I walked into a stationery shop, bought a pen and asked for a couple of refills for the same pen. I was told that pen didn’t have refills. Instead, one could just buy another pen. After all, it cost only 20 rupees. The shopkeeper added that I was the only person who had ever asked for a refill for that particular pen. That got me thinking. When and why did people stop replacing components and start discarding entire items? For some reason, the response to this question usually revolves around the comparative inexpensiveness of the replacement. Like the shopkeeper who told me, “Why bother with a refill when you can buy a new pen for 20 rupees?” A 20-rupee pen is hardly the first of its kind. Inexpensive pens usually sell for anywhere between 10 rupees to 50 rupees. The real news that businesses hope we’ll fail to focus on is that by not selling a refill which would cost 10 rupees, they’re forcing their customers to throw out a perfectly good pen and purchase another one when all we need is a refill. Think about it and you’ll come up with half a dozen examples of consumer durables no longer lasting as long as they once did. Take my parents’ first Prestige pressure cooker. They bought it in 1974 which was the year they got married. It worked just fine till 2022. That’s 48 years. Now compare that to one they bought two years ago. It’s already giving trouble. Am I to believe that Prestige has forgotten how to make a durable pressure cooker? Surely, there’s something else at play here. THE PHOEBUS CARTEL Prior to the year 1925, the average life expectancy of an incandescent light bulb was 2500 hours. That’s when corporations, that controlled the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs in much of Europe and North America, like General Electric, Tungsram, Associated Electrical Industries, Osram, and Philips had a light bulb moment! On January 15, 1925 in Geneva, they incorporated a group known as the Phoebus Cartel (Incidentally, Phoebus is the Greek God of Light). The cartel set out to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours (down from 2,500 hours), while reducing operational costs and raising prices without fear of competition. This was one of the prime examples of planned obsolescence at the time. A few engineers noted that bulbs with a shorter life can burn brighter for the same wattage. However, it doesn’t take a bright spark to decipher that the cartel's primary motivation was boosting profits by forcing customers to buy bulbs more often. Like all cartels, the Phoebus Cartel wasn’t kind to those defying orders. They tested bulbs by all manufacturers and those whose bulbs lasted more than 1,000 hours were fined, discouraging anyone from providing customers with greater value. The cartel was intended to last thirty years. But with the outbreak of World War II, it ceased operations in 1939. Not that it mattered. Even after the dissolution of the Phoebus Cartel, light bulbs continued to be sold with 1,000-hour lifespans. WHAT IS PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE? Unfortunately, things were just getting started. This policy of planned obsolescence (also referred to as built-in obsolescence and premature obsolescence) has been adopted by most companies selling consumer electronics, clothing, utensils, etc. At its core, planned obsolescence is the concept of designing a product with either an intentionally frail design or with an artificially limited utility. This results in the item becoming obsolete after a certain period of time by either ceasing to function, operating at a reduced standard or just being perceived as less desirable. What this strategy achieves is greater long-term sales for the company, by reducing the time between repeat purchases. This is no conspiracy theory. It’s all in the public domain and deemed legal. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE IS ALL AROUND An award-winning 2010 documentary, The Light Bulb Conspiracy, also known as Pyramids of Waste, delved into the idea of planned obsolescence of industrial products. One of the case studies in the documentary is the Epson Stylus C42UX inkjet printer. The printer would issue a defect message after a certain number of printed pages and prevent further use of the printer. This lock, was said to be caused by a chip, which was added by the manufacturers specifically for this purpose. But do we need to go that far? Surely, you remember a time when you could replace a cell phone battery when it packed up. You bought a replacement battery, popped open the back cover of the phone and replaced it. Nowadays, you have to buy a new phone. And this is supposed to be cutting edge technology? Phones may be getting smarter but phonemakers are certainly counting on folks becoming dumber. TYPES OF PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE FUNCTIONAL OBSOLESCENCE: Products using inferior-quality materials or designed to have a limited lifespan. Light bulbs designed to burn out after 1000 hours, batteries that can't be changed, and pens with no way to replace refills are examples of functional obsolescence. SYSTEMIC OBSOLESCENCE: Incompatibility with newer software or accessories that make older products unusable or less functional. I’m sure many of us have experienced software updates that make older devices slow or incompatible with newer apps. PERCEIVED OBSOLESCENCE: Marketing campaigns that make consumers believe that the product they own is outdated, even if it is in peak working condition. Except when you start comparing, there isn’t much difference between the old product and the latest offering. Fashion influencers with their innumerable fashion haul videos are part of the problem, exhorting their unthinking followers into purchasing sub-standard toxic junk. The lines outside Apple stores every Autumn is just another example of this mass idiocy. THE REAL COST If you’ve reached this far, and still believe I’m overthinking this and/or that I’m particularly tight-fisted, let me be clearer. 20 rupees is the price of the pen, not the real cost. The real cost is when a pen you discarded lies in some garbage dump, not breaking down because it is made of plastic. At some point, it will get crushed under the weight of a discarded crate or some other trash, continue to break down further till it is smaller than 5 millimetres. This is when it will be known as a microplastic. Fragments smaller than 5 mm are called nanoplastics. They are smaller than a red blood cell. These plastics find their way into our food, water and the atmosphere, polluting the environment and endangering animal life. Human beings are impacted too. While the full impact of microplastics on human health is still being studied, here are a few effects that scientists have zeroed in on: inflammation cancer lung and liver diseases deterioration of the gut microbiome altered lipid and hormonal metabolism Other studies suggest that microplastics disrupt marine micro-organisms’ crucial role of sequestering carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. I can’t speak for you but to me, at first glance, this looks bad. And the view doesn’t get better at second and third glance. So, the next time you buy a pen, buy a brand that sells refills too. I know I will, because we’re all paying for not doing so, with a lot more than just money.

