Towards net zero emission

Over reliance on coal as a source of energy and commitment to attain net zero emission by 2070 is delivering contradicting picture.

India’s environmental crises remains unaddressed partly because the expanding middle class focuses on search for private solutions that are at a cost to the environment, and the poor. For a majority of them, diesel generators secure reliable source of energy; groundwater pumps ensure water supply; air purifiers counter air pollution, and air conditioners work against summer heat. The prevalence of these market-led private solutions reduces political pressure to act. No surprise, the institutions that govern environmental matters continue to remain weak. The fact that a growing economy with the world’s largest population has yet to square up with global per capita energy use, which when achieved will have unimaginable impact on carbon budget and consequent climate change. Should that be the likely scenario, India would be both a major contributor to and a potential victim of climate change. This the world would not desire the most populous country to stand out for. Replacing the vicious cycle with a virtuous one may not be easy though. 

India’s energy consumption pattern is no longer a domestic issue, it has implications far and wide at the global level. Its over reliance on coal as a source of energy and its commitment to attain net zero emission by 2070 deliver contradicting picture. Transition from a coal-based power sector to a renewables-based energy sector is both feasible and desirable to mitigate climate change while delivering energy security and reducing air pollution. However, regional variations in energy production and consumption are too huge to provide a clear response. Johannes Urpelainen, a Professor of Energy, Resources, and Environment at the John Hopkins School of Advanced Internation Studies, draws a comprehensive picture on country’s complicated environmental situation to assert that only by reinforcing current policies can sizeable gains be reaped by 2030. Curiously and somewhat paradoxically, India has laws but lacks order to implement them.     

India has started on a low-carbon pathway but any approach to accelerate it at the cost of economic development is off the table. In this thin volume, Urpelainen has painted the complex environmental scenario of a country that is both full of potential as well as is afflicted by greater problems. However, within it lies the scope for the country to claim leadership role in global environmental politics. For such a distinction to be achieved, the country will need to ensure that its reduced water and carbon footprints become the guiding spirit of sustainable development, with a strong equity focus.  

Energy and Environment in India is an excellent reference book, that has profound reflections to trigger fresh debate on the subject. Urpelainen wonders if there are easy answers to most entrenched social and environmental challenges. What he instead does is to present possible qualitative scenarios. The first may see India as a giant with clay feet governed by authoritarian populism, wherein disappointing economic growth and environmental destruction drives a billion people into despair. The second and most likely scenario may be that the country charts an unabated economic growth that fuels inequality but lacks much-needed investments in climate-proofing. The third scenario is utopian that strikes a balance between poverty reduction, climate adaptation, and reduction in environmental footprints of the economy. Each of the three scenarios are discussed in detail for their potentials and possibilities. What comes clear is the compelling need for the political leadership to formulate effective policies, and to resist the temptation to exempt the mighty corporations from strict environmental rules.

What makes this volume distinct is its assessment of the energy and environmental problems from within the complex social, political, and historical settings. The book convincingly argues that to produce fair, equitable, and sustainable outcomes for almost two billion argumentative Indians, the country must strive for a sustainable future through democratic norms. Rarely have democracy and environment being dealt with in the same breath.  

Energy and Environment in India
by Johannes Urpelainen
Columbia University Press, New York
Extent: 220, Price: US$ 30.

First published in The Hindu on Dec 17, 2023.

AI : Where is the control key

The proliferation of technology in waves has been the story, but what if the wave turns out to be a tsunami?

As has been during the previous technological waves – the steam, mechanical and fuel automation - there remains both denial and stoicism for the coming wave of artificial intelligence, A.I. Will the new wave be useful or dangerous, or both. While there are skeptics who argue that the power of AI. has been overestimated, there are others who believe it will accelerate unprecedented human progress. Geoffrey Hinton, known as the father of AI, is worried that artificial brains may indeed transcend human limits. As the boundaries between the real and the virtual are fast disappearing, technology is indeed expanding what it means to be human. 

Each technological wave in the last 100 years did change the world despite Luddite protests, named after a mythical figure, called Ned Ludd, that had challenged automation of textile manufacturing to begin with. Their pain and disruption were real, but so have been the improvements in living standards that we enjoy unthinkably till today. The proliferation of technology in waves has been the story of Homo technologicus ever since, but Sulayman’s concern is what if the wave turns out to be a tsunami? With AI fast outperforming all human cognitive abilities, the unprecedented opportunities on offer hold dangerous consequences too. 

The basic premise for any technological progress is to enrich our lives, and that has broadly been the case with it thus far. However, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology are two general purpose technologies whose scope of impact still remains understated. Given that these technologies hyper-evolve with an increasingly autonomous asymmetric impact, it generates powerful incentives for geopolitical competition with massive financial rewards but without a strong regulatory mechanism. The consequences of AI powered automated wars, bio-engineered pandemics, and technological authoritarianism have already been put to practice. A founder of two AI companies, Sulayman stresses the compelling need for ‘containing’ uncontainable technologies because our species is not wired to grapple with technological transformation at this scale, let alone the potential of technology to belittle and fail us.   

The Coming Wave is absolutely clear, seamlessly compassionate, and immensely powerful listing of the most consequential issues of our times. Behind technological breakthroughs have been people but not anymore as AI has taken over people in the present scheme of things. Think of Open AI’s GPT models which are brain like as they involve billions of artificial neurons, profoundly different from human brain. The artificial neural nets don’t acquire knowledge organically as humans do, by having experiences and reality, but use a combination of data immortality and computing replicability to take over biological intelligence. 

There is no denying the fact that AI and immersive media will permeate society, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual while unleashing significant new risks to our privacy, autonomy, and even our identity. Not far is the time when the majority of our daily interactions will not be with other people but with AI, if not already there. While unfolding significant features of the technological wave of intelligence, Suleyman enlists several critical aspects that hold the potential to amplify fragility of human survival – with a power to destroy us as well. In saying so, however, the techpreneur author remains optimist.

Global living conditions may be better today than at any time in the past, yet there is lot yet to be achieved.  The Coming Wave cautions that even in best-case scenarios the coming wave will be an immense shock to the systems governing societies. The question worth exploring is whether the nation-states are in any shape to meet the challenges ahead? Declining public trust, rising inequality, and a warming climate is unlikely to absorb the destabilizing force of the wave. The essential challenge, the author argues, is to maintain control over powerful technologies.  

AI is not only a technology but a way of future life that is hard to imagine and comprehend. No wonder, following the release of GPT-4, thousands of AI scientists called for a six-month moratorium on further research on the most powerful AI models. Despite debates and discussions on the emerging possibilities of AI, rarely anything is heard about containing it. Suleman makes a compelling case for policy makers and security experts to address the ‘containment challenge’ by developing regulatory framework for AI that works well in places as diverse as the Netherlands and Nicaragua, New Zealand and Nigeria. The Coming Wave provides a much-needed narrative on the potentially anticipated and yet disastrous consequences of AI. The easy-to-read book provides a persuasive roadmap for containing the technology rather than to be contained in it. 

The Coming Wave 
by Mustafa Suleyman 
Bodley Head/Penguin RandomHouse, New Delhi
Extent: 332, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Deccan Herald on Dec 10, 2023.

