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);