Thursday, September 1, 2011

The Polyester Prince - Hamish McDonald

I had got hold of this book from Mumbai road side when I was doing my internship, but had never set reading it until the beginning of this year. And even after I began reading this, I had a lot of distractions which hadn't let me complete the book earlier. Again the long weekends and frequent travels I have been doing off late have given me ample time to really spend time with my books, and that is how I got to complete this book.

The book talks about he era of - Dhirubhai Ambani. One of the icons of Indian business. What I loved the most was not the narration, but the links I could see to the history of India post Independence. Having born in this country with rich traditions approximately 35 years after we had gained independence, I have for a long time missed knowing how this country functioned and operated before my birth. I had another agenda when I began reading this book which is about the life of another entrepreneur.

This book has got me to realize not just the hardships Dhirubhai had to face, but also got me to realize how it was to live in an era of license raj. This book also gave me a peep into the importance of policitical back up for a business when its in a phase of scaline up.

Over all an interestin read! You would enjoy it, if you are interested in the business-politico history of a country.

1 comment:

Sreeni said...

True sir.. really an interesting and a worth reading book. But I found it really tough in understanding that factual figures and some data.. even some logic behind the manipulations that Harshad Mehata stuff how he inflated the share price, or that securities swap and all.. but finally happy I read it.