Mathorupagan & Reality Check

Perumal Murugan’s Mathorupagan is the latest addition to the long list of books and other art forms that have been subjected to strong opposition in India for offending the sentiments of a community.

While the opposition for Mathorupagan was projected as a suppression of 'Freedom of speech' by the media and fellow writers,  realitycheck, a blog, has attempted to give a different perspective on this issue. With a contrived example of a toothpaste advert that could possibly result in a defamation suit, realitycheck points out the limits of free speech in a fictitious story.

“I take out an ad in the newspaper saying that there is proof that Colgate toothpaste causes oral cancer. Assuming The Hindu newspaper in a valiant hurrah to my right of expression publishes the ad. I will end up with a lawsuit by evening. Why should Colgate sue me for this and not publish a book explaining in detail why my claim is wrong?” 

- Reality Check India

One of main points in the mentioned post is that the vivid description of the offending event and the precise details like cast name, especially without a lack of a substantial evidence makes the protesters case stronger and even justified.

“There is no ambiguity in the book. The Vaigasi Visagam festivities, the chariot being pulled around town, the little details like the four streets, the various deities, descriptions of the fair, and on and on. The last day of the function he writes was “full of women over 30″ and on that day “all women are prostitutes”. The caste names also leave no room for ambiguity – it is about the womenfolk of Kongu Vellala Gounders.”

-Reality Check India

But after reading the book I felt that certain details, especially the usage of caste name, are not as precise as mentioned above. The edition I am referring to here is the third edition of the book, published in November 2012 by Kalachuvadu in Tamil.

To start with, to say that it is about the womenfolk of Kongu Vellala Gounders appears to me as a perceived thought. There is no direct mention in the book that the controversial ritual was practised only among the women of this caste. The family of the lead characters, Kali and Ponna talk about this ritual resulting in Ponna participating in it. Kaali and his relatives, at various points in the book, are casually addressed only as Gounders and not Kongu Vellala Gounder. 

Today, in popular notion, Gounders may be synonymous with Kongu Vellala Gounders. But the story is not set in contemporary times. There are subtle, but clear, evidences that the story is happening circa 1945. Even to infer that the Gounders referred by the author is in fact Kongu Vellala Gounders, based on the backdrop of the story, one should know the demography of the type of Gounders lived in and around Thiruchengode area around that time.

Currently there are more than one type of Gounders and it appears that not all Gounders are Kongu Vellala Gounders. The current list of Backward Communities approved by Government of Tamil Nadu has listed both Gounders and Kongu Vellalalars separately. Also the list has mentioned another caste Urali Gounder or Oorudaya Gounder in the district of Namakkal -- the district where the story takes place. But said that these data are most likely compiled in recent times and one has to know what type of Gounders lived in 1940s in that area to infer which Gounder was implied in the story. So, when the book mentions only the caste as Gounder, to state that “it is about the womenfolk of Kongu Vellala Gounders.” seems to be only an interpretation of realitycheck.

This difference in the caste name may seem trivial, but for those who haven't read the book in full and has read only realitycheck's post might incorrectly conclude that, the author has used this specific caste name. A quick look at the comments section of the above mentioned article will support this point. In spite of me pointing, in the comments section of the article, that there is no mention of Kongu Vellala Gounder in the book, a commenter still insisted that it is about Kongu Vellala Gounders. To quote “he has explicity used caste names, in detail..the main character is a Kongu Vellala Gounder”.

Realitycheck, in response to my comment, used 'THAT CASTE'  instead of the specific caste name. I believe this is probably because realitycheck agrees that Kongu Vellala Gounder was not used in the book.

“...The story did not involve Kali/Ponna making a secret pact or that she slyly did this on her own. But that it was a normal social practice in THAT CASTE as handed down by the old ladies. It may or may not have involved other castes, but that is not relevant. It may have dissipated the matter if storyline had Ponna participating with other community women.”.

-Reality Check India

But still, to say that it is a practice in 'THAT CASTE' seems to me, again, as an inference rather than what has been actually said. 

To quote from the book: In an instance where Muthu, Ponna’s brother, persuades Kaali to send Ponna to the event, he describes this as 'nothing new and it is only an age old practice'.  

“இது ஒன்னும் புதுசில்ல மாப்ள. காலகாலமா வந்துகிட்டு இருக்கற வழமொறதான” 

- pp 117

Though Muthu mentions it as an age old practice, he does not say whether it is a practice only among their community, or their family or the festival goers or among the people of the district. So to say that it is a common practice in 'THAT CASTE' is only an assumption. Even when Murugan narrates the event, he first describes it as 'any consented men and women can have intercourse on that night'. And in the next paragraph he says, 'no unmarried woman will be sent to the event. Women over 30 can be seen.'

“...கொண்டடத்தின் உச்சத்தில் வரைமுறைகள் எல்லாம் தகர்ந்து போகும். அந்த இரவே சாட்சி. இணங்கும் எந்த ஆணும் பெண்ணும் உறவு கொள்ளலாம்...திருமணமாகாத பெண்களை யாரும் அனுப்பமாட்டார்கள். முப்பது வயதுக்கு மேற்பட்ட பெண்களை எங்கும் காணலாம்.  ” 

- pp 87

Even here, Murugan does not associate the specified caste to the event.

I can understand if it is argued that the narration shows 'married women' or 'women over thirty' or 'any women or anyone attending the festival' in bad light. But to narrow it down to a certain caste seems inappropriate.

Similarly, reading the snippets and quotes may not always provide us the context. In the absence of a context, words can carry different meanings. The quote 'all women are prostitutes' from the book sounds quite offensive on its own. But in the context, where a prostitute, living in a street of prostitutes, who expects no customers on that day, says 'Who is going to see[visit] us today? Today, all women are prostitutes', the tone may be different. It is in this context that this quote is used in the book. 

“...இறக்கத்துக் கோயிலுக்கு எதிரே இருந்த தேவடியாள் தெருவில் அன்றைக்கு கூட்டமேயில்லை... 'இன்னக்கி நம்மள எவன் பாக்கறான். எல்லாப் பொம்பளைங்களும் இன்னக்கித் தேவடியாதான்' என்று அவர்கள் பேசிச் சிரித்துப் போனார்கள்.”

