The Hindu Business Line : A four-letter word you can't do without

ASK any CA how he passed the exams to become a professional accountant and be prepared for varied answers, such as hard work, good coaching, liberal moderation, easy question paper, and so on. A majority answer would be, `luck.' The dictionary would define it as fortune, coincidence or destiny.

But the truth is that we use the word to "describe life's sudden chance moments, when our generally ordered existence takes a turn toward the random," observes Joshua Piven in As Luck would have it, a book from Villard (www.villard.com).

The author explores how luck works, how it affects people, and how we react to it. He also seeks to answer questions such as: "Does having a positive outlook on life make us more likely to benefit when good luck comes our way? Can we prepare for luck at all?"

The book explores incredible stories, ranging from lottery wins to lightning strikes, lost dinosaurs to MTV, Pokemon to plane crash. What are the lessons? "First, when possible, be prepared," advises the author. "Defensive pessimism is a good preparation strategy to harness and control anxiety." The next lesson is to keep an open mind: Keep inquiries loosely constructed, and don't be afraid to fail. Also, be informed, and for this you need knowledge of chosen field so that you can "recognise and make sense of things that a less informed observer might have ignored."

Emotions and instincts are useful clues. "Don't take unnecessary chances," though a rational mind may be forcing you to do so.

Optimism is a powerful force, notes Piven. "Keeping a positive mental attitude is the most important aspect of effective luck management." But what about bad luck? Remember that, "its after-effects are only as bad as we perceive them to be."

Just to say...

CUSTOMERS spend hours browsing through greeting cards in shops, select one or more and pay for the same. Still, they have a frequent problem: That of finding the right words to say what they feel, because "no matter how beautiful a greeting card and its verse, nothing means more than the handwritten note added inside the card."

That is a valuable insight from J. Beverley Daniel, someone who ran a gift shop business for 15 years and then decided to gather the `perfect phrases to personalise your greeting cards' in a book Finding the Right words, brought out by Pocket Books (www.simonsays.com). Because `showing someone you care begins with finding the right words,' be it a birthday or bereavement. The book is "a quick and easy-to-use reference guide designed to jump-start you in the writing process by providing lists of phrases, words, and sentiments for most occasions."

For the connected geeks, who think the world belongs to SMS and e-mail, the author has a point to share: "Greeting cards are a permanent and meaningful method of communication. E-mails and phone calls are wonderful, but they're gone as soon as you hit the `send' button, or hang up the receiver."

So? "After an occasion has passed, we often hand onto the memories, the photos, and the greeting cards."

For the victims

PROFESSIONAL patriots do not consult lists of `recommended reading', but their victims (read, citizens) may need one. T. J. S. George provides a commentary on `politics in modern India' in his book The First Refuge of Scoundrels, brought out by Express Publications (Madurai) Ltd.

"The theme is current affairs," notes the blurb. But the linkage is to history and our heritage. The book begins with how `good men despair and criminals rejoice', but George is optimistic: "Deliverance will one day come; India is too great a country to be kept down forever." A different piece is on "heart-stopping violence on TV, rendered more viciously dramatically by modern special-effects technology". What is the message that kids would get out of this? "That killing is exciting?"

The part devoted to elections starts this way: "If there is one point on which all one billion Indians agree, it is that our electoral system has become not just a farce but the very antithesis of democracy. That is why every effort to reform it should be earnestly welcomed." There is scathing criticism: "They have turned our nation into an evil empire."

There is philosophy: "Often words camouflage truth. Then we need a commentary to unravel what's hidden. Occasionally, words speak out loud. Then comment is superfluous."

Shockingly satirical

ID CARDS are "an outrageous infringement of basic human rights," according to John O'Farrell. "Because they'd mean regularly presenting strangers with a deeply embarrassing photo of yourself. And to make sure the authorities recognised you from the picture, you'd feel the need to pull the same gawky expression that was momentarily caught in the photo booth."

Writing about Oxford and Cambridge, he notes: "Apparently only 9 per cent of the students currently admitted to Oxbridge are from working-class backgrounds. The Vice-Chancellors were said to be shocked at this figure — it's far too many." And how did the government create `lots of universities at minimal expense'? "By taking down all the signs that said `Polytechnic' and renaming the buildings `University of Olde Towne Nearby'."

The book I blame the Scapegoats is a bunch of his Guardian columns, where, as Sunday Times put it, he "gives an extra squirm to the traditional English comedy of embarrassment", and Times said, "Very funny." Try this one, about Iraq war: "As the war stumbled to a confusing and chaotic end, lawlessness swept across the country as thousands of people helped themselves to computers, stereos and other electrical goods. Such is the state of anarchy in the country that many of them haven't even sent off the little guarantee postcards yet."

(Books courtesy: Fountainhead, Chennai. E-mail: fhbooks@satyam.net.in)

Tailpiece

"Are you feeling good or great?"

"Uh... ?"

"For greater good, say something!"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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A four-letter word you can't do without