My Stroke of Luck ; Alphabet to Author. : Book Review

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My Stroke of Luck is a non-fiction book written by Vijay Santhanam. This is his third book but it is his first sole authored book. I got this book from BlogAdda as a part of book review program. The tagline of the book clearly and rightly states its one man’s inspiring tale about his journey from adversity to victory and undoubtedly instills a path to motivate others to cope and win against any adversity that our life throws at us.

Vijay had a stroke at the age of 41 and it left him paralyzed on the right side of his body. The ordeal was such that he could neither move without anybody’s help nor he could speak a word. Nevertheless, this ordeal was not going to get Vijay’s spirit and will power down. He was sure that he will fight against it come what may. He knew the road in front of him will have speed breakers, twists and turns, yet he was ready for such journey. He is an ardent fan of Sachin Tendulkar and also a follower of Cricket. This was one of the key reasons to motivate him to take on a difficult yet achievable path. 

In the book, the author mentions that his major agendas were to comprehend what he needs to gain post his stroke despite he knew he will be having a slow pace. He had to relearn everything that he learnt since his childhood. He had to brush up his language skills, analytical skills, reasoning skills (he was an expert in these fields pre-stroke). Never even once he said that he got tired of the therapies that he had to undergo. There were numerous times when he had to undergo painstaking therapies. When he was on his path to recover, he was next slapped with another set of problems i.e. seizures. So he had to deal with seizures so that it could not hamper his recovery process. Also, there were responsibilities waiting for his arrival. His organization where he worked as a regional marketing director was going through a rough pace. When work was taking a toll on him he had to make the hardest decision whether he should announce his retirement and concentrate more on his top priorities i.e. his health.

Despite losing many things he still gained the most valuable assets i.e. friends support, family’s unconditional love, and his organization’s helping hand during such odd time. Above all, he learned his new strengths: emotional, mental and physical through this long journey of his ordeal. Most shocking fact is that this book is not his first book. In the past, he has co-authored ‘If Cricket is a religion, Sachin is God’ (2009) and ‘The business of Cricket: The story of Sports Marketing in India’ (2011), with Shyam Balasubramanian and these books were written after he encountered with the stroke! Moreover, My Stroke of Luck will not be his last books; the readers are going to witness many books that are going to hit the bookshop in future.

I found this book quite interesting. Any reader can feel the author’s anguish, pain, frustration. This book I feel doesn’t need my ratings. It’s someone’s memoir of a painful yet successful journey from hardship. Vijay was lucky because he knew he had to fight for himself and his family. He is now happily pursuing his passion: be it writing, teaching at IIM-A and IIM- Lucknow, following cricket and other interest like Chess. I can only wish him good luck for his future. My next task would be to find his other two books.

P.S. This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

(c) Reviewed by Sridevi Nayak Karopady