Absolute Power, Sucheta Dalal & Debashis Basu, 2021

Rating:4/5

Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, over the past few decades, have created a formidable reputation for themselves in financial reporting with their exposé of the Harshad Mehta scam in the 1990s being their crowning glory. All through their reporting, they have been tenacious in building evidence, have built a strong network of contacts and most importantly, they have been fearless in taking on influential personalities, regulators and powerful politicians. They have approached “Absolute Power” in the same vein, making the book a compelling read.

The book traces the history of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, from its uncertain beginnings when it took on the cartels of the corrupt Bombay Stock Exchange, its rapid rise to becoming the largest exchange of India aided by some visionary policies, a nationwide presence and the use of technology, to the utter lawlessness in the Exchange under the leadership of Ravi Narain followed by Chitra Ramakrishnan. Dalal and Basu track the key issues in the latter stage of the NSE including tax evasions by brokers, the lack of sufficient risk mitigation steps, the blatant suppression of competition, the capture of regulators and finally, the illegal co-location facilities given to some investors for high frequency trading. The book builds on their regular reporting on these issues over the past several years.

In the process, they do not shy from naming the key perpetrators, whether they be senior NSE employees, the top brass at SEBI (India’s stock market regulator) or even the finance minister during that time. I can imagine the immense pressure that they may have been under during this reporting, especially when the NSE sued them for Rs1 bn (about $15 million at 2015 exchange rates). While Dalal and Basu had built formidable reputations for themselves by that time, this lawsuit would have ended their professional lives and significantly damaged their personal ones if it had been decided by the courts in favour of NSE. To me, this aspect of fearlessness exhibited by them is the most impressive.

While I was familiar with many of these issues due to my involvement in Indian equity markets over many years, the blatant disregard for external and internal rules as depicted in this book is shocking. And the lack of will to protect all investors and players depressing. Unfortunately, this seems the case all over the world, including in the US, even now. For example, Robinhood’s strategy of “gamifying” trading will surely bring grief to thousands of small investors who are not even fully aware of what they trade during any significant market downturn, whenever that happens. Robinhood customer suicide is one such example.

I had two issues with the book. Dalal and Basu paint the various characters as either completely black or completely white. The bulk of their criticism is directed against Narain and Ramakrishnan with nary a good word to say about them. Surely, there must be something right that they did to ensure that NSE became highly profitable and had features more advanced than those in international exchanges during their tenures? The second issue was the bland style of narration. Dalal and Basu are financial journalists and they use their usual writing style for this book. But we have seen how the writing can make a world of difference to a book as in the case of “Bad Blood” – it’s a book about the scam at Theranos but reads like a thriller. Nevertheless, I would strongly recommend “Absolute Power” to anyone with an interest in Indian equity markets.

Pros: Fearless reporting, painstakingly researched, compelling read

Cons: Bland writing style

South of the Border, West of the Sun, Haruki Murakami, 1992

Rating: 4/5

“South of the Border” is a first-person narrative by its protagonist Hajime and his relationships with three women — with Shimamoto during elementary school and then again later, with Izumi in high school and with his wife Yukiko. Hajime’s choices in life seem largely driven by a desire to be different and by a want that seems just beyond reach — the “west of the sun”, a place that’s just not possible to reach and a phrase that Murakami compares to Arctic hysteria. This contrasts with the “south of the border” part of the title, that refers to a song that Hajime and Shimamoto listen to often (although I have been unable to locate the Nat King Cole version that Murakami refers to in the book), and could be symbolic of an ordinary life. 

The more I read Murakami, I realise that several common elements thread through this books — flawed protagonists, the inability to remain satisfied with one’s circumstances, overt sexuality and mysterious women, and others. Additionally, this book is fairly similar to “Norwegian Wood”. It’s a book about love and relationships with a love triangle of sorts with many of the surreal elements that are staples of Murakami’s novels missing in it. Both the books are based on songs with the stories having some faint resemblance to parts of the songs. And this commonality is the reason for the missing star in my review! 

One of the features of Murakami’s novels that I find intriguing is the translation into English. The prose is often simple yet extremely evocative of the protagonists’ feelings and the environment around them. This is one of the things that I find most appealing in his novels and it intrigues me whether it is Murakami’s doing or the translator’s. “South of the Border” is no different — the simple prose make the book easy to read (and it is a short novel in any case) while its evocative nature makes it a thoughtful read. There are some sentences that made me cringe though — “it wasn’t a record that she was handling, it was a fragile soul inside a glass bottle” as one example. Mercifully, these were few and far between!

There are multiple ways in which to interpret this book and the characters, notably Shimamoto and Izumi. For example, it is possible that the characters are real or they could be imaginary and are created in Hajime’s mind to reflect his desires and guilt. And each interpretation would take the reader to a different conclusion. I can easily see myself re-reading this book in a completely different way. Therein lies the beauty of this book, especially given its very short length, and what ultimately makes this book a great read!

Pros: Powerful prose, open to interpretation

Cons: Feels somewhat similar to other Murakami books

Mythos, Stephen Fry, 2017

Rating: 5/5

For someone like me who had little knowledge of Greek mythology, Mythos is the perfect introduction to this subject. Fry covers it comprehensively, even if not in great detail, and his easy and humorous writing style makes the book an easy read.

The book tries to be as comprehensive as possible, commencing from the origins of the titans and the gods, and concluding with several fables. It also discusses the origin of many words commonly used today — euthanasia coming from Thanatos, Kronos contributing to chronometers, and tantalised from Tantalus for example. As Fry puts it, this “splendidly exemplifies the continuing relationship between Greek myth and our language”. There are interesting origin stories as well — the creation of peacocks or the Sahara desert and icy polar regions or a swan song for example. The book also provides insights into the linkages between Greek (and Roman) mythological characters, even minor ones — an interesting bit of trivia is that Apollo was the only Greek god worshipped by the Romans under the same name.

This book is essentially a dummy’s guide to Greek mythology. If your objective is to learn more about the subject, “Mythos” is a great read.

Pros: A great introduction to Greek mythology, easy writing style

Cons: In his attempt to be comprehensive, there is a bit of an overload of characters