Book Review of "Yuganta"

"जुने कधीही सर्वस्वी टाकाऊ व सर्वस्वी गैरलागू होत नाही; नवे ते इतके नवे कधीच नसते कि त्यात जुन्याचा अंशच नाही!"

महाभारतामधल्या अमानवी आणि चमत्कारमय गोष्टी बाजूला ठेऊन एका Anthropologist च्या दृष्टिकोनातून रोखठोक आणि तर्कशुद्ध पद्धतीने लिहिलेलं इरावती कर्र्वेचं "युगान्त" म्हणजे माझ्या सारख्या महाभारत चाहत्याला पर्वणीच! १९६० च्या दशकात प्रकाशित झालेले हे लेखं आत्ता ६० वर्षांनी वाचतानासुद्धा थांबवत नाही. सहज, साधी, सोप्पी भाषा आणि तरीही झटक्यात खोल मतीतार्थ स्पष्टपणें मांडणं हि तारेवरची कसरत प्रत्येक लेखात दिसून येतें. विशेषतः "भीष्म" आणि "कृष्ण" यांच्याबद्दलच्या  लेखांमध्ये केलेल विश्लेषण आणि मांडलेले विचार हे अंतर्मुख करून सोडतात. 

"महाभारताचा अभ्यास व्हावा तो मोकळ्या दृष्टीनें. अभ्यासाआधीच ठाम मते ठरवून भक्तिभावानेही होऊ नये आणि आवेश किंवा द्वेषभावनेनेही होऊ नये इतकीच ती प्रार्थना!"

शक्य झालं तर मूळ मराठी प्रतच वाचा! 

Book Review of "Masters of Doom"

Masters of Doom is indeed a fascinating read and even though I am not an avid gamer, the intricacies and complexities of the Gaming Tech industry are fun to dive into! This is a book about “2 Johns” - John Carmack and John Romero, who built super-popular games like Wolf-3D, Doom & Quake in the late 80s and early 90s, firmly establishing a new class of Rockstars - the programmers who build awesome games! These 2 introverted, self-taught, nerdy kids from broken homes created a highly successful Gaming company (90s kids will surely remember the name ID Software) with their intense passion and insane work ethic. Plus, as an Engineer, I have to give mad respect for shipping sophisticated graphics-driven games in a DOS-based, pre-Windows 95, pre-DirectX, and a command-line-majority World!

In the second half, the book succinctly captures how overdoing, over-emphasizing, and frankly thinking with swollen egos can destroy the most robust of things. It is actually quite painful to read how the presence of a business-minded, emotionally rational “suit” could have helped save this company. The dealings with Microsoft, the advantages, disadvantages of the Shareware model are some of the other non-gaming interesting things discussed here. All in all, highly recommend it if you work in Tech.

Book Review of "Project Hail Mary"

Andy Weir is back! “Project Hail Mary” is fun, entertaining and just the right amount of dramatic! Humanity is facing an extinction-level event and the only person who can save it is your typical Andy Weir protagonist - a smart-mouthed, resourceful, nerdy, kinda-coward but ultimately brave enough person with amazing problem-solving skills! Yes, you are not alone if you think this sounds a bit too similar to The Martian, but trust me, it’s still enjoyable and the second & the third act is more of a buddy comedy than a survival story. 

After the snoozefest that was the “Artemis”, I had lowered my expectations, and boy am I glad to be more than pleasantly surprised! So if you enjoy SciFi, then give it a go - solid 4/5.

(Alternatively, you could just wait and watch the movie when it comes out in a couple of years; apparently, Hollywood has already purchased the rights!)

Book Review of "Thinking Fast and Slow"

Thinking Fast and Slow by the Nobel Laureate Dr. Daniel Kahneman has multiple “Aha!” moments, quite a few “Holy sh*t” realizations, and at least about a hundred of “this should have been taught to everyone in the school!” epiphanies. 

“The fact that logically equivalent but contextually different statements evoke different reactions makes it impossible for Humans to be reliably rational.”

But a word of caution though. Despite being one of the most enlightening, educative, and thought-provoking books, Thinking Fast and Slow is a laborious read. Don’t get me wrong, you should definitely read this if you have an interest in anything remotely related to Psychology, Sociology, Behavioral Economics or just plain enjoy finding out about the research being done around the human psyche. But be aware that this book demands dedication. You would need to be able to recall ideas introduced in previous chapters to appreciate and soak in the content.

With these disclosures out of the way, the book itself is fascinating, the research done and the Conclusions drawn by Dr. Daniel Kahneman are groundbreaking.

"People expect to have stronger emotional reactions (including regret) to an outcome that is produced by action than to the same outcome when it is produced by inaction.”

Literally, hundreds of examples of research experiments are discussed, augmented by analyzing various real-life scenarios from advertisements to hedge funds to government policy decision making. The results are mind-boggling and yet believable. Overall, a solid 4 out of 5.

Book Review of "निळासांवळा"

अंतर्मुख करून सोडण्याची लक्षणीय ताकद जीएंच्या सगळ्याच लिखाणामध्ये आहे आणि दर वेळेला त्यांचं एखादं पुस्तक वाचलं कि त्याची नव्याने जाणिव होते. अर्थातच "निळासांवळा" हा कथासंग्रह याला अपवाद कसा असेल! अवघ्या दहा-पंधरा पानांच्या कथेमध्ये सुद्धा त्यांची पात्रं अतिशय स्वष्टपणे डोळ्यांसमोर उभी राहतात आणि मनात घर करून सोडतात. अगदी सहजतेने ढोंगी माणुसकीचे पापुद्रे काढुन रूक्ष, रोखठोक मानवी स्वभावावर अगदी लक्ख प्रकाश पाडतात. तसं अधिकृतपणे बघायला गेलं तर जीएंचा हा प्रकाशित झालेला पहिला कथासंग्रह, पण भाषाप्रभुत्व आणि विलक्षण कल्पकता जन्मतःच उपजत असल्यामुळें मुद्दामहून सांगितल्याशिवाय हि जीएंची पहिली कलाकृती आहे असं वाटणारचं नाही!