Work no longer works

Work has increasingly erased any hope for rest, pleasure, and fulfillment.

Perceptions might be at variance but there is nothing like a good work anymore. Far from making life less miserable, all kinds of gainful economic engagements have helped work to worm its way deeper into every facet of our lives. Reason enough for work to have increasingly erased any hope for rest, pleasure, and fulfillment. Behind the facade of a forced smile at workplace, stress, depression and anxiety remains curiously concealed. With climate crises, imminent automation and persistent pandemic knocking at the door, more and more workers are likely to remain exploited, exhausted, and finally abandoned. 

Is it as serious as it gets? Perhaps even more, as independent journalist Sarah Jaffe unveils the work life stories of diverse occupations – from domestic workers to museum staffers and from social workers to tenured professors – to conclude that the labor-of-love myth is cracking under its own weight. With wages stagnant and cutbacks common, neo-liberalism has heaped punitive punishment on those who fail to comply. ‘We are all locked into a system of production in which we must work in order to survive, even as production needs fewer actual hands than ever.’ Can a society where we must work the majority of our waking hours ever deliver us happiness? 

Jaffe has produced an indispensable writing on labor history, tracking changes from the factory-based work for a pay-cheque during 20th century to the present-day internet-driven market of cheap labor that has conveniently replaced flexibility and freedom with uncertainty and anxiety at the workplace. Long gone is the ‘Fordist Compromise’ that gave workers some luxury of free time and holidays. It is much different now, failure to not earn enough or dissatisfaction with the job owes a personal explanation – you must have made the wrong choices or not be making the most of opportunities. The only answer is to work harder on yourself or to leave.

Work Won’t Love You Back could not have come at a better time, as the pandemic has redefined the workplace while attaching some value to human emotions. With sudden space for us to think about a new normal, it is time desire for happiness is integrated into work and workplace. How much work can we, and our environment afford? Massive reductions in working time are not only desirable for our well-being but for the environment that we inhabit. Jaffe raises serious concerns  on society’s stubborn perception on work and productivity, which has only undervalued human dignity and ecological values. Without doubt, the world ought to be less hostile.

There is a common thread that binds the detailed case studies of workers in the book, questioning the whims of capitalist ideology which places growth and consumption on priority over jobs and the environment. Written with panache and empathy, Work Won’t Love You Back is an immensely readable book that seeks to set an agenda for public discourse on contesting how indeed we are put to work. Citing recent spurt in unionization and protests across the world, Jaffe projects a measured but optimistic outlook for the rising tide of organized labor as a check on unprecedented corporate power.

Can the rhetoric of love-as-you-toil-at-work be sustained to reinforce emotional attachment and justify oppressive working conditions? Such are the overarching implications that the things we create under a capitalist society are never really ours, neither to keep nor to share. For Jaffe, this raises fundamental questions on the most painful realities of working-class life and seeks search for innovative futures built on care, rather than exploitation. She doesn’t have a ready prescription though, but seeks a renewed political understanding which acknowledges that our lives are ours, and creating conditions for a far better society isn’t preposterous. 

Work Won’t Love You Back is discerning journalism at its best, a collective conversation on the meaning of work and life. Convinced that neo-liberalism as a project is collapsing, Jaffe gives a clarion call to workers of all hues to envision a society with a human face, the one that cares. ‘To ask for capitalism to pay for care is to call for an end to capitalism’. There is no denying that we have to do our jobs for a living, but nothing stops us from making demands for better conditions; alongside a claim on our time. Loving work should become a luxury that everyone can afford? 

Jaffe’s provocative title is no less reflective in its contents. It asks questions that a majority has been whispering onto itself. Big in its scope, ambition, and impact, Work Won’t Love You Back asks the working class to express solidarity against the expropriation of bodies, minds, and spirits. Highly recommended, it is an elegant writing on a subject that concerns us all.  

Work Won’t Love You Back 
by Sarah Jaffe
Bold Type Books, New York 
Extent: 418, Price: US$30 

First published in the Outlook on March 7, 2022.

A life told through songs

Film songs deliver an emotional and textural surplus that stays much longer than its cinematic experience.

What made Anand Bakshi an exceptional lyricist of the film industry was his abiding devotion to his craft, making sure that his lyrics belonged to the characters who lip sync the songs on screen. ‘If found (him) visible in the song instead, he considered himself a failed film lyricist’. True to his conviction, Bakshi sought a heart wrenching melody (Aaj dil pe koi jor chalta nahi from film Milan) dropped from the film as he could not believe that the characters could sing those literary verses. Carefully chosen words and their arrangement deliver specific meanings, feelings, and emotions that slip from on-screen renditions into countless living audiences who hold them as ageless soundtracks in their minds. 

A key aspect of enjoying songs comes from the words, and with an understanding for rhythm and a flair for music Anand Bakshi could unlock the power of words into memorable lyrics for innumerable cinematic situations. Though he couldn’t complete his schooling, the creative genius could imprint life’s lessons on some 3,500 songs in his nearly five-decade career as a lyricist. Unlike a poet for whom even sky has no limits, a lyricist has to limit his thoughts and expressions within the confines of the script to contribute in creating a musical interlude that takes the narrative forward while remaining a standalone piece for the listener. Reason enough that playback songs transcend demographic limits, linguistic barriers, and class boundaries.   

Rakesh Bakshi banks upon his father’s diary entries, anecdotal reflections from his illustrious colleagues, and fragments of episodic memories in recreating the persona of an inimitable lyricist whose words and metaphors continue to remain a vital part of the daily existence for millions of his fans and listeners. It is an intimate peek into the life of a soldier whose humble beginning could not deter him from pursuing a passion for conveying his lived experiences through simple verses that the listener could easily relate to. A section featuring Anand Bakshi’s favourite forty songs is a veritable treat, providing rare insights on how those verses came into being. 

Nagme, Kisse, Baatein, Yaadein is an accomplished biography, grounded in the reality that film songs deliver an emotional and textural surplus that stays much longer than its cinematic experience. It also reveals that a film song is a cunning device that injects an artistic mode of expression into the story, communicating through lyrics what cannot be said through words. ‘Good songs exist in good stories,’ Anand Bakshi would say, ‘it is a matter of getting them out from the situations.’ Despite his limited vocabulary, the lyricist in him could make simple words sound profound - Kutch to log kahenge (Film: Amar Prem) connects at a much deeper level.     

Revisiting the past must have been melancholic for author Rakesh Bakshi but it serves an implicit purpose of connecting with the present generation who may have been lost on the rich tradition of lyrics writing and its irretrievable impact. It has been two decades since Anand Bakshi departed but not a day passes without many of his memorable songs getting played on the radio. As much a celebration of his talent, the book is a tribute to his indomitable spirit of living up to his passion. By refusing to give up on his dreams and ambitions, Anand Bakshi left an inspiring message for those who have dreams and ambitions to chase. ‘Your dream is a chance. If you take it, it’s risky. If you do not take it, it is dangerous.’

Like his lyrics, his life too communicates ‘the feeling that there is always more to tell than can be said’.