--pp 87 

Not everyone who might be offended by the first quote may feel offended when they read it in the context. Similarly, the meanings of these quotes might change when it is read in entirety. 

The point here is neither to dissuade people, communities from getting offended nor to argue that Mathorupagan is not as offensive as it has been criticized. But it is to show that that different people can interpret the same work differently. My inference or understanding of the story is different from that of realitycheck's (realitycheck indeed read the Tamil version of the book before writing the article). So I believe one should go through the full content himself\herself, be it a movie or a book, before feeling offended. If not, one may end up being offended by someone else's perception of the content rather than his or hers. This is highly likely in case of books, for a book does not always attain its meaning at the hands of the author but in the minds of the reader.

Still Counting the Dead

One of the problems with books on conflict reporting are in understanding the impartiality of the author. If the author belongs to one of the groups involved, they risk being biased towards their own people. But, being a complete outsider also has its own limitations -- trying to be neutral, the author may fail to relate with the conditions of the affected people.

'Still Counting the Dead' is a reportage on the last days of the Sri Lanka - LTTE civil war based on experiences of some of the Tamil survivors -- both civilians and rebels. Frances Harrison, the book’s author, is neither a complete outsider nor belong to one of the affected groups. Harrison's experience as a BBC Correspondent in Sri Lanka between 2000 and 2004 and the work she had done in the Tsunami affected areas of coastal Sri Lanka has given her a first hand experience of interacting with Tamils and watching the rebel Tigers in their own backyard.

Harrison limits the scope of the book to, "...an account of victory from the perspective of the defeated." Having said that, Harrison does not take anything away from what the Sinhalese soldiers and civilians also had to experience during the war. She acknowledges their suffering at the hands of the Tigers. But, for her, to report any Sinhalese's suffering is beyond the purview of the book.

The survivors interviewed in the book, come from different walks of life: an UN aid worker, a Tamil Journalist, a front line LTTE fighter, a Doctor, a Nun, a shopkeeper and many more. Though not all of these survivors were part of 'The Movement' -- a term used by locals for the LTTE, it becomes obvious, during the course of the read, that the day to day life of these survivors were entwined with the rebels irrespective of whether they support the movement or not.  

The LTTE, unlike other terrorist organizations, was not just armed rebels. For almost two decades, they had been the de facto administrators of the rebel controlled regions. As Harrison puts it, “the civilians had little choice but to work in the Tiger's banks, cooperative shops, agricultural institutes, colleges and law courts. It didn't mean they were fighters who'd undergone military training”. They were literally running a state within a state and even had an “immigration” post which decided who could enter and leave their region. This entanglement had transformed the region like a wheat field with tares. And what happened at the end of the war was like what Joshua had said in the Gospel according to Biff  “you can't pull out the tares without destroying the grain.”

The last stages of the war had scarred the lives of many Tamil civilians. Almost everyone who were interviewed mentioned how they and many more like them lost their properties, livelihood and had to be on a constant move for fear of losing their life. Bunkers became not only their new homes but also their place to defecate and their place to leave the dead unburied. With the number of injured outnumbering the available facilities and with insufficient surgical supplies, doctors operated without anaesthesia and sometimes had to amputate with butcher knives. The injured mother who died while her baby was still feeding; the doctors who performed a caesarean delivery on the road; a baby trying to feed from its mother who was probably dead -- incidents like these may be difficult to come to terms with for someone who has never witnessed a war, but they seem to be a common sight in a war zone.

The ubiquitous claim among these stories is the unforgiving attack of the army. These survivors believe that the civilians had been targeted intentionally. The aid worker, in his story, describes heavy attacks on civilian areas in spite of transmitting their locations to the military. Similarly, a doctor interviewed for the book also claims that the hospitals were under constant attack. The attacks on the medical facilities were so consistent that eventually the doctors decided not to disclose their locations in order to prevent further attacks. A similar claim is made on the military declared safe zones as well. The survivors say in the book that the military would drop pamphlets from the air providing the locations of no-fire zones and asking civilians to move there. And as soon as they relocate and settle in these safe zones they would be attacked.

Many Tamils have suffered not only from the attacking army, but also from their own people – the Tigers. The LTTE had been notorious for using child and under-age soldiers. In the peak of the war, when the Tigers casualties were high, it appears that the forcible recruitment of children had increased. One of the front line LTTE soldiers interviewed in the book denies that the recruits were under-age, but accepts “ [recruits] been forced to join and spent their whole time complaining”. In another story, a teenage sniper described to one of the interviewees how her mother used to hide her in a travelling bag to protect her from the LTTE recruits. These forcible recruitments had created animosity between the civilians and the LTTE.

The incident, where an angry Tamil woman, whose nephew was forcibly taken over by the LTTE, being ready to handover the Tigers to the army surmises that the LTTE may not mean the same any more to many Tamils like her.

Besides forcible recruitment, the LTTE is also accused of exercising control over the movement of civilians from the war zone. According to the nun interviewed in the book, the rebels had a working “immigration” system and one had to get a pass that will allow them to travel in and out of the rebel area from a Tiger who also doubled up as an immigration officer. In addition to this, there are claims that the LTTE attacked their own people who attempted to flee the war zone. Though some of the interviewees deny that the Tigers shot at fleeing civilians, they did accept that civilians were intimidated and forced to stay in the war zone. The rebel's justification for this action is that as long as there are civilians in the war zone there is hope that the international community might intervene.

It is one thing to be a good samaritan when things are normal, but it is a total challenge to retain this character in times of adversity. Exploitation is a common behaviour when the demands for basic necessities shoot up and war zones are no exception. As much as there were incidents of people using the conditions to sell food and other products many times their original price, there were also stories of honourable and brave deeds. People shared their last remaining food and crowded bunkers; hid teenagers from rebel recruiters; declared unknown people as relatives to prevent the army from detaining them as terrorists. Kind acts like these only had saved some of the survivors Harrison had spoken to.

