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

Tracing Roots: Stories about Trees Text: Mallika Ravikumar Illustrations: Swati Kharbanda Publishers: Karadi Tales First Print: December, 2020 ISBN: 978-81-9440-714-0 Number of pages: 80 Price: 499/-   Sometime ago keen to read more on the Peepal I had tried searching the web. My time with Google showed me how Peepal grew on walls and terraces and informed me of the myriad ways in which one could get rid of the species. This was not only strange but also sad. On the other hand were web pages that listed benefits of the Peepal. I ended up wondering why do we not look at trees ( nature ) beyond the perceived threats and purported uses?   This book does that. With its stories it also took me to the days when Amar Chitra Katha and Chandamama were an integral part of my life.   The illustrations here have an old time feel to them. A feel that is special - not jaded. They sync well with the text. They also gel with each other and do not try too hard t...

  The Book Title: A To Z of Indian Cities - Ahmedabad to Zunheboto Author: Rati Malaiya Illustrations: Bechain Nagri Studios Publishing: Harper Collins Children’s Books ISBN: 978-93-5422-003-6 Year of publication: 2021   Pluses Illustrations, lay-out and the colours captivate. The book size is appropriate. All of these gel wonderfully too. The theme is appealing. I believe that making younger people aware and sensitive to the diversity of our country is crucial and the book had me excited.       Minuses Books for younger ones have taken lofty steps during recent years. The text here appears to have missed the bus. It is high on clichés but could have done with more quality research, sensitivity, nuanced detailing and respect for reader’s intelligence. The book appears to cater primarily to the urban rich. There is also a strange fascination with wealth. A map depicting locations of these 26 places would have helped.

Of trees Rains led to a few trees falling As I walked around I saw and touched them. As I walked away from each tree I felt somewhat empty Somewhat less of me Were these only trees falling? Falling Select lines from poems suddenly came to mind Of poets I had read and re-read during recent months. Poetry has been a close friend, A friend, who has many a time, Saved me from falling. Naresh Saxena   चीज़ों के गिरने के नियम होते हैं मनुष्यों के गिरने के कोई नियम नहीं होते लेकिन चीज़ें कुछ भी तय नहीं कर सकतीं अपने गिरने के बारे में मनुष्य कर सकते हैं     Kunwar Narain   पत्तों पर पानी गिरने का अर्थ पानी पर पत्ते गिरने के अर्थ से भिन्न है जीवन को पूरी तरह पाने और पूरी तरह दे जाने के बीच एक पूरा मृत्यु-चिह्न है     Harivansh Rai Bachchan मदिरालय का आँगन देखो कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हैं जो गिरते हैं कब उठतें हैं पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर कब मदिरालय पछताता है   Kedar Nath Singh   मेरे बेटे ब...

Into the Wild  Big Cat Tales: Vintage Encounters and Stories Jim Corbett, J H Patterson, Mrs W W Baillie, Saki and Others Compiled and edited by: The Civil Junglees Collective Illustrations: Devashish Verma Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books Pages: 352 Price: 399/- Published at The Hindu .  Thanks are due to the team at The Hindu and Speaking Tiger Books. 22 ‘encounters’ and 6 ‘stories’ make up this anthology. The likes of F W Champion and EHA contribute to the ‘encounters’ while the line-up of the authors of the ‘stories’ include Saki and Alice Perrin. Majority of these writings are based in the Indian sub-continent; they talk of tigers and leopards. However, lions and the African wilderness also find space in few writings. The ‘Compilers and Editors’ have put in laudable efforts to bring this high quality natural history writing to the readers. They succinctly talk about the book – in the introduction – thus, “Our attempt in the collection has been to find humanity in a context...

Two trips to Jaunpur, during the recent months, opened up new worlds.  Of the architectural marvels, the grandeur of Jaunpur - once upon a time, the place today, imartis and more.  Some images from these trips.  Signages from an earlier era,  When milestones were up in the air, in metal and talked in miles.  We humans stuck bricks from different ages together,  Plants brought in the warmth.  An old wall and an old tree together guard a grave,  A grave where someone had recently paid respects.  Less grand than its counterparts in Jaunpur,  But in the fort and elegant.  On top of each other, at the fort gate,  The jharokhas in Jaunpur are mind blowing.  Did friends stand in each of these and talk?  What would the poets - i am fan of - have thought of these?  Is this a result of work or devotion?  What motivated this art? this brilliance?  A reason for many to visit Jaunpur,  A reason sweet enough....

