The 'Gift' of Nature?!

The more often you spend time with Nature and IN Nature, the more you get disillusioned about this human world and its frail prides. Plethora of flora and fauna, innumerable forms of life, the magical beauty of the environment around, the abundance of real wealth - air, light and water - around us, this whole planet that has survived billions of years of turmoil both within and around it, the vastness of the Universe that stares back at us in the form of the night sky - what a blessing it is to be alive!

There are people who believe that all this glory was created for the sake of only one species - the humans. To cast a look around the world, to be overwhelmed by the gifts of abundance from this Universe, and to listen to people's belief that all this greatness was created by a bloodthirsty megalomaniac of a god, for the welfare and enjoyment of only one of the species (stupidest, meanest, most exploitative and extremely self-aggrandizing species to have ever lived upon this planet) - us humans, feels like an insult to the Nature.

 

Even if there is really a god, calling this vast Universe as a creation for the amusement of only the mankind feels like an insult to that god. An insult that not even the worst kind of atheist can heap upon Her!

Book Review – Wild In The Backyard, Arefa Tehsin

Wondering what should you gift your pre-teen kid for this birthday? Buy them this book. Even otherwise, you can give this book to them as a casual gift. In fact, not just your kids, but to your nieces, nephews and the kids in your neighbourhood as well, in case you still happen to have such an affectionate bond of old days with your neighbours. Even if there are no kids at your home (or your neighbourhood), just gift yourself with this book. You will not regret it.

The author Arefa Tehsin is said to be an enthusiastic naturalist since her childhood days and it reflects clearly in this work. Once you start reading this book you will understand why. A lovely book about all those critters that pervade our homes and gardens. Ants, bees, frogs, birds, squirrels, snails, centipedes, millipedes, rats and mice and lizards and mosquitoes and monkeys and…have you ever cared to stop and look at them attentively as they cross your path – or as YOU cross THEIR path? This book will make you stop and notice them like never before.

The author shares many facts about hitherto uncared for creatures in our lives in a funny – at times crossing the lines of politeness and decency though not in a serious way - yet professional manner. The book is written as if addressing a school-kid, but who says that grown-ups cannot read children’s books? In fact, this is a book that contains facts that even we grown-ups have not learnt or known till date.

While telling us about the little bugs, birds, rodents and insects that live with us in our homes and backyards, the author has subtly stressed on the need to preserve nature as well. Her care for all the life forms is quite evident. When you finish reading this book, her love, concern and enthusiasm for the ecosystem are bound to infect you for certain – without even any of those critters biting you!

If you are a parent, I would recommend that you read this book sitting with your kid. This is a way to instill in those young minds the love for nature and empathy for our fellow occupants of this beautiful planet.

An interesting read indeed!

Book Review – The Argumentative Indian, Amartya Sen

No other author that I have ever known could stay true to his/her words and convictions throughout the course of the book as Mr.Amartya Sen can. He begins the book with the following words: ‘Prolixity is not alien to us in India.’ And, he goes on to prove his point with page after page of words that come back at you like the ocean waves – repetitive and superfluous. Prolixity may not be alien to us in India, but brevity definitely seems to be an alien concept to Mr.Sen.

To begin with, the title: When I first heard the name ‘The Argumentative Indian’, I was thinking that this book will deal with the Indian history, not just about the positives of it but also about the not-so-positive ones that defied any reason as well. But this book is not a coherent one, if you are keen on learning the history of India, its culture and identity, as the subtitle misleads you to be. The title of this book should have been ‘Demystifying Indian History : Writings against the Hindu Fundamentalists and Hindu Nationalists’ for that is all this book ever tries to do, from the beginning to the end. All that the author ever tries to do is to prove that India is not as great as it is thought to be (by Hindu Nationalists) and it is not as worse as it was portrayed to be (by Western racists – like James Mill and Winston Churchill).

Then, words: The author is blessed with quite a vocabulary that could fill an entire library and an amazing literary skill, having been a student of Tagore’s ‘Shanti Niketan’. But he lacks the skill of brevity. Wish he had known that an idea expressed in more words than necessary seldom manages to hold the attention of the reader. Lengthy sentences that monotonously repeat what was already told elsewhere fail to impress or even convey clearly what they are intended to. 10 lines into the book and your attention already flies off elsewhere.
 

Third will be repetition: 100 pages or so into the book, you find it quite tedious to progress any further. He seems to repeat the same things throughout the book – the secularism of Akbar and Ashoka, the atheist schools of Lokayata and Carvaka, Rama’s mortality and Javali’s advice to him, the differences between Gandhi and Tagore, the insensibilities of the ‘Hindu’ nationalists and how India wasn’t as great in the past as it was made out to be. The criss-cross referencing that ruins the flow of the work is a curse too. A book that carries endnotes and footnotes that consume more than 10% of its total size is definitely not going to help make the reading flow smooth, I am sure. Every other line or so, you have a footnote or an endnote shoved down your throat. His constant reminder of how he discussed – or is going to discuss - the current topic elsewhere in the same book – or, elsewhere in the world - is not helping matters either. Good that he gives a caveat about such repetition in the beginning of the book, bad that I didn’t take it seriously.
 

Fourth, his so-called secular attitude: one of the follies of the present day ‘seculars’ and ‘intellectuals’ of this country is to pounce upon every opportunity to prove how wrong the Hindu fundamentalists are with their stances and views, all the while expressing easy or even no opinions about the radical behaviors of such fundamentalists from other religions. Mr.Sen is guilty of this too. He even comes close to suggesting that the conflict of Kargil was a provocation more on the part of India, while mentioning that the part of Pakistan’s army regulars in that conflict may or may not be true. Really, Mr.Sen?! Attempting to sound neutral, Mr.Sen ends up sounding so annoying and without sense in many places, especially when he uses the negative word of ‘chauvinism’ to refer to the basic human inclination to praise one’s own country!
 

Overall, Mr.Sen has woven a web of words, akin to that of a spider’s. Sticky, repetitive, muddling and uni-dimensional, written more with the purpose of proving a point or two against the Hindu radicals of this country. Except for a few brilliant pages, rest of all is drab! Disappointed, to say the least.