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Battle for supremacy
Reviewed by Parshotam Mehra
India and China: The Battle between Soft and Hard Power
By Prem Shankar Jha.
Penguin/Viking. Pages ix + 398. Rs 599.
THERE
is no dearth of literature on India and China; to be candid, there is
a veritable glut. No wonder the sophisticated reader finds it
difficult, if not indeed impossible, to separate the grain from the
chaff. In this unenviable task, this book comes handy.
Cosmological
odyssey
Reviewed by Kuldip Dhiman
The Edge of Reason: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Cosmology
By Anil Ananthaswamy.
Penguin Books.
Pages 322. Rs 399.
IN
the realm of physics, there are pure
theorists and there are experimenters. Theoretical physicists study
phenomena in nature, observe regularities, and then come up with
mathematical models and theories that explain it. Their aim is to
rationalise, explain and predict physical phenomena so that we could
harness nature to our advantage.
When
things fall apart
Reviewed by Shalini Rawat
Days and Nights in the Forest
By Sunil Gangopadhyay. Trans. Rani Ray.
Penguin Books. Pages 178. Rs 250.
"On the grass of sloping
hills/a scatter of white sheep,/unravelling already like the balls/of
wool they are going to be." —
A. K. Ramanujan (Uncollected Poems)
JUST
as the first two lines of the poem hold a promise that is violently
broken shortly after, the title of the book "unravels" as
soon as you begin reading it.
Reality
bytes
Reviewed by Parbina Rashid
Braking News
By Sunetra Choudhury.
Hachette India.
Pages 310. Rs 350.
ONE
bus, two girls, 15 thousand kilometres, 715 million votes—adventure,
misadventure; agony, ecstasy; breaking stories, flop shows; every
reporter’s dream and worst nightmare. This is what NDTV reporter and
anchor Sunetra Choudhary’s Braking News is all about.
Filmi critique
Reviewed by Rachna Singh
50 Indian Film Classics
By M. K. Raghavendra.
HarperCollins.
Pages 321. Rs 350.
WE
Indians love films and almost always have an expert opinion on them.
We invariably enlarge upon a film’s thematic structure in social
soirees. Intellectual discussions also veer towards an analysis of the
auteur’s visual narratives. It is not surprising then that varied
collections of film reviews hit the market from time to time.
Making
Hay in God’s own country...
Britain’s Hay festival to debut
in India
Madhusree Chatterjee
A
lot of new writing from India
has been making a mark across the world, says a top organiser of
Britain's Hay Festival that will host its first India edition in
Kerala in November with around 40 leading authors. "One of the
reasons why we chose India is because writing from the country is
fresh," said Lyndy Cooke, executive director of the festival.
Focus
on feminism
Who's afraid of sexuality, asks
Orissa's Virginia Woolf
Eliza Parija
SHE
is considered the Judith Butler and Virginia Woolf of
contemporary Oriya literature. And yet, for her, feminism is not just
about battling male hegemony. For Dr Sarojini Sahoo, an award-winning
Oriya writer, feminism is linked with the sexual politics of women.
Back
of the book
Mughals,
marriage and military
-
Akbar: The Mighty
Emperor
By Kavitha Mandana.
Penguin-Puffin. Rs 150.
-
Chicken Soup for the
Indian Armed Forces Soul
Eds Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Raksha Bharadia.
Tranquebar. Rs 295.
-
Legend of the
Lepchas: Folk Tales from Sikkim
By Yishey Doma.
Tranquebar. Rs 200.
-
Love on Velocity
Express
By N. Sampath Kumar.
Cedar Books. Rs 125.
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