Nagme, Kisse, Baatein, Yaadein – The life and lyrics of Anand Bakshi
by Rakesh Anand Bakshi
Penguin/Ebury Press, New Delhi.
Extent: 198, Price: Rs. 599. 

First published in the Hindustan Times on Dec 4, 2021. 

On the manmade mountain trail

Building life from among teetering piles of discarded waste are those others for whom the growing mountains offer survival opportunities.

On the outskirts of cities, the manmade garbage mountains are attaining new heights. Becoming taller by the day, these democratic expressions of growth epitomize class and power of the consumptive society while providing substrate for the teeming others to search life and livelihood from the leftovers of the affluent class. With an estimated daily inflow of over 250,000 tons of discarded stuff, these mountains have become precarious lifeline for the forgotten community. In the flash between the trucks emptying garbage and the bulldozers scooping the trash exists life which has the familiar milestones of existence: babies born, love found, illnesses suffered and death encountered.  

Who pays when majority abandons? Building life from among teetering piles of discarded waste are those others for whom the growing mountains offer survival opportunities. By sifting through it, by hording it, by selling it, by sleeping over it and by inhaling obnoxious fumes, the faceless families pay through their lives to squeeze life out of the abandoned stuff. From tangled wires to squashed bottles and from dismembered limbs to even dead babies, these mountains offer unceremonious burial to everything expendable around its windswept slopes. The ever transforming physiography of Mumbai’s trash township at Deonar could be from anywhere, a reflection on a never-ending struggle to manage the cost of city’s rapacious appetite.  

As these rubbish mountains gain height, sometimes as high as twenty floors, a sizeable population identifies such slopes as their veritable homes, shaping human stories of existence with the unwanted outpourings from the world outside. Mountain Tales pieces together stories from the sociology of survival inspired by whatever can be recycled and resold. The sub-stories around the kin of Hyder Ali and Farzana are as much about (in)human subsistence bereft of an agency as also about the political-economy of consumptive behavior with its shady power deals. In the milieu of waste management what often gets missed out is the human face of its tertiary sector, whose devotion to getting rid of things remains central to the maintenance of capitalism. Ironically, for the policy and economic instruments of waste reduction these faceless people too get counted amidst the waste only. 

Called human scavengers or rag pickers, decades of working on the rising tides of trash at the mountain slopes consumes a majority of them by tuberculosis only to be silently replaced by their young children. Like the unrestricted flow of garbage, the cycle of human engagement remains consistent. Saumya Roy walks through such lives less-lived, capturing the daily ordeal of those who live at the bottom of the ever-rising pyramids of human civilization. The writing is compelling, befitting its extraordinary subject, the stories and sub-stories presented are revealing, offering shocking surprises that get subsumed in the din of cries to close such waste dumps. 

As the country plans to process, shrink and remove these mountains, the book raises crucial questions worthy of careful consideration. Our neighborhood waste dumps do impinge our senses but will the linear model of resource use that pushes the society headlong into the destructive frenzy of consumption ever get questioned in the first place? Curiously, the terrible pressure of accumulation has turned waste into a commodity worthy of treatment by the same system that helps generate it in the first place. Isn’t this notion of waste reduction problematic as it ignores the more difficult socio-economic questions about the survival of the voiceless at the margins of the so-called civilized society? 

Written with empathy and concern, Mountain Tales is built on the substrate that is most threatening to the self and is sought out of sight and mind as quickly as possible. Waste is a function of our pre-public individuality that loses its identity once it enters public arena, triggering public concern towards its management. Though the status of waste in public and private spheres seems incommensurable; the human relationship to waste recycling and reuse is markedly distinct. It is the subtlety of such relationships that is revealed through these tales.  

Needless to say, the human side to waste management is in contrast to the modus operandi of efficient waste disposal, which hinges on the choice of technology that need not necessarily adhere to the ethics of safe disposal. Most people don’t get a sense of ideas currently under consideration to reduce and remove these mountains. What can easily be doubted is: if the sum of all waste management techniques will erase the garbage footprints of modern society with   threatening clouds of climate change hovering allover. 

Mountain Tales 
by Saumya Roy
Profile/Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 294, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine on Nov 6, 2021.

Walking the experience of freedom

It is the quest for freedom that is at the core of human existence. 

Freedom is mankind’s most cherished dream, but remains hard to achieve as society has outsourced virtually all the tasks needed for survival.  With interdependence being the leitmotif of human existence, both good and bad people could maintain their freedom by simply staying out of reach of those who deprived them of it. Not content with this simplistic linearity, Sebastian Junger undertook a long walk with three friends along the rail lines in south-central Pennsylvania to have a firsthand experience with freedom. ‘We were the only people in the world who knew where we were’, which helped them experience personal autonomy and mutual interdependence to ponder a very big idea called Freedom. 

Best known for the bestseller The Perfect Storm, which was turned into a blockbuster movie, Junger weaves the magic of literary prose that holds explosive calm as he unravels multiple perspectives on the primary human desire that defines us. Taking reader through long detours in history and anthropology, the author questions why those who protect themselves against others are the ones who are organized enough to oppress freedom of their own people? Why is it that democracy, designed to strike a balance, is unable to uphold and guarantee freedom? As democracies are under growing threat, one wonders if history is seeking sacrifices from those who value it to something almost sacred.   

Loaded with musings on freedom, the book is a short narrative with much to be read between the lines and with clear reflections on the disreputable political environment we are part of. Although the storyline is somewhat incoherent, it has pellets of enduring truth which are thoughtful and engaging. Junger considers the lessons of the Spanish War, which his father fled from, akin for our own time with lies out to destroy democracies - the custodian of freedom. As was in Spain, once lies get accepted as truth, everything including life, death, and reality are up for grabs. The takeover of democracies seems to be a work in progress ever since.

Illuminating and thought-provoking, Freedom is an engaging exercise in meditative self-indulgence. Its contemporary relevance draws serious attention to the need for preserving freedom by protecting democracy from fascist takeover. Junger’s concerns on upholding the right to freedom are indeed real as fascist forces are gunning for power in the guise of being democratic in intent, but not on purpose. In the post-truth era, knowledge is being compromised for faith, loyalty for obedience, and power for freedom. Unknowingly, people have bargained their freedom for illusive safety and security. “Freedom and safety seemed to exist on a continuum where the more you had of one, the less you had of the other.”

It is indeed fascinating how a long walk along the rail lines, the veritable no man’s land between civilization and nature, could propel ideas on freedom in the wilderness of forced isolation. Sleeping under bridges and in the abandoned building and in the woods and on golf courses, the author found that ‘there are many definitions of freedom but surely that is one of them’. Securing temporary freedom to wrestle with oneself is close to being a Hemingway in the making. It is a style of writing that guides one to understand human fight against fellow humans for freedom and survival; be it between the natives and the usurpers, the Irish against the British, or the Taliban against the US. It is the quest for freedom that is at the core of human existence. 

Freedom ought not to be read with any preconceptions as the author himself admits that the trip was an escape from lived reality, a temporary injunction against whatever was coming. Back home after four hundred miles of walking, it was time for him to face life again. Perhaps, it is the acceptance of the random nature of our existence that truly sets us free.

Freedom 
by Sebastian Junger
4th Estate, UK 
Extent: 147, Price: Rs. 499.

