Mr China

Mr China, the true account of how the Chinese market, politics and people had an impact on foreign investment. Particularly the money pumped in by Wall Street’s investment bankers. It’s written by Tim Clissold, a Brit who was in partnership with an American investment banker. Joining them was an ex-Red Guard. It’s about how the $400 million that was invested doesn’t end up showing the expected spectacular results inspite of the upcoming economy. On the contrary, so much of it is lost or gets squandered in the midst of Chinese politics. The narrator of the story is Clissold himself, a Mandarin speaking investment banker. He tells the story in a clear, often humourous manner. The incidents narrated happened in the ’90s. The book gives so much insight on China, their business, their idiosyncracies and the like. It was quite an engaging read. Makes you think about how different life can be either in terms of being in China or in terms of being an investment banker. An eye opener really!

The article in Time about it here.  An interview with Clissold here.

In the bus

Isn’t it such a good feeling to meet an absolute stranger in the bus and enjoy a good conversation? So, I was engrossed in Kafka on the Shore (which by the way is turning out to be a spell binding page turner), and it was after a delay of a few seconds that I realised someone was peering onto the cover of the book trying to see which book it was! I turned around and told her which one it was. And then asked about the one she was reading…turns out she was reading a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while (Yuganta by Irawati Karve).  Thus began a conversation that spanned not only about the respective books we were reading but also a few varied topics like how we interpret our epics,  how libraries are dwindling, about the lack of time for books among other things. It was a pleasant enough beginning to the journey back home afer work. You know, of course, about reaching your destination faster if you have a good companion? Oh and we introduced ourselves by the end of the conversation…thankfully! Books truly can bind us, isn’t it?

p.s. Just read about the Amazon Kindle today (it’s already been unveiled). Well, my personal opinion is that books will never go away…there’s a different kind of joy in reading an actual book. Opening the covers and gettting pulled into its story is something else altogether!

Celebrating 60 years of Indian independence

I know it’s more than a month since we celebrated Independence day, but I’m bringing it up now. The Hindustan Times carried some nice articles to mark the 60 years of Indian Independence. (Read them here) What sprang to me from there was the list of 60 best books by Indian authors. Obviously I cannot vouch for the selection of this list (even if I did vouch for it, like any of you would care? Ha!), nor do I completely agree to the selection. Nonetheless,  it’s a good place to start picking the books you’d like to read. Some of them are translated works, owing to the diverse language culture of India. I somehow feel regional writers (barring a few) are neglected. Importance seems to be given only to the main stream English writers which is a pity ‘coz in the process we lose out on enjoying some terrific writing due to the lack of translation.  Anyway, here’s the list. (I’m also putting the list at the end of this post, I don’t want to open this and another page to check which book I want to read next)

There is also a delightful list of 60 dishes that sets India apart in terms of cuisine.

Crime and Punishment

One of Dostoevsky’s  masterpieces. I finished reading it a couple of days back. Yes, I liked it. It starts off well, then I thought it got boring, then it picked it up so well and that’s how it was until the end. Well, I don’t want to review this book, it has too much in it to write about!

So many questions, nuances of each character, the psychological effects of all are captured to the minutest detail. The crime happens in the very beginning and the punishment happens in the very end. The book is about what the perpetrator goes through in the meanwhile and the effect it has on the people around him (the book is about 650 pages, normal print!). Of course, this book also reminded me of Capote’s In Cold Blood, which I haven’t yet read (seen the movie though). I want to read Brothers Karamazov to enjoy Dostoevsky more.