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From February 22, 2007
to February 28, 2007
A Composite Vision Of History
Reading this important book by the well-known historian and
archaeologist K. Indrapala, which
charts a history of
Sri Lanka beyond the competing call of
ethnic nationalism and myth making
reminded me of a beautiful poem by the
noted Sri Lankan . . .
Varnas Of Modern Composers
The genre of Varna
in the repertoire of Carnatic music is
an absolutely vital ingredient that
forms the fundamental base for the
learning of Carnatic music.
Deploying Human Creativity
Creativity@Work seems like a contradiction in terms. For
most people, work is one thing and
creativity another, and ne'er shall
the twain meet.
The Truth About Wmd
An account of the way the Central Intelligence Agency
undermined UNSCOM's operations
Hiro
Of Substance
Speaking to Dilip Hiro is almost always like trying to
force a man out of his blanket on a
cold winter morning. He mumbles a bit,
takes time in finding his feet.
Print Pick
Fabmall.com has acquired an US based e-commerce company,
Indiaplaza.com and now onwards the
combined business will be known as
indiaplaza.in throughout the world.
Contemporary Fiction
This collection has 32 short and moderately long stories
resonating with certain commonalities
of popular Telugu fiction.
Announcement
Authors and publishers are welcome to send copies of their
books to The Hindu for review.
The Mother
She was born Mirra Alfassa in France in an affluent family,
was drawn to Eastern religions, came
to Puducherry in 1914, met Sri
Aurobindo and collaborated with him in
the yoga of transformation.
Two Celebrated Novelists
The books under review take a close look at two prominent
Malayalam writers. One is a critical
study of O. Chandu Menon, whose "Indulekha",
written in 1889, is considered the
first Malayalam novel. The other is a
volume celebrating M. T. Vasudevan . .
.
Bed-Time Stories
A collection of educative articles on sexual issues written
in a snappy, anecdotal style by a man
of many parts.
The Nation's Consciencevala
Eminent jurist, outspoken critic, Nani A. Palkhivala
devoted his life to upholding the
Indian Constitution
A Corridor Of Capers
Sometimes shoddy marriage of hurried sketch and pedestrian
photograph. The matrioshka style of
nested storylines becomes exhausting
at points.
Tale With A Twist
Shakespeare, Keats and Urdu shayari were quoted by turn as
Shiv K. Kumar discussed his latest
book, "Two Mirrors at the Ashram," at
its launch at the Taj Connemara
recently.
When Dancers Turn Writers
In a diverse country like
India, generalizations shouldn't have
much of a shelf life. Surprisingly,
they do. Maybe the phenomenon is
similar to bad habits being easy to
pick up and hard to drop.
A Tribute To Motherhood
A book with a difference. Very hard to come by in today's
world of materialism and rat race,
where sentimentality is a rare virtue.
Who Inspired President Kalam
The following is an extract from President APJ Abdul
Kalam's book, Indomitable Spirit,
printed here with the permission of
the publisher, Rajpal & Sons.
The Spirit Isn't High Enough
They say there is a novelist in all of us. This is proved
by the fact that a person who is an
architect by profession takes to
writing a fiction. This book deals
with a person's internal struggle on
issues relating to materialism and
spiritualism.
Exploring The World Of Birds
This book is interesting for the manner in which every
detail of Salim Ali's interaction with
nature has been vividly depicted,
writes Prerna Singh Bindra
Asian Themes
There was an inevitability in
Pakistan’s decision to assist the
United States against the Taliban/Al-Qaeda
partnership after the attacks of
September 11, 2001.
Fresh Print
Wonder what a still from Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali is
doing on the cover. Unlike the
Bengalis who can read the remarkable
works of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay,
most of us know the writer only
through Ray’s landmark Appu Trilogy.
Sense In Nonsense
In a dank forest an old crank asked if I would know/ ‘In
half an acre of ocean how many
jackfruit grow?’/ I estimated roughly
and said, ‘Begging your pardon—/ Just
as many as the prawns growing in your
garden.’
War On Terror
Two recent developments have highlighted the extreme danger
to world security that
US
President George Bush has come to
represent.
On Terror
Is the state a terrorist? Why does the editor of Tatler say
that
India can be everything but never
boring? What does a half-Welsh,
half-Gujarati poet have to say about
Chennai? Are literary festivals very
serious events with a glossy centre?
'Indians,
The Most Creative, Intelligent Race In
The World'
For those who may be wondering what the editor of Tatler is
doing at a literary festival in
Mumbai, here's some trivia:
Will Fiction Go The Jane Austen
Way?
