Name: Foucault for BeginnersAuthor: Lydia Alix FillinghamTime Taken: 2 metro rides I have never read Foucualt before. I don’t know if I ever will again. But like all “for beginners” book, this one is interesting and very readable. The supplementary sketches add to the interseting view point Foucault has presented to life. I have unfortunately…
Name: The UntouchableAuthor: Mulk Raj AnandTime Taken: 4-5 metro ridesThe title is self explanatory. It is a book that tells the tale of a young boy born in a scavenger family. By caste, the lowest in the hierarchy of the untouchables. Considered touch-worthy only by fellow untouchables of the same caste and the…
name: zindagi zindadili ka naam haiauthor: zakiya zahirtime taken: 10 metro rides this is a book of short stories in a mix of hindi and urdu with a dash of random english thrown in. but mostly hindi and urdu. amazingly lucid and entertaining… written brilliantly. it is un-put-down-able… it talks of everyday life experiences and…
name: siege of mithilaauthor: ashok bankerreading time: 10-12 metro rides siege of mithila is book 2 of banker’s ramayana.. i had written about the first one in this blog on feb 9, 2010. the book is captivating. but would have been more so if i had not read the ramayana and the harry potter series….
name: imam bukhari ka napkin (hindi)author: musharraf aalam zaukireading time: 6-8 metro rides it is a book of short stories in urdu mixed hindi… very very close to life.. in fact it is so real in the most everyday things that it is somtimes spooky… largely talks of the inner psychic world of individuals in…
name: what is marxism?author: emile burnsreading time: 2 metro rides obviously, the book is about marxism. it can also be titled marxism made easy because it is written so simply. the important aspect is that it is written simply but it hasn’t trivialised the theory or the ideology. written brilliantly to make sense to anyone,…
name: the doomsday book: many ways the world can endauthor: joel levyreading time: 3-4 metro rides (not read in the metro) the book talks about alternative possibilities of reaching the doomsday. how the world could come to an end. the first chapter is dedicated to religious interpretation of what is called pralaya in hindu tradition…
name: Nine Livesauthor: William Dalrymplereading time: atleast 15 metro rides.. can be lesser if you concentrate… Nine lives is precisely what it claims to be… tracings of the sacred in modern india.. details of each of the nine lives have been presented in great detail… stories fleshed out to make them come alive in print……
name: men are from mars, women are from venusauthor: john grayreading time: 3 metro rides the book talks of how men and women are from different planets and therefore talk in mutually incomprehensible languages. a major part of the book is actually a translation of misinterpreted communications… the examples used are quite apt.. almost everyone…
name: stones into schoolsauthor: greg mortensonreading time: 20 metro rides and a little more stones into schools, in its own words is a story of promoting peace in afghanistan and pakistan through schools and not guns.. it describes, with painstaking detail, the effort made by mortenson in association with the central asia institute to set…
