yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

During the last month ( October, 2026 ), in Bookworm’s Reading Circle, we discussed Dr Sylvia Karpagam’s The Meat of The Matter: How the Politics of Food Shapes Our Health . The book highlights the politics behind food - how caste dominates food, how government influences what comes to our plate, how science and business join hands to decide our diet, and how amidst all these, it is the have-nots who suffer the most. It gets into the well-known irony of India being referred to as a vegetarian country when 3/4ths of the population consumes meat and also into the lesser-known nuances - like how demolition in an urban area can derail the nutrition intake of the affected families for days. It also does not shy away from talking about horrendous actions like that of humans beating other fellow humans for eating a particular meat, beef in this case.  I am glad I read the book, was a part of the Reading Circle, and that Bookworm lent a physical copy of the book. However, the book - and t...

Celebration and Prayer: Life and Light in Raza's Art Ashok Vajpeyi Speaking Tiger  184 pages  Sometimes a book finds you all of a sudden, and as if calls you. You pick it up, and as you read you are both surprised and happy. It reminds you that books and whim go well together, and that you are at the right place.  I was at Arthshila's library then and am now keen to revisit, especially to meet the book again. I had not begun a new book for some days now despite more than a few unread lined up at home, but this was special.  This book , with a few unfinished sentences and some blank pages, I could not complete then. But it touched me in a manner that many books which I have completed did not.  This book talks of Raza's journey from a small hamlet in Central India, the teacher who introduced him to the Bindu, to France and to finally returning to India and painting daily in his 90s.  Sample a few lines -  All the world is produced by touch.  ...

Title:  Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train Author:  Monisha Rajesh Publisher: Bloomsbury Pages: 326 ISBN: 9781-5266 -4418-3 MRP: 699/- Thanks to  Deccan Herald In this book, Monisha Rajesh takes different trains, mostly in Europe, that move during the night, meets friends and strangers, soaks in the views, enjoys food, visits places, shares what is in her mind and takes us along. I had read her ‘ Around India in 80 Trains ’ around the time it had come out, about a decade and half ago, and I must confess that I enjoyed this journey with her far more. As I travelled with her again, I discovered areas of common interest, one after the other, be it soaking in silences or darkness, keenness to slow down or invest time with self, concern for the earth and people, meditation, engaging with interesting people, and of course trains and travel. She writes about trains which boast of carriages that get on to a ferry or those which can carry cars, have fridges and pla...

Learning and Sustaining Agricultural Practices The Dialectics of Cultivating Cultivation in Rural India Springer, 2021 Karen Haydock, Abhijit Sambhaji Bansode, Gurinder Singh, Kalpana Sangale. More about the book, including the PDF, at the publisher's and the author's websites. The book and I. This book too came into my life courtesy Bookworm's Reading Circle and I begin by thanking the group and Bookworm. I read the book slowly, very slowly, as it repeatedly set me thinking. It made me question some of my actions and I was left wondering if I would have benefitted by reading a book of this nature at an earlier stage in life. This book is immense in its scope — it deals with documenting a process, understanding societal realities, and exploring science, education, cultivation, learning and more. Cultivation and us. We eat multiple times a day and yet we know so little about the food we eat - who grows it, where it is grown, how it reaches our homes, who all were involved ...

Title:  Shaping and Denying Education: Role of Class, Caste, and Gender Author:  Aman Madan   Illustrator:  AbiraBandhyopadhyay Publisher:  Eklavya Foundation Price: 360/- Pages: 299 License:  Creative Commons   Development Support:  Tata Trusts Education : An uneven playing field Up at Teacher Plus , July 2026.  In his latest book, author Aman Madan talks about the impact of inequalities in our society ( gender, class, and caste ) on education, the dynamic nature of these inequalities, and how societal changes in the recent decades have impacted them. The book is spread across 14 chapters, each with its own set of references. The first two chapters lay the premise, the next five focus on caste and class, the three that follow talk about gender, and the final four about government policies and intersectionality. Towards the end is a list of further readings.   Caste and class. The author talks about caste and class in a manner that is un...

A season of longing and desire Title: The fragrance of rain  Publisher: Aleph Book Company First published: 2026 ISBN: 978-93-6523-030-7 Pages: 140 Price: 499/- Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald; the review on their website here . The Fragrance of Rain drenches you from page 1. The author enjoys being amidst the rains, and writing; and this book allows him to share these joys with us. His deep connect with Landour, its biodiversity, is apparent, “ Here in these delicate yet resilient landscapes, the rain means as much to those minuscule species as it does to us”. He also takes us to Goa and Kerela. He brings in references, walks in forested lands, and also engages with people to bring out, to highlight, monsoon’s role in our lives. This he does with an uncommon grace and flair in language. The length of the book, 140 pages, 10 chapters - 11 to 17 pages each, belies its scope and the depth it explores.  I have waited a long time for someone in love with rains to write on...

Thanks to the team at  Teacher Plus  for publishing this in the March 2026 issue.  Meeting the Savarnas by Ravikant Kisana resonated in a manner than not many books do. It reminded me of some of the conversations I had had, took me back to some situations I had been a part of, had me reread some sections, got me talking excitedly about the subject with friends, and make notes. This is a book school teachers will do good to read. It may help broaden their horizons, and in turn, benefit children in the long run. I will briefly talk about the book and follow it up with how it can help teachers. First, the book. Title: Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything Author: Ravikant Kisana Publisher: Penguin Random House India First Published: 2025 Pages: 187 Price: 699/- This is a book that questions the credibility of the elites by pointing out how deeply entrenched caste, and as a corollary, privilege are in our society. How we have looked at, and...