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Activists
beyond borders
Shelley Walia
We are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-capitalism
edited by Notes From Nowhere. Verso, London.
Pages 527. £10.99.
Globalization/Anti-Globalization
by David Held and Anthony McGrew. Polity,
Oxford. Pages 158. £12.99.
WE
are Everywhere is not a red
book. It has no doctrine and no single narrative. It is a polyphony of
subjectivities that are at once at play with the everyday experience of
tragi-comedy, an interplay of fear and humour that goes a long way in
cynically shattering received "truths". As Luther Blissett, a
thinker and a freelance writer, says, "this isn’t a book, it’s
a brick with which to shatter cynicism."
Quest
for a better life
Shastri Ramachandaran
Sri Lankan Society in an Era of Globalisation
Edited by S H Hasbullah and Barrie M Morrison. Sage. Pages 296. Rs 560
ON
a recent visit to Sri Lanka, I went to a Buddhist temple. Not out of
devotion, but because it was one of the locations where the pioneer of
Sinhala cinema, the legendary Lester James Peiris (contemporary of Akira
Kurosawa and Satyajit Ray) had shot his latest film.
History
is often over-simplified
Upinder Singh has written
well-received books on history, a subject that she teaches at St.
Stephen’s College, Delhi. Her latest book, The Discovery of Ancient
India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology, has
recently been released by Permanent Black. She spoke to Roopinder
Singh, about bringing alive the 19th century archaeologists
and recreating their dynamics, as well as what she expects from the
book.
Canvas
of the familiar
Archana Shastri
My Brush With Art: An Anthology of
Contemporary Indian Art
by Lakshmi Lal. Rupa. Pages
164. Rs 495.
Bereft
of historical and
chronological trappings, the book provides an unblinkered, refreshing
look at the art scenario in the Bombay of the 1980s. Journalistic and
cryptic descriptions of paintings done in the "the giant cauldron
of bubbling life that is the metropolis city of Mumbai" in the
initial chapter gives way to expansive insights into visual experiences
accompanied and aided by introspective murmurings of the artists.
Ruskin
bonds with poetry
Aradhika Sekhon
A Little Night Music
by Ruskin Bond. Rupa. Pages
54. Rs.150.
IN
an interaction with the audience after this book was released in
Chandigarh, one of the questions that were put to Ruskin Bond was that
if he was given the choice of identities in his next life, what or whom
would he choose to be? To this, Bond had no hesitation in replying that
his had been a good life and with a few minor changes, his was the life
that he would choose.
Hard-hitting
satire
Lalit Mohan
Bull’s Eye!
by Rajinder Puri. Hope India Publications,
Gurgaon. Pages 328. Rs 495.
Rajinder
Puri’s prose is like his cartoons—hard-hitting; his lines
bold and his humour scathing. He writes a weekly column in the Outlook
magazine titled Bull’s Eye. In a selection dating back to 1998,
147 of these have been have been put between covers of a hard-back.
In
the footsteps of Hieun Tsang
Kamaldeep Toor
Ten Thousand Miles Without a
Cloud
by Sun Shuyn. Harper Perennial, Hammersmith. Pages 478. £7.99.
THIS
book is occasioned by a desire of the author to relive and understand
the era of the famous traveller Xuanzang (or Hieun Tsang, as he is known
in India). She follows in the footsteps of the great Chinese traveller
in an attempt to understand his sphere of thoughts, words and deeds.
Uprisings
revisited
Kavita Soni-Sharma
Peasant Movements In Post
Colonial India
by Debal K SinghaRoy. New Delhi: Sage. Pages
275. Rs 295.
THE
book, which examines peasant movements, is the latest from IGNOU and is
by a young sociologist. The social scientists at IGNOU are very
prolific. Moreover, their writings are of a uniformly high quality and
are concerned with the pressing issues of the day. The books are a
pleasure to read.
punjabi
review
Not
quite a dirty old man
Shalini Rawat
Mauj Mela
by Khushwant Singh. Translated by Amarjit
Singh Deepak. Lokgeet Parkashan, Chandigarh.
Pages 446. Rs 250.
NINE
decades of living in one of the most happening centuries since the dawn
of mankind. Four hundred and forty-six pages of lucid polished prose. A
canvas covering events and personalities in various fields all over the
globe. The book is much more than truth, malice, fun, loving, living or
lying. Brecht and Khushwant Singh’s sources of joy may be the same.
Short
takes
Multi-hued
nuggets
Randeep Wadehra
Selected Gujarati Short Stories; Selected Malayalam Short Stories;
Selected Punjabi Short Stories; Selected Tamil Short Stories.
Edited by Rajendra Awasthy. Fusion Books. Pages 143, 172, 134, 177.
respectively. Rs 95 each.
Literature
— whatever its genre —
mirrors the prevailing conditions in a society, and yet remains relevant
for all times to come. As Ezra Pound said so emphatically,
"Literature is news that stays news". While going through the
four volumes of this collection one becomes aware of the cultural wealth
we are blessed with, the fertility of our regional literary landscape is
heartening indeed.
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