First published in The Hindu, issue dated Oct 17, 2021. 

How the past speaks

Much as history should have helped broaden our intellectual horizon, as a society we have beset ourselves with deficits in critical thinking and historical imagination. 

History may be cast in stone but not human identity which draws from and builds upon the past to reinterpret it, as it rummages through time. Historian H E Carr would argue that history is a continuous dialogue between the past and present and a continual interaction between the historian and the facts, for a correct interpretation and accurate recording of facts. Stretching the argument further, Namit Arora contends that history should as much advance our understanding of the past as extend help in understanding our place in the rapidly transforming world. Bringing together ancient history, chronicled narrative, and present interpretation of six iconic places, Arora triangulates history as an evolving process.

Illuminating and evocative, Indians is a credible attempt at reconstructing history through astute reflections on the evolution and decline of historical sites which were once cradles of civilization in this part of the world. Told through visits to the archaeological sites at Dholavira, Nagarjunakonda, Nalanda, Khajuraho, Hampi and Varanasi, and peppered with the perceptive accounts of the times by noted travelers like Megasthenes, Xuanzang, Alberuni and Marco Polo, this prehistory explores our interconnected ancestry that binds us to our collective present. It is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places in search for an authentic identity. 

In addition to fulfilling the author’s quest for reconnecting with the country after two decades of overseas sojourn as an IT professional, the book serves a dual purpose of replacing the dull, untrue or often motivated narrative on history with more open, evidence-based and empathetic perspective on shaping the idea of India. That the Harappans had the most sophisticated water management system including the first-ever indoor toilets over two millennia ago exposes our present-day sanitation inadequacies, and the erotic architecture of Khajuraho temples mocks at our cultural aversion to harnessing the power of desire toward spiritual awakening. Much as history should have helped broaden our intellectual horizon, as a society we have beset ourselves with deficits in critical thinking and historical imagination.         

Like discerning students of archaeological history, Arora marvels the artistic excellence, technological  sophistication  and religious moderation of the bygone era but expresses concern at some cultural misunderstandings by the travelers, for which he suggests long overdue need for fresh translations of their account to get new insights on history. The suggestion is not without purpose as ‘the accounts of travelers (Chinese) are invaluable to inform and enchant us, and for providing us the evidence we need to resist the rewriting of history to suit narrow political ends.’ Without staking any serious claim to history writing, Indians provides an exciting churn of ideas, beliefs and values that have the potential to reshape our present. 

An ambitious journey covering the period from 220 CE to 2600 BCE makes for absorbing reading, although at places author’s innocent curiosity gets the better of accepted historical facts. Some of this comes from the danger and difficulty inherent in journeys across historic time zones, and hence perception on the eulogy of pre-Hindu era; the fall of Buddhism; and the mutilation of temples by the Mughals may fall short of academic rigor. No such claims are staked by the author either, who perceives history as many layers of suggestions such that it evokes, conjoins and involves the seeker. Else, who would be courageous enough to write that ‘most temple desecration had political and not sectarian motives.’ Arora evokes historian Richard M. Eaton’s famous remarks ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’ to justify his digressions.  

It is with pleasure one reads a book like Indians, which provides hitherto unmatched style of dealing with multiple layers of history. With Arora as an inquiring travel companion, the archaeological sites come alive showcasing the complexity and diversity of the lost worlds. Written with transcendent beauty to prose, and with occasional moments of epiphany and even ecstasy, it fills the growing demand of capitalism and nationalism to draw a new narrative about being Indians. Without a judicious sense of history, argues the author, reflection on human societies across time and place alone can help construct an authentic present.

While deepening our sense of wonder that was India, touring historical landmarks to capture their imminent downfall brings about a new awakening on our past. For not been aligned with any ideological view, Indians should come a handy reading for the present generation which, under the influence of modernity, is getting distanced from our rich heritage and illustrious past. Only through an appreciation of unbiased history, can one bridge the distance between past and present to carve a distinct future for our civilization. Indians could offer a perfect start!       

Indians 
by Namit Arora
Penguin-Viking, New Delhi 
Extent: 296, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in Outlook weekly on Oct 1, 2021. 

Retelling of an unfinished story

The rebel romantic in Guru Dutt could not escape being soaked in the light and shadows of his onscreen melancholic creations.

Over half-a-century since Guru Dutt ended his life on Oct 10, 1964, film buffs continue to celebrate his cinematic creations and mourn his untimely demise in equal esteem. With a thin line separating the personal from the professional, Dutt’s life remained entwined with the craft he had mastered in his brief career as writer-producer-director of all-time classics like Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam. Was Guru Dutt so deeply engrossed in projecting the subjective imagination on screen that he failed to read life’s objective reality? Film biographer Yasser Usman has redrawn portrait of an enigmatic artist that continues to provoke interest in his unfinished story.   

Between his troubled childhood and an enchanted adulthood, there were compelling vignettes of the inexorable rhythms of existence with multiple layers of varied experiences and perceptions. If watching the Baul singers made him engage with shadow figures on the walls, a brief exposure to Uday Shankar’s dance centre had inspired him to locate melody in physical movements. With this backdrop, Dutt could convert his poetic glances through the camera into shadow play of movements expressing the power of words and the spirit of music in challenging the set conventionalism of cinematic language. It was this unique touch that not only became his signature in cinema but contributed the most to his greatness as an illustrious filmmaker. 

However, the rebel romantic in Guru Dutt could not escape being soaked in the light and shadows of his onscreen melancholic creations. Drawing a sensitive and accessible biography of an iconoclast, Usman has made an attempt at unfolding the factors which may have led Guru Dutt to cut short his own life. An indecisive nature coupled with impulsive restlessness may have played upon a life stressed with unrequited love and unresolved relationships to take on the extreme step. However, being indecisive and impulsive may have contributed in equal measures for him to leave behind a rich legacy of cinematic output that continues to fascinate audiences worldwide. No wonder, Guru Dutt remains an enigma, his illustrious and troubled life open to interpretations. 

Guru Dutt- An Unfinished Story is meticulously researched biography enriched with words of compassion and concern contributed by the artist’s close friends and colleagues. Guru Dutt’s lifelong friend Dev Anand considered him ‘brimming over with artistic creation and lava that has to explode’. An important take away from the book, perhaps the most significant one, is that the pursuit of creativity comes at a price that the individual has to pay out of his/her emotional resources. It is a lesson not to take mental health for granted.

Without the contributions of Guru Dutt, the history of Indian cinema cannot be written. His masterpiece Pyaasa remains an all-time classic – one among the hundred movies to watch. With interest in Guru Dutt’s cinema getting worldwide attention, a comprehensive biography on the making and unmaking of the filmmaker could not have been better timed. Usman deserves credit for putting together the multifaceted story of Guru Dutt because his cinema was ahead of its times, not only for its technical brilliance but also for its profound take on the emptiness of life and the shallowness of materialism. 

Even if you have known the story of the enigmatic filmmaker in bits and pieces, Guru Dutt – An Unfinished Story makes for an absorbing reading on the life of an iconic artist for whom blurring the line between real and reel had become an ultimate test of enduring creativity.       

