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Neighbours in
conflict
Himmat Singh Gill
A Tale of Two Countries by Rajinder Puri.
Har-Anand Publications. Pages 207. Rs 395.
RAJINDER
PURI, the cartoonist and columnist rolled into one, has put together
some of his columns published during 2004-2008 into a slim book,
focusing specifically on India and Pakistan, and to a lesser degree the
geo-strategic sight picture as obtaining in the whole of South Asia.
Untamed
writer
Punam Khaira Sidhu
The Shape of the Beast:
Conversations
with Arundhati Roy Penguin Viking. Pages 288. Rs 395.
THER’s
something "fey" about Arundhati Roy. However, her demure
fragility belies the tough choices that she has made and continues to
make. Her eyes bear the stamp of her progenitor, a fearless women named
Mary Roy.
Social
evil laid bare
Kamaldeep Kaur
Sunflowers of the Dark by
Krishna Sobti.
Trans. by Pamela Manasi. Katha, New Delhi. Pages 107. Rs 200.
In
Sailing to Byzantium, a novella anthology distinct from
Yeats’ famed poem, Robert Silverberg writes that a novella
"provides an intense, detailed exploration of its subject providing
to some degree both the concentrated focus of the short story and the
broad scope of the novel." Intensity and piercing analysis of
desire are the signifiers of this novella by Krishna Sobti. Once again
she has proved herself to be an iconic figure in delineating fierce
women protagonists who question the normative and mock the social
prejudices that seek to suppress them.
Force
behind globalisation
Santosh Kr. Singh
Patterns of Middle Class
Consumption in India and China
Ed. Christopher Jaffrelot & Peter Van der Veer. Sage, New Delhi.
Pages 300. Rs 695.
INDIA
and China have emerged as the two most powerful economies of the world.
It is being argued that the era of globalisation has benefited these
societies the most. The robust economic growth of unprecedented scale
bears testimony to this. However, the segment which has been hogging the
limelight is the ever mysterious middle class in both the countries.
A
rising star of poetry
Amar Nath Wadehra
Rooh kay Mander Par
by Rupa Saba. Modern Publishing House, Delhi. Pages 160. Rs 200.
"BEAUTY
and shayari are God’s gifts, when these coalesce they take the
form of Rupa Saba," observed Azhar Javed, the editor of Lahore’s
literary magazine Takhleeq. Such accolades are being increasingly
bestowed upon the Ludhiana born, Panjab University graduate, by
connoisseurs of Urdu poetry.
The
world of Maya
Shahira Naim
Behenji: A Political Biography
of Mayawati
by Ajoy Bose, Penguin-Viking. Pages 277. Rs 499
Posing
with her parents and five siblings in a typical black and white
photograph taken in the ’60s, there is nothing extraordinary to
suggest that a few years down the line this bell-bottom wearing daughter
of a Dalit clerk would emerge as the most promising and unconventional
political figure on India’s horizon.
The
last mango party
In the satirical novel A
Case of Exploding Mangoes Mohammed Hanif writes about the last days
of General Zia-ul-Haq
Was
Pakistan strongman General Zia-ul-Haq moved on witnessing the
last rites of Indira Gandhi and told so to his Generals?
Twenty years after the then President of Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq,
died in a plane crash in 1988, a debutant author, in his humour-filled
work, does a whodunit pursuit to re-imagine the conspiracies and
coincidences leading to the mysterious crash of the world’s
‘sturdiest’ plane after a mango party on board.
BACK OF THE BOOK
Colonialism.
Modernity, And Religious Identities
Ed Gwilym Beckerlegge,
Oxford University Press Pages 274. Rs 650
Exploring
the changing relationships between religion and the
socio-political context, this volume analyses the experience of
individuals and religious groups and also the movements during the
colonial period and after. It critically examines the process of
formulation of religious identities in South Asia.
LITERARY NEWS
Translation of
Sanskrit classic
Noted
Kashmiri writer Kshemendra’s 11th century Sanskrit classic
about the life and travels of a courtesan has now been translated into
English.
Former diplomat A.N.D Haksar has translated the Samaya Matrika, a
satirical tale by Kshemendra about a courtesan. Haksar has already
translated 10 other Sanskrit books into English Releasing the book, The
Courtesan's Keeper: Kshemendra's Samaya Matrika — A Satire on Kashmir,
in New Delhi recently, he said, "It is unusual because there
are only a few examples of satire in Sanskrit literature.
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