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Every now and then, burrowed into the prosaic paths of the commonplace is nestled something whimsical. Amazing and amusing in its quaintness and imagination, it makes us smile and adds a sparkle to the humdrumness of everyday life. I’m very easily charmed by whimsy – a quaint café, an interesting bookmark or a delightful hobby or trait is all it takes. A few months ago, a friend, Shruti sent me a link to something called a literature clock . It’s a website that operates as a clock, telling you the time. It updates every minute without the user refreshing the page. Before you judge me as particularly simple-minded with a roll of your eyes, let me clarify that while I am easily amused, it is not quite that  easy. This online clock’s beauty lies in its revealing the time as part of a quote from a piece of literature.   Which means that someone searched for quotes from thousands of works of literature that would represent every minute of a day. To me, watching it change from one timely quote to another is gratifying. Is it strictly necessary? Of course not. But then, neither is dancing. To the best of my knowledge, nobody dances to cover the distance from point A to point B! Speaking of going from A to B reminds me of a company that goes from A to Z, Amazon (check out the logo and you’ll see that the arrow travels from A to Z). It’s a multi-billion-dollar corporation with a dismal reputation for profit-gouging and fostering a toxic work environment for a majority of its employees. I’m certainly not a fan. Even so, I came across a page on its site quite by accident which managed to humanise this global profit-squeezing, mega-corporation. The humanising effect didn’t last long but given my opinion of Amazon, even that ounce of goodwill generated was no small achievement. The page in question is an Error 404 page which basically pops up only when Amazon can’t find whatever you’re searching for. Except that this page has a picture of an employee’s dog and a little write-up about it. Apparently, Amazon has a Dogs at Work program allowing employees to bring their dogs to work. The whimsical charm of this webpage was enough to make me forget for a while what I was searching for in the first place. That is the power of whimsy. It fires up our imagination, emotions and turns the run-of-the-mill into something memorable. And sometimes, it can also turn into a lifestyle and a business. Like it did for Zack MacLeod Pinsent , a 29-year-old British man who, at the ripe old age of 14 ditched his denims for bespoke 18-Century clothing. He chooses to dress like a Regency gentleman every day, regardless of quizzical looks from strangers and the effort required to tailor his own clothes in a fashion that has been out of fashion for a couple of centuries. But it’s obvious that it makes him happy. And frankly, he cuts quite a figure. More power to him. We can all sprinkle some whimsy into our lives in whatever manner we like. Most of us already do, I’m sure. It could be a playful pair of spectacles, reading Wuthering Heights or Harry Potter every winter or gifting hand-made dreamcatchers to friends and family. It’s quirks like these that spark joy even if nobody else understands the point of them. Carry on regardless. As did Edwin Hubble, the brilliant American astronomer who is often credited with having revolutionized mankind’s understanding of the Universe. He has the rare distinction of having an asteroid, a crater on the Moon and a space telescope named in his honour. Here on Earth, the planet of his birth, a planetarium, a stretch of highway and a school were named after him. His was an exceptional mind. However, by most accounts, he was also quite eccentric. After a stint at Oxford University in England, he adopted a fake British accent and began to go about dressed in a cape and carrying a cane. I suppose you could call it an affectation but I find it both droll and delightful! To me, whimsy is like stardust. Even a dash of it catches the light, making everything shimmer.

Let’s say you’re looking for book recommendations and head to Goodreads.com to see what’s good (even though you could as easily go to my site!). Sidestepping the ones with the one-star ratings and bad reviews, you find a few books by new authors that have good reviews. You order them on Amazon, Kindle or Audible. Well done! You’re just the kind of reader Amazon’s looking for. After all, they own each of these platforms (from Goodreads which deal in reviews, to Amazon, Kindle and Audible which deliver books to you in your preferred form. What’s more, they own the means of production as well - Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon Publishing). So, you’ve paid for a book and provided them with vital market research data on what sells, so that they can tailor their future publications to those parameters. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Let’s put a pin in that and return to it later. THE BEGINNING OF AMAZON Amazon started selling books online in 1994. Jeff Bezos picked books as his product of choice because in comparison to all the things one could sell online, books offer a unique advantage. In an interview recorded in June 1997, Bezos said,   “There are more items in the book category than there are items in any other category, by far.” Think about it. Nobody who buys books (except those who buy three aesthetically pleasing ones to place on their coffee table) ever thinks that since they have 20 books, they don’t need any more. Setting aside consumables, only a miniscule number of products possess this quality. Bezos went on to name the other product that shared this quality, “Music is No. 2 — there are about 200,000 active music CDs at any given time. But in the book space, there are over 3 million different books worldwide active in print at any given time across all languages, [and] more than 1.5 million in English alone.” As with anything, where there is a positive, there is a downside too. The book business is a business with a long tail . Which is another way of saying that there are significant profits to be made by selling books that are relatively hard to find because they aren’t bestsellers. Most brick-and-mortar bookstores don’t find it feasible to stock them since they don’t sell as much as the latest thriller and as such, are a waste of precious space. THE LONG TAIL OF THE BOOK BUSINESS The term long tail was coined by Chris Anderson. He argued that products in less demand and with low sales volume, provided they were numerous enough (as is the case with books and music), can collectively make up a market share which rivals or exceeds the individual sales of a relatively small number of bestsellers. The fly in this particular ointment is that an inventory of millions of titles requires lots of storage space. And real estate costs money. That’s where the internet comes in as the ideal distribution channel. It allows a seller to have a gigantic warehouse on the outskirts of a small town, instead of a tiny bookstore in a high-traffic area in the city, with a monthly rent that has them considering selling their organs on the black market. It’s the perfect mix - a vast inventory with a storefront convenient for customers. After all, it's right there on your phone. That’s why Amazon is online. A BUYER’S MARKET The focus of this post is not Amazon’s online presence. Instead, it seeks to figure out what it means to any sector of business when one company takes over almost all aspects of the industry and uses that omnipresence to becomes a monopsony. The word monopsony is a recent addition to my vocabulary. It is a mirror image of the word monopoly with one key difference. While in a monopoly, there is only one seller who can charge as they see fit, a monopsony is a market with only one buyer, who can purchase at whatever price they like. Which is why the dwindling numbers of publishers is a concern for writers and eventually, readers. THE DIMINISHING RETURNS OF THE SELF-PUBLISHING BOOM You could say the decline of traditional publishers isn’t really a problem since so many authors are choosing to self-publish. You’re partially correct. Let's see how this plays out. At the moment, most authors who choose to self-publish are getting a bigger slice of the revenue pie than they would if they went with a traditional publisher (with the exception of some bestselling authors). However, that may not always be the case. Especially when all other publishers are pushed out of the game. In fact, you don’t have to wait that long to see the direction in which things are headed. As of July 2022, the Kindle Direct Publishing payout per page read in the United States was $0.0043. In July 2015, the payout per page was $0.0058. That’s a 25% drop over a 7-year period.   