Guru Dutt – An Unfinished Story 
by Yasser Usman
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi 
Extent: 317, Price: Rs. 599.

First published in Deccan Herald on Oct 10, 2021.

In search of the tallest mountain

The 71-year quest in search of the highest mountain is adventurous and engrossing. 

Could there be anything more intriguing than the fact that Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, earned its name much before it was actually located? Credit goes to the imperialist expansionist ideology, led by the known thruster of such approach in Viceroy Lord Curzon, which sought to see the highest mountain within the borders of the British Empire. Unlocking the door to the elusive mountain also aligned with the British geopolitical strategy of thwarting the Russians designs in Tibet, presumably aimed at undermining its influence in Central Asia. In this light, closed borders of Nepal and Tibet proved no deterrent in laying claim on the most prized landscape. 

Named in 1850 but first attempt to climb the peak made 70 years later, in 1921, the hunt for the tallest mountain on the Tibetan-Nepalese border offers a breathtaking story loaded with twists and travails in exploration, adventure, and diplomacy. Known for his inter-cultural writings, Craig Storti builds an engrossing narrative that justifies creation of an institutional base, in the form of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1802, which became the pivot that helped map country’s geographical resources, established the British dominance in mountaineering, and had led to cementing the colonial hegemony. With the highest mountain being the coveted trophy, breaking all barriers in its hunt were legitimized. 

Breaking the closed borders with Nepal and Tibet were the first barrier to be politically negotiated with resolute Nepalese and stubborn Tibetans, both of whom loathed the colonialists for their dubious intentions. Political maneuverings worked in the case of Nepal, however, for ignoring Lord Curzon the Tibetans paid a heavy price – 3,000 of whom were killed in the ensuing confrontation at Guru in 1904, south of Gyantse. Intense Russophobia, bolstered by rumors and manipulated intelligence, had triggered the bloody invasion. Not embarrassed that they discovered a total of three Russian-made rifles in Lhasa in the process, the permission to conduct exploration and map-making activities in the hunt for Mount Everest was nevertheless ensured.      

The Hunt for Mount Everest is more than just an adventure story in the quest of an elusive mountain. It is a multidimensional reading of history that is laced with sub-plots on political gamble, diplomatic bungling, geopolitical supremacy, scientific rigor, and genuine bravery. As much an act of laying claim on a dramatic natural landscape, the bullying of the natives was to warn the others in the region of the consequences of conspiring with the Russians. While the Tibetan misadventure by Colonel Francis Younghusband had made him persona non grata inside the government, his defiant daredevilry had earned reassurance from King Edward who approved all that the young officer had done, making him a hero to mountaineers. Such dubious double standards were to become the hallmark of imperial rule. 

In the centenary year of the first Everest expedition, Storti brings a racy narrative on the discovery and subsequent siting of the giant among mountains. Under the leadership of founder Surveyor General George Everest, with Lord Curzon and Kitchener as patron viceroys, Radanath Sickdhar, John Hennessey, and their boss Andrew Waugh deserve all acclaim for their meticulous geographical calculations in confirming the presence of the tallest peak in 1850. The Hunt for Mount Everest is an engrossing account of those 70 years that eventually led to the first ever attempt to scale the highest mountain by George Mallory and his climbing partner Sandy Irvine.

Storti has put together a fascinating account of how the mountain was found, and what went into first naming it, and then retaining the same name. The accepted norm that local name should get precedence over the one assigned by the explorers was put to test. Having made stupendous efforts in discovering and locating the highest mountain, it would have been a misfortune for the British if it would have earned a name other than Mount Everest. 

The Hunt for Mount Everest leaves the reader wondering if Mallory and Irvine had been to the peak after their last appearance in cloud as they climbed past 27,500 feet on their way to the summit of Everest. While Irvine’s body was never found, Mallory’s was recovered seventy-five years later in 1999. In this centenary year, the lingering question of whether or not Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary were the first to the top of Everest has resurfaced. The answer may be hard to come by, but Storti’s engrossing narrative offers a tribute to the heroic efforts of the first ever climbers who left their footprints for others to emulate. For seventy-one years ever since it was discovered, Everest had remained a mystery, metaphor and a symbol. It was in 1921 that Everest became something more than just a mountain – the highest mountain on the planet. The Hunt for Mount Everest is strongly recommended for anyone interested in the affairs of the world. 

The Hunt for Mountain Everest 
by Craig Storti
John Murray/Hachette, New Delhi 
Extent: 301, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in Deccan Herald on September 12, 2021.

Getting past inbox of anxiety and distress

If email anxiety is consuming you, follow Newport for possible resolutions.

Until it popped up on my computer screen recently I couldn't have ever sensed if something as useful as an email was making us miserable. Curated by Washington University Professor Cal Newport, the message suggests that sending and receiving messages come for a price that we hadn't bargained for. Newport backs himself with survey data and clinical studies to prove that cheaper mode of incessant communication guarantees our misery. Do emails stacked in my inbox generate anxious moments? it does by effecting both our productivity and our mental health. If nothing, it undervalues the concentration of mind to produce valuable output. 

Nearly three decades into emailing in the country may have cost the postal services a great deal but not without letting email users like you and me remain in perpetual low-grade anxiety, and that too unknowingly. Could it be the intangible cost of relying on instant communication that we don't mind skipping a meal but rarely let checking the mailbox elude us. One may shrug it aside as an incidental side effect of a compulsive in-box habit but in reality it may be much more serious than that. And, facts tend to prove it so.

Using time-tracking software, researchers at the University of California found that employees of a large company checked their inboxes an average of 77 times a day, with the heaviest user checking more than 400 times daily. Psychologists contend that such involuntary action induces a heavy cost in terms of mental energy, reducing cognitive performance while creating a sense of exhaustion and reduced efficacy. These dual reactions - admiration of instant communication and detestation due to email burnout - leave many knowledge workers in a state of frustrated resignation. The unfortunate mismatch may seem unavoidable.  

However, it has emerged as a serious concern in recent times. Enacted in France in 2007, a new labor law gives email users in offices the so-called right to disconnect. Companies with fifty or more employees were required to negotiate specific policies about the use of e-mail after work hours, with the goal of reducing the time workers spent in their in-boxes during the evening or over the weekend. One of its kind, the law aims to reduce burnout of employees, which is more relevant now as the shift toward a more frenetic work-from-home makes life miserable. Not sure if it is being noticed elsewhere, though. 

Our compulsive relationship with email needs serious rethinking, Newport incisively argues in his new book A World Without Email. Since we can't get away from it given our evolutionary obsession with social interaction, the need to reduce the tortuous cycle of increased email workload invariably causing frustrating misunderstandings and confused exchanges has never been more compelling. Far from improving human condition, however, this efficient mode of communication is causing uncontrolled distress to most of us. Look around and one will find compelling evidence for renegotiating our engagement with emails.   

Even if one were to disagree, there are numerous studies which prove that the need to be constantly connected is associated with suboptimal health outcomes. Little gets realized that the more one spends time on email,  the higher is one’s stress for that hour. I have reasons to suspect that much deeper forces are at play in generating our mismatch with this tool, driving us nuts even if we have serious intentions of ignoring an email or a potential connection. Ironically, we have been condemned to ignore the source of discontent that, if properly managed, stands to improve our work output.  .   

