Book Review: Smart phones dumb people by Parthajeet Sarma

Title:Smart phones dumb people
Author: Parthajeet Sarma
Publisher: Good times books
Pages: 168
Price: Rs 158
ISBN: 9789380619569
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: PR
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Summary(from the back cover)
Parts of India and the world live in the 21st century whereas parts live in the 19th century. Whilst many of us live in times ruled by smartphones and the internet, millions go without easy access to basics like water and electricity.
We live in an opportune moment today. We have, available to us, the technological tools of the 21st century to address 19th century issues. In a fast changing world, will mankind be ruled by smartphones soon or will mankind use technology in life-changing innovations to make our societies far more equitable? Can technology be used to address the most crying needs in our societies today?
The big picture is built by stories about the modern fruits of technology and how these are being used by leadership groups to combine business with social causes. This is an easy read for anyone interested in innovation, entrepreneurship, social issues and the current challenges like excessive corruption that face us today.

Review
Without any prologue of my long absence from my blog, let me get back to my work.
The book carries a tittle about which everyone might have pondered on at some point of their day..Now  think about it don't we all agree that technology is taking over our lives leaving us dumb at times, rather than enriching us!!..The age of smart phones that has application for everything we can think of according to the author is hampering a man's thinking quotient to a larger extend, and I can't help but second Sarma on this...After the first chapter you really need to forget the title of the book to enjoy the other chapters or you won't go ahead because of  the mental block as the other chapter branches away to other topics.. The book covers  Technology, Entrepreneurship, Priorities and corruption in the next chapters..

Sarma highlights upon how technology has taken over our everyday lives both personally and professionally. Our day begins with our phone's alarm waking us up when our biological clock has stopped to wake up for a long time.Even at work when there is a major power breakdown many of us are clueless on what to be done resulting in gang smoking in isolated area or gossiping away the time...Though the professionals working database are helpless about the situation , this is the same thing is most of departments..This all because of not having an organised plan at work, many wait for a direction from their superiors..Now come on, we all know about it, as many of us live it so what's new that Sarma points out in his book?? well sadly nothing new....It would have been more interesting if there were suggestions to improve upon the situation but then this book is clearly not a self-help book so the author precisely doesn't go over aboard  in doing so...

Good entrepreneurship with high leadership qualities is something which is lacking in our enterprises though there are examples for good ones too.. The problem is when the zeal of good Entrepreneurship is missing in the person heading the ship. Sarma himself being an entrepreneur does all justice dealing with this topic..He explains the situation of a new bud in the field who has no family history of it..With the advent of the very internet boom,  business has undergone a total face-lift with many online enterprises flourishing well with good  service history but the dearth of creative ideas is the major concern..Country doesn't have good innovation tree cropping in spite of having produced good graduates..I really missed solid examples in this chapter, though Sarma has given certain instances where he had chances to meet some really good innovators who are striving to make a difference, I would have enjoyed and appreciated if there were names to be added..

Someone rightly quoted life is all about priorities, its true as it decides upon the things we end up doing and the life that we lead.Sarma addresses the nation's priorities that has to be knuckled down in terms of education, healthcare, infrastructure, water ..He has comprehensively touched on area that need to be worked on for a better nation building...Corruption is the major factor hampering the country's growth..Corruption in every department makes everyday of a common man through government offices a living hell..Though Sarma has given a analytically coherent approach to the subject,  I still found it to be rather vague and rushed through..The solution that Sarma has put forth is carries a vision though someone has to come forth to work on it..

To sum up this book is an easy breezy read for a non-fiction , it has many food for thoughts mixed up with  not so good ones, I expect more from this debutante in his next works..The idea and the inspiration behind the book is brilliant and in touch with the current scenario, yet I can't help myself from feeling that Sarma has more potential than what we get to read in this book..

