Let life be without unhappiness

There has never been as much unhappiness in human life as today. The fear of having less and desire of having more has contributed as much. To fret about something over which you have no control brings unnecessary distress upon yourself. Peering at the world today, it seems that there is turbulence ahead, because of tectonic shifts in economy and society which is leading to excesses of exploitation and indulgence. Wading through this maze may seem a way out, but unhappiness lingers all across and all along.      

Happiness in itself is nothing but is an emotive feeling that is attributable. Yet, one would like to get such a feeling. It generates a sense of self-esteem, which in itself is an important source of human happiness. To see that others hold us in high esteem can be a source of contentment. No surprise, therefore, most human beings like to display their better selves to the world to seek happiness and contentment. Much of our life is spent in finding such an elusive process. But former World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu thinks that reason, and logic, can guide humans to achieve happiness.       

It seems that reasoning can only take us closer to finding out what makes us happy, but that too on the surface. The capacity to reason, says Basu, is not only the most underrated but valued too. That’s why a lot of human woes, social and economic, stems from the absence of reasoning. But reasoning seems to have its limits, as happiness is beyond the purview of reason and logic. The human ability to reason falters when humans have to apply logic to human emotions. In this interconnected world, more than reasoning it is the influence of togetherness that need to be factored in. Even if interconnection causes happiness, it will last till interconnection lasts.

One would expect us to reason out of the root cause of unhappiness. In theory, it might seem possible but not in practice. It is beyond redemption when there is more than one reason for it or the reason itself is beyond repair. And we are not making any serious efforts as more than 50 percent of our time is spent in repeating our habit(s) Come to think about it, a remarkable number of habits get repeated every day and we are often proud of it. Ironically, most of us believe our habits lead us to take right and happy decisions. 

Drawing on her expertise as a clinical psychologist with a masters in neuroscience, Dr Sophie Mort concludes that in nine out of ten cases our habits do us good only in few cases. Who wants to follow sheep, but the system is so programmed that each one ends up following the flock? Around 2.8 billion people on Facebook, 2.3 billion on You Tube, and an estimated 1.8 billion on Instagram, whether qualified or not, share their views on living a happy life. Whether or not they are happy remains an open question!

Happiness has turned out to be a big industry. Not only have there been the Ministries opened to address the crucial issue of happiness, but happiness clinics have also opened up and happiness therapies too are doing a good business. Yet, happiness remains as elusive. ‘Get married; the research says it will make you happier’; ‘Ignore marriage, it’s likely to end in divorce’; ‘Buy a house and get on the housing ladder;’ ‘Live in a van, don’t do what society wants you to do;’ ‘You are enough as you are.’ Messages like this help avoid having regrets, the idea is to live life true to oneself. The oral therapies of the kind ease one out of status quo, though temporarily. 

A huge part our lives flows through our habit selves, says Prof. Wendy Wood. This is that part of us, which is powerful, which is reliable, and which is always there. We are stuck to our habits, quite often there is hardly any time to reason out of it. We all live habitually already, without being seriously aware of it. And because of that, a big part of who are you and why we do what we do is often ignored or is taken for granted. The many ways things could be done better get missed out. Samuel Johnson had rightly remarked: ‘The diminutive chain of habits are seldom enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken’.

The challenge is to avoid search for happiness, but to get rid of unhappiness. Let life be without unhappiness, remarked the Buddha.                                       

Reason to be Happy
by Kaushik Basu
Penguin RandomHouse, London
Extent: 214, Price: Rs. 500.

(Un)Stuck
by Sophie Mort
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi
Extent: 274, Price: Rs. 699.

Good Habits, Bad Habits
by Wendy Wood
Macmillan, London
Extent: 308; Price: Rs. 425. 

First published as Bibliography in The Hindu on March 20, 2025.

The unassuming grain

By 2050, cities will feed 70 per cent of the world population, which will by then have reached 9 billion. Though maize is most produced in the world, it is rice that is universally consumed. With a milled rice production volume of 522 million tonnes, rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population. It is particularly important for countries like China and India, who are not only its the largest producers but consumers too. It is consumed in various forms, from steamed rice to rice flour, and is integral to many cultural cuisines and traditions. 

Few foods are as universal as rice, yet its story is anything but ordinary. ‘Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook.’ From the ancient paddies to kitchens and markets around the world, this unassuming grain has become both a dietary staple and a cultural cornerstone. In this engaging account, Chef Renee Marton unravels the rich history of rice, tracing its remarkable journey through centuries of trade, migration and culinary innovation. The origins of some of the rice dishes go as far back as the Moghul dynasties. Little gets realized that rice is a principal ingredient of Budweiser. 

Spread over five chapters the book explores cultural and culinary value of rice, influence of ancient trade on rice, its spread in the new world, and the emergence of the modern consumer. Cultural customs and rice rituals are no less significant. Rice and fertility are almost synonymous, bride and groom have it as the first food eaten. Rice explores how rice has shaped societies and cuisines, from sustaining mighty empire to inspiring arts. While Christ may not have ever talked about it, Krishna, Confucius, Buddha, and Muhammad had special liking for it. 

Rice has a fascinating history which began in the foothills of the Himalayan, in Southeast Asia, southern China and Indonesia. Its domestication evolved in India and China and subsequently spread in east Asia and rest of the world. The rice grains were reported growing some 15,000 years ago, and were put to non-edible uses as well. Glutinous rice, cooked as thick paste and mixed with lime and sand, was used as mortar that made up the Great Wall of China. In its journey through long history, rice also fed soldiers and prevented famines.

The importance of rice to society has been studied extensively. Rice has followed society wherever it went or evolved. And when it felt settled, rice pudding studded with raisins and dry fruits was served. For Chef Marton, the global history of rice is a valuable study of rice rituals and customs. Mouthwatering and tantalizing recipes from across the globe are not listed without reason, as these offer a captivating exploration of how this humble grain continues to define and connect us. Such has been the role of recipes that the widely popular sushi was acceptable as a form of tax payment, way back in 718 CE. 

Rice is a the highly adaptable cereal grass that grows in most environments. Irrigated rice accounts for 50 per cent of cultivated rice and represents 75 per cent of the little over 700 million tonnes of rice harvested. Under the changing climatic situation, however, irrigated rice has come under serious question. Water is a limiting fact, and so is methane emission from irrigated paddy fields. Methane is more potent as a greenhouse gas; it traps around 120 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. Rice will have to go through these challenges in the coming years.     

De-methanation has emerged as a new challenge for growing rice. Will rice be a less water guzzling crop, that will also promote de-methanation is the million-dollar question? The global history of rice does not address the emerging challenges. Rice talks about it as an ancient crop and focuses on the changes it has gone through the new world. However, imminent climatic challenges are what will determine the future of rice. 

Rice: A Global History
by Renee Marton
Pan Macmilllan, New Delhi
Extent: 143, Price: Rs. 450.

First published in the HinduBusiness Line on March 16, 2025. 

Failed reinvention

Set in Texas, this is a story of an Indian immigrant family of four, each of whom has broken free of the shackles of so-called happy co-existence called a family. Suresh and Lata have drifted after decades of marriage, and their grown-up kids Priya and Nikesh have set their sails in search of finding themselves. Navigating online dating, Suresh meets an attractive woman while Lata finds a professor at the college flirting with her newfound independence as a librarian. Nikesh pretends a seemingly perfect marriage whereas Priya harbors a clandestine affair. Each to their own, but not entirely as each one keeps a close eye on the other. Though the family is turned upside down, the glue of relationship still sticks. 