Life amidst the dead

The theatre of death has remained a burning spectacle.  

The ceaselessly burning pyre at Manikarnika Ghat in Banaras is a living spectacle, where death asserts itself as the last witness to life. That cremation along the banks of the sacred Ganges on the steps of this ghat alone can liberate one’s soul from the endless cycle of death and rebirth is entrenched in the Hindu psyche. It is at Manikarnika Ghat that Lord Shiva whispers the ferryboat mantra into the ears of the dead before escorting their souls to heaven. So enduring is this belief that countless Hindu families prefer to have their loved ones cremated at this ghat. On this belief rests the ritual of sending off the departed from this ghat. 

The sacred fire at Manikarnika is what makes this place special. It is unclear when and how the sacred fire was first lit. It is used to set dead bodies alight. It is believed that, without this, the soul may not achieve moksha. Lighting each pyre with the sacred fire is considered both auspicious and crucial. The sacred flame has been burning for centuries and this has made Manikarnika ghat the unofficial headquarters of the corpse-burning business. No wonder then that mourners queue to give their loved ones a spiritually dignified send-off at this specific ghat. For others, the theatre of death remains a burning spectacle.  

Manikarnika ghat is perceived as a place for the dead; but it is a place for the living too. Fire on the Ganges portrays the lives of the Dalit community entrusted by Hindu society to perform its ancient funeral services. The Doms are keepers of the sacred flame. They are also untouchables, who lead a life that is often crueler than death itself. Bound by traditions, this Dalit community lights funeral pyres and carries the stench of death back in their daily lives. Their essential traditional role in cremation notwithstanding, the community has not been spared caste prejudice.      

Poor and socially neglected, the Doms face persistent acts of oppression by the upper castes, who have an overpowering hold on their lives. They give the dead a respectable send-off, but their lives remain at a mercy. By studying the lives of some three dozen inter-related individuals from the community, the author Radhika Iyengar pieces together a narrative about their struggles for self-respect and growth. The stories of those whose livelihoods depend on the dead are heartbreaking and uplifting too. Clearly, the voice of the voiceless is worth listening to.    

Why don't they escape their circumstances, you ask. To venture out in search of another job is a nightmare for the Doms. “People still consider us untouchables, if inadvertently touched they immediately run off to take a bath,” says one. Consequently, the idea of seeking a job outside remains an alien concept. An inward-looking community, it continues to align itself to the diktats of orthodoxy and to practices imposed by the caste system.

Fire on the Ganges is possibly the first attempt to chronicle the lives of those who give the dead an essential send-off. Banares may have got a facelift in recent times, but the burning pyres still obscure the lives of the community engaged in putting the dead to rest. The corpse burners toil in a debilitating work environment; Community children scavenge unburnt firewood at the pyres for domestic use and the young steal and resell good-quality shrouds. Survival amidst the dead remains a daily reality.

Can they ever escape the caste system that has forced them to burn corpses, even if the task has been glorified for centuries as the only way of providing moksha? Iyengar gives voice to the feeling and concerns of community members, many of whom are trying to free themselves from this doomed existence. While some are moving out in search of education and jobs, others are following their hearts and pursuing love interests from different castes. Yet, escape is no less an ordeal. What eventually emerges is the sociocultural irony that allows little scope for Doms to escape the ordeal of corpse burning.

Written with empathy and concern, Iyengar presents lived reality and compels the reader not just to acknowledge the plight of the Doms but also confront their own complicity. She presents some difficult questions too: since the Doms are doomed to burn the dead, shouldn't they be given an economically and socially respectable position in society? This is especially pertinent given that no upper caste Hindu would ever take on the task of burning corpses even though it has been glorified for centuries as the only way for the deceased individual to attain salvation. Fire on the Ganges makes for interesting reading. It draws attention to an essential social act that doesn’t get the attention it deserves while also helping shape our collective understanding of India.  

Fire on the Ganges: Life among the dead in Banaras
by Radhika Iyengar
HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 482, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in Hindustan Times on Dec 2, 2023.

A Walk Among the Shadows

The stark fact is that traditions are so deep-rooted in the minds of people that reform becomes difficult.

Driven by journalistic trademark sense of curiosity and determination to unveil onerous social beliefs, Arun investigates how the banned devadasi (meaning ‘female slave of God’) system has continued illegally with its roots firmly entrenched in the social milieu of caste-based discrimination in the country. Much has been written on the age-old tradition of devadasi but the shocking fact is that the lethal combination of poverty, patriarchy and discrimination continues to exploit women behind the religious dogma. Banned across many states, the devadasi system may have lost its traditional status but that it persists as prostitution and slavery is both shocking and disgusting. Sacred Sins is unseen and untold account of the lives of those women who are the unfortunate discards of our society.

Winner of the 2019 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, the translation of Visudhapapangalude India unearths the religious subjugation and consequent sexual exploitation of women buried beneath multi-layered narratives of faith and history. What began as a short report on the closing of dance bars in Mangalore turned into an extensive investigation spanning seven states, connecting the intricate web of old beliefs with new-age oppression against women. From Uchangi in Karnataka to Peddapuram in Andhra, and from Puri in Odisha to Jalangi in Bengal, and from Vindavan in Uttar Pradesh to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, Arun found the cross-cutting organic link in the artful exploitation of women who bear the brunt of society’s failings. ‘The stark fact is that traditions are so deep-rooted in the minds of people that reform becomes difficult’.

Not much seems to have changed ever since Amrapali was declared Nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) during the time of Buddha. The practice of dedicating women to a particular deity or royalty has continued ever since, as the society has been found wanting on questioning the age-old practice. The practice of freeing a woman eternally from widowhood by marrying her to a God is beset with deep discrimination and potential abuse in a male-dominated society. Written with deep empathy and social concern, Arun questions if legal provisions alone can uproot a social evil without addressing the core issues of income inequality and gender justice. No surprise, the devadasi practice has continued covertly despite a ban since 1982.

Sacred Sins makes disturbing reading about the tradition that has continued illegally even after the ban. Subsequent to the ban, the government claims to have secured pensions and other benefits for devadasis. However, the disturbing news is that the actual number of devadasis is more than what the government survey reveals. It is so because to avail pension a woman ought to be a devdasi first! Is it a well-thought-out provision? Further, the government and society have yet to show commitment to rehabilitate those marginalized by the new law.

The heart-wrenching stories and shocking revelations would lead discerning readers to question the logic of parents’ dedicating young girls to temples, knowing well that they would end-up as mistresses of upper-caste men and abandoned once they are older. Can the government prohibit divine customs which the orthodox hold sacrosanct and believe that if discontinued the entire village of theirs will plunge into destruction. ‘Right and wrong are always relative based on the traditions held close by the society.’      

Arun concludes that the element of caste and socioeconomic background are two fundamental aspects that must be taken into account because these factors, strictly interwoven, contribute to keeping this age-old practice of devadasi alive. Further, the patriarchal values are held firm by religious ideas and practices, which impose controls over woman by patronizing such traditions. More than enforcing the law to transform the plight of women, the author suggests, the need is to focus on transforming the economic situation of vulnerable households to avoid falling into the traditional trap. There is more to life than falling into the ritualistic display of grief.

