1)WHICH WAS THE FIRST BOOK OF ESSAYS TO BE PUBLISHED?

A)BACON’S ESSAYS (B)MONTAIGNE’S ESSAIS (C)LA ROCHEFOUCAULD’S MAXIMS (D)CICERO’S DE AMICITIA

About the Book

Northeast India has endured decades of conflicts that have kept much of the region militarized, subject to restrictions on civil rights, and economically underdeveloped. In this volume, contributors from diverse fields ranging from the social sciences, philosophy, and cultural studies, to journalism and the civil services reflect on new ways of approaching and resolving these conflicts.

Dissatisfaction with conditions on the ground and with standard policy prescriptions is the common thread that runs through the book. The essays provide analyses of the conflicts at three levels: structural determinants like poverty and underdevelopment; the nature and politics of the postcolonial state; and the agency of multiple actors with diverse motives. The authors argue that neither a development nor a military fix can achieve peace in the region. Only concerted efforts to establish the rule of law, a system of accountability, and faith in the institutions of government can break the cycle of violence.

Contributors

• Sanjib Baruah
• Subir Bhaumik
• Samir Kumar Das
• Nandana Dutta
• M. Sajjad Hassan
• Rakhee Kalita
• Bodhisattva Kar
• Dolly Kikon
• Makiko Kimura
• Bethany Lacina
• Bhagat Oinam
• Pradip Phanjoubam
• H. Kham Khan Suan
• Betsy Taylor
• Ananya Vajpeyi

About the Editor

Sanjib Baruah is Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, New York, and Honorary Professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

Readership

Conveying a sense of Northeast India’s rich and vibrant public discourse, this book will be useful to all those interested in armed conflicts, the state of Indian democracy, civil liberties, and Northeast India.

‘Sanjib Baruah has compiled an exceptionally diverse anthology. Including voices from social science, history, literature, cultural studies, and government, it reveals the region?s vibrant public discourse and provides an antidote to security-centric proclamations. Beyond Counter-insurgency is a model of creatively engaged and academically astute public intellectual work.’

DAVID LUDDEN

Professor of History, New York University

‘Baruah and his contributors paint a rich, vital picture of the spatial disorder that has unfolded within Northeast India’s multiple ‘inner lines’. This complex and unvarnished story is told without romanticism or cynicism. Between the apparent impossibility of peace through reconciliation and victory through repression or terror, the book envisions the possibility of an open, more inclusive future.’

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN Strategic Affairs Editor, The Hindu

‘This rich volume opens up a crucial space for re-imagining this highly complex yet remarkably poorly understood region. Shunning facile remedies, its proposals for a better future include redistributing key resources, restoring public trust in the rule of law, and harnessing the region?s exceptional ecological diversity.’ WILLEM VAN SCHENDEL Professor of Modern Asian History, University of Amsterdam

**

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University?s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

* INDIA: YMCA Library Building, 1st Floor, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001; Tel: 011 43600300; Fax: 011 23360897
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These fifteen personal essays provide an insider’s take on wide-ranging issues: from the Brahmaputra and the use of natural resources to peace talks in Nagaland; from the Centre’s failure to repeal the hated Armed Forces Special Powers Act, threats to the environment, corruption in government and extortion by armed groups to New Delhi’s Look East Policy and much more.

Yet, as these essays make clear, hope, though distant, is not absent or lost. Restoring governance through people-driven development programmes, peace building through civil society initiatives, assuring the pre-eminence of local communities as evident in Hazarika’s conversations with the legendary Naga leader, Th. Muivah, and simple economic interventions through appropriate technologies — boats and health care, community mobilization and micro-credit — hold promise for solutions to the web of violence, poverty and marginalization.

Writing on the Wall is a passionate call to all stakeholders in the North-east to embrace dialogue and use given platforms for peace, to go beyond the politics of tolerance to that of mutual respect. Only such multi-disciplinary, innovative approaches, rooted in realism, can bring stability and sustainable change to the region.

Source: Penguin Books

* Sanjoy Hazarika is a renowned journalist, author and the Managing Trustee of Center for North East Studies and Plicy Research (CNES).

Amidst the haze of an aimless college life, a young student from Shillong meets the mercurial Naina at a party near Delhi University campus. His spontaneous act of chivalry against Naina’s violent ex-lover sparks off intimacy between him and this enigmatic girl-about-town. But a hot, fleeting affair with her leaves him sceptical about love and its elusive promises. Yet, Naina’s hidden past becomes a phantom that refuses to blur out of his memory, long after she’s gone. A chance encounter with her and her Afghan cocaine-dealer friend two years later brings Naina back into his life with all her mystery and caprice intact.

