Spearheading with R&D
Chandra Mohan
Technology at the Core: Science & Technology with Indira Gandhi
by Ashok Parthasarathi. Pearson Longman. Pages 327. Rs 695.
THE faith of Pandit Nehru in science and technology for the economic development of society was unequalled in the politicians of his generation. It was this conviction that made an impoverished country, where everything from paper-pin upwards was imported, embark on giant dams like Bhakra, educational institutions like IITs and IIMs, chains of R&D labs under the aegis of CSIR and atomic energy and space center immediately after Independence.

Colours of a cultural canvas
Archana Shastri
Indian Painting, The Great Mural Tradition
by Mira Seth Mapin Publications. Pages 464. Rs 3500
THIS well-produced book on Indian painting by Mira Seth focuses on the mural tradition of India as a cohesive and continuous tradition as distinct from the parallel tradition of the painted manuscripts and miniatures. It traces and maps the vernacular nuances across the diverse regions of the vast Indian subcontinent, unravelling, in the process, interconnections, influences and adaptations that are inherent in the maturation of a particular style or tradition.

Iraq revisited
Rumina Sethi
Baghdad Burning: A Young Woman’s Diary from a War Zone
by Riverbend. Women Unlimited, New Delhi. Pages 286. Rs 350.
Riverbend is the assumed name of a 24-year Iraqi woman who has the stamina to put down her experiences during the US-generated Iraq war. As Ahdaf Soueif says in her foreword, "This is an eye-witness account of an ordinary person who is not interested in giving us over-arching theories about war but the everyday agony of men and women who see their world shrinking as US soldiers occupy their country."

Master of imagery
Ramesh Luthra
Jibanananda Das: Selected poems
Penguin. Pages 82. Rs 150.
THE great Bengali poet Jibanananda Das had the honour of bringing a synthesis between Tagore legacy and the new trends in Bengali poetry. Rightly does Chidananda Das Gupta remark that even Tagore didn’t realise that Jibanananda Das would emerge as Bengal’s most important poet of the post-Tagore era, "destined to bring into Bengali poetry of his times an anguished awareness of modernity in striking language and imaginary."

Census facts and figures
Rajesh Kumar Aggarwal
Population of India in the New Millennium: Census 2001
by Mahendra K. Premi. National Book Trust. Pages 303. Rs 300.
Census data is extremely useful for identifying the nationally important issues of socio-economic and political relevance, besides planning and policy formation. It is the most important source of reliable information. The book is a welcome addition to the subject of demography, covering many aspects related to India’s population.

Spirit of adventure
Kanchan Mehta
The Leopard’s Call: An Anglo-Indian Love Story
by Reginald Shires. Author House. Page 178. $ 17.75.
THE Leopard’s Call is a comprehensive survey of a small town, Falakata, on the jungle grassland of West Bengal, with particular emphasis on the missionary Raymond Memorial School. Besides, it serves as a gripping love story of the Anglo-Indians, Reginald Shires and his wife Norma.

Little-known
children’s bestseller
Not many of today’s readers may have heard of When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne but, in its time, it had a mesmerising effect on kids, writes Lt-Gen Baljit Singh (retd)
WHEN recently I learnt that E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web had sold 45 million copies since its first print in 1952, I was instinctively drawn to another children’s book in our collection. When We Were Very Young was written by A. A. Milne and "decorated" (to use Milne’s word) by the artist Ernest H. Shepard.

A boom rooted in misery
It’s dominating the bestseller lists and is worth £24m a year. Literature of misery has become the book world’s biggest boom sector, writes Anthony Barnes
AS page-turners go, they are hardly the most uplifting of reads. The abuse, pain and betrayal are often relentless. But "misery literature" has now become the book world’s boom sector. New figures show that the misery memoir market doubled from £12m in 2005 to £24m last year, with up to 10 new titles vying to be top of the glums each month.

SHORT TAKES
Valley of sorrows
Randeep Wadehra

• Demystifying Kashmir
  by Navnita Chadha Behera Pearson Longman. Pages: ix+359. Rs 425.
  

• Groundwater management in India
  by M. Dinesh Kumar Sage. Pages 354. Rs 480
  

• Pedestals of Clay
  by Subodh Lal Parity Paperbacks. Pages 224. Rs 250.
  

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