WILL BOOKS BECOME JUST ANOTHER PRODUCT? What creative freedom and quality of writing can we expect when editors are replaced by managers who are guided solely by spreadsheets and the prospect of profit? I am not imagining this authorial dystopia. Authors commissioned by Amazon’s imprints like Thomas and Mercer and Kindle Press who choose to put their books on Kindle Unlimited are compensated per page read. That, per se, is not the problem. However, since these e-readers collect every possible data point, it is safe to conclude that there is an end use in mind for all that data. It doesn’t take much imagination to think that authors and editors may tailor their works to get more page views instead of honing the story, theme or characterisation. I am reminded of a scene from the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks film, You’ve Got Mail  where Tom Hanks' character sarcastically compares books to a “ten-gallon vat of olive oil”. Let’s hope it won’t come to that. You could argue that market demand has always played a role in which genre or writer is promoted over another. You’re right. The difference now is the amount of pinpointed data that is available to publishers. It is, quite frankly, unprecedented. When in history have the publishers of any book known at which page did a reader close the book never to open it again? CONCLUSION There have always been folks who write solely for money and some who write as an expression of their creativity, and good writing is not the sole domain of either. It is one thing for the earnings of a Wuthering Heights to be eclipsed by the royalties of a Fifty Shades of Grey . That’s fine and has probably already happened. However, what a loss it would be for us all if the next Animal Farm or  Fahrenheit 451  are not published because they’re deemed ‘unviable’ by a manager or worse, a software looking solely for the next blockbuster mediocrity. Good luck finding something good to read then. Especially on Goodreads.

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.

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.

Leaders Eat Last begins with a foreword by George J. Flynn, a Retired Lieutenant General of the U.S. Marine Corps. The General gets straight to the point in his opening sentences, “I know of no case study in history that describes an organization that has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led.” That’s what Leaders Eat Last is about – the difference between managers and leaders, what makes a leader and how all of this impacts everyone with a job, regardless of their place in the totem pole called workplace hierarchy. Feeling valued, safe and brave enough to take risks for the greater good is on everyone’s wishlist, even if it isn’t verbalised. Simon Sinek shows us how the answers to most of our modern-day troubles lie in our prehistoric biology simply because our species hasn’t changed that much. Everything we do and are is rooted in our biology. And there’s no fooling Mother Nature. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about how the happiness chemicals – endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin are responsible for so much that we do; from squeezing in a morning run before work, helping with the dishes after dinner, chasing quarterly sales targets at work or catching up with friends over a drink. We many think it’s about discipline, motivation or affection. Simon Sinek demonstrates that it is about all of the above but that wasn’t Mother Nature’s original intention. As is usually the case with most things that Nature engineered, it was about survival. As is cortisol – the stress hormone . Sinek does a great job of explaining in conversational language how these hormones work and why our world today is causing them to malfunction a wee bit. He uses the metaphor of a snowmobile in the desert. Nothing wrong with the snowmobile or the desert. They’re just not an optimal match. Leaders Eat Last is not one of those books that elaborate only on the problem. Sinek explains why the problem is the problem. He illustrates why large organizations often have trouble holding on to a culture of teamwork and instead break up into silos with paranoia and distrust flowing through the corridors. And it’s not just about Dunbar’s number (which states that we can maintain only around 150 stable connections) but more fundamentally, it is a result of what these organizations stand for and reward. For instance, if meeting the quarterly sales target is the sole aim and only the people who achieve it are rewarded, while the rest are at risk of losing their jobs, then innovation requiring a long-term approach is not likely. Neither is team work. Sinek ties each of these to the hormone they generate, making logical connections to the consequences of each type of behaviour. Before he became a TED talk sensation (Sinek’s 2010 TED talk “How Great Leaders inspire Action” which grew out of his 2009 book, Start with Why is amongst the most viewed TED talks ever), Simon Sinek began his career in advertising, so he certainly knows how to brand and sell an idea. One of these ideas is Circle of Safety. I assume he came up with it since I haven’t heard it being used in a similar context earlier. Sinek uses the analogy of a herd to demonstrate why being liked and protected releases serotonin, while being sidelined leads to feelings of stress and anxiety caused by cortisol pulsing through our systems. Destructive Abundance is another such term. It signifies the imbalance between selfish and selfless pursuits and the results of a mismatch. Sinek stresses the importance of the social contract of leadership. Leaders Eat Last also lays out the roles played by various generations over the last 100 years, and how each of them partly rebelled against and partly perpetuated the ethos they grew up with, and where all of it has brought us. Of course, no one book can summarise the events of a century and their consequences, but Sinek lays down the threads of his thought process. And the rest is for us to think through. The role of abstraction in today’s behemoth corporations is explored and why it leads to a lack of leadership and accountability. What Sinek refers to as abstraction is how people- whether employees or customers – become a statistic, an abstract number. Joseph Stalin expressed this succinctly and Sinek quotes him in his chapter, Managing the Abstraction, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.” Abstraction robs not only employees or customers of their humanity but also, the leaders of the corporations of theirs, because they no longer see their actions impacting people. They view their actions as only affecting digits on a spreadsheet. Sinek conveys this disconnect when he writes, “Numbers of people aren’t people, they’re numbers.” Speaking of numbers of people, Leaders Eat Last discusses how teams or organisations can cultivate cultures that reward positive behaviour which will, in turn, reap them long-term benefits. Sinek isn’t talking about some high-flying philanthropic approach. It’s practical and far-sighted. There’s an anecdote or two about Goldman Sachs when it was considered a 'gentleman’s' organisation and what makes 3M, the company that makes Post-It Notes, so successful at innovation . It's the kind of stuff that is instantly relatable. The edition I read also had an extended chapter about leading Millennials, who were probably employers’ least favourite employees till Gen Z arrived on the scene! It’s a fairly practical guide for both employers and Millennial employees to make their work lives more fulfilling and productive. Read Leaders Eat Last if you want to understand why certain workplaces and leaders make everything seem better and easier while the others do the opposite. It might also help you formulate a checklist of what to look out for before joining a new workplace. And most importantly, to think about what kind of leader you aspire to be.

