History comes alive
Rumina Sethi
Sea of Poppies
by Amitav Ghosh. Viking. Pages 515. Rs 599
Through its narrative of displacement in which we see a conglomeration of Indians and westerners—a rustic widow Deeti, a mulatto American freedman, Zachary, a French stowaway, Paulette Lambert, head of the ship’s crew of lascars, Serang Ali, with a face that "would have earned the envy of Genghis Khan", a bankrupt Raja, Neel, sailors and coolies and convicts—Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies gathers together a varied crowd in the ship, Ibis, that sets sail across the "Black Water" after its journey down the Hooghly.

Meeting every consumer’s need
D.S. Cheema
The New Age of Innovation
by C K Prahlad and M S Krishnan
Tata Mc Graw-Hill. Pages 278. Rs 695.
This landmark work is the smartest and perhaps a ground-breaking blueprint for companies of future to survive and thrive in the new world shaped by consumers’ unique needs, wants and desires. The book reveals the necessity of co-creating unique experiences with every consumer by using knowledge, skills and resources available any where across the globe.

Hindi review
Poetic prisoners
Harbans Singh
Kshitij Ke Us Par Hashiaye Par Latka Bhavishya – Himachal Pradesh Ke Karavason Se Niklee Kavitayan
Edited and collected by Saroj Vasishth.
Pages 67. Rs 100.
Saroj Vasishth has been working with the inmates of jails for quite some time now. She has, during the course of her interaction, seen how creativity even in prisoners can transform their beings. One need not be as expressive and intense as Bhadhur Shah Zafar was when incarcerated but expression of emotions in a medium hitherto unexplored by individuals does release positive energy. Her efforts in Tihar Jail, New Delhi are well chronicled and the resultant poetic work of some of the prisoners suggests to what might have been.

There’s something about Amitav
Humra Quraishi
To be able to write consistently and churn out some of the best woven tales isn’t really easy. But Amitav Ghosh has been doing exactly this for more than two decades. Right from 1986, when The Circle of Reason was first published. To be followed by The Shadow Lines (1988), In An Antique Land (1992), The Calcutta Chromosome (1996), Dancing In Cambodia and other Essays (1998), Countdown (1999), The Glass Palace (2000), The Imam and the Indian (2002), The Hungry Tide (2004).

Laudable indigenous initiative
Jayanti Roy
Learning from Children: What to teach them
by Malavika Kapur.
Sage. Pages 198. Rs 395.
Bloody shoot outs in schools, suicides by adolescents, students turning chaotic, arrogant and aggressive! Where are we leading our children? We are giving them the best schooling, luxuries and comforts but denying them their mental sanity.

Age of problems
Randeep Wadehra
Anti-Ageing — Let The Silvers Sparkle
by Dr R. Kumar. Deep & Deep, N. Delhi.
Pages: xii+251. Rs 780.
Although the term CUPID in this book may conjure up amorous images it is actually an acronym, relating to medicine, which stands for a biological reality that we all face, viz., "continuous, universal, progressive, intrinsic and deleterious" process that leads to sagging skin, greying hair, loss of muscle, faulty memory, slower reactions and enfeebled libido etc.

Twin tributes to Twain
It’s a good thing that Samuel Clemens lived a long life, 74 years, because he had a lot of living to do. He was a sickly babe, causing his mother to proclaim: "I could see no promise in him." How wrong she was. Sam grew up to become a Mississippi riverboat pilot, a newspaper journalist and prospector in the Old West, a foreign correspondent traveling abroad and , under the name we remember him by, Mark Twain, a celebrated author and humorist.

Prequel to solve Treasure Island mysteries
Paul Bignell
The mysteries of Robert Louis Stevenson’s greatest work have enthralled readers for more than a century. And yet, at the end of Treasure Island, Why is Pugh blind? And, most importantly, where is the treasure? Now, after 125 years, there is at least the prospect of some answers. A book claiming to be the prequel to Stevenson’s classic novel is to be released soon.

Spice and spirituality
Madhusree Chatterjee
City of Love
by Rimi B. Chatterjee. Penguin. Rs 295
The year is 1510, half-a-century after Vasco da Gama made his first landfall in India. Bengal is under the rule of the benevolent sultan Hussain Shah. Four persons set out on individual journeys in the quest of enlightenment and bags of gold. One travels to the end of the world, another meddles with the fates of kings, the third loses all he had and the fourth finds the ‘city of love’.

Rebecca Miller’s novel set to become a bestseller
Sarah Marcus
The daughter of the playwright Arthur Miller is among eight emerging novelists who can expect their debuts to become best-sellers after they were included on Richard and Judy’s summer read list. Rebecca Miller, who is married to the actor Daniel Day-Lewis and has already found success as a writer and director, is the best known of the chosen writers.

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