When relationships turn into rituals, lack of imagination triggers their downfall. Even in togetherness, there remains a strong sense of loneliness. Under such conditions, a part of everybody remains hidden in such failed relationships to act like a virtual time bomb ticking to rip things apart.  Feeling suffocating in each other’s company, a part of both Suresh and Lata hoped that there was actually someone out there in the world capable of making them feel joy, maybe even love. In divorce, they found a perfect opportunity for self-reflection and re-valuation. 

A bad relationship may be a two-way street, but divorce isn’t a bad marriage at the end. In this bighearted debut, Deepa Vardarajan pitches the narrative on the premise that every arrangement in life carries with it the sadness, and that there is a space and scope for reigniting relationships all over gain. Nothing is lost till it is lost. In this witty family tale the question that runs through it is: will the loyalty that once rooted the family be strong enough to draw them back together? Will the family members rise above their personal fulfilment, family entanglements, and reignited dreams?

One cannot fail to admire the layered complexity of this beautiful novel about a flawed yet unforgettable family—the interlocking ironies and wounds and strivings for love and clarity and accomplishment and growth, all so deeply embedded in the cultural milieu of the immigrant family. Every character in this engrossing story is as distinct as real, and one can easily draw similarities from daily life. Late Bloomers is a work of delightful, engaging reading.

In a moving narrative, Deepa Vardarajan details the internal predicaments of its characters as they come to terms with the stark realities of life. Their coming together is no less dramatic, the whole family gets to uncover one another’s secrets, confront the limits of love, and explore life’s second chances. The truth of life is unraveled to each one of them in its own little way. Late Bloomers may not have a happy ending to the story, but a promising beginning for sure.

There is a collective learning, and acceptance of common follies as a family. Everyone is found guilty of telling untruths – if not to one another, then to themselves. Certainly, everyone in family is found guilty of that. But probably everyone in the whole world is. Most of the time, what we think of as truth is threaded with self-serving distortions. Late Bloomers has everything you may ask for in a novel.  

Late Bloomers 
by Deepa Vardarajan
Random House, New York 
Extent: 352, Price: Rs. 650.

First published in Deccan Herald on March 16, 2025.

The footprints of wisdom and knowledge

Nalanda Mahavira may exist today only as ruins of old temples and monasteries; its legacy has an intellectual history that endures beyond its material existence. It may have ceased to exist in the early fourteenth century, but its reputation as a place of learning has spread across geographies ever since. Great scholars made significant contribution in the fields of philosophy, science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and architecture. Notable among them were Nagarjuna, who advocated the philosophy of emptiness and, Aryabhata, the father of Indian mathematics. Much like Greece, Nalanda was a seat of learning in the east.

Son of the soil Abhay K brings to light the illustrious past of Nalanda and argues that its growing footprints in Asia, Europe, America and Australia will help it reach even farther in times to come. It was the greatest residential university of its kind with an age-old tradition of knowledge co-creation to overcome hatred and anger for achieving inner peace. Not without reason, Nalanda was an acknowledged seat of learning then. It still holds the potential to become a philosophical guide that incorporates the past wisdom into daily modern life.

Nalanda has been largely reduced to mounds of the then monasteries, but it does reflect that the leftover architecture of the time had attributes of an institution of learning which was then known as Mahavihara. The idea of a university is generally considered European but the advent of universities at Blogna, Paris, and Oxford during the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries were no different from Nalanda. The evolution of a Vihara, founded by Emperor Ashoka, into a well laid Mahavihara, inspired the courtyard structure in colleges and universities. Such a courtyard, argues the author, played a key role in advancing the recursive argument and scientific enquiry and expects that such scholastic method continues to fuel oral and written public debates.

The book chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of Nalanda, the iconic seat of learning in Bihar. Its footprints seem to be growing across the world, representing an intriguing continuity of the Mahavihara. Overwhelmed by its multidimensional scholarly richness as evidenced by the intense academic engagement between past luminaries and foreign scholars, Abhay traces the new landscape in carving out the future of Nalanda. Grand in vision and vast in its scope, Nalanda University came into being in September 2014 as a multi-country international center to revive and relive the values that the Mahavihara once stood for.

Though a decade is no time to undertake a true assessment of a university, the academic credentials for it to excel as a seat of high learning seems somewhat elusive. While the upcoming campus might seem impressive for its design and layout on 455 acres of land in Rajgir, infrastructure alone cannot uphold the grandeur of its projected philosophical vision. The new university campus, in close proximity to the ruins of the majestic past, may hold some strategic advantage, but the logistics disadvantages are too many to be overlooked.

Rajgir and Nalanda were the ancient political, economic, intellectual and philosophical centers of ancient India which had all the necessary conditions for establishing the centers for higher learning and institutionalizing the tradition of scholarly debates and discussions. Today, it only has a historical value with a rich cultural past. Abhay should be credited for putting aside the past mysteries of the place in telling the credible story of Nalanda Mahavihara. It may have played a key role in the spread of Nalanda-grown philosophies across the east.

Nalanda is a place of immense historical and cultural significance, which the book brings to light. It is time that Nalanda creates a consciousness to grow.

Nalanda
by Abhay K
Penguin Random House, New Delhi
Extent:193. Price: Rs 699.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine on March 07, 2025.

Will James Bond return?

For over six decades, from 1962 till 2021, James Bond has been a fixture of global culture, universally recognizable by the films’ combination of action set pieces, sex, political intrigue, and outrageous gadgetry. No Time To Die, the last Bond film released in Sept 2021, had the ruthless and self-indulgent secret service agent ‘die’ for the first time. Bond’s death cannot be without an impeccable reason. The lingering question: Is life sucked out from 007 or is there a new life for the agent awaiting somehow? Are there reasons enough for the secret service agent to perish or are global changes too many for his life getting a meaning?  

Spanning the franchise’s history, from Sean Connery’s iconic swagger to Daniel Craig’ visceral interpretation of the superspy, James Bond Will Return offers both academic readers and fans a comprehensive view of the series’ transformations against the backdrop of real-world geopolitical intrigue and sweeping social changes. Six years between the film Spectre (2015) and No Time To Die (2021) so much had happened that the Bond, as a character, felt grossly challenged. The period was itself factitious: Trump presidency was transforming the world between 2017-2021, and Brexit have had its influence on Europe in 2020. Gender relations were changing too.

Cary Fukunaga felt that ‘you cannot change Bond overnight into a different person’. As someone who directed Daniel Craig in No Time To Die, Fukunaga argued that while you can definitely change the world but not the way he has to function in such a world. In theory this was acceptable but not in practice. Never were there more vocal calls for substantive changes to the franchise than ever before, suggesting instead that the series was turning ‘redundant’ if such changes were    not incorporated. The world had definitely changed at all levels.    

The twenty-five chapters in this book engage with the wide range in which the Bond franchise has achieved historical and cultural impact, navigating the repetitions and innovations over the years. Over six decades 007 has remained a perennial feature of most adulthood, in no small way in which it owes it to the character’s ability to create and remain relevant.  But this in no way explain why some critics, scholars, and even fans have been glued to the Bond movies for being sexist, elitist, and even racist. Needless to say, it created opportunities when there was no dearth of reasons to pursue them. Over time, however, the masculinity and femininity the series presented began to strike many viewers as outdated.

