By A.R. Venkatachalapathy

Before long, Chidambaram Pillai became drawn into the scheme initiated by a few Tuticorin traders to charter a steamer from a Bombay-based firm called Shah Line Company. He successfully exerted himself on behalf of this syndicate. By April 1906, the first chartered steamers arrived in Tuticorin; two months later there commenced a regular ‘Swadeshi’ service to Colombo. Soon, though, there was discord between the Swadeshi syndicate and the Shah Line Company. In an audacious move, Chidambaram Pillai now set about to create an indigenous shipping company with its own steamers. The first prospectus appeared in August 1906, and by October SSNCo was registered as a limited liability joint-stock firm. We learn, too,


Reviewed by: Prashant Kidambi
By Radha Kumar

A lengthy discussion on the importance of the Constitution in the making of the Indian Republic is found in the chapter titled, ‘Citizen and Community’. The section provides critical insights into the complexities associated with the drafting of the Indian Constitution. The process of its drafting has been delineated in detail by the author. Along with underlining the important role that Ambedkar and other members of the Constituent Assembly played in the making of the Indian Constitution,


Reviewed by: Amol Saghar
By Sharmila Purkayastha

he pivotal chapters, ‘The Turning Point’ and ‘Behind High Walls: Naxalite Narratives’, mark a significant shift as the author delves into the Naxalbari uprising and the ensuing political mobilization in the twin cities of Naxalbari and Srikakulam during the 1970s. Through in-depth testimonies and case studies, the author brings to the forefront the lived experiences of women political prisoners like Kalpana Bose, Joya Mitra, Rita Banerjee, Rajashri Dasgupta and women guerillas such as Shanti Munda.


Reviewed by: Sabah Hussain
By Iqbal S. Hasnain

The author seems to be too obsessed with Iran and Shias, he looks suspiciously at anything which is associated with Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Sunnis and this he seems to be doing without caring for facts. His assertion that ‘a message had gone across to global Sunni and Arab communities that the US had snatched Iraq from the hands of true Islam and delivered it to the heretic Shias’


Reviewed by: Mirza Asmer Beg
By Kazi Nazrul Islam. Translated from the original Bengali by Radha Chakravarty

It is unfortunate, but not totally surprising, therefore that some jealous people strove to create a rift between Islam and Tagore. In the poem ‘Kandari Hushiar’, which we have mentioned earlier, Islam used the word ‘khoon’ for blood. This was objected to by a number of writers associated with the magazine Shanibarer Chithi. In this context Tagore also critiqued Islam’s frequent use of Arabic and Persian words in Bengali poetry. He was deeply hurt and reacting to this controversy, wrote the essay, ‘Borar Piriti Balir Bandh’.


Reviewed by: Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee
By Gurcharan Das

Parents influence our thoughts and reactions—and actions—to a very large extent, perhaps much more than we realize, and their respective beliefs of what constitutes life which sometimes may be in conflict with each other, often define our life and enclose it in a figurative pair of parentheses. Although there can be no doubt as to their good intentions regarding their desire to see their child succeed in life, they may both not necessarily envisage the same sort of success. And neither of them might subscribe to the ideas that their child has about getting on in life, of embarking on their own quest,


Reviewed by: Malati Mathur
By Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’. Translated from the original Hindi by Gautam Choubey

The book begins with ‘Sukul’s Wife’, a story of vidrohi tevar (revolutionary zeal). While celebrating the idea of a choice marriage between an inter-faith couple, it is traversed by organized orthodoxy—there is much discussion on choti­—the tuft of hair epitomizing exalted caste, female autonomy, gastronomical preferences, the psyche of man-woman relationship, and so on.


Reviewed by: Umesh Kumar
By Vinod Bhardwaj. Translated from the original Hindi by Brij Sharma

The book reads like a collection of salacious and malicious gossip hung from the washline of a drab and nuanceless narrative voice to look like a novella and seductively titled as a ‘diary’. It is neither literary, nor anti-literary. The characters—artists, curators, gallery owners, critics, art dealers, models and maids—are cardboard figures. Only dogs and mice have some life and seem interesting.


Reviewed by: Rajesh Sharma
By Nanak Singh. Translated from the original Punjabi by Navdeep Suri

Satnam’s ideals are also shaken and tested by his response to the brutal reality he confronts almost daily and the tragic story of the young refugee Krishna and her old Babaji who have lost everyone in the carnage which erupted in Punjab in March 1947. Ironically however, it is Krishna’s views on communal amity and the teachings of the Tenth Guru to ‘recognize all of humanity as a single creed of mankind’, which pull him back from the path of retribution and vengeance.


Reviewed by: Ranjana Kaul
By Harekrishna Deka. Translated from the original Assamese by Navamalati Neog Chakraborty

In a similar vein, the text also serves to convey a merger of the canonical and kitsch: ‘My acquiescence to the belief of these innocent people in the hands of a divinity sending this book for their spiritual solace, got a rude jolt. What the priest believed to be a religious book was in fact a book of pornography!’ (p. 47; translator’s italics). By enacting such reversals, the novel emerges as a specimen of the postmodern critical enterprise that seeks to uncover the ways in which artefacts acquire cultural underpinnings.


Reviewed by: Ajitabh Hazarika
By Sandhya Mary. Translated from the original Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil

The brilliant presentation of contemporary life through anecdotes, especially, the one that narrates the incident of the madamma (white/foreign woman) who took a dog on rent for a week (pp. 197-198), are noteworthy for their wry humour and earthy witticism. Also satirical is the recounting of the event of the prophesying Mathiri Valyammachi (great-grandmother) who after having learnt the letters begins


Reviewed by: Annie Kuriachan
Edited and introduced by Haris Qadeer

Qadeer delves into the complexities of labour pain and pregnancy which mostly go unannounced, through Jeelani Bano’s ‘A Day in the Labour Room’, translated from the Urdu by Zakia Mashhadi. The story explores the intricacies of external authority over a woman’s body, which is subject to experiment and surgery, sometimes beyond the purview of her consent. The modern technology of advanced medical imaging has rendered the inner corridors of a woman’s body naked to investigative eyes.


