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Mediums of hatred
Gobind Thukral
Myth and Reality of the Sikh Militancy in Punjab
Dr Joginder Singh. Shree, New Delhi. Pages 278. Rs 750.
PUNJAB over the centuries has
lived through periodic bouts of violence. One such tragic period was from 1978
to 1993 when the state was not even a third of its size before August 1947. It
is but natural for writers, historians, journalists and security officials to
write on this period of militancy.
Daniel
come to judgement
Maneesh Chhibber
India’s legal system: Can it be saved?
by Fali S. Nariman Pengiun. Pages 173. Rs 195.
Fali
S. Nariman is a
constitutional expert, a dwindling tribe in this country, and whatever
he writes, even if it is published in the letters to the editor column
is worth reading. In his latest offering – India’s Legal System:
Can it is saved?—Nariman attempts something that only a person of
his stature and experience could.
Moving
with the times
Amrik Singh
The Sikh Diaspora in Vancouver:
Three Generations Amid Tradition, Modernity and Multiculturalism.
Kamla Elizabeth Nayar. University of Toronto Press. Pages 276. Price not
stated.
THE
subtitle explains the parameters within which the book has been written.
It is obviously a Ph.D thesis with its focus on the situation in
Vancouver. It would be logical to infer, however, that what is true of
Vancouver is equally true of the half a million Sikhs that live in
Canada.
Arunachal
Pradesh, the secret garden
Arun Gaur
The Legends of Pensam
Mamang Dai. Penguin. Pages 192. Rs 200.
FOR
Mamang Dai, the word "Pensam" is a metaphor suggesting
"hidden spaces of the heart where a secret garden grows. It is that
small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where
the narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm or stormy
weather; where the life of a man can be measured in the span of a
song."
All
words, no play
Shalini Rawat
And Where, My Friend, Lay You
Hiding
Ananda Mukerji. Harper Collins India. Pages 263. Rs 295.
THE
book’s title has been adapted from the first line of John Berryman’s
poem Dream Song 32: "And where, friend Quo, lay you
hiding". The author acknowledges his editor friend’s suggestion
for the same. Unfortunately, the promise of a work of great lyrical
quality ends here.
Bits
of change
Peeyush Agnihotri
Digital India
D. K. Ghosh. UBS. Pages 283. Rs 475.
THE
urban façade is suave and glitzy, while the rural heartland still is
grappling with illiteracy, bereft of modern amenities. India, strangely
enough, remains a country of contrasts even after 59 years of
Independence. The only consolation is that big countries need a bigger
time span to let the fluid of change seep in.
Life’s
like that for cloning pioneer
Peter D. Smith
After Dolly: The Uses and
Misuses of Human Cloning
by Ian Wilmut and Roger Highfield Little Brown. £20.
FEW
celebrities have so captivated the world’s media. She posed for People
magazine, and "even caught the eye of Bill Clinton." But
this "global superstar" was "no ordinary diva"—she
was a sheep. Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, the first mammal cloned
using an adult cell, taken from the mammary gland of an old ewe, hence
the "affectionate tribute to the buxom American singer."
No
light for caste away Tharus
Sudeshna Sarkar
In The Great Sons of the Tharus: Sakyamuni Buddha and Emperor
Asoka, Nepali author Subodh Kumar Singh, contends that the Buddha
belonged to a community that is today living as bonded labourers.
HE
belonged to a clan of kings and founded one of the most vibrant
religions in the world—and yet, the descendants of the Buddha have
become outcasts in Nepal, a new book says. The Great Sons of the
Tharus: Sakyamuni Buddha and Emperor Asoka, written by Nepali author
Subodh Kumar Singh, contends that the Buddha, who lived and propagated
his religion of non-violence and moderation between the fifth and fourth
century BC, belonged to a community that today is at the bottom of the
social hierarchy in Nepal, living as bonded labourers.
HINDI REVIEW
This door opens to only
black and white images
Harbans Singh
Delhi Darwaza
by Gyanprakash Vivek. Vani
Prakashan. Pages 224. Rs. 300.
Delhi Darwaza is
Gyanprakash Vivek’s third novel. This one meanders through the underbelly of
the national capital. The agony and the ecstasy of the human spirit is
experienced through a series of stories and characters strung together, rather
loosely.
SHORT TAKES
Of media, communication and
applied ethics
Randeep Wadehra
-
Transnational media and contoured
markets
by Amos Owen Thomas Sage. Pages 267. Rs 305
-
Communication of innovations
by Arvind Singhal & James W.
Dearing. Sage. Pages 260. Rs 360.
-
Ethics incorporated
by Dipankar Gupta Response.
Pages 203. Rs. 350.
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