The Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Devakaruni (2008)

The book is described as Panchali's Mahabharata. The whole of Mahabharata is described from Draupadi's viewpoint. If you know the stories, you may find them at places biased. Not how it's described in other renditions of Mahabharata. The book has so many details on Karna as if Draupadi was obsessed with him. There are stories of Draupadi's attraction to Karna described in other Mahabharata-related literature but this book stretches it a bit too far. Towards the end, the book moves quite fast and the battlefield gets some mention not too many details. Nor has Bhagavad Gita explained in many details. 

One can think of the book as inclined to the modern feminist viewpoints at places. There are places where Draupadi laments the injustice done to her. There are a bit of MIL and DIL differences. It's well known that Draupadi desired Arjuna, but Bhima loved her most and she was neglected by Yudhishthir by his actions. Krishna was her true friend while Karna remained as an enigma to her. 

Easy read. Great storytelling but has little emphasis on the spiritual aspects of Mahabharata. Should be read like fiction and not for any spiritual upliftment.

Nehru - The Invention of India - Dr. Shashi Tharoor (2003)

 "The major portion of my ashes should … be carried high up into the air in an airplane and scattered from that height over the fields where the peasants of India toil, so that they might mingle with the dust and soil … and become an indistinguishable part of India." - Jawaharlal Nehru.

Those were the last wishes of Pundit Nehru. While the book is a remarkable insight into Nehru's life, it also brings out the contribution of many other people like Motilal Nehru in making Jawaharlal the towering personality he became. The book is written like scholastic work though not as rigorous in terms of references; Dr. Tharoor describes Nehru's life as early rise, him as a freedom fighter, post-independence initial years of success, and later years of failure with war with China. Written when Tharoor had no political affiliation to be associated with Congress, this book has both the positives and negatives on Nehru's life. In short, one can see the appreciation for the person, his towering personality, the institutions he built for India, and even policies, not in the country's interest. 

Overall a must-read for anyone interested in Nehru's life. Though short, it has some liberal usage of Tharoorosaurus. So need some patience than zipping through the passages. 

Origin of the Soul and Purpose of Reincarnation - Walter Semkew (2008)

 Short, Concise, and Easy Read. Yet, not much of actionable from such books. They seem more like science fiction. Here are some takeaways:

1. There are seven personality types in souls. Similar ideas have been reported by other clairvoyants as well. 

2. Every soul has a dual and can have multiple parallel lives in existence. 

3. The essence of a soul gets passed on life-after-life. Souls take 80-100 lives before finally getting out of the cycles of reincarnation. 

4. Reincarnations are like a learning experience for the soul to graduate to higher levels. 

5. Souls need to graduate 12 levels to attain their final spiritual goals. The author discusses with an advanced spiritual soul Ahtun Re to understand the process of reincarnation. 

6. Talks about reincarnations of Picasso, Beethoven, and Michael Angelo

There are references to others' works like Echo Bodine, Judy Goodman, and the likes. Overall an easy read but mostly felt like some science fiction than something actionable. For spiritual upliftment or development, the book has no substance at all. 

The Creation of Wealth - RM Lala (2004)

A swift read. The overall book talks about the history of the Tata Group. The book has three parts. Part-1 the Jamshetji era where audicious visions are undertaken. Part-2 the JRD era which marks development of collaboration and corporate structure. Some extraordinary actions around R &D on various areas. Part-3 redesigning the organisation for rapid growth and expansion with focus on technology with Ratan Tata at the driving seat. The book ends right before the Nano project. The Tatas didn't have a smooth sail with their business. There were many ups and downs they braved through to develop one of the most respected companies in India. The Tatas are as much contributing to philanthropy as much they have developed profit making corporate giants. 

A book worth reading.

Everything is F*cked - Mark Manson (2019)

Even this book and that is unfortunate...

The earlier book by Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Giving a F*ck is genuinely a great read that made me pick up this book. 2-3 chapters into the book, I felt the book is going all over the places. The analogies are not very coherent. You feel some of analogies are established by creating an artificial association. Just cannot finish reading the book.

