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Comfort TV can be a series, show, sport, or anything you like watching after a long day, looking to unwind before bed. I’ll go first. I like watching Nigella Lawson ’s cooking shows, adaptations of Agatha Christie’s short stories and documentaries about the Universe. Even in ancient times, that is before streaming services like Netflix and Amazon docked on Indian shores, I would record Nigella’s cookery shows and documentaries about the Universe on the DVR so I could play one when I got home after a work day which was sometimes chaotic, usually hectic and always noisy. Sitting back in your favourite chair, feet up on a footstool with something to eat while the sights and sounds of a relaxing show lull you into a state of restfulness is sometimes just the thing one needs. This was especially true for me when I worked in news media since I would often get back home after work around midnight. My brother would be fast asleep, given his early mornings and I would be too alert to fall asleep. COMFORT FOOD FOR THE EYES I don’t know if you’ve seen any of Nigella’s cooking shows (I recommend it, even if you don’t cook to impress).  She’s not the greatest chef (in fact, she isn’t even a trained cook by her own admission) but she cooks delicious food without turning up her nose at store-bought pastry, canned goods or poor knife skills. In other words, she’s like us—home cooks. Only with a gorgeous house, a walk-in pantry stocked with decadent goodies from around the world and a garden with twinkly lights that feels both lived-in and ever ready for an impromptu get-together. Photo Courtesy: Instagram The charm of Nigella Lawson’s shows lies not so much in what she cooks (yummy though it is) but the way she talks about food and her obvious delight in sumptuous meals. For the most part, the star of the show is her lifestyle and joie de vivre. With most other cookery shows, one wants to either be able to cook as well as the chef does or better still, eat what they cook. With Nigella, it’s the relaxed but decadent vibes of her lifestyle that one wants to emulate. Nigella World is a place where it is possible to entertain friends on work days without suffering a mental breakdown, eat home-made pancakes for breakfast while solving a crossword and look like a million bucks while making it all look effortless. That’s the magic of television but also, Nigella makes cooking seem like fun. COSY MYSTERIES BEFORE BED Photo Courtesy: ITV Speaking of great recipes, Agatha Christie’s mysteries are another favourite of mine. There is something to be said about murders committed by genteel folk who are kind enough to stick around for Hercule Poirot to solve the case! I love Poirot despite his pomposity, obsessive idiosyncrasies and penchant for keeping his partners in partial darkness. To be honest, I like his affectations. Agatha Christie is a master of weaving in enough clues to encourage you to make guesses as to the murderer’s identity but often, they’re best understood in hindsight. Watching Poirot solve a case with help from his 'little grey cells' leaves me with a soothing sense of resolution. Like all’s well with the world. That’s a good thing for an insomniac. It’s the mental equivalent of a warm bath, fresh bed linen and a cup of hot chocolate before retiring for the night. Nothing tops it! COSMIC COMFORT Did I just say nothing tops Christie’s mysteries? Well, nothing on Earth, that is. Outer space is a different matter. Which brings me to the other constant on my Tata Sky DVR - documentaries about outer space and the evolution of the Universe . Watching stars form in star nurseries billions of years ago with the same elements we have in our own bodies and pondering the mysteries of blackholes, pulsars and dark matter, all narrated in dulcet tones, is akin to a meditative experience for me. These documentaries let me revel in the awe-inspiring expanse and beauty of the Universe, reminding me that the immediate is only momentary and will soon be irrelevant, even to me. And before I know it, the knot of the day’s troubles lies loosened by a calmness that extends beyond petty office politics, trivial annoyances, minor car accidents and the hustle-bustle of daily life. YOUR TURN Well, you know my favourites now. What are yours? Maybe it’s weekend viewing or the occasional indulgence instead of late-night staples. Be what it may, drop a comment and let me know.

As I write this, it is almost four months since Anna Sebastian Perayil’s tragic death, caused by a cardiac arrest. That’s almost as long as her tenure at Ernst & Young. It was her first job and her death at the age of 26 is shocking but sadly, not singular. Chronic stress, mental health issues and other indicators of ill-health have become too common amongst corporate employees to warrant comment nowadays and yet, the ruinous effects of work stress multiply silently, till a case like Anna’s hits the headlines, rousing us all. TOXIC CORPORATE CULTURE Anna’s mother, Anita Augustine’s letter to the CEO of E&Y India, Rajiv Memani is both poignant and explosive. Anita’s letter spoke of how many corporate organisations are ‘glorifying overworking’. I couldn’t agree more. Working long hours has become a norm in the corporate sector, creating a toxic work culture focussed almost solely on profits, treating employees as an endlessly expendable resource. In cases that make the headlines, the public relations machinery of the corporate organisation usually swings into action, slyly shifting the blame onto the victim or spouting vague platitudes about ‘introspection’. Most of the time, their only intention is to weather the media storm which eventually dies down. The same holds true for government ministers. In the case of E&Y India, investigations have been ordered. With regard to what will come of all these probes, your guess is as good as mine. But the realist in me isn’t optimistic. When money speaks, ethics and human rights are seldom allowed to interrupt. CRUX OF THE MATTER So, what’s the solution? Well, the answer lies within the person reading this post – you. You need to make the choice about how you want to work and live. I don’t subscribe to the rose-tinted view that you can have it all. No one can. That’s only happens in the movies. The rest of us must stand up for ourselves and make choices that benefit our long-term well-being. While such measures aren’t usually practical for a rookie, they are certainly a viable option a few years down the line. To do so, we must start valuing our well-being over a pay hike , fancy job titles or bragging rights about business trips. None of it matters that much when you’re unwell or dead. WORKPLACE TIPS The following are the workplace tips I've picked up along the way. Having followed most of these pointers, I can attest to their value. The rest are what I wish I had done earlier and I hope you will benefit from them. IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL LIFE Visualise what you want from your life – all aspects of it, not just work. Work is a part of your life but influences your routine and lifestyle more than almost any other life choice. Let’s say you live in India and work as a head-hunter for a company looking to hire and place candidates in Canada. To interview people living in Canada, you need to work their hours. As a result, expecting to maintain a healthy sleep cycle with that job is a pipe dream and is bound to impact your health in the long-run. KEEP UPSKILLING Learn new skills in areas related to your work but also engage with stuff, outside the