Bodyguard

Series Review: Bodyguard Available on: Netflix My Rating: 8 out of 10

Bodyguard, released in 2018, was very successful in Britain, and has been available on Netflix for US viewers for some time. It showed up in Netflix recommendations, and I am glad I watched it.

Giving a spoiler-free synopsis of a series that’s filled with twists and surprises is hard. So it’s best to keep it very short and introductory. The main protagonist is David Budd (Richard Madden, who played Robert Stark in the “Game Of Thrones”). David is a war veteran, now serving in the Police. As we have seen in numerous such series and movies, he is suffering from PTSD, which has affected his marriage. After an heroic effort in the opening sequence, he is assigned to protect the home secretary, Julia Montague (played brilliantly by Keeley Hawes). The home secretary’s views are extremely hawkish and it’s clear to us that David doesn’t appreciate them at all. From here the situation gets very complex and dangerous, and I won’t mention further as I don’t want to give anything away

This 6 episode series feels like a movie because it goes by so fast. Except the last episode, in which one sequence felt dragged to me. This is definitely an edge of your seat thriller that grips you right from the opening sequence. And the series does that by constantly surprising the viewer. It does take liberties with believability, but those are less common. Now twists and turns are very common in the thriller genre and can get tiresome. The reason it works here is, there are so many cross currents, that the series manages to create an air of suspicion around almost every character, including David. 

The credit goes first to the writer and creator Jed Mercurio for crafting this tale. With any successful series, the cast matters, and I was impressed by most of the large ensemble. I admit that, even though I found Richard Madden’s portrayal of David Budd satisfying, some may find it inconsistent. In addition to Keeley Hawes (who plays the Home Secretary) I must highlight Sophie Rundle who plays Vicky Budd, the wife of David Budd.

This is a very bingeable series and I highly recommend it to those looking for pure entertainment. It’s correctly rated TV-MA.

Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the Present

Book Review: Islam 

Author: John Tolan My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is “Islam: A New History from Muhammad to the Present”.

In today’s hyper-tribalistic world, few topics generate as many heated and intense discussions as Islam. In my social circle, mostly comprising of Indian diaspora, it’s a recurring hot button topic, and unfortunately, no points for guessing what kind of tone is used abundantly in these discussions. My interest in Islam is a byproduct of my interest in Urdu Poetry and a necessity to understand Urdu Poetry better. I am very attracted to poetry that has Sufism deeply embedded in it, and have always tried to learn more about the frequent historical references. That’s how I stumbled onto this book looking for a way to educate myself, and also, hopefully, a book that I might be able to recommend to others.

Now, I am not sure about the claim “New History” as made in the title, but I admit, I am not qualified enough to judge the claim anyways. What I can say is, this is comprehensive and concise, akin to a bird’s eye view, of the history of the Islamic world since its inception.

The period spans centuries, from the time of Prophet Mohammed to the recent times. The empires and kingdoms cover a vast geographical area from Spain and Northern Africa to Far East Asia. Entire books have been written about much smaller slices of time and space. So it’s not a surprise that for such a large scope, a single book can offer only a high level summary. In doing that, the book succeeds really well.

What is even more admirable, is the book clearly conveys how complex the societies were, how paradoxical the alliances and conflicts were. It’s easy to accept, after reading such a history, that discussions around complex topics cannot be simplistic and have to be nuanced.

At the same time, the tone of the book, while discussing history, can be appealing or problematic, depending on the point of view of the reader. It’s not an opinionated editorial, and judgements are infrequent. Those readers, looking for a positive or negative narrative supported by history, will be disappointed. I liked it that way as I prefer forming my opinions myself.

That can make the tone dry and less engaging. And I think many history books have that disadvantage. One chapter though, about the travels of Ibn Battuta in the 14th century, stands out in its story telling. This was all new information to me, and surprisingly so. Ibn Battuta, a Berber Arab from Morocco, traveled over 70K miles, far more than any other, including famous travelers such as Marco Polo. He lived in India for six years, and then traveled to Indonesia, China to name a few countries. He chronicled his travels and they provide a first hand account of life in so many parts of the world. It’s a fascinating story, worthy of a movie.

Interestingly, the tone changes as the book starts discussing recent events that happened after the Second World War. From the effects of decolonization and the drawing of arbitrary boundaries, which gave rise to bloody regional conflicts, to the emergence of what the author calls “Political Islam” are discussed with candor. The author presents a multi-faceted picture. He highlights efforts of numerous liberal Muslim intellectuals, feminists and activists who risked it all for fighting for democratic freedoms, and separation of religion from state. And he also does not shy away from calling it naive to say that “Islam is a religion of peace”, as history has shown that the struggle between pacifist and militant factions of Islam has been playing out for centuries.

