Conservatives, Liberals and Logic

These days, “How can they be so illogical?”, is one of the most common questions I hear people asking in exasperation. Sometimes, “illogical” is replaced with “dumb”, “stupid” etc, but the intent is really to question the “abilities of deduction”. The other variants of this question are “How can they be so evil?”, “How can they be so wrong and not know it?” and so on. In this post, I am only going to talk about the “illogical” nature of “them”. 

I really find that question funny, because most of the time, people asking that question really don’t know what “Logic” means. Let’s revisit something that all of us have learned in middle school.

Logic helps us decide, given a set of premises, if the conclusion of inferences is correct. In other words, it helps us appraise an argument. Using logic, we can objectively assess an argument as either valid or invalid.

We all learned Geometry in school. Euclid constructed the most beautiful edifice in human knowledge, by starting with extremely simple postulates and using them to prove theorems of  increasing complexity. Everything about Euclid’s geometry is absolutely logical.

Except his postulates. They have no logical proof. They are taken as “self evident truths”. For example, one postulates roughly states that it is possible to draw a straight line from any one point to another. There is no way to prove this statement. We assume it to be true and use it for logically proving other theorems. As long as these “axioms” feel trivially true, everyone will be comfortable using them as the starting point.

But what if the axiom doesn’t feel trivially true? That indeed was the problem with Euclid’s 5th, and last postulate about parallel lines. This is a big topic, and I can refer you to Euclid’s Window. By changing the fifth postulate, mathematicians were able to come with completely new Geometries, that are very different but as logical as Euclidean Geometry. As it turns out, they are far more than mathematical curiosities, and the space in which our stars and galaxies operate, indeed follows non-Euclidean Geometry.

What does all this have to do with conservatives and liberals and their logical or illogical arguments? The point is, if the starting premise is different, then the logical argument would lead to a very different conclusion. Duh, you say. OK. So here is the crux. There is simply NO way to logically choose a premise. That whole thing - the inferences, the deductions - that whole logic thing, is what comes afterwards. 

So, it’s totally possible that “they” are making a very logical argument, but “their” premises are vastly different than yours. Here is what you probably don’t want to hear - “their” premises are not worse or better than your premises - they are just different premises.

This is not just a semantic jugglery. This is also not an attempt to whitewash by saying, “everyone is correct”. No. There indeed are a lot of stupid people who make illogical arguments. Their premises are contradictory in nature, and/or their inferences do not follow the rules of Logic. But questions such as “What ought to be” come down to morality, and cannot be settled by logic. Our moral code is driven by our intuitions, which are the result of our evolution by natural selection. Again, a big contentious topic and I can refer you to The Righteous Mind.

This is also not to say that all debates with “them” are on morality. Not at all. For example, when it comes to public policy, effectiveness (usefulness v/s harm) can often be debated objectively, using data analysis. That’s another big topic, as statistical interpretations can also get clouded by confirmation bias and frankly, dishonest intentions.

So now what? How can you convince “them” that “their” argument is illogical? Seriously, if you are still asking that question, you need to read this post again. Instead of looking at the argument, why not look at the premise of that argument? Why not examine it to see if it can be derived from even more fundamental premises, or is it truly subjective?

More importantly, why the need to prove to “them” that “they” are morally wrong? If Mathematics can have internally consistent theories that contradict each other, what’s wrong in a society of humans who hold very contradictory but logical views? Of course it’s not comfortable, but that diversity of thoughts and opinions, you know the thing that we say we celebrate - how about actually celebrating that?

Hunters

Series Review : Hunters (Season 1)

Aired on : Amazon Prime (2020)

My Rating : 7 out of 10

If you want to see something outlandishly different, you have to watch “Hunters”, the heavily promoted series on Amazon Prime for 2020. Bear in mind though, different doesn’t necessarily mean great. 

The premise is not novel. In 1977, a group of diverse people have come together as a band to hunt former Nazis living in the USA. Almost like X-Men, this group has been assembled by a patriarchichal leader Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino), who is a survivor of Auschwitz. They are introduced to us, when their newest and youngest member, Jonah (Logan Lerman) joins them to take the place of his grandmother Ruth (Jeannie Berlin) after she is murdered. In every episode, we learn something about each of them, but not in equal proportions. We learn a lot more, of course, about the past of Meyer (the leader) and Ruth. A lot of time has been given to the lovely Markowitz couple (Saul Rubinek, Carol Kane). Their adversaries are formidable. The leader is the lady referred to simply as the Colonel (Lena Olin). Most of her dirty work is carried out by a twisted but ambitious soldier Travis (Greg Austin). Their public face is a well connected politician Biff Simpson (Dylan Baker). There are really a lot of characters.

