Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

This is a big book, and be sure that you can't just run through the pages. The book is a running commentary which starts from human evolution and ends up with the latest developments in science and society.

Yuval is an Israeli professor of history and he mentioned that Guns, Gems, and Steel is the main inspiration behind this book.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is on my list since last 3 years but didn't really started it. I had a thought of reading it but I was not very sure if history is something which I'm ready to go into.

Anyways I finished Sapiens and it took some 11 hours over the last two weeks.

This book left a lasting impression on me as it unfolded how the things developed along the human evolution. There are a lot of instances which are more like an educated guess and not a proven fact but given the citing you may end up agreeing with a lot of them.

The human evolution resulted in the extinction of lot of other species. I couldn't have agreed more because there was a recent study which showed that during the British Raj 75% of lions were killed in the name of entertainment during their hunting expeditions. We may cry for dwindling number of lions but deep down we know that we're responsible for this destruction. The natural habitat of so many animals and birds have been destroyed in the name of development.

Along with the evolution the book touched various subjects around religion, social norms, biology, anthropology, and economics.

I specially liked the story of evolution of credit, money and religion which is spun around myths, and a common belief in those myths.

I wish that we all could have seen beyond the myths which are around us. These myths in which we don't believe but still follow.

Just wanted to quote "Consumerism tell us that in order to be happy we must consume as many products and services as possible. If you feel that something is missing in life, go shopping".

This book is a must read if you want to know how things evolved and we as a human have done so many wrong things in name of development and so called "civilization".

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This is another novel which I read after reading about the author.

I never heard of Sylvia Plath but somehow her information showed up when I was searching for some other piece. I immediately checked the Wiki link, and decided to take this up next.

This is a small book, and I completed it pretty quickly.

The book is a good read as it is a semi-autobiographical novel. The whole story revolves around the thoughts and experiences of Esther, and doesn't boast of a conversationalist style that novels generally have. There is no plot as the whole narrative doesn't fit as a story, and should be treated like a personal diary or a journal of a mature person who looks at the world from a different lens.

I believe there are some people in this world who are so amazing, and they have an entirely different view of looking at things. It is sad that sometimes they are so driven by their own thoughts that they don't realize that their being present makes this world a better place.

I hope Sylvia could have written more, and we've definitely

I just couldn't complete this piece without mentioning her poem "Mad Girl's Love Song" because this can be written only by a person who is in perfect sense, and so sensitive to everything happening around her/him. Here is the poem:

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I'm not a big fan of poems but I'm going to remember this one forever.

Love

Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State by Tarek Fatah

So this is one of the books which didn't let me move out very often. I finished this book in 13 hours over 4 days so this is one of my fastest read too.

I saw Tarek on a prime-time debate, and thought of reading this book. I was looking for what Tarek has to say in details because there is rarely any scope of thought, and understanding in such debates.

I started this book, and once I was through the content page I was so engaged that I was just rushing through the whole book. My first impression was that this is going to be like reading a thesis but actually it ended up as an encyclopaedia of truth about the whole set up.

I know that reading a book doesn't make me a subject matter expert but after reading such books (Zealot, No god but god, The god delusion) I realised that religion is the most personal thing, and there should not be anybody who should dictate what to do and what not to do.

Relegion is something which brings the best out of you. It teaches you to love, respect, and gives you courage.  A religion which tells you otherwise is definitely taking you to a wrong path, be it any religion. I understand that religion thrives in a community but this adds the complication in pursuing it because many a times rather than becoming a lot of people following a particular way of life, it actually becomes a mob which can be turned towards a lot of things which should be avoided.

Also, religion has to be removed from all the outer world activities like money, law, politics etc. I think current politics is something which thrive on the negativities of a religion when it comes to a mob. People want to believe and trust in something which is beyond human understanding, and this search for that unknown is something which is incorrectly posed as mould while is should be treated as a flowing river.

Follow your religion, and ensure that it spreads love and respect for all. The beauty of life is that we all are different and we should respect these differences, and build positively on this sentiment to have a safe and happy future.

Peace

Tambora : The Eruption That Changed the World by Gillen D Wood

I was reading this book from quite some time, and it actually reminded my of a lot of concepts from Geography classes.

