This article forms a part of The Hindu on Books newsletter which brings you book reviews, reading recommendations, interviews with authors and more. Subscribe here
Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter.
In an essay for the Literary Review section of the Sunday Magazine, Ritika Kochhar writes that it’s the best of times for children’s books in India and the worst of times for children who are coping with a world threatened by climate change, religious bigotry and intolerance in every form. In that backdrop, books like Samina Mishra’s Jamlo Walks, about a little Adivasi girl who died during the reverse migration of workers following the sudden announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, or Richa Jha’s Macher Jhol about a blind boy who wants to make a fish curry for his sick father go a long way in creating a place for children to read and talk about different realities and accept the differences. From Goodnight Moon (1947) by Margaret Wise Brown about a young bunny saying goodnight to all the ordinary things in his bedroom and being lulled to sleep or Eric Carle’s wonderfully illustrated stories like The Hungry Caterpillar (1969) to Leo Lionni’s Swimmy (1963), about a small different-looking fish daring to take on the giant fish, children’s writers down the ages have tackled questions about love, loss, empathy, gender, life and death. Two recent beautifully illustrated books are Kafka and the Doll by Larissa Theule and illustrated by Rebecca Green, about a remarkable act of kindness by Franz Kafka towards a little girl who had lost her doll and Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved, illustrated by Charlotte Pardi, on how four young siblings come to terms with their grandmother’s death.
In reviews this week, we read about the legacy of Rahul Bajaj, a biography of water as we observed another World Environment Day on June 5 and the stylish Gundappa Vishwanath’s memoirs.
Books of the week
Gita Piramal’s biography of Rahul Bajaj (Penguin Business) is the story of Indian industry, pre- and post-liberalisation, with the spotlight on the role of policy. In his review, Naushad Forbes, co-chairman of Forbes Marshall and a fellow industrialist of Pune, says Rahul Bajaj’s life was truly “extraordinary” – as an industrialist, as a citizen of India and the world, and as a human being. “The bulk of the book is on Rahul as industrialist, who made Bajaj a household name. Piramal perceptively invites us to look at his life through the three prisms of leadership, the relationship between business, government and society, and the value of leaving a lasting legacy,” writes Forbes. “Throughout the 1960s and ’70s Bajaj Auto, as India’s most efficient two-wheeler manufacturer, asked for permission to expand which was either refused or ignored. It was only under the Janata Government of 1977, and a decade later under Rajiv Gandhi, that things changed. A protected market also meant no international competition and little incentive to invest in product development. Bajaj Auto stumbled as the market moved from scooters to motorcycles, but the inherent strength of the company combined with fresh and younger leadership enabled it to thrive post-liberalisation – in spite of greatly increased competition.” In the book, says Forbes, Rahul Bajaj’s principles and forthrightness come through again and again. “He spoke out after the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat… He told three ministers (from the BJP) that industrialists were scared to speak up under the current government.”
Gundappa Vishwanath blended aesthetics with a steely resolve and his square-cuts and some epochal knocks have gained a classical aura. Through his exploits with the bat and his endearing conduct, Vishwanath, Vishy or GRV to his fans, has an enduring presence in India’s cricketing history. His is a story that needed to be told but Vishwanath is famously reticent, and seen in that light, his memoirs, Wrist Assured (Rupa), written in association with senior cricket writer R. Kaushik, is nothing short of a miracle. In his review, K.C. Vijaya Kumar writes that credit is due to Kaushik for nudging Vishwanath to mine his memories and the result is a literary endeavour that throws light on not only a great batter but also paints a candid picture of the willow game in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. “Equally, Vishwanath shares his inputs on players ranging from his brother-in-law Sunil Gavaskar to Virat Kohli with many national and overseas stars making a mark in his wondrous list.”
Giulio Boccaletti is a physicist and climate scientist. He is currently the Chief Strategy Officer and global ambassador for water, for Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s largest environmental organisations. His book, Water: a Biography (Penguin), is a compelling account of the centrality of Earth’s climate controller, water, in shaping life in it and determining the course of human history. It is thanks to its presence in the atmosphere as water vapour, Boccaletti tells us, “that the planet is habitable.” The book is grand in scope, says Uday Balakrishnan in his review. “It melds cosmology, mythology, archaeology and history to bring home to the reader how human civilisation is shaped by water.” Among the most interesting parts of Boccaletti’s book is an account of a highly globalised Mediterranean Bronze age of the second millennium BCE. “The period saw a vast commercial and diplomatic network develop ‘between the territorial states of the eastern Mediterranean’. The catastrophe that marked the end of this period of prosperity and regional integration appears to have been a climate induced migration crisis, something that is repeated to this day.”
Spotlight
In his column, Leather Bound, Aakar Patel writes on the Roman historian Tacitus and his view on Germans. His famous ethnographical work is Germania – he may have not visited the place he writes about, but it is likely that he met its people, many of whom served in Rome. Germania survived as a single copy through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But the image that Tacitus created of Germans had a lasting effect: “For myself, I concur with those who suppose that the people of Germany never mingled by intermarriages with other nations, but have remained a people pure, and independent, and resembling none but themselves. Hence amongst such a mighty multitude of men, the same make and form is found in all, eyes stern and blue, reddish-yellow hair, huge bodies but vigorous only in the first onset. Of pains and labour they are not equally patient, nor can they at all endure thrift and heat. To bear hunger and cold they are hardened by their climate and soil.”
Browser
- In Meltdown: The Earth Without Glaciers (OUP), Jorge Daniel Taillant takes readers into the cryosphere, connecting the dots between climate change, glacier melt, and the impact that receding glacier ice will have on the environment. He looks at actions that can help stop climate change, but says world leaders are failing to address the crisis.
- A couple of years ago, a damaged diary was found at Kasturba Ashram, Indore. It turned out to be a 135-page diary written by Kasturba Gandhi, from January to September 1933. Her great grandson Tushar Gandhi brings it to life, presenting Kasturba as her own person in The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba (Harper).
- In Tokyo Dreaming (Macmillan), the sequel to Tokyo Ever After, Emiko Jean continues with the life of Izumi, now a princess, living the perfect life. All of that might collapse as the Imperial Household Council does not approve of her parents’ marriage. Will she be able to save it even at the cost of sacrificing her future?
- Ruffled Feathers: Stories (Bloomsbury) by V. Sanjay Kumar presents men and women making their way through a grim world that is filled with sharp corners. But as they explore life with deep tenderness and wry amusement, they also manage to balance the absurdity with pathos.