Change is inevitable, more so in the case of Bond. It escaped change for being slow, but each time it served newness in each new film. The Bond has demonstrated its ability to shift social and political coordinates, while retaining the core constitutive elements that have held fans together since 1962. James Bond has remained an enduring icon of both national and masculine, and that would remain a challenge to retain that identity.

James Bond Will Return is for true. Barbara Broccoli didn’t shy away from saying that the next Bond film would be ‘a reinvention of Bond'. 'We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time'. James Bond matters to the entertainment industry, society, culture, and scholarship, negotiating issues of wider geo-political importance.          

James Bond Will Return
by Claire Hines, Terence McSweeney and Stuart Joy (Eds)
Columbia University Press, USA
Extent: 328, Price: Rs. 2,808.

First published in Hindustan Times 

The ground beneath us

Prior to industrialization, land was humanity’s single most productive asset. The humans respected and lived on the land without caring much about who owned it. Much changed thereafter as a piece of land became a symbol of wealth and privilege for the rich and for the poor it meant dignified existence and livelihood security. No other form of wealth is comparable. Perhaps nothing could be closer to it, as the total value of all kinds of land on earth is currently estimated to be around $200 trillion. Its value might increase anytime as access to a piece of land is like stepping onto an escalator to cruise upwards.    

While value of land is invariably going to increase, the land area available may actually shrink in the coming decades. As climate is changing in unprecedented ways, previously desirable land may become grossly unusable. This will generate a rush to extract value from land that is lying in lowland areas likely to be submerged, and the land that is vulnerable to emerging environmental extremes. Growing human population, projected to peak at 10 billion in the coming decades, will create unmanageable land pressure. Consequently, privileged countries will harden their borders (they already doing so) thereby heightening inequality between countries. This dynamic is not far-fetched, much is getting real. 

With a sweeping scope across world history, Land Power offers intriguing insights and alarming truths about how land has been used to acquire social and political power. In the past two centuries, upheavals in land holdings has seen dramatic changes across the globe. Such changes ascertain who owns the land that determines a society’s future for centuries, that eventually sets the inhabitants on new trajectories. The monumental consequences of changes in land ownership during 19th century, called the Great Reshuffle, may have been over but some societies are still embarking on experiments to rewire land power. 

Michael Albertus, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, argues that land is as much a problem as a solution to resolve both inequities and injustices of land allocation and distribution. Land is power, but it in no way should fuels disparity, indignity, and destruction. But it has played opposing contrasting roles and continues to do so. Land Power explains how land reshuffling has led to dispossession of indigenous communities and ethnic minorities, paving the way for the world’s greatest social evils. While some countries are adopting to repair past land reshuffles, but these are still easy days. There is little denying that a better future can be made if land power is put in service of a whole society. 

Drawing on original research and on-the-ground fieldwork across several countries, Albertus argues that landholding is not only complex and highly unequal but is grossly underscored by sexism, racism and climate crises. The decision about who gets the land sharpens a society’s sexism, patriarchy raises it head. India offers a stark view of how land power can exacerbate the ugliest forms of gender inequity. As patriarchal and sexist as the society may be, it can become even more so when it sets out to use land power to stymie women.  

Most of the countries that have tried to empower women through land allocation efforts, as Columbia, have failed to make any significant progress. Gender biases persist in many countries like China, Soviet Union and South Africa. It is not surprising that land holding across most the world continues to favor men, with women being largely victims of prevailing biases. Women continue to remain on the sidelines. Women groups are trying to press for their rights, which is likely to transform the prevailing situation.

Population growth triggered land scarcity has given rise to inequity and injustice that the world is grappling to resolve. But what if the process reverses itself? With low birth rates spreading worldwide, an implosion in the global population is likely to weaken the land power. Most societies in Europe and in East and Southeast Asia are near or beyond peak population. The population of the United States is being propped up only by immigration, and the population of Japan, China, and Germany are declining. It will alter human relationship with land.

Vaulting across time and geography, Albertus provides a range of possibilities that are most likely to confront with. The narrow conception of individual ownership of land may wane in the years ahead. Will group allocation of land be the new reality? A new reshuffling of a shrinking population will provide breathing space for generating ideas for crafting a better future from the land. What we do with the land today can change our collective future. However, much will depend on alignment of timing with ideas. In some places on earth this has already started happening, but most of the countries seem to be missing out on these moments. Without doubt, land is indeed the resource on which human future depends.  

Land Power offers new insights into how public and private initiatives will guide us to carve a new future. It is a must-read book on land power as an economic power. This captivating book demonstrates that land may be both social and political power, but it has unseen power to design a new future for mankind. The book offers new insight into how public and private land initiatives in different countries can effectively safeguard ecosystems and allow flow of ecosystem services to the society.  Land Power is lively and timely, offers the shape of scenarios to come.    

Land Power 
by Michael Albertus
Basic Books/Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 321, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the HinduBusinessLine on Feb 23, 2025.

Living in harmony with nature

The book opens with a story of an 18th century massacre in which as many as 363 Bishnois were beheaded by men who worked for the king, Abhay Singh, as they tried to protect trees that those men wanted to cut down for the king. More Bishnois were in the queue for sacrifice, but the news reached the palace, and the killing stopped. Such a story has never been told, and it is unlikely to be ever repeated. It remains the bravest act of nature conservation ever seen. The martyrs of village Khejarli in western Rajasthan were all Bishnois, led by a woman named Amrita Devi, who stood for the community commitment to live in harmony with nature. 

Who were the Bishnois? What had got them together to stage such a mass sacrifice? The Bishnois who laid down their lives were only following their guru Jambhoji who, during the 15th century unprecedented drought, had called them to live in harmony with nature. “A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.” In telling the extraordinary story of this desert-dwelling community, Martin Goodman, a professor of creative writing at the University of Hull, presents the Bishnois as the most ecologically conscience community in the world.   

The Bishnois have persisted with such a conscience ever since, following a life lived in harmony with nature. It is perhaps the only religion or the religious practice in the world that has environmental protection in its core. Their founding guru declared his place of divine residence to be ‘A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.’ The spiritual leader declared twenty one rules which are religiously followed till date, most famously followed by the woman who had led 363 villagers to lay down their lives while chanting ‘my head for a tree’.

Times have changed but not the values that remain dear to them. They do protect living beings at any cost, however, in modern times they have evolved into eco-warriors to ensure that the laws of the land are forcefully endorsed to protect all lives. To a Bishnoi, killing a monitor lizard is as hideous a crime as killing a tiger. Salman Khan learnt it the hard way. Charged for hunting a protected species of the blackbuck, the actor was booked for violation under a criminal offence. 

Goodman provides details of the case, highlighting how the Bishnois patience and perseverance was tested against Khan’s popular image and power. It took no less 68 appearances in the court 

over a period of twenty years to pronounce the verdict. In the years between the blackbuck killings and the actor’s guilty verdict, the Bishnois’ Tiger Force had teamed with law enforcers in perusing the case. The force has maintained information networks to bust illegal activities, so that a repeat of the 1998 blackbuck incident does not recur.   

