Bookshelf

Gang Leader for a Day: A rogue sociologist takes to the streets
by Sudhir Venkates
Penguin Press, 2008

American sociology has the tendency to take cover behind government-produced numbers. Here, Sudhir Venkatesh, who knows his numbers, breaks free. His studies on gang life in the US are filled with living human beings and their attempts to come to terms with a harsh and hostile world. In this memoir, he tells us what it was like for this Madras-born, California-raised scholar to hang out with gangsters and drug dealers, as well as ordinary people schooled in the hard knocks of the American underclass. Riveting and powerful, the book leads readers into the sense and sensibility of one of the upcoming Indian-born intellectuals. It's fitting that Venkatesh now is on the team of superstar US presidential candidate Barack Obama. (Vijay Prashad)

Intern: A doctor's initiation
by Sandeep Jauhar
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2008

Sandeep Jauhar joins Abraham Verghese (My Own Country) and Atul Gawande (Complications) as a doctor who is also an accomplished writer. The honest story of a young man's first year in residency, Intern takes readers into the insecurities of creating a life on an upwardly mobile ladder – particularly when there is so much being left behind in the process, particularly in the US health-care system. Jauhar's anxieties push him, and he is now a cardiologist. (VP)

The Small House
by Timeri N Murari

Penguin, 2007 Roopmati Malhotra, the main protagonist here and last remaining scion of a once-flourishing royal line, takes solace in the past to escape a loveless marriage. But the news of a friend's husband's affair, as well as proof of her own husband's infidelities, leads to the unfolding of a series of events that ultimately force Roopmati to reassess the history from which she has for so long derived such comfort. Murari's tale is one packed with loss, betrayal and the frailty of memory. Yet, at its essence, the novel repeats the clichéd story of an urbane Southasian's struggle to reconcile his or her chequered past with the impersonal bustle of modern life. This results in a tumultuous and memorable journey, but ultimately leads to a readable though hardly inspiring element of self-discovery. (Surabhi Pudasaini)

Contentious Politics and Democratization in Nepal
edited by Mahendra Lawoti
Sage Publications, 2007

The advantages of distance and detachment in examining contentious issues are obvious: less personal risk, better perspective, and freedom from the pressure of circumstances. Together, these factors, one assumes, enable an academic to examine issues in an intellectual manner. But the downside is no less compelling. As with Li Onesto on Nepali Maoists, some authors tend to get onto their hobby horses. Others – Mahendra Lawoti, for instance, on the exclusionary nature of the Nepali constitution-engineering process of 1990 – look to flog dead horses at every opportunity. Here is an addition for the creaking bookshelves of Nepal-buffs abroad. (C K Lal)

Democratising Micro Hydel
by Amreeta Regmi
Orient Longman, 2004

The subtitle of Amreeta Regmi's book about the intricacies of democratising 'micro-hydel' in Nepal is ambitious, claiming to set out to understand "structures, systems and agents in adaptive technology in the hills of Nepal". List of figures, tables, boxes and a lengthy compilation of abbreviations entice readers into expecting a scholarly examination of the fundamental issue – namely, how water power can best be used to empower the people. The main text, however, meanders into post-modern obfuscation, khukuri banter and Shangri-la lore. Neither academic enough for experts nor sufficiently engaging to a lay reader, this book falls between the two stools in trying to offer something for both. Nonetheless, with multi-billion-dollar hydro deals currently up in the air in Nepal, this book, released a few years back, offers an interesting peek into the paradoxes faced by the comfortable class of Kathmandu in taking controversial decisions. (CKL)

Dateline Islamabad
by Amit Baruah
Penguin, 2007

Amit Baruah, the diplomatic correspondent for The Hindu, takes readers competently through what it means to be an Indian journalist stationed in Pakistan. Being followed to the corner store by sundry intelligence staff (for whom Baruah and his wife had a plethora of nicknames), the difficulties in obtaining visas, and the frustrations of being denied access to places and people – these are only some of the tribulations. These difficulties notwithstanding, during his stint in Islamabad from 1997-2000, Baruah covers some of the most crucial events in the history of Southasia: the Kargil skirmish, the fall of Nawaz Sharif, General Pervez Musharraf's 'bloodless' coup (which Baruah describes from a particular vantage point), the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Kandahar. Not least, Baruah gives space and weight to the deaths of intellectual giant Eqbal Ahmed and musician par excellence Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Many of Baruah's observations remain pointedly relevant in understanding the current chaos in Pakistan today. (Laxmi Murthy)