The case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus’ inhumane imprisonment following his wrongful conviction in 1894 is infamous in the records of world history. The Dreyfus Affair is widely acknowledged as an absolute sham of a court martial. The case was adjudged on the basis of flimsy circumstantial evidence, in the hope that it looked like justice when it was really just a fig leaf for antisemitism and dereliction of duty. Robert Harris’ An Officer and A Spy is about that case and the two men at its centre—the first, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Mulhouse Jew serving in the French Army who is found guilty of a crime he did not commit and imprisoned most cruelly on Devil’s Island; and second, Major (later Colonel) Georges Picquart, a man of rare integrity and courage who stood up to the entire French establishment to right a wrong at great risk to his career, reputation and liberty. An Officer and A Spy is an engrossing retelling of a riveting story, taking the reader through the initial court martial of Captain Dreyfus in 1894, right up to the culmination of the case in 1906. In a clever touch, Harris makes Picquart the narrator of the story, allowing the reader to view the facts of the case as they emerge. The reader is also witnesses closely Picquart’s dilemma and finally, conversion from being yet another believer in Dreyfus’ guilt to becoming his staunchest defender. Robert Harris opens the novel with Major Picquart narrating to the Minister of War, General Auguste Mercier and the Chief of General Staff, General Boisdeffre, what he witnessed at Captain Dreyfus’ military degradation in public view for treason. Dreyfus was charged on the grounds of passing on military documents and secrets to a foreign power which, though unnamed, is understood to be Germany. The author establishes Picquart as a man of great intelligence with a flair for words and a knack for knowing what his audience wants to hear. And it is through Major Picquart’s astute point of view that we are introduced to each character. His descriptions are both discerning and entertaining pen pictures of the main players, combining both his keen observation skills and understanding of human psychology. While describing a French officer with delusions of grandeur, Picquart says, “I always found something disconcerting about du Paty. It was as if he were acting the central part in a play for which no one else had been shown the script. He might laugh abruptly, or tap his nose and adopt an air of great mystery, or disappear from a room in the middle of a conversation without explanation. He fancied himself a detective in the modern scientific manner… I wondered what role in his drama he had chosen for me to play.” An Officer and A Spy evokes an image of Paris as a hub of culture which it was, but also adds a strain of a defeated France, still licking its wounds after a resounding defeat by the Germans in 1870. The stench of a military humiliation permeates the entire novel. Harris conveys well the desperation of the defeated to find someone to blame and victimise almost as an antidote for its own defeat. The inciting incident of the novel is Major Picquart, having played a role in the arrest and conviction of Captain Dreyfus, being promoted to the rank of Colonel and appointed chief of the counter-espionage unit called, in a coup of boring names, the Statistical Section. It is in this role that Colonel Picquart is forced to revisit the Dreyfus case and question whether or not the Army caught the right man. As Picquart uncovers sinister lies and conspiracies, his faith in the incorruptibility of the organisation he is devoted to, is shaken, causing him to question even his own character and motivations. The novel’s key themes of nationalism and ambition versus integrity play out in court as well as in Picquart’s mind, knowing as he does that pursuing this case would destroy his career and likely end in a court martial for him and social ruin for those he loves. When facing disciplinary action himself, Picquart muses, “In this quasi-religious house I perceive that I have become something beyond a mere dangerous nuisance to my masters. I am a heretic to the faith.” Harris is masterful at depicting the sky-high stakes of the political scandal that shook Europe, weaving in the rising antisemitism, the grubby journalism of the scandal sheets as well as the tenacious activism of staunch supporters of Dreyfus’ cause like Anatole France, Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau. At the height of the scandal, Émile Zola wrote, in a French daily, an explosive open letter known quite simply as J’accuse…!, accusing high-ranking officers and ministers of colluding in the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Captain Dreyfus. An Officer and A Spy is not a quick read but Harris keeps it pacy even though it must be said there are portions in the middle that focus rather minutely on procedure. However, I suppose that is to be expected in a novel about a real-life case with many fine details and a multitude of characters. While history must be credited with providing the plot of this novel, Harris enhances it with a narrative structure that keeps ticking and a well-rounded narrator. Picquart is a man of culture with his interests in literature and music highlighted throughout the book bestowing him with an air of gentler sensibilities. His sense of humour offset by a few character flaws makes him feel like a real person instead of a bookish paragon of goodness. In a lighter moment, he muses on the status of older bachelors, “Bachelors of forty are society’s stray cats. We are taken in by households and fed and made a fuss of; in return we are expected to provide amusement, submit with good grace…however short the notice.” All in all, I greatly enjoyed An Officer and A Spy. If espionage thrillers and historical dramas are your scene, then do pick this one up. If, however, you prefer watching over reading, you could check out its film adaptation directed by Roman Polanski.

