Recent Books...

...read from the last few months. A quick update...

Istanbul - Orhan Phamuk
Well written but I put it down about half way. Slow pace and not really a story, more of a documentary.

Almost Single -Advaita Kala
Time pass book that I found quite enjoyable, even comes with a slight bollywood ending. Good book for doing some light reading on flights etc and finish off in a couple of sittings.

Family Matters - Rohinton Mistry

A really good book. Loved the style and the story. Slow book but has a steady pace and really just so well written that you won't mind the pace. Going to pick one more from him for sure...

Lee Child Novel's
Killing Floor - Really good. The first Jack Reacher book...
Nothing to Lose - Total crap!
The Hard Way - Average read, ok plot and pace.

Birds of the Indian Subcontinent -Grimmett, Inskipp, Inskipp
This is my birding book, thought I would list it here. Amazing book, a must have for people into birding...

Next reads:
White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
The Black Swan - Taleb
Lunatic in my Head - Anjum Hasan

"If I was asked to wipe tables I would ensure that I was the best table wiper around"

This is what someone who I used to report to at one point and have a high regard for, told me once. To the same effect, yesterday, I read a really beautiful and inspiring story written by Satyajit Ray.

The story is about a man in his early fifties who many years back used to be an active stage actor and was really good at it. But he had given up acting long back when he moved to Calcutta in search for a better job. He had eventually lost the job and ever since has had it tough to make ends meet.

One day suddenly his friend gives him an offer to act as a walk on in a commercial film which has a famous director and a very famous actor. The role is of a person who the hero of the film bumps into and then walks away. He is told that the role does have spoken lines. Excited at this prospect he tells his wife about how he began his stage career acting as a dead body on stage and this role might bring about a similar change in his life.

The next day he shows up on the film set and finds out that his spoken line is ‘oh!’ He is very disappointed and irritated that the role is just one word, in fact it is not even a word it is just a sound. Unsettled he stands in the shade in one corner waiting for his shot to come. He is really unhappy but then the words of his mentor, when he was a stage actor, come to him. He remembers in reverence how his mentor used to say that no part is small and it is one's responsibility to make the most of every opportunity. He then starts thinking about ‘oh!’ and quickly realizes that there are many different shades to say 'oh!'. Standing there he calculates how different emotions can be mixed to come up with different ways to say ‘oh!’ He figures out his ‘oh!’ requires 60 parts of irritation and 40 parts of surprise.

When his shot comes along he even musters up courage to suggest to the director that in the scene maybe he should be reading a newspaper while he bumps into the actor. He is given a newspaper and the shooting starts. He does his best as he bumps into the hero harder than he had anticipated and manages to exclaim ‘oh!’ with 50 parts of anguish and 25 parts of surprise and irritation each. And just like that his work is done. He is asked to go wait in the tea stall for his payment.

At the tea stall he sits contently and has a sense of deep satisfaction. He knows people on the film set would not appreciate or even understand the effort he had put in and then he thinks about how much his payment would be 10, 15 or maybe even 20 rupees. Even though he needs the money badly, at that moment a thought strikes him 'what is twenty rupees when measured against the intense satisfaction of a small job done with perfection and dedication?'

The end of the story is that someone from the film set comes to the tea stall to hand over the payment and finds that this person is gone…

The story gives the same message as what someone put to me in a different form that no matter how insignificant you feel something on your hand is, always strive to put in your all and do your outmost best.

The story is really simple but I think it is a masterpiece and I really loved the story and also the way it is written. It is so simple yet capable of having such a huge impact on our attitude in life, whether it is in our work or in our personal lives…

Kite Runner

I totally forgot to write about the book "Kite Runner" that I finished reading almost 2 months back now.

“Kite Runner” (by Khaled Hosseni) is a really powerful book with a very touching and heartening story. It is quite traumatic in parts and will have a complete grip on you.

The story traces the life of an Afghan boy, Amir, from when he was a kid in Afghanistan to him becoming a young man, married and now living in California. The book starts with a phone call after which Amir must now return to his native land to seek redemption for what happened one winter season. As a kid Amir lived a privileged life and his best friend, Hassan, is the household servant's son. They grow up flying kites, reading books, telling stories and do everything together. But everything changes on a fateful winter day. On a day when Amir and Hassan have just won the town's prestigious kite flying championship, an unspeakable incident, starting with Hassan's haunting words for Amir "For you, a thousand times over...” changes everything in their relationship.

