The book I am going to talk about is Chanakyas Chant by Ashwin Sanghi.

It is
not really a management related book, but a fictional one, which is very skilfully
mixed with the life of the historical character of chanakya.
The book is actually about 2 stories set in two different time periods one of
Chanakya during the Mauryan Empire, and the second during the time of
Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in a small town in Kanpur, who is the
contemporary equivalent of Chanakya, and the two stories flow in alternate
chapters.
The book takes the reader right into 340BC where Chanakya, a Brahmin youth
vows revenge for the gruesome death of his father by the King of Magadh,
Dhanananda. Chanakya grows up to become a master strategist who, through
his, calculating and cunning tactics seeks his revenge and also, at the same
time, manages to thwart Alexander the Greats plan to invade Bharat. But his
most stunning victory is yet to come when by using all his crafty means and
pitting the weak forces against each other he manages to anoint Chandragupta
Maurya to the throne of Magadh and forming the first empire in India, the mighty
Mauryan Empire.

Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he
becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged
country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting
the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing
victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan
empire.
Chanakya uses Suvasini, the woman he loves without remorse in furthering his
grand plans.
The cunning and witty Chanakya may have been the best at the political game
but he was also a cold calculating man with very few emotional attachments.
Chanakyas Chant is an insight into the man Chanakya was, and not just the
political strategist.

how he resorts to morally unacceptable methods-bloodshed

and betrayals, to achieve what he has set to achieve,
catapults you back into history and make you feel a part of it.
Satisfiedand a little boredby his success as a kingmaker, through the simple
summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write his Arthashastra, the
science of wealth.

In todays Bharat, almost two and a half thousand years after, we have Pandit
Gangasagar Mishra living in Kanpur ,draws inspiration from the master strategist
Chankaya, to get his protge Chandini Gupta appointed to the highest office in
India, that of the Prime Minister. As was with Chanakya the same is with Pandit
Mishra, there is no rule that cant be broken or mended, no price too high to pay
and absolutely nothing that can stop you from reaching your goal. There were
four mantras that Chanakya believed in Saam, daam, dand, bhed (Equality,
enticement, punishment and sowing dissension) and so does the modern day
Chankaya aka Pandit Mishra.
Gangasagar gets his disciple Chandini shot when he thinks it would benefit their
political career.

Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient Bharat by class hatred, corruption
and divisive politics and this landscape is Gangasagars feasting ground.

Sanghis modern day Chanakya in the form of Pandit Mishra

is as heartless and wil
y resorting to evil machinations to achieve his political
objectives and secure the political career of his protege. The
schemes and tactics that Mishra applies seem thoroughly
plausible. Right from using a mafia don to climb up the
ladder to using the sexual deviance of his enemies to later
blackmail them ,from rigging the electronic voting machines
with a favorable algorithm to staging a political stunt of
shooting his protege, Mishra does it all but it never feels like
going over the top. Coupled with Sanghis excellent
screenplay, Mishras maneuvers leave you chuckling at
times.
Towards the end, Gangasagar is diagnosed with lung cancer,
and while he is breathing his last breaths, he watches his
protg being sworn in as the Prime Minister of India, and
being shot at again, his last move.

He also leaves a letter to be given to Chandini, explaining the

various moves he made to ensure that she rose to become the
Prime Minister of the country, some of which she was totally
unaware of. This included why he had to get her shot at on
two different occasions, as well as why he kept her son a
secret from her so that he doesnt interfere with her political
career.

The book also has a few very interesting quotes, not

originally written by Chanakya. But the author uses them
well to build up the characters of Chanakya and Gangasagar
Mishra. Some of them are:
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.

To remain standing one often has to fall.

Battles are won and lost before they are fought.

between two evils you should pick the one that you haven't yet tried.

If a man tells a woman she is beautiful, she will overlook most of his OTHER lies.

When lions fight over a goat, it's usually the hyena that gets away with the prize.
It is much akin to reading a blow by blow account of Indian politics today. Of course as
Chanakyas story so aptly shows, it is not very different from Indian politics 2500 years ago
either. So really the scams, scandals, corruption, collateral damage, war mongering, innocent
deaths, communal riots all the ills that we accuse the modern day politicians of -are nothing
new. Power has always come at a price and the price as Chanakya points out is not just ones
emotions but ones conscience as well.

The elaborate accounts of history made by the author show

that the book is very well researched. Political conspiracies
and tactical maneuvers, which are at the crux of the book ,
talk of the Sanghis strong political awareness and the
immense effort that must have gone into investigation. His
writing manages to create a scene in front of the readers
eyes.
The author, Ashwin Sanghi is an entrepreneur by day, and a novelist by night. His first novel, The Rozabal Line
was originally self-published in 2007 under his anagram-pseudonymShawn Haigins. The book was
subsequently published by Westland in 2008 and 2010 in India under his own name and went on to become a
national bestseller. Chanakyas Chant is his second novel in the historical-fiction genre. Ashwin lives in Mumbai
with his wife, Anushika, and his eight-year old son, Raghuvir.