Hi!

 Occasionally even a nonfiction book, seizes the fancy of the reading public so magnificently that the author attains the fame of a popstar. Book acquires the reputation of a touchstone, being the ultimate mark of high culture. To acknowledge ignorance about it is to declare your philistine taste in reading, most conspicuously. I have read only few such books. Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens is one such book in recent times. Harari has a way with words and is an innate story-teller. Book reads marvelously smooth. I cannot think of one reason why a person will not enjoy it, unless he finds books themselves repulsive.

I was in Afghanistan for fourteen months, beginning Dec 2003, as a member of a medical team, a humanitarian initiative of the Government of India. I remember the cold, bleak, war-ravaged country sheltering some of the most intrepid, lively, friendly and generous people. Memory plays strange games, but I think, I fell in love with the country. On my return I looked for books on Afghanistan and read these with eager enthusiasm. I read Jason Elliot’s AnUnexpected Light around that time. As I read my words now, I am a little ashamed of the purple prose I churned out in its praise. Nevertheless, it is a good travel book and will not disappoint the reader who is looking for something to read about Afghanistan.

These days I read little fiction. Perhaps in a ratio of one fiction for 5-6 nonfiction. I was confronted with this unsettling fact when I attempted to prepare a balanced mixture in these posts. I read Andrew Sean Greer’s Less recently. It won 2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is a pleasant book. A little different, written with wit and enchanting irreverence.

‘When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened,’ wrote Mark Twain. Withering of mind and body in old age is one of the most tragic predicament of human condition. We have little time and inclination to contemplate the course of life even as we are immersed in the thick of it. Life in its twilight, i.e., End-of-life issues are not on the horizon of any. Unfortunately, even medical practitioners have little knowledge and skill to deal with the singular needs of people in this stage of life. Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal is an articulate, forceful and knowledgeable exposition of these concerns. It should be read by all.

Bertrand Russel was a towering polymath: logician, mathematician, philosopher and essayist. He was one of the best prose-stylists of his era. His simple, lucid and elegant prose is a delight to read. I post my opinion on  one of his essay-collections, Why I am not a Christian.