While there is so much written ( including many books) about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, respectfully called the ” Mahatma ” and the “Father of the Nation”, relatively less is known about his wife, Kastur. We get glimpses of the life of Kasturba Gandhi (1869-1944 ) through a recent book titled, “The Secret Diary of Kasturba” by Neelima Dalmia Adhar. Continue reading ““The Secret Diary of Kasturba” by Neelima Dalmia Adhar”
Month: August 2019
Before I begin my book review of, “Hippie Chick” by Ilene English, let me begin on a personal note: The Hippie movement started in the United States in the mid-60s – when I was a young teenager in Madras, in far away India. Yet many aspects of the movement fascinated us. During my college days my friends called me “Tripper” after the character in a popular cartoon column called, “Bringing Up Father.” I heard the name of the character was changed to “Groover” later as “Tripper” had connotations of drug usage. I, of course, had just the name and nothing beyond that !!!
I am grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
When I was at school decades ago, one of the text books we had was, “Tom Brown’s School Days” by Thomas Hughes. Set in the England of the 1830s it portrayed life at Rugby, one of the better known public schools. Studying in a public school myself, I could quite easily relate to the ups and downs in the lives of Tom Brown and his friends. One of the memorable, or should I say, notorious characters in that book was the bully, Harry Flashman . He made life miserable for Tom Brown and his friends who had to “fag” for him. We know for certain that Flashman was expelled from the school for being drunk by the venerable Headmaster, Dr Thomas Arnold. Continue reading “Remember Harry Flash? A Tribute to George MacDonald Fraser”
As we are in the month of August, the conversations in India often turn towards Independence Day coming up on August 15. We talk of the Freedom Struggle; of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and Sardar Patel; of Lord and Lady Mountbatten; and the horrors of Partition. I recently re-read ” Freedom At Night” by Dominque Lapierre & Larry Collins, which I had read decades ago. You may recall that this book was first published in 1975, less than twenty years after Independence. I re-read the same book in 2019, by which time so much had changed in the world around us. Yet, the haunting memories of Partition continued in the minds of thousands of families affected by that tumultuous event. The conflict over Kashmir which continues till today is an old wound from that time which still festers. Continue reading ““Freedom At Midnight” by Dominique Lapierre & Larry Collins”
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 