A book must grip the reader as in a vice that is readability. A book must be a pleasure to read-that is elegance. A book must communicate without tears- that is clarity. Bereft of these three cardinal virtues it is junk: toss it out of the window!
Here is a book that is at once readable, elegant, and crystal clear. You may or may not agree with all its numerous obsessions and eccentricities. But if you share its almost paranoiac concern for the future of the human race and its agony over the rapid qualitative deterioration of the human individual, then you will have established a rapport with the author. And where there is rapport there is recomfort and resurrection.
T. K. Mahadevan is, if anything, a shocker. He prides himself on being a "direct descendant" (take that phrase with a pinch of salt, will you?) of Diogenes the Dog, who roamed the bylanes of Athens at high noon, blazing torch in hand, looking for one honest man-and finding none!
Yes, by George, the world hasn't changed much, has it? Well, read on, and you'll be the wiser.
Apart from the large helping of ideas which the book offers, its generic variety is delightful to the point of being tipsy.
Pungent humour rubs shoulders with the unsmiling face of a pontiff. If IDEAS AND VARIATIONS doesn't make you think again-here's your money back.
I offer this collection-with some trepidation-as a bedside book for the cognoscenti. The ideas explored may keep them awake. But not for long. The wit and sarcasm in which they are wrapped are sedative enough to lull them to sleep-and perchance to dream! The chasing of ideas is an adventure into the unknown. Its character- istic movement is annular rather than linear. There is no destination. No arriving. In the movement is the message. One halting step acts as a spur to another more audacious.
The reiteration of an idea-or a cluster of ideas-is a hallmark of the exercise. It will not go unnoticed that some ideas recur more often than others. These form the substratum of my personal philosophy, and their relevance to the Human Condition cannot be overstated.
The collection comprises writings published in the national print media and oral presentations at international seminars and over the radio. In form and content it covers a wide spectrum of styles and concerns not readily accessible in a book of this size.
The period 1973-76 had more than its share of traumas. I have tried to laugh them away. But the discerning reader is unlikely to be enticed into a false state of cuphory. For when the laughter subsides, he will hear the underlying wail of anguish and despair that runs through the book. I have a duty to acknowledge my indebtedness to the editors and academics alike whose gentle goading led to my writing these essays- short and long, light and heavy. I do so with all my heart.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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