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D. Murali

HERE'S a snatch from Is New York Burning? by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, published by Full Circle (www.atfullcircle.com): "The plan contains computer codes detailing how they could produced perfectly symmetrical explosions at each of their detonation points." Thereafter, a finding by an officer of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US, the organisation responsible for intercepting and decoding the millions of messages flashing everyday through the boundless seas of cyberspace. It's about a 13-year old kid in Australia whose computer was broken in by hackers to send their message to the White House; then they wiped out "the memory of his hard disc". Yet, NSA, "works its way back through computers in France, Poland and Germany and eventually, to an Internet café in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where the trail ended. "Given the time difference, it's past midnight out there. The owner says he has no idea who was using his computers at the time NSA estimates the original message was sent."

Now, how do you solve a problem like that? Much later comes a cell phone purchased in the markets of Islamabad; only, it is attached to the detonation set of a bomb. "A call to that cell phone will set off the bomb." The President orders NSA to see that the phone number is isolated from all incoming communications from anywhere in the world. But, disappointingly NSA responds: "There is absolutely no way that the NSA or any other organisation in this country can prevent a telephone call from abroad or anywhere else, from reaching the number... " Hope your curiosity is already crackling, if not burning.

Hear the other side

APARTHEID exists amongst us, however much we may wish it didn't. Chandra Bhan Prasad writes a weekly column about this in The Pioneer. A compilation of his reflections is Dalit Diary: 1999-2003, published by Navayana (www.navayana.org). A piece written on August 15, 1999, is titled "Redefining merit and national interest". It rewinds to more than a century and half backward, and opens in the Presidency College, Madras. Majority of students were unable to pass the final exam in the first and second divisions, so "the administrators introduced a third division to ensure that more students cleared the tests." A line from a document dating back to 1890s reads thus: "Native Indians were highly disinterested in science and education... Their performance was so pathetic that many British professors returned to England in frustration." So much for the merit claim, argues Prasad passionately. Worth paying heed to.

Banker for banker's bank

FINANCIALLY, bin Laden is a pauper in comparison to Dawood Ibrahim, writes Gilbert King in The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Dawood Ibrahim, published by Chamberlain Bros (www.penguin.com). DI controls "the largest smuggling routes in an area that produces more than 75 per cent of the world's heroin," writes King. In Karachi, he is "believed to control the city's gunrunning business, the stock exchange, and hundi, the parallel credit system business, in addition to the many real estate holdings." Interestingly, "he is believed to have bailed out Pakistan's Central Bank during a crisis in 2000." This is the story of a `Bombay street urchin', with chapter one startlingly starting with Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's reporter who was killed in Pakistan. Chapter 2 takes you down Bombay road, and the next chapter is on Bollywood. "Much has changed in Bollywood since Salem's capture," observes King. "The government of India has attempted to clean up the industry by allowing banks to finance movies, cutting down on the need for the type of private financing that led to so much corruption." Reads like a movie?

Powerful money-reducing agent

YOU can find `Woman of substance' cited in Volume III of Jeffrey Archer's A Prison Diary, published by Pan Macmillan (www.panmacmillan.com). It's a `hazardous materials data sheet' submitted to the Chemistry at Cambridge newsletter: "Element: Woman. Symbol: Wo. Discoverer: Adam. Atomic mass: accepted at 55 kg but known to vary from 45 kg to 225 kg. Physical properties: boils at absolutely nothing, freezes for no apparent reason. Melts if given special treatment, bitter if used incorrectly. Chemical properties: affinity to gold, silver, platinum and all precious stones. The most powerful money-reducing agent known to man. Hazards: highly dangerous except in experienced hands.

Formula for success

MICHIO Kaku's Einstein's Cosmos, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (www.orionbooks.co.uk) is about how the great scientist's vision transformed our understanding of space and time. Chapter 1 starts with an anecdote: "A journalist once asked Albert Einstein, the greatest scientific genius since Isaac Newton, to explain his formula for success. The great thinker thought for a second and then replied, `If A is success, I should say the formula is A = X + Y +Z, X being work and Y being play.' And what is Z, asked the journalist? `Keeping your mouth shut,' he replied." So catch up with Kaku without waiting to understand the theory of relativity first.

Stupid crazy vs smart crazy

IF IT'S Gary Hamel better sit straight and read as I'm doing now with Leading the Revolution, published by Plume (www.penguinputnam.com), with a new intro. The book is about thriving in turbulent times "by making innovation a way of life" so that you don't end up in the slow lane. There's a difference between helium and oxygen, says Hamel. "Dot-com fever was helium. Instant messaging is oxygen — real innovation, not hyperbole." Similarly, there's a difference between creative accounting and creative business models, he would add. Also, "there's a difference between stupid crazy and smart crazy," and between "a compelling story and a rock-solid profit model", or "bland incrementalism and rock-the-industry innovation." If you're already sitting up straight, go for Gary.

Books courtesy: Landmark (www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Tailpiece

"I saw him running to the bank faster than an Olympic athlete! What happened?"

"I told him that the RBI is considering a freeze on his bank's transactions."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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