The book is about a volcanic eruption that happened in 19th century and it's after affects were felt over the time. Extreme weather (snow, rain, and heat) was recorded around the world after this eruption.

The book draws a lot of instances from literature, paintings, and travelogues. I'm not really sure if these are the best sources to conclude upon but you ended up in believing it to be true. Shelly actually shows up a lot and seems to the favourite of William.

A term which is used very frequently and stays with you for a long time is "year without a summer".

There are anecdotes about weather change across Europe, Asia, US and beyond.

I really couldn't believe that the changed weather conditions actually pushed Chinese people to grow opium rather than rice. I think that was more about the choices people made in terms of earning most money. As the consequence they ended up exporting a lot of rice from the neighbouring countries and regions.

Any ways if the mystery and such narrations entice you than you can go ahead. Others may find the details a bit boring.

Open Confession to a Man from a Woman by Marie Corelli

So I got this book lying around with some old books which I took out recently from the packed boxes. I didn't even know the author when I started reading it, and went ahead for the sole reason of the title of this book. Of course, the book being only 114 pages on a small size paper in a big type was also a reason, and I completed the book in 2 hours flat in 2 days.

While reading the book I got curious about the author, and found some interesting details about her. Her novels actually far exceeded in sale to her contemporary authors which count  Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, and Rudyard Kipling all put together. This was some serious news for me, and I dived deeper into the book.

The book was very interesting, and initially I took as a memoir or a soliloquy. But as I moved ahead I realised that this book is simply written by a jilted lover. The initial pages were good, and were written very well but once the venom started it became a bit annoying. She actually wrote like she is a queen, and the poor lover is a cur from some deep dungeons. I know I can be judged as what is commonly known as male chauvinistic pig but there were a lot of mentions where the author tried to give upper hand to all her decisions, and it was all the mistake of her lover or a basic nature of a man in general.

She mentioned a lot of things which she appreciated in the early part of their relationship, and after break up (he actually married some other girl) she found all his traits mere trifle. She even sympathised with the girl whom her lover married, such a sham. And she justified it by proving that marriage is something which kills the romance from people's life which was the most absurd of the objections. I actually felt that this was the main reason for her hatred towards the institution called marriage, but I bet given a chance she'd have done it first thing herself.

She in fact sounded so rude while glorifying her own achievements. Of course, she said that all man around her are jealous of her success while not knowing that there were a lot of men who were actually paying to buy her novels. But accepting this fact would be belittling her own argument.

I didn't feel quite write after completing the book so no matter how famous she was I'm not going to read any of her novel in future.

Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh

Finally, I read the last of the Ibis trilogy, and ended up wanting for more.

This is the last book of the trilogy, and it is as good a story as the prior two parts. There are some new characters, and the story extends further to what happened to the runway prisoners of Ibis.

The story telling is in it's best form and I couldn't put it down (not literally as I was reading the ebook). It took some 15 hours of reading spread over 3 weeks, and I feel like I'm reading slower now even when I was engaged so much with the narration.

One thing that happened very frequently with me was that I was able to connect the dots across the narration. I was aware of the outcomes of a lot of things, and twists before even reaching them. This may be due to the fact that I've already read the first two parts, and I was aware of Amitav's style of writing. The events which I guessed easily were the the tryst of Zachary, fate of Mrs Burnham & captain, fate of Shireen & Zadig, and Ah Fatt.

There is long list of references which are too big to look at but as mentioned in the epilogue I was not very sure if it was based on real story. We know the details of opium war and world war, which writer has included beautifully. I was not really looking for some real facts, and the story itself is a reward of reading it, forget about how much is fact based and how much is fictional.

A good read, but you will have to finish the first two parts first to keep running through the narrations and not referencing to the previous books to understand anything which happened in previous journey.

Peace 

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

It took me a while to finish this book. It actually took me 2 months to read all those 720 pages, and given that it took him 3 years to write, it was worth it.

If you're aware of Dickens' style of writing than you can't be untouched with the do good, and happy ending spirits in his novels. This is the 3rd novel of Dickens which I read after A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. I love the way he writes which keep the readers engaged, and no matter what people end up seeing the goodness in the end.