The strong historical lineage of devadasi institution may have undergone many changes, but it continues to remain an integral part of the temple organization. The challenge is to examine and strengthen the reformist agenda for abolition Ing the tradition under the prevailing political environment. While presenting a shocking, empathetic, and hopeful picture on devadasis, Sacred Sins may help readers become more understanding of the social evil that need to be abandoned. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.

Sacred Sins: Devadasis in Contemporary India
by Arun Ezhuthachan
Hachette, New Delhi
Extent: 482, Price: Rs. 799. 

First published in Deccan Herald on Nov 5, 2023.

Search for Buddhist Heritage

Buddha was a master teacher who catered his message for different audiences—different strokes for different folks.

Shortlisted for the $75,000 Cundill History Prize, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India offers a new perspective on the history and revival of Buddhism in India. In an interview, Douglas Ober, an honorary research associate in the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, captures the contemporary relevance of the Buddha. 

Won't you agree that Buddhism as a religion may have been rediscovered, but its universal values and morals have remained integral to the country's culture? Isn't acknowledgement and acceptance of such values across other religions more important than the spread of Buddhism?     

Buddhism doesn’t possess a monopoly on universal values -- but I am skeptical of the narrative that justifies Buddhism’s historical erasure by arguing that it does not matter because its system of values and morals were purportedly carried on elsewhere. Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had argued in various ways that as a branch of Hinduism, Buddhism didn’t offer anything different than what ‘reformed’ Hinduism already possessed. But by adopting this view we end up denying Buddhist traditions and practices, their intrinsic identity and autonomy, in effect falsifying and erasing their distinctive histories and pathways. Understanding Buddhism as just a series of values, which secular modernists have been trying to do to Buddhism for the past 150 years, turns it into something that is incidental and can be just as easily sought elsewhere.

Didn't Buddha attack popular religion for its ceremonial superstitions by laying emphasis on logic, reason and experience? Did he do so to create another religion, or the essence of his teachings was to inspire and educate society to rise above prevailing religious dogmas?   

That is the classic modernist review of the Buddha. The truth, however, is that even our most nuanced understandings of the Buddha paint a somewhat contradictory picture. Trying to locate the Buddha in history and separate him from what the earliest records stress is a bit like trying to separate a flower from its scent. There is a serious debate about whether the Buddha actually lived in a Brahamnised-context. If he didn’t then many of the later anti-Brahmanical and anti-Vedic elements contained in the earliest suttas/sutras could be later interpolations. So, was the Buddha anti-ritual? The suttas reveal that he was a critic of certain types of priestcraft and societal constraints. But the prevalence of ritual practice and animist cults evidenced among even the earliest Buddhist communities suggests that reason and rationality coincided with the ethereal and mystical. Perhaps there was a kind of cognitive dissonance or perhaps there were tensions with regard to these differences. But if we accept the argument of early Buddhists, then we must also remember that the Buddha was a master teacher who catered his message for different audiences—different strokes for different folks.

You assert that Buddhism has been an emerging phenomenon, but the numbers don't add up to show that Buddhism as a religion has gained deeper roots. As per 2011 Census the total Buddhist population in India is less than 0.5 percent. Should numbers be important or the actual acceptance of values?  

There are different ways of understanding Buddhism’s influence and growth. Leaving aside Census figures, the fact that there are some 8 million Buddhists in India today, compared to the roughly 200,000 listed in the first Census after Independence is remarkable. These numbers also point to a contradiction. Less than one percent of the populace formally identifies as Buddhist but then Buddhism plays an immense role in modern India’s foreign policies and national representation. India’s Buddhist heritage has played a critical role in its foreign diplomacy, from the political left to the political right, from Nehru’s bodhi-tree diplomacy of the 1950s to Modi’s social media campaigns with Chinese and Japanese heads of state. Clearly, the government recognizes Buddhism as a source of social and political capital. Statistics don’t offer a snapshot on cultural influences.

Hasn’t the anti-caste activism (by Ambedkar) isolated those who converted to Buddhism, and led to mischaracterization of the radical remodeling of Buddhism? Rather than cutting across castes, has this not ended up creating an outward identity without transforming the social realities for those who joined it?    

You’re certainly right. It has certainly alienated a lot of people and many wrongly (I think) saw Ambedkar’s Buddhism as something of a deviant sect. It faced criticism from many different quarters. Some of the skepticism is borne out of political differences, including caste-based tensions; some stems from his hermeneutical strategies and disregard for other Buddhist traditions. As for the historical moment in which Ambedkar operated, his Buddhism wasn’t all that radical, but the anti-caste activism alienated many Buddhists, both Indians and non-Indians. The Buddhist element to his politics also sits uneasily with many people otherwise committed to Ambedkar. But I think the return to Buddhism was not merely about creating an outward identity. The act of conversion was symbolic but also had practical significance. It was a way to assert one’s self-worth and dignity. It provided a sense of solidarity and belonging for those who had long been ostracized and oppressed. While the conversion may not have immediately transformed the social realities of those who joined, it initiated a process of challenging caste practices, even as it heightened some caste divisions. It is true that Ambedkar’s vision of Buddhism becoming the dominant faith of India never materialized so his revolution remains incomplete. Over time, the impact of these efforts may become more evident. After all, Rome wasn’t built overnight.

Do you foresee any possibility of an intersectional relationship between Buddhism and Sanatan? 

I think history shows that there are real possibilities for a relationship to emerge. One has to remember that the president of the All-India Hindu Mahasabha in 1935 was a Buddhist monk! While the Hindu Mahasabha was far more than a Sanatani Dharma organization at the time and represented many liberal and reforming Hindu elements, there is this long tradition of Buddhists and Sanatan Dharma Hindus working alongside one another in the past century. But now, I see less possibility of a Sanatani-Buddhist relationship forming. There is a deep-seated lack of trust on both sides and it would take a profoundly charismatic leader to reconcile that.

Hasn’t Buddha’s meditation practice (Vipasana) done better than Buddhism as a religion in engaging millions to lead a fuller life away from religious dogmas? Should Buddha and Buddhism be seen differently? 

The question of whether Buddha and Buddhism should be seen differently is complex. In ways, the quest to grasp the historical Buddha (like the quest for the historical Jesus) and understand his ‘inherent mission’ says as much about our modern predicament as it does about the Buddha himself. Much of our understanding of the Buddha is inextricably linked and reliant upon what other Buddhists (and their antagonists) believed about him. So, I think we have to admit that at many levels, the Buddha and Buddhism are different facets of the same gem. Vipassana is just one of the most valuable tools to understanding and experiencing the Buddha’s teachings. Vipassana isn’t just about managing stress, anxiety and psychotherapy. Even if you complete one of Goenka’s Vipassana retreats—which are among the secularized interpretations of Vipassana—his indebtedness to Buddhism as a profound spiritual tradition is clear.

Will following the ethical values of Buddha help create a new world in which peace and tranquility prevails?

