"How am I?"

For years and centuries before humans were hit by the gadget which even one year old can understand, the most profound question for each thinker (even lesser mortals) was - "Who am I?". Haven't we all read various writer write about this most classical question? Someone even said that most of the work done in art, science and religion actually tried to just answer this 'just' question. Means may be different but the answer to this question is surely the key to self-realization and claiming that self-realization.

But, alas, the question has changed with the introduction of social media and all the image management around it. The question most of us seeking now is "How am I?". If someone just wants to have a look at this question, go on and pick up any social media imprint of a person and the question would right there. In the era where people do not have time to read through a full article (or sometimes a paragraph) - how can we expect someone to read you? And hence it is our 'socially' moral duty to push ourselves into their minds. Even though the image which we try to push is totally fake most of the times.

It was not that this question was not prevalent earlier. Yes, it was prevalent when we all were a kid. Don't you remember, you used to judge yourselves based on how other person feels about you? Like, how do I play a particular based on a friend's opinion, or how do I perform in studies based on a teacher's opinion, or how do I rate myself as a son/daughter based on parent's opinion. Weren't we judging ourselves based on some other person's opinion. And then we grew up with the same philosophic mind of judging ourselves based on what other people think about us. But the difference in those times was the comforting factor that we were fine to live in our cocoon thinking and pondering about one's self as soon as we were out of the world's eyes.

With the advent of social media, humans just took it to another level. Instead of just trying hard at times and getting our high based on how people judge us, we went a step further and introduced marketing to it. Well, isn't business all around you - so why not introduce it in your self as well. And let people judge you highly - yes, because that it what gives us a high. Now, we actually lead people to judge us in a particular way.

A way which is built by us - one status message, one photo, or one check-in at a time...

In Love Of Books

हॉल में मैं दिल्ली किताब मेला के एक दौरे पर गया. बहुत बढ़िया लगा यह देख कर की किताब मेले में अभी भी इतने लोग आते हैं. लेकिन कहीं एक कोने में, एक छोटे से स्टाल पर e-reader के प्रचार को देख कर फिर वह द्वन्द जहन में शुरू हुआ की क्या किताबें ख़त्म हो जाएँगी? यह तो वक़्त ही बताएगा पर किताबों से मोहब्बत करने वाले गुलज़ार साहेब लिखेते हैं

`कभी सीने पे रख के लेट जाते थे
कभी गोदी में लेते थे
कभी घुटनों को अपने रेहल की सूरत बनाकर

नीम सजदे में पढ़ा करते थे, छुते थे जबीं से
वो सारा इल्म तो मिलता रहेगा इंशाल्लाह
मगर वे जो किताबों में मिला करते थे सूखे फूल और
महकते हुए रुक्के
किताबें मांगने, गिरने, उठाने के बहाने रिश्ते बनते थे
उनका क्या होगा
वो शायद नहीं होंगे`

Book Review: Thug By Mike Dash

Thug, (ठग), a member of the murderous Indian cult
Thug, slang for a gangster, a petty thief, or a minor villain, deriving from the above cult

For nearly two centuries, this lethal murderous cult made the life of the highway travellers hell throughout the central India, Rajputana and South (to some extent as well). Thugs were normal native people - nothing different about them - they used to do farming at their homes and then due to certain problems (like famine, bad crops, loans, etc...) they get onto highway and murder people for as little as eight annas.

The Thuggee cult was suppressed by the British rulers of India in the 1830s, due largely to the efforts of the civil servant William Sleeman, who started an extensive campaign involving profiling and intelligence. A police organization known as the 'Thuggee and Dacoity Department' was established within the Government of India, with William Sleeman appointed Superintendent of the department in 1835. Thousands of men were either put in prison, executed, or expelled from British India.The campaign was heavily based on informants recruited from captured thugs who were offered protection on the condition that they told everything that they knew. By the 1870s, the Thug cult was extinct.

'Thug: The true story of India's murderous cult' by Mike Dash is the result of three years of research in the voluminous archives of the English East India Company, preserved in London, New Delhi and Bhopal. Mike Dash gives a competent historical account of Thug beliefs and practice, through to their extermination by Sleeman and his men. This book traces the history of Thugs, looks into their lives, their modus operandi, their victims, their leaders and their decline.

