The Immortals

[Author: Amit Chaudhuri; Publisher: Picador; Paperback: 424 pages ]

This novel has three main characters - Nirmalya an adololescent boy, his mother Mallika Sengupta and their music teacher Shyamji.
Set in the backdrop of Mumbai of 1980s and Hindustani classical music as the underlying theme the book explores the relationship between these characters in a very laid-back leisurely manner as the story unfolds.
The Immortals has  several awards to its credit and was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book 2009.
The story does not have a conventional plot . Reading experience was more like watching a documentary film. The ending was rather abrupt. In fact the author could have chosen to end the story at any point of time in the narration and it would not have made any difference.
However the poetic style interspersed with subtle humor employed by the author while he sketches the characters and describes the city of  Mumbai (then Bombay) of thirty years back in time kept me fully engrossed till the end.
Readers used to fast paced novels with twists and turns may not appreciate this book.
But definitely a good read as far as I am concerned.

 
Links 

•  Author's website
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 2.98 / 5;  97 ratings; 23 reviews

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Science - A Four Thousand Year History

[Author: Patricia Fara; Publisher: Oxford University Press; Paperback: 512 pages ]

 
First I will let the author Patricia Fara  to introduce her book.
(Play the embedded video below. In case of any problem view it on the YouTube site)

This book:

• Does not portray scientists and inventors as ideal heroes but as  real people who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, who trampled down their rivals, or even sometimes got bored and did something else.
• Argues that for a scientific idea to prevail it being right is not always enough. People should accept the fact that the idea is right.
• Challenges the notion of European superiority in science,  by showing how science has been built up from knowledge and skills developed in other parts of the world like China and Islamic world.
• Instead of focusing on  abstract theories proposed and esoteric experiments conducted by scientists , it explains how science belongs to the real world of war, politics, and business.
• Describes the works of many individuals who were not scientists in conventional sense, but who developed a variety of skills - navigating by the stars, smelting ores, preparing herbal medicines, building ships, designing cannon - the contributed to the global scientific enterprises of today.
• Explains why the following questions are important and suggests ways of tackling them:
• Does religion inhibit or encourage science?
• Are alchemy and magic completely divorced from science?
• Were there really so few women or have historians the picture by telling too many exciting adventure stories about intrepid men exploring the female nature of world?
• Is it possible to have different types of science that are all valid?
• If there were indeed different sciences in different places, then how are they related to each other and modern science?
• Investigates the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and academic enterprises that made science global.
• Shows that what counts as a scientific fact depends not only on the natural world but also on who is doing research and where and when.
• Argues that scientific knowledge as it travels from one environment to another, is constantly adapted and absorbed in different ways and such transformation is still continuing.
• Challenges assumptions that appear natural yet have been created artificially - it aims to provoke thought and argument, not just provide information.
• Looks at past in order to find out how we've arrived at the present in order to improve the future.

The book has seven parts each consisting of seven short (8-10 pages) chapters. Discussions are well supported by illustrations, anecdotes. Author's sense of humor and sarcasm.also surfaces at several places.

One drawback in this book is , barring a few stray references here and their the contribution of  India towards the development of science is not given due credit. In fact decimal arithmetic and the concept of zero was  discovered in India before it spread elsewhere.

Though the readers looking for something more technical will be disappointed, overall this book is quite a light and entertaining read on the sociological history of science for a layman.





Key Points from the Book

Part I: Origins
Key Points : Science's origin is traced to ancient Babylonia & Greece. Ideas and discoveries pertained to projects like finding auspicious time for religious festivals, winning wars, vindicating biblical prophecies, divining the future, explaining the cosmos. Science's very foundation lie in techniques and concepts now often designated as magical or pseudo-scientific.
Chapter Titles : Sevens, Babylon, Heroes, Cosmos, Life, Matter, Technology

Part II: Interactions
Key Points: What counts as science depends on where and when you are looking. Information, skills and objects constantly travel from one place to another, gets passed on through generations and get adapted to local needs and taste. Scientific knowledge resulted from many centuries of communications and interactions between different peoples and places especially China, the Islamic world and the mediaeval  Europe.

Chapter Titles: Eurocentrism, China, Islam, Scholarship, Europe, Aristotle, Alchemy

Part III: Experiments

Key Points: Experimental approach towards the world that characterizes modern science developed only gradually and intermittently. Many innovations arose from reformulating traditional expertise rather than from inspired insights. Ancient ideas coexisted with ones now belonging to modern science. For e.g. coexistence of  -  both Aristotle's theory and Copernican theory of the Universe; magic, alchemy and mathematics.

Chapter Titles: Exploration, Magic, Astronomy, Bodies, Machines, Instruments, Gravity

Part IV: Institutions
 Key Points: Science is an integral component of the society, interwoven with industry, business, warfare, government, and medicine. Eighteenth century was the vital transition phase from private experiments of a select few who were wealthy to the public laboratories, state funding of institutions and industrialization. Institutions though lacking the charisma of heroics of individual discoverers and inventors were vital for advertising scientific achievements and for attracting financial backing for research projects.

