Superb 2

*Books add ON
EXAMPLES to use:
o Human Evolution- ability to walk, speak
o Earth and its evolution- sustaining life since 4.3 billion yrs
o Indian Freedom struggle- its timeline
o Indian Constitution
o Lifestyle approach- child, adolescene, youth, woman, old
o Constitutional dimensions like WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
o Solutions can be written as Development, Empowernment, Participation, Liberation
o Climate Change

Ram bann
Animal Farm - more unequal
EDUCATED - TARA WESTOVER
HOMO DEUS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
21 Lessons for 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Factfulness- Hans Rosling
THE SILK ROADS — PETER FRANKOPAN

Books are used to substantiate one's point. Gives authority

Tech and future
HOMO DEUS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
History
SAPIENS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
NATIONALISTIC
THE SILK ROADS — PETER FRANKOPAN
Start of Main body
HISTORY of World
Origins - Lewis Dartnell
Geography
THE LAND OF SEVEN RIVERS — SANJEEV SANYAL
WOMEN
I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai
EDUCATION
EDUCATED - TARA WESTOVER
 HEALTH
Do we care? India’s Health System - Sujata Rao
IKIGAI
Governance
WHY NATIONS FAIL — JAMES ROBINSON
Nation
1. History with geography
1. The Land of Seven Rivers - Sanjeev Sanyal
2. Train to Pakistan - Kushwant Singh
3. The Rise and Fall of Nations - Ruchir Sharma
1. Democracy
1. The Burden of Democracy - Pratap Bhanu Mehta
2. THE PEOPLE VS. TECH — JIMMY BARTLETT
3. Democracy - totalitarian - survelliance
1984 - George Orwell
Animal Farm - more unequal

IR
Pax Indica - Shashi Tharoor -
Poverty - Inequality - Inclusiveness
1. An Uncertain Glory - Amartya Sen
1. Capitalism - PPP
1. The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant
Patagonia company
COVID
The Triumph of Death (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder -
NOT ALL GLOOMY AND DARK
1. Factfulness- Hans Rosling
1. GOVT INITIATIVES OR WAY AHEAD
21 Lessons for 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING — VICTOR FRANKL
ATOMIC HABITS — JAMES CLEAR
THE POWER OF HABIT — CHARLES DUHIGG
Adaptable and change
The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
IKIGAI
 SAPIENS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
STILLNESS IS THE KEY — RYAN HOLIDAY
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE — DALE CARNEGIE
Other
PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL — DAN AIRELY
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE — DANIEL GOLEMAN

Arranged in generalistic sense... Use as per demand of Q

BOOKS
RAM BANN
Tech and future
HOMO DEUS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
Its a brief window to see the tomorrow.
It provides you both the positive and negative picture of the future …how many
things are getting better while new challenges are coming up.
Now
War is obsolete — you’re more likely to commit suicide
Famine is disappearing — you’re more likely to be obese than being starved
Pandemic - killed lakhs - majority of native american --> fading away
Humans think in stories…so we always need story to understand anything …and
the politicians are some of the best story tellers …its a unique quality.
Dominance
He talked how technology and knowledge of science helped up to climb up the
hierarchy and gain global dominance but now this very technology can be a
challenge for us to manage …its getting in every sphere of our life …
its overcoming our free will…our natural evolution journey (CRISPR) …
it may result in creating a new specie which may be overpowering Homo
sapiens even …thus we may end up creating our own master.
Threat of AI and all technology
Is ‘free-will’ really free? Whatever we feel are driven by the hormones and
chemicals inside our body.
If using biotech someone can manipulate them, they can very well control
our ‘free-will’.
Man thinks in stories, not on facts or figures — thus giving them a ‘grand
 stories’ to believe will help to manipulate their free will. This is what
politicians do.
Machines voting on our behalf in elections will make a much better system than
present, because a machine analysis things on facts — of last 4-5 years, not just
the emotions and ’stories’ created just before the elections.
History
SAPIENS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
Its basically a brief history of Humankind …from the start and the journey till now.
It provides a very easy and layman story of how humans came into being …how
Homo sapiens came as a dominating specie to conquer the world
It tells how the quality of collective believe in fiction and ability to collaborate
together in larger number helped the otherwise meek species that we are, to
conquer the more powerful species.
Becoz man can communicate, cooperate and live in large numbers. The real
strength of man lies in his collectiveness.
1 v 1 encounter with any big animal, human stands no change.
With coordination and cooperation plus collective intelligence and ways to
communicate, we can tackle any other species with ease.
Language is a very important factor for this dominance.
It talked about the three major revolution —
Cognitive Revolution,
Agriculture Revolution and
Scientific Revolution — how they together ensured that we climb to the top of
hierarchy tree.
It talked about the
beginning and utility of religion,
how empires came into being,
how agriculture fundamentally changed how humans live as a species.
Humans live on emotions more than rationality.
NATIONALISTIC
THE SILK ROADS — PETER FRANKOPAN
Its a New history of the world from the standpoint of Asia — that is its a non-West
centric world history.
It describes how the Eastern world used to be the avenues of new ideas, trade and
art while the West was under dark ages
but then some bad things happened the East lost its charm while the West rose
to glory … still continuing to do so. Furthermore the author argue that in the
near future the East will rise again … the rise of China and India.
It also describes how the world need to realise the immense potential the East holds
 and how the West is receding.

