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The story of an open book
Rahul Singh has penned an engaging biography of his
father Khushwant Singh, says Roopinder Singh.
In The Name of
the Father
by Rahul Singh. Roli Books, Delhi.
Pages 144. Rs 395.
KHUSHWANT SINGH, the man and his writing, what he
exposes of himself, fascinate the readers of his columns. They far
outnumber the readers of his books, over which, one suspects, he labours
much more. To say that Khushwant Singh’s life is an open book is a
cliché. He has written so much about himself that there is hardly a
facet of his life that his fans are not familiar with.
Poignant
memories of war
Aradhika Sekhon
Noor
by Sorayya Khan. Penguin. Pages
223. Rs 250.
NOOR
is an extremely imaginative novel in which the author, Sorayya Khan,
delves into the hidden subconscious of the mind of a family, which has
buried its secrets so deep that even the family itself does not
acknowledge these anymore—or even want to recollect these. Yet they
must come to terms with these past experiences if they are to be at
peace with their present and the future.
A political Acharya’s pen pricks
R. L. Singal
My Times: An Autobiography
by Acharya J. B. Kripalani.
Rupa & Co., New Delhi.
Pages 986. Rs 995.
MY Times by veteran Gandhian Acharya J. B. Kriplanai is
an important political document that has been published 22 years after
the author’s death in 1982, the year when he also completed the
manuscript of this book, but could not get time to revise and
systematically rearrange the contents.
Too
heavy for kids
Gitanjali Sharma
Where Doves Fly
by Kamlesh Rajesham. Frog Books.
Pages 65. Rs 60.
THE
blurb mentions that this is Kamlesh Rajesham’s first book in the
children’s category. Undeniably, the story is about children, and the
main protagonist, too, is a child, but the "ten truths"
highlighted in the book seem more appropriate for the consumption and
comprehension of adults rather than grade-four students.
Paradise lost
Samra Rahman
The Land of Naked People: Encounters With Stone Age
Islanders
by Madhusree Mukerjee. Penguin. Rs 250. Pages 238.
THE unlikely author of this book on the Andaman group
of islands, its original inhabitants and their encounters with
outsiders, is an expatriate Indian, who holds a doctorate in Physics
from the University of Chicago and works for the Scientific American.
And yet The Land of Naked People is not just a potpourri of
vignettes from the usual tourist spots.
Prize-writer
He believes in
the oneness of man
Rajkumar Singh
THE
Madhya Pradesh Jan Parishad has chosen Dr Naresh, an eminent writer of
the region, for this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award as a
recognition for his contribution to literature during the last five
decades. Naresh feels that while no writer writes for an award, but
recognition certainly inspires him to aim for excellence.
Hindi review
Making of a
martyr
Harbans Singh
Bhagat Singh Ke Sampooran
Dasatvej
edited By Chaman Lal. Adhaar Prakashan, Panchkula. Rs. 495. Pages 478.
THE
book is a remarkable collection of intimate letters, opinions, articles
and expositions on subjects as wide ranging as anarchy and socialism,
language and atheism, love and suicide and, of course, patriotism and
martyrdom. At the end of it all one is left marvelling at the hectic
pace at which this legend among Indian revolutionaries lived his short
but eventful life.
Short takes
The sound of impotent fury
Randeep Wadehra
Bewatna & other novels
by Fakhar Zaman. Translated from Punjabi by Khalid Hassan. Unistar.
Pages 314. Rs 495.
FAKHAR ZAMAN
is a much-acclaimed Punjabi writer from
Pakistan. His writings protest against military dictatorship, in
particular of Zia-ul-Haq who had ousted the democratically elected
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and hanged him on trumped up charges. Consequently,
his books remained banned for 18 years on charges of, hold your breath,
obscenity.
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Into Punjab
The Punjab: An Overview
by Dr S.P. Gupta. Ess Pee Publications. Pages 390. Rs
395.
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Teen troubles
Age of Adolescence: A Challenge
by Dr S. Kumar. The Laxmi Devi Memorial Charitable
Trust. Pages 70. Rs 30.
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