Tiger That Isn´t – or how to read numbers

For me, statistics was not one of the easiest subjects to get through during my studies. It seemed so abstract and contrary to what I was seeing. But now nearly everyday I come across statistics in magazines and newspapers. Most of them seemed to be used to drive home the message and to give the article some degree of authenticity. Well, I just finished one book which exposes the truth behind these numbers. This book is “The Tiger That Isn´t” by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot http://www.profilebooks.com/title.php?titleissue_id=453. It seems they present the same information in Radio series called More or Less (BBC Radio 4). Anybody who enjoyed Freaknomics and The Undercover Economist books will surely enjoy this book. In fact I think it is even more simpler than the other 2 books. The authors have tried to show how common public should weigh and find the  real value of the statistical numbers quoted in newspapers (I would say successfully).    

Prince Harry- Sex Lives of Queens/Kings

Normally the British appetite for scandals are so depressing that I always feel sick when I hear them. It is my strong opinion is that the Paparazzi were indirectly responsible for this tragic death of Princess Diana. This is something which will not happen to a celebrity of any other country. Somehow the country which gave endless great writers from the likes of Shakespeare to likes of Bill Bryson  pays to read the about real life of celebrities. Suddenly I find myself also enjoying reading about the private life of celebrities. I just finished reading Eleanor Herman´s Sex with the Queen http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Queen-Virile-Passionate-Politics/dp/0061171360/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194908098&sr=8-1. I would recommend this book to all who read Hello, Sun and that like of magazines and otherstoo. This book seems to be well researched and put in a very delightful form. At first glance I thought some sort of a soft porn. For some reason I had glance at the back and saw that it was something more. Intrigued by the words “900 years of Virile Kings…” I decided to read this book. I was totally surprised by an entertaining book on whole the social scene was through the years in the European court. Though Ms.Hermann repeats most of the stories of the Queens and the other principal characters of history  on whom she  has researched, it is does not really hurt. in fact sometimes she just gives a very tiny description in the beginning and I find it is so intriguing that I go looking around in the Internet and in the wikipedia only to find out that she explains in more detail later. After reading this,I felt good when she more or less indicated that she could find much to scandalise Queen Victoria, but felt let down when she wrote a whole lot  about Catherine the Great of Russia. All that is mentioned is only the scandal part and nothing on the greatness of Catherine.

In any case a thoroughly enjoyable book. (I even took keen interest in looking up at the allegations of Chelsy Davy about Prince Harry being a playboy and so separating). I have already started looking for Eleanor Herman´s earlier book “Sex with the King” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sex-Kings-Adultery-Rivalry-Revenge/dp/0060585447/ref=pd_sim_b?ie=UTF8&qid=1194908098&sr=8-1 . Hope it has the same amount of sensationalism and realism combined in the same proportions.

Shelfari, A Bibliophiles Get-together?

One of my “web2.0-active” friends sent me a link to this site called Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com.  Seems like the right place for Bibliophiles. You can put all our favourite books on a shelf. It is quite easy (I could add nearly 50 books in a matter of few minutes) You can see your friends collection. You can read comments from others on your favourite books and you can also comment and discuss. You can also form groups. Best of all it is free. Really good idea from these guys who came with this idea. Cause I am sick of reading the comments made on the book sites like Amazon cause i feel many comments are more to influence your decision to buy that book. By the Amazon has also invested in this site and but I am fairly confident that they will not influence the website activities.

Noam Chomsky & Ayn Rand

I chanced upon the book “Hegemony and Survival- America´s quest for global domination” and reading it. Quite a typical Chomsky book. The intellect is as evident as the vitroil. Noam Chomsky´s “America” used to be  like elite fashion. But now with so many authors coming up with books critical of  G.W.Bush and the US after the Iraq episode, he seems common place.  It is easy to forget that he has been in this business (of critising since before the Vietnam war. But his writing is anything but common place. He is the most sited author as per the analysis of MIT where he works. He is in the top of many of possible author lists like most quoted author to The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America by David Horowitz.  Well comparing him to Ayn Rand, they have many things in common:- popularity. Ayn Rand is also in all possible novel lists with Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead and We The living joining most list in one position or another. What the authors do share also is their East Euopean heritage. But both are intellectually so powerful and so good in what they think and what they do. Idealogically their poles apart with Chomsky heavily turing to the left while Ms.Rand is darling and idol of all conservatives(including our Wizard of Oz, Alan Greenspan). No idea whether they ever met. Did they say about each other?  What would have been their words? No idea. 

Sivakami´s Vow & Tamil Literature

I found this http://sivagamiyin-sabadham.blogspot.com/ blogspot by chance. Looks like Pavithra Srinivasan has been translating this magnificent book called sivagamiyin sabadham which means Sivagmi ´s Vow.This book was written by the famous Tamil author R.Krishnamurthi  pen named Kalki was written in 1944 and arguably one of the best historical novels written. But it is not just the exceptional one, there were great epics written before and great novels written after. Of those the best historical ones are by Sandiliyan. I feel iftheywere translated they would rival and could probably beat most of the top historical novels ever written like (Collen McClough´s Novels of the Roman Punic Wars and later). Also there alot of epics in Tamil from the very ages ago (Silapathikaram,Manimekalai).  Tamil Literary history does not just contian these fictions, but a lot of other books also. The Tholkappiyam waswritten in 900BC but it is still taught in Tamil grammar classes for school students of age 15 or 16.  

