Book Review – Superhubs, Sandra Navidi

Being the mere mortal that I am, once in a while I too fall prey to the hype created by the well-meaning friends around me, at least when it comes to book recommendation. This year, this is the second such book which was sold to me – not literally though – with a huge hype, but which ended up as just another dull ones.

The book promises to show us how the world’s most powerful financial organizations and their bosses influence our lives by their decisions. I was sitting up eagerly hoping for an adventurous ride, able to get an inside view into the business intricacies of global finance and economy. But the book was filled up with the ostentatious parties and endless conferences that the finance bigwigs get to attend to all through the year. For a while, the book feels like it is trying to teach you the need for a good networking amongst your peers and superiors. Then it feels like a roster of who-is-who of the global finance and the parties they attend and the cabals they are parts of. I couldn’t control letting out an occasional yawn every now and then.

After striving to pay repeated, utter obeisance to the overlords of financial world, especially to people like George Soros and Nouriel Roubini, recalling their names with superior adjectives almost every other time they are mentioned, the author shifts gears at last, just as I was losing interest to even skim through the pages. She started talking about some serious topics like how exclusive and single dimensional these ‘super-hubs’ are, less represented by people of other gender and other races. She also started talking about the muck – corruption, arrogance & indifference to the plight of lesser mortals like us - that is covered up beneath all that veneer of opulence that shimmers on the high profile bankers.

Ironically though, just as the author improved the tempo, letting go of all the bragging and boring obsequiousness, she seemed to have lost interest. This was clearly seen in a bunch of spelling and grammatical errors that mar those pages. Imagine! Just as you start reading something worthwhile on those pages!

The author ends the book with a half-hearted call to reform the global financial network, and restrain the unbridled - often times unethical - pursuit of wealth. But who will bell the cat?! There is no definitive answer or any meaningful discussion.

So, just to sum it up all, it doesn’t contain any meaningful insights about how the global financial systems work or how they influence our lives, if that is what you were trying to learn as I initially did. This book is more about how the behemoths of finance mingle and mesh, with their unimaginable wealth and the relentless pursuit for more, especially when written by an insider who looks at them with a twinkle in her eyes!

Boring! Obsequious!! Boastful!!!

Book Review – Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari

I have read quite a number of books that ended up disappointing me. Some of those were gifted by well-meaning friends. Some of them were books I bought on an impulse. Then there were books that I had waited years to read only to find them unworthy of all those years of patience. But this book by Yuval Noah Harari tops the list. Just imagine reading a book that all your friends were going gaga about, only to find that there is nothing worthwhile in it and wondering whether you are really a good reader at all, now that you don’t even like a book that the whole world around you seems to love!

Let’s clear a few things first, before you think of bashing me up. This is a commendable effort by Mr. Harari to summarize the whole history of mankind and its evolutionary tale. During the initial pages, I too thought that this will be one of the best reads on anthropology. But this book promises a lot only to deceive. We statisticians use the term confirmation bias, which means the tendency to favor and present only those information that are supportive to one’s beliefs. This book is full of them. Harari had decided to present all that is wicked and weak about Homo Sapiens and he has succeeded to a large extent.

Not that I am complaining. I for one have never held the notion that we humans are special beings sitting atop the food chain, placed there by a favorable god who created us all in his (or, is it a ‘her’?) own image. I think of us as a different species of apes that managed to evolve a little quicker than our cousins. Despite our use of advanced languages, costly clothes and snazzy gadgets, internally we remain the beasts that roamed the vast forests once. I see nothing special about being human. This book helped cement that belief in my mind by discussing the idiocies and idiosyncrasies of our species as a whole.

But that’s just about it. This book isn’t ‘a brief history of humankind’, but the opinions of Mr. Harari about the various aspects of human evolution. This isn’t a chronological history in the lines of ‘What on Earth Happened?’ by Christopher Lloyd or ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson, both of which I found to be far more informative and interesting than this one. This is both a philosophical take and passing of judgments by Mr. Harari on what he considers to be the vital cogs of human evolution, namely Cognitive Revolution, Agricultural Revolution & Scientific Revolution. There is nothing that you end up learning that you already didn’t learn, especially in case you had read those two aforementioned books.

Sorry, dear friends. I have read much better books. 2.5 stars!

Book Review - The Arts of Seduction, Seema Anand

Sex!

The utterance of the very word has become a sort of taboo in our society. From being the land that gave the world the Kama Sutra and the Khajuraho, we have all become prim and perverted. So much so that even when the word ‘Sex’ is found on an official form, we prefer to term it as ‘gender’ instead of using ‘the other word’. While the reasons for such a drastic shift in sentiments deserve a book on their own, a gentle reminder of our ancient, less prudish past is something that has long been due. This book is one such a positive step in that direction.