I highly recommend this book for a quick and nuanced overview of a vast and complicated history. It’s a well researched book with pages of references, and has been updated for events in the 2020s.

2026 Pleasanton Hot Rod Show

Pleasanton City organizes an annual Hot Rods show in the downtown. It's a great opportunity to see beautiful classic cars and talk to the owners who lovingly take great care of their prized vehicles. 

The Main Street is blocked for this show and is full of classic cars on display.

Here are some absolutely gorgeous cars.

Some owners take pride in displaying the well maintained engine in a pristine condition.

And everything inside is of course as well maintained.

स चा ह

 स चा ह 

हा लेख लिहून कमीत कमी पाच-सहा वर्षे तरी झाली असतील, कदाचित जास्तच. Covid च्या आधी लिहिला होता हे नक्की. पण post करण्याचं धाडस होत नव्हतं 🙂

आता करतो आहे, आणि का, ते लेखाच्या शेवटी लिहितो. 

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महाराष्ट्राच्या इतिहासाला एक मोठं वळण केवळ ‘ध’ चा ‘मा’ झाल्यामुळे लागलं असं म्हणतात. असेलही. पण माझ्या मते ‘स’ चा ‘ह’ झाल्याचा परिणाम खूप जास्त विचार करायला लावणारा आहे.

जेंव्हा शब्द एका भाषेतून दुसऱ्या भाषेत जातात तेंव्हा त्यांचे उच्चार बदलणे स्वाभाविक आहे. ‘प’ / ‘फ’ / ‘ब’ एकमेकांत बदलतात तसंच ‘स’ आणि ‘ह’ सुद्धा. वर्णावलीत जसे ‘प’ / ‘फ’ / ‘ब’ एकत्र मांडले जातात, तसे ‘स’ आणि ‘ह’ सुद्धा आणि ते ह्याच कारणामुळे.  

वैदिक संस्कृत आणि प्राचीन फारसी ह्यांचा जन्म एकाच भाषेतून झाला होता ही कल्पना नवीन नाही. आणि गेल्या काही दशकांमध्ये झालेल्या संशोधनामुळे भाषाशास्त्रज्ञाचं आता ह्या बाबतीत एकमत आहे. त्यामुळे ह्या दोन्ही भाषेंतील काही शब्दांचा उगम एकच असणे स्वाभाविक आहे. त्यात काही शब्दांचा प्रवास खूपच रंजक आहे.

प्राचीन काळी, जो शब्द वेदकालीन संस्कृत मध्ये “मास” असा आला, तोच शब्द जेंव्हा प्राचीन फारसी मध्ये गेला तेंव्हा, ‘स’ चा ‘ह’ झाला आणि त्याचे रूपांतर ‘माह’ मध्ये झाले. दोन्ही अर्थ तेच राहिले - “moon” आणि “month”. चंद्राच्या कलांनुसार दिवस मोजणी होत असल्यामुळे एकच शब्द moon आणि month साठी असणं स्वाभाविक आहे. त्यावरून चंद्र ह्या अर्थाशी निगडित असलेले फारसी शब्द, माहताब, माहरू वगैरे, उर्दू कवितां मधून सतत आपल्यासमोर येत असतात. उर्दू कवींच्या अशा काही लाडक्या शब्दांचा उगम फारसी आणि संस्कृत ह्यांच्या मूळ भाषेत आहे. फारसी मध्ये ‘माह’ वरून शब्द बनला “महिन:” (مہنہ). तो आपण मराठीत घेतला ‘हि’ दीर्घ करून ‘महीना’ असा.

आपण ‘मास ‘ आणि ‘महीना’ असे दोन्ही शब्द वापरतो. दोन शब्द, उगम एकच आणि अर्थही तोच. पण प्रवास वेगळा असल्यामुळे थोडे भिन्न वाटतात. 

तीच गोष्ट अजून एका शब्दाची. जो शब्द वेदकालीन संस्कृत मध्ये "सप्त" (seven) असा आला, तोच शब्द जेंव्हा प्राचीन फारसी मध्ये गेला तेंव्हा 'स' चा 'ह' झाला, आणि 'प' चा झाला 'फ' आणि शब्द झाला 'हफ्त:' (ہفتہ). हिंदी मध्ये "week" अर्थाने असणारे दोन्ही शब्द 'सप्ताह' आणि 'हफ्ता' ह्यांचा उगम एकाच प्राचीन शब्दातून. एक आला सरळ संस्कृतमधून, तर दुसरा फारसी मार्गे. मराठीतही दोन्ही शब्द आले. जरी 'सप्ताह' चा अर्थ तसाच राहिला तरी 'हप्ता' चा अर्थ झाला 'installment'. मुंबईतल्या बोलीभाषेत 'हप्ता' चा अर्थ अजूनच वेगळा आहे, हे तर सर्वांना माहित आहे. 