Chapter Titles: Societies, Systems, Careers, Industries, Revolutions, Rationality, Disciplines

Part V: Laws
 Key Points: The nineteenth-century scientists' proposed  laws governing human as well as physical world  arrived through supposedly objective reasoning and precise recording of  facts as detached observers. But personal biases and subjective assessments of recorded results were not uncommon among these scientists. The viewpoint of German Romantic philosophers of this era who stressed a unified cosmos in which human beings are integrated within natural world resonates more with modern environmental attitudes.

Chapter Titles: Progress, Globalization, Objectivity, God, Evolution, Power, Time

Part VI: Invisibles 
Key Points: Despite development of increasingly precise instruments in the nineteenth and twentieth century it remained impossible for the atomic scientists to know everything about every natural phenomena  both theoretically and practically due to the uncertainty permeating in every aspect of the Universe. Many politically and commercially motivated research programs claiming to further science and improve humanity, launched triggered deep ethical reservations.

Chapter Titles: Life, Disease, Rays, Particles, Genes, Chemicals, Uncertainties

Part VII:
Key Points:  Modern scientists know much, much more than the ancient Babylonians about the structure of the Universe and mechanisms of the living organisms. But they are still unable to answer some of the basic questions about human existence asked by the people several thousand years ago.Massive investments in science, technology, and medicine yielded great achievements. Yet these achievements are like a double-edged sword. Political decisions needs to be made about how to take advantage of scientific discoveries.

Chapter Titles: Warfare, Heredity, Cosmology, Information, Rivalry, Environment, Futures




Links 

• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.78 / 5;  73 ratings; 15 reviews

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Chasing the Mountain of Light

[Author: Kevin Rushby; Publisher: Constable and Company Ltd.; 
Hardcover: 276 pages ]

The world famous diamond Koh-i-Noor (which means "Mountain of Light" in Persian language) has been adorning the British monarch's crown since 1850s. How it landed up there is a fascinating story.
In late 1990s the author Kevin Rushby  traveled through India following the trial of Koh-i-Noor diamond from Kollur mines in Andhra Pradesh to Amritsar in Punjab.
This book is an account of this journey during which he met people from all walks of life - miners, smugglers, merchants , politicians, royalty, bureaucrats, scholars , academicians - in the places where the renowned diamond has passed through hundreds of years ago. These encounters helped him to know more about the Koh-i-Noor and also provided him a good exposure to the Indian society where he found "both the depths of human greed and heights of spiritual aspiration".
An interesting travelogue. A good light-read to pass your time.

Links 

• Wikipedia article on Koh-i-Noor
• Author's website
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.63 / 5;  27 ratings; 3 reviews

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How to be More Interesting

[Author: Edward de Bono,  Publisher: Penguin Books , Paperback:  304 pages ]

In this book, the author Edward de Bono the originator of lateral thinking methods, provides guidance on developing oneself into an interesting person. And this transformation does not  necessarily mean being a  celebrity or performing outstanding feats or having an unusual experience or holding an interesting job. 
According to de Bono what make you an interesting person depends upon - what happens in your mind; how you express what happens in your mind; what impression you create in the mind of a listener. 
Being interesting is a skill which can be developed. Hence this book is a workbook consisting of 70 short  and simple exercises intended to help you develop this skill. These are exercises to train your mind to think and express yourself in an interesting manner.
de Bono strongly encourages you to do these exercises to get full benefit from the book. He also cautions that book should not be read like a novel in a hurried manner. Instead it should be read through slowly, agreeing or disagreeing with the points made by him based on your own experiences.
Well I did implement de Bono advice to some extent but I doubt whether this book has turned me into a more interesting person. Maybe you can try yourself and see whether this book works for you.
Just an OK sort of book, authored by a person who has written path-breaking bestsellers like "Lateral Thinking" and "Six Thinking Hats". I was rather disappointed since I had high expectations from it.

Overview of Topics
 
Apart from the Introduction and Summary , there are three main sections in this book. A brief overview of  topics discussed in these sections are as follows. Each of these topics has several exercises associated with it.

The Basic Operations of Interest : 

• Possibility : Opening up and exploring possibilities in mind. Going beyond what is in front of you. The role of hypothesis and speculation.
• Alternatives: The deliberate generation of alternatives. Alternatives of explanation, action, ways of looking at things, etc. The importance of the 'fixed point'.
• Concepts: The fundamental importance of concepts to all thinking. Concept extraction as a source of interest.
• Run Forward in the Mind: Visualization, imagination and projection. Looking ahead, moment to moment, to see what follows and what happens next. Exploring forward in time.
• Connect and Link Up: The effort to make connections and to link up different matters. Skill at connecting things enlarges the field of interest. We are no longer limited to the immediate matters.
• Provocation: With provocation there may not be reason for saying something until after it has been said. Provocation are the basis of creativity. Provocations open up new lines of thought.
• Attention-directing: Where do we direct our attention? Why do we direct attention? Attention either flows on or is directed. Directing attention creates the dance of attention that is central to interest.
• Alleys, Avenues and Themes: We choose to open up and to pursue avenues and alleys of interest. How do we notice them? Why do we choose them? Themes are very broad areas of attention.
• Clarify, List and Summarize: The need to express things simply and to communicate them well. The use of analogies and metaphors. The value of lists in clarifying, thinking and providing attention points.