If the war was terrible, neither its end nor the surrender of Tamils to the military gave them relief. The experiences, narrated by the interviewees, in the various camps set up for the people coming out of the rebel region appears to be as worse as the war itself. There are alleged reports of rape, abuse and torture in many of these camps. Thanks to some of the corrupt soldiers in these camps, few fortunate Tamils have managed to pay these guards off and escape from them. Even long after the war was over, Tamils have experienced extortion, custodial rapes, disappearances and tortures in the name of identifying former Tigers.  'The Wife', one of the stories in the book, narrates such horrific experiences of a Tamil's wife who was once part of the movement.

For various reasons, including geopolitical one, the international community and Sri Lanka's neighbours like India failed to take stringent actions to protect the civilians. There were also some strange decisions by United Nations, like asking the aid workers to evacuate the region at a time when their presence was most needed. Though the reason for this is cited as the region becoming too dangerous for the aid workers to stay, critics see this as an action taken by Sri Lankan government to avoid outside witnesses. Moreover, the presence of foreign aid workers in the war zone means the military may not be able to go on a full throttled attack. Whatever may be the reason, it is apparent that the international community has let down yet another group of civilians. Harrison acknowledges this throughout the book and has dedicated a separate chapter rightly titled - 'The War the United Nations Lost'.

Though I sympathise with these survivors, I cannot refrain questioning how much of these stories are true to a tee. Harrison also expresses a similar sentiment and accepts that she cannot prove every single detail of the account, in spite of all her attempts to find the truth. I completely agree, when Harrison says “... there never will be an agreed account of what actually took place in those final months of war – Sri Lankan history will continue to be written differently according to your ethnic group or political bias.” 'Still counting the Dead' should be read keeping this in mind.

Apart from reporting the stories of these survivors to the world, the key thing to take from the book lies in its conclusion. The need of the hour is to acknowledge the truth from both sides. Though the Sri Lankan inquiry finally acknowledged that the casualties were significant and hospitals were shelled, the report overlooked targeting civilians and sexual violence. Similarly, the Tamils and their diaspora who had been supporting the war financially all these years, should start recognizing LTTE's war crimes and their attacks on Tamil and Sinhalese civilians.

It is only around the time when Velupillai Prabhakaran was born, the Sri Lankan government had introduced policies that started alienating Tamils. This along with the standardization policy introduced in the 1970's are cited as a reason for the rise of Prabhakaran and formation of an organization that eventually became the LTTE. Harrison fears there is a possibility for this to reoccur in the future.

If the trauma caused by the 2009 war is not addressed sincerely, then it could result in the rise of another insurgent movement. This may not be in the near future, but there is a younger generation growing up listening to the horrors of the recent war, just like Prabhakaran did when he was growing up. This sounds to me as a legitimate concern. If not for anything else, at least to prevent the rise of another Prabhakaran and yet another civil war, the parties concerned should start addressing not only the wrongdoings of this war but also the cause of the war itself.

To quote an aid worker from the book , “The war is not over in Sri Lanka; you don't solve these kinds of problems on the battlefield.”

Manual Scavenging and Nash Equilibrium

Recently, I was having a conversation about the manual scavenging issue in India discussed in Satyameva Jayate¹ and how the law enacted to abolish manual scavenging was of little help. For example, Indian railways, one of the largest rail networks in the world, is still using open discharges. This means that the Indian railways' 115,000 km long track also makes it probably the world's largest open toilet. This also means that it is highly likely that humans are still being used to manually clear the wastage especially in the tracks near the stations. May be not with bare hands, but with brooms and hosepipes.

This is an example of a situation where enacting laws doesn't necessarily help the affected people nor stop them from continuing the prohibited.

Kaushik Basu, former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, in his book 'Beyond the invisible hand: Ground work for new economics' explores reasons for such failures in proposed laws. 

Law makers while creating new laws often fail to create or envision a system in which an individual cannot act unilaterally, to move to a better state, by breaking the law. In other words, in a system where an individual sees a better utility beyond what the law prohibits, then it is likely that the individual will violate the law. Once the individual is in a state where he cannot get any better utility, then it is very unlikely for the law to be violated.

In game theory, such a state, given all other conditions, where an individual cannot unilaterally move to a better position, is defined as 'Nash equilibrium'. Named after John Nash, the mathematician who is known better as the protagonist in the Hollywood movie 'A beautiful mind'

Basu describes Nash equilibrium as

"A choice of action (or strategy) by each player constitutes a Nash equilibrium, if these choices have the property that, given every other player's choice, each player feels that it is not possible to do better by altering his or her choice.²"

Basu stresses that if an announced law is not a Nash equilibrium, then it is preordained to fail³. When concepts like Nash equilibrium is not taken into consideration then the presence or absence of law is insignificant. Meaning, irrespective of whether a law exists, the society would continue the prohibited practice. And when there exist a Nash equilibrium, then even in the absence of a law, those actions will not be performed by the society. 

Applying the Nash equilibrium to the case of manual scavenging possibly explains why this law is violated easily both by the workers and their employers. Currently in India we have a system where manual scavenging is prohibited by law. Now, for this law to be effective, the onus is on both the workers and the employers. It should be noted here that the workers are not coerced to work as scavengers. It is more of a voluntary agreement and hence both the parties should play by the rules for the law to be any effective.

From the workers point of view, at least three conditions should be satisfied for them to not take up the scavenging work. Firstly the scavengers should have an alternative employment if they cannot not work as manual scavengers anymore. Secondly, this new employment should provide an income that is better than their scavenging work. And finally there should not be any scavenging opportunities that could lure potential scavengers from their current job, say with a higher pay or less work load. If any of these conditions are not met, then this provides an opportunity for the workers to choose a better option then their current state. The better option in this case is manual scavenging. And this is precisely what one of the scavenging workers had to say about her work

“I am happy with my work. This work is easier. Earlier, I used carry bricks on my head, which was back-breaking.⁴”

A scavenger worker feeling happy about her work might surprise many. But the reality is, in the given state of things, this is probably the best outcome the worker could get. As soon as they see a better, sustainable option then what their current one, then it is likely that they will move out of their current state irrespective of what the law states.

The same principle can be extended to the employers of manual scavengers as well. As long as the employers get better utility by choosing to employ manual scavengers, they are likely keep employing them one way or the other and as a result keep violating the law. So, for the employers to actually stop employing manual scavengers declaring the work as illegal alone is not sufficient, but there should exist a viable and affordable alternative.

