Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

An Old Man, A Young Man And Life's Greatest Lesson
Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher. 
Someone older who understood you when you were young and searching, who helped you see the world as a more profound place, and gave you advice to help you make your way through it. 
For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago. 
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of your mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. 
Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you? 
Mitch Albom had that second chance. 
He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. 
Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. 
"Tuesdays With Morrie" is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift to the world

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.07 out of 5 (599,360 Ratings ,19,728 Reviews  - As on Nov 22 2017)
My Rating:   4 out of 5
My Comments:
Very moving and touching conversations between the author Mitch Albom and his dying professor Morrie Schwartz where the later shares his perspectives on the world, one's regrets, death, family,emotions, fear of aging, love, marriage, culture and forgiveness.
One of the best books I read this year.

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Games Indians Play - V. Raghunathan

Why we are the way we are 
In a rare attempt to understand the Indianness of Indians—among the most intelligent people in the world; but also; to a dispassionate eye; perhaps the most baffling—V. Raghunathan uses the props of game theory and behavioural economics to provide an insight into the difficult conundrum of why we are the way we are. 
He puts under the scanner our attitudes towards rationality and irrationality; selflessness and selfishness; competition and cooperation; and collaboration and deception. 
Drawing examples from the way we behave in day-to-day situations; Games Indians Play tries to show how in the long run each one of us—whether businessmen; politicians; bureaucrats; or just plain us—stand to profit more if we were to assume a little self-regulation; give fairness a chance and strive to cooperate and collaborate a little more even if self-interest were to be our main driving force.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ]

India is blessed with many intelligent minds.
Most Indians are more adept at maths and logic than people around the globe.
However, as a nation, we are still falling behind.
Our collective naiveté might be to blame, but how is it that we boast equal parts intelligence and naiveté?
In this book, the writer explains that Indians mistake talk for action. He tries to help readers understand why this happens and how we can change this.
He uses game theory to explain the behaviour of Indians and tries to combine these explanations with concepts of behavioural economics.
The author also presents his twelve points on the fallacies of Indians, explaining that our low trustworthiness, private smartness and public dumbness, fatalist outlook, over-intelligence, lack of public hygiene, self-regulation or a sense of fairness, reluctance to penalize wrong conduct, mistaking talk for action, deep-rooted corruption, inability to follow systems, a sense of self-worth and a propensity to look for loopholes in laws.
He helps readers understand how to break this vicious cycle and how to bring a change in the image Indians have around the world.
This is a definite read for all Indians who are trying to understand what is keeping them one step behind in the rise to success 
[Book Summary Source: Flipkart.com]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.45 out of 5 ( 507 Ratings , 78 Reviews  - As on September 16 2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
Interesting analysis through Game Theory of the typical behaviors observed in the Indian society with a nice touch of humor and food for thought.


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Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

Published first in the year 1999, Interpreter Of Maladies is a collection of nine short stories that revolve around the lives of Indian Americans, and their struggle to blend in with American culture.
The first story, A Temporary Matter, revolves around the crumbling relationship between an Indian couple, Shukumar and Shobha. 

Their relationship begins to disintegrate due to the passing away of their baby, which causes a change in Shobha’s personality and makes her aloof. 

With time, the distance between them increases, and they soon receive a notice about a power cut that would occur for one hour at night daily. 

Each day, they would spend that time talking about a number of dark secrets, which they never shared before, which got more, and more controversial, indicating the end of their marriage. 

The main story of this book, Interpreter of Maladies, is based on Mr. and Mrs. Das, who were NRIs visiting India. 
They meet Mr. Kapasi, who serves as their tour guide, and has a day job as well, which was that of an interpreter in a doctor’s clinic. 
Mrs. Das and Mr. Kapasi begin to feel a strong attraction towards each other, and she shares a highly personal secret with him about herself, which could place her marriage in jeopardy.

Another story in this book, Mrs. Sen’s, revolves around an 11 year old Eliot who begins to stay with Mrs. Sen, whose husband is a university professor. 
She spends her time with Eliot, telling him about her life in Calcutta, and how she terribly missed living there. 
One day, she drives to the market without her spouse and meets with an accident, after which Eliot stops living with Mrs. Sen.

Interpreters of Maladies has been greatly appreciated by readers worldwide, and fetched Lahiri the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This book has sold more than 15 million copies across the globe.

