Desicritics Category: Culture: Books - Non Fiction

Book Review: Bhagwata Purana, Skandha Two, Part One

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:57:57 EDT

You know my great idea about writing one essay on each Skandha? Well, I am afraid that it became impossible for me to stick to my original plan in the second Skandha itself, as there are far too many concepts and ideas that I want to try and do justice to. The Skandha starts with the story of how Vyasa Muni first composed the Bhagwata Purana (BP).

You might already know that Vyasa Muni was the original compositor of the Vedas, but the Purana is silent on when exactly he wrote it in Hindu cosmological terms, although we know it was written after Krishna’s death, which is tentatively given as 3228 BCE (according to the wiki entry). The Purana, on the other hand, says that Vyasa was born in the Dwapara Yuga. Take a look at this calculation which talks about some seriously huge time frames. Time is defined in the top level as Brahma Years. We are in the first day of the 51st year of Brahma (he is a middle aged God right now). Each day and night in an year comprises of a Kalpa, which is further divided into 28 manvantaras and we are in the 7th day manvantara. Each Manvantara is made up of 71 mahayuga’s and we are in the 28th mahayuga. Each Mahayuga comprises of four yugas namely Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. We are currently in Kali Yuga. The time in human Christian Gregorian Years is roughly 432,000 solar years.

So extrapolating from this (and bear with me, I have no way of confirming this), Vyasa was born before 3228 BCE. Given that the average human life span in the Dwapara Yuga was considered to be approximately 1,000 years, he could have been born and actually composed the BP any time between 3228 BCE to 4228 BCE, but the actual book took shape in the 3rd millennium BCE. For the longest time, this kind of thinking about time blows my mind, but I have that down as a potential research project to think about. Take a look at this article by Ramesh Rao for an interesting perspective on time.

But let’s get back to the BP and its origins. The above is from a mythological perspective that is; the real truth is much more complicated. As of the current state of historiographical research, there is simply no evidence of when it was originally written and by whom. The wiki entry for the Vedas is a good example of the confusion about the dates on the origins of the Vedas, but it’s aimed at a date of 1,000 BCE. This sort of conflicts with the reputed death of Krishna around 3228 BCE, so what happened in the middle 2 millennia?

However, I am not writing an analytical paper here, I am talking philosophy and mythology. Hindu philosophy (if this kind of a formulation can even be said) simply has too many strands to worry about exact timing or authenticity of the author, unlike say the fact that Gabriel taught Mohammad the Quran or there is a gospel by Mark. How about the philosophy that time is essentially an illusion (maya)? If it’s maya, then is it really important to know the author or the time? We also need to know that if we start ascribing the authorship to a particular person and time, we run the risk of it sounding fallible, which really cannot be done now, can it? The other way of looking at this is that there is simply no origin or that the Vedas and the Puranas were and are: unauthored, unreal and eternal at the same time. When the (atma) soul can be pure consciousness without content, then extending that analysis to the Vedas and Purana can mean content without consciousness relating to temporal aspects such as authors or time.

The BP talks about how Vyasa Muni divided the original single Veda into the four Vedas that we know now, mainly because he realised that in the Kali Yuga, mankind cannot handle the full weight of God’s word, so had to be fed in small broken down chunks. He then gave each Veda to one of his disciples and asked them to further teach humans. As women, sudras and other impure members of the Brahman class were not eligible to read and hear the Vedas (don’t go there yet, I will return to this topic sometime in the future), he also wrote the Mahabharata so that even the women, sudras and impure people could attain moksha. But Vyasa Muni was not happy and less than satisfied with his work on the Vedas and Mahabharata. Narada Muni came around and identified his cause of dissatisfaction. Narada Muni said that he has not described the Lord Vishnu in detail and that is the reason why his work does not satisfy him. Narada Muni then proceeds to tell Vyasa his own life story and how he became a Vishnu devotee. In one of his past lives in another Kalpa, he wandered the earth in search of God and finally he sat to meditate for eons. Finally, Vishnu manifested himself to him and Narada was enlightened. Vishnu said that Narada will find the Lord when all desires have been quelled, but he will be with Narada all the time. Saying this, Narada departed leaving behind Vyasa full of determination to explore and compose the story of Lord Vishnu. Upon completion of the BP, Vyasa Muni taught the secret Purana to his son, Suka.

Then there is a bit of a jump and the third section talks about the life history of Pariskshit, son of Abhimanyu, who is the ruler of Hastinapur. Remember the story about how he was saved in his mother Uttara’s womb, by Krishna when Ashwathama tried to kill him using the brahmastra? Anyway, moving on, the BP talks about how righteous he was, how he banished the demon Kali (not the Goddess Kali) and saved one legged Dharma Deva, the God of Truth and Bhumi Devi, Mother Earth from Kali’s depredations. Interestingly enough, the four legs of Dharma Deva, who manifested himself as a Bull, represent austerity, purity, compassion and honesty, but Kali Yuga broke three of them by pride, lasciviousness and inebriation. Only honesty was left and even that was being destroyed by the Demon Kali. So Parikshit banishes the Demon Kali to the gambling dens, whorehouses, and in houses of slaughter. By doing so, Parikshit kept the demons of the Kali yuga at bay, but then disaster befell him.

