Book number 5 in 2026, back to a self-help category — not sure why I picked it. It was suggesting me on Kindle — I read a sample and quite liked it. I would say it’s a mini book — a 125-pager.
The book is called ’50 Things to Realize Before It’s Too Late’ by Manoj Chenthamarakshan. Finished in a week and it’s like a few chapters a day, and the chapters are tidy, precise, and deliver a message. 50 chapters comprise the book, as the name suggests. Written in simple language and can be read and understood by readers across age groups.
I always write notes while reading a book — this time I didn’t — maybe didn’t feel so. When you are reading a self-help category, I would think you ponder over the points not emotionally but from a logical perspective — for example, you come across an advice or an experience or a learning from the book based on the author’s experiences — what do you do? You ponder over it and try to relate to your life and experiences. Then you think, what could I have done better, or is there a need to change my approach going forward? These are kind of intense thoughts — but at the same time, you are not emotionally charged up to pen down something as you do while reading a whodunit, history, or geopolitics pieces. (At least I can confirm these observations based on my reading habits.)
However, I would like to share my key takeaways from this book.
Why not live now:
Isn’t this something that should shape our lives? But I don’t think this is the case for the majority of human beings. Either we live in the past, cribbing and brooding over “why I did that or why I didn’t take that path” — and the list is never-ending — seldom do we make peace with our past. At the same time, we have consternation about the future and all the planning that comes with it. And ironically, both are nonexistent. Life, with all its senses, its energies, its joys, its sorrows, is now. We forget the “now.” We believe either we are suffering for the past or that the future must be more important than now. But in the process, we miss life. Without future planning, it may sound foolish in a modern world — but at what cost? We are never in the present — that’s the price we pay. Let’s live a little. The “now” is a “present” to us — to live joyously.
Smile:
Nothing kills the ego like playfulness, like laughter. When you start taking life as fun, ego has to die. It cannot exist anymore — Osho.
I have experienced that when you deal with issues, problems in life with a smile on your face — problems seem solvable, do not seem insurmountable. Let’s smile a bit. Let’s live a bit.
Stop consuming random shit:
Yes, as you would have already guessed — the author is talking about social media apps. Trust me, these are real, real distractions. I had tried for a week or so deleting these apps, and the result is instantaneous. You start to make time for all important things in life, like reading a book, watering a plant, watching a nice movie. The 15-sec sense boosters are absolutely a hindrance to doing things in time — they distract endlessly. I am talking about reels. The Insta-smarts like us are digressing from the actual purpose, the meaning of our lives.
Why should we read books:
Reading books, as per the author, is the best thing done by the author. It clears doubts, creates perspectives, and augments how we think. Undoubtedly, it broadens our horizon of exposure. More importantly, you are not distracted — every line you read, you are living the book author’s life, experiences, and thoughts. To me, reading a book is like my “peace space,” a calming ride from all the chaos and rat races. Read a book — don’t read a book to finish it — just read it.
Right vs Wrong:
Okay, interesting. The author points out that it’s all about perspectives. Yeah — I agree to some degree unless you are harming people unnecessarily. It’s like waging a war is bad, but what options do you have when you are surrounded by belligerents? It leaves you with no options.
The question — who wins at last? Truth or power? In the Mahabharata, to my understanding, power was on the side of truth, the virtuous — but was everything the Pandavas did correct? To a certain extent, no. I remember a quote: “we all have to pay our dues in this universe” — this has deep subtleties attached to it. I am still confused about who wins — the powerful are routinely wrong in our contemporary world — but who wins? Think. Anyway, I will still be lenient toward the truth. Of course, we all need to be real and pragmatic.
Yeah, these are some of my key takeaways.
Have a read, grab this piece — one chapter at a time. And I hope this one helps you in some way.