India has probably the cheapest mobile data in the world. Practically everyone with a smartphone has 1 GB of data available to them every day. Some of us also have a broadband connection at home and at our workplaces. All this inexpensive data allows us to scroll for hours through free social media apps – consuming several hours of mostly inane content, keep up with friends, family and sadly, even work emails. Except that it’s not as inexpensive as we think it is. It costs us our ability to concentrate on tasks and perhaps most importantly, our time. Time is irreplaceable even if you were willing to pay for it. Think about it. Something you think is practically free i.e. internet access, robs you of a thing so valuable that, once lost, even the richest person on the planet can’t buy it back - Time. Add to that, another precious commodity, Focus. And yet, you think it costs you nothing. This is perhaps the greatest mind trick of our times – a kind of mass hypnosis. And I’m not even going into the costs of data mining and the ways in which the companies that own our data manipulate us, mostly because I don’t know all the ways. But what I know is scary enough. Some of you may think I’m being alarmist. Read on and then you can decide. Here’s what I’ve observed in my own life. I’ve been a reader for almost as long as I can remember. However, I believe that I used to read faster when I was younger than I do now, mostly because I keep getting interrupted by a bing or a ping. And when that doesn’t happen, I reach for my phone to check if I missed a beep. Confession: I’m guilty of unlocking and scrolling through some or the other app even when I can see that I have no notifications whatsoever. Not even the non-urgent kind. This is pathetic behaviour but I know I’m not alone in this dome of dopamine-addiction. THE MYTH OF MULTI-TASKING Even though I stand under this dome, I’m at least part of the group of people that admit their addiction instead of pretending to be a multi-tasker. The myth of multi-tasking is a seductive one. It paints the incessant phone-checking, email-responding, text-sending while we work, converse or read, as the pinnacle of productivity. It soothes us into propagating the idea that somehow, we've evolved into beings that are able juggle all these balls effortlessly. But truth be told, that’s the kind of stuff that only shows stupendous results in a movie montage set to uplifting music. FOCUS IS INDIVISIBLE In real life, multi-tasking splits your focus and concentration leading to slower progress in whatever you’re doing. Let’s assume I’m writing a report while simultaneously, responding to emails and text messages. While I may want to believe that 80% of my focus is devoted to writing the report and only 20% is spent on responding to a colleague with a brief mail or a quick exchange over text with a friend. Sadly, that’s not how it works. Every time I shift from one task to another, 100% of my focus moves to it. Focus is a currency of sorts. We can choose where we invest it but it differs from money in one very significant way. Unlike money, your focus cannot be invested in two or more areas at the same time. As a result, while I’m sending a meme to a friend, I’m no longer working on my report and my focus is wholly concentrated on the text message. Ten seconds later, I might turn it back to the report but the shift in gears isn’t quite as smooth as we like to believe. I will need to collect my thoughts all over again and read the last few lines I wrote to get back into the flow of things. And just as I do, my phone will buzz with a response to the meme I sent. And the whole cycle begins again. Don’t take my word for it. Basing its conclusions on research findings , the American Psychological Association states that, “shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40% of someone’s productive time”. Which means that if I could’ve written this post in an hour of uninterrupted time, it’ll probably take me at least an hour and 40 minutes to complete if I continue texting, emailing and checking my stock portfolio while I write this. So much for productive multi-tasking! THE AGE OF DISTRACTION I know generational stereotyping is annoying but unfortunately, I meet a lot of people who believe that they are somehow better-equipped to multi-task simply because they grew up in an age where cell phones and the internet are as ubiquitous as pen and paper. Perhaps, even more so (Try borrowing a pen from someone and you’ll see what I mean). And yet, unless Millennials and Gen Z have managed to re-engineer their own pre-frontal and parietal cortices in all the free-time they gained due to multi-tasking, all this talk about being 'natural multi-taskers' is just wishful thinking that doesn’t have any facts supporting it. But again, this fig leaf isn’t used only by Millennials and Gen Z. Anyone who doesn’t want to be parted from their devices usually uses some or the other form of this argument. But the facts remain the same, regardless of your age or argument. We know that it takes longer to complete a task if one is distracted. I know this without any help from the American Psychological Association because I’ve been writing this blog post for more than two hours and I’m still not done! MULTI-TASKING DIMINISHES QUALITY The other aspect of productivity is the quality of the work done. Is quality impacted by multi-tasking? A study conducted at Stanford University on their students, found that self-proclaimed chronic multi-taskers made more mistakes and remembered less than those who multi-tasked less often. Another Stanford study found evidence to support the conclusion that chronic multi-taskers are worse at analytical reasoning as well. David Jones, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology observed similar patterns amongst his students who, he believed weren’t doing as well as they should be. Jones explained, “It’s not that the students are dumb. It’s not that they aren’t trying. I think they’re trying in a way that’s not as effective as it could be because they’re distracted by everything else.” It goes without saying that students who have made it to a premier institution like MIT aren’t ‘dumb’, which means that perhaps the lack of focus caused by distractions in the guise of multi-tasking is the problem. TRY IT YOURSELF Ultimately, we all need to take a minute and ask ourselves if our minds are more or less focussed when we are being interrupted by our devices. If you can’t answer that, try an experiment. Like I did. It took me about three hours to write this post. I also responded to several messages, monitored the share prices of four to five stocks and bought shares in two, ate lunch and checked my LinkedIn account. Without all these secondary tasks, I could most likely have written this post in little more than an hour. Next time, I’ll keep my phone aside and write on days when I don’t want to buy any shares. Let’s see how that goes. I’ll be sure to report back. And I’d love to hear about your conclusions if you do conduct a similar experiment.

