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On top of the world
looking down on conflict
Reviewed by Baljit Singh
The Long Road to Siachen
The Question Why
By Kunal Verma & Brig Rajiv Williams. Rupa.
Pages 422. Rs 1500
In
the final analysis, the Indians beat the Pakistanis by a mere four
days`85..and so began the race, each side climbing heights higher than
the other`85." Kunal Verma. "As a last resort, to accommodate
the casualty (Body Bag), some limbs, I hate to mention, have to be
forcibly adjusted (sic. Twisted/ Broken). Such are the realities of
living and dying while serving at the world’s highest
battle-field`85." Brig Rajiv Williams. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the
Lion of Punjab, neither openly confronted the British nor submitted to
their diktat.
Towards a humane socio-political order
Reviewed by Ram Varma
Human Rights in India: Theory and Practice
Eds Justice A.S. Anand and A.V. Afonso.
Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
Pages 400+xxxiii. Price not mentioned
The
founders of our nation had earnestly endeavoured to lay the foundations
of a free and just society by formulating a Constitution that ensured
fundamental rights to all citizens. However, the awareness of basic
human freedoms and rights is an evolving phenomenon in mankind’s march
towards civilisation. Great thinkers and philosophers like Socrates and
Plato were comfortable with having slaves in their homes; Plato’s
ideal ‘Republic’ denied all rights to them.
Grim but spellbinding tale
Reviewed by Aradhika Sharma
Three Sisters
By Bi Feiyu.
Om Books International. Pages 307. Rs 295
Here
comes a book that has the makings of an epic novel, where one really
gets into the lives and times of the characters that grow and unfold as
one devours page after page. It’s a book that makes you want to sit up
and read late at night, even though you know you should sleep because
you have an early start the next day.
Textbooks that ignite young minds
Reviewed by M. Rajivlochan
Social Science Learning in Schools: Perspectives and Challenges
Ed Poonam Batra with
foreword by Romila Thapar (accompanied with a CD containing all the Eklavya textbooks). Sage.
Pages 320. Rs 425
Dissatisfaction
with textbooks has been as old as the history of modern education in
India. There hasn’t been a time in modern history when students did
not dump their textbooks and took inexplicable shelter in badly written
and badly produced mug books. Not just in India, but across the world,
the moment the masses were introduced to textbooks they quickly took to
mug books: a far simpler, cruder and often incorrect collection of facts
and analyses yet good enough to score well enough in the examinations.
Tackling tough economic realities
Reviewed by M. M. Goel
Fiscal Policy, Decentralization and Economic Growth in India
By Pradeep S. Chauhan.
New Century Publications. Pages 224. Rs 740
A
basic test of a good or bad economic policy is to check if it clearly
spells out how its different components are expected to achieve the
goals and targets of growth and stability. Fiscal measures taken by the
government are necessary but not sufficient to achieve its own
objectives and targets. To make it sufficient for the sustainability of
economic growth, there is a strong case for fiscal policy in
coordination with monetary policy and other physical controls in the
federal economy of India. We have to understand, analyse and interpret
the constraints, weaknesses and limitations of the Indian economy and
its policies for implementation
Sculpting verse
Reviewed by Jagdish Batra
My Own Khajuraho
By Rajbir Deswal.
DK's Books For All. Pages xxxv+103. Rs 125
In
order to be a poet, say literary pundits, one must fall in love with
words. Rajbir Deswal's My Own Khajuraho amply testifies to his
infatuation with words. As to how a supercop, presently Inspector
General of Haryana Police, whose calling is solving riddles mired in
crime, is able to maintain equanimity while managing the opposite poles
of poetry and policing remains an enigma.
Tete-a-tete
The truth behind the fiction
Sahitya Akademi winning writer Baldev Singh Sadaknama’s writing bares the scathing reality of life as he voices the concerns of those on the periphery
Nonika Singh
Habit of love
Madhusree Chatterjee
Love
and grief, motherhood, redemption and her hometown Nainital...Writer and
novelist Namita Gokhale runs her readers through a roller-coaster of
emotions in her first ever collection of short stories, The Habit of
Love, peeling the skin off feminine dramas across centuries in a
contemporary voice.
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