කළමනාකරණයට මනුස්සකම – කාර්මික ඉංජිනේරු ලෝකයේ ජිනසේන ලකුණ – ආචාර්ය තිස්ස ජිනසේන

ආචාර්ය තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා විසින් සම්පාදනය කළ “කළමනාකරණයට මනුස්සකම” පොත එක දිගටම කියවා නිම කළෙමි. තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතාගේ සීයා වන සී. ජිනසේන විසින් 1905 දී බයිසිකල් නඩත්තු කරන කුඩා වැඩපොළක් ලෙස ඇරඹු කුඩා ව්‍යාපාරය ඉංජිනේරු තාක්ෂණ ලෝකයට දේශීය දොරක් විවර කර දුන් ආකාරය පොතෙන් විස්තර කෙරේ. සී. ජිනසේන මහතාගේ පුතුණුවන් වන ටී. එස්. ජිනසේන මහතා විසින් වඩාත් පුළුල් කළ ජිනසේන සමූහ ව්‍යාපාරය ඔහුගේ පුතුන් හතර දෙනා වන තෙවැනි පරපුර විසින් තව දුරටත් ව්‍යාප්ත කළ ආකාරය අපූරුය. බොහෝ පවුලේ ව්‍යාපාර නාස්තිකාර තුන්වන පරපුරෙන් එහාට නොයතත් ජිනසේන සමූහය ඊට වෙනස්ය. දිනෙන් දින දියුණුවට පත්වේ. ඊට හේතුව ඊට අනුබද්ධිත ආයතන වල ඇති නිවැරදි කළමනාකරණ විධියි.

තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා ගල්කිස්ස ශාන්ත තෝමස් විද්‍යාලයෙන් පාසල් අධ්‍යාපනය නිමවා එංගලන්තයේ Loughborough විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයෙන් නිෂ්පාදන ඉංජිනේරු තාක්ෂණය සහ කළමනාකරණය පිළිබඳ මූලික උපාධියත්, 1972 වසරේ දී එංගලන්තයේම Reading විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයෙන් කෘෂිකාර්මික ඉංජිනේරු තාක්ෂණය පිළිබඳ පශ්චාත් උපාධියත් ලබා ඉංජිනේරු තාක්ෂණය පිළිබඳ පුළුල් අවබෝධයක් ලබාගත්තේය.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට පැමිණි පසු තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා 1973 දී පර්යේෂණ හා සංවර්ධන අංශයේ අධ්‍යක්ෂවරයා වශයෙන් ජිනසේන සමූහ ව්‍යාපාරයට වම්බන්ධ විණි. ඔහු ඒ වනවිටත් ජනප්‍රියව පැවති ජිනසේන නිෂ්පාදනයක් වන සෙන්ට්‍රික් වතුර පොම්පය නව තාක්ෂණය අනුව වැඩි දියුණු කළේය. ඊට අමතරව ලංකාවේ ප්‍රථම කොළ මඩින යන්ත්‍රය වූ ඇග්‍රිමෙක් යන්ත්‍රයද, ගොයම් කපන යන්ත්‍රයක්ද, ලංකාවේ කෘෂිකර්මාන්තයට ගැලපෙන විදියේ රෝද දෙකේ අත් ට්‍රැක්ටර් කිහිපයක්ද නිර්මාණය කළේය.

කළමනාකරණයට මනුස්සකම පොතෙන් බොහෝ දුරට ආවරණය වන්නේ බෙල්ජියානු සමාගමක් (සොලිඩීල් – Solideal) සමග ඒකාබද්ධව ආරම්භ කළ ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් (Loadstar) සොලිඩ් ටයර් සමාගම, එහි ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය සහ කදිම කළමණාකරණයයි.