Start of Main body

HISTORY of World
Origins - Lewis Dartnell
How the geology, geography of Earth played a role in writing human history?
Author takes on a ride through hundreds of millions years of Earth history.
It talked about how evolution was shaped by environment.
How voting patterns in parts of the USA and Britain are the result of geology.

How climate changes and mass extinction events are connected.

Why does Democracy originated in Greece — Alps mountains
Mountainous terrain of Greece led to development of early democracy
Caution over how in last 200 years we humans are dangerously playing with the
Earth, repercussions of which are beyond our control and imagination.
It gives a factual testimony of how climate change and plate tectonics made us …
destroyed us …transformed us. It literally traces our Origin linked to our Mother
Earth.
Finally it can be said that Origins describes the awesome impact on the shape of
human civilisation.
Geography
THE LAND OF SEVEN RIVERS — SANJEEV SANYAL
Its a brief history of India’s Geography.
In this book Sanjeev Sanyal explored how India’s history was shaped by its
geography —
eg. how did Saraswati river casted its influence over IVC or
how did Himalayas acted as out strong defence mechanism in the North.
Its quite a thought provoking read — starting from how lower sea levels in ancient
past allowed the Homo sapiens to cross the Persian Gulf and migrate to India
WOMEN
I Am Malala - Malala Yousafzai
About Terrorism | Women Empowerment | Education for Girls
EDUCATED — TARA WESTOVER
Its a memoir of Tara Westover who was born in a US household where her father was a
paranoid and delusional man — who thought schools corrupt people, medicines are
poison and we all are going to die in 2000 … thus he was strictly against sending girls
to schools and go to hospitals.
She had a very bad and unique (bad) childhood and was under a very strict domination
 of her father, Gene. Finally at 16 years she decided to run away from this depressing
setup and with help of her elder brother the managed to get into university.
Even at the university she had a hard time to cope up with the outside culture and
social fabric. She went on to describe the cultural shocks, her difficulty to understand
classes and types of people she met. Ultimately she overcame all these and went on to do
her PhD from Cambridge.
In her journey she understood the importance of Education … how it can change the
person, his world view, his social connections … she got to know the flaws in her
family, esp her father …who was basically having a bipolar disorder.
Its a story of inspiration and dedication shown by a young girl, defying all odds, with no
support from her parents, to make her own way and eventually her career.
HEALTH
Do we care? India’s Health System - Sujata Rao Former Health Secretary of India
Raises serious flaws in the health system of India.
She says “Now it is the opportune time to ‘Politicise Health’ in India”
“Political leadership should now opt for zero-tolerance policy for laxity in
healthcare.”
Governance
WHY NATIONS FAIL — JAMES ROBINSON
Its a story of origins of power, prosperity and poverty … how different nations’
destiny turned out for them.
Its main focus is on Institutions —
how strong and built on right foundation institutions ensures a prosperous
future. It provides an elaborated discussion of places with similar
geography, have developed so much different …all because of
institutions eg. Nogales or China and Central Asian regions.
It also explains how the politics unfolds and how it drives the economics of the
nation which in turn influences the politics …thus making a cycle …
this can be virtuous or vicious depending upon institutions
Sometimes all that is needed is a creative disruption — how UK and France
developed into two very different nations and
So close and yet so far || City of Nogales in US and Mexico border, on
both side, startling differences becoz of institutions
why UK dominated France despite France having the mainland geography
with better access …
Eng vs. France —
Printing press case
Critical Junctures | Black Death (Plague) of England — 1348 — how
it transformed the social setup. Sort of Natural Selection.
 1688 Glorious Revolution — how it wrote the destiny of Britain as
biggest colonial power. Creative Disruptions → Industrial
Revolution → Expansion
also many a times the dictators and monarch deliberately ensures that there is
no creative disruption and the status quo remains …its not like they don’t know
what is needed but they are not willing to do that.
Nation
1. History with geography
1. The Land of Seven Rivers - Sanjeev Sanyal
1. A elaborated and fascinating work at Indian history and civilisation.
2. How India’s history & culture was shaped by its Geography, Geology.
3. How cities and civilisations flourished alongside rivers and how the river changes
