Reflections: The Hungry Tide

Marine biologist Piya travels to the Sundarbans to study the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. Through her research and friendships she learns about the history of the islands in the Sundarbans and the dangers and realities of the people living their fragile lives in a place that’s equally menacing as it is beautiful. With Nature’s sleight of hand, Piya is pulled into unique friendships and an everlasting bond with the people and the place in a way that realizes her true calling. In this engaging and extremely readable novel, Amitav Ghosh lays out the breathtaking landscape of the Sundarbans and walks the reader through its beautiful terrain and ugly patches of history. 

World Life Conservation has a self-righteous and virtuous ring to it. Everyone (almost, everyone) agrees with it and vehemently advocates it. Ghosh asks a very simple question through this book – would you believe in wildlife conservation to the same degree if your family, your livelihood, and your home were nonchalantly treated as being disposable, or rather, considered inevitable sacrifices in the light of protecting endangered animals in a beautiful landscape? Hundreds of thousands of people live in the Sundarbans. However, these people are mostly viewed as inconveniences, for they come in the way of protecting the tigers and many other exotic species. Even though people are routinely killed, and their livelihoods are routinely trampled on, the conservation project carries more priority than human existence. Something is not right – at least from the perspective of us humans thinking of human survival. That’s not to say that protecting animals in their natural habitat is not important. Conserving nature and wildlife is as important as treating fellow human beings with equal dignity. It doesn’t seem right to callously sacrifice certain human lives because they are considered expendable, and then call it the way of nature. Ghosh’s suggestion is for a more symbiotic, mutually beneficial, mutually helpful approach that aims at a mostly peaceful co-existence. This is surely the most obvious “answer” to a complicated situation, but unfortunately not as simple to execute. But it has to start somewhere. 

I have briefly wondered of these repercussions and conflict of interest between human survival and the survival of the eco-system, and it really just boils down to primarily safeguarding the survival of human-beings whilst being as responsible and sensitive as possible to other animals and the ecosystem. Human survival really trumps the card at a deadlock situation, for I am a human being and it's in me to want to protect my species.

So the crux of the book explores how and in what ways Wildlife and Nature Conservationism affects human lives. But Ghosh doesn’t take sides or push his agenda. He has characters to represent either sides of the argument, but the arguments are always subtly presented in the background. The book tells a seemingly simple story of love and loss without hard-hitting arguments or explicit social commentary strewn across the pages. Also, the unfolding story navigates the reader through real historical events, and questions the morality behind the occurrences. 

Since I love marine beings, I loved that the protagonist was researching on dolphins, that too on Irrawaddy dolphins, a species I hadn’t heard of before. It was fascinating to learn about these dolphins. Ghosh vividly recreates the Sundarbans and sensitively portrays the characters and their lives. The forest is portrayed with mysticism and reverence, as if it were a nurturing being of itself. While I was expecting Ghosh’s writing to be cerebral, pretentious, and convoluted, I was pleasantly surprised (and grateful) that it was simple, lucid, and extremely engaging. Although there were aspects of the book that I thought were too drawn out or uncharacteristically romantic or idealistic, I still enjoyed reading the book. And it was refreshing to read a story that teases out significant social themes without weighing down the reading experience with too many layers of complexity. 

Reflections: In Custody

Deven is a timid and oppressed Hindi professor in a town near Delhi. His profession is a drudgery he has to put up with for the sake of a livelihood that barely meets his family’s needs. His hobby, his passion, is Urdu and Urdu poetry. But when India fragmented during its Independence, the birth of Pakistan also meant the loss and steady whittling of Urdu within India. Hindi elevated to be the National Language, the language of Hindustan. Many Indian scholars continue to lament on the neglect of a language so historic and beautiful as Urdu. So when Deven is approached by his sly friend Murad to interview Nur, a rare Indian legend of Urdu poetry, he pursues the opportunity hesitantly, hoping that this precious experience would rejuvenate and give meaning to his mundane existence. But the experience proves less than rejuvenating and more aggrieving as Deven wrings himself out to record the troubled and difficult poet’s words for posterity. Anita Desai conveys the angst and longing for a bygone era through a simple story that mercilessly underlines the imperfections and frustrations that color certain sections of India.