He was hunting and reached an ashram thirsty and hungry. Looking around, he could only see a rishi deep in meditation and despite Parikshit’s entreaties; the rishi would not wake up to give him water or food. Becoming furious, Parikshit draped a dead snake around the rishi’s neck and rode away angrily. Then the rishi’s son came back, saw the snake, learnt the background and cursed Parikshit with death in seven days from snakebite. On his return to the palace, Parikshit was beset with sorrow and regret at his treatment of the rishi and then learning of the curse, decided to renounce his kingdom, go to the banks of the Ganga river, medicate on Vishnu for the remainder of his days while fasting.

When he sat down, a whole host of other great rishis came to him. Atri, Vasistha, Chyvana, Shardavana, Arishtanemi, Bhrigu, Angirasas, Parasara, Viswamitra, Parasurama, Utathya, Indrapramada, Indhmavaha, Medhatithi, Devala, Arishtisena, Bharadvaja, Gautama, Pippalada, Maitreya, Aurva, Kavasha, Agastya, Dwaipayna Vyasa and Narada all joined him. There is a reason why I am repeating all these names. These names are our greats. They have, in effect, given us our religion. They were the first teachers and telling their names again is a way of worshiping them, paying obeisance to them and recognising our debt to them.

Finally Suka Muni arrives and Parikshit asks him how best to purify himself before death, to which Suka Muni replies referring to the BP as the best way to purify the body and soul. Parikshit asks about the form of Vishnu that he would meditate on and Suka describes the Lord to him. This was a stunning description and I was seriously taken aback. I am not going to give the full description, but it involves patala, the soles of his feet, bhumi his hips, and the sky as his navel. Indra and other Devas are his arms, agni his tongue, the sun and moon are his eyes, Yama is his teeth, his laughter is Maya, modesty is his upper lip, while greed is his lower. Prajapati is his penis, while Mitra Deva and Varuna Deva are his testicles. Vayu is his breath, time is his movement. Twilight is the garment he wears, brahmana his mouth, kshatriya his arms, vaisya his thighs and sudra is his feet. This is whom Parikshit should visualise.

The formulation of the Lord’s description took my breath away. With my puny mind, I simply could not comprehend this vast assemblage at all, which is why I am quite envious of those who can. Can you imagine somebody being able to visualise this wondrous image? What an imagination one would require! What a breadth of vision, what faith! I felt so insignificant at just the description of the Lord Vishnu.

But now I have to draw this exercise to an end. In the next part, I will be talking about how Suka explained the way of the Dhyana, the route to Moksha. This is not an esoteric description, but something with concrete details which man can grasp. This will follow with a description of how Brahma created this universe and a description of the incarnations of Vishnu and ending with the numerous questions that Parikshi asks of Suka.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt

Book Review: In an Antique Land

Kim — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:02:09 EST

In an Antique Land was a unique book for me, as its two threads focus on a small town that I grew up in for the first 20+ years of my life and a Country that I have lived in for the last 3 years. So I had a unique connect with this book.

Not so surprisingly, the description of my hometown did not ring a bell as it focused mostly on the town as it existed 800+ years ago. The description of rural Egypt created a veritable clang in my head as I kept thinking to myself "How true" or "Yes, I know someone who would have reacted the exact same way"

This is a book of non fiction. Amitav Ghosh chanced upon a letter between Abraham Ben Yiju, a Jewish merchant living in Mangalore, India, and Khalaf ibn Ishaq from Egypt, written in 1132AD. Part of this narrative focuses on Ghosh's search for more documents relating to Ben Yiju and part of the narrative tries to imagine the world that Ben Yiju lived in.

The other narrative in the book, covers Ghosh's stay in rural Egypt (Mashawy and Lataifa) and it was this section that I found infinitely more interesting and hence hope to pick up his book of essays The Imam and the Indian which promise to shed more light on this phase of his life.

It is in this second narrative that Amitav's gift of story telling is showcased, while in the first narrative it feels stilted, focused on facts and doesn't flow as naturally. Blending history with a a current travelogue is an art perfected by William Dalrymple and sadly in comparison, Ghosh didn't match up.

While Ben Yiju did spend time in Egypt and his letters were written to people living there and most of the surviving documentation came from the Geniza Documents cache from the Ben Ezra Synagogue in the Coptic Cairo area of modern day Cairo and Fustat of Ancient Cairo, this is the only point at which the two narratives seem to meet. For the rest of the book, they just continue parallel to each other.

