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Eye
on the exotic
Rajnish Wattas
India in Mind
Edited: Pankaj Mishra
Picador India Pages 335. Rs 275.
Quality
travel writing is a journey that reveals as much about the traveller as
the world he describes. This anthology revisits some classic travel
writings about India by the finest Western writers.
Interview
‘Deglamourise
English’
In
both his fiction and essays, U.R. Ananthamurthy, the eminent Kannada
writer, tries to demolish the hegemonic power structures that canons
impose on us. Persuasive in his arguments, the Jnanpith Award winner
advocates a need to decolonise the mind and purge ourselves of western
influences. In an interview with Gagandeep Singh, the writer
speaks about the elitist exclusivity of English language, the
acculturation of youth in western mores, the ideological barrenness of
the middle class and his own role in society.
Surviving
truth
Ramesh Luthra
Dark Times
by Jagannath Prasad Das.
Virgo. Pages 88. Rs 190.
Modern
Indian English literature is highly indebted to Jagannath Prasad Das, a
renowned Oriya poet and playwright, whose passion for writing made him
resign from the Indian Administrative Services.
Humour
of resistance
M.L. Raina
Othello in Wonderland and
Mirror-Polishing Storytellers: Two Plays
By Gholamhoseyn Sa’edi
Translated from the Persian by Michael Philips Mazda Publishers,
California. Xiii + 144 pages. $ 18. (Paperback)
Censorship
is a double-edged sword. It suppresses free expression, but also
generates irony and, occasionally, black humour. We may recall the Hindi
play Bakri that became the rage during the Emergency and similar
works that use innuendo and suggestion to outwit the thought police.
South
Asian tinderbox
Jaswant Singh
Fearful Symmetry: India-Pakistan Crises in the Shadow of Nuclear
Weapons
by Sumit Ganguly and Devin T. Hagerty. Oxford University Press. Pages
223. Rs 495.
South
Asia watchers have often wondered how India and Pakistan have managed to
avoid a major war in the past two decades despite all the mutual
distrust, political tensions and the conflict over Kashmir. They get all
the more baffled when they see two chronically belligerent states now
trying to chart a course of friendship and mutual confidence in South
Asia’s nuclear era.
Racy
but conventional
Arun Gaur
Terminal Care
by Arwin Chawla.
Durban House Publishing Company, Dallas. Pages 201. $16.
Vengeance
that a father seeks for the death of his son Michael Poole, who dies
apparently due to a heroine overdose, is the motif of the action in the
novel. Thomas Poole calls for the impeccable services of his
friend-detective Joe Kranken—both of them have seen action together in
Vietnam—to haul the murderer to him. It is more than a million dollar
deal.
Ways
of learning
D. S. Cheema
Value Based Education—Need of the Hour
by Dr Major Singh.
S. K. Kataria and Sons. Pages 206. Rs 150.
Mahatma
Gandhi, after analysing the education system India inherited from its
alien rulers, made one of the most prophetic statements in 1931:
"…the irony is that in terms of teeming millions… our education
has become irrelevant.
Penguin’s
foray into non-English publishing
"This
is the first time Penguin has published anything outside English. This
is a landmark event," said John Makinson, chairman and CEO, Penguin
Group, at the release of Penguin’s first four books in Hindi at the
Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi.
Short
takes
Legends live on
Randeep Wadehra
Fearless Nadia
by Dorothee Wenner; translated from German by Rebecca Morrison. Penguin.
Pages: xv + 248. Price: Rs. 295.
Mary
Evans was born in Australia and brought up in Bombay. Her bloodline was
an explosive mix of a Scot soldier and a feral Greek belly dancer. She
became famous as tinsel world’s Fearless Nadia – plump, blue-eyed,
blonde sex-bomb.
Annie Besant: An
Autobiography
Penguin. Pages: xii + 332. Price: Rs. 375
Srinivasa Ramanujan
by K. Srinivasa Rao East West Books, Chennai. Pages: xii + 273.
Price: Rs. 275/-.
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