On World Book Day – that day in the year, where we celebrate our love for books. I hav always liked books. I used to be a fairly lonely child, and books were an escape to another world. I was a fairly indiscriminate reader. The pulp of Alistair MacLean and Desmond Bagely at one end, to history by RC Mazumdar, WIlliam Shirer, and more. We didn’t have a TV – and, even if we had one, it wouldn’t have dragged me away from my books.
My reading habits date back to the days before digital (if you can believe such a time existed) . My growing up was full of three things, conversations -sometimes high pitched and profane, at others soft and profound-; laughter – often boisterous, and, books. I began reading when I was 2 or 3, and I haven’t stopped. Books were my earliest friends, and till date the relationship endures.
As a student and a working professional, in the early stages of working, i think my biggest expense was books. And, given what I earned in those days, and how much books would cost and how little I earned, it wasn’t surprising. My bookshelves would sag with books, and as the years went by, more and more were unread books. Much later, i realised that the Japanese had a term for this Tsundoku
For the last 5 years, my life has changed. Most of my physical books donated to various homes and libraries. I have now moved to the kindle. Book buying is no longer the lazy Sunday afternoon activity, where one would drop into a Lotus, and browse bookshelves for ever, to pick out completely new authors, genres, and discover new interests. Now it is amazon, and browsing their book shelves. A part of me misses the Sunday afternoon activity, but the other part revels at the sheer choice of books available. Right now my digital bookshelf is also overladen with books that haven’t been read. But, unlike my physical bookshelf, they aren’t in my face, making me feel guilty about buying books that I don’t read.
Right now, i am in various stages of reading these 5 books (2 are completed), and am quite enjoying all of them.
Curation by Michael Bhaskar
Growth can come from adding value, not adding more. Paradoxically, as the century wears on, we will realise that creating less, indeed, actively cutting down, leads to more prosperity.
Well written, the book is maybe 20% too long. But, worth the trouble of reading it
Reclaiming Conversation by Sherry Turkle
Of late, i have been trying to disconnect from technology when i am with people. Put my phone away. Not look at it for chunks of time (half an hour or so). It is not easy not to be distracted, but one tries. Sherry Turkle’s book looks at how important it is for us to go beyond technology, and reclaim conversations, and therefore relationships. As she puts it
my argument is not anti-technology. It’s pro-conversation. We miss out on necessary conversations when we divide our attention between the people we’re with and the world on our phones. Or when we go to our phones instead of claiming a quiet moment for ourselves. We have convinced ourselves that surfing the web is the same as daydreaming. That it provides the same space for self-reflection. It doesn’t. It’s time to put technology in its place and reclaim conversation.
Citizenship and Its Discontents: An Indian History by Niraja Gopal Jayal
the book explores the nature of citizenship, it’s history and it’s future – seen from a uniquely Indian lens. It is, in effect, the history of citizenship in India from a pre colonial and colonial era, to now. The questions raised are questions i grapple with even now. Who is a citizen. While the topic is interesting, the book is a tough read, written by an expert for other experts.
Premium Collection : George Orwell
If you are an Orwell fan, and I am, this is the must buy book for you. All his novels, most of his essays, and what a collection. I keep re-reading some of his essays to simply marvel at his grasp of the language, and the economy with which he skewers others. And, with all the insanity of fake news and propaganda, it is but natural, that one peeks back into 1984, before running away.
Winston sank his arms to his sides and slowly refilled his lungs with air. His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word “doublethink” involved the use of doublethink.
Sarama and her Children : Bibek Debroy
Bibek Debroy tells the story of dogs in ancient Indian civilisation, through their references in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the epics. The story of Sarama the Dog of the Gods, as well as the mother (and God) of all dogs, is told well. Debroy traces the fall of Dog in ancient society, to the decline in the worship of traditional Vedic gods such as Yama and Rudra, dogs are associated with both – Yama appears as one, and Rudra is accompanied by one; as well as the rise of Brahmanism
I am guessing, given the status of Dog as God, i am going to protest the ill treatment of all canines, starting with street dogs, and moving on to abandoned canines. Also, i wove stories around Sarama to tell my dog … once upon a time, there was a god called Sarama, and she would be happy if rani behaved her self 🙂