Harry Deshpande on Economy

(I had emailed this review in November 2009)

http://www.amazon.com/White-Tiger-Novel-Booker-Prize/dp/1416562605

This is a booker prize winning novel and obviously it has to be good.

White tiger is not really about tigers or wild-life in India, this is a story about class-conflict and one will have to read “white tiger” in this context.

The story line is exclusively developed by the central character’s lengthy letters written to Chairman Mao of China which is again (I think) a reference to the class conflict.

This is a highly symbolic story and I have no doubts that it has been discussed thoroughly in other online reviews.  I guess there is no need to interpret every obvious symbol and I will stick to some unusual aspects of the book.

The great (corrupt) socialist is obviously a famous Indian politician; Lalu Prasad Yadav

The central character, Balaram Halwai though depicted as lower caste, belongs to what may be called “middle caste’ or OBC in India. Majority population in India falls in this category.

A lot of Indians will also identify themselves with the emotional turmoil and eventual corruption of Ashok who has recently returned from USA and finds it very hard to adjust back to reality of life in India. (Incidentally a similar narrative can be found in the latest National Geographic Magazine about Syrian President Assad)

Another noteworthy undercurrent that I noticed in this book is the influence of USA on the caste system in India. A few friends of mine (who belong to the so called ‘lower caste’) have made this comment that they see significant change in attitude of Indians returning from USA. (Dr Ambedkar the person who brought caste revolution to India was primarily influenced by USA). Of course class conflict does not recognize caste and hence this book retains this phenomenon as a barely visible undercurrent but I thought that this is certainly noteworthy since this is the first book (that I have read) mentions such influence.

Ram Prasad explained. The spittoon was from the Stork, who lined to chew paan. If he spat the paan out of the window the paan might streak the sides of the car, so he spat near his feet, into the spittoon, which the driver washed and cleaned at the end of every ride.

“Disgusting,” Mr. Ashok said.

http://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Centennial-Hardcover-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452286751

I remember reading Ayn Rand when I was in high school. It was a translation (in Marathi my mother tongue)  that I read since I did not speak or write much English back then.

I do not remember whether it was Atlas Shrugged or Fountain head but I certainly remember what I came back with. When a friend of mine asked what the book was about, I remember providing the synopsis “It takes a lot of words to fool the world”. Clearly it was not my age to understand the underlying philosophy J

A few months back I noticed and bought Ayn Rand Box Set on Amazon and thought it would be fun to read the books again and hence started with Fountain Head.

Before picking up this author one needs to be comfortable with libertarian philosophy. This is not an post to debate on the merits of this philosophy, however the reason I am mentioning this is that it is a pre-requisite for enjoying this book.  

To give an example:  “I don’t work with collectives. I don’t consult. I don’t co-operate. I don’t collaborate ”  When the main character (Howard Roark) refuses a commission with these words, it does not make sense to ask yourself whether you will be happy being such a person, when you would want to work next to such a person. Never ask yourself whether such a person will be able to conduct any complicated organization tasks and whether earth would be a better place if everyone starts behaving like this.

This is why I am saying one must believe in the underlying philosophy in order to enjoy this book.

This book primarily revolves around Howard Roark whether he is on the scene or not.

The characters are mostly clear cut, black and white, they always do what is expected of them, there is no shade of grey involved. There are a few exceptions though but the exceptions are to the downside. It is difficult to accept that Hopton Stoddard who was an investing genius would follow Toohey so blindly and to subscribe to his barely concealed illogical reasoning so eagerly.

Another example would be all appearances to intellectualism by Dominique Francon are lost when she stays in a low income housing society and basically states that the people deserve the low standard of living because they are lazy enough. Of course this contradicts in a sense when Roark builds a housing project for low income group. Let us just say that it is difficult to remember what has been said previously if someone is writing a book that is six hundred pages long.

The problem with six hundred pages becomes apparent in other places as well. When Gail Waynand character enters the stage, there is a lot of talk how he owns multiple newspapers and magazines across the country. The all of sudden the references to multiple magazines are completely lost and the story is told as if he owns a single newspaper, Banner, only to see that references to his large empire come back in the end of the book. And incidentally I do not have a clue why Gail and Dominique did some of the things that they did, it completely defies logic but this may be the result of completely low EQ on my part rather than any problem with the author. Another such example would be there are references to how Waynand does not read his own newspaper as well as references to how he proactively manages the running of Banner.

