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Ideas of identity
Rana Nayar
Being Indian
by Pavan K. Varma.
Viking (Penguin), New Delhi.
Pages 245. Rs 295.
WHAT does it mean to be an Indian? This question is
bound to haunt and intrigue all thinking Indians at one point or the
other. More so now when Indianness is no longer a matter of consensus
and has become truly problematic.
Troubled
heartland
Himmat Singh Gill
Asia Annual 2003
edited by Mahavir Singh. Shipra
Publications, Delhi. Pages 262. Rs 550.
NINETEEN
well-documented articles on subjects ranging from the Gita in Urdu to
diplomacy and security of China, from Pakistan’s Army and India’s
relations with Pakistan and America to Vietnam and the Indian diaspora
in Australia, and quite surprisingly for an Asian Annual, the second
Bush war, all this and more make up for this Annual published under the
aegis of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies.
Reality
woven around fantasy
P. K. Vasudeva
Iraq 2003: The Return of Imperialism
by Zafar Imam. Aakar Books, New Delhi. Page
112. Rs 225.
THIS
is the story of one of the most tragic incidents of 2003. The main
excuse for attacking Iraq, to find weapons of mass destruction concealed
by Saddam Hussein, proved false. However, Iraq has been made safe for
democracy. Though Saddam has been captured by the Americans, the peace
there is a distant dream.
Pride
and pigment
Rumina Sethi
We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
by Bell Hooks. Routledge, London. Pages 162. £ 12.99.
WHERE
does a black male stand in the education system in America? Is he doomed
if he becomes a militant thinker, airing his views that pose a challenge
to the state? Is he regarded as a threat to the system if he
intelligently puts forward his opinion? bell hooks, in her new book, We
Real Cool, thinks this will be the plight of the black male until a
link is established between education and liberation.
The
displaced, the ignored
B. S. Thaur
Industrial Development and Displacement: The People of Korba
by Vasudha Dhagamwar, Subrata De and Nikhil Verma. Sage Publications,
New Delhi. Pages 383. Rs 590.
THE
displacement of human habitations caused with the construction of big
dams and reservoirs is quite known and a lot of written material in the
shape of reports of committees concerned and awards of commissions is
available.
Scathing
or funny, but ever engaging
Randeep Wadehra
JOHN
Hoyer Updike, the much-awarded American writer, is famous for his
satire, sequels and a prequel. His oeuvre consists of novels,
collections of poems, short stories and essays. He has written a fair
bit of literary criticism too. Updike
was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1932.
Some
bleakness, some hope
Priyanka Singh
Kleptomania
by Manjula Padmanabhan. Penguin. Pages 201. Rs 250.
KLEPTOMANIA
is brilliant in parts. Each story in this anthology makes the travel to
new levels of imagination possible even as they tease rational thought.
A creative writer lives in a world of
ideas that provide food for thought. While it is difficult to have a
steady inflow of ideas, explaining how exactly these come about is even
harder.
Hindi review
They influenced
the course of history
Syed Nooruzzaman
Samay ke Chehray
by Rajkumar Singh. Granth Sadan. Pages 160. Rs 160.
THE
writer says that the reader may get perplexed when he reads Samay ke
Chehray (Faces of Time) on the cover. The reason, he points out, is
that time doesn’t have a face. History is basically a collage of those
who have influenced the course of time.
Signs & signatures
The romance of
letters
Darshan Singh Maini
IN
these times of tearing hurry and speed when one has no knowledge of even
one’s neighbours, no concern for life’s endless charms which lie at
one’s own door, to think of leisurely pursuits such as letter-writing
is to evoke nostalgic memories of the days when one waited for the click
of the mail-box to retrieve letters, and peruse them page by page in a
slow, measured manner.
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