Fuzzy boundaries
 Reviewed by Parshotam Mehra
India-China Boundary Problem 1846-1947: History and Diplomacy
By A. G. Noorani
Oxford University Press.
Pages 351. Rs 795.
INDIA's first Prime Minister who led the country for almost two decades after Independence had a great fascination for our major neighbour in the east, the great land of China. He rated India-China ties as easily the most crucial in the by no means uncomplicated web of our relations with the world at large.

Books received: english

Journey within
Reviewed by Shalini Rawat
Who Stole My Soul? A Dialogue with the Devil on the Meaning of Life
By Vishwa Prakash.
Synergy Books.
Pages 228. Rs 495.
THE devil in most religions is painted jet black. He is represented as the enemy of all mankind—as the one who leads us astray, the one who confuses and confounds as well as the one to be stayed away from. In short, the one who prevents us from achieving salvation. Why would anyone in his right mind want to actively seek him out?

A thinking man’s director
Reviewed by Nonika Singh
Adoor Gopalakrishnan: A Life in Cinema
By Gautaman Bhaskaran.
Penguin/Viking.
Pages 218. Rs 599.
FOR those fed on the Bollywood mainstream cinema, Adoor Gopalkrishnan is at best a cerebral film-maker and a thinking man’s director. Beyond that an average North Indian is perhaps likely to draw a blank. And it’s these blanks that Gautaman Bhaskaran fills with an incisive biography on the celebrated Malayam film-maker who is often considered in the same league as the likes of Satyajit Ray.

Existential hues
Reviewed by Rajbir Deswal
Pages of Life
By Amritbir Kaur.
Chetna Parkashan.
Pages 71. Rs 100.
AMRITBIR Kaur is essentially a poetess of the concerns of life. In Pages of Life, she has hope and despair, daring dreams, half-written words, lies and truths, rancour in the heart and reasoning in the mind. She has tried "summing up life in a fake sentence!"

Law as agent of change
Sumit Ahlawat
Social Legislation of the East India Company
By Nancy Gardner Cassels
Sage.
Pages 447. Rs 1,100.
AnY law or legal system could be the symptom or the cause of both order and disorder, and of justice and injustice. The development of what came to be known as the Anglo-Indian law was a long tortuous process, often involving contradictions in theory and practice.

Amazing always
Humra Quraishi
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s latest novel, One Amazing Thing, explores human responses and connections in times of catastrophe
CHITRA Banerjee Divakaruni is the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Houston. Author of 15 books, her works have been translated into 18 languages and two of her novels have been made into films.

Comic timing
New-age fare rules at India's first convention on this old genre
THE  seemingly fading world of comics came alive in the Capital, but with a difference, as comics on tablets and on iPads to reach out to the widest possible audience. The popular junction for expats and shoppers — Dilli Haat in South Delhi — was thronged by comics enthusiasts of all age groups at the two-day comics convention that concluded in the Capital last weekend.

Back of the book
 Rebirth
By Jahnavi Barua.
Penguin.
  Pages 203. Rs 250.

  • Sleeping with Movie Stars
    By Gitanjali Kolanad.
    Penguin.
    Pages 175. Rs 225.

  • The Comical Saga
    By Mayuresh Pokharankar.
    Frog Books.
    Pages 148. Rs 150.

  • Chanakya’s Chant
    By Ashwin Sanghi.
    Westland.
    Pages 448. Rs 195.

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