Category: Books

  • How the World Works

    Noam Chomsky

    I think the biggest proof of the US hegemony that Chomsky brings up regularly is how (relatively) unknown he is to the world at large. Because it’s not the kind of publicity the US would like. It’s true that the name has come up in many conversations online, and that is the reason I picked up this book, but for his quality of ideas, he really should be known and quoted a lot more.

    This book serves as a great introduction to Chomsky’s perspectives, not just because of the different topics that have been covered, but also because of how accessible it is – thanks to it being derived from the spoken word through Chomsky’s many media interactions. And yes, the index does help when you want to read about a specific topic and get a quote. There is some repetition, but that is to be expected, and as a contemporary reader, we may not have all the contexts, but that’s also a small price to pay. 

    Of the many topics covered, the US government acting as a bully inside and outside the country is one that’s central. Calling out its usage of government agencies, its military, its allies, as well as international organisations like the UN to enforce its will on nations is what makes Chomsky unpopular. Any nation or leader that attempts an alternate path, especially that is good for the people in the long term, is at the receiving end of many deterrents – local and international – acting in the interest of the US. Because an example is dangerous – it shows that something is possible, countries like Vietnam and many countries in Latin America like Brazil have had to pay the price. All of this became even more easier once the Cold War ended. Though it was convenient to show the USSR as the bogeyman, the US was also good at creating other villains. Within the country, the idea is to ensure that the social, economic and political agenda of an elite class is implemented and also that the general public doesn’t get to have a say in the matter even though it’s supposed to be a democracy. Big business has an important play in this and over a period of time, media which is supposed to be a conscience-keeper, becomes a cheerleader. 

    It’s amazing how well his insights age, as many of them can be used in current contexts. It is also fascinating to see history rhyme – Daimler-Benz and Fidelity as predecessors to Big Tech in holding cities ransom and threatening to vote with their feet if they didn’t get tax cuts.


    On one hand, it is a little heartening that the problems we face now aren’t new. The scale and manifestation might have changed, but the fundamental causes are the same. On the other hand, it does seem that there really is no hope on things getting better – the wealth gap decreasing, or the common citizen getting a level playing field. Chomsky’s view is that these are not laws of nature and that the individual can play a role in changing things, but he points out that it only works if everyone takes the subway. If some drive, it’s going to be better for those who drive! Classic prisoner’s dilemma. When educated classes line up for a parade, he says, people of conscience have three options – march in the parade, join the cheering throngs on the sidelines, or speak out against the parade (and of course, expect a price for doing that!) and that’s been the story for a thousand years and more. 

    I am not sure I have read anyone else who has so much information on things that happened in the world and is able to cite examples for any question asked, is able to convert that into knowledge that connects the assorted pieces, and then deliver such timeless insights. Irreplaceable, I think.

  • Klara and the Sun

    Kazuo Ishiguro

    “The Buried Giant” didn’t really work for me, so I started reading with a mix of anticipation and apprehension. The lump in the throat as I turn the final pages is what I expect from a Kazuo Ishiguro book, and it most certainly delivered on that ache of profound sadness. It reminded me not just of his earlier book “Never Let Me Go”, but also of Louisa Hall’s “Speak”, which is centred around AI’s evolution around stories and storytelling through time. 
    Klara, an “artificial friend” serves as the narrator in a dystopian future where children are “lifted” for enhancing their intelligence. The world at large seems to have a fair share of tribes and movements, as technology has caused a division of classes in which many are “post employed”. We first meet Klara in the store where she is put up for sale, as an observant MF, who loves watching the world through the store window, and who is devoted to the sun (she is solar powered). She is chosen by Josie, a 14-year old made unwell by the “lifting” process. 

    From then on, we see multiple themes playing out – some human, some human and AF, and some just AF. The relationship between the humans – Josie, her mother and father who are separated, their neighbour Helen and her son Rick (who is Josie’s dear friend), and Capaldi, whose studio Josie and her mother visit for her “portrait” – reveal the different “sides” of their selves that play out on different occasions, their understanding of their own fragility, and their diverse views about how society is evolving. This is closely connected to the humans’ interactions with Klara, which show their mindset towards the AFs, again polarised. Most poignant are the moments with the empathetic Manager. 

    But being the narrator, Klara’s own thoughts and actions are the most interesting. She sees the world in boxes (I wonder if that is connected to how we slot people), she “feels” enough for Josie to be prepared to sacrifice anything for her, and has a hatred for the Cootings Machine, both of which are all too human. Her observation also makes her very perceptive (“I understood that my presence wasn’t appropriate as it once had been,”) even though the humans around her are often not. (Spoiler sentence ahead) My favourite is the deep insight at the end, when she says that Capaldi’s belief that there was nothing special inside Josie that couldn’t be continued was flawed because he was looking in the wrong place – it wasn’t inside Josie, it was inside those who loved her. 

    Ishiguro has a way with prose that allows him to move the story forward without massive plot-changing interventions. And as always, he also manages to keep the reader interested with the layered narrative and wonderful insights that make us human. In this case, the book made me wonder about the time when (I am not sure it’s an “if”) AI becomes sentient/ develops consciousness – would humans be able to understand (Klara’s faith in the sun, for instance), what is the kind of loneliness the AI would face, how would it handle its obsolescence, would it also show different kinds of love (the selfish and the selfless), and yes, can it have a heart – “I don’t simply mean the organ, obviously. I’m speaking in the poetic sense”.

    Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro

  • The Rules of Civility

    Amor Towles

    “For however inhospitable the wind, from this vantage point Manhattan was simply so improbable, so wonderful, so obviously full of promise — that you wanted to approach it for the rest of your life without ever quite arriving.” That last bit, that’s how I feel about some books. This is one those, just like “A Gentleman in Moscow”. I have to admit a bias because that book is among my all-time favourites. 

    In the preface, we meet Katey Kontent (originally a Russian immigrant Katya), who, in an exhibition in 1966, sees the photograph of an old acquaintance Tinker Grey. It catches him underweight, with a visibly dirty face, ill shaven, in a threadbare coat. As Katey’s memories come flooding back, she decides to leave, but catches another photo of Tinker at the exit – clean shaven, in a custom-made shirt and a cashmere coat. The second was from year before the first, prompting Katey’s husband Val to say “riches to rags”. “Not exactly” is Katey’s response, because in the first, Tinker’s eyes were bright and he had the slightest hint of a smile on his lips. And that sets the stage for a wonderful ride that starts on the last night on 1937, one Katey met Tinker for the first time. 

    The photographs remind Katey not just of Tinker, but a mix of people who would play important roles in her life – Wallace Wolcott, Dicky Vanderwhile, Anne Grandyn, and her best friend at that time – Evelyn Ross. And then there is New York, or specifically Manhattan whose different shades also appear, as Katey’s life changes. Amidst the parties, cocktails, flings and high-heels, there are extremely well-etched characters (some really powerful women among them), all different from each other, and all with moments of deep poignancy. 

    Anything more and I think I’d take way the joy of discovering the layers of the book, and the sharp revelations too. Enjoy the ride. 

  • How will you measure your life?

    Clayton M. Christensen

    Just because the title of the book is a question doesn’t mean that you will get simplistic answers – Clay, James and Karen make that clear on the jacket. But what it does is give a bunch of perspectives on how to frame your personal and professional life and purpose, how to approach the decision-making involved, and how you could think about success and failure.

    The book has three sections and covers a lot of interrelated topics – what motivates us – hygiene and motivators – which are often interpreted wrongly (the opposite of job dissatisfaction isn’t job satisfaction, but rather an absence of job dissatisfaction), the role of calculated directions and serendipity in the pursuit of the life and career we aspire to, the importance of matching strategy with the decisions you make on your resources – energy, money, time (relationships are a great example), the excellent framing of “job to be done” seen through the perspective of the customer/partner, equipping your children for the future, shaping culture in the family and in an organisation, and the slippery slope of “just this once” in matters of ethics and values. These are all delivered using interesting anecdotes, thus making it a very engaging read. 

    Having said that, the book was written in 2012, when social media was not the phenomenon we see now. I think it is fair to say that its all-pervading influence can be felt in all aspects of our life – from what we aspire for to measurement in terms of Likes and followers! That is not to say that some fundamentals in the book are not relevant it only means that we should (for our own purposes) add that layer when using the frameworks in the book. The other question I am thinking about is whether we should measure at all or just live. 

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CZMe91rlO0L/

  • Caste

    Isabel Wilkerson

    An artificial construction of human value, that deems one group of humans to be superior to another, based on ancestry and immutable traits, and rigidly enforced consciously, and subconsciously. Caste is not new, but surprisingly still a phenomenon in 2021. In the US, race is the visible manifestation of caste. But as the author points out, its underlying infrastructure is caste. That’s why Nazi Germany and India both serve as examples too. And that’s also why Martin Luther King, Jr., despite the initial discomfort, agreed to his introduction in a school in Trivandrum, India, as “a fellow untouchable from the United States of America“. Caste is also different from class, which is a measure of one’s standing in society marked by education, income, occupation, and taste, manners etc that flow from the socioeconomic status. This can be acquired, which is not the case with caste.

     Isabel Wilkerson sets up the context – “heat rising all around” – with the 2016 US Presidential elections, and the history of caste, including the arbitrary term “Caucasian” (on the basis of German professor Blumenbach’s favourite skull) that now denotes the white population, and the millennia-old varna system in India. It is interesting to note that while the Americans were considered heroes in World War 2, they had a history of eugenics that the Nazis took a lot of inspiration from for creating their own policies. And it wasn’t just eugenics, they even had tourism based on lynching scenes! It is also interesting that many pro-slavery losers of the Civil War are still celebrated as national heroes. Exactly the opposite has happened in Germany, where there are memorials for those who had suffered most under the Nazis. 

    She then proceeds to the eight pillars of caste – from heritability and endogamy to its enforcement, the cruelty it spawns and the presumption of inherent superiority/inferiority. When caste becomes deeply embedded, its tentacles spread everywhere, and so do its consequences. Any upliftment could be perceived as a threat to the dominant caste. Unfortunately, it also causes stratification in those who are in the bottom rungs, to the extent that many of them willingly role-play to maintain the hierarchy and acceptable forms of behaviour. 

    The election of Obama was a change in the order of things, and while it did give a few years of hope, the backlash has been strong ever since. It not only played a big role in Trump’s win, but also led to even more rigid mindsets and actions by the dominant caste. An interesting point that the author brings up is 2042, when for the first time, the white population in the US will be a minority. What will happen then if the current narrative of caste persists? A world without caste is better for all, even for the dominant caste, as various examples in the book show. The answer is conversations, and creating bonds through common interests. But one has to wonder how that is going to happen in this charged atmosphere that only seems to foster hatred and intolerance.