Finished reading the second book that my aged father gifted me in Goa for my birthday this year. I hadn’t heard of the author or any of her books, even though she is supposed to be a Pulitzer Prize winner. Right from the start, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson struck me… Continue reading The Dangers of Supplanting Caste for Race
This August I received two books from my aged father for my 61st birthday and one of them is Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh. He has written this years after writing the Ibis trilogy – a fictional account of India’s opium trade with China – which was well reviewed in the press at the… Continue reading Smoke and Ashes, And Parallels Too Many
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
I just finished reading a book about economists and their theories that my aged father gifted me for my birthday this August in Goa. Looking at the title and reading the preface and introduction, it struck me immediately as mischief and meddling in publishing once again. The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L Heilbroner, published by… Continue reading Whirled-ly Philosophising
I just finished reading Salman Rushdie’s book of essays, Languages of Truth, that my father had bought last year. If it appears to be a timely read, considering the attack on his life in New York recently, so it is. If one thinks about why he attracts so much hate and vitriol even today, it’s… Continue reading Languages of Truth Coasts on the Surface
In the days, when there is hardly any news reported from on the ground, whether in print, or on television, and much of it not believable, one wonders whatever happened to reportage, as it used to be called. Now, I am not a journalist, though I do write – in my advertising and brand communications… Continue reading Reportage as News, History, Literature?
While I was still contemplating buying Amitav Ghosh’s newest book, The Nutmeg’s Curse, my father had already ordered it from Amazon India. Well, I’m not complaining. I greatly admire his writing, having owned and read several of his books, before I lost almost all of my books to termites at my parents’ flat in Goa.… Continue reading The Nutmeg’s Curse, of Colonisation and Capitalism
Minouche Shafik’s new book, What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract seems perfectly timed, with the world teetering between the 2008 financial crisis and a global pandemic. The book is not written for the general reader, but I think that they too might like it. They would like it for her astute observations… Continue reading A New Social Contract for a New Kind of Economy
The second book that my parents gifted me for my birthday this year, besides Amartya Sen’s memoir is Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts. I had already read about her attempt to write this book in Italian and then translate it back into English herself and one marvels at the author’s courage. Around three years ago I think… Continue reading Whereabouts, Context and Depth?
Having just accomplished one of my life’s aims, I ask myself whether it was really worth it. I have just finished reading The Laws of Manu. I can’t think of any endeavour more single-minded, more self-serving and more ruthlessly successful in its purpose. It tells us why we Hindus still have the caste system in… Continue reading Of the Priests, By the Priests, For the Priests
Peripatetic Perch 