The compulsion of communicating instantaneously notwithstanding, we have been reduced to human routers of digitized information. Just because it’s possible for us to send and receive messages incessantly through our waking hours doesn’t mean that it is a sustainable way to exist. Need it be said that the sheer volume of communication generated by modern professional email degrades our traditional social circuits, if it hasn't done so already. Unrestricted reliance on email has eroded the emotional content of human exchanges. Technology is indeed turning us into zombies.      

The trouble is that not many seem to be complaining, but for those who have been at the receiving end of it. An employee was recently devastated after receiving an email from his employer which read, 'We are still not sure how the office will run without you from next week'. If that wasn't less demeaning and distressing, the message carried a smiley with the signature, and was copied to all other employees' of the organisation. So much for speed and convenience at the cost of degenerating human emotions and feelings.  Unless we open our eyes to the emerging new reality, we will get consumed by technology if we aren't already!  

A World Without Email
by Cal Newport
Penguin UK
Extent.296. Price. Rs 699.  

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine on Aug 15, 2021.

On the periphery of change

Seeking change beyond sheer material progress underscores the need for placing dignity and freedom ahead of the prevailing ideology of development.  

Can a solitary heroic deed by one among them uplift the entire community from its century-old demeaning tag as rat-eaters? Could conversion of the culture of pig-rearing into a thriving business move the marginalized into centre stage in society? Has political representation in recent times contributed to giving the habitual drunk an agency to lift themselves out of the hierarchical social construct? Dasrath Manjhi’s landmark efforts in cutting through the hillock with a mere borer and a hammer; Babu Majhi’s success with conversion of pig-rearing tradition into a roaring business; and, Jitan Manjhi’s drawing political capital in the caste-dominated politics has the making of a legend but without rendering any corrective narrative to the stigmatized image of their community of the Musahars who have sizeable population in Bihar, and limited numbers in the neighboring states of Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal. Five chapters in this thin volume empathize with the lived realities of the Musahars who find themselves at the crossroads of human development, marred as much by the denial of development as their own culture of resistance to the process of enforced change. 

Counting them as one among many of its unintended victims, The Marginalized Self offers a well-reasoned critique on the project of development that contributes to the phenomenon of underdevelopment leading to further marginalization of the excluded. It is in this context that iconic Dasrath Manjhi, the mountain man, had exhorted his fellow community members to take cognizance of their own underdevelopment in getting beyond income poverty in understanding social exclusion as the cause for deprivation. ‘Change should necessarily respect the ethos of the community, and create enabling conditions where they have the freedom of choice.’ 

What gives purpose to the five standalone articles is an attempt to view development from a cultural lens, to position development as if culture matters. The slender volume may have been an outcome of a research project conducted over a decade ago, the insights and observations have not lost out on their contemporary relevance. The Marginalized Self offers an engaging multi-layered narrative, which questions the top down prescription of development. With a deep dive into myths, beliefs and practices of the Musahars, the writers suggest the need for producing a bottom-up version of development conducive with the cultural underpinnings of the community.

Much has been written in recent times on how ‘development’ has come to colonize the world ever since the term was first coined in 1945, at the end of the Second World War. However, there is no denying that the promise of development has failed the marginalized millions across the world. The seductively packaged idea of economic emancipation has continued to persist, a non-negotiable entity that has contributed to strengthening the political economy of the nation-state in the name of the poor. The Marginalized Self is an optimistic undertaking that raises the stakes of the marginalized community as it glorifies the marginal space it has been pushed into. 

All said, it is unlikely if the discourse on development will get a dent in the state where caste-based economic marginalization is more of a norm than exception. However, the fact that the Musahars are seeking change beyond sheer material progress underscores the need for placing dignity and freedom ahead of the prevailing ideology of development.  

The Marginalized Self
by Rahul Ghai, Arvind Mishra & Sanjay Kumar (Eds)
Primus Books, New Delhi 
Extent: 159, Price: Rs. 1,095.

First published in The Hindu, issue dated July 25, 2021.

Exploring the unique factor

There are aspects of human individuality that lack genetic explanation.

Javed Akhtar’s lyrical query ‘Main aisa kyun hoon, Main jaisa hoon main waisa kyun hoon’ (‘Why am I like this, Why am I like I am’ from movie Lakshya) reflects a persistent curiosity that has engaged mankind ever since. By default, nature insists on individuality as a unique trait to sustain diversity for harnessing limitless potential of human ingenuity and endurance. But if inherent randomness is an evolutionary reality, why should understanding the inevitability of human individuality be a matter of concern? It does matter, however, as it not only helps know ourselves better while judging others’ consciously, it also provides a basis for getting clarity on the politically volatile concepts of gender, race and nation. Else, racist supremacists like those in the US and the Hindu nationalists in India will continue to base their policies of racial oppression on population genetics. It isn’t that racial categories don’t exist but that such categories are not hereditary, and hence the need to refute racist pseudo-scientific arguments. 

Unique is distinct and timely, putting to rest the tired and inaccurate nature versus nurture discourse. Combining recent research with credible experiments, the book seeks to ascertain aspects of human individuality that lack genetic explanation. Not all intricacies of human idiosyncrasy are coded in the genes though, making humans more than the sum of all the genes they are born with. It is here that social experiences play up over genes to give the distinction to our individuality. Subject to how you were raised, what diseases you’ve had, which foods you’ve savored, and what weather anomalies you encountered in your formative years contribute to shaping individuality as a trait that sets each of us apart.  

Some of the science around genetics may remain a little hard to follow, but the book offers fascinating insights into an area that has subconsciously remained closer to heart. While stinky armpit is heritable, political beliefs aren’t gene dependent. Curiously, your flavor of wine or cheese is not exactly the same as mine because the sense of smell and taste is driven by no less than four hundred olfactory receptor genes which while applying to all sensory systems express differently in two random individuals. That is why, your green is not necessarily my green.   

Exploring the world of dreams, memories and senses, David Linden looks at everything that makes us distinctly ourselves: our height and weight, food preferences, personality styles, gender identity, racial bias, sexual orientation and intelligence. The findings reveal that gene expression is exquisitely regulated, over both short and long term, to reflect in human individuality as an impact of varied experiences over specific genes. Every experience worth whatever its weight plays a bigger role in making us who we are.

Hrithik Roshan singing 'main aisa kyon hoon..'

Written with authority and purpose, the narrative treads into an area over which scientific consensus is still at some distance. However, what Linden overtly achieves in conveying is that more than just genes, there are wide range of influences that determine our individuality. And, it may eventually seem to be an evolutionary necessity as individuality holds the key to our ability to live together. In this respect, there is no genetic evidence to suggest that racial group differences in genes are linked to any behavioral or cognitive trait. On the contrary, it is the very definition of nonscientific self-serving racial bigotry, asserts Linden. 

Unique addresses the types of questions about human individuality that can contribute to more informed discussion on a subject that often incites political passions. While racial discrimination is one of its crucial manifestations, the science of human individuality has also separated the political Right from the Left for over more than a century. Given this fraught backdrop, the book plays it straight in synthesizing the current scientific consensus and provides the kind of clarity needed from popular science books like this, especially the one that investigate both what makes us human and what makes us distinctly, immutably ourselves.

