Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Jamuna

Books To Read !

Recommended Posts

1.Addha and other stories

 

Gulzar

Rupa and Co

Fiction

Pages: 57

Price: Rs 50 (Paperback)

 

For those who miss out on good reading due to hectic work schedules and like to catch up may be while commuting to and back from the office, the new offering, Addha and other stories, by Gulzar, in a pocketbook format is ideal.

 

A slim, easy-to-carry volume with the text in a larger font size makes reading comfortable. The 57 pages of the collection tell seven stories, which have been selected from the earlier larger collection of Gulzar’s stories Raavi Paar and other stories. Some must also remember having seen these portrayed beautifully by Om Puri and Mita Vashisht in a series on Doordarshan, Kirdaar.

 

The writing is vintage Gulzar and the translation into English by Ashok Bhalla and Masooma Ali is competent. The rich timbre of the author’s voice resonates through the words and the translation retains the quality of the original language of evoking visual sensations, the hallmark of Gulzar’s writing.

 

The stories talk of incidents all can identify with: First love disrupted when parents decide that their daughter is now old enough to be married: Uske Haath Peeley Kar Do.

 

They talk of good sense without preaching: Addha is the man who is neither poora (full) nor pauna (three quarters), but Addha (referring to his height). His passion for dancing would have him "swinging his arms and shaking his tiny legs at every wedding procession." One day, when Addha was dancing at a baraat, Pandit tried to stop him: "Abey Adhey, how come you are dancing in the baraat of a Muslim.

 

Slicing the air with both his hands, he (Addha) replied: "Drums are beaten in the baraats of both Hindus and Muslims. And they are beaten exactly in the same manner."

 

The stories are brief, the nuances in each situation have been picked up keenly Ethey sadden, they pinch, they touch the heart. They span years without becoming prolix. They pick upon relationships, social evils. Each is marked by that one high point which changes a life forever.

 

For those who have never read Gulzar, be introduced to him with this collection. For those who know him as the finest and most sensitive voice of today, a recommendation of this book is hardly needed.

 

user posted image

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

2. Translating Desire

 

The Politics of Gender and Culture in India

Brinda Bose (Edited by)

Katha

2002

Fiction, Non-fiction

Pages: 311

Price: Rs 295

Paperback

 

Translating Desire is the second title from Katha's Academic Series dealing in studies in culture and translation. Translating Desire was brings together explosive new academic writing on the politics of sexuality and the production of the cultural text in comtemporary India.

 

user posted image

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

3. Delhi - nasty or nice?

 

 

But why is Delhi so disliked? Not just by those visiting it from outside, but perhaps as much by most of its residents as well. That was the subject of a fascinating discussion by a motley group on a cold Saturday evening at the Katha Centre.

 

Conducted by journalist turned researcher and would be author, Ranjana Dasgupta, the 25-odd participants, many if not most immigrants to the capital, soon had a lively discussion going over what they perceived to be the pluses and minuses of living in the city.

 

Criticising the city was easy, felt most. What they instead sought was a sense of belonging, which most felt the city lacked. Those from established metropolises like Bombay or Calcutta felt an obvious lack of culture coupled with an equally remarkable lack of 'city loyalty'. As Dasgupta cited, what was amazing was the writers, or indeed all and sundry could criticize Delhi and face no brickbats. Similar comments about other cities would raise a storm of protest, most agreed.

 

Re-vitalizing Delhi, to restore a modicum of its glorious past would require time, they felt. Delhi is still an emerging city, with most of its population still owing loyalties to other places. A small town when made the imperial capital in 1931, the first spurt in population came with the political independence and partition. And though there has been no second sudden explosion in the city's population, the steady influx of people over last five odd decades caused a declining Mughal town to suddenly become a national socio-economic hub.

 

And this large size seemed to cause a certain alien-ness, where different 'universes' seemed to exist, often without any interaction or knowledge of each other's worlds. And in daily existence, this seemed to translate into a lack of feeling, or even understanding of each other, was a refrain that went across.

 

But despite its shortcomings, its loudly dominant 'Punjabiyat', the city has it share of fans. Fans who felt that not only would the city be a destination of the future, but even today offered scope for warmth and togetherness which drew people from all across the nation.