Tracing the circuit of desire, drugs, violence, and greed that exists at the fringes of Delhi, JET CITY WOMAN casts light on lives that have so far been peripheral to the grand narrative of this city—students from northeast India, Tibetan and Afghan refugees, Anglo-Indians. The dotcom boom and its eventual bust are juxtaposed with the pipe dream the BPO industry is peddling in India. Spanning five years, and alternating between northeast India and New Delhi, this is a story of love and loss, of lives adrift in a mega city, and of the lesser-known side of urban India. Diffused with subtle humour and sharp insights, it is a tale set in an ancient city where chimaeras are chased and lives are invented anew.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ankush Saikia was born in Tezpur, Assam in 1975. He has worked as a journalist and in publishing in New Delhi, where he is presently an editor at a publishing firm. In 2005, he was on the shortlist for the fourth Outlook/Picador-India non-fiction writing award. Jet City Woman is his first novel.

Reviews:

• Tehelka.com

Author’s blog: jetcitywomanbook.blogspot.com

Purchase links:

• Rediff.com
• Indiaclub.com

It looked like an impossible dream at the outset. A translation journal of Assamese literature and culture in English! A project with an absolutely nil commercial potentials! But we thought a dream that is not tempered in the anvil of reality would always remain a wistful dream. And Assamese literature & cultural would remain unknown to the outside world. So we decided to proceed.

The Belief :

We always believed that we have really something to present – to showcase from the world of Arts in Assam.

The Mission :

The Mission that was born out of this belief is-

To present before the nation and the world the treasure of contemporary Assamese literature in English Translation;

To popularise Assamese writing and writers in the National scene;

To build bridges of friendship and understanding between people, places, languages, cultures and generations

‘This is a mission of light and beauty. Be a part of it.’

The Foundation :

The North East Foundation, a non profit charitable trust has been striving to create an intellectual environment in the state. Besides running a valuable reference library, Foundation has been holding small book fairs, organising seminars and workshops regularly and is actively associated with various projects in the state and is publishing regularly. This is the latest project undertaken by the Foundation.

Manas National Park in the north east of India, is one of the oldest protected areas in the country. This almost 520 sq km of pristine forest is also the core zone of the sprawling Manas Tiger Reserve that extends for 230 km from east to west. The Richly wooded Bhutan hills form the Northern boundary of this National Park. In addition to the big five, namely Royal Bengal Tiger, Asiatic elephant, Asiatic water buffalo, Great Indian one-horned rhino and Gaur, Manas is also home to 5 species of deer, almost 40 other kinds of mammals, 36 different varieties of reptiles and 476 species of birds. As a tribute to its outstanding universal importance, in 1985, Manas was recognised as a World Heritage Site. This handbook provides the reader with a package of ‘facts, legends & pictures’ that is practical for travellers, a souvenir for tourist and a ‘must have’ for the wildlife enthusiast.

My rating: 4.0 stars
]]> http://www.puthi.com/2007/09/27/unveiling-the-beauty-of-manas/feed/ 0 http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/25/seven-sisters-of-india/ http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/25/seven-sisters-of-india/#comments Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:36:20 +0000 admin http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/25/seven-sisters-of-india/ By Aglaja Stirn and Peter van Ham

Set in Havana in 1938, Jose Baul Bernardo’s novel captures the fell, smells, and sounds of the quickly changing tropical metropolis after the Great Depression .Lorenzo and Marguita are a happy pair of newlyweds expecting their first child. They have rented a small, bright apartment where they are perfectly content. However, the Depression has ruined Lorenzo’s father’s business and now, to make ends meet, his parents have insisted the young couple move in with them and help with expenses.A vivacious ,working- class girl from a noisy Cuban family ,Marguita has qualms about joining Lorenz’s austere Spanish household .Lorenzo’s eldest sister, Lucinda, died of consumption and their mother,Carmela,always wears black .A younger sister ,Asuncion,is deaf, and the middle sister Lolo, is a bitter, angry spinster.However,Lolo’s hostile demeanor masks feelings of inadequacy. Still a virgin, Lolo is really curious about sex. More out of inquisitiveness than maliciousness, she spies on the young couple making love, witnessing an intimate act considered indecent by upright, upper-class ladies.Marguita is so traumatized that she runs home to tell her mother, Dolores, a wise woman in her fifties who knows just what to do.

