Games Indians Play

Self-Help

RAGHUNATHAN, V.

Personal Transformation

India Penguin

'Raghunathan writes really well . . . there are rare instances where a reviewer thinks; I wish I could write like that. This is one of those rare instances' -Bibek Debroy in Indian Express In a rare attempt to understand the Indianness of Indians-among the most intelligent people in the world; but also; to a dispassionate eye; perhaps the most baffling-V. Raghunathan uses the props of game theory and behavioural economics to provide an insight into the difficult conundrum of why we are the way we are. He puts under the scanner our attitudes towards rationality and irrationality; selflessness and selfishness; competition and cooperation; and collaboration and deception. Drawing examples from the way we behave in day-to-day situations; Games Indians Play tries to show how in the long run each one of us-whether businessmen; politicians; bureaucrats; or just plain us-stand to profit more if we were to assume a little self-regulation; give fairness a chance and strive to cooperate and collaborate a little more even if self-interest were to be our main driving force.

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE INDIA PVT.LTD.

Irrationally Rational: Ten Nobel Laureates Script the Story of Behavioural Economics

You and your friend each have flights to catch at 8 p.m. and your destination cities are different. You decide to share a cab, but get caught in a rare traffic jam lasting several hours. You end up at the airport around midnight, and surely enough, both of you miss your flights. All quantifiable consequences of missing the flights-cost of tickets cancellation, paying for a new ticket, taking a cab back to the city, overnight stay, taking a cab back to the airport next morning, etc.-are expectedly identical for both. Now suppose the airline assistant tells you, 'Sorry, your flight left as scheduled at 8 p.m. sharp.' But your friend is told, 'Oh, how very unfortunate. Your flight was almost four hours late and only just departed!' Who feels the greater disappointment? You or your friend?

Life mimics a marathon more than it does a sprint.Obvious as that may appear, as proud and ambitious parents, we often push our children to excel in ways that may help them achieve some early successes but may sap their stamina to endure the more difficult challenges which life may throw at them. What is more, our obsessive rush to get our children off to a good start overlooks the fact that in life, as in a marathon, an early lead hardly matters, but being too intent on coming first may leave our children lacking in many of the life skill that a normal childhood would teach them.V. Raghunathan, best-selling author of Games Indians Play, offers an alternative approach that can be even more rewarding: life, he avers, is not a sprint, and it does not in the long run matter very much if you missed out on the best school, college or job as starters. As long as you give yourself the time to develop your personality and skills, you will still get where you want, at your own pace and perhaps far more happily. To illustrate, based on first-hand interactions, he gives numerous examples of many achievers, famous and not-so-famous, among them N.R. Narayana Murthy, Dr Kallam Anji Reddy, Dr. P.D.K. Rao, V. Mani, Ashwini Nachappa, Ila Bhatt and G.M. Rao. For those helping their children along for success in life, or rethinking their children along for success in life, or rethinking their own approach to it,Dont Sprint the Marathon will prove an invaluable guide.

Don't Sprint The Marathon

Reference

Harpercollins

The 200-year British presence in India left behind a mixed legacy. We think of the colonial rulers as people who plundered and impoverished our land. Lost in that narrative is the work of the scores of well-intentioned individuals who played a part in shaping modern India. Did you know, for instance, that as far back as the 1850s, a British engineer had chalked out a plan to link all the major rivers of India? Or that tea did not grow in Darjeeling until an English surgeon planted a smuggled Chinese plant in his backyard in the hills? Or that there was an East India Company polyglot who mastered Sanskrit, translated Kalidasa's works into English and then set up the Asiatic Society? Beyond the Call of Duty celebrates a dozen of these British gentlemen who far exceeded their job descriptions, devoting their lives to the greater good of an adopted country - men whose work continues to benet India. They may not have had history books eulogizing them, but they exemplify a work ethic that is rare and relevant today. And therein lies the need to revive these stories - so that we may draw lessons from every quarter of our past to sculpt a better future.

Beyond the Call of Duty

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

HarperCollins India

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Books by RAGHUNATHAN, V.