Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

This collection of seventeen scholarly essays published by Subbarayulu over the last three decades in various journals and books deals with the socio-economic and political formation in South India during the period of the Cholas.

From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction comes another evocative novel with Indian-American theme! Subash and Udayan are blood brothers. Born a year apart, theirs is an idyllic childhood, like many others in suburban India.

The author’s aim is laudable: a study of the elite among the former untouch­ables or Harijans of Bihar. But who are the elite? To Sachchidananda they are represented in a sample of 200 graduates in urban areas and matriculates from villages. Further. the elite are drawn from ‘public services…

The authors’ profound love for Bhupen Hazarika, celebrated as the only great ballad singer in India till his death, comes out in their offering, Bhupenda: Bard of the Brahmaputra.

On the tentative UNESCO World Heritage list since 2010, Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan is not only a familiar name across India but also one that espouses academic and orientalist associations worldwide even today. Its origins, history and especially architecture are likely to interest those familiar with this unique establishment and its notable achievements.

Librarianship is a comparatively new discipline not only in India but also in the western countries. Though libra­ries and communication of information date back to the early days of our civi­lization, systematic approach to librarian­ship or information organisation, retrie­val and dissemination is a recent phenomenon.

Although the first part of the title of Alexander Riddiford’s book is not put within quotation marks, the phrase stands out, so that even the lay reader unfamiliar with Madhusudan Datta would guess that it is, in fact, a quotation. For the reader acquainted with Madhusudan’s oeuvre, the word ‘madly’ would seem typical of the exaggerated phraseology so beloved of him, and it is, in fact, taken from a letter to his friend Rajnarain Basu, describing his state of excited creative composition at the time.

Panikkar was one of the most colour­ful personalities, quzzical, combative, suggesting the cardinal statesmen of France, and equal to Machiavelli in his knowledge of diplomacy.

Mulk Raj Anand’s first novel Untouch­able was published in 1935. Anand, then a Bloomsbury intellectual, had written the first draft in 1929, while living in Sabarmati Ashram with Mahatma Gandhi…

The cover of Lakshadweep Adventure is certainly very colourful and appealing—it shows a youngster snorkeling amidst bright coral and fish, in deep blue waters. And within its pages, it aims to introduce a beautiful coral island chain: Lakshadweep.

In ancient times, the Chinese said that ‘at the time of inspiration’, the poet flew from one world to another, ‘riding on dragons’. This sudden great flight or leaping up out of the conscious world of rational perception into the fantastic realms of the subconscious is what gives good poetry its peculiar force and its fascinating charm…

Vikram, Aditya and Chitra are the key protagonists of Deepak Dalal’s adventure series. Inspired by adventure series like Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, these three teenagers get involved in incidents where there is a mystery awaiting to be solved.

Deepak Dalal’s Vikram Aditya series, of which The Snow Leopard forms a part, are a truly delightful addition to literature for children written in India. C.S Lewis once remarked that a ‘a children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.’

This is a study that attempts to deal with too many topics. Although there is much to the argument that an under­standing of the current international system presupposes a knowledge of his­tory, Chatterjee has put together an incoherent mixture of ideas…

How did story come to be born? The stories in this collection show how, overarmed by the forces of nature and strange and mysterious natural phenomena, early man invented stories to explain everything—lightning and thunder, the sun, the moon and the Milky Way birds and beasts and forests.

Vibrant colors and a quirky illustration of a pink monster with autorickshaw horns, draws you in. Flip through the book to assess it, and the Indian names gladden your heart. Ah! A children’s book set in an Indian scenario. Awesome. Anushka Ravishankar does a great job of narrating the interesting incidents in Moin’s life as he deals with the ownership of a monster.

Remember all those Enid Blyton stories that you used to love? You’d grab a Famous Five or Five Find-Outers mystery, and retire to a corner, engrossed in the adventures of Julian and George, or Fatty and Bets, laughing or gasping alternatively as they went rootling into crumbling houses, discovered secret passages or were caught by the local policeman.

The book under review is a reprint, with a short editorial introduction, of Wickenden’s Report on the Disturbances of 1942-43. This secret document from the old files of the British Government has been published for the first time, since this ‘important’ document, accor­ding to the editor ‘remains unutilized by scholars and historians of Indian Free­dom struggle’…

Do not be misled by the title. Being tone deaf, I approached the book with trepidation and was relieved that the ‘Lu Quartet’ is no music band. It comprises four school girls—Kakoli Chakrabarty (Kalu), Malabika Majumdar (Malu), Bulbuli Sen (Bulu) and the raconteur, Tultuli Basu (Tulu)—collectively known as Gadalu or with the more grand sobriquet—The Lu Quartet.

Ranjit Lal has a charming, humorous and wacky style of writing which immediately catches the reader’s attention. His articles, especially on birds and pets have endeared him to many, including this author, who enjoys all that is written by him. I was therefore keen to read this latest book for children and I must say I was not disappointed. It is an impossible story, of course, set as it is in a grand castle in today’s India, with all the trappings of a royal habitat. One of the protagonists is a real princess, Zafira, who makes friends with ordinary girls, including a boy, from ordinary, professional families.