Individual variations not only define us outwardly but point inwardly too, informing us about the state of our mind and bodies. ‘Each of us operates from a different perception of the world and a different perception of ourselves’. These individual variations get elaborated and magnified with time as we accumulate expectations and experiences. Ultimately, the author concludes, ‘interacting forces of heredity, experience, plasticity, and development resonate to make us unique.’ Well researched and compelling, Unique has the potential to change the way we think about why and how we are who we are.  A fascinating story of human individuality has been told with pace and elegance. The book should provoke some fruitful debate. 

Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality
by David J. Linden
Basic Books, New York
Extent: 317, Price: US$ 30.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine dated July 21, 2021.

It is just our style, man!

Susegad manifests itself as a way of life, of being at peace with whatever life has to offer.

Pandemic may have propped scientists to invent ‘anthropause’ as a new catch phrase to describe forced reduction in human activities but the traditions of taking a step back, slowing down and living in the present have been a preferred choice for many societies. Like Ikigai to Japanese and Hugge to the Danes, Susegad for the Goans manifests itself as a way of life, of being at peace with whatever life has to offer. It may resonate a bit differently in the pandemic era though, as survivors may have little option but to embrace such traditions to brave isolation and to address anxieties. By bringing susegad under focus, Clyde D’Souza suggests conscious replacement of mindless consumption with mindful living to strike harmony with self. 

Susegad is an intimate exploration into what Goa should actually be sought for, beyond its tag of a popular tourist destination. Despite the humbug of modernity hitting the island county like a nasty wave, there is a consciously consistent effort by the natives to stand tall against such onslaught. The humid sluggishness triggered by climate has found comfort in the culture that has in turn led the human biological clock to be automated in favor of happiness and satisfaction. The silent ticking of the clock is so deeply integrated into the Goan habits and rituals that they hardly ever notice it. Even a casual Goan response ‘It’s just our style, man’ has so much unsaid in it.     

Pursuing a hybrid style of writing, D’Souza digs out for susegad in all elements of daily existence with a short story and an interview with a native celebrity to pep up the narrative. From tangy curries to reflective proverbs, and from afternoon siesta to distilling feni, each activity and practice is so paced that the person executing it is in control of life. No wonder, most Goans yearn for susegad, meaning quietness, which the pandemic has otherwise thrust upon all others too. Does that not call upon the others to condition themselves to the new normal? Written as much for the curious as for the discerning, the book offers insights on author’s lived experience on a partially understood and inadequately appreciated subject that has something for everyone struggling to make a sense of living amidst pandemic induced fears and anxieties. 

As an accomplished writer, D’Souza has championed to showcase the intrinsic value of susegad rather convincingly and eloquently. He avoids being meditative but remains somewhat prescriptive in conveying how to stay relaxed and contended without doing anything dramatic. Pandemic may have made the case for practicing minimalism more urgent and compelling, but sadness and unhappiness have prevailed far too long to deserve serious attention. Inspiration for building a case for susegad is pitched on repulsive realities of our times which invariably come packaged with material comforts and physical conveniences. The case is rested!

Susegad is undoubtedly a timely book that lends handy tips on making life more relaxed with an increasing feeling of happiness. It is an easy-to-read book that can be placed in the category of a cultural biography. It indeed is, as it accords a special place to the time-tested cultural practices of the people of Goa. The Goans have long practiced what most of us have been forced to adapt during the pandemic. Far from outsourcing the boring chores, the Goans follow the ritual of in-sourcing. Most of the household activities are done without any outside help, to enforce dignity of labor while building a relationship with the immediate environment and perhaps, adding an element of susegad in one’s life. The lessons are far too many to ignore.     

Susegad is a timely call for course correction to address the underlying fissures and frailties in our societies. With global pandemic having ripped the world apart, nothing could be more compelling than addressing the micro stressors to tide over the macro challenges.

Susegad 
by Clyde D’Souza
Penguin/Ebury, New Delhi 
Extent: 228, Price: Rs. 399.

First published in Deccan Herald, dated July 25, 2021.

Is language not a wild beast?

Language is a human invention that is bound to evolve with time to suit changing communication needs.

Threat to the existence of languages seems unreal to Lane Greene for whom language is like a wolf, robust, organic and evolving to suit the changing conditions in the wild. With infectious enthusiasm, the polyglot columnist considers the deep strangeness of language to be its savior against potential vulnerability. After all it is a human invention that is bound to evolve with time with different users contextualizing it to suit their communication needs. If that be so, why shifts in expressions and meanings of words should be worrisome? It is only the purists who love one dialect may take it as an imminent sign of linguistic ruin.

Written words do abide by grammatical conventions, but it is the spoken language which is continually in flux ‘providing speaker a menu of options for getting ideas effectively into the reader’s mind.’ Each language has two sides to it - one formal and the other normal, with the formal having a limited role. Profiling the changes that are sweeping the language (English), Greene wonders when the purists will appreciate normal English as relevant because ‘formal written language isn’t the only form of language that matters.’ Language is a many-faceted thing. Slang and dialect, jocular and off-beat, teen-speak and text-driven, and, corporate jargon and political ramble. Do these forms pose a threat to language or enhance its versatility? While this could be open to differing interpretations, it does show that each facet fills a distinct need. ‘Not all language is well behaved, nor does it need to be.’

Erudite and ebullient, Talk on the Wild Side argues that decentralized changes are not only acceptable but inherent to language. Else, neither will language live nor will it continue to be spoken by people. Humans have done important things with languages, and continue to do without letting them fall apart into pieces. The wild side of language is that it is adaptable, but that hardly applies to native languages which easily fall prey to the hegemony of dominant languages. That being not the subject of his inquiry. Greene instead argues that language doesn’t fall apart even when people do novel things with it or adapt it to suit varied needs. Every language, therefore, remains a unique product of human genius.

The core idea behind this immensely readable book is that language is always changing, influenced by externalities of the times. The words may not mean the same they did a century ago, and there is nothing wrong with it because languages always evolve towards simplicity. Greene cites the word buxom, which originally meant pliable, then happy/gay, and now, a large-chested woman. The need is to accept language as it remains relevant to the context in which it is adapted. The fact that English language enriches itself by integrating words from other languages (especially Hindi) every other year bears testimony to its absorptive capacity of integrating words from other cultures. That is the dynamic nature of language.

However, there are purists who fear that such integration corrupts language, and which may eventually bring its terminal decline. Such impression may be far from truth. The vast majority of language experts today - those who really understand what language is and how it works, rather than those who focus on how they think it ought to work - sit closer to the descriptivist camp, rather than being prescriptivists. Arguing instead that the latter group is wrong, Greene feels that language can never be tamed or shaped to the will of a select few prescriptivists who keep nuances of grammar closer to their chest without realizing that the regimentation of language may bring its downfall. Language should be allowed to evolve.

