A book analyses the drivers of change and the repercussions of
present-day gender revolutions, a man in today's Kolkata meets a man
who claims to be a werewolf. Some light and some heavy dosage, the IANS
bookshelf this weekend has reality meeting fantasy. Take a look.
1. Book: Half A Billion Rising; Author: Anirudha Dutta; Publisher: Rainlight; Pages: 247; Price: Rs.395
This
book travels to different parts of India and finds that a tremendous
wave is sweeping across the nation – girls and women are getting
educated, finding jobs and emerging as empowered citizens. The
implications of such breakthrough transformations are phenomenal in a
nation that is home to 17 percent of the world's total number of women.
It
analyses the drivers of change and the repercussions of present-day
gender revolutions. It does so by collecting the stories of young Indian
girls across the socio-economic pyramid, and by retelling, in their
particular voices, their aspirations, disappointments and everyday
challenges.
Against a backdrop of key statistical data and
research findings, this book surveys how society at large and men in
particular are reacting to the rise of woman power. It asks: Is there
support from within the family and from men when a woman chooses
enfranchisement? Is violence against women on the rise? Moreover, what
role is the local NGO playing in spurring a change in mindest and how
can the government help?
2. Book: The Devourers; Author: Indra Das; Publisher: Penguin; Pages: 344; Price: Rs.499
In
a dusty caravan serai in 17th century Mumtazbad, Cyrah, a young
wanderer meets a man who says he is a monster. The encounter fills her
with revulsion and dread, yet changes her forever. In present-day
Kolkata, college professor Alok Mukherjee meets a man who claims to be a
werewolf. Alone and estranged after a separation, Alok is drawn to the
stranger's hypnotic allure, unable to tell delusion from truth, trickery from magic.
Beginning
in Mughal India by the foot of the Taj Mahal and culminating in the
lush, dangerous forests of the Sunderbans in 21st century India, this
book is a story about shape-shifters, hunters with second selves who
prey on humans and live in the shadows of civilisation. But it is also
about what it means to be human - and the transformative powers of love.
3. Book: The Lesson; Author: Sowmya Rajendran; Publisher: Harper Collins; Pages: 192; Price: Rs.399
The
adjustment bureau is snowed under with work, the moral police force is
on the prowl. The country, but most of all the capital, must live by the
Conduct Book. But it isn't easy. Despite all the efforts of these
organisations to maintain peace and social order, people, especially
women, continue to flout the law – they ask for divorces, dress
provocatively, drink with men and attempt to avoid marriage and
childbearing.
But there is a one-man army, more effective than
the entire moral police force put together, who will bring law to the
land. A vigilante who has his own methods. No matter how many wanton,
difficult women there are, he will persevere for the greater good. He
will shame them like they have never been shamed before. And when one
particular woman's rebellion threatens to spiral out of control, he is
called upon to remedy the situation... and teach her a lesson.
4. Book: Close to Home; Author: Parvati Sharma; Publisher: Penguin Viking; Pages: 200; Price: Rs.399
All
Mrinalini Singh wants, she has. A loving husband, a competent cook, the
vague hope of a book deal one day. But when her old roommate Jahanara
accuses her of being selfish, Mrinalini is forced to practise altruism
on the nearest available target: her maid's toddler. All this caring
doesn't come easy, though; and it hardly helps that her husband,
Siddhartha, has quit his lucrative job and acquired parental ambitious.
Or that Brajeshwar Jha, her upstairs tenant and literary rival, has not
only published his book before Mrinalini, but also lampooned her and
Siddhartha in it.
This book offers a wry look at the small
compromises, manipulations and sustained self-delusion of young men and
women possessed of good fortune... and only looking for good lives.
