Sunday, December 29, 2002		Books

India in the US scheme of things
T. V. Rajeswar
Waiting for America – India and the US in the New Millennium.
Sunanda K. Datta Ray. Harper Collins. Pages 471. Rs. 595
WAITING for America spans the entire gamut of Indo-US relations since India’s independence, with detailed coverage on selective periods. The Kashmir issue before the United Nations became a matter of serious controversy between India and the USA because of the equivocal stand taken by the latter.

Tales from British India
Rumina Sethi
A Various Universe
by Ketaki Kushari Dyson. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Second edition. Pages 406. Rs 495.
KETAKI Kushari Dyson first wrote this book in the late seventies in an Oxford environment feeling rather like an ‘interloper’, claimed neither by historians nor by the Department of Literature, when ‘postcolonial’ and ‘interdisciplinary’ were not yet buzz-words. Race, sex and marital status were other underlying discriminatory factors that stood in the way of jobs and fellowships. A Various Universe was produced during this period.

Reflections on Buddhist reality
Arun Gaur
Buddhist Stories
by Paul Dahlke. Rupa & Co. Pages 330. Rs 150
THE present work, a set of five stories, is a reprint of the volume that was first published in 1913. The stories unravel the Buddhist reality that teaches one to overcome the perils of gold, fame, love, gods, death, and even life. This is the central motif that forms the basis of every story.

Conflicting claims over a legacy
Akshaya Kumar
Images of Kabir.
edited by Monika Horstmann. Manohar, 2002. Pages 248. Rs 600
THE teachings of Kabir have become a tool that sectarian lobbies use to push their respective agendas in ways which are not only arbitrary and partial but vulgar too. Within the predominantly Tulsi-led, Rama-centered sagun bhakti tradition, Kabir through his nirgun bhajans had created a kind of uneasy counter-discourse — a discourse that was later flaunted by secular Marxists as a springboard of authentic ‘alternative tradition of India’.

Stories to turn your stomach!
Deepika Gurdev
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain. Bloomsbury. Pages 307. $15 (Singapore).
THE truth is finally out there! All you who when dining out are impressed by that sublime sliver of foie gras, topped with an ethereal drizzle of sauce...and are ready to believe that a culinary artist has taken over the reins as chef, hold it right there.

Make simplicity an ingredient in your cooking
Geetu
No Fuss Cooking: 100 Recipes You Can’t Go Wrong With
by Sheema and Jhampan Mookerjee. Penguin. Pages 136. Rs 395.
RECENT years have seen a veritable revolution in the catering industry in India. In India, cooking is a sort of ritual for many who consider any departure from established methods sacrilegious. No Fuss Cooking is an attempt to initiate first-time cooks into the world of taste and to help them overcome the fear of tedious cooking processes.

Rationale behind remedies
M. Rajivlochan
Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels: the Science Behind Folk Remedies and Old Wives Tales
by Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein. Macmillan. Distributed in India by Rupa. Pages 279. £ 7.80
A pure honey and sugar solution is said to cure burns and ulcers much faster than any other known medication and without side effects. Some kinds of clay are eaten as nutritional supplements, while ingesting others can do wonders to rid the body of a number of toxins. Licking wounds is said to cure them faster. Medicinal baths have had a long history of curing dropsy cases, while bleeding provides some relief to those suffering from persistent headaches.

Punjabi Literature
Search for love in a heartless world
Jaspal Singh
THE Punjabi literary world is dotted with several women poets. Two of them, Amrita Pritam and Prabhjot Kaur, are nationally known and their works have been translated into several languages. There are quite a few others who have also been constantly creative and getting published year after year. Manjitpal Kaur, a professor of Punjabi at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, is one such poet. She has already published five collections of poems, the latest being "Ahsaas" (realisation), published by Ravi Sahit Parkashan, Amritsar.