Book Review: My Brief History

My Brief History
-- Stephen Hawking

As I could understand some parts of The Theory of Everything (Attributed to Stephen Hawking, though he denounced it as unauthorized publication), I picked this one up. Unlike other popular books by him (Brief History of Time and Briefer History of Time), this one is not much about science, but about Hawking, as the title suggests.

He talks about his childhood, his introduction to Mathematics and Physics, the disease that paralyzed most of his body in his twenties etc., Readers would be able to appreciate the way he chose theoretical physics over experimental, as he wouldn't have survived in fields that needed more than his brain, due to his disease; the way he lived constantly with uncertainty about his survival, yet contributed so much to physics, and regarded today as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein; the way he handled personal crises such as his wife living with another guy in his own house, assuming that he wouldn't be around too long etc.,

Besides such memorial stuff, he discusses briefly his original ideas about big bang, black holes and time travel. But, readers interested in these should be better off reading his The Theory of Everything or Briefer History of Time.

Unless one is a die-hard fan of Stephen Hawking, one can give it a pass.

Love humbles monsters!

I was having a conversation with a friend, who is a self-confessed atheist and rationalist, the other day.

The central point of the conversation was, when love humbles an atheist/rationalist and makes one feel powerless and helpless, would he/she act any different from the people who believe in super-natural powers? Of late, he has been going through it personally, it seems. Here goes the summary...

Of course, yes. "The practice or principle of basing opinions and actions on reason and knowledge rather than on religious belief or emotional response" - That's what 'Google define' has to say about rationalism. 

Now, my friend is in a fix. He thinks a bit too much about her, and gets emotional, involuntarily. The relation is nowhere close to a stage where he can talk to her much, let alone sharing his feelings with her. Being rational, he can't do anything foolish, despite his dreams every night. He rationalizes himself about dreams that they are just manifestation of his feelings and thoughts, and there are no more strings attached. Whereas, his believer friends in that situation take it as a positive vibe and refer to Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and celebrate.

When he comes across something like, 'if one truly loves, ones love will never fail' - he, apparently, becomes sadder as he doesn't believe in anything super-natural. As per his school of thought, love being 'true' can have no effect whatsoever 'on its own', unless it leads to some action. Whereas, believers find such things very powerful and helpful in keeping their spirits up.

Few more areas where my friend looses against believers are blessings of elders, wishes of his close friends, taking oaths and praying for divine intervention etc., None of them can console him, as all those fall under super-natural category.

Then, suddenly, we jumped out of the context and tried to replace Love with Mangalyaan (India's Mars Orbiter Mission). If we, as rationalists, are convinced that believers have all those above advantages, won't believer scientists of ISRO have the similar advantages, when ISRO chairman seeks divine help (and goes to Tiruapati with a model of satellite), as a rule, before every launch?

But, we felt, though they both look innocuously similar, they actually are not. More on those, a little later.

Book Review: Guns, Germs and Steel

Guns, Germs and Steel
-- Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond was a professor of physiology and developed interest in ornithology and ecology. While working in the latter areas, he had developed interest in geography and then became a professor of geography in the same university where he taught physiology earlier.

When a person of such caliber was confronted with a very elementary, yet, a very profound and tough question like "Why does it look like some races dominated other races, through out the human history", it led to the natural outcome. A thorough research to unearth the events happened over thousands of years and connect the disparate to understand and present the big picture. That's what is Guns, Germs and Steel. He could do that only 25 years after being confronted with that question, though.

The title is due to the part that Guns, Germs and Steel played in the human history. Author sites several decisive events in history where, how whoever had access to these first dominated others.

There were several interesting discussions around animal and plant domestication, spread of lethal germs from wild animals to humans, evolution of writing and languages, evolution and adaption of technology, food producers vs hunter gatherers, egalitarianism vs kleptocracy etc.,

I started reading the book looking for precise answers. But, they are not to be found, for obvious reasons. Most part of the book talks about certain events happened anywhere in between the last hundred years to a few thousand years BC, and authors attempt to connect them with rational arguments and explanations.

So, a fun read for the patient and inquisitive. Not recommended for the people who call even a second example a rhetoric.

