Category: Favourites

  • 1984

    George Orwell

    Winston Smith thinks it is 1984, but it could be 2050, for all you know, for all you know is controlled by Big Brother. For as the book constantly reminds us “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” An amazing dystopian novel that explores how an oligarchical society can completely control the minds and actions of large masses of humanity over a seemingly endless period of time.

    Winston Smith, the protagonist, is a bureaucrat working in the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in London, chief city of Airstrip One, a province of Oceania. Winston’s bob in the Records Department is to revise historical records to match the Party’s current stance on people, events etc. As he edits the past to match the present, he also maintains a secret diary in which he records his dissent against the party and its policies. This, according to the party is ThoughtCrime, and if he’s caught by the Thought Police, he would be executed. As he himself notes, ‘ThoughtCrime IS death.’. In a world where telescreens watch every movement and children are trained to spy on everyone, including their parents, to detect ThoughtCrime, Winston lives dangerously.

    Winston’s life changes when he falls in love with Julia, they carry on a clandestine love affair (that’s a crime too) in their love nest in a ‘prole’ (proletarian) neighbourhood, where they believe telescreens are not watching them. They then come into contact with an inner party official, who they believe belongs to The Brotherhood, which works against Big Brother.

    The novel is dystopian, and there’s no happy ending. It works on at least two levels levels – the obvious dangers of totalitarian societies, and the working of the human mind and its perception of reality.

    An amazing book, and well deserving of its classic status.

  • Video Night in Kathmandu

    Pico Iyer

    Set in the mid 80’s, Pico’s travel writing worked on two levels for me – one, in terms of his destinations, and the other, in terms of time. Right from the first page, with his interpretation of the Rambo phenomenon in Asia, his sharp wit makes this book a great read.
    He uses individual characters in different places (India, China, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, HongKong, Japan, Philippines) to describe the place’s character. In some cases, the stereotypes are reinforced, but in a lot of others, he manages to fit in and yet observe objectively.
    He discusses the influence of the West on the East and tries to show each of the places he has visited have reacted to it – some by shunning it, some by completely absorbing it, and some by adapting it and making it their own.
    I felt that throughout the book he stayed true to his observations, though the perspective was tinged with a favouritism for the east.

  • Siddhartha

    Herman Hesse

    Somewhere in Pankaj Mishra’s ‘The Romantics’, there’s a conversation about ‘Siddhartha’ and it being a reason for a Westerner’s interest in Buddhism and India. A conversation, not my view 🙂 That, and the fact that it also finds mention in Mishra’s other book ‘An End to suffering’ is primarily what led me to the book.
    The book is best described as the story of an alternate version of the Buddha, and the Buddha features in the story too, including a conversation.
    The message is perhaps like a quote I read somewhere, which amounts to “There are many ways to the top of the mountain, but once there, the view is the same”
    The arguments are compelling, and makes you think, not just about the end, but also about the ways in which you get there. I especially liked the thoughts on the concept of time, the ‘goal vision’ obscuring everything else, and ‘the opposite of every truth is also true’.
    Forget Buddhism, it is an excellent read on life, what we strive for, and my favourite paradox – the meaningfulness and the meaninglessness of our existence.

  • Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories

    Isaac Asimov

    Forget science fiction, if you are the kind who is affected by story telling and the imagination involved therein, this is a must-read. Its amazing that even after half a century has passed, and humanity has advanced quite a bit, Asimov’s work, even in terms of human relationships, raises questions we haven’t even begun exploring. He has a great sense of humour, which raises its head at the most improbable moments, thereby making it all the more fun.
    The collection has quite a few stories about Multivac, the super computer that guides humanity and its actions. ‘The Last Question’ is an amazing piece of work that deserves special mention. In addition to being a fantastic science fiction tale, it also offers a wonderful take on the origin of the universe.
    The other story that’s interesting happens to be Franchise, whose storyline is that by studying patterns of human behaviour over a long timeframe, Multivac is able to use one person as a representative sample and elect the US president basis his choice of candidates. The story is set in 2008. I guess humanity hasn’t progressed as fast as Asimov imagined. More change we need. 🙂
    Now for Volume 2.

  • Once was Bombay

    Pinki Virani

    This is the best ‘Bombay’ book i’ve ever read. It shows us a view of Bombay through the images of characters that even non residents will identify as belonging to Bombay – the actor, the bhai, the encounter cop, the politician, and so on. Pinki Virani obviously feels for Bombay, and reflects the myriad range of a Bombayite’s emotions now – anger, frustration, cynicism all stemming from Bombay’s change from then to now
    What’s wonderful about the book is that it stays true to the title and takes you on a journey in time – to how a place or a road came to be called so, and the societal changes that time has brought about there. It also has some incisive takes on the machinations that has transformed Bombay into what it is now.
    Long before Mumbai there was Bombay, and i can identify a lot with the difference it makes to the people who have seen the change, even though i don’t live there. This book easily gets into my all time favourites.