That special place called home

♦ FROM HOME TO HOUSE: WRITINGS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS IN EXILE (HarperCollins, Rs 350) edited by Arvind Gigoo, Adarsh Ajit and Shaleen Kumar Singh contains works of both fiction and non-fiction. The book makes the reader amble into the world of a lost and scattered people, making him or her a companion in their quest to find a 'home'. In the story, "Fall", the reader meets Mohan, an author who, after spending 13 years in America, picks up a maple leaf and thinks about how different it is from the chinar leaf that is found in abundance in Kashmir. Maybe he felt the need to remind himself that America is not Kashmir, and it is certainly not his home. Makhan Lal, now a septuagenarian, recounts how his family of seven initially survived on a paltry government dole of 500 rupees a month, when they shifted to a migrant camp in Jammu. Lal still dreams about going back to Kashmir and living in his village, but he also knows that it will never happen. He is candid enough to admit, "The conditions there are not conducive for our living. The Pandits have no place in Kashmir... the old glory is gone."

At a time when the plan to rehabilitate Pandits in separate clusters in the Kashmir valley has snowballed into a major political controversy, From Home to House gives an account of the lives of the exiled Kashmiri Pandits in their adopted homes. One would like to ask: do they really want to return?

♦ AMBUSHED (Puffin, Rs 199) by Nayanika Mahtani is a story about 10-year-old Tara and her journey through the forests of Ranibagh, where she meets Satya, a 13-year-old lad. Satya and Tara set out on a mission to save a tigress and her cubs who face mortal danger from a gang of poachers. However, Ambushed is not just an audacious tale of a childhood adventure. It also urges children today to explore nature, that there is life beyond the tabs and the laptops. In her debut novel, Mahtani has been able to weave an easy paced narrative that will keep the reader hooked.

♦MAKING GROWTH HAPPEN IN INDIA: A ROAD MAP FOR POLICY SUCCESS (Sage, Rs 650) by V. Kumaraswamy seeks to improve the efficacy of India's reform programme, the seeds of which, as the book claims, were "first sown" by Rajiv Gandhi. Kumaraswamy states that the Indian economy could easily achieve an annual growth rate of 12 per cent. But for that to happen, we must "create new growth engines" like developing new cities and promoting tourism, besides taking other bold policy measures.