Against war and other demons

Pakistan: An age of violence (Sampark, Rs 250) edited by Anita Dawood Nasar is the first issue in volume 4 of the Sampark Journal of Global Understanding, Sunandan Roy Chowdhury being the general editor of the series. The spirit of the volume is best captured by a slogan at an Artists Against War demonstration in Karachi, quoted by Beena Sarwar in ?Justifying Violence?: ?You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can?t bomb the world to peace.? The different views of Pakistan, provided by social scientists, journalists, economists, gender activists, poets, artists and story-tellers, are defined by the larger contexts of the tensions between India and Pakistan on the one hand and global terrorism on the other. Committed to peace, the contributors reflect on violence without and within. The translated lines from Afzal Ahmed Syed?s Urdu poem, ?The Clay Mine?, is a reminder of a violence intimately familiar to the underprivileged everywhere:?I work in a clay mine/ After the day?s work, our bodies are searched/ Our guards break us into pieces and then glue us back...?

Treasury of Joy and Enthusiasm (Orient, Rs 80) by Norman Vincent Peale enthusiastically exhorts ?Say ?yes? to life? on the bright green and yellow cover. Catalogued solemnly under ?Self-development?, the blurb proclaims Mr Peale to be the ?Greatest Inspirational Author of Our Time?. Anecdotes, quotations, fables, rhymes of the kind usually embroidered and then framed on the walls of gratefully pious homes, a benignly avuncular hectoring style, mysterious chapter headings such as ?Life with a spiritual upthrust? and a tone most reassuring to uncertified morons, with remarks such as, ?Of all things you wear, your expression is the most important? are the secrets of his success.

Seven years in tibet (HarperCollins, Rs 295) by Heinrich Harrer remains a best-seller and a travel classic so long after its first publication in 1953. The climber?s love affair with Tibet, his enduring engagement with a little-understood people, crowned by his tutorship of and friendship with the very young dalai lama, comprise an unusual tale presented in a simple, yet unfailingly charming and restrained prose. This edition appends a short account of the author?s life by Miranda Haines.

Jacquot and the waterman (Headline, ?6.00) by Martin O?Brien is a satisfyingly substantial volume for detective-story addicts, because it promises a luxuriously confusing puzzle. The tradition of the French detective story promises more riches, and the murderer too, is a specialist, his technique consisting of drowning his victims. Sharp, smart and quick-moving, the novel makes even the drudgery of police work seem exciting.

Transcreated Raktakarabi and other performance texts: A Parnab Mukherjee- Alternative Theatre omnibus (Mansi, Rs 125) is a creative experiment in bad writing, which mingles elucidations, allusions, intellections, and lines and lines of what could politely be called ?poetry-in-theatre?, if perorations beginning with lines such as, ?Words for me are like chewing gum?, can be thus apotheosized. Parnab Mukherjee is into hyphenated creations, specializing in ?Shakespeare-in-education?, ?theatre-of-social-sculpture?, ?installation theatre performances?, and ?contemporary third theatre techniques?. The productions are possibly quite wasted within the covers of a book.