Laughter and forgetting

BOOK OF HUMOUR (Penguin, Rs 195) by Ruskin Bond comes packed with all the charms usual to the volumes by this charming author. There are the familiar figures like Uncle Bill, who had perfected the art of poisoning unwanted humans with arsenic, Grandfather, who, with his penchant for disguises, once managed to fool even formidable Granny and then there is good old Rusty himself, the biggest nut in this book about nuts. Crazy creatures like the “parrot who wouldn’t talk”, the dour cassowary bird and the ingenious crow add to the fun. As do supernatural beings, like the ghost of Rudyard Kipling, who is said to have disappeared into thin air after asking the bartenders at the old Savoy Hotel in Mussoorie whether they serve spirits.

ANOMA’S DAUGHTER (Katha, Rs 175) by Santanu Kumar Acharya has been translated from the Oriya by Bibhas C. Mohanty and the author. The opening lines of the novel — “There is a river. In front of it is a house that opens to a limitless horizon”— invite the reader to a landscape beyond time. This sets the tone for the story, which, at one level, is a reworking of the Buddha legend. There is more to the village schoolmaster, Raghumastré, than meets the eye. The walls of his colossal ancestral house are decorated with murals dating back to the sixth century. As he embarks on a search to find out the identity of his ancestors, he uncovers truths that involve much more than his own familial past. Part thriller, part history, this book is a tribute to the richness of regional writings in India.

NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE PARENTS (Arvind Kumar, Rs 295) by Melanie Roberts-Fraser and Oliver Roberts is meant to help “your relationship...survive children”. Most parents would find the ‘bundles of joy’ they bring to the world too heavy for their shoulders. But they prefer to live in denial of the truth perhaps because if they acknowledge it, “the human race would start to die out”. The strain of parenting ultimately affects the conjugal relationship, which starts dying a slow death as sex becomes a “chore”. Fraser and Roberts, armed with data collected from surveys conducted among parents, try to help those who are about to walk the plank as well as those who have already crossed over to the other side. Their tips might just help in giving birth to the “über-parents” who will manage to divide their love equally between themselves and their children.