Tathagata Satpathy
I am currently reading Rana Ayyub’s self-published book Gujarat Files. While the book could do with a dose of editing in terms of language, it is a remarkably courageous book in its ambition and theme. For a young woman to have kept up appearances for an eight-month-long sting operation is very brave. The content of the book, the taped conversations that she manages to get from top officials there have revealed, to me at least, facets of the Gujarat incidents that I didn’t know before. Next I won’t be picking up any new book, but will read an old favourite, Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy.
(Tathagata Satpathy is chief whip of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the Lok Sabha)
Rahul Bose
I normally read two or three books at a time because it all depends on the mood I’m in. I just completed reading Ramachandra Guha’s The Enemies of the Idea of India in which he talks about right-wing Hindu fundamentalism, the Maoist unrest as well as the small separatist movements all across the country.
Along with that I finished Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. It’s quite a strange book that doesn’t leave you with a great feeling, but is amazingly inspiring. I’m midway through Premchand’s Shatranj ke Khiladi. I’m looking forward to reading Amitav Ghosh’s book on climate change, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable.
(Rahul Bose is a Mumbai-based actor)
