off the shelf
Understanding Bhagat Singh
V. N. Datta
Bhagat Singh: Why I am an Atheist
Introduction by Bipan Chandra.
Pages 92. Rs 195.
The Fragrance of Freedom: Writings of Bhagat Singh
Pages 228. Rs 595.
Bhagat Singh: Making of a Revolutionary
Pages 348. Rs 495.
Bhagat Singh: A Biogranhy
by Jitendra Nath Sanyal.
Pages 136. Rs 295.
Books edited by K.C. Yadav and Babar Singh and published by Hope India.
On the 100th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh, which is being celebrated in the country this year, a number of books are being published to perpetuate and honour his memory. It is heartening indeed that K.C. Yadav, a reputed historian on Haryana history, with the assistance of Bhagat Singh’s nephew, Babbar Singh, has brought out these four studies. Bipan Chandra’s introduction to the volume is scintillating and lucid.

Trauma of Partition
Kavita Soni-Sharma
Since 1947: Partition Narratives Among Punjabi Migrants of Delhi
by Ravinder Kaur. Oxford University Press.
Pages 277. Rs 550.
Since 1947 signifies a series of events that examine the British departure from India, the inauguration of the post-colonial Indian nation-state and an unparalleled flow of forced migration across the newly carved borders between India and Pakistan. It has emerged as a powerful metaphor that is used to describe the periods before and after Partition that traverse the lived experience of the Punjabi refugees. In this book, this phrase has been used to initiate a discussion on the themes of disruption in one’s everyday life: migration and reparation; rearrangement; and renewed embodiment of the migrants personal and social bearings.

A tribute to Botswanaians
Deepika Gurdev
Blue Shoes and Happiness
by Alexander McCall Smith.
Abacus. Pages 242.
Alexander McCall Smith is back with his seventh novel in the much-loved ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ series. And it’s packed with just about everything that legions of McCall Smith fans have come to love. As the author revealed in his talk on ‘Books as Friends’, a reader told me she liked to read about cakes. "So there’s a lot of cake—serving as well as eating."

Write only English
Amarinder Sandhu
Indlish: The Book for Every English Speaking Indian
by Jyoti Sanyal. Viva Books, New Delhi. Pages 394. Rs 295.
The Indlish spoken and written in India is different from what is used in the West. Indians are yet to shed the shackles of years of the Company rule. The British came to India as merchants and the English adopted by the Indians is the ‘baniya’ English or expressions used by Company clerks. Victorian English with its flowery words is redundant. In this age of e-mail and fax, writing demands for simplicity and clarity. Sanyal’s book is a godsend and is an attempt to ‘save’ English from becoming distasteful.

Dynamics of spirituality
Manmeet Sodhi
Sikh Philosophy and Religion: 11th Guru Nanak Memorial Lectures
by Nirmal Kumar. New Dawn Press.
Pages 232. Rs 500.
The second edition of Nirmal Kumar’s Sikh Philosophy and Religion is an important contribution to Sikh literature. The book has direct relevance to the modern age and especially for the modern man. It is a collection of the 11th Guru Nanak Memorial Lecturers delivered in 1977 at Punjabi University, Patiala.

One day at a time with Birlas
Nishka Ratnam
One Day At A Time
by Ingrid Alberqueque—Solomon
Published by Bearen Bay Media House. Pages 340
HOW does a corporate journo even attempt to review a piece of work that takes in an entire era in a nation’s history and also gives the reader his own era in his path to the eternal one and the legacy he leaves behind? that is the dilemma faced as one attempts a review of One Day At A time, the biography on the life and times of S K Birla and his wife Sarladevi.

All for the animal kingdom
Shveta Pathak
More than two decades of his love for animals translated into Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and Nature of Feeling Good, a book Dr Jonathan Balcombee, a research scientist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Washington DC, is known as a pioneer in the line of thought that considers animals to be pleasure-seekers. Having earlier penned a book The Use of Animals in Higher Education, this animal rights campaigner and bird watcher, who was recently in India, is striving to better relationship between animals and human beings.

Passion for change
Ashish Alexander
The Power of the Cross
by Raniero Cantalamessa Media House.
Pages 127. Rs 100
The Power of the Cross is a slender volume comprising meditations of Ranier Cantalamessa, a preacher of the Papal Household and a former professor of Ancient Christianity at the Catholic University of Milan. The Passion readings were given by Cantalamessa in the Basilica of St. Peter during the Good Friday Services from 1996 to 2006 in the presence of the Pope.

A mother’s word
Gitanjali Sharma
100 Promises To My Baby
by Mallika Chopra. Lotus/ Roli Books.
Pages 252. Rs 395.
Here are assurances arising out of love, compassion and, probably, apprehension that a mother confronts when faced with the demanding and daunting task of parenting. How to provide wholesome growth to your children? How to make their world more secure and safe? How to bring them up while managing full-time jobs? In the guise of promises, this book offers tips to ready your child to face self, the world and beyond.

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