God's Debris: A Thought Experiment by Scott Adams

Yep. The creator of Dilbert himself. And this one is a stark contrast to what goes into his Dilbert strips. When you first open the pdf, it will remind you of a report you made in b-school. 144 pages with 12 pages of intro and contents and what not, large font size and line spacing. What that makes for is real easy and fast reading. You'd think whats the point... Until that is you get to the end of the first page of the Introduction where he says,
"The target audience for God’s Debris is people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls."

The book is written in the form of a discussion between an average Joe and the central character who Adams introduces as "The central character in God’s Debris knows everything. Literally everything." What results is a discussion of the most profound questions of life in a very rational and unique way. The author followed a basic principle while writing God's Debris, Occam's razor, which simply put -"The simplest explanation is usually right."

What is fascinating about this novelette is not just the new perspectives that it takes you through but also the narrative style, a question and answer conversation between a rational being and an irrational one (most of us "average Joe"s are!), taking a lot of cue from the Gita and the Vedas.

A few tips for the book-

• Read it from cover to cover including the Introduction.
• Expect it to be what it is - a thought experiment. Think along with the book. Some of these ideas you'd already have thought of or discussed extensively with others, others would be very novel to you. All of them are sure to churn the grey stuff upstairs!
• If you have a solid conviction of your beliefs, this book will excite you. If you are easily conned or persuaded by philosophical ideas, its better you pass this one by.
• The final tip from Scott Adams himself -
  "You might love this thought experiment wrapped in a story. Or you might hate it. But you won’t easily get it out of your mind. For maximum enjoyment, share God’s Debris with a smart friend and then discuss it while enjoying a tasty beverage."

So here you go, smart folks- Download the ebook here. Looking forward to that discussion over some nice cold beverages :)

Reading Lolita in Tehran

To most of us who love reading books, the stories have meanings beyond the plot. In many ways, the stories have shaped how we see places, people and even ourselves. Reading Lolita in Tehran is about all this and more.

In a country taken over by religious fanatics, Azar Nafisi, tells her story of how and she and her students found liberation through books. How they found the courage to face oppression at home and in the streets, how their minds refused to be bound even though their bodies were.

In her little book reading class, Azar finds the women slowly transforming themselves as they encouter Lolita, Elizabeth Bennett and others who stood out and stood up for themselves. The class soon becomes their little act of rebellion against Khomeini's transformation of Iran from a liberal to a fanatical society. Finding their bodies suddenly encased and covered from head to toe, their movement within their own country and city restricted, these women use books and stories to experience other worlds, and to let these experiences shape their own decisions.

Reading Lolita... brings to life what some books have meant for each of us, it puts in words how some characters have shaped us, and its pages recount the solace that I have found at many points in time in certain books. It is a book lover's tribute to books, her memoir of the most potent influence in her life and how that helped shape an act of individual rebellion for a group of girls in Islamic Iran.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult ends the acknowledgments of Nineteen Minutes by dedicating her book to different, unpopular and scared kids. You know the kinds who’ve been laughed at in school and college. The kinds who have been given ‘names’ by cliques because of their offbeat character..the kinds who dont ‘fit in’. I am sure all of us had someone like this in our class at some point in time. The important question is whether we were a part of denting that student’s self-esteem. If we were, in any which way a part of the mocking brigade, then unintentionally we have created a broken human being who, as in this case, destroys the source of pain and hurt.

Peter Houghton has stormed Sterling High School and killed students on an impulse. He’s exacted his revenge in ‘nineteen minutes’. He has orchestrated this act with enough coldness to shock a jury and the town in consideration, but with enough sensitivity to spare his friend Josie Cormier.

With two parallel storylines, one that runs forward and another that goes back in time, Jodi goes on to explain the concept of bullying and how it impacts students worldwide. Through Peter’s character she shows how every little insult and every act of comparison drives the nail into the coffin. Its not just the act of bullying or the use of humiliation that is accounted, but also the apathetic nature of society who turns a blind eye to a child’s helplessness. Josie’s mother Judge Alex Cormier’s character is introduced early on in the story and makes an impact right till the end. Through Alex’s character, Jodi questions the right of society to judge anybody for a mistake that has been eventually created by society itself. Her need to protect her daughter from the trauma of her trial, forces her to relieve herself of legal duties related to the case. Josie Cormier’s daughter who happens to be the only friend that Peter had in school, becomes key witness in the case. Josie Cormier is a typical case of a ‘trying to fit in’ personality. She abandons Peter for a more popular group of friends, who are the perpetrators of humiliation in school. Josie is Jodi’s mirror for the popularity issue in schools and colleges alike.  There are teenagers who for hours on end keep thinking about how they can be popular and save themselves from incessant torture by the ‘it’ crowd. Come to think of it, for an average teenager it is indeed a questionable dilemma. The risk of being laughed at is huge and the need to get into a clique enormous. No wonder self esteem is derived from materialistic possessions.

