The Hindu Business Line : Difference between a rut and a grave is the depth

THAT chilling line leaps from `the confessions of an aphorism addict' in James Geary's We are What We Think, published by John Murray (www.madaboutbooks.com). "Less travelled roads offer the most stunning views, open minds invite surprise," writes Geary, remembering that aphorism of Gerald Burrill.

Aphorisms aren't merely for greeting cards, he writes. "They leap off the page and unfurl inside you... They make you question everything you think and do," says Geary, even as he takes you on `a journey through the wisest and wittiest sayings in the world'.

He lays down `five laws of aphorisms': One, brevity, as for example `short prayer penetrates heaven'; aphorisms are "terse and to the point because their message is urgent, and there's no time to waste". Two, definitiveness, such as `politics is the last refuge of a scoundrel'; aphorisms and definitions assert rather than argue, proclaim rather than persuade, state rather than suggest, explains Geary. Three, personal appeal, as for instance, `Do think! Do!' Aphorisms aren't bland generalisations about life, but `deeply personal and idiosyncratic statements', which is what sets them apart from proverbs. Four, the essential twist, to achieve the maximum impact as for example, `An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate,' and `Love decreases when it ceases to increase'. And five, philosophical touch, because `aphorisms are signposts along the route to becoming a philosopher.' They are `literary loners, set apart from the world because they're worlds unto themselves.' A world of a book you can be lost in.

Everyone is responsible for quality

SUBIR Chowdhury has written a tale of quality in The Ice Cream Maker, from Currency Books (www.currencybooks.com). Some of the one-liners that impress are: Quality is not just part of our DNA. Profits are the result, the by-product of great service. Turn what you do every day out of necessity into something you love to do. The better you treat your employees, the better they treat your customers. Focus on what you do, not just the results. Quality is defined by the customer. Most companies are better at delivering `excitement' than they are at providing customers' `basic' needs. You need to think about how to improve your product or service every day. it is not enough to simply `do your best', you must strive for perfection. Pay attention to the details — your customers do. Everyone is responsible for quality. The real measure of performance is not how you do at your best, but how you do at your worst. Quality is cheaper in the long run than `good enough'. And more.

Worth investing in!

Capacious cosmopolitanism

ONE reason that Karnataka has emerged as a cricketing powerhouse is the weather, writes Ramachandra Guha in The States of Indian Cricket, from Permanent Black. "The climate is moderate all the year round. In May, when Delhi is boiling, or in July, when Bombay is deluged by rain, one can still play cricket in Bangalore," he explains in a chapter titled `Majestic Mysore'. Another reason is `the capacious cosmopolitanism'.

The Kannadiga is a reluctant chauvinist, notes Guha, though there can be two opinions on the statement. "No cricketer from the State has been known to swear on the field, dispute a decision, or intrigue in the dressing-room." The book incorporates earlier titles Wickets in the East and Spin and other Turns, along with anecdotal histories that Guha puts together as "the product of a lifelong addiction to the most sophisticated sport known to mankind." Entertaining.

On the tiger trail

MEET the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, Ruth Padel, who is in Chennai today, for a special session at Odyssey, along with her Tigers in Red Weather, from Little Brown (www.twbg.co.uk). "Tigers are too heavily armed to meet often. Like nuclear powers, they depend on peaceful coexistence with their only peers, each other, avoiding conflict by a silent gossip of scent marks ruled by conventions as Byzantine as NATO protocol," writes Padel, explaining how these denizens of the wild use as currency `a mix of urine and anal-gland secretion' as marks of boundary. These tangy hieroglyphs are the basis of tiger social code, augmented by scratches on trees and scrapes along a path, she explains.

A book you can go to bed with, but the tigers and tigresses can keep you awake, with facts such as that they have `the largest canines of all big cats, two-and-a-half to three inches long, threaded with pressure-sensitive nerves to find the precise place between vertebrae to sever a spinal cord'!

Sweet strains of the flute

IT IS almost the dead of night. The mid-fortnight half-moon has entered the domain of dreams, and the sky, bright as the midday lotus, shines with twinkling stars. Wafting from afar are the sweet strains of the flute played by one guarding the fields... the strains from someone so distant. The quiet stillness of the atmosphere and the enveloping darkness lend a captivating spirituality to the sounds of the flute. It comes to the ears as if a great soul, sitting on the opposite bank of the river and playing with the waves of water, is seemingly narrating a sad story to the mute trees on the other bank.

That's perhaps `the shortest story' of Munshi Premchand, translated by Madan Gopal from a 1920 issue of the Urdu monthly Kahkashan of Lahore, in Queen of My Heart and Other Short Stories, from Blue Leaf (www.brijbasiartpress.com) . Captures the old-world charm.

(Books courtesy: Landmark www.landmarkonthenet.com)

Tailpiece

Minister 1: "Events are happening faster than... "

Minister 2: "Than in the earlier regime?"

Minister 1: "No. Things happen faster than my memoir-writing speed!"

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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