In Search of the Weightlessness of Being, and the Milestones on the Journey

To review both books together is to stitch the intensely personal narrative of the first with the more worldly, somewhat detached discourse of the second although both books effortlessly weave together the personal with the impersonal, the home with the corridors of corporate life, the inner with the outer worlds. It is a tale compellingly and honestly told; of the author’s childhood in undivided India and later growing up with searing memories of the horrors of Partition. But even if his memories correspond with the recollections of countless refugees who witnessed unspeakable violence; had relatives and friends massacred; lost home, property and wealth—and most of all—the dignity of a peaceful, self-sufficient existence—the descriptions of a way of life gone by and his own awakenings through the carefree days of childhood and youth are vivid, moving, and recounted with a light touch. The self-deprecating humour and admission of his weaknesses; of the times he failed to live up to the right principles of conduct, of dharma, his recognition of and attempts to curb his ego and his struggles with the spiritual and material are candidly confessed. His entire life has been a quest for moksha, freedom which is not circumscribed by religious diktats, and laghima,