What Ms. Seema Anand tries to do in this book is to distill the essence of Kama Sutra and present it in a more practical form. I must say that she succeeds to a large extent. This book is sort of primer to that erotique sans pareil - Kama Sutra. Cutting all those lengthy depictions and stringent syllabi, the author has succeeded to a large extent in keeping the poetic nature of the work alive. Kudos to that!

One glaring error in the whole of the book is, while depicting the weird habit of the Maharaja of Patiala, Ms. Seema mentions Mr. Natwar Singh as the author of ‘Freedom at Midnight’. To my humble knowledge, Mr. Natwar Singh hasn’t written any such book. The subject though could have been a part of his other book ‘The Magnificent Maharaja’. In a book that is written with much meticulous research on ancient manuscripts, this error stands out like a sore thumb. Otherwise a neat job though.

To summarize, Kama Sutra was the work that stripped away (pun intended) the vulgarity and obscenity from sex and presented it for what it is – an act of extreme pleasure when approached aesthetically. This book by Seema Anand is a gentle reminder to that lost treasure which is now only read in secret. A decent read!

Ten Things A Man Learns When Wife Goes Out of Town

1. Whoever feels that husbands have a nice time when their wives are away is either unmarried or a lazy person!
 

2. The stove remains hot for at least half-an-hour after you turn it off. Forgetting this lesson will give you some ‘lasting memories'.
 

3. Sweeping the floor is a good exercise for the lower back. It also explains how the wife is able to discover the lost buttons, coins, and miscellaneous trinkets at ease.
 

4. The t-shirts, no matter how comfortable they feel, are supposed to be changed once in, at least, three days - every day, if it is summer. Not learning this will ‘alienate’ you from the people around.
 

5. Cooking is not just another hobby. At times, it is the difference between going to bed with a tummy stuffed with all the open-market junk and a well - or at least safely - fed tummy.
 

6. There is nothing in the world that a man cannot do which his wife can do. Except when it comes to bashing the neighbor women for 10 minutes straight for a transgression they committed 10 months ago, and still manage the most amicable smile when they meet one another.
 

7. It takes more effort to maintain things as they are than it might take to change them.
 

8. Refrigerator and the wardrobe both serve different purposes.
 

9. It takes as much effort to run the house as it takes to run a small organization, except that there are no designations, no promotions, no increments and definitely no retirement when it comes to being the 'housewife'.
 

and, finally,
 

10. Bricks, steel, concrete, colors, wood, glass and so many other things make a house. But it is only the companionship of a loving person that can turn it into a home!

Book Review – The Adivasi Will Not Dance, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

India, as we all know, is a land of diverse cultures, different peoples, customs, languages and lifestyles. Some of us get to experience that diversity through travel, visiting places and finding people as they are, relishing the experiences thus gained. For the rest and most of us, books offer a window into that vastness and one resolution that I had for 2020 is to explore the works by regional authors, be it fiction or otherwise. This book was one such a choice and what a choice it turned out to be!

When it comes to writing works of fiction that represent a particular culture, the authors can choose to depict either a rosy picture, portraying their culture as supremely special or they can present the reality as it is, letting us frame our own opinions about the things thus presented. Needless to say, most of the while, it is the works of latter styles that prove to be impactful. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, fortunately for us all, has chosen the second style.

This book, a collection of ten short stories, will shock you and leave you with haunting memories. Like a raw wound, unattended and uncovered, this collection of stories will shock you, disgust you, invoke pity and a sense of helpless anger. Strangely, this book will also leave you wanting for more. Some stories, like that of Baso-jhi, a orphaned widow shunned by all and sundry, or that of Shubhashini, trying to reach home to her ailing son, will both invoke a sense of deep pity. Some other stories, like the couple who move across the country to Gujarat only to witness the fateful riots of 2002, or the plea of the ageing Santhal tribal who dared defy the ‘system’, will both stoke sentiments of a political nature. Stories of a prostitute who hopes for a better life or the servant maid whose moods change at the sight of money, both cause a deep sense of disgust. Equally impactful are the other four stories, each one certain to induce strong emotions in their own way.

The language is unpolished and yet unblemished. Though the author could have toned down the depiction of physical intimacy, which almost border on pornography, it certainly doesn’t feel like cheap titillation. One negative though is the frequent use of vernacular with no meaning offered either as a footnote or endnote. Of course, one can interpret the meaning in the course of the stories, but still I would have loved to see the meanings shared separately.

There is an undertone of sadness that grips readers of the great Saadat Hasan Manto. A similar angst is bound to grip you as you finish reading this book and that I believe is the success of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. A memorable read!