professional realm, that interests you. You never know what may spark a new work/business opportunity. And even if it doesn’t lead you to new pastures on the professional front, upskilling makes life interesting. LOAN EMIs KEEP YOU CHAINED Live within your means. You might think this isn’t strictly work-related advice but hear me out. Debt is often the difference between sticking it out at a job you hate and taking on an assignment that pays a little lesser but is a lot more enjoyable. Avoid taking loans as much as you can because they will keep you plastered to jobs you don’t like. Don’t let your expenses rise just because you’ve got a raise especially once you already have a comfortable standard of living. NOT LOVING YOUR JOB IS OKAY Don’t expect your job to fulfil you always. Sometimes, a job is just a job. It pays the bills. Don’t expect it to lead you to new heights in self-actualization! CORPORATE COST-CUTTING IS CRUEL Never make the mistake of believing that your company will hold your hand when the going gets tough. They won’t. Job cuts can be brutal. Don’t expect any favours or kindness. FIRED DOESN’T MEAN INCOMPETENT Pink slips aren’t a referendum on your capability. Just because you got sacked doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you do.   WORK IS NOT GREATER THAN LIFE Maintain a work-life balance. Please don’t be one of those losers who consider being perpetually overworked a badge of honour. It’s bad enough being a corporate hostage, don’t sign up for Stockholm syndrome too! Let Anna’s case be a wake-up call. Invest in your health, friends and family. They will stand by you when your company doesn’t. KEEP UP WITH INDUSTRY TRENDS Technological advances can completely upend your industry. Be aware of what’s happening and which way the trends are headed. And if you can, upskill in that direction. CULTURE IS KEY Company culture is a living organism, evolving with time. Be cognizant to how your workplace makes you feel. If the culture in your office leans towards micro-management, top-down decision-making and cliques, you can bet a million bucks that the focus is not on doing or encouraging good work. Introspect whether or not you want to be part of such an organisation. PRIORITISE THE POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH Choose companies that focus on employee growth and have opportunities for professional development and advancement. Not where stagnation is the name of the game. MIX IT UP Make a conscious effort to meet people from different walks of life. This will keep you out of echo chambers. The world is a big place and sometimes, the industry we work in makes us myopic. I know this to be especially true of the media industry which is why I made a conscious effort to meet people outside of it. BE PATIENT Be willing to earn your stripes. Don’t expect to become CEO in five years. That’s not going to happen unless you or your parents founded the company! The path to success is quick only in the movies where it can be traversed in a 30-second montage. CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT Be willing to take the highs with the lows. Don’t expect to be on a perpetual high. Things change even if you’re very good at your work. Bosses change, requirements change, as do team dynamics. This is one of those lessons that can’t really be explained, only experienced. HAVE THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION Stand up for what you believe in and do the right thing whenever you can. And you usually can. It boosts your self-esteem and earns you the respect of those who value character. Be warned though. Doing the right thing may make you a target for those who like to tread easier (if that’s the word for it) paths. CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES Understand and accept that almost every major choice you make will have consequences. Make the choice you are willing to live with. CLICHÉS ARE BORING Don’t become a cliché of your profession. For instance, many journalists smoke. It surprised many of my colleagues that I didn’t. And their surprise surprised me. A lot of people do many things to fit in and ‘look the part’. I don’t buy into that logic. Do your job well – that’s the part that matters and gives you a confidence that’s hard to miss. Plus, why be a facsimile when you can be an original? TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK It’s not enough to be good at your job. When you grasp how your individual responsibilities fit into the larger process , it helps everyone, including you. Acquire a basic understanding of what other departments do, so that you can do your bit in the most seamless way possible. Let me give you an example. As a news producer, I produced shows. One small aspect of it was to send promo lines to the person who promotes the shows on the ticker (the band with news headlines and other information that scrolls at the bottom of the screen). The feedback he gave me was that the character limit for the promo lines was 25 characters. Up until that point, I had not given it any thought. After that day, I made sure I didn’t send the ticker team any promotional lines longer than 25 characters. As a result, I never had to watch the promo lines of my show being mangled into something I didn’t like. And the members of the Ticker team appreciated their job being made easier and were much more helpful even if there was a mistake, delay or special request from our end. Being open to feedback greases wheels in a way nothing else can. KEEP IT CONSTRUCTIVE Be willing to give and receive constructive feedback graciously. One of the best things you can do for a new employee (especially if it’s their first job) is to take them through what is expected of them, answer their questions and praise a job well done. Be the senior you wish you had. It makes a huge difference. CYA Learn to cover your ass (forgive my French). This means putting assignment requests or any other instructions on e-mail or text messages which can back up your story, if and when the need arises. And the need arises more often than you can imagine, especially in toxic work environments. It's better to have it and not need it than the other way around.   SNAKES AND LADDERS Office politics is the dragon that cannot be slayed. Here’s what you can do even if you don’t want to participate. Be aware of the camps. You don’t need to be a part of them, but the awareness helps you figure out what to expect. It’s either that or learning tarot! THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE Speak up for yourself without being obnoxious or putting other people down. Playing the long-suffering martyr may fetch you some dull praise from self-serving managers, but it will also result in endless work being dumped on your never-complaining shoulders or well-deserved holiday plans going down the drain, leading to a sense of resentment and exhaustion. Take your pick. PRIVACY PAYS Keep your personal life private. Discussing it at work usually backfires. And yes, even posting details of your personal trials on Instagram constitutes oversharing if your colleagues follow you on social media. BE BRAVE And if all else fails and you find yourself stuck in a job you don’t like, move. You’re not a tree! Analyse with a cool head the source of the problem - a particular manager, job, department or line of work. Once you have that clarity, you can look to make changes.   And if you, like me, want a complete change, be brave. Sometimes, it takes years to build up the courage but it’s easier if you did all of the above. Wishing you the very best!

