The Curious Incident Of the Dog In the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - A Book Recommendation

How many time do you get a feeling while reading a book that “God, this book should never end, it should go on forever.” That’s exactly how I felt when I was on chapter 107 of this book. If you have not read this book and wondering “Chapter no 107 ???, looks like a thick book… humm” then think again. This book has exactly 272 pages. Now, to make you more bewildered, let me tell you the chapter one before the chapter no 107, is 103. Mazed !!!!

C’mon you got to read the book to demystify this.

When I first laid my hand on this book, I was in a deep exhort to read something different. Enough Marquez, Milan Kundera, Joseph Heller or Vikram Seth for me, I was looking for something which I had no idea. This book came as a recommendation from my literary giant friend, who has elegant choice and test of literature?

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon, a picture of a dog with three red spots on the cover, it was enough to make me move one step farther and reach 'Language and Dictionary' section of that book store. But then I was reminded that prejudice about a book by just looking at its cover and knowing about not so famous author is like saying “Oh he is just a man, he can’t cross a mountain.”

And that’s how I picked up the book and started reading first few pages. As usual, I ignored the recommendation and forward pages by “The Times”, “Daily Telegraph”, “The Bookseller” and other big guns, they really misguide you. I know you might think, that’s very cynic of me, but that’s how choices varies.

One Dog behind 5 red cars… I tried reading few lines randomly from the book …

First few opening lines of the novel….
"I know all of the countries of the world and their capital cities, and every prime number up to 7,057."

Few lines from some random page…
“I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can't tell lies.”

It was enough to billow my curiosity to pick up that book and sail through the voyage of reading, which is till this date one of the finest and well sent time of my life.

This book is about 15 year old Christopher who is an autistic savant and while he's a whiz at math and science, human emotions are particularly complex for him. He finds behaviors and demands of adults very mysterious and confusing (as most of the kids do).

All readers out there… I am not going to tell you the story (I would love to but I am no Marquez :))…Go grab or borrow a copy of “THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon.” Take my words, you will cherish about it.

Happy Reading…

TAMASO MA JYOTIRGAMAYA

“Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina ,Sarve Santu NiramayaSarve Bhadrani Pashyantu , Maa Kaschit Dukha Bhagh Bhavet”

May all be happy; May all be without disease;May all have well-being; May none have misery of any sort.

Wish you all a prosperous and safe Deepavali.

All about Reading ....

Why do we read? It’s pretty difficult question, isn’t it?

When someone first asked me this question, it made me numb. I replied it with the very first thought that came to my mind. I replied that I read because books make me feel good(no clue, why i said that :)), I fully utilize my travel time to office (thanks to this city’s growing traffic, it takes some times 3 hours up and down to cover a 5 KM journey ) and books/news paper keeps me updated about the universe.

I don’t know how satisfied was the gentleman with that reply but it came out with vivid lucidity that I was not. It’s too vital a question for every reader to ignore.

It made me to walk again the path of my Childhood. It would have been either Nandan or Chanpak(Hindi comic books,used to be available at every U.P. state bus stop book stores) which would have caught my attention first. The pictures and stories of Nandan/Chankap vaan were so innocent that any kid would like to submerge into it. It slowly became a passion.

Life without Pran’s Chacha Chaudhri in those day where unfathomable. It were not merely simple funny stories which held the attention but also the hilarious pictures which made me spell bound.( To illustrate, how many times we see a man slipping with a sound “Phisalna” or bomb exploding with a sound “Dhamaka”. I sluggishly remember bugging my sisters and brother to narrate those stories while I used to look at those astounding pictures. Indeed Chacha Chaudhri (Note: with a brain faster than a computer) and Sabu (Note: He was from Jupiter planet) played vital role in my literary journey.)

This journey without mention of Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Parmadu, hilarious Bankelal and action man Bhokal would not be complete. These books were fabulous medium to kill the boredom created by books of mathematics tables, science water purification chapters, cramming Australia’s geography and national animal’s etcetera. Audacity to read Chacha Chaudhri in civics class by keeping it between the civics books still spreads impish smile on my face.

But slowly these books got disappeared from my book racks and were replaced by O.P. Agrawal’s Mathematics and J.D. Lee’s non organic Chemistry. It was a hard time but Swed Marten gave the courage to overcome it, and kept that flickering light alive.

Then I laid my hand on a books which put me on the cross roads of a strange journey. It left an unfathomed impression on my conscious mind. Whichever new book I started in those days, it used to end with ‘The Fountainhead’. The Objectivism was initially hard to swallow but slowly Objectivism will swallow you.

‘Siddhartha’ and ‘Auto biography of a Yogi’ came on the way to enlighten this journey.

But now I’m addicted to it. When I am writing this blog and look over my book shelf, I see Sense and Sensibility, the Wealth of Nations, Strange Pilgrims, Of Love and Other Dreams, iCon which gives me an ambivalent feeling. Ironically this adds one more question ‘What am I reading?’ in addition to my previous question. I’m still unanswerable to these questions.