ආචාර්ය තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් ආයතනය ආරම්භ කළේ 1984 වසරේදීය. පළමු ටයර් බහාලුම නැව්ගත කොට විදේශ රටකට යැවීමට මාස තුනක් පමණ ගත වුවත් අද වන විට මසකට බහාලුම් 800ක් අපනයනය කිරීමට ආයතනය සමත් වී ඇත. ඊට අමතරව 2006, 2007 වසරවලදී නොකඩවා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ තනි විශාලතම අපනයන කරුවා වශයෙන් ආයතනය සම්මාන ලැබීය.ලෝක ඝන ටයර් නිෂ්පාදනයෙන් 25%කට වැඩි කොටසක් නිපදවන ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් ආයතනය ඝන ටයර් නිෂ්පාදන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ලෝකයේ ප්‍රමුඛයා බවට පත්වී ඇත. රබර් ට්‍රැක් නිෂ්පාදනයෙන් ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් ලෝකයේ දෙවනියායි. තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතාට මේ හපන්කම කිරීමට සහය වූ අනෙක් සහායකයා වූයේ සොලිඩීල් ආයතනයේ කළමනාකාර අධ්‍යක්ෂ බෙල්ජියම් ජාතික පියරේ ප්‍රින්ජියස් මහතාය. රටවල් දෙකක සංස්කෘති දෙකක හැදී වැඩුනත් මේ දෙදෙනාගේ සුසංයෝගය ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් ආයතනය අද තිබෙන තත්වයට ගෙන ඒමට ප්‍රබලම සාධකය විණි.

ජිනසේන මහතා තම සේවක මඬුල්ල ගැන තද ධනාත්මක ආකල්පයකින් සිටී. සේවකයන් දෙස නිතරම සැකෙන් බලනු වෙනුවට ඔවුන් දෙස සානුකම්පිත ලෙස බලයි. නිතරම ඔවුන් අගය කරයි. දිරිමත් කරයි. වෘත්තීය වශයෙන් ඉදිරියට යාමට උදව් කරයි. එයින් නොනැවතී පෞද්ගලික ජීවිතයේ පත්වන අසීරුතා වලදී පවා මැදිහත් වී උදව් කරයි. ඒ නිසා ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර්හි වෘත්තීය සමිති, වැඩ වර්ජන නොමැත. සියල්ල විසඳෙන්නේ සුහද සාකච්ඡා මාර්ගයෙනි.

වැඩබිමේ අසීරු වැඩවලදී තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතාද අනෙකුත් සේවකයන් මෙන් හරි හරියට වැඩ කරයි. තමන්ට කළ නොහැකි දෙයක් ඔහු සේවකයන්ගෙන් බලාපොත්තු නොවෙයි. ටයි කෝට් දාගෙන සීතල කාමරයක රැඳෙනවා වෙනුවට සාමාන්‍ය ඇඳුමින් සැරසී මජං, ග්‍රීස්, තෙල් වලින් නැහැවී, සේවකයන් හා හරිහරියට වැඩකිරීම ඔහුට ආස්වාදයකි. මෙවැනි නායකයෙක් සිටින කළ එම ආයතනය දියුණුවෙන් දියුණුවට පත්වීම පුදුමයකට කාරණයක් නොවේ.

ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් හි අද වනවිට 8000කට ආසන්න පිරිසක් සේවය කරති. ඔවුන්ව නවීන පුහුණු ක්‍රම, විදේශ පුහුණු සංචාර, නවීන LPS සහ SAP වැනි ක්‍රමවේද මෙන්ම යහපත් ආකල්ප සහ ගුණ වගාවෙන්ද සන්නද්ධ කොට ඇත.

මීට අමතරව ආයතනය මගින් වායව ටයර් (Air Tyre) සහ රීම් නිෂ්පාදනයද ආරම්හ කෙරිණි. එමගින්ද ලෝකයේ පෙරටම යාමට ආයතනයට හැකි විය.

2008, 2009 ලෝක ආර්ථික අවපාතය හමුවේද ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් නොසැලුනි. කළමනාකරණයේ යහපත්කම සහ සේවක පිරිසගේ නොමඳ කැපවීම නිසා ඒ අසීරු කාල වලදීත් යහපත් නිෂ්පාදනයක් සහ අලෙවියක් පවත්වා ගැනීමට ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් සමත්විණි.