Based on this, a parallel can be drawn to other laws in India like the laws against corruption, child labor and media piracy which are almost ineffective.

Thus creating new laws without taking into account of concepts like Nash equilibrium will only ensure that laws are as ineffective as possible. Nash equilibrium may not be a sufficient condition for all social issues but it will be a necessary condition for most of the laws to meet its purpose. Policy makers and law makers should probably think along these lines rather than piling up ineffective laws for the sake of creating one.  

P.S:

I am no expert in the area of economics and policy making. I have only tried to apply the ideas, that I understood from Basu's book, to the issue of manual scavenging. Any misinterpretation of Basu's ideas only shows my lack of understanding of the subject and not what Basu actually says in his book 'Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for New Economics'.

References:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyamev_Jayate_(TV_series)
2. Basu, Kaushik. Beyond Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics. Penguin Books, 2011, p.63 
3. Basu, Kaushik. Beyond Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics. Penguin Books, 2011, p.66 
4. http://famschennai.wordpress.com/tag/employment-of-manual-scavengers-and-construction-of-dry-latrines-prohibition-act/

Porum Valiyum (War and Pain)

Porum Valiyum (War and Pain) - by Savitri Advithanandhan is a collection of short stories, based on real incidents happened during the Sri Lanka - LTTE war which had lasted for almost three decades.

The book's introduction is left blank awaiting completion from the late LTTE leader Prabhakaran. In the place of introduction there is a photo of Prabhakaran with a map of the Tamil Eelam in the background (Unlike the photo in this link, the book shows only the Eelam boundary) with a note 'munnurai ethirparpudan' (introduction expecting). The book also has a foreword with a quote from Kirupanandha Variyar on Prabhakaran and promises that Prabhakaran would resurface alive again like the way he did in 88/89 when there were reports that he was dead.

The book has been published in Tamil Nadu by Cheran - a prominent Tamil movie director. Apparently Cheran was so touched by reading these stories and wanted to publish the book himself, hence started a publishing house. This is the first publication from the house. It is a bit surprising that the book has been published in Tamil Nadu first and not in any of the European countries (where there is a significant Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora) in spite of the author herself being from London. Also surprisingly a book about Sri Lankan Tamils' pain and struggle carries no foreword from any of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Probably the book is targeted at Indian Tamils?

Each chapter in the book starts with a quote from world 'leaders' which includes some of the ruthless dictators like Che, Mao and Prabhakaran himself.  The quotes are of revolutionary theme and advocates struggle for freedom until death.

Though the book is titled as war and pain, it doesn't depict the horrors of the war from a neutral stand. The book is more about the sufferings of the Tamils and glorifies LTTE on every possible opportunity. No story goes without mentioning the sacrifices of the LTTE and their struggle for free Eelam. Even while writing on the July 23rd 1983 attack on the army patrol by LTTE, which eventually triggered a series of atrocities against Tamils, the author plays down LTTE's role by indicating that the attack was used only as an excuse to target Tamils.

In one of the stories, the author narrates emotionally how the Tamils were forced to vacate their homes within a short notice by the Sri Lankan Army, but fails to mention about the 70,000 odd Muslims expelled in a similar way by the LTTE from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Similarly other incidents like the massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers and the bombing of Central Bank by LTTE has no mention whatsoever. It appears that these events have been conveniently overlooked. Because of this selective story telling, one can't avoid the feeling that 'Porum Valiyum' is biased and doesn't give the full picture.

Though the stories depict the horrors of the war, a war's effect on civilians and how it has caused irreversible damage for generations to come, the one-sidedness of these stories and the explicit praise for the tigers could make a reader with a neutral stand uncomfortable. Also in every other story, either the protagonist or his/her family member is a LTTE cadre or related to LTTE. If this is indeed true, then it blurs the distinction between Tamil civilians and Tamil armed forces and makes it more difficult to empathize with them, especially when LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in 32 countries.¹

These shortcomings in the stories could prevent the book from reaching a wider audience and limit itself to staunch LTTE supporters and those who are looking for another military solution. For the rest, who are hoping for a relatively peaceful political solution to end this conflict, the book will be only a disappointment.




References:
1.LTTE - Wikipedia

Behind the Beautiful Forevers

For a long time now, slums have been an integral part of Mumbai's description. The stories and characters from these shacks have been a source of inspiration for many writers and film makers. The overrated 'Slumdog Millionaire' is one such example. The mere characterization of the hero from the slum has done the magic. I doubt if a similar story of life and hope from a poor village which is not a slum would have been as successful as the original movie.

'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' by Katherine Boo is one another book on the slums of Mumbai. Unlike Vikas Swarup's Q&A (which came out as the 'Slumdog Millionaire'), this book is not about the success story of an individual brought up in a slum background. This book is more about the slum as a whole and not a particular character. Katherine Boo has chosen 'Annawadi' for her book, the slum behind the walls carrying the advertisement 'Beautiful Forever, Beautiful Forever, Beautiful Forever' off the Sahar Airport road, Mumbai.

Annawadi is the land of immigrants from the other poor parts of India. People migrate to slums like Annawadi hoping that they would get a better life than their past. One could imagine how their past would have been, if slums like Annawadi is their hope. They struggle day in and day out to feed themselves, save a few and hope to move to a better place.

The history of Annawadi as in the book:
"The slum had been settled in 1991 by a band of laborers trucked up from the southern tip of Tamil Nadu to repair a runway at the airport. Work complete, they decided to stay near the airport and its tantalizing construction possibilities. ... Residents of neighboring slums provided its name: Annawadi - the land of annas. ... Seventeen years later, almost no one in this slum was considered poor by official Indian benchmarks"

'Behind the Beautiful Forevers' depicts the life of these Annawadis,  the way they see the world from their mounds of garbage; their life with rat bites, which also occasionally turns out to be their food along with frogs, their fights over trivial things and their fear for life from movements like 'Beat the Bhaiya' and false accusations by the local cops.