resulted in change in civilisation — Saraswati “the lost river”.
2. Train to Pakistan - Kushwant Singh
1. Horrors of Partition and the miseries experienced by people on both side of the border.
2. Tells about how a peace loving village Mano Majra at the Indo-Pak border transformed
into a battlefield, as the trains from Pakistan come full with dead bodies of Sikhs.
3. The Rise and Fall of Nations - Ruchir Sharma
1. Rules of change in the post-crisis (2008) world.
2. Good Billionaire v/s Bad Billionaire
3. Bad times make good policies. Never let a crisis go waste.
4. How natural factors — climate, geographic location can play a major role in determining
the success of any nation — provided that we have the right set of leaders and will of
people to capitalise the advantage.
Democracy
1. The Burden of Democracy - Pratap Bhanu Mehta
1. Reminds us what a bold experiment was to bring democracy to a largely illiterate and
unpropertied India.
1. Sphere of politics has truly created opportunities for the people who participate in
the society.
2. At the same time he also raises flags where this whole idea of democracy has
1. now lost its way and is under threat wrt ideas of majoritarianism, persistent social
inequality etc.
2. THE PEOPLE VS. TECH — JIMMY BARTLETT
How technology and internet is killing the democracy (esp social media)
2016 Trump’s Election campaign || Targeted ads and promises
2016 Trump campaign — how it was brilliantly designed to use social media
to target his voters, how it planned our targeted campaigns to appeal to
specific voters and flood their social media with that and this really worked
 to swing the voters.
Big Data + ML + AI = exploring new ways to play with the ‘emotions’ of the
gullible people.
Crypto-Anarchy — in the age of cryptocurrencies | no accountability
World is now essentially a global village —
without a genuine head. | Headed by the IT guys.
Driverless Democracy
It puts a thought of Technology vs. Democracy — there has to be one winner in this
fight.
Democracy - totalitarian - survelliance
1984 - George Orwell
One of the definitive texts of modern dystopian literature.
Powerful warning against totalitarian regimes and extreme political ideologies
“Big Brother” is watching you.
“2+2 = 5 — dogma, spread by the government through propaganda”.
Memory Hole — any mechanism of destroying/disappearance/alteration of the
embarrassing documents, photographs, transcript to give an impression that
something never happened
Room 101 — Torture camp where party attempts to subject a prisoner to his worst
nightmare or fear or phobia etc
IR
Pax Indica - Shashi Tharoor -
Focus on India’s diplomacy and foreign policy.
Tharoor argues that we now need to look to the new millennium.
He calls for restructuring out ’soft-power’ status and proposes thoughts for the new
‘grand-strategy’ for the nation.
1. Poverty - Inequality - Inclusiveness
1. An Uncertain Glory - Amartya Sen
India and its contradictions.
Education is most important — Japan was a shell — Meiji Restoration focussed a lot
on education and transformed the destiny of Japan
Privatise public healthcare,
but only after strengthening it first.
India is booming — but for whom? | Social-inequality | Minority rights?
“There has been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make
good use of public resources to enhance the general level of living.”
This book not just pictures a gloomy picture of Indian society rugged by social
inequality, deprivations, but also argues for the possibility and plausibility of
change through democratic practice.
2. Capitalism - Enviro - PPP
1. The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant
Patagonia company - climate conscious clothings
They say dont buy our product if not wearing for lifetime / donating
Cost 65000Rs
Focus on 'purpose of company' than profits.
COVID
The Triumph of Death (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder -
reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed the plague, which devastated
medieval Europe
1.
2. NOT ALL GLOOMY AND DARK
1. Factfulness- Hans Rosling
World is much better than we think it is. Global level of poverty, homelessness, crime
is going down statistically.
This is THE MOST SAFE period of human history where more people are dying of
lifestyle diseases than in war or epidemics.
We humans have come up a long way and we should acknowledge and appreciate this
collective endeavour.
Our biases towards paying more attention to bad news.
“Daily 1000s of airplanes land safely and on time, but that doesn’t become a news,
when one in a million flight goes missing or crashes, it becomes a breaking news.”
News channels are supposed to portray all the BAD things in the world.
10 Reasons why we are wrong about the world — and why things are better than you
think.
The story of “the secret silent miracle of human progress.”

