The Fifth Generation - book!!

I finally completed reading this book titled 'The Fifth Generation' by Edward Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck. I have been reading this book since a long time. It is about the fifth generation project that was launched by Japan in early 1980's. The project was to come up with a new generation of computer systems which were extremely fast as well as intelligent. It was designed to be a 10 year project with lot of funds assigned to it by the government of Japan. The idea was for Japan to make a strong position for itself in the computer world. The book talks about this whole project in detail, the fifth generation conference that was held to declare to the world about this project, and how various countries reacted to it. It talks in detail about how skeptic US was and a group of people motivated by this project who felt that US needs to respond to this challenge and in turn start working on it.

Eventually at the end of the 10-year period this project failed and had to be canceled. Of course the book does not talk about that as it was written while this project was in progress. The authors give details about research in the area of Artificial Intelligence at that point of time and all the logistics involved in getting funded for various research projects. It showed the perspectives of different countries towards research. The main idea was that in US a research project was considered important enough to be funded if it had applications for the defense department. Some parts of the book gets boring, but other parts of it had interesting and useful information. Good read for one who is interested in computer science research and especially for one who wants to know the history of Artificial Intelligence research.

Animal Farm, Disgrace and Interpreter of Maladies

After a long time, I am back and want to write about the books that I read in the last few months. The first one is "Animal Farm" by Geroge Orwell. It is a short story, which is basically a political satire. The story is setup on an Animal Farm taken care by Mr. Jones. The animals are not happy being ruled by human beings. So they plan to throw human beings out of the farm and gain independence. They successfully drive away Mr. Jones and his family. Now the challenge is to take care of themselves and the farm and earn a living. The pigs turn out to be the intelligent ones and hence start guiding all the other animals. They slowly become powerful and start ruling the farm. So the animal farm throws away one dictator only to find themselves in the hands of another. This is an interesting read which shows how power can change attitude of people, often which is what happens in the political world.

The second one is "Disgrace" written by J M Coetzee. It won the Booker Prize in 1999. I had mixed feelings about this book throughout the time I was reading it. I didn't feel good about the story but at the same time couldn't stop reading it. It was a strange feeling. The book is about a divorced, professor of literature in South Africa. He didn't enjoy teaching as much, instead was more involved in researching about Byron. He gets into an affair with one of his students. The University finds out about it and he is forced to quit his job. Disgraced to live in the same city any longer, he visits his daughter who lives all by herself on a huge farm in the countryside. The author describes the relationship between the father and daughter, how the daughter wants to be independent and is passionate about living on that farm far away from everyone. The story takes a turn when they are attacked & assaulted on the farm and the daughter is raped. The remaining story is about how they deal with this tragedy and continue with their disgraced lives. The book has nicely described the relationship between the father and daughter and the emotional turmoil they go through but at the end, I was left with sad feelings.

"Interpreter of Maladies" written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a collection of short stories. It won the Pulitzer prize in 2000. Most of the stories are about Indian families living outside India. I found all the stories very touching and I could relate to most of them. It discusses issues in families, how parents try to pass on their culture to the next generation, sensitive issues related to love and affection. Some of the stories were quite thought-provoking. On the whole it was fun reading at least 6 out of the 9 stories in it.

The Five Love Languages and The Case for Christmas !!

I finally finished reading the book "The Five Love Languages" by Dr.Gary Chapman. This was a wedding gift from a very dear friend. It is a very apt gift for a couple. This book talks about 5 different kind of love languages. Similar to different spoken languages, Dr.Chapman says that there are 5 love languages and not every person speaks the same love language.

The author says that depending on the personality of a person, he/she subconsciously speaks a particular love language and hence feels good and loved when actions of their partner correspond to his/her love language. For example a person may feel loved on receiving gifts while another might feel loved through words of appreciation. The author says that the five love languages are "Words of Affirmation", "Acts of Service", "Quality Time", "Receiving Gifts", and "Physical Touch". So a person whose love language is "Words of Affirmation" need not feel loved on receiving gifts. Hence it is important to understand the love language of our life partners and other family members so that we can express our love in a manner they will be able to see, understand and actually feel it. Through numerous real-life examples the author shows how a couple can keep the love in their marriage always alive, just by understanding the love language of their partner. He talks about many of them who were at the verge of separation, but got back together after counseling sessions with the author where he helped them identify their love languages and express love to their partners accordingly. I tried to figure my love language and feel that mine corresponds to 2 out of the 5 listed in the book. In such a case, the author says that there always is one primary love language. The book also has a study guide at the end which may be useful in figuring out our love languages. My next step is to go through this guide with Ajay and pinpoint our primary love languages.

The other one that I read recently is "The Case for Christmas" by Lee Strobel. A mentor of ours gave this book to us and told us about the author 'Lee Strobel' who has written books on topics which are very hard to justify and almost impossible to produce solid proofs like origin of Christmas, Christ, and about creator of the world. 'The Case for Christmas' is a small book with powerful content and particularly good for those who want some evidences about Christmas and all the facts around it and around the birth of Jesus. I particularly liked his approach wherein he investigates cases looking for solid evidences through interviews with well-read and knowledgeable philosophers, professors, and researchers. In this book he categorizes evidences into four kinds: 'EyeWitness evidence', 'Scientific evidence', 'Profile evidence', and 'Fingerprint evidence' and collects information through interviews for each of these categories. He then justifies the evidences quite convincingly. I liked this style of proof through evidences for hard to perceive concepts such as existence of God, Creator, origin of Christmas, etc. I am eager to read his other two works, 'The Case for Creator' and 'The Case for Faith' and hope to find answers to some of the questions that I have always had.

