The Debt Threat - Noreena Hertz

Economics has always appealed to not only my intellectual side but my artistic senses as well. Well, I am not a PhD intellectual or anything, and neither is my artistic side heightened to the levels of Picasso. But I still enjoy any book or article or discourse which might have leanings on either the brainy side, or the aesthetic side. And economics for me spreads on both sides of the spectrum. Debt is one among the many financial and economic creations of mankind, which by its very nature is a piece of art really, and requires a mammoth intelligence to understand fully its ramifications.

And Noreena Hertz explores the threatening implications that international debt has in her book. Even if one is not aware of the global economics, you don’t even have to be a whiz to guess what the term “debt threat” might imply. It is very easy to dismiss the book as one more alarmist piece of literature… like global warming or something else.

But I would beg to differ. For one, the author is aware that she might be regarded as a pessimist and an alarmist when she lists the evilness of debts. Secondly the book is not just about how debt is killing a horde of people in poor countries. It is a complete piece of research on how the whole cycle of debt became vicious in nature, how are the countries suffering because of that, what are the outcomes, and the remedies as well. It is a complicated issue, one does realize. And as Bono (yeah, the U2 rockstar) succinctly puts it, the author does do a commendable job on cutting out the acronyms and making this whole issue a lot more understandable for the non-economists but at the same time are concerned about the well being of the world.

The examples in this book seem to be very repetitive. It is one country after another, suffering under the weight of debt their governments has taken. Some dictatorships have taken debts just to lead a comfortable life for themselves, some governments have taken debts to make weapons, some to destroy forests in an attempt to save the economy, and some simply to service older debts. And these examples take the book perilously close to that dreaded “alarmist” tag. But those examples are just to strengthen the point that the author is trying to make. And while perhaps slightly overused, they are not out of place and definitely not unneeded.

The high point of the book is that the author gives a practical way out. Now, as I said, I am no PhD to really say whether her ways are practical. But as a normal civilian, I find the thought process and the logic sound. And as the author herself says, what she has given in the book is a blueprint, a suggestion at a high-level which needs to be refined and chiseled at to come out with policies to thwart the debt threat.
Having said that, though the book speaks about a topic which everyone should know of which itself would go a long way to mobilize public opinion, the book might be a bit heavy for absolutely everyone to read. Maybe if there could be a series of articles in the newspaper… or some other marketing ploy which would increase the target audience manifold would help. While not everyone might have an appetite for books, a newspaper article might be up for grabs. And the more the people are aware of this issue, the better

Head of Kays - P.G. Wodehouse

I am on a P.G. Wodehouse rampage. With plenty of work-worries I need to have some light moments in the day… or atleast weekends. And I have no inclination to read a heavy book which is simply taking ages to finish, namely, “The Debt Threat”. I have last 20% of that book to go, but I end my day so sapped, and begin it with such dread, that I have simply not got to picking that book to get done with it.Wodehouse, on the other hand, offers a completely different delight. He doesn’t tax the brain, always has a few laughs to be gobbled on the platter and doesn’t mess with the wisdom of the world. A perfect recipe for my overloaded cerebellum. So, I decided to skip my schedule of books and jumped on to a P.G. Wodehouse book. I decided to go ahead with “The Head of Kays”.Well, the book, while it did offer me some much needed sunshine in the cloud infected day (to try and talk like Wodehouse) the book is seriously not that great. To put down a negative feedback about a Wodehouse book in black and white does hurt me. And such, being a Wodehouse fan, I did enjoy the book. But I am fairly certain that a neutral reader would not have enjoyed the book. There is hardly any plot, which is usually the most absorbing part in a Wodehouse story. The book is just a narration about the proceeding of a term in a school. An irritated head of the house, an irksome housemaster, rowdy school boys… It has all the elements of the other early school-books of P.G. Wodehouse, minus even a semblance of a story. The Prefect’s Uncle, The Gold Bat, had some story and conclusion. Head of Kay’s is just some string of events which loosely tie up to an eventually happy ending. It almost feels like the book was a warm-up routine for the real heavy weights produced by Wodehouse in the later years.Ok, so the story wasn’t that great, and is meant only for a Wodehouse completist. You, naïve human, incapable of savoring the delights of Wodehouse, might not enjoy the book. But I did.

The Gold Bat - P.G. Wodehouse

This is one of the earliest books by P.G. Wodehouse. And it reads like a fledgling author’s work.