In a society of systemic corruption, it looks like the most affected are people like these. When accused falsely, they can neither pay the bribe nor prove their innocence. And their lives are not taken seriously and their deaths are taken for granted. Most of the Government funds provided to help these people are devoured by the corrupt officials by running non existent schools and NGOs. This corruption along with the crab mentality of the few Annawadis shatters the hopes of the rest, forever.
In Katherine's words:
"...a system in which the most wretched tried to punish the slightly less wretched by turning to a justice system so malign it sank them all"

Katherine Boo's focus on multiple characters provides a bigger picture of life and death in Annawadi. The sequence of events makes the narration interesting, and the lives of Annawadis makes 'Behind the Beautiful Forever' a memorable read. 

Possibility Effect and Understanding of Numbers

Few months back, there was a sudden upraise of protests regarding the atomic power project in Kudankulam, India. In the little reading I did on these protests, one of the primary concern was about the safety of the nuclear power plant and the possible direct and indirect casualties this could trigger. In addition, the effects of Bhopal disaster, probably the worst industrial accident in the history of the country and the way these victims were handled  had created an animosity towards projects like these.

In cases like Kudankulam the decision to oppose the project is usually based on the casualties caused by similar projects in the past. For example, if we consider the Union Carbide disaster, according to this CNN article, the death toll was about 33,000. This Wikipedia entry quotes that, the leak had caused about 558,125 injuries. Similarly this entry from Wikipedia indicates that the approximate number of deaths alone in nuclear accidents around the world is about 5000 and then there are other prolonged side effects. These numbers seems quite high. But do the protesters actually take account of these numbers?

Now to a different event. This article in 'The Lancet' indicates that about 7.6 million children below the age of five had died in 2010 of which about 64% are attributed to infectious causes including pneumonia, diarrhea which are preventable.This is the estimate around the world. Out of these 7.6 million, 1.682 million were from India alone which includes about 0.397 million from pneumonia and 0.212 million from diarrhea which are infectious but again almost preventable.

Assuming that the above numbers regarding the deaths from nuclear reactors and infant mortality are true (at least proportionally), it is very clear that the infectious diseases have a high death rate (among the children below the age of 5), when compared to nuclear accidents. The outcome of injury related to nuclear reactors still reduces if we include the frequency of these accidents as well. Unless we start working towards better healthcare, the death rates among these children are going to be more or less similar every year unlike an accident in a reactor which might not necessarily happen every year.

So ideally our priority to save human lives should have more focus on events that have an higher death rate . But we seldom see protests against these events like infant mortality which has an higher outcome. Even if such protests happen, it doesn't get the required attention always. Rather we tend to focus our time and energy towards relatively less probable events. This inconsistency, I think is an example of the Possibility Effect:


"The decision weights that people assign to outcomes are not identical to the probabilities of these outcomes, contrary to the expectation principle. Improbable outcomes are over weighted - this is the possibility effect. Outcomes that are almost certain are under weighted relative to actual certainty."

-Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow, p.312

The Possibility Effect might look less harmful, especially when it is associated with events like gambles and lotteries. But when it is applied to our attitude towards some serious life threatening events, we can observe how it affects our decision making.

In addition, the lack of understanding of numbers related to these events we deal with, affects our decisions. If these protesters were aware of the actual numbers, will it have the same intensity or will they still work towards the same cause ?

For example, When a question 'Which of these events should be prevented first ? Event A - Kills 1 lakh people, probably occurring once in few years. Event B - Kills 10 lakhs people almost every year' is posed to the protesters, a reasonable person would want to prevent event B and work towards it. But if we just pose a question without numbers, 'which one you would want to prevent? Deaths related to infectious disease or Nuclear Disaster?' do we still get the same answer?

The possibility of a nuclear accident even though its outcome is less comparatively, looms large and attracts more attention and support to eliminate it. This when compared to a larger and sure outcome event like infant mortality is more or less ignored*. So ideally we should try working towards making our decisions based on the probability of the event, its outcome and the actual numbers. Not just based on an ideology or the emotional statements of the policy makers and the protesters. This could have a better value for people's money and time and might have a better impact on society itself.



* This representation is only based on the numbers available in the internet. If the numbers turn out to be incorrect or change eventually and reverses the outcome, then so should be our decisions towards it.

The Element

Sir Ken Robinson defines 'Element' as,
"... the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels."

In his book 'The Element', Ken Robinson narrates inspiring stories of a long list of people including the British Ballerina Gillian Lynne, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, Paul McCartney of Beatles, Paulo Coelho and many others who managed to follow their passion, breaking social norms and overcoming odds. These odds were not always mental road blocks, some of them were physical as well. This includes Ken Robinson's personal struggle after contracting polio in his childhood. The book describes how being in 'The Element' helped these individuals to achieve great heights.

The book covers how some of the fundamental flaws we have developed in our society, especially in the field of education make it difficult to find one's Element. For example, how Professional courses are given more importance than Fine Arts or any art related subjects, the flaws in determining an individual's IQ and the way we have defined what Creativity is.

Talking about intelligence, Robinson noted that when he posed the question, 'How intelligent are you?' to an audience, the answers often took the form of a Bell curve, with a few lying at the extremes but the major portion was concentrated around the center. When the same group were asked, 'How creative are you?', the answers were completely different. The majority thought they were not very creative. This clearly shows that people think that creativity and intelligence are not related.

The primary reason for this thinking is, we as a society tend to assign creativity to a very specific group of subjects like Arts, Music, etc. Similarly, standardized tests that test an individuals' IQ do not always assess their artistic abilities. This difference tends to imply that creativity and intelligence are two different things, often forgetting that an individual can be both intelligent and creative irrespective of his field or profession. So, Robinson suggests that, the question to be asked is not, 'How intelligent are you?' rather, 'How are you intelligent?'

Similarly Robinson talks about how we take things for granted. Often people don't realize that they have something special and fail to acknowledge it. One simple example given in the book is about the senses. When the question is asked 'how many senses do human beings have?', the answer is usually five. But according to Robinson, there is more than that. This sixth sense, he says, is not the spooky one, but a real sense like the five others, the sense of balance! The sense of balance is a very key thing in day to day life, but is often taken for granted. He narrates the story of Bart Conner, whose ability to walk with his hands was not taken for granted and how he eventually represented the USA in the Olympics.

