‘If both banks grew at the rate they have achieved in the past four years, ICICI Bank will overtake State Bank in four years in terms of deposits’—Business World, July 2007 ‘Even a casual glance at SBI . . . reveals a bank fuelled by growth . . . SBI has swamped almost every segment of industry it has stepped into’—Business India, August 2009 This is the story of the carefully planned resurgence of the State Bank of India (SBI) from a laid-back incumbent under threat from private players to a customer-oriented competitive organization that has outperformed rivals despite several constraints. The leadership at SBI succeeded in reshaping perspectives and profitability at the bank, which employs a staggering 200,000 people, notwithstanding salary restrictions and regulatory bottlenecks. While the primary thrust was on changing employee attitude towards their own organization and, of course, its customers, the transformation exercise was broadbased, encompassing fundamental changes in technology, processes and business-mix alike. In about three years beginning 2006, SBI not only defended its own lair against the siege of younger, leaner, meaner rivals, but actually took the battle to the attackers’ domains. SBI’s size and setting make the story an inspiring example to other organizations, particularly in the public sector. Written in a fluid and engaging style, and backed by facts, figures, analysis and anecdotes, the book challenges several stereotypes and dogmas common in today’s management circles.

This is the story of the carefully planned resurgence of the State Bank of India (SBI) from a laid-back incumbent under threat from private players to a customer-oriented competitive organization that has outperformed rivals despite several constraints. The leadership at SBI succeeded in reshaping perspectives and profitability at the bank, which employs a staggering 200,000 people, not withstanding salary restrictions and regulatory bottlenecks. While the primary thrust was on changing employee attitude towards their own organization and, of course, its customers, the transformation exercise was broad-based encompassing fundamental changes in technology, processes and business-mix alike. In about three years beginning 2006, SBI not only defended its own lair against the siege of younger, leaner, meaner rivals but actually took the battle to the attacker’ domains. SBI’s size and setting make the story an inspiring example to other organizations, particularly in the public sector. Written in a fluid and engaging style, and backed by facts, figures, analysis and anecdotes, the book challenges several stereotypes and dogmas common in today’s management circles.

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat -- a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual: the corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film. She's aided by her crew: Oliver, a techno-whiz and the boy who developed her camera's technology; Jude, who can predict death; and Ryder, the boy Micheline has known and loved forever. When a routine ghost hunt goes awry, Micheline and the boys are infected with a curse known as a soulchain. As the ghostly chains spread through their bodies, Micheline learns that if she doesn't exorcise her entity in seven days or less, she and her friends will die. Now pursued as a renegade agent by her monster-hunting father, Leonard Helsing, she must track and destroy an entity more powerful than anything she's faced before . . . or die trying. Lock, stock, and lens, she's in for one hell of a week.

A young girl learns bittersweet life lessons on the family farm after her sister gets polio, in this poignant and funny novel set in the heartland in the 1940s. Pixie's defenses are up, and it's no wonder. She's been uprooted, the chickens seem to have it in for her, and now her beloved sister, Charlotte, has been stricken with polio and whisked away into quarantine. So it's not surprising Pixie lashes out. But her habit of making snap judgements--and giving her classmates nicknames like "Rotten Ricky" and "Big-Mouth Berta"--hasn't won her any friends. At least life on the farm is getting better with the delivery of its newest resident--a runt baby lamb. Raising Buster takes patience and understanding--and this slowing down helps Pixie put things in better perspective. So too does paying attention to her neighbors, and finding that with the war on she's not the only one missing someone. As Pixie pushes past her own pain to become a bigger person, she's finally able to make friends; and to laugh about the fact that it is in places where she least expected it. "Pixie is full of heart! A laugh-out-loud book that also wades into poignant life lessons. A must read!"--Lynda Mullaly Hunt, author of Fish in a Tree "Pixie has bad luck--and is bad luck if you ask her. But she also has grit and gumption, so when her bad luck doesn't let go, she opens her eyes and her heart wider. Her world changes when she changes how she looks at her world. I loved Pixie and her story--a story filled with humor, hope, and everyday heroes."--Lynn Plourde, author of Maxi's Secrets

Synopsis We are all warriors on the stage of life. The mirror is a potent weapon in the everyday battles we all have to fight. But how do we discover this mirror? Though we see it every day, we seldom realize that the world is our mirror. The fault we find in others actually lies within us, not them. Our perception of the world around us is actually a reflection of who we are and what we believe in. This is what this revolutionary book brings out in an interesting story revolving around a modern-day Hercules. The technique of self-investigation demonstrated in this book has the power of eliminating all your complaints and miseries in order to pave the way for peace and joy within you.

First paperback printing includes "Bonus chapter."

The author shares the life story, achievements, experiences and his own life memories of his Swedish immigrant grandmother Maja--Marie Kallgren Wittenstrom--who emigrated to the United States from Sweden and lived through the Great Depression as a widow and single mother raising her family in Chicago, Illinois, along with the author's contemporary research into his family's Swedish ancestry.

Tuck Durante, a shipraider, and Lana Gray, a curator, must work together to try to rescue a space capsule hijacked by nightmarish creatures who kill with a scream in this frightening, fast-paced adventure from the author of the acclaimed horror novel "Shutter."

One of the few practising doctors in India who contributed to research, education and charity in such a large measure, the book documents the fundamentals of what makes a person achieve meaningful success. While hard work, passion and focus emerge as winning lessons, delicate and tender learnings from Dr Mohan's life, such as empathy or spirituality, are not forgotten. Written in Dr Mohan's sagacious and affable voice, and peppered with examples of his bold and unusual ideas such as planning a diabetes expo or conducting a country-wide diabetes study, this book is a behind-the-scenes account of a person honoured internationally for delivering path-breaking care to hundreds of thousands of people with diabetes.

All eleven-year-old Noel wants to do is live a normal life—something that’s just the tiniest bit difficult when your dad is Santa Claus. Just as Noel is struggling to cope with her dysfunctional family— an older brother who wants to develop a non-existent acting career, a younger brother who thinks he's a reindeer and a mother who’s prone to nervous breakdowns—her father goes missing in prime Santa Claus season! When rumours of Santa's disappearance start leaking, a reluctant Noel is packed off on a quest to prevent worldwide elfish panic. To help her on this mission are Gilmore, Coral and Bean, three elves with personality disorders of their own. This ragtag team has one week to visit six factories around the world and prevent them from falling into chaos. With crazy challenges at every turn and Santa Claus still refusing to budge from the missing persons list, saving Christmas seems just a little out of their league.