Jaya : An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

Jaya : An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

by Devdutt Pattanaik


Jaya or Spiritual Victory as the essence of the Mahabharata is often lost while telling and retelling of the tale. We tend to oversimplify the complex plot, motives, consequences and the conflict between desire and destiny. Also, because of the message of Karma, we have been led to believe in destiny more than desire. Human beings are master of their own desires and their actions determine their destiny. Hence, we are not as bound by fate as we believe.

This retelling of the epic by Devdutt Pattanaik is a magnificent attempt at simplifying the philosophical underpinnings of the stories and the characters narrated without oversimplifying. Stories and anecdotes collected from different parts of India and South –East Asia provide a richness and accessibility to the often retold and interpreted tale.

Despite the explanations of symbols and their possible meanings and the knowledge of the storyline, the book retains its simple charm and remains spell binding throughout. The themes explored here e.g. the meaning of Civilization, exploitation of Earth and its appeal to Vishnu the Preserver to sustain life on Earth express contemporary concerns.Also, the wisdom contained here transcends the constraints of time, history and people. Truly, the narrative embodies the following as a fact :-

“ Whatever exists is found here
Whatever is not here does not exist”.

Book Review : The Finkler Question

The Finkler Question

by Howard Jacobson

“Howard Jacobson's laugh-out-loud exploration of Jewishness, The Finkler Question, last night became the first unashamedly comic novel to win the Man Booker prize in its 42-year history.” --- Mark Brown, The Guardian

A comic novel yes, but not a comedy. This book raises serious issues about our identities in a rapidly changing world and the conflicts that transcend boundaries with warmth, compassion and comic turns of phrases. Julian Treslove has two Jewish friends –Finkler and Libor. Both of them are more successful than Julian who impersonates people because he does not look like anyone. Finkler and Libor have been recently widowed. Julian can’t be widowed since he is not married. Finkler represents Jewishness to Julian who wants to be a Jew but Finkler though a Jew feels ashamed if not self hating. The entire conflict of Julian’s life who has always been a loser is tragic- comic rather than comic.

The male bonding is nice where each of them share their thoughts. The book portrays the whole gamut of emotions from empathy to envy. The comedy of life has some dark thoughts to impart and finds tragedy lurking at each corner, almost literally. The conflicts inherent in the lives of people from different backgrounds and histories make for a dark canvas . The insights and conflicts are very real and turn terrifying towards the end of the book.

The book is eminently readable but it is not for those who feel comedy means mindlessness or lightness. Comedy can be used to bring forward our darkest emotions in a palatable way. The Finkler Question is subtle, comic and yet hard hitting.

A book on India

Book Review :India:A Portrait (An intimate biography of 1.2 bilion people)

by Patrick French

India , as everybody would agree remains an enigma by very nature of its diversity, and dichotomy between an emerging India and a traditional one. It’s difficult to define our nation and any attempts at simplifying, classifying or taxonomizing her is a futile exercise.This book recounts India’s journey since its independence and takes a good view at it. I must say a very sympathetic one at that. Narrative is taken along with anecdotes but they overpower the narration. We are left with a string of anecdotes showing a glimpse of India and that’s it.

The author has taken an unbiased and optimistic view of India. But he barely skims the surface of the Indian Society, Polity and its Riches. His anecdotes seem to have been picked for convenience and no contentious topic has been taken up. There seems to be hardly any new idea. The more sensationalized story in Indian media, the greater is the coverage provided to that incident. He is supposed to be writing for 1.2 Bn people and seems to have written for not even a fraction of them. By no stretch of imagination is this book an intimate biography of 1.2 billion people. It’s a biography of a nation seen through some of its people, and in the process doing justice neither to the nation nor to its people.

It’s a readable book and lot has been said and written about it. I would like to say that I had picked up this book with lots of expectations that finally we might have some one who could have gone beyond the clichés of new India (of economic development) and those of old India (of casteism etc.), but was disappointed. Please do read this book only if you would like to celebrate India as a growing economy completely lying far away from Bharata.

