Monthly Archives: November 2017

Meera Kosambi’s earlier collection of essays, Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History (2007) had introduced us to the writer Kashibai Kanitkar (1861-1948). This reviewer had been particularly intrigued by Kosambi’s section on Kanitkar’s utopian novella Palkhicha Gonda (The Palanquin Tassel, written in the late 1890s but published in 1928).

The structures of the institutions of family, society and the state acquire new dimensions when seen from women’s perspective. Factors like religion, social values and hierarchies intertwined with patriarchy play an important role in moulding women’s lives.

This collection of articles reflects in essence the dark brooding face of Kerala: the violence faced by women of all classes, castes and communities, experienced within families, at workplaces, and several institutions. What the studies also do emphatically is to extend what is already being established over several years now: that in addition to a socio-economic paradox,

It is a truism to say that the index of the civilization is the status of its women. The honour and manhood of the state also rests on its capacity to shield and protect its women particularly the weak and the vulnerable. The Indian widow has for long been a metaphor for the humility and capacity for self sacrifice to inspire the Indian fighting for the freedom of his country thanks to Mahatma Gandhi.

This book as the title implies, covers three of the most important issues in development namely gender, food security and rural livelihoods. Finding enough to eat still remains a major concern for at least a third of the Indian population despite high levels of growth and substantial investment in rural development.

The waves of liberalization and globalization in the Indian economy since the early 1990s have thrown up new challenges for labour. With the advent of new forms of production organizations, necessitated by the integration of markets, there have been drastic alterations in technologies used and processes handled by small enterprises in the country.

The updated and improvised new estimates on global poverty released by a World Bank study last August have opened up a new debate on the impact of these estimates on the poverty profiles of developing countries.

War and violence are usually considered taboo subjects for children, a task left only for the brave author. David Grossman’s stories are set around seemingly insoluble Israeli-Palestine conflict.

It has to be accepted that by and large, learning Mathematics is not one of the favourite activities among the young. This phenomenon is universal and found in varying degrees in different countries and different cultures.

These books are part of a series of Science books for Classes 1 to 8. It conforms to the principle of the National Curriculum Framework [2005] and follows the C.B.S.E syllabus based on NCERT guidelines. These books are well-planned and there is a systematic and sequential development from one level to another.

Reviewing the award winning (highly sought after, Silver award of the Geographical Association) ‘Horrible Geography’ series, has been a ‘horrible’ experience; as ‘horrible’ as Anita promises Geography will be! The new meaning of Horrible is now exciting, interesting, and delightful!

Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay is a well known and popular writer in Bengali literature and has numerous books to his credit. He has also made a great contribution towards children’s literature in Bengali. Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee has several translations from Bengali to his credit.

When girls were married off before or at the onset of puberty and relegated to household chores thereafter, the naughtiness or irreverence that makes fictional boys so popular was denied to them. For Sibaji Bandyopadhyay, the injunction from the Manu Samhita advising parents to marry off their daughters at the age of twelve neither authorizes the perpetuation of such an unreasonable,

What is the best piece of news about Urgum: The Axe Man and Urgum and The Seat Of Flames, two brand new books about to hit the stands? Firstly, it’s a post-Harry Potter release and, unlike scores of books written for young people, isn’t a Harry Potter rip off.

The art of great story-telling lies in the ability to retell a worn-out old tale—but in a style that is delightfully engaging, maintains its grip on one’s attention, and it only gradually dawns to the reader that this was, after all, a tale s/he knew about all along.

Wilderness was given to me to review many moons ago. I read it there and then, but have only been able to write the review now. It says a lot for the power of the book, if after such a long gap, the emotions still remain strong and vivid.

Half boy, Half God. What an interesting concept. When I first heard of the series, I was dying to read it and was happy when I was asked to do the review for this issue. However, it is juvenile, obvious, over-simplified and completely a-literary. But hey, it seems to work. So who am I to pooh-pooh it?

Picture the hero, a Transylvanian vampire, subsisting on a regular liquid diet of single malt whisky. Add to the cocktail mix a temperamental Tantrika going by the name of Sinistra, for a wife, a precocious water sprite called Koral, a vetal,

The idea of taking historical events and stitching a fictional story around them is not new. But the task of doing it in a manner that will interest a twelve-year-old is a challenging one, and that is what Anu Kumar sets out to do in this book.

This entertaining book by the author of the best-selling No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is about two boys in Africa spending time in the bush and learning about the habits of baboons. There are several other titles in the popular Akimbo series, all about different animals.