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.

Summer Moonshine - P.G. Wodehouse

While I can sing an ode praising this book, let me get the one negative point away at the outset. The title… is chosen completely at random. It seems that Plum just ran out of titles for his stories and picked any convenient phrase out of the book.

The story… if one has to criticize it… is based on the usual Wodehouse formula. Someone has a money problem. Someone has a love problem. And everyone’s entangled in more ways than you can imagine. So I will commence upon my favourite exercise after reading a Wodehouse book, that is, trying to summarize the plot in a paragraph. I have had my Scooby snacks. Here goes.

Sir Buckstone Abbot, the apparently rich heir of the ancestral home, Walsingford Hall, is actually hard pressed for cash. And the only way out of his cash-flow problem is to sell his palatial house, which he runs as a sort of a motel, taking in spendthrift guests who are willing to pay a sum. The problem in selling the palace is that it has been hideously renovated, and it would take someone of eccentric tastes to buy a house like that. Thankfully Buck has found a customer, Princess Dwornitzzchek, who fits the bill. All of Buck’s hopes lie in keeping her happy. But the problem is that The Princess’ son, Tubby Vanringham, who is staying at Walsingford Hall, is sued by Buck’s secretary, and if the news reaches the Princess the deal would be off. So it is in the best interest of Buck that the paper server (for those who don’t know, paper server is the person who gives the court summons to the sued party. As it turns out, it is an adventure frought occupation) away from Tubby. The twist is that the paper server, Sam Bulpitt, is Buck’s brother-in-law, and while he goes about his job, also takes a liking to his niece, Jane Abbot, daughter of Buck. So another of Bulpitt’s agenda is to straighten out the love life of Jane, who is love with this Adrian fellow, who also secretly happens to be betrothed to the aforementioned Princess! Last but not the least, is our hero, if we can call him that, who also loves Jane and, without much success, tries to woo her. Our hero Joe, also is Tubby’s brother, and the estranged step-son of the Princess! That, pretty much completes the circle!!

Love triangles are all too common in Wodehouse books. But this one was exquisite. And the dynamics entirely different. I loved the way Joe went about wooing young Jane. While no single character is as forceful as a Bertie Wooster or PSmith or Galahad, the combination gives enough food for some extremely hilarious dialogue. The plot keeps getting more and more tangled, as only Wodehouse can manage. And gives a neat solution to all the problems in the end. There have been better climaxes to Wodehhouse books, but this one’s not far from the best.

Lovely book this one. A must read for Wodehouse fans!

Phantoms In The Brain - V.S. Ramachandran

This book was a recommendation by a friend. And boy was it a great reco.
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of assuming that like all medical books, this one, being on neurology, is as boring, dull, with unnecessary medical jargons and details. You couldn’t be more wrong. The author candidly confesses about how medical authors could get into that mould and steers clear of it. And while some details of the brain structure are required, no where does it get too lengthy for you to lose interest.
The book is not really an expedition to teach the laymen the working of the brains. But what it serves to do is elucidate us with the fact that a lot of strange behavior that we ignore, or worse, viciously hate, are no more than physical shortcomings of the brain. That, therefore, would merit some sympathy from the normal section of the society who can differentiate a vertical mail slot from a horizontal one and who do not see cartoons and animals out there in the world.
It is indeed very moving to read about some of the problems people have when some interconnections of the brain go awry. Imagine the fear of the lady whose left hand (or was it right?) kept trying to strangle her. Or like Memento or Ghajini, this guy could not form any new memories. There are a lot of cases described in the book. And the least we could do is be sensitive to their problems.
The book starts off with the discussion on phantom limbs, something that I wasn’t aware of before I read this book! What a strange concept, isn’t it, for the brain to think that an amputated leg or a hand, or even removed breasts, still exist! And to register physical signals to those phantom body parts! The entire genesis, problems, potential cure for the phantom limbs is beautifully explained. And did you know that when a body part gets amputated, physical stimulation on other parts will make you feel that something is touching that missing body part. For example, if someone gets a hand amputated, and if you run a feather on a section of his face, he will feel that your brushing his palm. What a strange thing the human brain is, isn’t it?
The book tackles phantom limbs, and other strange aspects of brain functioning, like visual responses, neglect and denial symptoms, the part of brain that gives you a religious experience (it’s grossly under-developed in me) and concludes with the question of how to define the “Self” in context of the brain. The last chapter is the only one where it gets really heavy and the discussion is a mixture of philosophy as much as it is about neurology. But then, that’s the nature of brain and how we live and think isn’t it?
Think Matrix. There a whole pseudo world was created was created for people by feeding electrical signals to the brain. Does then, consciousness have any meaning? No one is doing anything really, but they are living a complete life lying in a tube.
This book will make you look at life a lot more humbly. We are all a function of our brain. But how it reacts is a function of us. It’s a relationship hard to comprehend. And I really believe that the whole exercise, however intellectually stimulating, is completely futile. But then neurology can not be completely objective with it’s only aim being curing brain ailments. Philosophy is bound to get mixed up. And in this book, V.S. Ramachandran coexists peacefully with Freud.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

The only reason why I waited to read the Harry Potter books was to let the movies fade out from the mind. The reason I chose to read them at all was because I was thoroughly disappointed with the last two editions of the Harry Potter movies. The special effects were all great of course, but when those movies ended I had this sensation that a lot of things were left untold. And the books were universally liked. So I had no choice but to start reading the books.

The first book was definitely written exclusively for children. It’s a good versus evil story where good eventually is victorious. It talks about virtues of courage, friendship, etc. etc. which would all be mixed with a story which would be meant for kids. Plus the writing is that easy style which the children will not struggle with. But I must also add that the stories aren’t as kiddish as say Enid Blyton stories and therefore can grip the interest of adults as well. But to expect any poetic imagery or literary pulchritude from Harry Potter books is just naïve. And probably snobbish.