 

People who felt they could no longer live in another city, despite all of Delhi's infrastructure shortcomings. Despite congested roads and freezing foggy mornings, babu culture and felling of loneliness amidst crowds, it was a city of great beauty, the occasional warm smiles and heartwarming gestures. A brutalized, commercial city that still had the power to surprise with its tender moments. A city that one grew to love, not just for its majestic monuments and lush gardens, but for those that make it worth knowing.

 

user posted image

 

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

4. Profiles, straight from the heart (Heart to heart)

Jairam Ramesh

 

 

Heart to Heart is a select collection of K. Natwar Singh's columns that appeared in various newspapers and magazines between 1985 and 2002.

 

Having had a distinguished career in the foreign service for over three decades and having been part of the ruling elite for an even longer period, Natwar Singh has had an unusually wide array of experiences and encounters, both personal and professional. He is a great raconteur and his anthology is replete with stories about the famous and the powerful with whom he has come into contact. Natwar Singh is not just a bibliophile but is also a noted author. His biography of Maharaja Suraj Mal, the Jat ruler of Bharatpur is among the most fascinating accounts of eighteenth century north India and his biography of his grand father-in-law, Maharaja Bhupendra Singh brings that colourful early patron of Indian cricket to life.

 

But first things first. Heart to Heart starts with a Foreword by H.Y. Sharada Prasad, Indira Gandhi’s speechwriter and conscience-keeper from the first day she became Prime Minister till her assassination. Sharada Prasad, among the finest wordsmiths of post-Independent India, and a role model to all sherpas still writes a brilliant column for the Asian Age. The Foreword is personal but is vintage Sharada Prasad Eerudite without being pedantic, scholarly without being verbose and serious without being boring. He sets the stage for Natwar Singh’s offerings but leaves the reader hungering for more. He owes the country his memoirs.

 

A rich menu

 

The menu that Natwar Singh serves is rich and varied. Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Rajiv Gandhi, Ronald Reagan, R.K. Narayan, Andre Malraux, Vaclav Havel, Octavio Paz, Gabriel Marquez, E.M. Forster, Rajaji, Radhakrishnan, Zakir Husain, P.N. Haksar, Zia-ul-Haq and many, many others including, of all people, Don Bradman. There are the inevitable tributes to Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Azad, Sarojini Naidu and Subhas Chandra Bose. Alas, Natwar Singh does not write of the days he spent with Zhou Enlai whom he served as a liaison officer during the Chinese Premier’s ill-fated visit to Delhi in 1960 that embittered the relationship between the two Himalayan neighbours. He met Chairman Mao many times but there are no impressions of the meetings.

 

Natwar Singh is known for his wit. When he was in Islamabad with Rajiv Gandhi as Minister of State for External Affairs in 1988, he was accosted by a journalist who said: Mr. Natwar Singh, you are known as a hawk, what do you have to say for it? His reply was : I do not know about hawks and doves; I run a foreign policy establishment, not a bird sanctuary! The journalist may not have known that Natwar Singh belongs to the Bharatpur aristocracy. Actually, he is a strange species: hawk when it comes to the USA but a dove when it comes to China and Pakistan. His chapter on Zia is a delightful account of a friendship that blossomed between two Stephanians. Incidentally, his Consul General in Karachi then was Mani Shankar Aiyar, another Stephanian and another ardently tireless advocate of an Indo-Pak rapprochement.

 

 

cont......

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On Nehru and Indira

 

Each of his chapters sparkles but when it comes to Nehru and Indira Gandhi, there is something special. And why not? Natwar Singh has seen them in all their glory. They made gigantic contributions which cannot be wished away or obliterated. Undoubtedly, there were mistakes made as well but Natwar Singh prefers to see the duo through the lens of their positive contributions and achievements. There is a longish chapter on Rajaji and the conversations the two of them had in New York in October 1962. In 1927, Gandhiji had declared Rajaji to be his successor but by 1942 the Mahatma had changed his mind. Natwar Singh’s admiration for Rajaji —who, according to some critics, was said to be the only politician to have a Hollywood Studio named after him (20th Century Fox!) Ecomes through loud and clear. So also does his adulation for Gandhiji himself of whom Natwar Singh says: “Among his many great qualities was his talent for spotting men and women of outstanding quality. For the real-life drama, this human magnet not only drew endless tides of men to himself but a supporting cast of immense merit, rare integrity, grit and political savvy.E