This sounds like a depressing book, but it is actually more frustrating than depressing. All the characters are flawed or deceitful. It seems like Desai has highlighted the darker sides of her characters, each caught in their own web of frustrations and disappointments. Even physical descriptions of the characters have a bitter and unattractive edge - the women are given the appearance of old hags and witches, the men are sketched as reptiles and weasels. It’s difficult to empathise with any of the characters, except perhaps Deven, but even he exudes so much timidity and cowardice that it pains to see him bullied at every turn. Event after event weighs down Deven’s meek spirit until things just run their course. The reader closes the book with a sigh of frustration.

All that said, the story does realistically represent a slice of India. The characters are true, and very much real, flawed to such depths that their virtues remain firmly shadowed. Much credit goes to the excellent and intelligent writing that unflinchingly etches out the characters and settings with remarkable perspicuity. So many aspects of Indian society and prevalent attitudes are seamlessly layered onto the narrative. The book is not just a commentary on the eviction of a beautiful language from India, but an objective portrayal of  the corruption and dissatisfaction that took over Independent India. Taking on an idealistic tone, Deven’s passion gives him that much-needed meaning and purpose in his existence that regardless of the outcome of his pursuit, just the journey is shown to fill a void within him that was so lacking in confidence and belief. I think one needs to hang onto the romanticism lent by the arts (such as poetry) to see beauty in an otherwise gray existence. In that sense, this story can be appreciated by those of us that get carried away by the beauty of artistic expression.

The book is surely worth reading for the writing and the characterization. And on another note, I would highly recommend watching the movie adaption of it, if you are not so inclined on reading. The movie is adapted and directed beautifully. The atmosphere created through the visual medium softens the rough edges of the story and the characters, making the experience much more satisfying. With a cast of really talented actors, the movie complements and does justice to the book by showcasing the characters and the story in the best possible light. I watched the movie mid-way and it was remarkable how much it positively enhanced my reading experience. 

Reflections: Clear Light of Day

All families are wrought with emotions. Emotions in so many colors, brightness, and intensity that they are hard to capture and arrange within a structure, a spectrum. But its presence in the form of wild splatters, delicate splotches, careful strokes, and rough smudges creates a unique pattern that begins to define the family. Only the those within the family unit can find meaning in that colorful picture and remain connected to its significance. It’s a bond so full of intense contradictions that sometimes we come across as silly and self-absorbed creatures. But, this bond of vibrant emotions exists in every home and will continue to flourish with time. In this vividly sensitive and beautiful book, Anita Desai explores the emotional complexities that are knit into the intrinsic fabric of being a family.

This is a quiet and contemplative book. There is no plot, no story that races or twists or turns. It is simply a sensitive commentary on a family that strains to solidify their weakened bonds. It is a relatable story of siblings who drifted apart and are navigating towards each other against the currents of time, words, memories, and emotions. Sometimes there is more comfort in nursing grudges than healing wounds. But I think there always does come a time (however long it takes) when it gets tiring to hold onto grudges, because we finally see the bigger picture. This novel is a sensitive portrayal of this inner journey.

The writing and the characters make this novel stand on its own. Every character is meticulously and sensitively written. The scenes are beautifully rendered. Anita Desai recreates images and memories that every Indian raised in a middle-class family holds and nurtures. From the tank in the terrace to the dirty well in the backyard to the heat, the dust, the wild gardens, the peeling paint,  the annoying geckos, the rhythmic winding of the ceiling fan, to our own aunts and cousins and neighbors, every image has been reconstructed with delicate attention. The writing grows and matures with the characters, taking on a heightened sheen of insight and beauty towards the end of the book. The beginning of the book doesn’t carry such beautiful writing, but as the book progresses the writing just blossoms with poetic grace and insight!

Recommended for a quiet afternoon read. 

 

Reflections: The Great Gatsby

In feverish anticipation of the movie, I read this acclaimed book. I know it sounds shallow to read a book just to prepare for a movie-adaption, but it’s so fitting given the main themes of the book. With “Love is Blindness” ringing in my ears, the trailer playing in my mind’s eyes, the reading experience was way more dramatic and sweeping than the book itself inspires.
 
Jay Gatsby is a mysterious millionaire shrouded in enigma. He yearns and cultivates a dream so fantastical, so pure, so unreal that it represents the collective American dream of the 1920s to pursue the “unreal”. In the age-old clash of idealism against cruel reality, loyalty against selfishness, the dream crumbles and emphasizes the beginning of hedonism and moral deterioration of a materialistic world of excesses.  

