#BookReview: The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions... and Created Plenty of Controversy

The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy by Leigh Gallagher
My rating: 3.8 of 5 stars

Who thought two guys with a background in designing would build an empire that would disrupt the whole hospitality market and make top hotel, motel players and public policy people sweat! Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky with Nate Belecharczyk challenged the odds. Three guys had one simple idea and a mission to build on something that already existed. They tapped on the need for the future and with an understanding of the needs of millennial- Airbnb was launched. A tech company that disrupted the world in less than a decade. They are the largest accommodation & experience providers without owning any property. They call themselves missionaries, not visionaries!

The story of Airbnb is not just a storybook but a whole compendium of how a simple idea grew, challenges it faced, kept going with thousands of enemies and where it would be taken in the near future. Journalist, Leigh Gallagher has done justice to the idea with his work. A very well researched book, thoroughly explained instances unbiased information sharing makes it a pleasant read. One can get a clear picture of what kind of people are the founders and what it takes to build something like this up! The book is intense and requires rapt attention of the reader. The detailing of public policies, disclaimers and compliances of the states that a company/startup/citizen needs to follow part might spin-off your head. However, it does get balanced out in the chapter like "The Bad & the Ugly" and "Learning to lead".
In the end, I would recommend this book to all the people who are looking to build something up in the hospitality sector, or part of this industry. It will definitely give you many insights & fair idea of how it all works.

My take away is- "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organise"- Chris Lehane.

#BookReview: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some books click with your thoughts. And then some others grow on you. A man called OVE fits in the latter category. I bought this book because of its fantastic marketing and good word-of-mouth by many other readers. I bought the book and started it quite excitedly. Little did I know that I will fall asleep within the two chapters. I was bored to death and couldn't connect with the book. I put it back on the shelf. After complaining about the book to half of the world and regretting my purchase, something made me pick the book again. Lo and behold, I don't regret my choice this time. The moment chapter 4 ended in the book, I got glued to it. The storyline is warm, engaging and simple. It is full of witty remarks by the lead character, love quotes by the side characters, and a lot of emotions as well as ongoing suspense of death is present. The story is explained retrospectively with the present and past of the Ove's life, which makes it more appealing.

The lead character Ove is the one we all fall for, but I believe what made all of us love OVE is his love for Sonja, the side character. She has been written beautifully like all the other characters in the book who are very well spaced out. The build-up is gaped thoroughly in the book.

I do accept that there have been some moments when I had tears in my eyes while reading. And I feel other readers might experience that too. My review for this book is 4.5/5 as I know this is going to be among one of those books which I am going to visit again.

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Faith in the time of Kalyug

It just feels like yesterday when I wished to earn a specific award within my work industry and noticed how the universe listened to my smallest wish & conspired to make it my life’s reality after 3 years. It was not only a proud moment for my mom but a fulfilment of her faith in her current god. Yes, “Current God”. 

My mother is a religious woman. She worships her divine photo-frames and sand sculpture 2-3 hrs every day. During festival season her love for them gets overwhelming that she starves the whole family till death until her divine frames are fed! Yeah, her passion can compete with the love of Meera for Krishna. With my blurred memory, I remember her having Ram & Sita, Krishna, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and infinity pics of god fixed on a small table. She made sure, my bother & I also love them as much as she did. Being a confused kid, while performing the rituals I look at all of them and then thought about how to worship them? Ram Ji ko pehle namaste kia toh Krishna bhagwan ko bura toh nahi lagega? (If I worship Ram before Krishna, will Krishna get offended?). I mean how to decide whom to worship first? Thanks to neighbours aunties and their farthest cousin's maid success story with a specific god, made my confusion easier. I started worshipping that particular god first and rest later. If I am facing trouble on a Saturday, I used to start chanting “Jai Shani Dev”, If Tuesdays are going bad then I turn towards Hanuman Ji. Or if I knew, I am not going to score well in final exams then March’s Navaratri is where I spent all my pocket money on Durga Maa ka diya & parshaad.

My faith in the almighty was switching according to my needs and desires. However, it didn’t take me much time to realise this pattern and the charge of this unfaithfulness behaviour was taken care off. I also realised that this pattern was not only followed by me, but it was passed on to me by my family seniors and to them from their surrounding and to them from their surroundings. Basically, a vicious circle. Thanks to some meditation sessions and a lot of reading on culture & religion, I moved to spirituality and with some more self-introspection with time I realised how we as a human are ready to shift our faith on that supreme power which we only believe is the provider of everything. How we start believing that watering a specific plant on a Sunday morning and milking a stone will wash our sins and make the magic work in our favour. How we not being faithful towards our own faith and expect a favourable return. Well being a young and naïve in this area I don’t know if this system right or wrong, but I do understand that people’s faith on god is now same as a person's faith on another person in time of Kalyug

Their love won! They got married!

