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The end of an
era
Rumina Sethi
Raja Rao nativised English and let his words convey his spirit.
Indian writing will be poorer without him
Many
years ago, when I met Mulk Raj Anand in connection with my doctoral
thesis on Indian writing, he referred to the early trio of Indian
writers who wrote in English as the three chachas, the other two
being Raja Rao and R. K. Narayan.
A
Renaissance man
Gary Lachman
The Devil’s Doctor:
Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science
by Philip Ball. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Pages 448. £26 Heinemann £20
£18
IN
English-speaking countries, the name Philip Theophrastus Bombast von
Hohenheim (1493 - 1541) isn’t often heard these days. Nor is the much
shorter, though no less self-important pseudonym this distinguished
Renaissance figure adopted.
Darwin’s
daring champion
Thirty years of the selfish
gene
Kuldip Dhiman
Richard Dawkins: How a
Scientist Changed the Way We Think
Ed. Alan Grafen and Mark Ridley. Oxford University Press. Pages 283. Rs
425.
IN
1976, The Selfish Gene appeared and created a publishing coup the
reverberations of which are being felt thirty years on. Richard Dawkins,
then a young biologist from Oxford, had written a book which all talk
about, but only a few actually read and understand.
Double
take on reality
Rachna Singh
The Open Frame Reader:
Unreeling the Documentary Film
ed. Rajiv Mehrotra. Rupa and Co. Pages 162, Rs 250
THE
documentary genre is regarded as a poor cousin of commercial cinema. For
most of us, a documentary is a factual and boring delineation of the
real world, which we would rather forgo for the magical delights of
commercial cinema.
The
best time to live
B. S. Thaur
Changing Panorama of Life since
Independence
Dr R. L. Singal. Abhishek Publications. Pages 236. Rs 495.
Reasons
can be many, but it is fashion to disdain the present and eulogise the
past, however wretched the latter had been. The oldies are generally
heard saying that the Raj was better than the present rule. In this
book, Dr R. L. Singal has highlighted the tremendous development after
Independence and compared the conditions prevalent then to these times.
Time
at last for some stress-free reading
Kanchan Mehta
The Power of Relaxation
Tanushree Podder. Viva Book. Pages 221. Rs 195.
Stress,
fountain of numerous agonies, has become the hallmark of a hurry-up
world. Relaxation is the perfect antidote to stress and one should learn
to master the art of it. "Relaxed people are smarter, healthier,
more successful, sharp thinkers, beautiful, popular and have better
career graphs. They make better lovers.
The chronicle retold in
short
Jyoti Singh
Babur Nama: Journal of
Emperor Akbar
Ed. by Dilip Hiro.
Penguin. Pages 385. Rs 350
Zahir-ud-din
Mohammad
Babur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal Empire, has the distinction of
being the only emperor who maintained a journal. His habit to write the
day’s events started as soon as he became the governor of Andijan
following the assassination of his father Omar Sheikh Mirza, when he was
only 10.
Recognition
to master storyteller
Murali Krishnan
A
spirited campaign by a blog site has forced Karnataka Governor T.N.
Chaturvedi to intercede on behalf of hundreds of bloggers to seek
recognition for celebrated author R.K. Narayan on his birth centenary
this year. Churumuri.wordpress.com, one of the fastest growing weblogs,
ran a weeklong campaign to secure the master storyteller his place in
Mysore where he spent much of his writing life.
Tribute
to Premchand
Girish Kumar Dubey
AS
the nation prepares itself to mark the birth centenary of renowned short
story writer and novelist Munshi Premchand, at least 11 popular artistes
from different parts of the country have arrived in Lamahi (Varanasi) to
bring alive some of the characters from his most appreciated stories.
SHORT TAKES
Nehru’s impact on
intellectuals
Randeep Wadehra
-
The Legacy of Nehru
by K. Natwar Singh Rupa. Pages 115. Rs 195
-
The French Collection
by KJS Chatrath Indian Publishers’
Distributors, Delhi. Pages xiv + 155. Rs 295
-
Sun Signs
by P. Khurrana Rupa. Pages
xiv + 298. Rs 195
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