News

The fascination with Sherlock Holmes has endured across time and generations. Fans cannot have enough of this great fictional detective and his associate, John Watson. More recently, their adventures have been adapted and recreated for television and cinema, sometimes with a very modern upgrade. Every spin-off has worked remarkably well, a testimony to the genius of Arthur Conan Doyle’s original creation. So it is that Holmes has been dragged into even more adventures, four of which have been penned by the authors of The Sherlock Holmes Connection, created specially for the reading pleasure of teens. The adventures in this book are set in two countries, India and Sweden, and span a period of over a century. Martin Widmark’s story is set in Stockholm towards the end of the First World War.

The book traces the history of education in Pakistan with par-ticular reference to policy documents from the time of the creation of the country in 1947, to the most recent educational policy in 2009. Although the focus is on educational policies, these have been understood within the specific historical and political context of the country. Using his experience and expertise in the area of educational administration in Pakistan, the author has discussed extensively educational policies and critically analysed them with his vision of universal access to education across Pakistan. In tracing the recommendations of various committees and commissions, Siddiqui has presented a historical backdrop of education in Pakistan since the time of Independence to contemporary times.

As documented by Lewis Carroll, the journey of Alice down the rabbit hole became ‘curiouser and curiouser’, with Cheshire Cat, Jabberwock, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts and the other characters gradually entering the narrative. Carroll’s fascinating account led to a rich genre of fictions, which document one’s magical journey in the realm of fantasy. The science fiction stories in the recent past have matured into a similar genre of documenting journey to the future. Futuristic science fiction can give the reader an unexpected and enjoyable jolt, if at the last moment it is revealed to be a frame story (i.e., a story within a story), as classically seen in the ‘Planet of the Apes’.

The charmingly titled Dhanak follows a time honoured tradition of a journey story. What is different about it is that it is also travelling through different media like a hot knife shot through butter. I haven’t seen the film, but after Anushka Ravishankar’s seamless novelization (a fine new coinage), I feel like I have. Anushka introduces the two lovable heroes, Pari and Chotu with swift ease. The piece of jaggery that a sightless Chotu catches unerringly, their walk to school that is the very first journey, reveals the family situation and their bond with an efficient economy of words. Shahrukh Khan also makes an entry in this early and we know that he is going to drive the action in some unexpected way.

Train journeys are always fascinating, especially in India. The Indian railways are the arteries of the country—they traverse the length and breadth of the nation carrying passengers and goods, all the connecting distant places past myriad drastically different landscapes—no two stations are the same, no two routes look similar. A journey in a train teaches you not just about the people, it also teaches you about geography, culture and heritage when you look out of its windows.

In this day and age of computers, the ability to write and under-stand programming is an invaluable skill. Computers now surround us—everything from our high-tech smartphones and laptops, to our microwaves and cars use programmes written in lines and lines of code (specialized languages that computers can understand). Marc Scott and Mick Marston do a wonderful job introducing this world—while aimed at young children, the book serves as an equally good guide for an older novice.