In the final chapters, when Ghosh heads out towards the tomb of a Jewish Saint in rural Egypt venerated by Muslims and Jews alike, I hoped it would bring about a meeting of the parallel stories, but unfortunately it didn't.

Both narratives on their own are great and very illuminating, I just didn't see the point of putting them together.

Its a great read for someone visiting the Fustat area or interested in observations/revelations from the Geniza Cache or life in Rural Egypt.

The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:10:09 EST

This book review is a tad late compared to the time the book was published. It is estimated that the book is a copy of an original work compiled and copied by unknown authors somewhere in the 11th century in Egypt. This copy is roughly dated to approximately 12th or 13th century and refers to work done by a variety of astronomers, historians, scholars, travellers, cartographers and scribes from the 9th to the 11th century. It is currently available in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, UK and its reference shelf mark number is Bodleian Library, Dept. of Oriental Collections, MS. Arab. c. 90.

The original book contained 5 separate books, only two of which have been copied in the current book. The first book relates to astronomy and has 10 chapters. The second book relates to the earth and has 25 chapters. Totalling 96 pages, it measures 324 x 245 mm. Unfortunately, there have been some losses of chapters in the second book. The paper used is brownish and black ink has been used to write the text and red ink for the headings. There are also other versions and copies of the original book in various other places such as in Cairo, Milan, Mosul, Algiers and another copy in the Bodleian Library.

Here is the full table of contents. As can be seen, book 1 talks about the celestial sphere, zodiacal signs, constellations, stars with occult influences, comets, stars with bad and good influences, planets and their influences / properties, lunar aspects etc.

Here’s a screen shot of the celestial sphere. The sections on the outermost circle relate to constellation signs like Aries, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, etc. Left is the eastern horizon and the right side is the western horizon (remember the centre for the writer is Cairo). Then the next circle inside relates to the major stars, constellations, and bodies such as Ursa Major, Cepheus, Lupus, Orion, etc. Then comes what looks to me like a monthly cycle around zodiacal signs and then the central circle talks about the earth’s seven climes which are aligned to the zodiacal signs. I have absolutely no idea about this detail, but it looks quite impressive.

This page shows details of comets and their properties.

Book 2 talks about the depiction of the earth and time zones, lands beyond the equator, the Arabian Peninsula, cities, seas, islands and other geographical entities, the cities and forts along the Indian ocean, the eastern Mediterranean sea and the cities/forts along the sea shore, the Caspian Sea, various other islands, lakes, rivers, fishes and animals of the seas, and then wondrous waters, plants and animals.

This is how the ancients looked at the world. This is the world map.

You have to put aside your current cartographic perspective to read this map. In the old days, a particular spot which was well known then, would become the centre of the map. So for example, Jerusalem was, for many many centuries, the centre of the map and everything else would be drawn with reference to that single location. Also, cartographically speaking, you will not measure distances and locations by latitude or longitude but by the distance travelled from the centre. As with everything, accuracy of places and diagrams was maximum closer to the centre. This map is actually somewhat oriented with geographical south in the top. In the centre you have the Nile Delta and the River Nile flowing up into the Mountain of the Moon and the Sudan. On the far right is Morocco. The bit in the bottom right quadrant is Europe with Constantinople, Spain, France, and Italy marked out. On the bottom left quadrant is Asia and Central Asia. See the two round fingers in the top left quadrant? They are supposed to be the Arabian Gulf with Mecca and the second finger is a mix of India and Iran. The round spot between the 2 fingers is Sri Lanka. The little edge on the far left is China. The blue lines indicate rivers. Deserts are marked and so are mountains. Pretty fascinating.

The text also has lots of maps of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Caspian, Scicily, Madina, Tinnis, Cyprus, Aegean Bays, etc., and then maps of rivers. Some of the explanations of marvelous sea creatures are very fascinating such as:

فهولا المشوهه خلقهم من تلك الامم فمنهم امة سكان بحر / برهاندين [؟] في بحر الهند ي15سُود الوُجُوه كخلق عادية واقدامهم من خلف أعقابهم مقدار الذراع شمط الشعور مرد الوجوه / طوالها ياكلون من وقع ياليهم من الرجال ويستبقون النسا ي

English translation:
Of these nations, the deformed peoples are the following: Creatures in the Sea of Barhāndīn [?]7 in the Indian Ocean. They have black faces, like normal humans, but their feet are turned backwards and are a cubit long. Their hair is grey, and their faces long and beardless. They eat any man who falls in their hands, and they share their women.

The map of the Indian Ocean was brilliant

It talks about two cities in India, Thaneswar, Dipalpur and then 3 additional unnamed cities. All these cities are separated by various rivers which rise in various mountains. They even mention Manila in here, showing how far the Arab sea farers fared in their voyages. It was difficult for me to conceptualise and mentally visualise these maps. It's so foreign to me, the current cartographic framework so settled in my mind, with the globe and Mercator projections that this kind of 2 dimensional, directionally challenged mapping was just so strange.