Every field has its experts. Yet, there are some problems that stump even the experts. That’s when the specialists are brought in. Guess who comes in handy when even the specialists of a field fail to come up with a solution? Not a super-specialist, but someone with interests wider than the area in question. Let me tell you a story about a Japanese astrophysicist, Koryo Miura. A FOLD IN TIME If he was only an astrophysicist, we probably wouldn’t be talking about him. Koryo Miura, you see, also practised origami, the traditional Japanese art of folding paper into different shapes. I think you would agree aerospace and origami are completely separate fields—one a science, the other an art. However, they will intersect in our story. Image Courtesy: Pinterest. In 1985, Miura created a method of folding paper, indeed any flat surface, into a compact bundle that could be opened and closed with a single motion. This method was called the Miura fold. This may not seem like a great technological advancement to us but in 1995, Japan’s Space Flyer Unit deployed solar panel arrays using this exact fold. Around the same time, NASA’s engineers were striving to fit huge space telescopes into relatively small rocket cargo bays. They too found their answer in origami. And that the packed telescopes would unfurl autonomously in space made it even better. That’s not all though. This is a manifold story. I know that’s a terrible pun. I have no excuse so let’s turn the page on that! Medical engineers discovered more than one use for similar folding patterns. One of many was to pack heart stents into tiny catheters that pop open inside blocked arteries, changing millions of lives. INNOVATION AT THE INTERSECTIONS Who could’ve imagined that such cutting-edge innovations would owe their existence to the art of folding colourful sheets of paper? But then, what is innovation if not the breaking down of man-made walls built around disciplines? Understanding this is the key to solving complex problems. The answers to many perplexing questions are often found at the intersections of ideas. Perhaps that is the reason why people who solve complicated problems usually have interests in more than one field, an ability to zoom out from the minutiae of an issue and look at the bigger picture from a different perspective. In author Frans Johansson’s words, “We need to look at problems from multiple angles because complex problems don’t fit neatly into a single discipline.” That said, not always can one individual or even a team bring varied perspectives to the table. At times like these, simply possessing the acuity of seeing something exceptional at play, appreciating the skill it calls for, and having the humility to ask for help can make a huge difference. That’s what changed lives at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in the late 1990s. THE FORMULA THAT SAVED BABIES Doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital noticed that they were losing many patients during the “handover” phase when babies were moved to the ICU after cardiac surgery. These handovers were usually chaotic and extremely stressful, even as the staff scurried around doing their best. After one such stressful weekend of surgeries, Professor Martin Elliott, a paediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and his colleague, Dr Allan Goldman sat slumped on a couch, watching a Formula 1 race. If you’ve ever watched a Formula 1 race, you may have observed how fast and precise the pit crew is. There’s no standing around, waiting for instructions. To the average person, it looks like a cross between choreography and magic. Professor Elliott and Dr Goldman probably felt the same way. At a management conference, the doctors got in touch with Ferrari, eventually leading to a partnership. When Ferrari’s experts analysed videos of the hospital's “handover” phase, they immediately picked up on a lack of clear-cut roles and synchronization. They restructured the ICU handovers almost entirely. As a result, medical errors reduced by over 42% and information handoff omissions dropped by almost 50%. Over the years, these procedures were rolled out at many hospitals across the United Kingdom to similar success, saving thousands of babies. And it all began with a Formula 1 pit crew. LEARNING FROM NATURE Speaking of folks who get stuff done fast, we humans, pride ourselves for the leaps we’ve made in the short time we’ve been on the scene. Except Nature is always ahead of us. Even in her astoundingly infinite variety, Nature never shies away from using the same idea in multiple places. Take, for instance, the similarity between the ratios and flow of the branches and roots of a tree, the shape of river deltas and the blood vessels in our own bodies. They all follow the same math. BIOMIMICRY TO THE RESCUE And in the spirit of such recycling, we return to Japan. Japan’s bullet train is iconic, but even icons have their troubles. The Shinkansen, as the bullet train is known in