A word about the movie… the first movie was definitely very well made. I had liked it when I had seen it, and now that I have read the book, I can say that the movie follows the book very closely and completely. And it captures the magic of Hogwarts and the Harry Potter world beautifully. You can not read the books now without the faces from the movie creeping into your imagination as you visualize what you are reading. The spells, the creatures, the objects, and Quidditch, my God that was well shown in the movie.

Well… 1 down, 6 books to go. Soon enough I guess

Risk - Dick Francis

This is the story of a righteous accountant, Roland Britten, who is also a jockey. And it is horse racing which is his first love. But being righteous, he has his share of enemies, the people whose scams he has caught as an accountant, and subsequently reported to the authorities.

It is one of them, apparently, who gets Roland kidnapped and confined in a small dark room. He escapes, and then again gets kidnapped and gets confined in another small dark room. Interim he tries to figure out who was out to get him, and his kidnappers, since they aren’t exactly professionals, do leave a trail which Roland manages to unravel. But that might just have been a very bad idea.

A large chunk of this story is about the confinement of Roland Britten. And while the narration isn’t as fear inducing as say Stephen King’s Misery or Gerald’s Game, it fits well into the genre that Dick Francis writes.

The story flows with an easy narration and witty dialogues and is entertaining. Something that you can read very quickly and feel satisfied about it. Though I must say that the accounting practices in England are very strange indeed. Or atleast they were pretty strange when the book was published. Roland Britten goes about matching a lot of numbers around and about which is not something that any accountant or an accounting firm would do. Well, whatever the case may be, it does make for an entertaining story and a very plausible premise on which the plot is built.

Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse

After a heavy economic, cum history, cum business book, it was time for some light reading. It had to be Wodehouse.

Mating season is a book for those sentimental, romantic people who are capable of writing never ending odes about a strand of hair of their loved ones. The book will give you a lot of strength in case you ever face an ordeal in your love life, where separation from your lover seems inevitable. It will strengthen your belief that all will turn out to be fine in the end. If you have Jeeves by your side that is.

The book has a plethora of characters who are in love with this person and that person. This creates a tangle of human emotions where everyone seems to find themselves distanced from their better halves. In the center of it all is Bertie Wooster, the good Samaritan who sets to sort out things. So there is Gussie FinkNottle (what a name, even for a Wodehouse book!) who is originally in love with Madeline Bassett, the girl who has categorically stated that if things ended with Gussie she would come hopping into Wooster’s arms. And Wooster in turn, pales at this knowledge and is therefore committed to ensuring that the two are on the best of terms. That endeavor finds him at Deverill Hall where he must go because Gussie gets himself imprisoned. So that means that Wooster goes there as Gussie, which is convenient for his old chums Catsmeat and Corky, who are brother and sister. It is convenient because Corky’s ex-fiance Esmond Haddock who was given the brusheroo because he did not have the spine to stand up to his five aunts is apparently now swooning over Gertrude Winksworth who is the daughter of one of the aunts, the formidable Dame Daphne Winksworth. And Gertrude is the lodestar of Catsmeat’s heart. Eventually Gussie comes there as Wooster, because even Wooster is an expected guest, Jeeves comes there as his man, Catsmeat comes there as Gussie’s gentleman. 

Oh the mind boggles! But wait… I am not done.

Gussie, who is posing as Wooster, falls in love with Corky, and Catsmeat finds himself mistakenly engaged to the Jeeves’s Uncle’s Daughter. Oh Yeah, forgot that. Jeever’s Uncle, Charlie Silversmith is the butler at Deverill Hall. And the daughter, Queenie, is slated to marry the local police constable Dobb. And there is Aunt Agatha’s son, Wooster’s young cousin, a dog and five aunts to contemplate… Jesus… Wodehouse really outdid himself in plotting this one.

The story basically unwinds with the philosophy of from the frying pan into fire where things keep going from bad to worse and it is all upto Wooster and his aide Jeeves to sort it out.

Believe me… this book is non-stop funny.

The Corporation that Changed the World - Nick Robins

Well… I didn’t really finish this book, because I carelessly forgot it in a flight I took from Mumbai to Bangalore… but I had read around 80% of the book so am in a position to comment about the book.

The reason I bought this book is to read up into the history of East India Company and their stance with respect to India. The history books in the school dwelt on the Maratha era and then passed on to the 1857 mutiny and there on to the Independence struggle with only a cursory mention about the impact of the East India Company on the nation from a economic and a political perspective. The only thing that was communicated was the atrocities committed on the Indians under the rule of East India Company and then the British Raj. What this book offers is a proper blend of the rise of East India Company, their functioning, their political and social impact not just in India but globally, and their eventual demise.

The good thing is that the author has managed to keep out any bias while presenting the historical facts. He maintains the business book feel while discussing the operations of East India Company as he compares their functioning, the organizational structure, the capital raising mechanisms and the rampant malpractices of the Company with the modern day organization.

The book gives sufficient detail for a person like me who wants to read on the subject more out of curiosity and for high level information. The writing is entertaining and is not boring in a text book way. It does not mince words about the cruelty that the Britishers subjected the Indians to and how methodically they ruined the entire country’s economy. This is the first business book that sparked my patriotic fury. And it did well to remind me of the struggle that India as a nation has been through to be free from the clutches of the foreign power. All the post-independence rhetoric, however clichéd, strikes true. We as Indians, have struggled for long. It’s about time we did not get carried away with the rampant westernization and rose to the riches of the pre-East-India era, where while there were inter-ruler wars, the per-capita income for the common man, was much higher. It’s high time we stopped being a poor nation.