Search Results

A Slow Fire Burning  is true to its name. It’s a slow burn mystery built around a pernicious fire of resentment and pain. This is Paula Hawkins’ third novel in the thriller genre following Into the Water (2017)   and her smash-hit debut psychological thriller, The Girl on the Train  (2015) which was also adapted into a film starring Emily Blunt. Akin to The Girl on the Train , this novel too has a host of complex and broken characters. The primary thrust of the story is the search for the murderer of Daniel Sutherland, a 23-year-old man stabbed to death on a houseboat. The cast of suspects include: Laura Kilbride, a troubled 20-year-old girl who spent the preceding night with the victim; Miriam Lewis, a nosy, middle-aged loner who lives on a houseboat moored close to the victim’s; the young man’s aunt, Carla Myerson; and Daniel's uncle, Theo Myerson who appears to have his own secrets. Hawkins tosses in the additional element of the accidental death of the victim’s lonely alcoholic mother, Angela, just two months before his own. It will have you pondering connections between the two deaths and whether they could be related. I found the opening of the novel is a bit bumpy with a new POV character being introduced in each of the initial three chapters without giving the reader any real sense of who they are. If Paula Hawkins was looking to create an air of dissonance and confusion, she succeeded. Stylistically, this is a story with multiple POV characters (Miriam, Laura, Carla and Irene) giving us an insight into their mindsets and emotions while also setting the stage for deception, lies of omission or at the very least, varied perspectives of the truth. The back and forth in the timelines of the characters' stories reveal past pain, trauma and perhaps, more crucially from the standpoint of the mystery at hand, motivations to commit a murder. The constantly bobbing narrative structure and the twists in the plot are reminiscent of a boat rocking in shallow waters. Hawkins is clever in her use of stock characters like the harmless, confused old woman in Irene or Laura, the mentally-unstable young woman with a history of physically lashing out. It’s the sort of stuff that encourages jumping to conclusions based almost solely on assumptions and stereotyping, allowing the author to use our minds to create red herrings out of ordinary character traits. Paula Hawkins employs the technique of nesting a story within another to flesh out part of a character’s backstory, set up a portion of the climax and raise questions about plagiarism in literary circles. The nested story and its implications work well enough and add to the tension in A Slow Fire Burning . The frayed threads of family torn apart by a tragedy in the past which changed for ever the lives of everyone involved is an idea running through the novel. Speaking of the past, trauma is part of almost all the characters’ life stories and very much informs their personalities and choices in the present. Even so, none of these characters came across as particularly likeable or even sympathetic. Not even Laura who, by far, has the worst luck of the lot. I put this lack of sympathy down to her lack of agency and her constant sense of her own victimhood. She never seems to take responsibility for her own actions. It’s always someone else’s fault. As a result, her misfortunes fail to evoke the kind of sympathy a more likeable character would have received. The theme that comes across most strongly in this novel is that hurt people hurt people. You might think I’m giving away a clue. I’m not, because this is a novel packed choc-a-bloc with damaged characters who end up hurting other people. A Slow Fire Burning explores the destructiveness of trauma and how it ends up snowballing into even worse consequences. Is A Slow Fire Burning worth a read? That’s for you to decide. If you do pick it up, be prepared to read on through a sluggish opening which may leave you wondering what’s going on. Don’t expect a great deal of pace until the last few chapters, which have rather convenient revelations falling over each other to help the reader arrive at the identity of the killer. Which, in itself, is not that surprising. You’ll probably see it coming.