[Source: www.flipkart.com ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.12 out of 5 ( 125,603 Ratings , 8174 Reviews  - As on September 03  2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:
I liked it. Nothing exceptional though. Her novel 'The Namesake" was better.


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Two Saints by Arun Shourie

Speculations Around and About Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi 

The life of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ‘enables us to see God face to face’, Gandhiji wrote. 
Similarly, when someone in his circle was distraught, the Mahatma sent him to spend time at the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi. 
Such was their stature and influence.

The Paramahamsa and the Maharshi have been among the greatest spiritual figures of our country. 
They have transformed the lives of and have been a solace to millions. Moreover, in our tradition, words of such mystics are regarded as conclusive.
They have evidentiary status: if they say there is a soul, there is; if they say there is life-after-death or reincarnation, there is. 
Their peak, mystic experience is what we yearn to have, even just once.

But what if several of the experiences they had - the feeling that someone higher is present next to them, the feeling that they are floating above their body, looking down at it; the ‘near-death experience’; the ecstasy; the visions - occur in other circumstances also? 
Should we think again about their experiences when these occur as points in the brain are stimulated with an electrode during surgery? 
What if they can be recreated in a laboratory non-invasively? When they occur to ordinary persons placed in extraordinary circumstances?

Did the experiences occur from some ailment? 
As was alleged in the case of Sri Ramakrishna? 
From some ‘madness’, which he feared he had? 
From the fits that Sri Ramana said he used to have?

What of the experiences of devotees? 
Seeing the Master where he wasn’t? 
Seeing the Master, feeling his presence, after he had passed away? 
Are these hallucinations?
Or do they testify to the Master’s divinity? 
How would conclusions about their experiences affect their teaching? 
That the world and everything in it is ‘unreal’?

In the light of their pristine example, how should we view and what should we do about the godmen and gurus who control vast financial and real estate empires today, to whom lakhs flock? 
Are they the saints they set themselves up to be or just marketers?

With the diligence and painstaking research that mark all his work, Arun Shourie probes these questions in the light of the recent breath-taking advances in neuroscience, as well as psychology and sociology. 
The result is a book of remarkable rigour: an examination - and ultimately reconciliation - of science and faith as also of seemingly antagonistic, irreconcilable worldviews.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.8 out of 5 ( 10 Ratings , 1 Review  - As on July 20 2017)
My Rating:   3 out of 5
My Comments:A rather convincing scientific explanation of the mystic experiences of the two saints - Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana Maharshi -  without doubting their sincerity and the solace they brought to their countless devotees. 
The explanation is supported by very scholarly and dry details of the neurological studies conducted on the mind by various scientists.
 Unless read with an open mind, this book may hurt the sentiments of some hard-core devotees of these saints.
I would have rated this book higher if only the narration was more interesting and understandable. 
I found it rather boring and abstruse in many sections. 
Inspite of this shortcoming, I would recommend this book to everyone who are curious to know why mystical experiences happen in some people.


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A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Vikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: the tale of Lata's--and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra's--attempts to find a suitable boy for Lata, through love or through exacting maternal appraisal. 
Set in the early 1950s in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis, A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. 
A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]

 The book covers an engaging story that is set in the post-independence India. 
The story unfolds through four middle class families—Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis. 
It also describes India's caste system that has four main classes, which are further based originally on personality, profession and birth.
However, the main plot of the novel revolves around Lata Mehra, a university student, who is under pressure of her mother Rupa and brother Arun for getting married. 
Her family is looking for a ‘suitable boy’ who could meet the standards set by her family.
The novel highlights how marriage in India becomes a family affair, where all members of a family play considerable parts.
It also focuses on typical problems that were faced by India soon after independence. 
Some of the major issues mentioned in the book are tensions between Hindus and Muslims, empowerment of women and the zamindari system.
Divided into 19 parts, each chapter in the book is about different characters which keep inter-relating the stories and, at last reach, to one conclusion. 
The author has beautifully explained and intertwined the lives of all the characters in an extraordinary manner.
Regarded as one of the classic examples of Indian Literature in English, A Suitable Boy, at around 1500 pages, remains to be one of the lengthiest novels ever published in English language in a single volume.
 [Book Description Source:www.amazon.in]


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.97 out of 5 ( 35,300 Ratings , 1702 Reviews  - As on July 20 2017)
My Rating:   4 out of 5
My Comments:Most probably the longest book I have ever read in my life (almost 1500 pages). Yet it kept me hooked throughout. Not a single boring moment.
An excellent portrayal of the characters from educated middle-class families, set in the times of newly independent India.