Now, there is nothing even remotely new in making a story about the horrors perpetrated by Nazis. The brave stories of Nazi hunters are also not new, to say the least. All this has been used multiple times, in many great books and movies. What’s different here, is the presentation. Now, even that claim is a cliche. But Hunters is indeed different.

The writers (mainly David Weil) have made very conscious efforts to make sure that Hunters does not fit in any genre. It’s a crazy mixture of numerous cinematic styles. And these styles keep switching from one scene to another with seemingly no reason whatsoever. When it shows the horrors of the concentration camp, it’s unflinchingly dark and terrifying. When the Hunters are on the prowl, it’s a typical Hollywood action film. At times, it’s a comic book fantasy, often reminding us of X-Men. Then suddenly there are inserts of darkly funny TV commercials. Then it can quickly turn around and give us really touching moments. And while we are still in that spell, it can pull a slapstick comedy scene on us. Then suddenly it can decide to take the tone of a B grade movie - very intentionally - to make us suspect that the series is really trying to not take itself too seriously. But it again flips that and becomes cheesy for the next scene. And there may be much more that I am missing to classify properly.

So ask this question to yourself. Are you OK with this kind of whiplash? I can tell you that it’s done very intelligently and purposefully. I enjoyed it, mostly. There are dialogues that will stay with you, such as “You should read the Torah more. It’s the original comic book”. There are scenes that you won’t forget, such as someone shooting their own family to death. Or Jonnah and friends suddenly breaking out in a dance sequence to one of the greatest hits from that era - Stayin Alive. Heck, even the costumes are unforgettable. 

Yes, it is that different. A crazy weird mix. Sometimes it reminds us of Quentin Tarantino, sometimes it reminds us of the Coen Brothers. I can also tell you what it’s not. It’s not boring. The pacing can get uneven, but it’s very easy to get hooked to it. Nevertheless, I suspect most viewers won’t binge on it. Because it’s overwhelming, it’s exhausting. 

The acting is fantastic, as you can expect from such a cast. Writing is very smart. They have blended political commentary and conspiracy theories, quite well with real history. Yes, there indeed was an “Operation Paperclip”. The production quality is top notch, and I must add, with a lot of attention to colors. 

So the question you might ask is, why only 7 out of 10? Because I felt cheated in the end. I cannot explain that well without spoiling it for you. But I will say this, some of the surprises (the very last scene, for example) were nice, made me chuckle and say, yes, of course, I should have seen it coming. But some felt forced and unnecessary. And it was really too much to handle at times.

This series is not for the faint of the heart. There is a lot of brutality and violence. It’s definitely not for kids, and correctly rated as MA. For a change, this series goes against the norms. There is very little X rated material, or use of female nudity. Overall I can recommend it.

Rubaai 15

Something very personal, in form of a "rubaai", of course with a translation for my non-Marathi friends. If you're easily offended by someone's view on politics and religion, please don't read any further ;-)

रुबाई क्रमांक १५

हिंदूंच्या नजरेत, मुसलमानच जरा आहे मी
आरोप मुसलमानांचा, काफिर खरा आहे मी
मान्य तर नाहीत, मला देखील त्यांच्या व्याख्या
बाहेरच भिंतींच्या, निच्शृंखल, बरा आहे मी

Rough Translation

“You are like a Muslim”, the Hindus taunt me
“You are a real kaafir”, the Muslims accuse me
And I have no regard for their definitions anyway
Outside the walls, unchained, I am fine being me

Sapiens

Book Review : Sapiens

Author : Yual Noah Harari

My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is “Sapiens : A Brief History Of Humankind”.

Only once in a while a book gets written that is immensely vast in scope, challenges your worldview at a very fundamental level and tackles extremely difficult topics in such an accessible manner that everyone can enjoy it. Sapiens, is such a book.

Ever since Dr Stephen Hawkings wrote “A Brief History Of Time”, there have been way too many books that announce themselves as “Brief history of …”. This book by Dr Yual Noah Harari deserves to be in the same league of the trailblazing book by Dr Hawkings. 

It’s impossible to put Sapiens in one simple category. The twenty odd amazing chapters cover everything from evolution, history, economics, politics, religion, spirituality, science, anthropology, psychology, philosophy and so on. It would have been a great feat just to weave these disparate threads into one cohesive book, but to do it in such an easy to read manner is an astounding achievement.

