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Racism on an island
In 1855, on a deserted island off the coast of Africa, the most audacious experiment ever envisaged is about to begin. To settle, an argument that has raged inconclusively for decades, two scientists dream up an elaborate experiment.
A pair of infants, one black, one white, are to be raised on a barren island, exposed to the dangers all around them, tended only by a young nurse whose muteness renders her incapable of influencing them in any way, for good or for bad. They will grown up without speech, without civilization, without punishment or play.
In this primitive environment, the children will develop as their primitive natures dictate. The question is: what will be left, when the twelve years of the experiment are over? Which child will be master, and which the slave? For surely one will triumph over the other. Or will they all, children and scientists alike, reap the fruits of breaking the taboo, as they discover love and loneliness on the wild but beautiful island of Arlinda? Kunal Basu spins an enticing web, mingling science, history and romance.
Racists, Kunal Basu,
Penguin books, Rs. 250
All-time school favourites
Meet the world's naughtiest boys and girls, the best and the worst students and some really famous children in this book as they make their way through school.
Read about David Copperfield and his friendship with Steerforth, Tom Brown trying to find his feet in Rugby School, and Jane Eyre fighting poverty and disease in a school for orphans. Not to forget those other irrepressible and immortal boys, Richmal Crompton's William brown, mark Twain's Tom Sawyer,
R.K. Narayan's Swami and Ruskin Bond's Rusty. Also included are stories from such classics as Anne of Avonlea, Little Men, Stalky and Co., and To Sir, with Love.Bu turns hilarious and heart warming, these classic tales are about growing up and the time spent in that one place which is so beloved to some and so hated by others - School.
The Puffin Book of Classic School Stories edited by Ruskin Bond,
Puffin Books, Rs. 250
A domestic worker's real story
This is the story of baby Halder, a young woman who battled poverty, hardship and violence to make a name for herself as a writer. Hurriedly married off at the age of twelve, a mother by the time she was fourteen, Baby faced continual violence from her husband. Her father's long absences from their home, her mother's decision to walk out of the marriage, leaving baby and her sister to manage the household, were the realities that shaped baby's early life.
Escape finally came many years later, by which time the still young Baby was a mother of three, and she fled to the city. Working in Delhi as a domestic help, Baby was lucky enough to come across an employer who encouraged her to build upon her few years of education and to read - and then to write.
A Life Less Ordinary, Baby Halder,
Peguin books, Rs. 195
Racists, Kunal Basu,
Penguin books, Rs. 250
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