Santosh

  • What I read in 2019

     
    This was a post I used to write typically in the first or second week of January. But recently things have not been going in the usual way. I also used to provide a couple of line summaries and my take on the books that I read but that too seemed too much of effort. But I want to make sure that the list is here for archives and I get on with the things. This post was holding back a number of things that I wanted to write about.
     
    While I am not going to write about each book that I read, however, there are somethings that can be generalized about my last year’s reading.
    • I did not get much time to read non-fiction. For me, non-fiction is serious reading and I do dedicate some time in my day for that but last year was a test for my time-management skills. While I completed only three books in the non-fiction category, I have a number of them unfinished. Last year, we had gone to Ramana Maharishi’s ashram and picked up a bagful of books. Ramana Maharishi is probably the only modern time sage who attracts me and evokes respect. So I spent good amount of time reading his books and his life story. The other theme that I read a lot (does not indicate in the list of books here as many of those books did not get completed) was climate change and air-pollution: these are not only my personal interest areas but also professional needs. But again, out of 10-15 books that I had planned to read last year on this topic, I could finish only three.
    • In the fiction category, there has been a conscious effort to read more Hindi books. And, I managed to read four books, including the epic-length Mujhe Chand Chahiye. I also risked picking up a book by young Hindi writers or Nayi Hindi authors and was quite surprised by Aughad.
    • Majority of fiction that I read this year were my flight reads or bedtime reading and I tried to finish some of the series that I was following, including a great series that turned into a disappointment by Dean Koontz. I also attempted an Indian crime fiction/whodunit by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay and it was good. Nine Perfect Strangers was a big disappointment and so was Blue Moon and The Silent Patient.
    • The two standout books of this year for me were Laburnum for My Head,  a collection of short stories by Temsula Ao and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. Eleanor Oliphant has been a rage last year so it got on my reading list but Temsula Ao was a finding from some random search and glad that I got this.
     
    Fiction
    • The Silent Patient By Alex Michaelides
    • Blue Moon By Lee Child
    • Laburnum for My Head By Temsula Ao
    • Mujhe Chand Chahiye (Hindi) By Surendra Varma
    • Tell No One By Harlan Coben
    • Rehan Par Raghu(Hindi) By Kashinath Singh
    • The Arsonist By Kiran Nagarkar
    • The Girl Who Lived Twice By David Lagercrantz
    • Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine By Gail Honeyman
    • Penumbra By Bhaskar Chattopadhyay
    • Aughad (Hindi) By Nilotpal Mrinal
    • The Night Window By Dean Koontz
    • Mayapuri (Hindi)By Shivani
    • The Lost Man By Jane Harper
    • Debris Line By Matthew Fitzsimmons
    • Nine Perfect Strangers By Liane Moriarty
    • Newcomer By Keigo Higashino
    • Out of Dark By Gregg Hurwitz
     
    Non-fiction
     
    • The Great Derangement By Amitav Ghosh
    • The Collected Works of Ramana Mahirishi
    • Looking Within Life Lessons From Lal Ded

  • Tapri, Jaipur – The cool ‘hangout’

    Finding a place that gives you a space to think, great ‘chai’ and good inspiration is an indescribable pleasure. Tapri in Jaipur (www.tapri.net) is one such place.

    When we walked into this place, it was just starting its morning hours and it has an ethereal charm of unoccupied, beautifully decorated space.  The seats next to the big-windows overlooking a large open greanspace amidst of which Indian flag was swaying..  this was quite a site.

    But what impressed me most is the dash of humour and a lot of thinking that Tapri has put into making their operation more environment friendly. We had paper straw, lampshades made of earthenware, chairs from locally available materials…  Great work Tapri team.

    The interior..

    20190904-Jaipur Tapri-3

    The green tea that came with timer..20190904-Jaipur Tapri-6

    The earthen lampshades..

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    Be couregeous!20190904-Jaipur Tapri-10

  • Kanwar Yatra

    Captured this from my car window while traveling from Rishikesh to Delhi. Right from Rishikesh to Delhi, the road was full of colorful Kanwars and Kanwariys. Dancing, chanting, running.. this was a sight to behold.

    20190721-Kaanvar-1

  • The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh

    As a bibliophile who has been working on climate change for more than a decade, I found it surprising that there are very few books, especially mainstream books that talks about climate change. Well, this question bothered Amitav Ghosh as well and the result is a very erudite and immensely readable book: The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. He asks one overarching question: Why our mainstream authors are writing on climate change?

    “Let us make no mistake: the climate crisis is also a crisis fo culture and thus of the imagination.” – Amitav Ghosh

    It is not that there are no books on climate change but they are far and few and often in science fiction category. Ghosh wants climate change, one of the biggest phenomenon affecting humanity, to find more prominence in mainstream literature.

    “When we see a green lawn that has been watered with desalinated water, in Abu Dhabi or Southern California or some other environment where people had once been content to spend their water thrifty in nurturing a single vine or shrub, we are looking at an expression of a yearning that may have been midwifed in the novels of Jane Austen” – Amitav Ghosh

    But this books is not all about the above-mentioned question. Ghosh explores climate change and its portrayal in history and culture. And, his exploration is a brilliant read. His first hand experience of storm in his student life in Delhi in 1978, to his rumination over Mumbai and its vulnerability showcase what an accomplished author can do when they decide to write about a topic that is often confined to technical reports and scientific journals.

    His take on role of liberal individualism, colonisations, imperialism and the greed for “Power” and their impact on climate change spans an entire section of the book. This is very educative for those who have not been immersed in the climate change and politics of climate change.

    There is also a very interesting comparison of IPCC and Laudata Si– Pope Francis’s letter to all churches. Ghosh analyses these two documents, both published in 2015. The result is very interesting read!

    Bottomline, if you are afraid of reading the boring, jargon-strewn drab narration on climate change, this is the book that you must read.

  • Building an Ecosystem to Save an Ecosystem: How Facilitating Climate Finance for MSMEs Can Fight Global Climate Change

    For any micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) or start-ups working on climate solutions, “climate finance” is a buzzword. But it has become increasingly clear that we need to reimagine the entire ecosystem if we want to get MSMEs to actively and effectively engage in the delivery of climate solutions – as well as saving them from the negative impacts of climate change. (Yes, the MSME sector is quite vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events.) So what’s the best way to effect this ecosystem-wide change? Let’s start by defining the terms of the discussion.

    Read more here on NextBillion