Tag Archives: YA-Knowledge Variants

Two key elements in the story offer a unique perspective. One is Roop’s toy: a kaleidoscope. Roop sees the world through it, blending colours together. For her, red, blue, green and purple are not separate. They merge into one. The kaleidoscope unites them. But when she sees the world outside, where colours are divided, it hurts her. The second is the river, which serves as a metaphor.

The book’s clear structure, with one chapter dedicated to each traveller, makes it an excellent resource for young history enthusiasts.

The narrative voice is engaging and deceptively simple. It’s conversational yet informative. It’s never stodgy. It never talks down to the young reader. It is well edited for clarity and consistency but it’s also got a real sparkle to it. This passage describes universal adult franchise:

The narrative naturally begins with Dr. BR Ambedkar, whose life was marked by the harsh realities of caste discrimination. Those early experiences forged in him a determination to secure dignity and justice through state action.

Significantly, as the work demonstrates, ‘Jana Gana Mana’, even before it became the nation’s anthem, was adopted by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army.

In travelling this ground, we also need to understand the relationship between science and technology. The most advanced technological products we use are also the products of science. Significant advances, for example, in electronics, utilize ultraviolet (UV) or extra-UV lasers to produce chips, in which the transistor size is measured in nanometres.

The writing is breezy and engrossing for mature readers who have some background knowledge of and interest in the thought paradigms of different religions and philosophies. Each chapter gives you much to learn and much to reflect on, examples chosen from ancient history and religious and spiritual traditions.

In this book, Sen takes on the challenge of presenting the Bhagavad Geeta to a young audience. Instead of approaching it as a commentary, Sen adopts a creative narrative frame: an extended dialogue between a grandfather and his two grandchildren with occasional interventions from the mother.

In my three decades of teaching Economics, I have often felt that the subject as taught in schools, or at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels in India, is almost entirely the Economics of the West, specifically British and American.
Policymakers too are largely trained in the western tradition,

Next, we go back into time with History. Useful words are explained and a brief timeline of World History follows, beginning with 5000 BCE and ending with present-day landmarks. Everything becomes clear, as events fall into place and comparisons of places and people around the world are simplified.