Archive by Author

The Agenda of the Apprentice Scientist
Written by Nicole Ostrowsky
Illustrated by Theresa Bronn
Translated from French by Radhika Viswanathan with Gillian Rosner
Published by Universities Press
Ages 7-70 (as it says in a foreword by none other than CNR Rao.)
As parents, we come across this experience almost daily- whether in the sphere of academics or otherwise- our children ask us something, and sometimes (OK, a lot of times) it is something that we may not be very sure of ourselves. When I am faced with such a situation,…

Behind closed doors
Domestic Violence in India
Edited by Rinki Bhattacharya
Sage Publications
Reviewed by sandhya
This is a collection of narratives by 17 women who are survivors of domestic violence, and who have been courageously come out with their stories, not only in print, but also in the documentary film Char Diwari. Both have been made by Rinki Bhattacharya, herself a domestic violence survivor. The heartrending narratives bring home to us how widespread the problem is, and how no privilege can save a woman from a violent situation.…

A Traveler’s Guide to the Solar System
Written by Patricia Barnes-Svarney
Illustrated by Gilbert Ford
Published by Sterling Publishing
Reviewed by sandhya.
The tour stars at the innermost planet- Mercury- and continues to the outer ends before returning to Earth. So what facts do we learn about our stops?
A Mercurian ‘day’ lasts 176 Earth days- a long enough time to plan all the sightseeing you want to do here. But what do you see? As there is no atmosphere here, the sky is always black, even though it…

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Kalpana Chawla
India’s First Woman Astronaut
Written by Dilip M Salwi
Published by Rupa & Co. under the Charitavali series.
Reviewed by sandhya.
On 1st February, 2003, as the world watched in disbelief, the spacecraft Columbia turned into a fireball and disintegrated in the sky, 16 minutes away from a safe touchdown after a fortnight in space. All 7 astronauts aboard were killed. Among them was 41 year old Kalpana Chawla, born in India on 17th March 1962, and who had joined NASA as a full astronaut in 1998.…

Letters from a Father to His Daughter
Written by Jawaharlal Nehru
Published by Puffin Books, Penguin books India
Ages 8+ yrs
Reviewed by sandhya.
A father and his daughter. The bond has to be seen to be believed!
By the nature of his work in the struggle for the freedom of India, Nehru was often away from his family, and his daughter was away at boarding school. Letters being the prime means of communication at the time, Nehru wrote these, which, according to the foreword written by him, were…

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In the Land of Invisible Women.Written by Dr Qanta AhmadShree Book PublishersReviewed by sandhya.Dr Qanta takes up a medical post in Riyadh. She gets an unparalleled insider’s view of the almost mythological medieval practices in the Saudi Kingdom. She is unusual in that she is a woman professional of Pakistani origin, born and bred in Britain, with medical education in the US. However, she soon finds out that the fact of her being a woman colours every experience in her erstwhile home. It begins at the airport on her…

Pic courtesy flipkart

THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCEVoices from the Partition of IndiaWritten by Urvashi ButaliaPublished by Penguin Books
Reviewed by sandhya.
Urvashi Butalia, the writer, has impressive credentials. Along with Ritu Menon, she set up Kali for Women, the first feminist press in India, in 1984, and later, Zubaan Books. Born to in Ambala, India, to parents who were refugees from West Punjab, now in Pakistan, she grew up hearing stories of  the Partition, which tore apart the Indian subcontinent at the time of its freedom from British rule.…

Pic courtesy infibeam

A Poem for CRYFavourite poems of famous IndiansCompiled and edited by Avanti Maluste and Sudeep DoshiPublished by Viking: Penguin GroupForeword by Amartya Sen
Reviewed by sandhya.
Human emotion can be a tricky thing. At once overwhelming and finely nuanced, it is a slippery being. It becomes difficult, sometimes impossible, to express what one wants to say, what one is feeling. Sometimes one does not want to express one’s feelings, but just clarify, validate, what something nebulous that one feels is. Sometmes one is in search of that perfect punch…

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Pic courtesy infibeam

HANA’S SUITCASE
Written by Karen Levine
Published by Jyotsna Prakashan, by permission of Second Story Press
Reviewed by sandhya.
An estimated 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, of which about 6 million were Jews. Bare statistics. Since then, many stories of those killed and of the survivors have come to light, bringing home the horror of it all, how many ordinary and extraordinary lives have been lost.
Hana Brady would have been just such one faceless statistic.
Our book begins in Tokyo, Japan, in…

THE GROANING SHELFand other instances of book loveWritten by Pradeep SebastianPublished by Hachette India.
Reviewed by sandhya.
Pradeep Sebastian is a literary columnist for many publications, including The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Businessworld, The Caravan, Tehelka, and many more. Many of the essays in this book have appeared in one or more of these publications, and potray his formidable literary journey.
This is a book about books and about love for books and reading. There are many aspects to it that the book discusses.
One of these is the actual collecting…