Customer Reviews

Games Indians Play: Why We Are the Way We Are

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is about "Games Indians Play" - no doubt about that. The author spares no opportunity available to go on endlessly about the million games they play and the million wrong things they do. And then he finds more opportunities to the same. What he does not do anywhere, however, in the book, is to explain "why we are the way we are". Every time he gets anywhere close to having to explain, he conveniently dives into game theory and other tools, recounts some interesting problems, draws some analogies, and then sneaks away nonchalantly hoping that nobody would notice his getaway. This could have worked, if the analogies were not largely focused on the outcomes instead of the causes and if they could have allowed for segregation of Indian behaviour from universal behaviour. As an example, the author draws the conclusion that Indians behave like "squealers" because it is the rational and intelligent thing to as shown by the "simple prisoner's dilemma". Thereafter, he casually also mentions that this behaviour is universally applicable and not just to Indians, and then goes onto say "But what is striking is that, in most situations, we Indians do not even see the dilemma. Defection seems to be our natural setting." And that's it. So where, Mr.Raghunathan, is the blinding insight about why we "do not even see the dilemma" or why we are different from the rest of the world? Is it our history, our geography, our genes, or something else? Why don't I see any mention of causal factors in this book? And when there are causal factors, why are they always universally applicable and never specific to Indians, making them useless in this context?

Frankly, I was very disappointed with the below-average analysis and deductions in this book, especially given the author's pedigree. The only thing I can give it credit for is that it is still a reasonably entertaining and well-written read, especially if you are a fan of pop Mathematics. Actually, that is where the author's strength may lie and what he might want to consider writing books on in the future.

As an expat currently living in India, this book affirmed what I've found difficult and perplexing about living in New Delhi. The constant helplessness, petty jealousies and a sense that some of the observed poverty is just another one of India's treasured rackets (an alternative route for their bizarre and seemingly increasing corruption) is overwhelming and frustrating to watch on a day-to-day basis. I enjoyed this book immensely as it helped me to understand the behavior I see around me, why it continues without change (or question) and in the end, why and how others perceive their continued benefit from this seemingly irrational paradigm (from a Western view point).

Listening to Indians and the media in India, there is a view that Westerners are selfish, lack connected communities and have no "family values" or "morals" (whatever this means by whomever defines it). It's almost as if Indians have it reversed from Westerners. In particular, Americans who value personal independence coupled with a sense of civic duty and responsibility to others whereas Indians emphasize family and communal relationships to guide their behavior and actions but do not necessarily extend their concerns outside their immediate circle.

If you are curious about India as an up and coming "Super Power," get your hands on this book. Mr. Raghunathan has done a wonderful job using game theory to explain how your average Indian views and responds to other Indians as well as the world in general.

This could have been acceptable as a blog, but as a printed book by an academician from one of the prestigious management schools in India it is very disappointing. The lists of 'games' that people in India play is impressive but not very original. Any person, Indian or foreign, who lives in India for a while can come out with a similar list of rants. Where the book disappoints sorely is in not answering or even attempting to answer the question in the subtitle. It's an interesting idea to relate game theory to the behaviour of people but that again is not original. Use of derisive, controversial and unjustified phrases like 'the Hindu rate of growth' as a sort of gospel truth reveals the author's lack of prefessionalism and rigour. Someone the Mahatma Gandhi would have called a 'drains inspector' ..

I picked this book on a whim after seeing it on display in a bookstore on a recent visit to India. I found it so interesting that I finished reading it before my plane reached US.

It's a very interesting book and does a great job of explaining some of the bizzare things that go on in India and why people say "it's like that only". As an Indian living in US for two decades, I can relate to author's observations about Indian and western societies. I have been puzzled by some of those things over the years but couldn't figure out why it was so.

And to Mr. Raghunathan: Lots of Indians/asians in US don't behave much differently. Just go to any temple and you can see a pile of shoes/chappals on the floor right next to empty shoe shelves & just below the sign "please don't leave your shoes on the floor". Or visit any south asian grocery store and you can tell instantly if they sell "paans" by looking at stains all over the parking lot.