Book Review – Permanent Record, Edward Snowden

What if I told you that you are a potential criminal, a common thief, a shoplifter? Or, that you are someone capable of causing loss of lives by acts of terrorism? Before you start thinking of ways to bash me, let me tell you this – we are treated like potential criminals in our day to day lives and yet we have all learnt to live through that instead of boiling with indignation. When you enter a departmental store, you handover your bags and take the baskets provided there. When you enter a shopping mall, you are subjected to the waving of the wand – metal detectors. Worst of all is air travel – you have to remove your shoes, belts and jackets. Your luggage is scanned thoroughly and, what is worse, you are made to undergo the ‘waving of the wand’ along with your person being frisked!

Of course, we all understand the reasons behind such security procedures and for the sake of the greater good – public safety – we have learnt to comply with those rules. But, there is supposed to be a line drawn between allowing oneself to basic scrutiny and keeping one’s dignity intact. For example, we are willing to allow our bags to be scanned at shopping malls, metro stations and airports, but will we tolerate the security personnel tailing us all through our presence at these places, watching our every move and marking our every word?

Now, imagine the social media, your chat applications, your blogs and the whole web. What if I told you that there are people who watch your every move and record whatever you click, write, like, repost or simply gaze at for more than a normal amount of time? Will you still feel alright about it or will you feel indignant? Nope, I am not talking just about cookies and trackers that websites like Amazon or Facebook use to track our behaviors and preferences, in order to make money by showing us customized advertisements. I am talking about organized, serious large-scale surveillance. The scale in which your movement is monitored through CCTV cameras, your phone calls are listened to, your chat texts are read, your web browsing history is for the whole world to see, your personal, intimate photos are not really personal and intimate, your banking transactions are scrutinized with more attention than you yourself would pay, and your current location in the world is pinpointed with precision. Even a simple smartphone user will know that these are not impossible imaginations. Would you prefer to subject yourself to such close scrutiny day in and day out?

Edward Snowden is the one who put his life on line to tell the world that this kind of mass surveillance is possible and that his country is actively pursuing it on an unforeseen, global scale. Once a part of some of the most secretive organizations in the word – the CIA & the NSA – he is now being hunted by those very organizations for the ‘crime’ of having leaked ‘top secret’ documents on America’s surveillance practices. He is charged for acts of espionage and branded a ‘traitor’ by many of his own countrymen for whose sake he decided to take the risk. This comprehensive autobiography tells the tale of that brave whistleblower, right from his ordinary childhood to his current exile in Moscow.

Snowden describes his childhood, his ancestry and how his parents had been an influence in his life choices. His growth as a curious but not so pedagogic youngster, his transitioning into a patriotic youngster who unsuccessfully attempted to join the army, his eventually taking up a job at the CIA is all depicted vividly. Through these pages, Snowden gives a glimpse of his formative years – emotional as well as ethical. The book gathers pace from the chapter where Snowden starts recounting his unease at the government’s disrespect for individual privacy and intrusion into common man’s lives in the form of mass surveillance. The last couple of chapters act as worthy climax to a well-written book. Especially the one where Lindsay (his girlfriend who went on to become his wife) recounts her experience in the hands of the government, after Snowden went public with his findings, feels like a Hollywood movie. Well-paced and very well narrated.

These may be the times where we take pleasure in flaunting the details of our personal lives in social media – our meals, our vehicles, our travels, our possessions, our passions or, worst of all, our bodies. But it is still about our volition, about what WE choose to flaunt and not what others want to peek at.

We wouldn’t prefer someone peering into our phone screens or looking over our shoulders at the ATM. We wouldn’t want someone to tail us throughout our daily lives – following us everywhere we go, making a note of where we went, whom we spoke to, how long we spoke, what we wrote and what we got in reply. With governments surreptitiously gearing up for such capabilities, dystopian days are not far ahead. Heroes like Snowden help us fight such unethical governments and corporates, by first making us aware of such possibilities and then by providing us with tools to fight such cyber-slavery.

This is a book that you must read and spread word about!

What’s Your Cocoon?

In insects, cocooning is a process whereby they mature, grow from being soft, vulnerable beings to becoming what they are truly destined to be. In humans though, cocooning is a process whereby the reverse occurs. From being innocent, loving, pure beings to obstinate, paranoid, bitter, self-doubting, hurtful humans, we are transformed by cocoons of our own experiences.

We cocoon ourselves not to grow and evolve, but to protect and distance ourselves from all that we assume to be harmful, bad or simply anything that we are not comfortable with. We weave our cocoons with bitter emotions caused by failures, frustrations and disappointments that stem in one way or the other from love, life, work, business, relationships, society and what not!

Unlike the silky strands of a butterfly’s cocoon, our sheaths are all made of self-doubt, paranoia, hatred, negativity, intolerance, bitterness and enmity, each of which is an unbreakable strand like steel. Few, if ever, break out of their bitter cocoons and be what they are destined to be truly.

Alas, if only we could all become aware of the strands that form our cocoons!