The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist, an international best seller doesn’t not need any review. If you love philosophy, don’t read further. Just go and read the book. This book is an amazing mixture of Philosophy and inspiration with an amazing story. And believe me this book has changed lot of lives including me.

This is the first book written by Paulo Coelho and it became famous internationally. I heard a lot about this book previously but never thought of reading it, because I had a totally wrong impression about it. Some people say the book says a lot about inspirational stuffs but in reality it contains more of philosophy and inspiration with an amazing story of a boy.

You will simply fall in love with this book and the best part of this book is... Its 160-70 pages. If you are travelling somewhere and looking for something different to read, I would suggest this book to start with and you won’t have an idea when your journey ended.  All the best..!!

The Secret of the Nagas by Amish

“The secret of Nagas”, the sequel of “The Immortals of Meluha” has proved that you can’t simply ignore me if you have read my first part and I believe if you are reading the first book then you have to read the second one, otherwise there is no point of reading first one. Please don’t take it otherwise; you’ll simply love this book as you loved the first one.

The book starts with the same energy as last one ended. Once you start this, you would just want to go on and on till it completes. It’s very well written to keep you focused and of course the same level of curiosity you’ll have as you had in the last one. This is the first book I read so fast that I could not even realized that I have completed second part of Shiva Triology. Please don’t go by the size of this book, just buy and read it, you’ll also feel the same as I felt… Amazing.

But again this is not the end, there is more on its way…yes I am talking about the third part and eagerly waiting for it. God bless the author. Om Namah Shivay..!!

The Immortals Of Meluha By Amish

"The immortals of Meluha”, a national bestseller and obviously this one deserves to be read by everyone.  If you want to get out of your limited way of thinking/reading and try something different which you might have thought about in your past life like where did this god come from, what’s the story behind it whether it’s true or just an illusion or its highly modified, i would suggest you to start with this and only this book.

 I don’t know if the content of this book is based on some research or just man made stuff and i really don’t want to know but i assure you, that you are not going to find anything which is not convincing. The reasons and logics in this book are very well presented and it will make you think even harder about “God” thing. I would suggest that if you start this book try to read it with minimum gap possible or no gap at all.  

This book is first part of shiva trilogy written by Author. I can’t really wait to start the 2nd one so i hope you’ll enjoy reading this book. “HAR HAR MAHADEV”!! 

How can you say...Its a good investment.

Before writing about good investment, lets have a quick view about investment. Investment is nothing but money invested in any field, whether it’s financial stuffs (bonds, shares, treasury bills etc) (note-- please don’t bother much about these words... sooner or later you’ll come to know once you start investing), real estate or anything which add some rows into your asset column.  But the aim should be, “In the long run the asset column should start filling your pocket in addition to its net worth”. Let me explain it with an example.  

Suppose you have bought a piece of land worth 15lakhs. Now this will add an asset worth 15L as per current real estate condition. Now you can do so many things with your land.  Some of them are

1.  You can wait and watch, finally if you get a better deal you can sell it in 20L (say).  This option is good if you want to make quick money, but market sentiments should support you.

2.  You can use it for rental purpose by putting some more money for construction and then you can earn some decent amount per month. It’s a good option which takes care of your monthly expenses and in addition to that you’ll own that asset too.

Let’s get deeper into the first option (which is the best way to explain a good investment). Suppose you have waited for two years after purchasing the land. The key factor for good investment is  “Inflation”. Let’s say within two years of span inflation rises to 10 %. Now you need to do some calculations here. Net worth of 15L invested, will become 18.15L within two years by taking the rate of interest 10% compounded annually( which is nothing but inflation). If you didn’t understand, simply calculate compound interest with principle amount 15L, rate of interest 10% and no of years 2. You’ll get the same value as 18.15L.  But as per our assumption you have sold it for 20L which is more than the value calculated by taking inflation into consideration. This explains, you are in safe side and made a not good but the best investment.

