Refugees are the forgotten people. Witness, for instance, the festering Pale¬stinian issue, which remains after three decades. Essentially, the refugee seeks escape from intolerable persecution within his own country. But, he presents a pro¬blem to the international community.
This is a terribly disappointing novel. Updike has carved a niche for himself in the hall of literary fame as the map¬maker, non-pareil, of the peaks, valleys and uncharted fissures of suburban/middle¬class America.
Another clutch of Redbirds from the Writers’ Workshop aviary, this time trans¬lations of foreign poets, or ‘transcreations’ as P. Lal prefers to call them. The check¬list at the back of each ‘Birdbook’ shows a cartoon of a pair of eyes struggling to remain above a line, and the note ‘Simply submerged’.
India! Down the ages, travellers of every description, monks and missionaries, traders and merchants, poets and novelists; soldiers and administrators, plenipotentiaries and proconsuls have sought to describe something of the beauty and the pity, the squalor and the splendour of this country.
A national movement requires organi¬zation, funds, leadership and popular support. If one or the other is lacking or weak, the movement becomes not only lop-sided but ineffective. It was Gandhi’s great achievement in India that he ensured all four basic elements, even though he left to others the reconciling of the contradiction in the manner in which he provided these essential ingredients.
Through the pages of this book which number about two hundred and seventy, Devaki Jain and her associates Nalini Singh and Malini Chand describe to us five different endeavours in which women have an important role. They are mainly in western and eastern India.