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In midst of a long
journey
Amar Chandel
Innovative India Rises
Ed. L.K. Sharma.
Medialand, London.
Pages 364. £35 (soft cover), £ 45 (hard bound).
THERE
was a time not too long ago when "India" and
"innovation" fell under antonyms. We were happy and contented
being copycats, duplicating the innovative ideas that the other
countries came up with, and just enjoying the end result.
Shades
of belonging
Amreeta Sen
Memory’s Gold — Writings on
Calcutta
Ed. Amit Chaudhuri.
Penguin/Viking.
Pages 532. Rs 699.
IT
is an "overpowering tale" (Hey Man, Calm Down by Ulrike
Draesner); "memories preserved in the minds of old people", (A
Place Called Calcutta by Shaheen Akhtar); "elephants coming
down B.K. Pal Avenue at one in the morning", (Coming Home by
Sandipan Chattopadhyay); "my dreamscape, my nightmare, my
birthplace", (Durga-Daughter, Durga-Ma by Anita Roy) `85
yes, Calcutta has a unique place among the cities of the world.
Towards
better global studies
Randeep Wadehra
International Relations in
South Asia
Ed. Navnita Chadha Behera. Sage.
Pages: vii+342. Price not mentioned.
International
Relations as an academic discipline often gets confused with Area
Studies. The latter constitutes a multi-disciplinary approach to the
study of a geographical, political or cultural region or group. The
disciplines involved could range from: political science, history,
geography, sociology, cultural studies, literature and languages, etc.
A
heavy dose of Northeast
Parbina Rashid
Next Door
by Jahnavi Barua.
Penguin.
Rs 250. Pages 232.
THE
book is titled Next Door but given the geographical distance and
the cultural differences it encapsulates, the anthology is anything but
next door! The plot of the short stories happens to be remote areas of
Assam, unfamiliar to many readers. For them, even the name of the author
may be unfamiliar.
Romantic
fantasy
Shalini Rawat
Chandrakanta
by Devkinandan Khatri.
Translated by Deepa Aggarwal.
Puffin Classics.
Pages 252. Rs 199.
IT
was while looking after his ancestral estate in Gaya that Devakinandan
Khatri found employment as a timber contractor with the raja of Varanasi.
His excursions into the dense jungles with their mysterious ruins of
forts and palaces paved the way for the first mystery novel in Hindi, Chandrakanta.
Agony
of Partition
Aditi Garg
Love Longing and Death —
Mystic Stories
by Amar Jaleel.
Promilla and Co.
Pages 262. Rs 295.
THERE
are episodes and happenings in everyone’s lives that leave a lasting
impression on their psyche, and most of their life’s course is shaped
by them. Then there are happenings that are very deeply etched on the
mind of not only an individual but on society as a whole.
How
to conduct effective research
Kanwalpreet
Anthropologists Inside
Organisations — South Asian Case Studies
Ed. Devi Sridhar.
Sage Publications.
Pages 170. Rs 495.
RESEARCH
is the key word when it comes to building and establishing`A0theories.
Thus, the fieldwork, including`A0interviews, filling in
questionnaires`A0and other methodology, comes under scrutiny.
The
ugly face of Goa
DOMESTIC
violence is "fairly common" in Goa. One-third of its women
suffer from anaemia, and one-fourth are undernourished, says a new book
that for a change takes the focus away from the state being a
sun-and-sand tourist haven.
A
lesson in humility
Christina Patterson
Alastair
Campbell has written a novel about humility. Campbell, the new Labour
attack dog, bully boy and Machiavellian master of that new lynchpin of
the new political culture, "spin", has channelled his
considerable storytelling skills into a novel which pivots on an essay,
and then a eulogy, on humility.
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