Sunday, March 10, 2002		Books

Isaiah Berlin and his unwavering pluralism
Rumina Sethi
The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History
by Isaiah Berlin, Chatto and Windus, London. Pages 278, £20.
THE scholar who, in recent years, has made abundantly sure that Isaiah Berlin's much unpublished work does not go into oblivion is Henry Hardy who has been industriously working on projects that have resulted in the compilation of Berlin's radio talks and lectures into several books.

A tell-tale mirror for America to look into, uncomfortably
Rajesh Kathpalia
9-11
by Noam Chomsky. An Open Media Book, Indian edition by Natraj Publishers, Dehra Dun. Pages 125, Rs 250
"This is not the war of democracy versus terror that the world will be asked to believe in the coming days. It is also about American missiles smashing into Palestinian homes and US helicopters firing missiles into a Lebanese ambulance in 1996 and American shells crashing into a village called Qana and about a Lebanese militia paid and uniformed by America's Israeli ally hacking and raping and murdering their way through refugee camps".

Punjab-centric analysis of an ideological battle
Ranbir Singh Sarao
Globalisation and Punjab: Impact on Economy, Polity and Culture edited by Prakash Singh Jammu. Punjab Academy of Social Sciences, Literature and Culture and Punjabi Bhasha Academy, Jalandhar. Pages 247. Rs 250.
GLOBALISATION is primarily a trading system which, according to its protagonists, is capable of coping with the vicissitudes of nature, culture, geography and raw materials. It has made the ideal of global inclusion a tangible reality.

AUTHOR SPEAKS
"I cater to several layers of sensibilities"
NIRMAL VERMA, the pioneer of the Nai Kahani movement in Hindi and a rather late Jnanpith award winner, has to his credit eight novels, five short-story collections and nine books of non fiction. The recent Padma Bhushan has surprised him. "I was not expecting it," he laughs and closes the subject.

Culture as reflected in festivals and fairs
Kuldip Kalia
Encyclopaedia of Fairs and Festivals by Som Deb and B. Sinha. Raj Publications. Delhi. Pp 256. Rs 750
THE culture of any nation is reflected through the seasonal and colourful celebrations, thereby making fairs and festivals the significant and wonderful prism of our social, moral and religious values and traditions. These, in fact, act as ‘binding’ and depict the sense of oneness among the different communities and regions.

A question of nirvana
R.P. Chaddah
Nine Days to Nirvana — A Novel by Sanjay Grover. Life Positive Publication, New Delhi. Pages 386. Rs 295.
SINCE time immemorial, the novel has concerned itself essentially with the depiction of the contemporary world and the analysis of character. Balzac and Flaubert developed a sophisticated analyses of man in society. George Eliot and Joseph Conrad presented subtle moral analysis.

Preserving folklore for posterity
Aradhika Sekhon
The legends of Punjab by R.C. Temple Published by Rupa. Rs 795
THE Legends of Panjab, a book in two volumes, was compiled by R.C Temple, an official posted in India in the latter half of the 18’th century. In the introduction by Kartar Singh Duggal, a noted Punjabi writer, it is stated that " from all accounts, he [Temple] is the pioneer in the Panjab folklore as a discipline followed by Bawa Budh Singh, Devinder Satyarthi and Dr. Wanjara Bedi much later."