A wonderfully researched and written book, Thug by Mike Dash, is a honest attempt towards understanding this controversial subject.

Book Review: Desperately Seeking Paradise By Ziauddin Sardar

"Desperately Seeking Paradise" is a spiritual-cum-philosophical autobiography by British author and scholar, Ziauddin Sardar. In this book, the author is in search of the right approach for paradise (and please do not take it literally) - one notion which is termed as the prime objective for every Muslim. In his search, he joins one sect (or thought of school) and then gets dejected by its approach/thoughts/people etc... and then leaves it to join another and same thing happens there as well and then another and so on... His search takes him from Mecca to Bejing and all the other places, in between meeting with people like Zia-ul-Haq to Anwar Ibrahim, even attending a mujaheddin meeting with Osama Bin Laden in attendance, and him running into Iran's military police in times of Ayotollah. There is an entire chapter dedicated on 'The Satanic Verses' controversy - talking about how the author felt bad about 'The Satanic Verses' and the Ayotollah's fatwa as well. Here the author regrets that the core issue was buried under whatever political drama that took place around the controversy.

The book is filled with lots of information about various aspects of Islam, ranging from different terms associated with it to the current as well as traditional interpretation of different things associated. He also looks into different school of thoughts and poses a not-so-rosy picture of things. This book was written in pre-Iran, pre-Iraq, pre-Afghanistan era and with his descriptions one can relate to what is happening now and how its roots are related to those times only. The authors quest for a new initiative about "paradise-seeking" is not accepted in the traditionalist societies where the true meaning of Islam has been confined to having a beard sometimes. He also tries to understand what does Sharia means in actual terms and how it should be adapted in modern times - again he finds that societies just want Islam in totality but are never open to understand the totality itself.

I am not sure what to make out of this book - I am as confused about this book as the author is about his search. The main problem as seen by the author is that nobody is willing to listen to modernist Islamic views. Overall, a nice read for me at least - for understanding more about Islam and another face of it where there are modernist thoughts in plenty.

Book Review: From The Holy Mountain By William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple is that sort of a writer you would love to read just because he has written it. For me, he will always be such a writer. Every book of his has been good than the other one. He surely writes a lot about Middle East and Indian Subcontinent. In "From The Holy Mountain: A Journey Among The Christians Of The Middle East", he travels the Silk Route of ancient Byzantium through the present day Middle East retracing the AD 578 journey of John Moschos, a well known Byzantine monk, traveller and historian. All along the way he only sees a dying heritage in form of neglected monasteries, declining number of Christians and great sort of confusion among different religions in the region.

He begins his journey on Mt. Athos after seeing the older manuscript of 'The Spiritual Meadow' (the book by John Moschos), travels to Istanbul, eastern Turkey, Tur Abdin, then on to Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt. Wherever he went, he retraces Moshos' route, visits remains of his era and tries to stay in the same monasteries as Mochos has done centuries ago.

All the while he notices that early Christian presence in the area was very significant and it has been declining steadily ever since. It has been sometime due to political suppression or sometimes just due to better opportunities outside - but in nearly each instance it has taken its toll on the region's culture and heritage. Some of the monasteries mentioned by Mochos are now extinct or destroyed either by time or governments. On the one hand, he notices the differences between Islam and Christianity getting wider and wider down the ages. On the other hand, he still find these religions intermingled together at some holy places praying together for miracles or babies.

Certainly worth a read for its rich description of the place, early times and understanding of current scenarios.

Book Review: Freedom At Midnight By Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins

Freedom At Midnight is supposedly a non-fiction book written in fiction style by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, first published in 1975. Although I would say that it is more fiction that actually a non-fiction book - some of the facts mentioned in it are controversial and biased. With all the fiction and fact thing being mixed, you will be left wondering if this book is a fiction book or factual one. The book covers the events around India's independence, starting from Lord Mountbatten's association with India to the death of Mahatma Gandhi. This book is surely one of the better accounts of the most important phase in the Indian subcontinent - especially India and Pakistan. The book covers different aspects to the Indian independence very effectively - who were the main people driving the whole process, who actually prepared the maps of India and Pakistan, what happened to the royal palaces/property/grandeur of pre-independence princely states, and many other such questions are handled.

