Unity In Diversity - The Roses Edition

Summer is long over and we are perhaps seeing the last bloom of the year. I wanted to capture the peculiar variety of roses we have in our backyard. These plants give roses of different colors on the same branch !

Of course, the look nice in solo as well ..

They Really Said It ! [3]

One of the common refrains heard in the aftermath of the financial crisis was, "no one saw that coming". This is quite false, as their were a number of prominent thinkers who had been warning about the crisis.

But this is not the first time euphoria has given rise to a crisis. It has happened many times before and will continue to happen.

During the S&L crisis, the then FDIC chairman Bill Seidman oversaw the unraveling process. He was a frequent commentator on CNBC. He has left us - and more importantly to the regulators and lawmakers - this famous advice.

Instruct regulators to look for the newest fad in the industry and examine it with great care. The next mistake will be a new way to make a loan that will not be repaid.

When did he write this ? In 1993 !

Of course, such advice is meant to be ignored. And after every crisis there will be a legion of experts who will proclaim the impossibility of predicting the outcome.

Back pass

One of the most exiting things to watch in Soccer is of course the passes. In this, the back passes are electrifying.

Yesterday, the Arsenal demolished AZ (4-1), in their UEFA group round match. Watch the highlights - the long back pass comes after midpoint.

SaaNware ...

The Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan song, "saaNware ... tere bina jiya jaaye na" from Bandit Queen has been chosen by many participants in reality show music competitions. The winner of Recently concluded "SaReGaMaPa Li'l Champs" Hemant Brijwasi performed this song during the season. For his age, injecting so much soul into this song is incredible. This one is definitely worth hearing.



For comparison, here are 2 other performances. I am not too fond of this one



About 2 years ago, Mussarat Abbas did a great version, which I like a lot.



And of course, the original - in case you want to hear it.

Book Review : Big Bang

Book Review : Big Bang

Author : Simon Singh
My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe". This title is a little bit misleading, as in "incomplete". This is not a book that details how the Big Bang model explains the creation of the universe. Of course it covers basic ideas of that model, but the focus of the book is on how mankind reached the conclusion that this is indeed a good model to explain the creation of the universe.

I found that style of coverage extremely informative. Simon Singh starts with very early astronomers and explains how they measured the size of earth, distances to moon and sun etc. Then proceeds through the history of how the models of universe kept changing, what challenges the new models faced and who were the people instrumental in proposing these models with appropriate scientific reasoning.

That is the main point of the book. For example, Singh is not laughing at how Ptolemy got it wrong. He clearly gives what observations supported the earth centric model and why it was difficult for ancient people to accept a sun centric model. He presents checklists for comparing competing theories. Throughout the book he explains how science progresses and how a paradigm shift occurs. He also spends some time on the role of serendipity and speculation involved in scientific advances.

The book tracks the evolution of the models in almost a perfect chronological order. Every time a great new insight enhances the model, he delves deeper into the life and struggles of the protagonists. This makes it a very long book - nearly 500 pages. The fact that Singh keeps the reader engaged and glued to the book throughout, is a remarkable achievement. It's not just because of the empathetic story telling. Singh really wants the reader to understand the concepts. He does not shy away from using equations and gives ample diagrams. The explanations in this book are amongst the best I have read.

Most people would already know about what new ideas Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo contributed to the model of the universe. But there are so many other scientists and astronomers that contributed to the model that eventually culminated into Big Bang. Singh makes great effort to give credit to all those. And lucidly explains exactly how their ideas fit together. It's impossible to review all the information in this tome. I immensely enjoyed the material about the 20th century astronomers as it was quite new to me. The battle between Steady State theory and Big Bang makes for some great reading.

Because of the title and material in many current books on popular science, some readers may start with expectations that can lead to a bit of disappointment. The book essentially stops at the end of last century. This leaves out a lot of cutting edge topics (dark matter, dark energy, supernova, singularities and inflation to name a few). More interestingly, Einstein's contributions to the model are covered in great detail, but you won't find much explanation about his relativity theories, beyond what's needed to explain Big Bang. Singh is focused and that's fine by me. So, if you want to understand more about say relativity theory and quantum mechanics, I suggest looking elsewhere - like books by Brian Greene.

I am as much impressed by this book as I was with the author's other book - Fermat's Enigma. Big Bang is one the most revolutionary ideas that humans have dared to imagine and validate. This is the best book to familiarize yourself with that.

Once more ...

