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An Equal Music, Vikram Seth

yikes, what an absolutely *depressing* book. I like A Suitable Boy a lot, and I knew this book was going to be nothing like it. Its as well written, but I can't express what an oppressive book this is. Even thinking about it weighs me down, so I'm not going to write anything more about it.

Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics, John Kenneth Galbraith and Nicole Salinger

First a minor irritant - the flap of the book describes the co-author as 'intelligent, smart and beautiful'. I don't see what bearing being beautiful has to do with writing a good book on economics.... That said, this is a wonderful book. After reading it, I think that economists actually go out of their way to obfuscate issues. A lot of the basic stuff - market theory, fiscal and monetary policy, the effects of increasing the interest rate, rising unemployment, etc. is actually quite simplistic, but reading news and interviews usually leaves me completely lost as to what these people were talking about. In addition to being a clear writer, Galbraith also has a great sense of sarcasm, and he uses it quite often when giving backhanded compliments to people he doesn't agree with. This book has been written in the late '70s, and Galbraith refers to Alan Greenspan as a supporter of using interest rate hikes for controlling inflation. He is pretty critical of this idea, with good reason. However, his proposal of income parity, though it may make economic sense, is something that I find too close to communism/socialism for comfort.

India Unbound, Gurcharan Das

I read a *lot* of comment on this book in the last few months, finally got it from India thanks to a friend returning from there. All I can say is that this book lives up to all the kudos it has received thus far. I actually lived through the 'reform years', and though I could figure out that a fundamental change was occurring in India'a financial management, I don't think I fully appreciated the extent of the change. The best part is that everything is written extremely well, although the subject does not lend itself to clarity. Gurcharan Das is wildly optimistic about the future, it is difficult to be depressed about small issues.
One criticism that I did have is that there are a couple of places where topics change in the middle of a paragraph. Either I lost the thread of reasoning, or the author did. An example is when he is talking about the differences in work culture between Indians and foreigners, he presents a couple of reasons (caste systems, climate, etc) and all of a sudden he's talking about something else.

A Short History of Financial Euphoria, John Kenneth Galbraith

A former ambassador to India, I have heard his name mentioned in a variety of contexts, the latest being in India Unbound. This book was mentioned in a financial article too, so I decided to give it a read. Its an interesting book, and the time for reading it is about right, considering the current bull market. Its interesting how similar the current scenario is to past instances of pseudo-booms.

Trigonometric Delights, Eli Maor

Like the other techie books (...history of time, e), this is a book that keeps improving with each reading. I was initially disappointed with it since I'd read the author's e: The Story of a Number before. Though the beginning is a bit too simplistic, it picks up quite a bit later. The depressing thing is that some of my fundas about trigonometry and calculus are clearing up *now* - they should have been clear when I was learning about them.

A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

A book I had read during my undergraduate days. I don't think I fully understood or appreciated it then (not that I do so now!). Definitely will be reading it again at some later date to see what insights I gain in the future. I found this book to be quite provocative.

The Book of Guys, Garrison Keillor (o ya!)

I've had this book for a long time, and though I had started reading it before I couldn't figure out what was going on in it. I recently realized that this author is also the creator of 'A Prairie Home Companion', and has written the series on Lake Wobegon, which I enjoy quite a bit. I liked this book quite a lot on the second reading.

Searching for Bobby Fischer, Fred Waitzkin

I wonder if things were really as bad in the U.S.S.R. as described in this book. A chess player had to be as much of a politician, and the actions of the communists against people who didn't toe their line were pretty disgusting. Some of the stories regarding Kasparov and Karpov are quite funny, until you realize these guys were serious. The lot of players in the western world wasn't much better then, mainly due to lack of public interest. Reading this book, one feels that chess players (the serious ones) are a bit crazy, which is ironic since the book tries to convince the reader exactly the opposite.

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

A definite must read. I usually avoid watching movies about books that I've read since the director's interpretation of the subject usually doesn't match with mine. This situation was a bit different, since I'd seen the movie a long time back. Here too, I feel that though the movie roughly follows the book, its completely different. Reading the book it seems impossible to make a movie on the subject, but its been done, and quite well (*someone*, of course will violently disagree with me :)). Back to the book - the writing is almost lyrical, it seems to simply flow. I was drawn into the novel, and this is the first western novel I've really liked in a long while.

