[Book] चार नगरांतील माझे विश्व : Dr Jayant Naralikar

It is rare to see an autobiography of an Indian scientist. It's even more rare to see an autobiography of Indian scientist in Marathi. So, coming across चार नगरांतील माझे विश्व by Dr Jayant Naralikar was something special.

Dr. Naralikar is well known for his Quasi-Steady State Theory, an alternative theory to Big Bang Model of the origin of the universe. 
In his autobiography, Dr. Naralikar narrates his life as a sequence of his living in four cities: His childhood and formative years in Benaras (Varanasi), doctoral and research years with Fred Hoyle at Cambridge, a professorship at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, and as Founder- Director of IUCAA, Pune. 
The narrative is extremely detailed, running about 600 pages, and has a good collection of photographs, and a superb index. In fact, I read the book primarily using the index rather than the traditional start-to-finish approach.
The book has received a Sahitya Academy award.

हाच माझा मार्ग (Haach Maajha Marg) - Sachin Pilgaonkar

हाच माझा मार्ग (Haach Maajha Marg), the autobiography of Sachin Pilgaonkar is perhaps one of the most detailed memoirs written by a contemporary Indian film star, and rightly so… His repertoire across Hindi and Marathi films spans a staggering 50+ years. 

The book measures about 320 pages and almost each page has a photo, many of them quite rare ones. Text is lucid and we get to read many behind-the-scenes, personal stories about movies and movie legends. The author shares his feelings, views and thoughts candidly and at times bluntly, which is great for a book about film industry notorious for its hypocrite ways.

The problem with this book is, after a while, it starts sounding a bit too much of "I, Me, Myself". At first glance, this may seem inevitable in an autobiography, but in the hands of a good editor, so many sentences could have been written in a much better way to make Mr. Pilgaonkar appear less of a narcissist. 

Secondly, and more importantly,  nowhere in the book does the author offer any deep, substantially meaningful insights into the soul of the industry he worked in for 50 years. The book reads more like a chronology of films and events than a retrospection of a thoughtful veteran.  

[Book] Turning Points: Journey through Challenges - Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

"Wings of Fire", the autobiography of late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam inspired millions of people across not only India but world at large. It narrated an amazing, true life story of a small boy from the sands to Rameswaram who became one of the one most prominent scientists of the country.

However, it didn't tell the complete story: the same boy went on to become the 11th President of our country!

This is the stuff that legends are made of, and I was hoping that one day Dr Kalam would again write his memoirs to pick up from where he left us in the Wings of Fire.

"Turning Points: Journey through Challenges" is the answer to my hopes and wishes.

In this book, Dr Kalam writes in detail about his tenure as the President of India and his teaching experiences. He describes the turning points that shaped his life: ISRO... DRDO... TIFAC... PSA... and others. 
In a chapter, he shares what he learnt from the various people he came across in his life, be it his elder brother, his mentors like Dr. Sarabhai, Dr Dhawan or Dr Brahma Prakash, and... Yes, the politicians!

Dr Kalam initiated many activities in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, such as e-governance, teleconferencing, re-vitalizing the beautiful Mughal Gardens, and many more. He candidly explains his thought process by which he arrived at his decisions as the President. This chapter makes for an engrossing and informative reading.

Unlike Wings of Fire which had lot of personal anecdotes, this book is more about Kalam's vision of India 2020. Many chapters are devoted to a 'blueprint' for reforms to make judiciary, parliament and government more efficient and responsive. 

It's a small book, just 150 pages, and can be finished in a single seating.  Language is simple, direct and unornamented. There are many photographs that show Dr. Kalam's life during his presidential days, and his interactions with a wide range of people, right from heads of state such George W. Bush to small school children.

[Book] "Man's Search for Meaning" - Viktor E Frankl

Once in a while, you read a book that leaves you shocked and shaken. 

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E Frankl is one such memoir, written by a survivor of the concentration camp at Auschwitz during the Holocaust (World War II). Just 150 pages long, it written in such a direct, sharp manner that leaves nothing to the imagination. 

Compared to what these people went through, all our troubles seem so much trivial.

In the company of Armstrong, Einstein and Jobs

My reading, like all other activities, takes form of a sine wave: there are times when I read feverishly, knocking off a book a week, and then there are times when I do not even read the newspaper. 
Well, the first four months of the year 2013 have been the crest of the wave, so far. Apart from just the number of books, the quality of the material has been outstanding. I plan to review some of these books in a couple of posts. 

In this post, the biographies. 
 

