Watching cricket in USA

 Cricket is not something you would associate with the USA. When I moved here more than a decade ago, had heard from my couple of cousins about the thriving cricket scene among desi 20-30 somethings working in Software companies all over the US. Wherever you had a sufficient number of young ones, there were cricket matches and stuff. Sure there were attempts made to bring in the Indian team to play some matches in Florida, but still watching a match in a stadium was not something I expected I would do in the US. 

And then, here we were in Grand Prairie stadium outside Dallas, Texas watching/cheering for Super Kings. It was a bit surreal to suddenly hear about a league being planned and lots of uncertainties and then the first season gets underway with half of the teams owned by IPL franchisees who bring the same brand name, identity and some of those players. Then comes the news that there is going to be a team based out of your city and that team is owned by your fav team from the IPL. Then to compound your joy, it is announced that 70% of matches in season one of Major League Cricket ( MLC) is going to be played in your city. But then there is this small matter of 100+ degree heat and of course the stadium is far away and the whole thing is a lot of unknown.

Yet there was no hesitation when a friend reached out asking if I would be interested in attending a few matches during the first weekend of the league. We planned to watch a double header  - a day game and night one. July typically is super super hot and this was no different, I felt it was going to be a tough experience sitting in an open stadium. So yeah it was an open stadium as this was a Baseball park converted into a cricket ground, so the stands don't have shade. If you need shade you go up to concourse above where you can stand and watch the action - consume some food and drinks or you can get pricey tickets in the stands above which are covered and have option of sitting inside with AC as well and even rubbing shoulders with or seeing up close the franchisee owners / core supporters.

On the match day there was a stroke of luck as it rained heavily in the morning, unseaonally heavy rains early in the morning. I was thinking about the usual cricket and rain jokes - here I'm going to watch my first cricket match in 11 years in the middle of summer and out of nowhere there is heavy downpour. My friend was not easily discouraged and he felt that things would work and we can probably still go at 3 pm as planned. The rain did stop around mid day and as I was driving to that place I saw that instead of 100F as is usual that time of the day - it was showing 85F which meant good conditions to watch the match if the outfield had dried. There was a huge huge line of cars waiting to get to the parking - so it turned out to be 30-40 wait to get to parking area from near the stadium. The match had already started and we rushed in. There was not much of line or rush to get inside - the usual check for guns ( it is texas) and after a quick scan of our mobile tickets we were in. The Stadium looked pretty nice - it was my first time ever inside a stadium of any kind in USA. My previous experience of stadiums were from Kerala ( football stadiums), Mumbai and Chennai - all much older stadiums and not been through any major renovation when I visited long back. So this looked pretty neat and well set-up in comparison though much smaller ( 7-8k capacity).

The crowd predictably was heavily desi and we had seats right at edge just behind the fence/concrete wall. The boundary rope was like 10 yards in front of that and it was square of the wicket  with a fielder from Super kings not very far from where I was seated. We watched a couple of overs and were settling in when someone came to check our tickets to confirm folks were sitting on right seats. We were told we were in wrong section and had to go to the next one, so we walked a little further to the right. Now these seats were properly near deep square leg fielder, but someone else was already sitting there - two gentlemen wearing South African green jersey of 92 WC - took a while to explain and once they realized they apologized and moved away as they also got confused with numbering just like us. Right behind us were a couple wearing Sri Lankan colors and there were a few odd Pakistani, some Bangladeshis but 90% of the crowd seemed like Indian. Before the match when I read various stories/reports on cricinfo and a few other portals the stories were about white Americans discovering cricket ( there were some whites too) and folks from different places in USA visiting for cricket. I guess these stories make it more readable, but for sure bulk of the folks came from this area and were desis! 

After watching till 20th over, got up to take a look around, I wanted to see if we could get near commentary box to see if we could spot Sunil Gavaskar and other commentators, but no luck. Security was present and was checking anyone who tried to go to the area near commentary box. Walked around for a while to see what else was around and got some flags handed out by Knight Riders team for the next match - I was late for the first match so missed getting Super Kings yellow flags which would have been cool. Restrooms were neat and clean and food & water while certainly priced above usual was still reasonable which made the whole experience good. There was a Lions mascot of Super kings posing for pics with kids and they had face painting and some games for kids going on in the side. The crowd had lot of young men as expected but lot of families were there as well with young kids who were looking to get autographs of the players. Now this was a different experience for me, I have been to matches in India in 2000s and in general we have some big mesh barrier separating the crowd from players and interactions are very hard from what I remember. It was very different here and it was like grounds in England or Australia maybe - the player is like 10 yards in front of you. Soon every over break kids would run over and stand pretty near my seat trying to grab the attention of the fielder at deep square leg to get autographs. After a while the players - initially it was US local team players fielding there - would come and sign. It did make it hard to see the action and got a bit annoying after a while but at the same time it was a fun experience as crowd kept trying to talk / encourage the fielder to make them notice you/smile and then come and sign some flags or paper or pose for selfie. 

Some of the big name players I was hoping to see like Faf, Devon Conway flopped with bat and it did look like the match was going to be one sided until Dwayne Bravo decided to take charge with bat. My friend and I were talking about how Bravo bats arching his body and the next seconds he hit a six the way we were describing from our memories of his batting in t20I and IPL games. Bravo tonking several sixes and keeping TSK in hunt till last few balls made it a good match to watch though the home team lost in the end. The next match was between Mumbai Indians NY ( weird name) and LA Knight riders - so the famous West Indian stars were there - Pollard, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell. We also spotted Lasith Malinga as bowling coach conducting the warm up drills somewhat near where we sat. When Knight Riders started bowling in the next match, Dre Russ was pretty near where I was sitting and crowd really went wild trying to catch his attention. But he said clearly I'm not gonna pose for pics or autographs for now. After a few overs he went to bowl and after that he didn't come this side to field and others who came were quite ok with signing autographs leading to made scramble. Here we were spending a bit of money and half of Sunday to drive all the way to watch some action live and view was totally blocked by autograph seekers. With little kids, I found it somewhat ok as they were somewhat well behaved and after explaining to them that I cannot see they would duck a bit when a ball was being bowled and only at end of the over they would stand to try and engage their target. But after a while bigger names started fielding there and grown men pulling children along started crowding around in front of us it just got a bit too much. Sri Lankan lady right behind me lost her cool with these guys crowding and told them off properly and marched them back to their seats. Order was restored for another 5 mins or so then again repeat. 

Once MI NY team started fielding, they put Tim David over there and he started talking to the crowd and was ok to sign autographs and then after a while Trent Boult after finishing his spell got moved there and it was proper pandemonium as Boulty seemed super nice and keen not to disappoint kids seeking autographs and selfies. It got so bad for us that we had to abandon our seats and move elsewhere. I had quick look around to see if I can spot any other jerseys and spotted a few England ( 2019 I think) t-shirts, some Aussies  and a few WI jerseys as well and a small group of Afghans in their traditional gear with Afghan flag wrapped around them. There were some nice moments as well with an Indian, Pakistani supporter taking a pic together and then someone called out and got a SL and Bdesh guy to join them in the pic. This was also the first time I was seeing DRS in action, something would happen and fielders would celebrate and a review would happen and we all watch the screen and wait for the replay and umpire to make a decision. Without the commentary  - though there was a screen over there showing replays - and viewing this from side of the wicket it was a different experience all together. Best part was sitting among a diverse crowd and seeing players super super close right in front. But at the same time, it was hot and tiring and there was a lot of effort in getting into the stadium and exiting as well plus some annoying fans. So it was a mixed bag but with lot of positives for a totally unexpected chance to watch somewhat good quality cricket right where you live without too much effort. Seeing top WI cricketers lot of SA players and assorted Aussies, Kiwis live in action was for sure worth it. Overall the league seemed to be set-up well for success for this market at least. Looking forward for year 2!

2022 List of Books

Twas a good year for reading began my 2021 book list blog. The same applies for 2022 as well, it took me a while to get reading added as proper habit. While talking to a close friend about reading during the year he noted that I had successfully assimilated reading into daily life as a strong habit. That is so true, I used audio books again a lot this year ( close to 1/3rd of the books) and combined it mostly with long walks outside. Most of the summer I would get up early and go for a long walk with the intention of listening to a book and end up improving my general fitness level as a bonus. This year I started frequenting the library a lot mainly to take my daughter there for her to pick up books and in the bargain started borrowing and reading a lot of physical books from the library as well.  

In terms of what I read in 2022, there were some of my usual interests - countries/people around the world, cricket biographies and productivity/improving myself genres but this year I covered a lot of nature books which were among the ones that gave me the most joy. Lot of reading this year was also driven by chatter on a few book review/recco groups I frequented - which were close to half of the books I read and some picked up from other book lists from previous years.

