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Through the eyes of a son
Darshan Singh Maini
The Red Letters
by Ved Mehta Penguin. Pages 187. Rs 250.
VED
MEHTA (born 1934) is widely acclaimed in India and abroad, and with 13
books to his credit, he has carved out an enviable position in the world
of letters. Gone blind at the age of 4, he was brought up first in
Punjab and Delhi, and later sent to Oxford and Harvard by his father, a
high official in the Indian Medical Service.
Shooting in the wild
Roopinder Singh
Sunlight and Shadows: An Indian Wildlife Photographer’s Diary
by M. Y. Ghorpade. Viking.Pages 168. Rs 1,495.
A book on wildlife from an
author who was also a political figure, an introduction by Indira
Gandhi, it sounds like another era. It is; the photographs are black and
white and capture wildlife with rare elegance, besides giving the reader
a degree of intimacy that is beautiful.
Utopian hope
M. L. Raina
Lessons of the Masters
by George Steiner. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. Pages 198. $ 19.95
In
spite of his neglect of our literature and philosophy, George Steiner’s
book about the relationship of masters and disciples should resonate
with Indian readers.
Ghalib that Gulzar found
Jaswant Singh
Mirza Ghalib, A Biographical Scenario
by Gulzar. Rupa & Co, New Delhi. Pages 221. Rs 595.
Mirza
Asadullah Khan Ghalib is one of those few urdu poets on whom volumes
have been written and continue to be written. He is one of those ghazal
writers whose works are read and sung extensively.
Million mutnies
Rana Nayar
The Waste Land: Making of Grass-roots Leaders
by Nandita Roy National Foundation For India (Delhi) & Sewa Mandir (Udaipur). Pages 122. Price not stated.
Development
is a ‘naughty’ (or is it a knotty?) word. Its very mention has the
power to split our globe into two diametrically opposite worlds:
developed and developing. Apart from causing this horizontal divide, it
has the potential to engineer a vertical split, too.
Short life’s momentous upheavals
Gayatri Rajwade
Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd. Penguin. Pages 302. $ 14.
A young girl watches bees
"squeezing through the cracks" of her bedroom walls and
"bees as a symbol of the soul: of death and rebirth" is the
essence of this wonderfully lucid novel.
fiction
Sound of silence
Arun Gaur
Wingless…a novel
by Anuradha Muralidharan Bluejay Books. Pages xxi+ 271. Rs 250
Mahatama
Gandhi tells the protagonist, Prabhu, in the prologue of this novel:
"When you grow up, look after the land and the people who live
here. It is your duty."
Nehru’s refreshing humour
K.J.S. Chatrath
Reading
about the release of a new edition of Pandit Nehru’s letters to his
sister has brought back an interesting episode to my mind. Searching for
a book in the Orissa Government Secretariat library about a decade back,
I chanced to see an old book.
Punjabi review
Colours of Asia
Nirupama Dutt
Penang da Boharh
by Abhai Singh. Chetna Prakashan, Ludhiana. Rs 120.
A
usual grouse with the world of Punjabi letters is that there are very
few travelogues available even when Punjabis are well known for their
wandering instinct.
Short takes
Randeep Wadehra
Maharana Pratap. Pages: 145.
Chhatrapati Shivaji. Pages: 111.
Bhagat Singh. Pages: 140.
All three authored by Dr Bhawan Singh Rana and Published by Diamond Books.
Price: Rs. 95 each.
"The
spirit burning but unbent, / May writhe, rebel – the weak alone
repent." These lines from The Corsair sum up the
quintessence Byronic hero.
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