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Unlearnt
Chinese lessons
Amar Chandel
Are we Deceiving Ourselves
Again?
Lessons the Chinese Taught Pandit Nehru but which we Still Refuse to
Learn
by Arun Shourie.
Rupa & Co. Pages 214. Rs 395.
WHENEVER
talk veers round to the 1962 debacle, the general impression that the
Congressmen give to everybody is that it was a stabbing in the back by
the Chinese who deceived us by pretending to be friends and launching a
frontal attack on the sly. That is how our lack of preparedness and
abject surrender are sought to be justified.
Peace bid gone awry
M.R. Narayan Swamy
My Belly is White
by Austin Fernando. Vijitha Yapa
Publications, Colombo.
Pages 927. $20
THIS
is a revealing book on Sri Lanka’s now dead peace process, written by
one who was in the thick of it all. Austin Fernando was Defence
Secretary when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe signed the
Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in February 2002. In no time, critics, dominantly
from the Sinhalese majority, began to accuse the government of betrayal.
A bold new voice
Rajdeep Bains
You Are Here
by Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan.
Penguin. Pages 255. Rs 199.
GOOD
girls don’t booze. Good girls don’t sleep around, and good girls
certainly steer clear of potentially dangerous situations. Bullshit,
says Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan in her debut impertinent-meets-urban
daily-living book.
A
world of fantasy
Aradhika Sharma
The Lost Unicorn
by Amreeta Sen.
Writer’s Workshop, Calcutta.
Pages 202. Rs 200.
AN
extravagantly fanciful tale, The Lost Unicorn demands the
suspension of reality as it takes the reader to an unexplored world that
might have been. Sen says she did not consciously "think out the
novel".
Requiem to a bygone era
Aruti Nayar
Nehru to Iraq
by Shanta Vasisht.
Harman Publishing House. Pages 105. Rs 200.
THE
book is an account of the writer’s memories against the backdrop of
the struggle for freedom. She showcases significant political
milestones, changes in India and abroad and the leaders who contributed
to the process of nation-building.
Personal
exchanges from 1857
Cookie Maini
The Warner Letters
The Experiences of two English Brothers During the Indian Rebellion of
1857-1859
by June Bush.
Rupa & Co. Pages 414. Rs 395.
THE
mutiny of 1857, if I may dare to term it so at the risk of incurring the
wrath of the ‘nationalists’ like Veer Savarkar (and some of our
jingoists like the Bajrang Dal) who regard it as the first war of Indian
independence, had its underpinning repercussions for British India.
‘There’s
nothing great about the American novel’
John Lichfield
THERE
is no argument like a literary argument. You can criticise a
nation’s politics, or its cuisine, or even its dress-sense, but to
describe a nation’s books as ignorant is fighting talk.
Galbraith’s
book still essential reading
Stephen Foley
THE
late John Kenneth Galbraith attributed the longevity of his book The
Great Crash 1929 — published in 1955 and never since out of print —
to the tendency of history to threaten a repeat.
Back
of the book
Zubin Mehta — The Score
Of My Life
As told to Renate Grafin Matuschka.
Roli. Pages 201. Rs 395.
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