The past is a strange thing. It can never be relived even though we often carry it with us. We’ve all been down paths of nostalgia remembering with fondness even that which had, in the past, felt like tough times. And then, there are pieces of the past we visit every day without giving them much thought. For instance, you may tie the laces of your left shoe before the right because a kindergarten classmate told you that it was lucky. Now, decades later, you continue to do so subconsciously. Come to think of it, it’s likely the only remanent of the friendship you once shared. I think of these as little legacies. It could be anything at all – a friend’s remedy to avoid a hangover, an oft-repeated phrase, a recipe passed down by a family member, a lesson imparted by a favourite teacher or a superstition created on a day when things worked out well for you. I know someone who support a sports team she was introduced to by a friend. Time and circumstance eroded their bond but not before loyalty to the team took root in her heart and now, it’s her team. But if you look closely, it’s a legacy of their friendship. It is said that the tragedy of human life is that we are loved more than we will ever know. And that love is reflected in our adoption of the traits, habits or gestures of the people we like. We carry these little legacies with us for years, if not the rest of our lives. In that way, so much of what or who we are, is a gift from those we’ve known. Sometimes, the association may be brief but the impact is lifelong. Perhaps, we are all like giant jigsaws with pieces borrowed from people who crossed our paths and walked beside us for a while until the next fork in the road. A friend of mine, Reema taught me the basics of badminton on a makeshift open court with what only someone very kind would call a threadbare net. We went on to play on beautiful, indoor wooden courts and also, improved as players. Reema and I lost touch but my love for badminton persists and I continue to play. That’s another little legacy. The quirks and affinities we pick up without ever being able to pinpoint their original source fascinate me the most. I like to believe that my writing the digit 7 with a pen stroke slashing through its torso or using a hair comb pin in my hair are souvenirs from places and people that lay dormant in my memory. Their origins are lost to me and yet, they’re a part of my life today. How poetic it is that a quote about such legacies is attributed to Anonymous, “What you leave as a legacy is not what is etched in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Another friend of mine, Raj is a stickler for checking the air pressure of his vehicle’s spare tyre before a long trip. It’s a habit he picked up from his father and it’s served him well over the years. There’s a journey metaphor in there which I will spare you! You may start to ponder about the little legacies littered throughout your days and life and yet, barely any come to mind when you think about them actively. I know it to be so because I’ve tried it. When it finally strikes you, drop me a line in the comments. In the meantime, here’s another of mine. Teresa, the owner of the salon in Delhi where I like to get a haircut, showed me how to blow-dry my hair for extra volume and bounce. I use her technique whenever I want my hair to look extra-nice. I’m certain Teresa didn’t give any thought to the value she was adding to my life and yet, here I am—writing about something I learnt from her. Little legacies are just gestures, habits and ideas assimilated into our lives through a kind of unconscious osmosis. And yet, the alchemy of memory burnishes the most ordinary of things with the lustre of value and charm. Only that which is continued by another, persists. Everything else ends with us. So, may you never minimise the value of little legacies and the role they play in all our lives.

I never met Mr Ratan Tata. Nor have I ever worked for a Tata-owned organisation. Yet, his passing left me in tears. It felt like we’ve been robbed of something very precious. I spoke to a longtime friend, Smriti last night. She said that she’d been poring over videos of Mr Tata’s funeral and articles chronicling his life since she heard the news. She wondered if being so affected by the death of someone who is technically a stranger made her a ‘freak’. I told her I felt the same way. To this she said, “I’m so glad I’m not a freak. Or that we are freaks together.” She verbalised what I was feeling. The oddness of grieving for someone known to us only through news reports, rare interviews and legends narrated by his associates. Of course, we’ve all been long-time consumers of the many, many products and services produced by Tata brands but that has nothing to do with it. As I scrolled through social media and read comments from Indians across walks of life, I repeatedly come across the phrase ‘personal loss’. Why are so many people feeling this way? Photo Courtesy: Instagram I’ve tried to understand what makes Ratan Tata’s passing feel like a personal loss. Since the only perspective I’m truly privy to is my own, then that’s how I shall proceed. I had planned to publish a post about work-related truths today. However, late on Wednesday night, Mr Ratan Tata breathed his last. The news spread like wild fire on social media. Upon reading a statement from the Tata Group Chairperson, N Chandrasekaran, I felt a sense of emptiness and disbelief. A dull sheath of gloom descended upon me. To me, Mr Tata represented the idea of doing the right thing even in circumstances where it is obvious that profits lie in accommodating grey areas. I believe there is a Greek inscription that greets visitors at TCS House in Mumbai that reads, “Walk the Straight Line.” Sounds simple enough but practised by very few. We live in a cynical world where ethics, friendship and common decency are sacrificed at the altar of profit and short-term thinking. Here was a man who never indulged in self-aggrandizement, arrogance or hypocrisy and was unfailingly humble and disarmingly considerate. Photo Courtesy: Instagram While the Tata name has long been synonymous with nation-building and being the trustees of the people of India, stories about Ratan Tata always reflect his regard for the last person in the room. I recall an Instagram post by him requesting blood donors for a dog in Mumbai, suffering from suspected tick fever and life-threatening anaemia. Mumbai responded in the best way possible. Five dogs accompanied by their humans came forward to donate blood. A cross-match was found and all ended well. That would’ve been enough for most. Mr Tata, however, returned to Instagram the next day to post pictures of the five dogs who showed up to help and named all of them (Casper, Leo, Scooby, Ronny and Ivan) in his post. It is such thoughtfulness that makes me tear up. In a world where genuine connection is hard to find and people walk around too distracted to listen to each other, Mr Tata exemplified the power of empathy and kindness. He was famously a dog-lover with both Bombay House and the Taj properties throwing open their doors to homeless dogs in all kinds of weather. His example inspires people like me to do my bit as well. Stories of Mr Tata’s generosity and concern for the well-being of everyone who worked for his companies and even those who didn’t, are the stuff of legend and may they continue to be repeated for years to come because they matter. The stories are endless from what he did for the injured or the families of those killed in the 2008 attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, his contribution to improving healthcare infrastructure by funding cancer hospitals or the Tata Group’s exemplary service during the Covid pandemic. Mr Tata was proof that genuine goodness and goodwill that is not aimed at gaining publicity has a sheen that is impossible to tarnish. What’s more, it has the power to inspire anyone who witnesses it. The very chemistry of our bodies supports this idea. Of the four ‘happy hormones’ coursing through our bodies, oxytocin and serotonin are called the ‘selfless’ chemicals, making us do nice things for other people. This helps form bonds of friendship and trust. Each time we cooperate or help someone, the release of the serotonin and oxytocin make us feel rewarded with feelings of fulfilment, belonging, trust and camaraderie. The most interesting thing about oxytocin, however, is that not only does the person exhibiting the tiniest bit of goodness get a shot of oxytocin, the person receiving the kindness also gets a shot of the feel-good hormone. But that’s not all. Even someone merely witnessing the act of generosity gets a chemical boost. Simply seeing or hearing about acts of human generosity makes us happy and inspires us to do the same. In a way, Ratan Tata was our dose of oxytocin – reminding us to be proud to be Indian, inspiring us to do better as human beings, counselling us about there being more to life than scoring a promotion or a pay hike. Mr Tata was a living embodiment of how it is possible to be gracious and considerate while having nerves of steel. I believe everyone who has been moved to tears by Mr Tata’s passing and felt like they lost a loved one, is right to feel so. His close aide, Shantanu Naidu referred to him as his ‘lighthouse’. While Shantanu was lucky enough to be mentored by Mr Tata for a number of years, the rest of us echo his sentiment. Ratan Tata was a lighthouse to us all, albeit a distant one. His life has been a beacon that has lit up the way and cut through some dark nights. I recall an interview where Mr Tata was asked how he would like to be remembered. In his inimitable humble way, he said, “I’d like to be remembered as a person who made a difference. Not anything more, not anything less.” If there ever was an understatement, this must be it. Long Live Ratan Naval Tata. May his legacy never fade. P.S. Smriti, if we’re ‘freaks’, so be it. I suspect we're not the only ones.