So without much further ado here is the actual list. I have sorted it into Non-fiction ( with sub categories of my own) and Fiction

Non Fiction

1.Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough

I read this somewhat viral essay - 'I was a cable guy and saw the worst of America' and then proceeded to pick up this book which is a sort of memoir but more of collection of essays covering her childhood growing up in a cult, how she got ill-treated when folks in airforce figured she was gay and her subsequent life living paycheck to paycheck and of course the Cable guy one which again is a superb read on how it is like for female blue collar worker. 

2.War Minus The Shooting : A journey through South Asia during the 1996 Cricket World Cup by Mike Marquesee

This was one of those classics which almost went out of print and then got back into circulation recently and was covered passionately by a lot cricket podcasts and followers. Was a good trip down the memory lane as he tours the subcontinent and not only covers the game but also its a commentary on these nations. 

3.100 Things We've Lost to the Internet : by Pamela Paul

4.This is How They Tell Me the World Ends : The Cyberweapons Arms Race by Nicole Perloth

Really scary read! Super long read though. The author takes a highly technical field and lays out in somewhat easy to understand language and very frightening. Change your passwords asap and add multi-factor authentication! 

5.Four Lost Cities : A Secret History of Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

6.Arriving Today : From Factory to Front Door -- Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy by Christopher Mims 

Pandemic brought into focus supply chains and how extended they are. The author starts from a factory in Vietnam where the parts that make up a humble cell phone charger are assembled and packaged into a box. He follows this phone charger box through the supply chain from Vietnam factory to port to ships that transport most of the stuff we buy, ports in US, 18-wheeler trucks to Amazon's somewhat automated warehouses/ fulfillment center till the last mile UPS truck which drops a package at customer's doorstep. He follows the entire journey and takes a look at the lives of all these folks who make instant gratification happen.  

7.No Spin : My Autobiography by Shane Warne

One of the all time greats passed away suddenly, so picked this one up to read.

8.Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh : India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence by Shrayana Bhattacharya

This was one of those books someone had recommended last year to get a sense of real India. It was very illuminating read. Its not SRK the actor but the concept/myth of the ideal partner which gets examined as the author walks us through her own story and stories of several young women across social strata and how they fared in their relationships/marriage. SRK appears as a totem for most of these women. Very interesting read.

9.Life is Short And So Is This Book by Peter Atkins

10.Mrs Funnybones by Twinkle Khanna

11.Whole Numbers and Half Truths by Rukmini S

Very interesting read, the author uses numbers to probe further some common questions/opinions and helps us understand the complex country that is India. 

12. Half Lion : How P.V.Narasimha Rao Transformed India by Vinay Sitapati

Another book I totally enjoyed as kid who grew up in 90s India and Rao govt is one the earliest ones I can remember as I started listening to TV news daily around this time. My memory of the man was that he was a controversial figure who presided over some tough times and miraculously managed to survive ( corruption allegations aside) with a minority Govt for a full term. Though I sort of knew PVNR was some sort of scholarly person, it was only when I read this book I learnt more about the man who was a polymath with wide range of interests ranging from literature, philosophy to even computer science . The author got access to Mr.Rao's personal papers and uses that plus interviews among other sources for this biography and paints a very vivid picture of a man of two parts. PVNR perfected the art of running with hare and hunting with hound while running his minority Govt and managed to usher in some remarkable reforms in the economy. Book is a good read to revisit and see how he managed to pull this off and in a sense its a lesson in management too. The book like all biographies with inputs from well wishers of a remarkable person is slanted in his favor. The author to his credit does look at several taints in PVNR's legacy as well. I really loved this book. 

13. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

14. How China Sees India and The World by Shyam Saran

15. Line and Strength by Glenn McGrath 

I'm not sure how I ended up reading this, but it was good read as a sporting tale. One of the greatest fast bowler ever was dismissed as an untalented bowler in his youth. He grew up in rural Australia and so easily could have just given it up and stuck with farm work. Instead it was sheer willpower to prove himself coupled with incredible hard work day and night that managed to turn him into a power house.

16. The Untold Story of the Talking Book by Mathew Rubery

This probably will be a post on its own, the story of audiobook at a personal level. I keep telling a lot of people how awesome audiobooks are and have had several conversations on this medium. This book goes back to the roots and is a detailed account of how this medium evolved over last 100 odd years.

17. The Cryptopians : Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze by Laura Shin

Crypto stories are usually wild, this is an account of how Ethereum one of the top cryptocurrencies / framework/platform which underpins a lot of innovation in this space came to be. While Vitalik is the main name, there is a foundation / group which sort of manages it. This is the behind the scenes account of the chaotic rise of this platform and various factions trying to get close to the power center.

18. Like, Comment, Subscribe : Inside Youtube's Chaotic Rise to World Domination by Mark Bergen

Our favorite time sink - Youtube. This is a very neat book chronicling its origin as a video sharing platform to getting bought by Google and the subsequent evolution into what it is now. Unlike some other business stories that we read, this feels different because a lot of us had seen/used this product for a long time now and sort of saw how it slowly but firmly entered our daily lives. This is no dry read, this is an interesting behind the scenes look which pretty much rips into the company with at times harsh lens. The book also looks at the key part of Youtube's rise - Creators and how often they get the short end of the stick and how despite its commitment for being a force of good - the drive for profits/poor decisons led Youtube/Google into becoming a place for violent, racist and harmful content as well and how they struggled to deal with it. Felt the author was a bit harsh sometimes towards a company which seemed to make mistakes by inaction or misplaced ideals rather than any malice.

19. Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling

Set of light hearted personal essays by Mindy Kaling which was a fun read.

20. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Friend of mine had mentioned this earlier and I wanted to pick up a running related read this year. This covers the celebrated authors thoughts on running in general and what it means to him and his notes in general for a period of over an year and half as he runs a few marathons and competes in triathlon. 

Travel / Countries / Cultures

21. The  Nine Lives of Pakistan : Dispatches from a Precarious State by Declan Walsh

A look into a nation full of contradictions ( which to me is not a bad thing per se) by a foreign correspondent who spent several years in the nation. He paints a portrait of the nation through life/stories of 9 personalities from Pakistan. Was an interesting read but again I'm sure most Pakistanis will think its superficial. It was like reading multiple well written long form articles and the author ultimately got expelled from the country for his reporting which rubbed the military rulers the wrong way. 

22. Sovietistan : Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Krygyzstan and Uzbekistan by Erika Fatland

I really like this genre of a traveler who explores far flung corners of the world and documents life in these countries. This was written almost 10 years back and this is an English translation of the original - but its great to learn about Stans about which I almost knew nothing until I read this book. One minor quibble is that she looks at country from western lens for most part and doesn't get to understand the culture / some strange practices in some of these countries from a a local perspective. 

23. Radio Shangri La : What I Learned in the Happiest Kingdom on Earth by Lisa Napoli

Started with great hope and was a bit let down mainly because of my expectation didnt match. Nevertheless a ring side account of Bhutan as it started opening up to outside world and impact it had on its people. The author is a TV/radio show host from US who gets a chance of visit Bhutan and train folks at a new semi private radio station set-up to cater to younger crowd. It turns out to be a healing journey for her in some part but its also about globalization and western influence. These are like flames before moths and their lure is so hard to resist. Perspectives matter, for the author who was from US the visits were an escape from commercialism but for the Bhutanese she meets the peaceful, tranquil life is also filled with lot of hardships and the commercial life in western world is what many aspire for.

24. Cool Japan Guide : Fun in the Land of Manga, Lucky Cats and Ramen by Abby Denson

Super light book I picked up from library mainly because the cover looked catchy and the fact that this was a travel and cultural guide book written in comics format. Seemed so apt for Japan. Was a breezy read but realized as I read that this must be pretty outdated by now as it was written in 2013. 

Nature / Animals / Plants

25. The Inner Life of Animals : Love, Grief, and Compassion : Surprising Observations of a Hidden World by Peter Wohlleben

I have been reading his books last couple of years which were focused on trees & forests, this one was on animals. Equally good.

26. The Songs of Trees : Stories from Nature's Great Connectors by David George Haskell

Haskell tells us stories about trees across the world covering various types of trees and his connection with some of them which co-exist with human population.

27. Cities and Canopies : Trees in Indian Cities by Harini Nagendra

Decided to try an Indian equivalent of the book just above this one to learn more about trees in Indian cities.

28. The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman

We use words like bird brain without realizing how wrong it is. The author travels around the world and brings some truly remarkable accounts of intelligence of various bird species. She primarily covers what scientists have uncovered from research but also includes several anecdotal tales too which make it interesting. Its a truly comprehensive book on bird intelligence. This has inspired me to add several other related books into my reading list for next few years. 

29. Whatever You Do, Don't Run : True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

This was a truly delightful account of some interesting incidents from his life as safari guide in South Africa and Botswana. Love for animals and nature combined with loads of humor made this a wonderful read. 