The book starts at the evolutionary beginnings of Homo Sapiens and ends at a chapter that speculates what might be in store for us as a species. Along the way almost every branch of knowledge gets covered in surprising detail. Now, this book is not an overview or a survey of these fields. Neither is it an introduction to all fields of human knowledge. It travels through these vistas with a singular destination in mind - to explain how we Homo Sapiens have evolved differently than any other lifeform.

What makes the book impossible to put down, is the spicy mix of opinionated commentary with generally accepted scientific theories. The range of topics and author’s fearless discourse almost ensure that everyone is going to be at least somewhat angered and/or offended. True, it will most likely offend religious and conservative readers more, but the liberals and free market capitalists are also likely to find many arguments difficult to digest. And a friendly warning to readers from India, you in particular may not like many discussions, especially if you have a defensive conjecture about how casteism took roots in Indian society. 

I am not saying that the author is deliberately trying to offend. No, not at all. And leaving aside the topics such as religion and social customs, that raise the heat rather quickly, that’s not the primary focus of the debate either. Most of the topics are morally ambiguous to say the least. A simple binary good or bad evaluation misses the really important nuances. For example, are we really happier than our hunter gatherer ancestors? Was the nexus between imperial colonialism and science good or bad? Is industrial animal farming the largest cruelty in the history of mankind? Are our cherished ideals of democracy and human rights, just a myth that exists and works only in our collective minds? The book is full of debates on such thorny issues.

So, before you embark on reading this, and it does get my “must read” recommendation, ask yourself. Do you like to be challenged on your most fundamental beliefs? Do you like to read intelligent arguments even when you don’t agree with them? Do you like to be intellectually stimulated with subtleties of historical analysis? For liking such a book, you have to be welcoming to opinions that make you uncomfortable.  That’s my view. I did agree with most of what the author had to say. But I also appreciated the views that I did not agree with. In the end, I came out with a far deeper understanding of Home Sapiens. And for that, I absolutely loved this book, and cannot recommend this highly enough. Do yourself a favor and read it.

Here’s Looking at Euclid

Book Review : Here’s Looking at Euclid

Author : Alex Bellos

My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is “Here’s Looking at Euclid : A surprising excursion through the astonishing world of math”.

On the back cover of the book, there is a large paragraph praising this book, written by none other than Martin Gardner. That caught my attention. There is also a chapter in the book related to toys and puzzles based on mathematics, in which the author describes his meeting with Martin Gardner, and about his influence on recreational mathematics. This book seems to be in the same tradition that Gardener was instrumental in popularizing. Blending Math, History, Mind bending puzzles, and much more in an entertaining package.

This book too is fun to read, although it starts slow. The initial chapters were a bit of a drag for me. I was also irritated by the constant reference of Amazonian native tribes as “Indians”. This is not about political correctness, it’s just flat out wrong. Especially for someone who has taken the trouble to travel to India to personally research about ancient Hindu mathematics. Even setting that aside, it took a few chapters for the book to pick up speed for me.

Luckily, as the book progressed, it became a lot more entertaining and informative. Each chapter has a theme. Although sometimes there are references to earlier chapters, I don’t think it needs to be run sequentially. It can be thought of as a collection of essays, and can be read in any order.

Each chapter is about a different area of mathematics. Of course, there is no hope to even touch upon all the areas. These topics are what the author has chosen to show that Mathematics is accessible, fun and inspiring. Some of the topics of the chapters are so extensive that entire books of recreational math have been written about them. For example, see my previous reviews about books on topics such as the “non-Euclidean geometry” or “probability”. In spite of the limitation of condensing the material to one chapter, the author has succeeded in giving a thorough introduction to the history and ideas involved, and kept in a fun to read.

The last chapter, unconvincingly bundles non-Euclidean Geometry and Cantor’s theory of infinity together. It’s still a good chapter, but I would have preferred more detailed chapter on each. Some of the middle chapters are a breeze to read. The information about Sudoku, or the Bell Curve was brilliantly presented.

Most people who like reading books on Math will like this book as well. If you haven’t read a lot of books on Math, this is a nice place to start. Especially if you have been intimidated by high school math, you should definitely try this one, as there are many facets of Math that are just delightful and everyone deserves to be delighted by Math.

हरकत - अरबीतुन मराठीमध्ये

मराठी भाषेत भरपूर वापरात असणाऱ्या अनेक शब्दांची व्युत्पत्ती अरबी आणि फारसी भाषेत आढळते. त्यातलाच एक शब्द, हरकत.