Celeste Ng’s much-feted debut novel, Everything I never told you was published in 2014. As is apparent from the title, the novel is about secrets. The kind of stuff we keep to ourselves, hoping to hold on to the people we love and the price we end up paying for our silence. But that’s not all it’s about. I’ll tell you the rest later. For now, let’s start at the beginning. The plot of the novel revolves around the lives of a mixed-race family of five, the Lees. They live in Middlewood, a small All-American college town. The book opens on the day of their older daughter, Lydia’s disappearance and death. Using an omniscient third person narrator, Ng unfurls the story from the alternating perspectives of all five family members allowing us to witness poignant moments in their lives, present and past, and making us privy to their emotions, secrets and motivations. The narration is also peppered with several political and socio-cultural references such as the ‘the summer of the Son of Sam’, Elvis’ death and launch of NASA’s Gemini 9, grounding the story in a real-world timeline. Everything I never told you is not a whodunnit where the police or a detective solves the case. It’s a mystery that delves not so much into Lydia’s disappearance and death but the layers of her life. And this is not easy given the double life Lydia leads. This is a character who had maintained an annual diary for 12 years and never wrote a single word in them. Not one word. The reader is led by the narrator into an almost languid study of events from the parents’ childhood and youth to the children’s early years that made Lydia, the person she was and her life, what it was. There’s no rushing about but the pace of the story doesn’t slacken. Academic excellence as a path to acceptance, racism, alienation, sexism and secrets are some of the themes in Everything I never told you. One of the ideas explored is how a parent’s dreams for their child can rob the child of the opportunity of finding their own way and end up stunting their growth. And that’s not to say that the parent’s choices for their child, per se, are necessarily wrong but just that being pushed, no matter how subtly, is what makes them problematic. This novel reminded me of a quote by the Swiss psychotherapist Carl Jung: “The greatest tragedy of the family is the unlived lives of the parents.” Ng paints a moving portrait of the inherently human longing to be seen for who one is and how precariously the pile of small sacrifices, made in service of those we love, teeters as the years go by. By the end of Everything I never told you , one is left with a pit in one’s stomach wishing it had turned out differently and goes down the rabbit holes of thinking how a few small changes or a honest chat or two could’ve made all the difference. To me, that is the power of this book - that you're left with a tinge of regret and sadness at the waste of it all. Alas, what is done, is done and nothing alters the cold fact that Lydia is no more. Speaking of Lydia brings me back to the opening lines of the novel, “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” This opening is so good that the publishers couldn’t resist putting it in the blurb at the back of the book. One can’t fault that decision because it gives the story impetus from the word go. What makes the introductory sentences truly brilliant is that they imbue a mundane family breakfast, which is the opening scene of Everything I never told you, with gravitas because of what the reader knows but the Lees don't. For a first-time novelist, Ng is masterful with this bit of dramatic irony for without these lines, the reader would probably have skimmed over the details or worse, shut the book and picked up another. Instead, it turns us, the readers, into keen-eyed sleuths on the lookout for clues amidst soggy cornflakes and physics problems. Celeste Ng’s characterization is another positive in Everything I never told you . The characters are relatable. Their hopes, complexes, motivations and coping mechanisms feel real whether it is Lydia’s father, James’ cloying desire for his children to be popular, Marilyn’s ‘tiger mom’ tactics to make up for the missed chances in her own life or Nathan’s tangled ties of loyalty and resentment to his sister. And then there is Hannah, the baby of the family, stuck, literally and metaphorically, in the attic. She who misses nothing from her hiding places and craves the sunshine of affection from her family. There is also a passing reference to William Faulkner’s classic The Sound and the Fury, a novel about the breakdown of a Southern, formerly aristocratic family. I saw certain parallels between the characters in Faulkner’s book and Ng’s novel. Perhaps, I’m wrong. Read Everything I never told you and let me know what you think.

The Art of Racing in the Rain is the story of a family on the verge of being torn apart by the rigours of life and a confluence of cruel circumstances. Denny Swift, one of the protagonists of the novel, aspires to be a professional race car driver even as he deals with family and financial issues. He is portrayed with much care and admiration by his fellow protagonist and the narrator of this story, Enzo. Half Labrador and half either Shepherd, Poodle or Terrier, Enzo is Denny’s greatest champion and loyal friend. Cola keeping me company while I read Enzo’s role as the narrator is what sets The Art of Racing in the Rain apart from any other novel with similar good-people-in-tough-situations storylines. Enzo is old and unwell when the book opens and he narrates the story of his human family right from the day he met Denny as a puppy, through all the highs and lows faced by the Swift family up until the present day. Even for those who aren’t dog-lovers, Enzo’s love for racing, thirst for knowledge, perceptive discernment of human behaviour and his obsession with the power of opposable thumbs is charming. But that’s not it. Enzo desperately wants to be born as a human being in his next life. Though it’s ironic because he could teach the world a lesson or two in how to be human. The American journalist, Andy Rooney made a similar point when he said, “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” Garth Stein creates Enzo - a character who is a sponge for trivia, history, weather updates, spiritual truths and everything in between. He prefers the Godfather series to Scarface (don’t we all?), has strong opinions on dining table etiquette and is a keen observer of human nature and storytelling. Enzo knows that a hero, in order to be loved, must have at least one flaw, making him or her relatable. And yet Stein upends the idea by making Enzo as close to perfect by making him a dog. But then, that’s the nature of dogs. The title, The Art of Racing in the Rain pays homage to the legendary Formula 1 driver, Ayrton Senna’s tremendous feat of driving through the rain at the European Grand Prix in 1993. Enzo repeatedly tells us that Senna is his favourite driver. Racing in the rain also acts as a metaphor for tough times and how they can be travelled through with grace, courage and fortitude. Garth Stein uses the conversations between Denny and Enzo as channels to set up the themes of his novel. The power of manifestation is one such idea. “The car goes where the eyes go.” In other words, what we focus on is what we will find before us. In terms of characterization, this is a book with two protagonists and a handful of secondary characters. We, as readers, are rooting for both protagonists and even more so, their bond and friendship. And yet, there are some perks set aside only for four-legged narrators. And one of those benefits is the benefit of no doubt. Usually with first-person narrators, one is expecting them to gloss over their own flaws and indulge in some self-aggrandisement. These are the pitfalls of first-person narration. Not so with Enzo. Sure, he is well-spoken, wise and worldly but then you must understand that he is a documentary-watching dog with a philosophical bent of mind. For Enzo, there is no better human being than Denny and because Enzo is telling us his story, I’m more willing to believe that Denny’s character could perhaps be exaggerated by Enzo’s adoration than I’m willing to entertain the idea that Enzo could be less than truthful about himself. The Art of Racing in the Rain lets us live out the fantasy of imagining what our pets would say if they could speak and illustrates what we, as pet-lovers, sometimes forget. That while, our pets might be only one part of our days and lives, we are the entirety of their days and lives. If each of them could write a book or make a movie, we’d all have starring roles in them. Enzo spends his entire life wishing to be human and yet, it is us who would benefit from being more like him: in the way that he listens without interrupting, turns learnings into practice and loves with his whole heart. The scenes depicting his interactions with the Swifts’ little daughter, Zoë are especially touching. Some of Enzo’s weather channel watching ways seem to have rubbed off on me as well. And so, I’d like to say that in case you’re looking for a heart-warming book about family, loyalty, loss, hope and resilience as the weather gets colder (at least here in the northern hemisphere), The Art of Racing in the Rain may be just the novel you’re looking for. A breezy read, it’s the kind of book that is bound to keep you engaged till the end, at which point, I assure you, it'll leave you with a lump in your throat. Consider yourself warned.