Book Review :Blink

Book Review : Blink
by Malcolm Gladwell

We all have heard the adage a countless times i.e. the decision that we take about a person or an object is based upon the first glimpse and the first impressions that we have. This book is about these snap decisions taken by us based on our instinct or intuition. Malcolm Gladwell has argued that sometimes lesser the knowledge available to our senses, more accurate are our decisions. He goes on to recount many incidents where the first impression formed a decision and that proved to be better than a decision based on documentation. But, he also recounts the times when the snap decisions taken in a blink of our eyes was not only inaccurate, but potentially deadly. Thus our unconscious might be right most of the times but unless we have a certain expertise in the area in which we are taking quick decisions based on first impressions only , we might be wrong. Especially decisions that are taken on the face value of a person or on the biases lying within our subconscious mind are quite susceptible to be wrong as our knowledge is shallow and information non-existent. It’s about less information is good in certain circumstances but and it’s a huge BUT, less information may still lead to inaccurate, hazardous and inefficient decision making due to the sheer shallowness of the sensory perception.

The book is a nice easy read. But just after first few chapters, it gets confusing where as soon as a folly of snap decision is being shown, somehow we again read a past example where it had been brilliant. So half way through the book we feel the author has overstated the case for blink decisions and vice versa and still it’s not clear what the author wanted. Too late we are introduced to issues like when should we make such decisions or not and we hardly have a convincing answer. Also, I must confess the author’s theory of lots of experience making us an expert at making such decisions, made me feel that he was being contradictory. If all good decisions (esp. the snap decisions) are based on experience and expertise , then are we really making a snap decision? It’s just that all our deliberation is in the past and we do not begin by deliberating and then taking a decision every time we are called upon to make decisions in similar circumstances.

Malcolm Gladwell is readable. No doubt about that and he does come up with some good anecdotes and makes them much more interesting in his retelling. Go for this book only as a preliminary introduction to our unconscious mind. For better understanding, I would recommend “The Invisible Gorilla: and other ways our intuition deceives us” and "Predictably Irrational".

Book Review: Room

Room

by Emma Donoghue

I haven’t read any other book by Emma Donoghue but just on the basis of this book, I can say very definitely that she ranks among one of my most favorite authors and she is one of the finest practitioner of the art of words.

The narrator of this book is a five year old child Jack who has grown up in the Room and we view the Outside through his eyes. He feels secure, safe and happy in the Room where he lives with his Ma and his Ma is his world. Our endearing and brave hero symbolizes the possibilities, hopes and contentment of a happy childhood. The little brave guy deserves a standing ovation. His mother is a tribute to mothers everywhere in this world, who smile through their tears for their children, and are always there for them.

The narration reminds us of the first spring of our learning when the whole world was unknown, uncertain except for our mothers’ certain, comfortable and soothing presence. No place on earth is better for repose than a mother’s lap, no embrace warmer than hers, or any voice sweeter. This is a heart-warming tale, written with lots of empathy, understanding, warmth and compassion.

The first vignettes of the Outside as seen by Jack is refreshing and endearing especially when he is still learning to express himself with respect to the human people around him and their strange habits. As he notices quite innocently and gleefully that a dog was walking with a man at its end, it’s difficult to suppress a smile and even a chuckle. He is very insightful as well when he finds that no one has time even when they are not working. An astute observation and also something we adults don’t express, not because we lack the insight, rather we don’t have the courage/rudeness/bluntness/ honesty to do so.

Even though the setting is disturbing and gruesome, the story is gripping and poignant. It is a marvelous author’s great creation with a lyricism and melody which is as sweet, comforting and soothing as a lullaby.