अरबी भाषेत बहुतेक शब्द अगदी शास्त्रसोक्त नियमानुसार बनवले जातात. ह्या सर्व शब्दांचा जो पाया असतो, तो मूल शब्द (root word) हा बहुतांशी तीन व्यंजनांनी बनलेला असतो. इथे ही तीन व्यंजने आहेत ‘ह र क. ह्यात जे पहिले व्यंजन आहे, ते मराठी “ह” सारखेच आहे पण त्याचा उच्चार खूपच जास्त कंठीय आहे. इतका की त्याचा अचूक उच्चार मराठी भाषिकांसाठी अशक्यच म्हणावा.

ह्या तीन व्यंजनांना (‘ह र क) वापरून जे शब्द बनतात त्याचा संबंध असतो “हालचाल, गती, ढवळणे” (movement, motion, stir) अशा अर्थांशी निगडित. त्या सर्व शब्दांमधून माझ्या माहितीत तरी दोनच शब्द उर्दूत आले, आणि त्यातला एकच शब्द मराठीत आला.

अरबीमध्ये ह्या व्यंजनापासून बनणारा एक शब्द आहे ‘हरका (حَرَكَة), आणि त्याचे बरेच अर्थ आहेत - movement, motion, stirring वगैरे. अरबीमध्ये त्या शब्दाचे अनेकवचन आहे ‘हरकात (حَرَكَات‎). ह्याच दोन शब्दावरून फारसी मध्ये शब्द आला ‘हरकत, आणि त्याला अजून एक अर्थ मिळाला - कार्य (act, action).

हिंदी आणि उर्दू मध्ये, ‘हरकत हा शब्द सहसा त्याच अर्थाने वापरला जातो, आणि तोही जरा वाईट अर्थाने. उदाहरणार्थ, “ऐसी हरकते सिर्फ तुम कर सकते हो”. उर्दू शब्दकोशामध्ये जरी “अडथळा” हाही अर्थ दिला असला, तरी तो तितक्या प्रचारात आढळत नाही.

जो दुसरा शब्द उर्दूत आला तो आहे, ते’हरीक (تحریک). हा शब्द बहुतांशी राजकीय आणि सामाजिक संदर्भात वापरला जातो. त्याचा अर्थ आहे - चळवळ (movement), अगदी मूळ अरबी अर्थानुसार.

आपण मराठी मध्ये, मराठमोळ्या उच्चाराने शब्द घेतला - हरकत. आणि त्याच्या अर्थात वृद्धी केली. जेंव्हा आपण गायनातल्या हरकतींबद्दल बोलतो, तेंव्हा अरबी भाषेतील मूळ अर्थापासून तसे आपण दूर नसतो. पण जेंव्हा आपण एखाद्या गोष्टीला हरकत घेतो, तेंव्हा आपण त्याला आक्षेप असा एक नवीनच अर्थ देतो!!

जेंव्हा एखादी भाषा इतर भाषेतील शब्द सहजरित्या आपलेसे करून घेते, तेंव्हा त्या भाषेची समृद्धी वृधिंगतच होते.

आशा आहे, माझ्या ह्या वक्तव्याला तुमची हरकत नसावी! 

The Silent Wife

Book Review : The Silent Wife

Author : A.S.A Harrison

My Rating : 4 out of 5

I have always liked mystery/thriller genre and for a long time I have been trying to find a satisfying read in vain. Many months ago, while reading reviews of “Gone Girl”, I stumbled across lofty praise for “The Silent Wife”, and added it to my “to be read” list. 

Right in the beginning, the book tells us that very soon the wife Jodi is going to murder her husband Todd. Why and how is not mentioned. Right now, she thinks she is in a stable marriage. Far from perfect, and not completely happy, as Todd is an unfaithful husband. Jodi knows that, but she has made peace with it, assuming that these are temporary occasional indulgences. They are affluent. Todd is a successful small business owner. Jodi is a psychologist, although her practice does not generate much income. It’s more of a hobby. She really enjoys her role of a home maker, making dinners and keeping everything neat and perfect.

The story of the slow disintegration of their marriage is told in alternating viewpoints of Jodi and Todd. One chapter for her, and one chapter for him. It’s told using sentences that are in present tense, a style that I dislike. But the viewpoint idea works. The author uses it very intelligently to give a close up look at what’s going on in their minds. As the story unfolds, we learn more about them and their flaws. How Todd rationalizes his behavior and how Jodi’s past is shaping her present. This is a well written novel in terms of getting to know the characters.

This is the first novel of Canadian author A.S.A. Harrison. Unfortunately she died before her book was published. It’s sad that she did not get to see the success of her book. She has used her knowledge of psychology well. It’s less of a mystery book than what the marketing blurb would suggest. Make no mistake, the mystery part works, as the author slowly reveals how things lead to the murder. Since we already know that there is a murder, this build up keeps us turning the pages to figure out the why and how. As far as the suspense goes, it depends on how many mystery books you have read. It’s not impossible to guess the outcome. The real focus of the book is two human beings, their shortcomings, their self serving minds and their complicated relationship. It’s fascinating, and dark at the same time.

