Backflap

Bandu Dhotre, the green warrior of Chandrapur; educator Matin Bhosale, the saviour of hundreds of children; doctors Ravindra and Smita Kolhe working with tribals in Amravati; Shubhda and Dr Satish Gogulwar, empowering women through self-help groups, are among the changemakers from Maharashtra that bureaucrat Ashutosh Salil and journalist Barkha Mathur profile in ‘Being the Change’. At the heart of the book is Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings that are increasingly becoming relics in the maddening machinery of modern life.

When Khyrunnisa and her husband decide to travel to the US for their daughter-in-law’s graduation ceremony, they throw themselves into the preparations. At home in Thiruvananthapuram, the duo has never before travelled abroad. And what an adventure it turns out to be — full of peculiar restaurant rules, tipping norms, confusing subway stations and entertaining conversations. In the travelogue, result of a 40-day trip to America in 2018, Khyrunnisa returns to doing what she does best — finding humour in everyday life.