GOVT INITIATIVES OR WAY AHEAD

21 Lessons for 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
How we should use technology with restraint.
How technology and new thought are changing the concept of liberty, democracy,
religions.
Protect humans, not jobs. Make them skilful.
There is just one civilisation in the world — Humanity
Global problems need global solutions.
Big Data is watching you. (1984)
Never underestimate human stupidity. (War)
Our sense of justice might be out of race.
 You know less than you think. (Ignorance)
Change is the only constant. (Education)
MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING — VICTOR FRANKL
HOPE - ETERNALLY OPTIMISTIC
Its a classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust
Its a story of hope and will power of the author while being in the concentration
camp in Nazi Germany. He describes his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other
camps — how every day firstly felt seemed like the worst day in his life …on the
verge of death in the face of savagery and inhumanity …. But still something pushed
him to live for another day … soon he got accustomed to his reality … he describes
the avg life of an avg inmate in concentration camp …. How life turned upside down
so suddenly …how people found it hard to grasp the reality and forget their
erstwhile ‘free’ life.
His best quote picked from Nietzsche — “He who has a Why to live for can bear
almost any How”
He elaborately describes the importance of positive attitude and seeing the silver
lining in the darkest night.
Hope is a good thing … probably the best of all things.
He started his theory of Logotheraphy — based on that primary motivational force
for any person it to find the meaning of his/her life.
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
How little things can make a BIG differences. Butterfly effect.
ATOMIC HABITS — JAMES CLEAR
“The Aggregation of Marginal Gains” — even consistent 1% improvement can
bring a tremendous change over time.
Focus on the Systems to achieve your Goals — because goals are more or less same
for all, but only the ones who stay committed to the Systems (Process) have higher
chances to reach their goals.
To build habit — make it ‘identity-based’ (I am not a smoker)
rather ‘outcome-based’ (I am quitting smoking these days)
Forming habit — Cue - Craving - Response - Reward
For good habit — Visible Cue, Attractive Craving, Easy Response, Satisfying
Reward
For bad habit — invisible cue, boring craving, tough response, unsatisfying
reward
Often we lack clarity than motivation to bring about habits
Eg. Placing of water bottles vs. Coke changed pattern in cafeteria |
Amsterdam Airport — placed a bug sticker in urinals so that people start to
target that while peeing….this reduced spillage
 Will-power and Self-Control are very important
Paper-clip strategy …. Put from one jar to another — this means TRACK your
progress always … what doesn’t get measures, doesn’t get improved
Goldilock Zone — to bring about the change — don’t set too unachievable or too
easy goals … will lack the motivation
THE POWER OF HABIT — CHARLES DUHIGG
It talks about the basics of forming a habit and how can new habits be formed.
Furthermore it talks about how habits can transform our lives.
He talked about how great players, swimmers, leaders etc have made some of their
work as their habit that their muscle memory itself gets half the things done
automatically.
He also talked about how our brain is made where our habits take up different places
and even if we experience brain stroke or injury some of our age old habits will remain
intact.
Talks about cravings and how to use them in right manner to cultivate a habit ….how
you need to create the habit loop where the end ‘reward’ (habit) can change but the
process may be same
Also about behavioural habits build by the leaders to the masses …eg, SBM
Adaptable and change
The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
Natural Selection and Survival of the fittest (Herbert Spencer) --> MOST ADAPTABLE
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
One of the most revolutionary book about science and biological evolution.
Evolution of life through the prism of a gene’s eye view of life.
It established the Darwins’ Natural Selection into a conceptual framework with far-
reaching implications for our understanding of evolution.
IKIGAI
Talks about the town of Okinawa, Japan — where people never retire and continue to
work even at 90, happily.
Ikigai basically means — Reason for your living
Ikigai —
 find your Ikigai
One you find your Ikigai — you’ll get into a ’Flow’ State … and then you will start loving
your work and continue to do it till your death
SAPIENS — YUVAL NOAH HARARI
collective believe in fiction and ability to collaborate together in larger number
helped the otherwise meek species that we are, to conquer the more powerful
species.
Becoz man can communicate, cooperate and live in large numbers.
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
The Story of Success | Why some people achieve success while other don’t despite of
similar conditions? | There are many ’not so visible’ factors which play a major role.
The 10,000-hours rule
Bill Gates right time to born in this world
We often ignores the little things that matter even though they had played a major
role in determining the outcome — success or otherwise
STILLNESS IS THE KEY — RYAN HOLIDAY
It talks about the importance of being CALM (PEACE) and still across the various
situations in life.
Draws examples of various greatest thinkers, he shows how crucial is stillness and how
can it be cultivated. Many of the great personalities have benefitted from it …Churchill,
Oprah —
Stillness is needed to build a business, find happiness and finding peace. Its a key to self
mastery, discipline and focus necessary to succeed in this noisy and fast world.
Ryan has divided the book into 3 parts — Mind, Spirit and Body
Mind — being in present, slowing down and thinking, journaling, importance of silence,
 seeking wisdom, curbing ego
Spirit — choosing virtue, beware of desires, acknowledge the beauty of life, stronger
relations, conquering anger
Body — saying no to bad habits, imp of walking all by yourself, routine in life,
minimalism, solitude, hobby, braveness
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE — DALE CARNEGIE
Its a guide to develop your likability among people and make them interested in you.
Show interest in knowing the other person first …then only you can establish the vibe
and connection. Make them talk about themselves.
This book has helped in every walk of life …personal relationship, business, office,
public speaking etc
3 key rules to handle people
1. Don’t criticise, condemn or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want
How to make others like you?
Smile | become genuinely interested in them | remember person’s name …its very
imp thing to him | good listener | talk in a way to grab interest of other | make other
person feel important

