Category: Excerpts

A thrilling amalgam of mystery and mythology, Akshat Gupta’s The Hidden Hindu is creating buzz for its uniquely imaginative take on Indian epics. Refashioning the lore of the immortals (chiranjeevi), you can now read the prologue in its entirety in this exclusive excerpt below.

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Memory of the Unborn

Year 2041

There was an eerie silence in the room. It seemed like everything had come to a halt. The space between the empty walls of the room was filled with the sound of their breath. Before Mrs Batra could ask Prithvi what was bothering him, he turned around and, in a strong voice, said, ‘I have seen it all myself in 2020 and so I know that there has not been anyone like him before, nor will there ever be. He is the divine truth, an undefeated challenge to the gods of death and destruction.’

‘How can that be? You are saying that you have seen things from before you were even born? That’s impossible!’ said the agitated seventy-four-year-old Mrs Batra. She was bewildered as to how a boy who was around twenty years old in 2041 could have seen things from 2020. ‘You are right. I wasn’t born then, yet I was present in that facility on Ross Island in more than one way. I remember everything as clearly as if I am still there, witnessing it all happening right in front of my eyes,’ replied Prithvi.

Looking at Prithvi, Mrs Batra spoke again, ‘I have witnessed many incredible events and mysterious things in the last few years, things that science does not have an answer to. So I am compelled to believe that there are truths and mysteries that an average human mind like mine cannot process.’ With tears rolling down her cheeks, she continued, ‘I wanted to live a normal life and die silently, like every average person. I almost got a satisfactory death in 2020. Things were good then. I wish I had died peacefully then, but everything changed.’ Mrs Batra took a deep breath and tried to contain herself. Prithvi silently stood there, giving her time. After a long pause, she said ‘Neither did I want to be part of any of that then, nor do I want to be a part of any of this now. Why are you here?’

‘Because I am still searching for him and you are the last person to have seen him,’ responded Prithvi with hopeful eyes. Mrs Batra looked into Prithvi’s eyes and said, ‘I lost everything in that fateful mission and yet, I don’t know how or why. Yes, I have seen him. But I still don’t know who he was. You were there on the island, you said. Tell me what happened on that island in 2020. You said you are searching for him. He was also there on the island back then. You must know who he was. What do you know about him? Tell me everything,’ insisted Mrs Batra.

Prithvi stared at Mrs Batra for a while, and then eventually asked, ‘Will you tell me everything that you know if I answer your questions?’

‘I promise, I’ll not hide anything . . . just tell me what happened in 2020. It changed my death. I don’t want to die not knowing why all this happened to me and why I was chosen.’

Now Prithvi was looking into the old, hopeful eyes of Mrs Batra looking back at him. He took a deep breath and started to narrate . . .

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Want to know Prithvi’s secret? Find out in The Hidden Hindu, available at your nearest bookstore.

In Planning Democracy Nikhil Menon takes us into the mind of a professor and his quest to make a newly-independent India make sense through statistics. How his bright-eyed vision of straightforward calculations mutated into a complex legacy is what makes this book a must-read for history fans.

The following is an excerpt from the chapter ‘Machine Dreams’.

 

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From when he first laid eyes on an electronic computer, Mahalanobis was smitten. Amazed by its ability and convinced of its utility to his country’s development, he was soon involved in a quest to bring these machines to India; an affair that would last for most of the rest of his life. In March 1946, while on the east coast of the United States, Mahalanobis heard the scientific genius John von Neumann present a general account of a computer under development at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

The Professor broached the possibility of developing a computer in India and Von Neumann was open to working on an Indian computer the next winter, but warned that the cost of building it would be steep. Von Neumann assured Mahalanobis, however, that once the first model had been built, subsequent ones would come with a ‘moderate’ price tag—“only 30 or 40 thousand dollars.” The next month, while in New York, Mahalanobis met with statisticians from Columbia University and dropped in at the Watson Computation Laboratory. Based on these conversations he concluded that if statistics were to progress in India it was “essential to build up at least one first rate computation and calculating laboratory.” It was a matter deserving “serious attention at an early date.”

