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OFF
the shelf
Blueprint
and its architect
V. N. Datta
Ideology of Pakistan
Dr Javid Iqbal. Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore. Pages 208. Price not
stated.
Ifkar-e-Iqbal (in Urdu)
Tashre-i-Hat Javid. Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore. Pages 160. Price
not stated.
Touching
on several common themes, these two books are interconnected, and have
great bearing on the creation of Pakistan, and its future destiny. The
author of these works is Javid Iqbal, a former Chief-Justice of Punjab
High Court, and a Judge of the Supreme Court in Pakistan, a
distinguished biographer and Urdu writer reputed for his widely
acknowledged contributions in philosophy and literature.
The
best of a literary giant
Jasbir Jain
Sant Singh Sekhon: Selected
Writings.
ed. Tejwant Singh Gill. Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Pages 578. Rs 300
THE
Sahitya Akademi edition of Sant Singh Sekhon’s Selected Writings
is, in itself, a validation of the act of translation. It brings to the
non-Punjabi reader some of the best writings of a writer who deserves to
be known across boundaries and be part of literary culture and history
across languages. Sant Singh Sekhon, like Kartar Singh
Duggal, is one of tall
figures of Punjabi literature.
Many-seasoned
delight
The poet in naturalist Diane
Ackerman invests her writing on the seasons with a lyrical grace, writes
Harsh A. Desai
Cultivating Delight: A
Natural History of My Garden
by Diane Ackerman. Perennial. Pages 257. Rs 507
WE city dwellers—dwellers
of the concrete jungle, pine for gardens and if we don’t often get to
indulge ourselves, one can not help but get excited when the poet
naturalist Diane Ackerman writes a book about her garden. Well, I may not often walk
in a garden but surely I can read about one, is the sentiment.
Foundations
for an Eastward look
Sridhar K Chari
India and Southeast Asia
Towards Security Convergence
by Sudhir Devare ISEAS, Singapore/Capital, New Delhi. Pages 252.
IF
India is going to get a good "Look East" and make a success of
this oft-stated goal for more fruitful ties with our South-East Asian
neighbours, the foundations have to be laid in terms of a clear
understanding of both the dynamics of foreign policy vis-à-vis these
nations, and our actual objectives.
Pop
goes the classical
Hindustani Music, A
Tradition in Transition
by Deepak Raja, D.K. Printworld, Pages 432. Rs.490
Technological
advances have enabled the creation of a mass-market, giving in turn rise
to strong populist tendencies in Hindustani classical music. These
tendencies have triggered off a conservationist reaction, which insists
on sanctity of the dividing line between art and entertainment, says the
book Hindustani Music, A tradition in transition.
When
tales dog humorists
Randeep Wadehra
Wit and Humour of Haryana
by Rajbir Deswal Books For All, Delhi. Pages 124. Rs 60.
Jokes Apart
by Chetana Vaishnavi. Unistar, Chandigarh. Pages 128. Rs 40.
Subtle,
slapstick or cryptic, humour is indispensable to developing a healthy
social environment, a pre-requisite for civilised human existence.
Unfortunately, in our society jocundity is
looked upon as a sign of facetiousness-bordering-on-badtameezi,
thus rendering humour, as literary genre, stunted, if not still-born.
Rite
gone wrong
Elizabeth Nash
THE
Nobel prizewinner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, pioneer of the school of
magical realism and probably the best known contemporary author in the
literary world problems: writer’s block. "I’ve stopped writing.
2005 has been the first year of my life when I haven’t written a
line," the Colombian storyteller who revolutionised Latin American
literature said in a rare interview at his home in Mexico City.
Bestselling
author grilled on TV
Howard Kurtz
Oprah
Winfrey, embarrassed by her defence of a memoir after it was
exposed as partially fabricated, apologised and then lectured the
sheepish-looking author and his publisher in an emotional hour of
televised penance. Two weeks after standing by James Frey's falsified
tale of crime and drugs, the talk-show queen reversed herself following
a spate of newspaper editorials and columns assailing her credibility.
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