One thing which I realized in this book is that it is somewhat biased towards Indian National Congress political leaders of that time and portrays Muslim League leaders in the negative shade. Well, I may not agree entirely with the authors - no one is just black or white - everyone has grey shades. And INC leader surely had their fair bit of share in grey shades.

Even though I would say that this is a better way to learn about those events. It is surely not a historical commentary of events - the writing style is simple and engrossing. Surely a one time read.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Whats great about this book is that it will change the way you look at things. Economics, for me, has never been my cup of tea. It is a science much bigger than reaching to Mars, I think. But this book is made for people like me. It is fun reading, all the while using data mining, to prove why things happen as they happen in terms of economics.

"Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" is a book by Steven Levitt (University Of Chicago) and Stephen J. Dubner (New York Times). It proves that economics is not dull all time and not all related to finances most of the times. The book's topics include:
Chapter 1: Discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers (See below)
Chapter 2: Information control as applied to the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents
Chapter 3: The economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers
Chapter 4: The controversial role legalized abortion has played in reducing crime
Chapter 5: The negligible effects of good parenting on education
Chapter 6: The socioeconomic patterns of naming children

Authors ask a lot of hilarious questions like: If drug dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers? or Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? or Do real estate agents have their clients’ best interests at heart? or What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? or How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?

The book was first published in 2005 and was a best seller, selling more than 3 million copies till now in around 30 languages. For many people, this book is an absurd book. But for me, this has been a "aha" effect book - nice one time read. Wonderful way of looking at things - it surely turns conventional wisdom on its head.

For more, have a look the book's official site.

Book Review: "White Mughals" By William Dalrymple

"White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India" is a marvellous non-fictional work by Dalrymple. The sheer detailness and vastness of the subject shows meticulous research done by William Dalrymple for this book.

The book is set in late 18th century and early 19th century India and tells the romantic affair and marriage between James Achilles Kirkpatrick, East India Company resident in Nizam's Hyderabad, and Khair-un-Nisa, a Hyderabadi nobleman's grand-daughter. I think I have put it very much in simple terms but this book is more than this love affair. It is a research into complex East India working during those early days as well as a research into their complex administrators and office bearers. It is a research into cultural, religious and political state-of-affairs from Indian perspective. It is a research into Nizam's & Maratha's political clout at that time as well as English and French impact on it. The book is solely based on historical archives from those times - never once Dalrymple tries to put unnecessary words into the main character's mouth. It is really a remarkable feat considering the sensational nature of the topic itself.

A great book and must read for anyone who likes to read about Indian history as well as Anglo-Indian legacy with East India Company.

Book Review: "Three Cups of Tea" By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Very seldom one comes to reading inspirational non-fiction at its best. This book is one of them. If you are reading this review and have not read the book yet, my advice to you to read this one. It is not high on its literary merit but its on the top for its inspirational value. Tegu recommended this book to me and what a recommendation it has been. Thanks Tegu for this one...

This book is one man’s story about fighting poverty, cultural divide and educate girls in some of the remotest corner of Pakistan and Afganistan. It is also this man's answer to the increasing terrorism in these areas - as he says, for every child going into regular school (not extremist schools) he is reducing the terror factor. The man, Greg Mortenson, is a ex-army medic and a mountaineer. During this failed attempt to scale world's second highest peak, K2, he lands into a rather forgotten region of the Karakoram Mountains. And begins the extraordinary journey to defeat poverty and terrorism, one school at a time, in these areas. Inspired by the need to give back to the villagers who cared for him a lot, Greg starts a mission to build schools for the children. And then it spreads from one village to another, till the time it becomes a full fledged humanitarian organization called Central Asia Institute building schools, bridges, water systems, and vocational centers. Although he faces lots of personal, financial & political obstacles, Greg Mortenson works his way through them and is still delivering to people not just in Pakistan but also in Afganistan. And during his course, he is also shattering the very negative views people have about this region. Not every child is terrorist here as is usually projected.

This book would make you think before saying, "What difference can one make?” Read this book for not how it is written, read it for what it has been written.