 

First Man: Written by James Hansen, this is the only authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, the first person to step on the Moon. Well-researched and written in an engaging manner, this biography reveals the human side of this reclusive man. It also clears a lot of myths, and false rumours that Armstrong chose not to respond to during his life time. A must-read book for all the fans and followers of the space programme.

Einstein: His life and Universe: There are a number of biographies written on this genius -- some of them very good ones indeed -- but the one written by Walter Isaacson is the best by a wide margin. I especially enjoyed the chapters that describe how Einstein came up with various thought experiments that led him on the way to the special and general theories of relativity.

Steve Jobs: Again by Walter Isaacson! Though I am a bit partial towards Bill Gates, I really enjoyed reading about Steve Jobs, one of the prominent visionaries of our times. It is a great fun to read about Jobs's wry remarks about his contemporaries and his equally poignant observations about innovations and ideas. 

[Book Review] Last Man on Moon: Gene Cernan

It was an eerie coincidence: I had started reading the autobiography of Eugene Cernan, the last man on the Moon, and the day I finished it, I read the news of sad demise of Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the Moon.

Eugene Cernan had an illustrious career as an astronaut: he was the second American to do a spacewalk, and as the commander of Apollo 17, he was the last human – as of now – to step off the Moon. In his autobiography, "The Last Man on the Moon", he recounts his childhood, career as a fighter pilot, induction into NASA and his adventures aboard Gemini 9, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17.



Cernan sheds light on a lot of hitherto unknown facts of the moon programme. For example, the details of the plane crash that killed two astronauts or the fact that oxygen tank that ruptured on Apollo 13 was originally fitted on Apollo 10 and was then replaced. He gives interesting profiles of some of the leading men of the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo era: Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jack Schmidt, and many more. He also gives a good insight into the background events -- social and political -- that affected the Moon missions.


What makes this book a sheer pleasure is Cernan’s very candid, no-nonsense style of writing. The episode of his having to apologize for using “cuss words” during an emergency on Apollo 10 mission is particularly fun to read. His apology went like this:

“To those we hurt, we are sorry. To those who understand, thank you!”

Some of the highlights of the book are Cernan’s mesmerizing depictions of the his spacewalk aboard Gemini 9, the bone-rattling journey aboard Saturn V for the Apollo 10 mission and his brush with disaster aboard the Apollo 10 lunar module. In comparison, he seems ‘dry’ when writing about his own excursion on the Moon aboard Apollo 17.

Unlike some other books, this autobiography doesn't try to portray the astronauts as some out-of-this-world superheroes, but shows them as real men with real feelings, and of course, flaws. Cernan writes at length about the toll that rigorous training programme and the missions themselves took on the family relations of the astronauts, particularly with regards to their wives. While the men toiled hard in simulators and classes all day long, the wives were left to themselves to take care of running the house and looking after the children. It should come as no surprise that after the Apollo programme, a vast majority of the astronauts's wives divorced their husbands.

 This book is a must-read for every space enthusiast interested in the Apollo era.

[Autobiography] iWoz : Steve Wozniak

IBM may have started the revolution, but the era of personal computers began with Apple 1 and Apple 2, created almost single-handedly by Steve Wozniak. Hence, when I came across his autobiography, it was hard not to pick it up!

iWoz differs from other memoirs in the respect that there is no undue stress on dates and places; instead the focus is on events that shaped him. Particularly interesting is the part played by his father in developing the curiosity of an intelligent child.

Steve emphasizes the pride he feels to be an engineer, a statement that recurs throughout the book. He recounts the early days of Apple, its amazing rise to become one of Fortune 500 companies in a decade, and the reasons that led to many of the controversies. He concludes with “Rules to Live By”, a chapter in which he discusses his philosophy of life at length.

Language is disarmingly simple and unpretentious. Every thought is dealt in short paragraphs, focusing on the bare essentials. The book gives an insight into the life of a man who can undoubtedly be said to be one of the pioneers of computer age, and clears a few misconceptions about Apple, one of most innovative companies of our times.

“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”

This book, written by Richard Feynman, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, is one of the most popular books written by a scientist and undoubtedly one of my all-time favourites. Here, Feynman recounts his capers from the years spent at Princeton, Cornell, Caltech as well as anecdotes in connection with work on atom bomb (the Manhattan Project) at Los Alamos.

Throughout the book, Feynman comes across as an extraordinary combination of high intelligence, sharp mind, unlimited curiosity about every aspect of life, and above all, a fine sense of humour.

Vivid, lively and unpretentious, this is one book that you return to time and again!