The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 was a rude awakening for me to the ways of the world. At the time, I had been working for about five years and it had been a time of growth and progress, for me personally, the media industry and India’s economy. Good times are seldom fertile grounds for introspection. 2008’s Global Financial Crisis and the Recession that followed it got me thinking about work, my personal life and money. Here are some of the life lessons I learnt from it all. 1. EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED The Global Financial Crisis was triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States. It impacted banks and insurance companies based mostly in the United States but the tremors were felt in every country that did business with the US – which is, practically everyone. I saw people lose their jobs in a media organisation that had nothing to do with any of it. The economic slowdown that followed in India (though thankfully, India avoided a full-fledged recession) saw job cuts running into the millions and a great deal of unemployment and diminished growth. This taught me that globalisation isn’t just a buzzword for investment summits but it’s real and, like everything else, it has its negatives as well as positives. 2. DON’T LET JARGON SCARE YOU It’s important to be aware of the big stories in the business and financial worlds. The stuff you don’t know could still upend your life. It’s best to know what’s going on. Don’t let the acronyms and numbers scare you away. Try and understand the story and the direction in which it is headed. The direction matters more than the numbers and jargon. 3. FOLLOW THE MONEY Figuring out the direction in which the money flows can tell you a lot about the lay of the land - the real motivations behind what people do, where their loyalties lie and as a consequence, how seriously you should take them. For instance, don’t take a financial influencer too seriously if they just uploaded an interview with the CEO of a big business a few weeks ago, and then start recommending the company’s stock as the greatest thing since the steam engine. Whether they received payment in cash, kind or views is immaterial. You need to remind yourself that it is sponsored content even if doesn’t say so. And that you need to treat it as such. This is as true for TV shows promoting cryptocurrency as it was and is for the rating agencies who gave AAA ratings to junk bonds because they are paid by the banks selling the junk. 4. POLITICS AFFECTS EVERYTHING So, you think that just because one political party fighting an election against another or which Bills they table in Parliament doesn’t interest you, it won’t affect you? Let me put it plainly. Are you interested in how much money you are able to spend or save from what you make at your job? Or who you can marry? Or what your kids are taught in school? Or whether or not you can afford that vacation to Croatia next year? Everything you care about is affected by politics. And yet, you delude yourself into believing that it doesn’t matter. When you choose to stay ignorant and apathetic, the only thing that doesn’t matter is you and your concerns. 5. GETTING A PINK SLIP ISN’T A REFLECTION OF YOUR WORTH There are a lot of factors involved, most of which have nothing to do with your work. You could be the one getting the sack due to any old reason like: Your department is being downsized or eliminated. New technology has made your field of expertise less relevant. You earn a little more than others doing the same work as you. Your boss doesn’t like you. If you do get fired from your job, try not to weigh yourself down with feelings of unworthiness. Learn what you can from it (there is usually a lesson or two), dust yourself off and make your move. 6. DON’T SPEND MORE THAN YOU EARN An ever-increasing number of businesses want us to buy their wares. They hire advertisers and influencers to sell us the idea that life is somehow incomplete or at the very least, a tad paler without the latest threads, cellphone or car. However, at the end of the day, money is numbers. In a literal sense, there isn’t much difference between someone who makes 30,000 bucks a month and another who earns a lakh if both end up saving only 5,000 every month. Or worse, if they're both in debt. If it happens once in a blue moon and due to unforeseeable circumstances, it’s understandable. But if expenses exceeding your income is your standard operating procedure, then you’re tempting fate. 7. CAREFUL WHAT YOU TAKE ON DEBT FOR Speaking of debt, you might say that sometimes one needs to live beyond one’s means. In truth, yes. Except that it pays to remember that a loan is about borrowing from the future . In which case, it is best that whatever you'll be paying for in the future also be of use to you in the coming years. Please be warned, over-sized blazers in fuchsia do not fall into that category! I must confess that I’m terribly averse to taking out loans but I do concede that they are necessary at times. All of us aren't sitting on a nest egg to buy a home or invest in a business venture. However, before you sign on the dotted line, I suggest you ask yourself whether you’ll be building an asset whose value is likely to appreciate like the price of gold or depreciate like a car or an air conditioner. For instance, if it’s a home you’re buying, let it be one you can move into with an EMI that isn’t more than double your monthly rent. There’s a reason why it’s called a starter home. It doesn’t have to be the castle of your dreams! 8. YOUR JOB ISN’T YOUR LIFE While we're talking about homes, how about you spend some time there? Have a life beyond your work. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you but if you work in the private sector, you never know when you could be handed the pink slip. I've known a fair number of folks who acted like their organisation would crumble to dust if they took more than a week off work. If only they had. They would know that things went on just fine without them. Sometimes, even better! Let’s get real. When you leave or are escorted out, there isn’t a job or boss in the world who wouldn’t replace you before you can even exit the building. So, make sure that work isn’t your sole contribution to the world. Spend time with people you like and doing things you enjoy. It makes for a happier and healthier you. It’s the kind of investment that never fails to pay dividends. Also, when you go through tough times (whether due to work or otherwise) it helps to have friends and family that you haven’t ignored while chasing the hustle train . 9. DON'T EXPECT HELP FROM POLITICAL LEADERS Believing that a politician will fight for what is due to you even if you take your foot off the pedal is fantasy. Even the cool ones, like Barack Obama, who claimed to stand for the average person and pretended to need crowd-funding, will disappoint. Don’t expect them to do you any favours. When push comes to shove, they’ll stand by the guys who helped pave their way to the office they hold. Just in case, you thought you were part of the ‘guys’ because you voted for them or argue with random strangers on social media in support of their policies, let me tell you a secret. You aren’t. The guys who bankrolled their campaigns and the ones who are in the position to do so again are the ‘guys’ they’ll stand by. And you’ll be left holding a banner proclaiming, ‘Yes, we can’. Don’t fall for their poll promises. Keep up the pressure and vote for action, not dramatics. 