My Head For A Tree is a story about the incredible relentlessness of the Bishnois. Their commitment to a cause isn’t time sensitive, it becomes their life. They see the natural world as a vital entity with rights of plants and animals equal to us, the humans. A Bishnoi woman breast-feeding an orphaned gazelle, chinkara, could be a common sight. And it is not done to create an identity for themselves, but to present what they firmly believe in. Their love for chinkara is profound, with 85 percent of its global population endemic to south-west Rajasthan.  

The Bishnois is an inspiring story that offers not only wisdom, but a concern to forge non-violent action. It is a book about people saving the planet, the message is embedded in what they do to safeguard nature. Goodman has been to their farms, their schools, their temples, and even animal shelters in narrating the ecological commitment and empathy. Pictures by Franck Vogel in the volume are relevant to the context. For people facing unprecedented challenge of rising temperature and desertification, the book has a subtle message for survival. 

My Head For A Tree is an engaging book that connects our glorious past with an uncertain future, in relating an extraordinary group of people and their practices to the impending climatic challenges. It is a book that fills a gap in the ongoing environmental debate. Within the incredible ongoing story about an amazing community lies the future story of human survival. The story of first eco-warriors, which now number no more than a million people, hold a strong message for the teeming millions.  

It is an essential reading for those who are concerned about our collective future. The Bishnoism holds a future that is dear to all of us. The Bishnois are born, and their practices can be followed to confront our present crises. 

My Head For A Tree
by Martin Goodman
Profile Books/ Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 270, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in New Indian Express on 9 Feb 2025

People are a mystery

Nita Prose has picked up from where she had left her debut murder mystery The Maid. The hotel remains the venue for Molly Gray, the maid, to clean up a murderous mess yet again. Known for keeping the guest rooms in a state of cleaning perfection, the hotel’s reputation has been sullied again by the death of a famous mystery writer moments before he gets up to address the press. That the teacup was laced with some poison seemed apparent but the motive and the person executing the sinister crime offers a pitch-perfect plot that is intriguing and enthralling. It is a slow but tasteful whodunnits rendering of any vintage. 

Devil is in the details, more so in a murder mystery that remains loaded with both innocuous and obnoxious but in which none is above suspicion. Having been relieved of any suspicion in the past, Molly remains concerned that despite being diligent in their work, the maids are assumed to be delinquents, murderers and thieves. Why is the lowly maid always to be blamed? The words carry layers of meaning that leave the reader seething and feeling sad about the society we have morphed into. Prose’s writing functions as mirrors for our internal landscapes.

The Mystery Guest makes for slow reading of an immaculately crafted narrative, which makes it hard to discover clues lying amidst what gets thought as kept asides. Not without reason was Molly surprised when the world-renowned celebrity author had missed noticing her dominating presence in the team making arrangements for the event. It unfolds later in the story that Molly knew the dead guest during her younger days and remembers some of the secrets which may hold the key to the mystery. But unlocking it means thinking about the past.   

It is not only the gentle observational quality of author's prose but her aphoristic brilliance that shines through the story. The control over language and choice of words helps create a visual imagery to unlock the mystery. A segment of Molly’s past flashes before her eyes to remind her of the idiosyncrasies of the celebrated author as she accompanied her granny for domestic work at his sprawling mansion. Much later it occurred to her that the celebrated author used talents of others to palm them off his own. The difference between a fraud and a predator is hairline.     

It goes without saying that making a choice between what is morally right and what is economically beneficial is tricky. At times, the choice gets set in the wrong place, focusing on one’s weaknesses instead of strengths. For making a lucrative choice, the celebrated author had to pay a price with his life. Prose reminds her reader that at the end of it all, people are a mystery that can never be solved. That is what makes The Mystery Guest truly enthralling. 

Molly’s take on life is enjoyable and reflective. The mystery is not about events that disturb people but the judgements concerning them. Nita Prose has evolved a style of her own in making the genre exquisite and enchanting. Every sentence is a treat to read, even when it is plumbing the bleakest truths of society and humanity. It is rollicking and emotional, tender and sharp, absurd and relatable. The writing is packed with sharp observations on the most eccentric human behavior, all propelled by a story that is slow-paced but addictive. Let it be clear that the mystery is not solved, till it gets solved. There are many a slip between the celebrated author’s lips and the poison-laced teacup.

The Mystery Guest
by Nita Prose
HarperCollins, London
Extent: 327, Price: Rs. 499.

First published in Deccan Herald on Feb 16, 2025.

Bishnois have message for everyone

Martin Goodman, a professor of creative writing, tells the extraordinary story of a desert-dwelling community of western Rajasthan who live in complete harmony with nature. The story dates back to 11 September 1730, in which 363 villagers led by Amrita Devi were beheaded by men who worked for the king and had wanted those trees to be logged. The massacre only stopped when the news reached the king, Abhay Singh. The martyrs of village Khejarli were all Bishnois, who were only following their guru Jambhoji who, during the 15th century unprecedented drought, had called them to live in harmony with nature.  

The Bishnois have persisted with such a conscience ever since, following it as a religion (perhaps the only one) that has environmental protection at its core. Their founding guru, Jambhoji (1451-1536), received a world-changing vision while in meditation under a tree. ‘A tree covered in greenery is my temple and my home.’ The spiritual leader set out the twenty-one rules in the sixteenth century which are religiously followed till date, most famously by a woman who had led 363 villagers to give their lives while chanting ‘my head for a tree’.

Times have changed but not the values that have remained dear to them. World over, men die for woman or for money. The same doesn’t hold good for Bishnois, who instead lay down their life to protect animals and trees. They do protect living beings at the cost of their lives, however, in modern times they have evolved into eco-warriors to ensure that the laws of the land are forcefully endorsed to protect all lives. The Bishnoi Tiger Force protects trees from loggers and animals from poachers. Even screen celebrity Salman Khan couldn’t escape their die-hard protective commitment. 

I have to say that Goodman’s timing with this release is timely, the story is steeped in ecologicsl issues and history. Despite its rich legacy, the story of the Bishnois has remained perhaps ‘a greatest story yet to be told’. Not anymore, the story about a community committed to protect the environment is out for the wider public. Its historical legacy notwithstanding, facts and values may have remained exclusive for Bishnois but their dedication to protect the trees and the animals can no longer remain confined.   

My Head For A Tree is a story about the incredible relentlessness of the Bishnois. Their commitment to a cause isn’t time sensitive, taken as a break from their regular lives; it becomes their life. They see the natural world as a vital entity with rights at least equal to ours. And that natural world includes other people as well as plants and animals. No wonder, a Bishnoi woman can be seen breast feeding an orphaned chinkara, a gazelle. And they don’t do it to create an identity for themselves, but to present what they believe in and practice.  

The Bishnois’ love of chinkara is profound. Around 85 percent of its global population live in the south-west Rajasthan. They flock to any waterhole but can also find enough moisture from plants and dew to survive days without drinking. Chinkara is now rightfully protected, not only in India but other countries like Pakistan and Iran. Khejri, the state tree of Rajasthan, is protected by law. The 363 martyrs at Khejrali weren’t forgotten while enacting such a law. What is more, if one tree is illegally felled then ten must be planted. 

It is an inspiring story that offers wisdom, concern and commitment. Spread across eighteen chapters, Goodman has been to Bishnoi’s farms, their schools, their temples, and animal shelters in giving the book a humbling touch of ecological commitment and empathy. Generous spread of pictures in the volume are not only relevant but enrich the narrative. If people across several countries face the unprecedented challenge of rising temperature and desertification, the Bishnois hold with them the message of survival not for themselves but for the community.

