Mommyshravmusings, Book Reviews

Book Review: It Happened in Bengaluru by Absum

Blogchatter team has offered me the book, “It Happened in Bengaluru – where a Winner resigned to Conquer” for my review as a part of the Blogchatter Book Review program. This book deals with the corporate world and especially the downsizing and its after-effects in the IT world. Having gone through most of the incidents listed in the book, it was quite interesting for me.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Motivational Self-help

Author: Absum

Publisher: Notion Press

Available at: Amazon, Notion Press, Good Reads

Book Review of It Happened in Bengaluru by Absum

The Plot:

Aryan is the main protagonist in this book. He works in the middle management level in an IT company, which has been hit badly during the recession. So, the story revolves around Aryan and his hardships he is facing in his career both from the management side and his team side. He is kind of sandwiched between both ends and on the verge of frustration, he decides to resign. Then comes the entry of the famous fictitious character CB into the book. How CB helps Aryan overcome all his problems by teaching him the most important management lessons from unknown and novel sources is the storyline of the book “It Happened in Bengaluru“.

My Thoughts:

The author (Absum) has used a novel idea of bringing Chess Board (CB) to real life and act as the mentor to Aryan. The Chess Board comes to life at the right moment in Aryan’s life and the principles he teaches Aryan are in fact quite simple and yet powerful in nature. In their first meeting itself, one can understand based on the conversation between CB and Aryan, that CB is only simple principles, which people have long forgotten in the rat race of the corporate world.

CB says to Aryan: Life and business have some rules protocol that you must adhere to. Plan your action and make your moves as per the plan and don’t forget to play fair.

CB introduces various characters like LKS, Major, Dr. Neeta, Priya, and of course the author himself Absum to Aryan. Each of them teaches Aryan the different aspects of Project Management using the Chess Board analogies. All of them are experts in Chess and keep playing at various levels. So they use chessboard analogies quite easily and those analogies also gel with the situation or the problem Aryan is facing at that point in time.

Another important conversation that struck my mind for longer is between Major and Aryan. During this conversation, Major explains the basic building blocks for people management.

“To understand, know and think like the people whom we would have to manage”

I wish if this principle is practiced by the middle management layer, then we will have more leaders in our country rather than managers.

Another important aspect I liked in this book is about finding one’s real purpose for being in this world at this particular place and time. Having a high-paying job and a happy family is not just enough. There is something more that has to be achieved and that’s the reason for God to send us here to this place and time.

Related Read: Shadow in Mirror Book Review

What could have been better:

For the people who doesn’t have the background in Chess or even in the IT field few words and terms are difficult to understand. It would have been better, if those terms are explained in a little better way at the end of the book as a glossary of sorts.

In between, the flow of the book sags a little bit in the lengthy conversations between Major and Aryan or CB and Aryan. Those make the reader feel that this book is full of conversations.

Lastly, I felt that the important managerial principles or mantras could be highlighted in a different font for the reader to have a quick reference.

My recommendations:

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It Happened in Bengaluru” is an excellent read for all the people in the Corporate sector, especially those in the IT field. This book reveals management principles and deep spiritual principles with relative ease and easy-to-read style. Also, this is a good book for all the Chess lovers out there, as it’s filled with a lot of Chess analogies and chess-o-logy facts.

I would definitely recommend this book to all readers, irrespective of the field they are in, as the spiritual questions and principles this book discusses are really good and needs some deep thinking from the reader’s end.

About the Author:

Absum is an exuberant author who writes to share thoughts and experiences with the purpose of learning from the experience of others. He is the author of ‘it happened in Bengaluru’, a fable inspired by the game of chess. His book is about solving complex real-life situations using the strategies that a good chess player deploys while playing a challenging game. His writing style is imaginative, mysterious, and meaningful. He is a strong advocate of learning from sports for management and believes that management professionals can learn much more from sports than anyone can imagine. You can reach him on Social Media at:

Twitter: Author Absum

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