Rebel without a pause
Rumina Sethi
The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire. by Arundhati Roy. Flamingo, London.  Pages 160. £ 8.99.
Words on Water, a documentary film by Sanjay Kak, which was recently screened by Critique, a group of student activists and researchers at Panjab University, is a terrifying comment on the displacement of people in the Narmada valley as a result of the escalating Sardar Sarovar project.

Get your plot together
If you are haunted by dreams of literary stardom and Booker fantasies, shun exotica and think big. For a start, avoid the Arundhati Roy trap, says British publisher and literary critic Jane Lawson in an interview to Manish Chand
There is a fatigue about Indian novels post-Arundhati Roy, specially of the exotic and lyrical kind symbolised by Roy’s Booker Prize-wining novel The God of Small Things, says UK publisher Jane Lawson.

Poor Second
Shastri Ramachandaran
Touching Earth
by Rani Manicka. Sceptre (Hodder & Stoughton), London. Pages 432. £ 10.99
Proverbially, second thoughts are the best. That’s not the case with second books, which tend to be a disappointment; often because the expectations born of the debut novel are rarely delivered in the second. Rani Manicka is no exception, though she is a writer of exceptional talent, and promise.

Bordering on poverty
Meena Dutta
Border Risk and Unemployment Dynamics
by Baldev Singh, Sukhwinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh Brar. Punjabi University, Patiala Pages 205 Rs 230
The development dynamics of the Punjab economy has witnessed two divergent trends. While the initial driving force was employment oriented strategies led by growth in agricultural and industrial sector, the later stage has shown downward trends in employment opportunities. Sixtysix per cent of the Punjab population resides in rural areas and 34 per cent in urban areas.

Dynamics of female bonding
Kanwalpreet
Whispering Generations by Manorama Mathai, Srishti Publishers, New Delhi. Pages 210. Rs 195.
"THAT'S how it is, I suppose; things go on, life goes on. Maybe that is our chance of forgiveness in the life that goes on." These words of Kuri, one of the characters in Mathai’s novel, sum up the story of Whispering Generations. The author has set her novel in the picturesque state of Kerala. It is the story of the people residing in a rambling old Big House, which has sheltered generations.

Heritage on paper
Ivninderpal Singh
Experiencing history through archives
by Syamalendu Sengupta. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. Pages 167. Rs 350
Reconstructing the past to understand the political, social and cultural milieu requires going through various sources of history, which include material remains, inscriptions and coins. Another major primary source is archives. However, it is yet to catch the fancy of Indian scholars. Even educational institutions in the country lack the platform to attract the students’ attention towards archival material and its importance in studying past.

Higher, not better, education
D. S. Cheema
Crisis in Higher Education Role Analysis of teachers in a University System
by Rani Mehta. Kalpaz Publications. Pages 386. Rs 790.
Expansion of higher education (HE) in India has been phenomenal, especially in the last few decades, as is obvious from the fact that colleges for general and professional education have increased about 20 times and universities have multiplied by more than 10 times.

Coming up
Suit of humour
Best selling author Chetan Bhagat, whose film version of the book Five Point Someone - What Not To Do At IIT, is set to hit the silver screen soon, says his next book will not be a sequel to his debut novel or about educational institutions.

Hindi review
On knotty ties
Harbans Singh
Koee Ek Kona and Sesh Ko Mat Dekho
by Vikesh Nijhawan. Parul Prakashan, Delhi. Pages 119. Rs 120. and Pages 80. Rs 80.
Vikesh Nijhawan believes that we live simultaneously in two worlds. Occasionally the balance between the physical and the inner world is disturbed by a character or an incident from the physical world, unleashing a process of conflict which is painful and revealing. Thus human values get exposed and relationships not only emerge in their crudity but stand stripped of the warmth that they pretend to spread.

Songs of Innocence
Shalini Rawat
Seasons of Being
by Daljit Jaijee
Writer’s Workshop
Pages: 117 
Price: Hardback Rs 250
Flexi back Rs150
"I know a planet where there is a certain red-faced gentleman. He has never smelled a flower. He has never looked at a star. He has never loved any one. He has never done anything in his life but add up figures. And all days he says over and over, just like you: ‘I am busy with matters of consequence!’ And that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man — he is a mushroom!" (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery)

The inside story
Aditi Garg
In the middle
by Lt. Gen. M.N. Batra. Lance Publishers.
Pages-130 Price-Rs195
The Army is the pride of every Indian and what happens behind the headlines, holds us all in awe. This collection of middles by Lt Gen M.N. Batra brings the lighter moments that the armed forces share while accomplishing their duty. His trip down the memory lane has World War II as the background and makes for an interesting read.

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