My Head For A Tree is an engaging book that connects our glorious past with an uncertain future, in relating an extraordinary group of people to the future climate collapse. Within the incredible ongoing story about a community lies the future story of survival of the mankind. The story of first eco-warriors, which now number no more than 6 lakh people, hold a message for all of us.  It is an essential reading for those who are concerned about our collective future, the Bishnoism that holds a future that is dear to all of us.                                      

My Head For A Tree
by Martin Goodman
Profile Books/ Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 270, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in The Hindustan Times on Feb 6, 2025.

Three things' women can only do

It was in 1758 when Linnaeus came up with two simultaneous new terms –mammalia and Homo sapiens – which effectively linked women to animals and men to a higher intelligence. Linnaeus thought women lacked rational thought and opposed educating his daughter because he wanted women to be ‘hearty, strong housekeepers, and fashionable dolls.’ Not only him specifically but menfolk in general were convinced. It never occurred to them that women can do ‘three’ big things that men can never imagine they could – ‘create life, give birth, and breastfeed’. Women have to do proclaim that power rather than be ashamed of it

Many biopsies and after a double mastectomy, sociologist Sarah Thornton decided to write Tits Up, the book about the history, cultural significance, and social valuing of breasts. Written with candor and humor, the book is grounded in research to provide the reader with a nuanced understanding of its intersectionality. Thornton tells the stories of sex workers, milk bankers, and cosmetic surgeons, without missing on society’s obsession with boobs. Negative views on breasts are so common that any attempt at improving women’s esteem is taken lightly. Unless the breasts could be seen anything but erotic playthings, these will remain in dominant patriarchal system.  

With more than 700 expressions of mammary glands in English language, it loses nomenclature when it is not in divine bodies in time and space. Yes, the spiritual significance as an alternative to the breasts represented in the media is altogether different. In scriptures and religious practices, the elemental feminine energy is the prime source and sustainer of the universe. However, unlike other religions, the continuous goddess tradition in Hinduism do not extend any material benefits for Indian women. Are the goddess mere protagonists who have miraculous capacity to save life?

Central argument of the book is that women’s breasts is unnecessarily sexualized and trivialized. Whatever be its size and shape, breasts give women distinct identity and dignity. The sexual difference thus constructed is universally accepted, and along with it comes the fear of anatomy that makes women perpetually susceptible. Curiously, it is this distinction between ‘physical sex’ and ‘social gender’ that is only widening.   

Tits Up does not allow easy dismissal of breasts as shallow or superfluous organ. Thornton aims to protect women by exploring business opportunity and empowering possibilities around breasts. Women’s chest surely means business, but critical is to ascertain how much of this business is in woman’s own control. Come to think of it, breast is as much a site of empowerment as divinity. The core idea is that if planned and positioned properly, breasts can help women create a new vision for themselves. It seems a tall undertaking!

Without breasts, humans could not be humans. Homo sapiens is distinguished by the superlative communication skills that develop as a result of the lengthy dependence of human babies on their mother’s milk. Infants need to solicit love and, in turn, develop interactive ability to adore. Every child experiences it but that this experience doesn’t last long. As a result, women are left to decide on what she decides on her body. ‘I hope it will be get considered that a woman will exercise her right to choose what she does to her own body’. 

Sarah Thronton wants to hold the power of the women to elevate the status of their breasts, because that in itself makes her weak. Imagine, the world would be like if she insists on owning them and exercises right on the choices they make on their own chests. The cornerstone of women’s subordination hinges on the lowly status of her breasts, and it is time these are given the necessary Tits Up.

Tits Up
by Sarah Thronton
Pan Macmillan, London
Extent: 320, Price: Rs. 899.

First published in Deccan Herald

Getting down to business

The central thesis of John Kay’s book on corporations is that “business has evolved but the language that is widely used to describe business has not.” It is a fact that the relationship with business has become more ambivalent. Factories no longer represent the commanding heights of business; the modern business environment, he writes, is characterized by radical uncertainty.

It is a world where companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple rule, and is a world which can be navigated by “assembling the collective knowledge of many individuals and by developing collective intelligence.” Thus, relationships in these modern businesses cannot be “purely transactional: they require groups of people working together towards shared objectives,” and Kay says such an activity has a social as well as a commercial dimension.

Kay carefully examines the change through the years from pure manufacturing to new ways of doing business in The Corporation in the 21st Century. Taking a deeper look at the shifts, Kay thinks that the term ‘capital’ itself means more than just financial capital. New technologies and processes are transforming the manner in which products are being produced. The products that are produced in the process, like smartphones and internet applications, are items that conveniently fit into the pocket. What the consumer ends up paying is towards the collective intelligence in the product design, rather than the transformation of raw material into finished goods. Twenty-first century business needs little capital, mostly does not own the capital it uses and is not controlled by the people who provide that capital, argues Kay.

According to the economists Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, modern business is best described as “capitalism without capital”. Amazon best illustrates it: its market cap over is over $2 trillion and its assets on the balanced sheet totals $585 billion. If you think that Amazon requires large warehouses and vehicles, think again. Its property assets are largely rented from real estate investors and financial institutions. On top of that, Amazon sells its goods before it even pays for them. The change in the corporate landscape is providing a comparative advantage in business methods.

Kay’s book is aimed at the lay reader, but in effect it has been turned into a thoughtful business document. He underscores the point that though capital requirements of new businesses may be relatively modest, the relationship between hard financial capital and soft intellectual capital need to be properly understood. Kay has detailed important factors that are fast transforming businesses. Clearly, business is more than mere profit-making. “What we call ‘profit’ is no longer primarily a return on capital but ‘economic rent’ – which is used to describe the earnings that arise because some people, places and institutions have commercially valuable talents which others struggle to emulate,” writes Kay. ‘Economic rent’ is earned by Taylor Swift or by the enthusiasm of fans of Manchester United, he points out.

In addition to redefining capital, Kay raises two concerns. First, he debunks the notion that business means profit maximization, and second, that shareholder profit is only central to business. Ignoring stakeholders, profit maximization, and reduced capital infusion are not easy issues to grapple with. These three issues put together will contribute significantly to running future businesses.

The modern business hinges around cerebral leaders. “The asset is the capability of individuals and teams within the business to solve problems, to devise and deliver new products and to win the commitment of suppliers and the trust of customers,” says Kay.

The book is a work in progress, and it seems a sequel is already in the works. The factory was once the frontline of the class struggle with trade unions leading the demand for better wages and condition. The class struggle is far from over, and new businesses cannot overlook the question. The economic system Kay favors is a “pluralist economy” where people are free to do new things and fail, without requiring the approval of some central authority.

The Corporations in the 21st Century
by John Kay
Profile/Hachette Books
Extent: 441 pages, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in The Hindu on January 24, 2025.

When relationships turn sour

Set in Texas, this is a story of an Indian immigrant family of four, each of whom has broken free of the shackles of so-called happy co-existence called a family. Suresh and Lata have drifted after decades of marriage, and their grown-up kids Priya and Nikesh have set their sails in search of finding themselves. Navigating online dating, Suresh meets an attractive woman while Lata finds a professor at the college flirting with her newfound independence as a librarian. Nikesh pretends a seemingly perfect marriage whereas Priya harbors a clandestine affair. Each to their own, but not entirely as each one keeps a close eye on the other. Though the family is turned upside down, the glue of relationship still sticks. 

