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A sepia treasure
trove
Reviewed by Roopinder Singh
History in the Making: The
Visual Archives of Kulwant Roy
By Aditya Arya and Indivar Kamtekar.
HarperCollins.
Pages 304. Rs 4,999.
THE
black and white of history, a rare clarity that we get with the
perspective of distance in time, a feeling of connection with our
past, and the nostalgia that it evokes. This book brings many emotions
to the fore as you leaf through pages rich with images of an important
moment in India’s history.
Perfect
bonding
Reviewed by Harbans Singh
An Endless Winter’s Night
Eds. Ira Raja and Kay Souter.
Women Unlimited.
Pages 304. Rs 375.
THERE
could not have been a more representative anthology of mother-daughter
stories and poems. They not only put the relationship at the centre
stage but also portray what it means to be a female in the
contemporary India.
Peep
into a cruel world
Reviewed by Ranjit Powar
Witness the Night
By Kishwar Desai.
HarperCollins.
Pages 256. Rs 250.
"CAREFULLY,
Sharda took out a paper envelope from which she took out a tiny
skeletal hand. She made me hold it. ‘I want you to know what they do
in this house, Durga,’ she said. ‘This hand was buried deep in the
vegetable plot. There was also a tiny skull and other limbs but they
have all been crushed by the tractor’."
Incredible
journey
Reviewed by Santosh Kr. Singh
India since Independence:
Making Sense of Indian Politics
By V. Krishna Ananth.
Longman/Pearson.
Pages 435. Rs 750.
INDIA's
journey post-Independence has been a fascinating account of a
post-colonial society in transition from a traditional-feudal to a
modern democratic polity. The journey has been chequered and strewn
with moments of crisis and challenges, both systemic and
individual-centric.
Enigmatic
genius
Reviewed by Lt Gen (retd) Baljit
Singh
Napoleon and Napoleon Era:
Through his Correspondence
Life Span Research Foundation.
Page 192. Rs 500.
NAPOLEON
had completed schooling in 1782 at the age of 14 and graduated from
the Military Academy as a sub-lieutenant of Artillery in 1785. We do
not have his school mark-sheet but his teacher is on record saying
that "the youngster is made of granite but there is a volcano
inside".
Out of Orissa
Humra Quraishi
Bureaucrat-turned-writer J. P. Das shares his
journey from policy to prose and the literary return to his roots in Orissa
Jagannath
Prasad Das is the well-known poet, writer, playwright and critic who
was bestowed with the Saraswati Samman in 2006 and before that the
Sahitya Akademi award. Years back, he quit the Indian Administrative
Service to take to full-time writing.
Urdu
book review
Way
to go, woman
Reviewed by Amar Nath
Wadehra
Aey Mao, Behno, Betiyo
by Kashmiri Lal Zakir
Educational Publishing House.
Pages 128. Rs 100.
ON
International Women’s Day, Kashmiri Lal Zakir came across a picture
in a newspaper of a woman sweeping the streets (the said picture is on
this book’s cover). This impelled him to investigate various facts
about the condition of women in Indian society.
Dancing
across divide
Leela Samson’s book tells
how Rukmini Devi bridged gender barriers through Bharatnatyam
Reviewed by Madhusree
Chatterjee
Rukmini Devi - A Life
by Leela Samson. Penguin-Viking. Rs 500
IN
1935, Rukmini Devi brought the ancient dance form Sadir, later
known as Bharatnatyam, back to life on the Indian stage with a
performance in Chennai. Sadir, till then, had been confined to the
temple precincts and was the 'preserve' of devdasis.
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