The whole story revolves round the two girls Bella, and Lizzie who look at life differently but ended up with the best a life can offer.

I'll not go in the details of the plot as that is not my aim here. But I'd like to mention that the characters were quite evolved, and portrayed in the best way possible. However, I doubt that we'll get some of those moral characters in our day to day life. They sound so perfect, and generous that they seem to be impossible to exist.

This I'm not registering as a complaint but a lot of times the situation were a lot dramatic and I understand that a writer has to keep that curiosity alive and their reader engaged.

In a nutshell, gem of a read, but need a lot of patience to reach the end. There will be many moments when a reader feel that s/he can guess the end, and I assure you that your guess will be correct. But beauty lies in completing the book otherwise we could have read a one page synopsis of the book.

Peace

Ashley Madison Exposure : Is This Really Required?

The social media is hot with the news of Ashley Madison user's information being made public.

The hackers portray it like they did a public service and they should get a pat on their back.

Is it really the case? Are these hackers any different from those people who want to shackle the freedom of any type be it which religion I follow, what clothes do I wear, which books I read, my sexual preferences etc? The answer is NO. They're not different from those people. How anybody can have a right to decide what I should do in my personal life. I may be the best programmer or hacker in the world but does this give me a right to expose what is none of my business. Do I need to

I don't approve of people cheating but does my disapproval give me a right to put these people to public shame. I can only imagine what happens to a family when such incidents come to light. Try imagining it happening to a million families. Hope you didn't like the picture.

The problem with having such ideologies is a firm belief of self righteousness. How can you agree with anything I have to say? These differences make us human and the mutual respect for such differences makes us a better human being.

And, here are some fun facts, 90-95% of actual users are Male which means that most of the users might have failed miserably to have an affair. This information itself makes the whole exercise look foolish apart from the vulnerability of forging identities in a virtual world. Also, the Ashely Madison needs better security for their servers.

Another thing is that this data was release through The Onion Router (if you know what it means) which is not really accessed by common public. So, even if a user's ID and other details were hacked, nobody will really get it other than the guys who are an avid users of such technologies. So the real people are never exposed.

So in the end of day it is just a news, and nobody is really exposed. I hope the hackers will learn from this, and put there skills for some good use.

The Story of a Fried Rat

So this story showed up recently in digital and social medium. The story is about a rat being served from KFC (they are famous for frying chicken really deep). It seems that the person who has been served the rat was not very happy with this service as he asked for a chicken and not a rat.

The funny part is that the people who are ready to eat out anything moving under the sun are against such swapping act from KFC. Their argument is that rat is not supposed to be served in KFC, this argument is based on the fact that the chicken were sanitized and announced medically fit by an international animal loving organization. This organization also gave clearance to the other humble beings as well but KFC got the license only for chicken and not for the others.

The second argument was that the rat was served as a whole. It had a proper nose, face, tails and a stomach which was filled with such high quality nutrients. This is not true because the stomach was filled with a delicacy (a secret ingredient of KFC) and not with the sewage sludge.

The rat in the question didn't die innocent and he (of course, I'm not going to use “it”) left a letter for me. In this letter he has mentioned that he has been a delicacy in so many third world countries but was never accepted as a delicacy in first world countries (I think they call them developed countries). He just wanted to prove that he is as good as chicken and as innocent as the butcher of KFC who is responsible for the glorious slaughter of millions of chickens around the world. He strongly believed that given a chance he would like to be on the platter of anybody who can afford it. 

He also put a request that his brethren be treated as equal to chickens, fish, prawns, lambs and all such sort of servings. He raised a question if Ratatouille is a dish including rats as a primary ingredient but I wanted to tell him that this dish was an ordinary one with no living being included. This is a dish for the barbarians who can’t relish the taste of meat, fat, bones and other body parts.

I just want to appeal on the behalf of our loving fried rat to all those not so humble beings to bestow their benign vulture-gaze on everything moving under the sun with an open mind and keep on feasting on everything so that nobody tries such a daredevil act again and feels left out.

I'm sure our lovely rat will have a deep fried grin on his face when he will see that his sacrifice is not in vain and the people are going to devour his fellows with equal zeal.