For me this is not a good choice of a book or simply beyond me. 

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson (2016)

Short, Simple, and Easy Read. The messages are ordinary, yet there is something that grips you while reading. In terms of morals, here are a few quick ones:

1. Just bother about things you can and let go of some of the others.
2. Happiness is enjoyable as it is sporadic; continuous happiness or all success does no good to you. In the same light, accept sufferings as they make you stronger. 
3. There is nothing special about you. You are similar to others; you have some good and some average qualities of achievements in life. 
4. Choose judiciously but once decided, do not harp on it for too long. 
5. Everyone makes mistakes; everyone will die. So, live life without brooding over it. 
6. Success and failure are real. Do not get bogged down by failures or overwhelmed with success. 
7. Sometimes you will have to say no to things that you will not like to pursue. 

Well, not much different from most religious self-help books. Yet, the language is colloquial, can be unparliamentary and abrasive at places. 

A worthwhile read for a few hours.  

The King of Torts - John Grisham (2003)

 

The review was written in 2006, so some of the reference links may not be active. 

The Story

Unlike many John Grisham books, this is a book on rise and fall of an OPD lawyer who has achieved fame in a very short duration by playing the nuances of the “US Tort Laws”. However, this fame does not stay long with him and he finally loses out on various cases and declares bankruptcy with eighteen months of operation. Life of extravagance and vulgar display of wealth has acted against his favour in achieving what otherwise could have been a useful means to achieve success in the arena of tort claims. For a lawyer who has never fought a single tort case in the courts this is story of short lived success in showing lack of mastery to the art. In this article I would like to emphasize mostly the legal aspects of various cases discussed in the book, if there are any illegalities that were committed and how could have been avoided for the successful running of the business. However, the author’s lucidity of presentation, impeccable style of delivery though appreciated will not be the major means of evaluation in this article. The twists and turns of the story and relationships of various threads of flow of story again will not be a major consideration in this discussion.

Tort Law: An Overview

Torts are civil wrongs recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit. Torts are wrongs which are covered under no contractual agreement of the victim and the defendant. These wrongs result in an injury or harm constituting the basis of a claim of the injured party. The primary aim of the tort law is to provide relief for damages incurred and deter others for committing the same harms. The claimant may sue for an injunction to prevent the tortious conduct or for monetary damages. Among the types of damages the injured party may recover are loss of earnings capacity, pain and suffering, and reasonable medical expenses.  They include both present and future expected losses.

Torts can be classified into three major categories:

1. Intentional Torts: Are wrongs which the defendant had known or should have known and are evident from their action or inactions.

2. Negligent Torts: Wrongs which the defendant did due to an act of negligence. Like a traffic accident due to over speeding.

3. Strict Liability Torts: This does not depend on the degree of carefulness of the defendant but are established when a particular action causes damage. A relevant example will be liability of producing and selling defective products.

In this book we see several of these operations committed at various degrees. Although, most of the torts committed can be classified into “Strict Liability Torts” some degrees of Negligent and Intentional Torts are being committed as well. The book is mostly inclined towards Tort Laws; some of the company law related violations are also seen on some places in terms of insider trading and other such scams.

The Cases

The following are the cases which are discussed as part of the story.

1. Unsaid firm (Philo) developed drug Tarvan and used it against drug addicts inducing the subject become blood thirsty and kill people after hundred days of treatment. An example of an intentional Tort.

2. Dyloft: A drug created by Ackerman Labs. The drug although was a boon for arthritis was soon found creating non-malignant tumours in the bladders of the victims.

3. Hanna Portland Cement Company: The company had a couple of batches of cement which was defective leading to cracks appearing on the walls of the houses constructed using the batch of the cement.