When reading a book, I often pause to reread a line or phrase to admire the artistry of its construction or the beauty of the thought expressed. I feel excited about returning to the book while I go about my other activities because I can't wait to find out what happens next. And yet, something strange happens as the book approaches completion. I try to slow down because I don't want to let go of the characters yet and I don't want the story to end. But end it does. Over the years, my favourite books have always left me with ideas, fragments of dialogue or expressions that made them unique. In no particular order, these are five of my favourites from the best books I read this year.  EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by CELESTE NG Celeste Ng’s debut revolves around the lives of a mixed-race family of five, the Lees. The novel opens on the day of their older daughter, Lydia’s disappearance and death. This isn’t a whodunnit. Instead, it explores each character’s heart-breaking secrets which they kept to themselves in the hope of holding on to each other and the price they end up paying for their silence. Ng paints a moving portrait of the immigrant experience as well as what it feels like to be considered different in a college town in Middle America. Read it for its emotion, style and pace. I was left with a pit in my stomach wishing things had turned out differently for the Lees. ORIENTING: AN INDIAN IN JAPAN by PALLAVI AIYAR Orienting: An Indian in Japan  is divided into ten chapters, each dealing with an element of the Japanese experience. For the average Nipponophile like myself, anecdotes about lost umbrellas and tiffin-boxes that are almost always located and returned, the intoxicating fervour of the sakura-viewing season and technological marvels fit right into my idea of what Japan, with its sushi-dispensing vending machines and kintsugi  philosophy, is all about. That's not all though. Chapters dealing with the foibles of Japanese culture, including their oppressive working hours, political apathy and xenophobia provide a balanced view of what living in Japan is like. Pallavi Aiyar writes with the clarity and specificity of a journalist and the whimsy and humour of a novelist, making this part memoir, part travel literature and partly, a collection of essays immensely readable. SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN She Who Became the Sun  is a reimagining of the rise to power of the Hongwu emperor, better known as the founding ruler of the famed Ming dynasty. The twist in this reimagined tale is that this is the story of a girl who is foretold a life that will amount to nothing while a glorious future is predicted for her brother. A historical fantasy novel, She Who Became the Sun is about desire, destiny and the desire to alter one’s destiny. Shelley Parker-Chan’s style is lyrical yet pacy with characters drawn from real life with weaknesses, conflicting desires and ill-judgement, making them come alive. The characters of this novel have stayed with me long after I turned the last page. Their joy, ambition, pain and desire leaves its mark thanks to Parker-Chan’s splendid writing. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.  TALKING TO MY DAUGHTER ABOUT THE ECONOMY by YANIS VAROUFAKIS I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Yanis Varoufakis makes the story of the rise of capitalism such an entertaining story with lots of references to iconic movies, Greek mythology and classic literature that you may be forgiven for thinking of economics as interesting! Get your hands on a copy if you would like to read about industrialisation, colonialism and the rise of debt as the backbone of our economy without falling asleep. I was delighted by his perspective and his lack of jargon. Does it explain everything? No. But does it make you want to read on and learn a bit more than you know? Yes, and it’s a fun read. What’s not to like? THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR by JOEL DICKER The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair  is a cold case whodunnit delivered with a literary flair. It’s a novel about two authors – Harry Quebert, a celebrated senior writer who is arrested for murder, 33 years after a fifteen-year-old girl goes missing; and Marcus Goldman his protégé who, struggling with writer’s block after his successful first novel, resolves to clear his mentor’s name. With a host of suspects, fading recollections and looming deadlines, Marcus is up against plenty of challenges. This is an absolute page-turner with lots of plot twists. Joel Dicker’s style and narrative technique make it even better by imbuing an investigative thriller plot with literary allusions, three-dimensional characters and social commentary without letting up on the pace. Read it if you’re looking for an riveting book to curl up with this weekend.