Japan, was redesigned in the 1990s. The new design had a structural problem – the compression of atmospheric pressure caused by a train entering a tunnel and the pushing out of that air from the other end at great speed caused a deafeningly loud sonic boom. Understandably, this was a nuisance for residents in nearby areas. Luckily for the manufacturers of the bullet train as well as the eardrums of the people living near the abovementioned tunnels, Eiji Nakatsu, the Shinkansen’s engineering director, was an avid birdwatcher. His years of watching birds were about to come in handy. Nakatsu had observed kingfishers diving into water at great speeds yet creating barely a splash, transitioning seamlessly between mediums of different densities—air to water. Inspired, Nakatsu studied the structural geometry of a kingfisher’s beak and applied it to the nose of the bullet train. The new design eliminated the sonic boom, increased the train’s speed and reduced energy consumption. It was a triumphant example of biomimicry which is simply a term for emulating Nature's brilliance to solve human problems. CONCLUSION What do these stories teach us? One, that if you must be a nerd, be a multi-faceted one! And two, there is nothing new under the Sun and that solutions to new problems can often be found amongst stuff that’s been around for a very long time. All you need is to view it from the right angle and the answer becomes visible.

If you want to get to know a person, you must see them with different people (some important to them and some only incidental) and in different situations—after a fight, after a win, after a loss, at the end of long, tiring day or raising a toast to someone else’s success and in interactions with people who don’t have their advantages—in terms of affluence, education or some other signifier of status. I’m sure we all know someone who feels better about themselves having corrected a waiter’s pronunciation at a restaurant or after snapping their fingers at a salesperson in a store. It’s a dead giveaway of a lack of self-esteem. However, if you don’t have such access to the person you’d like to figure out, here’s another one. Late night conversations. I have long believed that late nights are the hooks on which people hang up their disguises, out of weariness. Putting up a front for the whole day is heavy work indeed. What’s that they say about the Sun seeing your body while the Moon sees your soul. Back to late night conversations. The next time, dear reader, you’re having a conversation with someone and the night is past its youth, (though if you’re like me, it seldom does) ask them an open-ended question or at the very least, a question which elicits an answer followed by an explanation for the answer. One such query is: What is a quality in another person that most impresses you? The answer can be very revealing because it carries many tales and can even be a piece in the mosaic of a person’s character. You might, sometime later, reflect on whether the speaker themselves possess that quality or not. It means different things depending on the quality mentioned. For instance, if your companion is impressed by punctuality, it may follow that they value time (at least, their own!) and are also very punctual. Else, it could be a trait they wish they possessed, yet it eludes them. Perhaps, because they are bad at time management, prone to last minute changes of plan or pack their days like a hoarder’s cupboard! Either way, something unsaid will reveal itself to you. That is the beauty of real conversations—chats that are about more than the ins and outs of life, trends and events. Let’s imagine you and I were having just such a conversation. The stars are twinkling, a light, cool breezes rustles through the foliage while nocturnal creatures chirp in the distance. I’m not clever enough to guess your response (feel free to write it in the comments), so I’ll share my answer instead. A quality that impresses me tremendously in others is empathy – where a person can set aside their own ideas, emotions and thoughts in order to understand another’s point of view or situation without the presence of that interloper called Pity. And relates to them as an equal. True empathy isn’t performative or grand. It is unassuming, gracious and found among the little things—being considerate of other peoples’ needs, being thoughtful of issues they may struggle with or trying to view matters from their perspective and lending a hand whenever possible without making a show of it. The way I see it, empathy and its active form, compassion mean treating others the way I would want to be treated were I in their position. It also calls for the humility to understand that the current circumstances of our lives are a result of numerous factors, of which our own efforts form only a very small part. Some people are naturally compassionate and kind. Others gather empathy after having weathered a few knocks. There’s no shame in that. In fact, it’s shows that you are capable of emerging better even from things that didn’t work out in your favour. Not everyone has that grace. An oft-repeated quote by Roald Dahl gets the point across better. “The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you're made of, not the circumstances.” I agree but would like to add to it. It’s not just what you’re made of but also what you want to be. It is possible to change and grow, if we so will it. Often, the seed of such a transformation is aided by our admiration of a quality in someone else.

