Dear Visitor, 

Welcome to ShankarJagansWorld. Thanks for your time. Here you will see my writings- of blogs, articles, reflections, book reviews and my published books. Trust that you find it useful. 

Please share your thoughts in the comments section as you browse my site. Your every word means a lot to me. 

Thank you,
Shankar Jaganathan

“Comparisions is hell, Contentment is heaven”

Latest Post

• Book Review 2025.04: A Brief History of Intelligence, Why the Evolution of the Brain Hold the Key to the Future of AI, 369 pages, 2023 -March 1, 2025March 1, 2025
  Book Review 2025.04: A Brief History of Intelligence, Why the Evolution of the Brain Hold the Key to the Future of AI, 369 pages, 2023 -March 1, 2025 I consider myself extremely lucky for having found this book as an introduction to the complex subject of evolution of intelligence in life on our planet. The attractive title combined with my current interest in understanding the potential of AI and its limitations was probably a key factor that made me pick it up on my periodic visit to bookshops. Not being familiar with the subject of anatomy and brain development, it took me nearly a month to complete this medium sized book. Despite having read it diligently, I cannot say I have comprehended the ideas in this book in any decisive way. All I think I can say is that I have a reasonable awareness of the evolutionary path of human intelligence as narrated by the author and the ability to recognize these concepts in AI applications. I have to browse through this book a few more time to become more familiar with the concept described and internalize it.   The narration in this book unfolds from the simple sensory neurons […]
• Book Review 2025.03: Kamal Haasan A Cinematic Journey, 252 pages, 2024 -February 27, 2025February 27, 2025
  Book Review 2025.03: Kamal Haasan A Cinematic Journey, 252 pages, 2024 -February 27, 2025 As an ardent Kamal fan, my nephew gave me this book having completed it during his round trip from Bangalore to Delhi. Having watched my first Kamal movie-Apoorva Raagangal in 1975 and following his work for over five decades, it took me longer than expected, three full days to be precise to complete this book. On reflection, it is the depth of the author’s analysis that made me reflect, as well as my constant desire to refresh my memory by googling the movies being analysed that accounted for the longer than expected time.    The author himself a celebrated film director and film-critic takes the reader though a memorable and educational journey of what goes into the making of movies. The personal experiences of the creative team and their inspiration from the best of world cinema embellishing the subtle nuances of the end product is brought to fore. This provides general audiences like me a new lens to view and appreciate movies.        While political leanings in movies like Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam is quite obvious, I found the political lens used to analyze even […]
• Book Review 2025.02: Information, Entropy, and Progress, A New Evolutionary Paradigm, 291 pages, 1994 -January 28, 2025January 28, 2025
  Book Review 2025.02: Information, Entropy, and Progress, A New Evolutionary Paradigm, 291 pages, 1994 -January 28, 2025 A key resolution for the year 2025 is to read the unread books in my collection. This is the first of those books completed that was with me for more than ten years. After reading it over the last twenty-five days, I realized why I had not progressed despite picking it up more than a dozen times. This book is abstract, introducing more than a dozen new concepts for me from physics, chemistry and engineering in viewing social systems, and more particularly the economic system, which is primary interest. Further it contains many mathematical equations to derive certain key conclusions that is quite forbidding. To be honest, I skipped over the mathematical equations and focused on the conclusions and a few key variables that I found interesting.    The author takes the reader though the evolution of the universe, earth, its geological and biological spheres, living organisms, social, and economic systems before focusing on the developments in manufacturing, production and labour. This book provides a universal perspective that is not limited by any domain or discipline as is the normal case. Hence, this […]