There was a time when to be considered well-educated or cultured, you had to be able to recall facts, figures and preferably, whole passages from notable books verbatim. Today, all that is considered old hat and unnecessary. Barring one or two, I don’t know any people under the age of 50 who could recite a poem from memory. Forget poetry, I’d be surprised to meet someone who can dial more than 4 cellphone numbers, belonging to people they speak to regularly, without diving for their mobile. The externalisation of our memories got us to this point. ... and most of the them aren't responding! From phone numbers and email addresses to birthdays and anniversaries, it’s all saved on our phones or on some faraway cloud. There are people who believe that in the hectic, information-overloaded lives we lead, it makes sense to let external memories take care of these small potatoes for us. But is the externalisation of our memories only about freeing up our grey cells for more lofty matters? Or is it a move to pronounce memory a relic in our post post-modern or metamodern times or whatever else folks are calling the decades we’ve lived through in this century? It's been fashionable for some time now to disparage all kinds of memorisation in education as rote-learning. The slow disappearance of memorization in classrooms has its philosophical roots in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s 1762 novel, Emile: Or, On Education. It was a book about a child raised by means of a “natural education,” learning only through self-experience. Rousseau abhorred memorization, amongst other statutes of institutional education at the time. “Reading is the great plague of childhood,” he wrote. While there is no doubt, I’m sure, that the educational ideology that Rousseau so disliked was genuinely mind-numbing and called for improvement, I’m not so sure that reading is such an evil so as to be compared to a plague. In today’s context, maybe calling it a pain in the neck would be more like it! Jokes apart, I agree that children learn more from growing plants than memorising scientific classifications of plant species. Therefore, should all facts be tossed out of the window? There are those who consider the learning of dates and events in history to be pointless since we can just look them up on the internet, within seconds. Sure, you could, if you knew what you were looking for. For instance, if I asked you when the Great Depression began, you could just google it. That’s very well, if your question is specific. But what if we were talking about the Second World War? Could you have made the connection between the impact that the Great Depression had on Germany’s already strained economy culminating in Hilter’s elevation to the top job, leading eventually to the outbreak of World War II if you’d never read about the Great Depression of 1929? Making connections requires, at the very least, a basic understanding of what happened, when and why. The precise dates don't matter but the broad timelines of the events do. Without that, it’s like walking through a fog. Don’t believe me? Then you’ve clearly never searched for the word ‘ouija’ in a dictionary only on the basis of its pronunciation without having the foggiest idea of its spelling. I assure you, it’s not for the easily-frustrated! Another opinion one hears a lot nowadays, is how schools should be teaching students how to think, not what to think and therefore, the focus on learning about too many ‘boring things' should be minimised, and out-of-the-box thinking encouraged. I’m a big fan of people possessing critical thinking skills but I’ve never known anyone who can think coherently without having the ability to recall at least some facts and having fundamental knowledge of how things came about in the field being discussed. A certain grounding is essential. It’s very rare that reasoning ability, creativity and independent thinking, let alone revolutionary new ideas, emerge without at least, some learning. Most of us are not Srinivasa Ramanujam and therefore, need some help before we can begin to expound. The key, I believe, lies in focusing on understanding ideas and the correlation and causality between things, not memorizing minutiae. Speaking of bright people, have you noticed how people who know a lot about a lot always seem to be able to remember the new stuff they learn faster than others who don’t know as much? Why is that? Is it possible that like in the case of money, it takes knowledge to gain knowledge? I mean that in order to understand new things, one needs a conceptual framework, a lattice of ideas and concepts, if you will. New information sticks faster and better if you have something for it to latch itself onto. Obviously, this lattice is not built only of information found in books but also grows out of experiential learning and one’s interests. But the point is, that it needs to be remembered in order to be useful. One way to foster inquisitive, knowledgeable people is to give them, in some measure, the basic signposts that can guide them through a life of learning. Creativity is the ability to spark connections between what you know from memory, what you see in the present and what you’d like to create. I read somewhere that Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, was the mother of the Muses. This is one of those times when Greek mythology gets it right on the money! For me to have added this delicious little nugget here, I had to remember it because there is no way that I could’ve googled that, without first having, at least, an inkling of the myth. Educational reform that sets off to vanquish evils such as memorizing may make school more pleasant for students but will it really help them think more critically or creatively? That’s a question we need to think about before we start demonising everything that needs to be remembered. Before I end, I want to share that when I was writing this post, I passed by my father’s study and he was listening to We didn’t start the Fire by Billy Joel. It’s always been a favourite of mine and it got me thinking. If I hadn’t read or heard about the events and people mentioned, would I have appreciated the song?

The image of a single person following their dream with no help from anyone has a fantastic quality to it. It’s the kind of stuff that drums up the iconic Eye of the Tiger soundtrack from Rocky in our imagination. The solitary nature of the pursuit makes the accomplishment seem all the more creditable. But is that how great things come to be? Take Apple. Most people think of Apple as being the brainchild of one man, Steve Jobs. That’s branding for you. Even in that now-legendary garage in Los Altos, California which was the birthplace of Apple Inc, there was a team of two, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Decades later, there was a team of designers and engineers who worked on the Macintosh computers, iPods, iPads and iPhone models that rocked the world. The same holds true for almost every organisation and invention. Even some works of art. Artists are often portrayed as solitary beings in a whirlwind of dreamy ideas, toiling away in solitude to create works of art that astound and enthral the masses. But that’s not usually the case. Many artists benefit from exchanging ideas with other artists and even people from fields far removed from their own. Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man Take for instance, Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. I propose Vitruvian Man as an example because it appears simple enough to be a one-person job, but that’s far from the truth. Leonardo learnt about geometry from Andrea del Verrocchio, with whom he apprenticed as a young man. Cosimo de’ Medici’s tomb (which was completed in 1467, a year after Leonardo became Verrocchio’s apprentice) was adorned with geometrical patterns dominated by a circle inside a square instead of the usual religious imagery. This pattern of a circle inside a square would be used by Leonardo for the Vitruvian Man decades later. Vinci collaborated with Francesco di Giorgio, an architect in conceiving the Vitruvian Man . The drawing itself was Leonardo’s homage to the concepts of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, who lived and died almost a millennium and a half before Leonardo was born. Pollio served in the Roman Army and specialized in the design and construction of artillery machines. His most important work was De Architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture. In this work, he described the proportions of the human body. Though Leonardo, ever the perfectionist, relied on his own meticulous measurements for the drawing. At the heart of the Vitruvian Man is an analogy that goes all the way back to Plato and the thinkers of the ancient world – man as a microcosm of the universe which is the macrocosm. The Vitruvian Man embodies a moment when art and science combined to allow mortal minds to ask eternal questions about who we are and how we fit into the grand order of the universe. It also symbolises an ideal of humanism that celebrates the dignity and value of humans as individuals. Great ideas are often sparked by individual brilliance. Sometimes they require a singular vision. But executing that vision often calls for working with others. Innovation is a team sport. Just like creativity can be a collaborative endeavour. While we are welcome to get our ideas from books or the works of those who preceded us, it is worthwhile to meet our collaborators in person when we can. Having studied the lives and processes of some of the brightest minds, the best-selling biographer, Walter Isaacson writes, “Ideas are often generated in physical gathering places where people with diverse interests encounter one another serendipitously. That is why Steve Jobs liked his buildings to have a central atrium and why the young Benjamin Franklin founded a club where the most interesting people of Philadelphia would gather every Friday. At the court of Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo found friends who could spark new ideas by rubbing together their diverse passions.” We can all benefit from collaboration whether it is at our workplaces or for our personal projects because, regardless of how bright we believe ourselves to be, we are seldom smarter than five or six brains put together. And most importantly, the varied interests, knowledge bases and unique perspectives of our collaborators can spout answers we may never imagine and pose questions that lead us down new paths of discovery. Like it did for Spencer Silver, the scientist partially-credited for the creation of the Post-It. This is how it came to be. Silver was trying to develop a very strong adhesive. He failed. What he ended up making was an extremely weak adhesive. Though this new glue didn’t serve his purpose, Silver shared his unintentional invention with his colleagues at 3M. A few years later, Art Fry, another scientist at 3M, was at his church choir practice, becoming increasingly frustrated. His bookmark kept falling off the page, off the music stand and onto the floor. That’s when he remembered Silver’s weak adhesive and figured he could use it to make the ideal bookmark. Thus, was born one of the most recognizable brands today – the Post-It. That’s the power of collaboration. Some of us scoff at the idea of meeting our colleagues or hashing out ideas in conferences considering them a waste of time but these meet-ups do have some merit. The benefit of these exchanges lies not in formal settings, long presentations or meetings that should have been emails but in quick chats, focussed discussions and the tossing together of ideas. That’s the reason why communities of like-minded individuals flourish even online. Speaking of online forums, I was on Reddit just the other day. Someone had posted a question requesting suggestions for a character nickname/name. I responded to it in the hope that my response might, in some way, be helpful to this anonymous person. Call me a romantic but there is something so intensely human about reaching out to others for help or suggestions and to want to contribute toward someone else’s project with no thought to reward or credit. Therein lies the seed of collaboration.

