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Talk of future but still
caught in a rut
Reviewed by M Rajiv Lochan
India: The Future Is
Now:
The Vision and Road Map for
the Country by Her Young
Parliamentarians
Edited by Shashi Tharoor. Wisdom Tree.
Pages 164. Rs 495
Twelve MPS, from the BJD,
BJP, CPI (M) and the INC have contributed essays to this volume to
which Shashi Tharoor, of the INC, is listed as the editor. Tharoor
insists they are young. All of them share their vision of what is
needed in this country of ours to take it forward. Since most of them
have been elected more than once and all of them have shown
considerable interest in political activism, it is important for the
rest of us to know what they think.
Vignettes of a shared
culture
Reviewed by Harbans Singh
Delhi By Heart
by Raza Rumi Harper Collins. Pages
322. Rs 399
This book by Raza Rumi
is much more than the "impressions of a Pakistani traveller".
In searching Delhi, the author is trying to understand his as well as
the identity of millions of other Muslims of the subcontinent. At
another level, it is also a lamentation about the disruption of the
Muslim narration that has woven itself into the Indian fabric through
the numerous Sufi saints who profoundly influenced the life, culture,
religion and politics of the subcontinent.
Helpless in god’s own
land
The Braj, as painted by
Goswami, appears to be obsessed with death. It is also means of
livelihood or an entry into heaven.
Reviewed by Parbina Rashid
The Blue-necked God
by Indira Goswami.
Translated by Gayatri Bhattcharya Zubaan.
Pages 190.
Rs 295
a rebellious young widow
finds her ‘self,’ an orthodox father crosses religious boundaries
to choose love over righteousness for his only daughter, a
power-stripped Thakur gives up his life under the wheels of Sri
Rangaji’s chariot, an artist chooses a Gandhi topi over his
generations-old practice of making Murlidhar’s idols and
hordes of widows die a little every day in order to save money for
their last rites.
Why
no focus on preventive healthcare?
Reviewed by Prabhjot
Singh
Winning over Obesity
by Dr Sarvinder Gandhok Mohindra Capital Publishers. Pages 152. Rs 225
healthcare
is one area where every state, whether developed or developing, feels
the resource crunch. While advanced societies face complex diseases,
mostly lifestyle related, developing societies grapple with
preventable diseases like malaria, cholera, gastroenteritis, diarrhoea
and tuberculosis. The burden of these diseases have to be borne with a
limited allocation. Malaria continues to be one of biggest killers in
Africa.
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