Desperately Seeking Shahrukh by Sharanya Bhattacharya - An Awakening Call For All Those Affected by Patriachy.

There is a saying, "Never judge a book by its cover ". Reading "Desperately Seeking Shahrukh" by Sharanya Bhattacharya ", made me believe that one should not judge a book by its title too. When I learned about this book, I dismissed it as a fangirl book chronicling the urges and desperation of a few upper-middle-class women for SRK. I decided to read the book when I listened to the author at Bangalore Literature Festival.

Having said that, this book is about women who are hoping to see traces of SRK in their male partners. To all of the women featured in the book, including the author, SRK is the complete man. They have developed these expectations based on Mr Shahrukh Khan's movies, interviews, and how he conducts public with his wife.

These expectations alone are not the premise of the book. It is the story of the women featured in this book, who must overcome a slew of dogma, obstacles, and misplaced expectations to emerge victors. Victory doesn't mean translating into millions of income, but in some cases maintaining sanity and status quo. Quoting the author, "This book was written as a love letter to women who walk away from conventional scripts of good "

The book is the story of the fear, resilience, servility, ingenuity, and success of women who are also SRK's fans. The book weaves in, amidst all these stories, hard statistics about the state of women in India today. It's this ability of the author that makes this book a benchmark in nonfiction writing. I personally liked the story of Zahira. She doesn't create a unicorn, but she does win a million battles and the reader's heart with her journey in life. She finds self-respect and esteem in life.

This book is a must-read for men to understand what a woman goes through in her daily life, relationships, and the gaslighting she's subject to (e.g. A Girl Called Gold). But this book is a lot more. I was too excited reading this book. I wish it had been written three decades ago. It would have helped me become a more compassionate and secure man.

Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth by Dan McCrum

The famous saying goes, `You can fool all people sometime... but not all people all time''. Bigots and Despots of the 21st Century have learned to work around it. They now concentrate on increasing the sub-set of `some people all time'' to increase their leash on democracies. Frauds or societal wrongs in democracies are not facilitated by the co-conspirators but by men and women in the system who have a conscience and don'tdon't speak up. Even if these whistleblowers come out with the details, they require bold and honest journalists to highlight the wrongdoings raised.

Wire Card was this big German fintech company. It was supposed to be the Pay Pal of Europe. However, under the skin, it was a company manipulating balance sheets, indulging in money laundering, facilitating online gambling, and paying drug dealers. This Company, at its peak, was valued at US$ 28 billion and a little more. Finally, a dozen whistleblowers and a bold journalist Dan McCrum from Financial Times busted the bubble, or else it would have gone on for a longer time.

When Dan McCrum began his investigations into the Company based on an alert from a whistleblower, he was accused of being in league with short sellers to facilitate stock price manipulation. He was spied upon, legal proceedings started against him, and he was generally accused of trying to sabotage Germany's / Europe's fintech giant. As a result, Dan McCrum's systems and investigation teams were regularly subject to hacking and phishing emails.

The auditors Ernst and Young'' who had looked after WireCard accounts for nearly 10 years, surprisingly did not find anything amiss in this Company, leave alone scandalous. The German authorities, surprisingly, could not guess what the Company was up to.

Dan McCrum did not crack the story over a few assumptions. Instead, he investigated the wrongdoing for six years, collected evidence painstakingly and reported them with a lot of responsibility. During this time, his integrity was questioned, his personal safety was threatened, and he feared for his family's safety.

The evil face of Wire Card was Jan Marselek, who was in cahoots with two countries' intelligence agencies. He was the COO of Wire Card. He played by every dirty trick that could be conceived. Finally, wire Card gets exposed by one of its tall claims, which is how the cookie crumbled. Read the book to find out what it is all about !!! After having done all the Monstrosities stuff, he just vanished into thin air when the scandal was about to explode. He is suspected of being in hiding under an assumed identity in Russia. To top it all, he was a high school dropout!

Dan'sDan's book is compelling, though it involves excessive detailing of his life during the investigation. If you can endure that, this book is a thrilling read. Kudos to Dan for having pioneered such an investigation and documenting his experience. I heard the book on Audible. It has been narrated by the author himself, and the emotions he felt at various point of the investigation is apparent in the audible version.

One wishes that many journalists worldwide do such investigations and tear the mask off the noble and victorious faces of many dubious billionaires, bigots, oligarchs, and despots.

You can also see the documentary ""Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard"" if visual medium impresses you. However, you must know the issue to think critically about that narcissistic public figure or the shady businessman growing exponentially in everything he or she does. That may save your society.

Waiting For A Visa by Dr BR Ambedkar

 Waiting for Visa by Dr. BR Ambedkar was his eye opener to the world

 

on how casteism operates in India. The book is less than 30 pages. It is divided into a summary of six incidents that enlighten the reader on the scourge of casteism in India. Four incidents are from his own life, and two happened during his lifetime. The book documents an essential fact that caste is Pan Religion in India, though nowadays, expatriates are reported to have made it pan-global 

 It is a must-read for all Dalits to understand the struggles of Dr. BR Ambedkar. For those who question reservation, this book is a mandatory read to know how deeply entrenched caste is in our daily life  and why reservation is required