Yoga is Not So Cool @ 6 in the Morning

So I was getting these sms (who sends sms in this era) from a service numbers (which have these weird names like SV-187 which looks more like a code name of a virus biological/other or a satellite launched by ISRO) which badly wants me to go out on June 21st and do Yoga, it was supposedly the International Yoga day or it was a universal Yoga day, you never know if some aliens in a different galaxy are getting their limbs (if they have any) flexed to celebrate this day.

Being a not so curious case I tried to do what I generally do when I hear such things, I just searched it on internet and clicked on the third link (first 2 were news which I am not into), and landed on this site called Wikipedia (there are so many Wiki around that you never know which one it is) and found out that this a very recent phenomenon announced on Dec 11th, 2014 at UN (Don’t even think what it is). I also got the Wiki definition of Yoga “Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual practice or discipline that originated in India”. Isn’t it so cool :)

Being blessed with the laziest bones on this planet I totally ignored all 15-20 sms sent by taxpayers money, and I woke up at 9 in the morning too realize that I have silently passed the duration while some 40,000 odd (of course they were odd) people were twisting and turning in front of India gate. I switched on the TV and it didn’t came as a surprise that this is some sort of world record. We Indian have this inherent quality of getting into these gatherings at meteorological scale and make everything look like a fair. We hold the highest number of such mass records (Sing, Dance, Music and what else).

I’d not be surprised if there was a news debate from the owner of a cow who can smell a rat out of a cat that foreign elements are behind it. You’re doing a good job homie.

For all those guys on Rajpath, I wish you reach the Yogpath or Janpath or whatever-path it is you wish for. Just hang on there and don’t get twisted to much. And to all those Yoga teachers who are charging a fees for it which are higher than Burj Khalifa (figuratively speaking), just rot in hell (if any).

And here comes the best part, there was a deluge of proud Indians who’s favourite asan is Nindrasan. These guys woke up at 12 o’ clock in the afternoon and the first thing they did was that they were proud without moving a finer on Yoga day. They were proud on Facebook, Twitter, Wahtsapp and all those places where they can be with burning less than a calorie.
Meanwhile all the Father’s are humbled as their kids were going gaga over Yoga than Father’s day (or Baap Diwas like I call it), and nobody gave a damn that this was the longest day of the year Summer Solstice.

I feel sorry that I didn’t participate in this mammoth gathering which everybody is so proud of socially or whatsappically, I just wish we had some day like World Sleep Day, Chillout day, Doing Nothing Day, Couch Potato Day and I’m sure gonna participate in all these days with all my strength, and I’m sure we can create a small record there as well.

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

These books are taking more and more time to finish. Unable to dedicate much time to reading.

Anyways, here is another novel from Rushdie which I don't really appreciate much. There is no apparent reason for that but I think his style is so repetitive that I just felt that it was not worth the time.

The whole book is a bad fiction with the real events thrown in and some wild imagination. I knew so many events from the book which were just added to give a taste of reality from around the world. The characters were designed so heroic that it was difficult to connect with them. So many changes in place, character and story ended up as a garbled text. I actually thought to get rid of it but the old habits don't die. It is bad to have such habits to see till the end. A bad experience after reading Irving Stone.

The story revolves around the life of two lovers who were madly in love but were separated by greed. That is all I want to write here.

If you're a fan of this magical realism, than this book is for you, rest of us can be spared.

Thanks!

Lust for Life by Irving Stone

This is the second biographical novel from Irving Stone that I've read after The Agony and The Ecstasy and I'd say this is too good.

Irving Stone is famous for his style of writing when he write about historical figures from his imagination. The novels are not totally imaginative and it has a solid research behind it. The author has added his imagination to put all the facts together to make it more readable.

This book is based on the life of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Vincent had a lots of ups and downs in his life specially he never got love from whom he loved apart from the single most important person in his life his younger brother Theo. The book has been divided into various sections based on the places he lived and how these places affected his creativity.