Book Review:The Stoning of Soraya M :A true story by Freidoune Sahebjam

Title:The stoning of Soraya M:A story of Injustice in Iran
Author: Freidoune Sahbjam
Publisher:Arcade Publishing
Price:Rs 741
Page:144
ISBN: 978161145025X
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Source: Borrowed



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Summary (from back cover)
Soraya M. s husband, Ghorban-Ali, couldn t afford to marry another woman. Rather than returning Soraya s dowry, as custom required before taking a second wife, he plotted with four friends and a counterfeit mullah to dispose of her. Together, they accused Soraya of adultery. Her only crime was cooking for a friend s widowed husband. Exhausted by a lifetime of abuse and hardship, Soraya said nothing, and the makeshift tribunal took her silence as a confession of guilt. They sentenced her to death by stoning: a punishment prohibited by Islam but widely practiced.Day by day sometimes minute by minute Sahebjam deftly recounts these horrendous events, tracing Soraya s life with searing immediacy, from her arranged marriage and the births of her children to her husband s increasing cruelty and her horrifying execution, where, by tradition, her father, husband, and sons hurled the first stones. A stark look at the intersection between culture and justice, this is one woman s story, but it stands for the stories of thousands of women who suffered and continue to suffer the same fate. It is a story that must be told.

Review
Rizana Nafeek was beheaded in Saudi for allegedly killing a baby..Rizana was a house maid from Srilanka who was 17 yr old at that time..After eight futile years of endless effort by many countries and activists the news of execution on January 9 came as a surprise to me..I was reminded of this book then..
For good or for bad, women in Muslim countries do not enjoy the freedom like in other countries.In Saudi men who consider themselves to be their wife's guardian receive mobile alerts when his wife leaves the country.. A girl has to get approval from her guardian for every class she chooses ..Though they sound very strange to me, I cannot really comment on it as I don't know a thing about their culture and tradition..Every community has a culture and tradition that seem to work for them...
That being said The stoning of Soraya..This particularly made me to read more on stoning to death in Iran,
Accordin to which the convicted usually for infidelity is wrapped head to toe in white and buried onto their waist, stoning is a large event where people gather up and there by the stoning begins, stones are chosen in way to cause maximum pain but not instant death.
In this book Shahebjam iterating the life of  Soraya, thirty five year mother of nine, devout and a faithful wife, whose life was taken away barbarously when her husband decides to remarry, and no much details about that woman is given in the book though, he then goes to the extend of  prove her unfaithful to her father and her sons also gains the confidence of the local Mullah who seems to be taking up religion for individual benefit..Though the evidence where not fulfilling yet she was condemned and the stoning took place by a mob that included some of her family members..This book was a difficult one to fathom..The bigotry of a society that carried out such treacherous guile was beyond my horizon of reasoning..How can a religious head carry out such a preposterous act was my thought  reading through, well you cant help much when your own husband is trying all his might to take things against her..Through all this Soraya's aunt doesn't shy away from her responsibilities, she is the only person who tries to defend her and Shahebjam gets his story from her..
I loved the part where Shahebjam writes from Soraya's vantage, her thoughts on the atrocities bestowed upon her for no reasons..Her agony through the monstrous circumstances..Her silence in her inabilty to defend herself were all well done...Shahebjam begins the book giving his reasons and thoughts behind his step to write this book and the approach adopted to channel through..The name of the village is changed for obvious reasons and like I had mentioned before, Shahebjam was not there to witness the death, yet the author leaves no room to imagination, he takes the liberty in detailing the event which is pathetically painful to read through... He takes you through the attitude of the villagers, their reflection and the support to the event..This was again a difficult part to read through..
This book may not be the one you'll end up reading over and over again, but had you read it once you may not find the need to read it again ...

Book review: Tamarind City by Bishwanath Ghosh

Title: Tamarind city
Author: Bishwanath Ghosh
Publisher:Tranquebar
Pages:344
Price: Rs 295 ( I got it for Rs 189 from homeshop18.com)
ISBN:9381626337
Genre:Travelogue
Rating: 5 out of 5
Source: Personal


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Summary:
From the back cover

‘While in other big cities tradition stays mothballed in trunks, taken out only during festivals and weddings, tradition here is worn round the year.’

