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Our ignorance
of China
Amrik Singh
Beijing Confidential: A Tale of Comrades
Lost and Found
by Jan Wong. Doubleday Canada. 336 pages. $34.95.
MOST
people look upon China as a rival and watch developments in that country
with considerable curiosity, which is mainly with reference to political
matters and not social developments. However, what kind of a country is
China and how things are shaping up are the issues that are seldom gone
into. While experts on China are confined to some of the specialised
institutes meant for that purpose, most of us remain ignorant of what is
happening there.
Life,
a never-ending celebration
Kuldip Dhiman
Just Like That: Talks on Sufi
Stories
By Osho, Penguin Books, India Price: Rs 295, Pages: 273
IN
the early 1970s, the inimitable Rajneesh or Osho was approached by an
organisation to speak on Sufism. Being conservative, they begged him to
not say anything controversial. Rajneesh agreed, and he gave a series of
discourses that left the listeners spellbound. He had shown unseen
dimensions of Sufism. Sufism is a mystic school of God lovers who do not
concern themselves with knowledge. They know only love, an undying love
of God in which they immerse themselves all the time.
Some
rare eyewitness accounts
Amar Nath Wadehra
Sarguzashte Inquilab 1857
Compiled by Kashmiri Lal Zakir and Prof Sadiq. Mayyar Publications,
Delhi. Pages 176. Rs 150.
CALL
it Sepoy Mutiny, India’s First War of Independence or the last
hurrah/gasp of India’s effete princely states, there is little doubt
that it was a cataclysmic event that firmly established the British as
the subcontinent’s undisputed masters. The revolt lasted nearly two
years. After the British annexed the kingdom of Oudh in 1856, many
sepoys of the Bengal Army—who actually hailed from the areas
comprising Utter Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh—felt that their traditions
were being trampled upon.
Destiny’s
child
R. L. Singal
Russi Mody: The Man Who Also
Made Steel
Steller Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi Pages 250. Rs 495.
Padma
Bhushan Russi Mody’s association with Tata Steel lasted for more than
50 years. Thus, his biography makes an extremely interesting reading
because of his phenomenal rise in that industrial house where he reigned
as its uncrowned king for at least three decades, winning the love,
affection and regard of all those he dealt with. His heroes, whom he
tried his level best to emulate, were JRD Tata and the American
Industrial giant Henry Ford, more because of their nobility and vision
than just their material success.
interview
‘I am
a writer by accident’
Sunil Gangopadhyaya,
Chairperson of the Sahitya Akademi, is determined to ensure that
neglected writers as well as languages get their due. Subhrangshu
Gupta talks to Gangopadhyaya on life, literature and his plans
for the Akademi
SUNIL
Gangopadhyaya, the renowned Bengali novelist and the poet, who says he
loves to be known more as a poet than a novelist, has been elected to
Sahitya Akademi as it’s Chairperson. Now 74 ( born September 7, 1934),
in 1985 he got the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award. His foremost task
in the Sahitya Akademi, he says, will be "recognising and honouring
several neglected and lesser-known languages and bringing all the
unknown talented writers into the limelight".
Bridge
between science and the arts
James Macintyre
Arthur
C Clarke, the science fiction author of over a hundred books including 2001:
A Space Odyssey, who passed away recently, is credited with acting
as a bridge between science and the arts. Clarke, whose grounding in
science allowed his fiction to act as the forerunner to real inventions,
predicted as early as 1945 that satellites would one day broadcast TV
images around the world.
Sobhraj’s
battle
Sudeshna Sarkar
Books
and film deals that helped Charles Gurmukh Sobhraj amass a fortune are,
ironically, posing the gravest threat to his bid for freedom from
Kathmandu’s Central Prison. He has been in the jail since 2003 after
being arrested and sentenced guilty for the murder of an American
backpacker in the 1970s. When his final trial in Nepal’s Supreme Court
reopens on April 2, Sobhraj will appear personally.
SHORT TAKES
Life, death and strategic
management
Randeep Wadehra
-
Life is, Death is not
Compiled and edited by
Satjit Wadva. Lahore Book Shop, Ludhiana. Pages 160. Rs 300
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Competing with the best
by Rajnish Karki. Penguin
Portfolio.
Pages xi+242. Rs 450
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Gurmat Quotient
by Bhupinder Singh. Sanbun,
New Delhi. Pages 108. Rs 125.
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