As I see my blog evolving, I am beginning to believe that a majority of my posts would comprise book reviews and the like. And when I visit many Indian blogs, I find that most of the blogs let out a collective groan on why we are the way we are. So, I thought I should kick off my book review posts with the review of a book that carries the tag "Why we are the way we are" as the subtitle. Yup, I am refering to the book "Games Indians Play: Why we are the way we are" authored by Prof. V. Raghunathan, former professor of IIM Ahmedabad, who headed ING Vysya for sometime and who is now a part of the top management team of the fast-growing GMR group. Those of you who are into off-the-track hobbies may also be interested in knowing that he has the largest collection of antique locks.
Ok, coming to the book - while the title of the book succinctly captures what the author wishes to express, I am afraid that the book in its final form does not do justice to the title. The book was a racy read but not fully satisfying. I don't think most of the Indians would have any problem in recognising and probably identifying with the situations that the author talks of; however, we may have a problem in the way it is written, that is in employing game theory. At one level, it appears as if the author makes observations about game theory and behavioral finance on one hand and observations about Indians in general on another hand but does not try to connect them. While the application of game theory is very very interesting, I would have also loved to see the concept of "bounded rationality" being applied to analyse why we are the way we are. Also, the application of game theory itself is inadequate - the concepts like Prisoner's dilemma etc. are all fine but why do they apply to the mindsets of Indians alone? A huge let-down was the incomplete treatment of pseudo prisoner's dilemma, relegated to the appendix; I would have liked to see and know if the pay-offs in the Indian context are akin to pseudo prisoner's dilemma when compared to pay-offs in the context of other developed economies. If so, what is the cause and what is the solution - is it liberal institutional reform by the government or does it have to do with inculcation of value systems through education? I thought of several such questions while reading the book but sadly, it did not proffer any answers. I did enjoy one part of the book immensely and that was the parallels that game theory seemed to have with Bhagavad Gita - especially the "do the right thing" part. I am always amazed by the ways and means through which people use the versatility of Gita to make their point. Of course, the best example in my mind would forever be the way Mahatma Gandhi utilized Gita, what was essentially a call to arms, for propagating non-violence.
All in all, "Games Indians Play" is an interesting read, especially if you do not have too many expectations to start with. Unfortunately, I had lot of expectations as I still remember fondly a book written by Raghunathan many years back - it was on the Indian economy and capital markets and was one of the first books I read as I was plodding myself deep into management education. What I liked about that book was its witty style, with pot shots at the controller of capital issues (now replaced by SEBI) and cheeky references to famous quotes from "Alice in wonderland" as applied to Indian economy invariably followed by obligatory yet humorous apologies to Lewis Carroll. "Games Indians Play" lacked that witticism. Or it is possible that I am being unfair about the book - I had read it sometime back and luckily took some random notes on a scrap of paper; luckier still, I could find that scrap of paper without much drama as I was trying to post it as a blog. So, while I may be using the words on that scrap of paper, I may not fully be capturing the exact feelings I had when I was reading "Games Indians Play."
© Author. All rights reserved.
Ok, coming to the book - while the title of the book succinctly captures what the author wishes to express, I am afraid that the book in its final form does not do justice to the title. The book was a racy read but not fully satisfying. I don't think most of the Indians would have any problem in recognising and probably identifying with the situations that the author talks of; however, we may have a problem in the way it is written, that is in employing game theory. At one level, it appears as if the author makes observations about game theory and behavioral finance on one hand and observations about Indians in general on another hand but does not try to connect them. While the application of game theory is very very interesting, I would have also loved to see the concept of "bounded rationality" being applied to analyse why we are the way we are. Also, the application of game theory itself is inadequate - the concepts like Prisoner's dilemma etc. are all fine but why do they apply to the mindsets of Indians alone? A huge let-down was the incomplete treatment of pseudo prisoner's dilemma, relegated to the appendix; I would have liked to see and know if the pay-offs in the Indian context are akin to pseudo prisoner's dilemma when compared to pay-offs in the context of other developed economies. If so, what is the cause and what is the solution - is it liberal institutional reform by the government or does it have to do with inculcation of value systems through education? I thought of several such questions while reading the book but sadly, it did not proffer any answers. I did enjoy one part of the book immensely and that was the parallels that game theory seemed to have with Bhagavad Gita - especially the "do the right thing" part. I am always amazed by the ways and means through which people use the versatility of Gita to make their point. Of course, the best example in my mind would forever be the way Mahatma Gandhi utilized Gita, what was essentially a call to arms, for propagating non-violence.
All in all, "Games Indians Play" is an interesting read, especially if you do not have too many expectations to start with. Unfortunately, I had lot of expectations as I still remember fondly a book written by Raghunathan many years back - it was on the Indian economy and capital markets and was one of the first books I read as I was plodding myself deep into management education. What I liked about that book was its witty style, with pot shots at the controller of capital issues (now replaced by SEBI) and cheeky references to famous quotes from "Alice in wonderland" as applied to Indian economy invariably followed by obligatory yet humorous apologies to Lewis Carroll. "Games Indians Play" lacked that witticism. Or it is possible that I am being unfair about the book - I had read it sometime back and luckily took some random notes on a scrap of paper; luckier still, I could find that scrap of paper without much drama as I was trying to post it as a blog. So, while I may be using the words on that scrap of paper, I may not fully be capturing the exact feelings I had when I was reading "Games Indians Play."
© Author. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
Cool .. when did he move to GMR dude ?? .. any look forward to more stuff on your blog
Though, the Mbh- considered as the education of the Just King- highlights probability and game theory- evolutionarily stable strategies are dharmas, all equally valid and mutually interdependent- still to really understand Gita, one has to go a step beyond Game theory. The fact is the Mbh shows 2 types of symmetry in a truly perfect way. As Noether's theorem tells us, for non-dissipative systems, evidence of a symmetry is proof of a conserved quantity or conservation law. Karma and dharma are what is conserved through every episode, character and utterance in that great work.
Thus, in my opinion, it is likely that true wisdom of Gita- if we could but see it- would reveal a set of techniques to get around such basic problems as what Soros calls 'reflexivity' or the more general phenomenological problem of 'mimetic desire', the Hegelian 'struggle for recognition', etc.
But how to get from where we are to where we need to be? Surely the answer can't be yet more mystic Karma Cola from Gurus and Godmen who seem to be getting stupider, sleazier and more shameless by the minute?
Who will give us a visvarupa darshan that isn't also mind numbing imbecility?
Not Economists- that's for sure. Poets? Philosophers? Have you read any of them lately? So no change there.
Perhaps it will be Rahul Baba. Amartya Sen reckons he's real bright! Hope springs eternal to the N.R.I breast...
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