It’s an interesting book, but definitely not great. So I am hesitatingly giving it a 4 star rating. I think there isn’t enough material here even for the approximately 300 pages. There are only two main characters, and the plot is not that complex. I can go only so much into someone else’s life details. Afterwards, it seems like a drag to me. The memories of Jodi’s session with her psychology professor were definitely overwritten.

With those caveats, I can recommend the book.

Rubaai 12, 13 and 14

रुबाई क्रमांक १२

रुबाई साठी कुठचाही विषय वर्जित नाही. 

प्रार्थना सुद्धा ह्या बांधणीत लिहिता येते. 

रे बघ ना मी किती सोसल्या झळा 

दे छोटासा तरी मेघ सावळा 

तव करुणेचे, पुरे दोन थेंबही 

करण्यासी आतला गंध मोकळा

कधी कधी मला व्याकरणा बद्दल प्रश्न विचारले जातात, म्हणून ही थोडी तांत्रिक माहिती. 

ह्या रुबाईत, प्रत्येक ओळीत १९ मात्रा आहेत.

गट ८ + ८ + ३. 

लगावली :  (गा गा गा गा) (ल गा गा ल गा) (ल गा)

असे वृत्त आहे कि नाही, ते मला माहीत नाही :-)    

मला जे सुचलं आणि जमलं ते मी लिहिलं. 

नोव्हेंबर ४, २०१८

Loose translation :

Haven’t I suffered enough scorching heat, take a look at me

At least now, even if it’s tiny, please send a gray cloud for me, 

Just a few droplets of your kindness are more than enough

To unlock the fragrance that’s waiting inside me

---

रुबाई क्रमांक १३

किस्सा तो रांझाचा, मजनूचा अन फरहादचा 

हा जीवनत्यागाचा कसला रे आदर्श तुमचा

सोशित अखंड विरह कसा जीवित मी आहे पहा

विसरा त्यांना, आता गझला, माझ्यावरती रचा 

Loose translation

All these stories of Raanjha, Majanu and Farhad Why do you idolize the idea of giving up on life See how I live through the endless suffering of seperation So forget them and start composing Ghazals on me

२ डिसेंबर २०१८

---

रुबाई क्रमांक १४

The anti-Valentine ;-)

नको बाळगू मिजास वृथा, गर्व अथवा सौंदर्याचा

दोष होता नक्कीच सगळा, त्या कोवळ्या माझ्या वयाचा

होते सहज शक्य राहणे, पाषाणासम स्तब्ध निर्मम

तरी मेणापरी वितळण्याचा, गं हट्टच होता कविमनाचा 

Loose translation

No need to get too smug, or too proud of your beauty The blame surely lies all with my immature adolescence It was easily possible to stay unaffected like a statue But to melt like a candle was the command from the poet’s heart

१४ फेब्रुवारी २०१९

The Undoing Project

Book Review : The Undoing Project

Author : Michael Lewis

My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is “The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds”.

Michael Lewis is one of the most famous authors of our time. He has written many best sellers, and a few of his books have been made into successful movies. His latest book tackles a subject that is perhaps far more fundamental than his other books.

The scientific advancements that have happened in last few decades have had a huge impact on our understanding of the world. That includes not just about the universe and subatomic particles, but also about the evolution and our own mind. How our mind thinks, and how it comes to conclusion is a topic that interests me greatly. I am not talking about the anatomy of brain, but the thought process and its implications.

A big contribution to the very foundation of what we know today, was laid in 70s and 80s by two scientists in Israel - Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Their work on coming up with a model of decision making  - “Prospect Theory” as they called it - is one of the cornerstones of a new field that emerged from it - “Behavioral Economics”. Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 (Tversky had passed away then, and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously). Later other economists have also won the Nobel Prize due to their contribution to Behavioral Economics. This is field that intersects both Economics and Psychology.

This book tells the story of how these two very different personalities came to collaborate together in Israel. It starts at their childhood, their early careers in Israel of the 60s, how the wars impacted them and how they came to be collaborators. The author also goes into many details to explain their personalities and their friendship. A lot of research must have been done to gather this information, and kudos to the author.

The book tries to be both a biographical account and a primer on their work. It works very well, although the focus in mainly on the human story. The scientific work and the explanation is interspersed with the life stories. I think it’s very well done. This way the reader is not overwhelmed with the technical details, and the biography doesn’t remain just a story of two extraordinarily talented people. The aim is to also convey how their work came into existence and how seminal it it was, and the book succeeds.

