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Haryana: an overview
Apart from stating historical facts in brief, the book acquaints us with the state’s natural resources, its demography, and literacy related issues. There are separate chapters on agriculture, industry, labour, human resource development and Panchayati institutions. This book can be a handy reference book. My Guru in disguise
Coming from a privileged and well-known Tagore family the narrator’s mother had, as a child, earned praise from Rabindranath Tagore for singing his poems beautifully. Being a strong-willed person she chose her own life partner at the age of 18. But soon the marriage ended in a divorce. Her second marriage, too, was the result of a love affair. Although this one lasted, she underwent spiritual transformation that bemused her husband and made her children emotionally insecure. Several spiritual experiences narrated in this book depict the mother as an evolved person. She develops great healing powers and, in the process, gathers a large following of disciples and believers. One day she mysteriously catches fire. Instead of crying for help she walks into the bathroom and dowses the flames with water. Then she calmly combs her hair and goes to the hospital. She dies there a few days later after bearing immense pain stoically. Priya Mookerjee has a way with words that conjure vivid and enduring images. What’s wrong with
man?
The book’s title reminds one of the above lines from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man. For ages saints, seers, philosophers and poets have been trying to resolve the riddle called man – with, at best, partial success. Jaspreet Singh’s is but one more attempt in this direction. Only, his poser prompts cut-and-dried, rather than any prototypal poetic/ philosophic, insights into the nature of man. In this slim volume he has attempted to explain the mental conflicts that people undergo; he examines the various instincts like hunger, sex, possessiveness etc. He also takes a look at the influence that religion and consumerism have in influencing human behaviour. This monograph’s contents are quite interesting.
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