Battlefield lessons
 Vijay Mohan
Significant Battles Since Independence
by Brig H. S. Sodhi (retd). Pages 386. Rs 540.
the dawn of Independence also brought in a call to arms and the Army has since been in operations, be it war, internal security, low intensity conflicts or counter-terrorist operations. The rich and diverse operational experience of the Army has given it a huge bank of lessons for introspection, professional enhancement. The books gives out the political and military setting prevailing at the start of a battle or war and then describes the operations before the author arrives at his conclusions.

Books received: ENGLISH

Tales of varied hues
The sentimental parrot, the gay fling and other stories of human experience reveal Gordimer’s craft, writes Jonathan Gibbs
Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black
by Nadine Gordimer. Bloomsbury. £14.99.
Here’s another possible reason for the supposed decline of the short story: writers just don't have long enough to get good at them. In her 84th year, Nadine Gordimer has produced a remarkable 10th collection. They show none of the "audacity" Richard Ford called for in his recent anthology of American short stories. Instead, what they show is tact: a quality that seems bound up in Gordimer’s decades of experience.

When pictures speak louder than words
 Deepika Gurdev
 Vanishing Giants: Elephants of Asia
by Jason Gagliardi. Photos by Palani Mohan. Didier Millet. Pages 120. US$26.40
the statistics in Asia are alarming—only about 40,000 survive today. Previously, Thailand alone was home to 1,00,000 of them. We are taking about the trials, travails and the sheer survival of the Asian elephant. The picture remains grim as human population grows, forest cover is lost, elephants are taken out of their habitat, their trails blocked, their tusks hunted, their life reduced to that of a ‘working animal’.

The untold story of Iraq
Kanwalpreet
The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary American Soldier, Joshua Key
as told to Lawrence Hill. Roli. Pages 237. Rs 395.
a gripping story told by a soldier, Joshua Key, who gradually reaches the conclusion that countries, at times, can profess and practice wrong notions. And he does not say it without experience. Key was enlisted in the US Army in 2002 to "learn a trade and provide financial security for his family". But what he got back were nightmares, blackouts and insecurity in shopping malls, where he felt vulnerable without his gun.

Candid assessment of Indo-Bangla ties
Paramjit S. Sahai
The Jamdani Revolution: Politics, Personalities and Civil Society in Bangladesh, 1989-1992.
by Krishnan Srinivasan. Har-Anand Publications. Pages 386. Rs 595.
the book is a path-breaking effort by the author Krishnan Srinivasan in the area of diplomacy and foreign policy, as recording history is not an Indian trait. By using the medium of diary, the author shares first-hand knowledge and his experiences with the readers and thus helps in bridging the information deficit that exists on our neighbours.

Unnaturally TOGETHER
G. S. Bhargava
Divided we Stand: India in a Time of Coalitions
by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman. Sage Publications. Pages 524. Rs 650.
this is a remarkable book on the durability of coalition governments to which the Indian polity is destined for the next few decades, according to the authors who are both second- generation scholars and gifted journalists. Backed by a formidable team of professional researchers of impeccable and outstanding credentials, it is a veritable treatise on the future shape of Indian polity.

Master of rough crossings
Paul Bailey
The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad
by John Stape. Heinemann. Pages 372. £20.
Joseph Conrad: A Life
by Zdzislaw Najder, trans. Halina Najder. Camden House.
Pages 745. £30.
These two books, by noted Conrad scholars, have been published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the great novelist's birth. John Stape's The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad is a work of formidable concision. He alerts readers at the outset that he will not be offering literary criticism or detailed analysis of his subject's novels and stories.

Goa's reel connection
Frederick Noronha
AS Goa fights hard to ward off assertions that it has little or no film culture, one need only flip through a 257-page book that traces this region's links with movies to lay such doubts to rest. Location Goa, by journalist Mario Cabral e Sa, was released during International Film Festival of India (IFFI) last year, but is yet to be widely circulated or noticed even here. And what better time to go through it than another IFFI.

SHORT TAKES
The Taj legend and campus capers
Randeep Wadehra

  • In the shadow of the Taj
    by Royina Grewal Penguin. Pages x+267. Rs 295

  • Sumthing of a mocktale
    by Soma Das Srishti. Pages 205. Rs 100

  • My honeymoon with a pinch of salt
    by Virender Kapoor UBSPD. Pages viii+185. Rs 175

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