A Descriptive Account of Assam Great Game East: India, China, and The

Volume II, Issue X, August-September, 2015 A Bimonthly Newsletter published by Bhabani Books, Guwahati - 781 007, Assam, India ` 5/- Interview : Imran Hussain Page2 Page3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 A Descriptive Account of Assam Edward Said & New Edition Available Descriptive Account the Politics of of Assam by Culture A William Robinson, published first in 1841, has ecognised as one of undoubtedly become a classic the seminal thinkers of book not only on History R the twentieth century, but also on geography, Edward Said has never been out of sociology and anthropology controversy. The controversies have as well. Some of the facts, often revolved around issues of observations and remarks identity, politics and culture – ideas of the author could be that Said championed and argued encountered with fresh facts for from his perspectives – and and arguments. The editor while it is not surprising to find his has rendered his editorial position challenged by critics who intervention in many of such consider him to be parochial and factual aspects. But, instead limited, there are still others who of revising the original text of acknowledge the significance of the the book in the light of new work he has done and the impact Editor: Bibhash Choudhury, facts and assessments, the it has had on contemporary critical Bhabani print and publications, ` 275 originals have been retained theory. Edward Said & the Politics of Culture is, amongst other things, an with utmost care and caution invitation to thinking about the conditions of critique that occupied Said. and the spellings of the While responses to Said will inevitably draw out our intellectual alignments, William Robinson, proper nouns have been kept it should also enable us to reorient our views about the ‘politics of culture’ Editor: Ramesh Chandra Kalita, that condition contemporary critical and cultural studies. Bhabani Books, ` 590 the same. Great Game East: India, China, Scion of Ikshvaku and the Struggle for Asia’s Most cion of Ikshvaku, the first book in the Ramchandra Series by Amish Tripathi, would appeal to those who want to know the story of Volatile Frontier SRamayana told through the hile much of the world modern eyes. Its key characteristics focuses on the competition are its conversational language, W between China and strong women characters and the United States (and Japan, the debates on moral issues. Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam) in The saintly Ram, the devilish the East China Sea and South China Ravana, the morally upright Sita, Sea, another geopolitical struggle the rebellious Bharat and others are of equal importance is continuing shown as real people with real lives and escalating in South Asia and in this book - with attractions to the Indian Ocean involving India, the opposite sex, daily quibbles and China, and the United States. At teasing between siblings - and the the geographical center of this latter mental tussles between right and struggle is the country of Burma wrong. (Myanmar), situated between India’s The first and greatest point of northeastern states, Bangladesh, difference between the traditional southwestern China, and Southeast Ramayana and The Scion of Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal Ikshvaku is the depiction of Ram as and the Andaman Sea. It is in that an unloved prince. His father, king region, writes Bertil Lintner in his Bertil Lintner, Dasaratha, considers Ram’s birth new book Great Game East, that Yale University Press, ` 2190 inauspicious and blames him for all “twenty-first century Asia’s most serious superpower rivalry” will likely play his misfortunes. So the fabulously out. Amish, Lintner, a journalist and former correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic powerful and wealthy king of Westland Ltd, ` 350 Ayodhya is shown to be a defeated Review, has been writing on Asian politics for over three decades. He is steeped old man ruling over a crumbling kingdom. The very foundations of the epic in the history of the region’s diverse ethnic groups and political rivalries. He are laid differently in this story. uses the term “Great Game East” to differentiate this current geopolitical The book is full of such fruits of Amish’s imagination, but it is for the reader struggle from the 19th century competition between Great Britain and to find them, taste them and judge them. The use of colloquial language Russia in Central Asia. The Great Game East, Lintner notes, involves not would come as a respite to those who could not follow Ramayana from start only geopolitical rivalries among nations, but also ethnic conflicts within to end because of its intricate Hindi or English translations. India’s northeastern states, Bangladesh and Burma. BOOK Volume II, Issue IX, August-September, 2015 QUEST 2 Editorial Tribute People’s President “The Missile APJ Abdul Kalam & Man” bades goodbye. Srijan Pal Singh ormer President