Zero

April 16, 2013 Leave a comment

zeroZERO: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

by Charles Seife | 248 Pages | Genre: Mathematics/Science | Publisher: Penguin Books| Year: 2000 | My Rating: 10/10

“The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it, the Hindus worshipped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time, the quest for the theory of everything. Used unwisely, Zero has the power to destroy logic.”

Charles Seife has presented the complexity of esoteric math and philosophy for popular readership without taking the beauty of numbers throughout his book, Zero. The books starts with the prehistory of numerals, before the number system was discovered. It was only with the advent of numerical notation and arithmetic that zero as a discrete concept became necessary, first as a simple place holder in the Babylonian number system, and later, with the Greeks, as an important astronomical tool even though they didn’t like zero at all.

It was India that first domesticated zero, through the Hindu familiarity with the concepts of infinity and the void. Rigveda states, ‘There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the skywhich is beyond. What stirred? Where?’ Zero is between the void and the absolute.

This elegant and enlightening book about the strangest number in the universe is my ‘Read of the Week’. This book is among my most favourites forever.

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Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud

April 16, 2013 Leave a comment

extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close_bookExtremely Close and Incredibly Loud

by Jonathan Safran Foer| 368 Pages | Genre: Fiction| Publisher: Penguin Books| Year: 2005 | My Rating: 9.5/10

This brilliant fiction is a story of a  very intelligent  and sensitive, alternately exasperating and hilarious nine-years old boy, Oscar Schell, who goes across five boroughs of New York looking for the right lock, which can be opened by a ‘black’ key his father left, who died in 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Centre. This incredible novel explores shattering emotions and human connections through the prism of a disaster.

Oscar being an internet whizkid is an information sponge and a walking encylopedia chatting. His calling card, which he uses while meeting people, reads: “Inventor, Jewelry Designer, Jewelry Fabricator, Amateur Entomologist, Francophile, Vegan, Origamist, Pacifist, Percussionist, Amateur Astronomer, Computer Consultant, Amateur Archeologist, Collector of: rare coins, butterflies that died natural deaths, miniature cacti, Beatles memorabilia, semiprecious stones, and other things” .He even goes to the extent of flattering women his mother’s age by complimenting them on their beauty and sometimes telling them that he’d like to kiss them! His search brought him into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

I have first read this book in 2009 and fell in love with Foer’s style of writing. The use of pictures, visuals and the mesmerising style of writing is so refreshingly inventive. This book which made me laugh and yet mourn the grief of Oscar Schell is my ‘Read of the Week’.

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Mother Pious Lady

April 15, 2013 Leave a comment

Mother Pious LadyMother Pious Lady: Making Sense of Everyday India

by Santosh Desai| 380 Pages | Genre: Short Essays| Publisher: Harper Collins India | Year: 2010 | My Rating: 8/10

This book, a collection of essays from Desai’s column ‘City City Bang Bang’in The Times of India is all about the quirks and essence of the Indian middle class. India having a heterogenous society with deeprooted parallel cultures across its regions and religions have common binding factors too in our peculiar tastes and ‘sab chalta hai’ (everything works..) attitude.

The name of the book comes from a typical matrimonial ad in the english dailies, “Status match for a very pretty, very fair, Brahmin girl. Decent marriage. Father Govt servant, Mother Pious Lady…”, is a witty take on Indian society who’s obsessed with fair skin (Unilever’s Fair & Lovely sells like hot cake around the Country fuelling dreams of the middle class and filling coffers of the company), and arranged marriages offer such an insight into the psyche of Indian society and social structures.

I laughed throughout the book as I could relate to the stories being a part of both the pre and post economic liberalisation of the Indian Middle class. A must read if you enjoy humor and want to learn about the real India beyond glossy mags and bollywood.

This fantastically witty and hilariously delightful book is my “Read of the Week”.

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