Many of us have learnt history, economics and politics through incomplete and at times, inaccurate stories of cause and effect, highlighting the role of great individuals and exceptional happenings. With The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley intends to show us how almost everything around us is less about individuals and sudden events, and more a result of a bottom-up, gradual evolutionary process. This book's strength lies in the ideas it throws up. They cause us to re-examine and rethink the way the world works, grows and changes. Ridley makes the point that much of recorded history, “places far too much emphasis on design, direction and planning, and far too little on evolution.” In separate chapters devoted to the evolution of varied fields such as government, morality, education, population, money, etc, Ridley lays out his primary thesis, that changes in all these spheres are incremental, inexorable, gradual and spontaneous. And quite often, this slow evolution is not visible to the casual observer who may have trained his or her eyes on larger-than-life personalities or institutions, expecting them to be the founts of change. Ridley writes, “Much of the human world is the result of human action, but not of human design; it emerges from the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few." Ridley states that things which survive and thrive are a result of bottom-up evolution, created without any active decision towards making a change, be it the evolution of all living things, industrialisation, religion or language. No one person or entity created or caused them and yet, here they are… all in working order. Furthermore, Matt Ridley makes the point that top-down policy-making is a recipe for disaster because it is prescriptive without fully understanding any issue. Also, it does not allow for the rough and tumble of the real world to separate the wheat from the chaff in the field of ideas. Ridley leans heavily on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to support his view. For me, the most compelling chapters were about the evolution of morality, culture and technology. Ridley illustrates the concept of nothing being able to stop an idea whose time has come with an example of the light bulb and Edison: “Suppose Thomas Edison had died of an electric shock before thinking up the electric bulb. Would history have been radically different? Of course not. Somebody else would have come up with the idea. Others did. Where I live, we tend to call the Newcastle hero Joseph Swan the inventor of the incandescent bulb, and we are not wrong… In Russia, they credit Alexander Lodygin. In fact, there are no fewer than twenty-three people who deserve the credit for inventing some version of the incandescent bulb before Edison.” The Evolution of Everything sets off to cast aside confirmation bias, the Great Man theory and mostly, the dusty idea of top-down policy-making. However, Ridley isn’t equally convincing in all chapters. The chapters about leadership and economy are especially crippled by the very thing The Evolution of Everything is so determined to expose – confirmation bias and the desire to fit cherry-picked events into pre-determined theories about the world and how it works. Ridley states that one of the chief characteristics of an untrustworthy theory is that it is not refutable. Some of his own ideas and versions of events share that characteristic. More specifically, in the chapter about the evolution of the money, Ridley writes that the 2008 Recession was caused more by the top-down policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations rather than bottom-up deregulation (such as the repealing of the Glass-Steagall Act which separated commercial and investment banking activities). He also mentions, in passing, his own exposure to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. “My own experience as chairman of a bank was of endless reassurance from intrusive and detailed regulation right up till the point when it all went wrong. Far from warning of the crisis to come, regulators did the very opposite, and gave false reassurance or emphasised the wrong risks.” It's a pity that he fails to mention that in September 2007, Northern Rock (the bank he was chairman of) became the first British bank since 1878 to suffer a run on its finances. And it’s not like he followed the libertarian, ‘survival of the fittest’ credo when his bank was sinking. Instead, Northern Rock applied to the Bank of England for emergency liquidity funding at the beginning of the crisis, but failed. Ridley resigned as chairman in October 2007. In February 2008, Northern Rock was nationalised following a bailout by the UK government. A parliamentary committee criticised Ridley for not recognising the risks of the bank's financial strategy and "harming the reputation of the British banking industry". But the 'bottom-up' £27 billion failure of Northern Rock and its 'top-down' rescue don’t find a mention in The Evolution of Everything. That's confirmation bias and ideological blindness at its peak. I suppose, that is to be expected when an author is cherry-picking examples and anecdotes to prop up a theory that springs interesting questions and explains some things but not everything. It's surprising that there is no mention of China's economic revolution in the chapter about economy just as Singapore's visionary leader, Lee Kuan Yew, viewed as 'authoritarian' by the West, is ignored in the chapter about leadership. Ridley wishes to make the point that top-down policies are always failures and these two examples amongst many others don't suit his narrative. The American author, F Scott Fitzgerald is reported to have said, “The truest sign of intelligence is the ability to entertain two contradictory ideas simultaneously.” I dare say it is also a sign of a genuine spirit of inquiry and grace which, sadly, is lacking in The Evolution of Everything. As a result, it becomes a rather tedious read by the end.

