Science made simple

The weave of my life: a Dalit woman’s memoirs (Stree, Rs 375) by Urmila Pawar has been translated into English from the Marathi original, Aaydan. Unlike many Dalit narratives, Pawar’s work is a testimony of not only a lived experience, but is also a source of “articulating theory”. In its unsparingness, it brings to light both the “private” and “public” domains of the protagonist’s life: her marriage in the face of family opposition, the couple’s journey from the Konkan to Mumbai, a city that was to become the site of unbridled joy and intense pain, her subsequent association with the Dalit and women’s movements, as well as her evolution as a gifted writer. Of equal significance is the “documentary value” of these memoirs, as well as Pawar’s capacity to critique feminist and Dalit politics objectively. Pawar’s prose is fluid, as is evident from Maya Pandit’s able translation.

The marriage bureau for rich people (Abacus, £7.99) by Farahad Zama is an investment banker’s light-hearted take on matters of the heart. The setting is a lively coastal town inhabited by equally colourful characters. Mr Ali, with his “wealth of common sense”, decides to open a marriage bureau even as retirement looms around the corners of his work life. With the help of his wife and Aruna, the able assistant, the venture is a success. But while Mr Ali’s clients return with a contended smile, a frown begins to gather on Aruna’s face. Love blooms, bringing with it an “impossible dilemma”, even as Mr Ali gets busy doling out advice that he himself rarely heeds. There is a feeble attempt on Zama’s part to address darker aspects of marriage — there are oblique references to abuse and dowry— but they remain frothy and clichéd as his novel.

The Canon: A whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science (Faber, Rs 399) by Natalie Angier simplifies the supposedly complex fundamentals within the various branches of science. The chapters address scientific concepts such as probabilities and calibration, besides providing an outline of disciplines like Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy and so on in a manner that is comprehensible to and exciting for young minds. Angier’s style is charming and her witty anecdotes liberate science writing from what she calls “a…literary and journalistic ghetto”. There are also intriguing queries that reveal dilemmas confronting science, such as the role of “uncertainty” in taking forward quality scientific research, which will delight the young and old alike.

Panic: The story of modern financial insanity (Penguin, Rs 250) is timely and full of wry humour. In his introduction to this anthology of financial writing, Michael Lewis, the editor, notes that the sub-prime mortgage crisis has an egalitarian dimension: it has made fools of both the wise and the naïve — the Wall Street executives and the man on the street. But then, the contributors do not analyse the recent debacle only. They “begin at the beginning”, revisiting among other episodes, the Asian financial crisis and the internet bubble burst, and delve into a world of meteoric rise and crushing fall, avarice, vanity and unimaginable wealth. The collection includes writings by renowned commentators such as Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz and Lewis. Each piece is a chilling account of the mood at the time of a catastrophe, and how, later, when the dust had settled, the world failed to take lessons and moved on to commit the same errors.