Sunday, January 12, 2003		Books

Trudging along with the postman, through rain and sun
V. N. Datta
An Approach to History of Post Office in India and other Essays.
by Shivanath. Army Postal Service Association, New Delhi. Pages 220. Rs 150.
Continuing Dilemma: Understanding Social Consciousness.
by Sudhir Chander. Tulika, Delhi. Pages XII + 321. Rs 550.
Kahanian (Urdu)
by Kewal Dhir. Sahir Cultural Akademi, Ludhiana. Pages 168. Rs 150.
THERE is always a difficulty in reviewing books of persons who one knows, and especially those with whom one has been connected. The author of the book An Approach to History of Post Office, Shivanath, has been a class fellow and close friend of this reviewer; the second author, Sudhir Chander, has been a pupil at the advanced stages of historical research; and finally, the author of the third book has been a correspondent with him sharing common literary interests.

Meet the author
“The epithet of well-known socialite is inappropriate for me”
KUSUM SAWHNEY was born and brought up in England but a chance encounter with an Indian businessman brought her back to the land of her ancestors after her marriage to him. Coming from a family of academicians, she was fond of reading right from an early age and went on to earn an M.Phil in English literature. Before making her mark as a fiction writer, she wrote for a magazine in London and later for India Today.

Signs & signatures
Islam in Sikh scriptures
Darshan Singh Maini
AT the outset, it must be remembered that Islam's advent in India had long preceded the birth of Guru Nanak, and that the founder of Sikhism who was well-versed in Islamic thought and heritage first saw it in action at the time of Babar's invasion of India. The Mughal who soon set up a powerful dynasty through the sword and the steed, gave Islam a bad name because of the ruin he had caused en route. In fact, Guru Nanak was imprisoned when he raised his voice against the rape and spoliation of India.

Carving a Goan identity in the postcolonial period
Ervell E. Menezes
GOA INDICA : A CRITICAL PORTRAIT OF POSTCOLONIAL GOA
by Arun Sinha. Bibliophile South Asia in association with 
Promilla & Co. Rs 495
BOOKS on Goa are being churned out at regular intervals these days with varying degrees of success, depending on their approach. Some just scratch the surface of the subject while others dwell on the writer’s fetishes. Still others try to cover all aspects. Arun Sinha ‘s Goa Indica : A Critical Portrait of Postcolonial Goa, belongs to the last category and for that reason it is likely to invite censure but being a non-Goan he is more objective.

Movie exhibition: From theatre to cinema
Sarbjit Singh Bahga
Bollywood Showplaces: Cinema Theatres in India
by David Vinnels & Brent Skelly with additional material on Rajasthan by Braj Raj Singh. E & E Plumridge, Cambridge, in collaboration with and distributed by Decorum Books, London. Pages 288 (hardback). £ 30.
BOLLYWOOD — the Indian film industry — is undoubtedly the largest in the world. Copious works have been written on its economic, social and artistic significance and considerable literature is available concerning film stars, directors and productions. But woefully little attention has been paid to the other important constituent of the business, namely cinema exhibition and venues.

Myths about media
Gobind Thukral
Media and Society—Challenges and Opportunities
edited by Vir Bala Aggarwal. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi. Rs 300.
INDIAN academicians, scholars and practitioners of journalism rarely look at the theory and philosophy of the media. Nevertheless they are all consumers. In the West, whole lot research goes on endlessly. Schools of mass communications, universities, media institutions and academicians are deeply involved in probing the role of the mass media in shaping society.

The man who brought santoor centrestage
G. K. Pandey
Journey with a Hundred Strings: My Life in Music
by Shiv Kumar Sharma, with Ina Puri. Viking, Penguin. Pages 193. Rs 395.
THIS book unfolds vivid glimpses of a sentimental journey of santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma from a humble beginning to dizzy heights. In a way it is a story of anguish and joy of this great artiste who has succeeded, like Ustad Bismillah Khan in the case of shahnai, in achieving the same status for santoor in the world of Indian classical music.

Thinkers who shaped human thought
Manisha Gangahar
Karl Marx by Leon Trotsky
Sigmund Freud
by Robert Waelder
Rupa & Co. Pages 221 and 172 respectively. Rs 195 each.
HUMAN nature has always fascinated theorists and philosophers around the globe. Endeavours have been made to understand it on social as well as personal levels. Both psychoanalysis and Marxism attempt to study the human mind and its instincts. Sigmund Freud studied the psychological conflicts within the individual and asserted that it was not only the conscious but also the unconscious that contributed to the production of ‘meaning’ and, was responsible for the social and cultural conflicts in the outside world.