Flavors of Nature

It had rained the other day perhaps. The clay road was at it's mischievous best designing artistic shapes of all sizes. Meanwhile the driver contemplated the best way to maneuver us through, all I could see till the horizon was Pineapple plantation. The scaled delight guarded by thorny long leaves. Ubiquitous spread like a contagion.

At the camp, we sat down deliberating methodologies to help the locals to get better value for their pineapples. Local honey was offered to everyone. The legend was apparently true. The honey was pineapple flavored, a beautiful symbiosis of flora and fauna.

Book Review - Corporate Chanakya

My Rating - 1/5

Having read the original work of Kautilya in the form of Arthashashtra, the cover and title of this book looked intriguing at the first place. And that was that. Simply put, it is just a deliberate repackaging of the original works of Kautilya which certainly dealt with the idea of the State and it's components. But if you look at it, any entity, be howsoever small, can draw parallels from the original work. Just the jargon had to be modernized and eureka, you have this book. At the end the author even attempts to attain the wisdom of Chanakya and offers one suggestion to the readers that they should gift this book to people at their workplace. Duh, at least make it more subtle brother. Would not recommend if you have already read the Arthashashtra. 

Book review - Mossad

My Rating - 3/5

If ever there was a book wherein every chapter had the potential of a full fledged action thriller, it is this book. Mossad has played a key role in what we today see as Israel and it continues to do so. The writing is very direct and perhaps no other tone would suit this kind of genre. It is bone-chilling to read about the missions they had taken up and the influence it has made to the developments in that particular region and also on the global scale. All the stuff they have done, seems straight out a movie and yet it is all real. It is a fascinating read if you are intrigued by the life of spies and a bit of complicated Mediterranean geo-politics. 

Book Review - A History of Assam

Author - Sir Edward Gait
Rating - 2/5

When I landed in Assam for the first time three years ago, I had no idea about the history and evolution of the state and it's people. Having spent a year there, I got some answers. But the heterogeneity is so overwhelming that it is difficult to connect all the dots. There were many questions like why we do not see giant and pompous palaces like we do in central and western India and how the dynamics were with rest of the hill tribes from the adjoining areas. Who are the aboriginals and who aren't and from where they had migrated. Assam being at the heart of the North Eastern region, it's history helps us to understand a lot many things about the whole region. Not at all near the high standards of national historians, but there aren't many other works on the history of this part. A must read to understand the evolution of Assam and nearby areas.  

Book Review - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

If you have read Sapiens, you will be inclined to read Homo Deus (Which BTW is not a fictional story about a guy named Deus who is too afraid to explore his sexuality). If you have read both of these books, you would be literally compelled to pick up this one. The pace at which things around us are changing is mindbogglingly high but unfortunately the thought process and collective consciousness is terribly jet lagged. And this genius man in the present book picks up 21 topics which we should deeply ponder on before embarking upon forthcoming spiritual and philosophical voyages. Each topic contains intriguing debates spanning across eons.

For instance, he talks about the responsibility which rests on the shoulders of story tellers these days, particularly those engaged in science fiction. The perception of future is more shaped by these science fiction movies and TV series rather than the actual status of research itself.  What if Neo wasn't really out of the matrix at the end, what if it was another matrix. Matrix within a Matrix. What is we all are truly inside the same one and Neo is just a self-affirming dream figure. Many more such propositions in the book. And by design, the last chapter of this book is titled Meditation. It's about time we make effort to understand our own minds, before the algorithms take over. Pick it up and read, period.