Manoj's Review on Books

The premise of the entire narrative by Gurcharan Das is explicit in the title of his book – ‘India grows at night’. He is referring to India’s growth story despite the lack of a strong state. The private institutions have found a way to explosive growth ever since India’s liberalization in 1991, a policy change which can be attributed to lack of options rather than a conscious or deliberate choice. Broadly, GD covers India’s story from Independence till about two decades post liberalization. This means touching upon Nehru’s socialist policies, Indira Gandhi’s insistence on building a command based economy to the two decades of post liberal India which is marked by crony capitalism and corruption. I was wondering what would have been GD’s stand had he chosen to narrate India’s story in 2022 which also marks 8 years of Modi’s central governance.   The economic success in India has taken it’s own share of time but the most amazing aspect that goes unrecognized is India’s democrati...

Almost everyone of us choose to be ignorant of the biggest truth of our lives – death. It is a fact that we act in ways that suggest as though death is a far fetched reality until we are drawn upon the day which brings us to it within touching distance. Morrie is a professor who has taken a special liking towards one of his students named ‘Mitch’. Apparently, Morrie has also left a deep impression in Mitch’s mind to such an extent that when he happens to catch a glimpse of Morrie in one of the TV show two decades later, Mitch makes up his mind to meet Morrie. Little did he know that for the next 14 weeks he would be travelling from Detroit to Massachusetts every Tuesday to meet his professor Morrie who is one his final voyage. At the age of 78, Morrie had been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) which is a rare form of neurodegenerative disease, which in simple terms mean that the body will degenerate to a point of being a vegetative state leading to death. The time ...