CHENNAI: In his book, Between Genes and Memes’, Kochi-based HR consultant Krishna Kumar says, “Look at a chicken’s life. From the beginning of its life to the time it reaches 40 days, it is fed every day. Every single feeding firms up the bird’s belief that it is the natural rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race.
And then, one day, something unexpected happens, which revises its entire belief system. On the 40th day, it reaches the notion of maximum safety when the risk, in fact, is the highest.Tailspin: A farm chicken, which always feared the hunter dogs in the courtyard, finally gets eaten by the owner, master and guardian.” The 228-page book, published by Recto and Verso is filled with nuggets of wisdom on every page. Nine years ago, Krishna began writing on Facebook.
Then he moved to Twitter and Linkedin. He adopted a contrarian stand. Soon, he began to get readers. However, one day, his sister said, “You can impress with snippets. But can you show me how good you are, with a 2,000-word blog.” Krishna took up the challenge. Initially, he found it very tough. His thoughts would go haywire. There was no logic or structure.
But slowly, he learned how to write. Recently, web developer Limi Joseph told Krishna that his blog was not secure, and there should be a back-up. Krishna agreed. The back-up was done. And the 300 posts were sent to him in a single word document. As Krishna re-read his posts, he had a mixed reaction. “Some of the posts embarrassed me, while some surprised me,” he says. “Some were instant deletes.” And slowly it dawned on him that he could make a book.
But he says that it needed his editor Joshy Mathew’s skills to get the book into a coherent shape. A ceaseless consumption of byte-sized information through the mobile phone has become an addiction, he tells us. “We are in a constant state of FOMO: fear of missing out,” he says. “It creates restlessness. We are afraid of being with ourselves.” It has also damaged the brain. “There is no critical thinking or analysis,” says Krishna. “People read news from five different sources, but there is no analysis. The hurry to give opinions results in snap judgements. And it may not be right, too.” The book is available on Amazon and Kindle