Interestingly they also talk about the infidel Turks. I am guessing they are referring to the Turks and Mongols. I think the Mongols heard that the Muslims in Fatimid Cairo were calling them Infidels and in 1258, the Mongols invaded the Arab lands pretty much destroying the Arab civilisation. Many draw the decline of Muslim civilisation from that event.

Here’s a circular map now:

South is at the top, West to the right and East to the left. Remember this is following on from ancient Egyptian times. The Nile River is one of the very few rivers in the world which flow to the north, for some strange reason, most rivers flow east / west or to south, very few flow to the north. So when the Egyptians would look at the river which provided them with their water, life and sustenance, they would look south. So for them the south direction was most important. Hence “Upper” Egypt. All Egyptian maps, till recently, were all oriented South on top. Sort of made me have a cricked neck, but it is a fascinating exercise to think how we are so accustomed to think north is top, and when something like this happens, you get all confused. It's like seeing the water circle the other way around when going down the toilet when you are in the south. You look at it but dont know what’s wrong.

The website is seriously flaky in term of performance, although it is well laid out. It took me 2 days to complete this review and this was after trying to connect over 20 times. I was not very happy with it but still, one day I will go to Oxford and see if I can sniff at it. There is something about old books and their smell which appeals to me. All in all, this document which is now free and freely accessible to everybody in the world with a net connection (when the site is up of course), is one of the world’s treasures. I strongly suggest you go take a peek at the book here.

Book Review: Victoria And Abdul

Deepti Lamba — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 04:51:10 EST

Shrabani Basu's book Victoria and Abdul takes us into a world of love, companionship, untamed ambition, colonial grandeur, petty human emotions and fall from grace that leaves a broken heart.

Shrabani weaves the last ten years of Queen Victoria and her relationship with Abdul Karim, her Indian secretary ( also called Munshi) with brisk yet detailed narration. The love the Queen bore for Abdul caused great deal of fur flying not only in her household but also became a cesspit of gossip for the court and a source of irritation for top brass of the British bureaucracy ruling India.

Initially one may get the impression that the opposition Abdul Karim faced from the Queen's household, nobility and even her children was based on racism and social discrimination but Shrabani delved deeper and showed that Abdul's shameless desire to elevate his status and that of his family to the level of royalty was one of the main causes for his unpopularity amongst the Queen's entourage and amongst the Royalty.

Unfortunately as Shrabani points out after Queen Victoria's death most of the letters that were written between Victoria and Abdul Karim were destroyed on King Edward's command such was his shame regarding his mother's relationship with Adbul and his resentment against the Munshi.

To be fair to those who hated the high handed ambitious Mushi the Queen's preferential treatment towards her Scottish gillie John Brown in the near past made them fear that the same routine would be played out with the young Abdul Karim.

To be fair to the Queen as well, her love for Abdul Karim was that of a mother and her childlike dependence on him was probably a sign her advancing age. And despite pressure from the household, her children and despite the hawk eyed surveillance that was done of Karim's movements both within Britain and India he remained in their midst and the Queen's constant companion till the end of her days.

The rise of Abdul Karim from a vernacular clerk at the Agra Jail to being the Queen's urdu tutor and a gentleman who hobnobbed with Kings and Queens made him a darling of the press both within the country and in Europe and inflamed his enemies even further.

The skirmish between the Queen and her household continued for ten years and the go between the Queen and her employees was Dr Reid who obviously suffered the worst casualty in the war of words and veiled threats. His personal diary in fact was filled only with the pall of gloom that lay over the Queen's household over this issue.

Apart from showing the close relationship the Queen had with her Munshi Shrabani also provides detailed insight into the intricate social protocols of the time that existed amongst the highest echelons of the British Empire and how Abdul and even the Queen blundered and broke many of the sacred rules and ruffled the feathers of the lords.

The detailed research that Shrabani Basu did for this book both in Britain and in Agra has also been narrated in a matter of fact yet delightful manner.

The book till the end was intense and hard to put down. Its a must buy even for those who are not interested in history.

Book Review: Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India

Linette Lim — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:46:38 EST

A recent book by veteran Indian journalist, Sunanda Datta-Ray, has sparked some controversy here.

In Looking East To Look West - Lee Kuan Yew's Mission India, Datta-Ray proposes that the Singapore's engagement with India is not a recent phenomenon. The Indian fever raging in Singapore has less to do with India's rise as a global power and more to do with India and Singapore's shared history. The India-Singapore love affair, according to Datta-Ray, has had its seeds sown since Lee was a law student at Cambridge. An admirer of Nehru, the young Lee was at that time, also spearheading a political movement to overthrow British rule. P N Balji, reviewing the book in the Singapore daily Today, called this angle 'audacious'.

