Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter.
In her new book, How Prime Ministers Decide (Aleph), journalist Neerja Chowdhury profiles six Prime Ministers and how each took major decisions. She also includes their fantasies, phobias, compulsions, and vulnerabilities. Chowdhury goes through the prime ministerships of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh and comes away with two broad takeaways. The first striking aspect for Chowdhury was that prime ministerial decision-making which would affect millions was “ad hoc, in-the-moment”, with an eye on the immediate: firefighting, responding to a crisis, political exigencies. The second realisation, she writes, is that India is essentially a coalition – and should be ruled like a coalition, by consensus. Read Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s review.
We also read Mani Shankar Aiyar’s memoir, a graphic narrative adaptation of P. Sainath’s book on unknown heroes of the freedom struggle, a new book by the rosarians of Kodaikanal, and a biography of Jim Corbett. We talk to Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng, whose book has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023, and preview the debut edition of the Auroville Literature Festival.
Books of the week
In an exclusive essay about his new book, Memoirs of a Maverick (Juggernaut), Mani Shankar Aiyar, the diplomat-turned-politician, asks a pertinent question – Why is it felt that Indian memoirists, especially politicians, hide the truth? – and explains that it’s a complicated issue. For him, this is the first volume which deals with his childhood and early career and thus he has not yet faced dilemmas like those who have held great offices and who have had to tell their tale tangentially, bound by oaths of secrecy and past fidelities. A final assessment of his “honesty”, he writes, “might await the sequel.” The truth is, says Aiyar, politicians must dissemble every day of their political lives. They do this to put an acceptable spin to unpleasant facts, to ensure they get their way, and that their political lives can continue. “It would be too much to expect our breed to change our ways in this final reckoning of our lives.” Giving an instance, he says he was against the nuclear deal, and that he first pressed the wrong button, ‘No’, when it came to the vote, but quickly rectified that.
Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng wondered how William Somerset Maugham ending up writing the short story, The Letter, which is based on a real murder trial of Ethel Proudlock based in Kuala Lumpur. That started his lifelong interest in the English author, and he ended up writing The House of Doors (Bloomsbury), which has been longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. Talking to Suneetha Balakrishnan, he says he wanted to imagine how Maugham wrote The Letter, “…my book is a sort of reverse engineering of the story.” Tan’s third novel in 16 years completes the Malayan trilogy. Three story threads, says Balakrishnan, meld into a fast-paced literary narrative, inhabited by a few real celebrities, like Sun Yat Sen, the revolutionary leader of China, and Maugham of course.
In Roses in the Fire of Spring (Running Head Books), M.S. Viraraghavan and Girija Viraraghavan, the rosarians of Kodaikanal, write not just about the 118 roses they have released so far, but also about how to grow and nurture the world’s favourite flower, celebrated in poetry and song. In his review, N. Ram writes that an interesting way to enter the world of the Viraraghavans is to go straight to chapter 22, ‘In the Shadow of Anamudi: Our Garden in the Hills’, in which they describe how their rose garden was created in 1980. “Today, Hillview in Kodaikanal,” writes Ram, situated on the Palani Hills is an enchanted garden. “It teems with a variety of flowering plants and foliage contrasts, chief among them the rose hybrids and rhododendron collections representing more than half a century of dedicated work by India’s leading rosarians.” This part-travelogue and memoir, says the reviewer, is encyclopaedic in scope when it comes to rose breeding and growing. Their philosophy? The focus must be on creating new roses featuring “every colour, form, size, and plant habit. After all, the rose has a natural talent for diversity and beauty.”
To mark 76 years of India’s Independence, publisher Tulika Books has adapted P. Sainath’s The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom (2022/Penguin) into a graphic narrative. Sixteen illustrators have brought the largely forgotten stalwarts to life, who hail from different regions, communities and occupations. The non-fiction book, Unknown Heroes of India’s Freedom Struggle, will be officially launched at the end of the week. While artist Ikroop Sandhu whose first graphic novel was on the life of Bhagat Singh, picked ‘Bhagat Singh Jhuggian: Punjab’s Relentless Revolutionary’ for this project too, animator and illustrator Rajiv Eipe chose to tell the story of ‘H.S. Doreswamy: Mysore’s Mischievous Newsman’ because his story really spoke to him.
Hero of Kumaon: The Life of Jim Corbett (Harper) by Duff Hart-Davis puts together an eminently readable biography of the hunter-turned-conservationist. In her review, R. Krithika writes that while there may not be anything new for the die-hard Corbett fan, Hart-Davis keeps the reader engaged with his clear and chronological telling of Corbett’s life. In ‘Barefoot Boy’, for instance, he covers not just Corbett’s childhood but also offers an overview of Nainital and its importance to the British. While the family lived in the town during summer, the winter months were spent at Kalahundi (now Kaladhungi), where young Corbett learnt to speak Hindi and local dialects. This would stand him in good stead when he began to work in the Railways and in communicating with village folk during his hunts. Hart-Davis recounts how “a powerful hunting instinct burned inside” the young boy and how he learnt to mimic bird and animal sounds and became an excellent tracker.
Spotlight
The debut edition of the Auroville Literature Festival (August 25-27) will bring together writers and thinkers, offering perspectives on fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and of course, Sri Aurobindo, a prolific writer with 36 published volumes of written work to his name. This marks the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, after whom the city, Auroville, was named, and the spiritual collaborator of Auroville’s founder, Mirra Alfassa (The Mother). The festival, writes Preeti Zachariah, seeks to “honour that legacy and bring it to life together with the writing and search of the world today,” quoting one of the festival coordinators, writer and dance choreographer Anuradha Majumdar. Some of the speakers at the festival include poet and critic Ranjit Hoskote, linguist Peggy Mohan, poet and translator George Szirtes, novelist Jennifer Down and author Karen Jennings.
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- Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, “the megaproject expert.” In How Big Things Get Done (Hachette), Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner identify the errors in judgment and decision-making that lead projects, both big and small, to fail.
- Savitribai Phule (Harper) by Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta traces the life and journey of one of India’s great teachers. Together with her husband Jyotirao Phule, she helped set up 18 schools for girls and the marginalised in Maharashtra in the 19th century, at a time there were different sets of rules for men and women and Brahmins and Shudras and it was almost impossible to cross the lines.
- Omair Ahmad’s Tall Tales By A Small Dog (Speaking Tiger) is told from the perspective of a mongrel from Gorakhpur. Readers get a glimpse of the oddballs of the small town, be it a young man falling in love with a street dog or a boy walking all the way to China.
- Malashri Lal’s Mandalas of Time (Hawakal) offers a series of vignettes on India that blend cosmopolitan experiences with memories of India’s epics and legends. The narratives offer a diversity of voice, location, mood and linguistic play that speak to the core of existence.
Published - August 22, 2023 05:00 pm IST
