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Manto:
Messiah or madman?
Nirupama
Dutt on Saadat Hasan Manto, the wild child of literature, in his
50th death anniversary year
A
month before I was born here in Chandigarh, there died a man called
Saadat Hasan Manto out there in Lahore in 1955. He was just 43 and he
had challenged God in his own epitaph that is written on his grave_
"There Saadat Hasan Manto lies buried…and buried in his breast
are all the secrets of the art of story writing. Even now lying buried
under tons of earth he wonders whether he or God is the greater writer
of the short story."
Young
and experienced
Harish Dhillon
First Proof: The Penguin Book of New Writers from India–1.
Pages 440. Rs 295.
FOR
someone who has always had favourite pieces of writings and never
favourite writers, this anthology is a godsend. The variety of genres it
offers is mind-boggling. There is biography, memoir, social history,
travel, politics, world affairs etc., and fiction. You
can start delving into the fiction section and, when you want a change,
flip the book over and read non-fiction from the other side of the book.
The
personal is political
Rumina Sethi
Female Masculinity
by Judith Halberstam. Duke University Press, Durham and London. Pages
329. $ 17.95;
Feminist Mothers
by Tuula Gordon. Macmillan, Hampshire and
London. Pages 232. £ 22.99.
Masculinity
has been defined through a string of synonyms in the Collins’
Thesaurus: "male, manful, manlike, manly, mannish, virile, bold,
brave, gallant, hardy, macho, muscular, powerful, Ramboesque,
red-blooded, resolute, robust, stout-hearted, strapping, strong,
vigorous, well built." One wonders why critics have found it
difficult to define this term when it is so evident everywhere.
Mapping
the political landscape
Kamaldeep
The Road to Raisina
by K.P.Singh. Harper Collins. Pages: 348. Rs 295
THIS
novel appears to be a tribute to the young generation that has made a
foray into politics in India recently. Blending fact and fiction, the
novel offers hard-hitting solutions to the problems that challenge India
repeatedly. The author puts his faith in the youth of India and is sure
they can take up cudgels against and resolve permanently the problem of
communalism and border skirmishes with Pakistan.
The top 10 challenges
K. C. Singhal
Global Crises, Global Solutions
ed. Bjorn Lomborg Cambridge University Press, UK. Pages 648. £ 19.
THIS
literature on development economics addresses the 10 most serious
development issues facing the global community and offers a policy
framework on allocating the acute scarce resources, prioritising our
response most effectively. An expert who defines its scale has taken
each problem separately.
Seriously,
this is funny
Aruti Nayar
Laughing Matters
By Kamla Bhasin and Bindia Thapar, Jagori, Delhi For limited circulation
EMMA
Goldman, Lithuania-born US anarchist said about the Russian Revolution,
"If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be a part of your
revolution." By and large, the perception of the feminist movement
has been that of one where sloganeering, often dreary, reigns supreme.
Critics add to that perception images of viragos ready to sally forth
and wave flags.
Big
book of small enterprise
Arvind Mehan
The A to Z of Healthy Small and
Medium Scale Businesses
by Amer Qureshi. UBSPD. Pages 208. Rs 195.
THE
author, Amer Qureshi, is an Australian chartered accountant, who has
lived out his dream of building his own business, and has fallen in love
with the process. He believes that small and medium enterprises are the
backbone of a country like India, but this backbone is built up of frail
pieces that can easily buckle under pressure.
Back
of the book
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