An audacious angle is always good for getting people to think and discuss what they have never considered before. In this aspect, Datta-Ray has succeeded. But he goes beyond making bold and original claims simply for the sake of raising eyebrows. The book gives a first-hand view into India-Singapore relations, and is peppered with anecdotes from key diplomats. To Datta-Ray's credit, the book also discusses the pragmatism behind the India-Singapore relationship: Geo-politics. Singapore needed good relations with India to demonstrate that the city state with an ethnic Chinese majority, was not going to become a satellite of China.

Singapore is India's second largest investor in terms of Foreign Direct Investments, beating countries with far larger economies, like the United States and Japan. Not many people know this. And even fewer know that Singapore is a net recipient of migrant workers from South Asia. These workers with their blood and sweat, build the modern Singapore that we see today. India and Singapore's destinies have been intertwined since the conception of their national identities and one will not do without the other. Indeed, as Lee Kuan Yew said, Asia would be submerged if India did not emerge.

The Writer In The Artist Spectrum

IdeaSmith — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:43:38 EST

I think all artists need an audience. This is everyone from musicians to sculptors to painters. Everyone who has ever expressed an idea in tangible form or otherwise has needed an audience. To those who disagree - if they didn't, then they'd just keep the idea in their own heads. There is an undeniable need in an artist for other people to experience their art. Art is after all, an interaction between the artist and the audience. It is absorbing impressions and communicating them to the universe outside.

Each art form carries its own framework of the artist/audience interaction and I think we gravitate to art forms that fit our needs the best.

The visual arts, painting and sculpting and other related arts are at one end of the spectrum. The artists are usually recluses. They rarely interact with their audience during the creation of their art and their only communication is in the final product. How often do you see a painter or sculptor standing next to his or her work, willing to talk about it? These people are somewhat reclusive and in some cases even antisocial, preferring the least amount of conversation with their audience.

At the other end of the spectrum are the performing arts - music, dance, acting, oratory. The audience is crucial to the performance as the performer himself/herself. Ask anyone who has practiced these arts and they will tell you how important it is to relate to the audience, to get them involved and enjoying the performance. As a result I think these are also the arts that draw the more sociable artists of all. Immediate and constant interaction with other people is very important to the performer. I'll go so far to say that performers are the artists who need other people the most, during every minute of their performance. (For the after, that's true of all artists).

So where does writing fall on this spectrum? Are we the reclusive visual artists because we hide behind our smokescreen of words? Or are we the vivacious performers because we are constantly engaging and facilitating conversations?

I always thought of a writer as someone who lets you sit on his shoulder and view the world as he sees it. Or even better, he lets you in through a little door, into his mind and allows you to read what he thinks and understand what it is like to be him. In that sense, the writer is exactly in the middle. The visual artist is at one end, holding out his art at arm's length for you to see. The performer is the quicksilver, weaving himself around you to take on your form. The writer, in contrast to both the above, brings you into himself and allows you to experience the world as he does.

I have an interest as well as at least a little bit of talent in music as well as painting. I've performed on stage and I've won some recognition for my paintings. But writing is art that feels most like me.

Writers are the only other people who understand my alternating between being a social butterfly and an extreme recluse. That back-and-forth is the very essence of being a writer. Letting the whole world in and then shutting it all out - it's as natural as breathing for a writer. We have neither the stoic dignity of a visual artist who doesn't need another person till he has finished. And nor do we have the unwavering adaptability of a performer to dissolve into other people. We have a little bit of both and we oscillate, collecting material from the world around us, turning it over in ourselves, carrying other people inside our heads and then examining how we feel about that. The words, the thoughts are constantly shifting and shaping themselves and we chase after them with nets of language to convert them into stories for the next person to ride our minds.

Book Review: Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Sunil — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:46:03 EST

Ever thought about how healthcare could be improved? How doctors could reduce errors or complications during serious operations? Almost everyone has a theory on why hospital errors always occur. But Gawande, in his latest book The checklist manifesto: How to get things right, suggests that a major part of the solution lies in an innocuous and mundane a checklist. The book’s point is very simple. No mater what you do, checklists can help you do it better. This applies to the usual suspects (like the airline industry which pioneered checklists) as well as what would seem improbable; a hospital.

He sets us up well, starting with typical medical almost horror stories, of near misses and tragedies in the operating theater, and lays out what he calls “the problem of extreme complexity”. Medical cases are astounding in diversity and complexity. Problems can arise at any time during a medical procedure, and quickly go out of hand. So what can be done to improve this? Aren’t doctors and nurses doing their best already? And then, right away, he throws at you a solution so startlingly simple that you almost laugh it off. A checklist. Checklists work and are widely used in a whole range of professions (who sometimes don’t even call it a checklist). Gawande first describes a few cases in medicine that he came about during his academic research, which intrigued him because they achieved improvements that were way above the typical average in those settings. Piecing together the facts, he realizes that what works here is a little list of things that doctors and nurses run through before, during and after every medical procedure, as part of a defined yet flexible and adaptable checklist.

