A review of Fragile Lives by Stephen Westaby, more technical than Gawande, gripping on heart surgery and the machines that keep patients alive.
The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation by Girish Kuber (Book Review 013)
A review of The Tatas by Girish Kuber, heard on audiobook. Informative on the family and modern India, but it skirts the failures and offers no critique.
Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base by Annie Jacobsen (Book Review 012)
A review of Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen, informative on the CIA, the Air Force and the cold war, though her habit of delaying the point annoyed him.
The Gods Themselves by Issac Asimov (Book Review 011)
A review of The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, gripping on the electron pump and the para universe, though the alien section dragged for him.
Karna’s Curse -The one I didn’t know about
The Andhra folk tale of Karna, the girl’s spilt ghee and Bhoomidevi’s curse on his chariot wheel, and why he now rates Karna as strong as Bhima.
yada yada
Verses seven and eight of Chapter IV of the Bhagavad Gita, and five reasons, from business to the year’s corruption scandals, he keeps returning to it.
Thirst for knowing our past
Questions he keeps returning to about Hindu scripture as history: Kurukshetra, the yugas, the weapons described, and who wrote the Bhagavad Gita.
Interesting Quotations from Media
Three notes copied from newspapers into a phone: the myth of the Japanese factory manager, ICBMs as the idiom of power, and what makes a major power.
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill – A Raw Deal for Indians
On the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, its cap of Rs 500 crore, the liability placed on the operator rather than the supplier, and Bhopal.
“A Ballad of Sir Pertab Singh” by Sir Henry Newbolt
The full text of Henry Newbolt’s A Ballad of Sir Pertab Singh, on caste and an English soldier’s funeral in Jodhpur, with a stanza by stanza explanation.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Book Review 010)
A review of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, which he found engrossing and read as a warning against trusting intricate financial models over judgement.
Knowing the Indian Maoist Rebels
On letters recovered from Maoist camps, Naipaul’s line hate oppression, fear the oppressed, and why an offensive without rural development will fail.
Fighting the Naxal Problem using Guerrilla Warfare: Article Recommendation
On the naxalite insurgency as a proxy war against India, and a Livemint article whose case for decisive responses and hot pursuit he shares.
Sino-India Relations: Article Recommendation
A short note pointing to a Livemint piece on the Sino-Indian chess game, and the view that India has mishandled its relations with China and the US.
Nouriel Roubini and his suggestions for handling the global financial crisis
Excerpts from two Nouriel Roubini articles in the WSJ and FT on Geithner’s PPIP, banks that kept paying dividends, and letting insolvent banks fail.