Tender moments, touchingly told
Roopinder Singh
I too had a Love Story
by Ravinder Singh.
Shristi.
Pages 213. Rs 100.
LOVE stories attract readers, and when they portend to be based on real-life incidents and the narrator is one of the protagonists, much more so. The past tense in the title is intriguing, as is the dedication: "To the loving memory of the girl whom I loved, yet could not marry."

Poetry of revolt
Amarjit Chandan recollects his conversations with noted Urdu poet Habib Jalib
Habib Jalib’s poetry, along with that of Faiz, was invoked in the recent pro-democracy agitation in Pakistan. He visited London twice — first in the summer of 1988 when his collected works were launched. He was in his element and enthralled his admirers with his poetry sung in style both in private and public gatherings. Four years later, he visited again.

When Mandy becomes Mandeep
Aradhika Sharma
Indian by Choice
by Amit Dasgupta.
Art by Neelabh.
Wisdom Tree.
Pages. 93. Price not stated.
IF there is a paean to Indian-ness, it is this, it is this, it is this. The interesting thing is the format of the book. It’s a graphic novel, using two additional mediums, text, that takes the form of e-mails exchanged by the characters and photographs.

An insider’s take on NE
Parbina Rashid
Writing on the Wall
by Sanjoy Hazarika.
Penguin Books.
Pages 161. Rs 225.
THE only son of a family friend has been missing for the past three years. His father, a retired professor, has been running from pillar to post to find out what exactly happened to him. His ageing mother still dusts his room and airs his clothes in the hope that one day her son would come back home.

Warm-hearted comedy
Kavita Soni-Sharma
White Man Falling
by Mike Stocks.
HarperCollins.
Pages 302. Rs 250.
THIS humorous tale centers around the family of Sub-Inspector (retd) R. M. Swaminathan who carries a morbid fame for having once attempted suicide using only a puncture repair kit.

Bengal in the 19th century
Arun Gaur
Rajmohan’s Wife
by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.
Rupa.
Pages viii + 125. Rs 150.
SERIALISED in 1864 in a magazine the Indian Field, this is generally accepted as the first novel in English by an Indian. Since the original three chapters in English were lost, Brajendra Nath Banerji supplied the missing portion by translating it from Bankim’s own Bengali version of the novel.

Why Indian books are missing in Pakistan
Debaprio D Choudhury
WHAT perplexes Pakistani writer Mohammad Hanif, who won the first Shakti Bhatt award beating Booker winner Aravind Adiga, these days is the unavailability of Indian books and magazines in his country when he is able to watch Bollywood blockbusters there.

Votary of freedom
Boyd Tonkin looks at the legacy of the epic poet John Milton
NEVER before have I dared to suggest that Simon Schama might be — not wrong, but in sore need of an extra footnote. Viewers and readers of his The American Future may recall its fervent praise for the "Statute of Religious Freedom" that Thomas Jefferson drafted for the state of Virginia in 1779.

Metro on your coffee table
ONE can now flip through the success story and the behind-the-scenes technological marvels achieved while constructing the Delhi Metro network, thanks to a book launched recently by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).