Digging deeper, he starts to explore checklists in a diverse range of industries. The airline industry is an obvious place to start, and Gawande draws us into the process by taking us to testing facilities at Boeing, starting from the first checklists the airline industry drew up in the 30s and 40s. But from there he starts seeing and then describing checklists in a whole range of industries, from the building industry to investment bakers, top chefs and Wal-mart. The story on the response to hurricane Katrina, the government bungling and incompetence, and the emergence of Wal-mart as an unlikely hero in New Orleans thanks to its superb enforcement of checklists is as amazing as it is inspiring. By the time he gets into specific studies in the medical profession, you already know that checklists make a huge difference. Then comes the studies he helped carry out in hospitals across the world, from rural Tanzania to crowded urban India through the UK and America. In every case enforcing these checklists dramatically improve hospital performance. And the items on the checklist are simple, obvious things. Check antibiotic, wash hands, change gloves, change tubing, that sort of thing. But in the heat of a critical operation, or when overwhelmed by huge patient numbers the obvious is often skipped. By setting up the checklist, giving nurses the authority to enforce them, and making medical teams work like a team the checklist becomes a staggeringly effective weapon, taking little time to enforce, but packing a massive wallop of effectiveness. The errors that come up can be quickly spotted and fixed, the entire medical team becomes more effective, and the doctor’s ego can be kept in check.

Regular readers of Gawande’s books or articles on healthcare in The New Yorker know that he is a consummate writer. He combines a doctor’s thorough knowledge of the healthcare system in America with the rigors of a scientist and the vivid imagery of a fantastic, old fashioned story teller. In his books you’ll find bits of the old sage, and the thriller writer, and the writer of a whodunit. The checklist manifesto is no different. With every old medical war story he brings up, and with every other profession he dives into, you are sucked into the details of that story, even while you shout out the solution; “a checklist!”. He draws you into the story, makes you feel involved in the process, and you gasp with him when checklists work, or scowl when medical professionals resist them, and smile when a great victory is won thanks to an error the checklist caught. Whether he overstates his claim or not, time, the clinical and hospital review process and accumulating evidence will tell. But he certainly does a fantastic job of convincing you that checklists can make a big difference in medicine. While medicine will remain a highly specialized skill requiring years of study and training, the adoption of a simple, rigorous, adaptable checklist is not only possible in medicine, but works magnificently.

Some might think that something as simple as a checklist does not deserve a whole book dedicated to it. By the end of this book though, even a seasoned skeptic will accept defeat. Through the book and this one simple point Gawande is able to give the reader a vivid description of the range of errors or complications in medical science, the immense complexity of modern medicine, and a whole host of issues doctors and nurses face in hospitals in every corner of the world, developed and developing. Some problems are not as disparate as one might assume. By the end of the book, it becomes obvious that some aspects of medical practice isn’t that different from any other complex (as opposed to complicated) field of work, and when checkpoints work so well elsewhere, there is no reason for it not to work as well in medicine. Even smart, intelligent, highly trained people can make mistakes, and checklists can help reduce them. And this is a smart, intelligent, simple book that is well worth reading.

Book Review: Sepia Leaves by Amandeep Sandhu

Anuradha Goyal — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 08:28:18 EST

It is a challenging task to review a book, when you know it is autobiographical and deals with the story of the storyteller. This is a bold attempt by Amandeep to bare his soul to the world, a rare feat. It is not easy to talk about your not so normal childhood, family and all that comes with it. It is not easy to talk about one's own parents and extended family. It is not easy to share your emotions as an observer. It is an immensely intense personal memoir, almost cathartic, a therapeutic need of the author to say the story. So kudos to the author for doing that...

The story takes you through the journey of author from the times he was a small child and since the time he can remember things to the time when he looses his father who in a way is his hero and the real protagonist of the story. He talks about his schizophrenic mother and how he and his father dealt with her and the situations that arose out of her erratic and unpredictable behavior. How their life revolved around her moods and antics, how some day the sun would suddenly shine on them and while the other days they would just be waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually it is a story of a child's persistent hope that one day he and his parents would happily live as a family and share their joys and sorrows like other families. He does manage to do that, may be not to the extent he wanted to, but they do end up living as a family.

His father's character is something you would empathize with while you admire him for his commitment for a woman he married, for a child that be brought to this earth and what he considers a family. His willingness to give up his career, his acceptance of bad behavior of his wife in public and humiliation at the hands of her family is something not many men can do. He is not even proud or boastful of what he does. He accepts whatever life has given him and considers it as his Sanjog (Fate / destiny), and works towards doing whatever best he can do. Eventually he finds some solace in pursuing some of his interests like listening to ghazals.