Almost everybody has been edified on all the various social and moral symbols pervading the novel. The sudden wealth and economic boom after the first World War saw America burgeoning with so much materialism that it loosened the social morals of the middle and upper social-strata. The American dream turned into something wholly greedy and selfish. With the swarm of such ambitions and vapid pleasure seeking, the disparity between the social classes widened, and everyone wanted to imbue and realize the dream at any cost. When such ambitions consume one, nobler feelings compete with the brasher ones, and the pursuit is romanticized as something one dearly wishes it represents than what it really is. This is the core of the whirlwind drama that tells the familiar story of the careless rich and the trampled poor. These themes are familiar enough for us today because of the innumerable books and movies that have been cloned and inspired from an original piece such as this. Reading the book from that perspective helps to appreciate the author's foresight and insight.

The deeply buried and half-dead romantic in me still gets swept and swayed by stories and characters that idealize and romanticize romanticism just for the sake of it. Jay Gatsby is an impressionable character whose personality is an endearing set of contradictions that make him an aggressive, mindlessly ambitious idealist. All the characters are memorable for the deft ways in which they are given their personalities with so few words. The author is extremely economical with his words (my perpetual aspiration). Everything is expressed with incisive sarcasm, insight, and beauty. Sometimes, the brevity and incisiveness result in a few vague phrases. The other downside to the writing was the sudden shift between scenes, the impulsive (sometimes flighty) dialogues, and the rapid rush to the end. It all seems too sudden to take in, too unbelievable to let the weight sink in. You need some time to let the book touch you. This makes the book constantly alternate between being a satire and a serious drama. Perhaps the writing itself represents all the contradiction and moral conflict of that era.

As I mentioned, the movie and its dreamy lead may have had a strong bias in my reading experience! But I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.  

Reflections: The Death of Vishnu

Vishnu is a homeless man taking refuge in the first-floor landing of a middle-class apartment in Bombay. Thanks to the odd-jobs he does for the people in the apartment, he scrapes his way through life, barely living, but surviving. Now, he lies dying on the stairs. As the families in the apartment steadfastly neglect and wish him away from the stairs, Vishnu’s life flashes past him as a series of delirious visions that mingle and move in and out of the happenings in the apartment. Reality and delusion often thread in and out, and that’s a major theme of the novel. What’s an illusion, what’s reality, what’s faith, what’s reason, what’s ideal, what’s foolish etc. It’s a novel that brings out several different facets of middle-class life in Bombay with all the communal unison and rifts, disparities and equalities, cooperation and tension, prejudices and biases, superstitions and myths. Weaved into all this is a thread of spirituality and mythology that evokes questions on the bigger significance of life, and how we make sense of it. Is God, the powerful energy of creation, really within each of us? Even within a homeless, hopeless, miserable, pitiable man like Vishnu? What does it mean for this energy to be indestructible?

Too many themes, too many words, too many contradictory terms? True. There’s a lot going on. But it is a compelling and easy read that slips into several layers of meaning, if one is inclined to go into such depths. I love Manil Suri’s writing. It is one of the most captivating and beautiful styles that I have read. I gushed quite a bit on his other novel (Age of Shiva), and the same sentiments hold true with this book. I read it in two sittings, foregoing sleep and everything else because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the words. It’s haunting, alluring, and incredibly sensitive. With his words, Suri touches on just the right notes of his characters’ emotions, and accurately taps on the pulse of their psyche. He hits the right chords deep within you to be able to recognize and understand all the flaws, the absurdities, and sentiments of his characters from. It’s his ability to evoke that deep lingering feeling of poignancy and even nostalgia, that makes his writing special to me.

None of his characters are particularly likeable, but the details and idiosyncrasies of his characters, even if they be unsympathetic, lend so much flavor and realism. All that said,  the story by itself is made to hang in an ambiguous, unfinished state. That’s probably because this is not meant to be a story with an ending. Just like all stories and experiences in life, the story never really ends or begins at a certain point, because there is always a past and always a future until time ceases to exist. So, Suri subtly gets into these philosophical, meta-spiritual levels and leaves the interpretations and symbolism to the reader (examples: the apartment could be seen as the human spirit. The lowest floor signifies baser instincts, the intermediate floor shows the ascent of the spirit through its tussle between faith and reason/intellect, and finally the highest floor marks the graduation of the soul to renunciate, self-actualize, and self-realize. And what awaits in the terrace/roof? That’s up to you). This sometimes makes the novel vague, because most of the social themes just float alongside the spiritual symbols, and the two don’t always come together. Besides, if one is not an Indian, I doubt if some of the social (or mythological) elements would make sense without much elaboration. For example, I thought the characters were developed realistically and thoughtfully, but I can understand how some would find them to be abominable caricatures, because there isn’t enough context to explain their motivations. Too many things are deep-rooted in India. The complexities aren’t always brought to the surface for a non-Indian to understand and appreciate.

