Book Review — Method in the Madness, Parameswaran Iyer
13 Dec 2023
It’s good to have friends, and it’s even better when they’re into books. Big thanks to Shreevardhan for this one. Here’s the backstory how I landed this book in my hands — I was at Shree’s place during Diwali planning to leave together to attend a function at another friend’s new home. We had spent the afternoon having lunch at the best Pujo Pandal in Nagpur, also thanks to him for sharing this invite.
While checking out his books, he pointed to me and praised this one, and I asked if I could borrow it. He said he had some work with the book back then. Fast forward to two weeks ago when we met for chai and soup at Futala on a Saturday night. We planned our next meeting at Nagpur University, where he works at the Public Administration Department. Fun fact — Public Administration at the University level in the country was first introduced at Nagpur University in 1949! Planning our next meet didn’t take long — just two days later, on a Tuesday morning at 8:30 AM, we met at the University. He happily gave me a tour of the campus, along with canteen coffee and tarri poha and got the book with him, he bought it with him without my reminder. He introduced me to some of his colleagues (who also gave me good reviews of the book), and we chatted about many things. Despite it being early December, the weather was cloudy, but the morning vibe was beautiful with all the greenery lighting up the campus before the day buzzed into action with students.
In our lives, we play multiple roles, and reading about someone’s 40 years of life in 230 pages is one way to see all those roles at play. Parameswaran Iyer has been a dad, a tennis coach, a husband, worked at multiple government ministries, international organizations, and much more. I must say the book is very engaging and flows smoothly.
As someone early in their career in their mid-20s, it’s interesting to read about work, different work cultures in India and abroad, all while managing family and health. It’s fascinating to see how multiple job shifts gives you skills that, in his words, always pay dividends later in other aspects of work and life. Starting as a jack of all trades, he chose to master water and sanitation as he progressed in his career.
It was also interesting to read about the work styles at the places he worked. I kept imagining what it must be like to work at all those different places. Some of my favorite parts included his time serving as the DM of Bijnor in UP, how he got into the IAS, and working during the stressful and uncertain time when coronavirus hit the world. Also, all the times when he had to assemble teams for his projects.
I had a fun time exploring all the places that kept coming up in the book on Google Maps. All that time has surely added some cents to my knowledge of Delhi’s geography. Also, Googling the names of other folks he mentioned in the book and reading up more about the history and stories in parallel while reading this one. I was happy to see the name of Mahima Vashisht, who’s the latest member to a city-based group. I told everyone as soon as I spotted her name in the book. She also writes “Womaning in India,” and I highly recommend reading the piece ‘Why we don’t see more women quizzers.’ And Pratap Bhanu Mehta, whom I’ve listened to in Amit Varma’s podcast.
Throughout the book, Param has highlighted “Pro-Tips,” some learnings from his career and life. He has also proven them through his life stories, like the time when he became a new IAS officer and took some bold decisions. At the beginning of the book, he suggests making mistakes early in the career can, again in his words, pay high dividends later.
The book also paints a nice picture of how the government functions day-to-day and what actually goes on behind the scenes. All of it subtly ties up to the title — finding the method in all the madness.
I can say, until picking up this book, this whole part had been a blind spot for me. In many ways, I think I’ve become mildly interested in knowing more and maybe even working in this sector, all thanks to this book. I feel the disinterest stems from all the frustrating times when I had to deal with all the red tape to get stuff done. It made me realize that I am not the best guy when it comes to waiting patiently for certain things.
I work at a place that advocates the term “future-relevance” at work and in life. Just this afternoon, my mom and I were at a public sector bank to close our home loan account. I was happy with how actively the young chap from the branch helped out with our process and how the rest of the staff was proactive. Happy to report that I’ve seen a positive change in such tasks compared to what I saw when I was growing up.
And if this piece reaches one of the folks who work in the sector, I would be very happy to contribute and leave my mark on such amazing projects, here is my LinkedIn :P
Overall, it’s a great book — for folks who are working, would like to know about the functioning of the government, to know more about the execution of larger-than-life projects, and also just to know about life and someone over four decades.
Notes for this piece