At least now I know why and can laugh while trying to explain it to my kids who are equally puzzled by this behavior. Thanks for a very insightful book.

Dear Amazon.com,

I am the author of this book. I do apologise for using this space to ask you to correct my name on your site. It appears as N. Raghunathan, while my name is V. Raghunathan, as can be clearly seen on the title page of the book cover shown on your site.

I did try sending you direct emails to effect the correction to no avail. Hence this ploy. I apologise too for rating my own book (of course 5 out of 5 stars!), but then without rating it, this comment would not appear!

My apologies once again, but I do want the correction effected at the earliest!

Thank you.

A good treatise on game theory and prisoner's dilemma in particular, as applied to the Indian scenario. The best part is that there is no boring math involved in the explanation.

Quite disappointing. I started it with a great hope to see if the author gives a good insight about the problems with "Indian mentality". But unfortunately he just whines pages after pages repeating same examples of Indian (mis)behavior without moving on to any *analysis* ("why we are the way we are") or without even trying to give possible solutions to the problems.

I won't recommend this to anyone as a good read!

This book is a quick read that provides valuable insight into some of the cultural differences between the US and India. If you do business in India, it's well worth the read.

The rise of India and China is one of the hottest topics of discussion today. What differentiates India's rise from that of China's (and probably that of any other country) is that India's growing importance in the global economy is one concerning Human Capital - the export of 'brain power' if you'd agree with me putting it that way.

Though India is home to several millions of highly educated and successful engineers, doctors, lawyers, and businessmen, yet it is one of the dirtiest, most corrupt, and uncivilized countries in the world. The author, in this book, tries to explore the reasons behind this incongruity. One might quickly point to the several hundreds of millions of illiterate, abjectly poor people as those that make India miserable. However, through a set of cogent arguments in the first couple of chapters, the author establishes the fact that Indians, irrespective of their social or economic status, react similarly to a given situation. The author, through a series of examples, also successfully establishes that even illiterate people belonging to poor sections of the society exhibit very shrewd behavior in daily situations. So there must be something in 'Indian blood' - a generic behavioral aspect - that stands as reason behind what India as a country is today.

The author postulates that it is 'Supreme Selfishness' which drives every Indian. The author then creates models of everyday situations using principles of Game Theory to explore how Indians react to such situations given that they are driven by 'Supreme Selfishness'. For example, the author uses Prisoner's Dilemma to model the common situation every Indian faces while emptying his trash can every morning - should I empty the bin on the road or should I have to walk two hundred feet to the nearest municipal waste bin?

I recommend this book as a must read for every Indian so he realizes how there are better (and more profitable) choices he can make in every day situations even if he continues to remain selfish. For non-Indians I would still recommend this book especially if he/she does business with Indians. This book analyzes several real-life cases of how Indians, motivated by 'Supreme Selfishness', react to common business situations.

While the author successfully uses 'Supreme Selfishness' to explain why Indians are brilliant as individuals but a bunch of idiots while as a group, he doesn't adequately explain why Indians are Supremely Selfish? So the book doesn't completely answer the question - "Why we are the way we are?" For this reason I give the book only 4 stars.

This is a great little book but a controversial one. V. Raghunathan uses Game theory to help explain many of the foibles of Indian life often observed by natives and expats alike. Along the way he provides a good understanding of "Prisoners Dilemma" and by doing so provides great insights into many of the obstacles that delay India's development.

Although this book provides the best explanation I have ever seen for the lack of trust that so often impedes progress in India, the author stops short of explaining why Indians seem to fall prey to this "Prisoner's Dilemma" more often than their counterparts in most other countries. Even more importantly, Raghunathan fails to offer suggestions for overcoming these problems. None-the-less, this book will help launch many a reader on a search for those answers and I believe that most will be far more successful in that quest because of having read Games Indians Play.