Skip to main content

Booked

"Whenever I read a good book, I get impressed with my ignorance"

I couldn't find the source of this quote, but I heard it in class 12, wherein my physics tuition teacher Mr. Vishal Pandya (Who was a kind of database in quotes!) once had this one in one of his notes, which invariably started with few quotes

Of late, I have realized a very high degree of correlation between Jhandta Index (Henceforth referred to as J) existing in life and book I am reading if any. If I am reading some book at some point of time, J reduces significantly (Say, to a vlue J/2, average case) ; and if the book is significantly good then it reduces to a very low level (Say, J/4).

I have realized that in last 4 weeks (this includes the next week also), I have read 5 extremely different works, quite a rare feat in terms of quantity and diversity of books read!

The most recent book I have read is some book by some IIMB guy about some fictional experience during life @ IIMB, which had everything in it - sutta, daaru, kudi etc. and all such stuff in 'meeee too' kind of books. (This one had Marijuana as the principal ingredient though) In fact, having read works like Joker in the Pack and Mediocre but Arrogant which seemed half hearted attempt at cloning Five Point Someone and Snapshots from the Hell, I did the same mistake again and brought this marijuana loaded book, Keep Off the Grass, and after reading which I wanted to slap myself for having brought that book.

Still reading it was better than reading nothing at all. Maybe, it will help me know, what not to write, in case I decide to write a book couple of centuries down the line.

Before that I read 'How Starbucks saved my life' which was a decent book about a top notch ad guy being fired from a job and lands working for Starbucks, a job he deemed menial as per his standards. Before that, it was The Under Cover Economist which was again a good book in case freakonomics style economics interests you. Before that it was Khaled Hosseni's A thousand Splendid Suns, which was again a good book, but I didn't find it awesome or anything.

After the marijuana and all stuff I picked up 'The Greatest Works of Khalil Gibran' - 12 in 1 omnibus edition (each of the book is quite small and I guess it would take 2-3 hours per book on an average), which I am currently reading(since last 24 hours!). I have read three of them, and they are simply AWESOME ... Or as Barney would put it - Legend ... (wait for it) ... Dary. I plan to finish them in next few weeks.

In fact, I must confess that it would require a re-reading to explore the depths!

In case philosophical works (having a completely mystic feel) interests you, then go for it without giving a second thought. I believe that there are two possibilities - Either you will love this book (most will fall in this category), or you will dislike it completely. Remaining 0.1 percent people may find it average or be non judgmental about his works.

Weird it may sound, but if I were to compare his works with some recent song it would be 'Khwaja Mere Khwaja' from Jodha Akbar. There is some kind of enigma in both of them. In fact like this particular song, I may not be able to compare works of Khalil Gibran with other works. It is different, in league of its own!

Maybe, I would post more on Khalil Gibran later, after I am through with all of them (providing I overcome the laziness barrier!)

Till then, happy reading!

Comments

  1. Anonymous11:14 AM, August 25, 2008

    I think we have got an overdose of Life at B-school kinda books!! Bahut ho gaya!!! And yeah Mediocre but Arrogant was mediocre *Gleeee!!!*

    And I have to get my hands at Khalil Gibran...

    That Barney thing was awesome ;) I cant wait for HIMYM to start again! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikesh Rathi9:15 AM, August 27, 2008

    Yeah ... There has been an overdose of variants of such mediocre books!

    Do try reading Khalil Gibran!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

All for a Car

"Boss, I want a car" "What? "Yes. I want a car" The boss thought for a moment. Ravi was asking for a car. Maybe he needed one. He could give him one for an hour or so. The boss was the owner of the agency, which dealt in dealing with distribution of FMCG products of a big company and was a person who had a soft corner for his employees, something which is rare in such type of work. Ravi was a small time computer operator earning Rs 5000 a month at the agency. The job involved sitting in front of a computer in an air conditioned room and punching orders and preparing the bills on the company software. But the demand for a car was a bit shocking. No employee ever asked him for a car. "Why do you need a car?" "Boss. I am getting married" "Good. Congratulations" "Thank you boss." "So do you ..." "Sir, I have told my to be father in law that I earn 35000 a month and have my own car. I'll be engaged soon. He ...
6 comments
Read more

Child Labor

He was 10 years old. When asked he said that he was 15 years old. He didn’t know why. It was just that his master told him to do so. His name was Raju. When he was born, he was named as Shivkumar, but that name did not suit his master. So his name was changed. His master owned a small juice shop in some big institute, with around 500 people. Most of these students were his customers. They visited him regularly for juice, cold drinks, eatables, cigarettes etc. This was a popular hangout, chiefly because of large credit extended by Sharmaji Raju had 3 other siblings -Two sisters of age 13 and 11 respectively and a brother of 7 years. The eldest sister worked in a small carpet making unit. She has been employed since 3 years and worked for 12 hours a day without taking and day off. Probably, in a year or two she will be married to someone from a nearby village. Probably her family would get few thousand rupees in bargain! The younger sister was employed full time with a sort of well to ...
6 comments
Read more

Survival

Dark clouds were looming at the horizon. In few minutes they would have traveled few miles in westward direction and came closer. This is not usually the scene at noon in the hottest month of the year. Dark clouds meant something ominous. Probably sign of an impending storm or maybe a cyclone approaching. Sea is a capricious lady. Bay of Bengal was no different. It was infamous for cyclones, and Orissa was often at the receiving end of nature’s fury. Ramdas was few miles into the sea. So were his brethrens of the fishermen community. There were around a hundred boats in the sea that day. No one anticipated the storm. So no one even thought of staying back at the shore and miss out on their livelihood of the day. Ramdas was alone in his boat. He owned the boat. His son helped him with his job. They managed to get enough as to earn a square meal a day. They had a good rapport with others of fishing community. But of late that relationship was breaking down. No reasons for that. Nor wa...
8 comments
Read more

The Detour

The 7 year old girl walked from school to her home. This was the first time she was walking alone on that route. On any other day, her mother would have gone to pick her up from school, but not that day. She was not aware that schools were declaring holiday an hour and a half earlier due to trouble in the town owing to some agitations and protests. Only few parents could be intimated about this. A friend’s mother accompanied her to the lane leading to her apartment, from where it was just a minute’s walk. But that day, for some unknown reason she decided to roam about a bit and take the longer route. It is not always that she gets to roam about, and no one would know about it. After all she wouldn’t tell her mamma about that. The road was almost deserted. It was usually the case around the noon time in this part of the country. She walked ahead leisurely, singing and dancing all along as if she owned the road. But this was short lived. In couple of minutes, the scene changed....
7 comments
Read more

The story behind credit card debts & personal loans

Any one with even an iota of interest in personal finance & its workings would probably know that credit card debts and personal loans are usually the worst kinds of debt traps that you can fall into. Yet many people fall into that trap again and again. Many people do come out of it eventually but some don't & this becomes a part of their "lifestyle". That you are eventually paying much more than you need to, if you default on credit card payments intentionally or unintentionally (probably @ 36 % per annum or something similar) or take a personal loan (say, @ 12% per annum or so) is not hard to fathom. However behind these numbers, there may be even a deeper story - that usually that of not having control over expenses or not having created a buffer amount. While there may be some pressing need like unplanned or recurring medical expenses which fuels sudden demand of money or an unexpected job loss, in many other cases this need may be fueled by lack of plani...
12 comments
Read more