ENDURANCE A year in space, A lifetime of discovery by Scott Kelly #BookReview #FindingTheVoices #Amreading

March 17, 2018March 17, 2018 / Monica Ingudam / Leave a comment

Endurance A year in space, a lifetime of discovery

A book review by Monica Ingudam

Book Title: Endurance

Author: Scott Kelly

Scott Kelly is a former militay fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut and a retired US Navy Captain. He lives in Houston, texas and he was a member of the yearlong mission to the International Space Station. I started following Scott Kelly in twitter while he was in space and totally fell in love with the beautiful #EarthArt pictures he took from space. His pictures opened me to such beautiful creations of nature and I looked forward for his new post. Here are some of the pictures from his twitter feed.

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I tweeted to him couple of times to take a picture of the beautiful hills and valley of Manipur, my birthplace. Well that never did happen but someday someone will take it from space.

I saw Scott Kelly’s book Endurance and I had to read it. He write passionately about his mother and how she was such a good listener and I felt the influence of strength he got from her. His mom was the first police officer in west orange, NJ who taught him the value of goals, plan and hard-work. While he was in space, he was remembering her on her death anniversary and it was touching to see that his girlfriend put flowers on her grave and sent a picture to him. This action made me think on re emphasizing the importance to do things for love which heighten human connections.

Did you know that his inspiration about becoming an astronaut came from reading a book as an 18 year old boy in a tiny stuffy room enthralled by swirling sentences describing long-dead pilots? Yet another point why reading books can really widen your life and why I really encourage you to read and read more. You can read all about his background, experience of his one year in space and thoughts in this beautiful book Endurance at Amazon. I really enjoyed reading it.

Book reviews by Monica Ingudam

Born in Manipur (India), based in Maryland (USA) patent holder for identifying Caller ID, with Computer Science Engineering background, you will find Monica Ingudam crunching numbers and data as an Analyst. During the weekends you will find her hosting FindingTheVoices talk-show featuring authors, artists and people who inspire, empower, educate and entertain with the vision to connect and spread positivity. You will find her reading, writing and painting in her quiet time.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz #BookReview #FindingTheVoices #Amreading

March 11, 2018 / Monica Ingudam / 3 Comments

The Four Agreements

A book review by Monica Ingudam

Book Title: The Four Agreements

Author: Don Miguel Ruiz

Don Miguel Ruiz is a renowned spiritual teacher and internationally bestselling author of the “Toltec Wisdom Series,” including “The Four Agreements,” “The Mastery of Love,” “The Voice of Knowledge,” “The Four Agreements Companion Book,” “The Circle of Fire,” and “The Fifth Agreement.”

He is the youngest of thirteen children, was born in rural Mexico to parents who were healers and practitioners of ancient Toltec traditions. He had a medical background and practiced practiced neurosurgery. A near-fatal car crash forever changed the direction of his life causing him to leave medicine and to examine the essential truth about life and humanity. With his mother’s help, and through her ancestral teachings, he discovered his own path to awareness and understanding of the universe and the mind. He faced the near death experience again when he had a heart attack and a heart transplant. He is has dedicated his life to sharing his message to promote transformation and ultimately change lives for the better. In his interview with Oprah Winfrey he speaks very candidly about being so prepared of death.

I saw this cute small size book with a colorful cover with the title “The Four Agreements“ and I reached out flipping though the words and read it in one sitting. It’s a small book with simple and yet powerful agreements:

Be impeccable with your words: Speak only what you mean. Avoid gossip.
Don’t take anything personally: What others say and do is a projection of their own reality.
Don’t make assumptions: Communicate clearly to avoid misunderstandings. It’s better to ask questions and clarify rather than being bogged down by assumptions.
Always do your best: No matter what, always do your best. Take the action and create your ideas. I love this agreement and no matter what others may think or judge, it doesn’t really matter as long as I did my best.