Have you seen a goalkeeper make a big mistake ? I am sure you have. But have you seen the same goalkeeper repeating the same mistake in the same soccer game ?

Watch it to believe it.

:-) The expression on the coach's face says it all.

Quantum Of Solace

Movie Review : Quantum Of Solace
Release : November 2008
My Rating : 5 out of 10

I am not a big James Bond fan, but I thoroughly enjoy the James Bond movies. Over the years, the formula has kept many constants while tweaking some variables over a much wider range. The previous offering in the series, "Casino Royale" was decidedly a significant shift from all previous Bond movies. I am one of those who really appreciated the new take on Bond. While watching the promos for "Casino Royale" I was unsure as to how Daniel Craig would carry the Bond persona, but when I watched the movie I was extremely impressed. A new actor and a new presentation style won me over.

Not so fast. The "Quantum Of Solace" was a big disappointment. It has nothing to do with raised expectations by its prequel. This is just not a good movie. The action scenes - especially the chase scenes that are part and parcel of all Bond movies - are simply terrible. Instead of imagination, director Marc Forster decides to shake the camera, then shake it again and then shake even more.If the intention is to make Bond into an action hero (and not a smart, witty, suave debonair) then action scenes need to be exiting, not confusing.

There are very few bright moments to write about. The story is continuation of sorts from the previous movie and it tries to highlight the transformation of Bond into a cold, killing machine. That's about it.

Bond movies are to be watched on the big screen, but I am glad I did not spend my money to watch this in a theater. I really cannot recommend this movie to anyone.

Book Review : Forces of Fortune
Author : Vali Nasr
My Rating : 4 out of 5

The complete title of the book is "Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World".

I came to know about this book while watching my favorite "The Daily Show". I liked the premise of the book and decided to try it out.

Vali Nasr is now considered a prominent thinker and scholar about the Middle East. In this book he presents his approach to solve the issues that plgue the Middle East and especially its relations with the Western World. His suggestion is to foster free market society in the Middle East and empower its middle class. By doing this, Vali Nasr argues, the Middle Eastern populace will have a vested interest in promoting long term stability in the region, and eventually give rise to democracy.

This is a logical argument and the author presents it convincingly. His knowledge about the region's history and political system is impressive. The thesis is supported by combination of hard data, interviews, anecdotes and personal interpretations of the historical events.

Nasr starts with explaining the inroads Capitalism has made into this region - with the obvious example of the trading hub of the region - Dubai. As one businessman summarizes how Islam and free market co-exists there - it's a city of five star hotels and five star mosques !

This is the theme that appears many times in the book. Nasr argues that Islamic societies willingly and easily embrace capitalism when given the opportunity. When secularism is forced from above, it has failed, as it happened for example in Iran during Shah's regime. This gave rise to the dangerous extremism of Khomeini. But if free market ideas take hold, the society gravitates towards a much more tolerant society - like Turkey. Turkey appears numerous times in this book. Not just about itslef, but the Turkish model or Kemalism is discussed frequently in different social contexts - for example how it fared in Pakistan.

In the introductory chapter, there is a bombardment of data and it overwhelms the readers with different statistics. Thankfully, all the other chapters glide very smoothly. The narrative becomes very engaging as the author starts presenting his case. Considering the sensitivity of the topic, a "matter-of-fact" tone is maintained almost through out the book. This is different than "fair and balanced" which is either an euphemism for political correctness or used to hide cluelessness of the journalists. Nasr is on the other side of the spectrum. He clearly has a great grasp of the issues and has no qualms about presenting things as he sees it. He masterfully avoids the trap of apologizing for the Muslim world. For example, he mentions that poverty is not enough of a reason for terrorist breeding grounds and points out that many terrorists come from well-to-do families.

He also avoids the pitfall of "who is to blame". His focus is on how to solve and what's the best way to move forward. So there is not much mention of the meddling done by Russia and the Western World - which is also one of the many reasons for the instability in the region. This leaves some questions insufficiently answered. I am not sure I came out completely convinced with the reasoning for the lack of democracy in most of the region.

Nevertheless, his message is clear and easy to understand. He wants free market forces to nudge the area towards a stable, tolerant, democratic society the same way it did in Europe many many decades ago. This is a refreshing clean approach and hopefully reshapes prevailing view points.

This book is a great example of scholarly work and I recommend it to anyone interested in political issues of our times.

When you gotto go, you gotto go

Rancho San Antonio has some nice hiking trails. Simple enough for the entire family and extremely easy to reach.