It was indeed ambitious of the author to tackle so many disparate and few interconnected themes through one novel. If you expect to find a “tapestry” that arranges and hems all these themes into patterns, you would be disappointed. Everything is sown in subtle stitches that barely hold together. The reader is expected to feel the stitches and decide how the pattern should be. It would have been so much better if Suri had focused on a few themes, particularly through the lens of spirituality/mythology that dominates the book. I’m also not convinced if so many mythological elements juxtaposed alongside social themes add any value to his novels. Regardless, being an Indian who could perfectly understand the underpinnings and roots of these themes, I enjoyed reading the book. The writing was my hook. I’m addicted to the words, and perhaps biased because of it. If you think sentences such as this: “Perfumes perch along the periphery of his perception, flitting away at his approach”, is interesting and even beautiful, you would appreciate the book. If not, I’m not sure the book would sustain your interest. 

 

Reflections: Brahma's Hair

If you are interested in flora and are into mythology, particularly Indian/Hindu mythology, you would like this book. It is a collection of mythological stories surrounding the origin and nature of several tropical plants of India. The stories are entertaining; quite reminiscent of Panchatantra tales. Kids who are interested in plants would love to read or hear these tales. It would be a nice collection of bedtime stories for them. Each tale is accompanied by a factual description of the plant and a few illustrations. The illustrations are decent, but I wish there were real photographs of the plants, fruits, and flowers to help visualize some of them better. 

Maneka Gandhi's writing is clear and simple. Reading the stories, one surely finds recurrent themes in Indian mythology. Plants are symbolized as blessed beings and virtuous souls that stand tall and steady withstanding the tests of time and the foibles of human nature. The stories reinstate them as life-giving, life-sustaining, nurturing beings that should be respected. Nice values to teach to kids on nurturing all-things-bright-and-green on Earth. The stories would also help them cultivate an interest in plants and trees.

To me, it served as a light read during lunch-times and breaks.

Reflections: The Good Earth

This is yet another classic book that, for some reason, despite being a fan of Pearl Buck,  I was never motivated to read until last month. And I didn’t exactly read the book, because I listened to the audiobook. A few words on the audio-format. This was the first fiction audiobook I tried. Despite being extremely skeptical of one voice representing several characters, I decided to try it anyway. And I was blown away by Anthony Heald’s expert narration. It was fantabulously marvelous! The experience of going through this epic book was so much more enhanced, thanks to the brilliant narration. He captured every character, every emotion, every setting, every subtlety so masterfully. He should be given some award for this work. It was really really hard to turn off the book. I could just listen to the beauty of his narration all day.

Now, after that bit of raving, I will now begin raving about the book. This is indeed Pearl Buck’s best that I have read so far. It’s a hauntingly beautiful and sensitive book that truthfully encapsulates life in China during early-mid twentieth century. You might scoff at me for inserting the word “truthfully” in the last sentence, because you may know that I have never ever lived in China nor studied its culture/history to make that claim. So, let me rephrase that a little. I think most people from the East share a common overarching socio-cultural philosophy, regardless of our country of origin, religion, or backgrounds. We understand that cultural thread. We can intuitively recognize and strongly relate to the underlying ideology behind certain values, views, and traditions, even if the external representation of those traditions are different. Pearl Buck beautifully entwines these socio-cultural values and traditions in every sentence of the book. The ideologies are expressed in the most subtle yet powerful ways. For example, the embarrassment, fear, lack of confidence, and anxiety that Wang Lung goes through when he encounters the watchman at the gates of the House of Hwang, and the interaction the two of them have is an incredibly sensitive and right-on-the-dot illustration of specific attitudes and sociocultural norms that’s hard to express. It’s something so subtle, so trivial, and almost too relatable for those of us from the East, but it takes a keen eye (and mind) to absorb, understand, and integrate these common occurrences in beautiful prose that neither overwhelms nor bores the reader. It fleshes out the intricacies of a complex culture in a convincingly coherent and objective manner that’s easy for the reader to assimilate and digest. It is true that when someone truly understands the breadth and depth of something, they use the simplest, most easily comprehensible examples to convey their meaning. Pearl Buck is one of them.