I could have given this 5 stars, and some readers may very well do so. There are two reasons for my not giving 5 stars to this book. The biography part, on a few occasions, felt repetitive. Especially, about how like Amos Tversky was. After a few times, I was saying, yes, yes, yes, we get it - He was a popular figure. Second reason is, the explanation of the ideas in Prospect Theory is good, not great. I won’t recommend this as a popular science book. If you want to read how we handle uncertainty then I can recommend to you The Drunkard’s Walk, or The Improbability Principle. If you want to read about how we think, then I can recommend to you, The Righteous Mind and Some We Love, Some We Hate and Some We Eat. None of these are on Behavioral Economics, but they do a great job of explaining their respective ideas.

With that said, I can definitely recommend this book. It’s very readable, has great story-telling and has enough educational material. It’s a story of two great minds, whose work is profoundly impacting Economics and something worth knowing about.

Made In Heaven

Series Review : Made In Heaven

Aired on : Amazon Prime (2019-)

My Rating : 9 out of 10

Amazon Prime may have had long duration TV series from India for some time now, but I guess this series was much more heavily promoted with ads on Facebook etc. It caught my attention, and I am glad it did. This is a brilliantly made series, except … well, more about that later.

From what I can tell from a distance, Indian Weddings are getting more and more lavish, extravagant and expensive. The ceremonies are getting very elaborate, and with that comes the need for the wedding planners and the entire cottage industry it spawns. The two main protagonists of this series, Tara Khanna (Sobhita Dhulipala) and Karan Mehra (Arjun Mathur) run a wedding planning agency. Each of the 9 episodes, tells a story of a wedding they help plan, each time with new characters. There are a handful of recurring characters, some employees of their agency, some their relatives and friends. Since each episode brings a new mini-story, it’s hard to give a short synopsis of the entire series. But that’s exactly where the series starts showing its brilliance right from the first episode.

Superficially, each episode is about a new wedding. And yes, each wedding poses different planning challenges. These are interesting, entertaining and to some extent informative. The production quality is exquisite. This must have been an expensive series to produce. Even the music is good, which generally I don’t expect from a TV series. As good as these wedding stories are, the real focus is not on the show-off of costumes and jewelry.  Social commentary, (which I must stress is not just marriage related) is smoothly and unobtrusively sprinkled, all throughout the series. At times it’s poignant, at times it induces chuckles and at times it’s saddening. The blending is top class, and the reasons for it are - the acting and the script.

The casting is fabulous, and that’s where I guess half the job is done. They have picked the perfect actors to cast in the respective roles. Arjun Mathur and Sobhita Dhulipala get the most screen time, and adeptly carry their difficult roles. Of other prominent characters, I was impressed by the understated performance of Shashank Arora (as Kabir). Every other recurring character, such as Jim Sarbh (as Adil Khanna) and Shivani Raghuvanshi (as Jazz) has given a very natural, believable performance. The series also scores big when it comes to casting new characters every episode - Neena Gupta, Deepti Nawal, Vinay Pathak, Vijay Razz are some of the most able actors to grace different episodes.

Weaving all these characters together is the script - and in my opinion the single most brilliant aspect of this series. I say that because of the structure and the screenplay. The credit, it seems, is jointly shared by Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Alankrita Shrivastava. First, each episode, in addition to the wedding story, also advances the story of the characters, especially of the two main protagonists, Tara and Karan. This advancement comes from events happening in the current timeline, as well as relevant flashbacks from their respective past. The sequencing and arrangement of these 3 strands take the series from a “very good” to “great” on the artistic scale. Add to that the nuanced screenplay. For example, often, the camera moves horizontally to a character, whose facial expressions say a lot more about the situation than what dialogues can ever convey. This subtle approach is what makes me say that this is a brilliantly made series. Well … almost.

Now to address the elephant in the room. For all the subtleties that the writers have shown to be greatly capable at, those are thrown out of the window when it comes to showing sex, and specifically gay sex. This must have been a conscious decision and as a viewer, I completely disagree with. This much explicitness, and in this copious quantity can never be necessary for pure artistic reasons. I am sure, the prospect of controversy, couldn’t have escaped such a smart team of people. If it was done to show how bold they are, I must say, yes, I got that the first time, the second time, and definitely the third time, and I was disgusted to get so many more reminders. Yes, you all are very bold and provocative, we all agree, here is your certificate, but can you please put less emphasis on the soft-porn material next time? You do not need to open the doors of every bedroom to shine justifiable light on what happens behind them. Hints often are far more effective. The series is totally on the right side of social history, but on the completely wrong side of the presentation style.