4. Maxtail: A drug for menopausal and post-menopausal women which reduced the risk of high blood pressure, hot flashes among women. This was considered a wonder drug with more than four million users in the market. The “American Council for Aging” conducted a research which was abandoned due to the stark findings that usage of the drug for more than four years increased the risk of breast cancer occurrences by 33%, heart attacks by 21% and strokes by 20%.

Other cases which are not directly related to tort but to the company law are:

5. FBI investigating on involvement of Clay in possible insider trading.

6. Carter senior’s losses of name and fame in the circuit and exile in an island.

We will be only keeping our discussion to the first 4 cases of the book and keep ourselves to the discussion on “Laws of Tort”.

Case 1. Tarvan

Victims

• The Drug Addicts who are treated with Tarvan

• The People they used to kill at the end of 100 days.

Tortfeasers

• The unsaid company may be Philo

Mode of Concluding of the Case

• Out of the court settlement

The gainers

• The company

• Carter gets a huge sum of money to settle the case

• Max Pace gets close the case without even anyone getting to know of the illegalities.

The losers

• The poor drug addicts who are trialed in the court of law for no fault of theirs. No provision of damages are there for them, although they have been subjected to legal injuries

In short the case has an element of fraudulence in it.

1. The information of the effect of the drug was not public domain.

2. The company was aware of the potential negatives of the drug and yet they decided to bury the facts.

3. The lawyer (Carter) although was the defendant lawyer of the victims he was appointed by the company in no means would have worked for the best interest of the victims. So, all the cases would have been solved in the out of court settlements.

4. It was a case of fraud and misrepresentation.

5. There was no legal means of establishing the possible damages to be paid for the injury incurred due to planned out of court settlements with lawyer actually defending the tortfeasers.

6. The activity of the company was intentional in testing on human subjects even before a thorough investigation of the safety of the drug on humans. That makes them liable under the FDA’s guidelines.

Case 2. Dyloft

Victims

• The patients who are treated with Dyloft

Tortfeasers

• Ackerman Labs

Mode of Concluding of the Case

• Out of the court settlement

The gainers

• The company

• Carter gets a huge sum of money to settle the case about 40% of the fees and a large amount of the stocks he has purchased during the Philo acquisition of Ackerman Labs.

• Max Pace gets insider information or rather created insider information to get benefited from the stock market. This is a criminal activity as per the companies act and leading to imprisonment if proven.

The losers

• The patients are compensated on the grounds that the chances of the tumours found being malignant are not high. But, the way the compensation was decided there was no significant study to suggest the malignant nature of the tumours.

Reversal of Fate

• The end of the story of course goes to the victims and Carter is asked to pay back. But, if we look at the case as per the contract Carter seems to have settled rather cheap for the patients.

• By settling the case out of the court the risk assessment of the damages has landed up within the scope of the Law Farm that Carter was heading. And he was sued by his clients as a negligence of duty on his part to settle for cheap.

• Had the case gone to the courts Ackerman Lab would have been liable for the additional damage incurred due to the late findings of malignancy in the tumours. However, since the case was settled out of court the risk assessed by Carter’s Law Farm has come to legal binding with the clients to settle for a larger value for the damages, and all liabilities are to be borne by Carter and Co.

• Bad financial planning has played an important role in settling this case in paying off to the malignancy victims from Carter’s farms.

Case 3. Hanna Portland Cement Company

Victims

• People who bought the bad batches of cement and thus had houses with cracks

Tortfeasers

• Hanna Portland Cement Company

Mode of Concluding of the Case

• Out of the court settlement

The gainers

• No One

The losers

• The company

• Carter

• The victims

• Employees of the company

This is how Tort has become a classic case of Lawyers home grown paradise and interest of the people is completely forgotten. Hanna Portland Cement was interested in settling out of court as the company was not in its best shape and to avoid bad publicity. They had extended a reasonable compensation plan for the victims who were acceptable to the victims and mason level support to set things right for the victims. Carter was interested to get his margins right and didn’t want to settle for anything that was not keeping in mind of the best interest of his clients. And as the company was in a financial turmoil it could not afford the damages liability claimed by Carter and of which a good 40% was planned to be Carter’s settlement fees. That was substantially higher than what the Cement firm could have paid for compensation. And the company went belly up and declared bankruptcy and thus created a lose-lose situation for all parties involved.

