Absorbing history
Himmat Singh Gill
India: Definitions and Clarifications
by Reginald Massey. Hansib, UK.
Pages 263. £14.99.
Lahore-born and settled in England, Massey is a critic and journalist whose writings are centered around South Asia, and in that to be more specific in the fortunes and travails of the hapless people of Hindustan now sliced into two entities by a man-made British partitioning of an erstwhile undivided subcontinent.

Inscrutable Indian market
Harbans Singh
We are Like that Only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India
by Rama Bijapurkar. Penguin Portfolio.
Pages 281. Rs 495.
Rama Bijapurkar has explained in her distinctive and effective style how "this with that" is the most important mantra to success in a market that is proud to be "We are like that only." Beneath the wit and humor in understanding and explaining the Indian consumer market lies a deep understanding of the multi-tiered society. It is amazing how she digs deep into the mythology and archetypal responses of the people to understand them in the contemporary world of consumerism.

Noble profession under the scalpel
Shalini Rawat
A Doctor’s Memoirs: An Inside Story of the Medical Profession
by Dr M. P. Gogoi.
BR Publishing Corporation. Pages 198. Rs 395.
A doctor’s memoirs is a skillful dissection of the life of a doctor beginning with his days as a student, his training and his long and variegated professional life. Dr Gogoi, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, who was awarded the Padam Shree for his services to the nation in 1984, donned the white coat at R. G. Kar Medical College, Calcutta.

Untold story of a spy
Laxmi Kant Verma
My Years in a Pakistani Prison
by Kishorilal Sharma. Lancer Publishers.
Pages 224. Rs 595.
The life of a spy is very hard, for it involves considerable risk. And no one knows better than the author Kishorilal Sharma, alias Amarik Singh, alias Saleem, who spied for India in Pakistan. Kishorilal has shared all his experiences that he had during his short stint as a spy.

A life on the road to peace
Moris Farhi
Once Upon a Country
by Sari Nusseibeh, with Anthony David.
Peter Halban. Pages 542. £20.
"THE single most dangerous enemy of Israel", "The most dangerous Palestinian alive", "The pretty face of terrorism", are some of the epithets fired at Dr Sari Nusseibeh, the Palestinian peace activist, by Israeli politicians. These defamations give credence to the adage that "Israeli authorities fear men of peace more than they fear terrorists".

A revolution whose time has come
Ash Narain Roy
E-Governance – Case Studies
Ed Ashok Agarwal, Hyderabad,
University Press. Pages 437. Rs 495.
The Information Technology (IT) revolution is sweeping every corner of the globe and every facet of our life. Such is the impact of the revolutionary change that whether one is plugged in or not, most of the people have in some way or the other already been touched by the Internet. Today more and more of our transactions involve the exchange and movement of data, images and sounds, rather than physical goods.

A can-do manual for girls
A new book is hoping to reinstate the innate characteristics of girls that have vanished over the years, thanks to Internet, computer games and reality television. The new trends have forced the young ladies to shun the playground and become a couch potato, and have made them ditch their favourite outdoor games like hopscotch, cat’s cradle and hula-hooping.

There’s life & a living after rejection
Bestselling authors are among those who struggled to get their first book accepted
Catherine O’Flynn had her novel What Was Lost turned down by 20 agents and publishers before it was accepted by the small Birmingham firm Tindal Street Press. It has since been shortlisted for the Orange and the Man Booker prizes and recently won the Costa First Novel Award. If your first magnum opus is still waiting to be propelled to Booker-winning glory, take heart from these rejectees.

SHORT TAKES
Wisdom of the Guru
Randeep Wadehra

Ethico-spiritual dimensions of Sikh philosophy
by Anita Mehrotra
Ajay Book Service, N. Delhi.
Pages 203. Rs. 395

Guru Nanak’s Bani
by SS Bhatti
Harman Publishing House, N. Delhi.
Pages xxii+237. Rs. 500

Guru Nanak
by Kharak Singh
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Pages 163. Rs. 50

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