The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us

The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us

by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

We have a huge faith in our senses. We believe what we see; we react to emotions rather than logic; we feel more knowledgeable about things we use; we react to and believe in a personality and we see patterns in events which occur in a sequence i.e. something that has happened must have been triggered by a prior event. All of this happens because we have been endowed with an incredible brain capable of processing so much sensory information in a blink usually, perceiving details which form the basis of our decisions. We have evolved to look around ourselves, believe in what we see, feel we know what we use, empathize and bond with other living beings and recognize patterns for our safety and simplification of our surroundings. This mode of evolution has ensured our continual survival and development .This from of decision making is what we call our intuition, an invaluable tool in times when quick decisions are required but which goes awry the moment we try to analyze and think things through.

“The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us” is an account of the very fallible nature of the human perceptions and decisions made based on them. Also, it’s incredibly difficult to be consciously aware of these illusions. We have grown up with them, developing our civilization on their basis: the society, the perceptions, the uncanny ability to find patterns where none might exist. Actually, we have built one illusion upon another and ironically, nothing other than the proof of our own visual senses is sufficient to show our own follies It has been demonstrated by the authors of this book, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons through their famous “Count the passes and Gorilla in the Game” video experiment.

Through the Gorilla experiment, anecdotes, true stories and events, authors have brought out the illusions we suffer and how to identify them and nullify their effect on our decision making. Particularly, the causation between the MMF (Measles ,Mumps and Reubella) Vaccination and diagnoses of autism shows the impact on our well-being because of people believing and empathizing with individuals, rather than statistics and scientific studies and seeing a causation where none exist or at the most a very unfortunate/fortunate , as might be applicable, coincidence has occurred.

The book is highly readable even for those who do not associate science, psychiatry etc. with their readings. The experiments done and their descriptions presented in a lucid, clear, general everyday language draws people in reading this book making it unputdownable. The readability of this book emphasizes the studies done and the conclusions drawn in a way nothing else could have done better. The fact that all experiments were done on human beings and we respond to our fellow human beings makes the book an enjoyable and informative read.

The conclusions drawn in this book provide insights into the human psyche and behavior and these can be applied in the broad spectrum of today’s human civilization and society comprising of diverse aspects like judiciary, health and welfare services, behavioral economics, finance, marketing for both advertisers and their target audience and above all for the eternal quest to understand ourselves.

Book Review -The White Castle

The White Castle

By Orhan Pamuk

“The White Castle” is the first novel written by Nobel Prize Winner author Orhan Pamuk. This book was also my first Orhan Pamuk book. I have read the English Translation. The narrative within the narrative forms the book and my first feeling was one of intense curiosity. As the narrative developed, I experienced the pleasure of a story well told with great characterization and a very troubling yet highly enlightening theme of self reflection and evaluation.

The novel tells the story of the times when two different cultures were intermingling at the doorway to Europe & Asia,18th century Turkey. The time, place and people were fascinating, interesting and conflicting, characterized by a unique opportunity for interaction between Islamic culture and Christianity. The narrative of a Christian slave put to work with an Islamic Master resembling him, both of them sharing their knowledge, though a bit reluctantly by the slave and eventual swapping of places is illuminating and forms a study in self-reflection. By the time we reach the White Castle with the slave and his master and where the religious biases and superstitions rear their ugly head , leading them to swap places, we are not really sure who has replaced whom. This novel also depicts the role played by inherent weaknesses of civilizations which are unable to assimilate the new experiences coming to them.

The theme of barricading ourselves against anything new, not belonging to our religion, culture, community etc. is universal and we can all relate to it. Also, with growing divisions in today’s world, this idea transcends time, people and places and can be termed as an eternal characteristic of the human civilizations. The only ways to reach across the barriers are compassion, empathy and a healthy dose of curiosity.

I recommend this book not only because it is a good story, written and translated beautifully but also for the timeless narrative of conflict & reconciliation and self-evaluation. In words of Benjamin Franklin, the American Polymath

"There are three things extremely hard: steel,

a diamond, and to know one's self. "