F?@K KNOWS - Review

Title: F?@K Knows.
Author: Shailendra Singh.
Publisher: Rupa Publication India.

Price: Rs 195/-

If you are from south you might be knowing about a festival by name  "Ugadi" which is also called "Gudipadwa" in Maharashtra or may be "Bisakhi" in Punjab. I have tasted the special Ugadi pickle and it’s a different feeling when you taste it. It has 6 different tastes like sour, bitter, salty , sweet so on. Symbolically it marks the beginning of the new-year and a new age with all flavors of life blended in one pickle!

Reading Shailendra Singh's F?@KKnows gave me the same feeling :) The title intrigued me and the introductory note seemed attractive. Finally I clicked that button to review and have no regrets at all as I enjoyed reading it !! Subtle lesson for life & a humorous take on all the shit load we bear!

 An excerpt from the book- " You can only make fun of something which is popular - otherwise the joke ain't funny !" Similarly the author cuts jokes on all the common but popular issues people face in daily life. The book starts in a light and giggly tone but then turns serious at certain page but you don't realize when and where it is as you are enjoying the roller coaster ride! The book is all about telling and re-telling you all the facts which you already know so that you really understand them and try implementing them and just feel overwhelmed by looking at a new you in the mirror. I was never in to self -improvement books like Norman Vincent's or Dale Carnegie's. I actually read them but never really followed whatever is told by them. The primary reason is basically we never like being told. Even though few quotes from the books were my favorites and I embedded them in my signature I never really heard to my "gut" or "heart" after reading them but after reading the innovative and interactive book by Shailendra Singh I for the first time smiled even while reading a self-help book which is not heavy or preachy yet gives a deep insight in to your day to day issues!

The book clicks as it has author's experiences and the way he narrates them in a cool and casual tone makes you feel that you are actually talking to him face to face. It might not be for high intellectuals or for people who use heavy vocab or who know it all.  I am not exaggerating but I imagined him sitting beside me in one or two instances. In the chapter where he described about having cheese cake and compared it to having sex with the right partner I felt it was an amazing analogy. Whatever he told is absolutely true. Again we all know it but F Knows why we never hear to what we know :) The most touching chapter to me is the one where he wrote how he felt after his father’s death, the words written by his father mentioning him and his Thailand trip followed by Tsunami. The truth just hits you like that tsunami wave when you finish reading it. Go read and understand it because you already know it! You may also actually practice the Chi F?@K Po method - Block divert and embrace technique

The author easily connects with too many readers as he mentions their usual fears, likes  , dislikes , the demons they fight on a daily basis, the movies he loves and what he learnt from them and I am sure most of us love few of those movies, we all being mad about cinema. The way he described the gut feeling and listening to gut is the best part of the whole book to me. It keeps coming in every page - flushing off mind and listening to the gut part! All the chapter names are very innovative and will be imprinted in your mind for long and if you really want to they will be there forever but for this as told by Shailendra you really should want them to be there . You don't have to keep them there :)."PEACOCK IN THE FOREST" , "WHAT GOES IN MUST COME OUT" , "DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU WHEN YOU COME OUT" are few titles among the lot which were gripping. I would love to see few celebrities respond to few questions posed by the author in the book if at all they read the book!

The way author describes " How to read the book" in the prologue and the acknowledgements in the epilogue will definitely leave you in smiles. He fears he will be questioned by big authors like Deepak Chopra or Salman Rushdie for bringing down the levels of Indian writing but all his fears can go take a hoot as who the F?@K will bother about the intellect or language once he/she grabs this book! I am not faking when I say I feel better after reading the last page. I feel I should really jot down the F?@K it list and email it to the author. Have to really see if he replies back in 6months! Oh you don't know what F?@k it list is right? It’s just a bucket list with a cool name and much more emphasis is laid on the list!! You will also come across many naive as well as novel terms in the book which you will enjoy knowing and mind you the word F?@K shows up in every page or paragraph. If you are allergic to the terminology you may not enjoy the book!

Few chapter titles and snippets I really loved from the book.

• MATH OF ME TIME - tells how much time you really got for your self!
• I'D RATHER HAVE THEM LAUGH WITH ME WHILE I'M ALIVE, THAN CRY FOR ME WHEN I DIE
• SWEETLY CRACKED- You are happy. You know it. You want to show it . DONT. The world might hate you for it 
• THE DEFINITION OF A GOOD TIME IS WHEN YOU DECIDE TO HAVE ONE

There are few more but I really feel you should read them all in the book!

All in all after reading the book if you have written down Who you are and what you really want ? and your F?@K it list is ready and you have already started implementing it then the first person who would be happy is - No mud heads it’s not Shailendra Singh - its "YOU" and only "YOU" :-) . The author if at all has time to know that someone got better after reading his book needless to say he would be elated. If at all I meet him in future I would surely love to "talk" and exchange smiles which very few people genuinely do these days!

Shailendra Singh is a sports marketing guru, an advertising whiz and a Bollywood producer. He is associated with Precept Advertising, the Sunburn festival and he made movies such as Pyaar Main Kabhi Kabhi and Phir Milenge after some incidents in his own life

Few things in the book were repetitive but can be ignored as we ought to read them again and again but it slowed down my reading pace a bit .One more thing which was not clear is about the legal issue in Middle east in 2008. May be the author chose not to disclose it but I was very eager to know it. May be I will mail him and ask :)

Other than the above two things I absolutely loved the book and recommend it to anyone who wants to feel better. You already feel better and enlightened?? Whom are you kidding? Go grab the book! It was such a good feeling when I finished reading it as I realized the author has fulfilled his passion as he "wanted" to write! Three cheers to him for his accomplishment! 

Shailendra Singh and Yuvraj Singh at the book launch - All smiles :)

My rating : 3.5/ 5

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