More than anything else, it is this trait of Gandhiji that has the greatest relevance today. Equally significant is the chapter reviewing Rajmohan Gandhi’s acclaimed biography of Sardar Patel. The indomitable Sardar would be shocked and feel insulted by the usurpation of his name by the likes of L.K. Advani and Narendra Modi.

 

While the book is a feast, its dedication to a deceased daughter is poignantly tragic. But Ritu will be happy that her father pulled himself up and put together this gift.

 

user posted image

 

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

5. Seeking proof of god in nature

 

 

An extract from from the book God Arises, which attempts to present basic religious teachings in the light of modern knowledge in a manner consistent with modern scientific methods.

 

With the splitting of the atom, all of man's conceptions of matter have drastically altered. In fact, the advance of science in the past century has culminated in a knowledge explosion, the like of which has never before been experienced in human history, and in the wake of which all ancient ideas about God and religion have had to be re-examined. This, as Julian Huxley puts it, is the challenge of modern knowledge. In the following pages, I propose to answer this challenge, for I am convinced that, far from having a damaging effect on religion, modern knowledge has served to clarify and consolidate its truths. Many modern discoveries support Islamic claims made 1400 years ago that what is laid down in the Quran is the ultimate truth, and that this will be borne out by all future knowledge.

 

We still show them Our signs in all the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until they clearly see that is the truth. (Quran 41:53)

 

Modern atheistic thinkers dismiss religion as being unfounded in fact. They maintain that it springs from a man's desire to find meaning in the universe. While the urge to find meaning in the universe. While the urge to find an explanation is not in itself wrong, they hold that the inadequacy of our predecessors' knowledge led them to wrong conclusions, namely, the existence of a God or Gods, the notions that creation and destruction were function of a godhead, that man's fate was of concern to God, that there was life after death in heaven or hell, as warranted by the morality of man's life on earth, and that all thinking of these matters must necessarily be regulated by religion. They feel that, in the light of advanced learning, man is now in a position to make a re-appraisal of traditional ways of thinking and to rectify errors of interpretation, just as in secular matters he has exploded myths and overturned false hypotheses whenever facts and experience have forced the truth upon him.

 

user posted image

 

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

6. Chance encounter with Mistry mystery

 

Reclusive authors give to literature a lot of its mystique. Though there is no Indian writer in the reclusive-class of say, J.D.Salinger, Rohinton Mistry comes close to it.

 

The three-time Booker Prize nominated writer even declined to attend the great literary tamasha hosted here last year by the ICHR, and no Indian journalist as far as I know has interviewed him yet.

 

The other evening, I almost pissed in my pants when I saw the reclusive author pausing by my side outside the Gentsfin the Taj Man Singh Hotel in Delhi. Since I had gone there for the release of Dom Moreas new travel book, for a moment I thought I am delirious, in a literary way.

 

So I took a few deep breaths and waited outside the loo for Mistry to come out (he took quite a long time since he would have been composing the first para of his next novel) and then accosted him. "Excuse me, arenft you Rohinton Mistry,?"

 

Taken utterly by surprise, he sprung back as if to avoid a Lennox Lewis jab and then a warm smile spread across his face. He was shorter than me and so I could look down on him. He was wearing his trademark black polo-necked T-shirt, and was in a hurry. But I wasnft letting him go and I had him well covered.

 

"A car is waiting for me outside and they have come to pick me up," he said "Can we talk for a few minutes, " I asked again as he started to move.

 

Then I shot off a few questions. He was still bitter about his experience in the US where he was harassed at the airports and so withdrew from the book tour recently. " They pick on little things to harass you," he said. "Your beard must have made them specially inquisitive," I said. Its been 23 years he said since he went to Canada and some of the agony of moving out of India is reflected in Family Matters. I got just enough time to tell him how much I admired his Parsi novels before he moved away and out. Later I learnt he was off to Khushwant Singhfs house for dinner and there the 8 ofclock dinner schedule is strictly observed.

