On the shelf

Born Margaret Elizabeth Nobel in Ireland, the author says that the religions of sixth century BC was not really a miracle. The religions -mainly Buddhism and Jainism- always existed. It was merely their organisation that began with this date.Buddhism a would never have arisen if the atmosphere had not reached a saturation point with respect to the ideas that were being preached by the Upanishads during that period.

However, interesting though the subject is, the book, written in colonial English, is a sedative, guaranteed to put one to sleep. Given the influence Sister Nivedita had over figures such as Rabindranath Tagore, Gopalkrishna Gokhale, RC Dutt, Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghosh, one would have expected her writing to be more powerful.

Puja Birla

Something To Declare
By Julian Barnes

“I wish he’d shut up about Flaubert,” exclaimed Kingsley Amis about Julian Barnes’s tendency to circle back to his favourite subject. Thank goodness, he never heeded the great man, coyly dismissing the advice with two apt words: “Fat chance.” Barnes’s channel-hopping — to take in the sights and sounds of his second, more loved home and to give his writing a smarter, continental touch — are well-known. Whether it be Flaubert’s Parrot or chilling social satires like Love, etc, the French influence is easily discernible. Collected in Something To Declare are essays spread over two decades — and they once again bolster his claim to being one of finest essayists of our times. And, of course, some of them offer yet more ruminations on, who else, Flaubert.

Mini Kapoor

India Development Report 2002
Edited by Kirit S. Parikh and R. Radhakrishna
Oxford University Press,
Price: Rs 375

Providing an index to the major issues facing the Indian economy this book proves to be both comprehensive and contemporary. The third volume in the series, this report explores the entire gamut from food and nutritional security to sustainable urban systems and financial sector development. Using statistics and scholarship to illustrate its point, it reviews the economic high’s and low’s of the past decade. Topics like suggestions on policy and the extent to which the economic reforms have delivered on their promise, ensures this book is removed from the realm of the boring sarkari report.

Anastasia Guha