10. DIVERSIFY YOUR INVESTMENTS Don’t park all your earthly belongings in one basket. Split them up into high risk, high return and low risk, low return based on your requirements. Distribute your investments over different sectors – real estate, mutual funds, stock markets if you like, gold bonds, fixed deposits, etc. Make common sense investments in different baskets. And if something sounds too good to be true, it’s usually a scam or worse, a pyramid scheme! 11. MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS I’m usually an optimist but not to such a degree so as to ignore what stares me in the face. And so, I would recommend not trusting individuals or institutions to do the right thing if doing the wrong thing brings them a lot more money or power, with little or no risk of retribution. Barring a few noble and notable exceptions, that’s just human nature. 12. HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL Yes, I know the title said 11 lessons. But Life surprises us and I thought, so should this post. The greatest lesson I learnt from the Recession is to not give up hope and wake up to all the wonderful stuff in my life that I may have ignored and wasn’t grateful for. And to remember that disappointments aren’t always dead-ends. Often, they’re a fork in the road that forces us to make a choice. The path we choose can make all the difference.

Have you ever wondered how your life would’ve turned out if you’d done a few things differently? Pursued a degree in a different subject in college or joined that start-up with your friend’s cousin or even attended a colleague’s birthday celebration that Thursday night? And what if you had the chance to right a wrong or erase a regret? I can’t answer for you but I am fascinated not just with righting wrongs (even though righted wrongs often come with their own can of worms) but how a different choice can divert us to a whole new direction. And in that sense, the smaller choices interest me more because they are often least thought of and yet they could end up changing your life, for better or worse, without you ever suspecting it. That’s partly what The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is about. Published in 2020, this is a novel about the decisions we make and how every choice we are offered is both a fruit of previous choices but also a seed for future possibilities. Except one never knows which seed will sprout which plant. Our greatest triumphs can potentially lead to disasters while the worst of times can be fertile ground for a better life. Speaking of seeds, that’s also the name of the protagonist of The Midnight Library - Nora Seed. We meet Nora on an exceptionally awful day in her life. Everything appears to be collapsing around her. Her cat, Voltaire dies and she loses her job. With her parents dead, her brother estranged and her best friend incommunicado in Australia, there is no one she can turn to. It’s a dreary night making her question her reasons for living. Unfortunately, she comes up wanting. And so, she decides to end it all. This is no great shock to us as readers because the opening line of the novel is, “Nineteen years before she decided to die, Nora Seed sat in the warmth of the small library at Hazeldene School in the town of Bedford.” Clearly, the author, Matt Haig wanted us to see it coming. It’s all part of the set-up for the novel's central concept which is the Midnight Library—a place suspended between life and death, where the clock is perpetually striking midnight. The Midnight Library is filled with books till the eye can see. An infinity of books with different stories but a single protagonist – Nora Seed. These are the infinite lives of Nora, created every time she makes a choice, big or small. The books are portals to all the lives a version of her is currently living in an alternate universe and the Nora of our story can choose to parachute into any one of them and live that life forever. The Midnight Library sets up a tantalising proposition that affords Nora the unimaginably rare opportunity to figure out the answers to the ‘what if’ questions that many of us ponder but will never be able to answer. It doesn’t surprise me that this novel is a bestseller because it taps into human psychology and the awe-inspiring yet just out-of-grasp possibilities of the Universe, eventually leaving us with an uplifting message of even small deeds possessing meaning. As the librarian of the The Midnight Library, Mrs Elm tells Nora over a game of chess, “And even if you were a pawn - maybe we all are - then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It might look small and ordinary but it isn't because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.” Through the many versions of Nora’s life that form the bulk of The Midnight Library , the theme that is writ large is that of the loneliness of modern, urban life and that true connection has little to do with success, money or even network connectivity! But it does have a lot to do with effort. Given that the protagonist, Nora studied philosophy in college, Haig peppers the novel with pithy quotes and references to Gestalt psychology which is basically about how the brain always wants to simplify stuff into recognisable patterns even if it has to fill in the blanks a bit in order to create the pattern. It’s like when you perceive the shape of a rabbit in a passing cloud. For the even more scientifically-oriented or imaginatively-challenged, Haig provides us with a scientific basis for the existence of the Midnight Library. Hint: there are theories of parallel universes and the concepts of quantum indeterminacy involved. Though Haig is smart to keep this to the minimum – enough to satisfy the physics enthusiasts without alienating the folks who’re here for the story. Matt Haig’s style lends itself to a yarn spun simply but very engagingly even with a protagonist who is utterly lost and unmotivated. I don’t mean that as a jibe at Nora. We’re invited into a very trying time in her life and there’s something about her dismay, regret and ‘pity party for one’ demeanour that reminds us all of having been there at some point in our lives. At the heart of The Midnight Library lies the message that there are silver linings to even the darkest of clouds and how, even at our lowest and dullest, we can be someone’s silver lining even if we don’t see how. As Henry David Thoreau wrote and Matt Haig quotes, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” Even with its uplifting message, it's tough to overlook how simplistic and predictable the plot is. Most people would see the ending from a mile away. As did I. However, if you are in the mood for something predictable and comforting, The Midnight Library is a good book to curl up with. It reminds us what we forget most often in a world that glorifies the flashy. In the immortal words of JRR Tolkien, the legendary author of The Lord of the Rings series, “It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life .”