You start here ...


And later depending on what trail you take, it may look like this

Or to something much more shaded


Just beware of the spiders weaving their webs on grass :-)


There are a lot of deers around this area. One particular deer was not shy of being photographed.

Obviously it was very comfortable with people. And quite shameless to answer nature's call right in front of the camera :-)

Magnus Carlsen

Earlier this month Magnus Carlsen won a major chess tournament held in China. See the report of the final round here.

Carlsen will now be the 5th player to cross the rating of 2800. The other 4 being Kasparov, Anand, Kramnik and Topalov.

Carlsen is now being trained by no other than Gary Kasparov. But even before that it was certain that he is destined to be one of the best players.

I can claim some clairvoyance :-) as I wrote the following email in March 2008, on a mailing list shared by some friends.

The beginning of the year has 2 important chess tournaments. The Corus at Wijk An Zee in the Netherlands and Linares (Mexico-Spain). These are by invitation only, and you need to be a superstar in order to get invited.

Anand is in great form. He came in at 3rd place behind 2 new stars (Aronian and Magnus Carlsen) who shared the first prize. And he won Linares outright. He played more aggressively than his usual style, and was intent on making a statement like a World Champion should. It was joy to watch his games. His usual rivals Kramnik and Topalov were left far behind. They haven't been able to keep up with the new warriors. That's what makes Anand and Kasparov so remarkable. It's near impossible to handle that stress for such a long time when so many youngsters are constantly challenging the status quo.

And that's the real story here. It wasn't Anand whom I wanted to write about. Chess and music are probably the only 2 fields where a young genius so often makes a tremendous mark and creates a storm. So how about a Mozart of Chess ? Here we saw the coming of age for Magnus Carlsen, whom I have no problem referring to as the future numero uno.

He became the youngest grandmaster at age 13, by defeating Karpov and drawing with Kasparov in 2004. Just 4 years later, at 17 and half he won the above said prestigious Corus tournament ahead of Anand, Kramnik and Topalov. He is expected to become one of the top 5 chess players when the April ratings come out. In Linares, he mated the previous world champion Topalov. Now Topalov committed a serious blunder, but that was because the stress created by Magnus's play.

If you want to check out just one of his games, I highly recommend playing over his game against Aronian which Magnus offers a counter queen sacrifice. Anand called it "one heck of a game". You can find it here.

We may have another Magnus Carlsen in India - Negi. Negi was second in Group C of the same Corus tournament. That's how Magnus also started. But it's too early for that call. Currently it's all about Magnus.

You can read more about Magnus at his Wikipedia page.

He is good looking, young and destined to rule the chess world. He is one chess player who won't have problem finding girls to date ;-)

Sinister Shorts

Book Review : Sinister Shorts

Author : Perri O'Shaughnessy
My Rating : 1 of 5 stars

I saw this book in the library, noticed that the author has been on the bestselling list of New York Times and got interested because it's an anthology of short stories. It's been a long time since I have read a collection of short mysteries.

I have been disappointed by many fictions which appear on New York Times bestseller lists. I still decided to try this one, as I could gauge the book by reading just a couple of short stories and decide if I want to read any further.

And that's what I did. After first 2 stories, I just couldn't continue. I cannot say that the first one is badly written, but there is simply no mystery solving in it. It's a story of coincidence. The second one left me saying "duh". This is simply not how I expect mystery fiction to be. There is no "aaha" moment, there is no cleverness, there is not much of a plot, there is not much of anything.

I am glad I didn't have to go through the whole book expecting some redeeming part at the end. Unless, you specifically enjoy utterly bland fiction, avoid this book.

Pesto Bread

Baking bread is a joy. Especially if you are interested in experimenting. There are as many combinations of flour and liquid as you can imagine.

My self-imposed restrictions are to use only whole grain flours, no butter (use olive oil instead) and try to avoid sugar completely (replace with molasses, honey etc) if possible, or use as little sugar as can be used in the recipe.

This was a simple modification to the basic whole wheat bread recipe. Instead of oil, I just added a few tablespoons of pesto sauce.

The loaf was tall and spongy.

Looks nice, tastes nice !

Omnivore's Dilemma

Book Review : Omnivore's Dilemma

Author : Michael Pollan
My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars

The complete title for this book is "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals".

Most of us are blissfully ignorant about the food we eat. Well, we of course know what we are eating. And in this age of health conscious eating, morally right eating, organic eating etc. we think we know a lot about what we are eating. Hence reading "Omnivore's Dilemma" is a real eye opener !