My Overseas Marathon Odyssey - Part-9 - Mt.Fuji, Japan

San Francisco-2010 (US) -> Athens-2010 (Greece) -> Berlin-2011 (Germany) -> Niagara Falls-2011 (US/Canada) -> Singapore-2011 -> Kuala Lumpur-2012 (Malaysia) -> Venice-2012 (Italy) -> Phuket-2013 (Thailand) -> Mt.Fuji-2013 (Japan)

The odyssey that I planned to kickoff at Athens, coinciding with the 2500 years of marathon legend, reached Japan this year. I landed in Tokyo on a Friday, late evening. Narita airport (the main international airport that serves Tokyo) is quite far from the city. I planned to spend the night close to the airport and go directly to Mt.Fuji area, where the Marathon is going to be held on Sunday. Within no time, I could experience all that I heard and read about Japan and Japanese. A nation obsessed with hygiene, ultra courteous people that are routinely punctual and procedural.

After a couple of hops, I reached the Marathon expo on Saturday to collect the runners kit. They had arranged the kit right in front of a railway station (Lake Kawaguchiko), for the convenience of overseas runners (300 out of 16000 runners), and that was quite unceremonious. I went all the way to spend time and run in a different environment and culture. So, this special treatment was a bit unwanted. I collected the kit and went to the actual Marathon expo, meant for the locals. And, I could realize the rationale behind that special treatment. There were a lot of activities and festivities going on, but, everything was in Japanese and no one understands or speaks a word other than Japanese.

Marathon was scheduled to start at 9 AM. I reached the venue quite early at 7:30, as I read that it was chaotic at the start, the previous year, due to huge crowd. But, apparently, they learnt. It was quite meticulous this year. Temperature was around 6 °C. And, all I could do till 9 AM was, just freeze wearing shorts and porous shoe in open air. Thanks to my runner friends pestering, I at least carried a thermal top, which kept half of my body warm, through out the run. I found out during the run that I was one among 20-30 runners out of 16000, who were wearing shorts. Rest were running with full body thermals. It was tough to run in that weather, particularly because, there was no time to acclimatize. But, I generally don't worry much about finish times and just enjoy the run and the surroundings. That way, it turned out to be one of the most scenic runs, as the course circumambulates two beautiful lakes overlooking majestic Mt. Fuji.

Spent the next couple of days walking length and breadth of Tokyo and visiting interesting places that I came across. Oedo Onsen was one such. Onsen, a public bath at hot springs, seems to be a part of Japanese culture. This particular Onsen was quite fashionable with several modern facilities. Got rid of Marathon fatigue here instantly, and walked another 10 KM from central Tokyo, all the way to the hostel that I stayed, checking out several things en route.

I made it a point not to eat anything other than Japanese food during those 5 days. Ventured into the places full with locals and only locals. It's interesting. Typically, noodles or rice with seafood, chicken or pork. Pork and chicken cutlets with rice seemed to be very popular, besides noodles, of course. I could as well have spoken in Telugu or Hindi at all those places, as it wouldn't have mattered to them anyway, as long as it's not Japanese. I could still manage to order something, and insist on replacing chopsticks with spoon and fork :-)

Overall, a very pleasant experience. Felt, it's an interesting, safe and friendly place to visit. And, yes, a lot of yummy food to try.

Book Review: How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company

How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company
-- Varun Agarwal

 This is the story of Alma Mater Store, and 2 graduates, just out of college (one quits his first job after a few months to work full time on this venture, and the other couldn't come to terms with something like working for someone else).

Having seen several young entrepreneurs from close quarters during our recent stint at Microsoft Accelerator, the whole story sounded so familiar to me.

Anu aunty is one of those fussy neighborhood aunties of Varun (co-founder of Alma Mater and the author), who believes that all a kid should do in life is get perfect scores in every exam that's thrown at him/her, clear the first interview that they ever attend, grab the first promotion in their batch at work, start paying EMI for car and house before turning 25, and be the most sought after bachelor/bachelorette (by uncles and aunties) in the neighborhood.

