Reading India

What has held India together,this country with a vast and conflicting cultural fibre,for 60-odd years? How does it sustain its democracy? If such issues make you curious,then pick Lord Meghnad Desai’s The Rediscovery of India (Rs 699). The author rewinds to the encounter between the east and west in the 15th century and discusses culture,politics,the Nehru-Gandhi ideology right up to 21st century India,connecting the past with the present.

For those more fond of the visual than the written word,History in the Making (Rs 5,000) is a fabulous book to take home. Filled with pictures taken by photojournalist Kulwant Roy that capture a changing India,right from the struggle for independence to the signing of the Indian constitution,the book is a peep into the changing course of the country’s history. Compiled by Roy’s close acquaintance Aditya Arya,History in the Making with its collection of rare photographs is for keeps.

Besieged Voices from Delhi — 1857,a work of compilation and translation by Mahmood Farooqui,based on The Mutiny Papers,goes back in time to the last days of Bahadur Shah Zafar’s reign. Critics have described the book as groundbreaking,with generous praises for Farooqui’s extensive research and translation of The Mutiny Papers—documents dating from Delhi’s 1857 siege,originally written in Persian and shikastah Urdu. The book reveals fascinating details like letters written by soldiers during 1857 demanding salaries or threatening to leave Delhi,of a rebel government while also talking about the hopes and failures of people who survived this era.

Another book that catches our attention is Alan Axelrod’s Gandhi CEO. The author regards

Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest teacher,especially for those who want to climb high in the corporate ladder and provides 14 Gandhian principles to guide and inspire modern leaders— especially in rough and tumble boardrooms.

But a book you are sure to enjoy and relate to as part of this generation is Indian Essentials by Jerry Pinto (Rs 450). A quirky and hilarious collection of essays by 20 social commentators and writers,the book makes an effort to understand the Indian psyche. Be it the Indian woman’s fascination with glittering gold or Indian male’s birthright for urinating in public,the grand fairs of Allahabad,the lures of Bollywood,prudishness about sex,NRI fixation or cricket — the writers take a critical look at new India. The book has an interesting pullout —The Short Dictionary of [Other Things Indian — comprising words and phrases that make up our Hinglish. What to do,we are like that only.