"Life of Pi" - A Review!

After many years of just ‘hearing’ about “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel , winner of the 2002 Booker Prize, I finally read this book over the past weekend. To be honest, I was expecting a shipwreck-and-washed-ashore-an-island-with-animals kind of survival story, a la Cast Away or Robinson Crusoe. Even though it fanned out differently, what a story it was!! I truly savored the book. One of the striking things is the author’s tongue-in-cheek tone wherein he is sincere, frank, mocking and funny at the same time.

In brief, Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel’s family decides to sell-off their zoo in Pondicherry and take a Japanese freighter in a bid to start life anew in Canada. The freighter capsizes in the Pacific leaving behind a handful of survivors – Pi and four wild animals. The story is a remarkable account of how the final two survivors in the lifeboat Pi and a 450 pound Bengal Tiger brave odds to emerge the ultimate survivors of sea tragedy until they are washed ashore 7 months later!

The author builds the character of Pi in the initial part of the story, though it gets a little dragging in certain instances. Soon after the ‘Tsimtsum’ goes to the bottom of the ocean there’s no halting the pace of the story. The account is filled with copious tales of daily battles for survival added with picturesque details of the odds faced and endured at sea. With ample survival tips thrown in steadily, the author makes no bones about the fact that this book would serve to be a promising survival manual for those unfortunate readers who may find themselves in similar dire straits!!

I liked the concept of alpha-beta male that’s so vividly presented in the story, and which is central to the survival strategy – the sole reason behind the protagonist surviving 7 months of sharing a lifeboat with a Tiger. This was the first time I’d come across this concept and it was a real eye-opener that has great potential for use (beyond animals, of course!). This definitely calls for further detailed study and I’m already looking for good references.

The author gets to his funny-sarcastic best towards the ends of the story with the Japanese officials. If this part of the story were really true, it makes me wonder how the Japanese embassy decided to share the uncensored tapes to a writer; the author has sure made best use of the transcripts!!

Orkut – The ‘unnecessary’ makeover??

Orkut had revolutionized the concept of ‘online communites and social networking’. They beat competition by doing what the parent company, Google does best – continuous innovation centred around the consumer needs, thereby retaining it market leader position in this rapidly evolving space. The add-on features its been rolling out have truly caught on with the audience and its popularity has been sky-rocketing, inspite of the on-and-off negative publicity it has been receiving.

However, of late Orkut has brought about some drastic changes in its services - such as locking one’s scrapbook, photos, videos etc in a bid to protect one’s privacy. However well intentioned and convenient this feature might seem to be, it tends to drive users against the basic ‘community’ principle. A series of measures such as these might make Orkut just a convenient extension of its popular Gmail. It remains to be seen on whether this move turns out to be yet another trend-setter in the community space or if this would prove to be the undoing of Orkut’s standing in this area.

Tales about the Monk's Ferrari!!

The other day I was browsing at the Crosswords bookstore, my favorite pastime these days, and came across the book titled "I bought the Monk's Ferrari"! Surprised and amused, I flipped through the volume and realized that it had no relation whatsoever to the bestseller "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" other than the fact that both were self-improvement books.

The author, Ravi Subramanian (an IIMB passout) must be commended for astutely choosing this title to readily bank on the top-of-the-mind recall! The title sure makes heads turn, though the cover could've been designed better. However, I found the book to be just one other amongst run-of-the-mill Self-Help books. The author goes out of the way to establish the 'Ferrari' connection and that looks artifical. Nevertheless, the fact that some of the 'ten commandments' stand out and prod the reader to imbibe them, shows that the author has managed to partly achieve what he set out for.

Traffic Signal

Yet another week day and I'm on my way, driving down to the office. The signal blinks orange briefly before finally turning to red and bringing the traffic to a halt, well almost, except for a handful who honk and rush away as if their life depends on they jumping yet another signal!