I wish I were more optimistic on this front, but I’m not. Conflict often emerges when individuals become entangled in the web of their own self-interest and forget the interconnectedness of all existence (what Buddhists call dependent origination). But just like the rest of us, Buddhists are human and often fail to uphold these insights, let alone the values of compassion and loving-kindness. One needs to only look at the way Buddhism is deployed by some Buddhists in places like Myanmar and Sri Lanka to see that it is not a panacea for our 21st century conflicts.

Dust on the Throne
by Douglas Ober
Navayana, New Delhi
Extent: ₹699

First published in The Hindu dated Nov 5, 2023.

The little piece of life

Aisha Sarwari debut is a patterned, protean narrative that is tragic, painful and yet inspiring. It astonishes and overwhelms.

Heart Tantrums, an exceptional memoir, is both a story of lived reality and a meditation on grief, isolation, and consolation, evoking the profundities of human endurance amidst adversities. The degree of difficulty in writing a book of this sort – with its characters still fluttering in the open – must have been hugely challenging and disruptive. But a life that continuously oscillates between being a good girl and a bad woman, disruption has been at the core of the life lived. Deliriously inventive and viscerally moving, Aisha Sarwari debut is a patterned, protean narrative that is tragic, painful and yet inspiring. It is a beautiful, worded memoir that astonishes and overwhelms.

This is the memoir of an immigrant girl who considers her teen years to be the worst in the universe, as she didn’t get the desired emotional protection of her ami (mother) when she deserved it the most. The twists and travails of her momentous journey transformed a socially and physically battered young woman into a formidable feminist voice in Pakistan. The protagonist endured systematic family oppression all through, her husband’s contribution being a broken tooth, broken jaw, and broken hip. Confused and anguished at her condition, she instead steers away to stay sane, stay employed, and stay a mom to two beautiful girls. Forgiveness remains her stellar character. 

Heart Tantrums is a moving, immersive and nuanced portrait of a tight-knit social world whose ill-perceived values promote oppressive behavior from its dominant constituents. Such behaviors are gendered from an early age, young girls are made to clench their urethral sphincter so that their pee doesn’t generate loud noise; taught to walk noiselessly without dragging their feet, told to avoid loud gulp when drinking water; and farts were wholly taboo. Forced to settle into strict a gender role, women are made to play performance monkeys. The book rejects the idea that gendered role and domestic servitude can save the day. 

In this multilayered memoir, Aisha reconstructs her world piece by piece to showcase its glaring cracks and deep crevices. ‘I was deeply unsafe in my own home, away from my family and very coercively controlled in my day-to-day life’. Much of what she experienced in life not only settled in her milk teeth but revealed in her permanent teeth as well.  Pain ought to be fought through with more teeth, she declares, else victimhood becomes a dwelling. All she wanted was to be wanted without being needed, being happy in her own terms and because of herself as an individual. One might wonder if a perceptive and aspiring person is seeking more than her genuine share of identity from the society? 

Aisha comes out as a writer who uses power of words to narrate vicissitudes of her life – on losing her father at an early age in Uganda; compromising freedom under an extended household in Kenya; and. trying to fit into a completely different culture in Pakistan. On top, the trauma of losing a man she loved to a personality-altering brain tumor was overwhelming. It is an honest, but haunting memoir for the immediate family members. But all that the writer is asking of them is to try again because life isn’t as perfect as a movie. 

Heart Tantrums is a beautifully crafted memoir, worth reading for the manner in which it is narrated with honesty, clarity, and purpose. Such is the power of the narrative that somewhere in her world of hits and misses, there remains a small opening for everyone to reflect upon. At the end of the day, there are more questions in real life than shinily packaged answers. Struggle is supposed to build character.

Heart Tantrums
by Aisha Sarwari
Penguin, New Delhi
Extent: 479, Price: Rs. 699.

First published in Deccan Herald on Oct 29, 2023.

Cracking a quicksilver crime

Corporate claims are often beyond public scrutiny as the regulatory regime is known to give them the convenience of safe passage.

Back in 1888, the Glass Thermometer Company was set up in Watertown - a US town which owes both its birth and its name to the Black River. Its proximity to the cities of New York and Washington, and with the emerging Canadian market just across Lake Ontario, there was no better choice than Watertown for the factory. Easy availability of water to run its operations, and the convenience of discharging mercury waste in the Black River offered a win-win situation. Following the tightening of environmental regulations in the US, however, the company relocated its operations to Kodaikanal in 1983, and by 1988 it had become part of Unilever. 

Pollution control laws were in its infancy during the 80’s in India which had helped Hindustan Lever register itself as a ‘glass manufacturing unit’ rather than one dealing in hazardous metal like mercury. Two decades later, the procedural omissions proved fatal for the workers and costly for the company. An independent public hearing conducted a year after the closure of the factory in 2002 had documented at least two dozen cases of acute illnesses and deaths among the ex-workers of the factory. Corporate crime was indeed committed, resulting in an out-of-court settlement of undisclosed amount for some 600 of its ex-workers.

Heavy Metal is an in-depth account of how a multinational company disregarded human and natural welfare at the cost of making profit which led to fatalities of its workers and irreversible poisoning of the pristine ecosystem. The Minamata Bay episode of mercury poisoning of the 50’s in Japan had indeed repeated itself. No lessons seemed to have been learnt as the horrible dangers of mercury remained systematically underestimated and ignored in the developing world. On top, the company had claimed its ‘highest standards of corporate behavior towards employees, consumers and the societies'.

Corporate claims are often beyond public scrutiny as the regulatory regime is known to give them the convenience of safe passage. It continues to perpetuate itself in the name of progress and growth, eco-disasters of the kind being one-off aberration in the scheme of things. With public memory short-lived and the court proceedings ever-lasting, corporate crimes end-up being a tiny blotch in the environmental history as curious cases of avoidable tragedies.         

The Kodaikanal tragedy could have been avoided had due diligence been in vogue at all stages – from citing the industry to administering workers safety, and from adhering to waste-disposal guidelines to adoption of environmental norms. Instead, the company had violated all acceptable guidelines for toxic waste disposal measures, causing grievous harm to all life forms. Ameer Shahul, a journalist turned public policy crusader, has weaved a tragic story of greed, deceit and deception for which a heavy price has been paid by nature and local communities. Had there not been environment watchdogs, both alert individuals and committed organizations, the disaster would have gone unreported. Heavy Metal is an absorbing narrative on how collective endeavor by civil society actors had forced the corporate bull to bite the dust.   

It was indeed more than just the story of a company closing its shop for violating all acceptable norms. Never before a developing country had sent back a consignment of waste material to a developed country. The case of ‘reverse dumping’, a term coined to express the new phenomenon, was not easy to execute. Greenpeace, a global environment watchdog, had facilitated shipping of 1416 drums filled with 290 tons of hazardous mercury waste from the Kodaikanal thermometer factory to its final destination in Pennsylvania. As a Greenpeace campaigner, Shahul was in the thick of all the actions that had made lighter the task of dealing with a heavy metal. Unprecedented victory notwithstanding, the turn of events in recent times have forced leading environment watchdog(s) to close shop. 