Talk on the Wild Side is full of sweet spots that unfold many aspects of language in an ever-changing world. It is both a guide to the great debates and controversies of usage, as well as a love letter to language itself. It touches upon contemporary developments in technology to generate and create languages, or to help with translations. These aren’t flawless! However, letting the power of language slip into the domain of technology is fraught with political control. As language is inextricably connected to power, majority-language nationalism may lead to political upheaval. Allowing the one who’s holding the sword will eventually decide who’s mispronouncing the word. The future of language, therefore, should be in the hands of those who use it. Instead of attempting to tame it, we should allow it to roam freely and evolve in its own way. Greene is clear that neither is thought language nor grammar. Language is culture, dynamic and evolving. 

Talk on the Wild Side 
by Lane Greene
Hachette Books, US 
Extent: 240, Price: US$ 26.

First published in Seminar, #742, dated June 2021. 

Amidst so-called civilized society

An uncommon narrative on the tribes' emotional conflict with changing reality

Presenting the lives of the members of six tribes with exquisite specificity and empathy, White as Milk and Rice places the discerning reader amid the Halakkis, Kanjars, Kurumbas, Marias, Khasis and the Konyaks. While some of these tribes are marginalized, none of them seems to be complaining, which makes you wonder if there is anything amiss in the way you have been looking at them, and by extension, at the world. Living within their traditional beliefs and distanced from supposedly “civilized society”, these tribes are oblivious of their anthropological worth.

With her ear firmly to the ground, the author Nidhi Dugar Kundalia constructs an uncommon narrative about their emotional conflict with changing reality. Today, these tribes continue to wage a silent battle for existence within their isolated pockets. In doing so, they pose existential questions: should tribes negotiate with a world that pays them no attention? Why have they not been allowed to develop along the lines of their own genius? White as Milk and Rice provides an insight into lives that an urbanite might consider less modern but can’t help but admire. This is especially so with those aspects of tribal lifestyles reflective of an organic bond with nature.

The book provides some excellent vignettes: not allowed to integrate with mainstream society, the Kanjars have persisted with their criminal lifestyle; holding sexual freedom valuable before marriage, the Marias have retained their dedicated space for conjugal experimentation; and, despite the pressures of a matrilineal society, Khasi women feel empowered by their traditional inheritance. Each story has sub-stories that reveal how livelihoods and lifestyles are negotiated. What comes out clearly is that the colorful lives of those who belong to tribes cannot be painted with one brush stroke. Indeed, their design of development varies even across households within the same tribe.

Kundalia lets characters speak for themselves and allows the reader to experience the complexity of engagements with the otherness of the “other”. You might despise the desire of the Konyak men to display animal heads as trophies of courage and strength, but it must also be known that the traditional practice of displaying human skulls has been done away with. For them, the display is about a sense of belonging and freedom inherent in such cultural practices. These beliefs challenge the reader to take a deep dive into the socio-cultural underpinnings that characterize the imperatives of tribal existence.

White as Milk and Rice is loaded with details about routines and practices. Take the Kurumbas who skillfully gather honey from hives that hang precariously on cliffs. Even while dangling between life and death, the Kurumba boy gently speaks to the hive. “Some for the forest, some for me,” he says treating the hives with almost familial care. Stories like these reflect empathy and make the reader more aware of the lives and thought processes of these people. Some tribes have no future tense in their conversation and rely on what nature has to offer on a daily basis. No wonder most tribal hamlets celebrate the end of each day as a mark of thanksgiving for the day gone by with an innate desire to welcome the next.

At a time when mankind has been pushed into forced seclusion and is plagued by shrinking resources, this book offers heart-warming narratives on connecting with the inner self and with the aspects of nature that remain bountiful.

White as Milk and Rice
by Nidhi Dugar Kundalia
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 244, Price: Rs. 399

First published in The Hindustan Times, on May 20, 2021.

When the Sky poured acid

Innocent people invariably bear the cost of being nature's custodians at the hands of the colonial design.

Towards the end of Imbolo Mbue’s self-professed grueling novel How Beautiful We Were, the unnamed narrator leaves the readers in a peculiar double bind as the familiar David-and-Goliath tale of tussle between a sociopathic oil company and a defiant forest community veers towards a nuanced exploration of self-interest. Capturing human predicament that germinates in the contaminated soil of such industrial crimes, Mbue delivers compelling vignette of resistance and compliance, neglect and exposure, surprise and provocation, and litigation and corruption that grinds down exploited people to lose their sense of purpose. 

Told through the perspectives of a generation that is willing to sacrifice everything for its people, Mbue allows the full range of human desirability to evolve amidst despair while seeking an answer to the moral indecisiveness that lets humans fight for the same things they all want. Like her award-winning debut Behold the Dreamers about an African immigrant struggling to become an American citizen, the story empathizes with the legal and constitutional inadequacy of people fighting for survival within their own country. 

In this world that is fast turning emotionless and timeless, a fictional place comes alive with people with emotional range unfolding disconnect between what is assumed to be going around them and what is actually happening within them. Not leaving much to chance, the story starts by presuming its own end ‘when the sky began to pour acid and rivers began to turn green, we should have known our land would soon be dead.’ Nuanced but somewhat predictable, the possibility of an inspiring defeat at the hands of an inevitable corporate victory turns out to be a familiar story on individual suffering that often gets conveniently dispensed en masse. Mbue’s rerunning the events and repeating the collective voice dilutes the impact of narration, though.  

How Beautiful We Were is about life lived closer to nature, and the cost innocent people invariably bear for being its custodians while contesting the nefarious designs of colonialism. Polemic in structure, the novel peels layers of assertive human behavior that is thrust upon people whether they like it or not. Set in a fictional village, the story is as close to reality as it gets with complexities of human nature colliding in shaded spaces of existence. Allowing her characters the full range of decency and selfishness, Mbue excels in unraveling dichotomies of existence with panache, wisdom, and courage. Such powerful novels rekindle human spirit for redemption.

How Beautiful We Were 
by Imbolo Mbue
CanonGate/Penguin RandomHouse, New Delhi 
Extent: 364, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in The Hindu, issue dated May 16, 2021.

Raging towards a new light

Whether public anger as righteous indignation gets addressed by timely policies or continues to get weaponized by populist politics as tribal energy will determine the future course of the society.  

In this world that is fast turning emotionless and timeless, a serious disconnect between what is assumed to be going around us and what is actually happening within us is intensifying the pressures on life. Anger is the undesired outcome, both at a personal as well as at the level of public. While personal and public anger manifests itself differently in the social and political spheres, there are compelling reasons for this powerful human emotion to pepper our lives without disdain. A hedge-fund manager and an economics professor engage in a series of Socratic dialogues to unravel why the vast majority is feeling increasingly uncertain, consistently unhappy and inadvertently angry despite on an upward swing on the economic ladder of unstinting capitalist growth. That we all live in an angry world is just one part of the gravest reality, the crucial other is to take a deep dive to rid ourselves of this expanding anomaly. 

Angrynomics is an emerging social phenomenon borne out of an economy of heightened uncertainty and powerlessness, as faith in the workings of both politics and markets has been undermined. Brewing anger in society is as much private as public, varying in intensity and manifestation. Whilst private anger needs counseling to calm personal anxiety and stress, public anger becomes fodder for manipulation for political ends by populist politicians. In their free-wheeling conversation, Eric Lonargan raises his concern on the political motivation of capitalizing public anger as neo-nationalism to deflect attention from failings by the leadership.‘Nationalism is a political technology that is used instrumentally by societal elites to secure their privileges’. Whether it is Trump in America, Modi in India, or Johnson in the UK. 

