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Showing posts from January, 2017

Gurus: Stories of India's Leading Babas (Book Review)

Gurus: Stories of India's Leading Babas by Bhavdeep Kang My rating: 4 of 5 stars Find the review here too : https://www.freepressjournal.in/book-reviews/gurus-stories-of-indias-leading-babas-by-bhavdeep-kang Name of the book: Gurus – Stories of India’s Leading Babas Name of the author: Bhavdeep Kang Publisher: Westland Limited Genre: Non-Fiction Price: Rs. 295 Number of pages: 240 Also available as an ebook In the author’s own words: “This book is not a piece of investigative journalism; definitely not an exercise in PR. This book neither debunks nor celebrates the subjects. Also, it isn’t a collection of thumbnail biographies. Nor is it a work of scholarship. It is not, even remotely, a philosophical study, a sociological commentary or a psychological analysis. It is a peek at the men (and woman) behind the guru personas.” She has based their profiles on subjective impressions, interviews and research (a lot of it), viewing them from as many angle...

Fatal Accidents of Birth (Book Review)

Fatal Accidents of Birth by Harsh Mander My rating: 4 of 5 stars Fatal Accidents of Birth (Stories of Suffering, Oppression and Resistance) Author: Harsh Mander Publisher: Speaking Tiger Price: Rs. 499 Pages: 203  The review also appeared in The Free Press Journal on January 1, 2017. Find the review here. ‘Our task is to change some conditions that appear to me as obviously against the beauty of being human’, said Paulo Freire. The quote greets the reader first. Little did I know that as I would turn the pages, I would learn so much about the inhuman intricacies woven into human lives, at times by circumstances and at other times simply because of one’s ignorance about the bigger picture while nitpicking over the supposedly misplaced tiny details. The preface Other Lives, Other Worlds is hard-hitting and delivers the chills even before the human coldness starts storming in from the seventeen stories ahead. Far from the hustle and bustle of rural India, where p...