Heavy Metal reads like a biography of mercury, the only liquid metal that exists at room temperature. It is extensively used in electronic and medical applications, but safe disposal of mercury waste has yet to be satisfactorily resolved. As a result, in recent times the US and many European countries have phased out the use of mercury. As non-mercury alternatives are expensive, dependence on devices using mercury continue to be produced and marketed in many Asian countries. Though mercury has a short half-life (the time required for one-half of the substance to decay), its exposure and impact on the flora and fauna has not be extensively studied. In the absence of scientific evidence, the full impact of Kodaikanal disaster on the entire ecological system may remain speculative.  

Written with passion and clarity, the book raises many compelling questions. Has the disaster made environmental regulatory process more potent and effective? Has corporate negligence been made accountable under law? Have enough measures adopted to help avoid such future disasters? Have protocols for research to gather scientific evidence been any better today?  Have remediation measures been developed to detoxify the contaminated sites? Each of these and related questions are begging for credible answers. 

Heavy Metal recounts the struggle for environmental justice in India and how elusive it is despite decades of social activism. With activism having been throttled in recent times, corporate negligence of environmental regulations may remain lax. Through compelling storytelling of an environmental disaster, Shahul invokes the reader to be vigilant in capturing corporate maneuvering of the system to escape from its environmental obligations.

Without doubt, this terrifying cautionary tale of corporate negligence is essential reading. However, deft editing could have sustained readers uninterrupted engagement no less.    

Heavy Metal 
by Ameer Shahul
Pan MacMillan, New Delhi 
Extent: 396, Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the Hindustan Times on Oct 7, 2023. 

Don't take it for granted.

With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence.

The impact of mindless development has come knocking on our doors. Floods, heat waves, and wildfires have made the summer 2023 with some of the most extreme events on record. Nature has shown to be fierce and awe-inspiring, mysterium tremendum et fascinans (a mystery that both repels and attracts). What is clear now is that given the fearful reality of the climate crisis, homo sapiens alone have to change not only their lifestyle but the entire belief system too. 

Once a nun, and now an accomplished commentator on transcultural understanding, Karen Armstrong has written a timely treatise, Sacred Nature, on reconnecting with nature to rekindle our sense of the sacred. As a child we do have a silent receptiveness of the natural world but with age a sense of superiority takes over. “Our all-absorbing technological living has alienated us from nature,” laments Armstrong. “Even in a place of extreme natural beauty we talk on our mobiles or scroll through social media: we are present, yet fundamentally absent.” Unless nature finds an intimate place in our minds and hearts, humans will continue to remain isolated from it.

Through the reading of ancient texts and scriptures, Armstrong reminds us that myths introduced our forebearers to deeper truths by directing their attention to the eternal and universal. It is, however, another matter that with the astonishing success in science and technology during the 18th century, myths were discounted as false and primitive.

Sacred Nature explores religious practices and philosophical ideas that were fundamental to the way people experienced nature in the past, and how myths, rituals, poetry, and music had a profound effect on their mental life. With nature coming full throttle to assert its immense power in recent times, there is an urgent need to return to the spiritual traditions of treating nature with reverence which gave birth to Confucianism and Taoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, as well as rationalism in Greece. The classic expression of the Greeks called kenosis, personified by Mahatma Gandhi as 'emptying of the self,' helps liberate us from the destructive strictures and egotism. It opens up a new understanding of ourselves and a fresh perception of the world around us. Needless to say, application of such thoughts, perceptions and practices have much to offer.

Even for those who may not like hymns of devotion, Armstrong’s subtle exploration of the sacredness of nature can push them into thinking about reconnecting with nature. In a world where nature is rapidly receding from everyday life, there is a need to bring nature back into our collective consciousness.

Armstrong suggests a completely new worldview, a belief in nature’s innate power to redeem itself. Unless we develop an aesthetic appreciation of nature and devise an ethical program to guide our thoughts and behavior, we will soon run out of time for ourselves. The threats are indeed looming large and are quite often irreversible. There is a need to evoke the romanticism of Wordsworth and Keats to incorporate into human lives insights and practices that will help in meeting today’s serious challenges because nature’s processes are dynamic, ephemeral, and their origins are hidden from view.

Pulling central themes from the world’s religious traditions – from gratitude to compassion, and from non-violence to sacrifice – Armstrong offers practical steps to develop a new mindset to rekindle the sense of the sacred. Reflective and insightful, the book is a primer on how environmental science need to be redesigned as a subject. In such times of climate change when icecaps are melting, wildfires are raging and floods are rampant, there is no time for partying anymore.

Sacred Nature
by Karen Armstrong
Bodley Head, London
Extent: 239, Price: Rs. 999.

First published in The Hindu on Oct 1, 2023.

No time to waste

The world will soon run out of room to contain its waste. It already has!

The modern economy is built on trash. World over, some 2.5 billion tons of waste is yearly generated. A growing global south is expected to contribute annually an additional 1.3 billion tons of trash by 2050. None of this is news. The news though is that waste disposal system is in disarray; recycling is anything but effective; and zero-waste as a concept has yet to gain roots. Further, by promoting a culture of planned obsolescence the capitalist market is pushing a culture of planned obsolescence by producing cheaper products with shorter life span. No wonder, one third of what is finally dumped has been produced the same year. 

Inspired by India’s $30 billion Swachh Bharat campaign launched in 2014, journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis set out on an eye-opening journey to unearth the dirty truth about the world of rubbish. From Delhi’s mountainous landfill at Ghazipur to Ghana’s flooded second-hand markets, and from Britain’s vitrified nuclear waste store in Sellafield to Oklahoma electronics recycling facility in the US, the author traversed far and wide to understand what has happened, how we got here, and what if anything could be done. The overwhelming presence of trash in our daily lives may make many wonders if there is anything new the book may have to offer. 

Wasteland highlights relentless waste generation and accumulation as an emerging environmental anxiety worth serious attention. With 5 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions contributed by the solid waste industry, waste crises should feature high up in the list of eco-emergencies like heatwaves, floods, and fires. In reality it doesn’t and continues to be viewed as a municipal issue that needs resources and technology to keep the trash away from sight. The truth is that even after decades of mulling over the matter, the world of rubbish is neither out of sight nor out of mind. Should it not matter that given the wide variety of waste being generated, from plastic to nuclear and from food to packaging, only about 20 percent of it all gets recycled? 

In his shocking but fact-filled narrative, Oliver provides a gripping account of the political economy of waste generation and management. Such is the case that waste always attracts crime, it commands substantial profits, requires only the barest trained labor, and naturally deters close scrutiny. The waste industry has profited from this ecosystem where nobody asks questions. In his incredible journey, the author met any number of ordinary folks who want to make a difference but like climate change, it is a problem that individual action alone can do little to prevent. Zero waste, meaning not sending waste to landfill, as a concept has yet to take gain roots. Perhaps, the world needs an army of zero-waste influencers to cast an impact. 

Written with eloquence and authority, Oliver peels many layers of the waste crises as it democratically affects all of us, be in the developed or developing world. The author contends that his book is not only about what we throw away but what is lost in the process. World over a third of all food we produce is wasted, but some 820 million people go to bed hungry. It is therefore suggested that tackling our waste crises is more than just removing litter from our rivers and oceans. The world needs to rethink on the issue of waste from a wider perspective.  