Even after all the failures Vincent never gave up on what he was most passionate about until the end of his life. He painted in the worst conditions. One fact which really surprised me was that he started serious painting when he was 28 years old. Most of the people will not even think about picking a different profession but painting was not his profession, it was more like breathing to him. It was the reason for staying alive.

Another thing which I'd like to add was that this is this book has shown the relation of two brothers in a best possible way and The Brothers Karamazov comes to a close second in this context.

This book has shown that we're not in this world to fulfill our duty but to chase our dreams. I know this sentence sounds cliche or even a dud but that is the most important part of being alive.

I don't know how many people are sitting out there who could have been a different person altogether if they'd have been allowed to follow their dreams.

Not on all of us can be van Gogh but we all have a van Gogh inside us.

This book is a must read.

Peace

The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P Huntington

This book was pending for long and given the size & content of the book, it took me ~45 days to finish it. Seems like I'm being lazy to take so much time.

The first thing I want to say is that the content is quite heavy and you couldn't just run through the pages. This book needs patience.

Second thing, the book has loads of data from various sources (definitely a great reference). And, you have more options where you want to go from here.

Third thing and I'm not sure how other looked at it, but the book seems to be biased in its totality.

When I started, the data was quite interesting but as I progressed, I realized that most of the data put a particular religion in bad light. Other readers can differ on this point. But after turning the last page it felt like the whole book was more of a propaganda and a biased view rather than putting everything in balance. Huntington is a famous name but there were lot of gaps in presenting the facts. I believe, lots of points were put on the emotional basis rather than backing it by strong facts which ended up portraying rest of the world against Westernization.

One point which I'll like to reiterate here from the book about civilizations' rise and fall. He mentioned that civilizations do fall in the long run and make way for better or worse. Specially, in this case how can anybody judge a civilization. We can't judge it based on the number of wars it had. And definitely, even all good things come to an end.

The book was first published in 1996 and that was a different time, also, I'm not really aware of how many editions with changes have been published since than.

I definitely recommend this book with a word of caution that readers don't get carried away by the tone of the book and have only a lopsided view of the actual scenario.

Peace

Till The Last Breath by Durjoy Datta

Don't even think about it.

Go watch a boring movie, sleep or waste your time anywhere you like but don't read it.

Nothing personal.

Love

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

This book is definitely a tough read. I was reading this book from quite some time and was not really sure where the whole narrative is going.

I started this book with the thought that I want to read Gogol. There was no other thought. I just wanted to know why he is such a prominent writer. I bet he is. But I think I picked his wrong one first.

The book is said to be incomplete because Gogol was writing a trilogy but he burnt most of the second part and so the second part looks like left in the middle of the sentence. However, for a reader I don't think it would be difficult to imagine a climax of their own choice. Only Gogol could have given the best answer.

This particular novel is known as a satire but I think the characters were more like the real people and their dilemma for morality.

The novel revolves around the main character Paul Ivanovitch Chichikov. He seems to be nice guy who is talkative and wants to get rich quick with a loophole in the Russian laws.

I don't think I'll be judging this character but I understand the conditions in which he chose to be a rich man by any means and he is not a Robin Hood. His success is his own personal goal at any cost and he has a good plan. We love it when a plan comes together but most of the time it doesn't :)

You can give it a shot and I'm sure if you love Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, you'll like it too. His writing may not be that great but he has given some great work.

Peace

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

This is one of the nice books I've read recently.

The book is about a childless couple in Alaska who yearn for a kid. There is a kid too in the story who is a girl and kind of a free spirit.

The story moves on and at one point I thought it was going to be a Vampire saga from Stephenie Meyer but thank god it is not.

I think that the author took too much liberty practically (there are some instances which you feel like are from a fiction movie) but that's how you write a book (with imagination).

The book is a light read and don't expect much. Most of the book is predictable by the end.

Love

The Good, The Bad and The Ridiculous by Humra Quraishi, Khushwant Singh

This is one of the best books written by Khushwant Singh.

If you want to know his personal experience with some people from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as a co-worker or journalist than this is a must read.

Khushwant Singh has written everything like in the face. I hope the guys who are still alive may have felt bad but this is him and no one can really stop him. The guys who are not anymore may be trying to strangulating him in heaven or hell, wherever he is.

Definitely without malice :)