The characters are flawed and human. Just like all of us. Each character evolves and grows with the story of their lives. Their personal growth and failings are sometimes understandable, sometimes worthy of sympathy, and sometimes disappointing and worthy of disapproval; just like the characters in our life. But, even with all the changes and transformations, Pearl Buck reatins the core and the essence of the characters all through their journey; just like how all of us have a core of constancy in us that's untouched no matter how much we do change. This is why I used the term “truthful”. The book is truthful in all aspects, but most particularly, it is truthful in its portrayal of human nature. Pearl Buck excels in the nuances of human nature and psychology. She paints all her characters with the varied, realistic hues of human nature - black, white, and everything in between.

The irate reader might now demand - ok, what of the story itself? Well, it’s the story of Life. The epic life story of Wang Lung and his descendants. The story of a poor Chinese farmer who dares to be ambitious, hardworking, and honest in his unforgivingly cutthroat society that scrambles to survive. The story of fierce ambition in the face of social insecurities, of trials and tribulations, misery and contentment, a power struggle between man and woman, poor and rich, old and young, beautiful and plain, corruption and innocence.

The book is a rich experience of a farmer’s life in China, almost a hundred years ago. It deserves all the praise and laurels. A highly recommended read for those that enjoy character driven books soaked in culture and history. 

 

Reflections: The Happiness Hypothesis

As elusive as happiness is, it is even more elusive to read about it. But I still try. I don’t know why I have this need to theorize or analyze fundamental human emotions, but it’s my personal plague. So, anyway, in this richly analytical book, Dr. Haidt presents a holistic picture of Happiness - how and where does it stem from, what influences it and sustains it? He takes ancient wisdom and philosophy prescribed by philosophers and spiritual spearheads and analyzes if these tenets are relevant to modern life and its practicalities. He makes the case for an adapted philosophy derived from both ancient truths and modern research to pursue and sustain meaning in life, and consequently, reach the sensitive plane of happiness.

Eastern philosophy states that Happiness can only be found within. If it were to be dependent on external circumstances (many of which are often beyond our control), the wise texts and realized souls warn us that such Happiness is but transient, fickle, and not even real. Real, deep happiness comes from within oneself, in such a manner that it can be revelled in, regardless of the external factors. Wise words indeed. We all would like to embrace this philosophy to its core, but despite our attempts, only a handful among millions actually realize this state of Happiness. Such a state of mature, content, detachment doesn’t come easy. In this world that keeps erupting with materialism and ambitions, it’s hard to be attached just to the right degree. It takes several years to perhaps just inch closer to the balance even if one is disciplined to do so. So, what of the several years in between when one vacillates with frustration and discontent in either attempting to reach that delicate balance of detachment, or trying to doggedly achieve a state of fulfillment, or just plodding or whizzing through life trying to make the best of it?

According to Dr. Haidt, there is a formula. Indeed, a formula for Happiness that takes into account other variables than just the inner-self. This is his practical adaptation of ancient wisdom. True, happiness is largely dependent on one’s subjective state of mind, but it is to be conceded that this state of being is also influenced by circumstances and environment. When you cannot control those variables, look for variables that you can actually control, and work towards those. Where have we heard this before? Everywhere. In that sense, the book was not wowing, but it was still analytical and insightful in how the suggestions were made.

