Off the shelf
Archaeologists and monuments
V. N. Datta
The Discovery of Ancient India, Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology
by Upinder Singh. Permanent Black, New Delhi. Pages XIX + 318. Rs 695
Why this discovery of India's past? I think that the primary purpose of this enquiry is to describe and illuminate the rise, the scope and the methods adopted in the study of the 18th and 19th century Indian archaeology not as a branch of literature, but as a component of scientific discipline.

Not quite a tsunami
Roopinder Singh
State of Fear
by Michael Crichton. HarperCollins. Pages 603. Rs 250.
We all know that the weather patterns in the world are likely to change catastrophically if global warming is not arrested? Right? Well, not really. Crichton takes us on (for) a ride through the complex world of concerned citizens, some sound scientists, a loose collation of NGOs, which is feeding on a continued state of fear, that it helps generate through selective release of information, and at times, disinformation, masquerading as simplified knowledge.

NRIs’ legal problems
Virendra Kumar
Acting for Non-Resident Indian Clients
by Anil Malhotra, Ranjit MaIhotra and Rambert de Mello.
Jordan Publishing Ltd., Bristol. Pages XI+282. Price not stated.
A bare perusal of the book under review instantly reveals that it deals with issues of familial relations that often arise in the context of non-resident Indians (NRIs)-the Indians who have migrated to the UK or other countries, including Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Running small industry
Arvind Mehan
Managing India's Small Industrial Economy
by V. Padmanand and V.G. Patel. Response Books, New Delhi. Pages 203. Rs 240.
This is an in-depth and comprehensive guide to solving the problems faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in today's fast changing business environment. As the authors have very aptly put it, innovation and being technically competent is one thing but a grim battle for survival in a global economy is quite another.

To daughter with love
Belu Jain Maheshwari
Two Alone, Two Together: Letters between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru 1922-64
edited by Sonia Gandhi.
Penguin Books.
Pages 608. Rs 595.
Letter writing is an art, which is not only about penning words on paper, but also about expression, spontaneity and creativity. Jawaharlal Nehru's letters to his only child, daughter Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi, had been published in a book form and became a classic glimpses of world history. The letters written from jail imparts knowledge on world civilisations and its history.

Tribute
Voice of resistance
Andrew Buncombe
Susan Sontag wrote a number of novels, but it was as an essayist that she made her greatest literary impact. For instance, Notes on Camp, which spoke of gay aesthetics, established her as a major new writer.
SUSAN Sontag, the writer and activist who died recently, was a fierce critic of US foreign policy. Sontag, the daughter of a fur-trader, wrote 17 books, including the influential 1964 study on gay aesthetics called Notes on Camp. But in the recent years it was her outspoken opposition to the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror that drew most attention.

Love as a terminal condition
Shastri Ramachandaran
Three Dog Night.
by Peter Goldsworthy. Penguin.
Pages 341. Rs 350
Love is a compulsive obsession. To wreck such love is also a compulsive obsession. The way it turns out between the narrator Martin Blackman, his wife Lucy Piper and his once-close-now-hostile buddy Felix is richly but wrenchingly rendered by Peter Goldsworthy in his Three Dog Night.

Familiar Bond
Aradhika Sekhon
Ruskin-Our Enduring Bond
by Ganesh Saili. Roli Books, Delhi. Pages 144. Rs 395.
How do you write about someone who has already drawn on his life while writing his books? A writer who is also much written about, Ruskin Bond has a tremendous fan following and his readers would probably familiar with almost every episode narrated in this biography authored by Ganesh Saili.

Hindi review
Cry of the Santhals
Sharda Rana
Nagare Ki Tarah Bajte Hain Shabad
by Nirmala Putul. Bharatiya Gyanpeeth. Pages: 95. Price: Rs 40
This is a collection of poems by Nirmala Putul dedicated to the culture of Santhals. A nomadic tribe, Santhals have for long been relegated to obscurity. The poetess, who also belongs to a tribe from the Santhal area, has been working with the Badlao Foundation.

Kya to Samay
by Arun Dev. Bharatiya Gyanpeeth

The Malgudi Man
Darshan Singh Maini
The pioneering trioka of the Indian Novel in English — Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao and R.K. Narayan — brought the Indian Novel to a point of ripeness. Narayan created the land of Malgudi out of his imagination. His Malgudi is located in the deep South, and is peopled by village folk, small-town shopkeepers, petty officials and their kind. Narayan’s aim is not to sermonise, but to show how evil cannot last for long, and he does this through drama and dialogues not through argument or counsel.

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