The world needs more joy and it’s amazing to find interesting experiences of people who changed their ways of life and purpose after facing death very closely. I plan to check out his other books too. You can get his books “The Four Agreements,” “The Mastery of Love,” “The Voice of Knowledge,” “The Four Agreements Companion Book,” “The Circle of Fire,” and “The Fifth Agreement.” at Amazon.

Book reviews by Monica Ingudam

Shamanic Healing by Itzhak Beery #BookReview #FindingTheVoices #Amreading

March 4, 2018 / Monica Ingudam / 4 Comments

Shamanic Healing

A book review by Monica Ingudam

Book Title:Shamanic Healing

Author: Itzhak Beery

Publication: Destiny Books 2017, 240 pages.

Shamans and Shamanism has always caught my interest from childhood seeing many of the rituals, speaking in tongues, different musical instruments for different rituals, offerings in Manipur (India). It’s interesting to see more and more people in the western world learning, practicing and talking about this. You will find many participating in the drum and sunrise ritual in a park right in New York City. I picked up Itzhak Beery’s book Shamanic Healing and flipped the pages with fascination as he shared about the rituals, smokes, candles, herbs, stories of his healing sessions.

I started looking up on Itzhak Beery as I was midway in the book. I learned that he is from Israel, currently based in New York. He started being a skeptic and yet being very drawn to Shamans and Shamanism. He was initiated by his Quechua teacher in Ecuador and into the healing tradition of his Amazonian Kanamari paje teacher and has been practicing for 2o years now. On a personal note, it’s really sad to learn that he had removed his cancer via a surgery in Nov 2010 but it came back again after 6 years. He shared the emphasis in integrating traditional medicine for cure and shamanism for healing.

I watched videos of his demonstration of a guided drumming shamanic journey using power animal spirit to connect to the different level of energy to the universe. His spiritual work focuses on connecting to nature and helping others of finding life purpose and understand life’s lessons healing them in the process. It’s interesting to read about the transformation and different experiences after the different shamanic journey and techniques.

I see that he also wrote two books The Gift of Shamanism and Shamanic Transformations other than the book Shamanic Healing which I read. I plan to read the others too. You can find them in Amazon.

Book reviews by Monica Ingudam

15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy by Luminita D Saviuc #BookReview #FindingTheVoices #Amreading

November 28, 2017March 2, 2018 / Monica Ingudam / 2 Comments

15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy by Luminita D. Saviuc

A book review by Monica Ingudam

Book Title:15 Things you should give up to be happy

Author: Luminita D saviuc

Publication: Perigee, 2016, 189 pages.

I had to read this book when the introduction has “… liberated, financially, independent, self-expressed and free to travel the world to enjoy beautiful locations…”. My exact thoughts were printed in this book. I picked up the small size book which I love with the thought “Who is the author who has exacted my thoughts into words?”. I learnt that the author is Luminita D Saviuc, founder of PurposeFairy.com

Here are three points I want to share with you today:

“Don’t look for faults, look for the lessons in everything that happened to you. Look for the good in the bad, look for the beautiful in the ugly. Being positive and having a grateful attitude will help you cope with life’s challenges in a healthier and more empowering way.” Though this was not the first time I am introduced with this concept, I guess I was ready to receive this information, so I took some time to pick some scenarios in my life where I saw faults and tried to look for the good. It was hard. How could there be any good when it caused such pain? I looked harder to see the beautiful. It took time, days but slowly I could find the lessons learnt and the beauty in it. This could be a powerful exercise. Try it!
“Accept the past the way it is, with both the good and the bad, because only by accepting what happened will you be able to leave it all behind and work on crafting a brand-new life for yourself.” Again not a new thing, right? We have heard many time about accepting the past and moving on but what caught me was the later part on crafting a brand-new you. If you want to change to a new you , you have to let go of the past. Again looks simple, maybe difficult to implement but when you get into the awareness of catching your thoughts in lamenting in the past, get yourself into activities creating the new you, and use the time to create the new you. Try and experience your own transformation with this exercise.
“Blaming is a waste of time and energy. It does no good, not to you and not to those you are blaming. And the less time you spend blaming, criticizing and complaining the more time you will have left to heal yourself, your wounds and your life.” It’s all about getting control of your time. Do you want to fill your time with blaming others or you want to utilize it in filling with things that uplifts you. The awareness of catching self in the blame game is a good time to pull back, have some quiet time and get control of your time. It’s a continuous practice but a powerful one in transforming yourself.