The book is a part of the school series, which traces the adventures of school boys. Do not be misled by the title or the cover, the book is a lot more about football, or rugby, than Cricket. And story is loosely around a “Gold Bat”, with some politics around the football team selection for the school and a boxing match.

The writing, true to Wodehousian style, is lovely to read. And if someone, like me, reads Wodehouse for the fun of reading, this is quite an enjoyable book, especially since it is a pretty short book.

But otherwise, this is a really, really rough book. The plot barely hangs on to a theme without a definite flow and it seems as if hardly any thought was given to how the story would unfold. The main characters are built up reasonably well, but could have been better. Humour is not too impactful. Ending is abrupt. I really am struggling to find some point on which I can praise the book.
To sum it up, the book is strictly for people who aspire to read the entire Wodehouse collection. The book is no measure of Wodehouse’s skill and wit as an author and has none of the mastery that pours from his later books.

It Happened in India - Kishore Biyani

Finally a business book from India! And no, it did not come from the Tata’s or Birla’s or Ambani’s. It has come from the reasonably unlikely quarters of Biyanis. Actually it is just one Biyani that is famous yet: Kishore Biyani, the first generation business man who has given retail in India the shape it is in. Sure we don’t know how are Pantaloons and Big Bazars and other ventures of Kishore Biyani going to shape up in the wake of Reliance Retail and foreign players. And neither did Kishore Biyani set up the first mall in the country. But he could still be heralded as the Father of Indian Retail simply because he has, as Malcolm Gladwell would say, “Tipped” the retail industry in India. He has taken malls from the domain of the elitist to the masses. And even though the business of Kishore Biyani is minuscule compared to Walmart or Tatas, he has achieved a tremendous amount, enough to warrant an autobiography of his business life.

And true to his style, this book by Kishore Biyani was meant for the masses. It was released in paperback, and priced at Rs. 99. Which is the least I have paid for a business book ever!

However, a good business man, and a thriving business operation, does not necessarily a good business book make! That is exactly what has happened here. The book oversimplifies the whole business a bit too much for the reader to grasp the complexities of the business environment, that too, in a sector which is otherwise dominated by the unorganized players. The best business books tend to chart the journey of everyone involved, capturing sufficient detail to convey the challenges of the business without over doing it which would bore the reader. It’s a fine line to tread. And this book is on the simpler side of the line. It misses that investigative journalistic touch and the business details. Perhaps if an independent author had written a book instead of Kishore Biyani himself, assisted by a writer, he might have done a better job.

Having said that, the book does give glimpses of the Indian Retail scenario. And even the brief insights are quite a delight to read. The growth of the business itself, and the thoughts of Kishore Biyani at every juncture and inflection point for his company are quite well narrated. The anecdotes and comments by people who have worked with Kishore Biyani… umm… well there are too many of them and most are generic praises that anyone could shower on anyone. But then, some of them highlight specific facets of Kishore Biyani’s business style and acumen, and they cover up for all the other write-ups which are plain flattery.
The book is not really written for the B-school audiences. It is meant to fire up that entrepreneurial spark in the people who are looking for a hero to emulate. And yes, Kishore Biyani is a source of bucketfuls of inspiration for such young guns. This book will be more than vindicated if it manages to produce even a single Kishore Biyani in this country of over 1 billion people.

The Game - Neil Strauss

Every once in a while you come across a book, or a movie, or some other vastly influencing phenomenon, which shakes up your belief system and your outlook towards world, people and life. At times, in fact, the only kind of things which achieve that and you hear about, are spiritual in nature. But here I present a book as far away from spirituality as possible. It talks about manipulation of others, faking our identity and a lot of sex. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a book which gave me an insight into a world so vastly different from which I live in, so exciting and “happening” than my own boring life that I am tempted, like the author, to give up my day job and dive into it.

The sub-title, “Penetrating the secret society of pick-up artists” and the silhouettes of women on the title pretty much give away the theme. And while ability to charm a woman that one wants, anytime, any day, is a fantasy that all guys would have, I detest self-help books and was in no mood for any kind of pedagogy on how to improve my personality so girls would flock around me. However, the book is not about what a lot of people might believe it to be: a lesson on how to pick up girls. It is in fact an expose of the whole underground pick-up community.

