Khushwant Singh: A haloed visage with warts and all

He changed the face of journalism in India

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 Adoor Gopalakrishnan: Ambivalent, silent endings are his forte

He changed the language of cinema, nay, the cinematic paradigms...

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 Understanding Guru Dutt through Abrar Alvi's Eyes

When a cinematic genius teams up with a talented writer and ideator a series of masterpieces is created.

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 A review of Noam Chomsky's Hopes and Prospects

A trenchant critique of Uncle Sam’s duplicity

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 A role model for wannabe winners

Bhawani Cheerath reviews a "Splendid Biography" which can inspire the eannabes and impress them with the author's remarkable candour.

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 Straddling Identities

Bhawani, a Trivandrum based freelance journalist and book critic, has provided an insightful and comprehensive review of Aatish Taseer's "A Stranger to History". Her conclusions are thought provoking.

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 Fashioning the healthcare superstructure

India records the largest number of oral cancer patients and diabetics in the world. With 5.1 million HIV/AIDS cases (likely to increase threefold by 2015) it is second only to South Africa. With a world population share of 16.5% it contributes 20% of the diseases. It fares no better when compared to Sri Lanka and even Bangladesh. Against Sri Lanka's infant mortality rate of only 8 per thousand India's is 68! The under-5 mortality rate in India is 87 per thousand compared to Bangladesh's 69. The WHO attributes 60% of all deaths in India to chronic diseases.

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 Of Media, violence and prejudice

Thukral has attempted to study the media’s role and impact on various issues that have had an enduring influence in the evolution of the global village with specific reference to India. He points out how Americans have used this powerful opinion making tool for demonizing its opponents in the international arena - be it Khrushchev or Saddam Hussein. In fact, media has also been used by Americans in manipulating public opinion on such issues as its war against Islamic terrorism even as it uses the same media to camouflage its geo-strategic and economic agendas for carrying out mindless violence against smaller nations. In India, too, the state has successfully used media to manipulate public opinion ...

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 The history of the evolution of Indian electronic media

Satellite television is one of the most obvious manifestations of globalization. Its technological capabilities have been adapted in unforeseen ways but debates on globalization, media and cultural impact have struggled to keep up with the pace of innovation.

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 Resurrecting the ‘geography of hope’

"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed... For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope." This warning from conservationist Wallace Stegner is timely considering the fact that 78 million acres of forest land and 50,000 species of life forms are destroyed annually. Apart from countless species of flora, insects and microbes there are only 26,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians known to science. And what a precious wealth it is!

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 Developing political brands

India is a country of breathtaking complexities – ethnic, linguistic, cultural and geographical. Socio-economically too there are humongous disparities – the stages of development range from pre-historic to ultra-modern, with a significant size of population wallowing in medievalism. This creates a situation where political marketing becomes a problem

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 Examining the function of Indian Constitution

This book not only traces the history of modern India’s democratic functioning but also provides us with the details of the Constitution and its evolution over a period of time – elucidating the nature and functioning of its various institutions like the executive, the judiciary, the Planning Commission etc in text book format. It also briefly touches upon such topics as the Panchayati Raj, the evolution of Indian Administration etc and such burning issues like religion and politics, social justice, economic reforms, gender and environment.

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 Understanding Hinduism and its complexities

This narrative is devoid of the usual USPs of a chronicle. No grand gestures of megalomaniac potentates, no spectacular achievements of conquerors, no spine chilling intrigues and other such ingredients that make a narrative so spicy. Yet this book keeps you absorbed for days together as you go through the making of Hindu civilization as it exists today.

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 Coping with climate change

Climate change and disasters are fast emerging as the definitive challenges of 21st century. Natural disasters are increasing in terms of frequency, complexity, scope and destructive capacity. Hitherto, disasters were linked to climate change through short-term natural variability, manifesting in extreme weather conditions such as cyclones, storms, droughts, heat-waves, windstorms and other natural hazards with potential for catastrophic loss of human lives, damages to infrastructure and environment. But, lately, evidence of long-term, seemingly irreversible, changes in global climatic conditions has been emerging. This could threaten the very existence of life on this planet as we know it.

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 Story of a nice, gullible man

Although the title suggests a eulogistic biography of a father by his son (which, it is) the narrative is much more than that actually. It is the saga of a small time rustic Punjabi Khatri family graduating to the rarified atmosphere of high society. It chronicles an era long lost to the vagaries of history. The values that, today, appear so impracticable and so quaint that today’s generation would dismiss it as an idealistic fantasy.

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