Embracing the Infidel ---- Behzad Yaghmaian

I sometimes pick book at random and have no clue what made me read it. This particular book is one of such picks. It had an interesting title. The subscript to the title says “Stories of Muslim Migrants to the journey West”. This was enough an stimulant to make me read through this book.

The Iranian-born author, Behzad Yaghmaian, is an economist who is currently in political asylum in USA. He has tried to retrace the path that illegal immigrants from lands like Afghanistan,
Angola, Sudan or Iran take to reach the land of their dreams in OECD or EU countries. He goes to important cities on the route like Istanbul, Athens, Sofia, Paris and London.

The book depicts touching stories of immigrants like Shahrokh Khan, the afghan having the name similar to a Bollywood actor, who aspires to be an actor in Hollywood or Nur, the Sudanese pregnant lady, who on the way in Athens gets separated from her husband and her kid. It is not just the story of people like these, but the reality that is portrayed around them. This might be the slums in Istanbul or the ghettoes in Athens. Topics like homosexual relationships and the intolerance by Iranian government towards these gays can be some real heart wrenching first person accounts. Interspersed in such stories are the various difficulties that manmade and natural hazards put across.

This book would remain one of the best accounts to read about human trafficking and the dangers pertinent in it for those who are innocent aspirers of dreams.

Investment Biker by Jim Rogers.

I guess I am in awe of people who are specializing in finance, esp. the ones who run the much adored (as well as hated) Hedge Funds. The author, Jim Rogers, is one of such giants in the field of investing. He specializes in commodities and investments in international markets.

The book is an amazing read. It is a perfect blend of “motorcycle diaries” rolled into a finance text. The author and his companion have embarked on a crazy idea of traveling around the world on bikes. The bikes in this regard are BMW R100RT and R80. The author is a biking enthusiast and is a proud owner of R100RT for quite sometime. The journey is colossal in its extent. The expedition took 22 months and spanned 62 countries, clocking 65000+ kilometers on the odometer. The book is a vivid description of all the charm and dangers that can accompany such a trip. Reading across the book, one cannot help but respect and look with awe the spirit of adventure which so very well engulfs the journey. The interesting part is not just the excursion which is depicted but the mindset which is able to relate the geography, politics and economics as observed in the streets with the investing decisions which can be made by a uncanny, unconventional, eccentric but highly successful investor.

The most amazing quality of the book is that it can make a finance guy fall in love with adventure biking and similarly, it can make any layman learn finance in the easiest of terms. This shall remain must read thing for all those who want to learn a bit of both: finance and biking.

Fooled by Randomness ----- Nassim N. Taleb

Fortune rates it as the “smartest book of all time”. I decided to read this book coz of the immense praise that I had received regarding the author for his book “Black Swan” ( a book lying at my house and I still haven’t touched it). Mr. Taleb had given the review of the “Halo Effect”, the book which was my read before “Fooled by Randomness”. The title cover itself is intriguing and if all the factors are taken together then I was prompted to pick it up from my library and go through the copy.

The first thing that strikes you while you read this book is the lucid language of the book. The author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, at no point tries to woo the reader with the use of jargons or any other complicated stuff. This is despite the fact that the author is a reputed hedge fund manager ( a qualification which generally entails a social acceptance towards bombardment of high “fundoo” words so as to gain even more higher respect, afterall confusion and respect are nowadays synonymous). The two points reiterated in the book are:

• Emphasis given to mathematics a philosophical tool and not just a means of calculation (as the field has been reduced today).
• The ability to avoid taking science (anything which tends to tease the neocortex and gains social recognition as having the aura of rationality and intellect) rather very seriously.

The clarity that exudes throughout the book is even facilitated by the use of humorous anecdotes and funny language. It is a must read book for those who take the primetime journalists seriously, esp. those trying to make give a reason for the stock market upheavals. The book enhances and enforces the need to take things in the right perspective and is must read for aspiring MBAs or those who are in their first jobs.

The basic tenet that the author devotes his time and energy is towards highlighting the importance of luck, which is nothing but the ability of random events to occur and cause profound effects. These events are the so-called “black swans”. The author takes a more philosophical tone towards the subject and encourages people to take life and business in the same respect.

It was a real pleasure to go through this book. It has made me all the more excited to go through “Black Swan:.

The Halo Effect ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers------Phil Rosenzweig

Any next door bookshop shall be flooded with the “self-help” management books which tend to teach you how to replicate the success of a “blue-chip” firm in your company. The story line is always similar. A hard nut CEO surrounded by a bunch of buffoons around him to give him the “innovative” ideas and the extra zing. A clear set of mystic alphabets like 5Cs and 7Ps and these consolidated by a very meaningful insight in jargons like Strategy and Execution. Well, that in a “nut” case is defined as a typical business best seller. Such books are scoffed at in the B-school environment as giving a lot of “Gyaan”, an encyclopedic volume filled with jargons meant to confuse and bedazzle any mortal who takes interests in them.

This book by Phil Rosenzweig is a total deviant’s handbook. It has tried rationally and critically why one should not be swayed by the things that are said a lot about the way business is run in the real world. It labors hard to dispel the various myths that have percolated the able minds which run our industry and businesses. Of all the myths, one that is the root cause of all myths is the “halo effect” or the hindsight bias. The author has mentioned 9 delusions that commonly circulate in the elite “business” circles. The dig taken on books like “good to great” and “built to last” is worth reading. In this case, it happens to be one of the best books to read during an MBA course.