As the year draws to a close, I look back to see which blog posts received the most views from you, my readers. I hope you enjoyed and found value in them. And, in case you haven’t had a chance to read a few of these posts, here’s a list. And for everything else, there’s our All page. LITTLE LEGACIES 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. WHY RATAN TATA'S PASSING FEELS LIKE A PERSONAL LOSS 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.” SEEKING SYNCHRONICITY In January 2013, I visited Chennai on a professional assignment with a few team members. One day, we had the morning to ourselves. A colleague asked me to accompany him to buy a saree for his wife. Amongst the ones we saw was a muted gold silk saree with a rhomboid weave of golden and silver thread. My colleague considered purchasing it but eventually preferred another. That night, I spoke to a friend who told me about a dream he had the preceding night. He lived in the US and so his night was my day. He’d dreamt of walls covered in wallpaper made of silk. And it was the colour of muted gold, covered in rhombi. Taken aback, I told him about having seen a saree that morning, very similar to what he described. We laughed it off but the incident has stayed with me. Over the years, I wondered if it had been a synchronicity BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS TO OVERCOME A READING SLUMP From my extensive experience of such slumps, I know that one of the important elements of achieving the requisite momentum to get out of a reading slump is to pick the right book. Something that is fast-paced or soothing (depending on what you need) but mostly, something that reads like a letter from an old friend… easy-going, fun and with bits that make you chuckle or sit up in surprise. THE MYTH OF MULTI-TASKING It costs us our ability to focus, our concentration 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 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. 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. ON FRIENDSHIP Who is a friend? Most of us refer to all manner of people as our ‘friends’. Everyone, from a long-lost schoolmate to a colleague you get coffee with and the guy at the local squash court, is a ‘friend’. And of course, there is that ubiquitous and odd breed called the Facebook friend. Distinguishing between relationships takes time and effort, and could result in a most unsettling finding - that one does not have many friends and worse still, that one is not a true friend, even to a few. ALL QUIET ON THE WAR FRONT: QUIET QUITTING, QUIET FIRING & QUIET HIRING This is a story about a great plague and how it brought the battle between workers and employers to a head. Every few months, a fresh salvo is fired. And because we live in the times of the mighty hashtag, each of these barrages has a catchy caption. It all began with a little virus in early 2020. Thousands of people realised that they were working jobs that weren’t doing anything for them, and they would much rather use the pandemic to study and change tracks. Or at least, resign from jobs that they’d been at for years just because they were stuck in a toxic comfort zone. I suppose you could say the pandemic jolted them out of their inertia. That’s what led to the Great Resignation which became something of a movement in 2021. COMFORT TV SHOWS THAT HELP ME UNWIND A long day calls for some couch therapy! This is my list of Comfort TV shows which never fail to soothe. 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. ONE COFFEE, PLEASE. AND A PORTION OF PEOPLE-WATCHING The barista called out the name scrawled on the venti cup, “Cappuccino for Aditya.” I smiled, a gentle wave of satisfaction washing over me. That was close enough, I thought to myself. My guess had been Abhishek, Abhimanyu or some other common male name starting with the letter A. Sorry for the abrupt opening. Let me start at the beginning. THE ALLURE OF SIMPLICITY Simplicity has a ring of truth about it, an elegance and resilience that beats trends and momentary peaks and troughs. If you’ve ever seen a belt of sand dunes, you know what I mean. Functionally, it’s just piles of sand shaped into crescents by the wind and yet, one can keep looking at them, mesmerised. Perhaps, this applies to our lives as well. Yes, we live in consumerist times and there are unending mounds of stuff everywhere we look. And yet, the call of the classic and understated is eternal and cuts through the clutter. WORKPLACE TIPS: WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH IN SCHOOL 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 Sebastian Perayil’s hits the headlines, rousing us all. 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. THE CHARM OF WHIMSY Every now and then, nestled within the prosaic items of the commonplace is 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. And thus, we conclude the list of the most popular blog posts of the year on Tamed by the Fox. Do leave us a comment on which one was your favourite. Have a great 2025!