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Introducing Hinduism : A Graphic Guide - Vinay Lal & Borin Van Loon

Hinduism is said to be the world's oldest religion. 
Yet the word 'Hindu' is of foreign 18th-century origin. 
Hinduism is defined as a polytheistic religion, but Mahatma Gandhi famously declared that one can be a Hindu without believing in any god. 
Hinduism appears to accommodate endless contradictions.
 It is a religion at least as much of myth as of history - it has no historical founder, no single authoritative book, and few central doctrines.
Introducing Hinduism offers a guide to this extraordinarily diverse faith. 
It untangles the complexities of Hinduism's gods and goddesses, its caste system and its views on sex, everyday life and asceticism. 
Why do Hindus revere the cow? 
Must Hindus be vegetarian? 
Introducing Hinduism explores the links with and differences from Buddhism, Jainism and other religions, and describes the resurgence of Hindu extremism, the phenomenon of Bollywood and the overseas Hindu diaspora.

[Book Description Source: www.goodreads.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.52 out of 5 (105 Ratings; 7 Reviews - As on February 5 2017)
My Rating:  3.0 out of 5
My Comments: Quick and entertaining comic book style  guide to Hinduism. Some concepts are treated rather frivolously and may offend some people.


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Carnage by Angels - Y.P. Singh

Police and administration are logically ordained to be angelic. 
But unfortunately, as the years rolled by, they degenerated, as the men and women in power played the cruel game of corruption. 
Alongside, an entire world of intrigue, deceit, sex, love and money started governing the dynamics of governance.

And that is how this novel traverses through the enormous world of glamour, police, bureaucracy, politicians, women, credulous citizens, corporate bodies, underworld, power-brokers, doctors, and media.

This novel endeavors to make a graphic expose of this uncharted ocean of deceit.

[Book Description Source: Back Cover of the book ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 2.37 out of 5 (27 Ratings; 7 Reviews - As on January 28 2017)
My Rating:  2.0 out of 5
My Comments: The story raises a very important issue of corruption in Police  but the narration is rather mediocre and does not hold your attention.



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A Strange Kind of Paradise - Sam Miller

India through Foreign Eyes

A Strange Kind of Paradise is an exploration of India's past and present, from the perspective of a foreigner who has lived in India for many years. 
Sam Miller investigates how the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, Arabs, Africans, Europeans and Americans - everyone really, except for Indians themselves - came to imagine India. 
His account of the engagement between foreigners and India spans the centuries from Alexander the Great to Slumdog Millionaire. 
It features, among many others, Thomas the Apostle, the Chinese monk Xuanzang, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Vasco da Gama, Babur, Clive of India, several Victorian pornographers, Mark Twain, EM Forster, Allen Ginsberg, the Beatles and Steve Jobs. 
Interspersed between these tales is the story of Sam Miller's own 25-year-long love affair with India. 
The result is a spellbinding, 2500-year-long journey through Indian history, culture and society, in the company of an author who informs, educates and entertains in equal measure, as he travels in the footsteps of foreign chroniclers, exposes some of their fabulous fantasies and overturns long held stereotypes about race, identity and migration. 
A tour de force that is at once scholarly and thought-provoking, delightfully eccentric and laugh-out-loud funny, this book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.in ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.96 out of 5 (69 Ratings, 13 Reviews)

My Rating:  4 out of 5.  

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Between the Serpent and the Rope - Mukunda Rao

Ashrams, Traditions, Avatars, Sagesand Con Artists

Between the serpent and the rope is a candid reckoning of some of the most notable spiritual movements in South India today. 
If it is on the one hand a deeply personal journey, on the other, it is an inquiry into the meaning and significance of spirituality in modern - day India. 
The book examines notions of enlightenment, freedom, wisdom and peace through multiple perspectives and spiritual traditions. 
The narrative is a treasure trove of fascinating stories and an illuminating study of the lives and teachings of spiritual masters such as Sankaracharya, Basavanna, Allama Prabhu, Akka Mahadevi, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, the Mother, Jiddu Krishnamurti and U.G. Krishnamurti.
 It is also a scathing take on the modern - day avatars and gurus that include Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Kalki Bhagavan, Sri Sri Ravishankar and Mata Amritanandamayi. 
Large hearted yet questioning, it is as inspiring as it is challenging.

 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.com]

Goodreads Rating - 3.0 out of 5 (1 Ratings, 0 Review)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

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