Author Archives: Thebookreviewindia

India are used by the author to periodically punctuate the text and convey Halide’s impressions in her own words. In fact, the title itself borrows from Halide’s description of her feelings for India. On the other hand are the three girls: Zoya, making her way from doodling to creating ‘national’ art, Nuran, scholarly and contemplating marriage, and Aisha, who sees herself as a ‘modern’ woman aiming to become a lawyer.

While Sister Agatha is a forceful, pragmatic personality, whose ‘outsider’ tag becomes useful, especially in getting access to certain spaces, where her ‘foreigner’ tag and skin colour open doors that may be closed to ordinary Indians. Avtar is the essential counterpoint to Agatha. He is rooted in the history and complexity of Old Delhi, and his own personal experience with displacement allows him to empathize with the missing Pakistani pilgrim. Together this unlikely duo of detective and assistant get caught up in non-stop adventure, starting with a robbery they witness just outside the hotel,

Iyengar’s women, in particular, stand out. They refuse to remain confined by the roles assigned to them; they are flawed, capable, contradictory, vulnerable, and intensely alive. Though their lives are shaped by limits and pressure, their choices—often brave,

The why of the crime becomes more important. However, these sections often err on the side of over-articulation. Motivations are explained and justified at length. In seeking to make the psychology legible, the narrative occasionally flattens it. The repetition of grievance, resentment and self-pity risks turning complexity into monotony.

her 14-year-old brother who has just entered the ‘Pew Burty Club’, has a bigger share of questions without answers than her even though he is older. Their Ma is a far cry from a typical mother; she tells her children that she picked them from a shop when she was in the mood and had to keep them as the shop didn’t have a return policy. She forgets basic household chores on many days,

Creating an absurdist world, it is not love but rather hatred and lust that are the clearer emotions in the novel. ‘The lines of love perpetually spiral into a whirlpool. Hatred and lust are better for they never fall prey to misunderstanding and doubt. Their manoeuvres, principles and rules are transparent…. It is love alone that remains trapped in doubt and suspicion, perpetually soaked in fear.’ The narrator celebrates lust.

it becomes his own creation. The first chapter in the source text raises some fundamental questions the novel raises, of the following of the traditional occupation of tending sheep versus taking up modern jobs and the priorities of people of different generations in the same family. The translator chooses to begin with chapter two in the source text. Unlike the source text that makes the entry of the tiger surreptitiously, even the word tiger is not directly used by the novelist until the fifth chapter and he prefers to use instead the word pedda nakka, the big fox;

Also, the translator Peer Mohamed Azees, might have done well to have given the meaning of those words that require an explanation the very first time they occur, especially the names of the various literary magazines that Pudumaipithan worked for. Also, it isn’t till page 30 that we are informed that Pudumaipithan means ‘the one crazy about the modern’. Equally inexplicably, a glossary is missing;

In substance, the government dominated over society in all the spheres of activities during the pandemic. Alekar further suggests that constitutionalism that respects the division of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial organs of the state and operates through mechanisms of checks and balances has been gradually on the wane in India since 2014.

The essay on religion from Dalit perspective underscores the significance of religion for Dalits. Moving away from the atheistic and rationalistic critique of Brahminical Hinduism, Gauthaman asserts the significance of folk deities (non-Brahminic) in strengthening Dalit struggle against Brahminism and caste.

Thus, it was that the Parsis found a home in Gujarat and Jewish traders in Kochi. Within India itself, communities migrated for economic and religious reasons. The weavers of Saurashtra fled their native land after Ghazni destroyed the Somnath temple.

the simple pleasures of the good old khichhadi, the stall for South Indian food with an old but sturdy way of doing business, and the changing design of the kitchens, among others. The essays around work were particularly fascinating for me. Today the job market not only offers different kinds of jobs and modes of work/bussiness but also a more fundamental change in our very attitude towards work. A work-life balance is unfolding.

In the author’s note at the end of the second book, Ranjith highlights his approach to writing about Parashurama after the feedback he received on the first book. At the outset he clarifies that he wanted to avoid writing Parashurama as a mere mortal who later came to be considered as an avatara. Taking creative liberties, which he is upfront in calling out,

The book is also one of the first to highlight his temperament and captaincy style in detail. It brings out both his meticulous preparation: spending hours in video analysis and attending team meetings with the bowling and batting units even when he wasn’t mandatorily needed, and his people-first management that balances his blunt honesty with backing for his players.

Equally significant is the attention paid to themes that blur the boundary between the international and the domestic. Issues of citizenship, migration, inequality, gender, and information are no longer confined within national borders. Books on law, human security, media, and social movements reveal how global processes are refracted through local institutions and everyday lives.

Questions of social justice that coalesce around caste, gender, class and marginalization are another thematic focus. Counting Caste, Elusive Democracy, Democracy and Impunity, A Woman’s Job, “New” Women, Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us and Boats in a Storm explore how power operates through social hierarchies and everyday governance. Finally, several essays further blur the boundary between disciplines, high politics, and daily life.

In conclusion, we should engage with the world, but smartly. Instead, we have seen a closing of the Indian mind and a lack of engagement over the last decade: We have abstained or stayed mum on every important international issue recently (the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the slaughter in Gaza, the bombing of Iran, the raid on Venezuela, etc.); we walked away from regional integration in South Asia (SAARC) and Southeast Asia (RCEP);

This pattern extends across security, diplomacy, and energy policy. Gloger and Mascolo demonstrate how military cooperation formats and confidence-building measures with Russia persisted long after Moscow’s authoritarian consolidation and rearmament were evident. Even more consequential was Germany’s deepening energy dependency. The expansion of Nord Stream and the systematic dismissal of Eastern European concerns revealed a strategic culture that equated economic interdependence with political moderation.

He suggests that with the decline of the West, other non-Western nations will be more important in the future world order, and that it will be marked by cultural and political diversity. His preferred description of the coming world order is that it will be akin to a multiplex, with multiple shows on offer, giving the audience a choice of plots, actors, directors and so on.

India built Afghanistan’s Parliament building. The author recalls Hamid Karzai calling him to a meeting to his Presidential office and telling him that his Cabinet colleagues and he felt that it would be only appropriate for India, the world’s largest democracy, to build Afghanistan’s Parliament House. India built the Zaranj-Dilaram Highway and brought electricity from across the Hindu Kush mountains to Kabul through power transmission lines.