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Moral reflections
Vijay Tankha
Indian Ethics — Classical Traditions and Contemporary Challenges
Eds Purushottama Bilimoria, Joseph Prabhu and Renuka Sharma.
Oxford.
Pages 431. Rs 795.
LIKE
many disciplines thought absent in the classical traditions of Indian
thought, ethics, along with politics, science and even some would say,
philosophy, has slowly found its way into academic curricula.
A rebel’s view
Salil Tripathi
The Duel — Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power
by Tariq Ali.
Simon & Schuster.
$17.16.
ONCE
again, Pakistan is in crisis, with Waziristan the newest "most
dangerous place" in the world. Islamabad can’t control the
escalating conflict, and the government is again run by an unpopular,
incompetent and nepotistic civilian administration.
Candid memoir
Aradhika Sharma
My Family and Other Saints
by Kirin Narayan.
HarperCollins.
Pages 352. Rs 295.
THIS
reviewer swooped down on this book, fascinated by the title, which was
so obviously taken from one of her favourite girlhood books, Gerald
Durrel’s My Family and Other Animals.
Tribute to unsung heroes
Vijay Saihgal
1857 — The Role of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh
by K.C. Yadav.
National Book Trust, New Delhi.
Pages 236. Rs 60.
WAS
the first war of India’s independence in 1857 limited to certain areas
only, like Barrackpore, Lucknow, Jhansi or Meerut? This question has
repeatedly been asked by students of history. Most of the British
historians have either ignored the facts or continue endorsing the
British point of view, calling it a mutiny that broke out at some
selective places.
Think small to get big
D. S. Cheema
Getting to Big the Small Way
by Frank Prestipino.
Tata McGraw-Hill.
Pages 322. Rs 595.
MOST
of the business organisations are used to the idea of doing something
big to get big outcomes. CEOs and presidents often work out grand
strategies involving major changes, invest huge resources and try to
execute the plans with finesse, only to find the results far below their
expectation. They refuse to understand the power of small which can make
big difference.
Top novelist feels pressure to ‘dumb down’
Arifa Akbar
MARGARET
Drabble, one of Britain’s leading novelists and biographers, believes
her publishers are pushing her to "dumb down" her work to
appeal to a larger readership. At a meeting of alumni in her old
Cambridge University college, Newnham, Dame Margaret suggested that she
felt pressure from Penguin, to "rebrand" her fiction, The
Independent has been told.
Afghan
wins French literature prize
John Lichfield
AN
Afghan who fled his country 24 years ago carrying his mother’s carpet
and a few crumpled bank notes was last week awarded France’s premier
literary prize.
SHORT TAKES
Fiction with
scientific temper
Randeep Wadehra
Beyond the blue
by Sukanya Datta. Rupa & Co.
Pages 201. Rs 195.
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