THE CONCEPT OF CENTRAL TENDENCY APPLIED TO SOCIETY’S WORKINGS IN THIS BOOK

Book Review: "The Rise Of The Club Of Central Tendency" by Anandajit Goswami

Our society has many ills, which include Caste, gender-based and social discrimination, poverty, hunger, the gap between the haves and the have-nots, and so on. The author Anandajit Goswami, who writes on socially relevant topics, with his oeuvre consisting of books on themes like Gender Equality, environmental sustainability, Sci-fi, Artificial Intelligence , has come out with the book “The Rise Of The Club Of Central Tendency”, which offers a look into various aspects of our imperfect society and its societal norms.

This book presents a fictional twist and adaptation of the 30% club based on one real event indicated in the book - "A Good Time to be a Girl" by Helena Morrissey.

As has been explained in the book’s description- “Central tendency is a common word used in the discipline of statistics. It is a sample statistics number which represents the true value of the population. Often the number 30 is considered to be the true representative of any population characteristics. This story is an adaptation of the true events that happened in the rise of a club called 30% club.”

The protagonist of the book is Hema, a young girl who hails from the land of “D” (as per the caste hierarchies) where the people of the lower caste depend on the “B” group even for their basic needs. Her parents Dharam and Malini are land labourers and often work in households to support Hema's education. Finishing her college, Hema joins the financial sector. However, something happens at the workplace, which makes her resign. She then starts an online petition called “Measure of central tendency” for legal and social reform - to achieve equal rights in the matters of decision making and implementation in corporates, regardless of a person’s caste, economic and gender-based status. Will Hema be able to achieve a change in the societal norms and bring about societal inclusion for the discriminated? The narrative then goes on to answer this question.

The book mainly focuses on how Hema discovers the elements of society’s system layer by layer throughout her journey of the gender uprising. It showcases the depth of our world and how our actions affect it one way or the other. It also delves into the fact that discrimination comes in many forms- economic, political, gender-based.

The narrative of this book is very ingenious, with the readers exploring the politics of the land of "D". Human relationships, the politics of gender, and Hema’s revolutionary streak have been depicted well. The characters are well-developed, with the character of Hema particularly likeable. The pacing of the book is also great.

This is a book which should be read for its innovative concept and astute analysis which has been used to describe society’s various drawbacks. The society’s virtues also come to the fore in this book, with the characters displaying resilience in trying situations. The book also portrays that human potential and talent can work wonders. This is an interesting read, and with its storyline depicting themes of politics, discrimination, society and gender, deserves a wider readership.