Case 4. Maxtail

Victims

• Ladies who used Maxtail for post-menopausal relief

Tortfeasers

• Company which manufactured Maxtail

Mode of Concluding of the Case

• Court case for a similar case filed elsewhere

The gainers

• The manufacturers of Maxtail

The losers

• Carter and all his lawyer friends dealing with Tort cases.

• The victims

This is a classic example of two fundamental mistakes for Carter.

1. To trade in an area which he did not ever defend in the court and thus depended on his circle of lawyers.

2. Put all eggs in one basket without mitigating risk factors involved while all his fellow lawyers were trading cautiously.

When Mooneyham lost the case, it was hard for Carter to even imagine of going for defending the case filed in New York. Lack of experience and his lack of knowledge in the whole game of Torts really showed up. More over he had also invested far more than that was expected from the case, knowing that the report which was the primary concern for the case was a debateable report.

Conclusion

Although the book can be considered as a good starting point to understand Tort, however it is far from being a true knowledgeable compendium for the Law of Tort. It shows various examples of Tort and how it has becomes a lawyer’s game to manipulate and get maximum mileage out of it. In no place there is clear legal definition or description which can be used as a basis to understand the law of Tort. In many places there is display of Carter’s extravagance and thus Grisham has kept the novel interesting with his masterful story telling. The thing that comes out most clearly is the whole system of Tort has become a lawyer’s tool to exploit companies and public in achieving their own monetary gains. And, due to this large insurance coverage are typical of such industries and they actually are passed on to the consumers which makes the products more expensive. The lawyers also start playing safe with larger insurance covers. Risk mitigation is becoming a large part of the business and reducing the share of true value adds to the product in its pricing.

Reference

1. http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/torts.html

2. Federal Statutes 28 U.S.C. Chapter 171 – Federal Tort Claims Act. - http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00002671----000-.html

3. John Grisham, “The King of Torts”, 2003

4. Theories of Tort Law, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/tort-theories/

5. Encyclopaedia of Law and Economics, http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~gdegeest/tablebib.htm

Mohandas - Rajmohan Gandhi (2006)

The best tribute a person can give to his grandfather. More so if your grandfather is the greatest soul of India. A detailed treatise on Mahatma Gandhi's life. Beautifully presented in a fairly long book. The language is not easy read. It needs a fair bit of pauses before you proceed. Written in a chronological fashion, it starts with Gandhiji's childhood, talks about his London years, establishing Satyagraha in South Africa and subsequently all the work carried out in India. The book quotes from various sources of Gandhiji's life. It talks about many of Gandhiji's well known activities in the struggle for freedom. Also, speaks a lot about his personal and family lives. His emotional attachment to a middle-aged lady or experiment of celibacy at the age of 70 which was denounced and less understood.

At the end of reading such a voluminous work you still wonder, was he a saint, a politician, a reformist or just a hyped-up image of the Indian independence struggle. In fact he was such a crucial force for Indian struggle for independence. But there were other factors as well. How can a person have such a simple solution for all complex problems of life? All these make one wonder.

This is a work of scholarship by Dr. Rajmohan Gandhi. And needs serious time and effort to get the best out from this work. For many, this book may become the cornerstone of Gandhian studies. Recommended if you are serious about knowing about Gandhi. There are simpler and shorter books in the market if you want a quick grasp of his life and works.

The Tao of Programming - Geoffrey James (1987)

Get your free version at: http://www.canonical.org/~kragen/tao-of-programming.html. 

It is a short book on programming full of parables, fun quotes, and generally acceptable fun facts about software programmers. Just a 20-page book, it shall take no longer than a few minutes to go over it. However, I will generally suggest every computer programmer review it and ruminate over each idea for a few minutes.  

