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Jaya : An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

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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 i...
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Book Review : The Finkler Question

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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 o...
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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 t...
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Book Review :Blink

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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 ...
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Book Review: Room

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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 ...
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The Invisible Gorilla: And other ways our intuition deceives us

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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 too...
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Book Review -The White Castle

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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 pl...
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