Productivity in COVID-19 times: Author Sanjay Bahadur recommends five must-read books

The book covers almost every aspect of Indian economy and suggests solutions without intimidating the reader with unnecessary graphs and figures.

Sanjay Bahadur's debut novel, The Sound of Water, was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and has been published in the US and in Italy. His last book came out in 2017—Bite of the Black Dogs.

At any given point in time, a list of books to recommend to others is heavily influenced by what is happening in the world around us.

So here is a list of five books I would recommend in these times.

The Plague (1947) by Albert Camus comes to mind first. Set in French Algerian town of Oran, the novel is an existentialist exploration of a town and its people locked down in an epidemic, exposing human strengths and weaknesses, callousness and generosity.

Calcutta Chromosome (1995) by Amitav Ghosh glides into this list. Depicting an unspecified future, this rare science fiction from India connects mystical transmigration with genetic cloning as it reinvents seminal research of Sir Ronald Ross on malaria.

What The Economy Needs Now (2019) is a joint work by Abhijit Banerjee, Gita Gopinath, Raghuram Rajan and Mihir S Sharma, some of the most well-known economic thinkers of contemporary India.

The book covers almost every aspect of Indian economy and suggests solutions without intimidating the reader with unnecessary graphs and figures.

The Men Who Ruled India (1953) written by an ex-ICS officer, Philip Mason, is a brilliant piece of narrative history that shows the genesis of organised civil services in India. Full of facts and anecdotes, this is an excellent read for those who want to understand the origin of contemporary federal bureaucracy of India.

No list can be complete without a book that brings a smile. Malgudi Days (1943) by RK Narayan is one such classic that takes the reader on a journey of discovery of India through the lives of common men and women who live in its heartlands. It reveals the heart and soul of India.

In these dark times, these books will help create a better understanding of how the nation is dealing with the ongoing crisis.

They will give an informative, contemplative and stimulating lens to look at all that is happening and develop thoughts about what India will need to do in future for its people and its economy.