30. The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony 

A South African game park owner decides to accept into his private game reserve a group of 'troubled' elephants who were deemed nuisance and close to being shot. He takes a lot of effort in trying to ensure this magnificent heard gets comfortable there and in the process forms an incredible bond with them. Though this is a non-fiction book, it has a very gripping and exciting plot with ill-treated and angry elephants, poachers and other problems surfacing and despite all this there are some incredible stories/incidents of intuition and trust displayed by these wonderful animals with the author. Found it really moving. 

31. Wild Lives - Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love  by Lori Robinson

Partly as result of the 2 books above, I tried reading more on conservationists and the great work they do. This book celebrates 20 such heroes across the globe and highlights the great work they do even when faced with incredible odds and great personal danger.

32. Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passerello

 This one has 16 very well written essays about different animals named by humans and in public view over various periods spanning fossils, circus animals, animals from paintings, royal palaces and some wild animals capturing public imagination and getting a name from their fearsome reputation. Her writing is something else, brings out so much color and transports you to that era where the story is set. A very different book from others in this list yet similar in the sense that while this is about animals its also equally about humans and their attitude towards nature and these animals which fascinate and terrify them until they can control and subjugate them. Was not a breezy read by any means and it takes time to get used to, plus some stories full of cruelty makes you really sad. I ended up reading this over a few months.

33. H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald

I had seen this in my cousin's list but could not remember the details and amazon/good reads kept recommending this one given what I had been reading in that time. So I basically got into this without clearly understanding it, which made it a bit hard to process this. It took a while to come to grips with this one. She covers a few things - her experiences grooming a hawk primarily. This interest in falconry was developed from reading a lot of books during her growing up years - mainly "The Goshawk". So when a tragic event happens in her life as a way to cope with grief which constants envelops her, she decides to take get a hawk and raise it. Which as we learn is very hard and the book is at once about her coming to terms with a personal loss and this hard challenge which she contrasts with how the famous author of Goshawk fared while raising his hawk ( terribly). In a sense this is a memoir plus nature book and a look at falconry in past. It was still hard book for me to process and took me while but I was glad to have stuck to it and finished it. 

34.  Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans De Waal

This matched rest of the reading this year on this theme of animal / bird intelligence and was a look at several such stories/examples.

35. Ranger Confidential : Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

We often complain that pay for some very important jobs ( like school teaching in US) are shockingly low and I learnt about one more such job with this book. Its a look at National Parks system which to me coming as an outsider was one of the most wonderful things I saw in US. How well set-up these parks are and how they are maintained and the role they play. This was a gut punch of sorts to realize how poor the working conditions and pay is for some of these passionate folks who help in running of these parks.  Its just incredibly unfair.

Business/Productivity 

36. Inspired : How to Create Tech Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

Among the best books in this genre and a must read for any PM.  

37. How I built This : The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World's Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs by Guy Raz

I love the Podcast - 'How I built this' and used to often listen to this and this is like a best of version where he distills a lot of lessons and stories from the podcast as a book

38. The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo

As someone who manages a small team, I felt it was a good idea to turn to a good resource to pick up a few pointers and this was truly good.

39. Start With Why  by Simon Sinek

Basic point is that we get caught up with the 'What' and 'How' and don't spend enough time examining the 'Why' before we get started. 

40. Outcomes Over Outputs  : Why Customer Behavior is the Key Metric for Business Success by Josh Seiden

Was something an Agile coach recommended and decided to give it a try. Its short book and makes the point quickly and efficiently which was good. Essentially asking us to build things with focus on what we want to achieve rather than building features. Its a mindset change which gets explained well.

Fiction :

41.The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

This was a book about books with basic plot being a book reading list that gets passed between strangers who borrow books from a library and ending up changing their life for the better. The books in the list were also a nice collection and I hope to read some of those classics again. Was a nice warm read. This is an ode to reading and to the power of books to heal and bring joy. 

42. The Quiche of Death by M.C.Beaton

43.The Vicious Vet by M.C.Beaton

These two books were part of Agatha Raisin murder mystery series. This is a successful middle aged PR woman who decides to retire pretty early and settle down peacefully in British Countryside ( Cotswolds) only to find herself solving murder mysteries in rural England. I read a few and then tried the TV series so I can watch it with my wife. The TV series were a big let down after reading the books, so maybe I might pick this series up again later. 

44. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

Recco from a book reading group. This was somewhat similar to #41 - The Reading List and another of those warm reads but was tad predictable after a point.

45. Moustache by S.Hareesh ( malayalam translated into English)

This was a super interesting book which is hard to classify or slot. It was not an easy read and you need some context to understand it, plus I feel the English translation might have dropped a few things along the way which probably made it harder. This is a story of myths which as it gets passed along start ballooning and an event when it gets related can take many variations based on story tellers. Lot of hard passages as well but again found it pretty easy to read and the whole concept fascinating. Only after I read this I heard from my friend Ramki about this being a super controversial one in Kerala and can understand why.

46. The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Recco from Indukka and this was easily the best fiction book I read this year. This is set in Australian outback as two brothers catch up to look at the unnatural death of a 3rd brother and they slowly revisit their troubled past. While is was a bit dark and packed enough suspense yet the characters were very well fleshed out that you feel a sense of connection to all of them. The whole Australian outback with vast properties in harsh desert climate spread out of over a huge huge distance with chances of interacting with other humans being very low is something the author superbly sets it up and its a key part of the story. 

47. Mickey7 by Edward Ashton

I wanted to read more science fiction but ended up with just 1 this time. This is soon to be a movie/tv series I hear so don't want to spoil anything. 

48. Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

Super interesting book this one. Its for most part a tale of a desi kid growing up in suburban US ( where I live) in 90s with pushy barely white collar job parents eking out a living pushing the kids to excel in academics. So it spans adolescence, weigh of expectations and social pressure from multiple sides other kids who want to break the boundaries and strict Indian parents who don't want kids to do any nonsense. The classic stuck between rock and hard place coming of age story of children of first gen immigrants. Then out of nowhere this spins into a different trajectory with introduction of dark magic/fantasy bit but still at the same time it remains a very human story of dreams, hopes, disappointments and redemption. 

49. The Bodies in the Library by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

50. Murder Is a Must by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

51. The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate ( First Edition Library series)

Murder mysteries set in and around a library which stocks First Edition books of murder mysteries.  The main protagonist who solves the murder mysteries is the curator of this library collection and is an everyday woman character. Was a total meta one thats what made me pick this one up from my local library. Was just okayish but since I ended up picking the Book 3 at first by mistake, I decided to read the first 2 as well. This was a pretty light read.

52. The Tales of India by Svabhu Kohli

This was another surprising find at my local library. This a collection of folk tales from India collected around late 19th century / early 20th Century and published 110 years back in British India. This edition pulls 16 stories/folk tales from 3 different books - stories from Tamil Nadu, Bengal and Punjab. There were a few stories I probably heard when I was a child but those versions very much milder than the ones in this book. That's probably what 80-90 years did to these tales. I really enjoyed this book. There were a few stories I heard as kid but in much more sanitized form than the ones here but majority were unknown stories but several were delightful reads. I look forward to trying get more such folk tales next year.

53. Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Set in small town Alabama this novel starts in 1980s in a post-civil rights America which still is only slowly coming to terms with intermingling of races. The story begins in an old age home with a chance encounter between two women of different eras. Its the classic set-up of older women inspiring the younger one and most of the story is tales from rural Alabama settlement from 1930s to 1950s. You get the proper southern charm as you meet a whole host of characters that populate the small town during that period. Touches upon co-existence, non-traditional families and empowered women in a heart warming tale. Was pretty sad when the story was ending as it was such a delightful read. Another interesting thing was this being a big book and because I started when I was pretty busy with work - I took a while to finish and library loan ended. So when I renewed it, I took an audio book to continue the story and it was read in a southern accent which was very enjoyable too.  

54. The Animals In That Country by Laura Jean McKay

Lot of my non-fiction reading at one point this year was around Birds & Animals and what they do, how smart they are and then out of nowhere I came across the blurb about this book which is about a flu which hits Australia where this story is set which makes it possible to humans to understand Animals. The premise was exciting and the book takes this complex subject and deals with it ingeniously. Its not for everyone though with its mad max dystopia type treatment.

So the tally at the end of the year was 54. I did want to hit at least 52 books - 1 for every week and I'm happy that I managed to clear that easily. The split between Non-fiction - 40 and Fiction -14 is a bit uneven but that is expected.  I can't exactly pin point what/how but somehow started picking up a lot of nature related reads and that dominated my reading. By default I pick up non-fiction works and it needs some effort to pick up fiction and read for me at this point. I'm hoping I can cover more fiction reads next year.  Reading means several things to me, the primary one being a source of joy and relaxation, nothing like losing yourself in a book but at the same time I hope to learn more about the world around me, several topics of interest and improve myself to become a better human being. 