The Journey Home - Radhanath Swamy (2008)

The book is an autobiography of Radhanath Swami of ISKCON. It is based on the travel stories of a 19-year-old boy.  Richard Slavin heads out on a Europe trip to realize his calling for the spiritual needs of his soul. On the way, he makes friends with various people, shares their food, lodging, and transport to make a circuitous path from Europe to India. Sometimes even making solitary journeys on foot. He has met helpful people, cheats, sadhus, and even some frauds. The book essentially brings out if you have clarity of thought, the world will make way for you to realize your goals. After an exploration of two long years, he meets Swami Prabhupada of the ISKCON order in Vrindavan. Thus, he decides to commit to him as his spiritual master. Unlike other autobiographies by other Gurus, this is not a book about realization. Rather a long experience of battles one needs to go through in finding the spiritual master for yourself. His progress in the ISKCON order is not part of the book. The book is essentially well written, has lots of elements of the hippie culture of the period. Youthful abandon and engagement with drugs, sex, and other unhealthy practices and the ability to keep it off for one's spiritual progress are given due importance.  The benevolent commoners and deriding power-hungry sadhus who cheat hapless devotees are mentioned in the book. Then there are people whose main aim is to help others at the cost of affecting themselves are covered in some details as true love to humanity. Lucid language and style make the book an easy read. 

Living with the Himalayan Masters - Swami Rama (2007)

The book is an autobiography of Swami Rama, who lived with his Guru, a Himalayan seer, all his life. Simple language that will keep you gripping to the book. The book talks about early childhood, realization, experiences as a seeker, and learnings various seers he met in life. One may feel the story similar to The Autobiography of Yogi. However, I will differentiate it a bit as this book is very much like reading a storybook and very little on the actual spiritual processes. Secondly, there are a lot more interactions described. He has talked about meeting the sages of other religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Islam. He has met saintly figures who are associated with the freedom movement of India - Mahatma Gandhi. He has met Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, who had taken to complete spiritual upliftment after his experiences with the armed freedom struggle of India.  Overall, this is a book on learning from experiences.  While the author has been exposed to several forms of spiritual initiations, he has kept himself focused on the teachings of the Adwaita philosophy of Shankaracharya. His liking and bond with his Guru are presented nicely in the book. Though an old book, it is advisable for someone interested to know about Indian mysticism. 

The Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold Story of India's Partition - Narendra Singh Sarila (2005)

 Indian independence is like a story told differently. One sees many versions depending on who is telling the story. Some would say, Congress and Gandhi who were instrumental in India's independence. Some would insist it was Azad Hind Fauz and Subash Bose. Some even go to the extent of dedicating independence to the naval mutiny that was unsuccessful. India was getting restless, and various parts of the large country expressed their restlessness in one or other means in terms of reactions. However, some aspects do not get a mention. For example:

1. The US was interested in India getting freedom as one country and not being broken down and Balkanized. 
2. Mountbatten was equally responsible for merging the princely states as much as Patel's continuous follow-ups. In some sense, the princely states wanted to settle before their European masters left the country. 
3. Mountbatten was popular and had a good relationship with the Indian people and leadership but had three primary motives behind his actions.
1. The blame for partition should not come up as a British raj doing. 
2. The northwest part of India should have enough military presence to thwart the advancements of communism. 
3. India, though independent, must remain in the British commonwealth. 
4. Jinnah was interested in some Pakistan region and not essentially a large piece of territory. Even a land-bound from all sides by India was acceptable to him. He even wooed some Hindu princely states to join him to get a corridor of power till Bhopal. He was ready to do anything and agree to any terms of the raj placed in front of him. 
5. The British forces spearheaded the Indo-Pak war and the native army. Some of the British commanders took their own volition in deciding on the war fronts from Pakistan. The British had more faith in Pakistan than in India. 
6. Nehru got carried away by Mountbatten to take Kashmir to the UN. There were other ways for India to ascertain its hegemony over the region. 
7. Attlee was more inclined to India getting freedom than Churchill. Churchill was merely interested in India accepting colonial independence. Churchill blames Mountbatten for the same.
8. Lord Wavell had a much more significant role in the partition of India than Mountbatten. Wavell and Cripps scripted the Mountbatten plan. Mountbatten executed the plan. 

