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India
is like that only
Reviewed by Nirmal
Sandhu
Implosion: India’s Tryst with Reality
by John Elliott. Harper Collins.
Pages 478. Rs 699
Aperceptive
foreign writer on India has an advantage as well as a disadvantage:
Advantage of observing oddities, which locals get used to and ignore,
and disadvantage of writing for foreign readers something which can be
irritatingly familiar for Indian readers. John Elliott, who used to
cover India for Financial Times and write for The Independent and The
Economist, tends to reinforce foreigners' belief that India is still
"a functional anarchy".
Our
tangled society, forever?
Reviewed by Khushwant
S. Gill
Indian Social Justice: A
Case for Review
by L. M. Khanna. Partridge.
Pages 221. Rs 1065
Is
India a 'just' nation? Are we, or have we been a nation of equality
and social justice. L.M. Khanna begins his book by stating,
"Social justice depends on two factors, how accurately a social
structure is perceived and how relevant are social laws. There was
nothing wrong with the social laws enacted by the constitution makers.
The problem is with the interpretation of social structure inherited
from the colonial times and the interpretation of laws to justify
it."
A
glass half full
Reviewed by Geetu Vaid
Half Girlfriend
by Chetan Bhagat.Rupa.
Pages 260. Rs 176
It's
racy, it's simple and it's characteristically Chetan Bhagat. Half
Girllfriend, the latest offering by India's favourite storyteller
in the recent times, is all of these and most of all it reads like a
film script. With full page-teaser ads, social-media hype and
marketing strategies playing at the back of your mind, it is difficult
to pick up this novel without any expectations at all. But in spite of
'Bhagat the bestseller' tag Half Girlfriend comes only half the
way in making an impression.
From
the land of the Arabs
Reviewed by Aradhika
Sharma
One Thousand and One Nights
by Hanan Al-Shaykh.Bloomsbury.
Pages 288, Rs 350
One
Thousand and One Nights or Alf Layla Wa Layla that later
got popular simply as Arabian Nights is one of the most
technically brilliant books that has stood the test of time and has
engaged many eminent scholars, one of them being Sir Richard Burton.
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