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Musings on the Empire
Reviewed by Rumina Sethi
Empire and Beyond
By Antonio Negri. Trans. Ed Emery.
Polity, Cambridge.
Pages 239. £16.99.
Restless
politics is the focus of this book. After 11 years in prison and 14 in
exile, the Italian philosopher, Antonio Negri, travels and lectures
all over the world; it is these lectures, delivered in 2003-04, which
are collected in this volume. Though we may call this collection of
thoughts "travel writing", they include serious
considerations about the nation-state, empire, Europe, multitude,
post-socialist politics and political philosophy in imperial
postmodernity. Of these, the nation-state, empire and multitude have
been much popularised in Negri and Michael Hardt’s two earlier
books, Empire and Multitude.
Crusade against injustice
Reviewed by Belu Maheshwari
Struggle for Gender
Justice: Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lectures
Ed. Murlidhar C. Bhandare.
Penguin Books. Pages 272. Rs 499.
A
compilation of 15 memorial lectures delivered in honour of Justice
Sunanda Bhandare, this book commemorates his death through these
gender-sensitive, well-researched papers. The choice of speakers is
eclectic, from political personalities like Sonia Gandhi, to
educationists of the stature of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, social activist Aruna Roy, many legal luminaries, Nobel
laureate Prof. Amartya Sen and Prof. Madhu Dandavate.
Profound wisdom
Reviewed by D. S.
Cheema
Corporate Chanakya
By Radhakrishnan Pillai.
Jaico. Pages 317. Rs 275.
TODAY, developed and successful
countries all over the world have created their own unique management
styles in consonance with their culture and heritage and have reaped
great benefits. A good example of this is Japan’s spectacular
success through ‘Japanising’ the management to fit in the
framework of their cultural ethos. The world has recognised the fact
that every sector of Japanese economy has shown tremendous strength
and grown considerably over the years. Obviously, analysis, synthesis
and adaptation of their unique management practices by such countries
was far easier as compared to the others who started copying them in
their eagerness to get similar benefits.
Key to happiness
Reviewed by Mohammad Imtiaz
The Manual of
Enthusiasm
By Yamo.
Enthusiasm Inc. Pages 256. Rs 240.
WE
generally complain of losing happiness after growing up despite the
fact that we were not as independent in our childhood. People work
hard to get things done, though the fact remains that things go on
"effortlessly" in life. Reason being that we fail to follow
our legend, and keep on loosing our true self. This is the tragedy of
modern man that he keeps on doing things just because he is assigned
to do them. People are trapped in the consumer culture and, therefore,
lose the very purpose of life. They fall deaf to their inner calling.
A brush with death
Reviewed by Kuldip
Dhiman
Consciousness Beyond Life:
The Science of the Near-Death Experience
By Pim van Lommel, M.D.
HarperOne. Pages 442.
Price not stated.
THERE can be nothing more obvious
than consciousness. After all, we seem to experience it all the time.
As the philosopher Rene Descartes said, you could doubt the existence
of everything, but you could not doubt your own existence, and that is
because you are thinking and you are conscious. And yet, consciousness
is the biggest mystery ever, and there are philosophers and scientists
who say consciousness is mere fiction, or at the most it is an
epiphenomenon, i.e., it is a by-product of bio-chemical activity in
the brain. Of late, the materialist view is being questioned, and
scientists are beginning to take consciousness seriously. Many now
believe that consciousness is somehow connected with the brain, and
that it ends with death. In other words, body is a necessary condition
for consciousness. That is why, when someone receives a severe blow on
the head, they might become unconscious.
SHORT TAKES
Learning the norms
Reviewed by Randeep
Wadehra
Broom Groom
by Kiran Bedi and Pavan Choudary
Wisdom Village. Pages: 168. Rs 195
Every society has an unwritten
code of conduct governing interaction among its members; this code –
seemingly static – changes with time. It is true that earlier
various communities, existing in relative isolation, had evolved their
own precepts and practices vis-`E0-vis hygiene (broom) and etiquettes
(groom). Gradually, communities began to interact on various planes,
leading to more complex B&G requirements.
Star authors lined up for the India debut of the Hay Festival in Kerala
Where there is a will there is a Hay
Fifty bestselling
writers, performers and intellectuals from across the world, including
Sebastian Faulks, Bob Geldof, Simon Schama, Vikram Seth, Shashi
Tharoor and William Dalrymple, will make Kerala their literary
playground for three days when the international Hay Festival debuts
in the state from November 12-14. The 20-year-old festival, often
dubbed the "Woodstock of the mind", traditionally opens at
the Hay-on-Wye in Wales for 10 days in May-June. Over the years, the
festival has expanded into international non-profit charity, with
editions in Colombia, Spain, Nairobi, Maldives and Beirut.
The India presence at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair was as diverse as the country itself
Fair chance
Shobit Arya
The Frankfurt Book Fair will
never be the same again. This is no doomsday call. Well, almost not,
but any regular to the most important book fair of the world will tell
you that the characteristic buzz of the fair is weaning away, and the
change, this time, seems irreversible.
Mechanics of art and life
Nonika Singh
His images are provocative and his assertions equally intriguing. “Often, I don’t understand my work… my works are completely meaningless… there is no value to it.”
But before you take one of India’s leading conceptual artist Sudarshan Shetty’s comments seriously, lest you get carried away by the apparent superfluousness of it, better take cognisance of the deeper truths of life hidden beneath his mechanised sculptural installations.
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