The novel is written in a remarkably easy to read language and combines the elements of drama, friendship and suspense to keep the reader involved. What strikes the reader early on, is the thought process that has gone behind the creation of each central character. For this reason the parallel storylines, that keep the day of shooting as the focal point, help us understand, slowly but steadily the events that led to D-day and the months after that. All while till the end, you as a reader, will agree with all the characters and their actions. You will think that each member of the novel is justified in his position. However you will thank that there is a law in place, that prevents us from turning into a banana republic. Then again, who are we as individuals to judge Peter’s act. True, he took lives and scarred families, but werent the victims actually the cause of the crime? Shouldnt we all then be a recipient of punishment? Shoudnt the society that caused the formation of a monster be held accountable for this act?

There is a beautiful point in the story where Lacy Houghton ( Peter’s Mother) meets her friend Alex Cormier after many years and Alex recounts Peter’s wonderful childhood years and the beautiful shades of creativity that he possessed …She ends the conversation by saying this personal favourite quote of mine …

“Some things exist as long as there is someone to remember it “

Cross posted here.

Leaving Microsoft to change the World by John Wood

It is remarkable...the kind of passion one man can have, to get up in the morning, every single day and work towards building schools and libraries across the world. 

John Wood decided to leave Microsoft to start Room to Read- a non profit organisation that is dedicated to building libraries and in Nepal, India, Cambodia and Vietnam and many more. A vacation in Nepal, lead to a chance meeting with a local headmaster and a dilapidated school. The library was a sham. It made John ask the question which he answered through his work --Why should somebody be denied the right to read because of the country one is born into?

Room to Read was setup with passionate team members and continues  to operate successfully in four countries. At last count, the organisation has setup 5600 libraries and affected over 2 million children. 

This book was published much later and details the setup of the organisation. For readers interested in social work and hardened souls who have forgotten that there is another side to the glam world, its an eye opener. Everything from the kind of funding required and the way fund raisers should be held is present in the book. The dilemma of leaving a cushy job to enter into a social setup with almost zero funding, fundraisers gone awry and so many illiterate children (approx. 100 million children as per UN statistics)--the book has its moments of dilemma. At times you shed tears at the miracles this organisation has accomplished and at times you wonder about the probability of failure.

The presence of Microsoft in the title and the writer's life has had considerable impact on the book and the writer. Although the author gives Microsoft's hectic and capitalist schedules the 'credit' for his leaving the company, he makes up for it,midway, by praising bad boy 'Ballmer'and his methodical ways.

The book should be made compulsory in schools and colleges alike. Not only does it awaken the ignorant reader, it inspires the human mind to think on a global scale where education is a scarcity and indifference is in abundance.

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

“NOW, WHEN I SAY I SAW MY DEAD MOTHER, I mean just that. I saw her. She was standing by the dugout, wearing a lavender jacket, holding her pocketbook. She didn't say a word. She just looked at me. Something melted inside of me, as if her face gave off heat. It went down my back. It went to my ankles. And then something broke, I almost heard the snap, the barrier between belief and disbelief. I gave in. Off the planet. "Charley?" she said. "What's wrong?" I did what you would have done. I hugged my mother as if I'd never let her go.”


Mitch Albom’s ‘For One More Day’ is a ghost story. It traces you back to the person who died a few years ago – yourself. Albom takes your hand and walks you towards the bright light you have always pretended never existed. The bright light that takes you to old memories and forgotten relationships. The book leaves you heaving with sighs of the ‘could-haves and should-haves’.

While the book narrates the story of Charley, who has been outcaste by his loved ones as consequences of his own actions and attitudes, it also takes you through the lives of his mother and father with the same depth. After being dejected by his world, he turns to another. The unknown. And wishes he could have one more day with his mother. He is granted the wish by his own thoughts.

