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Leaderless
revolution
Online activism has its own
dynamics. Here is the experience of a man who used Facebook for
effectively provoking "a nascent protest movement" for
freedom and justice
Reviewed by Shelley Walia
Revolution 2.0: A Memoir from
the Heart of the Arab Spring
By Wael Ghonim. Fourth Estate. Pages 320. £14.99
In
this recent memoir by Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian computer
engineer working for Google, it is argued that revolutions in the days
of the internet will not be learnt and theorised in libraries, but
will be spurred through the agency of social media and television,
"beamed directly into our heads". The book is the first-hand
experience of a man who used Facebook for provoking "a nascent
protest movement" for freedom and justice unleashing the
beginning of the end of authoritarian dictatorships in the Middle East
and Africa.
Riveting
family saga
Reviewed by Aditi Garg
Bombay Girl
By Kavita Daswani.
Harper Collins India. Pages 310. Rs 199
You
can take an Indian out of India but cannot take India out of
him. In fact, the farther away we move, the stronger the hold of
traditions and beliefs gets. Around the world, the great Indian
wedding still happens between two families and not two individuals.
Family approval is of the utmost importance and should the elders
decide otherwise, you can put your plans aside and start afresh. In
the mechanics of a joint family, it gets difficult to cater to the
whims of an individual and all decisions stem from the fulfilment of
the greater good. The strong patriarchal setup rules the dynamics of
the family and rebellion is not as effective as working your way
around things.
Wordcraft
alone does not make it gripping
Reviewed by Pooja Dadwal
Revolt of the Fish Eaters
By Lopa Ghosh. HarperCollins.
Pages 261. Rs 299.
With
Revolt of the Fish Eaters, debut author Lopa Ghosh
presents a highly dystopian world, punctuated with the sounds and
echoes of capitalism, the world of business and the scathing oddities
of life. This collection of nine short stories plays on the precipice
of naked truth and perceived reality. It portrays a fractured world to
a possibly fractured audience. Be it the Chairman’s Mother, Siberia,
Richest man in the world or Love Story of the Oysters,
Ghosh manages to narrate stories that, in essence, are very disturbing
to an average mind, yet are the thoughts that an average mind thinks.
When
the twain does meet in poetry
Reviewed by Jasmine Anand
A Peace of India: Poems in
transit
by Brian Mendonca Pages 80. Rs 200
Poetry
in the transit, the words not only shift places with the
sifting of thoughts but navigate from page to page through
cartographic and visual nitty-gritties of numerous sketches in Brian
Mendonca’s A Peace of India. This anthology of travel poetry
weaves Brian’s journey through Indian states via railway from
1998-2010; romancing his observation through the window seat, on the
move, contemporary allusions jostling with history, dipping into the
culture as well as purpose of life through his "gastronomical
tour".
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