ඒ වනවිට ලෝක ට්‍රැක් නිෂ්පාදනයේ ප්‍රමුඛතම ස්ථානයේ සිටි කැමොප්ලාස්ට් (Camoplast) ආයතනය හා එක්වී ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර්, සොලිඩීල්, කැමොප්ලාස්ට් ආයතන තුනම එක්වී කැමොප්ලාස්ට් සොලිඩීල් නමින් වඩාත් ශක්තිමත් ආයතනයක් බිහිවිණි.

මේ වනවිට තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා ආයතනයේ විධායක මට්ටමේ සේවයට සමුදී ඇතත් තවමත් ඔහුගේ මග පෙන්වීම ආයතනයට අවශ්‍ය වූ විට ලැබේ. ජිනසේන මහතා මේ වනවිට බොහෝවිට පුණ්‍ය ආයතන වලට උදව් කිරීමෙන් සහ අධ්‍යාත්මික සුවය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමට කැප වී සිටී.

තිස්ස ජිනසේන මහතා රටේ ආර්ථිකයට සහ අනෙකුත් ආයතනවල දියුණුවට කළ කැපවීම නිසාම රුහුණු විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය විසින් ඔහුට ආචාර්ය උපාධියක්ද පිරිනමන ලදී.

මෙම ග්‍රන්ථය ඔබ අතට පත් කිරීමට නිබඳවම කැපවුණ ලෝඩ්ස්ටාර් සමූහයේ පුහුණු කරුවකු ලෙස සේවය කරන කේ. එච්. ජනත් නන්දසිරි මහතාව සිහිකරන්නේ ගෞරවයෙනි.

Maharaja – Diwan Jarmani Dass

Maharaja – Diwan Jarmani Dass

The Book “Maharaja” was written by Diwan Jarmani Dass. He was born in Punjab in 1895, was a minister in the Indian princely states of Kapurthala and Patiala. He was well-verse in Punjabi, Urdu, English and French. He was highly decorated by the Vatican and the Governments of France, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and many other countries. He was also decorated by the Rulers of Kapurthala, Patiala and Bhawalpur States.

The book reveals amazing lifestyles of Maharajas and the royal families, their sex lives, lavish and extravagant spending on their comforts, etc. Though the majority of Maharajas were selfish and extravagant there had been some generous Maharajas as well. Some Maharajas were educated and intelligent while majority of them were just prodigals. All Maharajas had harems and huge palaces. Most of them were into expensive liquor. Though rare, some Maharajas had been very duty conscious and executed the state’s duties towards the subjects in a fair and just manner.

Most of the Maharajas were highly interested in game hunting. They treat it as a way of showing chivalry. They did it in a highly organized manner.

Politics of Maharajas were dirty most of the time. Cheating and betrayal are part and parcel of their politics.

Diwan Jarmani Dass has been fiercely open and independent in revealing the secrets of Maharajas of yesteryear and we should be thankful to him for writing this exclusive book about Maharajas.

දිගාමඬුලු ගුරු ගීතය – ගුණශීල අඹවත්ත | Digamandulu Guru Geethaya – Gunasheela Ambawaththa

දිගාමඬුලු ගුරු ගීතය

මම ගුණශීල අඹවත්තගේ “දිගාමඬුලු ගුරු ගීතය” කියෙව්වේ එක් දිනකින්. එය ඒ තරම්ම රසවත් වගේම ආදර්ශමත් කතාවක්. මමත් රජයේ ගුරුවරයෙක් වශයෙන් දුෂ්කර පළාතක (මහවිලච්චිය) සේවය කර ඇති නිසා මේ පොතේ අඩංගු තේමාව මටත් සමීපයි. ගුරුවරයෙක් යනු මොන තරම් කැපවීමක් කළ හැකි, කළ යුතු පුද්ගලයෙක්ද කියලා මේ පොත අපට පැහැදිලි කරනවා.