This book also opens your eyes to the turmoil and misery in the lives of the normal people in Afghanistan, and how different it is from the stereotypical view the world holds of that country and its people.

An extremely well written book from which you can pick numerous memorable passages. The opening para itself is quite striking. Here is a part of it:
"...it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learnt, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out."

Oh I just found that my Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex is probably damaged! :) This I found while reading "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell the author of The Tipping Point. The tag line of this book is "The power of thinking without thinking"...

Anyway in this book there is a mention about the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed at Harvard. I would encourage you to go and take a few of them. The tests are available at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit

What these tests measure is our attitude towards things at an unconscious level. Varied subjects like racism, religion, computer operating system preference etc. We are probably not even aware that we have such an attitude. This attitude is the first thing that comes out even before we have had a chance to think when we are faced with a particular situation or circumstance.

The book says "The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values". I didn't find too many discrepancies in mine but in case if you do find that, for example you have a racist implicit attitude then there is a way to deal with such things. What you do is to increase familiarization with what you have an negative attitude against. Spend time in the environment in which you have developed a bias against. Learn about the good things of that aspect because it is the bad things that you have absorbed from the evironment around you and hence developed the implicit preference...

There are some tests related to India also at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/india/

India
Over some drinks, last week, someone remarked how in some communities parents want their daughters to be married only to someone settled in the US. Now along those lines there were some other comments like "I will never go there", "And I am proud to be an Indian" and "I never felt at home there or could never somehow call that place my home". Anyway that apart, Fahrenheit 9/11 was coming on TV and there is one segment where they show how on a regular basis the US have invaded countries. That got me thinking...

In 1998 the US bombed a far away country and destroyed a primary school and an Asprin like drug making factory. They never helped Rwanda but they happily went and flattened Iraq twice. They gave Osama 3 billion to spend and god knows how much more to Saddam to fight against Iran. They have assassinated probably half a dozen presidents and leaders in South American countries throwing these countries in chaos and sending them spiraling into further poverty and then installing puppet dictators.

What I am getting at is my country has never done that. We have never invaded anyone. Despite having one of the worst neighbours ever possible we have never been the aggressor against even them. We have the worst corrupt politicians but still we have never bombed a primary school. We have never bred hate and violence in such blatant forms to satisfy the greed of the elite rich and the so called "corporations". I can safely say that our collective conscience is clear in this matter. This makes a big difference in my mind, proud of that record...

Che Guevara
The second thing that I quickly wanted to write, came to me while watching Motorcycle Diaries. The movie is about Che Guevara. While living in Los Angeles I had read and known about him but hadn't seen the movie as yet. The movie covers Ernesto Guevara and his friend taking a road trip on a rickety motorcycle across South America. Something changed in him during this trip. He saw the economic disparity in the countries he traveled through and that changed him to become one of the most influential leaders who fought for the weak and poor. His photo (below) is among the most recognized pictures in the world. Che, which became his famous nickname meaning "man" or "pal", is the symbol in the fight against inequality and injustice all around the world.

But what sort of popped in my head was a song that AC/DC plays in their live shows called Bonny. Angus Young, one of my all time favorite guitarists, plays a very soulful version of this song. Anyway the song goes:

I`ll take the high road
And you`ll take the low road
And I`ll be in Scotland afore ye

So did Che Guevara take the high road or the low road? I am not sure. Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt his intentions were righteous and I find what he accomplished very admirable and inspiring. But was it the high road? Now let me ask you if Gandhiji's road was the high one or the low one??? I have no doubt as to which road it was...

Apparently Che was inspired by Gandhiji and claimed armed conflict was never his first option but looks like finally revolución was the only option he was left with...

Never Let Me Go

I recently picked a book by Kazuo Ishiguro called Never let me go. While generally reading the back cover I found that Remains of the day was also written by Ishiguro. I hadn’t read “Remains of the day” but had seen the movie. Anthony Hopkins delivers a brilliant performance in the movie portraying the butler. So anyway, based on the jacket of the book, it was also a finalist for the 2005 Booker prize, I thought it was a very readable book and bought it…

I will definitely recommend this book to all. You can read this blog further, don’t worry nothing here will spoil your reading...

