Sustaining growth, environment
Reviewed by Nirmal Sandhu
Economic and Environmental Sustainability of the Asian Region
Eds Sucha Singh Gill, Lakhwinder Singh and Reena Marwah.
Routledge.
Pages 461. Rs 895.
THE book is a collection of papers read out at a three-day international conference organised by the Centre for South West Asia Study and Punjabi University’s Department of Economics in collaboration with the Association of Asia Scholars, New Delhi, at Patiala from November 14 to 16, 2008.

Looking within
Reviewed by Aditi Garg
Why are We Still Like this Only
By Dr Jaideep Singh Chadha.
Diamond Books.
Pages 236. Rs 150.
TO sit back and describe in detail all the shortcomings of someone requires some brains, but to sit up and take stock of your own flawed existence takes a lot of heart. It is easy being judgemental, however, what really needs courage is to look within with not rose-tinted glasses but through a magnifying glass.

Ambedkar’s views on Buddhism
Reviewed by Ashok Vohra
The Buddha and His Dhamma: A Critical Edition
By B. R. Ambedkar. 
Eds Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma.
Oxford University Press.
Pages. xxxiii + 325. Rs 895.
B.R. Ambedkar’s first acquaintance with Buddha’s life, teachings and philosophy was through Dada Keluskar’s book on the life of the Buddha. Dada Keluskar, a leading litterateur of his time, had presented the book to Ambedkar at a public meeting held to felicitate Ambedkar on his passing the English fourth standard examination. Ambedkar was the first in his community to do so.

Evocative memoirs
Reviewed by Kanwalpreet
Autobiography
By Rajendra Prasad.
Penguin.
Pages 602. Rs 499.
THE thoughts of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, penned in this book reflect the mood of the common people of India during the British rule. The memoirs are revealing because they minutely trace the growth of the nation as well of Prasad himself.

Vivid portrait of a city
Reviewed by Ram Varma
Ahmedabad: From Royal City to Megacity
By Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth. 
Penguin Books.
Pages xx + 348. Rs 450.
OLDER than the great towns founded by the British, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, and older than Jaipur founded by Raja Jaisingh, the city of Amdavad, as its residents call it, was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah of Gujarat in 1411 AD. he British brought a touch of the Oxidant, of the Gothic and the Renaissance, to their towns.

Leader’s legacy
Humra Quraishi
Nayantara Sahgal’s book Jawaharlal Nehru — Civilizing a Savage World highlights this leader’s major concerns
Nayantara Sahgal needs no lengthy introduction. Niece of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Author of several fiction and non-fiction works, her political and literary commentaries go well beyond the set historical and academic parameters.

Epic tome revisited
Writer Shashi Tharoor celebrates 21 years of The Great Indian Novel
ONE of the best contemporary retelling of an Indian classical epic, The Great Indian Novel, a transcreation of Ved Vyasa's Mahabharata by writer-politician Shashi Tharoor, has completed 21 years since it was published. The writer celebrated the 21st birthday of his book by reading from it at the Arclight Literature Festival at the Alliance Francaise in the Capital last weekend.

Caricatures and leaders
Zafri Mudasser Nofil
Politicians are a caricature of themselves, says graphic novelist 
TO him, Indian politicians are often caricatures of themselves but graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee is more keen on dealing with people that surround him - local heroes, hustlers, monsters and gods. "Often they (Indian are caricatures of themselves, usually just a profile is enough, just the way the person is should do the job," says Banerjee.

Back of the book

• Susanna’s Seven Husbands
  By Ruskin Bond.
  Penguin.
  Pages 206. Rs 250.
  

• Turbulence
  By Samit Basu.
  Hachette.
  Pages 337. Rs 250
  

• Mom Says ‘Get Married’
  By Himanshu Modi.
  Diamond.
  Pages 239. Rs 100.
  

• Durgeshnandini
  By Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
  Random House.
  Pages 190. Rs 299.
  

• On Two Feet and Wings
  By Abbas Kazerooni.
  Hachette.
  Pages 233. Rs 250.