Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

Random Curiosity, as the name suggests, is a compilation of the answers to almost three hundred random questions that Professor Yash Pal received. In partnership with his son, Dr. Rahul Pal, Yash Pal answers each of these questions in his own inimitable style. Most people will remember Yash Pal from the popular science programme of the eighties…

Dr. Raza H. Tehsin is a well-known conserva-tionist and wildlife expert, and the book begins with high praise for his work on wildlife conservation in Southern Rajasthan and his vast experience as a naturalist. His love for nature is quite apparent when you read this collection of short stories based on wild animals and their interaction with humans…

‘This is a labor of love in more ways than one—deep love both for the scientific work that went into it and for the people whose language and knowledge are the object of this book.’…

Books about the history of the various ethnic groups of North East India may be found abundantly in libraries but those catering to the minds of young children are few and far between. That is why Who are the Nagas? in its attempt to reach out to children is a commendable effort. Haksar, a human rights lawyer…

The Lotus Queen, the first novel by Dubai-based and London- educated Rikin Khamar, is set in 14th century Chittor, the capital of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar (most of modern-day Rajasthan). It falls in the genre of historical fiction, as Khamar spins a tragic tale of valour and sacrifice around the time when Mewar is threatened…

At the very start, in her introduction, Subhadra Sen Gupta puts you in the mood to read. There is that rather obvious positivity in the opening/introductory lines that pulls along even adults like me. Who would not like to escape from the chaos spread around, towards those long stretches of exciting distractions holding sway…

Neither Bhojpur nor ‘Naxalism’ stand at the heart of the issues which this book raises. The places, the dates, the individuals—and the ‘-ism’ attributed to them-pale into relative insignificance besides the deeper causes, and the long-­running continuities, of the struggle for land rights and human dignities which is the real substance of this work.

Perky and precocious, Tiya the parrot lives in the great big banyan tree which is home to thousands of creatures—feathered bipeds, quadrupeds, centi, deci and millipedes. Tiya’s is a secure and comfortable existence amidst his many neighbours in a place where nothing changes but the seasons. Indeed….

The Puffin Book of Classic Stories for Girls was first published in 2010. Its title is misleading and yet not, depending on what you understand by ‘stories.’ These are neither original stories nor all short stories nor all of them written originally for girls or even for children in general…

The Storyteller: Tales from the Arabian Nights is a pretty good version of the Arabian Nights for children. It has some of the not so well-known stories in it such as ‘The King and the Physician Douban’ and ‘The Diamond Anklet,’ as well as well known ones, tailored for child readers. The familiar but very long story of Aladdin has been broken…

The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhandar the Iron Man and Other Stories has four terrific stories. ‘The Giant of the Bakery’ is about Molka the Giant, a fantastic baker. He comes to ‘a nice little town by the sea which is neither too noisy, nor too quite, and had neither too many people, nor too few,’ a perfect little town to start his own bakery…

When Ritu goes shopping in an ordinary mall in an ordinary city on an ordinary day and takes a perfectly ordinary elevator to the lowest floor, the last thing she expects is to step out into the Underground Forest. Trapped in this gloomy Forest, Ritu meets the Resident Magician, Serendipitous, and his assistant, Blanc-Noir…

Once again I have a bundle of books to review for the Children’s Special issue of TBR. Once more the books have nothing in common. There is no unifying theme, no single target group. When publishers are regressively dividing readers according to gender (pink books for girls; action books for boys), it’s great to have a bunch of books…

Faces in the Water is a fascinating tale for young adults dealing with the subject of female infanticide. The author has dealt with this sensitive issue in a very gentle manner coated with humour which makes the book interesting. In about 200 pages Ranjit Lal weaves the story of an atrocious crime that has been existent…

Every schoolchild in India is familiar with the history of the great Emperor Akbar who had ruled our country with strength, compassion and understanding. Not just a conquering warrior, he was also known as a great statesman, thinker and humanist, who succeeded in maintaining peace and harmony throughout his vast empire…

A common grouse that lot of us who are students of the social sciences grew up with is the lack of interesting literature on our subject matter that are not typically academic and textbook-like. These grouses have been aired over the years, over several cups of chai at dhabas. That there are varied texts readily available…

When I was asked to write a review of a new book of photographs by Margaret Bourke White sheer excitement ran through my nerves. While Henri Cartier Bresson has been a much talked about figure in the photo communities here in India Margaret Bourke White has in comparison been quite invisible at least amongst the discussions that have gone on among my contemporaries…

Three major approaches underline the bourgeoning literature on North­eastern India—the historico-political, the Marxian and the Pluralist. Emphasiz­ing on the class dimension of the turbu­lences in the various states of the region, the Marxian perspective has noted with concern, the evolution and growth of ‘little nationalism’ and nativist chauvin­ism.

To me the Bengali title that alludes to an older well known work, Rajnarayan Basu’s Sekaal O Ekaal, seems more appropriate than the English title. Ekaal Sekaal —Now and Then—would lead the reader to expect a story meandering between the present and the past. Daughters, on the other hand, gestures towards the much-interrogated…

This book is a collection of a hundred short stories by the popular Bengali writer who wrote under the pseudonym Banaphool (flower from the forest). The stories, whether set in urban or rural Bengal, contain the romantic whiff of nature in its broadest sense, including human beings. There is an old world charm about them…