Author: Shankar Jaganathan

Book Review 2023.09: An Economist Goes to the Game by Paul Oyer, 176 pages, Hardbound, 2022 A blend of Economics and Sports was a combination too good for me to resist as I finished this page turner within a week, a testament to the engaging content and the fluid writing style of the author. The book captures many key economic concepts and has applied them to sports and bring to light multiple instances from the industry, predominantly from the USA …

Book Review 2024.02: The Learning Trap, How Byju’s Took Indian Edtech for a Ride, 236 pages, Paperback, 2023 This is one of the rare books on a business entity in India that is critical to the point of almost being an investigative report that not only accuses, but also elaborates and provides the basis on which the author has come to the conclusion. In terms of content and writing style it comes the closest to the 1998 publication, The Polyester …

Book Review 2024.03: I Think Therefore I Play -Andrea Pirlo, 150 pages, Paperback, 2013 This is the autobiography of Andrea Pirlo the Italian football legend who, for the more trophy valuing  fans, is the winner of both the World Cup and the Champions League, the most coveted trophies for an European footballer and for the football connoisseur, the wizard of freekick goals and the best of deep lying midfield playmaker, a Mozart on the football field. This book is a …

Book Review 2024.04: Boundary Lab -Inside the Global Experiment Called Sport, 376 pages, Hardbound, 2024 This is a much-needed book for anyone interested in understanding sports as a fan beyond its mere entertainment value. Using the lens of court cases to focus on specific issues to provide the context for the discussion, this book explores the issue involved threadbare providing a holistic, global and conceptual view, that is grounded in Indian sporting history. Covering wide ranging issues from who is …

Book Review 2024.05: Never Split the Difference -Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, 258 pages, Paperback, 2016 Written by Chris Voss, the FBI hostage negotiator this book is a combination of gripping anecdotes of his negotiations with kidnappers coupled with insightful lessons learnt and practiced in these tense negotiations. Reading this book made me realize that good negotiation skills can be learnt, practiced and perfected. Further negotiations need not be conflicts with the other side being our enemy. …

Book Review 2024.06: The Power of Habit -Why we do what we do and how to change, 286 pages, Paperback, 2012 I read the self-help book ‘Mini Habits- Smaller Habits, Bigger Results’ written by Stephen Guise, 155 pages, 2020 publication followed in quick succession by this book written by Charles Duhigg. Not being a fan of self-help books, this was my first attempt at understanding the difference between a self-help book and a more nuances one that goes much deeper …

Book Review 2024.07: The Essentials of Hinduism -A Comprehensive Overview of the World’s Oldest Religion, 194 pages, Paperback, 1998 Over the last few days, I had been listening to the informative lectures by Swami Sarvapriyanandaji of the Ramakrishna Mission on various aspects of Consciousness, Time and Space and the convergence of Vedanta with the modern science on the You Tube in my evening walks. These talks on specific topics made me curious to have an overview of Hinduism, and on …

Book Review 2024.10: indistractable -How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life, 217 pages, Paperback, 2019 This is the second of the three books focusing on psychological research that helps us live a life of our choice which I picked up in July consisting of “Dopamine Nation”, “in distract able”, and “Grit”. A shorter book than the 217 pages suggests due to its widespread layout of large pictures, highlights in bold fonts and chapter summaries, what it lacks in …