Other
PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL — DAN AIRELY
It describes the hidden forces that shape our decision and choices. It explains how the
basic economic fact of considering humans as rational being is flawed….this rational
being can be made to act quite irrationally and that can be predicted.
It gives many instance how people are guided by the companies to do what they want …
how free gifts are not actually free …
how sometimes setting impossible deadlines can improve your efficiency.
Companies and Service Providers (Google, FB, Insta, The Economists etc) have
capitalised over this fundamental flaw with us humans.
With the use of big data and technology they can really predict our
‘irrational’ decisions
He also tells how the companies price their products … how placement of goods in
super market are in a designed manner so that you pick up healthy stuff first and
then this gives you a moral space to buy unhealthy food stuff …you won’t feel bad.
Theory of Relativity — how every thing is relative in our minds — how we overvalue our
own asset — how too many options often confuse us and we fall in the trap — pricing
structure … those Rs. 499 over Rs. 500 — Behavioural Economics and how no lunch is free
It also extends
 to our choices on the e-commerce and social media ….
Targeted campaigns in elections and what not.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE — DANIEL GOLEMAN
It talked about why Emotional Intelligence is much more important than IQ
Talked how human intelligence is overrated in achieving success….often it takes your
emotional balance and competence to use your and your teams emotions to achieve success.
How good EQ will ensure good and healthy relationship and mental stability to optimise
your performance.
It also talked about much significant issue of mental health … how we ignore our emotional
feedback and overlook them and mindlessly pursue the materialistic goals in search of
success…and often this makes us depressed or ill.
Empathy and compassion are important component of the books teaching — which is often
eroding away from present society and we need to restore them.
He explains how EI can be nurtured and strengthened in all of us.

o ‘The conquest of hapiness’ by Bertrand Russell

o ‘The war and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy

o ‘The woman in cages’ by Vilas Sarang

o ’48 laws of power’ by Robert Greene

o ‘The consolation of philosophy’ by Boethius

o ‘Start with why’ by Simon Sinek

o ‘Grit: the power of passion and persevernece’ by Angela Duckworth

The measure of a Man’ by Gene Getz