Preserving
heritage
Reviewed by Gurpreet K. Maini
Journal of Heritage Studies:
An Indian Journal on Conservation
Thomson Press. Pages 379.
IF
today graffiti is diminishing our monuments, particularly the unlisted
ones, there are fewer ‘pan’ splurges; they are no longer open-air
urinals or defecating hubs, we owe it to the pivotal catalyst INTACH,
a concept which coalesced into an NGO, seeded by Rajiv Gandhi and
Pupul Jayakar in 1984.
Beyond
the IIT dream
Reviewed by Aditi Tandon
Zero Percentile
By Neeraj Chhibba.
Rupa.
Pages 220. Rs 95.
IT's
when you think you have nothing left to learn that life teaches you
the best lessons. Zero Percentile, a tiny, breezy piece of work
by an untried author tells you how. A few pages into the plot and you
know that Neeraj Chhibba will be tried again.
Valuable
lessons from life
Reviewed by Jyoti Singh
English Lessons and Other
Stories
By Shauna Singh Baldwin.
Rupa. Pages 206. Rs 195.
THIS
collection of short stories is a significant contribution to the genre
of short story. As almost all stories revolve around the lives of
various women, it would not be a hazard to state that the work is
mainly "gyno-centric".
The
blessed land of Gurus
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Life-style of the People of
Punjab
Pages 204. Rs 295.
Sikh Religion: Democratic Ideals and Institutions
Pages 179. Rs 250. Both the books by Dr Sudarshan Singh.
Singh Brothers, Amritsar.
A
fertile State with robust,
hard-working people and home to a young but a modern, dynamic
religion, Sikhism, Punjab has been the focus of research by various
scholars. Sudarshan Singh has dealt deftly with Punjab and its various
facets in his two books.
Focus
on changing status of Dalits
Reviewed by Rajesh Kumar
Aggarwal
Mapping Dalits
by Paramjit S. Judge and Gurpreet Bal.
Rawat Publications, New Delhi.
Pages 234. Rs 575.
PRIMARILY
based on the information collected from 1,600 Dalit households,
divided equally among the rural and urban areas from Amritsar and
Jalandhar districts, the book attempts to know the changing status of
Dalits in Punjab by examining the extent of social change brought
about by four variables namely education and occupation, empowerment,
entrepreneurship and emigration.
Rustic
ramblings
Madhusree Chatterjee
Author Radhika Jha travels
into the heart of rural India with a new novel
Journalist-cum-social
worker-turned novelist Radhika Jha, winner of the French Prix Guerlain
award, has journeyed into the heart of rural India— scripting a
story of change—in her new novel Lanterns on Their Horns.
Chain
reaction
Forget libraries, now borrow from
book chains
LeNDING
and borrowing of books is common among acquaintances. But ever
imagined borrowing a book from a complete stranger? The British
Council has struck upon such a concept, which it calls 'book chain',
under which books can be borrowed and lent out free of cost even among
strangers.
Write
cause
A coffee-table book has been
published to raise funds for Bahadur Shah Zafar's descendants
Sultana
Begum, the great granddaughter of the last Mughal emperor of
India, Bahadur Shah Zafar, has found an unusual saviour: a
coffee-table book on the former prime ministers of India.
The
President is Coming
now in book form
Having
done around 100 shows as a play and later as a movie starring Konkana
Sen Sharma, The President is Coming has taken an entirely
different route. It has now come
out in book form and writer Anuvab Pal says that this is the last part
in its artistic rendition.
Hard
times for the hardback industry
Jonathan Brown
SOME
of the biggest names in publishing have had a lousy season,
posting spectacular sales falls in the run-up to New Year. According
to the figures from Nielsen BookScan published in The Bookseller,
Ben Elton has seen a 45 per cent drop in hardback sales from last
year...
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