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Another
kind of alphabet salad
Kuldip Kalia
Dictionary of Disability
compiled by Aroop Sengupta, UBS Publishers. New Delhi. Pages.
VI+ 239. Rs 175
FROM
‘handicapped’ to ‘challenged’ is perhaps a long
journey that the disabled have to travel. The word ‘handicapped’
sounds contemptuous, but a spirit of adventurism has been
infused by making him a ‘challenged’ person. Thereby once
the physically handicapped is now a physically ‘challenged’
individual.
Chants
of an expatriate Kashmiri
Akshaya Kumar
The Country Without A Post Office: Poems 1991-1995
by Agha Shahid Ali, Ravi Dayal, Delhi. Pages 64. Rs.100.
THE
untimely demise of Agha Shahid Ali, a US-based Kashmiri poet
in English, when he had just crossed 50, is indeed a blow to
the genre of Indian English poetry. He, along with A. K.
Ramanujan, had carved an international audience for this
otherwise insipid stream of Indian English writing.
Critiques
galore!
D.R. Chaudhry
Communalisation of History
edited by Mridula Mukherji and Aditya Mukherji. Delhi
Historians’ Group, New Delhi. Pages 70. Price Rs 20.
THE
revision of the syllabus of history textbooks prescribed by
the NCERT in schools is a hot-bed of controversy. The
historians with impeccable academic credentials and
international renown like Romila Thapar, R.S. Sharma, Bipan
Chandra, Satish Chandra and Arjun Dev whose text books have
been prescribed in schools for a long time are under virulent
attack.
Waiting
for the moon to shine, but in wane
R.P. Chaddah
If the
Moon Smiled
by Chandani Lokuge Penguin, Price:
Rs 200.
IN
the present times, Indian diaspora writing is of immense
interest to students of post-colonial studies. Now it is so
widely spread that it has generated interesting cultural
reactions. In the past few years, Sri Lankan diaspora has also
been taking shape.
Artistic,
evocative and picturesque prose
Aradhika Sekhon
What the
Sufi Said
by K.P. Ramanunni. Rupa, Pages:
174, Price: Rs 150.
Sufi Pranja Katha has
been translated from Malayalam into English by no less
personages than N. Gopalakrishna and Prof. Ronald E. Asher.
That, perhaps, explains the veracity with which the lyrical
beauty of the work has been retained in What the Sufi Said.
PUNJABI LITERATURE
A tribute
to Dr M.S. Randhawa
Jaspal Singh
GULZAR
Singh Sandhu is a well-known short story writer of Punjabi. He has
also worked as an editor of two Punjabi dailies published from
Chandigarh. A recipient of the coveted Sahitya Akademy Award for his
contribution to Punjabi short story, he has worked in responsible
positions in many literary and cultural organisations.
WRITE VIEW
Forensics,
genetics and ode to Indian women
Randeep Wadehra
Daughters of the Soil
by Devajit Bhuyan. Spectrum Publications, Guwahati. Pages: 61.
Price: Rs. 60.
"GOD
created woman. And boredom did indeed cease from that moment – but
many other things ceased as well! Woman was God’s second
mistake". Not many of us would like to agree with this
observation in the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s
The Antichrist.
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