Varun, a Bangalore dude from Bishop Cotton hated all that to the core and always dreamed of starting his own company along with another classmate Mal, of course, whenever they were 3 beers down. After several such beer sessions, one day they finally brave anu aunty and come up with a detailed business plan (on a tissue paper in their favorite watering hole) to start a company that sells customized T-shirts and Hoodies for alumni of popular schools. Alma Mater Store is born.

As is the case with many young and not so young entrepreneurs, their 'detailed business plan' had just a few lines. Get T-shirts printed for different schools and somehow sell them. They just felt that its a cool idea. That's it. They figured out the rest on the way as Dick Costolo of Twitter famously said, "The key is to just get on the bike… and the key to getting on the bike… is to stop thinking about ‘there are a bunch of reasons I might fall off’ and just hop on and peddle the damned thing. You can pick up a map, a tire pump, and better footwear along the way."

They could add several schools from different cities in India to their online only store in a couple of years, and even started delivering overseas. Their company was worth a million dollars, within no time. As the author says, no Porsche cars or bungalows worth million dollars, yet. But, they are living their dream and may reach there one day.

Book Review: Wise Enough to be Foolish

Wise Enough to be Foolish

-- Gauri Datta Jayaram

First things first. For the first time, I am reviewing a book written by a person, whom I personally met and even ran together, a couple of long runs over the weekends.

Wise enough to be foolish - For me, the oxymoronic title sounds very philosophical and playful, at the same time. And, the same feeling lasted through out the read.

It's about a girl narrating her story, right from her infancy through adulthood, taking the reader through the idiosyncrasies that one person goes through in one's life. Most of the readers would be able to connect with the narration, at one place or the other, and hook. There is nothing extraordinary about the girl. Probably, that's what helps the connect happen. It's just that she happens to be wise enough to be foolish, more than once, by choice or by default.

She grows up wishing her parents to be more of friends than goal-setters, goes through a relation built over a few years of companionship that breaks up with no obvious reason, turns out to be wise enough to take several foolish sounding decisions like clearing every penny of her savings to fund marriage of her maid's daughter, and deciding to marry a person whom she was yet to meet in flesh and blood etc.,

As per me, the best part of the book is, everyone feels special about at least one person in their lives. Oneself. Either at narcissistic levels or moderate :-) And, one would want to tell one's story to the world. That's exactly what the author did, claiming it as based on a true story (may be, her own). It's all more interesting and worth the reader's while, as, despite being her first book, the author has shown excellent story telling skills and made it a gripping read.

Book Review: Social Media as Watchdog

Social Media as Watchdog

-- Ravinar

I came across this book, which is a compilation of blogs written by the author at media-crooks, when a friend of mine shared one of the blogs criticizing the biased or crooked role being played by Main Stream Media (MSM) and how Social Media (SM) can take on MSM.

Manish Tiwari, the then spokesman of Congress, said "Anna Hazare is head-to-toe corrupt" when anti-corruption campaign was at its peak.

Nidhi Razdan of NDTV tries hard to push her agenda and gets ripped apart by a British MP, a couple of days back.

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN tweets that deaths in Assam in 2012 were very less compared to deaths in Gujrat in 2002 to attract enough attention by (his) MSM, when MSM was questioned about (lack of) coverage, and later regrets for his insensitivity when SM blasts him.

Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN does a 'live show' with recorded clippings as answers to her 'live' questions and later 'deeply regrets' for 'the bug', when SM brings it out.

BBC changes the headline of an article overnight from 'sarcastic question' to a 'praise', as it was based on wrong statistics quoted by some source and corrected later. And, SM gets credit here too.

And, my favorite: A very active leftist friend of mine on SM comments on a news website when a statue of Saraswati was destroyed inside a University in Hyderabad - "Oh! these stupid Hindu fundamentalists are going everywhere. Why did they build a temple inside a University? " :-)

As people like me spend a good amount of their reading time reading news and analysis (and some people spend a lot of time even watching such things on TV), it is worthwhile to know the modus operandi of the stuff that they are consuming. If the readers/viewers are not attentive or patient enough to ponder, they would soon get sucked into the game plan of these extremely glib liars, who are working full-time, pushing their own person agenda under the veil of reporters.