Dr. Haidt gives a comprehensive background of every theme and topic he addresses in relation (however indirect and roundabout) to Happiness. He digresses into moral philosophies, the institution of morality in human societies, the value of  virtue in society, the essence of reciprocity and altruism in human nature/society, the need for social maladies like jealousy and gossip, the role played by religion and God, and the transcending power of love. They are all intensely interesting topics on their own (at least to me) and I liked learning about them, but I found myself lost in the middle of each of these chapters, wondering - “Interesting, but how is this fact related to the Happiness Hypothesis again?” I would then find a roundabout answer somewhere (mostly with my own interpretations and extrapolation) but it never came to me as a conclusive insightful paragraph that tied all the different themes together. The themes often floated on their own, occasionally merging with glimmers of understanding. For example, I found the chapter on reciprocity to corroborate with everything that other books (The Moral Animal, The Origin of Virtue) have mentioned, but I didn’t see the link to happiness. Yes, reciprocity and gratitude help with cooperation and survival, ants and bees do these fascinating things, but how is it related to our ability to be happy? I had to think of a link. Altruism makes others happy, making others happy makes us happy too, so the kind of happiness that comes from empathy and altruism is good for you and the society? So indeed altruism is one way to feel good? The author does arrive at this point much later in the book by stating that studies have shown that helping others and engaging in random acts of kindness elevated one’s mood and state of happiness much more than having ice-cream everyday. But there isn’t a cohesive link within each chapter, especially when the particular theme is delved really really deeply, running into sub-branches of facts.

It was also interesting that the author spent time in India (in Bhubaneshwar) studying Manu shastra, Bhagavad Gita, and Hindu customs and rituals. He brings in his observations and learnings throughout the book, but sometimes (especially the chapters on emotions of Disgust and God/Morality) went into so many specific facts that I didn’t grasp their relevance to the bigger picture of Happiness. They were informative, though.

But what I took from the book and its varied chapters is this - Happiness is a sensitive bandwidth within our mental state. Certain materialistic ambitions that are triggered by the primeval part of us (the animal instinct) like being wealthy, owning something expensive, hedonistic pleasures, etc. will make us shoot up to the mental state of happiness really fast, but they are not powerful enough to sustain us within that bandwidth. We will soon drop off it, because we get “used to things”. An expensive car makes us happy for a few weeks, even months. But after that, the novelty wears off, habituation sets in, we take it for granted, it becomes the status quo. So what promises more lasting happiness?

In order to hover within the Happiness bandwidth, you need to

1. Find your passion/s to actualize your self and complement your core values and personality. Align your values and interests to your action.
2. Keep setting achievable goals in your field of passion such that you derive a constant dose/flow of Happiness while engaged in the process of executing those goals rather than just completing them. An example the book gives - remember that feeling you get when you are close to solving a problem but haven’t solved it yet? When you get a creative inspiration? The rush you get when you set out to put all the steps together to solve or create? That’s when you are in the Happiness spectrum. Find projects to put yourself in that spectrum.
3. Give back to others. Yes, altruism is not selfless, it’s great. It makes you and others happy. It also helps you forgive.
4. Value family and personal growth, not corporate growth. But maybe corporate growth is your passion, so.... well, learn to balance. At the end of the day, you have the potential to derive more love and happiness from family.
5. Take time to relish and savor each of the above. Savoring a cake slowly feels so much better than gulping it. Take time to smell the roses...

But sometimes, circumstances in our life are not that easy.  In order to be able to do the above, we  also need to

1. Wake up every morning, believing that your life has meaning and purpose
1. You may not understand the meaning OF life, but you can very well define the meaning of YOUR life by giving it purpose. Set out and find your own purpose in life. That is, find your passion. We’ve now entered the age-old vicious cycle around purpose and passion. But the field of Positive Psychology could help you.
2. Religion can sometimes give you the structure and foundation to build your meaning and purpose in life. It can be a valuable anchor if adopted right.
2. Motivate, motivate, motivate yourself
1. If you can’t find motivation?
1. You cannot change yourself and your state of mind through sheer power of will alone. Some of us have been hardwired to notice much more positive things (thus being more happier in nature), and some of us have been hardwired to identify more negative things (thus being more skeptical and wary). Dr. Haidt calls it the “Cortical Lottery”! I love the term.
2. So, work on changing your behavior by -  Meditating to calm the senses, looking into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or in extreme cases -  anti-depressants. Or loop around steps 1a and 1b.
3. Realize that no tragedy is the end of the world. We have the potential to always find happiness (as shown in research). Some measure of sorrow and misfortune in life makes us appreciate things better. It helps us learn, grow, gather perspectives, identify what’s important, and relish the state of happiness that much more.
4. Forgive and let go
1. Don’t believe in the myth of “pure evil”. Nobody or nothing in the world is purely evil that’s out to attack and destroy you. Empathy helps you understand other perspectives, it makes you more forgiving, thus allowing you to let go of grudges and negativity that prey on happiness. Learn to give back.