The Drivers of Interest

• Feelings: Feelings provide the fuel for interest. There is a whole range of human feelings. They are there to be enjoyed. Interest seeks to  draw in those feelings.
•  Relevance: Relevance to yourself. Relevance to other people. Relevance to human nature and so on to individuals. Relevance is a key part of interest. Something becomes interesting as soon as it can be made relevant.
• Human Interest: There are a number of basic 'human-interest' drivers: sex, money, scandal, categories, etc. People are interested in people and people's behavior.
• Emotions: These are strong emotions. What is their place in 'interest'? Do they help with interest or do they interfere with interest? Emotions may be simple or mixed.
• Humenes: This is a new word to cover that aspect of interest that derives from physiological behavior in the mind: humor, insight, surprise, etc. This is a powerful form of interest but need not involve either relevance or feelings.
• Fascination: A powerful form of interest. The interest that is aroused by wildlife television programs. Something may be fascinating in itself. The importance of curiosity.
• Knowledge and Stories: The content part of interest. Information and experiences. First-hand or second-hand stories. The ingredients of interest as distinct from the operations.

Interaction

• Discussion: Discussion and conversation. Interacting with other people. The use of basic 'interest operations' to increase the interest of a discussion.
• Agreement: The value and use of agreement. Ways of agreeing. Developing and building on ideas. Full agreement and partial agreement.
• Disagreement: The dangers of negativity. The ego-driven sources of disagreement. The fundamental flaw in Western thinking. The benefits of parallel thinking. The Six Hats framework for discussion. Designing a way forward.
• Bores and Boring: Why is someone is boring? Jumps and changes in conversation. The use and dangers of interruption. Diversions.

Links 

• Edward de Bono's website

• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.02 / 5;  51 ratings; 8 reviews

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Outliers - The Story of Success

[Author: Malcolm Gladwell,  Publisher: Backbay Books , Paperback:  346 pages ]

People who are extraordinarily smart, accomplished and successful are very few. They are Outliers ! You won't come across them in your normal course of life.
What makes them stand out among the crowd ? In this book the bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell  says that intelligence, ambition , personality traits may be necessary but not sufficient conditions for becoming such extremely  successful  achievers. The circumstances-  like culture, family, time, location, upbringing, luck etc. - in which they are  born and grow up in, play a major role in their achievements.
This book is full of examples and case studies of outliers to substantiate this theory. The reason why a person is an outlier is well researched and described in a very interesting manner.  At the first instance the linkages between the causes and the outstanding success stories are not obvious and even seem bizarre  . But once Gladwell explains it one can see how well they stand the test of logic.
One of the most interesting books I have read so far this year. A must read !
 
Links

• Dan Dascalescu's Wiki  has an  excellent and comprehensive summary of case studies discussed in this book
• Extended Synopsis of Outliers in Wikipedia 
• Malcolm Gladwell's website 
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 4.05 / 5; 143902 ratings.

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A Prisoner of Birth

[Author: Jeffrey Archer,  Publisher:Pan Books , Paperback:  624 pages ]

This is the second book of Jeffrey Archer  which I have read within a  year. I had read his False Impressions few months back.

Danny Cartwright has been sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment for the murder he did not commit. He has been framed by a bunch of four close friends who are the real culprits. They  go scot free. The novel is all about how Danny escapes from the prison and takes revenge on them (ala author's first novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less)

Though it seems like a Bollywood movie plot  the story is actually inspired by Alexander Dumas'  The Count of Monte Cristo,

Jefffrey Archer is in his elements in this book . Only he can keep the readers engaged on a very hackneyed plot right from the page one till the last page.

A very entertaining light read !

Links:

• Author's Website  
• Goodreads Review  -  3.99/5.0; 9,979 ratings; 1028 reviews 

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The Professional - Defining the New Standard of Excellence at Work

Author:         Subroto Bagchi 
Published:   2011
Publisher:    Penguin Books India
Hardcover:  256 pages
 
Who is a true professional ? 
The author a well known business leader in Indian IT industry, redefines "professionalism" in this book. 

 A book which every professional should read and benchmark themselves against the yardstick laid out by Subroto Bagchi. 

Read more about this book in my professional blog.

Goodreads Rating : 3.86 out of 5 (14 ratings)