Neil Strauss is given an assignment to write a proper book on the lines of a crude How-To-Lay-Girls-Guide. From that point he plunges into the pick-up cult, with the instinct of an author and the desperation of a single horny long-time-no-sex guy. Within two years, Style, Neil’s pickup alias, becomes the best pick-up artist there is.

But then, Neil, or Style if you prefer, had a mission and a job. He did not see pick-up as a be-all-end-all of his life. So he could draw lines and have control over his life unlike a lot of other people he met. And by drawing these lines he gives us a view into the pick-up society like an undercover journalist. True, Neil had become Style, but the Neil was never killed. In fact, Neil was the one who was really in control all the time. And it is Neil who wrote this fantastic book.

The book is extremely candid in its portrayal of everyone and everything. Being regarded as the best, and as someone who people actually looked up to in the community probably made it easier for Neil Strauss. But the credit for that too goes to the author. And the book traces the whole journey of Style from being a babe-repeller nerd to a master-Pick-up-Artist (mPUA) to being in love. The book talks about various characters that the author interacted with in this two year span from Tom Cruise and Britney Spears to other mPUAs and his students in The Game. It gives away the techniques used to pick-up girls, it gives the pickup lingo, it gives away the politicking in the community as it grew hundred-fold and it gives the hollowness that eventually hit Style in his quest for gaining the ability to lay girls at will. Neil Strauss writes about what is going on in his head at every single juncture. That makes a fantastically truthful autobiography for the reader.

The book is written amazingly. The colloquial nature of the book makes it even more appealing. The writer draws on some well placed quotes, his own high school poetry and the posts of the pick-up community members in their online chat-room. All of it is packaged brilliantly. At no point does the book become pedantic, or resentful or boring. This is how books ought to be written.

When I finished the book, the first thing I did was I googled some of the names in the book: Mystery, Tyler Durden, Ross Jefferies… and hell they all are for real. I ran into a gazillion pick-up sites. Looks like the whole pick-up thing is commoditized and commercialized beyond repair. That is what Neil himself realized and got out of the game.
In the end you learn a valuable lesson as a reader. Sure guys are sex-maniacs. And so what if such under-ground communities for pick-up training exist, they are really just fulfilling a market demand. The bottom line is how you present yourself that will make people, and girls, like you. You have to internalize a lot of things, because fake simply doesn’t work. That is a one page advice that you will find spread across the first half of the book. The rest of the book is simply about how messed up life can get if you take these things too seriously. Go ahead, read this book. It will teach as much about the contemporary life as a spiritual scripture might.

The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

This book was one of the top ten management books in 2006 according to a publication. Having read this book, I would say that it does offer a few lessons to learn. But for me the biggest takeaway was that people conduct some crazy experiments to determine some really weird things.

For starters, “Tipping Point” is a wonderful phrase. If Malcolm Gladwell did come up with it, he has to be applauded. For me, it is a phrase that should be used as fervently by the Marketing honchos as any of their other jargons. Because “Tipping Point” is essentially a market phenomenon, especially in the business management context. And every CEO worth his salt would love to have his sales triple in a year or two. That is, it is wonderful if a company can make a product, which is barely selling, “tip” on its edge and have it accepted by millions of consumers.

The book starts of explaining this phenomenon of tipping point, why it happens, who causes it and eventually how can someone deliberately achieve it. As far as the logic of the argument goes, it is pretty sound. And examples are quite relevant. The one real good thing about the book is that it is not in just a business context. It has got a social context with business relevance. The other thing that I like is that there are plenty of examples to support the theory that the author is purporting. And while the theory is pretty obvious (like all management theories tend to be) the examples are quite counter-intuitive, varied and thorough. In fact what the author does is collect a lot of experiments, which were conducted for their own specific reason, bind them in a common theme of finding the causes for the tipping point, and present it as a package. So in that sense, the book is quite complete. Though while giving some of the lengthy examples, the fact that the book is about tipping point, is a bit lost in the background.
However, I didn’t feel that the exploration of the phenomenon of tipping point was really scientific. It was a bunch of examples and some thoughts of the author which, really, only give a structure to something we all know. As I said, it states the obvious, in a structured way. Still, all in all, I thought the book was a good read. Primarily because of some of the examples and other research that are described in fair amount of detail. And though the book wasn’t particularly enlightening, I did learn quite a few new things. And therefore, I have no regrets on reading this one. However, to rank it as one of the top ten management books is a going over the top really. But then strange are the ways in which the best-sellers syndicate operates.

