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OFF THE SHELF
A message
neither time nor custom can stale
by V.
N. Datta
Guru Nanak: His Life and Teachings
by Roopinder Singh.
Rupa & Co., New Delhi.
Pages IX+83. Rs 295.
WHY
should we have another book on Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion,
when there exists already a vast literature on his life and teachings?
There would indeed be a justification for a new study of Guru Nanak and
his life, if some hitherto unknown facts relating him are found, or a
reinterpretation of existing literature on him is required.
The
other side of IT
by Surinder S. Jodhka
Information Revolution and India: A Critique
by S.S. Gill.
Rupa, New Delhi.
Pages XIII+329. Rs 395.
WHAT
exactly are computers? How do they work? In what ways are they changing
our lives? Has their impact been as radical and far-reaching as was that
of the industrial revolution? Where does India stand in relation to this
new technology?
It’s
all in the mind
by Kavita Soni-Sharma
The Splintered Mind:
Understanding Schizophrenia
by Dr Vijay Nagaswami.
Penguin Books, New Delhi.
Pages 223. Rs 295.
Schizophrenia can be controlled, and even cured, if the patient gets
timely medical attention. The treatment, possible only by a trained
doctor, involves careful use of drugs, as also social and psychological
counselling.
A
master of verse
by Mukul Bansal
Dom Moraes. Collected Poems,
1954-2004.
Penguin Books.
Pages 355. Rs 395.
IN
the preface to this book, Dom Moraes tells us: "I worked at poetry
like an apprentice at his trade." He adds: "We (poets) serve a
ferocious master." Dom’s work as a poet has already earned
liberal praise from legends like T.S. Eliot, Stephen Spender, Karl
Shapiro, W. H. Auden and Allan Tate. It may be more fruitful, therefore,
to talk about Dom’s poetry published in his career spanning 50 years
than to assess it.
Desi
lives on alien shores
by Gitanjali Sharma
Suburban Sahibs
by S. Mitra Kalita.
Penguin Books. Pages 180. Rs 250
SUBURBAN
Sahibs is an American desi’s account of American desis. The author S.
Mitra Kalita, a reporter with Washington Post whose parents
immigrated from Assam in the 1970s, talks about three Indian families
clutching on to and hoping to realise a dream called America on American
soil. They are all desperate, in their own different ways. If for the
Patels the question of survival has been hard to dislodge ever since
they descended on the land of options, the tech-savvy Sarma couple has
been kept on tenterhooks by the alarming layoffs and the head of the
Kothari household, disgusted with the subtle and not-so-subtle
discrimination against South Asians, hopes to lend a voice to the
community by standing for elections.
SHORT TAKES
Reflections on
life and nature
by Randeep Wadehra
Fixations
by Kota V. Subbaram.
Impromptu.
Pages ix+5. Rs. 100.
JOHN
Keats described poesy as a "drainless shower of light". Others
have compared it to a mirror, Cinderella etc. Poetry is all these and
more. For a poet it is as much a process of finding solace as it is a
weapon for fighting personal and societal demons.
PUNJABI REVIEW
Bhai Ditt Singh
remembered
by T. S. Tarsi
Bhai Ditt Singh Giani: Jeevan, Rachna Te Shaksiat
by Dr Karnail Singh Somal.
Giani Dit Singh Memorial International Society, Chandigarh.
Pages 296. Rs 220.
BORN
in Nandpur Kalaur village, which was also where Bhai Ditt Singh Giani
(1851-1901) was born, Karnail Singh Somal, a well-known Punjabi scholar,
has brought out a well-researched account of the life, writings and
personality of Bhai Ditt Singh.
The
tale behind Canterbury Tales
by Andrew Cawthorne
SIX
centuries after immortalising British medieval author Geoffrey Chau*cer’s
seminal work The Canterbury Tales, an anonymous scribe has been
unveiled as the long-haired son of an English landowner.
Adam Pinkhurst — whose name was found by a US handwriting expert —
wrote the 14th century manuscripts of Chaucer’s pilgrims’ stories,
the most celebrated work of medieval English literature.
"I was amazed he had not been found before,’’ said
Pinkhurst’s discoverer Professor Linne Mooney, an American academic at
Cambridge University.
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