In Defence of the Ordinary: Everyday Awakenings

by Dev Nath Pathak

'A splendid work of art, In Defence of the Ordinary returns drama, pleasure and awakening to everyday life … in the tradition of cultural critics like Ashis Nandy and Umberto Eco… The book is one of a kind.'-Prathama Banerjee is a noted historian of the global south and Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi.'[A] flâneur of our everyday spheres of life, [the author] excavates the multiple layers of social, political and artistic thinking and experimentation … with an unparalleled lightness of prose worthy of a Balthasar Gracián and Georg Lichtenberg.'-Ramin Jahanbegloo is a philosopher and Vice Dean and Director at Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.'[The] book builds an engaging web of thoughts about things which are ordinary but in their very ordinariness hide deep social truths… Dev Nath Pathak brings a lightness to his critical eye while reminding us of how much of the ordinary has been forgotten in academic pursuits.'-Sundar Sarukkai is a renowned philosopher and thinker in contemporary India.In Defence of the Ordinary is laced with light humour, soaked in serious sarcasm and powered with poetic polemics. Informed by sources such as psychoanalysis, philosophy, yoga, anthropology, popular cinema, folk songs and everything that is part of an ordinary living, it is a sociologist's sincere ruminations on the layered ordinariness. The book invites us to rethink the ways of seeing, understanding, enacting, emoting and relating with provocative ideas like why we don't value ordinariness and how our pursuit of extraordinary is misleading us into mishaps. The key objective of the human existence is that of the book too, namely, awakening the dormant potentials of emancipation every day rather than waiting for an occasional charisma induced by a holy book or a secular gimmick or an orchestrated leadership.

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Reviews

[Mihika Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the mode wondering, the book attempts to show that ordinariness is a complex structure, experience and idea. Therefore, it invites romance as well as skepticism at once; one cannot either be romantic or skeptical about ordinariness. No plain formulation of good, bad or ugly could help in ascertaining it. In academic sense, the book is a sociologist's sincere rumination on the layered ordinariness. There is no undue glorification of the ordinary. Instead, at the interface of society, culture, polity and economy, a seemingly innocuous ordinary tends to become a complicated entity.

[Nupur Choudhary · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's enthralling to read through a text which highlights the most sensitive questions of an academic and addresses more strongly to young scholars who are still struggling to find the rationality of academic pursuits. This book is an experience within itself that has the potential to resonate with the most complex questions of our minds in a more direct manner. A brave attempt that can instil newer shifts in academic thinking or what we have become!

[Antara Chakrabarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

While traversing the forever quest for something 'extraordinary', the seemingly 'ordinary' domain of our lives gets sidelined. The question is why and how? Here is what author Dev Pathak has to say in the defence of what constitutes the ordinary. A sociological endeavor with a twist of a novel-like craftsmanship, this book is a must read for anyone who loves to converse, learn and reflect, across disciplines.