Overview

This book has come about serendipitously. A heart surgeon suddenly decides to write after Covid Pandemic. He writes on no particular thing, but on the generality of life. This comprises a series of essays on a variety of subjects which include philosophy, cosmology, religion, culture, science, travelogues and other subjects. Of the big questions of life, he volunteers no answers, apart from framing the questions in his own way, believing questions to be more important. There are a few essays on anatomy, surgery and medicine, but, apart from cross-circulation and his late “chief”, Stanley John, who he calls the “Saint of Vellore”, very little on heart surgery. This is deliberate, as he intends to devote his next book to his experiences in heart surgery. All through these essays, the author’s respect for all life, and human life, in particular, shines through: “Having beaten 1 in 400 trillion odds of being born on earth, each one of us is lucky to live and lucky to die”. History, religion, science and philosophy walk into a bar and spend the night defining the “truth”. The result is 101 provocative essays, commentaries, poems. Here, questions are more important than answers and thinking takes precedence over knowing. No verdicts emerge, either. Not surprisingly, curiosity surpasses certainty and reflective wonder is of more value than conclusions

Full Product Details

9781919564609

Table of Contents

Reviews

Pankaj Kaul has created a perfect little guidebook for anyone asking the big questions, especially around the insecurities that beset us today, the crises of meaning, identity and belief. 'His collection of philosophical and spiritual provocations arises from the heart, literally and metaphorically. Working in the NHS as a cardiac surgeon in the midst of the Covid crisis, faced every day with intense suffering and death, Pankaj was moved to write, for the first time, on the human condition. 'In doing so Pankaj reveals himself as a scholar, a scientist, a historian and truth seeker. His pithy summaries of philosophies - practical, spiritual, ethical and political - do all the heavy lifting and leave us free to find our own way. 'This is, above all, a labour of compassion and love, the effort of a humane and humanistic man to find a path from simple materialism to an enlightened understanding of what it means to be alive in the world'. Martin Riley

Author Information

Pankaj Kaul is a Consultant Cardiac Surgeon by profession, in the UK. He has performed over six thousand heart operations in his 39-year cardiac surgical career and continues to operate with the same intensity as before. He has been published widely in peer reviewed cardiac surgical journals, addressing the entire spectrum of adult cardiac surgery. He is on the Editorial Board of a large number of cardiothoracic journals and holds membership of many national and international cardiothoracic societies. He has a well-recognised teaching and training profile at undergraduate, post-graduate, regional and national levels and is a recipient of many clinical excellence awards. This is his first attempt at writing on anything beyond cardiac surgery. Not surprisingly, however, he has written two books together, a kind of twin adventure, a diptych, hinged together by a common post covid effort. This book, Atom to Cell to Idea, the first of the twins, has a wider compass and deals with a variety of subjects touching philosophy, science, religion, culture and politics. The second book, Sharda, Vitasta and Haerath, is a diasporic reminiscence of Kashmir, a land that might have changed externally but that is caressed agelessly in the heart of every Kashmiri.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available