"This is an impressive book covering a very wide range of topics. In reading this book you will be both entertained and stimulated. The author tries successfully to marry the informal with the formal and succeeds in producing a text which gains your attention and retains your interest. In my view, the overriding objective ofthe author is to stimulate the reader to think. Yes, he has things to say, points to make and theses to argue for which he thinks are important and hopefully you will agree with, but more fundamentally he wants to ignite enquiring minds, prepared to engage in rational debate and discussion. The author does not want disciples but fellow travellers, who see value in challenging conventions and commonly held beliefs and refuse to live the ‘unthinking life’."

(Dr Terry McKnight, Ulster University)

"How often is it that we do things because that was the done thing, followed because everyone else has? We automatically say or do things without thinking about it and rarely listen with attention. Dr Guatam has asked the questions that have often been at the back of our minds. This well researched book makes us think about the why and the so what. We may not necessarily agree with all the ideas, but they give rise to deeper thinking of our own truths and principles."

(Hema Kamath)

"This book is a must to read for everyone who desires to know what life is all about. It is lucid and inspirational."

(Dr. K.S.Sangunni, Former Professor, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)

"What should a good non-fiction book provide? Interest, information, education (for those willing to accept it), entertainment, food for thought – to mention but a few. In this book, Prasanna Gautam meets all the above criteria, and many more, and tackles a formidable bank of questions and themes via such media as personal experience, common sense, history, religion and culture."

(William Burnett)

"Once I started reading the book, I had difficulty putting it down. The flow and compelling arguments that Prasanna Gautam has made, chapter after chapter, albeit exploring different issues, makes it informative, interesting and educative. It is filled with knowledge synthesised through the centuries. [...] The author has succeeded in tying many loose ends and wild assumptions about ancient Indian literature and Aryan civilisation. The book makes an interesting reading and a great learning experience particularly because of the way the author entwines his own personal experiences in different phases, different circumstances and different places about many common issues, e.g. sex, paradoxes related to our brain, retirement, superstition, euthanasia, the reality about rebirth and so on."

(Prakash Khanal)

"Every now and then in our reading we come across a book which is like no other we have read but makes us pause and become aware that it has changed our perceptions in some way usually for the better. Dr Gautam’s ”Reflexions on Contemporary Values, Beliefs and Behaviours” is just such a book. [...] The “reflections” which the author expresses are frequently accompanied by questions which invite the reader to answer and perhaps re-exam his own standpoint. Although, for the most part, I agreed with most of Dr Gautam’s views there were times when I encountered those different from mine but I was quietly led to change my views and scarcely noticed it. It is a pleasant “adventure” to do so and a necessary one to embark upon. As Plato recalls Socrates speech at his trial “The unexamined life is not worth living”."

(Ronald Caie)

"Something of an absorption of thought and practice, Reflections on Contemporary Values, Beliefs and Behaviours is a rewarding read. Within its gentle confines, Reflections on Contemporary Values, Beliefs and Behaviours drops us bit by but into a significant bundle of important life events and issues―retirement―euthanasia―healing and violence, among them. The book discusses not just the attitudes of today, but looks far over our shoulders, and most especially into the disparate hymns and other writings from ancient India. Prasanna Gautam does a good job in capturing all that he can in as many light brush strokes as he does, for this must be the only way to try and gather the multifold and endless material that encompasses contemporary and ancient life. The sample size is fair as he covers a lot of ground! That is why the book possibly travels away from the experiences that are more commonly yours and mine―which it does very well―and becomes a more personal journey, the author’s own road to discovery."

(Peter Burnett)

"What comes over as much as anything else is the essential warmth of the person and his attitude of openness to people of many different faiths and perspectives. He does not mention specifically interfaith dialogue, but his message is in tune with this. One of the metaphors I most cherished is that of wheat as the main ingredient in the great variety of breads and cakes. He concludes the chapter ‘one cannot get the neutral, non-offending, non-partisan, pure taste of the blessed nourishing wheat by eating a cake’."

(Peter Burnett)