First, she contrives to have her daughter and son-in-law rent own little house and cleverly engineers improvements to make the place livable.Then, she schemes to buy a refrigerator ‘‘on the cheap” and even manages to get a crib. Dolores, who has her husband, Maximiliano, wrapped around her little finger, talks him into making sacrifices for the daughter they both adore. But even snug in her comfy home in her old neighborhood, Marguita can’t forget Lolo’s terrible affront. She wants vengeance.

When their baby boy is boy, the happy couple calls him Lorenzo Manuel, Manuel being the name of the physician who delivered him.Immidiately the doctor and his wife, Celina, assume they are to be the godparents and, in order to avoid squabbles, Lorenzo and Marguita acquiesce. Celina plans an elaborate christening party, and even though Marguita has sworn never to forgive Lolo, she is no gracious way to exclude her from the festivities. At the gathering, two unexpected things happen: the ardently anticlerical Maximiliano becomes friends with the priest, Father Francisco, and Lolo catches the eye of – of all people-the priest’s acolyte, Father Alonso.

In the meantime, Marguita is becoming a wise woman in her own right. When Lorenzo wins some money at Jai alai, she uses charm to get him to invest in his own education. She persuades him to take night courses at the university while continuing to work at a bookstore .At the same time; she begins to put money aside so they can eventually buy their own house.

When Collazo, the bookshop owner, decides to start a cultural club at the beach, the whole community attends the building’s “christening”. Father Alonnso, whose homosexual leanings had led him to the priesthood in the first place, sees Lolo at the event and is again taken with her beautiful gypsy eyes, his remind him of a boy he once liked. After the ceremony, he and Father Fransisco go for a swim in their underwear, and then Alonso takes off his boxers to let them dry. When Lolo finds him napping buck naked on the beach, she practically jumps on him, and nature takes its course.

For Alonso the event is liberating- a confirmation that he is a real man.His new self-confidence leads him not to give up the priesthood, but to embrace his mission with greater zeal.However, his new community is shattered by the news that Lolo is pregnant .Although he offers to leave the priesthood and marry her, Lolo knows that this is the wrong solution. Marguita, too, is pregnant, and her pregnancy is no less troubling than Lolo’s. The economic situation is so bad that she and Lorenzo cannot afford to have another baby. A wise older woman helps Lolo out of her predicament, unexpectedly solving Marguita’s problem as well. At Lorenzo Manuel’s birthday party Marguita and Lolo, thanks to the prodding of the wise Dolores, finally open up to each other and Marguita drops her grudge.

The Wise Women of Havana is a page-turner full of engaging characters whose fates we really care about.Bernardo brings to life a pre-Castro Cuba where things were though, but life was beautiful just the same. He does not gloss over the real social ills of the period-poverty, machismo, class snobbery- but focuses on positive human qualities. Best of all, he produces an array of wise, warm women who win our hearts.

The Wise Women of Havana , by Jose Raul Bernardo.New York: Rayo, 2002.

My rating: 4.0 stars
]]> http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/25/first-impression-the-wise-women-of-havana/feed/ 0 http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/16/india-against-itself/ http://www.puthi.com/2007/08/16/india-against-itself/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:44:22 +0000 admin http://www.puthi.com/?p=3 India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of NationalityA must read for people with an interest in India

“India against itself” is a scholarly book written by a person who has witnessed, felt and seen first hand what is happening in north-eastern India and he feels passionately about it. The author himself is aware of this and wonders “whether eliminating the personal refereces whould necessarily enrich the text”. The struggle of the author trying to stay objective and detached is apparent in many sections of the book. However his personal passion and pain is equally transparent, especially in the end of chapter seven he refers to a song by Bhupen Hazarika ” There is neither joy or sorrow..” He makes a case for changing the basic political structure in India, empowering the states more. His belief that a loose system of federalism will work in a country like India can be argued for he offers an utopian view what he and many of us would like to see happen but does not offer many suggestions how to get there. If read superfically, one can easily make the erroneus assumption that the author is advocating for autonomy of Assam and that his sympathies lie with the insurgents. Read carefully one can feel the pathos and his hope for a better India with a stronger democracy rather than a fractured nation. It is not a easy book to read for a person unfamiliar with the academic side of political science which essentially limits the number of readers. Regardless of whether it is an entirely objective view, it offers food for thought and a forum for serious debate about the current state of our “nation-state”.

My rating: 4.5 stars
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