SHORT TAKES
Wealth of detail
Randeep Wadehra

Butterflies of North-West India
by HR Pajni, HS Rose and VK Walia
Atma Ram & Sons, Chandigarh.
Pages 115. Price not stated

Like homo-sapiens, in the animal world too the glamorous outbid their plain cousins and siblings in popularity stakes. Thus it is the colorful butterfly that attracts us while the grey-brown moth is ignored if not actually abhorred. Belonging to the Lepidoptera order of insects, both have two pairs of scale-covered wings. Butterflies, however, generally have clubbed, scale-less, thread-like antennae, and brightly coloured wings. Nearly all of them fly during daylight, but some tropical species fly at dawn or dusk, and a few are nocturnal. Moths’ antennae, on the other hand, are often feathery in appearance. Most moths wear dull shades of brown, and most fly at night, although some also fly during the day, especially in colder climes.

Butterflies’ life-cycle consists of four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (cocoon or chrysalis), and adult. The adult females usually lay eggs on a plant that serves as the food source for the hatched larvae. This book is all about butterflies in northwest India wherein you will find familiar as well as unusual names for these insects, viz., The Crows (Euploea fabricus) and The Common Indian Crow (Euplea core) that are hosted by such plants as Peepul, Banyan, Oleander etc!

This treasure trove of information – both specialised and general on butterflies tells us about their anatomies, reproductive organs, habitat and behavior, enriched with learned and thoughtful notes on their conservation. The photographs and illustrations make this well-researched tome indispensable to the scholar and the layman alike.

Before and after the Nanavati Commission Report
by Dr. Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia. Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Chandigarh. Pages 46.
Price not stated.

Terrorism in Punjab and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots continue to exercise the minds of our intellectuals. This slim volume tries to look at the entire gamut of issues from an Akali perspective. It pins down the Congress as the culprit responsible for starting it all. Ahluwalia finds Dr. Manmohan Singh’s apology as ‘strange’. Read it to get another perspective on one of the darkest phases in modern India’s history.

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