Shadowland - Peter Straub

I committed a horrendous mistake when I started with “Shadowland”. I read this one in the electronic format. I couldn’t get hold of a paperback in the book stores, and was too impatient to shop for it on the net. And the e-book completely messed up my experience of reading the book. It had a gazillion typos and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were missing chunks of paragraphs or pages. Boys and girls, therefore, go and buy that book or take it from the local library. A badly made e-book can really screw up best of a best-seller. This is ofcourse assuming that the book itself wouldn’t have any errors and the miserable pirate who circulated this e-book amongst free-loaders like myself is the culprit.

That aside, the book is extremely dark. Stephen King would have been proud of it. It is about a trip by young school boys to a magician’s palace. The school itself has witnessed some pretty unusual incidents. The unusual turns psychotic, and then transforms to nightmarish. The heroes of the book, Tom Flanagan and Del Nightingale, have only their friendship to fall back on. They share a common interest: magic. Tom, who thought himself to be pretty good with card tricks, was floored when he saw what Del could accomplish. And Del kept raving about the person who taught him all, his uncle Collins. So for a summer break, Tom decides to accompany Del to his uncle’s place. It is more than just enthusiasm to pull off some amateurish illusion tricks. It is answering to the call of the destiny which takes Tom to the place called “Shadowland”. And the horrors that await them there are beyond their wildest imagination… and the melodrama ends here.

The thing is, the “horrors” in the book are too subtle to begin with. Most of the book keeps building the whole thing up giving you a sense of impending doom. And the build up, atleast for me, was pretty mediocre.

Add to that, a pretty weak plot and it doesn’t make for a very great read. So in the end, it wasn’t a very satisfying read for me. Plus the structure of the whole book started with a first person narration and moved on to third person, with the story as narrated to the first person. Didn’t really get the logic of that. It could have been all third person to start with. Guess some of the tricks of the trade of authors will remain above my intellectual grasp.

As I said, the book keeps building up the plot. And the climax where it culminates, shows some promise. But when the climax climaxed, so to speak, I didn’t particularly relish it. The evil was destroyed too conveniently. Though it was fair, it wasn’t really satisfying.
All in all, I did not find it a very satisfying book. It just seems like the author just decided to write some horror on impulse, without a concrete story to build it on. Consequently, while the horror is quite good, the story is a bit too weak to enjoy.

A Prefect's Uncle - P.G. Wodehouse

I had bought this book from Landmark, when I was yet to be knighted with the title of “Wodehouse Fan”. With little to do at the “Forum Mall” other than wait for a movie which was to begin in an hour, I went to Landmark book store and started perusing the books. Now, for a marketing person it might be interesting to know that buying books is getting more and more impulsive for me, like with a lot of other consumers as well. But that is a different subject all together. This piece of thesis is on A Prefect’s Uncle, a book authored by P.G. Wodehouse, which was one of the books I casually picked up and glanced through the front and back cover for hints on the plot. There was nothing which revealed anything that could stimulate my interest. And since I had not really read Wodehouse a lot, I wasn’t willing to buy for the brand alone.

Then I flipped open a random page and read through a gem of a paragraph. I quote it here:
The question “well?” especially when addressed by a master to a boy, is one of the few questions to which there is literally no answer, You can look sheepish, you can look defiant, or you can look surprised according to the state of your conscience. But anything in the way of verbal response is impossible.

I of course had no context to this, but I was stumped by the deep insight into such a simple phenomenon. I was smiling, and then chuckling over this paragraph. And I bought the book. So much for the history behind my reading this book.

The story is set in an English School complete with houses and prefects and headmasters. Now, it takes a while for someone to get used to the setting if they have come from a different kind of a school structure. But it is not too difficult though, especially in the days of Harry Potter where every one is familiar with houses of Griffindor and Slitherin and all. But the way the school functions in the book sure is a lot more complex than the way my school worked. But I didn’t really get too lost in it to not understand or enjoy the book.

And enjoy the book I did. The whole enjoyment of a P.G. Wodehouse book for me is the way he writes. Perhaps all writers in his day wrote like this. I don’t know about that. But that does not make his writing any less enjoyable, especially since I have not read anyone else from that era who writes even remotely in his style.

