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Good luck and 13 ?

Triskaideaphobia – the fear of number 13, is rampant in hotel rooms, in aeroplane flight seatings, in the quest for ‘auspicious days’ and in Friday the 13th.

Ashwin Sanghi deliberately flaunts ‘13 rules’ as a thumbs down for superstition. He re-defines luck from ‘chance’ to ‘choice’ and  from ‘destiny’ to ‘definitely achievable’, from ‘trial and error’ to ‘trainable’ and from ‘probable’ to ‘practical’.

Genre: Non-Fiction. 13 stepsto bloody good luck

Pros: Sanghi quotes ,’Easy reading is damn hard writing.’

Well, he makes this an easy reading, replete with –

a] Snappy anecdotes about Who’s Who of successful personas in sports, politics, films, business, literature and art. Read Lincoln, Gandhi, Steve Jobs, JRD Tata, Beethoven SRK, Manekshaw etc.

b] Snap-of-the-fingers lists: 13 key attitudes mnemonic-ked into CAUSE RIPPLES (confidence in ideas, alertness to opportunities, unlearn prejudices, situation analysis etc); 5 drivers of Emotional Quotient; 9 categories of human needs; 3 categories of fear.

c]  Quotes and zany one liners: for example, ‘Winners quit, quit often and quit without guilt’,  ‘ Learn to ignore criticism by first learning to ignore applause’, ‘ Kindest word in the world is the unkind word left unsaid.’

d] Surprise moments and ‘Guess-who?’ galore: ***SPOILER ALERT*** – Dileep Kumar transforms into A.R. Rahman, Issur Danielovitch into Kirk Douglas, Abhas Ganguly into Kishore Kumar, as they grab, wrangle, wrestle and pulp good luck into golden opportunities.

Cons: In hindsight, everybody has 20: 20 vision.

So, I knew every anecdote, risk, decision and situation would end up as a triumph. There were no ‘failed calculated risks’ or ‘disastrous ventures’.

I mean, for every SRK there are many starry eyed hopefuls who end up at the fag end of stardom. For every Tata, there are risk-takers who end up suicidal in bankruptcy.

So, like I said, ‘Good luck is in retrospect – not as a prophesy’

Verdict: Easy read. Quotable. Inspiring. Slim volume.

Pages : 148.

Publishers: Westland.

Cover Design: Very innovative.