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Defining
individuals
Shelley Walia
Good Taste
by Peter Trifonas and Effie Balomenos. Icon.
Pages 260. £ 16.99.
Taste gives you the credentials of either
social acceptance or outright rejection. In an intensely engaging book,
critic and cultural philosopher Peter Trifonas and art historian Effie
Balomenos closely look at the absurdity of good and bad taste that seems
to be the single most important criterion of defining an individual.
A
historical chronicle
Tejwant Singh Gill
Sri Guru Granth Prakash (Volume 1)
by Rattan Singh Bhangu.
English translation by Kulwant Singh.
Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh.
This is the English
version of Rattan Singh Bhangoo’s Sri Guru Granth Prakash,
which is about the origin and development of Sikh history. Bhangoo
composed it in hybrid language, the script being Gurmukhi. Largely Braj,
it carried elements of colloquial Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian. In
spite of this, its reading is arduous. By bringing out this English
version, Kulwant Singh has extended its reading range. Its bilingual
publication, accompanied with the original text’s transcription in the
Roman script, equips these readers with a local habitation and name.
Tribute to
bachelors
Aditi Garg
A Bachelor Boy
by Upendra Tankha. Stellar Publishers. Pages 294. Rs 250.
Boys will be boys, and married
bachelors can be really bad boys. The kind whose wife is away and which
gives the naughty ‘mouse’ a chance to play. When we are unattached
and free of responsibilities that tie us, we hanker for that stability
and once we are in it, we panic and do the strangest of things at the
slightest of opportunities. And when you are a man who has just been
freed from the shackles of matrimony, albeit temporarily, you are all
too ready to play the field.
Influencing
icons
Jyoti Singh
Candid Conversations:
With Towering Personalities
by K. P. Bhanumathy.
National Book Trust of India. Pages 245. Rs 80. Jyoti Singh
Candid Conversations is a treasure
trove of interviews of major personalities of modern times—from
home and abroad—who have left their imprint on
history. A renowned journalist and former correspondent of
All-India Radio, whose columns have appeared in major national
newspapers, including National Herald, Times of India, Hindustan
Times, The Hindu and The Statesman, Bhanumathy is
particularly known for her attention-grabbing interviews during a long
career spanning over five decades.
Inspirational poetry
Shalini Rawat
A Poem for CRY: Favourite Poems of Famous Indians
compiled and edited by Avanti Maluste and Sudeep Doshi.
Penguin. Pages 184. Rs 350.
"...make way for the
children/They have to go much further than I have/Their worlds are many
and far ahead of mine/ Theirs is the sky, theirs the earth and the era/
Don’t call them flower buds; they are the gardeners/Hear my voice,
hear, the secret of love!"
A pitch for the
Prince of Kolkata
M.S. Unnikrishnan
Sourav Ganguly — The Maharaja of Cricket
by Debasish Datta. Niyogi Books,
New Delhi. Pages 204, Rs 1500
Sourav Ganguly is a much-villified,
much-misunderstood yet much-loved cricketer who had to prove himself at
every step to retain his place in the Indian team. His dignified persona
off the field, and his reluctance to speak out of turn, was taken as a
weakness by a coterie in the cricket establishment. He never clarified
observations about him by a section of the media, particularly the
electronic media, that quoted him out of contest.
Tireless crusader for
human rights
Harbans Singh
Aaj Ka Iran – Kranti Aur Asha Ki Dastan
by Shirin Ebadi ; translated into Hindi by Arundhati Devsthale. Arvind
Kumar Publishers, Gurgaon.
Pages 212. Rs 150.
When Shirin Ebadi was chosen
for the Nobel Peace Award in 2003, the reactions in her own country
demonstrated once again the divisive nature of the times we live in and
the fate that awaits those who refuse to merge their identities with one
set of principles or another. Chosen for her consistent championing of
the cause of human rights, women and children.
The art of social
climbing
Raj Chatterjee
Some of you who have read Irving Stone’s
best-selling novel, ‘The Passions of the Mind,’ based on the life of
Sigmund Freud, may recall the following conversation between the
psychologist and his fiancee, Martha Bernayse. Freud is giving her his
version of the events that preceded the expulsion of Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden.
Best in 25 years
Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone has been
voted the best book of the past 25 years, in a survey of book lovers.
The first book of the Potter series topped the poll conducted by book
chain Waterstone’s to mark the chain’s 25 anniversary.
Gone With The Wind back
again
The second sequel to
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind, an all-time favourite
novel, has been okayed by the publisher for release in November. It will
not be a sequel per se, but a retelling of the story from Rhett Butler’s
point of view. The title of the book is Rhett Butler’s People.
The new book has been written by Donald McCaig, who has authored
well-received novels about the American civil war.
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