Despite limited success with managing and treating waste, it is clear that the world is running out of room to contain its waste. 'The idea of waste needs radical thinking', suggests Oliver. It means reimagining the industrial system, the one that relies on zero chemical discharge, zero greenhouse gas emissions, and zero waste generation. Such a shift is not easy, it will warrant the whole new way of thinking of things and their uses, about how we define ourselves and our status through commodities, and what we cast away and what we keep in. Nothing less will suffice.

Wasteland is an engaging and disturbing treatise on waste. It looks at the science and sociology, toxicology and politics, economics and technology, and archeology and business aspects of waste in a single volume. A comprehensive understanding on a subject as complex as waste is imperative to resolve the crises. Given that our waste is both overwhelming and hopeless at this point in time, Oliver leaves a message for his growing children, ‘this planet is both precious and remarkable, try not to waste it’. The urgency of action is both loud and clear. 

Wasteland
by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
Simon&Schuster, London
Extent: 392, Price: £ 14.92.

First published in Deccan Herald on Sept 24, 2023.  

Without music life would be a mistake

Music engages many parts of the brain, bringing joy and, sometimes, sadness.

Ever wonder why many people wake up to music, work out in the gym to music, and play music while they are doing other activities? The reason lies in the fact that music engages many parts of our brain that integrate elements of emotions and memory. No wonder, listening to music does alter our mood and reduce stress. For good reasons, music is considered as important as the fundamental pleasures with a majority ranking music among the things that bring them the most pleasure, usually above money, art, and even food. Our brians are wired to find it as enjoyable as fundamental pleasures. 

Larry Sherman, a neuroscientist and lifelong musician, and Dennis Plies, a professional musician and teacher, collaborate to show how human beings create, practice, perform, and listen to music. They explore how music – whether instrumental or vocal - alters the air molecules that enter the ear and stimulate specialized nerve cells to generate powerful effects on our emotions. While neurons, the brain cells, do play a role a role in responding to music, it is unclear how we immediately recognize music after hearing just a few notes but distinguish the crescendo of flushing water as a sign of functional plumbing only. Charles Darwin suggested that the human brain evolved to engage in music, equipped to a draw a distinction between music and noise. 

Every Brain Needs Music is a musical journey into the world of music – from learning to play music to practicing and performing it, and from reacting to music to benefitting from musical experiences. Like human language(s), music has a language that can enhance the meaning of our words and our ability to express ourselves in subtle ways. In eight musical curated chapters the book connects cognitive, sensory and motor functions of the brain’s capacity for creativity. Of common interest are the final two chapters on how the brain listens to music and how the brain comes to like or dislike different types of music because there is a curiosity to learn why some compositions light us up while some other pull us down.  

To add more substance to the narrative, the authors conducted survey of over one hundred composers, professional, and amateur musicians, teachers, students, and music lovers to gauze their response on how music brings them pleasure. While acknowledging that music is the most fundamental of the higher-order pleasures, the majority echoed Friedrich Nietzsche’s most famous words: ‘Without music, life would a mistake.’ Music is ingrained in human system much before language came into being. Music is known to create ‘aha’ moment for many – an Alzheimer patient after listening to his favorite number could recall his family members; a young woman with Parkinson could lift her foot after humming a rhythm; and a advanced stage cancer patient could forget the pain after listening to his favorite song. Music is a kind of key that opens countless doorways in the mind.           

Witty and informative, Every Brain Needs Music evokes the love of music in more ways than one. Learning to play an instrument or sing can drive the generation of new cells, new synapses, and new myelin in our brains. As music involves a high degree of sensory, motor, and cognitive integration, it generates a powerful effect on our emotions and memories. No other activity engages multiple networks within our brains. It is this that makes music exclusive to human existence. The authors call for the need to mainstream music education for the role it may play to enrich our aesthetic and cognitive lives.  

While researching and writing this book, Sherman and Plies were careful not to be swayed by poetic expressions like ‘music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.’  Instead, they took a deep dive into what music is to the human brain. For them it was important to capture the series of changes that the vibrating molecules (as music) generate in brain while travelling through the air at around 343 meters per second or 767 miles per hour. Every Brain Needs Music is for all those music aficionados who wish to learn how different areas in the brain change by creating, practicing, performing, and listening to music. Brain is what makes music music.

Every Brain Needs Music 
by Larry Sherman and Dennis Plies
Columbia University Press, New York 
Extent: 270, Price: US$32.

First published in The Hindu on July 14, 2023.

Mind over matter that seriously matters

To achieve climate change goals, a neuro- scientist urges the world to work on the mind.

The greatest paradox of our time is that while climate change has widely been recognized as an urgent problem, it does not press the emergency button for individual and collective action to counter it. Knowing well the root cause and the possible solutions to the problem, why it gets pushed on to others to fix it? Why are we hardwired not to change our behavior and consumer tendencies? Simply put, it is the neuroscience of decision making that works to prioritize short-term survival over long-term consequences. No wonder, the risk of anticipated 2°C rise in temperature before the close of the century remains disconcerting.

In Minding the Climate, Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at the Harvard Medical School, explores why changing behavior in response to the climate crises remains challenging. Having lived life for eons on resource scarcity, human mind responds to better rewards for changing the old behavior. If a behavior isn't perceived as immediately rewarding, we probably won't change it - never mind that we know we should. In a market economy, just giving people information without incentives and rewards doesn’t work to change consumptive behavior. Writing lullabies won’t cure opioid addiction by itself.  

Environmental issues have been known to present challenges for behavior change, in part because the phenomenon and the fix are many steps removed from our immediate sensory perception. While the perception may have started changing due to increasing frequency of climatic events in recent times, we are physiologically not equipped with carbon dioxide sensors to reflect strong personal threatening experience to affect behavioral change. Add to this is the fact that behavior change research has focused on choices that individuals make in their domestic lives, rather than on a more collective and political sphere. Further, the invisibility of greenhouses gases adds to the visible challenge. 

Duhaime presents a systematic study of the human brain – from understanding its evolutionary origin to strategies for its pro-environmental shift. Taking a deep dive into the human decision-making apparatus, she found that the brain is heavily influenced by its evolutionary design but is also exquisitely flexible. The brain design both constrains and frees us. By linking neuroscience with evolutionary biology, consumer psychology, and environmental science, the author reflects hope that humans do in fact have the capacity to change. Minding the Climate is a groundbreaking work on how we might leverage our brains to fight climate change. 

It is a thinking man’s guide to encourage our neurological circuits to embrace new rewards, To demonstrate how indeed this could be possible, the Green Children’s Hospital has been initiated by the author and her colleagues as a prototype that makes connection between the environment and health. No reward is good enough for people to see their loved children have a good life. It works both ways as not only it helps cut down emissions from the sector that contributes 8 percent to the atmospheric carbon load but reminds people that hospital patients looking at trees recover faster than those who look at the brick wall. Such small, incremental steps that individuals take are necessary to look at rewards differently. 

Duhaime is not suggesting quick fix though. The task is to understand how our ingrained tendencies could be overridden by our brain's capacity to adapt. Minding the Climate is a pioneering work on a subject that has so far not been considered in the global discourse on climate change. It is a work in progress,and will only be considered complete when people in the 20-tons-of-carbon-emissions-a-year consider themselves a burden on the society. Our brain has got us to this point, it alone will take us into the future of possibilities. 