Early next year, with his country’s independence yet months away, Mahalanobis saw a digital computer in operation for the first time. During a visit to Harvard, he was given a tour of the Mark I by computer pioneer Howard Aiken, with whom he spent much of the day in conversation. The reason Mahalanobis hadn’t seen this machine on earlier trips was because “this machine was still a Navy secret.” The Professor soon proceeded to Princeton, where he renewed discussions about computing with Von Neumann. While there, Mahalanobis also made the obligatory pilgrimage to its most famous resident, Albert Einstein, who expressed hope that the transfer of power from British to Indian hands would proceed smoothly.

Increasingly occupied with national income assessment, sample surveys, and planning in India, Mahalanobis believed that computers would prove vital to addressing these questions. Digital computers could perform complex mathematical calculations at hundreds of times the speed of humans. The Professor saw that they would be of tremendous help in tabulating and processing data emanating from the National Sample Survey. Feeding this raw information into a computer, planners would be able to generate estimates and parse trends in the Indian economy in a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. Another major application for computers in the realm of planning was modeling the economy, through inter-industry input-output tables. These tables, first systematized by economist Wassily Leontief in the 1930’s, defined the interrelationship between different sectors of the economy. It was based on the understanding that one industry’s output is often the input for another. The input-output table became a widely adopted method of tracking the movement of goods and services between sectors of the economy, providing a structural snapshot of the entire economy. Leontief began using computers in developing these tables: in 1949 he entered data on forty two sectors of the U.S economy into Harvard’s Mark II, running it for fifty-six hours to create an input-output table representing the American economy. Nearly a quarter century later, Leontief would win the Nobel Prize in Economics, primarily for his work on this technique. The United States continued to conduct input-output research on a regular basis, except for a few years in the 1950s when the Eisenhower Administration had it shuttered—due to its perceived proximity to planning in communist countries.

Never burdened by any formal training in economics, Mahalanobis was instinctively predisposed toward this kind of mathematical abstraction—imagining the material life of India as a series of input-output tables. It was the distillation of a technocratic vision. But quite apart from these applications, the computer was also an object of desire, status, and fantasy. It was chased after as much for the fabulous possibilities it evoked, as the more modest capabilities it delivered. Rare, notoriously expensive, and seemingly boundless in potential, it promised the future and appeared to belong to it. The Professor salivated at the prospect.

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Read about the surprising history of India’s Five-Year Plans in Planning Democracy, now available at your nearest bookstore.

‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.’

This famous, often paraphrased quote from Norman Vincent Peale is an insightful look at human motivation. And author Amit Agarwal would agree with this philosophy, which resonates in his book Small Is Big.

In the following excerpt, the author explains how micro-habits are an underrated and efficient tool for achieving goals. The book is replete with practical exercises, frameworks and examples so that readers can apply this ideology in their own way.

 

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You follow a habit without knowing that you are doing so, or nearly or completely involuntarily. Isn’t this worthy of reflection? Almost every moment we perform an action that we have become so accustomed to doing that we are not even aware of it. Take a moment and recall the time you sleep and wake up every day. Is there a pattern to it? What do you do right after you wake up during the first hour of the day? Do you notice a similarity in what you do every day? Don’t be surprised if you do. It is all because many of our activities are simply a matter of habit.

Small changes in habit create a domino effect. The changes may appear as just minor tweaks of your old ways, but the continuous impact they have is brilliant. So how do we create effective micro-habits? I’ll begin by sharing a straightforward, an accessible framework.

STEP 1

Choose one pillar from the following: work, personal finance, family, physical health and mental health.

STEP 2

Under that pillar, list all the problems that you are experiencing. From that list, circle the top three issues you wish to address.

STEP 3

List all the benefits you will enjoy if you manage to tackle all the problems for the pillar chosen in the preceding step. This will help you to experience the nature of your desired state. Choose the three most important benefits.

STEP 4

For each of the elements identified in Step 2 and Step 3, what is the one thing that you can START and/or STOP doing?

STEP 5

Make that change and continue repeating that action for sixty-six days until it becomes a habit.

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Small Is Big is now available at your nearest bookstore. Get your copy of this life-changing book, now!