Reviewed by: Shrishti Dey, Sree Lekshmi MS, Aratrika Das
By Pradeep Sebastian

We couldn’t linger. ‘There’s so much more to see,’ urged Pradeep as he led me away. ‘Let’s meet Potty’, he said, with what I thought was a mischievous smile. The captivating aroma of really old books wafted around the corner…and there sat Solomon Pottesman, alias Potty surrounded by mountains of lovely antique books. ‘I am an incunabulist’, read the legend on the back of his chair.


Reviewed by: Malini Seshadri
By Shubnum Khan

The novel uses the classic archetypal Gothic trope of an abandoned and deteriorating establishment inhabited by a paranormal entity. Of particular interest is Khan’s portrayal of Sana’s twin sister who is dead but continues to haunt the protagonist throughout the story. Further, Khan presents a poignantly eerie tale of Sana and her evil-spirited sister being born with conjoined hips and how the latter dies after the operation that attempts to separate the two. With efficacy, Khan renders Sana’s recalling of this moment as she lies unconscious on the operation table with her dead sister in the lines:


Reviewed by: Maneesha Sarda
By Achla Bansal

Bansal skilfully makes and un-makes a mesh of actions and their reactions. While Lipika’s intuitive sense of foreboding sets the mood very early in the novel with her intense dislike of Rahul: ‘How could she expect him (Kartik) to understand, when she herself knew not why she detested him?’ (p. 21), the novel comes alive with a host of other narrative devices such as images that emerge and turn metaphoric. For instance, Lipika’s virulent rashes. Kartik finds them so shocking that he consults Rahul.


Reviewed by: Lakshmi Kannan
By Gigi Ganguly

The stories are dealt as allegories that offer didactic elements. They question the moral scruples that are encountered by most humans now and provide a resource to try to undo their negative impact by creating an interface of collaboration through empathy. Storytelling since aeons has had the transformative power of regeneration through this empathetic approach. Ganguly, too, by painting the various mise-en-scènes in a delicate manner, has harnessed the power of storytelling through sensitive acuity.


Reviewed by: Samikshya Das
By Rupendra Guha Majumdar

The tragedy of the glorious Achilles who is a pawn of history, an Icarus whose fatal flight is immortalized in a Renaissance painting by Brueghel, and the boy David battling the giant Goliath are all taken out of their textual, monumental existence into a visceral world of imagination and reified there. Further, different civilizational ethos coalesces in a beautiful description of Buddha’s


Reviewed by: Amrita Ajay
By Appupen and Laurent Daudet

Dream Machine’s menacing quality lends itself to the realization of Hugo’s potential to tread an ethical path. He meticulously considers the implications of his actions, even at the expense of time with Anna. At this juncture, AiDA becomes more of a constant in his life than his wife. His reliance on AiDA correlates closely to his own sucking into the world of power and a willing dependence on machines while ‘Realeyes’ might be keeping a watch on him. But all is not lost yet as Hugo turns out to be a multidimensional character.


Reviewed by: Pranavi Sharma
Translated from the original Bengali by Lopamudra Maitra

A notable feature of Maitra’s translation is that most of the animals and birds acquire the names of their species in Bangla as a proper name, e.g., Tuntuni (tailor bird), Beral (cat), Chhagolchhana (baby goat), Bagh (tiger), Kumir (crocodile). These improvised proper names give an immediacy to the context and contribute to a fluent reading. But why are only the buffalo and the cow referred to by the common English names of their species?


Reviewed by: Nivedita Sen
By Arti Sonthalia. Illustrations by Tasneem Amiruddin

The illustrations in the book are contextual, but in my view, they could have been better. For a book that is about an artist, the illustrations are bland. They could have further extended and enriched the theme of the book. Mehar’s illustrations should have found more place.


Reviewed by: Neera Jain
By Lissa Coffey. Illustrations by Rajesh Nagulakonda. Edited by Sarita Saraf

Arjuna’s question is wisely tackled by Krishna. Another natural feeling that Arjuna expresses is about the winning team’s happiness in getting the trophy and the other team’s sadness in losing it. Here, too, the child-comprehensible words spoken by Krishna are commendable. They showcase the philosophy of the Gita in a simple way.
Meaningful words in rhyme,


Reviewed by: Indira Ananthakrishnan
By Aparna Kapur. Illlustrations by Ogin Nayam

At the end of the book, the author writes a coda in which she talks about why she wrote the story of Divya. In her childhood, she had not washed her hair for ten days. In this period, she made many imaginary friends. This experience has kept the narrative alive in her mind, giving her the conviction that telling it is critical.


Reviewed by: Nidhi Gulati and Shivi

Ostrich Girl opens up with a bird call. ‘CHA-KE-KE-A-KE-KE-AAAAAA….’ echoes through the pages of this irregular narrative. Biswas tries to look at worldly issues through the lens of children. What Ostrich Girl deals with is the ask of the century; the question that environmentalists have seldom answers to. Integral to children’s literature, the author provides ample agency to the characters of her narrative.


Editorial
By Sathya Achiya and Janan Abir

Technology and tradition unite in this picture book to inspire confidence in a little girl. Priya lives in the western world but is ethnically a Kodava from Kodagu in the lush rainforests of the Western Ghats. She has a dance recital coming and will perform as a ‘jungle dancer’ thanking


Editorial