Book Review - My Stroke of Luck

                                                    

About the Book

 

Title: My Stroke  of Luck

Author: Vijay Santhanam

Publisher: Hay House

ISBN:  978-93-81431-95-5

No. of Pages: 231

Price: 299 INR

Genre: Inspirational

  

About the Author

 

Vijay Santhanam was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He is graduated from the University of Roorkee – now Indian Institute of technology(IIT), Roorkee – in 1986 and the IIM – Ahmedabad in 1988. His 21 years of corporate career included senior marketing roles with Procter and Gamble and BP. Having Planned for, and happily taken, early retirement from corporate life, Vijay is now able to pursue his passions more fully – writing, teaching, following sports and other interest. His published books include (co-authored with Shyam Balasubramanian). If Cricket is a Religion, Sachin is God in 2009 and The Business of Cricket: The story of Sports Marketing in India in 2011. Vijay is also a visiting professor at IIM-A and IIM-Lucknow. He is currently based in Singapore.

 

The Cover Speaks

 

The light lemon yellow colour with a tinge of red gives the book a pleasant look. The flowers embedded inside the human brain circuitry symbolises the ray of hope and determination Vijay had after he suffered from the stroke.

 

Synopsis

 

When Vijay Santhanam was afflicted with a stroke at the age of 41, he was paralysed on the right side of his body. He couldn’t move without help and he couldn’t speak at all. But he soon realised that his powers of reasoning/thought were not lost to him. And he garnered his spirit and willpower within him to work at regaining his health and faculties; a stroke wasn’t going to get him down.

Vijay goes on to get back to work, to write two books on one of the biggest passions of his life – cricket, a sport that was one of his greatest inspirations while in hospital and on the road to recovery, and to teach at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow.

This is the inspiring story of a man who didn’t waste time bemoaning his fate; his immediate agenda was to understand what could make him healthy again and to start with, to return to the life he’d known before as a regional head of marketing in a multinational company in Singapore. My Stroke of Luck: Alphabet to Author is Vijay’s journey through long, sometimes painful, and often frustrating, months of therapy, relearning the alphabet and learning new strengths: emotional, mental and physical.

Vijay’s attempt is not to describe the human brain and how it works in a scientific manner but to celebrate a man’s inspiring journey. He believes when a human being is confronted by a big crisis, often she/he summons all her/his spirit and willpower to fight back and win. His story is testimony and an eloquent example of it.

Book Review

 

The tagline of the book clearly and rightly states it's one man’s inspiring tale about his journey from adversity to victory and undoubtedly instills a path to motivate others to cope and win against any adversity that our life throws at us. Though some medical terms are being used by the author to describe the stroke and body conditions but at the end he succeeds in making the reader understand how he fought against the stroke with his never-say-die attitude and care of his friends and family.
 

In a Nutshell

 

It's an inspiring story one must read to realize that nothing can stop a man from bouncing back to life not even the deadly disease. Life is all about living each day to the fullest despite of all the adversities being thrown at us.

 

My Rating

 

3/5

 

 

Hioy'oy Hoi Polloi

JJJ

 

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