Minding the Climate 
by Ann-Christine Duhaime
Harvard University Press, USA 
Extent: 313, Price: Rs. 2996.

First published in The Hindu on July 2, 2023.

All the light we cannot see

We need only a fraction of artificial light, unnecessary strong illumination is the cause of light pollution.

It is hard not to agree with zoologist Johan Eklöf that darkness has a cosmic purpose, a natural and ecological imperative for a large number of living species to thrive for supporting those for whom light is life. Humans might abhor darkness but some two-thirds of all mammals are nocturnal. Then there are numerous other creatures, notably insects and reptiles, who also shun light. Yet humans dispel darkness to feel safer amidst lights, although there is no evidence to prove that dreadful activities and crimes are committed only under the cover of darkness. Little is realized that indeed it is human obsession with light that has darkened the lives of innumerable non-humans.

Light pollution as a subject of concern and enquiry has been in vogue for over half a century, however, its ecological manifestations have begun to surface only in recent years. Such is the persistent glow of light from cities that some 80 percent of the global population today lives under light-polluted skies, unable to view stars in sky tinted orangish-grey. As light pollution is increasing at an annual rate of 10 percent, more and more people will miss watching the night skies. But the impact goes beyond impeded stargazing as it the cause of insomnia, depression, obesity and several related ailments too. 

The Darkness Manifesto not only tracks how light pollution impacts human health but records its terrifying influence on the circadian rhythms of nocturnal creatures. It unleashes an impaired sense of direction leading to mass extinction for many nocturnal creatures. Oblivious of how much is too much, the society has extended the day with artificial lighting that has forced out the inhabitants of the night. Satellite pictures show how brightly glowing our planet it, disrupting the natural cycle of day and night.

In his well-researched book, bat-researcher Eklof argues that we need only a fraction of artificial light, unnecessary strong illumination is the cause of light pollution that is the equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions from nearly 20 million cars. In a persuasive narrative packed with scientific facts, the author comes out as a self-proclaimed ‘friend of darkness’ and with good reasons too. What seems good for us is worst for many others? Land-dwelling insects are disappearing by about 1 percent each year and light pollution has a role to play. 

Eklof suggests that impact of artificial light on insects must concern us all. But for the insects the decomposition of dead things will come to a halt, pollination of plants will get affected, and nutrition of insect-feeding animals will be disrupted. In effect, the entire food chain will be in shambles, and the early signs indicate that it already has. With about half of all insects on the planet nocturnal, artificial light is robbing them of food and reproductive partners. The night’s limited light protects these insects, and the pale glow from stars and the moon is central for their navigation and hormonal systems.

Packed with disturbing facts, The Darkness Manifesto has had such an impact that this reviewer immediately switched off extra lights in the room. It is reassuring to learn that the concern for darkness is gaining worldwide currency. France has adopted a national policy that imposes curfews on outdoor lighting and drastically limits the amount of light that can be projected into the sky. And countries with less light contamination areas are embracing ‘dark sky tourism’. Ireland already has dark sky parks, and dark sky festival movement is catching on. Darkness is fast developing into a new tourism destination.

Ever since The Darkness Manifesto appeared in translation, interest in darkness as an ecological virtue has exploded. If you have ever watched moths circle the porch light, suggests Eklof, you will learn how fatal artificial bulbs to insects are: who die of exhaustion without getting their nectar, without finding a partner, and without laying any eggs. If such are the shocking facts, the streetlights, floodlights, and neon signs cannot be considered signs of progress. 

The light bulb, long considered the symbol of progress and development, needs to be given some rest. From a fiscal standpoint it makes sense, from an environmental standpoint it makes sense, and even from a safety standpoint doing a better job of harmonizing the lighting in the city makes sense. The Darkness Manifesto needs early adoption by city planners and administrators.   

The Darkness Manifesto 
by Johan Eklof
Scribner, London 
Extent: 272, Price: US$. 26.

First published in Deccan Herald on June 11, 2023.

Life beyond the ordinary

As those who have lived in a typical university hostel know, it's an experience that's simultaneously enjoyable and shabby. 

Originally written in Hindi, Banaras Talkies is a fast-paced novel about three law undergraduates who live in Bhagwandass Hostel at Banaras Hindu University. Satya Vyas, now the author of five bestselling books, captures the mood, hopes, aspirations, and challenges of his protagonists even as he hilariously presents their hare-brained schemes to steal exam papers and critiques of bad mess food.

As those who have lived in a typical university hostel know, it's an experience that's simultaneously enjoyable and shabby. Still, it remains a life beyond the ordinary; one that evolves its own idiom of expressing the obvious. Like hostelites everywhere, the law students at the center of this novel, have their hilarious in-jokes: for its technical complexities, a particular black laptop is adjudged "the most harmful object of the twenty-first century"; elsewhere "Amicus Curiae", Latin for "friend of the court", is referred to as "the sister of Madame Curie". Readers are taken on a roller coaster ride through the BHU campus with its youthful love affairs, fierce competition that forges lifelong bonds, and camaraderie reflected in both words and actions. While the narrator, Suraj, pursues his love interest, Anurag is intent on winning a game of cricket, and Jaivardhan, the deltiologist, approaches semester assignments like he would a new bride.

Banaras Talkies captures several vignettes of hostel life as it wanders down laughter-filled college corridors -- the banter between friends, the amusing but creative exchanges with teachers, the heartbreaks on the way to lucky successes in love, and the ever-looming pressure of having to one day leave the campus and "get serious about life".

In its recreation of a brief but unforgettable period of youth, Banaras Talkies calls to mind works like RK Narayan's The Graduate and Philip Roth's Goodbye Columbus that also deal with student life and its excesses, exhilarations and disappointments. College life has been effectively captured on screen too in 3 Idiots and the quirky Chichhore. The success of the genre across media can be attributed to the great impact that the time spent on campus has on the individual. It often remains permanently etched on the canvas of the human mind as a golden interval before the persistent tensions and sordid disappointments of adulthood.

A bestseller in Hindi, this version tries to graft the verve and linguistic authenticity of the original into English, a language that's often too stiff for Hindustani hi jinks. Translator Himadri Agarwal has a point when she states that readers must learn to make peace with translated text which, like most art, is eternally incomplete. Indeed, it will always be difficult to capture the colloquial nuances and wit of the original. For instance, the phrase ‘cut the crap’ can never convey the punch of ‘Bakaiti band kar’.  

Still, as with all good campus novels, this one succeeds in transporting readers back to their own student lives and younger, more eccentric and carefree selves.

Banares Talkies
by Satya Vyas, Translation Himadri Agarwal
Ebury Press, New Delhi
Extent:216 Pages, Price: Rs. 199.

First published in the Hindustan Times on May 26, 2023.

In search of identity and space for oneself

Many parents indulge in sacrificing early childhood of their children to emerge celebrities through reality shows, little realizing that the road to instant fame leaves lasting impressions on teenage minds.

