Minutes of the book club meet held on January 14, 2015

Book meet: January 14, 2015

Attendees: Pratibha, Siji, Deepali, Amit, Karthik, Vignesh, Parikshit and Vandana

Book reads:

Pratibha: You can win / Shiv Khera and Seema in Mumbai / Siji Thomas

Siji: Dongri to Dubai / S Hussain Zaidi

Deepali: none

Amit: none

Vignesh: Management tips

Parikshit: Lose not your heart / Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya

Karthik: Science fiction short stories

Vandana: Movie: Bhopal: A prayer for rain (Movie)

Let me take this opportunity to apprise you all, on what is / can be discussed in the book club. You can discuss books, movies, articles: fiction, non-fiction, self help, travel, management, biography, autobiography, mythology..etc. The readings should be such that you can have some thought , idea to be able to discuss on it. It shoud be such that you can have debates, can have multiple views on the reads which will help you in broadening your thinking perspective of course along with fun and a stimulating discussion. 

Since some of them had not read any book or the books which were read had already been discussed in the earlier meetings. 

Discussion were on two books: 

Parikshit: Lose not your heart / Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya

This book is not a religious book but on spirituality. What is the difference between spirituality and religious book??  

I think religion is about rules and beliefs whereas spirituality is an internal process, It is about being and not belief. In other words religion is about fasting and spirituality is lasting!!!This book and their site talks about spirituality...To quote:

• Surrender yourself
• Look to yourself for guidance
• Introspect
• Walk alone
• The spirit of sportsmanship

(Source: http://guidingthoughts.blogspot.in/2012/10/lose-not-your-heart-2-build-your-own.html)
Website: www.awgp.org

Deepak Chopra rightly said, 'Religion is belief in someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience'

Bosses should not be acting as mentors, Parikshit opined that we don't need mentors but we need bosses who can promote skills of  his/her subordinates outside their department. Mentor just guides you whereas if the boss promotes their colleagues / subordinates skills it would help in honing their existing skills as well as enhancing career.

Any kind of book(s), whether it is a self help book or a book on spirituality exploring your inner self...ultimately it is all about YOU. It depends on you what to take and what to leave / let go...At the end, when time comes for taking a decision, that moment is more important. All the readings/ courses go for a toss when there is only a moment available for you to take a decision. One of the thing one can do is to take a pause and then decide how to react...

Karthik: Science fiction short stories.

This is really interesting. First of all, what is a science fiction?? How is it different from fiction?? 

Karthik's thought: Anything that does / has not happened in real life is fiction.If it contains some scientific concept, then that is science fiction..Mythology is a fiction but stories of Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, movies like Star Wars, Gravtiy, Matrix are science fiction. Biographies, history books are non-fiction.

I think scientific fiction is implausible made possible......

A definition echoed by author Mark C. Glasst who argues that the definition of science fiction is like definition of pornography: you do not know what it is, but you know it when you see it....

Can anyone please elaborate more???