A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar

It would be exaggerating to say that I have read a lot of biographies, but the fact remains that I do love reading them. The objective of reading a biography is not just entertainment that you would seek from a fiction novel, nor general knowledge of topics that interest you that you gather from non-fiction books. A biography gives a peek into the subject’s life. And a good biography will not just narrate the events of a subject’s life chronologically but will present the most significant events with sufficient background and detail to convey a message that is a learning for a reader to conduct his life. It is like reading a real live fable. Only the moral is a lot more complex and multi faceted than say “slow and steady wins the race”.

Whose life merits a biography? I guess no right answer there. Everyone’s life is interesting, noble laureate or not. But there are some who are capable on inspiring the readers with the tale of their lives like no self-help book ever can. Some are great exposes of political and other machinations which a layman will never otherwise learn. And these books more often than not end up being banned. Some are funny. And some are poignant and serve to sensitize the readers to things that they would be very indifferent to. A Beautiful Mind falls in multiple categories depending on your perspective. John Nash, by no means, is an inspiring character really. But his wife Alicia is. And the life of a schizophrenic person is something that people who have not encountered it will never understand. And making movies stereotyping schizophrenia forms a very harmful image of the disorder in the society. It’s a topic which needs to be tackled sensitivity. Something that the book conveys extremely well. And the rallying of Nash’s colleagues around him in his time of despair that just gives me so much hope that the world isn’t as bad a place as I sometimes think it is.

The story of John Nash’s life plays out like a novel. I will not comment about the research since I am not qualified enough for that, but as a lay reader, the entertainment quotient, for the want of a better phrase, of the book was like a fiction drama. No wonder it made for such a great movie adaptation. Nash’s history, his blossoming as a mathematician, decline during his disorder, and finally his recovery has been depicted beautifully. His relationships with his family, colleagues, students and how they impacted his life in both good ways and bad is borne out clearly. Nash is not played out as the hero. He only is the central character is the book. The author tells all about his life without trying to bring John Nash out as the good guy all the time. His flaws are plentiful, and there is no mincing of words while bringing them out. Most importantly, his paranoid schizophrenia is not over dramatized for the sake of gripping the reader. It is tackled with sensitivity and treated as an affliction that John Nash and the people in his life together battled out, not always agreeing about the course of action, but with a single aim nonetheless.

I will highly recommend this book for people who like biographies. If you don’t, maybe the movie will suffice, but be warned that the movie captures one-tenth of what the book has to offer. And if you think John Nash was just another scientist or just another schizophrenic patient, you are gravely mistaken. The fact that he is both together, and the fact that the scientist Nash won against the schizophrenic Nash, is what sets his life apart. If we can help anyone achieve that, you would have done your bit for humanity.

I Dare - Biography of Kiran Bedi

The most important woman in India according to a magazine, high achiever in this male dominated jungle of a planet, and the person who transformed Tihar Jail: that was the extent about my knowledge about Kiran Bedi, a woman a lot of other women and girls tout as their role model. So, I thought the biography would be a good place to read up about her. After all, she was a cop. And therefore her life was bound to be a lot more interesting than an IT professional. Plus, the book advertised itself by claiming to be the best biography of an Indian. And though I couldn’t recall any other significant biographies from India, I was fairly certain that even considering the lack of competition the book, if not good, wouldn’t be too bad.

To that end, I was right. The book was not bad. And yeah, Kiran Bedi’s life has been quite “happening”, as the hippies might have said. First woman IPS officer, now that’s quite an achievement isn’t it. Something I would have been proud as a parent, a teacher, a friend, a neighbour, or even as her building watchman. Truly, it is so convenient to generalize that this or that is not a girl’s domain. Disproving that requires tremendous dedication, and conviction to battle the cynicism, the doubts, and even ridicule. To say that Kiran Bedi did battle all of that to have a phenomenally respectful career as an IPS officer is to say a lot. Hats off Miss Kiran Bedi!

But then, as a biography this book seriously lacks in quality. Not that I have read many non-business biographies, but I am sure the writing could have been way better. It reads like someone is literally penning down the things as they happened in Kiran Bedi’s life chronologically without giving a thought to the aesthetics of writing. It fails to play with the readers’ emotions, to cause them to flare at the bureaucracy in the Indian System, or cringe at the simply inhuman crimes against the people jailed at Tihar, or simply feel sad for the people who wait for years to even get a sentence and spend time in prison as undertrials. There are some feeble attempts here and there to do that. But they are too far and few in between to praise the quality of writing. Two things could have happened. One, maybe the creative freedom of the author was curtailed, and he was told about the things to write. Or, the writer found that her name would not be mentioned on the cover page and got seriously ticked off by that to put effort into the book. (The book that I have does not have the author name on the cover. The picture of the revised edition I have put up here, does mention the name! Atleast they revised that!) I have a feeling it is the first. Probably Kiran Bedi herself micro-managed the book too much for it to be a piece of literature. And the book at places seems to be a vent to give justification, or to complain against the injustice against her. And the book does seem quite self laudatory for it to be an honest biography.
Final word… yes the book is a worthy read for the sheer personality of Kiran Bedi. Writing pulchritude be damned. The life story of Kiran Bedi keeps you riveted, and the pages keep turning. And you do feel glad that you have such an officer in the system.