So yes, I recommend this series with that big caveat of a paragraph above. I fast forwarded those scenes, and watched the rest of it because the rest was cinema (or TV) at its finest. Needless to say, this is not for kids, and I think, not even for many adults. For others who can stomach the crudeness, or can ignore it, this is a must watch.

Westworld Season 2

Review : Westworld (Season 2)

Aired On : HBO (2016-)

My Rating : 6 out of 10

NOTE : This is a review of Season 2 of Westworld. If you have not watched Season 1, this review may contain spoilers for Season 1. You can read the Season 1 review here.

To be honest, I wasn’t eagerly looking forward to the Season 2 of Westworld at all. In Season 1, all the discussions about the true nature of consciousness, followed by the bloodbath at the end,  gave a clear indication of where things will lead up in the second season. Yes, I was a bit curious as to how the writers would take it there, and I was worried that they will mess it up like Matrix did.

I was right about worrying, but wrong about the reasons. If I have to characterize what went wrong, I would say this. The writers forgot a simple and eternal adage - Everything is good in moderation.

Now, you can say that about Season 1 as well, where the mayhem, the degenerate behavior and the technical mumbo jumbo, all were definitely overdone. But there were many other pluses. The visuals were stunning. There was a neat trick that eventually got revealed - the multiple timelines. There was a payoff - how these timelines came together. There were interesting twists - as to who is human and who is the robot. And you could root for someone - in my case - the robots.

Season 1 was definitely smart. In spite of the minuses, we can all agree that it was a well made series that challenged your gray cells. 

Now take all those tricks and multiply them by some large number, and all of a sudden the positives become negatives. This season in its attempt to multiply the smartness, just ends being a confusing mess. I have no problem admitting it that I couldn’t keep track of the many timelines and how the presentation interweaves them. Honestly, I just gave up and didn’t care. I am sure I am not alone, and I can wager a bet that I am in the majority.

Many movies are structurally difficult to follow by design. The right amount of difficulty keeps the interest high. Long long time ago, I remember being awed by Memento. I had to watch it again to make sure that I understood it. It was worth the effort. But, there is no way I am going to watch a ten hour series all over again to make sure I got it. No, I will just give up. I don’t have that much time.

The overwhelming and confusing mixing of multiple stories in multiple timelines is not the only problem here. Some of the twists - like who is human, and who created whom - are so outlandish, that they feel forced, just to shock you. I am not sure if these make sense in the big picture, maybe they do. But I really don’t care. Some of the storylines are long and boring. They add little value. There is a setting in the style of Japanese Samurai era. In the beginning the visuals and the parallels with another prominent storyline are very interesting. But it overstays its welcome, and drags to a point where I was seriously considering fast forwarding the whole thing.

As you can imagine, I was very frustrated with this season. I most likely will give Season 3 a try, but if the writers oversaturate the script with the same techniques, I may give up on this series forever. Stunning visuals and good acting is not enough to justify spending so much time.

So my recommendation is to watch this season, with the hope that season 3 would not repeat these same mistakes. This is absolutely correctly rated as TV-MA and not for kids. 

The Great Unknown

Book Review : The Great Unknown

Author : Marcus du Sautoy

My Rating : 4 out of 5 stars

The complete title of the book is “The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science”.

Author Marcus du Sautoy has chosen to take a “one pot meal” approach in this book and has greatly succeeded. It’s a tour of the areas of scientific knowledge that we struggle to find answers, and which have a strong possibility that the questions there may remain forever unanswered.

This is a challenging task. You can easily find full length books on each of the seven topics covered here. Condensing them to just one section of a book comes with a two pronged risk. Either it can become a shallow overview that’s too simplified, or it can become too narrow, focused only on certain aspects. To his immense credit, the author has managed that balance extremely well in first five sections. The final two sections were good too, but did not impress me as much as the previous sections.

The first section explains the recent branch of mathematics “Chaos Theory”, famous for the commonly referred, and commonly misunderstood “Butterfly Effect”. This section explains how a small gap in initial conditions of certain systems can lead to very large differences in eventual outcomes. The next section is about matter. Currently our experimentally verified understanding stops at quarks, the smallest building blocks of matter. Will we ever know if this is really the limit? There is a lot of “stuff” that we don’t know much about, like dark matter and dark energy. As you can expect the next two sections are about Quantum Physics and Universe, respectively. Quantum Physics literally puts a limit on our knowledge. At the largest scale, Black Holes and Multiverses may limit what we can know. The next section, and the last one about Physics is on “Time”. 