The book is about harmless school politics, friendships and cricket. And the plot of this book is quite thick, though not complicated, with quite a few important characters swimming in and out of limelight throughout. The story begins with the onset of a new term at Beckford School. The primary focus remains sports and how the cricket tournaments through the term shape up. And how Gethryn, the prefect gets through the complications brought in by his uncle. The Uncle however, is not as central to the book as it is made out to be in the title. So renaming the book might have been a good idea. I guess Wodehouse’s publishers, editors or best friends got too caught up in the story to get nitpicky about the title. The journey through the term is quite fun. All in all, I loved the book. This is again a story from the early days of Wodehouse’s career. And the brilliance of the man is teeming from this book.

That could be a prejudiced opinion of a person who is now firmly a member of the P.G. Wodehouse cult. Plus, there is quite a bit of cricket in this book, which is not really among the top ranking sports in the world. Some might argue about spreading the plot a bit too thin among too many characters. So there are reasons for someone not enjoying the book.
But if you like reading P.G. Wodehouse for the way he writes, and if you remotely enjoy cricket, you will enjoy this book. And in 147 pages there is only so much that one should expect really.

Sphere - Michael Crichton

This is the first Michael Crichton book that I have read. And only the second sci-fi book for me. So as such I don’t really have a lot of frame of reference to give an opinion on the book. I mean, it’s only natural that if one has read a lot of books in one genre, then any new book will be called good or bad in comparison with the past experiences. So my review of this book is really absolute, rather than relative.

I am not quite sure if I enjoy the sci-fi kind of books. I actually thought that it would be quite obvious that I would enjoy such books, considering that I have quite a bent for anything related to technology and I do love fantasizing about futuristic technology myself. Plus, I also enjoy the sci-fi movies immensely, even if for the average Joe they are absolutely crappy. So, the odds were pretty stacked up in the book’s favour to start with. And Michael Crichton has quite a reputation for the sci-fi books.

But then, even though Sphere is extremely pacy, I found the plot a bit lame. The book is about the underwater adventures of a crew which has gone to explore a spaceship discovered in the depths of Pacific Ocean. And it is a gathering of people from diverse fields: a mathematician, a marine biologist, a psychologist… to name a few. And they are all there to solve the puzzle of the spaceship. How did it get there? What could be inside? Who did it belong to? How the hell to open it? And life gets weirder and dangerous as they start discovering the answers to these questions.

Now, let me clarify, I find the plot lame, not boring. By plot, I don’t really imply the whole story. I just mean that the defining thing, the repercussions of exploring the mysterious spaceship, around which the whole book is, is a bit stupid for me. I say lame, because I would have expected something entirely different than the scheme of things that roll out, given the underwater setting. But hey, I ain’t the author here. Still, the suspense in the book is actually quite good. And the climax is quite thrilling and fantastic, with logic totally preserved in the presence of highly unlikely science being thrown around. That for me is the most important thing for a sci-fi book (or movie). And the narration of Michael Crichton is actually quite impressive and doesn’t get overly carried away with the scientific descriptions of things. So a lot of things actually offset the lameness of the “plot” for me.
Last word… As pop-fiction “literature” the book is very readable. You will quite enjoy it. And don’t quite get nitpicky like me and you will enjoy it thoroughly.

Pet Sematary - Stephen King

Death is a Mystery, Burial is a secret.

It’s a line on the first page of this book. With a line like that, its difficult not to get lured to the book. Plus the title was pretty intriguing. And with “Sematary” spelled weirdly, I was attracted to the darkness that the book seemed to exude. So I picked it up.

So there are pets here, and there’s a cat, as indicated by the cover picture, and since there is a “sematary”, even with its wrong spelling, in the title, there are dead pets here. And death implies horror. And Stephen King tries to weave a tale around that.

Louis Creed, has just moved to a new house and finds an affable, if old, neighbour, who has plenty of stories to tell about the country and its secrets. One of the secrets is the pet sematary, where the children, in the past, would bury their pets when they would die. And that is where the horror all begins. The past, the history repeats itself, and changes Louis Creed’s life beyond his, or even mine, wildest imagination.

Well, I think there the book merits something. The book tries to tackle the theme as realistically as possible. It is not reduced to a bunch of heroes fighting zombies on a rampage. That would have been a really pathetic. And I actually thought that there is a pretty good chance that, that’s what it would become. But it didn’t. Thankfully!

