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Off
the shelf
Lessons
from an educational disaster in Pakistan
V.N. Datta
Social Science in Pakistan in the 1990s
edited by S. Akbar Zaidi. Council of Social
Sciences, Pakistan, Islamabad. Pages
319. Rs 150.
IN
his latest work, The Challenge of Education, Dr Amrik Singh, by
taking a holistic view of our education system, has highlighted some of
the failures that adversely affect the quality of education in the
country. Save a few universities, especially the central ones, the
situation in Indian universities is deplorable; and the Executive
Councils, which are expected to uphold and safeguard the autonomy of
universities, have become virtually departments of the government due to
the official control exercised on them.
A
journalist’s unconventional solutions for an ailing country
Jaswant Singh
India: Issues and Ideas
by Arvind Bhandari. Inter-India
Publications, New Delhi. Pages 330. Rs 450.
HERE
is a collection of newspaper articles written over a period by a
versatile journalist. No wonder it tackles a vast variety of topics and
issues that tax the mind of an average Indian. But a thread that runs
through the pages is the writer’s belief that India, after
Independence, has more failed than succeeded. He sees India as a rusty,
corruption-ridden vehicle, crawling unwieldy.
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Chandigarh’s Randeep Wadhera has recently come out
with a work of fiction, Walls and Other Stories. Aradhika
Sekhon catches up
with the writer and Aruti Nayar reviews the
book
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A profile in courage
"NOT only do you look like Napoleon, you also
talk like him," said the Brigadier as he towered over the
diminutive Indian-Army aspirant.
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Varied shades of life
Randeep
Wadehra’s anthology of 15 short stories, Walls And other
stories, does not have a single theme or linear thread that
binds them. |
Thurman
resurrected, actually
Nibir K. Ghosh
The Collected Writings
of Wallace Thurman: A
Harlem Renaissance Reader.
edited by Amritjit Singh and Daniel M. Scott
III. Rutgers University Press, New
Brunswick. Pages 499. $ 30
DR
Samuel Johnson may have been right when he suggested "great works
of art must create their own audiences." But Dr Johnson did not
have to contend with the complexities of racial dilemmas. In a nation
constantly at loggerheads with the shadows and spectres of the colour
line, one cannot ignore that many literary reputations have not always
been based on artistic potential or achievement.
Alien
troubles
M. Rajivlochan
The Death of a Passport
by Iqbal Ramoowalia. Ajanta, Delhi. Pages 239. Rs 150.
Punjabis
never went in search of El Dorado, the famous land which the 16th
century Spaniards thought existed in South America. For good reason too:
they knew that the land of immense wealth and opportunity did not exist
in South America. It existed in the north and included both USA and
Canada. Ever since the Punjabis determined its location they have spared
no efforts to obtain a share of that wealth and partake of its
opportunities.
For
those who worship the Congress
Parkarsh Singh
Manmohan Singh, a Profile
by Satish Yadav. Hope India. Pages 176. Rs
120.
Satish
Yadav’s book on Manmohan Singh is like a mirage. The beginning
promises to quench the thirst for insights into the mind of the Prime
Minister, but trite facts and unimaginative writing rob the reader of a
chance to know him better. In his quest to release the book on time,
Satish Yadav has strung together information about the PM in a crude
form that incites political rhetoric and digresses into a pro-Sonia
campaign with every turn of the page.
Punjabi
review
Slice of
real Punjab
Shalini Rawat
Khehde Sukh Vehde Sukh
Avtar Singh Billing. Publishers Ravi Sahit Parkashan, Amritsar. Page
396. Price Rs 350.
THE
novel under review is a specimen of the forgotten Punjabi novel. Further
speculation and research reveals definite traces of a unified form, a
concentric plot and a set of unique, well-defined characters. Deliberate
simplicity has been sustained over the three-quarters-of-a-century slice
of time that the novelist delineates can be compared to the writings of
Pearl S. Buck and Nanak Singh.
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