The book is a must read to regain some sanity of the multiple variables that play in the nature of doing business and how effective decision making occurs. It also tells us to critically analyze the “news” that is brought by the new-age journalism that so very well surrounds us. Today, there is hardly any difference between worthwhile news and noise. Each and every thing is over-analyzed by a zealous naïveté and then given on a platter to the experts who tend to get swayed by this. The criticism of magazines like “Businessweek” and “Newsweek” is a real eye-opener. The description as to how true leaders are and where can they be found is also worth mentioning. The book reiterates the oft-repeated aphorism that success has many takers and among them are journalists who tend to make meaning out of each nonsense generated about a firm.

Do visit the author’s blog to gain further idea about the book:

http://www.the-halo-effect.com/

India After Gandhi----Ramachandra Guha

“History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.” This quote is by E. L. Doctorow.

The importance of the quote is conveyed by the word it uses at the end, “Myth”. It is very important to remember while reading books of history that it can contain a lot of myth. Some corroborated by the present around you and some dispelled by the mist in your eyes. In either case, it can be an arduous task to read and understand it objectively. But an even more difficult task should be to write about it. It has also been said that history can helps us know as to why we are what we are. Considering the immense demand of the task and the role of subjectivity in presenting a hazy picture, the author of this voluminous book has done an extremely beautiful job.

The book is written in a very lucid and easy-to-digest manner. It reiterates often that history for Indians has stopped at 1947. It has been the general psyche that gaining of independence had ushered in a modern age in India, an eon which rebuffs history as something belonging to black and white era which needs attention only in once-daily class till your seventh standard in school. A significant part of what India is today ( and also what it is not) has been shaped by the decades that followed the 40s. The socialist mindset of the 60s and the revolutionary psyche of the 70s are mentioned with considerable ease in this book. The book can broadly be divided into 3 vital parts.

1. A very objective view about the icons who have played a vital part in Indian History. The book deals a lot with what Nehru, Sardar Patel, Shastri, Indira Gandhi and JP Narayan did. The book stands out in the respect that it accords to various personalities which can find hard to be mentioned during a normal historical discourse. These range from the first Election Commissioner of free India to Mr. P. N. Haksar. These personalities at times formed a confidante coterie which signified some leaders e.g. Mahalanobis for Nehru or Haksar for Indira Gandhi.
2. The sensitive topics like Kashmir issue and the riots that have plagued Indian subcontinent since ages. The author has labored hard here to represent both the sides of each of these issues. The effort that would have gone in this exercise can only be imagined. The book becomes a vital read on these topics as some of the contemporary problems that we face nowadays had their origin in the politics and economies of that time. This is a critical read for any Indian who wants to know the significance of early Congress leaders like Nehru and Shastri in keeping the Indian State a “constitutional” democracy as against the increasingly “populist” approach that is now taken by fascist and pro-majority parties and individuals. The book might stir some controversies in these topics as either side protesting about some “facts” that find a mention in this book, but for any reader with an open mind, this book would be worth an investment not just for his own self but for the future generation who might increasingly find vitiating environment eclipsing the psyche.
3. The third and important contribution of this book is the awareness it can help create about the forbidden orphan states i.e. the states forming the North eastern region of India. The secessionist demands as against the excesses committed by the Indian army, have all been portrayed in a truly dedicated fashion.

The book is definitely a "work of a lifetime". Ramachandra Guha has put in a lot of mental and physical strain to come out with this work. Regular readers of Outlook magazine would definitely relate with the finesse and clarity that he displays in his writings.

The Reluctant FUNDAMENTAList-----Mohsin Hamid

It can be very safely assumed that no religion has been more misunderstood and more criticized than Islam. Considering the recent developments that have shaped the geopolitics of our planet, the most important ones have been portrayed as having Islam on the negative side of things. In such times the basic tenets of this religion, which literally means “peace”, have been challenged with varying intensity and dimensions. What would be impact of these developments on an individual who beholds this religion has not been adequately explored and his identity rarely appreciated. This book by Mohsin Hamid is an appreciative effort of exploring the inner rumblings of a tormented soul. The protagonist, Changez, on the outside-self emboldens the modern face of Islam, living a perfect “American Dream”, but finds himself increasingly at odds with where his roots lie. The restraint showcased by the author in his prose is worthy of praise. The conversational style of the book shall find quick takers for the ideology which has been gradually unveiled in the book. The journey of the mind extends from a bazaar in Lahore to the Central park in Manhattan. The focus on “fundamentals” is justifiably brought out in terms of efficiency demanded by an investment bank as well as the yearning of a soul far from its nest. It’s a recommended reading to all those people who want to know more about the mind of a modern Muslim. Finally, it’s a book that every English-speaking Muslim should at least lay his hands on, for it helps to decipher aptly the tag “janissaries”, which it brings on in the later half of the book.

Changez happens to meet a westerner, whom he presumes to be an American, by the way of his carrying his self in this foreign land. Having done his studies and later his first job in America, Changez breaks ice in a very humble fashion with this American. He goes on to describe the love of his life, Erica, whom he had met in America and the personality problems Erica faces. The story revolves around as he describes his life in America and his impending slow transformation to his current self. The most important element of the story is the control that is manifested in the dialogue. America, though it had given him all that people dream and aspire for, could not become the land where his roots lay. This nagging feeling that Changez has, is aptly portrayed as he describes his life there and the challenges of his job. From the beginning till the end, Changez puts a solemn picture as to what are the good things of America but still cannot reprise him of being able to stay there. To say more would tend to spoil out the plot. Is it just by chance that the main lead is called Changez which also can be read as “Change-s”?

A note on the book will never be complete without a little talk about the writer. It would extremely worthy to note the journey of Mr. Ahmed and his credentials. If I can be a little bold, I would like to say that in Changez, the author has definitely put in a part of his psyche, which is both noteworthy and commendable.