To consider Namita Devidayal's "The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan", first, on her own admission, she wanted "to find that sensational angle to...produce a page turner ..the rivalry between the (subject of her book) & Ravi Shankar....like the film "Amadeus" did between Salieri & Mozart. Given that, as some one close to Vilayat Khan said "He speaks the truth only by mistake" & much of the narrative is from the subject's perspective, the reader may be left in no doubt as to who Mozart is.
Apart from this, the writing leaves the reader in doubt as to the musical knowledge of the author, as she shies off from any remarks of depth. Add to this the lack of an index & a discography, & one has a quite shallow work on hand.
In stark contrast to the above, is Swapan Bandyopadhyay's "Nikhil Banerjee - Down the Heart of Sitar". The author, being a Professor of English & a Sitar player himself, brings knowledge & authority into his writing. Avoiding Ms. Devidayal's sensationalism, he quietly presents the salient facts of Pandit Banerjee's life & music, even though the book is shorter. There is a discography & details of Ragas created by Nikhil Banerjee, but no index again. Opinions of seniors & peers are included to give a rounded perspective on the man. Here also, given the mendacity of the subject of the earlier book, his comments about the subject of this book, may be taken with a pinch of salt!
First is "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Though it is the founding work of Capitalism, it is surprisingly humane & says that to serve our best interest, we should necessarily serve others' needs. So benevolence is the best way to serve our self-interest.
This tome is divided into five chapters.
1. Division of Labour (Specialisation)
2. Nature & Use of Capital
3. Different Wealth in different nations
4. Systems of Political Economy
5. Revenue of the Nations
Surprisingly, the book written in 1776, before the Industrial Revolution, remains in essence, as valid in the 21st Century as the most famous book on Economy.
The second book is Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." This was the first work to present an alternative view of creation to the Bible. Another unique point is the same idea occurred to Alfred Russel Wallace also. In 2015, it was voted by scholars as the most influential book on mankind.
This is divided into chapters like Sporting plants & blue pigeons, Drawing borders between species, The Struggle for Life, Survival of the fittest, The Horse's Stripes, Difficulties in this theory, Instinct, Rules & Mules, Reading the rocks, The Rise & Fall of Species, The Geography of Life, What living things share & This view of Life.
Though these works were written for the non-specialist, they are overly long with numerous examples, rendering them difficult of access to the present day reader, which is a pity. The purpose of the present write-up is to celebrate the advent of popular, condensed (& in the case of "Origin", illustrated) editions of these two classics, pointing out how relevant they are & bringing them to a wider readership.
As God in all religions is omnipotent, it is natural to fear or love him. In religions practiced by unsophisticated people, he (or she) is feared as in the case of the Gramadevathas of our villages. Even in the Vedas, gods like Agni, Varuna etc., are propitiated by appropriate offerings to grant the worldly desires of the worshiper.
In the universal scale, the founding religion of the Semitic sects, Judaism also follows the same idea, of a revengeful God. "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" etc. Only with the advent of Christ, did the idea of loving a merciful God was preached. Unfortunately, in the next Semitic religion, Islam, only fearing Allah & his wrath, became all consuming again. Nowhere in the Quran are the believers exhorted to love Allah. (Only the minority Sufis believe in loving Allah.)
In Hinduism, the end of the Vedas, Vedanta or the Upanishads, went further in helping to realise God. In the Avataras, God assumed first animal form & then human, (corresponding roughly with the theory of evolution) becoming lovable rather than fearsome, (the lone exception being Narasimhavatara !) the supreme example being Sri Krishna. The later God-men like Sri Ramakrishna & Sri Satya Sai Baba totally preached unconditional love of God, by showering their devotees with "love of a thousand mothers."
In conclusion, it may be safely assumed that fearing God goes hand in hand with desiring only worldly benefits whereas loving God is to transcend worldly life & merge with the Divine.
To consider Namita Devidayal's "The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan", first, on her own admission, she wanted "to find that sensational angle to...produce a page turner ..the rivalry between the (subject of her book) & Ravi Shankar....like the film "Amadeus" did between Salieri & Mozart. Given that, as some one close to Vilayat Khan said "He speaks the truth only by mistake" & much of the narrative is from the subject's perspective, the reader may be left in no doubt as to who Mozart is.
Apart from this, the writing leaves the reader in doubt as to the musical knowledge of the author, as she shies off from any remarks of depth. Add to this the lack of an index & a discography, & one has a quite shallow work on hand.
