We know what they are reading this summer

Jitish Kallat, artist

Wholeness and the Implicate Order

The book I’m currently reading during my travels is Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980) by David Bohm. In this extraordinary thought-provoking work, Bohm expands upon his concept of the implicate and explicate order, challenging the common perception that the universe is merely a collection of isolated objects and events. Instead, he presents a compelling argument that the universe is an intricately interconnected whole. What makes this book particularly captivating is Bohm’s interdisciplinary approach. Drawing from a rich tapestry of fields including physics, biology, philosophy, and various wisdom traditions, he weaves together a comprehensive exploration of his ideas.

Shaunak Sen, filmmaker

From Bacteria to Bach

I’m rereading From Bacteria to Bach and Back (2017) by Daniel Dennett, a very interesting book on intelligence, design and consciousness — or how we articulate design and intelligence in the natural world. Like the best of contemporary science writing, it’s very philosophically provocative. In fiction, I’m reading a short story collection How to Gut a Fish (2022) by Sheila Armstrong. I’m interested in it because the language it employs in description is incredibly intense and sensorial, and there’s a lot of pleasure in that, more than in the plot. It actually reminded me of The Peregrine (1967) by JA Baker. I really enjoy that kind of searing intensity of description. Apart from that, I’m reading a classic, Roberto Calasso’s Ka (1998).

Parvati Sharma, writer

Cloud Atlas

One of the joys of reading is re-reading, and I read David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004) for the several-th time this summer. Each time I read it, I’m in awe of Mitchell’s craft and invention: you could call it a novel in six parts or six novels in one, ranging from pulp to science fiction, all linked by the age-old theme of good versus evil. Re-reading wasn’t enough, so I also watched the film version. The directors do a fantastic job. What struck me this time is how the film brings out a third layer between good and evil: a recurring character who evolves from a cynical opportunist indifferent to evil to someone who finally finds the moral courage to ally with the good. It’s simple but not simplistic – and very satisfying in these troubled times.

Arundhati Katju, Supreme Court lawyer

Republic of Hindutva

For me, the read of the year was Badri Narayan’s Republic of Hindutva (2021). Narayan shows how the RSS is a dynamic organisation, adapting to changing times to spread an unchanging ideological message. Narayan describes how the Sangh’s national-level movement for temple building is mirrored by local temple movements to bring new social groups within the Hindu fold. This book is essential to understand the times we live in, especially in the run up to the 2024 election.

Ashwini Deshpande, economist

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) is not a new book, but I read it very recently at my daughter Ketaki’s recommendation. How does the devastating grief of death affect those who survive? Does death of a loved one create an emotional void or also affect the survivor physiologically? I became aware of the meaning of intense grief as I dealt with my mother’s passing and watched my father trying to cope for four years after my mother’s death, when he declared it was time for him to follow her. Didion’s personal account is moving, eloquent, stunning and pierces straight through your heart.

Shilpa Gupta, artist

The Last Days of Mandelstam

I’m currently reading The Last Days of Mandelstam (2016) by Venus Khoury-Ghata, a moving and sensitive book where the author recreates the last days in prison of the Russian poet and essayist Osip Mandelstam. An imaginative text, it’s slim but very dense and travels seamlessly from under the skin of the very ill and dying poet, into the ghosts of his past and present.

Saurabh Kirpal, senior advocate

Those Days

A book that I recently read was Those Days (1997) by Sunil Gangopadhyay. It was written in Bengali and translated into English. It’s a fascinating account of British India and the history of Bengal. The characters, though purportedly fictional, are all persons who were part of colonial history.

Arundhathi Subramaniam, poet and writer

Dog Songs

What a joy to revisit these whimsical, funny, poignant odes to dogs in Dog Songs (2013) by Mary Oliver. The notes are pure, true, inevitable. How can one forget the upside-down dog with ‘dark and fervent’ eyes who asks unabashedly for love. Oliver writes: “Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over/ he gets to ask./ I get to tell.” The special bond between humans and dogs has never been more wonderfully celebrated! A book on the stunningly independent female travellers on the Buddhist tantric path, Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism by Miranda Shaw (1994) is a rich and rewarding read.

TT Ram Mohan, economist, and member, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council

Forks in the Road

C Rangarajan’s recently published memoir Forks in the Road: My Days at RBI and Beyond (2022) is not your typical memoir. It is an account of policymaking in his time. But while everyone knows what steps were taken over the decades, Rangarajan provides the pros and cons of each decision and why it was taken. So, it is highly analytical, and for students of Indian economy, it should be additional reading. Another book that I am re-reading and thoroughly enjoying is Spy Stories (2021) by Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy. It is an account of India’s RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) and Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), the rivalry between the two agencies, the games they play in each other’s backyards, and especially what they have been doing in Kashmir. What is interesting is the amount of access that the two authors have got to the dramatis personae — from the intelligence chiefs to the ground-level operatives. What the authors have put together is an astonishing account.

Hussain Haidry, poet and lyricist

Something Happened

I read Something Happened (1974) by Joseph Heller at the recommendation of a friend. Something Happened is a sharply-designed monologue on unhappiness, even though it reads like an elaborate ramble about irrelevant things. It is a bleak novel despite its humour, and reserves the “something” that happened until the very end. As expected, by then, it’s not even something that is grand. Some of the actions of the protagonist of this book—Bob Slocum—reminded me of Don Draper (from Mad Men), although the two are still very different characters. I used to have this less-informed opinion, that Joseph Heller only has one good book to his name. I’m glad that I stand corrected after reading this.

Shanta Gokhale, writer and theatre critic

Lessons

I found it impossible to put down Ian McEwan’s Lessons (2022). I pretty much zipped through the novel’s 483 pages, the length fully warranted in a narrative that begins with a 14-year-old schoolboy, Roland Baines, trapped in an all-consuming relationship with his piano teacher and ends with the doctor assuring him there is nothing the matter with his heart and he may expect to live into his eighties. Lessons refracts history through Baines’s life, taking us from the aftermath of World War II through the fall of the Berlin Wall to Thatcherism, Brexit and the pandemic. What most appealed to me was the diversity of its women characters, its quiet humour and compassion, all sadly missing in our public life today.

Nirali Kartik, classical vocalist, lead singer and co-founder of the band MaatiBaani

Indian Videshinis

I loved reading Indian Videshinis (2018) by Ian Magedera. The author has compiled the lives of 11 European women from varied backgrounds who made India their home. It includes the journey of Mira Alfassa who established Auroville, Sooni Tata who built the Lakme universe, Mother Teresa, and Sonia Gandhi, among others. It was fascinating to read about the lives of these women and to see how they adapted to the Indian ethos and how deeply they impacted the country with their work, beliefs and character. I would strongly recommend this book!

Pankaj Tripathi, actor

Phoolsunghi

Since I am essaying the role of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his biopic, I have been reading books on him. But some time ago, I read a book based on Mahendra Misir, titled Phoolsunghi (by Bhojpuri writer Pandey Kapil, 1977; English translation by Gautam Choubey, 2020). I enjoyed reading this book about a fascinating personality who was a musician, poet and freedom fighter. However, during summer vacations in my youth, we used to mostly read folk tales and writings by Indian authors from my father’s library. We used to read books like Devaki Nandan Khatri’s Chandrakanta (1888). I would suggest that people should find books of folk tales in their language and read them.