There are similar thoughts covered throughout the book along with some stories attached to it. Along with these stories, Robinson also provides some insights on how to find one's Element like spending time with one's 'Tribe'. Tribe here are the people who share a common passion, like a group of scientists or artists.
Often an individual's passion fails to be acknowledged by people around them who either neglect it or suppress it in the name of well being, like in the case of Paulo Coelho. So being among like minded people would help the individual's passion to be heard and understood and to help develop the skills required for it.

On the whole, the book is more of an extension to Ken Robinson's famous TED Talk on 'How schools kill Creativity' and 'Bring on the Learning Revolution'. The book carries a number of stories which for some might seem a little bit overwhelming. As one of the users pointed out in the amazon review comments, by the end of the book one might start feeling that the same ideas are being repeated over and over again and might question the length of the book itself. Reducing the number of stories might have definitely increased the readability, but on the contrary, it could have made it look like a self help book and this definitely is not one. 'The Element' is a good read if one can bear with some of its extended stories and it's repetitive tone.

Related Links:

http://toddanthonydirect.typepad.com/the_bullshit_observer/2009/02/passion-changes-everything.html
http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/

(Edited with comments from Dhiviya.)

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders' is a collection of short stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Most of the stories, in fact all the stories are told in the backdrop of Pakistan's rich and poor. The characters and the narration doesnt reflect much about the period in which these stories are told.Simple language, narration and characterization keeps the book engaging.

The uniqueness of fictional short stories are the way they are ended. A nicely engaging story abruptly ends leaving it for the reader to decide what happens next. Such abstract endings are like double edged sword; they make the most memorable as well as easily forgettable stories, not only in books but in movies as well. 'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders' is no exception.

The interesting part of the book is the way the characters have been related. Though each story is about different individuals, some of the characters are cleverly borrowed from the previous stories which makes it look like the lives of these characters are interconnected but not their story itself. In a way this type of characterization portrays how the stories of people around us are closely overlapped but still there exists a disconnect. Disconnect in such a way that each one is oblivious of other's joy and sorrow. May be that's what the title implies - In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.

My picks are 'Nawabdin Electrician' for its ending, 'Lily' for the farm house and 'A Spoiled Man' for Rezak.

Rights of Man

'Rights of man' - Thomas Paine's response to Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the Revolution in France'. The book is divided into two parts.

In part 1, Paine starts with explaining the rights of individuals, the distinction between natural rights and civil rights, how every civil right is derived over a natural right and that these civil rights should not invade the natural right of the individuals.

He goes on to explain the evil of aristocratic or hereditary Government and how despotism is not restricted only to the Kings but also spreads all the way to the end of the system. Paine's Government is a system elected by the people and not the one formed arbitrarily. Paine's idea is that any Government principles and policies should be built over a strong Constitution like the one proposed by Marquis de La Fayette in the French National Assembly: 'The Declaration of the rights of Man and of Citizens' .

In a separate section Paine also provides his observation on these fundamental rights and explains how the below first three declarations form the basis for the rest.

• Men are born, and always continue, free, and equal in respect of their rights.Civil distinctions, therefor, can be founded only on public utility.
• The end of all political associations, is, the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty,property,security, and resistance of oppression.
• The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any INDIVIDUAL, or ANY BODY OF MEN, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it.

Complete list here.

Though the book was written in simple direct language, it was not easy to comprehend without any background on the French Revolution and history of France. Besides this, as the book itself being a response to Burke's book, it was difficult to understand the context having not read Burke's.

Nevertheless one can still understand the core thought of Paine from his quote in the very first page of the book: "Society is in every state a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil"

Paine believes that Government,Tax and War are interrelated. The tax collected in the name of war is actually the revenue collected for the Government as the primary revenue for the Government is from tax. To Quote Paine:

"Whatever is the cause of taxes to a Nation, becomes also the means of revenue to a Government. Every war terminates with an addition of taxes, and consequently with an addition of revenue;" (pp:93)

Through his response to Burke, Paine covers some of the prominent issues prevailed during the French Revolution and the necessity for not only the French Revolution but also the earlier American Revolution.

Its been 200 years since this book was written, but many of his thoughts are still relevant, especially the ones on individual rights and Government.

"As war is the system of Government on the old construction, the animosity which Nations reciprocally entertain, is nothing more than what the policy of their Governments excites, to keep up the spirit of the system. Each Government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue, and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective Nations, and incensing them to hostilities. Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of Kings,the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such Governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of the Nation should apply itself to reform the system." (pp:93)

My favorite one was about Ignorance:

"Ignorance is of a peculiar nature: and once dispelled, its impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he can not be made ignorant. The mind in discovering truth, acts in the same manner as it acts through the eye in discovering objects; when once any object has been seen, it is impossible to put the mind back to the same condition it was in before it saw it." (pp72)

This reminds me of what Michael Sandel had said :"Self knowledge is like lost innocence. However unsettling you find it, it can never be unthought or unknown."

Overall, part 1 of the book could make an interesting read for some one with the background of the French Revolution and has read Burke's Reflection. Otherwise the book might excite only at places, but still there is enough food for thought.

The Checklist Manifesto

A study conducted to analyse why people fail to perform in complex situations identified two major influencing factors -Ignorance and Ineptitude.

Ignorance - The lack of knowledge. This could be due to lack of experience or it could be in rare, complex or unfamiliar situations.

Ineptitude - The lack of application. In other words, the skills and expertise to solve a particular problem are available and are known, but we either fail to apply them or apply them inefficiently.

The former requires more research and it's attributed to the lack of training. For the latter, there is already enough training and expertise in place, but we still fail to apply it successfully. But, why?

In health care, vital signs are measured to assess the most basic body functions. Though the number of vital signs to be measured may vary according to the situation, the four basic ones are body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. In most cases, when three of the vital signs are normal, the fourth one also tends to be normal. When we begin to notice that most of the times the fourth sign is good, we stop checking it when the first three signs are good. And this is not just in health care. Here's another example.