This is a novel about ghosts of the past haunting one’s present. The protagonist of A Stain on the Silence is James who has a good job and a wife he adores. The story is narrated in the first person by James. His comfortable suburban life is jolted by a revelation from Lily Murthington, a former lover whom he hasn’t had any contact with for 24 years. Lily tells him that their affair from when he was a teenager and she, the step-mother of his school friend, Carlo, resulted in a daughter, Kate. Laid up in a hospice, practically on her deathbed, Lily pleads with James to help Kate avoid going to prison for the murder of her boyfriend. Does James help? Yes, of course, else this would be a very slim book! But there’s a weightier reason for his assistance. James has a secret of his own - one he’d like to take to his grave. However, Lily has evidence that would destroy that plan. As far as set-ups go, this is fairly sufficient but somehow, the unlikeable characters and the unnecessary running about makes A Stain on the Silence feel like a wasted opportunity. It’s a story that is unable to choose between being plot-driven and character-driven. Almost every major character either lies, manipulates or is violent, making A Stain on the Silence quite bleak. As a reader, there wasn't a single character I could identify with. Additionally, there are parts where the action in this story comes across as solely a means to etch out a character profile and perhaps, justify the end. The theme of broken families, childhood friendship and deceit in everyday life are never fully explored. I’ve read one other novel by Andrew Taylor called The Scent of Death which is an atmospheric and layered story set during the American Revolution with characters who, though complex, have real-life motivations and are decidedly more relatable. Unlike characters in A Stain on the Silence who do cruel things and yet carry themselves with the air of injured sparrows. The constant flashbacks in James’ narrative are overwrought and feel false since he holds back crucial pieces of information from the reader for no reason other than to spring a somewhat soggy surprise in the final chapters. Taylor manages to drum up some pace towards the end of the novel by revealing a twist in the final lines of almost every chapter but they left me cold. Arguably, the ending or pay-off at the end of the story in a thriller or mystery, more than any other genre perhaps, is what makes the book. And that is, sadly, A Stain on the Silence’s greatest letdown. It’s a timid and half-baked ending pretending to be open-ended, with no real resolution of guilt. The reader is left wondering about the real motivations for certain characters’ actions in the climax. The last chapter of A Stain on the Silence left me with a sense of reading a book which has had its last few pages ripped out.

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. It 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 that interests you outside the professional realm. 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 on debt as much as you can because it will keep you plastered to jobs you don’t enjoy. 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 yon 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 my show's promo lines 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 - COVER YOUR ASS 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!

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 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 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 dose 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 kindness 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 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.

I Came Upon a Lighthouse is a memoir by Shantanu Naidu about his years of knowing, working for and being a friend of Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Sons empire, a doyen of Indian industry, keen aviator, devoted dog-lover and inspiration to millions of Indians worldwide. The ball gets rolling with Shantanu Naidu’s idea to create glow-in-the-dark collars for street dogs so they wouldn’t be hit by passing motorists and bikers. With the support of his friends and a neighbourhood tailor, they made thousands of such collars, saving many lives. Motopaws, their small start-up soon grew beyond Pune, the city of its birth. Though he couldn’t have known it at the time, Motopaws was a crucial step in Shantanu's journey towards Ratan Naval Tata. In a tale that proves that life is, indeed, stranger than fiction, Shantanu Naidu went on to meet Mr Tata and form a bond with him. Ratan Tata offered him a job at Tata Trusts post his MBA at Cornell University which Naidu accepted with pleasure. Another nudge from Fate, landed Shantanu in Ratan Tata’s office, directly assisting the man himself. Naidu’s writing is simple and focussed on communicating his experiences rather than pontificating about management credos. “I like to capture experiences. But what I love is to share them. It’s not a popularity thing. It’s a character trait that is so fundamental that when I experience something beautiful, I want everyone to experience it with me.” This is not to say that there aren’t lessons to be learnt from this book. Even without being highlighted, they shine through in the anecdotes shared. Like when Naidu writes about meeting a team from a medical school regarding innovative solutions for primary healthcare. “Once the team made their introductions, Mr Tata introduced me: ‘This is my colleague, Shantaa-nu. He has recently joined my office…’ And I don’t remember a word after that. He called me a colleague. He could have said assistant. Junior. New hire. A lot of things that didn’t put me on such a level. But he said ‘colleague’, and he has introduced me as one ever since. As much as