The book is a story being told by a 31 year old girl named Kathy. She walks you through her life experiences, up from childhood, largely with her two best friends Ruth and Tommy. I found myself a little lost at the beginning not able to understand what was special about them and what are “donors” and “carers”. But things clearl up as you progress. Anyway, despite that Ishiguro’s style will keep you involved. The portrayal of Kathy’s life is really heart felt and you will be able to associate with some of the things. Things like fighting with best friends over things both big and small, not being able express feelings freely due to circumstances, quiet but desperate separation etc…

The third and final part of the book is a punch to the gut, gentle though. Everything unravels in the final part. I found myself choking up many times as the characters near their fate. The story and theme are fiction, as you will realize, but the human feelings and situations described and portrayed are just so genuine and true. It is in this part that you start seeing through each of the characters, understanding them and the love they have always shared, although not openly, for each other.

As one of the reviews says the book is a “…a tour de force of knotted tension and buried anguish…”. Just like “Remains of the day” while reading this book you will many times feel as to why the characters don’t just bring out everything in the open. Kathy even thinks back that during one situation maybe the best thing to have done was to just go give Tommy a big hug. But you will realize, that is not how things work in life and sometimes feelings have to be left suppressed…

A very simple and warm story, told in a very different and novel way, that will leave a lasting impression on you...

The Tipping Point

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Recommendation: Must read

This is a really good book, gets you thinking and thinking differently about a lot of things which are taken for granted in our daily life. As one review of the book says "makes you see the world in a different way".

The tagline of the book is “How little things can make a big difference”.

Malcolm Gladwell takes lots of examples where things have spread like “epidemics” due to some small incidents which tipped the balance resulting in avalanches. He takes the examples of how the Hush Puppy shoes once floundering, suddenly in 1995 made a comeback and soared in popularity. All this wihtout the company really doing much. And how crime in the city of New York was so prevalent but due to some small changes the crime rates drastically tipped downwards and the city made a comeback as a safe and very livable place.

The book explains these "epidemics" using 3 rules or laws: the Law of the Few; the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context.

The Power of Context (Part One) chapter is the one I really liked. The Power of Context and the Broken Windows concept (explained and used in the book to illustrate the drop in the high rate of crime in the city of New York) suggest that behaviour is a function of social context. It is not that behaviour is not governed by genetics, social upbringing etc but it additionally suggests that certain times you can have a very normal person with everything straight but their behaviour can yet be powerfully affected by changing their immediate situation and environment.

The Broken Windows theory suggests that “…crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.”

In the New York subway system every inch of the trains and stations were covered in graffiti and crime was really prevelant even in daylight. Mugging was a common place. The book explains how the graffiti was the Broken Window invitation and some administrators just by ensuring that the trains and stations were cleaned up, inside and out, managed to "tip" the decline of crime on the subway and in general also.

Another concept which really appealed to me is how it is generally believed that emotion is only inside-out. “I feel happy, so I smile. I feel sad, so I frown.” But the Emotional Contagion theory suggests that the opposite is also true. “If I can make you smile, I can make you happy. If I can make you frown, I can make you sad.” “Mimicry” is the way where if you show people smiling faces or better yet you yourself smile at them, they will smile back. Although, as the book says, the response may be so fleeting that you may need electronic sensors to detect micro smile. But the whole point is that you do influence and have the power to pass on your happiness, just by cracking a small smile maybe at someone who you know is feeling down or maybe at a meeting in office or maybe even at someone with whom you share a “cold” relationship. :-)

"Emotion is contagious" :-)

Confessions of an Economic Hitman...

EHM: Economic Hit Man

John Perkins an ex-EHM wrote a tell all book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".

EHMs have existed for decades but have become more important with the current increase in the rate of globalization. They are responsible for selling inflated development plans to poor and developing countries and convincing them to buy into these grand but totally unrealistic and unachievable plans. In the process the poor countries are cheated out of their natural resources and left riddled in debt and are brought to their knees. Then this is used as leverage and circle continues. This whole system runs into trillions of dollars all being siphoned from the public into private corporate houses in the US. John Perkins gives several such examples about countries like Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. He describes how companies like Bechtel and one he worked for gained from this.

Also when EHMs fail to convince a country or its leaders to buy into their plan or when a leader of a country starts going astray in the middle of the plan the result is military action like the invasion of Panama over the Panama Canal and of Iraq.

My colleague Rajeev has written two nice posts about the book and you can read them here:

Confessions...
Confessions...(II)