Dare To Live! By Himanshu Bhatia | Book Review

The modern competitive world comes with so many technological advancements and its side-effects. Balancing in this competitive era is really tough.

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The life in the corporate world is even more challenging. Actually, you get some fantastic perks in those jobs. It all depends upon the management, especially your immediate boss, your team and top management. You may have a really “meaningful and enjoyable” life there due to them. Or they can make it a “hell” too. It depends upon the persona of the individual(s) you work with, rather then their corporate position.

Himanshu Bhatia is a talented author and we know him since his book Just Missed. Here is a quick link to our unbiased review for the same:

• Just Missed By Himanshu Bhatia

A few months ago his second book Dare To Resign Live! is released. Though, we got our review copy since long, it took time for its turn to come, as we have a long list of books to be read and reviewed.

From our team I got a chance to read it, and I am really happy for this opportunity as reading this book was an interesting experience for me.

Book Cover:

Let us take a look at the cover page of this book, the gateway to the virtual world explored within.

As the dark times the protagonist is facing in his professional life is explored in the book, along with the challenging situations the “Corona virus” brought for all, the dark background suits the back cover. It also represents the polished looking corporate world. The illustration of a lady boss adding pressure to one of her poor employee, reflects the theme of the book quite well. The “striked” letters for “resign” reflecting a cardiogram is very thoughtful. The red and white colored text used for title adds to the detail.

A very thoughtful and interesting cover page.

Storyline:

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the plot.

Atharv Arora, is a young and enthusiastic professional working in a corporate. He is blessed with a good and loving family. Like his parents, his wife Gauri is also very understanding and caring. To add to his luck, Atharv is fortunate to have Varun as his immediate boss. Varun is a gem of a person and his way of leading a team is really effective and humane.

Atharv is offered a promotion where his department and team has to be changed. For his career, it seems a good opportunity. Mandira Sharma, will be his new boss, if he accept the offer. He consulted Varun and eventually made his decision to move ahead in the race of life.

Mandira is a kind of boss who loves to get reported for minute things. Actually, she expects that her team members should devote all their time to the work they are doing. Nothing else matters. It isn’t wrong to say that she consider her team members as mere subjects or robots.

The work environment is really twisted for Atharv. Of course, he is a dedicated person and hard-work is not something he shy of doing. Will he be able to set in this new work regime? How the things move ahead from here? And yes, the Corona Pandemic had also shown its ugly face. Will it affect Atharv and/or his family? Will it affect his work/life balance? Well, you need to read this book to get the answers.

Views And Reviews:

Spread over in 21 chapters, “Dare to Resign Live” by Himanshu Bhatia is a fictional account of a corporate employee and the people around whom his life revolves. The USP of the book is the realistic exploration of situations. The way, Himanshu has explored the things, is really commendable.

Most of the people who have worked / are working in the corporate world will be able to connect with it quite easily.

Does that mean, other readers may not connect with it?

No, absolutely not.

Even if you haven’t worked in such environment then also, you must have seen others working in the field and and may have heard their experiences.

In addition, the book has a lot of other stuff to explore. The middle-class family life, The tour to Paris, Corona pandemic, social events,… there are so many things you can connect with, quite easily.

I also like to quote an important point from author’s thoughts mentioned in this book.

As my bit to the Work for Smiles initiative, for every copy of this book sold, 10 rupees will be directly contributed and spent on a social cause.

We really appreciate him for this initiative.

The author gives us the glimpses of what to expect from the book before even the prologue. In the dedication page you will find:

To the horrible bosses and their poor slaves

The block shows (23:50) – to add to the impact.

The book starts with a very positive note, referring Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, one of the most loved presidents of India (that is Bharat).

2020 – the year by which India was supposed to be a superpower, a developed country as per the vision of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the former president of India, stated in his book – India 2020.

It stars with the incidents happened during March 2020 in Delhi, India and eventually you are introduced to a thread starting from November 2018 in Gurgaon India. There is a segment exploring 2016 timeline as well. The exploration of COVID situation and how it affects the lives of all the prime characters of the book, makes it contemporary.

Here is an interesting block that not only shows the contemporary situation, but also explores the persona of the “boss” from the protagonist’s point of view.

While people across the country were learning to come to terms with being locked in their homes to avoid being infected by the Corona virus, I was on the call with the virus in my life.

To cement the persona of the “boss”, author tags conversations like:

“Atharv,” she interjected, “As you’re aware, we’re working with really tight deadlines on this. I believe it would save us 15-20 minutes if you would have your tea at your desk …”

Two weeks passed by in a blur under the pressure of the enormous amount of work on the new product, much more than I had anticipated, thanks to Mandira’s signature working style of complicating things…

The book has some management gems as well:

Planning has to be realistic. If it takes three months to complete a project on a realistic basis, making a finishing milestone at the end of two-and-a-half moths makes sense. You are then likely to finish the project on time. However, if you plan to complete the same project in a month’s time, you not only will miss the one-month deadline for certain, but are also likely to overshoot the realistic three-months deadline. This understanding is nothing new or great; it’s common sense. …

The author is good at exploring characters. Almost all the characters are explored so nicely that you find them realistic. The persona of – Atharv Arora, Mandira Sharma, Varun, Vaibhav, Pooja Batra, Kartik, Ranjan, Gauri, Niharika, Chaitanya, and others, will remain with you even after you complete the book. And while reading it you may be able to connect them with some people you know! I consider it as the success of the author.

The author is good at wordplays. Here is an example:

I have realized over time that in the corporate world, human bosses often mistake themselves to be pseudo Gods, or rather pCeudo Gods (pseudo corporate gods).

Wow! To continue the impactful conversation, the author adds:

By Virtue of their position, they consider themselves above all. While they see themselves as indispensable, their reportees are mere replaceable robots to them who are expected to work according to their whims and fancies. Getting new ones is a s easy for them as placing an order on Amazon.

You will enjoy the exploration of “Paris Trip” and would love to see Paris and the protagonist’s travel journey – from author’s point of view. The way he has infused “office work pressure” within, is commendable.

There are many aspects of the book but talking about them will eventually will reveal many spoilers from the book, which I want to avoid as far as possible.

The book is not about the negative sides of the corporate world. It also has some fantastic bosses like:

“…A manager is happy as long as his team members are!” Varun replied, and I counted my blessings for having got such an awesome manage.

The book ends on a positive note and conveying a very meaningful message:

While the pandemic wasn’t under your control, you are your own master. Don’t let a virus sow the seeds of negativity in your feelings and attitude. …
Hold on to your humanity, your empathy, and your humility even after the pandemic recedes. Be a good human being.

Summary:

An interestingly written book exploring realistic situations in corporate world and modern lifestyle. Working professionals will be able to connect with it quite easily. I liked reading it.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7.5 to 8 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy - Dare To Live! by Himanshu Bhatia - Paperback - Amazon IN
• Buy - Dare To Live! by Himanshu Bhatia - Kindle EBook - Amazon IN
• Buy - Dare To Live! by Himanshu Bhatia - Paperback - Amazon US
• Buy - Dare To Live! by Himanshu Bhatia - Kindle EBook - Amazon US

Over To You:

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