Do you know the history of how we came to eat what we are eating ? Why did we start eating in a way that is now considered unhealthy ? Even if organic is really organic (!) is it really what you think it is (as in "natural") ? And how about the environmental effects of your eating choices ? Do you know how many calories of energy were spent in getting you a calorie of food that you are eating ?

Those are the questions surrounding the "Omnivore's Dilemma". As Pollan says, unlike a Koala who only knows eating leaves, we can choose from a much more diverse set and hence have to answer this question - "What's for dinner tonight ?". As you can expect Pollan's question is not about what recepie to use. The questions that we directly or indirectly face are quite deep. How do we get our food ? How do we know that the way we grow our food results in food that is good for us ?

In searching for answers to these questions, Pollan takes us on a tour with him. Or 3 tours. To 3 different ways of aquiring food. Industrial, organic and hunting-gathering. On this tour we meet corn farmers in Iowa, trace the journey of an animal from a ranch to a slaughterhouse, visit organic farms in California, spend days on the "beyond organic" Polyface farm and finally end up hunting a wild boar to eat with gathered wild mushrooms.

It is impossible to review all the information packed on these tours. I was surprised how much I learned from reading this book. The discussion covers a range of eclectic topics. Sceince, agriculture, politics, ethics of eating animals ... and so on. Everyone knows that US society is heavily dependent on oil, but do you know what role corn plays in the obesity epedmic around us ? We all know we live far away from food, figuratively speaking, but how far ?

This book is not just information. Oh no, it's way more than that. First and foremost, this book chronicles Pollan's journey in search of these answers. He is not afraid to express his biases, views and opinions. This gives the book a strong personal flavor - this is not a common practice - and I found that very refreshing. I do not have to agree with everything an author says in order to like the book. As long as the views and opinions are expressed in a thought provoking manner, I enjoy the book. This is definitely the case here. The book also gives proper share to the personalities that helped Pollan along the journey. This aspect helps the book avoid the label - "dry".

Not that Pollan needs that help. The writing is really engaging, and the entire book is an absolute pleasure to read. There is no preaching at all. What's more, the book is eminently quotable. Pollan asks, have we domisticated the corn plant, or has it domesticated us ? Reading his analysis on the dependence of the industrial food chain on corn, will make you understand that this question is quite serious. And if you are a proud consumer of Organic food, note that the farmers on the Polyface farms wouldn't use it even for compost !

One mild warning. Pollan worked on the Polyface farm to expereince it first hand and describes how he killed the chickens. And he hunted a wild boar to go through the hunter-gatherer experience as well. He is definitely an adventurer. I did not find anything objectionable in those descriptions, but given the hyper-sensitivity of the age we live in, I wanted to mention this to prospective readers.

The only quibble I have is about the ending. It seemed hurried. There is no "typing it all together" chapter. But Pollan has been presenting his conclusions through-out the book and maybe a chapter for it really wasn't essential.

Overall, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Informative, opinionated and a joy to read. What more you want from a book ?

Everyone likes tomatoes

Tomatoes are the easiest to grow in the backyard. And the fresh, ripe tomatoes tend to be very sweet and delicious. Everyone loves them.

Including this baby frog, that I noticed one late evening ! It's so tiny that it could comfortably sit on a tomato.

I had to move aside the branches using one hand (carefully so as to not disturb the frog) and take the photo using other hand.

Outliers

Book Review : Outliers - The Story Of Success

Author : Malcom Gladwell
My Rating : 3 out of 5 stars

I have been planning on reading "Tipping Point" written by Malcom Gladwell, but when his new book "Outliers" came out, I decided to try it out before reading his earlier books.

First, this book is not about how to be successful. It is also not about what to learn from what successful people have done to become so. And is it not about examination of what all factors are needed to become successful.

The book's main focus is about what external factors (other than personal talent) were involved in achieving success. The author argues that, our cultural legacy, family upbringings, period in history is as important as innate talent, and may be more important.

The books starts with an interesting observation about the birth dates of professional sportsmen. It seems that being born in the 1st quarter of the year is crucial to being a Canadian hockey player. The same observation is true for many sports in many other countries. Why being born in January is better than being born in December ? Because of cut-off dates. So when a group of kids is being evaluated at a very young age, someone born in January is almost a year older than someone born in December of that same year. In early elementary years, this is a huge physical advantage. Hence in the very early stages of being filtering, the kids born in 1st quarter of the year get chosen and receive more focus, attention and training. The others are simply weeded out. In a well established system that takes kids from minor league to eventual major league, this virtually guarantees that future sports stars will have a birth date between Jan and April !

