Books
Books
Heaven & Hell when East meets West
So what do you do when you are only 12 years old in a foreign land faced with classmates who do not want to sit anywhere close to you, a “smelly Paki” with a horrible disease called BO? Be smart; approach the issue “rationally”. You know from TV commercials there is a soap called Lifebuoy that “kills the bacteria that cause BO”.
Portrait of a city as a dicey place
Anuja Chauhan’s third novel — starring a father and mother, a houseful of daughters, and a nice bumpy romance between Daughter No. 4 and the tall, dark, handsome and difficult hero — has the unmistakeable whiff of a desi riff on Pride and Prejudice.
Mahabharata Remixed
In response to the oft-asked question, “How does one read graphic novels?” my esteemed colleague and author of The Hotel at the End of the World, Parismita Singh said: “Quickly, greedily, racing to the end. And then a slow return: go back to the beginning, savour it, read only the orange and the grey tones, pick up another element to read and so on…”
The pleasures and perils of diplomacy
Over the years there has been a surge of literary talent in Indian Foreign Service. More diplomats, retired and serving, are writing fiction and non-fiction than ever before. One creative member of the service, at an early stage in his career, has already become a millionaire without ever having been a slumlord.
Experts against quick-fix Afghan exit strategy
What is most important about Afghanistan In Transition: Beyond 2014?, is that it is the first edited book presenting perceptions of the Afghan mind, through papers written by distinguished Afghans with a rich mix of academic, political and media backgrounds.
On a journey to find routes to collide with reality
After his Masters in mathematics from Yale University, Anjan Sundaram “broke” with America. Having made up his mind in favour of journalism, he landed in the Democratic Republic of Congo that “consumed” him. Mathematics, he writes in the book, “was pristine, but it offered no stimulus to the senses”.
The Tiger roared, loud & clear
In many ways, Mansoor Ali Khan was a game-changer. To the manor born he may have been, that too with an impeccable cricket pedigree, who not only broke the mould as an individual — without compromising on his essential self — but also, in the process, gave Indian cricket the direction it has been following ever since.
Spunk, yes, but style-zero
Let’s say it right at the beginning. Kareena Kapoor: The Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva is a girl’s guide book from Celebrity La La Land. This first book from the stable of Shobhaa De Books is a romp through masala-topped junk food to junking them; size-zero heaven to surya-namaskar enlightenment; vegetarianism and Chinese stir-frys; Jean Paul Gaultier and FabIndia; Kolhapuri chappals and Jimmy Choos; skiing in Gstaad to surf frolic in Goa… till you are numbed with this inanity and left wondering if Kareena is 13 or 30 years old.
How Ulysses got seduced by the Sirens
Sandipan Deb’s Fallen Angel: The Making and Unmaking of Rajat Gupta is a racy account of the rise and fall of a man who typified both Indian middle-class aspiration and the American dream. Till his October 2012 conviction and sentencing on charges of insider trading, Rajat Gupta was an iconic figure.
Novel revisits Agra of intrigues
Teeming tourists, Mughlai gardens, glittering bazaars, yawning Yamuna and the Taj Mahal; sights and sounds of Agra are unmistakable. But, picture Agra three-and-a-half centuries ago: Turban-clad nawabs scouting cattle markets for finest horses, Kinari Bazaar flowing with rich fabrics, luxurious havelies dotting the river and a Taj too young to care for a mud pack face-lift; This is the historic city Madhulika Liddle chooses for her latest book in the Muzaffar Jang series.