There are moments of awe and moments of anger. You judge the protagonist with your cynical tone and sometimes you can’t help but sympathize. Albom describes some experiences, which will make you feel the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Albom mesmerizes you with tantalizing details and tickles with the hushes of a few lines. The beginning will make you want to dig deeper while the end will make you want to go back to it.

And you would wish that the book lasted, for one more day. And more.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture was not happenstance. After hearing one of the most impacting speeches byRandy Pausch, I'd been waiting to lay my hands on this book and ride on in sync to the slow beats of the book's soul. And what an effect. 

Pausch's cognitive dissonance was endearing. His childhood dreams fanciful. The beautiful flights of fancy did come real, somehow at sometime. One can read the book in the darkest nook because the passion through the book lights it fittingly. each chapter has a telling message to the audience. He drives home a point to be taken note of. The tiny pointers get happily planted during the ride. Sometimes with a trickle down the cheek. 

No frills language. It connects deeply. When Pausch narrates, one swings in the wind of time. The imagery comes along nicely. One feels the love, the pain, the distress, the everything as they were meant to be felt. Beautiful and poignant. A must read, a night's read. 

The spirit never dies. 

You Must Like Cricket?: Memoirs of an Indian Cricket Fan

Look at the title. Sort of a no-brainer, really. If you're from India, then you must like cricket. There might be a remote possibility that your parents do not want you to go to IIT, that your relatives don't think sex is taboo, that you think peeing in the open is not proper... All those are possibilities. But not liking cricket? Oh dear, oh dear, that is just not possible. If you're Indian, then you're born with it, then it's built into your genes - you must like cricket... No... LOVE cricket.

This book is a fantastic tribute to the Indian cricket fan, who will brave all odds to watch a game. Who will stand in line, risking the cops, heat and drunk fans for a glimpse of their heroes. From the corporate executive who pumps his fist when he reads on Cricinfo's commentary that another wicket has fallen (when he should have been tracking his stocks), or the entire village cramped around one small radio going bonkers for the same.

Back to this book now. Bhattacharya outlines the life of a cricket fan who has done things as insane as using up his life savings to fly from college in the UK to Kolkata (then Calcutta), only to see Anil Kumble take 6 for 12. A person whose wife has resigned herself to the fate that her husband is a certified cricket nut - who delays her doctor's meeting just so he can watch a re-re-telecast of a match. Being an upper-class NRI return, Soumya was one of the fortunate few to have a TV at home in his home in Bengal, a few miles from Calcutta. The highlight of the book is how half the village's kids were cramped into his home to watch the final of the 1983 World Cup final. At every stage in the book, at some point or the other, a cricket fan can relate. Even if the examples are not as extreme, you can relate to the passion, the madness and the look of bewilderment on others' faces.

Who should buy this book? Cricket-mad males whose wives complain. Because Soumya outlines a worst-case scenario. To the tune of drawing graphs on random sheets while following a match, and trying to explain to the in-laws what he was upto. Surely, your scenario can't be worse than that. Get one for your wife (assuming you're male) or read it yourself (assuming you're female) to see how you / your husband is better off. Of course, if you're a cricket-crazy female yourself, then you might as well just shut the book and sit with your husband and watch the game, and gift the book to the neighbours who shouldn't be minding late night West Indies matches and early morning Australia matches.

It's a very light read, and you can finish it in an hour - perfect for a train journey, or just after watching a good game!

The Host

Picked up this book by Stephanie Meyer over the weekend. Chick lit in some ways and very engrossing in others.

The Host tells the story of Wanda, a member of a parasitical worm like species called Souls who can only survive inside a host body. The Souls have now conquered Earth and taken over the human mind and imagination. As always, there are those who resist. Wanda's host Melanie refuses to give up her mind to the Soul inside her, thereby leading both Wanda and Melanie on a quest for Melanie's lover who is still in hiding.

When they stumble upon the community of humans that Jared (Melanie's lover) is living with, far from the cities and in hiding, Wanda experiences all the conflict and contradiction that is part of human living. What I love about the book is the confusion, the grey-ness of its characters; the being torn by contrarian choices, the debate between the practical and the ideal, between selfish desires and the greater good.

The plot is cliched but some of the characters touch a chord. For that it was a decent weekend read.

As the blog title suggests (and I know it is very cliched but I can't think of anything else so early in the morning so for the time being I'll live with it) this is going to be a blog about books. I thought it would be a neat idea for all of us to share book reviews, recommendations, stuff to avoid etc. So all those of you who are interested in contributing, drop me a line and I'll add you as authors. The more the merrier :)