Anyone who has had the joy of reading the first two volumes in this series is bound to be impatient to go through the other two, now available, which cover a crucial five-year period from June 1952 to November 1957. Those who have, for whatever reasons, not read these once-secret letters, written at least once a fort¬night, would never know what a pleasure they have deprived themselves of.
This is a deeply absorbing book, but not perhaps as intended. The corres¬pondence is between two persons both of whom evoke much interest in this country. Attention is sought to be focused on Indira Gandhi, to show the influences which moulded her in her youth and how by the age of 22 she is said to have come into her own. But there is nothing in these letters to hint even faintly at the splitter of Pakistan and the imposer of the Emergency.
Super Brat and Other Stories is a delight¬ful collection of stories reminiscent of R.K. Narayan and Swami. The reader enters the warm and familiar world of the South Indian home, awash with the wafting smells of sambar, the gentle sounds of the Veena, the incense of the pooja room and the com¬forting presence of Amma. It is a safe and secure world, from where it is easy to cope with the problems of school, sibling insecurities and the world turning modern just outside the door.
The author was in the MP cadre of the IAS and had a distinguished career both in the central and State governments. This is not an autobiography; it is a well written account of his interesting experiences. In this sense, the author is a chip off the old block. His father BN Lahiri was the first Indian IG of UP police.
In a college in Delhi that doubles as a university, a temporary lecturer sues the English department for not selecting her for the regular post throwing the staff room in turmoil. As the drama unfolds, several characters march onto the stage each involved in their own struggle to define their selves as individuals trying hard to break free of the social confines of religion and gender. Not an easy task even today but back then in the last decades of the twentieth century these quests were even harder.
In early twentieth century Bombay Zahan Merchant is born to a couple living in the city’s Parsi colony. His is a regular birth and nothing out of the ordinary happens until he reaches age seven or so. Things start to turn with the incident of the missing blue box of Aunt Feroza, a member of the Merchant household. Zahan makes a wooden box appear as the blue coloured, missing one. Except for his elder brother Sorab, the family is relieved and happy. Though somewhat wiser than Zahan, Sorab is unable to understand how Zahan could bring the box, broken by none other than Sorab himself, back to life; or, make it appear to be the real one.