More or less? Full disclosure or head-to-toe coverage?
Writers at a panel discussion that
kicked off the Times of India Kitab
Festival on Thursday debated the
question as it relates to sex in
fiction.
Broken Hearts Exist Only In Books:
Freud
When Geoff Dyer was researching his book on jazz at the
Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark,
he was asked several questions. Are
you a biographer? Are you a critic?
and so on.
The Yoga For Time And Travel
This book gives a glimpse into the immortal nature of the
soul as it helps us imagine what
travelling to the past or the future
through mind yoga would be like.
To Understand Science & Scientists
Better
"Do you understand science?" This may well be the first
question a science journalist faces
when meeting his primary source of
news, the scientist.
Book Talk
Arundhati Roy is to return to fiction writing, 10 years
after winning Booker prize with her
first novel, ‘The God of Small
Things’...
‘Bad Journalists’
The book reveals the underbelly of the media and is a good
read for anyone interested in the
news...
Mountbatten’s ‘Last Chukka’
There is compelling historical evidence that Lord
Mountbatten was not the most suitable
candidate for the vice-regal
responsibilities with which he was
entrusted by the war-weary British
Empire in its twilight years.
Playing It The Wrong Way
From Naguib Mahfouz and Orhan Pamuk to Salman Rushdie and
Taslima Nasrin, the jury remains out,
and rightly so, as to who actually are
the kinds of writers from the Muslim
world — at least with an Islamic
lineage and nomenclature, if not
belief — . . . .
In Search Of Truth
Ghamgeen Dehlavi is an unfamiliar name for the literary
elite of
Pakistan. This contemporary of Mirza
Ghalib could not gain prominence
mainly because he lived far away from
the main centres of literary activity.
Balochi Stories
The art of storytelling is as old as the mountains. The
short story as it is known today,
however, was developed in the 19th
century with the publishing of
journals and newspapers.
Children’s Book Review Of The Week
“The little world of childhood with its familiar
surroundings is a model of the greater
world. The more intensively the family
has shaped its character upon the
child the more it will tend to feel
and see its earlier miniature world
again in . .
Ecstasy And Trauma
Razia Fasih Ahmad is a towering figure in the literary
world and is the winner of the Adamjee
Award for her epoch-making novel
Ablaa-i-Pa. She has written an armload
of books.
Through The Looking Glass
Zeeshan Sahil is a contemporary Urdu poet who has published
eight poetry collections and made his
name for sparse, powerful poems
crafted with economy of language and
vivid imagery.
Anticipating Change
Competitive intelligence (CI) is described as a skill that
can be taught, a discipline that can
be used to improve market standing, a
means to knowing a customer’s
strategic thinking and an “ability to
see past market disruptions and . ..
No Cakewalk
The United States
is stuck in Iraq and some of the
unintended consequences of the 2003
invasion of that country by America
have bearing not only for the Middle
East, but the entire Muslim world.
Italian Mysteries
Andrea Camilleri is the most successful author in Italy,
yet little more than a decade ago he
was a virtually unknown septuagenarian
who had written a handful of
historical novels, including the
intriguing Il birraio di Preston (The
Brewer . . .
The Maverick Poet
The Mumtaz Hussain Adabi Committee and Irtiqa Adabi Forum
got together last week at the Arts
Council of Karachi to observe the
138th death anniversary of Mirza
Ghalib.
Remembering A Legend
To commemorate the 500th birth anniversary of Sirajuddin
alias Bayazid Ansari, who is also
popularly known as Pir Rokhan, the
Afghanistan Academy of Sciences’ (AAS)
Centre for Languages and Literature (CLL)
recently arranged the second
international . . .
Charity Begins At Home
Adil Najam examines the philanthropic attitudes and
preferences of expatriate Pakistanis
in
America.
To Each His Hero
Even Ronald Reagan is a hero to some — well, at least to
Paul Kengor. Ingersoll said each makes
his deity in his own image.
Dream World
If the idea of distilled rainbows and purple fish flying
through trees sounds exciting, then
this book is for you...
Rupert Checks In
An interesting read, this book has all the right
ingredients of a
Hollywood potboiler...
Nawabs And Nautch Girls
The story evokes the ambience of a bygone era, but the
translations of Urdu couplets fail to
match up.
For Harry Potter Readers
To find out if he is the `prophesied' one and more, grab
`Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hollows,' the seventh and final volume
of the best-selling children's series
written by JK Rowling. Psst! Rumour
has it that a couple of the Potter
characters . . .
Writing Awards
The winners of the Hutch Crossword Book Awards 2006 were
announced in Mumbai on February 21.
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