When relationships turn into rituals, lack of imagination triggers their downfall. Even in togetherness, there remains a strong sense of loneliness. Under such conditions, a part of everybody remains hidden in such failed relationships to act like a virtual time bomb ticking to rip things apart.  Feeling suffocating in each other’s company, a part of both Suresh and Lata hoped that there was actually someone out there in the world capable of making them feel joy, maybe even love. In divorce, they found a perfect opportunity for self-reflection and re-valuation. 

A bad relationship may be a two-way street, but divorce isn’t a bad marriage at the end. In this bighearted debut, Deepa Vardarajan pitches the narrative on the premise that every arrangement in life carries with it the sadness, and that there is a space and scope for reigniting relationships all over gain. Nothing is lost till it is lost. In this witty family tale the question that runs through it is: will the loyalty that once rooted the family be strong enough to draw them back together? Will the family members rise above their personal fulfilment, family entanglements, and reignited dreams?

One cannot fail to admire the layered complexity of this beautiful novel about a flawed yet unforgettable family—the interlocking ironies and wounds and strivings for love and clarity and accomplishment and growth, all so deeply embedded in the cultural milieu of the immigrant family. Every character in this engrossing story is as distinct as real, and one can easily draw similarities from daily life. Late Bloomers is a work of delightful, engaging reading.

In a moving narrative, Deepa Vardarajan details the internal predicaments of its characters as they come to terms with the stark realities of life. Their coming together is no less dramatic, the whole family gets to uncover one another’s secrets, confront the limits of love, and explore life’s second chances. The truth of life is unraveled to each one of them in its own little way. Late Bloomers may not have a happy ending to the story, but a promising beginning for sure.

There is a collective learning, and acceptance of common follies as a family. Everyone is found guilty of telling untruths – if not to one another, then to themselves. Certainly, everyone in family is found guilty of that. But probably everyone in the whole world is. Most of the time, what we think of as truth is threaded with self-serving distortions. Late Bloomers has everything you may ask for in a novel. 

Late Bloomers 
by Deepa Vardarajan
Random House, New York 
Extent: 352, Price: Rs. 650.

Commissioned for review by Deccan Herald.

For Mughals the Britishers were an underdeveloped society

It may now be difficult to understand, but the English considered themselves unfortunate to have settled in India much later than other European powers. Strangely, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch too had similar qualms and of course, all of them squabbled with each other. The Mughal rulers, meanwhile, presided over an expansive, efficient, and fabulously wealthy realm.

Babur, the founder of the Mughal empire in 1525, was as wealthy as the Ming emperor of China. But unlike those who came to plunder India of its incredible riches, his descendants sought to make it their home. Consequentially, the governance of this immense and expanding kingdom was characterized by a central bureaucracy with the emperor as a central authority. After the initial turbulent phase, the empire lasted until 1707. The Alamgir, also known as Aurangzeb, was the last of the Mughal emperors.

Unlike the Europeans who mastered the sea, the Mughuls held sway on land, and as long as they ruled, the former waited at the sea route. Indeed, the English had to wait for the eclipse of the Mughal empire in 1757 before they could advance into India after winning the Battle of Plassey. Internal strife led to the undoing of the empire. In the process, the treasury dropped from a high of 90 million rupees to just about 10 million. The symbolic loss of material possession was a grim indication of how far the Mughals had fallen.

India used to be a place of sweet frag­rances and flavors of spices, an earthly paradise of gems and diamonds. Some of the most lucrative commodities were traded from here. Its share of the world’s GDP was 22.6 percent whereas that of England was a paltry 1.8 percent. During Mughal rule that lasted 200 years, India became one of the largest and most prosperous centralized states in pre-modern history. Nothing which the English traded evoked interest among the Mughuls, who saw little gain in trading with a small, cold island on the other side of the world.

Frustrated that they were making no headway, the English attacked the Mughal entourage to Mecca in 1695. Pilgrims were looted, raped and killed. Most of the attackers were captured and beheaded. Al-Azami argues that while the English approach was built on loot and murder, in the grand scheme of things, it was the Mughals who mattered. Their influence was so great that the English monarch sent ambassador after ambassador to woo the Mughal emperor, who couldn’t be bothered with sending a counterpart.

Mughal history hasn’t been interpreted and written quite like this before. Al-Azami does an appreciable job of revisiting the dynasty through a playful but serious lens. She is particularly mesmerized by the Mughal description of 17th-century England as underdeveloped island nation.

Travellers in the Golden Realm seeks to retrieve forgotten perspectives and to unveil the early picture of England vis-a-vis Mughal India. In the end, what this work does very well is make the reader realize that history is complex and full of nuance.

Travellers in the Golden Realm

by Lubaaba Al-Azami

Hachette, New Delhi

Extent: 302 pages, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Hindustan Times, January 3, 2025.

There is problem in its making

AI promoters are like the snake oil peddlers of the late 18th and early 19th century in America, who exploited people’s unscientific belief that oil from snakes had various health benefits.

The concoctions sold as snake oil didn’t contain what was claimed, it was largely found to be ineffective and in extreme case led to the loss of life. AI snake oil literally means AI that does not work.

However, it does favor us by shining what may not work because research in more than a dozen AI fields have found far-reaching credibility crises. AI Snake Oil uncovers such rampant claims and warns of the dangers of AI when it is controlled by largely unaccountable big tech corporations.

Amidst so much publicity around AI, an amazing hype around artificial intelligence has been generated at the cost of human wisdom. Driven by the desire to quick fix solutions, the hype comes around with questionable generative and predictive answers. Should it not be the responsibility of researchers to separate the milk from the froth?

The professor-student team of Narayanan and Kapoor at the Princeton University have cut through the hype with some clear and crisp writing on how AI fails us daily, and how it might one day benefit us. Interestingly, they comment on new developments in AI in their newsletter AISnakeoil.com.

Jobs threat

That AI will cause sudden mass joblessness seems farfetched; however, it will change the nature of many jobs and decrease the demand for other jobs. Previous waves of automation had similar impact, albeit more abrupt. When typewriter was replaced by word processer the transformation was significant, as it called for a change in the nature and skill of job.

Rarely been a job category been replaced entirely by technology, only elevator operator seems to have disappeared due to automation. Automation often decreases the number of people working in a job or sector without eliminating it.

Called automation paradox, the most common type of impact is a change in the nature of job duties. Last mile phenomenon of automation is of critical importance: it takes previously done job but creates new types of needs for human labor. For those whose jobs are already automated, however, the prospects could be scary. 

One must appreciate that Narayanan and Kapoor have made things simple, which others have tried to make it complex. AI Snake Oil offers a breath of fresh air about both AIs, predictive and generative.

As of today, predictive AI is not on a firm footing. Falling prey to snake oil is crucial when it is known how it fails and even harms people. The problem is how much data we can have and how effective our models are likely to predict the future. Limits to predicting future based on the past data and concurrent trends is fraught with uncertainty. Machine learning therefore can only generate the plausibility of what the future might hold.

