Book Review: WISE and otherWISE - a salute to life
Title:WISE and otherWISE - a salute to life
Author: Sudha Murty
Publisher: East West Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd.
Published in: April 2002
No. of pages: 188
Price: Rs.150
My rating:**
WISE and otherWISE is a compendium of 51 short stories, each with an underlying thought-provoking moral. The content, no doubt succeeds to a certain extent, in sowing the seeds of soul-searching. However, the style of writing and the gasconade veiling the incidents accounted in the book, are a huge let down.
"Dedicated to 'The Shirtless Ones of India' who really taught me what my country is" reads the first page of the book. Little did I realize when I read this, that the writing inside, would also pretty much appeal, mostly to the Shirtless Ones of India. The style of writing is annoyingly simple and insipid while brazen gasconade stands out ironically, even in those handful of stories that attempt to highlight humility as the underlying moral. The style of writing does get on one's nerves unless ofcourse the reader happens to be a non-English-medium, moral-science-crazy, 4th grader kid, who considers it a satisfying learning experience when he comes across the simplest of English sentences that read something like "There was a fox. It was cunning. It saw grapes in a field. Fox jumped. Grapes were too high. Fox thought that grapes were sour and walked away". If the reader does not belong to this class of readers, the feeling that he/she is left with at the end of the read is "Aha! Light, thought-provoking read alright but definitely not an absorbing read. Not a single new word learnt, not a single new brilliant idea pondered upon, it was merely 4 hours of reading tales that grandma would've told me in a single 1-hour session. What the ...".
xx million copies sold. Hats off on this record, Mrs.Murty.Errr....Is this figure a surprise, considering that your company's HR is infamous for shoving in a free copy of your book in the new joinees' welcome kit?
Quote for the day: The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.
posted by chutki @ 9:11 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Hahaha.. Nice review ... Most people do a book review based on the popularity of the author.. So in essence, what they do is a review of the author's personality and not of the book!!!
It was on my reading list[http://eng.auburn.edu/users/prasaps/reading_list.html] but I have removed it now :-)
Good speakers are not necessarily good writers...
Finished this book in 30 min time standing in Landmark itself..even the stories are not very appealing..could have included many more interesting episodes..
and madam..watz thy cell number ? how do i reach u ? Have moved into my new place..have been very busy the past few weeks with all the house work :)
[Pratap]: :) Thanks. Trust me, you saved yourself a lot of frustration.
[Raghunandan]:When you pick up a book, it is because you expect to find good writing.Not good talking!
[Poxy]: Hmmm wish I had avoided buying this book, too.
Hehehe housework n Poxy!Ye ye ye way to go, dear.Will meet you soon.Will mail you my cell number.
Thanks for the tip! I have class till 11 PM. Your site is a great way to pass the time.
Hi Chutki,
Good review, few lines for you...
Try to replace your critical thoughts with the positive ones and you will be amazed to see the difference it makes to your life, your mind and spirit..
All the best!!
Swatantra.
Hi Chutki,
This book was given as a gift about 6 months back by my friend to my son who is 12 now. I started to read this book on a whim and found it so beautifully simple and rewarding in terms of the truth it inspired in me! The language that you find "annoyingly simple" is indeed the USP of the book. As I read , I felt a lot of similarity with books such as "Malgudi days" as far as language simplicity and fundamental truths of life are concerned.
Considering that it is a collection of articles written at various times by the illustrious author, ( "Authoress" if you will considering you are pedantic about language) it is not a book written at a stretch . The language plays beautiful hide and seek with you alternating between depth and simplicity depending on the topic.
I , for one have thanked my friend many times silently for giving me an insight into a mind as beautiful as Sudha Murthy's. I have decided to buy as many copies and gift them myself- spreading the messages implicit in the stories.
Try reading the book again with an idea that you are an instrument of the social change and upliftment of mankind that is required , as is evident from many stories.
Trust me you will find it "unputdownable" !
Venky
Good ........ Nice Review ............. I agree with you that it is a compendium ( i.e "collection" for those who don't know what the meaning of "compendium") of 51 short stories, each with an underlying thought-provoking moral. And the style of writing is too cheap.
So friends, some review from my side .........
It will cause you a frustration if you only pick up the books to read good writing and not good talking. You will be bored by reading this book if you get more fascinated by the presentation of the content then the content itself.
Most of the paragraphs of this book are the real life conversations between ordinary people, so please don't expect the comman people described in this book to be the characters of the Shakespear's plays.
So if you feel that comman people use "gasconade" instead of "boastful talk" in their day to day conversations then beware it is a misconception and come to the real world.
The authoress has cleverly described her life experiences in the most simple words and simple sentences so that the content can be understood by anyone from 1th grader kid to an Ph.d holder in english literature. So millions of its copies got sold.
The authoress has avoided the use of not so comman words of english language to relieve the readers from referring to english dictionaries for understanding the meaning of every sentences.
The authoress's intention is not to teach you the english literature or show her command over the english language since the authoress wants you to focus more on the content and the nature of human characters instead of the style of writing or number of new words.
Why should you read this book?
1. Read this book only if you want to know about the people of India and what the real India is?
2. Read this book only if you want to know about how people behave in real life.
3. This book provides insights of the human nature.
4. You can relate it to your daily life and the people around you.
5. Read this book if you want to know the personal experiences of a social worker.
6. You can start reading any chapter you want, whichever that appeals to you most.
Do's & Assumptions
1. This book is a form of memoir so it describes different sections of life experiences discreetly instead of describing everthing in a stretch.
2. The writing style of this book is very direct and written straight from heart.
3. Since this book describes the real life experiences & insight of human nature you may require extra abilities to get any brilliant ideas from it.
4. Some of the chapters won't appeal to you or suit your taste, please skip those, understand that each person may experience life differently.
5. You are free to try her other books "How I taught my grandmother to read" & "The Old Man and his God".
Don'ts & Not's
1. Don't read this book if you feel insecure of the achievements of the other people.
2. Don't read this book if you get offended by the talents and good work done by other people.
3. This book is not about Infosys or about Mr. Narayan Murthy.
4. This book doesn't provide you any creative ideas about starting a software company.
5. This book is not for the literature-crazy & technology-crazy people.
6. Don't read this book with any wrong belief due to popularity of authoress.
7. Don't read this book if you want to learn some new uncommon words of english, pick up a dictionary instead.
Disclaimer :
If you read this book then beware, some of you may find the inspiring and motivating comments made by the authoress very gasconade, some of you may mis-interpret the realities & truth told by the authoress as a brazen gasonade.
--- Terminator
@Poxy - I am not sure how can you complete entire book in half an hour. I am sure you might have just glanced through it. It took me at least 15 minites to complete one story. If you can take one minute to read one chapter it should at least take 51 minutes in land mark? I am sure that you were lying. She really illustrated all these kind of people in her boo, May be that is the reason you people don't like it. It happened accidentally for me to read one chapter and I cannot resist reading remaining ones. I got addicted to it. Now I am going to read it again. The review author resembles me pessimist similar to Sudha Murthy's Friend in one of the stories and how she changes and look everything positive due to old beggar. I feel that this is must read for any of the ages. A good book worth reading.
nice stories having good thoughts and really a very nice presentation i really like all the stories of this book RUCHI
Hi Chutki,
I realy have a great pleasure reading this book as it is based with our lives and are the reality of someone's life beside this all the stories are really very knowledgable
This is one of the most thought-provoking book I have ever come across. The words are simple yet beautiful. I not only recommend this book to each and every person I come across, but I have also gifted it to several people. I became an ardent fan of Sudha Murthy after reading this book!
Post a Comment
<< Home