Friday, October 21, 2011
Recently I picked up (online shopping is now akin to physical buying, thanks to Flipkart. Pleeaajjj buy from them.) three books on social sciences - Being Indian, India calling and Mother Pious Lady. Yeah, I am on a patriotic spree for now.
Initially I was hesitant to pick up Mother Pious Lady. Reason : its Author. I have always found his weekly columns in TOI to be cumbersome. I believe humanities professionals and all social commentators must be awesome story tellers. No cop-outs should be accepted. One reason for the poor show at humanities' colleges in India could be the skill of squeezing life out of an already dense and overwhelming subject.
Khair, aage badhte hue, I am glad I was coaxed into buying Mother Pious Lady by a mentor at work.
The book is a collection of short stories on the middle class in India and the nature of our peculiar Indian-ness. Most chapters are about two pages long and a breeze to read through.
Santosh Desai has shared some delightful vignettes of the the decades gone by and offered insightful reasons on why we are the way we are. There is an abundance of humour, not so much in the writing, as in the experiences drawn from a middle class existence in India.
There were quite a few places where I couldn't stop chuckling in agreement and thinking "Gosh, that is me!". I was glad to finally understand why Indian women from the Defence forces perform way better than the rest and why we may not be seeing an Indian version of the Arab Spring anytime soon.
The book also reconfirmed my belief about religion : It will continue to enjoy an elevated status in India, and in fact, we are only getting warmed up.
Apart from having an interesting line up of essays, Mother Pious lady provides formidable competition to Barrons educational books. On last count, I remember adding 56 new words to my repository. How I loouuve MBA turned writers.
So, now, while writing experts will demand a proper summary, closure, vote of thanks and other such jazz be added to this post, I can't wait to hit the sack.
Post achhi lagi toh kitaab khareed le.
Tata.
Initially I was hesitant to pick up Mother Pious Lady. Reason : its Author. I have always found his weekly columns in TOI to be cumbersome. I believe humanities professionals and all social commentators must be awesome story tellers. No cop-outs should be accepted. One reason for the poor show at humanities' colleges in India could be the skill of squeezing life out of an already dense and overwhelming subject.
Khair, aage badhte hue, I am glad I was coaxed into buying Mother Pious Lady by a mentor at work.
The book is a collection of short stories on the middle class in India and the nature of our peculiar Indian-ness. Most chapters are about two pages long and a breeze to read through.
Santosh Desai has shared some delightful vignettes of the the decades gone by and offered insightful reasons on why we are the way we are. There is an abundance of humour, not so much in the writing, as in the experiences drawn from a middle class existence in India.
There were quite a few places where I couldn't stop chuckling in agreement and thinking "Gosh, that is me!". I was glad to finally understand why Indian women from the Defence forces perform way better than the rest and why we may not be seeing an Indian version of the Arab Spring anytime soon.
The book also reconfirmed my belief about religion : It will continue to enjoy an elevated status in India, and in fact, we are only getting warmed up.
Apart from having an interesting line up of essays, Mother Pious lady provides formidable competition to Barrons educational books. On last count, I remember adding 56 new words to my repository. How I loouuve MBA turned writers.
So, now, while writing experts will demand a proper summary, closure, vote of thanks and other such jazz be added to this post, I can't wait to hit the sack.
Post achhi lagi toh kitaab khareed le.
Tata.
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