nature has put two lines, so we know what is the top line. But with a human being, there is a bottom line but no top line, that means it is an endless possibility. You cannot define what a full-fledged human being is.

 
7. So is selflessness also a myth?

 
Sadhguru: About being selfish and selfless, for ages, people have been deceiving themselves saying that they are selfless. When your existence here and your perception of the people and the world around you is rooted in yourself, how can you be selfless? No one can be selfless. And if you try, you will only pretend to be selfless.

 
Only because there is self, you can see, hear, speak and everything. There is no life without self. The question is only whether your selfishness is concerned only about you or your family or your community or nation or the world or the entire universe or all life. So the simplest way is to be selfish in such a way that your selfishness includes the whole existence. Don’t be stingy with your selfishness. At least with selfishness, be generous. Use it to the fullest and include the whole existence as a part of yourself; it will liberate you. If you become totally selfish, you are free.

 
8. You speak about Swami Vivekananda’s work in your book. He was making the West understand us better. Today, the West not only understands us, but also admires us. Perhaps the landscape has shifted. In this context, what kind of books are relevant today?

 
Sadhguru: I never really read any books that are generally considered spiritual. Dennis the Menace, Asterix, these are the kinds of books that I read growing up.

I am not saying this with any disrespect towards Vivekananda. I have great regard for him, because he went to the West and brought the awareness of another dimension of knowledge that is present in the East. You have to appreciate his zest and his fire. But whatever books you read, with all due respect to all of them, they are written by human beings. A book can inspire you to seek. As an inspiration it may work well, but a book cannot reveal anything to you.

If you read this book that is the life that you are, this is a microscopic version of the whole cosmos in a certain way. So by inference, you will know everything that is worth knowing.

 
9. So enlightenment would be…

 
If you want to know what this life is about, you have to look inward, because the life that you are, is a book written by the Creator. I want you to learn the language of reading this book, so that you don't have to depend on anyone else's words, whether it is someone from the ancient past or myself here now.
 
 
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

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