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IT
connects
Chetan Bhagat has
written another book that has its finger on the pulse of the youth. Roopinder
Singh reviews his latest offering and talks to the
banker-turned-author whose first work sold over 1,35,000 copies
One Night @ the Call Center
by Chetan Bhagat. Rupa. Pages 290. Rs 95.
CALL
centres are all about people. About people being reduced to voices, of
people losing their identities willingly for the lure of a good job, of
people toiling into the night and doing what it takes to make a success
of themselves. Chetan Bhagat has his
finger on the nerves of the youth.
interview
The book will make a
difference only when grown-ups read it: Chetan Bhagat
A
look at backwardness
Gopal Krishan
Addressing Regional
Backwardness: An Analysis of Area Development Programmes in India
by Krishna Mohan; Manak Publications, New Delhi, 2005. Pages 310. Price
Rs.400/-.
FACTS
are startling. The book testifies. Barring some industrial-urban
concentrations scattered in general and the green revolution pockets of
Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and deltaic tracts of the
peninsular India, virtually the whole of India has been covered by one
or more of the seven backward area programmes analysed in the book under
review.
Feminist
take on security
Rajesh Kumar Aggarwal
Women, Security, South Asia: A Clearing in the Thicket
eds. Farah Faizal and Swarna Rajagopalan. Sage Publications. Pages 215.
Rs 295.
THE
book explores sources of security and insecurity in women’s lives, and
highlights women’s perspective on security matters in the South Asian
region. Security has been defined in wider connotations and includes
environmental, physical, economic, societal and even emotional security.
A poetic landscape
Arun Gaur
Memoirs
by Pablo Neruda. Rupa. Pages 370. Rs 295.
LAST year Pablo Neruda
would have been hundred years old. So, the world celebrated the occasion
on July 12, 2004. His poems were recited from the mountain tops, ships
saluted his home on La Isla Negra (Chile), where he lies buried by the
side of his third wife Matilde Urrutia, a crater in Mercury was named
after him, the Oscar award-winning documentary Il Postino
focusing on the period when Neruda was exiled in Capri was screened, and
many seminars were held in universities.
Leaves
from the past
Harbans Singh
50 Years of Government College Lahore (1864-1913)
by Dr Syed Sultan Mahmood Hussain. Izharsons, Lahore. Pages 566. Rs 450.
THE
importance of the book lies not just in the chronological information
about the first 50 years of the famous college, nor does it lie in the
fact that it promises to take the reader through a nostalgic journey
through the years, which laid the foundation of a city and its culture
as it was known to our ancestors.
Sued
for scanning books
David A. Vise
FIVE
major publishers sued Google Inc. recently, alleging that the search
engine's plans to scan millions of library books so they can be viewed
on the Internet is a blatant violation of copyright law. In
a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the publishers asked a
federal judge to block Google from resuming its scanning of books on
Nov. 1.
She
sang from her soul
Begum Akhtar; The Story of
My Ammi;
by Shanti Hiranand; Viva Books. Pages 170. Rs 1,295
Mohabbat
karne wale kum na honge teri mehfil me lekin hum na honge — true
to one of her last recordings, even 31 years after her death, people
revere Begum Akhtar for her ghazals, knowing little about the person
behind the rich voice.
Mixed
offering
Komal Vijay Singh
Post Box No. 99 and Other
Stories
Edited by Ruskin Bond Rupa. Pages 98, Rs 50
THIS
is a mixed bag of fine and not-quite-so-fine stories written by 12
school-going authors. These award-winning stories are the end product of
the Classmate Young Author Contest, which was designed in 2003 to
discover new talent and encourage future young authors.
Intellectual
par excellence
HE
is in his 70s and first became known for his theory of transformational
grammar. Noam chomsky is now at the top of the thinkers’ hit parade.
More than 20,000 voters from around the world took part in selecting the
winners from a list of 100.
Back of the book
-
A Biography of Rahul
Dravid
The Nice Guy Who Finished
First
by Devendra Prabhudesai Rupa. Pages 221. Rs 295
-
Imagined Manuvad
The Dharmasastras and
their Interpreters
by Shashi Sharma Rupa. Pages 402. Rs 595.
-
Strangely like war
The global assault on
forests
by Derrick Tensen, Natraj
Publishers, Rs 250.
-
The Elephant’s Child
& Other Stories
The delightful world of
Rudyard Kipling.
Edited by Sudhakar Marathe. Puffin Books. Pages 193. Rs
225.
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