The dialogical approach in the book acts as a primer on why the world is the way it is today, and what can be done to make it different. Perhaps the common mistake we all make is to think that democracy is a majority rule. Conversely, majoritarian electoral systems are actually ruled by minority which not only hijacks genuine political debate but deflects the majority from the issues that really matter – rising unemployment, shrinking wages, increasing inequality, and economic stagnation. Spread over five chapters, the conversations suggest need for veering away from politically-motivated tribal instincts that obscure our judgement on being manipulated by media and politicians who are motivated by vested interests.

Lonergan and Blyth are convinced that at the core of the crises is the system of capitalism that is akin to a repeatedly crashing computer, in need of urgent rebooting. Wage stagnation, asset bubbles, excessive bank leverage, and rising inequality have already bugged the system. However, the trouble is that the political elites don’t see anything wrong with the system as they conveniently ride the populist bandwagon of nationalism. Can public anger be channelized to bring back deliberative democracy to accept new economic policy ideas? Need it be said that the quality of an idea and the chances of it being adopted by politicians are two different things.

However, in the interest of making our economics sustainable and our politics functional the co-discussants take the risk of presenting their list of policy proposals. Tougher bank regulation, a dual interest rates, and a national wealth fund (for writing everybody a cheque) are proposals for wider consideration. These are ambitious proposals to end recessions by sharing our collective capital in building household incomes, however, the chances of their adoption rest on restoring institutions of civil society that give anger a legitimacy towards collective purpose. ‘Anger can be a positive motivating political and social force’. 

More than the economic proposals, Angrynomics provides a good lens to understand the current political events in a broader context. The consequences of not resetting the system has produced deep bout of anger, which populist politics has temporarily neutralized by polarization. By failing to make fundamental changes to a political system that has become a stress generator, private and public anger has been allowed to gain momentum. Lonergan and Blyth contend that unless diffused in right earnest, anger will continue to bubble up ominously. Whether public anger as righteous indignation gets addressed by timely policies or continues to get weaponized by populist politics as tribal energy will determine the future course of the society.      

In Ellen Hopkins’ words ‘Anger is a valid emotion. It is only bad when its takes control and makes you do things you don’t want to do.’ The co-discussants argue that only through the lens of moral legitimacy can anger be seen as a positive energy towards collective response for a shared future. It is a valid proposition. Angrynomics is a timely call for course correction to address the underlying fissures and frailties in our societies. With global pandemic having ripped the world apart, nothing could be more compelling than addressing the micro stressors on top of emerging macro challenges.

Angrynomics 
by Eric Lonergan & Mark Blyth
Agenda Publishing, UK 
Extent: 194, Price: Rs. 1,691.

First published in Outlook magazine on May 2, 2021.

A joyride through philosophy

A neatly distilled narrative on life-changing voyage in pursuit of discovering wisdom. 

Eric Weiner’s love for trains can be termed infectious, as he takes reader on a journey to places that bear testimonies to timeless philosophical wisdom. Like philosophy, suggests Eric, train travel helps unearth hidden perspectives in new ways of being. In these troubled times when most of us are literally ‘misliving’, nuggets of wisdom are badly needed as ‘medicine for the soul’ and hence this journey across continents. In the comforting company of fourteen philosophers – from Socrates to Confucius and from Thoreau to Gandhi - The Socrates Express helps explore joy in uncertainty for turning the tumult at home and at workplace into a veritable cause for celebration. Not an easy task though, but Neitzsche would advise that it is not our actions but reorientation of attitude that alone can help revalue what we may or may not value in our life. The core idea of this immensely readable book is to help the reader enhance the taste for life.    

Written with passion and purpose, it is a journey from the state of sleep to wakefulness that not only typifies a day but an entire life. Organized into three stages of each day – Dawn, Noon and Dusk – it provides specific lessons that can be drawn to make each stage a meaningful lived reality. From ‘How to get out of bed like Marcus Aurelius to ‘How to Die like Montaigne’, the journey of life is packed into a day of learning on how to wonder, walk, see, listen, enjoy, pay attention, fight, be kind, be appreciative, and grow old. It isn’t a self-help book though, but one that helps navigate through the daily quota of anxieties and travesties.  

Philosophy provides clues to ruthless self-interrogation, to not only question what we know but who we are and what we think. In a way, it is an experiment in isolation to capture the reality of nature. To do that, Thoreau used to often look at life upside down through his legs. In an engaging date with each of the carefully curated list of philosophers, Eric pays strict attention as much to their idiosyncrasies as to the essence of their divergent thoughts. What comes out is a neatly distilled narrative that takes the reader on a life-changing voyage in pursuit of discovering wisdom toward reinventing oneself to brace today’s chaotic times. 

Socrates valued ignorance as a necessary step on the road to true wisdom; Schopenhauer wondered if one could comprehend the world without knowing oneself; Confucius elevated kindness to a philosophical linchpin; and, for Epictetus forgoing pleasure was one of life’s greatest pleasures that eventually enhanced our taste for life. With so much on offer, the book works like a cup of coffee. It is not only the pleasant weightiness of the mug but the warmth of holding it that savours the gentle swoosh of liquid in each sip. The Socrates Express is one such cup of overflowing wisdom that can make philosophers out of us all, as it eases simple reading to be both profound and persusive. 

Erudite and reflective, amusing but insightful, Eric makes each of the philosophers relatable as he plays a guide and interpreter along the way. Even amusing trivia gets conveyed as some sort of wisdom. For instance, Japanese philosopher Shonagen could not bear people who wore a white shirt that was slightly yellowed. One might consider it as some sort of irrigating fastidiousness but this pricky attitude can also be easily interpreted as being sensitive, only perfect things could be delightful. Even avoidable things can draw attention to the profound.

Like in his previous bestsellers The Geography of Bliss and The Geography of Genius, Eric’s love for geography comes alive in The Socrates Express yet again. How else could he learn that there is stillness in chaos in India, while patience is the essential take home from Israel. In each of his train travels, Eric picks an add-on lesson to act as an icing on the philosophical cake. What attracts readers’s attention is not only the philosophical ideas but the circuitous manner in which these are arrived at. It enriches the narrative into a work of delightful reading. 

How to read such a book that has skimmed wisdom from some of the best minds? Even if one races through the book, it may not be easy to shelve it away. It ought to kept by the bedside for the ideas to get digested through the day. Given the fact that the ideas have been curiously segregated into aspects that determine how we deal with people and happenings through the day, The Socrates Express can act like a gentle reminder to measure how we embrace wonder. The travel on this philosophical train is worth your time, and will help you shed the extra baggage that we inadvertently tend to carry. There is lot of stuff to be uploaded mentally on board though.      

The Socrates Express
by Eric Weiner
Simon&Schuster, New Delhi
Extent: 330, Price: Rs.699.

First published in Deccan Herald, issue dated April 4, 2021.