What comes to your mind when someone mentions the current education system, or perhaps something as abstract as curiosity. According to Alyque Padamsee, visual simulation and proactive thinking are key to unlearning and relearn what we’ve been taught since time immemorial. Instead of blindly following what we’re told, we need to step out of the confinements set by society and think for ourselves, form our own perceptions, and discover what the world has to offer without being influenced by what society dictates or expects us to do. Read this excerpt from the great Alyque Padamsee’s final tribute to the youth of India, Let Me Hijack Your Mind, co-authored by Vandana Saxena Poria!

 

ALYQUEISM

“Have you noticed how many American expressions are visual? 

‘Hit the ground running’

 ‘Keep your eyes peeled’ 

The power of the visual is so strong, it’s amazing. Now, how can we bring visual stimulation to the classroom?”

School vs Edutainment

For years, education in this country and almost all over the world was about rote learning. And unfortunately, Britain was in India during the Victorian period. If Britain had been our rulers after the Beatles, just imagine how different life could have been. The Beatles generation disrupted the culture of Britain completely. It was an exciting time over there, where people were doing mad things that didn’t have logic. No linear thinking, but squiggly thinking, all over the place. If post-Beatles Britain had ruled India, I think India would have been quite a different place. We actually had Britain ruling over us during its worst period, at its most conventional, with, ‘Don’t answer back. Little boys should be silent and only speak when they are spoken to.’ And as for little girls . . .

We have continued in this trap, this time worshipping the false gods of education. We are still handcuffed to the old system. Education here in India is for the teacher to dictate, no questions asked. A lot has changed abroad, which I must say is very good, but most of what is being taught in Indian schools is unfortunately still very much by rote, where you learn by heart, faithfully reproduce in the examination and you pass to get your degree. Do you really want a degree that says you are nothing more than a robot? Garbage in, garbage out?

I mean look at History—these poor kids today have to learn all these dates and reel them off in the exam. They get marks for getting the dates right. BUT WHO CARES ABOUT THE DATE if they don’t understand the crux of why the war was fought or the significance of the action? History is not about dates; history says it was thanks to a man like Gandhiji that we got our independence through non-violence, which everyone said was impossible. Now how did we do that? Can we bring that teaching in?

I am saying education is for the learner to learn and not for the teacher to teach. It’s for the teacher to enthuse, and it’s for the learner to be enthusiastic enough to be able to learn on their own. That’s what education is all about.

Curiosity Did Not Kill the Cat

I get quite annoyed with this proverb, as it is not entirely accurate. Shakespeare had it right in Much Ado About Nothing, where Claudio says to Benedick, ‘What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat? Thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.’ In this instance, care meant worries.

So Shakespeare was saying worrisome thoughts would kill you. That is not at all the same as curiosity! I wouldn’t be surprised if those religious zealots of times gone by changed the phrase to get people to stay in line and not question religion too much! Anyway, I say, ‘Curiosity inspired the cat’, and that has proven true throughout my life. Curiosity is the best form of edutainment anywhere. Honestly, if you just keep your eyes wide open and go explore different areas, you will somehow stumble upon your passion.

 

If these words resonate with you, grab your copy of Let Me Hijack Your Mind and unlearn and relearn like never before!

A lesser-known event in Indian military history, the Battle of Garibpur was fought between 21-22 November 1971. In The Burning Chaffees, Brigadier B.S. Mehta records the behind-the-scenes tension that eventually exploded into the momentous Bangladesh Liberation War, India’s tank column movement into then East Pakistan, and the victory which shook Pakistan’s confidence.
The following excerpt is an account from 20 November 1971, moments before the main conflict took place.

 

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We had barely moved out of the Battalion HQ when an urgent message came through on the radio. What we had been suspecting since the early morning now stood confirmed by the radio message, followed by the short shrill blasts from a whistle, which somebody was blowing impatiently. It was a signal, practised and rehearsed during exercises, to indicate an imminent air strike.  