This should be enough to tell you what argument the author is trying to make in the whole book. You will hear about what advantages Bill Gates and Bill Joy had to become the titans of the computer industry. You will also learn why famous corporate lawyers are Jewish, why Korean Air had a miserable accident record and what they had to unlearn to become safer, why Asian kids are better at Math and much more.

The book is as easy and fun to read as it any book can be. Gladwell keeps things very interesting, includes lots of anecdotes, personal stories and interesting insights. It is enough to make this a "very good book", but not much more.

There are some problems. One is originality. How much of the research is author's own ? It doesn't always have to be. But then at least there has to be some great original insights that are obtained by tying research of seemingly disparate sources. That is absent. And why would there be any ? What the author is arguing against is a strawman. We already know that it takes a lot more than inborn talent.

It's interesting to know about the advantages of being born at the right period in history. But the phrase, "Being at the right place at the right time", is not new. It's great to put a number - 10000 hours - on the amount of practice needed. But we have been saying - "There is no substitute for hard work". And "It's not what you know, but whom you know that matters", and so on.

At the same time, it's also true that there is no substitute for talent either. In school I was quite good at math. But I had no illusion about being the next Isaac Newton. Not because I wasn't willing to put in 10000 hours. Being good at math also gave me an idea about exactly how good I wasn't. Same is true for chess. All grandmasters at the top level study hard. But their mind works in a very different way. Mere mortals like me, have no hope of ever being a super GM, even if I had started learning chess at age 2. You don't "become" Einstein. You have to be born as Einstein, work hard to remain an Einstein and then have the luck to finally become an Einstein.

The author - to be sure - is not arguing that talent does not matter. He is focusing on a different part of the story. That's fine. But precisely because of that, this is only a partial story of success.

The author offers some points to ponder. The advantages of which month you were born into and such are easy to nullify and will greatly benefit all societies. We all cannot become great, but by opening up opportunities to as many people as possible, we can all succeed at being good.

Overall, I can definitely recommend this book. It’s short, fun, very enjoyable and thought provoking.

Being Cyrus

Movie Review : Being Cyrus
Genre : Black Comedy
Release : 2005
Language : English
Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Boman Irani, Dimple Kapadia, Simone Singh
My Rating : 7 out of 10

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started watching the movie. Or maybe I should say, I had the wrong idea ! The photo on the DVD cover clearly indicated - or so I thought - that this was a lighthearted comedy. And sure enough, the movie began like one. But in the end, the photo turned out to be as misleading as the name of the movie !

The movie does begin with Cyrus - the lead character played by Saif Ali Khan - narrating about his life in foster homes. Quickly he starts narrating about his visit to Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah) and his wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia) - leaving in a remote estate in Panchgani. Dinshaw is a retired pottery artist, well past his prime, leaving on inheritance. Katy is bored housewife. As a Parsi couple, they have their eccentricities and set the tone of the movie - light and humorous.

Dinshaw's father is a rich landlord. But the other son Farokh (Boman Irani) keeps complete control of all the affairs and forces the rich dad to live a poor, jailed life. Even Farokhs's wife Tina (Simone Singh) is scared of him. In spite of this, the tone of the movie still remains humorous.

Katy convinces Cyrus to visit her father in law and sends some money, chocolate candies for the old man. And slowly the movie starts getting darker. It never loses the comedy part completely, but by the end, it becomes quite twisted. I won't give away any more details. Just be prepared for something more than simple comedic relief.

It's a very well acted film. In spite of the name, the movie is not just about Cyrus. Other characters get significant share of the screen time and everyone is effortless. The direction by Homi Adajania is up to the task.

I am unsure how many viewers would enjoy the mix of comedy with the criminal intentions of the characters. I think it depends on the expectations. I wanted to watch a nice comedy and wasn't really looking for twists and turns. I still enjoyed the movie, and can definitely recommend it. Make sure you don't watch it in front of kids.

Longest word without a vowel

Here is a useless trivia question.
In English, what is the longest word which does not have a vowel letter in its spelling ?

Obviously, this has to have a 'Y', so there is a of course a vowel sound in it. But this word does not have any of the 5 main vowel letters (a-e-i-o-u).

See comments for the answer.