आधी म्हटल्या प्रमाणे, शब्दांचा प्रवास खरोखरच खूप रंजक असतो. 

पण ह्यात विचार करायला लावण्यासारखं काय आहे?

ह्याच 'स' चा 'ह' होण्याच्या प्रक्रियेमुळे 'सिंधु' नदीचं आणि त्या पलीकडल्या प्रांताचे नाव प्राचीन फारसी मध्ये झाले 'हिंदू'. त्या प्रांतात राहणाऱ्या लोकांनाही तेच संबोधन प्राचीन फारसी मध्ये रूढ झालं. ऋग्वेदामध्ये ज्या प्रांताचा उल्लेख 'सप्त सिंधू' असा आहे, त्याला अवेस्तां ह्या पारसी धर्मग्रंथा मध्ये 'हप्तहिंदू' असे म्हटले आहे. (अवेस्तां हे भाषेचही नाव आहे, जी जुन्या फारसी भाषेशी निगडित आहे.) ऋग्वेद आणि अवेस्तां ह्यातलं साधर्म्य आणि फरक हा एक मोठा आणि अतिशय रोमांचक विषय आहे, त्यावर अजून अभ्यास करायची माझी खूप इच्छा आहे. 

इथे काही गोष्टींवर लक्ष देणं आवश्यक आहे. फारसी मध्ये हिंद आणि नंतर अरबी मध्ये (अल हिंद - الهند) हा शब्द भौगोलिक अर्थाने आहे, धार्मिक नाही. त्यावरून इंग्लिश मध्ये गेलेला शब्द India हा ही भौगोलिकच आहे. हिंदुस्तान हा शब्द पहिल्यांदा प्राचीन फारसी मध्ये वापरला गेला होता. हे नाव ज्या मूळ सिंध प्रांतामुळे पडलं, तोच आता आजच्या हिंदुस्तानात नाही, पाकिस्तान मध्ये आहे. आणि भारतात मात्र सिंधी भाषिक राज्य नाही. पण एका जुन्या संदर्भाने आपण सर्व ‘सिंधी’ आहोत असं मला म्हणावंसं वाटतं. 

त्याही पेक्षा उपरोधात्मक आणि विचार करायला लावणाऱ्या गोष्टी आहेत. भारतीय भाषांमध्ये "हिंदू" ह्या शब्दाचा अर्थ केवळ धार्मिक राहिला आहे. आपण हिंदू जे आपल्या धर्माचे नाव म्हणून वापरतो ते इराण मधल्या मुसलमानांच्या पूर्वजांनी (मुसलमानांनी नाही) ह्या भौगोलिक प्रदेशाचे ठेवलेले नाव आहे. हिंद प्रांतातले लोक जी भाषा बोलतात त्याला फारसी भाषिकांनी नाव दिलं हिंदी. भाषेतून “परके” शब्द काढून टाकायचा आग्रह जे करतात, त्यातल्या किती लोकांना ही माहिती आहे की ह्या भाषेचे नावच “परक्या” लोकांनी ठेवले आहे? सद्य परिस्थितीत ही सर्व चर्चा दुर्दैवाने भावनिक आणि अतिशय प्रक्षोभक होऊ शकते.  

सांगायचा मुद्दा असा की, 'स' चा 'ह' होण्याचा परिणाम 'ध' चा 'मा' होण्यापेक्षा खूप गहन आहे.  

असो. वातावरण थोडं हलकं करण्यासाठी शेवटी गंमत म्हणून अजून एक वेगळीच व्युत्पत्ती, ह्याच सिंधचा हिन्द होण्यामुळे झालेली. 

