The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Politics, theme for new releases

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 15, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Politics, theme for new releases

J. Malarvizhi

Vaasanthi's book on politics in Tamil Nadu has received good reviews P.V. Narasimha Rao's `Ayodhya: 6 December 1992' contains his view of what happened in Ayodhya when he was Prime Minister and why

CHENNAI: Politics and communal relations are the themes of the hottest titles in bookstores in the city currently. Titles just out include Vaasanthi's take on politics in Tamil Nadu, M.J. Akbar's Blood Brothers and a former Prime Minister's explanation for Ayodhya. The first has had favourable reviews in the English dailies in the city and was released in the midst of the election fever. Titled Cutouts, caste and cine stars: The World of Tamil Nadu Politics, it has received accolades for a "courageous" retrospective look at Dravidian politics.

Blood Brothers is a fictional account of four generations of a Muslim family dealing with changing Hindu-Muslim relations in Bengal. The writer's being a leading journalist is part of the reason for the buzz around the book. The exploration of the roots of communal tension remains a difficult terrain to negotiate. Which is why the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, requested that Ayodhya: 6 December 1992 be published posthumously. Now on the shelves, the book contains his view of what happened in Ayodhya when he was Prime Minister and why.

General (Retd) V.P. Malik has examined another event that continues to hold sway in popular memory. Kargil: From Surprise to Victory details the changes in the structure of the army and modes of conducting warfare that became visible during and after the 1999 Kargil war.

Ninety minutes and extra time is long enough to stage the `Greatest Show on Earth' with plenty of entertaining sideshows. Peter Seddon has collected some of the more memorable moments from the World Cup's history in The World Cup's Strangest Moments: Oddball Characters and Memorable Matches from over 75 Years of Football's Greatest Tournament. Self-help guru Robin Sharma is back with The Greatness Guide.

For those who were not impressed with his The Monk who Sold his Ferrari, we suggest that you take a look at the pavement second-hand/pirated bookstalls you come across.

All have multiple copies of the Monk's story. That is greatness indeed.

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