There are many things Luminita addressed in this book in a simple yet wise way. I really enjoyed this book with her style of narration with her own personal journey. You can find this book at Amazon.

Book reviews by Monica Ingudam

My Journey by Dr. Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei #BookReview #AmReading #FindingTheVoices

January 2, 2017February 25, 2018 / Monica Ingudam / Leave a comment

My Journey by Dr. Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei

A book review by Monica Ingudam

Book Title: My Journey

Author: Dr. Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei

Publisher: International Meeteis Forum, Yaiskul, Moirangthem, Imphal West, Manipur 795001

My Journey is the autobiography of Dr. Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei, Mr World 2013 in bodybuilding INBA, born in Manipur and presently teaching as an English Professor at Taiwan. This book captures his journey of his life starting from Manipur to Delhi and his migration to Taiwan.

Dr. Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei, author of the book “My Journey”

Mr.Ngangbam Shantikumar Meetei had mentioned about his book when I took his interview during Season 1 of FindingTheVoices and I really wanted to read it. I contacted International Meeteis Forum to get a copy of this book during one of my previous trip in Imphal, Manipur. And to my surprise, I received a complimentary copy from Mr. A. Anilkumar, advisor of IMF and I bought another copy.

This book was lying in my ever increasing “To Read” pile and finally last week I picked it up. I started reading it and I just couldn’t stop turning the pages.

Reading the first 3 chapters which covers his childhood and growing up, I felt such love and remembrance for his mother. He wrote in simple English with a good story telling flow and I could feel the little boy’s voice as the book progressed. So much hunger and poverty for a young little boy filled with dreams bringing tears as I read. No one should be as hungry as he had experienced.

He has touched upon many aspects of life and articulated his dreams, love, adventure, poverty, education, family relations and racism very well. And in his narration, I could feel the honesty where he balanced and mentioned both his low and high points of his journey. I love the photographs added in the book that aided the narration very well. It’s interesting to read the chapter covering about meeting his wife and his thoughts on love at first sight versus learning to love. He shared his comparison of infrastructure and system of Manipur and Taiwan. He shared about the intense support system amongst family members, and also shared about the complexities, fall out and family dynamics of relationship amongst family members after marriage.

The book could use some editing in correcting some of the spelling mistakes. I don’t think it’s fair to generalize as a culture that wives in Manipur control the money matters of the family (page 97). Also I differ to agree on his opinion on classifying individuals opting trends of same-sex, no marriage, no children to be individuals who don’t care much about society or the future (page 288).

To me, this book is about love and attachment to your mother and motherland, chasing your dream, being adventurous, having an open mind to face life and never giving up. This book is also about hard work, struggles, pains, frustrations, disappointments before tasting success and winning.

I would definitely recommend you to read this book to both Manipuri and Non Manipuri readers.

Non Manipuri readers will get a glimpse on the background, adjustments and homesickness the students and people coming out of Manipur go through, staying in other parts of India, their fears and insecurity giving you a different perspective on how some of the words and incidents however trivial it may sound gets into the psyche of a person.

Book reviews by Monica Ingudam

Born in Manipur (India), based in Maryland (USA) patent holder for identifying Caller ID, with Computer Science Engineering background, you will find Monica Ingudam crunching numbers and data as an Analyst. During the weekends you will find her hosting FindingTheVoices talk-show featuring authors, artists and people who inspire, empower, educate and entertain with the vision to connect and spread positivity. You will find her reading, writing and painting in her quiet time.