දිගාමඬුලු ගුරු ගීතය නවකතාවකට වඩා ස්වයං චරිතාපදානයක්. මෙහි සාහිත්‍යමය භාෂා ව්‍යවහාරයකට වඩා තියෙන්නේ වාර්තා ස්වභාවයක්. එත් එකෙන් කියවන්නාට පහසුවක් මිස හානියක් සිදුවී නැහැ. අනිත් එක සිද්ධීන් අතිශයෝක්තියට නගා ඇති බවක්ද පෙනෙන්නේ නැහැ. පොතේ එන චරිත වල ඡායාරුප පමණක් නොව දුරකථන අංක පවා ඇතුළත් කිරීමෙන් හැඟෙන්නේ පොතේ එන කරුණු ගැන සැකයක් ඇත්නම් අදාළ පුද්ගලයින්ට කතා කර සත්‍ය දැන ගන්න පාඨකයාට හැකි බවයි.

අඹවත්ත  මහතා විසි හැවිරිදි වියේදීම තමන්ගේම මහන්සියෙන් ප්‍රදේශවාසීන්ගේ සහයද ඇතිව පාසලක් නිර්මාණය කරනවා. මේක අද කාලේ නම් හිතන්නටවත් බැරි වැඩක්. එහෙත් තරුණ අඹවත්ත එ වැඩේට බහින්නේ රජයේ ගුරුවරයෙක් වීමට එය සුදුසුකමක් වෙන නිසා වගේම එයින් දුෂ්කර ගමක දරු දැරියන්ට සේවයක්ද ලැබෙන නිසයි. අවුරුදු තුනක් තුළ අංග සංපූර්ණ පාසලක් නිමවා නිර්ලෝභීව එය අලුතින් එන විදුහල්පතිතුමාට බාරදී උප ගුරුවරයෙක් වශයෙන් එම පාසලේම සේවය කරනවා.

ඉන් පසුව දිගාමඬුල්ලේ නාමල් තලාව පාසලට පැමිණෙන අඹවත්ත මහතා ටකරං මඩුවක තිබුණ ඒ පාසල ගල්ඔය සවර්ධන මණ්ඩලයේ නිලධාරීන්ගේ උදව්වෙන් දියුණු කරනවා. පසුව ඔහුට පුළුවන් වෙනවා ඒ පාසලත් වෙන තැනකට ගෙනගොස් අංග සම්පුර්ණ පාසලක් කරන්න. ඔහු ගුරු විද්‍යාල පුහුණුවට යන්නේ පාසල පළාතේම විශිෂ්ටතම පාසල කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව.

මෙවන් විස්කම් කරනකොට අඹවත්ත  මහතාට එන අභියෝග එමටයි. ඒවා ගැන මම කිව්වොත් ඔබට පොත කියවන්න තියෙන කුතුහලය නැතිවෙයි. මටත් පොත හමුවුණේ හිතවත් ගුරුවරයෙක්ගෙන්. ඔහුගේ පාසලේ සියලුම ගුරුවරුන්ට පසුගිය ගුරු දිනයදා ළමුන් විසින් මේ පොත බැගින් තෑගි දීල තිබුණා. හරියට අනේ අපිටත් මේ වගේ මහන්සියෙන් උගන්වන්න කියනවා වගේ.

අපි පාසල් සිසුන් වූ අවධියේ මහවිලච්චිය තක්ෂිලා මහා විදුහලේ විදුහල්පති ව සිටි දිවංගත ආර්. ධර්මදාස මහතාත් අඹවත්ත මහතාත් අතර බොහෝ සමානකම් තියෙනවා. නොපසුබස්නා ධෛර්ය තමයි එයින් ප්‍රධානම සමානකම.