A few years back when I was living in Hyderabad, we were using a padlock for the main door of our apartment. This lock was broken. But it was broken in such a way that you could actually make it look like it was locked even when it was not. Just press it and it would hold together nicely. To unlock it, all you needed to do was just pull it down and no key was required. Though we knew how risky this was, we used this lock whenever we forgot to handover the key to the last leaving housemate. We used it a couple of times and never had any issues.

In the initial days we warned ourselves not to keep using it, but as the days passed, nothing bad happened and we slowly ignored the risks and took it for granted. Everything was good except for the day when our house was robbed! The robber didn't even have to break the door to get in. You could call it carelessness, stupidity or whatever, but the loss is a loss.

Then, there is this human memory which is fallible by nature and a simple fact that many of us don't want to accept. How many times have we been surprised by or surprise others with this question, 'how could you forget such a simple thing?'. It's typical of how our memory is. Our memory cannot retrieve everything whenever and wherever we want. The more we learn, the more information the brain has to store and the more it stores, the tougher it gets to retrieve something quickly, especially in a highly pressurized environment. So in adverse situations, sometimes the brain fails to retrieve or remind us even the most basic stuff. These are some typical examples of being inept.

Experts in various industries started realizing that to tackle ineptitude, just skills and expertise alone would not be sufficient. It requires something more than that.

Dr.Atul Gawande an endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston who has done some extensive research in this area believes that the answer could be 'The Checklist'.

In the field of medicine, checklists are not completely new. They have been used on and off at different levels - for example, some nurses maintain a checklist to ensure that all the vital signs are tested. Dr.Peter Pronovost, one of the early advocates of checklists in the intensive care unit has reported that his checklists have saved 1500 lives and $100 million in the State of Michigan over a period of 18 months*.

In spite of these results, checklists are not popular and not widely accepted. That's possibly because of the way we define what checklists are for and who should be using them.

Ask yourselves a question, 'who do you think should be using a checklist in the real world?'

Was your answer just amateurs like beginners in a profession or for some one in a learning curve; or did it also include some one with extensive experience and specialization like a 'chief surgeon in an hospital who has some 15-20 years of experience in surgery' or 'a pilot with some 20,000 hours of flying experience' ?

If your answer didn't include the latter, then ask yourselves why you thought that an experienced professional would not need a checklist. If your answer did include both novice and experienced alike, then have you ever used or are using a checklist currently? If not why? Answering these questions would probably explain why checklists are not popular and why they are not widely accepted.

We often think checklists are silly. For the experienced, checklists are just a waste of time and its embarrassing to have one.

Few years back, when I was a Senior Tester I failed to test a basic business condition in the application. When the issue was escalated, I had no reason to explain why I had missed it. I just forgot to include the condition in the test case. As simple as that. Thinking about it now, I realize a checklist could have prevented it.

One might wonder what if we failed to include an item in the checklist itself. For this, Gawande insists that the checklist should be discussed with all the stake holders, optimized and made sure it is efficient. Moreover a checklist should neither be too long nor too short. It should be apt to the situation. When more than one pair of eyes are involved in preparing a checklist, chances are less for making mistakes in the checklist itself. Of course there will be exceptions and that's why Gawande suggests that the checklists should be inspected often and made sure they are relevant to the current situation.

During his research on checklists, Gawande observed that checklists have actually been in use for a long time now in other major industries like Aviation and Construction. The Aviation industry in particular has extensive checklists that are well organized and followed effectively. Gawande explains how emergency checklists helped experienced pilots to ditch the US Airways Flight1549 successfully in the Hudson river, saving all 155 on board resulting in the incident to be known as the Miracle on the Hudson .

Eventually when Gawande started working with the WHO on an initiative to improve safety in surgical processes around the world, he put forth the idea of using a checklist that could potentially save millions of lives without requiring the invention of any new medicines or technology. The Surgical Safety checklist was tried in 6 hospitals around the world to see how effective it would actually be. The outcome of the study indicated that, 'Postoperative complication rates fell by 36% on average and death rates fell by a similar amount'. More information on this study can be found here.

Below is the 2009 edition of the Surgical Safety checklist from the WHO. Some of the questions like - patient name and identity, operation procedure would sound so basic. But the reality is, even in the most advanced hospitals these basic things are often missed.

Dr.Gawande has observed multiple instances where checklists have repeatedly saved lives, even in the most improbable situations.

One such case was reported in this article 'The Checklist' - the scintillating story of a three year old girl who almost drowned in an icy fishpond in Alps.

The article published in 2007 in 'The New Yorker' was the forerunner of this book - 'The Checklist Manifesto'. An interesting and worthwhile read.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pronovost

Recent Reads

A short review on my recent reads..

My Experience with the Truth :

Though i am not a fan of Gandhi, i wanted to read this to see what the Father of our Nation has to say. A better title for this book would have been 'My Experiments with India and its people'. The autobiography goes till 1921 after which Gandhi says

'My life from this point onward has been so public that there is hardly anything about it that people do not know'

If only he had to write, i wonder if he would have ever talked about these unknown experiments.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday:

I guess this is the authors début novel. Salmon Fishing comes with a simple story with an unorthodox narration. Refreshing and interesting light read. Give it a try, you may not regret :)

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown:

Would recommend to read Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons again if you are a dire Dan fan.

Lord of the Rings -JRR Tolkien:

I could easily call this as a multi-fold Ponniyin Selvan happening in the middle earth with the wizards and Hobbit. Undoubtedly one of the best i have read.

The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and those who are going to read them - Sunday Times .

The Black Book - Orhan Pamukh:

One of the most complex book i have ever managed to complete till date, the others being Fountain Head and Satanic Verses.

Though its was very to tough to comprehend, i liked this book more than i thought i would. A very different read. Would recommend for those who like to explore different genres of writing.

The Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor:

An excellent adaptation of Mahabaratha with the Indian Historians as its characters (see Wiki chart). Read this for its sarcasm and its take on Indian History. If only Tharoor knew that he would join the Kaurava party at some point of time, i doubt if he would have ever written this book.An interesting read about Indian History on a different light.

The Wish Maker - Ali Sethi:

Not too many twists or surprises. Neither too good nor too bad from the first time novelist.