Social Media as Watchdog helps the reader precisely with such information. Though we see people like Digvijay Singh making irresponsible and incoherent statements, why does MSM go to him at the drop of a hat? Why does an anchor push his/her own agenda and pass judgements and sermons, though the actual job is to facilitate others speak and let audience ponder? Why do we see the same set of people in all kinds of panel discussions? Why do large PSUs fund several MSM events, which don't spend much in advertising otherwise? Why does each news channel appear to have its own unique way of looking at things? The list goes on...

So, the bottom line is, one should consume news (whether MSM or SM) with buckets of salt (pinches and grains are not enough anymore), as everyone seems to have an agenda and are working for that 24/7 in every word they utter, be it a TV show or news paper or Twitter or Facebook. Though the author talks about how SM can help take on MSM, SM itself is severely infested already, and the logic that the author applied to MSM applies to SM as well.

As a friend of mine cautioned me when I was picking up this book, the author and his blog has clear politics behind it. And, my answer for that was: "Yes, it does. I noticed it in the introduction itself. But, when congress is governing the country for the last 10 years, you can't 'start with' criticizing BJP for today's state of affairs. And, As they say, not many are into charity. All have vested interests. But, the good part of this book is, if someone teaches you how to be skeptical, and if you really learn it, you should ideally be skeptical about that teacher as well. Otherwise, you have not really learnt. So, no harm" :-)

Book Review: Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia
-- Hussain Zaidi

Dongri is a small area in South Mumbai. The book is about how Mumbai Mafia reached Dubai from Dongri over the last 6-7 decades. It is an elaborate (~400 pages) biographic account of several (in)famous underworld dons like Hazi Mastan, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Kareem Lala, Chota Rajan, Chota Shakeel, Abu Salem and of course Dawood Ibrahim.

Author is a well known crime reporter and was the privileged one to interview Dawood a few years back, which was the last time Dawood ever spoke to media. He sourced the information from various dossiers made by Indian Govt. to Pakistan Govt. requesting extradition of Dawood Ibrahim and from the compilations of various retired officers of Mumbai Police.

While going through the biographies of those dons and in turn evolution of Mumbai Mafia, readers would be dumbstruck, to put it mildly. It has all the elements of any fictitious crime story and extremely violent Hollywood movie, and things that one normally brushes aside as just figments of writer's imagination and just impossible to pull off in real life, except that all those were real. Electronics, gold, gutka, real estate, extortion, betting (Cricket), Bollywood... where ever there was some money, there were empires created by these guys. And, there were jurisdictions and deadly territorial feuds. There were dons created and patronized by senior police officers to take on bigger dons, there were dons killed with a tip-off from their ladyloves, there were shootouts that lasted hours in broad day light in residential neighborhoods of Mumbai, there were dons who shift bases among several countries with an ease that it sounds like a backpacker's pub crawl, there were politicians who ordered arrests and simultaneously tipped and helped the criminals get out of the country forever, and there were police officers who shot dead 100+ criminals each, over a period of just a few years. 

Author presents several hard to digest events in chronological order starting from 1950 till today. As I read somewhere, politics of any country are beyond the comprehension of a common man. After reading such biographical accounts, one would realize, so is crime.

Book Review: Life is What You Make it

Life is What You Make it
--- Preeti Shenoy


It is a short story about an young, beautiful, intelligent and desirable girl, who goes from topping her class in first semester of MBA in a prestigious school to spending a few months in a psychiatry ward with a bipolar disorder in a whisker.

The take away is just as simple as the title. Ankita, the main character of the book, gets carried away by her ambitions and achievements and starts disparaging the little and precious pleasures of life, to the extent that even suicide of a close friend, with whom she was in a relation, doesn't move her much. But, that single minded pursuit of material soon takes toll on her, and vents itself out as a mental disorder, when she reaches the threshold.

With the help of an excellent counselor, she reclaims her life back and realizes that life is after all what you make it.

A very simple read. Though the pacing is not very good with story moving very fast at some parts while some parts are just dragged, it is an enjoyable read.

Dilemma of a Recreational Runner

[This post is not about competitive runners and runners who want to get onto (any kind of) podium one day, in any form]

I am a recreational runner. I have been one for more than 5 years. Started with dream runs(5-7KM), 10KM runs, graduated to half-marathons (21.0975KM) and full-marathons (42.195KM) in a couple of years. I ran 15 full marathons so far, half domestic and half overseas, some at exotic locations. And, of late, I have been plagued by this dilemma - Why "What's your timing?" becomes such an important question, when runners (even hitherto strangers) meet at these events?