පොත සොයා ගැනීමට අපහසු නම් පහත අංකයෙන් ගුණශීල අඹවත්ත මහතා අමතන්න.
ගුණශීල අඹවත්ත –  071 80 16 632

Cornerman – Stories from the Life of Dian Gomes – Compiled by Vidhura Ralapanawe and Shevanthi Fernando

Cornerman Book Cover

It was a fascinating experience to read ‘Cornerman – Stories from the life of Dian Gomes’ few weeks back. Dian Gomes wanted to do a book on his boxing journey to inspire a new generation of boxers and administrators.  However, the authors convinced him that the role of Cornerman that he played was not limited to boxing but also extended to his corporate life.  Therefore the book is a compilation of stories, of growth, leadership and working together towards a dream – of many of the people who Dian Gomes made.

The book says how ardently Dian grooms his team and sporting personalities, and also often gives some of them the freedom to move on from MAS for their career excellence in other establishments. Dian has equally given opportunities for those who came from affluent backgrounds and not-so-privileged backgrounds. If they perform and have the potential, Dian is there to take them to the next levels.

Winning the trust of the owners of MAS, the Amalean family, and winning respect of archrival to MAS, Brandix cannot be treated as mere luck but Dian’s hard work, commitment and his resilient personality.

Taking boxer Anuruddha Rathnayake to the Olympic Games in 2008, after a 40 year lapse of a Sri Lankan boxer representing Sri Lanka in boxing, must be the one of the highest achievements of Dian Gomes. Though he did not win a medal, but his story has inspired many in various sports.

When Manju Wanniarachchi was accused of taking performance enhancing drugs after winning a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, 2010 everyone raised eyebrows and looked at Dian more suspiciously than at the boxer himself. It is good that the book discloses the whole episode of how Manju fell prey to a quack doctor who administrated a doping injection on him and shattered the hopes of an entire country.

The chapter on Dian’s two daughters is full of love and affection towards the father who sacrificed more on other people’s sons and daughters instead of his own. But they do not have hard feelings and understand the bigger picture in relation to father’s larger than life figure in the corporate and sports arenas. It would have been nice if there was a chapter about how Dian’s wife sees him too.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the inclusion of a small paragraph about me and Horizon Lanka Foundation in the book. Both Horizon Lanka and I were immensely benefitted by Dian and MAS in the past. But I did not expect a mention about us in his book.

The design of the book has been done masterfully. My only complaint is the font. The font might look good in a website but not in a printed book. They should have gone for a rounder font. I also wish the book were lighter in weight as it was very difficult to read in bed.

A Place in the Sun : Stories To Uplift Your Soul

A Place in the Sun cover page

Dian Gomes, the CEO of Slimline Pvt. Ltd., a leading multinational garment factory in Sri Lanka sent me a copy of “A Place in the Sun” few years back. The stories in this book are written by Slimline employees, or better say “Team Slimline.” I read a few selected stories in the book written by some employees whom I admired most and kept the book in the bookshelf to read it fully at a later stage as I was more interested in ICT related books those days.

But when Dian Gomes sent me the newest book about him, “Cornerman” I felt guilty for not reading the first book he sent fully. So, without even opening the Cornerman, I finished reading the book “A Place in the Sun” at a stretch within a few days. It was a pleasing experience as I too have worked for Slimline briefly from December, 2000 to July, 2002. The Place in the Sun was published to commemorate Slimline’s 8th anniversary.

I was amazed to see the extracts about Slimline in “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” (published in 1999) written by Thomas L. Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winning author. He had not written “The World is Flat” by then but was famous enough as a journalist. He says Slimline looks like it had descended from Mars with its modernity despite being in a tropical rainforest-like surrounding. He further says that he would let his daughters work there (if they get an American salary.) Such positive remarks coming from someone like Friedman tells it all about Slimline.

There are scores of inspirational stories throughout the book and what my eyes caught most at the very beginning was how the pistol shooter Ruwani Abeymanne was invited by Dian to work and train at Slimline while she was in a dejected state after failing to hit the bull’s eye at the Sydney Olympics.  Shehan Abeygunawardene’s story on a young girl who finished last in a cycle race yet proved her mettle by finishing what she started is fascinating. There are other stories of Slimliners coming forward to help their colleagues at dire straits, teamwork shown in meeting impossible deadlines, collective spirit shown at a serious operation of a colleague’s wife or a child, etc. There were several articles written about a poor machine operator who was killed by her own husband. It was appalling to read that she and the family had not tasted a chicken curry for months and the very night she had been planning to cook a chicken curry for the family! Life is like that.