All those sections are well written, well explained and fun to read. The next section is first to veer directly into philosophy - Consciousness. The author prefers to look at using his mathematical lens to examine what it means to have consciousness. It’s an interesting approach, and I learned about advances in this field that of course are not covered by books on physics. Still, I felt this section wasn’t as deep as previous sections. The last section, at least to me, should have been the most exciting. It tackles the limits of mathematics, using Godel’s theorems and Cantor’s theorems about infinity. Godel’s theorems are simple to state, but trying to understand them is dizzying. Their importance for axiomatic systems (such as Mathematics) is monumental. I don’t think this section does justice to the beauty and creativity involved in these theorems. I learned something new about the theory of infinity (specifically the continuum) and it felt great.

Each section has a very personal touch. The author is not shy in admitting his preferences, biases and his struggles to understand many of these concepts. Each section also has dialogues with one or more prominent intellectual forces of that field. All this makes the book easier to read.

It’s a long book, and needs some investment of time from the reader. I think it’s worth it. You don’t have to read it in one go, and can take a pause between sections. It’s a nice tour of many prominent fields of knowledge where we are trying hard to push the limits of knowability. It’s especially useful to those who read only a few books on science if at all, because a lot is covered in one single book. So take your time, and read this one.

Bhai - Vyakti Ki Valli

Movie Review : Bhai - Vyakti Ki Valli - Poorvardh

Director : Mahesh Manjrekar 

Genre : Biopic

Language : Marathi

Starring : Sagar Deshmukh, Iravati Harshe, Sachin Khedekar

Released : 2018

My Rating : 7 out of 10

As the movie opens, there is a very short voiceover by Sunitabai Deshpande. She mentions, in a companionship of 54 years, there would naturally be ups and downs. As beautiful as that voiceover is, that is also true about this movie. There are ups and downs. 

This is the first installment of the biopic on the life of the greatest Marathi cultural icon ever, Pu. La. Deshpande. There is absolutely no need for me to write anything about his greatness. Every Marathi speaking person knows everything (or should know), and if you are not a Maharashtrian, it is very hard to convey the full scope of his enormous impact on Marathi ethos. So let’s just look at this purely as a movie.

This installment covers the life of Pu.La., as we all call him, (or Bhai as he was referred to in his social circle) from his childhood in Mumbai to his stint as a professor in Belgaum. The movie is at its strongest, when it depicts the family interactions. The main characters, Pu. La (Sagar Deshmukh), and his wife Sunitabai (Iravati Harshe) have been developed fairly well. Even with limited screen time, the characters of his parents have been reasonably sketched out. Throughout their interactions, it’s clear that the movie does not want to put Pu.La. on a pedestal like God, which is a correct decision. There are many memorable scenes in this part, be it the hilarious marriage scene, or the emotional scene of a difficult decision by Sunitabai. Such parts of the movie will remain in our memories.

That was the up part. Unfortunately there is very little depth in the scenes covering Pu.La.’s artistic achievements. These parts of the movie seem more like a nostalgic documentary rather than a powerful drama. To some, the nostalgia it generates is perhaps strong enough to overlook the flatness. But so many personalities have been hemmed in such a way, that it feels, it’s done just for the sake of it. Now, the addition of the famous characters on which many essays in “Vyakti aani Valli” are based on, is indeed a nice touch, and a small positive in this. The big exception to the flatness, is the song on which the movie ends. A pure treat to ears, and the picturization of that whole scene is memorable. 

The pleasant surprise to me was the casting. Not only is the acting really good, but the actors also resemble the real life characters. Even if they hadn’t announced the names, it would have been very easy to guess. Sagar Deshmukh has a very difficult role to play here. Everyone in Maharashtra is going to critically evaluate every nuance of his performance. I was happy with his portrayal. 

The best thing about the movie is of course Iravati Harshe. She was able to bring forth the personality of Sunitabai exactly as I had expected. Many details must have been picked from her book “Aahe Manohar Tari …”, especially the detail about the pomegranate. If you haven’t read that book, you need to correct that mistake real fast. Every scene that has Iravati Harshe in it has a spark that’s often missing from other scenes.

Mahesh Manjrekar is perhaps the most capable director in Marathi movies today. After movies like Kaksparsh and Natsamrat, I had high expectations from this movie. It’s a good movie, just not a great movie. I definitely recommend it. The decision to release it in two parts could have been made with an eye towards box office revenue, but it’s also true that Pu.La.’s achievements are too numerous to cover. Even if they had released it in three parts, I would have still paid to watch all the parts.