Business @ The Speed of Thought
Bill Gates / Tech / Rs 856.80
The world’s biggest geek strikes again. And this book, like all the books written by those who became rich, will be bought in large numbers by those who want to become rich. “Business…” states its premise in the opening sentence itself, which reads, ‘Business is going to change in the next ten years more than it has in the last fifty’. But a quick read through suggests that this more a sentiment that a well-organised plan of action for change. It also has little relevance for India, where electronic business is mired not in red tape but also in lethargic bureaucratic reaction.
Facing the Mirror
Ashwini Sukthankar / Lesbianism / Rs 295
Voyeurs will only be mildly titillated by this book. It is a collection of the writings of several women, all lesbians, who have things to say about their experiences. Some are poems; some are narratives of particular experiences such as placing ads in the personals seeking fellow lesbians. The book purports to be a voice for the many women who seek each other out but have “borne silent witness to distorted reflections of their reality”. Many of the authors’ names are obviously masked but on the whole, the writing is so uniformly good as to present the notion that it has all been re-written by one person.
The Origins of Non Violence
Martin Green / History / Rs 195
A fascinating account of Gandhi and Tolstoy “in their historical setting”. Through this, Green embarks of the academic exercise of providing a basis for comparison between Russia and India; Lenin and Marx; Gandhians and Tolstoyians; and anti-Gandhi and anti-Tolstoy sentiments. The links are sometimes tortuous, often tenuous, but never less than provoking.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Salman Rushdie / Fiction / Rs 395
Rushdie steps forward in time from his previous oeuvre (The Moor’s Last Sigh) and deals with the pop culture of our times. The narrative moves from India, through England and the US. It is the story of Vina Apsara, a captivating singer, who is lost in an earthquake. And of her lover, Ormus Cama, who finds her, loses her and finds her again. The narrator is a photographer, Rai (not necessarily Raghu). Underlying the story, as all Rushdie’s works must, is the inter-play of cultures of East and West, something on which the master is well, the master.