Games Indians Play


If your mind is running in the direction of the popular transactional analysis book of similar title, you are not too far from the truth this book has to tell you. An interesting take on 'Desis in their own Des' , this is the name of a book by (erstwhile) Prof.V Raghunathan of IIM Ahmedabad.

Most of us would have argumentatively discussed at length, albeit with a pinch of self-righteous exclusivity, about why we are 'like that only' but without questioning why not? When I discussed this book with a couple of my friends, the system came out at the cause rather than the effect, a stance that is opposite of what this book takes. Just so you know the book is not passionate about reformation, but the cold logic of it is bound to leave a whiff of reason on you.

Offering umpteen Indian-way-of-life examples which all of us have lived through, the author sets the context for his analysis of this drama that we play in daily social life (read as behaving as a community). The message is clear- social life is what we fail at. Ironically, while we are, and not without reason, rational individuals, we are victims of our own over-rationalisation. Artfully, Prof VR tells the reader why Indians are some of the brightest somebodies but a miserable community living with their self-created acceptance of norms. He explores Why spitting, relieving,shoving, queue-jumping and many other "-ings" in public that have impacted all but bothered the more reasonable of the lot, are not just hangovers of pre-freedom era, but realities of post-60-year-freedom age.

We may have argued passionately about what can be done to improve it, only to conclude by questioning how much can one-in-a-more-than-billion person's action change the system.It is this 'what can just one do' premise that Prof.VR skillfully counters through the applications of Game Theory to social life. Taking the uninitiated reader through basic of GT, the author pushes it to the next level by explaining work done by various award winning elite researchers in applying GT to real-life situations and war strategy (Life in India is a big fight? Touche!). Then taking the book to its logical crecendo, Prof VR guides us into his perspective of what strategis in social life can reduce dissonance in person to society transactions. A small relief that I had been not wrong in playing this game right myself.

The intent of the book is quite clear, to give a logical basis for the Great Indian Drama and then, atleast, telling the reader that his action can indeed make a difference. Again, the intent is just to educate the user of the option he has to keep in mind the 'larger good' while deciding his next action. Author leaves it at that and makes no lofty pursuasions for a better India.
It is possible that the book will be read by a portion of the reading urban community. Even if they, if not already, start following the 'tit for tat' strategy in life ***in its true spirit***, I think my life will be a little easier, and so will theirs from my point of view.

I would recommend this book. At 150 pages you can breeze through this hard-bound book over a Sunday afternoon. The other 25 pages comprise bibliography, but has some interesting extracts too. The language is concise and the author makes his point quickly and crisply. A foreward by Mr. Narayana Murthy is an added shine for NRN's fans given that his writings are rarer than his speeches.