his humility is at play in this incident, one has to understand the ripple effects of such gestures in business. The moment you address and treat subordinates as colleagues, there is little room for disagreement, and the subordinates really put in the effort to live up to that treatment.” A moment like that teaches what stacks of management books may not. And when it features a person as universally respected as Ratan Tata, the message goes deep. It’s not all rainbows and sunshine though. The reader gets a glimpse of Tata’s sterner side when professional lessons were imparted without favour. Writing about a time when he received a talking-to from Mr Tata, Naidu states, “In hindsight, these outbursts were lessons in disguise. Cumulatively, they were the orientation I was looking for. Moulding doesn’t happen with cotton and wool. It happens with heat and hammer. It happens with confrontation, criticism and uncomfortable conversations.” Being his memoir, Shantanu Naidu is the narrator of I Came Upon a Lighthouse but the hero is clearly Ratan Tata. I’m willing to bet a pretty penny that anyone who reads this book will be charmed by Mr Tata’s unfailing humility, consideration for others and time-management skills. This was a man who headed more than 200 brands under the umbrella of Tata Sons in addition to being the chairman of Tata Trusts, the philanthropic arm of the Tata empire. He was also on many corporate and philanthropic boards. Yet, he found time to read a wide variety of books (The Art of Racing in the Rain was one of his recommendations to Naidu), watch almost every other movie on Netflix and be so generous with his time and attention. In an age of bombast and conspicuous consumption, I Came Upon a Lighthouse shows us a side of Ratan Tata not often witnessed in the public domain—his humour, shyness and simplicity. He comes across as down-to-earth and immensely relatable. “After dinner, like an excited uncle, he showed us forwarded animal videos on his phone.” Reading this book, it is easy to forget Mr Tata’s immense material wealth, overshadowed as it is by his grace and modesty. In a delightful reminiscence about visiting Mr Tata with his new car, a Nano christened ‘Lily’, Shantanu writes, “The moment Lily arrived in Mumbai, I took her straight to Mr Tata. He did the same thing my parents did, only he was a million times cuter. He went around examining every inch of it, opening doors, playing with switches, looking through the window, looking out of the window.” Many books have been and will be written about Mr Tata but with I Came Upon a Lighthouse, Naidu humanises a titan for generations that have grown up idolising him. “I would write about us and our adventures together, and how I saw him, colours and shades of him unknown to the world. Life beyond the great steel wall of ‘industry doyen’. Because at the end of the day, the country forgets that he too, laughing, crying or morose, is a human among us all. With moods and emotions, worries and joys.” To his credit, Naidu writes also, without excuse, about the times he was whiny, self-absorbed and less than truthful. It’s what makes his account feel authentic and relatable. That said, his likeability is greatly boosted by his dog, Winter who, I’m sure, is a total lovebug! While I’ve long believed that knowing Mr Tata in any capacity must be a tremendous privilege. However, having read this book, I can only begin to imagine the extent of Shantanu’s personal loss when Mr Tata passed away. What can one say except grief is the price we pay for love. And that perhaps, grace and kindness are the means to pay it forward. I enjoyed reading I Came Upon a Lighthouse. It made me laugh and warmed my heart. I’m glad to have purchased instead of borrowing this book, because all author proceeds from it will be invested in the welfare of animals in need. It makes me happy to think there’s an animal who was fed or received medical treatment from the small amount I spent on this book. Or perhaps, there’s a dog running around with a flashy collar! That makes it a win all the way.

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 as good as 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. Leila believes they 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. The story lays 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 novel 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.” The novel’s unusual narrative structure creates the effect of Leila’s past standing beside the present, melding into one unpunctuated entity. 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. Every now and then, the story’s underlying themes shimmer through the tapestry of Shafak’s evocative imagery. “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.” Shafak’s descriptions are masterful, engaging all five senses to immerse us in Leila’s world. The city of Istanbul which serves as a setting for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World embodies disparate elements that come together to form a compound. 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.

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, in the past, had felt like tough times. And then, there are pieces of the past we visit every day without giving them a second 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 remnant 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 supports 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 people 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 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 woven into the tapestry of your days. Somehow, 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 Teresa's Tresses, a 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. 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. Nostalgia, however, 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.