Category: Books
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The not-so-raunchy side of the world of spies (Book Review)
By Sarwar Kashani, Title: “The Unending Game: A Former R&AW Chief’s Insights into Espionage”, Author: Vikram Sood; Publisher: Penguin Random House; Pages: 304; Price: Rs 599 What do you expect from a book that promises insights into the world of espionage? Ian Fleming’s James Bond picking up beautiful women during his mission to serve national…
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From Delhi’s cocktail circuit to Odisha’s longest serving CM, a balanced telling of Naveen Patnaik’s journey (Book Review)
By Chinmaya Dehury, Title: Naveen Patnaik; Author: Ruben Banerjee; Publishers: Juggernaut; Pages: 226; Price: Rs 469 How did a man, spending his early days on Delhi’s cocktail circuit, defy stereotypes to script an enviable success story that has few parallels in the history of modern Indian politics? What led Naveen Patnaik, who had nothing to…
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SC to hear plea seeking banning part of Malayalam novel ‘Meesha’
New Delhi : The Supreme Court will hear a plea on Thursday that seeks to ban excerpts of Malayalam novel “Meesha”, whose serialisation in a leading Malayalam weekly was withdrawn by the author following threats by suspected right-wing outfits. The plea is against the novel’s alleged derogatory content on women that may hurt their sentiments.…
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The long and difficult journey back home – or what was home (Book Review)
By Vikas Datta, Title: The Surajpur Connection; Author: Prabhu Dayal; Publisher: Zorba Books; Pages: 160; Price: Rs 199 The hardest journey to undertake, if it is even possible, is to return to one’s childhood home, particularly if it was a happy period. But even this happiness — which may not be everyone’s lot — can…
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Understanding Gandhi, as the dissenter (Book Review)
By Saket Suman, Book: The Disobedient Indian; Author: Ramin Jahanbegloo; Publisher: Speaking Tiger; Price: Rs 499; Pages: 169 Iconic as he was, the life and times of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi continue to attract scholars and researchers for relevant lessons in contemporary times even some seven decades after his assassination. The latest attempt comes from philosopher…
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Sleaze, drugs and death: A cautionary parable (Book Review)
By Vikas Datta, Title: Hungry Gods; Author: Richa Lakhera; Publisher: Rupa Publications India; Pages: 205; Price: Rs 295 What is the most captivating ‘drug’ for humans? Fame, greed, lust, and so on are beguiling in their own ways but pale before another intense motivation, which may only increase in potency and desire in time until…
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Hearing the ‘music’ from across universe – and the implications (Book Review)
By Vikas Datta, Title: Gravitational Waves; Author: Brian Clegg; Publisher: Icon Hot Science; Pages: 176; Price: Rs 399 Recording the occurrence of a celestial event, far away across deep space and eons after it happened, may not seem a pathbreaking scientific achievement, even if happened almost a century after a great scientist had set out…
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Journeying into the shadowlands beyond sanity – and the consequences (Book Review)
By Vikas Datta, Title: Missing, Presumed Dead; Author: Kiran Manral; Publisher: Amaryllis Books; Pages: 268; Price: Rs 350 With all the duplicity, self-interest, hidden motives and betrayals — both big and small — we face in our lives, the thin line separating us from insanity can be closer than we know, and may not need…
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The pain and agony of the displaced (Book Review)
By Mohammed Shafeeq, Title: Humans on the Run; Author: Kumar M. Tiku; Publisher: Oxford University Press; Pages: 280; Price: Rs 650 For millions of people displaced around the world, “Home is where the heart is”. Each one of them has a story to tell. The stories of injustice, persecution, war and killings in their homelands,…
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‘Spirituality gave way to sensuality in Rajasthani miniature paintings’ (Book Review)
By Siddhi Jain, Title: Rajasthani Miniatures: The Magic of Strokes and Colours; Author: Dr Daljeet; Publisher: Niyogi Books; Pages: 392; Price: Rs 4000 During the 1600s, the spiritual unity reflected in Rajasthani miniature paintings began giving way to a more popular trend — sensualism; and a century later, sensualism, or rather eroticism, was the focal…