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

Tequila Leila, a sex worker in her 40s, is the protagonist of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World and she is dead. Yet, it is anything but a dead-end (please forgive the pun)! “Her name was Leila.” Straight off the bat, Elif Shafak establishes that the protagonist of the story, Leila is dead and proceeds to tells us her story in vignettes of memories recalled by Leila as she lays dying – her body dead but mind still alive for another 10 minutes and 38 seconds. Each of these 10 minutes unveils a key moment in her life—from her birth in an orthodox Turkish family living in Van to her upbringing, family secrets, her arrival in Istanbul and her life in a brothel. In these flashbacks, we are also introduced to her five friends who Leila knows will come looking for her even as she lays dying in a trash can on the outskirts of Istanbul in the early hours of the day. Friendship is a key theme in the novel. Contrasted with the family one is born or married into and hence, not a matter of choice, friends are seen as the family one chooses. Shafak calls them blood and water families while laying out the comparison between the silent lies and hypocrisies that lubricate an outwardly peace in Leila’s family and the unbridled honesty and loyalty of her friendships. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World is also a story about outcasts and how their unique perspective exposes us to the naked truth about our societies. Tequila Leila and her five friends with their varied backstories and distinctive names—Sabotage Sinan, Nostalgia Nalan, Jameelah, Zaynab122 and Hollywood Humeyra—are all outcasts in some way or the other. Shafak tips her literary hat not only to friendship but also the illusory concept of Time in the epigraph with lines penned by Albert Einstein upon the death of his closest friend, Michele Besso, “Now he has again preceded me a little in parting from this strange world. This has no importance. For people like us who believe in physics, the separation between past, present and future has only the importance of an admittedly tenacious illusion.” Leila, relives the past with reminiscences that are replete with lyrical, sensory details—the taste of spiced goat stew to celebrate the birth of her brother, the scalding hot vats of lemon and sugar the neighbourhood women used to wax their legs while men attended prayers at the mosque and   the fragrance of cardamom coffee shared with a handsome student. Shafak’s descriptions are masterful, engaging all five senses to immerse us in Leila’s world. The novel’s unusual narrative structure creates the effect of Leila’s past standing beside the present, melding into one unpunctuated entity. Every now and then, the story’s underlying themes shimmer through the tapestry of Shafak’s evocative imagery. Sample this, “Together they dangled strips of fabric from apple boughs laden with blossom, calling them ballerinas, took their sweet time to weave little baskets out of willow or crowns out of daisies; tied ribbons around the horns of the ram waiting to be sacrificed next Eid. Once they secretly cut the rope that kept the animal fastened… it returned to the same spot, finding the familiarity of captivity more reassuring than the strange call of freedom.” The city of Istanbul which serves as a setting for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World embodies 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 had, in the past, felt like tough times. And then, there are pieces of the past we visit every day without giving them much thought. For instance, you may tie the laces of your left shoe before the right because a kindergarten classmate told you that it was lucky. Now, decades later, you continue to do so subconsciously. Come to think of it, it’s likely the only 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 those we’ve known. Sometimes, the association may be brief but the impact is lifelong. Perhaps, we are all like giant jigsaws with pieces borrowed from people who crossed our paths and walked beside us for a while until the next fork in the road. A friend of mine, Reema taught me the basics of badminton on a makeshift open court with what only someone very kind would call a threadbare net. We went on to play on beautiful, indoor wooden courts and also, improved as players. Reema and I lost touch but my love for badminton persists and I continue to play. That’s another little legacy. The quirks and affinities we pick up without ever being able to pinpoint their original source fascinate me the most. I like to believe that my writing the digit 7 with a pen stroke slashing through its torso or using a hair comb pin in my hair are souvenirs from places and people that lay dormant in my memory. Their origins are lost to me and yet, they’re a part of my life today. How poetic it is that a quote about such legacies is attributed to Anonymous, “What you leave as a legacy is not what is etched in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Another friend of mine, Raj is a stickler for checking the air pressure of his vehicle’s spare tyre before a long trip. It’s a habit he picked up from his father and it’s served him well over the years. There’s a journey metaphor in there which I will spare you! You may start to ponder about the little legacies littered throughout your days and life and yet, barely any come to mind when you think about them actively. I know it to be so because I’ve tried it. When it finally strikes you, drop me a line in the comments. In the meantime, here’s another of mine. Teresa, the owner of the salon in Delhi where I like to get a haircut, showed me how to blow-dry my hair for extra volume and bounce. I use her technique whenever I want my hair to look extra-nice. I’m certain Teresa didn’t give any thought to the value she was adding to my life and yet, here I am—writing about something I learnt from her. Little legacies are just gestures, habits and ideas assimilated into our lives through a kind of unconscious osmosis. And yet, nostalgia 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.

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.