I did discuss this point with several runner friends, and each have their own theories. I felt like penning it down, after seeing the disappointment in a runner today at TCS 10K, because he couldn't do his PB (Personal Best in runners jargon), and a whole bunch of his friends consoled him saying things like - "Come on! It's alright. it's just not your day", "It's not the last event. You can do better in xyz run.", "You are an awesome runner. Runners never loose, losers never run" etc., All this, because he took a few more minutes than what he planned, to finish a 10K run. And, BTW, those few minutes don't take him anywhere close to the winner, and he is just a recreational runner.

Now the discussion starts. Why long distance recreational runners get so obsessed with their finishing times? The very reasons for the participation itself are different - fitness, health, travel, fun, discipline, being active etc., Will a better timing help in enjoying more of any of those? I don't think so. Then why?

A very competitive friend of mine suggests that what one does at distance runs (at anything, for that matter) is just an extension/expression of oneself. If one is passionate about things that one pursues, and is a perfectionist, one can't help NOT looking forward to improving in run after run. You can have just one personality. Same will be expressed everywhere. Work or Play. - Sounds like a fair point. But, what if we use our competitive spirit judiciously, wherever it matters? Wouldn't running be more fun! Or, is it just impossible?

   

Another couple of friends suggest, without attaching any personality traits, it's just what running fraternity has been doing for years. Boston Marathon (With the toughest entry criteria) is the holy grail for runners. For ages, runners dreamed to participate in that. Better runners inspire and motivate us to chase them. And, we just do it. - Hmm... So, we are doing it, just because that's what everyone is doing. Basically, a mindless pursuit of the unknown. Not so convincing.

Personally, I wish I had been more occupied with the scenic beauty of Niagara Falls than with the continuous calculations in my brain, with each passing kilo-meter (to determine my finish-time), during Niagara Falls Marathon. Same is true with several other runs.  A couple of my runner friends injured themselves in this pursuit of improvement in every run, and were off the roads for several months. When I tell about my runs at exotic locations like Athens/Venice, non-runners ask me more about those places and people, and runners ask about the course and weather - flat course or hilly, hot or cold, is a PB doable, and of course my timing :-)

This is no complaining. But, it's always good to sort out the priorities, once in a while.

And, if you ask me what's my best running moment - it is when that 3 year old little girl offered me an orange candy (after carefully unwrapping, so that I can enjoy it as it is), 4 KM before the finish line during Mumbai Marathon - 2011. I didn't stop and ask her name, as it would have added another few minutes to my record breaking 5:13 finish that year :-)

Book Review: Shiva Trilogy - 3: The Oath of the Vayupurtras

The Oath of the Vayuputras
-- Amish

After reading the first 2 parts (The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas), I have been eagerly waiting for the last part of Shiva Trilogy and pre-booked it at the first opportunity. And, it doesn't disappoint.

The best part of the series is Amish's excellent narrative style. He picked up quite a few characters from Indian Mythology (maintaining similar relation among them) and created his own story around them. He dedicated significant amount of the first book to just create the stage, as the story deserves it, and exploited all that in the second book. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the third part, I felt narration of war has turned out to be a bit too long and repetitive.

A complaint that I heard from some of my friends is, the take away is not new. Well, as always, it depends on readers. If one is looking for a beautiful reading experience that keeps up one's imagination through out, one wouldn't get disappointed. Instead, if one is asking for something new, which has never been told, yes, there is not much; Except that, good and evil are just different sides of the same coin. One eventually turns into another, as it gets abused.

I particularly enjoyed the conversations between Shiva (the Hero) and the Vasudev pandits (his mentors). I found the conversations to be abstract, philosophical and profound.

