Gulzar
I come down to my desk in the study around 10.30 a.m. I spend the first three-four hours of the day with myself — reading or writing. You can’t write without reading. If you don’t keep pouring fresh water into the tank it will begin to smell. I read many books together. I am reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha. I have always been fascinated by the Buddha’s life. It has nothing to do with faith or religion. But what made him renounce the world at 29? What made him break away from home? It can’t just be what we have been told: that it was his encounters with old age, illness, and death that led him to it. What was the search he went on? What were his conflicts? I am also reading Red Lipstick: The Men In My Life, a first-person account by the transgender rights activist, Laxmi.
Gulzar is a lyricist, writer, poet and filmmaker.
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Ashok Chawla
I am reading Who Moved My Interest Rate? by D. Subbarao. A book with a charming title, it covers the period when Subbarao was the RBI Governor. It is a candid account of the tempestuous journey after the Western financial crisis and the relations between the government and the central bank. What makes it eminently readable is the candour and tongue-in-cheek humour that the author brings to the book. I am also reading Half Lion by Vinay Sitapati. It is a well-researched, well written book. It traces the life journey of P.V. Narasimha Rao, about whom not much has been in the public domain so far. The book fills a gap in the evolution of India's polity and the office of the Prime Minister.
Ashok Chawla, a former Union finance secretary, is chairman, TERI.