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

The 90s and 2000s are enjoying a renaissance in entertainment, fashion and make-up trends. Perhaps, for millennials and older generations, it’s fuelled by nostalgia for simpler times before the explosion of social media and information overload. However, this revival is not limited to folks older than 30. It's Gen Z too, even if some of them think they’re inventing it all instead of merely recycling old trends from tall socks, à la Lady Diana to baggy jeans. More surprising is the continued presence of TV shows from the 90s and early 2000s like Friends (aired from 1993-2003) and Gilmore Girls (aired from 2000-2007) on the lists of the most-popular shows on OTT platforms. In an age when so much fresh content is uploaded online every day, what explains this harking back? Is it to unwind from the ‘currentness’ of things—where there is a social pressure to stay updated on all the latest trends? Or is it nostalgia for a time when being earnest wasn’t ‘cringe’? Ask around, while most people watch the latest shows and movies, their idea of ‘ comfort TV ’ is a show from at least 15 years ago. For all you know, even the all-but-dead genre of romantic comedy might stage a comeback. Some of you might shudder at the thought but I enjoy a good romantic comedy because it can be charming, albeit unrealistic and a tad predictable. But most movies are unrealistic. Take Top Gun , for instance. Both the original and the sequel were unrealistic but I enjoyed them. It’s fun to watch something that’s not gunning for awards but also isn’t yet another retelling of some superhero’s origin story from the Marvel or DC Universe. I understand that with genres like superhero films, dystopia, sci-fi and period dramas being the current favourites with movie studios, the romantic comedy is up against a lot of competition. Yet, there is something soothing about a story that isn’t embarrassed by itself and doesn’t hide behind irony and forced self-deprecation. Just as long as it isn’t hobbled by triteness and unrelatable characters because that’s what ruins most of these films. Unrealistic is often confused with unrelatable. If you’d forgive me for stating the painfully obvious—those are two different things. The film, Wall-E  was unrealistic in the sense that the idea of a lonely robot cleaning up an abandoned planet isn’t strictly realistic. I know I haven’t seen that happen in my life. Have you? Yet, the character of Wall-E with his big, round eyes and rusted, clunky body was intensely relatable and tugged at heartstrings across the world. Most of us want to watch all kinds of movies as long as they engage us. And nothing engages people more than people. That’s what separates fiction from non-fiction. The challenge for romantic comedies, per se, is how to make a fairly predictable plot feel fresh and engaging. I don’t think anyone is surprised to find that the actors on the movie poster are the ones who fall in love with each other. Not much of a spoiler, that one! The charm of these stories lies in an inviting premise as well as the chemistry between the characters. The onus of said chemistry lies not just on the actors but also, the writers. Often, the characterisation, plot and dialogue are so meagre, I just can’t be bothered with the fates of the protagonists. And then, there are films like You’ve got Mail that had one critic writing, “Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan should win a Nobel Prize for Chemistry!” I can’t say I disagree since their characters were so charming, bringing out the best in each other over email even as they battled it out in business, which acted as a substantial conflict. All in all, I miss the times when one could walk into a movie theatre and watch a film like He’s just not that into you , The Holiday , Clueless,   Notting Hill  or my personal favourite, You’ve got Mail . Surely, I’m not alone. I predict that romantic comedies and feel-good films like We Bought a Zoo, The Intern  and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel  are about to make a comeback although they might be slightly different from their 90s-2000s avatar. Something tells me that people are exhausted with bad news on every front – politics, economy, jobs, climate, you name it. I don’t blame them for wanting to unwind with a happy story. Last year’s big sleeper hit, Anyone but You  could well be considered a herald of the upcoming trend. The Glenn Powell-Sydney Sweeney starrer wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece and yet it raked in more than $200 million globally. Based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing, it works around the familiar tropes of enemies to lovers. Not exactly new territory, but then what’s new under the sun? Familiarity isn’t always a bad thing. Especially when you can watch it in a pair of sweatpants, fluffy socks with a glass of wine. Oh, and some popcorn!

