Sunday, May 26, 2002		Books

India’s land of Rising Sun
Kuldip Kalia
Arunachal Pradesh; Land of the Rising Sun
by Ram Chandra Chutia. Guwahati. Spectrum Publications Pages .ix + 191. Rs 240.
DO you remember the area which was popularly known as the North East Frontier Agency before 1962? From the strict constitutional point, it was then part of Assam. Here is one more hint. It became the 24th state of the Indian Union in 1987.

Ecology as culture and the relevance of Gandhi
Akshaya Kumar
The Compassionate Universe
by Eknath Easwaran, Penguin India. Pages 188. Rs. 250.
ENVIRONMENT degradation is a manifestation of deep-rooted cultural crisis. Eknath Easwaran invokes the Gandhian hypothesis of 'civilization as disease' to study and analyze the ramifications of the crisis.

Family memories and star-crossed lovers
M. L. Raina
Salt and Saffron: A Novel
by Kamila Shamsie. Bloomsbury, London and New York. Pages 244. $24.95
IT is a matter of memory", remarks Romesh Gunesekhra, The Sri Lankan author of Reef. "It can make us learn, or simply heal us". Kamila Shamsie's second novel is both a learning exercise and a means of healing.

The magic and the myth of numbers
Peeyush Agnihotri
Magic Numbers: A Guide to Numerology
by V. K. Sharma, Diamond Pocked Books, Delhi. Pages 242. Rs 195
THERE are no in betweens. Either there are firm believers of fate and astrology or there are those who pooh-pooh it. The latter category believes in shaping its own destiny and life path while for the former one, stars, numbers, Vaastu, Feng Shui and all that man has yet to comprehend guides one's luck and fate.

Of sin and spirituality
Priyanka Singh
Arresting God in Kathmandu
by Samrat Upadhyay. Rupa & Co. Pages 191. Rs 195.
THE leitmotif of carnal compulsions and spiritual inclination runs parallel to the theme of an anxious search for consciousness driven by inherent paradoxes and latent desires all through Arresting God in Kathmandu.

Asking uncomfortable questions
Aradhika Sekhon
The Chronicler's Daughter.
by Kishore Thukral, Published by Ravi Dayal. Pages 359. Rs 300
THE Chronicler's Daughter takes a searing, no-holds-barred, eyes-wide-open look at the contemporary political systems, the rise and decline of a revolution, the effects of free enterprise and the corruption of ideals that sustain a revolution.

Network of social security
Yogesh Snehi
Towards securer lives SEWA’s Social-Security Programme
Compiled and edited by Mala Dayal, Published by Ravi Dayal. Rs 175. Pages 160
IN the present-day Gujarat, when mayhem and carnage reign; when women are openly raped, humiliated and killed; their near and dear ones are burnt in front of their eyes; when the government does not even register FIRs against the culprits, the role of NGOs becomes very important.

PUNJABI LITERATURE
Crossing ideological bridges
Jaspal Singh
HE is a well-known Punjabi poet. He is easily the most-travelled writer of Punjabi. The wanderlust has given birth to three interesting travelogues, including the one about his travels across the People's Republic of China.

SIGNS & SIGNATURES
Power, money, sex: A Freudian nexus
Darshan Singh Maini
IT is one of life’s painful ironies that power, money and sex, which in their positive and purposive aspects sustain man, society and civilisation, are, at the same time, cruel despoilers of life’s bounties and largesse.

WRITE VIEW
Statistical verdict on the Indian economy
Randeep Wadehra
First Fifty Years of Independent India
by Purushottam Shroff. Vichar Prakashanalay, Kolkata. Pages: 292 + 80 + 20. Rs 100
THIS book provides statistics about the Indian economy’s performance during the first 50 years of Independence. The author has covered all the sectors, viz., primary, secondary and tertiary.