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Move over, men!
Reviewed by Rumina Sethi
Vermillion Clouds: A Century
of Women’s Stories from Bengal
Trans. Radha Chakravarty.
Women Unlimited, New Delhi.
Pages 231. Rs 350.
WRITING
was never regarded as a women’s forte. Yet, mainstream literature
has been known to be silently nudged by the saintly articulations of
Akka Mahadevi, Mirabai or Lal Ded in the past. It was during the
national movement in India that many writers put down their
experiences in the spirit of social reform.
Bharat
darshan
Reviewed by Roopinder Singh
India for a Billion Reasons
Ed. Amit Dasgupta.
Wisdom Tree.
Pages 222. Rs 3,495.
BRILLIANT
colours and images attract you the moment you look at the book. Then
you flip through it, and find more, and more, reflecting the many
facets of Indian life, rituals, traditions, modernity, democratic
processes, including elections, people and their festivals—all find
representation in this volume.
Saying
it all, briefly
Reviewed by Randeep Wadehra
Holypol
By Rajbir Deswal.
DK’s Book For All.
Pages xxii+235. Rs 195.
IN
newspapers, "middles" provide a relief of sorts from the
incessantly somber intellectual analytical articles that make things
insufferably serious for most of us who would like to have a glimpse
of the lighter side of life. Worse, most of the stuff is seldom less
than thousand words long and looks longer to the unsuspecting,
uninitiated reader who, perchance, happens to go through it.
He
stood firm against pressure
Reviewed by V. Eshwar Anand
The Honest Always Stand Alone
By C.G. Somiah.
Niyogi Books.
Pages 273. Rs 395.
THE
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, recruited in the
1950s, commanded great respect. Considered the cream of the nation,
their integrity was beyond doubt. The writer, a 1953 batch IAS officer
of the Orissa cadre, is honest to the core.
Cocktail
of memoir and invention
Reviewed by David Mattin
Walking to Hollywood
By Will Self.
Bloomsbury.
Pages 448. Ł17.99.
WILL
Self’s latest has its roots in a former Independent Magazine column
called "Psychogeography". That column, in turn, was a
journalistic enactment of the idea—forged by mid-20th-century
Leftist cultural theorists—that to walk through the modern
environment is a radical act, capable of disrupting the false
consciousness imposed on us by capitalist drudgery.
In praise of
paradise
Humra Quraishi
Author of Kashmir First — The Kashmir Story,
Mohammad Ashraf, former DG Tourism, J&K, talks of the Valley’s
pristine glory and the present challenges
THE
Srinagar-based former DG Tourism, J&K, and former
vice-president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Mohammad
Ashraf, is a recipient of the Hall of Fame award from the Adventure
Operators Association of India for the promotion of adventure tourism
in the Himalayas.
Wit
and wisdom of Mark Twain
S. Raghunath
AT
a banquet in New York, writer Mark Twain was seated next to the guest
of honour, who decided to test on him some of the stories he intended
to use in his speech. "I hope you haven’t heard this one,"
he would begin and then rashly barge on without waiting for Twain’s
courteous but increasingly faint, "No, I don’t think I
have." As the 14th story began, Twain lost his celebrated temper.
Back
of the book
Mythology,
management and more
Jaya: The Illustrated
Retelling of Mahabharata
by Devdutt Pattanaik.
Penguin. Rs 499.
-
The Black Light
By Rimi B. Chatterjee.
HarperCollins. Rs.299
-
No
Way Home
By Amarjit Sidhu.
Penguin. Rs 299.
-
The Immortals of
Meluha
By Amish Tripathi.
Westland. Rs 295.
-
Ready for Take-Of: A
Leadership Story
By Sachit Jain.
Rupa & Co. Rs 195.
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