One big negative is that the book rambles quite a bit. And the author has a hard time building up the horror. In fact the book could have been half its length if Stephen King would have wanted to write it. But he chooses to include the elements from Louis’ professional life in a quest to give it an extra dose of horror. And even though that portion, is actually quite vivid and scary, the way it is related to the actual plot is just lame.

Ending is good. You don’t feel cheated when you finish the climax. Stephen King stays true to the story and concludes it the only way it could have concluded.
The book would have been an excellent short story… one of those which wrap up in 100 pages and there are 5 of them in a book. There is not enough content to warrant a 400 page novel. Not that it is boring (Hell, I don’t get bored by any book), but you do end the book with the feeling of having read so much, but read still so little!

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? - William Poundstone

Catchy title, ain’t it? Well the title is one reason I did pick up to see what the book is about… I know… I know… you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover… or the title for that matter. But that’s not what I am doing. Just saying that the title piqued my interest. Plus, there is also “How the world’s smartest companies select the most creative thinkers” as a subtitle on the cover, with Microsoft being referred to as a smart company (which I endorse whole heartedly, not getting into the debate of the quality of their software). And since I am an active member of the job market currently I had a somewhat personal interest in this book.

Having said that, I also loath the preachy self help books that teach you how to win friends, or how to get rich, or how to change the channel on the TV with the minimum effort. Thankfully, this book stays miles clear from being preachy. It is like a person who knows his stuff come and give his acquired knowledge to us in the 15-min coffee break. It educates, but does not bore; which is quite a task to achieve.

The book primarily focuses on the proliferation of puzzles in recruitment interviews, especially for the young, ready-to-take-on-the-world college pass outs. It covers pretty much all the aspects on the subject: the history of puzzles in interviews, the objective of puzzles, their effectiveness, ways to tackle them, and even what companies should do while using puzzles as a technique for hiring along with a handful of puzzles thrown in. None of the topics in the book make you feel like you have read a heavy duty chapter on “.Net” technology. And the tips in the book are actually quite practical.

But don’t read this book if you want a treasure of puzzles. There are a plenty of websites dedicated to them. The book is about a very narrow subject: “Puzzles in interviews”. But the audience for this book is not narrow. Obviously the kids who are gonna pass out of their colleges next term could make good use of the book. But you could read the book for plain fun and some pretty neat insights into the hiring practices in some companies. And by the way, to give the answer to the title puzzle, if you tried, you can move Mount Fuji in 30 million years, give or take a few million.

- Himanshu

PS: A little anecdote: A friend was interviewing candidates for a position in his company. He asked one candidate, “If you are in a race, and if you overtake the guy who is third, what position would you be in.” The candidate promptly said, “Second”… It took some time before the catch sunk into him and he sheepishly said while leaving the room, “That should be third, it was a trick question!”
A couple of candidates later, my friend asked the question, “If you are in a race, and if you overtake the guy who is SEVENTH, what position would you be in?” And the candidate blurted out, “Third…”

Snapshots from Hell - Peter Robinson

This is a book a lot of my friends had been talking about during my MBA days. When I saw it at the bookstore of my company, I finally decided to give it a read. I wasn’t disappointed.

There is a line on the cover which sums up the whole book, “The making of an MBA”. Now my MBA was quite ok compared to my engineering, which was my hell. And believe-you-me, it was much more of a hell than Mr. Robinson can ever imagine. In fact, it reminds me of a line in the popular TV Series (my favorite) F.R.I.E.N.D.S, in which Phoebe gives Rachel a piece of her mind, shouting, “Yeah, mine was a real problem, while yours is some high school drama…” Well, but I know what it feels like to feel like in hell. And it’s never the quantum of problems that make life, or a place, hell. It’s just the existence of problems, and not knowing how to get around them. So while I’d like to believe that my problems in engineering were a lot greater than Peter’s (I somehow can relate to the author so well, that I feel I am on a first name basis with him) problems, as I am sure every person believes that his problems are greater than his peers, I do understand the mental and the emotional state Peter, and all of his classmates were going through.