While it does look like I read quite a bit, what this list does not cover is the list of books I dropped somewhere along the lane because I got distracted with my phone and library loan period ended or I just gave up. There were periods where this publicly declared challenge of 1 book a week, spurred me to read and sometimes that lead to reading at good pace but there were equally periods where I struggled to read and got bogged down as well. As we march through 2023, I hope I can channelize the good periods and keep this up and continue to do better in 2023 in terms of reading. Last year I started using Good Reads to capture the books I read and post the progress level purely from a self motivation perspective and found it worked for me. Hope to use GoodReads more effectively this year and maybe start writing some notes/reviews so I don't need to try and remember stuff when I publish this blog towards end of the year.

Gradual Unmasking

 Mask is something superheroes in movies/comics wore or in real world people who rob banks wore and as positive example something medical professionals used. However the year 2020 totally changed all that. Masking became an integral part of life as we knew from then on. However in US right from start mask and its usage became super controversial unfortunately. So living in a Red state in USA, masks while extremely common in 2020 started becoming less common from mid 2021 when the first vaccines arrived and by the time we rang in 2022 the number of masked folks started dropping, the trend was pretty visible. Having said that as the cases started ticking up once the effects of vaccines kind of wore off, there were still a good number of people who masked up when inside a store or public building. I have been masking up throughout and even with 3 vaccines in my system I still opted to wear a mask while shopping. 

So early in August as I was trying to wrap 'back to school' shopping for my daughter, I had to go to a kids clothing store to return some clothes which were ordered online but were not of right size and get the replacement size from the store. So went to this somewhat busy area, parked there and walked past a number of shops and people in that area and walked into the store. Someone greeted me, but left me to mind my own business. I might have spent 5-10  mins browsing around the store, now shopping clothes for my daughter is something I really love. I took some time and found the right size tops for her. Bought a few more clothes for her and then went and got the size exchange done and walked out of the store towards the parking lot. Only when I was about to enter the car did I see someone who had parked nearby getting down and the person was wearing a mask. That's when it occurred to me that I had done an entire 15 minute shopping in a fairly busy store in a fairly popular shopping are without encountering a single person wearing mask! the times they are a-changin indeed, covid or no covid - people are just moving on. 

2021 List of Books

 

Twas a good year for reading. Audible and audio books played a big part in helping me stick with the reading habit and a clear goal of trying to do 52 books - 1 new book a week helped too. All of it ensured more focus on reading and using books as escape vehicle as opposed to endless social media scroll.

I had a few books earmarked from lists from previous years from friends & family but a wide majority of the books just popped up from some conversations on twitter or from various online book clubs / chat groups.

Among things I tried while reading this year was to focus on certain regions and topics. Some of it was deliberate by seeking out certain books and others just happened. There was a book about Genghis Khan which I wanted to read for a while but was putting it off because it was super long but once I completed I picked up something related to Mughals and with Taliban in news ended up reading a book about them then by sheer chance ended up reading something set in Karakoram range and followed it with a book set in Nepal and then a book written by someone who was hitchhiking in a truck across India but he sorted of ended in North east India towards the end and then I picked a book about Burma. Something similar happened when I picked up a Morocco based book but this time I think amazon algorithm pitched me a book set in Tunisia next and ultimately ended up with a Saudi book.

All in all covered books from wide range of topics this year and of course like with most lists its deeply personal interest based. I covered human behavior, psychology, geo politics, personal finance, society, sports and stories about people in various parts of the world in past and present overcoming various challenges. Lot of non-fiction paired with lighter fiction reads.

I guess thats enough talk, so without much further ado here is the list.

Non-Fiction 

 1. Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

I usually enjoy articles by Morgan Housel, this was among the first books of the year and its something I feel I should re-read again, something elemental. Uses pretty simple language to cover an extremely complex topic - what is money and our relationship with it and makes you really think about money and wealth . I ended up recommending this to many folks and urge all to try this. 

2. Digital Minimalism - Choosing a Focused Life In a Noisy World by Carl NewPort

3. Three Cups of Tea - Totally random pick from somewhere, this is the story of Greg Mortenson a mountain climber turned humanitarian who raised funds and built schools for poor kids in remote Pakistan. The title refers to the number of cups of tea for you to be a family friend to the people in the mountainous area of Pakistan covered in the book. As I subsequently learnt there was some controversy over some of the claims made, but I could still accept that as a back story for a movement certain embellishments are necessary to make you sound cool and visionary. Keeping that in mind it is still a tale of positive changes brought in by efforts led by one man to ensure education ( schools) reach inaccessible poorer regions and also that it benefits  mainly girls as well.  Also as a story it was a good read to see that armed with a will to do good what you can really achieve and far reaching effects of philanthropy and humanitarian spirit.

4. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen-  A classic. Happened to read this when a snowstorm was raging in my city so was very interesting and really made me feel it.

5. Stuff You Should Know - An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant - this was a podcast turned into a book and was a light read full of fun trivia which you forget very quickly unfortunately.

6. Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria

7. Truck De India - A Hitchhiker's Guide to Hindustan by Rajat Ubhaykar

A guy hitches rides with truck drivers and goes up and down the country and tells us many interesting stories of people in various parts of the country in company of several interesting truck drivers. This is an India we don't see or hear about that often in mainstream commentary.

8. Genghis Khan and the Making of Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Fascinating book giving a good view on how an orphaned boy from Mongolia steppes gradually rose up and managed to unite constantly warring nomadic clans to build an empire. Spends a lot of time on his early years and the nomadic steppe culture and also covers how his giant Mongol armies managed to be so successful.

9. The Anarchy - East India Company, Corporate violence and the Pillage of an Empire by William Darymple 

Enjoyed this book, its more of history of East India company and how a small English private corporation with no real expertise happened to successfully make it big and ended up controlling majority of a rich and ancient civilization is quite a story. As always history that we read in school or what we know is mostly a high level summary, this book sort of gets more into the weeds and its fascinating to see how things turned out this way.  Darymple builds a riveting narrative and covers several small incidents in detail while keeping us involved with the macro perspective of how a multinational trading company got so successful and why things turned out so bad for Indian people. Lot of potential 'What-If' moments in there.

10. How the Internet Happened : From Netscape to iPhone by Brian McCullough

Highly accessible backstory of how something that started with ARPANET and university research funded basic Mosaic browser birthed the key technological innovations that drive the modern society.

11. A Little History of the United States by James West Davidson

As a non-native who is settled in the country, I wanted to pick up an accessible, easy read to cover 400 odd years of history and this was good from that perspective.

12. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee : An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown

After a short version of US history, I picked up this more deep and gruesome one about how Native Americans fared once settlers from Europe started landing on North American shores. Knew it was really bad, but didnt realize how bad until you read about systematic persecution and how it ends up happening. It was really depressing read as you realize how bad things are going to get and how it keeps getting even worse than you would think every single time. 

13. Ponting : At the Close of Play by Ricky Ponting

I try to read a few books about my fav sports every year and picked up a book about one of cricketing stars I dislike. Ricky Ponting is a legend and surely ranks among the best no:3 batsmen in modern game but somehow the perception I had - mostly driven by 2008 tour of Aus by Indian test team - was a very negative one. In general when you read someone's autobiography and if its genuinely written from their heart, you sort of see their point of view and feel positively about them. So I picked this up to test that and while I can surely see where he is coming from and understand his approach I'm still unchanged in perception of him. Nevertheless as a book this was a good read to understand Australian sporting culture and Ricky Ponting as an individual and how Australian team of that golden era (which was pretty much the entire career of Ponting) worked.

14. The Puma Years - A Memoir of Love and Transformation in the Bolivian Jungle by Laura Coleman

Its a memoir of sorts by the author about how she found purpose and got transformed spending time as a volunteer in a wildlife refuge/rescue center at the outskirts of a Bolivian Jungle as an aimless twenty something. Hitchhiking across the South America, Laura who is from England chances upon a flyer asking for volunteers for an animal rescue charity and she decides to help out. The refuge cares for ill-treated and badly abused wild animals who were mostly bred in captivity and have been rescued but are badly scarred mentally and within a few days of joining she is assigned a puma to look after. The memoir takes you literally to animal sanctuary and is a joy to read but at the same time depressing as you understand what human activities are doing to jungle and wild animals.

15. The Art of War by Sun Tzu

16. Surely you are joking Mr.Feynman - Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P Feynman

Picked up this one which I have been meaning to read for a really long time. Richard Feynman is a Nobel winning Physicist but this is more of an amazing set of quirky stories or incidents from his childhood and youth. One of the major themes from the set of anecdotes is his curious mind and willingness to try anything and apply himself at the problem - whether it be new language, skill like lock picking or musical instrument and become fairly proficient at it.

17. Napolean's Hemorrhoids  and Other Small Events that Changed History by Phil Mason

Lot of major events in history if you look closely were close calls, was very interesting. In history books we read large sweeping statements many of them could have been near miss.

