When I Was From Mexico....book thoughts on Greencard Warrior by Nick Adams

"Where are you from?" a friendly old man asked me in a Walmart in Minnesota, circa 2005. "India," I said. "Where is that?" "Near China. In Asia," I said assuming he knew where China was. "You are not Asian," he said, still smiling. "Yes, I am." "No. I don't think so. You are not Asian. I know a lot of Asians," he said, not very friendly anymore. This was annoying. I suspected he was concluding that I was an illegal immigrant not ready to reveal my home country. "You are from Mexico, right?" "Yes!!" I said with a smile and walked out not sure what to make of the bizarre conversation. This was one of my first experiences of being a foreigner. I later realized I did look Hispanic :D

In the book Greencard Warrior, Nick Adams is an Australian who faces immigration challenges that can thwart his career and financial standing in the US due to a visa issue. Though the book is entertaining and partisan (Nick is a conservative commentator), it mostly details the procedural issues. It has some interesting drama due to alleged mistreatment of his case by a liberal Vice Counsel in Australian US Consulate.

But for high skilled immigrant applicants from countries like India, these procedural issues are ten times harder and cause huge unexpected changes in life. A recent example is of a neurologist couple and their family who lead a well-settled life and attend to hundreds of patients are asked to leave the country on a short notice because of a documentation error in their immigration papers. They have been living in the US for 15 years and have been stuck in the Greencard backlog for a decade.

One of the good things about the book was to bring to the notice of the Trump administration, the bureaucratic issues with the legal immigration process. Hopefully, this is addressed soon.

Failing Fast As A Writer - book thoughts on The Author Startup

Full-time book authors were generally considered bearded leftist losers who always wore cheap footwear, large chequered shirt and hung out in chalk smelling classrooms of local public schools to talk about some latest book from an eminent author who had succeeded because of political support. Nowadays, full-time authors sport chic beards, wear expensive sports coats and are found typing away on their Macbooks in cozy coffee shops.

I have failed in many things but haven't failed as a published author yet. I was told that publishing a book through Amazon was a piece of cake. The Author Startup is a quick read to walk you through the process of writing a digital book, publishing it and marketing it on Amazon. The essence of the book - everything else can be figured out and is not complicated, but you need to have a compelling story to tell. Takeaway - fail fast fail often as a writer...quickest road to success.

Fantastic Story Of Sad Success... book thoughts on Hatching Twitter

I do fear success (material).

Not just my success but success of my friends and relatives, the institutions I volunteer with, the causes I stand for. What happens when you achieve the American Dream, the Indian Dream or the Chinese Dream? Would you be able to handle success or would you let it rule you leading you to a path that will brings down everyone? Especially close relationships?

Good people get together, become friends and accidentally create Twitter. But as Twitter becomes popular, friends disintegrate, playing politics, finally throwing out the core team members. This is an awesome story captured beautifully by Nick Bilton from its very humble starts, ecstatic moments covering Oprah's first tweet, race between Ashton Kutcher & CNN for a million followers plus many others and it's corporate politics that reminds me of House of Cards.

Delightful read!!!

Staying With Sheryl...book thoughts on Option B

It was a betrayal. I hated Sheryl Sandberg when she moved from Google to Facebook (though I was never employed by Google or did not own any of it's stocks then. I always loved Google for it's products).

Then I read Lean In. That is a stellar book to be read by every career woman and man. I did develop a great respect for her.

Option B is a good read to follow Sheryl's life after the tragic death of her husband Dave. There are few great points in the book about handling personal tragedy as well as communicating with someone who has had personal tragedy recently.

Good book but will need to like Sheryl to stay with it till the end