Starting as an ADC to Mountbatten, and continuing to be an ambassador in many allied nations, Sarila has seen a close account of Indian foreign policy in action in the initial years. As much as India's struggle for freedom was an internal affair, there was significant international interest in the same as well. 

Devil's Advocate - Karan Thapar (2018)

 The Newslaundry interview by Madhu Trehan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM-2VXMg6VY&t=2s ) introduced me to this book. 

The book is absolutely curt and to the point with economic usage of words in describing the ranges of areas he has touched upon. He talks of his childhood, marriage, his association with Benazir Bhutto, Sanjay Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, subsequently leading to his journalistic journeys in India. While one gets to know Karan as a person well connected in Luyten's Delhi who pretty much can reach anyone who mattered in India, he was well connected in Pakistan as well. And one gets to feel personal relationships were much stronger than professional relationships. Towards the end, you see a few of the interviews and people he has become distant to eventually because he brushed them on the wrong side: Ram Jethmalani, L. K. Advani, Jayalalithaa, and Narendra Modi. 

He talks about why he wrote the book. He had time and he wanted to tell more interesting parts of his life. Somewhere, I felt he has a sense of guilt which haunts him if he did the right thing with some of his interviewees. Moreover, he expects readers to judge his actions. He is trying to portray, he did things within the journalistic duties. I felt everything said and done, journalists have to clearly keep a balance. The people they critique are the same that they have to keep the best relationships for a continued stream of interviews. Today you see a different Karan Thapar on Incisive Interviews on The Wire. However, you do not see the big names from the political circles, rather academicians, writers, etc. only. 

The book is definitely a must-read. 

Sister Nivedita - Basudha Chakravarty (1975)

When I went to my alma mater IIT Kharagpur, I was surprised to see the largest ladies hostel in the campus was named after Sister Nivedita. A bit curious as almost all the hostels in IIT KGP are named after freedom fighters, I was not able to place sister Nivedita among them. Luckily National Book Trust released this book for free for public reading during the Corona lockdown. This gave me an insight into this great soul and the multifaceted character she is. The book is concise note on the sister's life. Almost a breeze read.

Sister Nivedita got enchanted into Hindu philosophy with Swami Vivekananda's discourses. She decided to lead the Hindu ways of life and had set herself the path to come to India and help set up education for women in India. Although, she partially was successful in that mission, she has contributed to spreading of Hindu ways of life in the west, helping scientists like Dr. J. C. Bose in funding and encouraging their research. Culturally, connecting with Rabindranath Tagore and other Tagore clan members in spreading the importance of Indian culture. She has contributed and at times led the void in leadership during the early freedom struggles of India. She interacted with Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh and Khudiram Bose who had extreme views on Indian freedom struggle while maintaining an equally close association with the moderates. Moreover, she had Lady Minto, the wife of the viceroy as a regular visitor to her school. She has expressed her views on varied areas of interests related to India and Indian culture and Hindu heritage that are published as works of literature, simple children stories or as speeches. For me the book was an eye opener to know a great soul from Indian history who does not get as much of a mention as she should be. 

Irrfan Khan - Aseem Chhabra (2020)

 The book is as serious as the actor is. Talking about the worklife of the actor. There is no gossip, no non-sense about the actor and his art. No unnecessary media hype or family or personal noise. The storyline is fairly simple, moves from one movie to next and describes Irrfan and his work. Some movies have a small story told and every time you read a story you feel like watching the actor closely so that you didn't miss his finese a bit. Off late I have ended up reading about quite a few actors, but I would believe Irrfan Khan would be very few who had been absolutely true to his art and had a non-controversial life. The acknowledgement section will make you realize how much people love him to have come forward to speak for him. 

Overall a book recommended.