Parallels | V. S. Sury | Book Review

RATING: 4/5

We have at some point of time in our lives sat with our friends on the parapet of our terrace and discussed the deeper meaning of our lives over a cup of tea at dusk.

The glowing but disappearing sun, the vast expanse of the blue sky and the birds flying back to their nests made us wonder and ponder over the beauty of nature.

We would have tried to understand how the mechanisms of Nature works – what are the principles behind it and most importantly, where exactly do we fit in?

“Parallels” by V. S. Sury takes you back to that poignant moment of time and tries to provide answers to questions which were left unanswered and never visited.

The book emphasises the interconnectedness of our lives with nature through the 36 chapters. Each chapter is strewn with examples connecting little acts of nature like the seasons and cycles of day and night with various disciplines.

Though Science as a discipline has been used to explain the complexities of Nature – disciplines like geography, economics, and sociology and even, acupuncture has been appropriately used – that is in the right measure.

The language and the style of dealing with different aspects of drawing comparison between nature and us vary from chapter to chapter. Most of the chapters do not have a similar layout.

An attempt to frame a Haiku, sarcastic comments of a brat, Conversations with Nature and a dash of poetry are a treat for a litterateur as well.

Oh! You love mathematics. Then do dig in as the book employs inductive and deductive reasoning at every point – please do not miss the chapters on ranges and importance of No. 7 in nature.

You read books like you saunter in a park – a few pages then you think and few pages there – then please do not miss the book – the book has enough concepts descriptions of acts of nature which are similar to our life around us like the pattern of waves rising and falling with acts of birth and death, living life day-by-day, moment-by-moment like we read words then sentences and paragraphs.

Are you the kind who thinks deeply after reading a book? Then do pick it up off the shelf and deep read as it touches on burning issues like the mental health of a person which is compared to a pressure cooker, the Maharishi effect – go ahead there are so many treasure troves in those sheaths and sheaths of paper for you to chew and digest.

Wait! If you are scared of high-sounding English words, then this book is something you will love as it deals with good ideas in a simple layman’s language with a few Sanskrit words interwoven.

“Parallels” is a book that gets you to think and observe things around you critically by drawing similarities about the DNA structure in our body with ladder, identifying the pattern of opposites in both biological and chemical world, how things under nature’s creations appear similar but each living and nonliving organisms have a small touch of uniqueness – the USP.

If you are a kind who loves to question things around – then this book is definitely for you especially chapter 12 – which leads you to question of moving and spreading are one and the same or are they different; it leads you to question about time – and its variations like gap, dormant which are seen in both man and nature like the interesting examples of light-years and dormant seeds.

“Parallels” is a book that has been written after deep thinking – deep analysis on aspects like borders, colours, sounds, distances, empty minds to mention a few.

V.S.Sury has a style of describing mundane things very vividly especially the writer’s block, the first kiss, duck toy dipping in water – which makes it an interesting read.

The best chapter is the one where the author compares the physics of gravity to the simple acts of returning books to the library after reading it. Comparison of the height of the fall of an object to the fall of a person from the positions of power is another example.

The more you get engrossed in the book, the more you get ignited to demystify the hidden knowledge all around us.

Finally “Parallels” is a book that encourages us to be more aware of things around us and its interconnectedness to nature – it’s a wake – up call to take a ‘broad look at Nature’s fascinating ways’ in the author’s own words.

Happy Reading.

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