18. The Wisdom of Wolves : Lessons from the Sawtooth Pack by Jim & Jamie Dutcher

Research notes from a couple who spent several years living with and studying wolves in a controlled setting in North America. Picked this up as a follow up read for a few other books I had read on similar topic.

19. The Prisoners of Geography : Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To About Global Politics by Tim Marshall - Among my best reads of this year, this super lucid book shines light on one of the most complex topics - geo politics and one of the most under discussed topics - the role of geography itself. How all leaders are constrained and influenced by Geography - something that they just cannot control and hence have to / are forced to play their cards in a certain way. Fascinating topic and book.

20. The Scout Mindset : Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't by Julia Galef

21. The Hidden History of Burma : Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century by Thant Myint U

Super informative book written by a man who had corner seat during the changes that was happening in Myanmar to sort of untangle all that was happening in a country which is mystery. Country has been in news for wrong reasons last several years after a brief period where decades of military rule seemed to have given way to a popularly elected Govt. This is an insider view of the country covering events from formation of the country to how things became the way they are.

22. The Story of English in 100 words by David Crystal

Chanced upon this and triggered a lot of further reading on origin on words, this was a fun and interesting read.

23. The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

This was a book someone recommended in a reading group ( social media is a delight sometimes)  when we were discussing etymology which does fascinate several people. This was a superb book if word origins really interest you like me. I now have a truckload of trivia which unfortunately I will forget most of it but just uncovering and reading about language / words was so delightful that I don't think I will ever mind not being able to bore people with language trivia.

24.  Made in America - an Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson

Another one I picked thanks to Amazon algorithm and it being available free on Audible Plus.

25. The Premonition by Michael Lewis - A scary book looking at how federal organizations work and move in face of a beast like covid 19 pandemic and how its ultimately up to just a few individuals going above and beyond to keep things running.

26. Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman

More than just about how we fall sick, this was more about insulin resistance.

27. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - Again one of those age old classics, deeply moving and profound.

28. Masala Lab by Krish Ashok - got this as a gift for my wife who enjoys cooking both as an art and as science by trying to understand the flavor combos and what makes some dishes and combination work. This book fits that sort of thinking neatly and is a breezy read and at the same time super informative.

29. How I Invest My Money by Joshua Brown and Dave Portnoy - this is a set of essays edited/complied by a couple of finance/investment gurus of modern age. They basically ask some 15-20 financial experts - these are big names who feature in TV and print and run hedge funds or financial firms or are VCs on how they actually invest their own money. Very interesting because of the question and asking them to give 3-4 page answer on what money means to them and how they invest for retirement. Reveals a lot of lessons and as expected there is no one easy answer or way and investment philosophy is deeply person, all depends on your life experience growing up and what you are going through in life. However some common themes are that live well beyond your means, maintain a decent safe cash reserve / emergency fund, most of these financial gurus actually invest in simple ETF/mutual funds and don't track their portfolio at all that often. They mostly believe in investing time with their life and family and prioritize safer investments for majority of money and not letting quest for money detract you from life.

30. Korma, Kheer, Kismet - five seasons in Old Delhi by Pamela Tims

A book I had read 5 years back or so, I got this for my wife this year and then as we discussed this I realized I didn't remember most of this stuff so ended up re-reading and it was a pleasure of course.

31. The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson

Another of those long rambling books from that I totally love reading. This was a bit dated as it was written about his travels across US in 80s where we tries to visit places he visited several decades ago as kid. Totally cracked me up. 

32. Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

Story of Afghanistan and how the country came under Soviet occupation and its subsequent liberation by mujahedeen and how the subsequent squabbles gave birth to Taliban. The story here ends in late 90s. 

33.  Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

34. Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon

Story of Africa, the natural resource rich countries everyone of which got exploited by colonial powers and had a brief period of hope where home grown leaders got them freedom and the very same folks ended up ruling brutally and siphoning off all the wealth. This was a heavy one, at times was very depressing/demoralizing to read to see the same  sad story play out again and again in every mineral rich nation. 

35. The Change Agent by Damon West

This was a physical book shipped to us by my company's CTO and she wanted all of us to read it hoping it  helps us the way it did for her. As a bonus the author was invited for a virtual session including Q&A with us. So ended up reading this book about a promising young white man who was a college football athlete from a good highly respected middle class family in Texas and all that was needed to succeed and make it big. After a career derailing football injury he picks up drug habit and while he is able to do well including getting good breaks in early career with jobs in Washington and good connections to even build a political career this addiction habit slowly starts catching up.  Long story short he attempts some changes to get things in control but he continues downward spiral into addiction and debt which drives him to world of crime leading him to commit numerous burglaries and finally he gets caught. As a high profile case because of the targets he chose he ends up getting an extremely harsh sentence which should have broken most men, the book then spends time about how he learnt even in the most adverse circumstances to turn things around and find himself and redeem himself and claw back. Life is hard and lot of us start slipping and hopefully none of us end up such bad places like him but there are times when you lose some control and this was a book about hope and inner strength and willing yourself to get back to track with self discipline and being able to learn lessons from mistakes and find the inner courage to face your demons/weakness and overcome them. I have ended up writing way beyond the 2-3 lines I wanted to but have stayed away from the best bits of his philosophy. Have to say, I really enjoyed reading this, again a book I would have never picked up but found it really good.

36. Stargazing - Players in my life - Ravi Shastri  - Well this was supposed to a book covering Shastri's observations of 20-30 cricketers he has played with/against and coached/interacted with during last 40 years. Was a total meh for me as there was nothing radically new.

37. Blood and Oil - Mohammed Bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power by Bradley Hope & Justin Scheck

Necessary and super interesting read to understand middle east and modern geo politics

38.  The Delusions of Crowds by William J Bernstein

Manias and popular delusions are all arounds us and you got to wonder how people fall for it again and again. But they do and actually we all fall for it, maybe not that badly or with catastrophic results but we all get sucked into it. Very good examination of this through various financial bubbles,  manias and cultish beliefs especially around influential messiahs and those birthed within abrahamic relions driven around end times narratives.

Fiction

39. Dresden Files - Storm Front by Jim Butcher

40. Dresden Files - Full Moon by Jim Butcher

Part of my efforts to try sci-fi/fantasy / mystery genre a bit more and branch out to stuff I usually don't try. Suggested by my sis who is into these genres a way more than me.

41. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

42. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -  

The two books above are re-reads, having lived in US for close to a decade I get the story and several aspects much better than what I did when I read this as a kid in India.

43. Empire by Yashodaran Devi 

Fictional story set in Chola era 

44. Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada - Among the best mystery novels I have read in the recent past. Its a whodunit and howdunit. 

45. Convenience store woman by Sayaka Murata

This was a really different and unusual book, I just randomly picked with no idea and ended up really liking. Story of a Japanese girl/woman who is a total social misfit because of genetic reasons, this is packed with lots of dark humor. Makes you question societal expectations, stereotypes and how people get labelled. This was a short book  with a light tone but totally lands its punches makes you really appreciate what those don't fit in go through and how casually cruel society can be to those who don't conform to expected norms.

46.  Midnight Library by Matt Haig

This was among the popular fiction reccos in a neighborhood reading club, so tried it. Though this is fiction, its a little bit philosophical about the value of life

47. The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E.Schwab 

something similar to the one above - a book club recco and again about value of life but this is a story of a woman whose life begins in 1700s and is blessed with immortality but cursed equally as no one can remember her after a while so she can form no bonds longer than a day.

48. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Another book club favorite - this was made as film by Netflix a few years back and I did check that out eventually - the movie was a disappointment for me having experienced the book which was warm and sweet World War 2 / Post war period drama

49. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - Easily one of the most delightful books I have read in a while. A group of 70+ year olds in a retirement home try solving cold cases from police files to keep themselves occupied and then they stumble upon a murder nearby. 

50. Hope and other dangerous pursuits by Laila Lalami

Short stories set in Morocco with a common theme of individuals trying to escape life in difficult conditions and dreaming of making it big in Europe by getting across the sea illegally. Boat people and immigration have been in news for a long time, this is really well written behind the scenes account of what makes people go for it. 

51. The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai -  this was amazon recco engine doing its job based on the previous book I read. This was a story set in Tunisia themed around Arab spring days.

52. My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

Wife & I started watching Jeeves & Wooster series on YouTube and I thought why not revisit this and read this one.

53. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

Another of those haunting Japanese books about society and human psyche, this was a short one though

54. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman - 2nd book in the Thursday murder club series

55. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - one of my all time favs, just ended up re-reading this one and it remains hilarious

 

So I ended up with 55 books in 2021! By far the most I have managed and despite losing my way a bit towards the end - I seriously slacked off a bit in the last 2 months because we watched a lot of tv in Holiday months - this was amazing. When I tell people I aim to and usually read more than 50 books a year, I'm met with 'thats impossible' response. Its just about channeling the ample amount of leisure time that we all have from smartphone addictive past times to books is all that is needed to hit this mark. I was doing like 10-20 books until 3-4 years back and if I - with serious self control and attention issues - can manage this then I think anyone can if they put their mind to it.