अरबी लोकांबरोबर भारताचे व्यापारी संबंध खूप जुने आहेत. जेंव्हा अरबी लोकांनी चिंच बघितली, तेंव्हा ती त्यांना थोडी खजूर सद्दृश्य वाटली असावी - काळा चिकट गर, आत एक टणक बी. हा केवळ माझा कयास. कारण काही असो, त्यांनी चिंचेला नाव दिलं "हिंदचा खजूर". खजूराला अरबी मध्ये एक शब्द आहे - तमर. म्हणून अरबी मध्ये चिंच म्हणजे "तमर-ए-हिंदी" (تمر هندي ). त्याचे इंग्लिशमध्ये रूपांतर झालं "Tamarind". आता “date tamarind chutney” ज्यावेळी खाल, तेंव्हा हे लक्षात ठेवा की ती दोन प्रकारच्या खजुरांपासून बनली आहे. एक अरबस्तानातला खजूर आणि दुसरा हिंदुस्थानातला. 🙂

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आज हे सर्व लिहिण्याचं धाडस केलं, कारण हिंदू शब्दाची व्युत्पत्ती आता खूप लोकांना माहित आहे. आणि म्हणूनच “सनातन धर्म” हे नाव वापरण्याची प्रथा वाढत चालली आहे. त्यामुळे उलट्या सुलट्या आरोपांचा भडीमार माझ्यावर होण्याची शक्यता आता कमी. म्हणजे निदान अशी आशा तरी करू शकतो 🙂 आणि तरी सुद्धा काही शंका किंवा आक्षेप असेल तर अजून एक माहिती. वीर सावरकर, ज्यांनी हिंदुत्व ह्या शब्दाची निर्मिती केली त्यांनीसुद्धा अगदी हीच व्युत्पत्ती स्पष्टपणे समजावून सांगितली आहे. (बघा https://hwatchmediabucket.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/12143419/Essentials-of-Hindutva-by-Vinayak-Savarkar.pdf)

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are

Book Review: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Author: Frans de Waal  My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This is a provocative title for a book! Before I discuss this book, let me mention that I had previously reviewed another book by the same author, “Mama’s Last Hug” and I had given it my “MUST READ” rating. In that book, Frans de Waal tackled the topic of “Animal Emotions”. In this book, the focus is on “Animal Cognition”.

It’s my impression that most people by now agree that animals have feelings. Even then, it can come as a surprise to many that they have emotions, such as guilt, revenge, empathy, cruelty. Many people, again my impression, still hold the view that animals are just driven by stimuli and instincts. To those, it will come as a bigger surprise that animals have “cognition”.

But first, we have to understand what is meant by the word “cognition”. If you want a formal definition, please refer to the Wikipedia page. Informally, cognition implies the abilities of acquiring new knowledge, having memories, solving problems, making judgements and so on. We pride ourselves as a species which has the brain with the capabilities of  logical reasoning, information processing, computation, imagination, complex planning, and above all our highly prized abilities to have abstract thoughts and communicate using languages. Do animals possess any of these abilities or are we unique?

The very first question to ask is, how can we even find out? Of course we cannot expect a fish to answer a question about philosophy and we certainly haven’t seen any animals solve trigonometry problems in the wild.

This is where the author steps in with this immensely valuable book. With examples after example, he illustrates how it is up to us to set up the correct experiments. For example, some experiments have shown that chimpanzees do not perform well in facial recognition tests. But, and this is huge, as it was later found, if the experiment is changed from using human faces to using chimpanzee faces, they do extremely well. This totally makes sense. In the wild, what helps a chimpanzee is the ability to differentiate between chimpanzees, and the skill to differentiate between human faces is almost never needed. There are many more such examples in the book, where the older conclusions about Animal Cognition were wrong because the set up of the experiments were wrong.

The next question that arises then is, even if we agree that animals have cognitive abilities, are they as smart as we are? Should we consider smartness as a spectrum and put ourselves at the smartest end of it? The author argues that smartness should be treated as a multi-dimensional space and not a linear axis. Yes, we may be smarter in some aspects, but the animals can be and are smarter in other aspects. When the bird known as Clark’s Nutcracker stores tens of thousands of pine nuts in hidden caches, it can remember these locations even months later. It doesn’t do that using any strong sense of smell. Rather it has a highly evolved brain that is able to store spatial memory at a scale that we humans simply do not have.

Other studies have shown that chimpanzees can beat even a trained human competitor at a game that tests short term memory. The results of this experiment became famous and shocked almost everyone, I think mostly because it bruised our hyper inflated egos. I was searching for an article to link here in my review, and when I found it, I was immediately struck by the irony. The headline of an article in a newspaper perfectly captures our own ignorance about the world, albeit completely unintentionally, “Chimps are making monkeys out of us”. This title clearly displays an ego, and an implicit bias that “monkeys are stupider than us”.

This very idea of “Human Exceptionalism” is what Frans de Waal is railing against in this book as well. He mentions many examples of this tendency, and how that had clouded the judgment of the scientific community at large for a very long time. It’s not that humans are not exceptional. We are. But so are other animals. For example, a bat is exceptional too. Not just for having the ability to fly in the dark using the echoes of its sounds to navigate, but also being able to distinguish between the echoes it made, versus the echoes made by many other bats who are also flying at the same time! It requires a highly evolved brain with some exceptional circuitry to process acoustic waves. After reading such books, I absolutely think that we humans need a big dose of humility.

