As I see it

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

Book Review-The Glass Palace Stars:- The Glass Palace: Palace here is the Grand palace of Burma formerly known as the Golden land . This novel is a long , long history covering events from the British conquest of Rangoon to its conquest by the military junta. The narrative covers the life of an Indian orphan Rajkumar, his love for the palace maid dolly, their future together, their kids, second world war, the dilemmas of an Indian soldier fighting on behalf of the British ( when India is in throes of its own Independence Movement),the reconciliation of past with the present covering three generations,discourses on vintage cars, cameras, elephants, anthrax and many more , reminding of an era when rubber was newly introduced and was banned for sale by the German Govt. during WW1.. phew... Hmm, so the sweep of the book is so vast and so many characters come and go that you feel reading a collection of stories , loosely bound by a genealogy and a progressing timeline rather th...

Author: Amitav Ghosh I must confess that Amitav Ghosh is one of my favorite writers. His stories are about human beings whether they are poor farmers from 17th century U.P. or present day Sunderbans. He transcends time and space with ease but his characters portray timeless emotions. His prose is lyrical in depicting the environment and etching his characters,without descending into incoherent descriptions . In his book, the Hungry tide, Amitav Ghosh introduces us to the vagaries of life in a part of India that is known of by all but understood very little---the scenic, mysterious and beautiful Sunderbans ---the abode of Royal Bengal Tigers. A lot has been said about the mangroves and the unique biodiversity of the region and dangers posed to it by modernization and encroachment by human beings ,but very little is known about the life of people inhabi...

Dear Dr. Tharoor, I have always admired your eloquence and honesty. My admiration for you has grown manifold after your resignation over the allegations made by Mr. Lalit Modi (and taken up clamorously by our dysfunctional Opposition, who oppose because they have to oppose) of your influencing the bid for IPL Kochi team and being paid for it. This resignation proves that you are not motivated solely by your “kursi” or chair. In Hindi we have a proverb “Saanch ko aanch nahi(Truth has nothing to fear)”.Your integrity stands vindicated by your resignation. But why didn’t you resign earlier ? It would have let you off the whiff of stink of expulsion and love with your chair that might linger for some time , though hopefully people will see your honesty, integrity and sincerity , sorely lacking in our public life(and guess they got envious of your good traits and tried to drag you down to their own level.) Let me introduce myself before I go further. I am a software prof...

For past week, we have witnessed the petulance of Indian Cricketers over the issue of signing WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) contract . The issue being the 'whereabouts " clause of the contract which specifies that players must notify WADA of their whereabouts for 90 days in advance when not playing(between tournaments)..... This has been interpreted as invasion of privacy by Indian Cricketers and hence they have refused to sign the contract, supported by BCCI(undoubtedly the wealthiest Cricket Board in the world and hence a powerful body). To be fair, other athletes like Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal also have reservations about the WADA contract, but they have signed the contract nevertheless. All other cricket boards have also signed the contract, Indian Cricket Players being the exception. So ,are their concerns genuine or yet another tantrum (considered to be one of the perks of Superstardom in India) , considering the fact that other Indian players like Saina N...

A few months back , I had read a book "Talent is Never Enough" by John C. Maxwell. The author says that being talented is a wonderful thing for an individual but not necessarily the only criteria for being successful . Talent must be complemeted by a host of other qualities like, diligence, perseverance, hunger to learn (Teachability), etc.One of these qualities, Teachability, caught my attention and after pondering over it, I wrote down my thoughts(which came in form of an article)....I am sharing my thoughts here...... Let's begin with what dictionary says about Teachability............. Teachability n. of Teachable Teachable adj. Able and willing to learn We all know about Leoranado da Vinci , yes, the guy of "The da Vinci Code " . Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer ( is anything left that he wasn't, I dou...

Dravid's selection in Indian Cricket ODI squad for Champions' Trophy is a good news for Dravid Fans. But some questions have been raised on his selection e.g. isn't it a regressive step or doesn't this show lack of confidence in the team that has won so many ODIs in the last months or is it because of a South Indian Chief Selector for the team. etc... Rahul Dravid is a great player in all the formats of the game. Yes,even in T20 as demonstrated in recently concluded IPL I can see few people shaking their heads and saying it hurts India's chances to build a young team. But let's consider Indian Team's recent performances. Apart from the dismal performance in T20 World Cup, where the Indian batsmen's vulnerability against risisng balls was exposed, the recently concluded ODI series in WI (which by the way India won) also showed how the Indian Team struggled to bat the entire 50 overs. We have a very young team,with enthusiastic players and most of them lo...

Hi, Welcome Everybody!!!! My first Blog.... and what a feeling it is... This is dedicated to my ever suffering kid bro... you rock dude !!!!!!!!!! Bye for now... Keep dropping by to listen more from me.... Thanks, rashmi snigdha