This morning I read an article on a website called The Marginalian about the difference between fixed and growth mindsets which I would recommend to all of you. It makes the point that believing intelligence, character and personality to be static and unchangeable as opposed to attributes that can be developed through effort and learning is an attitudinal difference that colours our lives to an extent beyond what we commonly believe. Naturally, I applied these ideas to myself. I believe I have a growth mindset in terms of intelligence now but less so in terms of character and personality. That wasn’t always the case. Earlier when it came to decisions of education and career, I often took the easier path where I could just coast along. For instance, my idea was to saunter my way to the top five in my class rather than putting in an extra effort to make it to the top. “ Can do better ” was a staple remark in my report cards. At the time, my fixed mindset felt like a good gig because it made me feel intelligent without swotting for exams. Over the years, my outlook in this regard has changed. I now actively pursue learning about things I don’t know or understand. The process of learning gives me satisfaction whether it is reading a short post about the Bootstrap Paradox (check it out if you find time travel intriguing), the art of Hygge, a video about spacetime or an article about extended metaphors in literature. Don’t get me wrong, I don't understand most of what spacetime means. Very few do. But that’s okay, I tell myself, because today I comprehend more than I did yesterday. That ability to be okay with failure or not understanding is, to me, the crux of the Growth Mindset. As Winston Churchill said famously, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” He may as well have been talking about the growth mindset. No matter how gradual the incline, I’m happy to be climbing. Not because it proves how smart I am though I must say that, when the opportunity presents itself, I do flex a wee bit! However, the fixed mindset that I inhabited in other spheres of my life made me risk-averse to a degree that I stayed in a job that I stopped enjoying about six years ago. While the independence afforded by a monthly pay cheque cannot be discounted, it would be dishonest to pretend that it was a matter of urgent concern for me, given my savings over the years. It was more the trepidation of whether or not I could do something else well enough to get paid for it, that gave me pause. That doubt was enough to stop me in my tracks every time I thought I’d had enough of working for a media house where the only real challenge was to stomach the depths to which we were sinking, in terms of both content and standard operating practices. The fixed mindset made me settle for the dregs of what was instead of daring to leap for what may be. This, when I had no debt, no major expenses and enough savings to see me through at least a few years if not more. Basically, I have no excuses to offer for my lack of courage. Serendipitously , near the end of 2020, a friend of mine, Smriti sent me a PDF version of a book on agriculture. It's a subject that doesn't interest me. However, she urged me to read this 146-page book. I tried to avoid it because reading on my laptop felt too annoying. But she persisted. Eventually, to indulge her and with the gentle support of the growth-oriented side of myself, I decided to read One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka. For those who have read it, everything I say about it will pale in comparison to the praise this book deserves and also, fail to encompass the entirety of what it is about. I submit to their criticism in advance, mostly because I agree with them. To those who have not yet read One Straw Revolution and might be more forgiving, let me just say that it is a book about how farming can yield the greatest rewards if we would just yield to Nature and her ways – those of no tilling, no weeding, no insecticides amongst others. Needless to say, this kind of farming requires less effort even as it carries the risk of a few years of blighted crops and the scorn of naysayers. Fukuoka is something of a legend of the field (no pun intended) and his many years of learning are distilled into his philosophy of ‘do-nothing’ farming. As you can imagine, the ‘do-nothing’ bit appealed to my fixed mindset and lazy self! How did this book affect me? Well, I haven’t turned to farming and nor do I intend to. However, Fukuoka’s book is one of great subtlety or at least that is how I perceived it. To quote Edmund Wilson, “ No two persons ever read the same book.” I believe that to be true even for people who read the same book twice . And the person I was when I read One Straw Revolution saw it as a spur to release control over my instinct to break away from what no longer satisfied me. To stop subjugating myself to an artificial idea of security which sheaths a fear of losing relevance and identity. And so, I resigned from a job I had held for more than fifteen years in the hope that I would be brave enough to try something new, fail, learn and slowly and eventually, succeed. Here’s hoping…

There are days when nothing seems to go right. Perhaps you had an argument with a co-worker or a loved one or missed out on something you were looking forward to. We all know that it happens to everyone and whatever has irked us probably won’t matter in the long run but that knowledge doesn’t always soothe. The irritation of jangled nerves still prickles. I have a few remedies that I use almost every time I find myself stuck in a day like that. They have all been effective and none are to be considered better than the other. In fact, I’ve often used them in combination. The first among equals is listening to music that I enjoy, preferably perky with an up tempo beat. First just listening and eventually singing along to familiar songs can brighten the gloomiest moods. Maybe songs just stir up memories of happier times. Taking a shower as soon as I get home is another tactic I’ve used. Especially on days when I would return from work in a dark mood and even a harmless line from my brother would spark a full-fledged battle given my state of mind. Instead, going straight up to my room, dropping my bag and jumping straight into the shower was the best thing to do. There’s something therapeutic about letting cool or warm water (depending on the weather) wash away the day's weariness while the gentle fragrance of a shower gel being lathered with a loofah soothes fatigued muscles. Even more relaxing is the scalp massage that accompanies washing one’s hair. Just standing under the shower head with water flowing over you is calming. As is the sound of water. I can say with assurance that you’ll step out in a better mood than when you went in. The third remedy is to go for a walk. It helps burn off the agitated energy of an angsty day. Depending on where you live, stepping out for a walk may mean different things. In Delhi, it meant the paved lanes of a gated colony for me. Thankfully, it was quiet and there were quite a few trees and I would often meet the neighbourhood dogs. Here in Belgaum, it’s more scenic but harder on my feet. A rough mud track pitted with stones running alongside fields of corn, cabbage, chillies and rice, depending on the season. The rays of the setting sun over fields flush with vegetation while others lie fallow, resting in deep brown furrows. And the breeze, cool and blowing unhindered. And of course, at least one or two of our dogs come along for company. Sometimes, I like to sit by the stream that flows through the fields and watch shepherds grazing their sheep. No treadmill can match that feeling. Walking alongside paddy fields with Cindy Going for a walk is also an opportunity to commune with nature. Now, I’m not under the mistaken impression that most people are walking through some kind of mystical forest when they go for a walk. Sadly, it’s usually a tarmac road between rows of buildings. But if you have the chance, take a walk in a park or along a path that has some trees or plants. It’ll make all the difference. There’s something deeply healing about walking in nature. Perhaps, we pick up nature’s unhurried ways subliminally. I believe the Japanese have a word for it – shinrinyoku , which when translated, broadly means ‘forest bath’ or taking a walk in the forest for its restorative benefits. To see nature at work in the shrinking of a touch-me-not, the falling leaves of a tree or a squirrel saving up nuts for the winter is calming in its predictability but also in the endless hope that nature offers to all its creations. Things pan out just fine. Even tiny plants with their minute flowers bloom even though they can’t compete with oak trees. A tree shorn of all its leaves isn’t worried about the future. The leaves will return, come spring. And the squirrel will live through the winter even if it drops a nut or two on its way home. And none of this need to be thought of, consciously. It just seeps in. A kind of osmosis. The last of my tried and tested remedies is to go to bed early. My reasoning being that if I’m having a bad day, why prolong it? Going to bed a little earlier than usual helps me grab some extra and much-needed shuteye with the additional benefit of no longer having to think unhappy thoughts of what ruined my day in the first place in addition to side-stepping the risk of making it worse. The next morning, things are invariably brighter, both literally and metaphorically.