I understand that the author is one of the revolutionaries in this field and has contributed a lot to our understanding of animals. I am in awe of what he and others have achieved. More than that, I am grateful to scientists like him for improving my understanding and teaching people like me to look at the animal world in a much humbler way. But the point about how the establishment was not scientific enough in their approach was hammered a perhaps bit too much. That part was repetitive to me.

Having mentioned this minor quibble, I can salute the author for writing this book in such a wonderful and accessible style. It educates as well as entertainers. It’s a very easy book to read, and I highly recommend it.

Mission Peak

 Mission Peak is a very popular hike in the Bay Area. Part of the East Bay Region Parks, the hike to the famous peak (2500 ft) is considered 'moderate to hard'. We went well after the winter rains were over and when the path was dry. It was early spring and the mountains were covered with lush green meadows and wildflowers. Before the spring ends, the heat turns all these hills yellow. Till then, this area looks as pretty as Switzerland ;-) 

Some photos from the hike. The views are spectacular.

Bada Naam Karenge

Series Review: Bada Naam Karenge

Aired on: Sony Liv (Feb 2025) My Rating: 8 out of 10

Rajshri Productions is that rarest of the rare movie brands which has always maintained a certain purity and innocence in their products while achieving great commercial success across multiple decades. With “Bada Naam Karenge” they have masterfully replicated that formula in the format of a limited episodes series.

The story is uncomplex, just as we have come to expect from Rajshri production. Yes, there is some tension, but not too much, just as we expect from their stories. The ending is happy as we want. There is a joint family, and that dynamics plays a huge role in the story, just as we expect. The characters are relatable, likable. There is simplicity and cuteness. Everything is mostly believable. Everything is very Rajshri.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t anything new. There is plenty. The Covid pandemic plays an interesting setting for the story to begin. In spite of having a familiar canvas to paint on, the writing manages to add more than a few interesting brush strokes. More importantly the story is modern, even when the boy’s family is very old fashioned. 

When the series starts in the small town of Ratlam, Rishabh Rathi (Ritik Ghanshani) is reluctantly agreeing to his family’s wishes that he meets the girl with whom they are considering to have his marriage arranged. What he is not expecting is that the girl turns out to be Surbhi Gupta (Ayesha Kaduskar). The two families are not aware that Rishabh and Surbhi have already met in Mumbai. Rishabh is in love with her, and is near confident that she is also in love with him. Of course, now he wants to get married, but the reason for how they met and their friendship will have to remain a secret. Else his conservative family will not accept Surbhi as their daughter-in-law. But the family also disapproves of lying, and can disavow those who lie. That creates the dilemma.

This is resolved, almost satisfactorily, over 9 episodes. The past is revealed in multiple patches of flashbacks. Considering the simplicity of the story, I think such nonlinear structure was necessary to make it interesting. It works well.

The cast is full of actors who have perhaps played such roles many times and it’s not a surprise that all have acted very well. But the lead pair was a pleasant surprise. They are one of the main reasons why this series works. They both exude a simple charm and come across as kids next door. Their acting creates a believable chemistry that is so critical in love stories. 

All other departments - dialogues, script and overall direction - are also handled adeptly. Music is a standout with quirky and catchy songs. 

I highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a clean and simple enjoyment. These days, finding a series with such qualities is not easy. This provides a welcome break from the dark, action packed, loud shows that have become so common these days.

Along the walk in the Spring of 2024

After a long cold winter with heavy rains, it seems like Nature is in an overdrive. Here are some photos from a walk through the neighborhood. These are all wildflowers.

The days are sunny again, and the trails are surrounded by overgrown plants.

Some of the grass has already started turning brown which is typical for this time of the year.

The "California Poppy" is rightfully the State Flower for The Golden State. Entire meadows can be full of these bright yellow flowers.

There are also some other yellow flowers covering big patches.

It's not all about yellow, pink and purple wildflowers also abound.

These storks are very common in this area, but rarely remain close enough like this.

Jaipur Forts: Jaigarh and Nahargarg

For a tourist going to Jaipur, the first choice for a fort visit is perhaps Amer. It is certainly more famous than Jaigarh and Nahargarh. I don't disagree. I think these two forts are also worth visiting. They are definitely far less crowded and offer great vistas and historic architecture. Here is a sample collection.

(All photos taken on Google Pixel 6 Pro)