 

Typical of a recluse he did not have an e-mail Id. But Mistry was kind enough to scrawl his publisherfs address so that I could write to him. "They give me all my letters unopened," he said. After he left I wondered about the psychology of recluses in an era where every two-penny author is rushing around to have their mugs on Page 3.

 

If you like, Buy the great literature online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

7. The Tiger By The River

 

Among the year's most talked about books, this one has two princes. Both are hunters. Both are on a quarry for the Tiger. Both are appeased. Not quite

 

Oblivious to the diktats of taut and short plot peripheries and most definitely irreverent towards the ubiquitous eIndo-Americanf tales that mushroom sporadically from the Indian literary milieu, The Tiger By The River is a definitive phenomenon that thrives on sheer force and magnitude of conviction.

 

The conviction is primarily the authorfs, who believes in ethe phantom voicef of his rich and vibrant past. In The Tiger By The River, he successfully relays this very heritage to his reader. The spectacular yet real journey of the protagonist, Swati Varma, to the heart of his origin, the ancient kingdom of Panayur, is both edifying and therapeutic. Even for the reader.

 

The first thing that strikes the reader is the generic superiority of the novel, much in line with books as The House of Blue Mangoes. The Tiger By The River compels the reader to engage himself with the narrative, which follows a course of its own. Interspersed with letters, reminisces, episodes and anecdotes the book ties up only in the consciousness of the reader. That is where the plot unfolds, because combining and combing through so many experiences over time, generations, history and legend, Tiger is much more than the story of a bereaved and bereft prince and his beliefs.

 

It works on the principle of duality.

Two princes, both descendents of the Panayur Kings, come home to the wonderfully mysterious realm of the papanasini in Kerala. Both bring along with them their loves. Both are hunters. Both are on a quarry for the Tiger. Both are appeased. Not quite.

Such is also the case with the writer and the reader. Unless the reader apprehends the unfolding history of the kings of Panayur, of Kombiyachan, Ponni, Antara, Gomez, the novel would fail to impress. The seductive, vividly erotic, magical lineage that is laced into the novelfs present is what enriches it.

 

The author leverages magic realism, a literary method the validity of which has been subject of much debate over the years, beautifully. It is in the leitmotif, the elusive and enchanting eTigerf, that this method finds complete representation. More so, the entire text of the tale veers teasingly between light and eclipse. If at one moment the reader finds himself in a contemporary situation in Scheunenviertel, he finds himself transported to the banks of papanasini in the next.

 

Tiger abounds in visual treats. The experience of the book is overwhelmingly sensory. One can almost hear the waves, sense the shadow and feel the ecstasy.

 

But more than all this, The Tiger By The River is a tale well told. A fascinating story that picks up from a very real contemporary context, a man grieving his wifefs demise, it stretches beyond itself to encompass a huge corpus of tales within a tale, thereby touching upon the rich cultural backdrop of South India, replete with legends and creeds. Thatfs how it is in India. And yet, few care to present it so diligently in a book. The wonder and the grandeur of storytelling is explored well, making Tiger a spellbinding literary journey.

 

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

Thanks.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

8. Translating Caste

Stories, Essays, Criticism

Tapan Basu (Edited)

Fiction, Non-fiction

2002

Pages: 262

Price: Rs 295

Paperback

 

Translating Caste is the second title from Katha's Academic series dealing in studies in culture and translation. It is also the second title in the Katha Classroom Text.

 

user posted image

 

If you like, Buy bestseller online.

 

 

Thanks.

Edited by Divyani Shah

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

 

9. The End of the Peace Process

Edward W Said

Penguin

2003

Non-fiction

Pages: 448

Price: Rs 350

Paperback

 

A new edition of Edward Saidfs passionate critique of the Oslo Accord and its aftermath, updated to include around twenty new essays about the events of 2000-1. Said brilliantly analyses the deficiencies of Oslo, and the reasons why the subsequent Middle East peace process failed so disastrously.

 

Buy bestseller online.

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.