Tequila Leila, a sex worker in her 40s, is the protagonist of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World and she is dead. Yet, it is anything but a dead-end (please forgive the pun)! “Her name was Leila.” Straight off the bat, Elif Shafak establishes that the protagonist of the story, Leila is dead and proceeds to tells us her story in vignettes of memories recalled by Leila as she lays dying – her body dead but mind still alive for another 10 minutes and 38 seconds. Each of these 10 minutes unveils a key moment in her life—from her birth in an orthodox Turkish family living in Van to her upbringing, family secrets, her arrival in Istanbul and her life in a brothel. In these flashbacks, we are also introduced to her five friends who Leila knows will come looking for her even as she lays dying in a trash can on the outskirts of Istanbul in the early hours of the day. Friendship is a key theme in the novel. Contrasted with the family one is born or married into and hence, not a matter of choice, friends are seen as the family one chooses. Shafak calls them blood and water families while laying out the comparison between the silent lies and hypocrisies that lubricate an outwardly peace in Leila’s family and the unbridled honesty and loyalty of her friendships. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World is also a story about outcasts and how their unique perspective exposes us to the naked truth about our societies. Tequila Leila and her five friends with their varied backstories and distinctive names—Sabotage Sinan, Nostalgia Nalan, Jameelah, Zaynab122 and Hollywood Humeyra—are all outcasts in some way or the other. Shafak tips her literary hat not only to friendship but also the illusory concept of Time in the epigraph with lines penned by Albert Einstein upon the death of his closest friend, Michele Besso, “Now he has again preceded me a little in parting from this strange world. This has no importance. For people like us who believe in physics, the separation between past, present and future has only the importance of an admittedly tenacious illusion.” Leila, relives the past with reminiscences that are replete with lyrical, sensory details—the taste of spiced goat stew to celebrate the birth of her brother, the scalding hot vats of lemon and sugar the neighbourhood women used to wax their legs while men attended prayers at the mosque and   the fragrance of cardamom coffee shared with a handsome student. Shafak’s descriptions are masterful, engaging all five senses to immerse us in Leila’s world. The novel’s unusual narrative structure creates the effect of Leila’s past standing beside the present, melding into one unpunctuated entity. Every now and then, the story’s underlying themes shimmer through the tapestry of Shafak’s evocative imagery. Sample this, “Together they dangled strips of fabric from apple boughs laden with blossom, calling them ballerinas, took their sweet time to weave little baskets out of willow or crowns out of daisies; tied ribbons around the horns of the ram waiting to be sacrificed next Eid. Once they secretly cut the rope that kept the animal fastened… it returned to the same spot, finding the familiarity of captivity more reassuring than the strange call of freedom.” The city of Istanbul which serves as a setting for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World embodies a sense of being a compound of disparate elements. Shafak’s Istanbul (complete with a map displaying all the relevant locations of the tale) is a concoction of past and present, conservative values and modern ideas, the East and the West and the conventional and the marginalised. The city is both a setting as well as a character in Shafak’s novel, leaving its own indelible imprint on the story. Istanbul’s landscape, as it were, is painted in the bright hues of humour, as seen in the story about the haphazard evolution of Hairy Kafka Street, but also in shades of sepia-tinged sadness with lines like, “Then there was the Istanbul of those who left long ago, sailing to faraway ports. For them, this city would always be a metropolis made of memories, myths and messianic longings, forever elusive like a lover’s face receding in the mist.” In my opinion, the strongest part of the novel are the 10 minutes and 38 seconds that form Leila’s recollections, etching out her life and times. The writing of this section feels spirited and livelier, very much like Leila herself. Read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World for its concept, Leila’s characterisation and the vivid imagery. But most of all, I liked that it’s a story that addresses sadness, disappointment and alienation but celebrates survivors, friendship and courage.

