When the earth was born

MARGIN OF TERROR (Jaico, Rs 295) by Salim Jiwa and Donald J. Hauka is “ A reporter’s 20-year odyssey covering the tragedies of the Air India bombing”. The book is an investigation of the bombing that killed three hundred and twenty-nine people on board Flight 182 of Air India more than twenty years ago. The verdict on the case shocked the families of the victims by acquitting the accused terrorists. Jiwa presents a fascinating portrait of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the chief of the Sikh extremist organization, the Tigers of True Faith, and the prime suspect in the Air India case. Journeying into the heart of terror, Jiwa exposes the illusions on which it thrives. The pointlessness of terrorism become especially evident in Jiwa’s moving account of the anguish of the victims’ kin, whose dreams of justice remained unfulfilled.

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE (Pearson, Rs 225) by James Gustave Speth and Peter M. Haas is a valuable guide-book for those seriously concerned about global warming and eager to take steps to lessen it. The authors not only identify the major threats to the environment but also offer practical insight into ways of tackling them. Several NGOs, scientists and international organizations have got together in recent decades to pass laws that address and solve major environmental problems. Instead of just despairing over ecological threats, it is time one gets ready to battle them face-to-face.

ALMOST SINGLE (HarperCollins, Rs 195) by Advaita Kala can easily be labelled one of the several half-baked desi versions of Bridget Jones’s Diary, and dismissed as such. There is the not-so-young, not-so-attractive professional woman at the centre whose life is jeopardized by the lack of a husband. While she ventures on the challenging hunt for a prize husband, we get to know, predictably enough, about “The Hunk and the Frump”, “The Wild, Wild Web, “The Second Sherwani Guys” and so on. And then there is the nail-biting end in which — surprise, surprise! — Plain Jane gets Prince Charming.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE DOCTOR SAYS IT’S ASTHMA (Westland, Rs 250) by Paul Hannaway is one of a series that deals with other serious ailments such as Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis and blood sugar. It is a useful book that catalogues the sources, symptoms and the possible cures of the disease. However, given the American context of the books, it is doubtful as to how much of the advice can be successfully followed in India.

AROUND THE HEARTH: KHASI LEGENDS (Penguin, Rs 195) by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih is a beautiful collection of myths of the Khasi tribe of north-east India. The history of the tribe is inscribed not in written words but is preserved in the stories transmitted orally down the generations. The khanatangs, or the sacred myths of creation, expound the relationship between man, nature and god in allegorical terms. There are also stories to explain the inexplicable phenomena of nature, like lightning and thunder. For the Khasis, moral and spiritual enlightenment came through these myths that educated and entertained at the same time. “Their school was the hearth around which they gathered after a day’s labour”, says Nongkynrih in the Prelude. The stories, like those about the lost manuscript, the purple crest or the child-devouring stone, seem to transport the readers to the realm of the ‘pure’ language in which no shadow falls between conception and creation.