Book Thoughts: A TIME ELSEWHERE

‘A Time Elsewhere’ from Penguin Books | Originally written in Odia as ‘Desa Kala Patra’ from Friends Publishers

Author Jagannath Prasad Das | Saraswati Samman, 2006 | Translated into English by Jatindra Kumar Nayak

A Time Elsewhere makes up a fantastic read on the state of affairs of a region which has mostly stayed dormant in fields where the neighbours and others have excelled to various peaks at different generations. It gives a typical window to a narrative spanning 50 years beginning from 1859. This span of history is important in many ways for Odisha, as we know today, where it gives an interesting view to its past and the formation of a society, language and identity stepping out from the shadows of neighbouring regions.

Book Thoughts: A FEAST OF VULTURES

A Feast Of Vultures: The Hidden Business Of Democracy In India by Josy Joseph

Is there a page you would like to skip? – No. Well, there will be many books where the same holds true. But this is no ordinary book. It is not a fantastic work of fiction either. The book is naked, raw and has some startling revelations on India, its democracy, bureaucracy, corporate business and their marriage to corruption since Independence. The fact that the author has put up a brave fight in the face of defamation cases (after the publication of this book) bears testimony to the struggle and the tedious documentation that would have gone into his years of investigative journalism.