There are few articles in appreciating the cooks and maids of staff houses of the Slimline staff members and it is heartening to see that those small people are treated courteously by the Slimliners.  Quite a few stories are there about staff members helping juniors to further their education by going an extra nine yards.

There are a lot of stories to appreciate Dian’s humility but what inspired me most was the one that he had to climb a 50 feet high coconut tree at an outward-bound training program. The CEO has acted like Tarzan according to Hemali Suriyapperuma. Dian is a person who never takes defeat. That I know.

Compilation of a book with employees’ stories is a fantastic idea. Employees are given freedom to write about what really interest and inspire them. Not many companies embark on such schemes. I wish I were at Slimline long enough to contribute to A Place in the Sun.

I don’t think you can buy the book from the bookshops unless you have someone related to Slimline to borrow a copy. While searching on the Net I found 2 copies available on Amazon.

Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge – Warren G. Bennis, Burt Nanus

Leaders Book Cover

World-renowned leadership guru Warren Bennis and his co-author Burt Nanus talk about four key principals every manager should know: Attention Through Vision, Meaning Through Communication, Trust Through Positioning and The Deployment of Self in the book  Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge. In corporate America downsizing and restructuring is done in most organizations but lack of communication and distrust has hampered this process. This is where the right leadership comes. The book “Leaders” tackles the very issue. It helps the reader to take correct decisions in the process of transformation of an organization.

The book says that it is the individual, operating at the peak of his or her creative moral powers, who will revive organizations, by reinventing both self and them. Instinct too plays a part but it is dangerous to just let an organization be changed on merely instinct. Sound judgment comes mainly from guidance. One’s experience too is counted here.

Though the book is 25 years old its lessons are still valid. This is a timeless classic. The advice, lessons, guidance in the book will stay valid for decades to come. The book is being recommended to executives, management students even this day. The focus of the book is private sector though.

The authors take examples from big American companies like General Motors, Apple, Microsoft, AT & T, McDonalds, KFC, etc. Stories from such companies will definitely keep the reader interest in the book.

Warren G. Bennis is university professor and founding chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. He is also chairman of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He has written more than twenty-five books on leadership, change, and creative collaboration including Leaders, which was recently designated by the Financial Times as one of the top 50 business books of all time. His most recent book is Geeks & Geezers.

Burt Nanus is a well-known expert on leadership and the author of many books on the subject, including Visionary Leadership. Now professor emeritus of management at the University of Southern California, he was also research director of the Leadership Institute.

The Godfather – Mario Puzo

The Godfather Cover

I read Italian – American author Mario Puzo’s The Godfather within few days as it was an extremely interesting novel. I had watched the movie based on the book earlier and never expected the book to be this exciting. The book was published in 1969. It is based on a fictitious Mafia family that dominates New York City. The family is headed by Don Vito Corleone who escapes to the United States from Sicily to avoid the murderers who killed his father. The murderers were after Vito as they are feared that Vito would avenge the death of his father when he grows up.

The novel shows us the intensity of the gangster war between the Corleone family and other four of the five Mafia families that dominate New York. Don Vito Corleone is the most successful Mafia leader and he has two sons to support him but the third and the youngest, Michael Corleone opposes the idea of joining the mafia and joins the US marines instead and fights in the World War II. But when his father is shot by a rival mafia leader, he joins his father’s gang and kills the leader who shot his father and a police captain who supported him. And he flees the USA to avoid legal authorities and comes to Sicily. There he falls in love with a young large-eyed beauty and immediately marries her. Unfortunately the girl is killed when she was one month pregnant by a bomb that was set up to kill Michael. Michael returns to New York and takes over the family business as his brutal eldest brother also is killed by a rival gang.