I'm hoping I continue this pace in 2022 as well and I sure hope to improve the imbalance between fiction and non-fiction which continues to be lopsided. 

Pandemic Dreams

 Its a been way more than year since we started living with this pandemic. Masking up became a normal way of live since last April. As we step out to world outside we go armed with mask, sanitizer and follow 'social distancing'. The office firmly returned back to home, shopping became more and more online. Eating out became ordering food outside and picking it up or even better getting it delivered at home. 

The world around us changed quite a bit, however in my dreams nothing really changed. 

While pandemic has been raging on for a while, it had never invaded my dream world.I'm a fairly decent sleeper and mostly don't remember my dreams. However every now and then I do have a worth remembering dream which I probably remember enough to think about it in the morning. Mostly it just goes blank very soon and I don't even share it with my wife or anyone else. Despite the total change in the world outside, the world in my dreams remained fairly the same. Last week however all of this changed, I had a dream which in my case usually has some normal stuff along with some bizarre things that never happen in real world. So in this particular dream I was living in some apartment which was a bit like a couple of apartments when I lived in India. A friend was visiting and he was asking me to come and join him for something. I step out of the house and he insists that I quickly come with him and join him for some cool thing. I demur, but do consider the option as well and he starts walking ahead through the lobby which is exceptionally large and palatial. He presses the elevator buttons and everything around us has the appearance of my current employer's Dallas downtown headquarters buildings. It is all nice marble and tall columns and the place looks swanky with those cool lighting in big corporate buildings. All that is fine but suddenly I realize I'm not wearing a shirt - happens in dreams right? - well at least here I'm still at my doorstep and just stepped out a few yards outside in shorts and a vest. Also luckily I happen to realize I'm not wearing a t-shirt and tell my friend. I go back and reach the bathroom which is the master bathroom in my current house. There on the large counter is that t-shirt which I was supposed to either pick up and keep in the shelf or wear after a bath - but somehow I keep forgetting about it for several weeks now and my wife has been asking for a while. I go and pick up that t-shirt wear and it and grab my phone and head out to join my friend outside.

I just make it back on time when the elevator door opens with a ding sound and there are a couple of folks in it. I'm about to get in when someone reminds me, you forgot your mask! I look around and folks in the elevator are wearing a mask and I turn back to grab my mask. The dream ended there but must have happened early in the morning because I had vivid memory of this dream when I woke up at 6 AM. I did ask my wife and a couple of others and no one reported seeing masks or covid in their dreams. I tried thinking after this and was sure I never had seen masks in any dream before. So this was quite something, a sign of how long we have been in a pandemic world that even dream world is encroached.

2020 - List of books

So here comes the annual end of the year list of books that I read this year. So just like the last year I did focus on making reading a priority in 2020 by trying to cut focus on social media - news cycle but this was of course an year like no other. Covid outbreak all around us and the way it upended our lives ensured that for almost a month I was mostly focused on watching news and discussing stuff with friends and family with not much time for reading. Almost 9 months working from home eventually meant more time at home that was not spent in commute or shopping. So after a few months of struggling with all this, I did manage to move some time towards reading books but then some sporting events followed by US election cycle meant more consumption of news cycle. All said and done I have done much better than previous years and did read 59 books which did exceed the target of 50 books an year that I had set. 

More of the analysis later in this post, now without much further ado here is the actual list,  split between fiction and  non-fiction ( which is split into some broad somewhat arbitrary categories). 

Fiction :

1) Paper Wife by Laila Ibrahim - fictional account of a Chinese immigrant woman's story of marrying and moving to America in 1900s San Francisco 

2)  The Fourth Passenger by Mini Nair - Fictional feel good truimph against all odds tale of a group of women who overcome domestic abuse / poverty to create an eatery in Mumbai

3) Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki ( IVM podcasts) -  The tamil classic story of Raja Raja Chola - this was actually a tamil story podcast which was essentially someone reading out the same story in language somewhat closer to what is commonly used instead of the classical language in which it was originally written. That's the only way I would have followed this in tamil. The story is the same, its just the words used have been simplified to make it easier for modern day listener/reader to follow along. Needless to say it is a marvelous epic and the story holds you spellbound regardless of how its told.

4) No Longer at Ease - Chinua Achebe

5)  Binti 1 by Nnedi Okarafor - US had this BLM movement and there was push for narratives involving people of color and this sci-fi trilogy series set in a distant planet/galaxy popped up in my mentions and decided to give it a try

6)  Binti 2 by Nnedi Okarafor

7) Mahabharata Murders by Arnab Ray - Long term follower of Arnab's blogs and columns and had read a few of his books before. This is a series of murders where a serial killer is at loose and the victims and the method of killing have Mahabharata connection and of course is set in Kolkata.

8) Life As We Knew It  by Susan Beth - This was covid19 peak fear time and as we continued the lockdown in one of the chat groups someone mentioned about reading books related to some pandemic/life being threatened on earth. I thought it did seem to mirror the mood we were in and tried this book  of apocalyptic/end of the world events which probably falls in the Young Adult fiction category. The story is set somewhere in Midwest US  in a small town and is narrated in the voice of a 15 year old girl as her family grapples with the collapse of society around them after a meteor hits moon which has consequences across the earth causing high tides, flooding and submerging of coastal cities and several islands. Her mother goes nuts when this happens and pushes the family to stockpiling food quickly. In April 2020 we ended up stockpiling food after coming to realization that this pandemic wasn't going away soon so lot of it was relatable at first. Though in the story the world collapses and everyone gets stuck inside because of rampant crime and collapse of civil society and electric grids. Thankfully real world was much better but it was good sampling on a how bad things could have gone wrong to make sense of even though world in 2020 wasn't good it was not so bad! 

9)  The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth - This was lasted as #2 of the series ( refer above), but turned out to be a different take on the same set in New York area with different family a Hispanic one with just 3 kids and narrated in the voice of the eldest boy who is left alone with younger teen sisters as the collapse of the world takes away their parents and other adults and they have to survive on their own with next to no money.

10) A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman - This was a slightly sad yet immensely heartwarming tale set in a changing Sweden as the suburbs get filled with old people who stay alongside newcomers who are from a different world altogether. Ove is that grumpy annoying uncle who is stickler for rules and can't tolerate most people who can't follow the set of firm principles he lives by but a series of events and encounters with his clueless young neighbors changes everything and finally pulls him away from his closed life in this heart warming story. There is a lot of humor and joy which overrides the sorrow just like it does in life  in this tale of romance, comic moments, cats and run-ins with authorities.

11) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - One of those well regarded sci-fi classics and for good reason

12)  Inspector Bruno by Martin Walker - A cousin of mine had recommended a few detective/mystery series and had asked if we had read any which explores not just a mystery but also covers a different country and life over there. I did try the one set in China by Qiu Xiaolong last year and was looking for something different this year when I chanced upon this series of books set in rural France of a Muncipal policeman in the town of St.Denis - a town where everyone knows everyone. The rural idyllic town setting where patience, empathy and understanding is more needed than guns to manage issues is the basic setting of the series of stories. Of course people do get bumped off and there are cases to solve but more than that the character who populate the tale, the region itself and the food of the region which gets a lot of mention make this such a delightful read.

13)  Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker

14) Black Diamond by Martin Walker

15)  The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker

16)  The Devil's cave by Martin Walker

17) The Red Mandarin Dress - Inspector Chen series by Qiu Xiaolong

18)  The Mao case - Inspector Chen series by Qiu Xiaolong

19) Still Life by Louise Penny - This was the first one of Inspector Gamache series and this was much more series study of human pysche and felt lot heavier than other detective series set in various countries that I sampled this year. This was set in Quebec the french speaking province of Canada. 

20) The Guest List by Lucy Foley - One of those best selling crime thrillers which made for a breezy read. Lot of co-incidences but builds up a good atmosphere of an isolated island with lot of volatile characters on it in a storm.

21)  Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo  - This was a delightful read about an odd set of characters who are all runaways in true sense who all land up in Lagos, Nigeria from rural places and since they have no one else they stick together as a group living in the streets. Each come from a different background and serve as a way for us to understand Nigerian society a little better, then they all stumble upon a hidden underground house and some treasures stashed away by a corrupt ex-minister who is on the run and then everything changes as brave newspaper reporter gets involved and they all go on a roller coaster ride. Very interesting read to understand what is going on in the country and the scourge of corruption.

22) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi - This was a heavy tome, the BLM movement probably made me add this to my list and this was super long story of what it means to be an African or African American bearing the brunt of trans-atlantic slave trade. Its a fictional historical story which begins in 17th century  with two step siblings  in  what is now modern Ghana and each subsequent chapter focuses on the next generation is an arc of story covering their children and their children as african american slaves while other sibling who remains in Africa which gets colonized and weak and subsequent generations bear the brunt.  There is slavery and ill treatment in cotton plantation and then runaway slaves in North and then disenfranchised Blacks struggling in mines and then civil rights era America on one side. While on the other there is the shame of being slavers and struggling to make sense of life in a defeated colony which is trodden down by christian missionaries and western imperialism. Powerful story of the missing voices.

Non-Fiction:

Historical:

23) Color Bar by Susan Williams - I had read and enjoyed No:1 Ladies detective stories which were set in Botswana and I had caught passing reference of its first ruler  Sir Sereste Khama and the reverence folks had for him. I chanced upon this story and decided to pick up this book about the first ruler of Botswana who was a king of sorts in this British Colony and travelled to England for education and fell in love and married an English woman there. This was not met with approval from his uncle who was ruling in his stead and it also caused diplomatic problem for Britain as the inter-racial wedding was heavily objected by the racist Apartheid promoting South Africa. This is a story pieced together from declassified files from govt and covers shameful behavior of British authorities who made attempts made to scuttle their wedding but the couple went ahead. Because of the pressure from South Africa and Rhodesia life was made impossible for Sereste Khama and his wife by British govt and he was exiled from his homeland. This is also a story of how common people rallied behind their leader and how they overcame the racist colonial machinery to forge a peaceful nation which incidentally has one of the highest GDP and highest rank in HDI in Africa. There is a theory that people rallying behind this inter-racial marriage and how Ruth adapted and adopted Botswana as her country did play a role in this being a more accepting and peaceful nation.

24)  Taste of the Empire - How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World by Elizabeth Collingham  - Very interesting premise as the author looks at last 500 years or so of colonial history from food perspective as that indeed is the most fundamental human need which perhaps drove all trade and empire building. Each chapter covers a certain meal as it navigates through history of trade and colonial expansion but with focus more on food. This was quite an absorbing long read as it covers a vast scope from Cod factories of early Newfound land through slave trade in East Africa and of course the British Raj in India. Origins of food that we use everyday and how it got spread is something of interest to me and this book was a great read from that point of view. 

25)  Voices of Colored people - Another one picked up because  of BLM movement - my Library recommended this for better understanding of colored voices in America.

26)  Without You There is No Us - My Time With Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim - Totally chilling and claustrophobic book covering the experience of an Korean-American writer/journalist who goes undercover pretending to be a Missionary to become an English teacher at a North Korean school. This gives her the chance to interact ,albeit under watchful gaze of minders,  with real North Korean students. It is quite a portrait of a society like no other. North Korea is a nation / society / concept that is very frightful but extremely fascinating. But as this book sort of implies underneath all the propaganda we are all humans somewhere deep inside.

Nature / Science:

27) Hidden Life of Trees : What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries From a Secret World by Peter Wohllenben - Written in German and translated to English this is a book introducing us to very less understood world of trees, packed with so much fascinating insight. Author manages a forest in Germany so these are condensed wisdom from his observations and studies. I think I probably will re-read it sometime again.

28) Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli - Rovelli who is an Italian physicist attempts to explain in this extremely short ( 100 pages) book the wonderful things discovered and understood by physicists in the last century  and how it has influenced our understanding of universe and life. Meant for people with minimal understanding of physics this should serve as a gateway book to learn more on any of the 7 topics he covers. I did go on to read more books after this one.

29)  Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson - Well known author and self explanatory title which I got directly as a result of the previous book

30) Humble Pi - When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker - This was a delightful read which was surprising given the subject is mainly mathematics. That is one of the reasons this is a standout book and something I ended gifting to a couple of friends.  I ended up reading excerpt of this book and immediately ordered this one as the incidents of math going wrong that I was hilarous but sadly true. The examples and stories range from trivial to extremely costly and life threatening mistakes made when people don't pay sufficient attention to math behind it. Highly recommended.

31)  Coyote America  - A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores

32) The Unseen City  -The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness by Nathanael Johnson  - Urban life - Pigeons, crows, squirrels, snails, ants - is all around us and is easy to observe but we almost always never really pay much attention. The amount of insights and trivia captured was tremendous and I think I surely need to re-read it someday again.

33)  The World Without Us by Alan Weisman - This was recommended as a good book apt for the times as we were ravaged by Pandemic. The central premise is to examine what happens if some event suddenly wipes human beings from the world - a virus being one possibility, what happens to the rest of the world without humans to manipulate nature and other species. It was not a gripping or fun read and I had to plod through some areas but was a very interesting read nevertheless. Lot of it is theory which was a tough read for me, but there were some cases where he did extrapolation based on places like Chernobyl and then a town in Turk-Cypriot war zone in no-man's land and the 39th Parallel in Korea which are all abandoned totally by human beings and now nature has totally taken over.

34) The Secret Wisdom of Nature by Peter Wohlleben - Another entry from Wohllenben where he covers how interconnected nature is. Everything is connected and when man makes a change whether inadvertently or even for good purpose it can still have enormous consequences. Long story short its best to leave nature alone as much as you can. 

Biographies

35) The Fish That Ate the Whale : Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen - The story of Samuel Zemurray who is a jewish immigrant to US at start of 19th century who rises from nothing to start banana umpire and becoming a fruit tycoon. He becomes a capitalistic power broker and kingmaker ultimately controlling the business cartel for banana trade with huge land ownership and weilding enormous power in Central America. This basically is where the term Banana republic comes from. Zemurray later played a key role in founding of Israel.

36) The Promised Land by Barack Obama - Much talked about book of this season so not much to add. This was a very nice read as President Obama details his early life and political journey which sounds as dramatic as we thought it was when literally out of nowhere he became the hope of a generation and achieved the unthinkable. This one charts his early life, work in Chicago in black neighborhoods and later in local politics ultimately ending as a senator from Illinois. The next phase is dramatic as he becomes popular and leading to a presidential run and then covers his first 3 years as president and ends in early 2012 with another book to cover the rest. Very thoughtful analysis of his political run and he sort of explains how politics of these days works in America and a realistic portrayal what a US President can actually do.  Its less of personal and more political take of his life and given the times we live and the kind of politicians we have its a extremely self critical and modest take. 

37)  Cable Cowboy : John Malone and the Rise of Modern Cable by Mark Robichaux - Interesting portait of the pioneering cable titan John Malone who built a vast empire with mergers and acquisitions before selling of to AT&T. He is in equal measure hailed a successful and smart businessman and hated as ruthless robber barron and the book looks at the both. 

38)  The Ride of a Lifetime by Rober Iger - Disney as a company has done extremely well in the last several years as a result of being able to sense the general direction of customer trends and market forces and had placed bets in correct direction. Bob Iger is widely credited with pushing the company in this direction and the book is his autobiography covering how he entered ABC Networks and rose to its top and then got acquired by Disney and ultimately rose to top. Along with personal story there is also how he achieved what he achieved, some key takeways and the possible reasons why he succeeded and how he built his team and lessons for his readers.

39) The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson - Every year I read a book from Bryson and usually his books are huge and I did purchase but did not get around to reading his latest one. Just towards end of Dec noticed this book on sale on audible and got it. This is the account of his growing up days in Iowa in 1950s. It is equally autobiographical in the sense filled with colorful exaggerated personal childhood stories described the way he remembers it now as well as general observation about life in 50s and early 60s small town America. His observations as usual are what makes his books so much fun and I laughed out loud so many times while listening to this one.

Business/Money/ Human Behavior:

40) Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of  a Team by Partrick Lencioni

41)  Tools and Weapons : The Promise and Perils of Digital Age by Brad Smith

42) Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke

43)  Samsung Rising - The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech by Geoffrey Cain - Fascinating account of Samsung story from humble origins as grocery store in war town Korea to all conquering business empire to taking on electronics which was very hard to crack and how they got to where they did. This book takes off from the Galaxy Note burning tablet fiasco and takes a look at the culture behind the firm and I think its a little harsh as it is told from a western eye. It does try to understand the mindset of how a chaebol like Samsung thinks and operates which is very different from a western multi-national company or product company. There are scandals and corruption and so many things I didn't much about until I read this.

44)  Three Tigers, One Mountain : A Journey Through the Bitter History and Current Conflicts of  China, Korea and Japan- Michael Booth - This one directly followed the previous book about Samsung as I searched to understand more about Korea and this is a book covering Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and how and why they all hate each other.

45)  No Filter : The Inside Story of Instagram by Sarah Frier- This has been called as the one of the standout business books of the year for good reason. Good account albeit with more access from Instagram founders about how Kevin Systrom built an awesome app and set in motion so many trends and things and shaped social media landscape to how Zuckerberg sucked the life out of it with his strict control and gradual interference. Its quite harsh on Zuck and also examines how Facebook works and paints its boss as paranoid genius. Also revealing was to see how connected some of these silicon valley folks were, Systrom spent time at a  small start-up that became Twitter and Square and had some contacts who ultimately became big themselves

46)  Goodbye, Things : The New Age Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki - recommended by my friend Ramki this is about a regular guy who experimented with minimalism and his findings.

