VISION FROM THE INNER EYE: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ART OF A.I.SYED,By O.P. Sharma (Mapin, price not mentioned) O.P. Sharma's Vision from the Inner Eye: The Photographic Art of A.L. Syed is a beautifully designed collection of 93 duotone photographs taken by the official state photographer for the royal families of Palanpur in Gujarat. He perfected his art - using a humble Rolleicord camera and his own techniques of developing the negatives - on the princely ethos of the Twenties, accompanying the nawab of Palanpur in his travels. He also photographed the royal families of Baroda and Saurashtra, and those of what are now Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Kashmir. Apart from the nawabs, maharanas and rajmatas, there is the 'local colour' series, capturing moments from the everyday life of rural and metropolitan India. These are full of 'grace and charm'. But Syed never quite steps out of his role as 'state' photographer, as the admiring testimonials from royalty, politicians and bureaucrats attest. There are some quaint Sixties photographs of Sadhana, Saira Banu and Nimmi. JUDICIAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING: A PRIMERBy N.R. Madhava Menon, David Annoussamy and D.K. Sampath (S.C. Sarkar, Rs 200) N.R. Madhava Menon, David Annoussamy and D.K. Sampath's Judicial Education and Training: A Primer is an important textbook to have come out of the school of criminal justice and administration at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Calcutta. The joint effort of a judge, an advocate and an academic, it puts together some basic study materials for the training of newly recruited subordinate judges. These are founded on the elementary principles of civil and criminal procedures with which a munsif or magistrate will be intimately concerned on assuming office. These are then adapted to the special demands that 'a complex, pluralist, democratic' society places on the judge, who has to be 'imbued with the constitutional philosophy of equal justice and social justice'. With the interpolation of social science data, inquiry commission reports, academic research and media stories, this primer may be used to open up new possibilities in judicial education and training. POSTMODERNISM FOR BEGINNERSBy Jim Powell (Orient Longman, Rs 190) Jim Powell's Postmodernism For Beginners is a volume in the 'documentary comic book series', copiously illustrated by Joe Lee, presenting a good history and survey of an unavoidable contemporary idea. From Foucault on power to Deleuze and Guattari on rhizomes, from Madonna to teledildonics, postmodernism can take on a vast range of expositions and embodiments, all of which are touched on in this roller-coaster ride through a theoretical, cultural and political terrain. If modernism is form, purpose, design, hierarchy and presence, then according to this guide, postmodernism is antiform, play, chance, anarchy and absence, respectively. It is possible that Chaucer's dream poetry and cyberpunk sci-fi may be equally postmodern.