Meanwhile, Don Corleone’s godson,  Tom Hagen (who was adopted) becomes a Hollywood hero with the help of his godfather, Don Corleone. He even goes on winning an Academy Award as the best actor with the influence of his godfather.  Tom has talents but his ascend to stardom is heavily manipulated by Don Corleone. When Jack Woltz, a powerful Hollywood producer refuses to give the leading role in an upcoming film to Tom Hagen, Don Corleone’s thugs kills the latter’s favourite horse and leaves its bloody head on the producer’s bed to wake up finding what type of a person he had messed up with. However, Jack Woltz is also not the most moral of men. The book mentions that he is a pedophile and he abuses a 12-year-old-girl with her mother’s consent due to rich financial rewarding for them from the producer and Mario Puzo’ writes that the young girl “walks like a foal” after being molested.

Michael marries his American girlfriend and his desire is to legitimize all his business but with the resistance from rival families he becomes even more ruthless than his father and goes on a killing spree and eliminates almost all his rivals. He doesn’t spare his own brother-in-law who was involved in killing his eldest brother.

With the natural death of Don Corleone, Michael ascends to the throne of the Corleone family and protects its interests and become a good replacement for his father. He decides to sell all his business interests in New York and settle in gambling capital Las Vegas. He buys a hotel with casinos and operates from Vegas. In the meantime he finds his first wife’s killer and gets him killed too.

The Corleone family is a criminal organization with national influence, notably protection, gambling and union racketeering. The Don has links to legal, political, security bodies and controls every link to his family’s advantage.

The novel is full of murders, conspiracies, sex, love, and betrayal. An ardent lover becomes an angry murderer instantly. Most of the mafia leaders love their children even though they kill others mercilessly.

The novel was the inspiration for three feature films The Godfather, The Godfather II and The Godfather III. The first two films are recognized as classical movies and treated with highest respect. The third one is also not a bad movie but does not show the same effect as the first two.

I would advise you not to watch the film first if you have an idea of reading the novel. It might damage your imagination. You have to be a virgin reader of the novel to enjoy it for the fullest satisfaction.

Startup and Change the World: Guide for Young Social Entrepreneurs – S. Dev Appanah and Shrestha Sunit

Startup and Change the World – Book Cover

Startup and Change the World is a very good guide for young social entrepreneurs who are looking forward to start social enterprises. The book guides you how to understand the social entrepreneurism and how it helps changing the world for disadvantaged communities. It outlines the future trends of the world and what the needs of the world are. It helps you understand what areas you should work on and how to customize those areas according to your passions. It has a chapter for young innovators who take to social enterprises while getting involved in a viable career.

The book also lines up the work of some experienced social entrepreneurs who have been able to do big changes in certain regions of the world. You can learn a lot about how practical their approaches and how they have been able to solve the problems for the targeted disadvantaged communities.

The book guides you to start a new social enterprise. It helps you finding out ideas that would work and how to plan and find finances for the enterprise. The book provides ample information about finding funds as that is a very important area. The book also helps you how to write a concept paper and develop it to a project plan step by step in a very simple way.

There is a full chapter in Fund Attraction and it tells you what to do and what not to do in attracting funds because fundraising is a tricky area. You might get millions of dollars from a donor who wants the ownership of the project in return. You might not understand his/her ulterior motives till things get messed up.

Book also tells you how to recruit your team as that is one very important area. You will pay dearly for recruiting the wrong people to your project. It is like marrying the wrong kind of person. You might divorce the partner but he/she will take a big part of resources from you and still mess up your life from a distance too.

The chapter on Social Communication tells you how to communicate with donors, media, stake holders, etc. Communication is extremely important as the stakeholders of your project need to be updated timely. In the meantime your opponents can also communicate with your stakeholders and destroy your venture as it is an easy affair with the easy and cheap communication modes available in this Digital Age.

The final chapter You Are Your Network tells you how to network people properly for your venture. It gives examples of highly networked ventures such as the Grameen Bank, Linux Group and Wikipedia.

The book consists of descriptions of two pages about the two authors at the end. Both the authors are thoroughly knowledgeable in the subject matter and they have a wealth of experience in related work.

