Book in my hand

A weekly column on what celebrities are reading and planning to read.

Manish Tewari

I am reading

Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove by Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. I started this after finishing

Path of Blood: The story of Al Qaeda’s War on the House of Saud by Thomas Small and Jonathan Hacker, and

ISIS Exposed by Erick Stakelbeck.

Mr. Kasuri’s book is interesting from the Pakistani perspective, and not so much vis-à-vis India. The amazing insights into the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence make it interesting. I am halfway through the book. There are more books waiting to be read —

Don’t Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff is on top of the list.

(Manish Tewari was Information and Broadcasting Minister in the UPA government.)

Kajol

I’m into fantasy fiction; I like werewolves and vampires. I like mythology too — the last book I read was the

Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K. Banker. It is the Ramayana, but told in a very interesting manner. The plot is the same as the epic, but what is amazing is that it is written from another point of view. The characters are not wimpy, wishy-washy, and they are not gods. They are mortals, flawed human beings. And it’s us, the flawed humans really, who turn out to be gods because we are able to face adversities.

(Kajol is a Bollywood actor.)