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Persistence of
discrimination
Reviewed by Shelley
Walia
Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from
Racial Equity
By Tim Wise.
City Lights Books, San Francisco.
Pages 213. $14.95.
RACE
is a social category that has evolved in the course of explaining
differences between groups by mistakenly attributing various
"essences" to them. The problem of toleration is inherently
troublesome and raises the question of the extent to which any society
can be morally and culturally pluralistic.
Great
epic revisited
Reviewed by Harbans Singh
Before He was God: Ramayana
— Reconsidered, Recreated
By Ram Varma.
Rupa.
Pages 326. Rs 995.
FOR
centuries, the story of Rama, the Prince of Ayodhya, has been central
to the moral lives of millions of people. It has been told and retold
not only in various languages of the subcontinent but
‘reconsidered’ and ‘recreated’ to solve the complexities and
challenges of the various eras.
The
irrepressible Zohra
Reviewed by Aradhika Sharma
Close-Up: Memoirs of a Life on Stage & Screen
By Zohra Segal.
Women Unlimited.
Pages 292. Rs 1,448.
"YOU
are seeing me now, when I am old and ugly. You should have seen me
then, when I was young and ugly." The grand old lady of stage
with her booming laugh and her immense love of life is known to have
said. And this sets the tone of the book on the woman, the actor, the
dancer, who lived through a life, chequered and fascinating.
Pain
and anguish of an ‘untouchable’
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Changiya Rukh: Against the
Night — An Autobiography
By Balbir Madhopuri.
Translated from Punjabi by Tripti Jain.
Oxford University Press.
Pages 215. Rs 395.
WE
are familiar with the pathetic condition of Dalits living in
India since centuries. Unfortunately, inhuman treatment has been meted
out to this particular community even in independent India. Its
practise is quite rampant in the rural areas.
Ode
to iconoclasts
Nirupama Dutt
The recent retrospective on two famous writers, Saadat Hasan Manto and
Ismat Chughtai, was a lively celebration of their contribution
RETROSPECTIVES
of films are a regular feature but August-end saw a unique literary
retrospective at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi with a day and
a half devoted to deliberating on the contribution of two towering
writers of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai (1911-1991) and Saadat Hasan
Manto (1912-1955).
Tête-à-tête
A
man of roots
Nonika Singh
WHEN
a man decides to pen his autobiography, it would seem as if he is
trying to seal his greatness. However, the Mansa-based noted
theatreperson Ajmer Singh Aulakh, rooted to terra firma, nurses no
such delusions of grandeur.
SHORT TAKES
Bringing up Chandigarh
Randeep Wadehra
Corb’s Capitol
By Sangeet Sharma.
Abhishek Publications.
Pages xii+230. Rs 295.
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