Sudeep spoke about Lolita by Nabakov, a book he has mixed emotions about. He appreciates that Nabakov succeeded in taking up such a challenge- turning the abhorrent actions of a pedophile into beautiful text and elaborating on obsession, lust and delusion. “Russian authors have always delighted me,” Sudeep said. The subsequent discussion about ‘Lolita’ covered a book called Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi and the realization that pedophilia is a staple in many cultures in the world. Read this essay about why reading Lolita can be so difficult.

But Sudeep was more taken by a book about meditation called The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science by Culadasa John Yates, Immergut Matthew and Jeremy Graves.

“It’s as comprehensive a book on meditation as you will ever find.  The book provides a step by step guide to meditation and incorporates Buddhist teachings, neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Some things the authors mention include the importance of daily meditation, how to stabilize attention, settling distractions and building attention, challenges a meditator faces.”

You can listen to Culadasa to get a brief introduction to the subject of how to calm your mind.

Ralph fancied a book about how to get inside your customer’s mind. Since in India, a large number of entrepreneurs are into the services industry, this topic sparked off a long discussion about the effectiveness of  UI, communication secrets, climbing the ladder, etc.

Ari picked a non-fiction book on similar lines called Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace by the successful Brazilian entrepreneur, Ricardo Semler. “Semler’s company is the most democratic, the kind of place where future bosses are interviewed by existing employees. When he inherited the company from his father, he decided to give the employees more of a say. They arranged the office with the decor they desired. They even decided on their own salaries. I genuinely feel that micro-level practices like these will benefit larger companies.”

You may want to hear a Ted Talk by Ricardo Semler.

And with that, we come to the end of the BYOB Party in May!