47)  Drive by Daniel Pink

48)  Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol - This is about viewing the world through the lens of rocket scientist and considering  all roadblocks as solvable problems. Its filled with easy to read stories and examples covering this basic thought process.

49)  Hooked by Nir Eyal -  Book for Product managers on how to build habit forming products.

50)  Infinite Game by Simon Sinek - The whole concept was very intriguing for me, the author bring up the point that there are certain events like a football match which lasts mostly for 90 minutes and clear method of determining the result in the end which results in a winner/loser, however most events in life no defined rules to identify winner/lose or have a clear timeframe to make such determination. But that still doesn't stop us all from treating it like the football game and trying to impose a finite mindset on an infinite game like geopolitics or so many things in our life itself. Life and so many events in it have too many players and unknown rules and variables and the objective as he argues here is to keep playing and doing well.

51) That Will Never Work by Marc Randolf - Netflix origin story atleast the first 4-5 years, was a fun read as these guys brainstormed and come up with an idea  which was ahead and its time and with lot of trouble got dvd mailing business working from scratch with no background in this business. But even more brilliant was that they realized that online streaming was the next big thing and killed their own business to move to that space quickly and become what they are now.

52) Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

53)  The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel - Probably one of the best books I read this year, small book packed with so many insights that I could totally relate to. Highly recommended personal finance and happiness guide.

54)  Everything is Figureoutable by Mario Forleo

55)  The Richest man in Babylon by George Clason - This is a book originally published in 1926 drawing upon lessons from ancient Babylonian civilization to dispense some solid financial advice which remains true over centuries. Not sure how much is from those clay tablets and how much is made up, but reading this in 2020 almost 100 years after this book was published every advice while it seems simple is really sound and if followed can have profound impact on life and financial status over a long run.

56)  The Secret Life of Groceries : The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr - A fantastic investigation piece by the author going deep into how supermarkets work and the murky secrets behind how you get those cheap prices and seemingly fresh produce year around and all those discounted and free merchandise. It might be cheap for the customer and profitably obviously for the store but someone is paying the price, this is an indepth examination with meticulous reporting under cover behind the scenes looking at what grocery store employees go through, how the system of procurement works and what is life like for a small businessman/woman with a brand which they want to get placed on a supermarket shelf, the life for a trucker who is the key cog in the wheel who ensures all the wares get transported across the nation to supermarket stores and also some reporting from Thailand covering the slavery in shrimp industry. All stories covered are personal from human point of view which ensures the points made hit you really hard. 

57) How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt - As folks who lived through this tectonic change in how music is consumed, we still only have a foggy idea of how we went from buying audio cassettes/tapes to CDs to getting music from streaming services or most often just individual songs for free from the web. This is an account of how things changed in 90s from the development of MP3 format from German university to music piracy and Steve Jobs. Between all these the way we consume and share/transfer music fundamentally changed. A lot of this book is personal accounts of music piracy group players and the researches behind MP3 standards.

58) The Rational Optimist - How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley - This is a contrarian take on what author tries to establish is largely a pessimist media where as most global headlines always focus on the gloom and world at peril stories as they sell better. It meanders a bit but the fundamental point is underscored with several examples and stories to offer an optimistic point of view about the world in general. Its a long ranging look of humanity from early hunter gatherer days to basic society which all hinges of exchange/trade between humans leading to specialization with benefits accruing to all. With several examples of stories/Tprophecies of doom over last century the author goes to provide data points to show how humankind's enormous ability to find new solutions for planet's problems. His main thesis is that unlike the general lament of low standards of life in modern world, in fact life is pretty good for most people compared to what was in past and it keeps getting better and better pulling more and more people out of abject poverty. Sure some claims appear too optimistic and cavalier but there are lot of places where it makes sense.

59)  Things My Son Needs to Know about the World by Fredrik Backman

Overall this year of being confined at home did pay some dividends in terms of being able to consume so many books. Once again it did take a lot of effort in channelizing free time towards reading rather than social media or news channels as the world seemed to go to pieces all round us. If I could shut out the noise of social media more I'm sure I could have read 50% more this year. The goal of 50 books was just a number to make it tough but at same time achievable with clear planning and purpose behind diverting the available time to something I like. So feeling pretty happy at clearing the bar in terms of number of books. Like last year the approach of dropping books that don't work for me after a few pages made a difference. I think I dropped around 15 books, some of them well regarded works which I probably will make another attempt this year. Reading is not just about the books by itself but also your frame of mind at that point.

In terms of split between fiction ( 22) and non-fiction ( 37), while non-fiction was much more but I'm still happy with increase in the number of fiction titles compared to previous years. I think I hit upon a right mix that I had in mind. I don't want to gloss over the number of titles that much because some of them were super small while others were super large epics which needed almost a month to finish. So long story short the number really doesn't mean anything.  I'm extremely thankful to US Library system for the wonderful collection of titles ( e-books and audiobooks) available to borrow from the comfort of my home and I also relied on Audible for audiobooks which made it easy to go over a lot of non-fiction books. Lot of my early morning walks in the park nearby was spent listening to one of these books.  I do hope to sustain the 50 book goal in 2021 as well as we stay in at home. Hopefully will discover more wonderful books to lift and sustain me through another challenging year.

Lockdown stories : The haircut

I have forever planned to write a blog on haircut, barbershops having experienced it in rural, semi-urban and big city India and then having had my hair cut in a couple of other Asian countries and of course in a few cities in US. That detailed piece will maybe come some other day, but this is specific to events of this year 2020 - a year like no other. Having tried a few options and given the fact that I'm born stingy ( always blame the genes when you can), it meant haircuts in US are done in one of those chain shops with ever changing crew and getting a decent vs bad haircut is like a coin toss. My wife is usually very critical of my choice of these cheap haircut places and usually when I get back after a haircut it will usually be met with a disapproving look from her. Anyway the hair grows back quickly and within a week or so the slightly bad haircut won't be visible so I keep sticking to the cheap haircut option. 

So we start the story of haircuts in 2020. I had a haircut in the early Feb and usually I go for a haircut every 5-6 weeks or so. By the time the mid march arrived we had heard of the first case in our county and since this was very close to home it was treated with sudden realization that its a real thing and nearby. For a few weeks all we discussed and focused on was the virus and in all this activity I forgot to get my haircut done and after 3rd week of march I realized I do need a haircut and actively considered going for a good short one to last me for a couple of months till the virus goes away ( so much hope we had then!). But my wife shot that idea down by deeming haircut as non-essential and unnecessary risk. We were getting even grocery online so what was the need to go and spend 15 min next to someone who might be a carrier. I think I was just a week late at that point, anyway the short window to get the haircut done was missed so long hair it was. I did grow my hair long some 12-13 years back, but I was much younger then and could afford to look weird  without caring much. Spoke to a few friends and they were all in same boat, some were willing to take a risk and get haircut. In tamil it was labelled "Uyira - Mayira" choice! ( Translation probably won't work)

However by the time end of April arrived, I was positively sick of the long hair look and irritated my wife no end by constantly fiddling with my hair. The times were such that we were pulling our hairs out.  Then internet came to rescue as usual and a little bit of research gave me a few options for good self use trimmer for hair, but all were sold out. So landed on the regular hair trimmers similar to the ones used by hair stylists in the chain shops I visit - maybe they use a little more fancy ones. Finally the critic of my haircuts got the opportunity to do my hair by herself and even in the first attempt I have to say she fared better than maybe some of poor haircuts I had. For a home haircut it was a resounding success and thank to an ever willing wife who cuts my hair every few months I didn't have to endure long hair after that ( not writing this because I need her to do this, she doesn't keep up with this forgotten blog!). Now she does a really good job of cutting my hair that sometimes I don't even realize that I'm cutting hair at home. Plus this also makes her comments about bad haircuts reasonable as even a part timer is able to at most times do a better job.

Last week we ended up doing video chat with my wife's cousin's family as my daughter wanted to say hi to her cousins who she didn't know existed till then but once she realized their existence kept pestering to see them on video chat and say hi to them. We saw that my wife's cousin was sporting a long hair and his son was also having long hair and my 4 year old was surprised to see boys having long hair. While they explained to my daughter that they are sporting long hair because you can't go and get a haircut these days because of covid, my daughter was not buying it. But my dad always gets his hair cut by my mom... he never goes to any shop ... its easy she added! 

Just one of those 2020 things I guess, haircuts at home . There are lot of things we take for granted  about pre covid life that I miss but haircut is slightly lower on the list. Sure its a routine part of life and stuff and of those chores which are actually fun but getting this done at home isn't all that bad even if you cannot afford to complain this time about a bad haircut ;)