BOOKWATCH
Brand IIT
SANDIPAN DEB'S book, The IITians: The Story of a Remarkable Indian Institution and How Its Alumni are Reshaping the World, could not have been better timed. It hit the stands at a time when the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) — arguably the few surviving islands of excellence in the country — are in the midst of a battle of wits with the Human Resource Development Ministry which holds their purse-strings.
A product of both these premier institutes who meandered into journalism to become Managing Editor of the weekly, Outlook, Deb brings into this exploration of how India created a system of engineering education — comparable to the best in the world — his own experience as a student at IIT Kharagpur and what it means to be an IITian.
The nostalgia and success stories apart, Deb weaves into his book "The Bad News"; a chapter based on McKinsey's report — "Shaping the Knowledge Economy in India... " — which concluded that attracting and retaining good faculty was the single biggest problem facing the IITs today.
Based on interactions with IITians, Deb makes out a strong case for the IITs to break free from the Government's purse strings and, instead, tap alumni to maintain the fee subsidies. In his view, the IITs should be run as "autonomous educational institutes with strong accountability and performance evaluation systems for its employees and clear reward-and-punishment structures" while remaining accessible to students with modest/negligible means.
The IITians: The Story of a Remarkable Indian Institution and How Its Alumni Are Reshaping the World, Sandipan Deb, Viking, Rs. 425.
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Indian schools: A class apart
MONOLITHIC though the elementary education structure is, the schooling system in India is a picture of diversity. If there are public schools in the metropolises where children are ferried in air-conditioned buses, the length and breadth of the country is full of instances of every means of transport being used to get them to school; be it a horse/camel/man-pulled cart, an army truck or a rope swing over raging waters.
Here is a book that "celebrates what school can be" in a country where the most basic of basic education is a luxury. Most of the 30 schools featured in this book function out of makeshift structures and are a far cry from the most ill-provided State-run education institutions in cities. But, each offer a lifeline to the students.
And, therein, according to Lisa Heydlauff, who along with photographer Nitin Upadhye "went to school" across the country for seven months, lies the inspiration. For the effort is to capture the "indomitable spirit of children" to conquer India's extreme landscape and battle the odds just to go to school.
Conceived as a communication effort, all proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to support innovative and fun activities in government schools to make learning a joyful and meaningful exercise. The book, say those in the thick of it all, is just the beginning of a movement to use all forms of the media to celebrate schooling and foster understanding among children the world over about what a school means to their not-so-lucky counterparts.
Going to School in India, Lisa Heydlauff, Penguin, Rs. 495.
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From snow caps to desert city
HERE are two additions to the growing corpus of travel writing in India. While both Chandan Ghosh and Dharmendar Kanwar have picked up subjects that have been written about exhaustively, the two books have the advantage of coming with moderate price tags, which is seldom the case with this genre of writing.
Probably that explains why Ghosh's book — while dealing with the picturesque Himalayas — is in black-and-white. Preoccupied with the task of explaining the various mysteries of the world's highest and youngest mountain chain, Ghosh pays scant attention to visual relief though he does throw in a chapter on trekking routes in "Rediscovering Himalaya".
In sharp contrast is Kanwar's Jaipur: 10 Easy Walks. Her attempt is to pen a must-carry book for anyone who wants to take in the sights and sounds of the Pink City. Full of pictures, the book walks the tourist down the dusty thoroughfares of Jaipur but steers clear of the underside of the city with a warning that while it is safe to venture into the by-lanes, they are better left alone.
Rediscovering Himalaya, Chandan Ghosh, Srishti, Rs. 295.
Jaipur: 10 Easy Walks, Dharmendar Kanwar, Rupa, Rs. 195.
ANITA JOSHUA
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