Bookwatch
Victim of prejudice
By Anita Joshua
My Days In Prison, Iftikar Gilani, Penguin, Rs. 195.
ONE of the first things that Iftikar Gilani — the Delhi bureau chief of the Jammu-based daily, Kashmir Times — did after his release from prison was pen his experience of being hauled up by the authorities in the middle of the night and thrown into Tihar Central Jail for treason. Released within seven months after the case against him collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions, Gilani was ready with the manuscript before the year was through.
Though his contacts secured him a publisher, it took another year and several rounds of fine tooth-combing before My Days In Prison made it to the stands. Even then, several bits have been edited — not just from Gilani's account, but also the foreword — purportedly to ensure that the book does not run into legal problems.
Since his case was well publicised by the media — not just because he was one of its own but also because it fed the need of round-the-clock news television channels to provide a twist in the tale every once in a while — much of what Gilani has to say is already known. Apart from the fact that he puts it all together, the book offers a first person account of life in Tihar; down to practically every horrifying detail.
Diaries: A defence mechanism
My Days In Prison, Iftikar Gilani, Penguin, Rs. 195. Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries, Suad Amiry, Granta, œ4.50.
FOR Suad Amiry, the founder-director of RIWAQ — the Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah — penning her day-to-day existence in "permit-raj" West Bank was an escape route; her way of dealing with the "struggle to live a normal life in an insane situation". But, instead of whining about it, she raves and rants — always with good reason and making perfect sense — bringing out the irony in every encounter she has with Israelis.
Irreverent and particularly inclined to cock the snook at the "authorities", Amiry's jottings — while dwelling on the painful existence of the average Palestinian in the Occupied Territories — are laced with humour. Much has been written about life in the Occupied Territories and the West Bank is always in the news, but Amiry enthralls with her narration of getting through every day in the region — rather the sheer absurdity of it all.
Written as lived, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries takes the reader through the Occupied Territories. Particularly heart-rending are the detailed accounts of acquiring what Amiry calls the "Byzantine system of Israeli permits" — a mind-boggling array — and the crazed movements of an entire population whenever curfew is lifted.
Da Vinci Code cracked?
The Rough Guide to The Da Vinci Code: History, Legends, Locations, Michael Haag and Veronica Haag, Rough Guides, œ2.99.
ONE thing that Dan Brown succeeded in doing with his runaway bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, was renew an interest in all things Biblical; particularly the New Testament. Eager to ride piggy-back on the controversies that his book generated -- particularly, pertaining to the suppression of the "sacred feminine" by the Church hierarchy and the suggestion that Jesus Christ had fathered a child with Mary Magdalene -- many a publisher quickly put together material to spawn an entire range of books on The Da Vinci Code, the Opus Dei sect, the Holy Grail...
The Rough Guide to The Da Vinci Code is one of the league wherein Michael Haag and Veronica Haag try to separate fact from fiction in Brown's racy thriller that cuts across continents and practically unfolds in large measure over one night. Since Brown claims that his book is anchored on facts, the Haags try to address the readers' -- many of them believers -- need to know how much of what he has written is really true. But, even they do not have direct answers; except provide easily accessible information on the various issues and theories that Brown has brought into public domain from closed research circles.
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