APJ Abdul Kalam, the The book gives a brief introduction about different scientists and ‘missile man’ who came to be known as incidents that inspired them to be who they were. It takes up one ‘People’s President’ died after he collapsed field of science and explains about it in detail. The fields include F th T during a lecture at the IIM in Shillong on 27 July, Robotics, Aeronautics, Pathology, 2015. Considered the most popular President, Kalam Space Science, Neuroscience, th became the 11 head of the state and occupied the Material Science and Palaeontology. post between 2002 and 2007. Dr Kalam and Srijan Pal give detailed Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on October 15, 1931 in the small coastal temple description of each field giving us a town of Rameshwaram, now in the southern Indian background about it who were the state of Tamil Nadu. Abdul’s ancestors had converted great scientists involved in the field to Islam after contact with Arab traders who settled along India’s coastal areas how the field evolved itself and what hundreds of years earlier. is the future going to be like. Each Although he remained a Muslim, he was moulded in the tolerant traditions chapter is peppered with incidents of Sufism and his attitudes and tastes reflected the more heterogeneous culture which make the reading fun and of India. Indeed, he enjoyed a special status in the Hindu Rameshwaram temple interesting. A question answer because one of his ancestors had dived in and retrieved its main idol from a water session on each subject ensures that tank. Kalam’s interest in military technology was fired by an article he read as a all our questions are answered while schoolboy about the Supermarine Spitfire, Britain’s Second World War fighter. interviews with the subject matter In the 1980s and 1990s he headed India’s missile programme, developing its experts are superb to read and the indigenous nuclear-capable Agni and Prithvi missiles. questions asked to them are practical He has penned down several books which will keep inspiring generations to and reveal an ocean of information. come. He was a multifaceted personality showing outstanding excellence in every The science behind things and field he ventured. In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocated an action APJ Abdul Kalam & Srijan Pal Singh, scientific theories are explained in a plan to develop India into a “knowledge superpower” and a developed nation by Puffin Books, ` 199 simple and lucid manner so that the the year 2020. He regarded his work on India’s nuclear weapons programme as a children grasp the meaning. I loved the way each vocation has been depicted way to assert India’s place as a future superpower. His untimely death came as a shock to the people of the Nation as we are aware that an era has ended. at the start of each chapter. The illustrations are awesome and add value to On 30th July 2015, the former President was laid to rest at Rameswaram’s Pei the text, making it easier to understand. The entire book makes a fascinating Karumbu Ground with full state honours. read and the language is not very difficult to understand. The concepts are explained in a simple manner so that even a layman and a student can The Good Story understand the theory behind so many fascinating things. he Good Story is an No Direction Rome exchange between he protagonist in this existential T a writer with a rant is Krantik, who lives in longstanding interest in T Rome. The novel begins with his moral psychology and a fiancée Pooja—daughter of an influential psychotherapist with training in member of Parliament, read thug, so best literary studies. not trifled with—attempting to commit The authors discuss both suicide during their secret rendezvous individual psychology and the in Amsterdam. As metaphors for what psychology of the group: the Krantik—who himself stands for the school classroom, the gang, the current confused generation—is going settler nation where the brutal through are both the still-standing ruins deeds of the ancestors have to be of Rome as well as a bunch of talking accommodated into a national turtles whose universe is his landlord’s story. Drawing on great writers terrace, the landlord being God in this like Cervantes and Dostoevsky case. and psychoanalysts like Freud Barua sets up a perfectly humdrum life and Melanie Klein, they offer for Krantik: A number-crunching job illuminating insights into the that is complete drudgery, an on-off Kaushik Barua, stories we tell of our lives. wacko girlfriend in an open relationship, Fourth Estate, ` 399 The exchanges that follow “friends” with whom he shares beers, joints and other drugs, Arabella Kurtz and J.M. Coetzee, are about the practice of and polite conversations, loneliness of such proportions that he regularly Random House India, ` 599 psychoanalytic psychotherapy stops random strangers to ask directions to monuments he has no intention and what that practice.

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