And that is quite the brilliance of the book. To convey what exactly was hellish about what the 333 students in the Stanford Class of 1990. It’s not melodramatic. It is not about getting abducted by a gang of fundamentalists or the operations of a secret anti-normal-pro-weird cult or a heart rending romantic tragedy or raining-bullets action or any such thing. Actually, it is what every single troubled student would go through in his academic course. Which is why everyone can relate to the book and enjoy it, and not enjoy it sadistically, enjoy it the way we would look at our troubled past and smile at it, silently applauding ourselves that we got through it. And you can relate to the “Snapshots from hell” even more if you have done, or are doing, MBA, which was the case with me. Of course my MBA was very, very different than what Peter went through. Any present day autobiography of a modern day MBA would be laden with “Google”, “MS Word”, “ppt”, “laptop/computer” etc. They are conspicuously absent in Peter’s MBA during late 80s.

Another achievement of the book is that it captures the aspirations of the fellow MBAs very accurately. The desperate struggle for grades, the summer jobs, the final jobs, dating scene, all of it… the frame of mind of the student is very accurately captured. And the best thing about the book is that it is a very, very candid, something stronger… honest, shall I say, expose of the MBA grads. The slumbering in the class, the getting through MBA with the help of partial-credit-for-partially-correct-answers in exams… yeah… the MBAs who get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, indulge in all of that. One of my friends, who is doing an MBA in IIM-A, the most prestigious B-School in India, says that IIM-A grads can’t bend spoons with their minds. They are just humans. Well they are humans in Stanford as well. And Peter makes that point.
It is a delightful read, and I would recommend it highly to people who have anything to do with an MBA. I would handcuff people, gag them and forcefully read the book to the people who have airs of being a superhero because of an “MBA” from a prestigious B-School. Just to remind them to get real. And lastly, MBA is no requisite for happiness. You need to be doing what you like for a living. As Peter has taken up what he enjoys best even after his MBA… writing. And am I glad he took up writing. Because otherwise, the book would never have been born.

The Inscrutable Americans

A bumbling, wannabe-American, rustic Indian yokel who lands up in America, to be dazed by the sights and sounds of the western culture… makes an easy setting for humour, be it for a movie, or a book. The book came at a time when the whole “America” craze perhaps started gaining ground in India; when families from Gujarat, Punjab and rest of the states came up with ingenious and desperate strategies to get to US-of-A. The wave persisted in the 90s and the dying (hopefully) remains are still found in the country.

Go to a family get-together, where one of the relative families has moved to US, the rest of them who are left back in India, you will find, exchanging stories of embarrassment faced by that family because they were not conversant (read intelligent) with the American way of life. They too would have a lot of stories about the goofs of the now NRI relatives. Combine them with the stories that the NRI relatives themselves would narrate when they get to India, with a dash of ego and pride thrown in and you have “The Inscrutable Americans” narrated first hand. This book, however, is a fictional biography of Gopal, the kid from Madhya Pradesh who finds himself in America for his studies. He is quite intelligent, but not what his peer group would call “cool” in US. And the book goes on to narrate the adventures and exploits, of Gopal with his friend-in-need, Randy, in an alien country. His dreams, his fantasies, and his constantly bloating ego with the thought of having seen so much more than his friends at the village, and especially his letters back home do generate some chuckles, if not boisterous laughter, as you go through the book. And the growth of Gopal, through the two year journey is brought out quite empathetically in the end.

A lot of people had been raving about the book, positioning it as one of the stars of the “humour” genre. But I didn’t quite agree. It’s a nice book. But if someone asked me to name the list of good books I have read, Inscrutable Americans, wouldn’t feature in it. Because it’s plain… ordinary. Maybe in the time it was published, it had a lot of bearing. And people could relate to it. And though the thoughts and confusion and nostalgia of Gopal are well narrated, it seems a bit clichéd. Except for Gopal’s letters to his family. They are quite a riot. And as such the book is quite enjoyable. But not quite a masterpiece. But then, I am guessing the book was meant to be a light read and not a profound thought provoking literature representing the writings of the century. In that case, the book hits a bull’s eye.

The Dead Zone - Stephen King

Stephen King has written the book almost as if he were writing it for a movie. It really reads like a screenplay more than a book.

To give away a little bit of the story, albeit, very briefly: John Smith has a major accident which puts him in a coma for 4 years. And when he does regain his consciousness he realizes that the world, more specifically, his world has changed… a lot.