Learning to drive is considered a rite of passage into adulthood. In my case, it was a voyage that began in 2005 and culminated in 2014. That’s nine years. (I’m beginning to see a pattern here in my posts about learning stuff. And it isn’t making me look good! You would agree if you’ve read my blog about knitting .) Anyway, let’s return to the subject at hand. I decided to learn driving when I quit my first workplace which was located in New Delhi. When interviewing for the new job, I was informed that headquarters of this soon-to-be-launched news channel would be in Noida (a city adjoining Delhi, but in a different state). Public transport that crossed the state border were few and far between. I thought that it would be best to drive the 15 kilometres between our home in Delhi and my new office. ATTEMPT NUMBER ONE And so, I enrolled at a driving school. The dual control cars (with an additional set of clutch and brake pedals installed for the instructor sitting beside you) that most driving schools use, give learners a false sense of competence and thereby, confidence. Having bathed in the reflected glory of driving one of these dual control cars, I decided to take my father’s car out for a little drive on a sleepy Sunday morning on the verdant roads around Lodhi Estate. My brother accompanied me. There was no traffic on the roads. Not even a cyclist. After 20 minutes of driving around on straight roads with no traffic, I decided to test my skills at making a u-turn. That attempt ended in me crashing into the divider. Confusing the accelerator for the brake, I slammed into the concrete divider at such speed that the car ended up perched on the divider about a foot and a half above the surface of the road (As a side note, I think this reflects very well on the construction quality of said dividers). The front bumper had split in half and the front axle broken. I felt awful even though my father remained calm. I assuaged my guilt by paying for the repairs but the accident shattered my confidence. I didn’t get behind the wheel of a car for more than eight years post that accident. WAITING FOR OFFICE CABS Not being able to drive in Delhi was a pain. It meant haggling with auto-drivers who would act like they were doing me a favour by charging a duke’s ransom for ferrying me across the state border. As for getting back home, I would usually finish work at 9.30 pm which was too late to take public transport, if you could help it. As a result, I would wait for an hour to take the office cab at 10.30 pm. A couple of years later, I moved to Noida. Now, I lived just 5 kilometres away from my workplace but was still dependent on office cabs or public transport. Except for the times when a colleague or friend would drop me home. Years passed, and my frustration at not being able to drive grew but never enough to override my fear of causing another accident. THE STORY OF THREE FRIDAYS But this, dear reader, is a story of transformation. It began on a Friday evening. I was at work, eating my dinner at the coffee shop during my 8-9 pm break. I looked up from the book I was reading, leaned back on the couch and looked out through the glass wall, at the night sky. It was a breezy night and the breeze appeared to make the stars twinkle more than usual. A thought floated into my mind, unassisted – I must learn to drive. Now comes the part that makes me sound like a card-carrying member of some cult, but I beg your indulgence. I had the same thought come to me, in a completely spontaneous manner, three weeks in a row. Always on a Friday, while I was eating dinner between 8-9 pm, seated in the same coffee shop in my office building. The Saturday after the third Friday was my weekly off. I woke up around 9.30 that morning. My mother, who was visiting us, and my brother were having a tete-a-tete over cups of tea on our sunny terrace. I walked out in my pyjamas and tousled hair and said, “Let’s go to a second-hand car showroom. I want to buy a car.” My mother asked if I intended taking a shower or wanted to go there in my pyjamas? Ha ha. Maybe, she thought that a shower would wake me up to the harsh truth that I couldn’t drive. Later that morning, we were at the car showroom. My eyes fell on a bright red Chevrolet Spark and I asked the staff about it. It was perfect in all respects. I whispered to my mother that I wanted to buy it. She sensibly asked me to see a few more cars before making up my mind. I followed her advice but half an hour later, I handed over a cheque to buy the red Spark. Since I couldn’t drive, my brother had to drive my first car home. HAVE CAR, CAN’T DRIVE A week or so went by and my car had been sitting in its parking space doing pretty much nothing when my mother and I decided to go shopping one day. I suggested that, instead of calling a cab, we would ask around if someone knew a driver who could drive us in my car. After a few phone calls and a serendipitous turn or two, we found a great driver, Dinesh. He also happened to live close by. As he drove us home after our day of shopping, I asked if he could teach me how to drive. Luckily for me, he agreed. THE A-B-C OF DRIVING Dinesh was a great instructor and after ten days of teaching me the basics, he took me into crowded areas with all possible modes of transportation plying on the same road – buses, cars, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, cycles, bullock carts and the odd cow who refused to transport itself out of your path. Take it from me, if that doesn’t teach you how to use a clutch and a brake, nothing will. In the last few days of my driving lessons, I started verbalising what I saw (in terms of traffic, turns, road signs, etc) as well as how I intended to deal with them (such as changing lanes or turning on the indicator 50 metres before a turn). This helped because it gave me a sense of control and I found it soothing. I’m quite sure, so did my instructor! DRIVING ON MY OWN My initial days of driving to my workplace (five kilometres from home) and back were an exercise in courage. As any novice driver knows, this included mapping out routes in my mind to prepare mentally for all the turns I would need to make. Also, if I forgot to switch on the car’s air-conditioning, close the window or switch on the music, that’s the way it would stay until I arrived at my destination. Talk about single-minded focus! DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL Eventually, I grew more confident in my driving and could venture out to the nearby markets. Then one day, as I was exiting the gates of my housing sector, a small van, driving on the wrong side of the road, crashed into my car. It was a serious crash. One side of the bonnet was smashed, the front bumper broken and there was a telltale iridescent stain growing under my car signalling the leakage of transmission fluid. I stepped out and surveyed the damage. Livid, I called the police. I was at the police station for over seven hours along with a friend and my brother to get the van's owner to pay me compensation for the damage done. I even threatened to file a case against him. He told me that it would be his twenty-third brush with the courts! I had to leave my damaged car in the compound of the police station that night. It was a depressing night. I felt like a failure for having crashed my car. After several hours of angst-filled overthinking and cursing the fates, I fell into a slumber. The next day, things were brighter. The owner of the van agreed to pay if I withdrew my complaint. An hour or two later, my brother and I dropped off my damaged vehicle at a workshop owned by a friend of my brother’s. His team of mechanics did a marvellous job of repairing my car for a fraction of what the Chevrolet workshop had quoted. A RENEWED SPARK Good as new! This time, I didn’t let the shock of being in an accident get to me. Two days later, I got behind the wheel and drove my car home. It was good as new and it convinced me that all was well. And so, I kept driving. Three years later, I bought my first ‘new’ car. My red Chevrolet Spark may have been second hand, but to me it will forever be numero uno!

