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The crisis of modernity
Reviewed by Shelley Walia
Collateral Damage
by Zygmunt Bauman
Cambridge: Polity. Pages 182. £14.99.
Collateral
Damage as a term is not unique to only armed conflict. As
argued by Zygmunt Bauman in his recent book Collateral Damage, it
is also "one of the most salient and striking dimensions of
contemporary social inequality. The inflammable mixture of growing
social inequality and the rising volume of human suffering
marginalised as ‘collateral’ is becoming one of most cataclysmic
problems of our time."
Musical journey
Reviewed by Suresh Kohli
Naushadnama: The
Life and Music of Naushad
by Raju Bharatan
Hay House India. Pages 356. Rs 599
Whatever
comes out of the author's stable can be nothing but a mine full
of authentic redeemed nostalgia: Carefully catalogued, nurtured and
memorised. This work is no exception but, albeit, not without standard
blemishes: full of self-aggrandizement and penned in a painfully
tired, laboured style coupled with repetitiveness, though forgiven
after the last page for the extent of informationcompiled, facts and
events revealed "entirely from memory". Therefore, huge
quotes ascribed by the author to various music maestros make many
other purveyors of the subject question the authenticity. It can also
be said at the outset that it is neither for a film writer/historian
nor for a lay reader, only for those who live by the immortality of
Hindustani cine music. It also gives a comprehensive account of latent
rivalries and politicking.
From Sir Alex, with distrust
Reviewed by Rohit Mahajan
My Autobiography
by Alex Ferguson
Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette.
Pages 402. Rs 1,299
Sir
Alex Ferguson, for 27 years the Manchester United manager and
the club totem, rushed through his second autobiography last year
after he retired. There's a supreme irony in this eagerness, for
Ferguson was never particularly keen to share information with the
media. Why did the crusty, menacing old manager open up so quickly? To
give expression to the pent-up thoughts of 27 years, to take potshots
at enemies, to justify and defend, and to make money?
Rebuilding
a rainforest
Reviewed by Doug
Johnston
White Beech
by Germaine Greer
Bloomsbury £25.
Germaine
GREER planting some trees, is there a whole book in that? The
answer is a resounding "yes" after reading this heartfelt,
sharp and meticulously researched account of the author's decade-long
efforts to rebuild a small corner of rainforest in her home country of
Australia.
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