I elbowed my entry into one of the crowded trenches close to the Battalion HQ, as there was no way I could make it to my tank. The trench, designed for not more than three persons, was a small, ramshackle shelter with an apology for overhead cover consisting of small khaji saplings and dry twigs covered with earth to provide protection. On one side of the trench, a small aperture had been cut open through which its occupants could fire their weapons in case of a ground attack. Before I could adjust my weight on my feet, somebody inside yelled, ‘Enemy planes are coming.’ The four black dots had now grown much larger, their outline becoming more menacing. Soon, they were overhead, and started to circle over our position, to determine our defence perimeter within which they would select their targets to spell death and devastation. Their main effort was directed towards the tanks, being the more lucrative targets. Sitting inside the trench, packed like sardines, one could do nothing more than watch the aircraft, which we now recognised as the infamous Sabres. We had heard and read enough about these aircraft but all that knowledge was of no avail, since it had only acquainted us with the physical and technical features of the aircraft. What we were going to discover in the next 10 minutes or so would be its capacity for annihilation and its ability to create havoc amongst the ground troops. The cumulative effect of its monster-like presence moving around at supersonic speed, creating a blood curdling roar through its jet engines, the reverberation and echoes, plus the physical damage its cannon, bombs and strafing would create was something we would be compelled to undergo with our hearts in our mouths. While they were still high up in the sky, I ventured to count them, hoping to draw some consolation from their numbers: one, two, three, four—possibly some higher up in the sky. The Sabres were pulling up once again to gain height as by now they had completed a dry run. It would now be only a matter of moments before they swooped down, one after another, unloading their cargo consisting of bombs, cannons, machine guns, on pre-selected targets.  

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Soon to be a major motion picture, you can get your copy of The Burning Chaffees from your nearest bookstore.

No more fodder for gender-restricted roles, parenting is now a joint venture and for the good. But even while our idea of parenting changes, the truth is that babies are still the same. So how do we fill this gap?

Sleeping Like A Baby shows various examples of modern parenting problems with simple, priority-driven solutions. There’s even a section on travelling with babies in-flight! This particular excerpt deals with the perils of parents who want to keep up the momentum of their social life without compromising on their baby’s sleep.

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Some families are more social than others and have varying degrees of obligations and priorities. Depending on your situation and family dynamic, here are some tips you could use to tweak your social life which allow you to let down your hair while also keeping the baby’s sleep routine front and centre: 

Choose well

In the first few years, accept social invitations that are truly important to you and offer some leeway in terms of time and day.  

Become the host

Move the party to your house. Put the baby to bed, press play on the white noise, keep the baby monitor next to you and hang out with your friends and family.  

Pivot

Accept that your social life will change after having a baby, and that’s a good thing. It means everyone is growing up, not just the baby! Request friends and family to be flexible and accommodate celebrations at a time in the day that are baby-friendly. And while your outings may seem severely limited in the first year or so, once the baby moves to a one nap routine (at around 15-18 months) it gets a lot easier to plan visits. 

Take turns

If there are invitations you do not want to decline that clash with your baby’s sleep routine, take turns to go. You attend one while your spouse goes to the next one, or one that is more important to either one of you.  

Get your me-time

Once your baby’s routine has settled down, go out with your friends while your partner does bedtime and bridges sleep cycles. For this to happen successfully, involve your partner in baby sleep from Day 1.  

Create your ‘outing’ at home

If it’s hard to go out or you just feel too exhausted to leave home, staying in can be just as fun. Snuggle up with the latest Netflix movie or your favourite book, a tub of popcorn and your beverage of choice once your baby is down for the night. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has made virtual parties legitimate social events—go right ahead and organize your own Zoom gatherings.  

It’s all a phase

Hitting pause on late-night socializing pays off in the end, we promise you. Sticking around to help baby sleep at night rather than taking her out with you when it’s her bedtime results in a well-rested child who grows to love her sleep because she is in touch with her internal cues and feels safe and cared for. As she grows, you will be able to socialize more without compromising on her sleep.  

Find your tribe

In the time of social media, it’s easy to find a tribe of your kind of parents who are happy to create fun social experiences that suit baby routines. Reach out to them! Take turns to plan gatherings that work for everyone, especially the kids. We did the same and not only have we had a ton of meaningful conversations and boisterous fun, but we also made friendships to last a lifetime.  

Dial down wedding worries

Weddings are not typically baby-friendly events. Try and book a room at the venue where the baby can take a nap, or fall asleep for the night with a caregiver while you attend the wedding and can go back to the room if she needs you.  

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A true balm for parenting and baby sleep woes, Sleeping Like A Baby is now available at every bookstore near you.