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Charles Seife

I'm a bit ambivalent about this book. I would probably have liked it if I had read it before Eli Maor's books. The section on calculus is probably the best part of this book, before this there is too much focus on the conflict with the church regarding the existence of zero.

Show Business, Shashi Tharoor

This book is hilarious - it describes the life and times of a young actor who goes on to become a superstar, has an affair with a co-star (about which his wife makes a movie), stands for election, gets into problems related to a swiss bank account, and finally has an accident while shooting another movie. Sounds familiar? The book is quite well written, and some parts had me in splits. I was a bit wary after 'The Great Indian Novel' (or something like that), but though the author does seem to need to rip off some other story, this book is more enjoyable than its predecessor.

The Blue Bedspread, Raj Kamal Jha

I gave up after the first few chapters. Too depressing, especially since its so realistic. The narrator himself seems benumbed by all that he's gone through, and seems resigned to fate.

Three Continents, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

I had read 'Heat and Dust' some time back, and though I kind of liked it, I was a bit ambivalent. I decided to give this book a try, but came away extremely disappointed, bugged and bored. The story is silly, the characters even more so, and I ended up feeling they got what they deserved.

The Village by the Sea, Anita Desai

Picked this up after reading Kiran Desai's 'Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard' (I think thats what its called), which I enjoyed quite a bit. This book is a bit of a disappointment - it is well written, but the story, such as it is, is too perfect. The main characters go through life as though in a daze, when they try doing something on their own they land in trouble which is sorted out immediately and everyone's happy. Its almost like a hindi movie.

Beach Boy, Ardashir Vakil

I picked up this book the last time I was in India, finally got around to reading it. Its wonderfully written, his descriptions of Bombay are almost unbelievable (the book is set in the early 70's). Makes we wonder at the mess we've made of our cities, and our entire country.

English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee

A hilarious book.

The Calcutta Chromosome, Amitav Ghosh

Quite a departure from the previous books of his that I've read (The Shadow Lines, In an Antique Land) - this one is almost a masala-novel. Still, very well written. It does follow the other books in form, the narration jumping between a dizzying mixture of different stories occurring at different times, but all tied together in some way, revealed only towards the end.

A Strange and Sublime Address, Amit Chaudhary

This book is absolutely fascinating, it departs from the regular format of novels, and I don't quite know how to classify it. But its a great read.

Around the World with Kushwant Singh

The 'dirty old man' in his not-so-old days

Stolen Light, Ved Mehta

I read this book *after* I'd read the rest of Ved Mehta's books listed here. This is when I realized that he is blind! I thoroughly enjoyed the books that I had just finished reading, the fact that he could so vividly describe his experiences being blind has impressed me even more.

New India, Ved Mehta

A Family Affair, Ved Mehta

Delinquent Chacha, Ved Mehta

Rajiv Gandhi and Rama's Kingdom, Ved Mehta

Walking the Indian Way, Ved Mehta

A Portrait of India, Ved Mehta

Origin and Development of Dattatreya Worship in India, Joshi

Mahatma Gandhi and His Apostles, Ved Mehta

This is an amazing book, probably the best I've read on Gandhi so far.

(For the N^th time) The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde (Thanks, Vandana!)

A House for Mr. Biswas, V. S. Naipaul

Everybody Loves a Good Drought, P. Sainath

A must read for all the "India is Great" crowd. The book is basically a collection of articles written by P. Sainath about the people that we usually overlook - construction workers in cities, tribals, adivasis, and other rural folk. Some of these have been forced to sacrifice - without compensation - their homes, land and sources of livelihood to make way for the 'Temples of Modern India'. Quite a few of them are simply living in penury because it has been beneficial to their fellow countrymen. This book should be made required reading for people prone to blaming India's ills on neighbouring countries.

The Snake Charmer, Sanjay Nigam

I was a bit disappointed with this book, its okay in a general kind of sense, but not quite what I look forward to when reading a book about India.

Anita and Me, Meera Syal

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