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Ways Of Dying Stories And Essays
Amitav Ghosh/ George Orwell/ Khushwant singh/ Ruskin Bond/ Mahashewta Devi/ Munshi Premchand/ Amitava Kumar/ Atul GawandeOne of the meanings of the word ‘olio’ is ‘a miscellany’. The books in the Aleph Olio series contain a mélange of the best writing to be had on a variety of themes, and present aspects of India and Indian life in ways that have seldom been seen before. Ways of Dying comprises stories and essays of deep insight into an inevitable part of life—death. The pieces in the book include Amitav Ghosh on the assassination of Indira Gandhi and its aftermath, Ruskin Bond on memories of his father’s funeral, Amitava Kumar on how it is necessary to find comfort and solace in the midst of profound grief, Mahasweta Devi on murder and revenge in rural India, and Atul Gawande on assisted suicide and what doctors fear the most when faced with the mortality of their patients. Elsewhere in the anthology, the reader will find one of Munshi Premchand’s greatest stories, ‘The Shroud’, a peerless meditation on the hypocrisies and feigned grief of dysfunctional families on the death of a family member, balanced by Khushwant Singh’s poignant essay on the death of his beloved grandmother. Rounding out the selection are George Orwell on the complex reasons that often lead to innocent blood being shed, David Davidar on the sadness and turmoil that whirls through a family upon the death of a patriarch, and Kolakaluri Enoch on the tragic death of a young girl.
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A Foreigner Carrying In The Crook Of His Arm A Tin
Perceptive and soulful meditation on the global war on terror and its cultural and human repercussions. Bureaucratic in its convolutions and brutal in its deceptions, the war on terror has had an impact on our lives that we do not yet understand. We sense it. A growing claustrophobia, wariness, suspicion, the stickiness of constant surveillance. But for those who are actually entangled in it, the trap has teeth and they are fierce. Author and teacher Amitava Kumar examines the mangled lives of some of those who tripped - SAR Geelani, Hemant Lakhani and Shahwar Matin Siraj in the US among others. And, he catalog's, with the critics compass and a curators zeal, the fierce renewal in art and literature that has evolved out of the war.Spanning the subcontinents of India and the USA, part reportage, part philosophy, this is a book whose importance cannot be exaggerated.