Book Review: How I braved Anu Aunty & co-founded a million dollar company ~ Varun Agarwal

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Title: How I met Anu Aunty & co-founded a million dollar company - a true story

 

Author: Varun Agarwal

 

Rating: **** 1/2*

 

Cover: Anu aunty illustrated, standing in front of Varun's world & what's in it. Clearly an impediment.

 

Pages: about 250 in medium font.

Language: English, clear and lucid Price(less) at: Rs 140

Publisher: Rupa Publications

 

Quality of the book: Very Good

Fonts: Readable

 

Characters: Four main characters. Rest supporting.

Narration: First person

Flow: Smooth

 

About the author: Varun Agarwal is an entrepreneur , filmmaker and photographer. When not arguing with the Anu aunties of the world, the author is busy managing his three companies in Bangalore. Disarmingly funny and witty the author has given a true account of his life in this book. It's a recommended read for anyone serious about turning their passion into a career.

Blurb: Twenty something Varun dreams of being a game changer. He shuns the 9 to 5 rat race and dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. Armed with an unwanted engineering degree, his hours are full of friends, pub-hopping and stalking a girl he loves on Facebook. Till the formidable Anu Aunty comes up and schemes to bring him 'on track'. Feeling cornered, he strategizes to beat canny Anu Aunty at her own game.

 

Along the way he learns how to run an e-commerce store and imbibes business lessons from his mother's kitty parties. Follow Varun on his rollicking entrepreneurial journey - from the first scribbles of a business plan on a paper napkin to surmounting funding roadblocks to the time he is ridiculed for being a lowly salesman. Will Varun overcome all roadblocks and succeed in founding a million dollar company? Or will Anu Aunty have the last chuckle?

 

My Review: Recommended reading. Truly passionate account of one guy believing in his dreams and going for it. Along his way he faces the customary roadblocks .. peer pressure, societal and parental expectations, the well laid out road mostly taken and self doubt. But his vision and his passion pave the way for him as he goes on in the direction of his dreams without giving up.

 

The story will remind one of many things we have encountered in Life and have overcome or given in to thus giving us the hope and courage to dust those forgotten dreams again. The book begins with Varun being compared to Anu aunty's son Arjun who always tops his class but knows little else. Anu aunty lays the foundation of his struggle for being himself with a wag of her podgy finger 'Remember Varooon... no studies, no future'.

 

This is one of the many run-ins the author has with Anu Aunty. Varun's gang of friends is a rather directionless one. In other words the kind of youth that dreams tried and tested dreams. Their friendship is thick and their conversations are sparkling .. the kind we have with our own friends. They hang out at their favorite joints in the evening and at one such get together, the author and his friend Mal decide that what they really needed to do was to start a venture.

 

This plan was chalked out on a paper napkin and in a pretty stoned state. The first sober conversation confirmed they were not as badly drunk as it seemed. From here life was a series of challenges. The world lies in the hands of those that have the courage to dream and who take the risk of living out their dreams.

 

~ Divya