Mundeshvari temple: History in every stone An edited version of this piece has been published in the Friday Review .  Many thanks to colleagues and friends together on this trip, Fiona Buckee for sharing her paper and the team at The Hindu. Mundeshvari Temple is considered the oldest functional temple in the country - I came across this clichéd sounding line multiple times. And questions arose. How old is it then? Is it older than Banaras and its temples? Banaras with all its history, mythology and umpteen temples. Few more questions arose and then I forgot all of them. Mundeshvari is located in Bhabua - 100 kms from Banaras. I then landed upon the temple again in Saba Dewan’s classic Tawaifnama where she writes: ‘Some recent scholars are of the opinion that the goddess installed in the Mundesvari temple might well have been a deity worshipped originally by the aboriginal population described in the Vedic and post-Vedic texts as asura and daitya. In the long-drawn-out struggles ...

Title: Second World War Sandwich Author: Digonta Bordoloi Cover: Haitenlo Semy Pan Macmilan India Price: 399/- Pages: 231 First published: 2021 ISBN: 978–93–89109–52–8 Thanks are due to Digonta Bordoloi , Pan Macmilan India , Sunny and Swati.   Background During my first visit to Nagaland, silly enough, I missed out a visit to the war memorial. The second trip, however, I made amends. The place is special. Every subsequent visit I made it a point to visit it with - time on hand. There, sitting in silence, amidst the graves, I felt a strange calm. Calm I have experienced only at a few other places. This book took me there. It again told me why the war memorial exists. What all a place which emanates peace and serenity today has seen in the past. The horror of violence and brutality at close quarters. It reminded me how little I knew of the battle that could have possibly altered a lot – including our map - had the result been otherwise. This book, a work of fiction, is a well-resea...

What cutting of one tree in Banaras tells us? Few days ago, the newspapers talked of one particular tree that fell. A Banyan in Banaras. Large number of people expressed anguish and some also considered it a harbinger of bad times for the town. Perplexed, I wondered what bad omen meant for a town ravaged by Covid? Amidst the pandemic driven chaos Banaras has, during the past few weeks, been witness to corpses lined up outside crematoriums and floating on river waters. And also, why one particular tree got the attention it did? Especially given that, around the same time, the news from the Capital, talked of treed avenues being destroyed. Of the uprooting and probable relocation of around 400 trees - including Jamun and Neem – some of those aging around 100 (years). A Banyan still standing (representative image from elsewhere) Image Credits: Dharmendra Khandal  The tree under discussion was the Akshay Vat - the indestructible Banyan tree . Only 2 such trees now remain - one at Gaya...

A very special spot The Peepal is at the fulcrum here. Initially this tree felt like a person I am familiar with. Today it is a friend I am comfortable with. One I like to share silences with. The tree stands mid-way between the edge of the river and the verandah where I often sit these days; ie when I am not sitting beneath the tree or walking in the vicinity. At the same height as the verandah, it stands at the edge of the slope which rolls, away from the verandah, down to meet the river. The Ganga. At Banaras. It appears unbothered by the other plants and trees around – other than of course the Neem which stands some feet away. But it does appear to tilt, as if in reverence, towards the river. Naresh Saxena in one of his poems talks about space – the need of space to enable better relations, stronger bonds. The Peepal appears to have that space and bonding with the river. From the verandah I many a time notice the buffaloes wallowing at the opposite banks. For all our talk and st...

The Silence of the Hyena Stories and a novella Author: Syed Muhammad Ashraf Translated from the Urdu by: M Asaduddin and Musharraf Ali Farooqi Publisher: Aleph Book Company Year of publishing: 2020 Pages: 218 ISBN: 978-93-8983620-2 Price: 599/- Where the animal and human worlds meet! Thanks are due to The Purple Pencil Project and Aleph Book Company. This collection – originally written in Urdu - consists of 8 short stories and a novella. 2 translators have brought these stories to English. One of them the novella, which consists of almost half the pages of the book, and the other translator, the short stories. There is no mention of either time or location in most of the stories. However, they give a feel of being located - further from cities and nearer to forests - in a world as it occurred some years ago. A world that was not in a rush, where hunting birds was acceptable and where 300/- meant a significant sum of money. Interestingly, excepting one, which came out about a decade la...