For me, the book is a mellowed version of a super-hero story. John Smith has his superpowers, as a result of an accident, the ability to see in the future. When you go through the book, you find out it is more of an ongoing punishment than a welcome gift. Whatever it is, John is equipped to save the world. But then, John Smith is a lot more vulnerable than Superman or Batman. For one, he does have to work for a living. And he has a love life that, by no fault of his own, is in utter shambles. And being a superhero, well, he has a world to save! Well, if I am making it over dramatic, let me tell you its not. It’s the paranormal which is present in the right amount in a real world. There are no super-villains that John is battling. But having seen the future, he has a problem to solve, which would hurt the whole of the country if allowed to manifest itself.

Amidst all of this, the real aspects of John Smith’s life are very well narrated. His own anger and resentment for the way life has turned out for him touches you in some mystical way. Because what is happening to John, and even though he wistfully wishes to go to the past and set things right, he accepts it with a sense of finality. That renders a poignant touch to this Stephen King book.
Perhaps not a great book in terms of story or its high-adrenalin drama, and not really on my all-time-favorites list, but it’s not something that I regret having read either.

Christine - Stephen King

I read the blurb on the back page which basically suggested that Christine, with her overbearing evil powers had Arnie Cunningham completely in her control. Well… I thought about some evil chick getting her evil deeds done through poor ol’ Arnie. As it turned out… Christine was a car!!! An evil car, bent on killing the people it… sorry… she didn’t like!!!

For those who remember, there was a movie made in apna Bollywood, “Tarzan – The Wonder Car.” Guess where was the plot picked from!!! Oh yeah… Christine… was renamed as Tarzan! Now that’s a riot. And for the people who bothered to watch the movie, I know I did, it was a crappy movie. And with the movie as a reference point for me, I had my doubts about Christine as well.

But hey… the book was written by Stephen King. And he didn’t let me down. To begin with, the characters are extremely well built, be it Arnie Cunningham, Dennis, his best friend , girlfriend Leigh Cabot, the original owner of Christine, Lebay, the rowdy college kids, the parents… and most importantly, Christine. That’s where Stephen King is unbeatable. He is believable, even convincing about Christine’s evilness. The chemistry between various characters is brilliantly brought out. The hate between Christine and her rival Leigh; the awkwardness between her and Dennis; the control of Arnie’s mother over him and then his rebellion; and most importantly, the relationship between Arnie and Christine; everything is absolutely brilliantly portrayed. And while I wouldn’t be too excited about a car killing people, the narration held me on.

Lastly, the climax is good. That is where most horror books trail off in a bad way. Not Christine. When you flip over the back cover, you get a sense of completeness about the book. And it’s really irritating if you don’t get that after 500 pages!
500 pages… not too many by Stephen King standards. The story, though predictable is quite pacy and thrilling. Even the surreal plot of “car on a kill” is brought out convincingly. Therefore, it is quite gripping as King introduces newer facets of Christine as the book progresses. That, makes the book quite an enjoyable read.

Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

How do I describe it? The title suggests it is “Economics for freaks”. Or maybe, “Economics by a Freak”. Either ways, its not economics at all. Or is it?

Well, the book is certainly no PhD literature or a text book in economics. The graphs which so plentifully adorn economics text books like heaps of jewelry encumbering an Indian bride, are conspicuous by their absence. And there are certainly no third derivatives of random variables, etc. etc.

What makes the book fun to read, even for… shall I say, laymen, or the humans who understand English but not Economics, is that the book goes about making inferences from data in a way Sherlock Holmes explains his “Elementary, dear Watson”. At the end of the inference you would go “A-ha”. Look at Freakonomics as a creativity and inquisitiveness stimulating book. At a gathering of philosophers, economists and other pundits there were several unifying themes presented for Levitt’s work. For me, the central message is, ask the right questions, gather the right data, and get the right answers. The first step, and therefore the most crucial one, is ask the right questions. More importantly, ASK. The book addresses questions which would make an economist cringe by their frivolity. Sample these:

• What do school teachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common?


• Where have all the criminals gone?


• What makes a perfect parent?

And so on. Freakonomics gives a “scientific” approach to resolve these, many would say, pointless, questions. And that is where the charm of the book lies.
At the end of book, I really feel inspired to dig for more of Levitt’s research. It would be so absolutely fantastic to have him as a teacher for a couple of terms. There is no way that someone can not enjoy this book. It might not change the way you think. It might not spark that curiosity or the methodology in you. If nothing else, the book is plain fun. You could read it for that!!!