Train to Pakistan

"The fact is, both sides killed. Both shot and stabbed and speared and clubbed. Both tortured. Both raped. By the summer of 1947 ... ten million people - Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs - were in flight. Almost a million of them were dead"

- Khushwant Singh

Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan is a fictious story based on the events during the India-Pakistan Partition. The story is set in the backdrop of a serene village Mano Majra which turns into a restless chaotic border village as a result of the new geographical separation.

The book gives you a feel of what the partition has done to a village like Mano Majra, where Sikhs and Muslims live together like a family. The slowly changing mindsets of the Sikhs and Muslims, tells us how cruel the partition has been to these innocent villagers, for whom Independence is just a shift of slavery from the British Government to the Indians or Pakistani Government and partitioning the country is nothing more than splitting their own family.

The author gives different perspectives on the incidents happening through the eyes of Juggat Singh, Hukkum Chand,Iqbal, Meet Singh, Imam Baksh and the other villagers. As a common man we could easily put ourselves in any of these characters.

Victims of the riots in Delhi being removed from the streets. Fighting broke out over Partition. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) Content © 2009 Getty Images All rights reserved.

The photographs of the carnage taken by Margaret Bourke -White gives more life to this fiction. These photographs doesn't give a feel that our independence is something to feel proud about. Its shame on us if we still boast that our indepedence was through ahimsa and without blood shed. If someone should take responsibility for all these murders and lootings, then the onus is on the the Babus, Jinnahs and the Gandhis.

The narration of the incidents without taking sides of the Sikhs or the Muslims, makes Train to Pakistan a worthy read.

Related links :

http://www.punjabpartition.com/india_independence_pictures.html

Image courtesy :
http://www.picapp.com/

Keep off the Grass

Karan Bajaj - an IIM-B grad comes up with an impressive debut work Keep of the Grass.A Fiction from another B school grad sounded like it might be something similar to Five point someone.Albeit the initial hostel day events reminded five point.., this book is quite absorbing. The story is about an American(born to Indian immigrants) Wall Street investment banker,Samrat, travelling to India to pursue management degree in one of India's top Business school as part of his search towards self realization and happiness. While the farangi's experinces of chasing grass in the streets of Banglore, sharing a joint with the Aghori's and selling shampoos to rural Indians are fictious, the Sarkar's ideologies  and Vinod Singh's principles adds pinch of philosophy to the fiction.

Karan,being an IIM grad shows a quite snapshot of the competitiveness and the trauma prevailing in the atmosphere of the top business schools.Its pathetic to see students giving in, unable to face peer competition in such institution. The farewell speech by the alumnus shows sense of reality.

A nice blend of fiction,reality and philosophy makes Keep of the Grass an interesting read.

Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction

Blaft publications private limited, a chennai based publishing house has published this book - "Blaft Anthology for Tamil Pulp Fiction ". I had to literally postmortem the title to find what it means :)

Blaft - The publisher
Anthology - Collection of literary works
Pulp magazine or pulp fiction - Inexpensive fiction magazines

The book is a collection of fiction stories, translated into English, written by some of the great Tamil Pulp authors . The anthology includes stories of Subha, Rajesh Kumar, Vidya Subramaniam, Indra Soundararajan, Ramanichandran,Pattukottai Prabhakar, Pushpha Thangadurai, Tamilvanan,Brajanand, Resakee..

I was surprised to see such a publication. Its a welcome approach and a honor to all these great writers. Am not sure how good the translation version will be, as am yet to read it. But it will be a good read for the readers who will not be able to read Tamil. I guess the book should be available at all leading book sellers.

The publishers also have a vision of translating other South Asian Regional language books into English. With this we will get a chance to read the good works of writers from other languages too... Good work Blaft .

The Three Mistakes of My life

The Three Mistakes of My life - A story about Business,Cricket and Religion.

Chetan Bhagat comes up with another fictitious story, whirling around the streets of Ahmedabad blended with business,cricket and religion. Simple narration, realistic characters and witty dialogs looks like his forte. Unlike Five point some one, this time the story involves more serious characters,historical events and reflects how politics and religion are inseparable in our country.

Though a little part reminds one of his previous novels it doesn't make you feel bored. This book is a decent read for fiction readers.

The Kite Runner

After reading Ponniyin Selvan for months together, i picked up "The Kite Runner" three days back, hoping to complete it in a months time. But to my surprise i completed it quicker than i expected. Easily it becomes one of the best books i have read so far.

The Kite Runner derives its name from an ancient Afghan hobby of dueling with kites. When the opponent's kite has been downed, then the real battle turns into a race, the kite run, to see who retrieves the fallen kite. In 1994 the Taliban regime banned the kite flying

Khaled Hosseini's first novel unfolds a remarkable story of parenting, love, remorse and pain between two young children Amir and Hassan..Life is not same always, it changes for them too and puts them in a spot they would have never imagined. It brings you back your old memories and shows how life gradually changes in course of time.

Besides this the book gives you a picture of how the social and political climate in Afghanistan has made thousand of people homeless and made them live as refugees in other countries. Its sad to see how th monarchies, the Russians, followed by the Talibans and the anti terrorist wars(???) has made Afghanistan into a land of turmoil.

The story starts with a beautiful saying "There is a way to be good again", and ends with a hidden message, "Learn to stand for yourself, else their will be a day you will regret for not standing up for your loved ones"

Ponniyin Selvan

Ponniyin Selvan - Many of us would have heard about this novel. But only very few would have got the pleasure of reading it.. Written by Amarar Kalki, the story was initially published as a serial in his own magazine Kalki, for three and half years and later it got published as a book in multiple volumes.

It started like a pretty ordinary historical novel, but later it turned into a roller coaster ride with all twists and surprises.Mr. Vanthiyathevan Vallavarayyan's kusumbu and heroism, Kunthavai's saamarthiyam, Poonguzhali's attitude, Nandhini's revenge, Manimegalai and Amudhan's kadhal, Arulmozhi's gesture ellamey super.. The way the author has depicted the human feelings, their desires and the extent they go to achieve it, is the real beauty of the book. I was reading it like a mega serial, slowly and intermittently and when it got over i felt little empty.. :(

Reading it even after 50 years from the time it got published,this book gives you an immense pleasure .This is a must read for all Thamizh readers..