Ganesha on the Dashboard- A saddening but delightful read

“Ganesha on the Dashboard” by V.Raghunathan and M.A Eswaran caught my eyes in a book fair that promised a huge discount margin and a display of interesting works. The title was attention-grabbing enough and the reviews added to the appeal. And this piece of nonfiction having read, I found myself resonating to the DNA review, “A saddening but delightful book”. A curious paradox, one might wonder, but this makes up the gist of feelings one goes through on reading the book.

Published by Penguin books, the book is most reasonably priced at Rs.299 and is definitely worth the amount. The cover illustration by Joy Gosney is beautiful as well provides an insight into what the book is about. There had been some serious research done behind the work, and the book is provided with valuable footnotes and appendices.

The book is all about the extremes of absurd superstitions that we Indians delve into and the shocking lack of scientific temper of our country. A country that has spawned number of international scientific figures, isn't it a paradox that our country is also the one in which people dying of poverty and “stone idols being fed milk and fruits” coexist? Excerpting from a precis of the book,

“Take the way we go about buying a car. We identify an auspicious date and time, then proceed to break a coconut, plonk a plastic deity of Ganesha on the dashboard, and zoom off at a great speed, refusing to wear our seat belts.”

The book is one hundred percent accurate in describing the “incredible” Indian sensibility and is informative, quirky and at times funny. The several chapters devoting to the explanation of scientific temper and science vs. Superstitions are simply delightful to read about. Each chapter starts with a quotation and an interesting story or a tidbit about the chapter. To those who aren't much interested in science, don’t recoil. The book, unlike your deplorably uninteresting Physics textbooks, makes scientific facts sound interesting and once you've read the book, tadaa!  There you are, about five times enlightened than before. I managed to learn a lot about Kepler, Einstein and Roemer than from my discarded physics text books.

So, does the book go wrong somewhere? I guess the extremities of scientific arguments of the authors can prove a bit unsettling to the reader. The arguments for astrology being a pseudo science are acceptable but when the belief in “gods” is being questioned, I guess that’s where the ‘saddening’ part comes in. Science has made our life a lot better and the right perspective about science or the scientific temper is integral to a good future. But then,the age old battle of science vs. Religion creeps in. One major truth in our life is that no matter how tough we appear, we all hope for miracles secretly. Whether we see them true or not, hoping for miracles, praying, meditating, all this can make people happier. (Hormones responsible for this are called endorphins, again the science part.J)

So when we read that there is no point in praying, instead run to you makeshift labs, well! Belief in a supreme force, the knowledge that there is something to lean on, can be a motivation, a source of hope and is essential for a human being; false or otherwise. And so here it is- a book well worth reading, “saddening, but delightful”.

A Cuppa Heaven!

Quite recently I happened to pick a book from the Chicken Soup series at a book exhibition in Kochi. Memories sort of engulfed me; I can vouch, for Chicken Soup series used to be a thing of the past, marking the reading habits of me and my chums during our sixth and seventh classes, along with musty copies of Nancy Drew, Harry Potter and Malory Towers.

Evidently, Chicken Soup series are great; they used to be great back then, and they are great even now. The guys have come up with a new indulgent series of CS for the soul; a collection of books devoted to satiate the indulger in you. There were four books at the exhibition; CS for the coffee lover’s soul, tea lover’s soul, chocolate lover’s soul and wine lover’s soul. I would have picked up the first three if I had money, that is, if I ‘had’ which evidently I didn’t, so I ended up in picking up the first.

I have had the fortune to meet several coffee lovers in my life; ardent, passionate people for whom coffee is not just a beverage, but a way of life. I remember my friends Elizabeth and Anu, who cry when they see exotic coffee caskets at departmental stores. One day Anu woke up at the middle of the night; saw a brand new bottle of ‘Bru’, which she didn’t exactly had an access to and roamed around the house, murmuring “coffee, coffee”.  J

The book is full of quotes, humorous anecdotes, stories of addiction, stories of love brewing, and a lot more. I implore the book fanatics to try and get one of CS books on your favorite indulgence. There are, in every story, tales of the best coffee beans getting dried into the finest powder, the addictive aroma of coffee brewing, and the soft whiff of coffee and cream, which leaves you longing for your favorite cup of Java.

I recollect the escapades I personally had with the beverage. Late night preparations for exams would obviously top the list, the dark murky liquid with darker precipitate settling at the bottom of the cup- the concoction called black coffee that we call “kattankaapi”. The same thing that you gulp down when you are down with fever, sometimes with an added pinch of pepper or ginger powder.  The numerous cups I have had from railway stations and college canteen, which had tasted the same, thanks to the monotonous coffee machine. But I remember a coffee I have had from some railway station in Karnataka (this happened when I was little), which remains till date one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had. Then there are cups of coffee from south Indian vegetarian restaurants, made by guys for whom the aroma of coffee is, as I said earlier, is a way of life. Curling up with a book and a cup of coffee is my idea of heaven on earth!

Actually, what made me write this is, a couple of days back, I went for a competition with a best buddy, who for me, had been a real ‘partner in crime’ since our first year in college, and went to this famous coffee shop to have a cup. A blast of coffee scented air greeted us on entering the shop; a mixed whiff of coffee, cream and cakes (Sheer heaven!). A group of guys were discussing good films over their coffee, well known names of celluloid popping up in their discussion. We had this extremely bitter cup of coffee (which appeals to top notch caffeine lovers, but not to me, I presume) along with a gooey, creamy, chocolaty dessert. I don’t know what did the trick, a day off from the humdrum college or a good time with a friend, we were in good spirits that day. But honestly, I think it is coffee that did it. Coffee is really, a pot of heaven.

A true tea lover as well, “coffee or tea?” for me is like “Mammooty or Mohanlal?” to a Malayali. Still, coffee is a mood-changer, spirit-lifter, like no other beverage. To all those females who shy away from a cup in the fear that coffee makes you dark,

“Seriously, seriously?”

 A lot, a lot, a lot can happen over a cup of coffee.