The Hindu Business Line : 44 million words, 10 billion years of history, in 32 volumes

ONE man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world is what A. J. Jacobs captures in The Know-It-All, from Simon & Schuster (www.simonsays.com). The book is about a journey that Jacobs took through 33,000 pages, 65,000 articles, 9,500 contributors, 24,000 images, 44 million words, 10 billion years of history, or 32 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB), testing "the outer limits of his stamina", even as he stumbled upon "some of the strangest, funniest, and most profound facts about every topic under the sun, all while battling fatigue, ridicule, and paralysing fear".

Arranged A-Z, with the author's paraphrasing, the book is like EB digested, and I look up `Indian Mutiny' and it goes: "In the end the reprisals far outweighed the original excesses. Hundreds of sepoys were shot from cannons in a frenzy of British vengeance (though some British officers did protest the bloodshed)." The parenthetical remark is an example of EB's being even-handed, compliments Jacobs. "Even the most evil deeds, the most dark-hearted people have their redeeming qualities," he opines.

But I wonder if there was anything redeeming about the Jallianwalabagh massacre or the killing of an innocent Brazilian in London recently?

`I'm an ism'

ANY assessment of Lady Thatcher's career has to come to terms with the fact that she created such a distinctive approach to politics it became known as Thatcherism, writes John Sergeant in Maggie: Her Fatal Legacy, from Macmillan (www.panmacmillan.com).

This is how Margaret Thatcher put it in an interview to her journalist daughter, as the book cites: "I've always had a natural passion for politics and a natural interest in history and a natural passion to get things right for the future, and have brought about colossal changes. That's why I'm an ism... It is recognition that we didn't just govern from day to day — we had principles, we had purpose, we had action, and we had perseverance."

A handy word, because the Labour opponents could conveniently dismiss controversial aspects of government policy simply by describing them as Thatcherism. The policy involved "rolling back the state, curbing trade union power and putting greater emphasis on the individual" explains Sergeant. Where she failed, in Tony Blair's view, was in being reluctant to invest in public infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.

Good read.

A murder for 8 annas

MIKE Dash's Thug from Granta (www.granta.com) is `the true story of India's murderous cult' and I wince as I read through the pages. The word `thug' appears first in Sanskrit, traces the author; thus, `sthaga' means to cover or conceal. The book chronicles the period 1800-1840.

"The prevailing rate of exchange in India in 1830 was two Madras rupees to the pound sterling, and one pound in 1830 was worth the equivalent of £30 today," writes Dash, on the currency then. "One rupee in the Thugs' time would be worth around £15 now, and a lakh of rupees had a value equal to £1,500,000 in 2004." Thugs were willing to kill for eight annas, and India had more than a hundred different currencies and coins! "Among those most commonly met with by the Thugs were pagodas (gold coins from the Deccan, each worth 4 rupees) and mohurs (each worth 16 rupees)."

Read this in a safe place!

(Books courtesy: Landmark www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Train your awareness

NEG-ENTROPY awareness is one of the many exercises that Arnold Mindell puts the readers through in The Quantum Mind and Healing, from Magna (www.magnamags.com), to help listen and respond to body's symptoms. One of the goals of this workout is to learn why your energy feels drained, he explains.

"Disordered areas are like closed systems, ruled by the unconsciousness of conflicts. Bringing awareness to these areas reverses your sense of aging by giving you more available energy," writes Mindell. Elsewhere, he elaborates on Shamanism: "Training awareness is like training any other capacity... However, unlike other types of training, you are training yourself to use your awareness in a way that opens you to many worlds at the same time." Symptoms are not opponents but potential allies, you'd learn from Mindell.

Worth trying out!

Who'll bell the billi?

A SECTION titled `Return on Civil Service expenditures' in India: Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty from Oxford (www.oup.com) states: "In Uttar Pradesh, the Public Works Department has a total strength of 77,000, including roughly 9,000 technical staff, 12,000 administrative staff, and 56,000 gang labourers. With 51 labourers for every 100 kilometres of road, it has one of the highest manual staffing ratios in India, and market manual wage rates are about a third of PWD rates... In 1998-99, the actual expenditure on maintenance was Rs 2.8 billion, while establishment costs were Rs 3.4 billion."

But who will bell the billi? The book documents development policy review by the World Bank, and has this to say about `power supply to agriculture': "Use of electric pumps for irrigation increased aggregate output growth by two percentage points... Motor burnouts cost about Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,000 to repair and impose undue burden on small and marginal farmers, amounting to about 10 per cent of gross farm income for marginal farmers in Haryana and about 8 per cent in Andhra Pradesh."

A book that can bridge the gap in our understanding of the macro variables.

Tailpiece

"To beat the competition, we produced a new saree!"

"With one lakh colours?"

"No, the invisible one!"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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44 million words, 10 billion years of history, in 32 volumes