That’s my little condensed summary of take-away points. As I mentioned, nothing in the list is necessarily new. Several people from several disciplines have talked about some or all of them. But what makes this book worth a read is that it makes all these suggestions through in-depth analytical discussions surrounding human psychology and the nature of human societies. In that sense, it is quite informative and interesting to read. You would sometimes plunge too deep into a topic and flail around a bit to see the bigger picture, but clarity will emerge eventually.

Happiness comes from within, but there are ways in which you can set the conditions around you to influence that state of being from within you.

A side note: I went through this as an audio-book and my experience was good.

Reflections: Three Men and a Maid

For a light and breezy read to break up the monotony, I resorted to this book. Wodehouse never disappoints. Although this isn’t one of his best works, it does the trick to infuse some light-hearted mirth. Nothing and noone soothes me better than Wodehouse.

The novel revolves around three men and the turn of events in their romantic lives. They are all connected to each other through some fortuitous or unfortunate circumstances, and at the center of it is one volatile girl. What follows is some chaos and drama before all becomes well. Flighty idealistic girls break hearts, strong-willed women nurse and rule, and peace-loving English gentlemen are inconvenienced by the whole lot.

I must say that the writing style in this earlier book of his is quite different from the usual. The humor is more sarcastic, subtle, and the descriptions are a little restrained. But regardless, it is still a fun book. A classic Wodehouse tale filled with chuckles.

Reflections: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I finally got around to read this popular book.Christopher is an autistic young man who narrates and records his experiences following the killing of his neighbor’s dog. Deciding to get to the bottom of the mystery of the killing, Christopher applies all the detective skills he has learned and assimilated from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. But little does he know that the detective game he doggedly pursues would lead him to secrets and revelations that are too complex for him to understand and cope with. Christopher’s story is raw, emotional (for the reader), and helplessly real. This is a fast-paced, incisive book that draws an honest picture of a family that strains to keep it together.

The narration of the book is what gets you, the reader. Although I’m not an expert on autism, drawing from my limited knowledge/experience, I felt that the book was convincingly written in the voice of an autistic boy. Christopher’s narrations lack emotion because he struggles to understand emotions. However, the raw sentences trigger so much emotion in the reader. Just with sparse clinical descriptions of the other characters, you get to intimately understand the other characters. Readers would find themselves alternating between empathizing and being frustrated with all the characters, because the story is a realistic slice of the struggles a family goes through as they do their best to raise a child with developmental challenges. It’s just a difficult situation all around. Everybody goes through their own personal battles, and it’s not easy to untie all the complexities and present a nifty solution. It is a painfully continuous process of coping. The story is as honest as it can be.

It is a quick read that will have you immersed in the intelligent and honest writing all the way till the end. The nice thing about the book is it indirectly presents the unbiased perspectives of all the characters concerned. Within the short span of the book, you will be exasperated, overwhelmed, and touched by Christopher’s journey. 

Life of Pi - The Movie

My thoughts on the book. 

After much apprehension and skepticism, I decided to watch Ang Lee's Life of Pi yesterday. I'm so glad I did!! It was easily one of my best movie experiences ever!

I remained skeptical of a movie/visual medium representing the weight, depth, and essence of the book - not to mention the horror and gore. But how wrong was I! The screenwriter and Ang Lee have masterfully done justice to the book! It's rare for me to rave about a movie made from a book that touched me. But this movie really shines on its own and complements the book beautifully! 

The only aspect that could have been better is the ending. It was a little rushed - I think a couple of visuals would have helped drive home the "other story".  If one hasn't read the book or isn't familiar with it, then it's possible to miss the most important part of the story. The other minor irksome part was Tabu's terrible terrible Tamizh. But for all the attention to detail the movie captured, one can easily look past it.  

Nevertheless, I was surprised that the movie touched me in the same manner as the book did. It truly is an awesome rendition of a heavy book. Everything was exactly as I had imagined.

Kudos to the entire team! Suraj Sharma as Pi Patel is fantastic. The music - awesome. And the direction and cinematography - just perfect!

If you liked the book, you surely would appreciate the movie. If you stopped reading the book because you were disturbed by the gore, then the movie will be a refreshing treat for you. But I do think you need to go to that terrible, harrowing place within your mind that grapples with the harsh realities of life and extreme human/animal nature to better grasp and appreciate the essence of the book. Otherwise the movie/book will not have the same punch.