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Medicine,
anything but black and white
Kuljit Bains
Complications
by Atul Gawande. Penguin.
Pages XX + 251. Rs 250.
MEDICINE
is about life and death; a patient is at once a body and a mind;
afflictions are physical and mental; and the doctors, the
protagonists of the whole show, can be saviours, next only to God,
as well as the Devil, at least for those who have suffered a wrong
cut from their knife. All this adds up to just the right setting for
a non-fiction thriller based on a real phenomenon that touches our
life itself—doctors and the treatment they give us.
Lament
for ruination of Kashmir
Priyanka Singh
The Tiger Ladies
by Sudha Koul. Review.
Pages 218. £10.99.
"WE
Kashmiris called ourselves the children of the Rishis, our godlike sages
who exemplified the symbiosis of mysticism in Islam and Hinduism. We
proudly forged a new philosophy and lived harmoniously in a tranquil
valley. Now our pride is lost in the shallowness of battle trenches,
houses razed to the ground, refugee camps and the graveyards."
Tuned
to the not so obvious
M. L. Raina
Stranger Shores: Literary
Essays 1986-1999
by J. M. Coetzee. Viking, New York. Pages viii+295. $24.95
J.
M. Coetzee’s critical method reminds us of the cricketing technique of
the legendary Duleepsinghji: he creates his effects by just
metaphorically flicking his wrist. As in the novels, he is deliberate in
his judgments, likes classical writers and poets and has a style that
leaves contemporary professorial prose smelling like over-fermented
cheese.
Losing
your way in Panayur
Kuldip Dhiman
The Tiger by the River
by Ravi Shankar Etteth. Viking. Pages 299. Rs 395.
SWATIRAJA VARMA, the last King
of Panayur, a princely state in Kerala, has a promise to keep. A promise
that becomes not only a sort of homecoming for him but also a voyage of
discovery. Nina, the Queen of this Delhi-based royal, is pregnant and
somehow knows that her baby is going to be a son. She has been having
ominous dreams in which she sees destruction as predicted by
Nostradamus.
Short takes
Simple and
gripping tale of Rani Jhansi
Jaswant Singh
Rani Lakshmibai: The Indian Legend
by Shahana Dasgupta. Rupa & Co. Pages 88. Rs 70.
THE
story of the Rani of Jhansi, her fight against the British and her
heroic death on the battlefield, have made her the subject of songs and
ballads which folk artistes of Bundelkhand have been singing at
festivals, fairs and weddings. Her picture, riding a horse sword in hand
and charging into British soldiers, adorns the walls of houses and
temples. Reducing
the sublime to the ordinary
Harbans Singh
Ghalib in Translation
by O. P. Kejariwal.
UBS Publishers’ Distributors Pvt. Ltd.
Page: 200. Rs 375
THERE
is little doubt, as the author O. P. Kejariwal says in the introduction
to the book, that even after a century and three decades of Ghalib’s
death, his poetry not only continues to sparkle in the imagination and
common conversation of the Urdu-speaking people but also remains popular
at musical soirees across the subcontinent. He remains the subject of
academic discussions as well as that of films and television serials.
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