Discovery of Pakistan
by M. Rajivlochan
The Indus Saga: From Pataliputra To Partition
by Aitzaz Ahsan.
Roli Books, Delhi.
Pages 467. Rs 495
Nation states are like men in many ways, especially in their dependence on memories. Without memories, a nation is like an amnesiac vainly searching for a reason to exist. "Why should we be a nation", becomes a question consuming an overwhelming amount of time. If acceptable answers do not pop up quickly enough, the people may soon start breaking heads, much in the way it is happening in Pakistan for the past 60 years.

Handy tool for managers
by Peeyush Agnihotri
Managing without MBA
by Col D.S. Cheema (retd).
Abhishek Publications.
Pages 204. Rs 395.
The art of management, like aesthetics and journalism, is usually inborn. A degree in that discipline can, at best, hone the talent. For an Army officer, this rare art comes in double dose—by virtue of being one of the OLQs (officer-like quality) that forms his persona and the other as a by-product of his career stint.

The jungle wins again
by Aritra Mukhopadhyay
Between the Earth and the Sky
ed. Savyasaachi
Penguin Books.
Pages 258. Rs 295
India is a strange country. Everyone here seems to "understand" the significance of forest protection. However, since most of us think less and talk more, the action part of conservation remains largely sedentary. Against this backdrop, the book, edited by a teacher of sociology at Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, is a righteous attempt to re-assert the priceless facets of the jungle.

She founded PEN
Matt Schudel
Mary Lee Settle, a National Book Award-winning novelist who founded the annual PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, died of lung cancer Tuesday at her home in Ivy, Va., near Charlottesville, USA. She was 87.

Up close with reality
by Jyoti Singh
The Prism of Life: The Song of Silence
by Harish Dhillon. Unistar, Chandigarh, 2005.
Rs 250. Pages 144.
The book is a significant addition to the genre of short story. The stories are a presentation of a throbbing and living sensation of life. The strength of the narration lies not only in the poignancy and realism but also in the dexterity with which the tales have been written.

A publisher’s life
by  Kamaldeep Kaur
Dare to Publish
by Dina N Malhotra. Clarion Hind Pocket
Books, New Delhi. Pages 251. Rs 295.
This is a refreshingly simple autobiography about the man who led the paperback revolution in India. It offers hitherto unknown insights into the intricacies of the world of publishing. The author gives us glimpses into his personal and professional life and how he was drawn into the world of publishing.

Fruit of the family tree
by Rajnish Wattas
Two Lives
by Vikram Seth
Little Brown. Pages 512. £ 320
"You don’t know what exactly to write about next. Why don’t you write about him?" This suggestion Vikram Seth got from his mother Leila as the family drove back to Oxford after watching an opera in the summer of 1994. His reaction was: "I don’t know if I want to write about someone so close to me...." And thus was sown the literary seed for Two Lives.

Short Takes
A classic return
Randeep Wadehra
Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore, (translator: Sreejata Guha)
Penguin. Pages xxi + 216. Rs 200.
Of Cricket, Guinness and Gandhi
by Vinay Lal. Penguin. Pages xxv + 228. Rs 295.
Baba Bhagat Singh
by Ajit Singh Sikka. Sikka Publishing House, Ludhiana. Pages 183. Rs 100.

Intrigues of Venice
by  Harsh Desai
The City of Falling Angels
by John Berendt. Hodder and Stoughton. Pages 342. Price not stated.
Some will undoubtedly say that John Berendt is just`A0a lucky man. He flies to Savannah, Georgia, because he finds that a flight to Savannah costs less than a meal in New York. And then what happens? He starts living in Savannah and soon enough a story breaks which leads to four fascinating murder trials of the same person. And lo and behold! He has a bestseller on his hands — his first book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Desirable French award
Author-journalist Tarun J. Tejpal has moved one step closer to winning France’s prestigious Prix Femina Etranger award for the best foreign novel with his debut work making it to a shortlist of eight.

Punjabi Review
Sikhism made easy
Satinder Singh
Sikh Panth Vishav-Kosh (Two Vols)
by Dr Rattan Singh Jaggi. Gur-rattan
Publishers, Patiala.
Pages 1645. Rs 750 each.
This voluminous work by Rattan Singh Jaggi, a devoted scholar of Sikhism and medieval literature and a recipient of the Punjab Sahit Shiromani Award, contains 2,500 entries on the Sikh panth. A few entries like khula path, nindak, jalap, bibeki and bagrian run into just a couple of lines while the majority of the entries run up to 1/2 to 2 pages.

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