As the crowd grumbingly await their turn, the next bout of business has already started. Women carrying babies trot about asking for money to feed the kids. Old men and others horrifyingly disabled move around pleading for change. Urchins run about the vehicles, peering into some and prodding others for money. This is a daily sight, in almost all the city junctions that are even slightly traffic-worthy. This business happens with unbelievable uniformity - people zip in, do their bit and zip out as the signal turns green. One cannot help but notice this similarity to the pit stop of the Formula Racing cars and its nano-second precision

All these bizarre comparisons apart, it is heart-rending to see young and old people toiling the streets for change, by volition or by force. Day-in and day-out they get hardened in the grind of this world and grow up as brazened souls with a can-do-anything-for-money attitude. In my opinion, the only way to cure this is to say NO and discourage all forms of begging.

As the Chinese proverb goes: "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Whatever little contribution you'd want to make, direct it towards rehabilitation of these people and in aiding them earn a decent living. When people uniformly stop yielding to begging, the needy would be forced to look at other means.

The Kite Runner

I chanced upon this title at a friend's book collection some months back, though I'd heard about it earlier. I was initially a little hesitant about reading this book, as I thought it might be a literary overdose. However, I did finally pick up both the books of the author Khaled Hosseini ('Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns') when I visited Delhi.

The book (Kite Runner) was simple, poignant and brilliant! The author has managed to recreate the average individual in Amir - weak with insecurities, yearning for recognition and acceptance (in his father's eyes) and his scruple gnawing at his heart awaiting redemption.

Hassan’s is a character closer to Bollywood – fiercely loyal and blindly forgiving. Though it may look filmly and slightly unreal, the strength of this character makes you cry, and I was no exception. Even moving out of the narrative, Hassan lives on in the character of his son, and perhaps thats the way the author wanted it to be.

The story and characters apart, some other things I liked most about the book: the author powerfully paints a vivid picture on your canvas and lets you live through the scenes alongside the characters, and quite often deep into their psyche as well; a first-rate account of the contrast of Afghanistan, before the Soviets and after the Taliban; the liberal use of pashtun words and phrases gets you closer to the characters; the Kite festival and its cult following.

For all those still ‘considering’ on whether to read the book – please do, it is highly recommended.

PS: I’ve just browsed through the first few chapters of the next book, ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and it sure looks promising - equally powerful and moving... 'for you, a thousand times over....!!'

Book I just read - "The Alexander Trilogy"

I just completed the Alexander trilogy by Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi (the translated version, ofcourse!). If I were to sum up my experiencev in a few words - "What a book it was!!". I just lapped up the three volumes, in every sense of the word. I've always been facinated by medieval warfare, master strategists and bold adventure. 'Alexander' was all of this and more. The books describe in gripping detail the birth, meteoric rise and equally rapid end of a conqueror, who was considered superhuman and a demi-god by his contemporaries. For people (like me) who had just encountered Alexander in their history books at school or in other short stories, this tome would open up a world of interesting information not just about Alexander, but about the contemporaries, cultures and customs of his era.

The author has meted out a brilliant treatment to the subject and you get a feeling of watching the protagonist upclose and you get immersed in his day-to-day activities, his triumphs and also his dark moments. This has led me on a spontaneous quest to works of a similar genre by other leading authors and also of other famed works by this author.

More on this shortly...

'Expensr' - The Next Disruptor

Recently, CNN's Business 2.0 magazine had come up with a compilation of the Top 10 startups that are most likely to topple existing industries or create entirely new opportunities, named 'Next 10 Disruptors'.

One of them that caught my attention was a startup named 'Expensr', that has been co-founded by an Indian by the name of Shawn Gupta. The idea is unbelievably simple! Its a handy, free on-line tool that helps you manage your personal finances by tracking your budget and daily spending habits, with a very user-friendly GUI. One of the smart features that propels its popularity is social-network feature that helps you compare your spending habits against your peer group around the world. (https://www.expensr.com/)

At firsthand, I really couldn't believe that this concept could make it into the coveted list rubbing shoulders amongst other invention-based startups. But then, as has been rightly quoted in the magazine "Disruption can be hard to see, even when it's right in front of your face"!!