Their love won! They got married! 

Won? What you mean by winning here? Getting married is a win? All you got is a legal badge to live together with your love in this so-called society. You still need to figure out ways as to how your love is going to sustain. 

We worship a love story that never got a legal stamp of society, in the form of Radha & Krishna. We believe it is as pure. 

So, people next time when you decide to focus on winning your love via marriage, please think again. Rise in it and make it work rather than labelling it because it is not a race that you need to win darling.

I decided to jot down my random short thought. Happy to hear yours :)

Being Dark is a gift that I'm born with

I remember my childhood days when I was constantly criticized for my dark complexion. Being the only dark skin child in the house made me a soft target for all my relatives and neighbourhood aunties, who are always ready with uncalled for sympathy for Pooja being a dark-skinned “GIRL”. Not only this, they also had tips and tricks to make my skin look better and fairer. These tips were shared with my Mom and Taiji. The bullying was not limited to just the neighbourhood. It continued till my school, where the academicians also played a major role.

The pressure of being part of a society and applying the products was not only physically painful but drained me out mentally as well. It’s not only made me feel under-confident at my instances but also left some deep scars on my soul. It took me a long time to get comfortable with my own skin and to learn to stop accepting the beauty standards set by the westerners and great grand ancestors whose bills I’m paying.

Being born with a dark skin is not a choice I have made, but it is something I’m gifted with. Saying “Dark is Beautiful” and “Tan is in” sound easy to ears but difficult for heart & brain to under

stand. There are many initiatives started by the designers, activists, brands and celebrity for this are not enough. The work needs to start on the ground today itself. Where we not only telling our girls that beauty is not about fairness but teaching our boys as well as us that “Beauty is being confident/comfortable with oneself”.

What Dark-Skinned People Will Never Tell You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76X4JvjpXug

Inspired by TTT

The Very Moment of reality check. 

Things you have to deal with when you stay friends with your Ex!

Well, the day Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone found their neutral ground with each other, every media platform got flooded with the 5, 10, 50, 1000 & infinite ways on how to be friends with your ex. Being friends with your ex is a new trend, and Bollywood celebs become idols.

Well, when each article on the web is talking about how to be friends with your ex, I wanted to tell the world what it feels like to be friends with him/her. How exactly you are going to feel when you are letting these points lead you your life:

1. It’s not easy to deal with their present partner

"We are best friends", "we can leave every issue aside and carry forward with the life,", "It's totally cool with me if he/she is dating someone else," -such lines are expected. But the fact is, having shared deep intimacy with someone and now watching the same person with someone else that close HURTS (in caps).

2. Getting to know the details from others

"We are good friends. We have moved on."

Hey Y, did you know WHAT your "X" was doing with this girl last night?

Y : * 2-minute silence*

Yeah, such conversations will be normal in your life and dealing with them would be as difficult.

Being friends might not kill your affection and feelings for them. Their secure connection with someone else is going to HURT YOU (again in caps). It's heartbreaking!

3. Being Physical

Sex is a basic need. Primarily, when you are with your ex. It's like an Ebola, tough to stop, and when one gets infected, it becomes impossible to find a stop. In the end, all you are left with is an awkward situation or a bad memory. Cure: Don't do it!!!! Not every "Friends with Benefits" story will end as Jamie and Dylan. 

4. Rehashing the past

No matter how hard you try, there will always be some situation when you will slap the past on each other’s face. “You are still the same”, “God, you haven't changed a bit”, “You are still holding onto that fight” —such quotes will pop up one way or the other.

5. Keep the hope on

All the care, love & affection you share in the friendship gives you back hope, that too, the false ones. Hope that one fine day, you two will be back together like “Break ke Baad Imran & Deepika”. You will create a fairytale-like the ones are in Nicolas Spark’s stories. These wrong indications will keep you distracted with all the good things that might have made your life better. No matter how much you convince yourself, but this will never let you move on.

I’m not saying all of it right. I am also not saying that being friends with your ex is wrong, and many people would have never faced the above situations. But that percentage is very less. I’m just saying that it’s not easy to leave your past and move forward, we think we can fix the negativity with the friendship-thing, but we always forget the simple law of mankind that- sometimes you only have to accept things, not to fix them.