I would have wanted more details of the story. It seems the author discovered the reason for his mother's condition and his father's amazing commitment, but he knowingly or unknowingly did not share it. There are a lot of situations where the scene suddenly changes and how it changed is not explained. Like when they did go out as a family, how did they talk it out to his mother and what motivated her to go. What is the emotion that kept the child bound to his parents even when he lived away from them in a hostel? Why did he yearn to come back to his home in Rourkela. I would have wanted him to talk more specifics of the city and how the new city also made him distant from his extended family and how the neighbors and father's colleagues made a difference to his life or acted as the extended family. Though he does mention one of his aaya and a newspaperwallah who meant and lot to him, provided care when no one else did and who become a part of life and his mental family.

The events in the history have been used to depict the timeline, but sometimes the author gets frayed away by these events, which otherwise have no relevance to the story. Editing of the books leaves a lot to be desired. There are sentences which are dropped midway, there are popular poems that have been quoted wrongly, the language gets mixed up here and there and so does the chronology. The chapters in Italics are initially used for the present, but suddenly somewhere in between they mingle with the past. The book definitely deserved a better editing.

The mood of the book is Melancholy. Read it to get an insight into how a child relates to his parents and what they mean to him, no matter what the world thinks of them. It is good read for parents who let their children live away from them, while they may be thinking of acting in the best interest of the child, but they probably do not realize that more than anything else the child needs them. A child will never resent a parent for not giving them the best of things in this world, but a child would always resent a parent for keeping him away from them for whatever reason.

An insightful read...

Book Review: Adventure Capitalist by Jim Rogers

Anuradha Goyal — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:40:24 EST

Jim Rogers and Paige Parker along with their anonymous team of videographer and web designer traveled 152,000 miles in three years covering 116 countries across the world, setting a world record. It takes a great deal of courage, conviction, resilience, patience and probably a bit of madness to take up this kind of a challenge. People start feeling homesick after a few days of journey and when they are thrown out of their comfort zone. To throw yourself in the middle of total chaos, to fight for visas on every border, to find a place to sleep and to locate your next meal, even when you have the resources to pay for everything, is no mean feat. The adventure is something that would keep inspiring whole lot of aspiring travelers like me.

The book with its 340 or so pages is too small to capture an experience that is so vast. So you do follow the couple’s journey as it happened chronologically, but you miss out on the details for most places. Author talks a lot of border crossings, the problems or the surprises that they had while crossing with their car. He also talks about the stock exchanges in all major countries, and how easy or difficult it is for a foreign investor to invest there. As they spend most of the time on the road, they do talk about the quality of the roads and have their own list of best and worst roads across the world. He also makes the book personal by talking about his marriage, his father’s illness and his death during the trip. He almost ends the book by talking about his visit to his father’s grave.

In the last chapter which should have been his reflections on the trip after coming back, he actually takes it as an opportunity to thrash America and how it is making enemies and alienating itself from the world. He also takes all possible digs at Alan Greenspan, who he hold responsible for fraudulent reporting by US government and responsible for inflated economy numbers. I am not an expert to say how good or bad his observations are, but I found them irrelevant in a book that should have been about his travel adventure and about his insights into investing in various economies around the world.

Considering that they traveled 150 miles a day on average, they had not more than 2-3 days per country that they traveled, so their connect per country per day is not really enough for them to be able to make any inferences or decisions on the country overall. Jim stops by to give investment advise on all these countries, and giving an impression that the decision is solely based on the 2-3 days spent in the country which seems unlikely. He and his wife also got married while on the trip so the trip also served as their extended honeymoon, no wonder they stop at certain places and find them romantic. I found his investment advises too shallow, as they lacked all rationale and the logic given was too high level. He only talks about balance of trade, demographics and the free trade as the only parameters to consider while trying to invest in an economy. I am sure there is far more to an economy and to investor’s decisions than this simplistic view.

The author makes some common observations like:

1. You can learn more about the country by talking to the madam at the brothel or a black marketer than by talking to a public servant or a government minister
2. Bureaucracy is a problem in every country and public in every country thinks they have the worst bureaucrats. ( Based on my conversation with people of at least 20 nationalities, I agree here)
3. Successful investing means getting in early, when things are cheap, when everything is depressed and when everyone is demoralized.
4. Everyone blames the foreigners when economy goes south. Always.
5. Immigrant always has to run a bit faster, which increases productivity.

For any travel enthusiast, this is definitely an inspiring book, but as a book I would rate it as average. The author had so much to share, but in the process of putting a bit of everything, he missed out on the depth on all aspects. He could have either written a book on each aspect or divided the book into various segments like travel, investment and personal story. Somewhere you just seem to be running along with the author, without stopping by to admire the beauty spread around, the insights lying here and there to be uncovered, the thrill of fighting against odds, the way to get out of the tricky situations, the dilemmas faced and resolved, surprises encountered and the whole aura around the travel.

