Book Review - Unaccustomed Earth

Jhumpa Lahiri through her "Unaccustomed Earth" again takes you through the nuances of human feelings. Even though there is a tinge of melancholy in all the stories, I enjoyed the candid expression of human feelings. Irrespective of whether it is a father and daughter relationship or it is the equation between room mates the distances are properly portrayed without any compromise. If i were to summarise "Everyone in this world are alone" ;-)
All the stories involve Bengali families - but that does not really mean that there are lots of references to Bengali customs. All of them have relocated to the US at some point - a context that i think the author is familiar and finds it easy to paint her characters on. I liked the structure of the book - it has a few standalone short stories and some that are connected, almost like a short novel.
Jhumpa Lahiri is a wonderful story teller whose characters appealed to me more than the setting of the story. There is just enough mention of the surroundings, weather etc without distracting the focus on the people involved. At the end, you have a feeling of having met these characters or having conversed with them sometime. They might even be one of your friends and it is this familiarity that will make them very endearing.
Try reading this book - and let me know if you dont agree with me. I can only learn from different perpectives.

"The reluctant fundamentalist" - Book Review

This book is no amazing piece of literature, but then it has a slice of

author's soul and that is what i liked about it. This is an easy book to read - keep it for a sunday afternoon or a travel.

I recently read an article about the confusion that the muslim youth nowadays go through. Categorically listing the religion as anti-modern and illiberal faith it condemned the 9/11 attacks where only a fraction of lives were lost compared to Iraq or Kashmir. Does it require genius of Einstein to understand that no amount of security measure can save your lives after instigating violence for selfish reasons. Knowing this i can understand the amount of insecurity that has crept in. I am no advocate of violence in the west, but i am also no fan of considering that lives in the west are more valuable than the poorer nations. Newton's third law catches up - "Every action has a equal and opposite reaction". And remember like it is said that "life begets life", so does violence.

I was interested in knowing what a learned Pakistani feels like upon treated the way he is like he is in the airports of America. From the book though there is a commonness in the culture and the food and the description of streets in Pakistan and India. Also a feeling on either sides that the other one is hawkish. Thus i identify myself with my brother living in Pakistan. This book is just a narration of how the author searches for his identity and achieves it finally in Lahore. I dont think the book is loud and clear as far the exact sentiments go. Nevertheless it conveys how even a Princeton and Harvard educated Pakistani sitting in the safe confines of a well paid job can feel for his nation. Like Sashi Tharoor said, "There is no place under the sun like your own country that a man can feel comfortable standing". I cant agree enough.

O Jerusalem - Book Review

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy."

These lines from the psalms, the Jewish Bible more or less summarises the passion and the sacrifice that the jews had shown during their "war of independence" for creating a new "Jewish nation". This i quote before the inclusion of the other group in war - the Arabs, as i was deeply moved by the resolve with which the Jews fought. Though this book does not take away anything from the Arabs and portrays both warring factions in fair light, what does not come out very clearly is the reason why the British government acted the way it has. There are definite mentions of biases and betrayals by the British - and this further proves my conviction that the British in all their colonies has sown seeds of hatred. They had for one crafted the divide between the hindus and the muslims in India where they have been co-existing.

Coming from one of my favourite authors Dominique Lapierre (co-authored with Larry Collins) whose books i have always enjoyed reading, this book turned to be a easy choice. But still there are a many instances where i could really predict that some body will end up being a victim of the war a few pages down because of the slight overusage of the melodrama. Nevertheless, as the book promises it gives an account of how the Jewish nation was formed and a very good portrayal of various difficulties that both sides had to endure during this period of war.

If you are looking to know on why and how Israel became a reality - this is the book that i would recommend you to read!!

Then we set his hair on fire - Book Review

Advertising for many of us would be an industry where wierd eccentrics in dirty jeans come up with very creative spots - well its totally not quite so!!
Hear this and much more from Phil Dusenberry, former chairman at BBDO. Beyond the glamour and excitement of coming up with creative snippets that compels consumers to procure these products lies a thorough and hardworking team.
What i liked about the book is that it concentrates mostly on the meticulous work that a campaign pitch warrants and takes us through the planning part rather than on execution part. It talks a lot about the research that the team goes through before they arrive at that successful "insight" as the author puts it. "We bring good things to life" and "The Best a man can get" are some of these theme lines which were created during his time which has remained in consumers minds even today after decades of its induction.
There are also some exciting incidents on how it was to work with Michael Jackson and Billy Crystal. On the whole a totally different experience considering the fact that all celebrity advertisements have to be effected by working with some super-egos!!. I havent put my two cents into this - as everything i read here was an eye-opener. This is a definite recommendation from my side for an easy read. Just before i quit - may be it is worthwhile to know whose hair they set on fire... well read the book to figure it out!! ;)

Games Indians Play...A book review

With some days under my belt for good friday i decided to browse the book shops for an attractive title befitting my current apetite. I stumbled upon the title "Games Indians Play" by V.Raghunathan. What made me buy this book ofcourse was the foreword by Narayanamurthy who i have great respect for.

It turned out to be a un-put-downable book and led me into very fascinating aspects of how Indians think. It could not have come at a more appropriate time as not too many days ago i was debating within me as to what makes us litter and jump traffic signals without any guilt? Why is it that we always end up getting the wrong influences from the west? Not only did this book introduce me to game theory but also compelled me to take notice of the scientific way used to analyse behaviours. I must agree that not all experiments are very detailed but still gives a fair idea of the Indian mentality - not to diagree that it bought reminisces from my past where i have displayed lack of self-regulation and apathy towards collectivism.

On the whole i thoroughly enjoyed reading a very small but honest and mince-no-words book about Indians by an Indian. I do not know for sure how this will translate into my day-to-day life yet but then to start off i will recommend this to anyone who asks me for a suggestion on books to read!!

If the author were to read this blog by some coincidence then i offer my gratitude and best wishes for lot more titles like this to come.