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P.
N. Haksar, George Kennan of India
V. N. Datta
Haksar Memorial Volumes I and II: Contemplations on the Human
Condition and Contributions in Remembrance, A Homaqe to P. N. Haksar
edited by Subrata Banerjee. The Centre for Research in Rural and
Industrial Development, Chandigarh. Pages 418 and 296. Rs 1,345.
THESE
elegantly produced volumes are actually homage to late P. N. Haksar from
the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID),
Chandigarh, with which he was closely associated as Chairman of its
Governing Body and Editor of its quarterly journal, Man and
Development, till he died in November, 1998.
Bombay
dreams
Harsh A. Desai
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
by Suketu Mehta. Penguin/Viking. Pages 585. Rs 595.
Suketu
Mehta’s Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found is not a
celebration of Bombay but an attempt to find out what gives Bombay its
magnetic pull. What gives it the power to thrill and make you shudder
– sometimes at the same time.
The
Tata story
Meeta Rajivlochan
The Creation of Wealth: The Tatas from the 19th to the 21st Century
by R M Lala. Illustrated by Mario Miranda. Penguin/Viking. Pages 303.
AS
our country tries to claw its way out of the dump that it has been in
during the past 200 years, it looks around desperately for heroes. By
and large none seem to be forthcoming. The ones who do exist have feet
of clay. In this dreary scenario when a miniscule number of heroes that
can be found get feted extensively and unquestioningly.
The
Good, the Better, the Best
Belu J.Maheshwari
Gandhi, Bose, Nehru and
the Making of the Modern Indian Mind
by Reba Som. Penguin, Viking, New Delhi.
Pages 259. Rs 350.
THE
author has skilfully woven the relationship of the three national icons
who are placed on the highest pantheon of Indian firmament along with
giving an insight into their minds and how each moulded the course of
modern India’s thinking.
Cast
in prejudice
Surinder S. Jodhka
Political Sociology of Dalit Assertion
by Prakash Louis. Gian Publishing House.
Pages 326. Rs 495.
Written
in the backdrop of the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South
Africa, in 2001, the book offers an account of the emerging Dalit
identity and politics in contemporary India.
Pursuit
of wealth, spiritual & material
Deepika Gurdev
The Yoga of Wealth - 5 Spiritual Keys to Creating Unlimited Wealth
by Vikas Malkani. Times
Editions. Pages 124. $11.50.
I
don’t usually read self-help books. In fact, the only ones that I’ve
read so far are Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,
that failed to impress me (but that’s quite another story), and John
Gray’s famous Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus. What
redeemed Gray’s book was the fact that it had been written in a
tongue-in-cheek style.
punjabi
review
A life
lived fully
Shalini Rawat
Halwarvi
edited by Sham Singh and Keher Sharif. Tarlochan
Publishers, Chandigarh. Pages 128. Rs 125.
Harbhajan
Singh Halwarvi’s life is like one of Turner’s canvasses.
Painted with deft broad strokes, the events in it as tumultuous as the
effect they produce, but nevertheless reflecting a strange tranquility.
However, the palette here is far more variegated.
novel
talkies
A spicy
treat for Hollywood
AN
acclaimed magic realism novel by a California-based Indian writer will
soon be made into an $80 million lavish Hollywood production starring
Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai. Mistress
of Spices, a novel about the
dilemmas of fitting in by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, is being made into
a film by Paul Mayeda Berges, the screenplay writer-husband of British
Indian director Gurinder Chadha.
Rites
of passion
SHE
lived as she wrote, with unrestrained passion. French writer Francoise
Sagan, who died on September 24 at Honfleur in Normandy, had shot to
literary fame at 18 with her first novel Bonjour Tristresse. Sagan
produced more than 40 novels and plays.
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