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The
shame of it
Tejwant Gill
Reading Partition/Living Partition
Ed. Jasbir Jain. Rawat Publications, Jaipur. Pages 338. Rs 750.
This
is a book meticulously
edited by Jasbir Jain, eminent teacher of English and scholar of several
Indian literatures. She seems to have read every thing about the 1947
Partition by rubbing it against the grain. Little wonder, her awareness
of this horrendous event is not just historical in retrospective
perspective. In prospect, it is existential as well leading her to focus
upon Partition, its corrosive correlative, of which the marring effect
gets into all aspects and facets of the social life.
‘I
have met them all’
Roopinder Singh
It
was not easy to write
fiction," says Neelima Dalmia Adhar, the writer of Merchants of
Death. The new work of fiction is from the lady who penned Father
Dearest, The Life and Times of R. K. Dalmia, a well-received
biography of her father, the well-known industrialist.
Poor
way to manage water
Usha Ramanathan
Keeping the Water Flowing:
Understanding the role of Institutions, Incentives, Economics and
Entrepreneurship in Ensuring Access and Optimising Utilisation of Water.
Ed Barun Mitra, Kendra Okonski and Mohit Satyanand, Academic Foundation,
New Delhi. Pages 286+index. Rs 695
In
the ‘therefore-land’
created in this book of articles on access to water and its economics,
the field is swamped with many, and varied, problems. The solution is
incredibly easy: privatise, and introduce the market to water.
Exploring
puzzles of life
M. Rajivlochan
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist
Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner. Allen Lane. Pages 242. Rs 295.
For
far too long cock-eyed
experts, with one eye firmly closed and the other focussed only on one
aspect of a complex issue have provided jargon ridden presentations in
lieu of any wisdom. It always takes a while for the normal society to
figure out that it has been had and that the expert actually was only
revelling in his expertise and leading the world up the garden path.
Pride
of Haryana
R.W. Desai
Dr Sarup Singh and His Times:
An Anecdotal Account
by Bhim S. Dahiya Shanti Prakashan, Delhi. Pages 152. Rs 300
College
principal, professor,
vice-chancellor, UPSC, member, MP, and governor of Kerala, Gujarat, and
Rajasthan, Dr Sarup Singh lived many professional lives in one
life-time. Bhim S. Dahiya’s 152-page fast-moving biography of Singh
brings to the fore admirably his roles as son, husband, father, teacher,
administrator, politician, statesman, and scholar.
Follies
of academic life
Kanchan Mehta
Above Average by Amitabha
Bagchi. Haper Collins. Pages 305. Rs 195.
Based
on author’s early life
experiences, Above Average, Amitabha Bagchi’s debut novel,
recalls Joyce’s Portrait of Artist As a Young Man and Marcel
Provst’s In Search of Lost Time. The narrator Arindam Chatterjee,
or Rindu, an image of the author, looks back on his adolescence and
college days.
When
fundamental rights are violated
Gaurav Kanthwal
13 Dec—A Reader: The Strange
Case of the Attack on the Indian Parliament
introduction by Arundhati Roy Penguin. Pages 233. Rs 200.
Will
hanging Mohammad Afzal, the
prime accused in the Parliament attack case, close a much debated
chapter in the history of a democratic nation? The book hinges on this
central question along with several accompanying issues related to
fundamental rights of a citizen.
One
more from Sir Vidia
Paras Ramoutar
With
a confirmed voice that he
has no plans to retire, V.S.Naipaul has announced publication of his
fourth book on India. He said that this book will be ready for the
bookshelves by year’s end. Asked that if his harsh criticism of India
in his previous works, notably An Area of Darkness, India, a
Million Mutinies, India, A Wounded Civilisation, have
changed, Naipaul said that these works are relevant today as when they
were published.
Life
of a babu’s wife
Neena Atray
Reflections: Experiences of a
Bureaucrat’s Wife by Gita Vittal.
Academic Foundation. Rs 195. Pages 164
Gita
Vittal, wife of the former
Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) N Vittal has, has taken a refreshing
look at the world of a babu’s life and times. She begins with an
account of her early days with Vittal and how they got married. Vittal
was 26 and she was just 21 and, according to her, "we were young
and there was nothing special about us.
SHORT TAKES
Ideal and
idyllic
Randeep Wadehra
-
Up in the tree
by Margaret Atwood Natraj,
Dehradun. Rs 175
-
Sunrays for Tuesday
by Priya and Sanjay Tandon
Competent Foundation, Chandigarh. Pages 217. Rs 150.
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Leading like Nelson
Mandela
by Martin Kalungu-Banda
Arvind Kumar, Gurgaon. Pages 136. Rs 150
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