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For the love of India’s tigers
Reviewed by Lieutenant-General (Retd) Baljit Singh
Tiger Warrior: Fateh Singh Rathore of Ranthambhore
By Soonoo Taraporewala
Penguin-Viking. Pages 222. Rs 499
ON February 11, 2011, the Worldwide Wildlife Fund International (WWF) conferred on Fateh Singh Rathore (FSR) their prestigious, Conservation Award “For a lifetime of outstanding contribution to wildlife conservation, and for being a true champion for wild Tigers of India.” This, last of nine such awards, arrived barely 12 days before, FSR was plucked by cancer on March 1, 2011. Though FSR had had no formal education in any discipline of the natural sciences, yet in just two decades of imbibed field experience inside a game sanctuary, his opinions on the management of wildlife in general and the tiger in particular came to be respected by the conservation fraternity world-wide and almost worshipped by the lay nature enthusiasts. At the core of this acclaim was FSR’s unerring comprehension, of the ways of the tiger in the wild.
What is not right with Left
Reviewed by Mohammad Imtiaz
Marxism in India: From Decline to Debacle
by Kiran Maitra
Lotus Collection, Roli Books. Pages 304. Rs 295
Kiran
Maitra, an accredited member of the Communist Party of India, is one of the most authentic historians to narrate the ups and downs of the Communist movement. The socialist revolution in Russia came at a time when India was struggling against British rule, thus uplifting the morale of the freedom fighters. Yet they were not ready to accept socialism as an ideology. One of the finest examples is that of Lala
Hardyal, who despite writing a life-sketch of Karl Marx, never agreed with the latter’s views.
The soul is not for all to see
Reviewed by Priyanka Singh
Nobody Can Love You More
By Mayank Austen Soofi.
Penguin Viking. Pages 225. Rs 399
thE dark world of sex trade subsists on the fringes of society, never crisscrossing, always aligned. The author spent years in Delhi’s GB Road to understand the unforgiving lives of marginalised women for what it really is, stripped of dignity, and with no means to retrace their steps in the dour alley. The only sliver of relief comes either through death or if by some stroke of luck and endless struggle, a woman becomes a kotha malik — her first attempt at an “independent existence".
A tale of draconian law, crime and punishment
Reviewed by Parbina Rashid
Blasphemy
By Asia Bibi with Anne Isabelle Tollet
Hachette. Pages 137. Rs 350
Coming
from a family, which has been a melting pot of different faiths, religious intolerance is an emotion that is alien to me. With my limited understanding of religion, I often wonder what it is about faith that empowers most believers with the absolute authority to judge others!
Making job creators out of job seekers
Reviewed by Vipul Grover
Making Entrepreneurs: Lessons from a Lifetime
By Chandra Mohan
Gyan Books. Pages 296. Rs 500
Pandit Nehru’s
faith in science and technology as the principal instrument for lifting a society out of poverty and hunger was well known, writes Chandra Mohan at the beginning of one of the chapters in his book Making Entrepreneurs: Lessons from a Lifetime.
Non-Fiction Bestsellers
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