Perhaps it’s intellectual famishment which I am feeding with these books. But it creates a mirage and makes me reading many more in a hope that someday it would sooth this hunger.

All About Reading....

"The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy

Reading and books have become parts of my life. It baffles me when someone asks, fiction or nonfiction? How hard it is to apprehend that this is barely a way to show case the books on the shelf of a book shop. As famously said "A book you like resembles a friend. You read it, reread it, getting to know it better. Like a friend you accept it the way it is;you don't judge it". In a nutshell, a books is marvelous piece of art that doesn't age.

I have a very close friend who is a literary giant (till my road cross with someone who could imprint me more than him), he owns eclectic collections of books. How many times have you observed a person holding 13 books in his lap and roaming around in Landmak. He is the one of those kind. And when some attender approaches him with a basket, he murmrs ardently “Books are not commodity, it should be lifted and kept with immense respect” and denies to take the basket.

We have quite a contrast in our discussions about each and every hoo-has happening around this planet, whether it’s Indian media and it's irresponsibility's, American presidency election, French/Italian cinema or even Big Boss-2.

In our last Landmark visit he picked up one book from the shelf and stamped it with must read. It had very unusual title, so was the picture printed on it. But at the same time, I didn’t want to commit the famous crime of judging a books by its cover. On the other hand his last recommendation to me about a short story was a real cataclysm.

(Last month after our Crosswords visit he dropped in my room at 11pm and asked me to read a fabulous story. It certainly erupted rarity in me and I started reading that short story and finished it within 20 minutes. I approached his room to give the book back. He saw something on my face and asked "is everything okay, pal, Isn’t it an excellent story?" I was too atrociously shaken to answer him, I just nodded NOPE and went back to sleep. That book was about a drowned man whose floating swollen body was brought to village by fisher men, and the women of that village were so impressed by that dead body that they could stop watching and depicting it …..)

He has very strong view against a new hot selling author whose 3 books and a recently launched movie are selling in India like Aloo Gobhi. He adds that every Tom, Dick and Harry is writing books now a days, but it doesn't mean that we should be reading all these books. After all What you read is what you are. “We have got an itsy-bitsy life and we better be very selective in whom/what we read” he further adds.

To be continued ….

Future of Social Entrepreneurship in India !

In the words of Muhammad Yunus -

“My experience of working in the Grameen Bank has given me faith; an unshakable faith in the creativity of human beings. It leads me to believe that humans are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty. They suffer now as they did in the past because we turn our heads away from this issue.”

The Wikipedia defines social entrepreneurship as “Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.”

The world is seeing a huge opportunity of social entrepreneurship in India. It’s not because of Indian economy is booming and thus making the chances of success of any entrepreneurship venture as gold. But quite the contrary, the social problems are in abundance in our country and millions of social changes are needed which could make the social entrepreneurship a real success.

You don’t often get the chance to discuss such topic with elites and pundits of business and economy. Last evening I was graced with such opportunity to discuss the real nuts and bolts of this evolving phase of business. After our discussions, I found myself really convinced that the future of social entrepreneurship is real bright in India because of following few reasons.

Firstly, the vast and deep rooted social problems in India provide a good market potential for social changes and hence social entrepreneurship. Whether, its illiteracy, rural health, rural credit system or poor education system, these all loose nuts and bolts of this biggest democracy provides an opportunity for optimist entrepreneurs out there in market. The only challenge is, coming up with a strong business model.

In last few weeks, I came across such ventures that have already started working in this direction and have really pioneering in their respective areas. Rakesh Dubey’s Sonata Finance and Manab Chakraborty’s Mimo Finance are the ventures to name a few.

Secondly, there has been phenomenal shift in the thinking of the junta about the purpose of such ventures. They have started to understand that making modest profit out of such opportunities is not at all evil. Indeed, there are well know contemporary like Muhammad Yunus who feel that such ventures should be nonprofit but on the other hand there are social capitalist like Bill Gates who advocates for making modest profit out of such opportunities (refer http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2008/01-24WEFDavos.mspx for detail).

But if we leave the rightness and wrongness of this development and just look at the impact of these ventures on society, it’s phenomenal. The rural credit which was not only difficult to get but also complicated to handle for India rural junta, is becoming really easy and flexible now. The banks, which used to shy away from such lending, have also started seeing future in it (“It’s not people who aren’t credit worthy. It’s banks that aren’t people worthy” -Muhammad Yunus ). Proactive ventures like this are making very strong social impacts.

In conclusion, area like micro financing, rural health, retail supply chain gap (proving better bargain for crop to farmers) provides a fabulous entrepreneurial opportunity for the young generation to bridge the gap between the have and have not’s and make a modest profit at the same time.

Moreover remember that all that is needed for evil to triumph is good people to do nothing.