Ignited Minds - book!!

'Ignited Minds' is an excellent book written by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam - current President of India, and an eminent scientist involved in teaching and research. In this book, Dr. Kalam motivates every Indian to do their best (through hard work) in whatever they are doing, through his personal life experiences. He just asks everyone and particularly the youngsters of the country to dream of a good life for themselves and dream of India as a developed country.

Though this is not exactly Dr. Kalam's biography, there is a lot of information about his life and his achievements for the country. I enjoyed reading about those and felt happy that there is someone constantly doing great things for the country. He talks about his work at ISRO, particularly about his contributions as the Project Director to the first satellite launch vehicle (SLV-III) which could successfully launch the Rohini satellite in 1980. He then worked with DRDO on the Integrated Guided Missiles Programme and successfully developed Agni and Prithvi missiles. He then talks about this work as the Scientific Advisor to the Defense Minister in 1990's. During this period he led the Pokhran nuclear tests thus making India a nuclear weapon state. Dr. Kalam also talks about his other work 'India 2020 - A vision for the new Millennium' which was conceived by him along with 500 other experts when he was the Chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting, and Assessment Council (TIFAC). I am really hoping that we can achieve this dream.

Apart from learning about all the technological advancements led by Dr.Kalam, this book also reveals that he led a very simple life. He traveled around the country extensively, and always made sure to meet students and children. He loves being around children and strongly believes that they will play a major role in transforming India into a developed nation. Hence, he spends time inspiring them and igniting their minds to dream of great things (for themselves and their country) and fulfill those dreams through hard work and dedication. He gives many interesting tidbits about his travel and talks about the vast untapped natural resources in many parts of our country.

This book is a good read for all ages as it fires up the mind. I am looking forward to reading his other works, and especially 'India 2020'.

"Finders-Keepers?" - book!!

Yesterday was "Snowday" (i.e., little snow mixed with sleet and freezing rain in Dallas-Texas is quite a big deal) and hence my University was closed. I felt like a kid all over again as I was keenly watching the closings on TV hoping that UTD will remain closed for the day. Not that it mattered, but I was quite happy when I finally saw the email about university closing due to inclement weather.

As I was enjoying my snow-day, I happened to see the book "Finders-Keepers? A True story" written by Robert Arnett for children. We bought this book as a future gift for our niece. This book won a number of awards. It has an excellent message for all age groups. It is a true story about a little boy in Mt.Abu - Rajasthan, that happened during the author's visit to India. The boy found the author's wallet on the road and returned it him. The author offered him a reward in return but the boy refused to take the reward. The boy told the author that he should not be rewarded for doing the right thing. A very heart-warming story with a wonderful message that we should not expect rewards for performing our duties.

This can be a good gift for kids. It has beautiful illustrations by Smitha Turakhia and nice description of Mt Abu. On the whole a good read for all ages.

"What To Say When You Talk To Your Self" - by Shad Helmstetter!!

Recently I read the book "What to Say When You Talk to Your Self" by Shad Helmstetter. The author of this book says that whatever we say, think, or write has an effect on our sub-conscious mind. Our brain receives the messages that we give - silently, by speaking them out, or by writing. After some point of time, with repeated messages, our sub-conscious mind starts believing what ever we say, be it negative or positive. In this book, the author explains about a revolutionary technique called Self-Talk that can remove all the negative programming that is already in our mind and replace it with new, positive and vital energy.

The author says that our success or failure is controlled by the following key things.
- Behavior (what we do or do not do)
- Feelings (how we feel about something)
- Attitudes (perspectives with which we view life)
- Beliefs (what we believe about anything)
- Programming (our conditioning say from childhood)

He says that these five key factors play a great role in the kind of results we get, because programming creates our beliefs, beliefs create our attitudes, attitudes create our feelings, feelings determine our behavior/action, and actions create results. So it is very important for our minds to have the correct programming. He shows through various examples that many of us have a negative programming. He explains the Self-Talk techniques in great detail to achieve good and positive results in our day-to-day life starting with simple techniques such as phrases that we should use in life and ones that we should avoid.

This book is a good read especially for those who enjoy reading self-help books. Here are a few lines from this book that I liked the most.

" You are everything that is,
Your thoughts, your life, your dreams come true.
You are everything you choose to be.
You are as unlimited as the endless universe. "

"Blink:The power of thinking without thinking" - by Malcolm Gladwell!!

Last month I read "Blink". This book mainly talks about the power of thoughts that happen in a blink, i.e., a couple of seconds. These thoughts are from the subconscious and can have positive as well as negative affects. The author gives many examples, tests, and statistics where such thoughts from the subconscious mind are involved.
This book is very informative and an interesting read. Though at the end, I felt incomplete. I didn't quite get the purpose. Probably it is just me who feels incomplete if there is no message at the end. Probably the purpose of this book was just to make ourselves aware that everyone has these kind of subconscious thoughts. Whenever we are trying to judge something, we use these thoughts. In many cases our thoughts are correct, but at the same time, we might be wrong sometimes. So it is good to be aware of that. I do recommend this book to you.