Proponents of AI know the limits but do not want any reputational damage as yet. A 2023 paper claimed that machine learning could predict hit songs with 97 percent accuracy, however, in reality the study’s results are anything but false or even bogus. Earlier studies do bear testimony to it, although such papers about ‘frightening accuracy’ have the potential to revolutionize the music industry.

Who would not want to spin money based on such a hype? Overall, more than a dozen fields have compiled evidence of widespread flaws but none of it has been publicly accepted, but the supply of snake oil comes from companies that want to sell predictive AI.

Capital theory

“Fears about automation/technology are fears about capitalism.” As companies are driven by profit, AI is expected to generate profit. More than technology, it is capital which is at the core of the entire debate. Big Tech companies have gotten so rich off of AI that they can easily mold public perception.

Academic research and tech journalism too are completely dependent on industry funding. It is this aspect that Narayanan and Kapoor have tried to bring up honestly in their book. Painting AI with a single brush is tempting but flawed, they say. AI Snake Oil is all about why there is so much information, misunderstanding, and mythology about AI.

There is a collective learning, but non-acceptance of common follies. Everyone is found guilty of telling untruths – if not to one another, then to themselves. Certainly, everyone in AI fraternity is found guilty of that. Most of the time, what we think of as truth is threaded with self-serving distortions. AI Snake Oil has everything you ever wanted to know about AI. 

AI Snake Oil
by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor
Princeton University Press, USA 
Extent: 348 pages. Price; Rs. 699,

First published in the HinduBusinessLine on Nov 25, 2024.

The 'Queens' of Kings

Closely related as mothers, daughters, sisters, half-sisters. and nieces, known with the only name of the Cleopatras, they ruled Egypt for a period of more than a century and a half (192 BCE – 30 BCE). When taken as a collective, the generation of Cleopatras set a new model for female power in antiquity. Together they dominated the politically world of men, in vigor, finesse, ambition, rigor, vision, and ability. All seven were direct blood relatives; and all of them were queens of Egypt. Composed of two Greek words, kleos meaning glory/fame, and pater meaning father/homeland was a big name to live up to.  

Historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the dramatic story of these seven incomparable women, vividly tracing the kingdom’s final centuries before its fall to Rome. The Cleopatras were descendants of Ptolemy, the general who conquered Egypt alongside Alexander the Great. They were closely related, and wielded absolute power in overshadowing their husbands or sons. Without fail they all proved to be shrewd and capable leaders. The Cleopatras ruled through the canny deployment of arcane rituals, opulent spectacles, and unparalleled wealth. They negotiated political turmoil and court intrigues, led armies into battle fields and commanded fleets of ships, and ruthlessly dispatched their dynastic rivals. 

Women to remain on top have had to pay a heavy price. The Cleopatra wase a formidable name to matter. It matters as the Cleopatra was the first with a new genuine framework for aligning with active political power. Their collective story is neglected till today, but it shows that how they adjusted to the male-dominated institution. Taken together, theirs is an impeccable narrative on women’s power in the stiflingly patriarchal world. Llewellyn-Jones must be credited for bringing a story of ruthlessness, but also of lifelong determination. 

All the Cleopatras craved for power, and eventually wielded power. Some of the Cleopatras shared the same royal husband, whereas others plotted the overthrow their husbands. Each of the Cleopatras had an interesting story, about surviving marriage, betrayal, murder, violence and loss. The emotional turmoil each of them went through remains more of a speculation. Sex as a lure for power remains hard to comprehend. 

The life and times of each Cleopatras was much complicated. They were the power brokers of the Ptolemaic dynasty, no doubt. Through several successive generations the Cleopatras underplayed their traditional roles as mothers and spouses. While each Cleopatra may have different take on the subject, the compulsion to sustain gender dominance may have the last word. Only by doing so, the Cleopatras could gain time for the Romans takeover.  

At the peak of the Cleopatras rule, the last Cleopatra claimed the lofty title Queen of Kings. The Cleopatra VII demonstrated that women were born to rule over men. Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones offers fresh insights into the real story of the Cleopatras, and the tragic death of the last queen of Egypt.  

The Cleopatras  
by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones 
Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 361, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in Deccan Herald on Nov 10, 2024.

Full-Stomach Environmentalism

Ramachandra Guha may not have done justice to the Indian Environmentalism in his recently published book 'Speaking with Nature'. For those (largely rural) who traditionally viewed 'nature' as a giver of services (natural), only expected saved/protected nature could extend uninterrupted supply of those services. While the Chipko that was borne out of the realization that 'trees' contributed to sustaining those services, its southern version (called the Appiko) serving the same purpose got excluded from the ecological history? Why the variety of response and tenacity of the (eco) service is not appreciated? 

It was in the mid-1980s that the Appiko, a momentous event in the ecological history of the country, had reminded people about the virtues of protecting nature to keep the 'gateway to the monsoons' thriving with natural processes. Not only did this spontaneous social action led to a moratorium on green felling across the Sahyadri range of mountains, but the movement has also been the vanguard of ecological conservation ever since: from opposing a seventh dam on the Kali River in Karnataka to saving the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, from taking on the controversial ‘Nylon 66’ project in Goa, and to supporting the Chalakudy river conservation in Kerala. For Guha, it was 'full-stomach environmentalism' (led by the elite) much prevalent during last-1970 and post-1980.

Though the legacy of most of the TEN eminent eco-historians (profiled in the book) remain lost in time, the issue of protecting the ecosystem that generates/protects livelihoods remain alive or at least remained so till the end-of-the-millennium. These individuals demonstrated a combination of love and caring attitude towards nature. Has such love and caring not been essential part of cultural-religious practices in the country for ages? Did the eco-historians ever rebuild those practices by strengthening the environment messages contained therein? As I write this, I do see chhat festival (traditionally celebrated in Bihar) being celebrated in polluted rivers or stagnant muddies all across. The ritualistic value of such mass-based cultural events is socially accepted in most religious festivals, but the essential ecological messages remained lost. 

While there has been an economic turnround in recent times, a shift toward 'full-stomach environmentalism' of the affluent seems apparent. With economy having taken a turnover, only the abject poor expect nature to give them the livelihood services. Rapid urbanization has transformed the country's demography. Environmentalism of the present needs a serious rethinking, as the past-environmentalism seems to have been outdated. 

Guha himself acknowledges that air pollution is relentlessly increasing; most of our rivers are biologically dead; and the chemical contamination of soils remains extremely high. There is a gross political disregard to these issues because legacy of past-environmentalism hasn't contributed anything significant in this regard. Most rivers are in bad shape, and nobody seems concerned even if it flows next door as bottled water is easily available. Did environment consciousness ever address such transformations? Are there any footmarks of the past left for the others to step in?     

Even though climate change is not our creation, India finds itself in an environmental disaster zone. Guha raises it and questions the failure of the environment thinkers to forewarn it. The book offers the thoughts of eminent environmentalists to fertilize our minds, but the profiled minds in this volume have literally fell short of doing so. Not sure why historian E.P.Thompson had remarked "There is not a thought that is being thought in the West or East which is not active in some Indian mind." 

Speaking with Nature
by Ramachandra Guha
Fourth Estate/HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 406 pages, Price: Rs 799.

