Protect a shrinking space

Sachin: 501 things you didn’t know about the master blaster (HarperCollins, Rs 175) by Suvam Pal is yet another book that claims to bring to light everything that remains unknown about Sachin Tendulkar. This is certainly an ambitious claim, given the fact that the genius of Tendulkar feeds an entire literary industry that thrives by making similar assertions. But what can be said in Pal’s defence is that he has gone about his task in an innovative manner. This is a compilation that presents Tendulkar’s achievements — “both on and off the field”— in the form of quiz questions. Some of the queries have the potential to stump even a Tendulkar fanatic — in which sport has Sachin’s father-in-law been a seven-time national champion? Which batsman is Sachin’s only victim in Twenty20 cricket? Who persuaded Tendulkar to join Twitter? While serious readers may be left disappointed, quiz enthusiasts would be delighted with this gold mine of trivia.

The intolerant Indian: Why we must rediscover a liberal space (HarperCollins, Rs 399) by Gautam Adhikari can be interpreted as a fervent appeal to rekindle the spirit of liberalism within India’s fractured public space. Taking the Babri Masjid demolition and the Gujarat riots as two reference points, Adhikari goes about raising an uncomfortable question — what are the factors responsible for undermining India’s secular and pluralist fabric? Fundamentalist forces, both on the Right and the Left, Adhikari argues, have played a crucial part in creating fissures in Indian society. Significantly, politics too has played a debilitating role as successive governments have used identity and religion as tools to garner votes. Adhikari also examines the inherent flaws within the model of secularism in India “where there is no strict separation of church and state”. The author does not raise any new questions. But it is imperative to engage with his queries so as to protect the very idea of India from

the divisive forces.

The inheritor: a novella (Stellar, Rs 225) by Upendra Tankha centres around the life and times of an incorrigible and unemployed hack who makes a living off his wits. Of course, there are his supportive parents as well as several sympathetic women who, at times, do their bit to bail our man out of knotty situations. The irony, supposedly, is nuanced, but The Inheritor, in many ways, replicates the tacky charms of A Bachelor Boy, which was Tankha’s first novel.