War for control of knowledge
Rumina Sethi
Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia.
Ed. Pradip Ninan Thomas and
Jan Servaes. Sage, New Delhi.
Pages 262. Rs. 595.
This Thomas and Servaes’ book begins on a derisive note: "Intellectual property rights, trade-related intellectual property, patents—these terms sound technical, even boring". Indeed, they do, which is why this book had been lying on my table for a while and I had been a little reluctant to approach it. But, the authors’ own submission proved to be an encouragement and I found myself avidly reading the book, which turned out to be immensely readable.

Cultural critique
Amarinder Sandhu
Inglistan
by Rajesh Talwar.
Kalpaz Publications, New Delhi. Pages 208. Rs 180.
Set in the U.K., Inglistan is Rajesh Talwar’s debut novel. It portrays various faces of England and highlights the life of Indian immigrants there. The protagonist Rabi, a lawyer by profession, is a self-made man having humble beginnings. Practising public interest litigation in Delhi lands him a six-month scholarship to study human rights at Oxford.

Identity and loss
Tej N Dhar
The Burden of Refuge: The Sindhi Hindus of Gujarat
by Rita Kothari.
Orient Longman, Hyderabad.
Pages Xix + 206. Rs 675. Cloth.
The division of the Indian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 triggered a massive migration of people across the region, uprooting thousands of families, but for the community of Hindu Sindhis it was an upheaval of colossal proportions. Unlike the Punjabi and Bengali migrants, the Sindhis had no cultural space of their own in the new India to which they could go to for solace and comfort.

By the river of regret
Moris Farhi
Last Days in Babylon
by Marina Benjamin
Bloomsbury £14.99. Pages 324
History records that the Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, after conquering Jerusalem in 597 BCE, deported 100,000 Jews to his capital, Babylon. Frenziedly soul-searching, the Jews attributed their "exile" to Yahweh’s anger at their iniquity. Desperate to regain divine favour, they modified their religion from one centred on judgement to one centred on salvation. "Absolution" arrived in 538 BCE when Cyrus II of Persia conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return home.

Champion of satire
Peter Guttridge
Kurt Vonnegut, whose novel Slaughterhouse-Five was inspired by experiences in wartime Dresden remained a social critic to the last
As a battalion scout with the US 106 Infantry Division, Kurt Vonnegut was captured in December 1944 during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge. Sent to Dresden, he was imprisoned with other prisoners of war in the cellar of an abattoir labelled Schlachth f-funf - "Slaughterhouse-Five".

Franck portrayal
Parbina Rashid
FRENCH writer Franck Pavloff is busy absorbing the multi-coloured hues of India these days. First to Mumbai, then, down South to Bangalore, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram and, finally, to Chandigarh, all in a single visit. How many writers can boast of their books getting translated into four languages in a single nation? Pavloff’s international bestseller Matin Bruri (Brown Morning) has been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam.

The widest social malaise
Harbir K. Singh
Dowry Deaths: Legal Provisions and Judicial Interpretation
by Vinay Sharma. Deep & Deep Publications.
Pages 187. Rs 440.
This book, has dealt with the most relevant subject prevalent in society, dowry deaths or deaths related to it. The most commonly committed crimes against women are dowry deaths, suicides or demands of dowry, which have created insecurity and fear in their hearts. We read in newspapers and watch on television about such incidents everyday.

Female foeticide or genocide?
Manmeet Sodhi
Disappearing Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide
by Gita Aravamudan. Penguin Books.
Pages 188. Rs 250.
'...they would sedate the new born with a drop of opium and bury her alive in a mud pot. Now, they scan the uterus and abort her before she is born.’ Gita Aravamudan’s Disappearing Daughters is a ground-breaking work that explores the issues of female infanticide and female foeticide in India from a sociological perspective. The book has a foreword by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

Read Mills & Boon on mobiles
In an innovative distribution technique by Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd, mobile phone screens will now offer a handy, manageable and anonymous way to read some of the Mills & Boon’s tales of passionate love affairs. "For many people there’s still that embarrassment factor of carrying your Mills & Boon around. When you are using your mobile phone nobody knows what you are doing, whether you are texting a friend or playing a game," Timesonline quoted Alison Byrne, the UK publishing director for its parent company, Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd, as saying.

Story of desires and choices
Jyoti Singh
Two mirrors at the ashram
by Shiv K. Kumar
New Delhi, Penguin Books: 2006
Pages 223. Rs. 250.
With four novels, seven collections of poems, a collection of short stories, a play, a translation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, several scholarly works, the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 for his collection of poems, Trapfalls in the Sky, and the Padma Bhushan in 2001 to his credit, Shiv K. Kumar needs no introduction. He is well known at home and abroad for his literary contribution.

Back of the book
The True Name
Talk on the Japuji Saheb of Guru Nanak Dev by Osho
Hind Pocket Books. Pages. 528 Rs 295
Every few thousand years an individual appears who irrevocably changes the world around them in ways that are never immediately apparent, except to the most perceptive. Osho is one such individual: his spoken words will resonate for centuries to come.

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