She who became the Sun is a historical fantasy novel about desire, destiny and the desire to alter one’s destiny. Published in 2021, this is Shelley Parker-Chan’s debut novel and the first book of The Radiant Emperor series. 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 it 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. This girl, who remains unnamed (in a deft touch by the author), so little does she matter, goes on to survive, then thrive and eventually conquer. All this, while she fears the wrath of Heaven for stealing her brother’s destiny. I surmise that Parker-Chan was influenced by elements of the legend of Mulan which is the story of a girl who disguises herself as a man to serve as a soldier during the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th Century CE) of Chinese history. Though the similarities end there, the plot of a woman literally fighting her way through a man’s world lends itself well to talking about identity and gender roles which is something that She who became the Sun does well without being preachy or unmindful of the time period depicted. As in any work of historical fantasy, world building plays an important role in She who became the Sun . It helps readers get a better understanding of the characters and their circumstances as well the rules and laws under which they operate. Though this is not the kind of fantasy which has flying dragons and other mythical creatures, we still need to be able to imagine a world far removed from anything we’ve seen. The descriptions are immersive without being excessive and precise while being fresh. “The feasting and drinking had begun several hours ago, and the air was greased with the aroma of stone-roasted lamb.” An image like that is evocative with the kind of sensory specificity that makes all one’s senses come alive to conjure up the scene. She who became the Sun is a very engaging tale spun expertly. Shelley Parker-Chan’s novel is spread over decades and varied locations and is narrated through the perspectives of multiple characters. Add to this some pithy lines and you’ve got a historical saga on your hands. “To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the pinnacle of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the pinnacle of skill.” To me, these lines sound like they just stepped off the pages of Sun Tzu’s military treatise, The Art of War , bringing with them the atmosphere of that era as well as establishing She who became the Sun as a tale about the battles of life and empire. One of the primary perspectives in the novel is that of Zhu Chongba (the unnamed protagonist who adopts her brother’s name). Incidentally, Zhu means ‘red’ in Chinese which is the colour of good luck while Chongba refers to ‘double eight’, another good luck charm. Zhu is resourceful and a quick learner with the good sense to hide her searing ambition under a shroud of detachment and humility befitting a monk. Her journey takes her from a starving child to a monk to a soldier and eventually, a commander in the rebel army of the Red Turbans fighting against the Yuan emperor’s rule. The other POV characters in She who became the Sun are Yuchun, a common thief-turned-soldier and Ma Xinying, a woman whose future appears to hold not much more than being the wife of a commander even though she is a natural diplomat and tactician herself. The perspective, however, that holds a sway equalling that of Zhu Chongba, is that of General Ouyang, the eunuch general in the army of the Prince of Henan who fights for the Yuan emperor. The character of General Ouyang is a fascinating one – a man with the beauty of a woman who fights alongside Esen, the heir of the man (the Prince of Henan) who massacred his family and left only Ouyang alive but castrated, to serve as his son, Esen’s slave. In terms of backstory, General Ouyang is reminiscent of Shakuni, the conniving uncle of the Kauravas in the transcendent Indian epic, The Mahabharat . The characters of General Ouyang and Zhu Chongba act as foils to each other with the threads of destiny pulling them ever closer, both to each other as well as to the ends that each of them believe is their predestined fate. One of the strongest elements of She who became the Sun is the dialogue. Parker-Chan uses it exquisitely to reveal character, especially of those who hold their cards particularly close to their chests. Sample this exchange between Lord Wang, the Prince of Henan’s adopted but barely tolerated son, and General Ouyang. “Lord Wang, who relished his own pain, had always known how to wound others. When Ouyang didn’t respond, Lord Wang said with a bitter kind of understanding, ‘My brother’s an easy person to love. The world loves him, and he loves the world, because everything in it has always gone right for him.’ Ouyang thought of Esen, generous and pure-hearted and fearless, and knew what Lord Wang said was true. Esen had never been betrayed or hurt or shamed for what he was – and that was why they loved him. He and Lord Wang, both in their own different ways. They understood each other through that connection, two low and broken people looking up to someone they could never be or have: noble, perfect Esen. ‘He was born at the right time. A warrior in a warrior’s world,’ Lord Wang said. “You and I, General, we were born too late. Three hundred years before now, perhaps we would have been respected for what we are. You as a Manji. Myself as someone who thinks that civilization is something to be cherished, not just fodder for conquest and destruction. But in our own society’s eyes, we’re nothing.’ …But Ouyang and Lord Wang were alike. For a moment they stood there in bitter acknowledgement of it, feeling that likeness ringing through the space between them. The one reviled for not being a man, the other for not acting like one.” In this exchange that takes up little more than a page, Shelley Parker-Chan fillets two characters to reveal their innermost desires and regrets while alluding to the strengths of a third. All this, while each character stays consistent to their nature. In some books, but more often movies, one gets the feeling that certain bits of dialogue are being spoken only for the reader/viewer’s benefit. A sort of artless dumping of information to get the reader/viewer up to speed. In contrast, the dialogue in She who became the Sun is a fine blend of characterization, exposition, cultural attitudes and genuine conflict between characters, making the exchanges feel real rather than performative. Likewise, the themes of identity, gender roles and destiny are woven in seamlessly as the warp along with the weft of the plot in the fabric of She who became the Sun. There are quite a few strong female characters who manage to outmanoeuvre the strait-laced paths set for women, thereby creating their own spheres of influence. And of course, there are the obvious parallels of the dual identities of Zhu Chongba, a woman disguised as a man and General Ouyang, a man who has been robbed of his masculine identity. I thoroughly enjoyed She who became the Sun and do recommend that you get your hands on a copy. I’d like to end with a morsel of information that caught my eye. Parker-Chan worked as a diplomat in South-East Asia, where she became addicted to epic East-Asian historical TV dramas. To feed that obsession, she searched for English-language book versions of these stories. She didn’t find any and so, decided to write her own. Thus, emerged She who became the Sun . Gentle Reader, let it never be said that watching shows or movies won’t get you anywhere. The webs of one interest can often tangle with those of another to form a third. And some may call that destiny .