First published in www.raagdelhi.com

The cognitive brillance

Hyper-efficiency is no longer defined by the quantity of output, but by its quality. And assembly-line flattened minds seem to have given up on this change. With the modern-day workload shifting from the hands to the head, the mind and body do not seem to be in sync. It may mean some kind of redundancy, as if the brain has refused to cooperate. Not really, a car now suddenly stopping in the middle of a busy street is taken to a computer engineer not a car mechanic. Simply put, software has gradually replaced hardware in almost every facet in industrial countries. With technology evolving at fast pace, the change is not far from us.  

Technology has changed and humans seem to have quite a bit of lost control. Unless human brain optimizes to transform the outcome, much of the focus is likely to be lost. Brain doctor Dr. Mithu Storoni has outlined the emerging enigma, and wonders if more than conventional nudge alone can process the information better. The task is to escalate human performance to a new height and improve the way we work. That is what hyper-efficiency is all about, achieving a level of efficiency that has not been achieved.

Creatively written and smarty packed four chapters, Hyper-Efficient packs many ideas and approaches to think and work about. Change the speed is unlikely to bring about the desired result, change the pattern will. From the linear approach to a non-linear rhythmic way is under attention. Marching like solider in a straight line to spinning like a dancer in a rhythm, will create the innovative mental landscape for leaning new ways of problem solving. Only by adopting new approach the tsunami of technological change will be outsmarted.

It is a smart new way of thinking about life. and life processes. The idea finally is to think about identifying the brain’s unseen gears that can make life more elegant. Our brains must navigate like never before, it should navigate the virtual world with imagination at an unprecedented speed. University of Cambridge-trained physician and neuroscientist Dr. Storoni flips through the human brain to suggest game-changing scenario.  If we persist with old kind of assembly-line production system, the ecosystem is never ready to face new challenges. There is no room for flair and brilliance, there is hardly any out-of-the box thinking.

It is true of the Angkor, which became the largest preindustrial city in the world. It had tamed uncertainty by collecting water. The same innovation that had transformed Angkor, the medieval capital of the ancient Khmer empire, led to its dazzling downfall. The city had eliminated uncertainty altogether, and in the process forgot to cope with it should it reoccur. A bit of chaos in the system can make the system more resilient to unexpected shocks. The system had adopted linearity at the cost of ignoring rhythm, out-of-box thinking was compromised.

Hyper-Efficient is book that helps the reader shut out distractions to concentrate on high-level achievement. If one is less distracted, one can sleep better during night and perform better during the day. Who doesn’t know it! The book explores and explains human brain to do things differently, and ready for doing what is essentially out of the course. It unlocks the brain, realizes full potential to its optimum mental performance. It is a book of discovery, that helps discover one’s mind.

Hyper.Efficiency
by Mithu Storoni
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 266 pages, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in www.raagdelhi.com on Oct, 4, 2024

Big Brother is watching you

In the year 2024, it’s indeed a surprise to describe the relevance of George Orwell as an author and as a cultural product. Orwell’s endearing fame as a writer and a thinker, and his critique of authoritarianism with the emphasis on disinformation, manifests itself in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, two of his dystopian novels translated into an excess of 65 languages. Both books are on best-selling lists even now. Published within a gap of four years in 1945 and 1949, the language of both the novels continues to echo across politics and culture. The world that Orwell prophesied hasn’t come to pass, on the contrary, his words offer sharp lessons for the contemporary world, says Laura Beers in her new book, Orwell’s Ghosts (2024). In her Introduction, the British historian who teaches at American University writes that invocations of Orwell’s words have reached new heights, with both the right and the left appropriating them to suit their ends.

After the January 6, 2021 “insurrection” at Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., Republican senator Josh Hawley compared the cancellation of his book contract to life in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, notes Beers. The left too, she writes, has embraced the rhetoric of Orwellianism to depict either Donald Trump or Boris Johnson. The term, Orwellian, has been used to depict Vladimir Putin’s “attempts to manage information on the Ukraine war.”

She quotes the literary scholar John Rodden who in a study made a distinction between Orwell the man and “Orwell”, the cultural product, which offers a valuable lens for considering how both Orwell and his books have been repeatedly reappropriated for various political ends.

‘Big Brother’ is still a synonym for a totalitarian surveillance state, which has recently been co-opted as the title of a popular reality show. Orwell questioned the presence of the ‘big brother’ and the surveillance state, contending that both reflect the emergence of a fascist state. The Spanish Civil War was a crucial turning point in Orwell’s life; both the novels came after the civil war, and a newfound commitment to socialism. Had Spain not awakened Orwell to write these iconic books, he would not have championed individual liberty as a cause. Beers says Orwell was a “broad and deep thinker who opposed inequality as fervently as he opposed censorship and tyranny.”

“The real frightening thing about totalitarianism,” said Orwell, “is not that it commits ‘atrocities’ but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future.” The attack on truth and language makes atrocities possible. The atrocities are easy to commit, if truth has been silenced as the first victim. Once people are terrorized into silence, obedience, and lies, it becomes easier for an authoritarian administration to take the next steps. Beers shows why the present generation must value Orwell’s politics and what must be learnt from his thoughts. Although he died in 1950, when he was only 47, his life was full of eventful and interesting episodes. Orwell’s childhood seems to have been divided between the freedom and the pleasure of life outdoors, and the regimentation and misery of the schools he lived at from age eight to eighteen.

Beers says the question that bedeviled Orwell for the final dozen years of his life was whether and how a socialist society could be achieved that offered its citizens economic security and social equality without devolving into authoritarianism. She warns against replacing the complexity of his political thought with a two-dimensional caricature of Orwell as an anti-totalitarian prophet. In considering his writing, Beers draws attention to at least “one blind spot”, his inability to appreciate the negative impact of patriarchal structures on interwar women. “Orwell was a socialist, but decidedly not a feminist,” she notes.

Though he wasn’t exemplary, argues Rebecca Solnit, he was nevertheless courageous and committed. Orwell managed to love both Englishmen and loathe the British Empire, to be an advocate for underdogs and outsiders. “He was a rebel against his own biological condition, and he was a rebel against social conditions; the two were very closely linked together.” Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses challenges the conventional image of Orwell as a gloomy figure always fighting for a cause. The commitment to the things of this world could also be the focus of a spiritual discipline, a warmth he saw Gandhi was lacking. Our job is to make life worth living on this earth, Gandhi had said, because this is the only earth we have.

Orwell’s Ghosts and Orwell’s Roses are two contrasting studies. While the first explores his commitment to political liberty and economic justice, the second examines his aesthetics and ethics. If one were to count Orwell’s single achievement, it would be the fact that he named and described, as no one else had, the way that totalitarianism was a threat not just to liberty and human rights, but to language and consciousness as well. His essays laid the ground for his diverse political thoughts. Without doubt, Orwell is the perfect guide to our own age of upheaval.

Orwell’s sense of social justice was his most outstanding characteristic, his friends attest. In the nearly seventy-five years since his death, the emphasis of his political thought is well established. While we must stand up against oppressive regimes abroad, we must also take ownership of how and why similar populist and anti-democratic tendencies are corrupting our domestic political system. Orwell took a dim view of the role of religion in society; he believed it principally divided society. Revisiting Orwell is like visiting our recent pasts and our current upheaval. The work he did is everyone’s job now.

Orwell’s Roses

by Rebecca Solnit

Granta, London

Extent:308, Price: UK 9.99.

Orwell’s Ghosts

by Laura Beers

Hurst, London

Extent: 222, Price: Rs. 399.

First published at The Hindu, dated Oct 17, 2024.