Why Not? – Lata Upadhyay

Why Not?
-Lata Upadhyay
Leadstart Publishing

Have you seen someone receiving an award or a recognition or being applauded for a brave action? As they stand on the centre of the stage, everyone would be praising their achievement and in fact would be even jealous of their position. They would be just witnessing the current glory the hero is receiving. What they wouldn’t know or in-fact wouldn’t care to know is what struggles the hero underwent to be in this position. These heros are not born in a day. They grew amidst hardships and challenges. And all have one thing in common, ‘Why Not?’. Yes, all these great personalities would have challenged a status quo and questioned the world or themselves with a simple yet tough question – ‘Why Not?’. These heros never ask the question ‘Why Me?’ but keep on asking the question ‘Why Not?’ whenever they hit a wall of resistance. The author Lata Upadhyay brings out the life of such five people who have braved to turn the impossible into reality. Going through the book, Lata explains with emotions of these struggles. The achievements are expressed in a way that keeps the reader hooked to the book. Generally the success stories are told with lot of data and dates that we miss the real emotions interconnected with the achievements. Greatly enough, this book of achievements is about the emotion and the struggle the heroes went through rather than just numbers.

Lata Upadhyay lists five achievers in this book. They come from different field contributing in someway to human kind. The life of each hero is subdivided into various sections, which keeps you glued to the book. A long single section would have bored any reader. I sincerely appreciate in Lata’s idea of telling the story in parts. To keep the read more interesting, Lata also provides additional interesting information in the form of boxed tit-bits. After each section, Lata also gives a timeline of the life of the hero covering their milestones. This is a great idea. Dates inside the story would have slowed down the read. By keeping it at the end, the flow of the story is not interrupted and at the same time we do not miss important dates. These success stories are not fiction. They should have been read from somewhere and posted here. Lata has given the credits to all the sources who have contributed to the book in the form of bibliography and references at the end of each section. Even the pictures are credited for the source. I humbly bow to this act of Lata’s genuineness.

Lata Updadhyay has selected five personalities from various walks of our life.

Pandit Ravi Shankar: A musician who stormed the entire world with his sitar and music.

Tenzing Norgay: A Sherpa who reached the top of the World, in fact among the first one to reach Mt. Everest.

Srinivasa Ramanujam: A simple person who solved the mysteries of mathematics, leaving a lot more for coming generations to solve.

Kapil Dev: In a country where education is everything a parent wants his kid to pursue, this man proved his success in sports paving way for a lot to pursue sportsmanship.

Dr. Varghese Kurien: The man of White Revolution, whose Amul changed the way milk is handled in India and also redefined co-operative unions into success.

This mix of personalities from music, adventure, academics, sports and administration is a great selection. All stories cover from their start of struggle to how they achieved the position they are in now. We all knew of these personalities for their achievements. We all can certainly speak a few sentences about these great achievers. But, not more than what they have achieved. In this book, Lata describes their struggle of these heros, including emotional, they faced as they progress through the achievement. The description of emotions experienced by Tenzing Norgay while he is in the last few metres of reaching Mt. Everest and his joy when he is on the top of the world, establishes Lata as a great author and story teller. Having said all, I have one thing to say. Lata could have selected atleast one women achiever to get included in this book. Thats just a suggestion.

Every reader would know that the literary world is filled with management and motivational books. However, there are only few that just tell the stories interestingly and motivate the reader without any big management jargon. This book ‘Why Not?’ is one such book. Read it.

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