The protagonist of The Lake of Dreams  is Lucy Jarrett, a woman in her late-twenties living in Japan with her half English-half Japanese boyfriend, Yoshi. Feeling adrift without a job and concerned about her mother, Lucy flies back home to a quaint little town called Lake of Dreams in upstate New York. Built almost a hundred years ago, her family home is in a constant state of disrepair and stands on the edge of the lake the town is named after. The book really starts when Lucy finds a stack of letters locked away under a window seat in her childhood home. The writer of the letters is a female ancestor Lucy has never heard of while the recipient of the letters is her great-grandfather, Joseph whose story is part of the family lore. The plot primarily follows Lucy’s tracking down the identities and stories of her female ancestor and her estranged daughter. However, many obvious questions, like who locked away the letters and why, are never answered. The carousel of objects hidden away in the bowels of Lucy's house borders on the improbable or ridiculous, depending on the extent of your suspension of disbelief. And the novel is the weaker for it. An undercurrent of making sense of the past and making peace with it in order to move ahead runs deep through The Lake of Dreams. One such is the guilt Lucy carries for her father’s unresolved death in a fishing accident ten years ago. The author reiterates several times that Lucy’s nomadic lifestyle and lack of stability in her romantic relationships is a result of unprocessed grief and guilt over her father’s death. Kim Edwards’ writing is heavy on description and metaphor and gets a bit tedious especially where it slows down the pace of the plot. Metaphors of water and fire are pretty much drummed into the writing. There’s also the metaphor of land and earthquakes which predictably signals a life-altering change in the protagonist’s life. As much as I enjoy lyrical writing and an apt metaphor, a novel called The Lake of Dreams  featuring a house situated on the edge of a lake with a protagonist who is a hydrologist and prone to revelatory dreams has all the subtlety of a jackhammer!   The biggest letdown, however, is how clues regarding her ancestor’s life keep landing at Lucy’s feet even though what she is investigating took place almost a century ago. You might think, like I did, that searching for that information would be full of hiccups and dead-ends. Not in The Lake of Dreams . Here they are laid out on a platter and to be found within a comfortable driving distance! The strongest element of The Lake of Dreams  for me is how Edwards weaves in the history of the suffragettes taking on legal and social injustices and how Lucy’s ancestor, Rose strove to find her place in the sun during an era when women were thought of as merely wives and housekeepers. To have Lucy dusting off the sands of anonymity from Rose’s story and her role in their family’s history is where the heart of this novel lies. It reminded me of a line by Virginia Woolf, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” However, the subplots in The Lake of Dreams  are disjointed and appear to exist merely to provide a break from the main thrust of the novel and induce some narrative tension into the plot. The same is true of the love triangle between Yoshi, Lucy and her childhood sweetheart, Keegan. It starts off fine but ends up flatter than day-old champagne. I understand that books have limitations of length but even so, characters feel realistic only when they are more than cardboard cutouts and act in accordance with their own personalities, motivations and goals. Instead, in The Lake of Dreams, most characters just float into whatever position Lucy’s story needs them to be. Kim Edwards fails to make us care about her protagonist even as she hands her the benefit of a first-person narrative. Maybe it is because things come too easily to Lucy and the internal conflicts she faces just melt away into nothingness when convenient. That makes for neither a memorable character nor an engaging story.

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 deals 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, honestly, 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.

Imagine there are no phones or internet and I am out looking for you. I go to your workplace. You’re not there. Then your home. You’re not there either. What is the third place I should check? Give it a thought before you read on. DEFINING A THIRD PLACE Sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book The Great Good Place coined the term ‘third place’. It refers to a physical location where people can connect with their community and build relationships outside of work and home. According to Oldenburg, your home and the people you live with are your ‘first place’. The workplace — where people spend most of their waking time — is the ‘second place’. That brings us back to the third place. ‘Third places’ could be considered ‘anchors’ of community life, facilitating and fostering interaction and a sense of well-being. In other words, your third place is a casual, social environment where you can relax, encounter familiar faces and meet new people. WHAT MAKES A THIRD PLACE? Some examples of a third places would be bars, parks, public libraries, religious centres like temples or churches, recreation centres, social clubs, gyms, etc. However, not every public place you like to hang out is a third place. The key distinction being that in a third place, everyone knows your name and you know theirs. To be frank, even an 80% strike rate will do! A sense of community is the main thing. The other characteristics of a third place include easy accessibility and its occupants being under no obligation to be there. Another feature is the irrelevance of one’s socio-economic status, allowing for a sense of commonality. Most third places have no prerequisites that would prevent acceptance or participation. That being said, this isn’t strictly true in case of country clubs and social clubs which do have some requirements for membership. At the very least, a third place needs to be a place where shifting fortunes don’t impact the sense of belonging. A key element of third places is playful and light-hearted conversation, even if it’s not the only activity. The vibe is wholesome rather than fancy. Most importantly, occupants of third places often have the same feelings of warmth, possession, and belonging as they would in their own homes. SOCIAL RELEVANCE In his 1989 book, Ray Oldenburg argued that third places are important for civil society, democracy and civic engagement.  All of these are still required in today’s world. What’s new is the need for people to see each other’s humanity instead of just their political leanings or social status. In the 2025 sequel, The Great Good Place Revisited, Oldenburg's co-author, Karen Christensen argues that third places are the answer to loneliness and political polarization. Come to think of it, social media algorithms have created a world where too many of us are living in virtual silos – where we see only what we agree or engage with. That’s not how human beings were meant to live.   Most people today, especially in cities don’t know their neighbours and even minimal social interaction in places like malls and supermarkets have become optional with large numbers of people choosing to shop online even for daily provisions. This has led to a majority of people suffering from loneliness. EPIDEMIC OR NOT, LONELINESS FEELS BAD I remember reading, a few years ago, several alarmist articles about the dangers of loneliness, spawned by a statement by Dr. Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon General. He stated, “Loneliness and weak social connections are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day”. Now, that does seem a bit excessive even for someone like me who believes there is a link between healthy social connections and well-being. So, here’s what I got from it: if you’re going smoke, don’t do it alone. That would be a double whammy! COURTING CONNECTIONS Jokes apart, we could all do with third places in our lives. Almost a decade ago, I started frequenting the badminton court in my housing locality. It was at the time, a cracked cement court with no net or lights. Someone or the other would bring a net and so it began. Eventually, we petitioned to have the condition of the court improved. After a few hiccups, it got done. The court was a place for conversation, new friendships, banding together for the welfare of our community dogs (who would join in for petting and socialising) and of course, badminton. The members of this community ranged from 12 years of age to 60 and people looked out for each other. But the best part was a sense of belonging. I’d be driving home from work after a long day and be waved down by someone asking, “Where have you been? Haven’t seen you in a while. Come for baddy.” And even though I would be tired, I’d freshen up, change my clothes and show up. And just like that, even a good day would get a whole lot better. That’s the magic of community and of having a third place. That, dear reader, is what I wish for you.

