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.
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.’
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.
In her well-written book, The Communal Edge to Plural Societies, Ratna Naidu explores the social morphology of the communal question in India and Malaysia. She probes into the normative structure of communalism, the contextual differences between communalism and nationalism, and, most significantly, on the vastly different assumptions in the approaches of the political elites in the two countries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.