In this debut novel set in Wembley, a suburb in London, we meet a teenage librarian performing her summer job duties half-heartedly and an elderly widower who keeps his distance from books. Not the kind of people who run in the same circles, and certainly, not the sort who would have anything in common. Also, lost and found between the pages of a library book, is the List– a catalogue of eight novels with no obvious similarities- written out for no one in particular just in case they need it. For reasons of their own, the protagonists, Aleisha and Mukesh start reading the novels on the list, forming an unexpected bond with books and each other. The Reading List is divided into nine parts – one for each of the books on the list but starting with The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, which is not on the list. I can only assume that the author, Sara Nisha Adams wants her readers to perceive the themes that her novel shares with The Time Traveller’s Wife - love, loss and being able to communicate across windows of time. While Niffenegger’s novel carried more concrete and obvious instances of time travel, The Reading List is more about how the list which was composed in 2017 affects the lives of people even in 2019. And then, there are books – the most efficient, cost-effective and ubiquitous manifestation of time travel , in my opinion. The books on the list are ones that most readers would have read or watched a film/series adaptation of, making it easier for us to connect to how the protagonists are affected by them. Also, quite often we can see a mirroring of circumstance between the books and the real lives of the protagonists even if the literal events in the lives of Aleisha and Mukesh are quite different. Adams taps into the tendency of most readers to relate books and characters to their own lives. We’ve all done it though I found it a tad melodramatic for Mukesh to imagine characters from the books he reads following him around Wembley. Both Aleisha and Mukesh gain depth and the reader’s sympathy as the novel progresses, given the challenges in their lives and their efforts to make the most of them by opening themselves up to change. However, Aleisha’s mother’s illness is left unexplained from start to finish and its lack of specificity makes it seem unreal and like something that exists only to further the plot. The secondary characters all seem one-dimensional including Aidan, Aleisha’s long-suffering older brother on whom falls the weight of crushed dreams and growing up before his time. His motivations and desires, which must be powerful given his actions, are ignored and frankly, I found the novel the poorer for it. Aidan is the character I was rooting for, even more than the protagonists and was disappointed with him being treated as a cardboard cut-out and a plot point. Loneliness is the primary theme explored in The Reading List with almost every character experiencing it. And quite often, it is death or the breakdown of human relationships that is the reason for this loneliness but the author also nods in the direction of technology as being a cause of the alienation we feel, whether in the form of cell phones that have replaced conversation or automatic doors that keep people out if they can’t figure out how to work them. The antidote in the novel to this isolation is genuine human connection that can only be achieved by stepping out of one’s comfort zone and limiting belief systems. Another related idea is how little we know even the people we know and how every person carries within them a whole world of experiences, fears, hopes and insecurities. In terms of style, The Reading List is functional but brings nothing that would make it stand out. Even the characters turn out to be what you'd expect them to be. No major surprises there. Through the length of the novel, the identity of the unknown list-maker is pegged as a mystery and is fairly easy to work out. Though I didn’t mind the predictability as much as I did the book’s excessive dependence on serendipity , especially when it came to a letter written by the unknown list-maker to reach out to someone that they could have delivered this final communique to, in a much more direct and sure-fire fashion. That's my two cents on The Reading List . Now it’s up to you whether or not you put this book on your list.

In the author’s note, Stuart Turton acknowledges that while The Devil and the Dark Water could be classified as a historical novel, it isn’t because some bits of historical detail aren’t strictly accurate. Which is another way of saying they’re inaccurate and he made a choice for them to be so, else they would impede the telling of his tale. So, dear reader, don’t dive into The Devil and the Dark Water expecting to glean historical details or even a believable depiction of what it took to sail across the seas in the 1600s. In fact, even the conduct of some of the characters isn’t quite what you would expect it to be, given the era they’re in. But in my mind, almost all is forgiven thanks to the author’s disclosure that “this is historical fiction where the history is the fiction”. Instead, pick it up if you are looking for a fun yarn with ample twirls and twists. The Devil and the Dark Water is set in the year 1634 and on the Saardam, part of a fleet of seven ships scheduled to sail from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam. The fleet, ferrying the usual colonial fare of spices and silk alongwith a mysterious and precious cargo, is owned by the United East India Company, the wealthiest trading company in the world. Right before the fleet sets off on an eight-month long journey to Amsterdam, a leper proclaims the presence of his dark master aboard the Saardam and his ruinous intentions for the ship and all on it. The leper then combusts, apparently spontaneously, atop some packing crates. His prophecy, identity and manner of death are the first few mysteries we’re pulled into. Oh, did I mention the said prophesising leper had no tongue? Add another notch in the mysteries column. Aboard the cursed ship is the arrogant and ruthless Governor General of Batavia, Jan Haan. This is a triumphant voyage for him. Having governed the Company’s most profitable outpost for thirteen years, Haan is now on his way to take his place on the ruling body of the company - the Gentlemen 17. Unfortunately for everyone else, it is Haan’s decision whether or not to risk hundreds of lives by persisting with the voyage. Travelling with him is his wife, Sara Wessel, a healer and a lover of mysteries who loathes her husband. Also being transported is a prisoner, Samuel Pipps, who in a twist of fate has gone from being the greatest detective in the world to a convict in a dank, lightless cell. What he did to deserve such a rapid descent in status is another riddle. His loyal bodyguard is Lieutenant Arent Hayes – a mountain of a man with a noble heart and several secrets. Will he and Sara Wessel be able to solve the mystery of strange symbols appearing on the ship's sails, whispers turning common folk into followers of the devil and the disappearance of a witch-finder who suspected one of the passengers of being the devil? Or will the devil known as Old Tom have his pernicious way? The plot of The Devil and the Dark Water unfolds from the viewpoints of various characters giving us an insight into their unspoken thoughts and worldview. This is necessary because no character can possibly be everywhere. Turton steps away from using a third person narrator, which was the preferred narrative style of the era he’s writing about, with good reason. Third person narration doesn’t allow for the kind of half-light and half-shadow effect that multiple first person perspectives can create. An omniscient narrator that doesn’t reveal the most poignant truth about a character who is lying about their true identity would leave readers feeling cheated. Multiple character POVs leap over that hurdle in addition to lending a hand in fleshing out characters. If you think about it, you’ll probably agree that unreliability is better suited to individual characters rather than omniscient narrators. Turton also sprinkles in healthy doses of backstory for each of his primary characters, giving them a sense of grounding as well as acting as the soil for their deepest desires and motivations to take root. The Devil and the Dark Water has several themes such as ambition, greed, gender stereotypes and hatred but behind it all, stands fear. Every character in the book has something they fear and the Devil, of course, is everyone’s fear. How fear can make reasonable and good people do the unimaginable is well-explored. Stuart Turton writes, “Fear was too brittle a material to make good decisions from.” Aside from a pacy plot packed with revelations, cliff-hangers, knife-fights and chases at regular intervals, Turton’s style is probably the thing that kept me hooked to The Devil and the Dark Water . His writing is clever and witty without being laboured. That said, there are parts that lack consistency in terms of character motivations and some explanations of the trickier parts of the plan are just left to our imagination. To add to it, some of the smaller puzzles littered throughout the novel are resolved way too simplistically to be satisfying. In terms of genre, Turton melds together his version of historical fiction with a whodunnit topped with a dash of horror in The Devil and the Dark Water . And while the ending may not be wholly satisfying, it still is an enjoyable read.