David and Goliath  is not Gladwell’s best work. This comes from someone who has enjoyed his other books even though they can be a tad simplistic at times. Let me start at the beginning, like Gladwell did—with the legend of David and Goliath who were pitted against each other in one-on-one combat. To onlookers, it appeared like David, the young shepherd boy was at a great disadvantage facing the gigantic Goliath, dressed in full armour, carrying a javelin and a sword. Yet, David defeated his opponent using a mere slingshot and a few stones. That sets up the basic premise of Gladwell’s book—that advantages and disadvantages are not always what the world tells us they are. What seems like a weakness can sometimes become a superpower while a universally-acknowledged strength can lead to shocking defeats. Malcolm Gladwell makes the point that rigid and limited definitions of positives and negatives result in the misreading of many a situation or conflict. He serves up the example of T E Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, who led the Arab revolt against the Turkish Army occupying Arabia toward the end of World War I. The Turks had a formidable modern army with more than enough weapons and resources. Lawrence, by contrast, commanded an unruly band of Bedouin fighters, which even his supporters—the British—called “an untrained rabble”. In an underdog legend for the ages, Lawrence and his band of soldiers prevailed over the mighty Turks. Each chapter tells the story of a different person—famous or unknown, ordinary or brilliant—detailing how they dealt with their situation. Gladwell uses anecdotes about ordinary people forced to respond to enormous challenges to drive home his idea. There are chapters about students who loved science but gave up on it after getting through their preferred universities (an advantage that turned out to be disadvantageous), dyslexic investment bankers, unempathetic doctors and basketball teams so bad that they had no choice but to break some unspoken rules. In the basketball chapter, Gladwell writes that sometimes being awful at a sport allows you to do what others would baulk at because it seems impossible. “To play by David’s rules you have to be desperate. You have to be so bad that you have no choice. Their teams are just good enough that they know it could never work. Their players could never be convinced to play that hard… You would think, looking at his girls, that their complete inability to pass and dribble and shoot was their greatest disadvantage. But it wasn’t, was it? It was what made their winning strategy possible.” These are some of the effective chapters in David and Goliath . There are other chapters however, which, in my opinion, didn’t quite hit the target. They too are stories about people dealing with challenging or difficult situations. Take for instance, the story of Wilma Derksen. Her thirteen-year-old daughter was murdered but she chose to forgive the man who committed the crime in order to spare her family the emotional, financial and mental strain of a fight for justice. Doesn’t sound much like the proverbial David, does it? Another chapter that felt like it was being forced to fit a box it wasn’t meant for, is about the French village of Le Chambon, which stood up to the Nazis during the German occupation. It’s a great story but even Gladwell isn’t pretending like the people of Le Chambon outsmarted or outfought the Nazis. So, do they qualify to be David? I think not. Herein lies the weakness of David and Goliath —one that it is unable to overcome. Sadly, the book is a bit light on supporting research and tries to make up for it with stories, many of which sparkle but don’t necessarily illuminate. Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath left me thinking fondly of his other books like Outliers and The Tipping Point.