|
OFF the shelf
Delhi College:
bridging cultures
V. N. Datta
The Delhi College:
Traditional Elites, the Colonial State and
Education before 1857
ed. Margrit Pernau.
Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Pages 340. Rs 625.
Behind
every book there is a
writer. Are the books written for the personal gratification of authors?
Is the purpose utilitarian, educational or to gain public applause?
There are writers who publish books because they are inspired by purely
a disinterested pursuit of knowledge and to clarify the issues that
agitate them.
India
shows Europe the veg way
Mike Lockey
The Bloodless
Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India
by Tristram Stuart. W.W. Norton.
Pages 416. $ 26.95.
A
book, recently published in Britain, is an intriguing account of how
vegetarianism, influenced by India, has been a potent social force in
Europe over the past 400 years. The book is called The
Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the Discovery of India
and it has been written by one Tristram Stuart.
A
story of duplicity, deceit and doubletalk
K. K. Katyal
A J&K Primer—From Myth to Reality
by B. G. Verghese
Facts
speak louder than analysis
or laboured interpretations. The significance of this, sadly ignored by
sections of journalists, is borne out by the 73-page narration of the
Kashmir problem by B. G. Verghese, veteran journalist and author. A
J&K Primer—From Myth to Reality does not purport to be
elaborate history of Jammu and Kashmir or a scholarly critique. He
merely quotes from the relevant documents, avoiding his personal
opinions.
A
love legend of our times
Nirupama Dutt
Amrita Imroz: A Love
Story
Uma Trilok.
Penguin India.
Pages 128. Rs 195.
Everyone
loves a love legend, and
more so if it has tragic overtones with lovers dying young. Why go all
the way to Verona in Italy to find an example? Our own country has
legendary loves aplenty. Punjab, of course, takes the cake with
Heer-Ranjha, Sohni-Mahiwal and Mirza-Sahiban.
The
candid critic
Rachna Singh
Bombay Talkies
Mayank Shekhar.
Frog Books.
Pages 268. Rs 295.
Mahatma
Gandhi has suddenly become
popular with the "cool" and "hip" generation of
today. And it is certainly not because of any advertising
"blitzkrieg" by the government aimed at the awareness-building
of national icons. For this we have to thank none other than our very
own Bollywood blockbuster Lage raho Munna Bhai, which has made
waves with "gandhigiri". This has proved once again that the
Indian psyche has lost none of its fascination for Bollywood cinema,
Indian cricket, notwithstanding.
That
Lady of Lawrence
Raj Chatterjee
"She
is ripping — she’s the
finest woman I’ve never met — you must, above all, meet her. She’s
the daughter of Baron von Richtofen. She’s splendid, she really
is." Ninety-four years ago, on
April 17, 1912, D.H. Lawrence wrote those words to a friend, also
well-known in literary circles, Edward Garnett.
Anxiety
in e-future
Aparna M. Sridhar
Eimona
by G.B. Prabhat
Frog Books, Mumbai, 2006.
Pages 224. Rs 250.
A
sensitive portrayal of what’s happening to India’s urban digital
youth, G B Prabhat’s Eimona succeeds – and depresses. Cloaked
in gentle satire, it is nonetheless chilling in its portrayal of a
money-obsessed future that a section of India is hurtling towards, with
the only social prop being psychiatric web portals.
PUNJABI REVIEW
Of Puadh and
Pablo Neruda
Surinder Singh Tej
Puadh Darpan
Edited by Manmohan Singh Daon
Punjabi Sath-Panj Nad Parkashan, Lambra (Jalandhar)
Pages 144. Rs 140.
The
undivided Punjab had many
regions. Out of these Pothohar, Majha, Doaba and Malwa gained more
prominence. Each of these was blessed with a distinct identity in terms
of dialect, subculture, lifestyle and sociocultural milieu. After the
Partition, Majha, Malwa and Doaba continued to remain on the forefront
while Puadh, another distinct region, could not gain prominence despite
being a large geographical entity.
Back
of the book
The Interpretation of
Murder
by Jed Rubenfeld
Headline Review. Pages 407. £6.00
Manhattan
1909. A city of breathtaking
modernity, heartstopping skyscrapers and glittering high society, whose
opulence conceals a darker face: corruption, vice and murder. On the
morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on the steamship
‘George Washington,’a stunning debutante is found bound and
strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway.
-
Sex, Lies and
Online Dating
by Rachel Gibson.
Headline. Pages 276. £2.50
-
The Queen of the
Night
by Paul Doherty
Headline
Pages 301. £6.00
|