Lions For Lambs

Movie Review : Lions for Lambs
Genre : Drama
Release : 2007
Rated : R
Cast: Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford
Director : Robert Redford
My rating : 7 out of 10

This movie has not generated any glowing reviews. I understand the complaints about being "wordy" or "not breaking any new grounds" etc. And while I do not think this is a great movie, I very much enjoyed it.

The movie has 3 streams. In one, an ambitious Republican senetor Jasper Irwing (Tom Cruise) is explaining a bold new strategy to win the war in Afghanistan to a famous veteran reporter Janine Roth (Meryl Streep). In second, 2 soldires who are in action based on this same strategy are fighting a dying battle in some snow capped mountains in Afghanistan. While in 3rd, a California professor of political science Malley (Robert Redford) is trying to convince a talented by cynical student Todd Hayes to not waste his potential.

All 3 streams are happening simultaneously and are interleaved in the presentation. Of course all 3 are connected and although there is no suspense as to how, I won't give away that part.

Let's start with the bad news. The stream that deals with the battle in Afghanistan is not very convincing. The action sequences are definitely not a strong point for director Robert Redford. The choice for the patriotic protagonists willing to die for their country and also for each other is ... yes, people from 2 different minority backgrounds. Hmmm, this kind of playing it safe really diminishes the sincerity of the movie's message. Especially, for a movie that does not shy away from expressing its strong political bias.

Now the good news. The 2 other streams are very well written and extremely well acted. The casting is near perfect. The main strength is definitely in the dialogues. Candid, hard hitting and quite able to define the characters for us. The battle of wits between the professor and the student, is as close to a philosophical debate in the Greek tradition as you can get in a main stream movie. On the other hand the discussion between the senator and the journalist is often indirect, manipulative and is more about reading between the lines. The not-so-subtle hints, the euphemisms and the spin is quite contemporary and easy to relate to. These 2 interactions made the movie worth seeing for me.

The movie has strong political bias, and a viewer's opinion of the movie will very likely be influenced by his or her political affiliations.

I am hesitant to recommend this movie wholeheartedly to anyone. Unless you enjoy debates, and if you do, then you can definitely give this a try.

Great Performances from SRGM LilChanps 2009 - 1

Kids never stop to amaze me with their talent.

This is a perfect rendition of a famous song from Roja. I do not use these words lightly - this is better than the original. I am willing to go out on a limb and say that this girl - Shreyasi Bhattacharya - will become a famous playback singer. The voice is crystal clear and "sur" is absolutely on the mark. The expression is the icing on the cake.



If the above video does not load you can watch it directly by going to zeetv.com - but you may have to use Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Another amazing performance was given by Priyanka Maliya. The "throw" in her voice is as wonderful as the unique tone.

Fermat's Enigma

Book Review : Fermat's Enigma 

Author : Simon Singh
My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars

Books explaining difficult concepts in physics have been around for a long time. But in recent years, a number of books have attempted to make famous (but esoteric) math concepts accessible to layman. This is a remarkably difficult task. And it is even more remarkable that some books succeed in it. After reading Prime Obsession, I started looking for more such books and found this book. And I am happy that it turned out to be as much fun.

Fermat's Last Theorem doesn't need any introduction. It is perhaps THE most famous problem ever. Mathematicians have tried to prove (or disprove) the theorem for centuries. That struggle is definitely one reason that makes it so famous. But for a layman, the reason perhaps is that, the problem is extremely simple to understand. But not so with the proof, which apparently is out of reach for even mathematicians.

Author Simon Singh does not make the proof accessible to us. That is not the point of the book. As he calls it, the book is about "The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem". And that's perfect. Because even the outline of the proof is heavy enough. Simon Singh does the impossible - he not only makes the reader understand the rough outline, but at the same time he manages to convey the complexity of the math involved.

The book is way more than that outline. It presents the incredible story of Andrew Wiles and his phenomenal determination. But it's more than that as well. It presents the history of the attempted solutions and story of mathematicians who participated in this "epic quest". Obviously it starts with Pythagoras. But along the way many other mathematicians have made immense contributions and their stories are equally engaging. I had vaguely heard about Galois and Sophie German, but didn't know about their fascinating lives. And I had no idea who Taniyara and Shimoka were and how their conjecture is related to Fermat's theorem.

Simon Singh weaves the thread through these and many more brilliant mathematicians. The drama of their lives, the key breakthroughs, the triumphs and tragedies. It's a brilliantly written book. This is as close as I will ever come to understanding the proof. For that I cannot thank the author enough.