What if you have sold it for 17L.. Though you have earned 2L in two years and as per your business budhhi you have made a good investment but you haven’t considered the market sentiments and as per investment logic you are in loss of 1.15L which you have not given through your pocket but your asset could have put more than this if you would have considered inflation.

I prefer second option because somehow it fulfills the definition of good investment and it has two benefits, first it will put some money on your pocket on monthly basis which you will get through rent and secondly you can sell this after five years or so in a decent amount by considering inflation as well as your total expenses including construction and maintenance etc.

so moral of the story, first of all start investing if you haven't and initially don't bother much about profit and loss but keep inflation factor in mind. Always go for long term investment and study the market, sooner you'll find your pocket in a positive side. 

One Minute Manager By Kenneth Blanchard

It is a nice book to start with if you want to know the ABC of a manager’s responsibility towards his organization and its people. The book is very well written, easy to comprehend and explains the inspirational and practical stuff about managing people thereby improving the productivity. This book has a well balanced mixture of philosophy and practical examples that complements the philosophy.

The concept is easy to understand, it may look childish or philosophical drama to some but overall a good and recommendable book for a beginner. The best part of the book is the size, a handy book with 50-60 pages that can be completed within 2-3 hrs.  It’s worth giving your time to this book if you have any. The best thing to learn in such a short time...... don’t miss it if you want to be an effective manager and looked up to.... ;)

Rich Dad Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki

“Rich Dad Poor Dad” is an amazing book with lots of philosophical as well practical talks related to financial rat race. It’s a complete package of thoughts and their implementations toward the investment arena. Sometimes you may find it boring because there are some points which are repeated so many times throughout the book, but I suggest you to stick to the modulus of the whole thing.

 I found this book very interesting and inspirational. If you need some guidance related to the way you handle your income then this is “THE Book” you should start with and I am sure it will not disappoint you. Theories or so called philosophies and the relationship of these with real life is presented very well which may  fit to your life style or inspire you to change the way you live;  To make it better of course!!. I have read this book twice and found it “A Must Read Book” at least once.

Nuts and Bolts of GDP (Gross Domestic product)

For this term I have to admit, it is not easy as it looks like. 

Let’s try to find out the basics behind the complexity of this term. For that, we start with the very basic term “Domestic”. When we say Gross domestic product of a country, we directly refer to the domestic behavior/health/output of that country excluding all monetary relation with foreign countries except money earned through export.
Till now it is clear that whatever we are going to deal with, are taking place within the boundaries of the country.

In common terms, GDP basically signifies the health of a country or specifically financial health of a country. There are various methods through which GDP is calculated— Product approach, expenditure approach, and investment approach.  Whatever approach you take, result comes the same. India uses expenditure approach.
Remember, we are trying to find out economic health of a country which depends on various factors such as—  consumption/spending power of people, government expenditure, investment made by private or public sector organizations( non Government), exports made by the country etc.

Whatever way you take, money spend by someone will always go into someone else pocket. It’s either this way or that way the final output remains the same. We can consider all the factors as either expenditure made by each one of them or investment made by each one of them or we can take directly the product value for which expenditure/investment are made. Factors explained above are self explanatory but we’ll have a quick look on each one of them.

---: Consumption refers to personal expenditures pertaining to food, households, medical expenses, rent, etc made by common men. 

---: Government spending stands for the total government expenditures on final goods and services which include investment expenditure by the government purchase of weapons for the military, and salaries of public servants etc. 

---: Investment by public/private organization stands for business investment as capital which includes construction of a new mine, purchase of machinery and equipment for a factory, purchase of software, expenditure on new houses, buying goods and services but investments on financial products is not included. 

Finally exports refers the difference between total export made and total import made. It may be positive or negative and directly affects the GDP of the country.

To calculate the GDP, we add up all the expenditure and compare the final value with the last year GDP and we come to know whether health is in good condition or bad. If the total expenditure is increased that means the power to spend/purchase of people/government is increased and overall it’s a good sign.

(-->>In one line: GDP shows the power of people/government of a country to purchase something, to produce something, to invest on something, to expend more or in other terms it’s a measure of a country’s overall economic output.