As an author Jim could have definitely been better. Nonetheless, do read this book if travel is what your dream is made of.

Book Review: The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurcharan Das

Anuradha Goyal — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:50:56 EST

Gurcharan Das is one of the few multifaceted public personalities that we know of in current day India. He had an extremely successful career in Corporate India and has been an equally well read author, besides being a regular columnist in periodicals. What is interesting is that he is able to relate different worlds together and draw parallels where most people fail to see even a connection. This aspect of him makes it very interesting for me to read him.

I have not read his earlier book, though I have owned it since it was released. The Difficulty of Being Good is based on his study of Mahabharata during his academic holiday after his retirement from the corporate world. He studied various versions of Mahabharata, and as it happens to anyone who reads this text, he identifies with certain characters and with some situations and circumstances. He seems to be most influenced by Yudhistra, and his commitment to dharma. He more or less sees the epic from his point of view.

Das has also picked up some driving emotions that create this oldest story of mankind. He has picked up emotions like Duryodhana's envy, Draupadi's courage, Karna's status anxiety (having read Mrityunjay I do not agree here), Arjuna's despair (not sure if this is the right word for Vishaad) Bhishma's selflessness, Krishna's guile, Ashwathama's revenge, and his favorite character Yudhistra's duty and remorse. He has tried to elaborate the role of these emotions in events in these characters' lives and how it drove them for most of their lives. This makes you stop and think about what is the driving emotion in my life, an important question, if we know the answer we may be able to predict or at least understand our behavior. He also looks at these emotions through the lens of current day understanding of them. He draws parallels from today's corporate or political world to illustrate the point. He often introspects and looks at how his understanding of dharma at various times in life influenced and defined his choices in life.

The author wrote this book while he was trying to understand Dharma through Mahabharata, and probably that is why he has so much focus on Yudhishtra, who is son of Dharma and is often referred to as Dharamraj. Throughout the book he says through various characters and stories from the epic that Dharma is subtle or Sookshma. This essentially means that in the world of Dharma, there are no blacks and white, everything is in context. He also discusses various forms of Dharma, the sva-sharma and the sadharna dharma. Dharma that is bestowed upon you as part of being a community is called sva-dharma and this can come from being born in a particular family, caste or country or by being a part of any other form of categories in the society. For example the dharma of a magistrate is different from that of a shopkeeper. Then there is dharma that comes to you from within, with no impact from anything external from you, it is also said to be coming from your svabhava or something that comes naturally to you like heat comes naturally to fire. The same things can be dharma for one person at a point in time and not so for someone else or for the same person at a different point in time. Everyone faces times in one's life when it is very difficult to decide what is the right Dharma? Sometimes your sva-dharma and sadharana dharma end up being in conflict and you may have to choose one over the other.

The book talks of moral dilemmas that have no answers. These dilemmas have always existed and would always continue to exist. He looks at the humanity of the characters and also subtly points out to basic human nature which has not changed over eras. He also relates to these dilemmas to current day heroes and anti-heros, and the possible dilemmas that they would have faced and the characters they resemble in Mahabharata, and how they behaved from a primary driving emotion.

Gurcharan Das highlights lots of aspects of Mahabharata, history of how the story and characters may have evolved over a period of time when it was re-written time and again. How it has more questions than answers, how it has no black and white characters and how every characters has faltered somewhere during the story. He also looks at the story post the war, which is where most storytellers stop. I particularly liked the first chapter on Duryodhana and his envy, which can be looked at as both right and wrong depending on who is your protagonist in the story. The analysis of envy as a human driving force is really good, but the analysis of the rest of the emotions and how they drove the characters left me wanting.

Written with a global audience in mind, Indian readers would find a lot of repetition and retelling of well known stories. The central story has been told at the beginning, but a part of it is repeated as such in every chapter. Limitation of writing a book on Mahabharata in English is that it is very difficult to find English equivalents of certain words and the meaning never gets conveyed in totality. However if you understand basic Hindi and Sanskrit, you would enjoy the absolute words and the poetic flow.

While reading this, I found a resonance with Amartya Sen's 'Identity and Violence' which would have looked at the epic from the identity angle and how it drove the events in the story. Das has looked at the driving emotion of the characters while the same can be looked upon as the driving identity that drove the actions and finally lead to the Great War.

There is an amazing reading list at the end of the book, which the author has referred to during his course of study. This is going to be my most important take away from the book as I love to read books written around Mahabharata, which in my belief is the most complete book, which encompasses all possible emotions and dilemmas that a human being or position of a human being can face. I agree with the author that there are more questions in the epic than the answers and the discussions and arguments after each question only give us the various perspectives on the questions and the potential answers but rarely the absolute answer.

An interesting read, if you like Indian history and philosophy, or if you are searching for answers for some of your dilemmas. It's a simple reading but at the same time makes you stop and think about your understanding of your own dharma.