Parallels by V S Sury – Book Review

At the outset, let me admit that V S Sury has written Parallels with extreme caution and he has made the most of his imagination, intellect, wit and astute thinking in his writing. Parallels is not a simple book that can be narrated as a good book or otherwise in terms of a review. You have to look within; you have to experience the book. You have to analyses the book. I will try my best to make this review as comprehensive as possible.

This is my first encounter with the author and his writing through this book, Parallels, a non-fiction book! And I have to admit that the book is truly awe-inspiring (without any exaggeration). The author has torn the thick veil of popular contemporary writings and has gone beyond to explore something new for the readers. The book really smells fresh like the flowers of spring. Being a non-fiction book, Parallels is comprised of many fascinating things and concepts which make your jaw drop. It is like the titles that compel you to read the book. Parallels, essentially, is about telling the readers that life is certainly beyond our comprehension, to a great extent. However, if we look and observe minutely, we can certainly find that there is a fine, distinguishable, and comprehensive similarity between things – that is parallel.

We are surrounded by enormous tangible and intangible, animate and inanimate things. However, our busy schedule doesn’t allow us to sit and ponder the vastness and vividness of nature. Even if we get some time, locking ourselves inside the four walls of the house, we prefer to be in the embrace of our beloved phone or laptop. We most conveniently ignore them. But, the author prefers to embrace nature. He goes on exploring various elements and concepts of nature, understating their nuances and finding the interconnectedness between each of them. And Parallels is the result of all his researches, analysis, deep thinking and efforts!

The book describes us how deep, strong and beautiful relationship we share with nature. It also articulates the mechanisms of nature in an easily comprehensible manner. The book holds 35 chapters on random topics of varied disciplines, such as mathematics, psychology, physiology, physics, chemistry and so on. All these chapters are like loose threads that are joined together to form Parallels. It also gives glimpses of sacred ancient Hindu texts. Unlike contemporary books, Parallels may not provide you with sheer entertainment, but it will definitely offer you basic, though important, lessons of life. These lessons, I am sure, instil in the desire in you to know more about nature’s mesmerising phenomenon.

It is a book on random things and I bet, as you go deep into it you will fall in love with its randomness. The author has expertise in making mundane things interesting. V. S. Sury says that repetitions are the essence of life and life is full of parallels. How he has established a relation between the Seed and the Blue-print of a skyscraper will boggle your mind. He explains that the seed comes in parallel type with the blueprint. Both the seed and the blueprint are entwined.  There are many such comparisons in the book that keep you engaged till you turn the last leaf.  The language and the style of dealing with different aspects of drawing comparison between different things and human beings vary from chapter to chapter.

To end this review, I would suggest that you read it only if you have an interest in this, developed after you read the first few pages. Once you develop that interest, it will keep you engaged. Otherwise, if you think that the book does not have any interesting thing for you, you might be wondering for the customary offerings from this book which, you will not get! So, the book has certain limitations. It is not a book for all readers. However, it is a book for the lovers of nuances and unseen similarities in the world…

If you want, you can get a copy of this book from Amazon India by clicking the link below:

Buy the book – click here to buy from Amazon

Review by Nidhi Parikh for Indian Book Critics