Book Review - Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely

It has been quite a while now that I have come to the conclusion that we humans are not the rational, noble, sensible and sane species that we have been thinking of ourselves to be. While my opinion happens to have had its genesis in watching my fellow humans driving their vehicles, skipping the queues and behave in dumb ways wherever and whenever they can, Dan Ariely seems to have done a study about it in a proper, unbiased and academic way.

This is my second read of Dan's books and I can't help feeling a sense of déjà vu going throughout the book. Dan Ariely runs most of his experiments in a controlled environment - almost all the participants in most of the experiments are students who have been informed well in advance that they are taking part in an experiment. Sometimes, I wonder whether he conducts the experiments to find the truth or to affirm his pre-concluded notions.

A major part of the latter half of the book feels like you have landed in his other book 'The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty', through some secret portal inside the paper. Repetition of his previous ideas and experiments, along with the controlled and simple nature of experiments - where he conducts experiments with his students and concludes that the uncontrolled animals that we are in the real world will also behave like those students - spoil the fun.

I can give this book somewhere between two and three stars. May be, 2.5?! Not sure!

Book Review – Abstract Expressionism, David Anfam

The human mind always develops a serious passion for two things – things that it couldn’t understand and things it couldn’t attain. Abstract art has been one such a passion of mine, one of those many things that I never understood, no matter how much I tried. Picking this book was one attempt of mine to grasp that art form called ‘Abstract Expressionism’. But little did I glean after having gone through this book.

Abstract Expressionism, or Gestural Abstraction, as it is called in another of many ways, is a form of art that is more visceral and volatile than any bit formal or constructed. Of course, even such a visceral art gets constructed by the artist through serious and sincere focus. And, all that I wanted to learn was about the stimuli and milieu that led to the genesis of this art form. I also wanted to learn as to what constitutes ‘abstract expressionism’ and other such qualifiers. David Anfam has done a good job with all that introduction, but the trouble begins with his delving deep in abstract terms to tackle his task of defining the history of Abstract Art forms.

I always love artworks that don’t reveal everything in mere lines, forms and colors, instead carrying a mysterious aura around them, taunting the viewer to look deeper to discern the same. Such works are what art is all about – an expression of the soul, catharsis for the pent up emotions and passions. While Abstract Art easily wins this award hands down, I don’t believe in artists merely splashing paint on a canvas and calling it abstract painting, letting the wannabe’ intellectuals offer any and every meaning that they can dig out of it, thus heaping undeserving glory on the ‘artist’. An artist expressing something of real sense through his work and allowing the viewer to discern the meaning out of it is one thing, while the artist doing the 'splashing' and letting the viewer’s perceptions allot a lofty sense and purpose to an otherwise ‘accidental’ art is something altogether different. The first part is what Abstract Expressionism is all about, whereas the second one is merely a sophisticated sham!

Coming back to this book, many of the artworks appear more like what you or I can do in a simple notebook, but David helps us delve deeper into their meanings and see beyond their seemingly simple exteriors – something that I always dread. If an art aficionado finds more meaning in a work of art - more than even what the artist had really intended to convey – what do you make of such a work? Is the artist to be glorified for encouraging such a thought process or is the viewer to be praised for assigning a meaning - when there were none (or not as much as was made out to be)?!

This and many more such questions of mine about Abstract Art were left unanswered as I closed the book. Little did I learn from this book and I feel that only I am to be blamed. Being a budding artist – of course, I can call myself so and still remain a humble being – I couldn’t understand all that greatness of the works of masters like Jackson Pollock and de Kooning. I can pin the blame on none other than Anfam for making the book a tad difficult for beginners like myself. May be I will revisit the book once I grow wise in life and art. May be then I will be able to understand this book better and revise my rating, but for the time being I can offer it nothing more than two-stars!

Book Review - Hind Swaraj, M.K.Gandhi

Are Gandhian principles relevant to today's 'Modern India'?

If you're a person who entertains such a question in your mind, then this book is definitely for you. Written more than a hundred years ago, this book continues to be relevant today and some of his views are indeed prophetic.

Even if you're one of those Gandhi-bashers, if you could keep your hatred for him aside for a while and read this book with the only aim of contemplating on the deeper meaning of his words instead of seeking opportunities to bash him further, you will find that his views on celibacy, soul-force, non-violence and self-rule all hold relevance even today.

There may be some points of his that may make us doubt his sanity or progressive nature. For example, be it his hatred for machines and modern civilisation or for the professions of law and medicine, a mere superfluous reading may make one squirm with disbelief at such 'backward' ideas, but read them in the context and they start making more meaning than ever before.

Of course, not all his über-ideal views will impress everyone and definitely none of us will even want such a world to come to truth, but this is a book worth reading if you want to know the truth that is Gandhi's mind and the convictions that pushed him onward on the path to excellence in the freedom struggle. A must-read for all those who love Indian History.

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.

A Prayer to Nature!

By this evening, as I was fetching water from our well, I looked up at the sky with the usual eagerness. The whole firmament was glittering, studded with the cosmic diamonds. Against the dark backdrop of the night sky, the stars provided a brilliant spectacle, with my favourite asterism of the Orion's Belt standing out as usual, right above my head. While deep beneath them, we puny humans are carrying on with our lives in banal ways, with petty quarrels and concerns, these giant stars were shining above gloriously, whirling around in speeds unimaginable by our limited minds. Around me, the plants were all standing still as if they were also relishing the surreal beauty up above them.

Overcome by the magical nature of that moment, I felt immense love and gratitude surging up inside me. It was then that these words of spontaneous prayer broke out inside me -

'Dear Nature,

Please accept my immense gratitude for this beautiful moment.

I often wonder whether you are the god that this whole world worships in various names, attributing the powers of creation, preservation and destruction, because according to me you are the one that carries out all these tasks.

But then I decide that what our 'modern-day' religions worship can never be you.

Under the guise of so many megalomaniacal deities, that are control-freaks, baying for the blood of those who worship any deity other than them, we have all taken to worshipping our own egos and hidden desires.
You, with your all-encompassing and yet aloof demeanour, can never be a god.

Since you're not a god - at least not in the conventional sense of that word - all that I feel for you are not fear and a servile piety, but a deep sense of gratitude, bliss and love.

For, I know that I am within you, I am a part of you and I am you, having born of the composition of your various elements.

And, when this shell of mine perishes, my essence - my soul or whatever it is - is going to spread out into your cosmic womb, dissolving into millions of atoms, awaiting another chance composition into another being.

I am you, you are me.

I am That, and That is me!'