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enduring pain
Inspiring tale of a family
that sticks together through thick and thin
Balwinder Kaur
Does He know a Mother’s
Heart?
How Suffering refutes Religions
By Arun Shourie
HarperCollins. Pages 435.
Rs 599.
PAIN is the universal
equaliser. Who among us hasn’t suffered pain and loss that has left us
feeling helpless? Most look heavenward for help and hope in dire times.
Scholar, author, ex-editor and minister Arun Shourie goes beyond the
"Why me?" to "Why?" and looks for the explanation
for human suffering in numerous religious texts and discourses of
revered sages. In his book, he investigates how a kind, benevolent and
all-knowing God can allow innocents to be in agony.
Hard-hitting
satire
Uma Vasudeva
The Book of Answers: A Novel
By C. Y. Gopinath.
HarperCollins. Rs 499. Pages 337.
PATROS
Patronobis, the hero of the novel, has a bland and boring life, which
is further shattered when he inherits a book with answers to the
problems of the world. All that Patros wants is to be left alone—to
live his ordinary, simple, lacklustre and unremarkable life with Rose,
the woman he has not married, and Tippy, the son he has not fathered.
Tippy, a 17 years young lad, has been shown as a casual brat
"wearing insufferable, sack-like trousers and pierced navel"
not interested in education.
The
sacred feminine
Harbir K. Singh
Women Awakened: Stories of Contemporary Spiritually in India
By Swati Chopra.
HarperCollins. Pages 328. Rs 399.
THIS
book explores the idea of feminine spirituality through the lives of
women gurus who were able to renunciate and break the social bonds
such as matrimony, children, families and extended families to move
further in their chosen field with courage and determination. Divided into three parts,
the book unfolds the lives of eight awakened women—Sri Anandamayi Ma,
Sri Sarda Devi, Mata Nirmala Devi, Nani Ma, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, Mata
Amritanadamayi, Ven. Khandro Rinpoche and Sadhvi Bhagwati.
Leaf from history
Shalini Rawat
The Prince and the
Sannyasi
By Partha Chatterjee.
Hachette India. Pages 650.
Rs 395.
JAIDEBPUR, a mofussil town
in Dhaka in Bangladesh, was once home to the zamindars of the
prestigious estate of Bhawal in British India. It was also a backdrop
for a complex legal battle which captured the popular imagination at
that time and was later brought alive in gossip, songs, plays, ballads,
"jatras" and even a film starring Uttam Kumar.
Driving
force of dhrupad
Leading artistes and scholars
recapture the legacy of dhrupad exponent Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar
S. D. Sharma
THE
Indian classical music heritage has been constantly enriched with the
contribution of ancient masters, among whom was dhrupad exponent
Padmabhushan Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar (84), who passed away
recently. Born in 1927 in Alwar, Rajasthan, Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar
hailed from an eminent family of dhrupad musicians.
Tete-a-tete
Diva of
classical music
Nonika Singh
NO
one word can describe young classical vocalist Meeta Pandit. Lovely,
vivacious, spirited, articulate, gifted and, of course, hugely
talented and a mellifluous singer, the qualities of this daughter of
Gwalior Gharana scion Pandit L. K. Pandit and granddaughter of Pt
Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit are very many.
Short Takes
Sexploitation, cops and
verse
Randeep Wadehra
-
Masooma
by Ismat Chughtai
(Translator: Tahira Naqvi)
Women Unlimited. Pages:
143. Rs. 250
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Human in Khaki
by Ashok Kumar with Lokesh
Ohri
Diamond Books. Pages: 198.
Rs. 140
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Pearls and Pebbles
by Lalit Mohan Sharma
Books Plus. Pages: 78. Rs.
200
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