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Water use and misuse
M. Rajivlochan
Towards Water Wisdom:
Limits, Justice, Harmony
by Ramaswamy R. Iyer.
Sage. Pages 270. Rs 350.
OUR pot of water woes is
brimming over. That does not seem surprising, according to Ramaswamy
R. Iyer, since even though India is one of the few countries in the
world which is blessed with an adequate quantity of water, there is a
tremendous amount of mismanagement of water resources.
Incredible
Parsis
Arun Gaur
Sugar in Milk: Lives of Eminent
Parsis
by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy. Rupa. Pages xv+462. Rs 795.
IT
is amazing to note how much the Parsis have shaped the history of India
and how far reaching is their impact on the life-style of a common
Indian. We come to know something about this influence after going
through the 12 biographical sketches of the eminent Parsis given in the
book.
Moving
with the times
Ramesh Luthra
U. R. Ananthamurthy: Omnibus
Ed. N. Manu Chakravarthy. Arvind Kumar Publishers, Gurgaon. Pages 412.
Rs 495.
THIS
is a remarkable collection providing a comprehensive view of the man and
his works. A writer with a difference that he is, U. R. Ananthamurthy is
not confined to the ivory tower most of the literary figures are bound
to be. Hence one gets a glimpse of the major socio-cultural and
political forces at work in the country.
The
emerging Asian giants
D. S. Cheema
Billions of Entrepreneurs
by Tarun Khanna. Penguin Viking. Pages 353. Rs 595.
CHINA
and India can no more be ignored by the world as they represent the
rising power of more than 2.4 billion people (and still counting). Both
nations with centuries-old civilisation, unique history and similar
objectives are aggressively engaged in reshaping the future of the
world.
Empire’s
days are numbered
Salil Tripathi
The Indian Clerk
by David Leavitt Bloomsbury. Pages 478. £ 16.99
Srinivasa
Ramanujan was an exceptionally gifted mathematician who died at 32 in
1920. Born in Erode, now the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Ramanujan was a
clerk in a soulless government department, personifying the babu — or
the intermediary between the ruler and the ruled that Thomas Macaulay
had thought necessary for the British to rule India.
Graphic novels –
changing the way we read
Madhusree Chatterjee
THE contemporary novel
is changing shape in India. The latest entrant that is finding place
on bookshelves is the "graphic novel", which tells stories
through illustrations and prose in a single format. Kari,
a slim 116-page graphic novel that tells the story of Kari, a quiet
Indian woman employed in an advertising agency, her inseparable friend
Ruth and their life in Mumbai.
Hindi
in need of hardsell
Shweta Thakur
OLD
Hindi favourites like Chandamama and Nandan are no longer
attracting children to bookshops, instead Harry Potter is! Hindi
storybooks are fast losing out to the more colourful and well-packaged
English ones. "The circulation of Hindi story books was 15 percent
less in 2007 than in 2006," Manoj Sharma of Kitabghar Prakashan
told IANS, portraying a bleak scenario.
It’s
Barry for me
John Walsh
MIRROR,
mirror on the wall, which is the fairest Booker book of all? Trying to
judge literary excellence by committee means that the prize has
sometimes fallen victim to compromise voting, tokenism, or the suspicion
that a book suits the prize rather than deserves it.
SHORT TAKES
Bhasa, Nehru and NRIs
Randeep Wadehra
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The shattered thigh and
other plays
by Bhasa (translation A.N.D.
Haksar) Penguin. Pages: xxx+127.
Rs 200.
-
Use of metaphors
by Jawaharlal Nehru
by Rakesh Gupta Shubhi Publications,
Gurgaon. Pages: xvii+229. Rs 495
-
Diasporic studies
Ed by Gurupdesh Singh GNDU,
Amritsar. Pages: x+312. Rs 225
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