Wings of Fire – Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam with Arun Tiwari

Wings of Fire Book Cover

I bought Wings of Fire while returning from India once as I was keen on reading about India’s foremost nuclear scientist, “the Missile Man of India,” Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam (Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.) The book is an autobiography of former President of India, Dr. Kalam. It was written collectively by Dr. Kalam and Arun Tiwari who worked with the former. In this book Kalam tells the reader about his early life, hardships he underwent while studying, little luck he had, efforts made while working on defense related work and constant failures and hard work that eventually led him to lead Indian space research, nuclear and missile programs. Kalam started his career, after graduating from Aerospace engineering at MIT (Chennai), India, at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and was assigned to build a hovercraft prototype. Later he moved to ISRO and helped establish the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and pioneered the first space launch-vehicle program. During the 1990s and early 2000, Kalam moved to the DRDO to lead the Indian nuclear weapons program, with particular successes in thermonuclear weapons development culminating in the operation Smiling Buddha and an ICBM Agni (missile.)

Dr. Kalam is the son of a little-educated boat-owner in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. His march to the helm was not through a bed of roses. But whenever something dragged him down he was more courageous than ever and went for his goal. Being a Muslim, he forgot his religious identity when strengthening the Indian nuclear program mainly against Pakistan. He thought like an Indian and acted like one.

Dr. Kalam never hesitated to give responsibilities to younger officials at his work places. He fully trusted their capabilities and encouraged them. He was instrumental in producing weaponry like Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Nag-missiles that made India a nuclear recognized nation. He had to undergo many a failure throughout his career as a defense weapons designer. But he never gave up.

He remains a bachelor and has very little links to his relatives. He sacrificed all the worldly pleasures for India. India paid him back by electing him the President of India and bestowing him with the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna. He is India’s Albert Einstein.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s book, Wings of Fire is an inspirational book for any Indian youth to stop complaining about what he/she does not have and to utilize what he/she has and show the results. This is a very good guide book for the youth.

He explains: “I have always been a religious person in the sense that I maintain a working partnership with God. I was aware that the best work required more ability than I possessed and therefore I needed help that only God could give me.”

I feel he is lucky not to have been intimidated by any political leaders in power. They absolutely believed in him and gave enough freedom and resources for him to achieve what he planned on behalf of the nation’s well-being.

Even though Indian political leaders are doing everything to divide the nation according to castes, religions, languages, regions and classes Dr. Kalam has given the message to the people of India to unite through his way of work and conduct.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything – Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica

The Element – Book Cover

I listened to the audio book The Element by Ken Robinson (with Lou Aronica) after Rehan Allahwala of Pakistan recommended it. So far his recommendations have not disappointed me. The book was mainly on finding oneself. There are a lot of convincing anecdotes throughout the book. The book is narrated in the audio version by the author himself. (I wish if his voice were bit deeper.)

According to the author, the element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. The author defines “The Element” as the thing you are both passionate about doing and good at doing. You would be extremely productive if you can make your hobby, your career, the field you love to be in. But only few people can enjoy that luxury as most of the people are suffering as they do not have the liberty of choosing the right career.

The Element brings on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. When you learn about these very famous and successful people and how they achieved unbelievable achievements you feel that you too can do the same.

Robinson says that age and occupation are no barrier to achieve the highest. Creativity and innovation comes by thinking differently. It is a way of transforming education, business and communities to meet challenges of living and succeeding the challenges of the twenty-first century.

If you take the book seriously, it can change you forever. It has solutions for most of the challenges we face today. It tells us how to change our thinking patterns to be productive and successful.

The author also tells us how current education system kills the students’ creativity by expecting each student to perform the same way while their talents are in different fields. According to him, the education should be personalized according to the need of each student which is a difficult to do from the viewpoint of the authorities as it costs much but this is the only solution.

There are amazing stories of how some kids struggled with academics in school but found their element at a later stage and accomplished so much in their lives. The schools never identified their talents and those individuals themselves had to find where their true talents were and find suitable careers accordingly.