This is just one of the author’s many keen observations of Chennai. With mordant wit, this biography of a city spares neither half of its split-personality: from moody, magical Madras to bursting-at-the-seams, tech-savvy Chennai. And, a minute into the book, the reader knows they are inseparable-and Bishwanath Ghosh refuses to take sides.

And yet, he tells us, while Chennai is usually known as conservative and orthodox, almost every modern institution in India-from the army to the judiciary, from medicine to engineering-traces its roots to Madras’s Fort St George, which was built when Delhi had only just become the capital of the Mughal Empire, and Calcutta and Bombay weren’t even born. Today, the city once again figures prominently on the global map as ‘India’s Detroit’, a manufacturing giant, and a hub of medical tourism. There have been sweeping changes since pre-Independent India, but even as Chennai embraces change, its people hold its age-old customs and traditions close to their heart.

Review:
Chennai , always Madras to me, is one of my favourite cities in the country..The city has various hues and colors..People might call it over crowded but don't you think ,we make the crowd?? Some may even call it too busy, but for me Madras ,Chennai whatever you call it goes by its own swing of time that sets it apart from other cities with all its charm and sensuous beauty...Predictably Ghosh starts with the history of the city but makes the reading different with his wit and humor that he adds on with the golden art of a story teller....He calls the city the charming old lady, with a string of jasmine tied around her hair who is too modest to talk about herself..
Chennai that hasn't changed and never will. Women still wake up at the crack of dawn and draw the Kolam- the rice -flour design- outside their doorstop.Men don't consider it old f ashioned to wear a dhoti, which is usually matched with a modest pair of Bata chappals.The day still begins with coffee and lunch ends with curd rice. Girls are sent to Carnatic music classes. The music festival continues to be held in the month of December. Tamarind rice is still a delicacy- its preparation still an art...
( p-xxvii)
It was in Chennai where the roots of modern India took ground, and Lord Robert Clive, Arthur Wellesly, Elihu Yale(yes the same person after whom the Yale University takes its name) all had their humble beginning here..Call it destiny or way of life they made their mark..The fort of St. George is the abode for most of the modern institutions of the country ..The first chapter is enriching with all details of great names linked to the city right from the pre-Independance era till day...
Ghosh has portrayed well how politics , religion, spirituality, personalities melts and are woven into everyday lives of the people..The famous rift between the Iyers and the Iyengars (two variation in the Brahmins), political set up of the state and the two dominant parties that rules the state today and their history and nuances are given with insights...Beaches ,Mylapore, Triplicane with the hot steaming Sambar and idly makes a wonderful combo to be savoured...Of course how can you miss people like Sankar who have immortalized the Vikram Betal comic series in Chandamama..In Tamilnadu politics and films go hand in hand ,even the present Chief minister used to be a top heroine of the 80's so no wonder you read a chapter exclusively on it....To me reading the chapter Sex and the city came as a surprise in an orthodox city and I will not spoil by giving away the details...From the online matrimony meet to lady entrepreneur to the historian you can find a unique blend of tales and information about the city and people that sets this book far ahead of its counterparts, and Ghosh has taken every effort to keep the reading light all through...What I liked about Ghosh's writing is that he takes the role of  a story teller giving no moral or his personal thoughts at the end...Being a journalist he has been able to step into the role of a complete outsider all through the book that has only helped the book immensely...Do not miss the Prologue before plunging into the book , it tells you the tale behind the title and the course of the book....There are eleven chapters that stand alone and can be enjoyed without really reading the others but you won't stop yourself from reading just one...For a person like me who loves the city the book was a real treat to relish and rekindle my special bond with the Madrasapattinam..

Book 26 for SAC