One thing I was looking forward to in this book was intellectual encounters. However, the author has stayed clear of argument between equals, the plot is weave and dialogues constructed in such a way that libertarian character walk the high moral ground and everyone else is wimpy, old fashioned and against progress. I cannot help but think that interaction between Ellesworth Toohey and Dominique could have been made much more interesting and enlightening, had the author not been so intent on spreading the message.

This does not mean that the author lacks style. Writing such as below is scattered all over the book, I mean this is beautiful

Walking the soil of a desert island holds one anchored to the rest of the earth; but in their penthouse, with the telephone dis-connected, Waynand and Dominique had no feeling of the fifty-seven floors below them, of steel grafts braced against granite – and it seemed to them that their home was anchored in space, not an island, but a planet.

Thus we come to the end of the book when all of a sudden everything becomes highly symbolic. The destruction of the housing project and the resulting court case are highly symbolic. I can understand the symbolism behind the court case but I do not have a clue about what the destruction of the housing project stands for and how it can be justified under any interpretation.

In all I found this book very entertaining at emotional level and very disappointing at intellectual level.

Regards

Harry

(I had emailed this review in April 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/Animals-Translation-Mysteries-Autism-Behavior/dp/0156031442/

I hope this book will help regular people to be a little less verbal and a little more visual. I’ve spent thirty years as an animal scientist, and I’ve spent my whole life as an autistic person. I hope that what I’ve learned will help people start over again and animals…..

I hope what I’ve learned will help people see.

The author is an autistic woman who grows up to be an animal scientist.

The called me Tape Recorder because I’d stored up a lot of phrases in my memory and I used them over and over again in any conversation. ….and then I ‘d tell the story all over again, start to finish. It was like a loop inside my head, it just ran over and over again. So the kids called me Tape Recorder.

It is amazing what the author has achieved despite her short-comings.

Temple Grandin earned her Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois, went on to become an associate professor at Colorado State University, and wrote two books on autism…. Grandin revolutionized animal movement systems and spear-headed reform of the quality of life for the world’s agricultural animals.

The book is primarily about animal behavior or rather how to decipher animal behavior. This book explains why animal do what they do and why humans fail to read the signals. So this book should be interesting enough for anyone who has a pet. However, this book does not stop there. On the way, it deliver profound insight regarding the minds of special needs children and even about human beings in general.

I always find it kind of funny that the normal people are always saying autistic children “live in their own little world”. When you work with animals for a while you start to realize that you can say the same thing about normal people. …..It’s like dogs hearing a while register of sound we can’t. Autistic people and animals are seeing a whole register of the visual world normal people can’t, or don’t.

The author goes on to explain how her autistic brain helps her to resolve mysteries regarding animal behavior just because she can hear/feel/see what most normal human beings fail to perceive.

I was fascinated by most of the “animal decoding” episodes in the book and found very few things that I disagreed with (for e.g. decrease in the size of human brain due to domestication of dogs).

The narrative is quite flowing and interesting though it does sometimes dip into the arcane when the author jumps into the physical structure of the brain. I particularly like her observations and explanations about selective breeding of the dogs and the associated narrative of the rapist rooster.

What is really disappointing is that author does not give us any idea how she managed to earn Ph.D. and become a successful animal scientist despite being an autistic person. I guess we will have to wait till her autobiography comes out.

When I say that I’m a visual thinker I don’t mean just that I’m good at making architectural drawings and designs, or that I can design my cattle-restraining systems in my head. I actually think in pictures. During my thinking process I have no words in my head at all, just pictures.

This is true no matter what subject I’m thinking about. For instance, if you say the word “macroeconomics” to me I get a picture of those macramé flowerpot holders people used to hang from their ceilings. That’s why I can’t understand economics or algebra; I can’t picture it accurately in mind………..

When I was young I had no idea that being a visual thinker made me different from anyone else. I thought everyone saw pictures inside their heads……