But all Tamil Literary Treasures  have stayed within the Tamil group. Nobody outside this group know about any of these great works.  Contrast this with the Bengalis,they had Tagore who wrote in great Bengali and in English also and Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and a small handful ones. They are well known outside the Benagli group. The Chinese also have their share of epics and anybody who goes into the Chinese culture immediately are aware of their epics likes Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West and  Dream of the Red Chamber (all wonderful epics…if you get a hand on them just don´t let them go unread if you are a book lover). 

Why have the Tamils not been able to “sell” this literary history to the world? Some may argue that Malaysia Singapore are places where Tamil sells a lot. But even here it is to Tamils only.  Maybe one of the good Tamil movie makers should try to make a good movie based on oneof these Tamil stories in various languages and sell it across the world. Get it to win a Oscar or even a nomination. And at this time we have a lot of the works translated and put up on stall, it would generate of interest on the Tamil literature. 

Durga Puja & J.K.Rowling

For Bengalis Durga Puja is more than what Christmas is to Westerners. Christmas is kind of quiet celebration, private. Probably Weinnachtmarkts of Germany are probably the closed it comes to a public celebration. Durga Puja on the other hand is like a Brazilian Carnival (minus the exotic or erotic part of it)  and  Christmas together. Every nook and corner where someone could worship and a temporary structure  is erected during these festive days only to be destriyed few days later. Normally these structures are erected based on donations from the local community. In order to attract more people , these structures are made in different shapes and styles  and with different themes. People who come to see these are then treated like a community. Unlike in US where there is always a sponsor with some interest like advertisement for such things, here it is purely a communal affair. (Interesting Bengal is one of the few places where communists have been in poer for more than 30 to 40 years and everytime winning in a democratic election). Earlier days the themes for these structures were from Indian epcs and mythology and as topics and thems became stale, politics ,sports , movies and anything eyecatchy have become themes for this structures. Superman, Spiderman, Titanic, Indian Cricket (both negative and positive issues) have all been a part of it. Somebody this year chose to go with Harry Potter. Hogwarts School. Ordinarily people would just have a look at it and say a look “Harry Potter”. But then suddenly J.K.Rowling and Warner Bros decided to sue these organisers for 25,000 pounds. Not a small money for Indians..It is 2 million Ruppees for them. I can understand if such stance is taken over commercial ventures or events. But this was such an innocent setup. Nothing to do with money. It is like Bram Stoker demanding money from every Halloween kid wearing a dracula costume. Or a kid drawing a spiderman face to show of his skills will have to pay Marvel comics. I fail to understand how both Ms.Rowling and Warner Bros could be so insenstive. The money Harry POtter has made for both of them is far reaching and this is hardly a drop in the ocean. Are they trying to get into the news papers by  making an issue out of it? Is Ms.Rowlings statement that Dumbledore is gay  also done with the same target? This issue could have been handled in more senstive way. But instead by doing this way,  I guess Ms.Rowling has lost one of her devout set of fans, the Bengalis (most Bengalis are proud of their passion for reading and undoubtfully many would have been fans of Harry Potter before this episode)  and me too. I could not help thinking about the law suit on her after the first book was released accusing her of plagiarism. 

Alexander The Great´s- Art of Strategy

I finished reading the book Alexander The Great´s Art of Strategy. Few years ago (probably 2004) BBC had a program called Total War. A game played by a team consisting of 4 members. They played a battle scenario with computer simulation based on the PC game called Total War. 2 members were made the leaders and the other 2 would execute the orders. Their opponents were simulated based on a combination of actual events and some variations to counter the strategy of the team. There was also 2 military historians who would analyse the team from the back ground and then also after the game was over. They also informed them later on what really happened. There were many interesting episodes. One of them was of Alexander and the Battle of Guagmela. The team was consisting of 4 guys who were very experienced in playing war games and they managed to play the part of the Greeks close to what happened in reality and though Alexander was ”killed” in their version they won. It was then I realised how great Alexander was. These guys were playing the game on big computer monitors with full view of the battle field. They could move back and forth see well beyond what a human general could see. Yet Alexander who was also leading the attack from the front had a total overview of the battle and was able to effectivel control a whole battle of against 300,000 men and win it his way. Watching this series, I got interested in battle strategies and strategist. Alxeander was best among them. Each war was executed to perfection. I started reading articles and books on Alexander. Of these, I enjoyed the triology of Valerio Massimo Manfredi as it was written more like a fiction but stayed close to actual facts regarding the wars and now this book by Parth Bose. What makes this book very different from the others Partha Bose has concentrated on the strategy of Alexander and then related it to the modern managements techniques and startegies. I would say he is very successful in this. He uses examples from the real business world to emphasis his points. I would expect that this book would be in one of the best seller list or well known. But I never heard about and would not picked it if I was not really interested in Alexander. But I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in reading business books too. Or anbody interested in reading about history.