It is the disturbing title that is no less intriguing. How could a daughter be so rude to her cancer-suffering mother, more so when her career as a child actor was literally shaped by her mother? Why would a celebrated actor regret the early years of her life, and lament her life purpose of keeping her mom happy? Reading McCurdy is akin to the experience of riding a wave: you plunge into a bracing narrative, never quite sure where you’ll emerge—only certain that whenever the ride ends you’ll find yourself in an uncharted territory. The debut memoir of a child star of Nickelodeon’s sitcom iCarly, is amusingly heartbreaking but sadly furious. 

This unsettling autobiographical narrative is about years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable mom, Debra. Born into a family with three older brothers, McCurdy found the household fully controlled by her mother. Such was her mom’s control that the author found the house as an embarrassment, that would often make her feel tense and anxious. McCurdy candid reconstruction of her journey from teenage to adulthood is a saga of emotional, mental, and physical abuse that insisted on molding an innocent something into ‘Mommy’s little actress’. At an age when little girls are mischievously playful, McCurdy was trained to view life as an innate opportunity. Shuffled with auditions from age 6, painting eyelashes and whitening teeth were outside manifestations of strict diet restrictions and regular genital examination enforced on the little child in her. The confessions are anything but cruel and disturbing. 

Could Debra be fighting her own devils to escape social and economic deprivation that inflicted the household? Her cruel perfectionist approach and abusive behavior pattern may not be uncommon, as many a parents indulge in sacrificing early childhood of their children to emerge celebrities through reality shows, little realizing that the road to instant fame leaves lasting impressions on teenage minds. McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, her harrowing experience of ‘loosing herself’ fills the pages of her sad, honest, heart-wrenching and startling journey that the reader will only help empathize at a deep level. It is an insightful coming-of-age story that seeks freedom, the enjoying-me part of what makes each human curate one’s natural tendencies, responses, thoughts and actions.

I’m Glad My Mom Died is a journey in search for understanding the complicated truth of striking a balance between having adored and feared someone as close as a mother, and to be missing and being relieved of her when she is gone. It is a psychological journey on self-awareness, to seek a space for oneself through self-assertion, realizing that ‘so much of my life has felt so out of my control for long’. It is a cultural document of contemporary relevance. It makes compelling reading to understand and know the cost of making others happy. McCurdy confesses that all the time she spent orienting her thoughts and actions to please her mom were indeed pointless as after her demise she was left wondering who she is, and what should she wish for.

This memoir should not be judged by its title. What makes it different from others of the genre is how McCurdy strikes a balance between hard truth and dark humor. She avoids evoking self-pity, but lays bare the emotions that raced through her celebrity life. It is for the reader to make a sense of her confessions. On her part, McCurdy not only looks back on her mom’s abuse with resentment but acknowledges the abuse and manipulation she was subjected to. In detailing the testing time, the author had to go through, she rejects the idea that childhood stardom is a fun while asserting that the media world ignores human emotions too. ‘Once you become a celebrity, you are no longer a person, but an archetype.’ she tells the world outside. 

I’m Glad My Mom Died is as much a book of hope as despair. McCurdy learnt it the hard way that guilt and frustration can be helpful in moving forward. She took the bold step in letting go her acting career in a flash and switched to hosting podcasts and writing. What she has compiled in 310 pages of her memoir is a immensely readable coming-of-age-story, that is fearless, reflective, and inspiring. I could not put this book down.

I’m Glad My Mom Died 
by Jennette McCurdy
Simon&Schuster, USA 
Extent: 310, Price: US$27.99.

First published in Deccan Herald on May 14, 2023.

A signature on the airwaves

Lata was like the mythological gandharva who is described as a celestial being sent to earth to dazzle ordinary mortals with their art.

A nightingale needs no introduction, and so does Lata Mangeshkar whose melodious voice regales every auditory sense. Through her innumerable songs in multiple languages, Lata’s enduring voice continues to move and inspire. Need it be said that her soulful songs infuse a sense of oneness, that is beyond caste, class, creed or gender. Further, there are many who consider her songs to be the ground we stand on, a way to keep ourselves from falling. 

Given the melodious songs in multiple genres that Lata has song in her distinguished career of over half a century, her life in music is beyond a single definition. From lullabies to devotional and from patriotic to romantic, her oeuvre of songs reflects every human emotion which lends a sense of multicultural relatability. She entered the world of playback singing at an early age in 1949 and reigned on top till her demise in 2022, leaving the world with a rich repository of over 2,000 songs. Till this day, her songs invite the listener to delve deeper into her world of music. 

Much is known about her early years of life, her father’s untimely death and the burden of supporting the family that fell on her little shoulders. Ever since she learnt to sing raag Puriya Dhanashree from her father, Lata’s training in classic ragas and her devotion to the craft grew to dizzy heights bringing sweetness and joy into countless lives. Her extraordinary range of voice and effortless rendering on any pitch earned admiration from the doyen of classic music Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan who had remarked, ‘Damn, this girl never goes off-key’.      

In a decade-long dialogue with her, Yatindra Mishra brings to light the life in music of the iconic singer in the biography Lata Mangeshkar: A Life in Music. Originally written in Hindi, the translated version is arranged in two parts: first half engages the reader in the episodic journey of a inimitable playback singer through the changing decades, the second half is her response to all questions that one would ever expect her to answer. As rightly asserted, the biography sits at the confluence of cinema, music and literature. However, English readers may find discomfort in dealing with mukhda of songs in Hindi but that should not be a serious limitation as digital assistance is only a click of a button away in decoding or drawing reference to the songs.   

Known for her shy nature and modest demeanor, Lata was like the mythological gandharva who is described as a celestial being sent to earth to dazzle ordinary mortals with their art. Indeed, so as she had a divine voice quality in which she could control her breath, never letting the listener know how and where she paused to draw a fresh breath. Whatever she sang, she was in total control of the emotions, feelings, mood, and the onscreen situation of the song. Devoted to the purity of her craft, Lata did not like mawkish song, nor did she sing patriotic songs that were composed for a mere dramatic flourish. Through her music, she reflected dignity and grace.

In his encyclopedic presentation, Mishra offers rare but interesting insights on how the iconic singer interacted with her peers, engaged with some of the incredibly talented composers, and treated the rich poetry on offer. Known to avoid swear words, lyricist-director Gulzar was a liitle nervous about the use of word ‘badmash’ in the song ‘aapki badmashiyon ke yeh naye andaz hein’ (Film: Ghar). Instead, Lata observed that the word gave the song a tang and while rendering it she laughed, giving it an entirely delightful air. As a singer, she would immerse herself totally into the mood of the lyrics, and that is what made Lata an iconic singer. 

Lata Mangeshkar: A Life in Music is a virtual who’s who on irrestible filmmakers, incredible composers, and finest poets who transformed the nightingale into an intellectual and cultural exponent of musical traditions. The biography stands out for providing a nuanced understanding on how the music engaged with the singer, and how the singer treated the lyrics on offer. For those who follow music closely and wish to understand how a particular composition came into being, the book offers a final destination. Indeed, this is the most definitive biography of our most revered cultural ambassador.  

Lata Mangeshkar: A Life in Music
by Yatindra Mishra, Ira Pande (trans) 
Viking, New Delhi 
Extent: 345. Price: Rs. 799.

First published in the Hindustan Times on May 12, 2023.