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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. 

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Thank you,
Shankar Jaganathan

“Comparisions is hell, Contentment is heaven”

Latest Post

• Book Review 2025.05: The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, (1973 Novel), Paperback 255 pages, April 1t, 2025April 15, 2025
  Book Review 2025.05: The Billion Dollar Sure Thing, (1973 Novel),  Paperback 255 pages, April 1t, 2025 The US initiated Global Tariff War dominating the world news prompted me to pick up this book. This was the thriller that I had read three decades ago in my college days which had ignited my interest in financial thrillers. My collection of over 25 books of this genre is a testimony to my continuing interest. Paul Erdman, the author had a chequered career as the CEO of a Swiss bank, who jumped bail when arrested for a bank failure in Switzerland to turn author with this book creating a new category of financial thrillers that became popular in the 1970s.   This novel is set in the turbulent financial markets of early 1970s that saw the end of the three decades old Bretton-Wood’s system of fixed foreign exchange rates that gave birth to the current market determined foreign exchange markets, a period comparable to the current volatile global tariff war. It paints a vivid picture of the macro-economic events that resulted in the devaluation of US$, leading to the soaring gold prices. The motives of all the major players -the US government, the […]
• 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 […]