Another thing that I liked a lot about the book (and the series, in general) is, except for the ability of Maharshi Brighu (a powerful ascetic saint, and mentor of emperor of India) to read minds of others by looking at their eyes, the author didn't need the help of super nature (and the God hypothesis :-) ) to make such a story interesting. Everything is perfectly rational. The kings and citizens do follow the rules set by Lord Rudra and Lord Ram (considered by many in India today, as 2 of tri-murti's who are responsible for Srishti-creation, Stithi-maintenance and Laya-dissolution), but, they are just great kings who lived exemplary lives, and formalized good governance and dictated rules for citizens to lead peaceful life. Nothing beyond.

I would highly recommend it for those who are looking for light reads, and craving for the reading experience (similar to http://www.chandamama.com/) that they parted ways with, since their childhood.

Book Review: God's Debris

Book Review: God's Debris - A Thought Experiment
-- Scott Adams (Yes, The Dilbert guy)

As the punchline describes it, it's not a novel, it's just a thought experiment. A very short, couple of hours read. But, it has enough stuff to keep one's brain engaged for several weekends. The author recommends that one should share it with a smart friend after reading, and discuss it over the next weekend while enjoying a 'tasty beverage'. And, I am seriously looking forward to it.

The central idea is, if God is omnipotent and omniscient, the only challenge he would have is to annihilate himself. In fact, he actually did it and that's what is Big Bang for us. What's left is just God's Debris and probability. With this as the background, let us address all the circus in the world.

There is just one condition. Explanation should be simplest possible.

If one is of the type that says, "screw your logic, rationale and all that #$%^&, there is something called faith. I just have faith. I just believe", then one should stay away from this thought experiment. Otherwise, it is thoroughly enjoyable. 

Avatar, a supposedly enlightened soul and hero of the thought experiment, smartly puts his arguments, poses simple questions that tear apart age old beliefs around God, Soul, Free Will, Religions and turns most of them into simple to understand paradoxes. 

I particularly enjoyed it, as I could relate most of the discussion with the heated debates (more often than not, accompanied by all those tasty beverages) that I was part of, over the years, with some of my friends "who has faith and who just believe" :-)

Book Review: God Does Not Play Dice

Book Review: God Does Not Play Dice
-- David A. Shiang

I picked it up thinking that it is another Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan kind of books. The author does talk about things like Counter-factual Definiteness, Superdeterminism etc., a lot. But, the similarity ends right there.

Author is an MIT graduate and works for UCB. Though this book is about Physics (and Mathematics) and the author tries to rip of several classical mathematical theories that have been taken for granted for hundreds of years, he is a fellow in English at UCB.

One line summary of the book would be "If one can't understand or explain a particular phenomenon, one shouldn't call that random. Period." Sounds fair enough. 

But, the author doesn't stop there. He extrapolates his above wisdom and takes its aid to criticize Uncertainity Principle, Feynmenn's Nobel prize winning  Sum over Histories idea etc., Once in a while he quotes a statement by Einstein (who, apparently didn't get completely convinced by his won theory of relativity, as he was not ready to accept that "God Does Play Dice, and hence there is randomness all over") and makes fun of Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan as they suggested that "our existence is not by design, but, due to a mere chance and evolution".

If he had limited himself to criticizing Nobel prize winning theories that explain super-complex cosmological phenomenon, people like me would have just turned pages and left intrigued. But, he gets to much more basic stuff and calls probability a farce, proposes a difference between 'probability' and 'frequency'. According to him, when a fair coin is tossed, there is no 50-50 chance of seeing a head. It would either be a head or tail. We just don't know. So, there is some design that we don't understand. So, we shouldn't call it random. What we call 'chance' is in fact 'frequency' of seeing heads, when the experiment (tossing the coin) is repeated for a long time. And, that frequency has nothing to do with the outcome of a single experiment. Sounds right, but, if one has the question, "Probability was never intended to answer the outcome of a single experiment with 100% certainty. So what's your point ?", he doesn't explain any further. He just takes the universal escape route, "there 'may' be an intelligent designer behind all these. We are incapable of understanding. So, let's not call it random".

As per this logic, everything is predetermined. We just don't know. And, he uses this theory as answer to the free will problem as well. He brings retrospective perspective into everything that he discusses, and claims that there indeed is no freewill.

At the end of it, I am not convinced about anything that he talks. But, lot of points to ponder and it makes a good philosophical discussion rather than a scientific breakthrough, contrary to his claims.